LIVE: PM Modi, Ukraine President Zelensky hold telephonic conversation, discuss India’s G20 Presidency

A Pakistani boat with 10 crew members carrying arms, ammunition and 40 kg of narcotics worth ₹300 crore was intercepted off the Gujarat coast in the early hours of Monday, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said.

Islamic State claimed responsibility on Monday for a car blast in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province that killed three people including a provincial police chief, the militant group posted on Telegram.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation, and discussed on India’s G20 Presidency and India’s humanitarian support.

Around 2kg of opium and 650 grams of brown sugar were seized in two separate raids in Jharkhand’s Hazaribag district, PTI reported.

A CBI court on Monday remanded former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot in CBI custody till December 28 in connection with a loan fraud case.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) took oath as the new Prime Minister of Nepal.

The sister of actor Sheezan Khan, the boyfriend of television actor Tunisha Sharma and the main accused in her suicide case, reached Waliv police station on Monday.

She was called by police in connection with the investigation into the television actor’s death.

Services were affected for over an hour on a section of the Delhi Metro’s Pink Line on Monday due to a disruption caused by a bird dropping an external wire on a live overhead equipment (OHE) line, officials said on Monday.

The Telangana high court on Monday transfered the case of alleged attempt to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislators into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Two foreign returnees, including a British national, have tested positive for Covid-19 at the Kolkata airport, sources said on Monday.

Police on Monday averted a major terror plan after recovering an improvised explosive device (IED) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur district.

A truck driver and his helper were killed when their vehicle, loaded with empty LPG cylinders, rolled into a deep gorge along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway on Monday, PTI reported.

Mother Dairy will raise milk prices by Rs2 per litre in the Delhi-NCR region with effect from Tuesday of full-cream, toned, double-toned variants, PTI reported. 

Twenty-one cars parked at a multi-storey parking lot in west Delhi’s Subhash Nagar were gutted in fire on Monday morning, Delhi Fire Services, PTI reported.

Aaftab Poonawalla, the prime accused in the Shraddha Walkar murder case was on Monday brought to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s CFSL in the national capital for a voice sampling test, ANI reported.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman hospitalised due to minor stomach infection, likely to be discharged soon, reports ANI quoting official sources.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been admitted to the AIIMS hospital in New Delhi, reported Reuters quoting a source with knowledge of the situation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking part in a program to mark ‘Veer Bal Diwas’ at Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in Delhi.

The Nifty 50 index was up 1.08% at 17,999.85 by midday, and the S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.08% to 60,494.09. The Nifty fell 3.3% in the previous four sessions and dropped below the psychologically key 18,0000 mark on Friday.

The general election in pakistan will be conducted after August 2023, Economic Affairs Minister Ayaz Sadiq announced, according to Geo News citing The News International.

CBI has arrested Videocon Chairman Venugopal Dhoot in the ICICI Bank fraud case. Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar were arrested in this case last week.

India logged 196 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases marginally increased to 3,428, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.

Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya will hold a meeting via video conferencing with the Indian Medical Association today on Covid-19 situation and preparedness, reported ANI.

Amid cold wave prevailing in parts of northern India, Palam in Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 6.5°C while Safdarjung recorded a minimum temperature of 5°C, said IMD. Lowest minimum temperature of 0°C was recorded in Rajasthan’s Churu.

“On Veer Baal Diwas, we recall the courage of the Sahibzades and Mata Gujri Ji. We also remember the courage of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji,” PM Modi tweeted. “At 12:30 PM today, will be joining a programme to mark this inspiring day.”

China’s military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the island, Taiwan’s defense ministry said Monday, after China expressed anger at Taiwan-related provisions in a US annual defense spending bill passed on Saturday.

Rahul Gandhi paid tributes to former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri at Vijay Ghat and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Sadaiv Atal. He also paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi paid tributes to former PM Jawaharlal Nehru at Shanti Van, to former PM Indira Gandhi at Shakti Sthal and to former PM Rajiv Gandhi at Veer Bhumi in New Delhi.

Forty-three Chinese air force planes crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line in the past 24 hours, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Monday, as Beijing continues its military activities close to the Chinese-claimed island.

Blasts were heard at Russia’s Engels air base, hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the frontlines in Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian media outlets reported early on Monday. The air base, near the city of Saratov, about 730 km (450 miles) southeast of Moscow, was hit on Dec. 5 in what Russia said was Ukrainian drone attacks on two Russian air bases that day.

An over-ground worker of terrorists was arrested from the subdivision Mendhar in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch in a joint search operation by police and the Indian Army on Sunday, according to officials.

Some 51 people have been poisoned after a train carrying ammonia derailed, spilling its cargo in southeastern Serbia, officials said Sunday. The ammonia leak caused “51 cases of poisoning”, said Vladan Vasic, the mayor of the city of Pirot where the accident occurred, reported AFP.