NEWS

In a major win in international diplomacy in the UN Climate Change Conference COP26, India on Saturday (November 13) managed to convince the world to include coal to the `phase down`, instead of `phase out` after days of negotiations. India finally backed the COP26 draft that was passed by nearly 200 nations. US climate chief John Kerry defended the Glasgow deal by saying "this is not the finish line for climate change...what we need is to live in pollution-free".

There was some strong opposition to the inclusion of `accelerating phaseout of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil fuel subsides` - mainly from India and China, and supported by South Africa on coal and Iran & Nigeria on fossil fuel subsidies.

New Delhi: Internet services were shut down and a four-day curfew was imposed on Saturday in Maharashtra's Amravati city which witnessed fresh violence during a Bandh, a senior police official said. A mob hurled stones at shops during the Bandh (shut-down) allegedly organised by local BJP workers in protest against the rallies organized by Muslim organizations the day before to condemn the recent violence in Tripura, police said.

Internet services in the city will remain suspended for three days so as to prevent the spread of rumours which can fuel violence, said city Commissioner of Police Arti Singh.The curfew, imposed earlier in the day, will remain in force for four days, she announced. On Saturday morning, hundreds of people, many of them holding saffron flags in their hands and raising slogans, came out on streets in Rajkamal Chowk area of the eastern Maharashtra city, located around 670 km from Mumbai.

New Delhi:  Colonel Viplav Tripati, the Commanding Officer of Khuga Battalion of Assam Rifles, his wife and son, besides four personnel of the paramilitary force were killed in an ambush in Manipur on Saturday morning, in fresh eruption of militant violence in the border state, officials said. Tripathi's convoy was targeted at Sehkan village in Churachandpur district by suspected militants of the People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), a militant group in Manipur demanding a separate homeland.

Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) burst, shattering tenuous peace in Manipur hills, before the Assam Rifles personnel engaged the militants in a firefight. "In the firefight which followed with the Militants (Suspected PREPAK/ PLA cadres) the Commanding officer and three QRT (quick response team) personnel lost their lives on the spot. The family of the Commanding officer (wife and 6 yr old son) also lost their lives.

New Delhi: In an intense gunfight that broke out in the morning in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, at least 26 Naxals have been killed and 3-4 jawans have sustained injuries, police sources said. Notorious and dreaded Naxal operative, Milind Teltumbde, who is also an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, has been killed in the encounter, sources said. He was a wanted accused by the NIA and the Pune police in the Elgar Parishad-Koregaon Bhima caste riots case.

Teltumbde was a Central committee member of the CPI (Maoist). Ankit Goyal, Superintendent of Police, Gadhchiroli, confirmed to media that the encounter has been going on for hours and that the casualties inflicted on the opposite side is a ‘big achievement for the force’. “We have recovered the bodies of 26 naxals so far from the forest," said Goyal.