Feb 13 News Live: My ‘power-sharing’ offer has become a political bomb in TN: Vijay

Karnataka Cabinet approves smart card, NCMC integration for Shakti scheme

The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday approved the implementation of the Shakti Smart Card and the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) across the four State Transport Undertakings (STUs) to streamline fare collection and enhance transparency under the flagship Shakti free bus travel scheme for women.

Shakti scheme is one of the five guarantees of the Congress government, offering free bus rides to Karnataka women in non-luxury government bus. The was rolled out on June 11, 2023 and till now, women were allowed to travel by showing identity cards, especially the Aadhaar cards.

The decision comes in the backdrop of the scheme’s massive uptake, with more than 660 crore free journeys undertaken by eligible women beneficiaries as of January 2026 and an average of 75.68 lakh women availing the service daily across four state transport corporations in Karnataka - KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC.

UP: Three teens killed, over 18 injured as 2 tractors collide in Budaun

Three teenagers were killed and more than 18 others injured on Thursday in a head-on collision between two tractors in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun, police said.

The accident occurred around 9.30 pm near a brick kiln at Sarai Barauli village under the Ughaiti police station limits.

According to police, a group of people from Wazirganj was travelling in a tractor to attend a function when it collided with another tractor, with only its driver behind the wheel, coming from the opposite direction.

The deceased have been identified as Nitin (10), Pooja (18) and Rani (16). More than 18 persons were injured in the accident, police said.

Confirming the deaths, District Magistrate Avneesh Rai said the injured are being treated at the district hospital and the government medical college, where adequate medical arrangements have been made for them.

Occultist held for triple murder in Delhi's Peeragarhi shows no remorse: Police

The 72-year-old occultist arrested for allegedly killing three people with poison-laced sweets in the name of tantric rituals to generate wealth in outer Delhi's Peeragarhi has shown "no signs of remorse" during interrogation, a police officer said on Thursday.

Kamruddin alias Baba, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad, was arrested on Thursday and sent to five-day police remand.

Police have widened the probe into his financial transactions, contacts and possible links to similar murders in other states.

"Call detail records and technical surveillance have revealed that the accused was in contact with a large number of people," the officer said. Each link is being verified to ascertain whether others were lured with promise of "dhanvarsha", or a rain of riches.

UNICEF warns that child recruitment by armed groups in Haiti tripled last year

The recruitment of children by armed groups in Haiti tripled last year as poverty and violence deepens across the troubled Caribbean country, according to a new UNICEF report released Thursday.

The surge comes as gang violence displaces a record 1.4 million people across Haiti — more than half of them children whom experts say are left exposed and vulnerable. "The extent of the increase definitely is a surprise," said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF's representative in Haiti. "That's devastating." The United Nations estimates that 30 per cent to 50 per cent of members of armed groups are children, with some as young as 9 years old being recruited, she said in a phone interview.

"The younger the child, the more you can control them," she said. "They have less ability to fight back, to be disruptive. … You can coerce them to do horrible things." The UN Secretary General is expected to provide a breakdown of how many children were recruited last year in his annual report on Haiti in upcoming months.

Gangs that control an estimated 90 per cent of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, as well as swaths of land in the country's central region, have become heavily dependent on children, experts said.

Trump administration reaches trade deal to lower Taiwan's tariff barriers

The Trump administration has reached a trade deal with Taiwan, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99 per cent of its tariff barriers, the office of the US Trade Representative said.

The agreement comes as the US remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly USD 127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.

Taiwan's exports to the US will be taxed at a 15 per cent rate or the US government's "Most Favoured Nation" rate, the USTR's office said on Thursday. The 15 per cent rate is the same as that levied on other US trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea.

Trade Representative Jamieson Greer attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan's Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and its government minister Jen-ni Yang also attended the signing.

The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump's planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the US and Taiwan.

EU leaders ready countermeasures to pressure from Russia, China and Trump

European Union leaders have broadly agreed on a plan to restructure the 27-nation bloc's economy to make it more competitive as they face antagonism from US President Donald Trump, strong-arm tactics from China and hybrid threats blamed on Russia.

Meeting in a Belgian castle on Thursday, the EU leaders agreed an “action plan” with a strict timeline for the economic restructuring, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “The pressure and the sense of urgency is enormous, and that can move mountains,” she said.

The plan, to be presented formally in March, would include measures to coordinate upgrading energy grids, deepen financial integration and loosen merger regulations to allow European firms to grow to better compete globally, she said. “We need European champions,” von der Leyen said.

European Council President António Costa described the meeting as a “real game changer” as leaders threw their weight behind plans to further integrate and simplify the bloc's financial systems.

The meeting had started with an image of unity between the two traditional power centers of the EU after each had publicly staked out different strategic positions. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived together, crossing a drawbridge side by side into the 16th-century Alden Biesen castle.