A massive 3,000-year-old cedar on Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan has been toppled, apparently due to strong winds brought by Typhoon Shanshan, local media reported.

At its full height, the cedar stood about 26 metres high with a circumference stretching 8 meters around its trunk. Local tour guides found it collapsed on Saturday, broken near its base, news agency reported.

Yakushima Island, known for its more than 1,000-year-old "Yakusugi" cedars, was designated as a World Natural Heritage site in 1993.

The placement drive organised by the Department of Training and Placement of Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib concluded successfully today. The drive provided final-year students an opportunity to interact with Grazitti Interactive global provider of SaaS products and digital services; Grazitti has global reach in India, USA, Canada and Singapore. Students of MBA, B.Tech CSE and MCA, participated in the placement drive. The selection process included pre-placement talks, group discussions, technical interviews, and HR rounds.

Five members of the Syrian security forces were injured in an attack on a government official's convoy in the southern province of Daraa on Wednesday, local police reported.

The convoy, which belonged to the governor of Daraa, was returning from the city of Al-Harak when it was struck by an improvised explosive device planted by armed militants, according to a police statement.

A clash erupted between security personnel and the militants following the explosion, lasting nearly half an hour, reports news agency, quoting the government al-Watan newspaper.

India's Nihal Singh and Rudransh Khandelwal failed to make it to the Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 final after finishing 19th and 22nd, respectively, in the qualifications here on Wednesday. Nihal finished with a total score of 522 while Rudransh accumulated 517 points in the 60-shot qualification round.

Earlier, Nihal failed to make the final of the Mixed 25m Pistol (SH1) after finishing 10th in the qualification.

Rudransh and Nihal both had settled for silver and bronze, respectively, in the Mixed 50m Pistol (SH1) at the Para-Shooting World Cup in March this year. The duo, along with Tokyo Paralympics medallist Singhraj Adhana, pocketed silver in the Mixed 50m Pistol team event.

Indian equity indices closed in the red on Wednesday due to negative global sentiments.

At closing, Sensex was down 202 points, or 0.25 per cent, at 82,352 and Nifty was down 81 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 25,198.

The biggest impact of the decline was seen in banking and IT stocks.

Nifty Bank closed at 51,400, down 288 points or 0.56 per cent, and Nifty IT closed at 42,450, down 400 points or 0.94 per cent.

Apart from this, Auto, PSU Bank, fin service, metal and energy indices were major losers. Pharma, FMCG, realty and media indices closed in the green.

Ola Electric shares continued to slide on Wednesday --- its sixth consecutive session of decline – as its stock lost more than 30 per cent from its recent all-time peak of Rs 157.40 apiece.

The Bhavish Aggarwal-run company’s stock dropped 3 per cent to Rs 110 per share. It was, however, still up 45 per cent from its initial public offering (IPO) price of Rs 76 apiece.

Market experts said that the company’s stock is not looking good and can even slip further from the current Rs 110 level over the near term. There are concerns as current valuation of the EV firm appears to be quite speculative.

Moreover, its rivals like TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto have extended their market share by launching more affordable electric two-wheelers. Hero MotoCorp also plans to launch its Vida EV motorcycle at a more affordable price point in rising competition in the electric 2W space.

The US Central Command said on Wednesday that its naval forces had destroyed a missile system of the Houthi group in Yemen.

"In the past 24 hours, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) forces successfully destroyed an Iranian-backed Houthi missile system in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen," it said in a post on social media platform X.

"It was determined this system presented an imminent threat to US and coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region," it said without providing further details, according to news agency.

The Students from the Department of Business Management and Commerce, Desh Bhagat University in collaboration with Training and Placement Cell of the University organised an insightful industrial visit to the Verka Milk Plant in Patiala. The visit, organized as part of the University’s commitment to providing practical exposure to its students, was aimed at offering a comprehensive understanding of dairy production processes and industry practices. The students, accompanied by faculty members, Dr. Baldeep Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management and Commerce and Mr. Kapil,

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema tweeted that in the assembly constituencies in which the by-elections are to be held in the near future, to speed up the party's activities, Shiromani Akali Dal's working president S. Balwinder Singh Bhundar has assigned the duties of the senior leaders of the party. He said that former Union Minister Biba Harsimrat Kaur Badal will be in-charge of election campaign of Giddarbaha constituency. Similarly, senior leader Hira Singh Gabaria will be the campaign in-charge for Barnala city and Iqbal Singh Jhunda will be the campaign in-charge for Barnala rural.

The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to increase the insurance limit on surrogacy policy for women up to Rs 10 lakh.

The women giving birth to a child through surrogacy in Madhya Pradesh are till now getting the benefit of insurance only up to Rs 2 lakh.

Therefore, the state government has decided to increase the amount by Rs 8 lakh for the women accepting the surrogacy policy in the state.

The decision has been made during a review meeting of the State Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Board.