Indian Sub-continent

New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI) A key bill to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes(NCBC) secured Parliament's approval today with the Rajya Sabha passing the measure that will give the panel full powers to safeguard the rights and interests of the Other Backward Classes(OBCs).

PTI; New Delhi, Aug 5 :  There will be a further delay in the launch of India's second mission to the moon Chandrayaan-2 and it may be no sooner than January, according to a top official.

The postponement of the ambitious mission from October comes in the wake of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facing two setbacks in less than a year.

The launch of the mission was first planned in April.

PTI; Srinagar, Aug 5 :  Life in Kashmir today came to a standstill due to a complete shutdown called by separatists against the legal challenge in the Supreme Court on the validity of Article 35-A, which bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir from acquiring any immovable property in the state.

The situation across the valley is peaceful with no untoward incident reported from anywhere so far, officials said.

Shops and business establishments were closed across the Valley while all kinds of transport remained off the roads due to the strike called.

5 Aug 2018; AFP; A suicide attack claimed by the Taliban killed three foreign soldiers on patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the deadliest assault on US-led NATO troops for many months.

"Three Resolute Support service members were killed by a suicide bomber during a combined, dismounted patrol with Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan," NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

A US member of the patrol and two Afghan soldiers were wounded, it said, without giving the nationality of those killed.

New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court has expressed its displeasure that several states have not yet appointed the board of visitors who regularly inspect prisons to ensure that they are being run in accordance with rules.

While terming the appointment of board of visitors "an absolute necessity", a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta wondered as to why states were not following the model prison manual which was prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Jakarta, Aug 5 (AFP) A major earthquake rocked Indonesia's Lombok island today, just a week after a quake had killed 17 people on the holiday island, sending people running from their homes and triggering a tsunami alert.

The latest quake had a magnitude of seven and struck just 10 km underground according to the US Geological Survey.

Officials issued a tsunami warning and urged people to move away from the ocean.

By Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Aug 5 (PTI) Thousands of angry school students in Bangladesh continued their protest for the eighth consecutive day today, demanding a crackdown on reckless driving even as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged them to return home, saying that vested quarters have infiltrated the campaign.

The protest brought the capital city to a standstill, blocking major intersections compelling the bus operators to suspend their services citing security reasons and exposing commuters in Dhaka to extreme difficulties.

Mumbai, Aug 5 (PTI) Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray today lashed out at the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra, saying they were "fooling people".

Addressing members of MNS' civic unions, he said the governments were announcing schemes worth several "crores and crores of rupees" on a daily basis despite having no money to fill the existing vacancies in various government departments.

Srinagar, 4 Aug 2018; Five separatists have been killed by Indian security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The killed separatists are all all locals and have been identified as Umer Nazir Malik, Waqar Ahmad Sheikh, Aijaz Ahmad Paul, Arshad Ahmad Khan and Arif Ahmad Mir.

According to PTI, “Hundreds of protestors assembled near the encounter site in Kiloora and started pelting stones at the security forces, the police official said.”

MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. The Russian mountaineer Alexander Gukov, who was rescued in Pakistan after a six-day ordeal, has been airlifted to Moscow aboard a Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the ministry’s press service told TASS on Saturday.

"The Russian Emergencies Ministry has completed the sanitary evacuation from Islamabad to Moscow by air of the injured Russian climber, who spent nearly a week on the slope of Latok 1 mountain in Pakistan," the spokesperson said.