NEWS

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said he had a "very warm meeting" with Pope Francis and discussed a wide range of issues, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenge posed by climate change, with the head of the Roman Catholic church and also invited the Pontiff to visit India at an early date.

Modi, who is the first Indian Prime Minister to meet Francis since he became Pope in 2013, also tweeted pictures of him embracing Pope Francis. "Had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis. I had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues with him and also invited him to visit India, Modi tweeted after the historic meeting.

Pope Francis received Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release. This was the first meeting between an Indian Prime Minister and the Pope in more than two decades.

In June 2000, late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had last visited the Vatican and met the then Pope, His Holiness John Paul II. India and The Holy Seer have friendly relations dating back to the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1948. India is home to the second largest Catholic population in Asia, the release said.

The Supreme Court on Friday posted the hearing of a plea on the issue of the proposed change in land use of a plot part of the Central Vista project to next month. The case is related to the proposed change in land use for the new official residences of the Vice-President and the Prime Minister of India will now be heard on November 16.

A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar was informed by the Centre that the government has filed its response in the plea. Therefore, the Bench granted time to the petitioner – Rajeev Suri- to file its reply on Centre’s affidavit.

India registered 14,348 new Covid-19 cases, 11 per cent lower number than yesterday, and 805 Covid-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. With the new fatalities, total toll tally increased to 4,57,191 in the country. The recovery of 13,198 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally to 3,36,27,632. Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.19 per cent.

The active caseload stands at 1,61,334. Active cases presently constitute 0.47 per cent of the country’s total positive cases, the lowest since March 2020.

An Indian Air Force (IAF) team and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday successfully flight-tested the country’s first indigenously developed Long-Range Bomb (LRB) from a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet over Balasore, Odisha.  The LR Bomb, with a range of 100 kilometres, was fired from the IAF fighter aircraft flying at an altitude of 10 kilometres. Designed and developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI), the LR Bomb can carry a warhead of 1000 kilograms.

From the Kargil war to Operation Bandar in Balakot in 2019, India in the past has been using Israeli laser-guided bombs. The successful test of the LR Bomb makes India capable of staying well within its territory and hitting enemy targets at 100 kilometres with high accuracy.

Using laser guidance, the bomb hit a target range inside the sea around 11.00am, meeting all mission objectives successfully.