DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran has been targeted by cybercriminals.

An amount of Rs 99,999 has been stolen from Maran's personal savings account of the former Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology.

A complaint was lodged in this regard with the Cyber Crime Wing of the Greater Chennai City Police.

Maran took to platform X to confirm the theft.

Yogi Adityanath government, to ensure women's safety in the wake of rising cases of crime

against them, is set to establish 3,000 Pink booths (police booths) across Uttar Pradesh. It will also provide Pink Scooties to all 10417 women-beat personnel under the Safe City Project.

The Women and Child Protection Organization has already presented the proposal and is likely to be implemented soon after the approval of the state government.

India and Italy inked a defence cooperation agreement on Monday after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held talks with Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto in Rome on the first leg of his visit to Italy and France.

The meeting was followed by the signing of the agreement on cooperation in the field of defence.

The two ministers discussed the complementary capacities of India and Italy in defence and the possibilities of joint development. The Defence Minister suggested fostering the interaction of Indian start-ups with Italian defence companies.

Earlier, Rajnath Singh was presented with a Guard of Honour at Villa Madama. Upon his arrival at Ciampino Airport, Rajnath Singh was received by the Indian Ambassador to Italy Dr Neena Malhotra and senior Italian officials.

The relationship between India and Italy was elevated to a strategic partnership in March 2023 during the visit of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to India.

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has accorded sanction for the prosecution of author Arundhati Roy and a former Kashmiri professor in a 2010 case related to alleged provocative speeches.

The FIR against Roy and former professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain was registered following the orders of the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate, New Delhi.

Puducherry's lone woman legislator and minister, S Chandira Priyanga, on Oct 8 tendered her resignation from the AINRC-BJP coalition cabinet, alleging politics of conspiracy and money power, besides facing casteism and gender bias.

In 2021, the Nedungadu legislator became the first woman to be made a minister in the union territory after a gap of over 40 years.

She was then handed the Transport portfolio in the N Ranagsamy-led coalition cabinet.

France has begun withdrawing its troops from Niger after being ordered out of the West African nation by the leaders of the July coup that ousted the pro-Paris president.

The pullout comes hot on the heels of the departure of France's ambassador to Niamey who was also forced out by the leaders of the July coup that toppled President Mohamed Bazoum.

It is the fourth time in under two years that French troops have suffered the humiliation of being forced out of a former African colony, coming after Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso.

French President Emmanuel Macron had initially resisted demands by Niger's coup leaders to withdraw his troops and ambassador to Niamey, arguing that only the ousted Bazoum had the authority to make such a request.

In late September however, he announced both the ambassador and the troops were coming home after months of anti-French protests.

Ambassador Sylvain Itte returned to Paris on September 27.

A Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia on espionage charges lost his appeal against his arrest , meaning he will stay in jail until at least the end of November.

Evan Gershkovich, wearing a blue shirt, T-shirt and jeans, appeared in a glass defendant’s cage at Moscow City Court as he once again appealed his release. He stared at the cameras in court with a blank expression.

The journalist was detained in March while on a reporting trip to the city of Yekaterinburg, about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) east of Moscow, and a judge ruled in August that he must stay in jail until the end of November.

The court proceedings are closed because prosecutors say details of the criminal case are classified.

Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged Gershkovich, “acting on the instructions of the American side, collected information constituting a state secret about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.”

Gershkovich and the Journal deny the allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained. 

An eight-foot-tall statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been unveiled at Tolstoy Farm, the commune that he had started during his tenure as a lawyer here in South Africa in the early 20th century.

The larger-than-life clay statue, unveiled on Oct 8  by the High Commissioner of India, Prabhat Kumar, now joins large busts of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, both commissioned by sculptor Jalandharnath Rajaram Channole, from the Sevagram Ashram in India.