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Congress leader Sam Pitroda has stepped down from the post of Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress and his resignation was accepted by the party. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to X and announced that Sam Pitroda had decided to resign from the key post "of his own accord".

Pitroda had been under fire over his controversial remark that Indians in the East resemble the Chinese while those in the South look like Africans.

"We could hold together a country as diverse as India -- where people on East look like Chinese, people on West look like Arab, people on North look like maybe White and people in South look like Africans. It doesn't matter. We are all brothers and sisters," Pitroda said during an interview with The Statesman.

The Congress immediately distanced itself from Pitroda's remarks, terming them "unacceptable".

"The analogies drawn by Mr Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India's diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies," Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

The BJP also hit out at the Congress over Pitroda's remarks and termed them "racist and divisive".

Mangaluru, May 4: The Mangaluru International Airport was besieged with a harrowing message of terror recently, when an email, purportedly from malevolent elements, menacingly declared the planting of bombs within the airport premises. 

Addressed to the office of the airport authority, the missive, steeped in ominous overtones, bore the ominous signature of a terrorist faction, ominously named 'Terrorizers 111'.

The communication, disseminated in English, ominously detailed the clandestine emplacement of explosives in areas eluding facile detection, accompanied by a chilling warning of their imminent detonation. The threat, ominously looming over not only the infrastructure but also the airborne vessels, portended a catastrophic deluge of bloodshed and loss.

In response to this dire communiqué, airport authorities swiftly engaged the apparatus of law enforcement, dispatching urgent alerts to the vigilant guardians of public safety. Acting upon the dictates of higher echelons, a formal dossier of this menacing correspondence was meticulously compiled, cloaked in the veil of confidentiality to thwart any premature dissemination.

Mangaluru International Airport found itself in grim camaraderie with more than 30 counterparts under the aegis of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and private domains, all recipients of this chilling electronic diatribe. A comprehensive net of precautionary measures was swiftly cast, fortifying the bastions of security in anticipation of any nefarious designs lurking within the shadows.

AstraZeneca said on Tuesday it had initiated the worldwide withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine due to a "surplus of available updated vaccines" since the pandemic.

The company also said it would proceed to withdraw the vaccine Vaxzevria's marketing authorizations within Europe.

"As multiple, variant Covid-19 vaccines have since been developed there is a surplus of available updated vaccines," the company said, adding that this had led to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or supplied.

According to media reports, the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker has previously admitted in court documents that the vaccine causes side-effects such as blood clots and low blood platelet counts.

The firm's application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on May 7, according to the Telegraph, which first reported the development.

London-listed AstraZeneca began moving into respiratory syncytial virus vaccines and obesity drugs through several deals last year after a slowdown in growth as COVID-19 medicine sales declined.