JAMMU, Aug 27: A minor earthquake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale jolted Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, increasing the number of temblors to strike the union territory to 12 in the last five days, according to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS).
The NCS said the quake occurred at 4.32 a.m. on Saturday with latitude 32.87 degrees north and longitude 75.46 degrees east.
The epicentre was 26 km southwest of Bhaderwah town in Jammu division and its depth was 10 km inside the earth’s crust.
In the last five days, tremors were reported in Reasi, Udhampur, Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar districts of Jammu division.
Some local earth scientists have cautioned that these small tremors could be the precursor of a major seismic event in the offing.
Others have said that these were beneficial because through these small occurrences the built-up pressure inside the earth is released that can avoid a major seismic event. (Agencies)
12 Earthquakes Jolt Jammu and Kashmir in 5 Days; Local Scientists Warn of ‘Major Seismic Event’
3 LeT terrorists arrested in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sopore
SRINAGAR, August 27: Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday claimed to have arrested three overground workers (OGWs) of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit in North Kashmir’s Sopore.
The arrests were made in a joint operation conducted by Sopore Police along with security forces including 22 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), and 179 BN Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Bomai chowk in the jurisdiction of Police Station Bomai on Friday evening.
According to Jammu and Kashmir police, the terrorists have been identified as Shariq Ashraf, Saqlain Mushtaq and Tawfeeq Hassan Sheikh.
During checking a suspicious movement of three persons coming from Goripura towards Bomai was noted and were subsequently asked to stop, but they tried to flee from the spot, however, were tactfully apprehended by the security forces, the police said.
Upon their personal search three hand grenades, nine posters, and 12 Pakistani flags were recovered from their possession.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that the arrested persons are OGWs of proscribed terrorist organisation LeT and were in constant search of an opportunity to carry out attacks on security forces and civilians including outside labourers, the police said.
Accordingly, the case has been registered at Police Station Bomai under relevant sections of law and further investigation is still going on. (AGENCIES)
Justice U U Lalit sworn in as CJI
New Delhi, Aug 27: Justice Uday Umesh Lalit was on Saturday sworn in as the 49th Chief Justice of India.
President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers were present at the ceremony.
Justice Lalit’s predecessor, Justice N V Ramana, was also present. (Agencies)
Pakistani intruder arrested along International Border in Jammu
Jammu, August 27: A Pakistani intruder was arrested along the International Border here by the Border Security Force (BSF) in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.
BSF personnel picked up on the movement of Mohd Shabad (45), a resident of Sialkot, while he was trying to sneak into the Arnia sector from across the border, they said.
They fired a few warning shots and took the man into custody, the officials said, adding that no incriminating material was found in his possession.
On August 25, the BSF foiled a major smuggling attempt when its troops seized eight kg of suspected heroin from a Pakistani intruder along the IB in Samba district.
The intruder was shot at and injured, but he managed to crawl back to the Pakistani side. (Agencies)
Cloudy sky with possibility of light rain in J&K: MeT
Srinagar, Aug 27: Generally cloudy sky with possibility of light rain is likely in Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours, the Meteorological (MeT) department said on Saturday.
The state experienced cloudy weather on Friday.
“Generally cloudy sky with possibility of light rain is likely in J&K during the next 24 hours”, an official of the MeT office said.
Meanwhile, Srinagar registered 17.6 degrees Celsius, Pahalgam 11.2 and Gulmarg 9 degrees Celsius as the minimum temperature this morning.
Drass town in Ladakh had 6.6 degrees, Leh 12.8 and Kargil 16 as the minimum temperature.
Jammu recorded 25.8 degrees, Katra 23.6, Batote 17.7, Banihal 16 and Bhaderwah 17.2 as the minimum temperature.
PM Narendra Modi tops list of most popular world leaders with 75% rating: Survey
NEW DELHI, Aug 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again topped the global rating amongst world leaders with an approval rating of 75 per cent, according to a Morning Consult survey. After PM Modi, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi came second and third respectively with 63 per cent and 54 per cent ratings. The list that featured 22 world leaders ranked US president Joe Biden at the fifth spot with a 41 per cent rating. Biden is followed by Canadian President Justin Trudeau at 39 per cent and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at 38 per cent. Morning Consult Political Intelligence is currently tracking the approval ratings of government leaders and country trajectories in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Earlier in January 2022 and in November 2021, Prime Minister Modi had topped the list of the most popular world leaders. This platform provides real-time polling data on political elections, elected officials and voting issues. Morning Consult conducts more than 20,000 global interviews daily. The global leader and country trajectory data is based on a seven-day moving average of all adults in a given country, with a margin of error of between +/- 1-4 per cent. In the United States, the average sample size is around 45,000. In the other countries, the sample size ranges from roughly 500-5,000. All interviews are conducted online among nationally representative samples of adults. In India, the sample is representative of the literate population. Surveys are weighted in each country by age, gender, region and, in certain countries, education breakdowns based on official government sources. In the United States, surveys are also weighted by race and ethnicity. Respondents complete these surveys in languages appropriate for their countries. (Agencies)
India reports 9,520 new COVID-19 cases
New Delhi, Aug 27: With 9,520 new COVID-19 cases being reported in a day, India’s tally of infections has gone up to 4,43,98,696, while the count of active cases has declined to 87,311, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,27,597, with 41 new fatalities being reported, including four deaths reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The tally of active cases now comprises 0.20 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 98.62 per cent, the health ministry said.
A decline of 3,396 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, the data showed.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 2.50 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 2.80 per cent, according to the ministry.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,37,83,788, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 per cent, as per the data.
According to the ministry, 211.91 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in the country so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.
India’s COVID-19 infection tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5, 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020.
The country crossed the grim milestones of two crore cases on May 4, 2021, three crore on June 23, 2021 and four crore on January 25 this year.
Thirty-seven new fatalities due to the disease were reported in the country a day back six from Haryana, four each from Maharashtra and Punjab, three each from Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and West Bengal, two each from Delhi, Gujarat and Odisha, and one each from Chandigarh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. (Agencies)
