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Tokyo, Mar 17: A Japanese district court on Wednesday ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is “unconstitutional”, setting a new precedent in the only G7 nation not to fully recognise same-sex unions. More than a dozen same-sex couples filed lawsuits in 2019 seeking to force the government to recognise gay marriage. In the first ruling on the lawsuits, a court in Sapporo turned down a

Shootings at two massage parlours in Atlanta and one in the suburbs left eight people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said Tuesday. A 21-year-old man was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt. Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said three people were killed at a spa in northeast Atlanta, while a fourth person was killed at another spa across the

New Delhi, Mar 17: BJP MP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, Ram Swaroop Sharma was found dead in his house in Delhi on Wednesday. He was found hanging in his residence and the door was closed from inside, according to Delhi Police. The circumstances of the death are in the initial stages of investigation, police added. "It looks like a case of suicide, but we are continuing to probe. We'll know

Bengaluru, Mar 16: Primary and secondary education minister S Suresh Kumar has instructed officials to crack the whip against schools which run regular offline classes for standard one to five ignoring government's directive in view of Covid-19. The warning to the primary schools was issued on Monday after Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar tweeted a few days ago asking Kumar to look into the

Dubai, Mar 16: United Arab Emirates had banned Taraweeh prayers - the special prayers offered during the holy month of Ramadan – last year due to covid-19 pandemic. However this Ramadan, mosques across UAE are allowed to host Taraweeh prayers, official sources said. The holy month will begin in less than a month. The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) said strict

New Delhi, Mar 16: Congress on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Modi's government for exporting nearly twice the number of coronavirus vaccine doses than immunisations conducted at home, despite a surge in infections. India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, has gifted or sold 59 million locally produced doses compared with 33 million doses given to its own people since its inoculation campaign

Former Congress leader P C Chacko, who quit the party last week, on Tuesday announced that he will formally join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) headed by Sharad Pawar. "I am formally joining the NCP today", he told reporters in New Delhi after meeting CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury. Chacko, who quit the Congress over his differences with the party leaders in Kerala, said NCP is a

Mangaluru, Mar 16: Dakshina Kannada District Deputy Commissioner Dr K V Rajendra has said that RT-PCR negative reports of not older than 72 hours are mandatory for everyone entering the district from Kerala. Rapid Antigen Test Report will not be considered. In an emergency video conference held with regard to special surveillance measures for those arriving from other states, he said students

New Delhi, Mar 16: P K Sinha, the principal advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has resigned, sources said on Tuesday. Sinha, a retired IAS officer of 1977 batch, was appointed as Principal Advisor to the Prime Minister in September 2019, after a brief stint as an officer on special duty (OSD). Sinha was made OSD to the Prime Minister in August 2019, after he had served four years as Cabinet

New Delhi was the world's most polluted capital for the third straight year in 2020, according to IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air quality levels based on the concentration of lung-damaging airborne particles known as PM2.5. India was home to 35 of the world's 50 most polluted cities, according to IQAir's 2020 World Air Quality Report, which gathered data for 106 countries. The findings were