Jan 21 news LIVE | MP govt tells HC bacterial contamination led to Indore tragedy

Amid escalating geopolitical tensions, the United States and Iran have exchanged ominous threats, further deepening the hostility between the two countries.

On Tuesday (January 20), US President Donald Trump warned that the United States would “wipe out” Iran if it attempted to assassinate him.

This came as Iran warned Trump not to take any action against the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, days after the US president called for an end to Khamenei's nearly 40-year reign.

“Trump knows that if any hand of aggression is extended towards our leader, we not only cut that hand but also we will set fire to their world,” General Abolfazl Shekarchi, a spokesperson for Iran's armed forces, said.

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In a significant development in the Telangana phone tapping case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) questioned BRS MLA and former minister Harish Rao at the Jubilee Hills police station in Hyderabad. The questioning took place around 11 am on Tuesday (January 20) and was conducted by the SIT headed by Hyderabad city police commissioner VC Sajjanar.

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Tension gripped Karigaon in Assam’s Kokrajhar district on Tuesday (January 20) after a violent mob attack left one person dead, several injured, and large-scale arson in its wake, prompting authorities to deploy heavy security to prevent further escalation.

The violence erupted on Monday evening (January 19) at Gaurinagar in Karigaon, where a mob attacked a Scorpio vehicle following suspicion of cattle theft or a road accident. According to official sources, one person, identified as Sikhna Jwhwlao Bismit, also known as Raja, was beaten to death. Four others - Mahesh Murmu, Sunil Murmu, Jugiraj Brahma, and Prabhat Brahma - sustained serious injuries and are undergoing treatment at Kokrajhar Medical College and Hospital.

Police said the situation spiralled out of control after local residents allegedly stopped the vehicle. Stone-pelting followed, forcing the Scorpio off the road and into a ditch. The occupants were dragged out and assaulted, resulting in the death of one person on the spot. The vehicle was later set ablaze.

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NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has retired. The space agency announced the news on Tuesday (January 20), saying her retirement took effect at the end of December.

Williams’ crewmate on Boeing’s ill-fated capsule test flight, Butch Wilmore, left NASA last summer.

The pair was launched to the space station in 2024, the first people to fly Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule. Their mission should have lasted just a week, but stretched to more than nine months because of Starliner trouble. In the end, they caught a ride home last March with SpaceX.

Williams, 60, a former Navy captain, spent more than 27 years at NASA, logging 608 days in space over three station missions. She also set a record for the most spacewalking time by a woman: 62 hours during nine excursions.

US Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, are expecting a son in late July, they announced in a social media post on Tuesday (January 20).

The couple said they were excited to share the news of their fourth child, who will join their other three young kids: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

Vance, 41, and his wife, 40, said in the post that both mother and baby were doing well.

The news of the Republican vice president’s growing family comes as he has spent years passionately advocating for Americans to have more children.

Gold prices on Tuesday (January 20) breached the crucial Rs 1.5 lakh-per-10-gram milestone in Delhi, surging Rs 5,100 amid strong demand in both domestic and global markets, according to the All India Sarafa Association.

The yellow metal of 99.9 per cent purity traded at Rs 1,53,200 per 10 grams (inclusive of all taxes) against the previous close of Rs 1,48,100 per 10 grams.

Fresh tariff announcements by US President Donald Trump, including a 10 per cent levy on EU nations, have revived concerns over global trade and cast doubts on the progress of the US-India trade deal.

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The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday (January 20) conducted searches in three states as part of its money-laundering investigation into the Sabarimala gold loss case of Kerala.

Some land assets of prime accused Unnikrishnan Potti were frozen during the searches.

About 21 locations across Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were raided under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The premises linked to Potti in Bengaluru and former Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president A Padmakumar in Kerala apart from jewellers were covered by the federal probe agency as part of the action.

Some plots linked to Potti have been frozen under the provisions of section 17(1A) of the anti-money laundering law during the searches. Documents and some Mahazars (a document like panchnama) were also recovered.

The case is already being investigated by a state Special Investigation Team under the supervision of the Kerala High Court.

The probe is related to a series of irregularities, including official misconduct, administrative lapses and a criminal conspiracy to misappropriate the gold from the various artefacts of the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

The charges also include the loss of gold from the gold-clad copper plates of the ‘Dwarapalaka’ (guardian deity) idols and the door frames of the ‘Sreekovil’ (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple.

ED officials said preliminary investigation shows that gold-clad sacred artefacts were deliberately misrepresented as "copper plates" in official records and unlawfully removed from the temple premises between 2019 and 2025.

The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday (January 20) told the High Court that bacterial contamination of drinking water led to widespread infection in Indore’s Bhagirathpura area, where several people have died of diarrhoea and vomiting since December-end.

Appearing via video link, Chief Secretary Anurag Jain told an Indore HC bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi that contaminated water was found in 51 tube wells in Bhagirathpura and a test report revealed the presence of E. coli bacteria.

During hearing on petitions, the court asked how the water supplied to residents of the locality, the epicentre of a diarrhoea and vomiting outbreak in India's cleanest city, got so contaminated and led to such a big tragedy.

The HC on Tuesday reserved its order on petitioners' plea for a judicial inquiry into the deaths of several people due to vomiting and diarrhoea caused by drinking contaminated water and for an FIR to be filed against those responsible for the tragedy. It scheduled the next hearing for January 28.

The bench is hearing simultaneously two public interest litigations (PILs) filed regarding the deaths of people after drinking contaminated water in Bhagirathpura.