Free Press Bulletin: Top 5 news updates of December 9, 2021; watch video

Free Press Bulletin: Top 5 news updates of December 9, 2021; watch video

Free Press Bulletin is your one-stop destination to the top 5 news updates of the day.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Thursday, December 09, 2021, 06:53 PM IST
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Free Press Bulletin |

Here are the top 5 news updates of December 9, 2021:

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions, today decided to suspend the over-a-year-long farmers' movement against three contentious farm laws and announced that farmers will go back home on December 11 from the protest sites on Delhi's borders. Farmer leaders said that they will again meet on January 15 to see if the government has fulfilled their demands and also announced that farmers will start vacating Delhi border points from December 11. The announcement came after the SKM, which is spearheading the movement, received a central government signed letter where it agreed to consider their pending demands, including withdrawal of cases against farmers and form a committee on minimum support price (MSP).

The flight data recorder of the military helicopter that crashed in a wooded, hilly area near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu killing India's first Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and 12 others was retrieved today. As Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in a statement in Parliament that an inquiry was already underway and the lone survivor was on life support, in Wellington, not far from the crash site, bugles sounded the last post to honour those who had been killed. The mortal remains of the victims in caskets wrapped in the Indian tricolour were taken to the Madras Regimental Centre at Wellington in decorated army trucks. Senior Army officials, Tamil Nadu ministers and Army veterans laid wreaths and paid floral tributes. The remains were later taken to Coimbatore by road, about 70 km away, from where they would be flown to New Delhi in a special IAF aircraft.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said people do not need to panic about Omicron as the severity of the coronavirus variant is low. Briefing media persons, Tope said, "There is a total of 10 Omicron cases in Maharashtra till today. About 65 swabs have been sent for genome sequencing, their reports are awaited. Screenings are being conducted at international airports. The Omicron variant is spread over 54 countries so far. Transmissibility is higher. But, the severity or virulence is low. So we do not need to panic." Asked about the State's strategy to counter the spread, the Health Minister said, "We are working with the 3T Principle - tracking, tracing and testing. For genome sequence, we have currently three labs. We will expand the facility further in Nagpur and Aurangabad."

China has warned the nations joining the diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, saying that they will "pay the price". The warning from China came after Canada joined Australia, Britain and the United States in a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics. China has called the boycotts a "political posturing" and a smear campaign.The United States was the first to announce the boycott this week, saying its government officials would not attend February's Beijing Olympics because of China's human rights "atrocities", weeks after talks aimed at easing tense relations between the world's two largest economies. The chairman of the athletes' committee of Beijing 2022 said the Games were a stage for athletes, not a runway for politics.

Equity benchmark Sensex ended 157 points higher today, tracking gains in index majors Reliance Industries, ITC and L&T amid a largely positive trend in global markets. The 30-share index ended 157.45 points or 0.27 per cent higher at 58,807.13. Similarly, the NSE Nifty rose 47.10 points or 0.27 per cent to 17,516.85. ITC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 5 per cent, followed by L&T, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, M&M, Bajaj Finance and Infosys. On the other hand, HDFC Bank, Titan, Nestle India, NTPC and PowerGrid were among the laggards.

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