LIVE news updates: Naxals torch road-building equipment in Gadchiroli

Two suspected militants were arrested Monday in Ramban district of Jammu region, a senior police officer said.

Shoukat Ahmad of Awantipora and Taufeeq Ahmad of Kulgam were arrested in Gool area around 3.30 am, the officer said. He said both of them are being interrogated, Further details are awaited.

Sudan's army rulers and protest leaders on Monday resumed crucial talks over handing power to a civilian administration after days of deadlock in negotiations, a spokesperson for the protest movement told AFP.

Protest leaders Omar al-Digeir and Satea al-Haj were among those attending the talks on behalf of the Alliance for Freedom and Change group, the movement's spokeswoman Mashar Darraj said.

Naxals torched a water tanker and two other road construction machines at a site of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in Etapalli in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, police said on Monday.

The incident, at a road-construction site between Emli and Mangutha, took place Sunday night, a Burgi police station official said, adding that a group of around 40 uniformed- Maoists were involved.

"They set ablaze a water tanker, cement concrete mixer and a road roller. Other material at the site was also torched. Panchnama is underway and a police team is at the site for further probe and action," he said.

Four persons died of suffocation while cleaning a well in a village here on Monday, police said.

Circle Officer of Bhudkuda, Mahipal Pathak, said, "The incident took place on Monday morning in Budhanpur village, when four persons started cleaning a well. Polluted water from an adjacent hand pump was dirtying the well." The deceased have been identified as Indrajeet (26), Pankaj Kumar (20), Ramvriksh Ram (32) and Ramavtar Ram (18), the circle officer said.

The deceased were pulled out of the well by the villagers, who were helped by the local police. Doctors at the district hospital pronounced them brought dead.

A fire broke out in a car on Sardar Bridge in Surat. No casualties reported. More details awaited.

The Sri Lankan authorities on Monday reimposed a curfew, few hours after it was lifted, on four towns in the north western region following a communal violence in the area.

"Curfew was lifted at 6 a.m. this morning from Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya towns," a police official said.

"However, following a communal clash in the afternoon at Hettipola, the curfew was re-imposed with immediate effect till 4 a.m. tomorrow on the area and its neighbouring towns of Kuliyapitiya, Bingiriya and Dummalasuriya," the official added.

Preliminary medical examination of a youth accused of raping a three-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir's Bandipora district has shown that he is not a juvenile, police said on Monday.

"We are treating the accused as a major and not as a juvenile," a senior police official told PTI.

He said the preliminary medical examination of the accused, who has been arrested by the police, suggests that he is an adult.

A fire has broken out in the terrace of a children hospital in Ahmadabad, Gujarat.

A woman has suffered burn injuries and is receiving treatment in hospital. In 2016-2017 she was allegedly gang raped in Hapur, since investigation wasn't taking place she had set herself ablaze. FIR has now been registered against 14 people. Probe underway, said Yashveer Singh, SP Hapur

Australia's Queensland state government has asked Indian energy giant Adani to provide more information on its groundwater management plans, posing another hurdle which may further delay the construction of its proposed billion dollar mine project, expected to be one of the biggest in the world.

The decision came after the Queensland government rejected a management plan of Adani to protect endangered black-throated finch bird population, saying the company's proposals do not meet the approval conditions.

The black-throated finch management plan and a groundwater plan are the two persisting hurdles before the Indian energy giant could begin work on its controversy-hit Carmichael mining project in Central Queensland.

Pakistan expects to resume talks with India to finalise the agreement on the Kartarpur Corridor once the new government takes charge in New Delhi, according to a Pakistani media report.

The Kartarpur Corridor links Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Narowal with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in Punjab. The corridor, once operational, will provide a visa-free access to Sikhs from India to their holiest Shrine located inside Pakistan.

The Sri Lankan government Monday blocked social media following rising tensions between the minority Muslims and majority Sinhalese in the wake of the Easter Sunday bombings which killed nearly 260 people.

The blockade comes a day after Sri Lankan police imposed curfew in the country's western coastal town of Chilaw where a mob attacked a mosque and some shops owned by Muslims in a dispute that started on a Facebook post by a Muslim shop owner.

The blockade of Facebook and WhatsApp has been imposed form mid night following violent incidents between the minority Muslim and majority Sinhalese communities, officials said. Late in the evening on Sunday, the unrest spread to Kuliyapitiya where a mosque and a few Muslim owned shops came under attack, prompting the authorities to impose curfew in the northwest town.

"The curfew imposed in Kuliyapitya and Chilaw has been lifted," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Swedish prosecutors on Monday will announce whether they are reopening an inquiry into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, who is currently lodged at a high-security jail in the UK.

Assange, who denies the charges, has avoided extradition to Sweden for seven years after seeking refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012. But the 47-year-old was evicted last month and sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions, the BBC reported.

The rupee depreciated by 26 paise to 70.18 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday amid US-China trade related concerns and rising crude oil prices.

Forex traders said the strengthening of the greenback vis-a-vis other currencies overseas, foreign fund outflows and cautious opening in domestic equities added pressure to the domestic unit.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange, the rupee opened on a weak note at 70.16 then fell further to 70.18 against the US dollar, showing a decline of 26 paise over its previous closing. The local unit, however, pared some losses and was quoted at 70.16 against the American currency at 0937 hrs. The Indian rupee Friday had closed at 69.92 against the US dollar.

Domestic equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty started on a choppy note Monday tracking weak cues from global markets as rising rift between the US and China kept investors on edge.

The 30-share index was trading 23.96 points, or 0.06 per cent, lower at 37,439.03. The broader NSE Nifty was also trading 7.85 points, or 0.07 per cent, down at 11,271.05.

In the previous session on Friday, the BSE bourse closed 95.92 points, or 0.26 per cent, down at 37,462.99; and the Nifty shed 22.90 points, or 0.20 per cent, to settle at 11,278.90.

Three people were killed and 14 injured in a collision between a car and a state-run bus on Delhi-Dehradun national highway in Muzaffarnagar district, a police official said Monday.

The accident happened near Tigai village last evening when the occupants of the car were returning to Delhi from a wedding in the district, Khatoli police station SHO Harsharan Sharma said.

He identified those dead in the accident as Harpal Singh (30), Surjit (23) and Rakesh (28).

The death toll in the suicide attack targeting one of Pakistan's oldest and most revered Sufi shrines in Lahore has risen to 13 as another civilian succumbed to his injuries, a media report said on Monday.

Tahir Aslam, 18, was working at a shop near the shrine. He was among the critically injured and was brought to the Mayo Hospital where he has succumbed to his injuries.

He was rushed to the hospital after the blast which has claimed the lives of six policemen and seven civilians, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Accusing China of breaking the negotiated trade deal draft with the United States, President Donald Trump on Sunday said Beijing was now "dreaming" that he would be replaced by a Democratic candidate after the 2020 presidential elections.

In a series of tweets, Trump indicated toughening of his stand against China.

After the near collapse of trade talks with China last week, Trump on Friday imposed a hefty duty on import of Chinese products from 10 per cent to 25 per cent worth more than USD 200 billion and asking for a similar increase on tariff on the rest of the Chinese import of over USD 300 billion.

"We are right where we want to be with China. Remember, they broke the deal with us and tried to renegotiate," Trump said justifying his decision to impose a hefty tax on Chinese products. The new taxes would result in hefty revenue to the US, he said.

Gunmen killed a priest and five parishioners during mass Sunday in an attack on a Catholic church in Dablo, northern Burkina Faso, security sources and a local official said.

"Towards 9:00 am, during mass, armed individuals burst into the Catholic church," the mayor of Dablo, Ousmane Zongo, told AFP. "They started firing as the congregation tried to flee." The attackers -- between 20 and 30 according to a security source -- managed to trap some of the worshippers, Zongo added.