In the first four hours of polling on Tuesday, an overall voter turnout of 28.04 per cent was recorded in the 40 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.

The overall voter turnout was recorded till 11 a.m., said the officials of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

“Bandipora district recorded 23.20 per cent, Baramulla, 27.15 per cent, Jammu, 31.78 per cent, Kathua, 27.34 per cent, Kupwara, 31.50 per cent in Samba and 33.84 per cent in Udhampur district.

In the first and second phases of J&K Assembly polls, nearly 62 per cent and 58 per cent voter turnout was recorded respectively.

Cambodia has seen a remarkable increase in both the number of people arrested and the amount of narcotics seized in the first nine months of 2024, according to an Anti-Drug Department (ADP) report on Tuesday.

The authorities had detained 19,655 drug-related suspects during the January-September period this year, up 33.5 per cent from 14,722 over the same period last year, the report said, adding that 640 suspects were foreigners of 15 nationalities.

A total of 6.1 tonnes of illicit drugs was confiscated from those suspects' possession in the first nine months of 2024, up 127 per cent from 2.68 tonnes over the same period last year, the report said.

India’s diamond imports saw a 54 per cent decline in August compared to the same month last year, as the country remains a dominant player in the global diamond industry, responsible for producing 95 per cent of the world’s polished diamonds, a report showed on Tuesday.

As per preliminary data from the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), India imported 5.6 million carats of diamonds during this period, underscoring the ongoing global shifts within the diamond market.

India’s imports of lab-grown rough diamonds, which are increasingly significant in the global market, were valued at $119 million in August, down 12 per cent from the previous year.

In terms of value, however, the narrative differs, with the imports for August 2024 estimated at $672 million.

This figure marks a 49 per cent increase in value compared to August 2023, reflecting adjustments in pricing and demand for higher-value stones, as well as global supply chain shifts affecting both natural and synthetic diamonds, according to the data.

Unemployment rate in Japan decreased in August from a month earlier, the government said in a report on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 2.5 per cent in August, down from 2.7 per cent in July.

Meanwhile, the job availability ratio dropped 0.01 points from July to 1.23, indicating that there were 123 available jobs for every 100 people seeking work in August, separate data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare showed.

While labour shortages persist, some companies have been holding back on recruitment due to rising costs driven by inflation, news agency reported.

New job postings, considered an economic indicator, fell by 6.5 per cent year-on-year, particularly in the hospitality and dining services sectors, where postings dropped by 23.5 per cent.

Nigeria has freshly secured up to $1.57 billion in financing from the World Bank to strengthen human capital through better health for women, children, and adolescents while building resilience to the effects of climate change.

The new loan includes some $500 million to address the governance issues that constrain education and health, $570 million to strengthen primary health care, and another $500 million for the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria (SPIN) project, Ndiame Diop, Country Director for the World Bank in Nigeria, said in a statement on Monday.

"This new financing for human capital and primary health care will help address the complex difficulties faced by Nigerians, especially women and girls around access and quality of services, but also the governance arrangements that also explain these difficulties," Diop said, News agency reported.

A three-vehicle collision left at least nine people dead and 16 others injured on the Costanera Highway in the region of Tacna in Peru.

The crash occurred on Sunday night at kilometre 31, near a curve known as 'El Chasqui' in the La Yarada-Los Palos district, involving a bus from the Vilca transport company, a private car, and a truck carrying Andean products and sheep, news agency reported quoting the state news agency.

Several bus passengers and the truck driver were trapped in the wreckage after the crash, while the occupants of the private car reportedly fled the scene.

Witnesses said the private car crossed the wrong lane, triggering the accident. Beer cans found inside the car raised suspicions that the driver may have been intoxicated.

The Saudi Ministry of Finance announced the Pre-Budget Statement for Fiscal Year 2025, which estimated a deficit of 2.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The statement expected total expenditures to reach 1.28 trillion Saudi riyals ($0.34 trillion) and total revenues to reach 1.18 trillion Saudi riyals.

It noted that the government will continue increasing strategic transformational spending to achieve economic diversification and sustainable growth.

It added that the reported GDP growth rates were supported by the growth of non-oil activities, which contributed to the prosperity of promising sectors such as tourism, entertainment, transportation, logistics, and industry.

Both Hungary and Ukraine are interested in strengthening their neighbourhood relations, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said.

Speaking during a joint press conference after a meeting with his recently-appointed Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha, Szijjarto reiterated Hungary's pro-peace stance on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, stressing that a diplomatic solution is the only way to end the suffering of millions, news agency reported.

"Hungary supports all initiatives aimed at achieving peace as soon as possible," he said, adding that Hungary continues to offer humanitarian assistance, having welcomed over 1.4 million refugees from Ukraine since the conflict began.

At least four people were killed and six others missing after a boat carrying 14 people capsised in a river in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, a local official confirmed to news agency.

The accident occurred on Monday afternoon when the boat sank during a river crossing on the outskirts of the province's Kuz Kunar district, said Quraishi Badloon, head of the provincial information department.

Four people were rescued, while six others remained missing. Women and children were among the passengers, Badloon added.

The SEBI board has approved the introduction of a new investment product under the existing Mutual Fund framework that aims to curtail the proliferation of unregistered and unauthorised investment schemes/entities, which often promise unrealistic high returns and exploit investors’ expectations for better yields, leading to potential financial risks.

According to the markets regulator, the new asset class is intended to bridge the gap between Mutual Funds and Portfolio Management Services in terms of flexibility in portfolio construction.

As per SEBI, the new Mutual Fund product aims to provide investors with a professionally managed and well regulated product that offers greater flexibility, higher risk-taking capabilities for higher ticket size, while ensuring that appropriate safeguards and risk mitigation measures are in place.