LIVE news updates: Pakistan’s airspace to remain shut for Indian flights till May 30

Pakistan on Wednesday decided not to lift its airspace ban for Indian flights till May 30, as Islamabad is awaiting the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls in India.

Pakistan fully closed its airspace after an Indian Air Force strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Balakot on February 26. However, Pakistan opened its airspace for all flights except for New Delhi, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur on March 27.

"The top officials of defence and aviation ministries held a meeting on Wednesday to reconsider opening its airspace for Indian flights. They decided that Pakistan's airspace will remain banned for the Indian flights till May 30,” said a senior government official after the meeting.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to bring her Brexit withdrawal agreement back for a fourth Parliament vote in June, setting an effective deadline for the ongoing cross-party talks to find a consensus on Britain's exit terms from the European Union (EU).

Downing Street said in a statement on Tuesday evening that the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will be brought before the House of Commons in the week beginning June 3 in order for the UK to be able to leave the 28-member economic bloc within the October 31 deadline.

National Commission for Women has taken cognizance of the media report of a 22-year-old woman being allegedly attacked with acid by her brothers who later dumped her in Kot village in Greater Noida.

Services were delayed due to technical snags on sections of different corridors of the Delhi Metro on Wednesday, officials said.

The delay took place in the morning and normal services have now been resumed, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials said.

There was slow movement of trains between Tis Hazari and Shastri Park and later also on Pitampura-Keshav Puram section of the Red Line.

Sri Lankan authorities said they have arrested 60 people linked to the communal riots as a nationwide curfew was lifted on Wednesday in the island nation, which witnessed Sinhalese mob attacks on Muslim-owned shops and businesses in the aftermath of the deadly Easter blasts.

The government imposed the island-wide curfew on Monday after the violence against the Muslim community, who account for 10 per cent of the country's population. The curfew was briefly lifted on Tuesday before being reimposed for a second straight night following reports of fresh violence in some parts of the country.

At least 10 labourers received burn injuries in an explosion at a cylinder-manufacturing factory near Makhyali village on Wednesday, police said.

According to SHO Santosh Kumar Singh, the explosion took place during the repairing of a cylinder.

“The injured were rushed to a hospital and six of them are critical,” the SHO said.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has refused to share details on the extradition of fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, citing an RTI clause that bars disclosure of information which would "impede the process of prosecution of offenders".

In a reply to an RTI query, it said requests for extradition of Mallya and Modi have been sent to the UK government.

"They are under the consideration of the concerned UK authorities. Copy of communications in this regard may not be provided under Section 8 (1) (h) of Right to Information (RTI) Act," the ministry said in response to the application filed.

Maoists torched at least five vehicles and some machines used in road construction work at Panimunda village in Kalahandi district, police said on Wednesday.

A group of armed ultras stormed the site camp of a contractor engaged in the construction of a road under Pradham Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) late on Tuesday night, Kalahandi, Superintendent of Police, B Gangadhar said.

A Pakistani Christian couple, who has been sentenced to death for sending blasphemous text messages, did not get a fair trial, said the lawyer who successfully defended Aasia Bibi in the high-profile blasphemy case.

Advocate Saiful Malook will plead for the innocence of the Christian couple, Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Masih, who was awarded death sentence by a district court in Pakistan's Punjab province in April 2014 and also imposed a fine of Rs 100,000 each.

A 52-year-old Indian man died on board an Alitalia flight to Milan, Italy, forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing in Abu Dhabi.

Kailash Chandra Saini was accompanied by his son Heera Lal on the New Delhi to Milan flight when he passed away on Tuesday.

"All the formalities in Abu Dhabi have been completed to repatriate the body back to India. We are now working with New Delhi to complete the official procedure," M Rajamurugan, Counsellor at the Indian embassy in UAE, told PTI

The US State Department on Wednesday ordered all non-emergency staff to leave its embassy in Baghdad and consulate in Erbil, as tensions mount between the United States and Iraq's neighbour Iran.

The brother-in-law of Mumbai terror attack mastermind and proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed has been arrested for hate speech and criticising the Pakistan government, police said on Wednesday.

Abdul Rehman Makki, head of JuD's political and international affairs wing and in-charge of its charity Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), was arrested during a government crackdown against the outlawed organisations, Geo News reported, quoting an Interior Ministry source.

Amidst a raging controversy over Pakistani girls being trafficked to China after fake marriages, the Chinese embassy here has withheld visas of 90 Pakistani brides, according to a media report.

China's Deputy Chief of Mission in Pakistan Lijian Zhao said on Tuesday that 140 applications have been received this year from Chinese nationals, seeking visas for their Pakistani brides.

Only 50 visas were granted, while the remaining requests were withheld, he said, adding that the embassy had received 142 such applications in 2018, The Express Tribune reported.

A fire broke out at a garment shop in outer Delhi's Nangloi area, Delhi Fire Service (DFS) officials said on Wednesday.

The fire department received a call about the blaze at around 9.55 am after which four fire tenders were rushed to the spot.

The fire was brought under control by 10.40 am.

No injury or casualty has been reported, a senior fire official said, adding the cause of fire is not know yet

Monsoon to hit Kerala on June 6, five days after its normal onset date: IMD

At least 23 people have died in storms and lightning strikes in the past few weeks in Assam, the ASDMA has said.

The two natural disasters have also affected around 22,801 families in 18 districts of the state in the current year, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said in a statement on Tuesday. The worst-hit districts are Golaghat, Sivasagar, Dhubri, Sontipur and Cachar.

While ten persons died in the storms, 13 persons have died after being struck by lightning, the ASDMA said. The state government has directed all the deputy commissioners (DCs) to release ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of each of the deceased persons within 48 hours.

Amid calls of hanging of rapist as students continue to clash with the police, the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday shut down most educational institutions in the valley.

Fearing further spurts in violence as the protests took centre-stage after two consecutive rape incidents were reported in Bandipora and Ganderbal districts, colleges in Srinagar city, Baramulla, Sopore, Bandipora, Ganderbal, Anantnag, Kupwara, Badgam and other districts were ordered to remain shut.

Even the higher secondary schools were closed in many towns with vulnerable law and other situation.

Three women were killed when an unidentified vehicle knocked them down while they were on a morning walk in Maharashtra's Pune district on Wednesday, police said.

The vehicle driver sped away after crushing the women to death near Udapur village in Junnar tehsil on Ahmednagar- Kalyan Highway, an official at Otur police station said.

"It seems the incident took place between 5.30 am and 6 am when an unidentified vehicle hit the women while they were on a morning walk. All the three women died on the spot," he said.

Air India said on Wednesday it had set up a high-level inquiry to probe a sexual harassment complaint filed against a commander by one of its woman pilots.

According to a complaint filed by the pilot, the incident allegedly took place on May 5 in Hyderabad where she was being trained by the commander.

"As soon as the matter came to our notice, we immediately set up a high level enquiry," an Air India spokesperson said.

An Indian national has been jailed for two weeks for falsely accusing two persons of forcing her into prostitution as she did not want her husband to find out how she was earning a living in Singapore.

Kalaiselvi Murugiyan (24) made a police report last year claiming that a man and a woman had forced her to become a prostitute, The Straits Times reported on Tuesday.

She pleaded guilty to giving false information to Police Inspector Mohamed Raffiq Mohamed Ishak of the Central Police Division.

Three directors of a Mumbai-based firm manufacturing surgical instruments have been booked for allegedly cheating an insurance company and a bank in Thane district of Maharashtra, police said Wednesday.

According to a complaint filed by the New India Assurance Company Limited, it made a payment on July 31 last year of Rs 34,11,205 through a private bank here to the Bombay Surgical Company for a fire-related claim filed by it, a police spokesperson said.

Boeing said in a report that not only did the 737 MAX receive zero new orders since it was grounded worldwide in March, the company's other jets, such as the 787 Dreamliner or the 777, also did not get any new orders in April.

According to the report issued on Tuesday, Boeing did report some orders for the other jets in late March, even in the wake of the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet and the grounding of the 737 MAX that followed, reports CNN.

At least 356 people were killed in the two crashes -- Lion Air in October and the Ethiopian Airlines on March 10 -- involving the 737 MAX aircraft that took place within a span of five months.

More than a month after a 23-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, a case has been registered against the two accused, police said on Wednesday.

The action came on the directive of the senior superintendent of police following protests. According to the complaint, the woman was raped on April 8 at a village in Purkazi area by the accused, who also recorded a video of the incident to blackmail her, the police said.

The rupee appreciated by 23 paise to 70.21 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday, driven by easing crude prices, higher opening in domestic equities and on US-China trade talk hopes.

Domestic equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty started on a positive note Wednesday tracking firm cues from global markets after US President Donald Trump hinted at the possibility of a trade deal with China in the future.

After surging over 200 points in early session, the 30-share index was trading 98.07 points, or 0.26 per cent, higher at 37,416.60. The broader NSE Nifty was also trading 21.65 points, or 0.19 per cent, up at 11,243.70.

In the previous session on Tuesday, the BSE bourse settled at 37,318.53, gaining 227.71 points or 0.61 per cent; and the Nifty ended at 11,222.05, 73.85 points or 0.66 per cent higher.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi confirmed that the US has imposed visa sanction on three senior government officials because of a row over repatriation of deportees, the media reported on Wednesday.

Qureshi on Tuesday told the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs that visa curbs had been applied by the US on the three officials of the Interior Ministry, reports Dawn news.

The sanctions have been put in place after a row between the two countries over deportation of dozens of Pakistanis, currently in the US, because of visa overstay and other allegations.

A series of tweets by Donald Trump playing up the chances of a trade deal with China provided a much-needed boost to Asian equities Wednesday but investors trod cautiously as analysts warned of more volatility to come.

After more than doubling tariffs on USD 200 billion of Chinese goods last week -- sparking a retaliation from Beijing -- Trump has threatened to hit a further USD 300 billion with more levies if he does not get his way in high-stakes talks.

A 31-year-old man was killed on Wednesday morning after his car fell into an pit dug up for drainage work in Thane city of Maharashtra, an official said.

The incident took place around 6.15 am near Mulla Baug bus depot here, he said.

The victim, Sachin Kakodkar, was driving his car from a housing society here towards Ghodbunder Road when the vehicle accidentally fell into the pit dug for laying a drainage pipeline, Thane's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said.

Three ULFA (I) cadres apprehended in Assam’s Tinsukia along with sophisticated arms and ammunition by security forces in Tarani Reserve Forest on Tuesday.

A right to information activist (RTI) has been shot at by four unidentified men in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district, police said on Wednesday, May 15.

Krishanpal had gone to the fields at Dhindhwali village on Tuesday evening when the four miscreants opened fire at him. The 35-year-old was rushed to a hospital in a serious condition, Superintendent of Police (City) Satpal Antil said.

Prima facie, a complaint that Krishanpal had filed about illegal possession of government land is suspected to be the reason behind the attack, the officer added.

Death toll rises to six after sightseeing planes collided in mid-air in Alaska, says Coast Guard.