Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was absent from his insurrection trial for the sixth consecutive time on Thursday, leading the court to proceed without him.

Yoon has refused to appear for his trial at the Seoul Central District Court since his second arrest on July 10, citing health issues.

The bench opened Thursday's hearing by noting the defendant was absent again and that the detention centre where Yoon is jailed had sent a note explaining the difficulty of bringing him by force.

In view of heavy rainfall and waterlogging in Jodhpur, the district administration has declared a holiday for students in all educational institutions, including schools and colleges, on Thursday.

District Collector Gaurav Agarwal issued the order late Wednesday under Sections 30 and 34 of the Disaster Management Act 2005.

The decision follows heavy rainfall on August 27, which caused severe waterlogging in several areas.

According to the Meteorological Department, moderate to heavy rainfall is also expected in the coming hours, which could further aggravate the situation.

Two members of the US-based Harry Boxer gang were arrested following a late-night encounter with the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in the New Ashok Nagar area of the national capital, officials said on Thursday.

Acting on intelligence inputs about their movement, the Special Cell laid a trap to intercept the suspects. However, when the police team attempted to stop them, the duo opened fire.

In retaliatory action, one of the accused was shot in the leg before both were overpowered and taken into custody.

According to sources, the arrested men have been identified as Kartik Jakhar and Kavish, both of whom work for US-based gangster Harry Boxer, who has more than half a dozen criminal cases registered against him.

This encounter came shortly after police arrested three men and apprehended a juvenile in connection with a firing incident in East Vinod Nagar linked to a financial dispute.

The Adani Portfolio EBITDA reached Rs 90,572 crore on a trailing 12-month basis for the first time -- up 10 per cent year-on-year -- with Q1 FY26 EBITDA also reaching a record high at Rs 23,793 crore, the Adani Group said on Thursday.

Core infrastructure businesses (utility, transport, and incubating infra businesses under Adani Enterprises) accounted for 87 per cent of total EBITDA in Q1 FY26.

"Incubating Infra assets (airports, solar and wind manufacturing, and roads) crossed Rs 10,000 crore EBITDA for the first time,” the Adani Group said in a statement.

Rajasthan has witnessed an exceptionally heavy monsoon this year, recording 528.60 mm of rainfall so far, which is 53.33 per cent more than the normal average.

In view of the situation, Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma has directed large-scale relief and rescue operations in areas affected by flooding.

So far, 792 people have been rescued safely across the state, said officials on Thursday.

Teams of NDRF, SDRF, and Civil Defence have so far safely rescued people stranded due to heavy rains. A total of 57 SDRF teams and seven NDRF teams are continuously active in the affected regions, working round the clock. Indian Air Force helicopters have also been deployed for airlifting people from severely affected areas.

After remaining shut for a day on account of Ganesh Chaturthi, the domestic benchmark indices opened in the red on Thursday after the US imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.

The BSE Sensex dropped by 624 points, or 0.77 per cent, to touch 80,162 in the early trade. The Nifty 50 declined by 183.85 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 24,528 points.

Broadcap indices were firmly in red as Nifty Midcap 100 fell 1.00 per cent, while Nifty Smallcap 100 was down 1.12 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty IT lost 1.24 per cent, Nifty Pharma was down 0.97 per cent, and Nifty Realty slipped 1.42 per cent. All sectoral indices were in the red.

Thirty-five bodies have been recovered so far in the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine route landslide tragedy as floods wreaked havoc in the Jammu division of J&K.

The Trikuta Hills landslide occurred on Tuesday, and the officials of the Katra Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board said that 35 bodies have been recovered so far from the debris near Ardhkuwari.

So far, 22 of these bodies have been identified. Most of them hailed from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The families of many of them have reached Katra, and the bodies after completion of the legal formalities, are being handed over to their relatives, officials said.

Mata Vaishno Devi Yatra was suspended after the tragedy, but was restored through the old route on Wednesday evening.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini highlighted the state government's commitment to ensuring transparency and fairness in property registration and revenue collection by introducing a structured mechanism for the annual revision of collector rates.

Speaking in the Assembly during the discussion on a notice of attention on Wednesday, the Chief Minister stated that the new system, effective from April 1, 2026, mandates an annual review and revision of collector rates. The move aims to address irregularities in property valuation during deed registration, which in the past led to significant revenue leakages for the state exchequer.

"The collector rates are no longer based on arbitrary revisions," Saini said, adding that "They are now linked directly to the actual sale prices of properties registered in the previous year. This ensures that the revision process is objective, transparent, and reflective of ground realities."

Spatial repellents -- called a "spatial emanator" can prevent mosquito bites and offer significant protection against malaria, according to a study.

Researchers from the University of California-San Francisco, US, said that spatial repellents are a relatively new class of insecticide that can be disseminated on something the size of a sheet of paper, offering protection for up to a year against mosquitoes that spread malaria, as well as dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, and Zika.

In a systematic review, appearing in the journal eBioMedicine, the team analysed more than 25 years of data on some 1.7 million mosquitoes.

The findings showed that this “spatial emanator" distributes chemicals through the air and can prevent more than one out of every two mosquito bites.

The analysis comes just as the World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended the use of spatial emanators, the first new vector control product class available in more than 40 years.

India's manufacturing sector experienced strong growth in FY24 as Gross Value Added (GVA) increased by 11.89 per cent, up from 7.3 per cent in the previous year, according to data from the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) released on Wednesday.

The industrial output of the country rose by 5.80 per cent from April 2023 to March 2024, said the report from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Employment in the manufacturing sector rose by 5.92 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in FY 24, the report said, adding that the manufacturing sector has added over 57 lakh jobs in the last decade. As many as 1,95,89,131 workers were engaged in factory jobs during FY 24.

The top five industries that contributed to GVA growth were basic metals, motor vehicles, chemical products, food products, and pharmaceuticals. Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka led in employment rankings, giving the highest number of factory jobs.