Breaking News LIVE, December 17:
Medium intensity earthquake of magnitude 4.2 hits Rajasthan’s Alwar, tremors felt in Delhi-NCR: National Center for Seismology
Delhi HC asks Delhi police to look into the protest being held by mayors of three municipal corps outside Delhi CM’s residence
West Bengal: BJP delegation comprising of Pratap Banerjee, Bharati Ghosh and Sabyasachi Dutta, to meet deputy election commissioner over law and order issues and early deployment of Central Police Forces in the state
SC reserves order on contempt petitions against comedian Kunal Kamra
The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on contempt petitions filed against comedian Kunal Kamra. The petitons against the stand-up comedian were filed by two law students Shrirang Katneshwarkar and Skand Bajpai and a lawyer Abhijudaya Mishra.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (December 16) issued a notice to the Centre and others on a clutch of petitions seeking removal of farmers camping at several borders leading to the national capital in protest against the three new farm laws. A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde, and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian also indicated that the court may form a committee with representatives from the government and the farmer unions to resolve the deadlock.
A special one-day session of the Delhi Assembly will convene on December 17, 2020, to discuss the alleged misappropriation of Rs 2,400 crore in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Taking to microblogging site Twitter, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wrote: “A one-day special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly will be held on Thursday, on misappropriation of Rs 2400 crore in MCD.”
US officials say they’re actively negotiating for additional purchases of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine after passing up a chance to lock in a contract this summer since it was still unclear how well the shots would work. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and special adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui also told reporters Wednesday that Pfizer had been unable to commit to firm delivery date. Azar called that “the core issue.”
India currently has a fatality rate of 1.45 percent due to coronavirus. The government has said more than 70 percent of the people recover from COVID-19 with mild or very mild symptoms. Such cases may not even require admission to COVID-19 blocks or dedicated hospitals, the Health Ministry said.
The total number of global coronavirus cases has surpassed 74.5 million, including 1,655,041 fatalities. As many as 52,362,780 patients are reported to have recovered. Follow this breaking news blog for live updates on the coronavirus pandemic as it continues to pose a challenge for health workers and scientists who are in a race against time to produce a vaccine/medicine.
