The Indian Army has carried out a swift rescue operation under 'Operation Himrahat' in the high-altitude areas of East Sikkim, safely evacuating 46 stranded tourists following heavy snowfall and extreme weather conditions, officials said on Monday.

All arrangements were in place on Monday for the inauguration of the 6th Khelo India Winter Games (KIWG) at this picturesque snow-clad ski resort of Jammu and Kashmir.

The four-day event will be flagged off by J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, and 400 athletes from 30 states and union territories are participating.

A fresh low-pressure area is likely to form over the southeast Bay of Bengal on Saturday, the Meteorological Department said, even as parts of south Tamil Nadu brace for heavy rainfall under the influence of prevailing atmospheric conditions.

At least five people were killed and seven others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a van on a National Highway in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind district during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, police said.

The accident took place between 2.30 am and 3 am near Chhikma village under the Gohad police station limits. The impact was so severe that the van was completely crushed, trapping several passengers inside.

A child was wounded when a primary teacher allegedly opened fire on the school kids playing outside his home in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, and the accused has been arrested, police said on Saturday.

 A delivery executive lost his life after being struck by a speeding car in West Delhi's Subhash Nagar area in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.

According to police, the accident occurred at around 4:30 am when a fast-moving car rammed into the motorcycle being ridden by the delivery boy. The impact was so severe that he died on the spot.

Delhi’s air quality continued to remain in the 'poor’ category on Saturday, even as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a mainly clear sky accompanied by morning mist. The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 28 degrees Celsius.

An incident in which five children, including toddlers, were bitten by a stray dog was reported from Kalaburagi district of Karnataka on Friday.

The incident occurred in the Devinagar locality of Kalaburagi city while the children were playing in front of their houses.

With the borders becoming harder to breach, Pakistan-based narcotic cartels are relying heavily on locals in India to produce and supply drugs.

Officials say that reliance is heavy on local manufacturing since it has become harder to smuggle drugs into India through the borders.

The Punjab border which was the preferred route in recent years to smuggle narcotics, too, has become hard to breach. Pakistan has been using drones to bring in the narcotics, but now security has been tightened, as a result of which, the cartels are finding it harder to operate.

Security forces in Arunachal Pradesh foiled a major terror incident by arresting an NSCN-IM militant and recovering a cache of arms and ammunition during a joint operation in the border district of Longding, officials said on Friday.

A police official in Itanagar said the operation was carried out by a joint team of the Assam Rifles, Special Task Force and Longding police.

Prohibitory orders have been imposed in Bagalkot city of Karnataka on Friday following tension triggered by a stone-pelting incident during the Shivaji Jayanti procession.

The incident was reported from the Killa Oni area when the procession was passing in front of a mosque.

In a major breakthrough, the Delhi Police have solved a blind robbery case within 48 hours, arresting four robbers after scanning 200 CCTV cameras and tracking a 32 km trail within the national capital.

The police also arrested the kingpin, officials said on Friday.

An 80-year-old man died in a fire that broke out at his residence in Mailasandra under the Kengeri police limits in the wee hours of Thursday in Bengaluru.

According to police, the deceased has been identified as Mylarappa, a resident of Thimmarayappa Circle in Mailasandra. A case has been registered at Kengeri Police Station under Section 194(3)(iv) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and further investigation is underway.

Nearly a dozen schools in Noida received bomb threat emails on Thursday, sparking panic among students, parents and school staff, even as the CBSE Board examinations entered their third day.

After two days of rain and hailstorms, the weather in Rajasthan cleared on Thursday. However, dense fog affected several districts in the morning, reducing visibility to nearly 50 metres in areas including Kotputli-Behror, Ajmer, and Kota. According to the Jaipur Meteorological Centre, temperatures are expected to rise from Thursday, and there is currently no rain alert for the state.

Delhi Police arrested a youth who allegedly promised jobs to people by using a fake National Investigation Agency (NIA) identity card. A patrol team from the Kotwali Police Station detained him from a suspicious vehicle near Delhi Chalo Park, behind the Red Fort area. A minor was also found inside the vehicle.

According to Delhi police, during a search conducted on Wednesday night, a purported NIA identity card was recovered from the accused.

Following a brief period of light rain in Delhi-NCR, the air quality showed improvement on Thursday, with the overall Air Quality Index (AQI) measured at 169, categorising it as 'moderate'.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), several monitoring stations across Delhi continued to record AQI levels ranging from moderate to poor. Key readings included Anand Vihar (249), Ashok Vihar (181), Bawana (193), Chandni Chowk (227), DTU (130), Dwarka Sector-8 (152), IIT Delhi (128), Jahangirpuri (201), Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (170), Mundka (203), Narela (157), Nehru Nagar (203), North Campus (120), Okhla Phase-2 (207), Pusa (156), RK Puram (175), Rohini (191), Sonia Vihar (203), and Wazirpur (193).

AAP Punjab Senior Leader Jagroop Singh Sekhwan on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal, saying the rally held by the Badal Dal in Qadian was not meant for the people of the constituency or about "saving Punjab" but was purely a campaign to “save Sukhbir” and “save the Badal family.” 

In a major push towards sustainable agriculture and scientific water management, the State-Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC), under the chairmanship of Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, on Wednesday approved four community-based solar-powered integrated micro irrigation projects under the Micro Irrigation and Command Area Development Authority (MICADA).

Two people of a family were killed in a tragic road accident in the Bikram area of Patna on Wednesday after a speeding car lost control and plunged into a canal.

Two other occupants of the car narrowly escaped by jumping out in time.

The accident occurred around 9 a.m. on Canal Road near Mozakka Tola village under the jurisdiction of Bikram police station.

Four children suffered burns in South 24 Parganas district's Canning after a drum filled with chemicals exploded, said the police on Wednesday.

According to police sources, four children were playing on the roadside on Tuesday evening when a drum filled with chemicals kept nearby exploded.

Tension gripped Baramati in Maharashtra's Pune district after a 21-year-old woman was allegedly abducted in front of her mother and brother by assailants who sprayed chilli powder into their eyes before forcing her into a vehicle, officials said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening in the Bhigwan police station limits of Indapur Taluka.

A fresh Western Disturbance has changed the weather pattern across Rajasthan, bringing intermittent rain, thunderstorms, and hailstorms to several districts, including Jaipur, Alwar, Tonk, Kota, and Nagaur, since Wednesday morning. The sudden weather shift has led to a drop in temperatures and a return to mild cold conditions in many parts of the state.

Residents of the national capital woke up to light rain on Wednesday, a day after Delhi recorded the hottest day of the year so far, with the maximum temperature touching 30.9 degrees Celsius. The air quality also remained a concern, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded at 228 at 8 a.m., placing it in the ‘poor’ category.

At the Village Defence Committee (VDC) oath ceremony in Moga, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann delivered a direct and uncompromising message on Punjab’s ‘Yudh Nashean Virudh’, asserting that the Shiromani Akali Dal, the BJP and the Congress had allowed the state to sink into narcotics, while the AAP government is now mounting a sustained crackdown to reverse the damage.

Two teachers lost their lives, and 16 others were injured, including 11 school students and five teachers, in a tragic road accident in Rohtas district, Bihar, in the early hours of Tuesday.

The fatal accident occurred at around 12.45 a.m. when a speeding bus carrying teachers and students on a school tour to Patna rammed into a heavy vehicle while overtaking near Sohsa village under Parsathua police station limits on the Arrah-Mohania National Highway.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday carried out searches at the house of a retired government employee in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar city in connection with a terror-related case registered in 2024.

Official sources said NIA carried out searches at the house of Gulam Nabi Bhat in the Mehjoor Nagar area of Srinagar city this morning.

The J&K Police and CRPF assisted the NIA sleuths during the search operation.

The Jodhpur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court received another bomb threat on Tuesday morning, triggering a major security alert and evacuation of court premises.

According to sources, the High Court administration received a threatening email warning of an explosion at the court complex. Following the threat, security agencies immediately took control of the premises.

The Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai has forecast heavy rainfall in at least 10 districts of Tamil Nadu on February 21 due to the formation of a low-pressure system over the Bay of Bengal.

According to the weather department, a low-pressure area has formed over the west-central Bay of Bengal and adjoining parts of the east Indian Ocean. While dry weather conditions are expected to prevail across Tamil Nadu until February 18, the system is likely to intensify gradually, leading to a change in weather patterns across the state in the coming days.

The air quality in the national capital remained in the ‘poor’ category on Tuesday, with the AQI at 259 in the morning hours, as per data released by the Central Pollution Control Board.

Several areas across Delhi reported high pollution levels, with many monitoring stations registering Air Quality Index (AQI) readings in the upper range of the ‘poor’ category and even entering the ‘very poor’ zone.

Bomb threat emails were sent to courts in Davanagere, Hassan, and Madikeri districts of Karnataka, as well as the High Court bench in Dharwad, triggering panic and suspension of proceedings.

In Davanagere, the district court received a bomb threat through an email allegedly sent by a person from Tamil Nadu to the official email ID of the judge. The message claimed that an RDX bomb had been planted on the court premises and would explode between 8.20 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. The email also contained a warning to the Central government against increasing the reservation quota.

On the sacred occasion of Maha Shivratri, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann paid obeisance at the revered Sri Rankeshwar Mahadev Temple and performed Pooja at the historic Siddh Peeth, seeking blessings for peace, prosperity and continued progress for Punjab and the nation. Greeting people at the festival, the AAP Chief described Mahashivratri as a civilizational celebration rooted in India’s ancient spiritual tradition and prayed that Lord Bholenath’s grace always remain upon every citizen.

A devastating fire at a chemical manufacturing unit in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, claimed the lives of seven workers on Monday morning, while two others were feared trapped inside the premises, officials said.

Authorities confirmed that approximately 25 workers were present at the time of the incident. The fire broke out at around 9.30 a.m. at plot number G-1-118 B in the Khuskheda Karauli Industrial Area.

At least 13 schools across Ahmedabad and Vadodara were evacuated on Monday after receiving a series of bomb threat emails, leading to extensive security checks.

Officials said seven schools in Ahmedabad and six in Vadodara had so far been confirmed as recipients of the threatening emails.

Authorities are also verifying reports that two to three additional schools may have received similar messages.

Residents of Delhi-NCR will continue to face poor air quality, as slow wind speeds have once again pushed pollution levels into the ‘poor’ category. The Air Quality Index (AQI) on Monday stood at 214 around 7 a.m., according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

On Sunday, the air quality in the national capital had slipped to the ‘poor’ category as well, with the AQI recorded at 221 around 7 a.m. This was marginally worse than the AQI of 197 recorded on Saturday.