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1 ! " # ! # $ % &% & ' ( $)* +),-%. / 0&%The Covid-19 is marchingrelentlessly across the coun-try with each day total casecount registering new highand the situation turning forthe worse in States like Delhiand Maharashtra. On Monday,Delhi registered 4,099 freshcases of Covid-19 and onedeath in the past 24 hours. Thepositivity rate has increased per cent from per centrecorded the other hand,Maharashtra recorded 12,160 Covid-19 cases, taking the totalnumber of cases from66,99,868 cases to 67,12,028cases. Similarly, the Staterecorded 68 Omicron cases,taking the total number ofCovid-19 variant cases from510 cases to 578 33,750 Covid-19infections were reported fromacross the country during thelast 24 hours on Monday, theOmicron tally breached 1,700marks of which 639 peoplehave recovered.

2 According toan estimate, cases of the virusnearly tripled in the week end-ing Sunday as compared withthe previous seven days, regis-tering an unprecedented rise of181 per cent rise during theperiod. Covid-cases onMonday were 22 per cent high -er than Sunday, while 123 dieddue to the virus in a variant of concern hasspread to 23 topped theOmicron list with 510 cases fol-lowed by Delhi (351) Kerala(156), Gujarat (136), Tamil Nadu (121) andRajasthan (120).Bihar also reported thehighest weekly percentageincrease, with cases going from85 in the December 20-26week to 1,073, a 12-fold risealthough the absolute numberswere low as yet while Bengalrecorded the second highestweekly number of cases at18,524, up more than five times the previous week s tallyof 3, numbers alsoleaped by nearly nine times to2,879, from 326.

3 Other Stateswhere this week s cases were atleast five times higher than thepreceding one included Gujarat(4,410 cases), Uttar Pradesh(1,617), Rajasthan (1,403),Chhattisgarh (1,133) andHaryana (2,285).World Health Organisation(WHO) Director-GeneralTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid he was optimistic that theCovid-19 pandemic will end in2022 only if inequity ends. Ina statement on Friday,Ghebreyesus said as we enterthe third year of the Covid-19pandemic, I m confident thatthis will be the year we end it,but only if we do it together .Meanwhile, Delhi HealthMinister Satyendar Jain saidthat in the last few days, 187reports of genome sequencinghave come, and out of these 187samples, a total of 152 peoplewere found omicron positive.

4 Omicron is now the dominantvariant in Delhi; around 81 percent of cases in Delhi are of theOmicron variant, Jain Minister said that ifthe international flights hadbeen banned in time, Omicronwould not have spread in Delhi. The people arriving at DelhiAirport coming from abroadare being tested and are beingsent to isolation facilities if test-ed positive and are being treat-ed accordingly, he on Page 2 $)* +),-%Taliban officials in northernBalkh province, borderingUzbekistan, have announcedthe closure of all general baths for women, the Islamic Emirate ofAfghanistan is taking rootacross the country, their restric-tions, especially on women, arealso decision was takenunanimously by religiousscholars and provincial officialsof the Directorate of Promotionof Virtue and Prevention ofVice in the on the new decision,women can only take shower inprivate baths while observingIslamic hijab, not in generalbaths.

5 The report head of the Directorateof Promotion of Virtue andPrevention of Vice in Balkhprovince said that the decisionwas made after consultationswith religious scholars(Ulema). Since people do not accessmodern baths at home, menare allowed to go to generalbaths, but women are sup-posed to go to private bathswhile observing hijab, saidthe head of the age boys are alsobanned from general baths, andbody massage is also banned inthe , local officials inwestern Herat province hadtemporarily closed generalbaths for women. & /One of the three Mughalgardens in Srinagar,Shalimar Bagh witnessed abrief shootout in which dread-ed Lashkar-e-Tayyeba terrorist,Saleem Parray, was gunneddown by the joint team ofsecurity forces on Monday.

6 In a separate encounter, aforeign terrorist, a close associate of Parray, too wasneutralised by the elite in Jammu, alertBSF troops neutralised aPakistani intruder along theInternational border in theArnia sector and recovered ahuge cache of arms/ammuni-tion and seizure included 03AK-47 Rifles with 5 magazines,4 pistols with 7 magazines, sev-eral rounds of ammunitionand 5 packets of on Page 2 ,/ 1$2*Ashish Mishra has beennamed as the primeaccused along with 13 others inthe chargesheet submitted onMonday in Lakhimpur Kheriviolence case. But much torelief of his father, UnionMinister of State for Home,Ajay Mishra Teni , the SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) did-n t mention his name in the5,000-page chargesheet whichwas submitted in the court ofthe chief judicial magistrate ofLakhimpur on Monday.

7 The chargesheet wasbrought to a local court in a big trunk just a day beforethe deadline of 90 days for theinvestigation which is to farmers fighting thecase, however, were unsatisfiedwith the chargesheet. Theydemanded that the UnionMinister, who is also the MPfrom Kheri seat, should benamed as an accused as to the media,advocate Mohammad Amaan,the representative of the vic-tims, said they had namedTeni in the complaint but still,his name was not included inthe FIR. Later, they had alsoapproached SIT to includeTeni s name, but nothing hap-pened. Amaan alleged that theteam had not probed the caseproperly. The Thar jeep thatrammed into the people wasregistered under Ajay Mishra sname, but he allowed to go scotfree, he added.

8 The advocatesaid he would move the court , asking for a thor-ough Mishra s son,Ashish, figures as the keyaccused in the case that claimedeight lives, a new name hasemerged in the chargesheet,and the accused has been identified as Virendra Shukla who is believed to beMishra s relative. Continued on Page 2 $)* +),-%In a worrying developmentfor India, China is buildinga bridge across the PangongTso (lake) in eastern Ladakh for rapid deploymentof its troops on both the banksof the lake. The two-year-old stand-offbetween India and China start-ed from Pangong lake when theChinese troops blocked anIndian patrol leading toexchange of blows.

9 Situation later turned seri-ous with the Chinese troopstransgressed the Line of ActualControl (LAC) at several pointsleading to a bloody clash in theGalwan valley in 2020. Twenty Indian Army per-sonnel, including the com-manding officer, died in thebrawl. China is yet to official-ly announce the number ofcasualties it suffered. Indiansecurity establishment saysmore than 40 Chinese soldierswere killed. Two days back,China unfurled its flag on itsside of the LAC in the Galwanvalley. Sources said here onMonday that the flag shown ina video released by someGovernment mouthpieces ofChina is not in the demili-tarised zone mutually agreedupon by both the leader RahulGandhi asked the Governmentto explain the latest develop-ment regarding the unfurling ofthe , the unfurlingof the flag and construction ofthe bridge surfaced two daysafter the two Armies exchangedgifts and pleasantries on theNew Year s day at some border meeting points allacross the the bridge across the135-km long strategically-cru-cial Pangong Lake.

10 Satellitefootage shows the bridge iscoming up at the narrow partof the lake in a region calledKhurnak in the Chinese area,sources said here on on Page 2 $)* +),-%After assessing the Covid-19situation in the five poll-bound States, the ElectionCommission (EC) has askedthem to accelerate the vacci-nation drive to ensure that alleligible citizens in their respec-tive States are fully inoculatedat the earliest. The EC has alsoasked to ensure that the per-sonnel to be deployed on election duty are doublevaccinated .The poll panel reportedlyexpressed concern about thelow percentage of first dosevaccination in Manipur. According to sources, in arecent letter to the chief secre-taries of Uttar Pradesh, uttarakhand , Goa, Manipur,and Punjab, the EC remindedthem that polling personnelcome under the category offrontline workers AND are eli-gible for the precaution dose of the Covid vaccines.