West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Friday, has asked for funds for various central welfare schemes being implemented in her state. In a letter to PM Modi, Banerjee said, "I request for urgent release of funds due to state for implementation of schemes including MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojna and PM Gramin Sadak Yojna. Dues from the central government on these schemes amount to about Rs 17,996 crore." Chief Minister Banerjee, who is on a four-day visit to the national capital, met Prime Minister Modi at his residence on Friday. During the meetin

A Vistara flight from Varanasi to Mumbai was returned back to its origin due to a bird hit, informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday. The DGCA said that the aircraft has landed safely in Varanasi and the radome is damaged. However, the aircraft has been declared aircraft on the ground (AOG). "The A320 aircraft VT-TNC operating flight UK622 (Varanasi-Mumbai) was involved in an air turn back to Varanasi due to a bird hit. The aircraft has landed safely in Varanasi and the radome is damaged. The aircraft is declared aircraft on ground (AOG)," said DGCA. Earlier on Fri

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney on Friday thanked Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for making clear that GST would not be charged on religious places and that sarais run by Sikhs will not need to pay the tax. "No GST will be charged in religious places. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave out this ruling today morning. I thanked Nirmala Sitharaman for accepting our demands and waiving off GST from Sarai's," said Vikramjit Singh Sahney. "If SGPC has paid GST charges after the circular which was July 17 to August 5 can claim for GST return and the

China has announced unspecified sanctions on U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her visit earlier this week to Taiwan. A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said Friday that Pelosi had disregarded China’s concerns and resolute opposition to her visit to the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims. China views the island as part of its territory, but Taiwan has been governed independently since 1949, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. China repeatedly voiced its opposition to Pelosi’s trip to the disputed island, but the U.S. official decided not to cancel her plans. “In res

The Alberta government is tightening the rules around employee bonuses in light of the six-figure payout to the chief medical officer of health. Finance Minister Jason Nixon says the civil service has been directed to review and make changes to the rules to ensure future bonus payments during emergencies go through cabinet for approval. Nixon says the public service should not have the ability to sign off on such big-ticket bonuses. Earlier this week, the government's salary list revealed Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, received a bonus of almost 228-thousand dollars fo

The United Conservative government has cancelled an emergency directive that called for some patients in Edmonton hospitals to be treated in hallways. The order was enacted to reduce pressure on emergency departments while Alberta Health Services worked to place some patients in other hospitals. The province says it was dealing with high demand, staffing shortages and higher numbers of patients due to COVID-19. The Opposition NDP says the government contributed to the staffing shortages by tearing up the master contract with doctors and fighting at one point to cut nurses' salaries.

Defence lawyers working with Legal Aid Alberta have voted to stop taking any cases for two weeks. They say it is their response to what they call the provincial government underfunding the system. The Criminal Defence Lawyers Association, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, and the Southern Alberta Defence Lawyers' Association have been pushing the province to increase Legal Aid's budget in line with other Canadian jurisdictions. Alberta Justice says it has reached out to all three organizations for a meeting.

On August 3rd at approximately 2:00 pm, the New Westminster Police Department responded an domestic incident near 20th Street and 6th Avenue. The suspect was identified and later located at a residence in the 300 block of Agnes Street. The suspect would not acknowledge police and patrol members attempted to negotiate the surrender of the suspect. Due to the suspect refusing to exit the apartment, the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team was deployed to assist with the arrest. The suspect was located inside the residence at approximately 7:00 pm and was taken into custody without inc

A judge in Russia convicted American basketball star Brittney Griner of drug possession and smuggling. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in a politically charged case that could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow. Griner showed little emotion to the sentence but her lawyers said later she was "very upset, very stressed. U.S. President Joe Biden denounced as ``unacceptable'' the verdict and sentence, which came amid soaring tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine. Griner had told the court she had no intention to break the law by bringing va