Indian Navy Contains Fire Onboard Merchant Vessel Marlin Luanda: Live Breaking News Headlines & Updates, January 27, 2024

The firefighting team of the Indian Navy warship, INS Visakhapatnam successfully brought the fire onboard the merchant vessel Marlin Luanda under control on Saturday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold a meeting with its MLAs and MPs in Patna to chalk out its strategy over the latest political situation in Bihar amid speculations that former ally, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, might pull his party out from the ruling grand alliance in the state.

The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) said on Saturday that it is in touch with the Iranian authorities over the “horrifying and despicable” killing of Pakistani nationals by terrorists in the neighbouring country, a media reports said. Iran’s Mehr news agency earlier reported that “according to witnesses, this morning unknown armed men killed nine non-Iranians in a house in the Sirkan neighbourhood of Saravan city” in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, Dawn reported. The agency added that no group or individuals have claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

India logged 159 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday while one fatality was reported from Kerala in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,33,444, as per the Health and Family Welfare Ministry. Meanwhile, the total number of active cases further fell to 1,623, while until last week more than 2,000 active cases were recorded. As of now, the total number of Coronavirus cases in India, since the initial outbreak in January 2020, has reached 4,50,24,894.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is set to sack ministers from his coalition partner, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Lalu Yadav, NDTV said. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar’s party, the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have agreed on a seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, which are due in three months. In the wake of these developments, BJP legislators in Bihar have reportedly pledged their support to Nitish Kumar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the world is witnessing that the daughters of India are proving their mettle in every field be it land, sea, air or space. “There was a time when the role of women in society was limited to cultural arrangements and organisations. But today the entire world is witnessing the daughters of India are proving their mettle in every field: land, sea, air or space,” the Prime Minister said while addressing the annual NCC PM rally at the Cariappa Parade Ground in New Delhi.

Gunmen in southeastern Iran near the Pakistan border killed nine foreign nationals Saturday, Iranian media reported, more than a week after the neighbours exchanged deadly cross-border fire.

The first round of dialogue to discuss ending the US-led international coalition's mission in Iraq was launched on Saturday, the Iraqi government said. A statement by the media office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani said that al-Sudani sponsored the launch of the first round of the dialogue without giving further details, while publishing a picture showing al-Sudani chairing a meeting attended by senior Iraqi military officers and US officials.

The Indian Navy on Saturday said that it has deployed its guided missile destroyer – INS Visakhapatnam – in the Gulf of Aden in response to a distress call from MV Marlin Luanda on the night of January 26.

 The meeting of the JD-U core committee headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is over in Patna and sources have said that he will take the oath for the ninth time in Bihar on Sunday. Leaders like Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Lalan Singh, Ashok Chaudhary, Sanjay Kumar Jha, Bijendra Yadav, and others were present during the core committee meeting. JD-U has also taken the signatures of all MLAs of the party.

Bihar BJP core committee meeting has concluded in Patna. Union Minister Giriraj Singh said, "Nitish Kumar is still the CM and Tejashwi Yadav is the Deputy CM, what can I say on this."

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh recently spoke about the INDIA alliance, emphasizing its national focus. Despite potential state-level issues, Ramesh highlighted that the alliance has been carefully constructed with significant contributions from the Chief Ministers of Bihar and West Bengal.
Ramesh stressed that the alliance is not one where local issues will overshadow national concerns. Instead, national issues and objectives will be given priority.

Jairam Ramesh on INDIA Alliance 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced the appointment of election in-charges and co-in-charges for various States and Union Territories, in preparation for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Baijayant Panda has been appointed as the new in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, while Vinod Tawde will take on the role of election in-charge for Bihar. The appointments are part of the BJP’s strategic planning for the forthcoming elections.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024

Chirag Paswan, the president of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda. The meeting took place at the Union Home Minister’s residence in Delhi amid the political crisis in Bihar. Further details about the discussions held during the meeting are awaited.

Bihar Political Crisis

The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) held a black-flag protest against Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan in Kollam. The details of the protest, including its cause and impact, are yet to be reported.

SFI Protest in Kollam 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to poach seven Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs with an offer of Rs 25 crore each to switch sides. He further claimed that the BJP held talks with these MLAs and allegedly threatened that the Delhi Chief Minister would soon be arrested in connection with a case related to the liquor policy.

Arvind Kejriwal Alleges BJP’s Attempt to Lure AAP MLAs

Female students at Osmania University PG College in Secunderabad, Hyderabad, staged a protest following an alleged security breach at the women’s hostel last night. The students raised concerns about their safety and demanded immediate action to prevent such incidents in the future. The local police were present at the scene and have initiated an investigation into the matter.

Osmania University Security Breach

A fire broke out at a paint shop located in the bustling Chikpete Market area of Bengaluru, Karnataka. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported in the incident.

Bengaluru Fire