Author: Rahul M

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Lucia Ortíz trudges through endless fields of cempasuchil flowers, the luminescent orange petals of which will soon cloak everything from city streets to cemeteries across Mexico.Here, in the winding canals and farms on the fringes of Mexico City, the flower also known as the Mexican marigold has been farmed for generations, and takes the spotlight every year in the country’s Day of the Dead celebrations.But as 50-year-old Ortíz and other farmers busily bundle clusters of the plant to sell in markets around the capital, they quietly wonder what will be left of their livelihood down the…

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (AP) — People across the northern Caribbean were digging out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa on Thursday as deaths from the catastrophic storm climbed.The rumble of large machinery, whine of chainsaws and chopping of machetes echoed throughout southeast Jamaica as government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach isolated communities that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record.Stunned residents wandered about, some staring at their roofless homes and waterlogged belongings strewn around them.“I don’t have a house now,” said a distressed Sylvester Guthrie, a…

Thiruvananthapuram: With a little over a month left for the local body elections and months to go for the assembly polls, the Kerala government Wednesday made a slew of big announcements, including new schemes and upgrades to existing ones, with outlays amounting to over Rs 10,000 crore.The moves include a Rs 2,000 hike in the monthly welfare pension, and an increase of Rs 1,000 in ASHA workers’ honorarium. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has also introduced a scheme for women’s security, which would involve a monthly payment of Rs 1,000. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government is…

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump appeared to suggest the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying it would be on an “equal basis” with Russia and China.There was no indication the U.S. would start detonating warheads, but the president offered few details about what seemed to be a significant shift in U.S. policy.He made the announcement on social media minutes before he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea.The U.S. military already regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it…

The Karnataka High Court said Wednesday it will hear Vijay Mallya’s petition for details of accounts regarding the debts owed by him and his companies, as well as the amounts paid, on November 4, after the matter came up for hearing. A bench of Justice Lalitha Kanneganti is currently hearing the matter. The petition filed by Mallya against his creditors earlier this year called for a statement of the amounts realised by them, along with details of the original asset owners, as per the Debt Recovery Tribunal’s recovery certificate from 2017. Story continues below this ad The petition also calls…

The BJP will oppose the Bengaluru tunnel road project in Lok Sabha and the state Assembly, along with the petition against it in the Karnataka High Court, Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya said Wednesday. The tunnel road project has attracted criticism from Surya and others over the past few weeks. “The BJP as a party, we are opposing it. We will 100 per cent oppose it in Lok Sabha and the state Assembly,” Surya said, adding that the project was against the interests of the people. “We will fight it out in court and outside,” he said. Story continues below…

The newly appointed chief minister immediately rang up the district magistrate (DM) and instructed him not to file an FIR. Stunned, the DM protested: “Sir, this is a question of the state’s prestige. How can we tolerate this?”Thakur responded calmly: “DM Saheb, you can save the father of the chief minister. But what about the thousands of such fathers who are beaten every day without the administration’s knowledge? Time will settle these questions. It is a slow process.”Almost half a century after he served as chief minister for just two years and three months (December 1970 to June 1971 and…

An outfit that over the past 15 years has come to be known in Assam for its vigilante activities targeting “outsider” communities working and living in the state has finally run foul of the Himanta Biswa Sarma government.The BJP government has launched a crackdown against the Veer Lachit Sena following the abduction and rescue of a businessman in Guwahati on Sunday. Of the eight people arrested in the case, five belong to the Veer Lachit Sena. Over the last two days, police have gone on to arrest multiple functionaries of the outfit, including its ‘Chief Secretary’ Rantu Paniphukan. Chief Minister…

Three of the biggest US tech giants—Microsoft, Meta, and Google—sent investors a blunt message when they reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday: Their lavish spending on AI infrastructure is only just getting started.Meta said that ​​its capital expenditure would total between $70 billion and $72 billion this year, up from its previous lower forecast of $66 billion to $72 billion. Next year, Meta’s chief financial officer Susan Li said that she expected the company’s spending would be “notably larger.” The social media giant’s soaring investment matches its soaring revenue: Meta reported raking in $51.24 billion last quarter, up 26 percent year-over-year.CEO…

IN WHAT may build into another flashpoint between the Centre and the DMK-led government in Tamil Nadu, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has written to the state Director General of Police, urging a criminal investigation into what it describes as large-scale manipulation and bribery in recruitments held in 2024-26 for Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) Department jobs.In a letter dated October 27, 2025, the ED has flagged “Information relating to corruption and malpractices in the exams and selection process of Officers and Staff (2024-25, 2025-26)” in the department, and claimed that Rs 25 lakh-35 lakh was collected “per selection /…