Daily Bulletin: Haryana Police conducts raids to arrest gangrape accused; Modi, Jaitley to continue economic review; top stories for today

Economic review meeting, Day 2: Modi, Jaitley to continue deliberations 

To stop further depreciation of rupee, rise in fuel prices and widening of current account deficit (CAD), Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to hold further deliberations with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and others as part of his two-day review of prevailing economic issues. Modi had on Friday met Jaitley, RBI Governor Urjit Patel and other key officials involved in economic policy-making.

India's current account deficit widened to $15.8 billion, about 2.4 per cent of the country's GDP in the first quarter of this fiscal as against $15 billion in the year-ago quarter.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. PTI

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Jaitley said that policy decisions by the US increased inflow of dollar in the US economy compared to other economies. The government is monitoring the impact of external factors like crude oil prices and trade wars on India despite its strong fundamentals.

On Friday, the govt announced five measures as part of the review including cutting non-essential imports and increasing exports. The government had also decided to allow manufacturing sector entities to avail ECBs up to $50 million with a minimum maturity of one year. Jaitley had said that it will also review removal of exposure limit of 20 percent of  Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) to a single corporate group (company and related entities) and 50 percent of any issue of corporate bonds.

Raids on to arrest men who gang raped Haryana CBSE topper

A Special Investigation Team was set up to probe the alleged gangrape of a 19-year-old woman in Haryana's Mahendragarh district and raids were being conducted to nab the three accused, police said Friday. As the accused continued to evade arrest two days after the incident, the Haryana Police has constituted a SIT in the case.

"We are conducting raids and hope to make arrests soon," Mahendragarh Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar said. He said raids were being held in Rewari and Mahendragarh districts and  the neighbouring areas.

When asked if eight to 10 people could be involved in the gangrape, Kumar said, "The victim has given a statement to the police in which she has named three accused."

The girl had gone to attend a coaching class when she was abducted Wednesday while she was waiting at a bus stop in Kanina. She was allegedly kidnapped by the accused who arrived in a car and was taken to a secluded place where she was gangraped after being offered a drink laced with sedatives, the survivor alleged in her complaint. The accused left her near a bus stop in Kanina later that day.

 Hurricane Florence now a tropical storm, kills at least three

The Hurricane Florence, which has caused massive evacuation in two Carolinas along the US coast, was downgraded to a tropical storm by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) at 2100 GMT (3.30 am IST). However, authorities warned the danger was far from over.

"We are expecting several more days of rain," North Carolina governor Roy Cooper said, describing the amount of rainfall from the hurricane as a "1,000-year event".

"Into next week our rivers are going to continue to rise and there will be more significant flooding," Cooper said.

As of 3.30 am IST, maximum sustained winds had weakened to 110 kilometres per hour but the NHC warned Carolina residents to be alert for life-threatening storm surges and "catastrophic freshwater flooding".

"Flash flooding will be extreme and flood waters will come up quickly and seemingly out of nowhere," the governor said.

Governor Cooper said there have been "several hundred" rescue operations and "there are still some people they need to get to".

He said there had been three confirmed deaths from the storm and several others were being investigated to determine if they were storm-related.

US calls urgent UN meet on undermining North Korea sanctions

The United States has called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council for Monday in response to what it says are efforts by some countries "to undermine and obstruct" sanctions against North Korea.

The mission didn't name any countries, but US Ambassador Nikki Haley accused Russia on Thursday of pressuring an independent panel of UN experts to alter a report on North Korea sanctions that included alleged violations "implicating Russian actors".

Haley said the panel should release the original report, which cited "a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products" for North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. It said some products allegedly were off-loaded from Russian ships, which were identified in the report.

SAFF Cup 2018 finals

Boosted by an undefeated run, seven-time champions India will start as favourites against the Maldives in the summit clash of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship on Saturday.

The Indian team, comprising under-23 players except for one, has been the only unbeaten side in the tournament. It has beaten Sri Lanka (2-0) and Saturday's opponents the Maldives (2-0) in the group stages before prevailing over Pakistan (3-1) in the semifinals.