Author: Indmedia

A federal jury in Los Angeles ordered the United States government to pay $12.7 million (£7.8 million) to a California family after it seized their 6,300-acre ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The verdict, delivered in February 1999 after a three-week trial, ended a decades-long property dispute between federal park officials and attorney Francis Gherini, whose family had owned part of the island for more than a century. According to contemporary reporting by the Los Angeles Times, the jury spent about five hours deliberating before rejecting the government’s long-standing valuation of the property. The US government had initially offered $4 million…

Meanwhile, the M23 rebel group that controls parts of the east of DR Congo has announced new restrictions on movement between government-held and rebel-held areas of North Kivu province.Shared taxis and passenger boats between the areas will be suspended for one month starting on Saturday.Other transport will continue to operate under strict health controls.The measures follow reports that two travellers tested positive for Ebola in a village under M23 control. The rebel authorities said the restrictions were necessary to prevent further spread.The move highlights the complexity of tackling Ebola amid ongoing hostilities between the Congolese government and the rebels.The M23…

Shariq Satha had fled to Dubai using a forged passport NEW DELHI: Interpol has issued a Red Corner Notice against fugitive gangster Shariq Satha, who police allege was the mastermind behind the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal in November 2024, a senior police officer said.A Red Corner Notice is an international request to law-enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence.”Satha was previously declared a fugitive offender by a court, with proceedings initiated for the attachment of his property. Efforts will now be made to get him arrested and extradited…

Since the first development plan in 1967 to 2018, the sanctioned width for the Walkeshwar road was 27.5m. In 2021, it was proposed to be reduced to 17m from Afghan Consulate to Teen Batti, the PIL stated Mumbai: Malabar Hill residents have filed a PIL before the Bombay high court to challenge BMC’s 2023 decision to reduce Walkeshwar Road’s width from Afghan Consulate building to Teen Batti from nearly 27.5m to 17m. The residents refer to an April letter of BMC by which it withdrew its April 2025 stop-work notice.The un-revoked resolution, which the PIL argues is contrary to law,…

Delhi University will offer direct PhD admissions for the 2026-27 academic session. NEW DELHI: Delhi University has announced a direct admission route to PhD programmes as a one-time measure for those who completed the four-year undergraduate programme this year, reports Sugandha Jha.In a press release issued Friday, DU said, “In the interest of the first batch of students who have completed the FYUP in 2026, the university will admit students who have 7.5 CGPA (7 CGPA for SC/ST) and above in the FYUP directly to the PhD programme, only for the academic session 2026-27, as a special measure as per…

Bengaluru: A car rented out through an aggregator allegedly disappeared after a customer took the vehicle on a 12-hour booking, leaving the owners scrambling to track it down.According to a complaint filed by Ranjith CA, a resident of Hoskote, the white Hyundai i20, purchased jointly by him and his friend Dikshith in Jan this year, had been attached to the Zoomcar platform for rentals.On Aug 11, a Zoomcar customer identified as Pravinth V booked the car for 12 hours. According to Ranjith, Pravinth handed over copies of his driving licence and Aadhaar card, promising the owners that he would return…

MP’s son went home after taking Aston Martin victim to hosp, say police Hyderabad: After taking the Aston Martin accident victim to a hospital, Janasena Party MP Lingamaneni Ramesh’s son, Lingamaneni Sanjush, went home and was later brought to the police station by an investigating officer, Cyberabad police said on Friday.The clarification came as videos that surfaced from the accident scene at Madhapur on Aug 16 showed Sanjush and bystanders rushing the 26-year-old injured woman, Bharati Mukhi, to hospital moments after the crash.Cyberabad commissioner of police M Ramesh said: “After the accident, the accused took her to Apollo Hospital in…

Chennai: When police stopped an auto splattered with blood during an early-morning patrol near Kundrathur on Friday, the three men inside tried to pass it off as blood from a hand injury. Unconvinced, the cops took them in for questioning and eventually uncovered the murder of their 27-year-old friend.Thirumudivakkam police, who intercepted the auto during patrol, found the three occupants in an inebriated state. When questioned about the bloodstains, they initially claimed that one of them had suffered an injury to his hand.Finding their behaviour suspicious, the officers took the trio to the station for questioning. During interrogation, the suspects…

Ahmedabad: NRI deposits in Gujarat rose 12.4% year-on-year to touch Rs 1,22,363.74 crore in first quarter of 2026-27, up from Rs 1,08,897.99 crore in the same period last year, an increase of roughly Rs 13,466 crore, according to the latest State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) Gujarat report.Ahmedabad remained the top contributor, accounting for more than a fifth of the state’s total with Rs 27,326.02 crore, or 22.3% of overall deposits. Vadodara followed with Rs 19,447.11 crore, and Kutch ranked third with Rs 18,212.65 crore; together, these three districts made up over half of Gujarat’s NRI deposit base.NRI deposits“The rise in…

Gurgaon: A Class 12 student drowned in a pond near Damdama Lake on Friday afternoon.Ashutosh, a resident of Badshahpur, was bathing with two classmates — Shashikant and Jatin — near the lake, which he had visited with them on a bike.Ashutosh moved towards deeper water. His friends tried to rescue him but failed because of the depth, following which they informed the police.A police team from Sohna called divers and a Haryana Disaster Response Force team to launch a search operation.Around one-and-a-half hours later, the body was recovered, sub-inspector Devdutt of Sadar police station said. It was taken to Civil…