3 LeT Militants Killed In Gunfight With Forces In Pulwama

HT Daily News Wrap

Congress hits out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government over GST items' 'rationalization', three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants killed in a gunfight with forces in Pulwama, R Madhavan's son Vedaant Madhavan didn't want to live 'under dad's shadow', opens up on parents 'biggest sacrifice', and other top news in this bulletin.
French President Emmanuel Macron defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday by a comfortable margin, securing a second term and heading off what would have been a political earthquake. Cheers of joy erupted as the results appeared on a giant screen at the Champ de Mars park at the foot of the Eiffel tower, where Macron supporters waved French and EU flags. People hugged each other, danced and chanted “Macron!”. Air India has improved its on-time performance in the four metro airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad by as much as 28% in the first three months of this year, according to data released by the civil aviation regulator, after the state-owned airline was taken over by the Tata group. An average of 71.5% Air India flights were on time in the four metro airports between October to December 2021, which improved to an average of 91.3% between January and March, data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation revealed. The Congress on Sunday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government over reports that it had suggested moving 132 of 143 items from the 18% tax slab of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to the 28% slab calling the move “deceitful and dubious”. Three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday, amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Jammu division. Police officials said the encounter started at the Pahoo area of Pulwama when a joint party of security forces cordoned off the area in the afternoon after getting information about the presence of the militants. After bagging a silver medal, actor R. Madhavan’s son Vedaant Madhavan also added a gold medal to his kitty in the men’s 800m freestyle at the Danish Open swimming event in Copenhagen, earlier this week. In a new interview, Vedaant has opened up about the sacrifices that his parents made for him and how he always wanted to make a name for himself. Madhavan announced the news of Vedaant’s victory on Instagram by sharing a video from his felicitation ceremony. “Gold….(dancing and gold medal emojis). With all your blessings and God’s greatest the winning street continues (red heart and folded hands emojis). Today it’s a Gold IN 800m for @vedaantmadhavan. Overwhelmed and humbled. Thank you Coach @bacpradeep sir @swimmingfederation.in @ansadxb and the entire team,” he wrote. Rohit Sharma spoke at the toss about how obvious it was that Wankhede Stadium was a chasing ground. Despite calling the toss right, having lost the knack of winning, Mumbai Indians faltered again, this time in front of a vociferous home crowd, slumping to a 36-run loss to Lucknow Super Giants—their eighth successive defeat of a winless season. MI bowlers have had to endure a lot of pain through the season, but none more than what KL Rahul’s bat inflicted. The LSG skipper batted through the innings to bring up an unbeaten 103 (62b, 12×4, 4×6), his second ton against the same opponents in this IPL.