A look at the top headlines right now:

  1. Only 5%-10% of Covid cases in third wave leading to hospitalisation, says Centre: Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that the numbers were 20% to 23% during the Delta variant-driven second wave of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research said that contacts of coronavirus patients, unless identified as high-risk, do not need to be tested. Those with cough, fever, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, breathlessness and other respiratory symptoms should be tested, the medical body said in an advisory.
  2. Supreme Court to form panel headed by ex-judge to conduct inquiry into Modi ‘security lapse’: The court said that all other inquiries into the matter should be stopped.
  3. SC agrees to hear plea seeking criminal action in Haridwar hate speech case: At a ‘dharam sansad’ held between December 17 and 19, Hindutva group members and seers had asked Hindus to buy weapons to commit genocide against Muslims.
  4. Religious minorities in India being targeted with impunity by Hindutva groups, says Pakistan PM: In a series of tweets, Imran Khan referred to the provocative speeches made against Muslims at a religious conclave in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar city in December and questioned whether the Narendra Modi-led central government supported the calls for genocide made by Hindu supremacists at the event.
  5. Bhima Koregaon lawyer claims his phone was hacked using Pegasus, asks SC to examine it: Advocate Nihal Singh Rathod said that he was informed by WhatsApp of the sypware’s presence on his device. On January 2, the Supreme Court had asked citizens, who suspected their phones were targeted by the spyware, to write to its panel formed to investigate the allegations.
  6. Women’s panel asks Twitter to block actor Siddharth’s account after his tweet about Saina Nehwal: In his response to the badminton champion’s tweet about the prime minister’s convoy being stuck on a flyover in Punjab, Siddharth made a seemingly sexual slur.
  7. Mumbai court says NCB seized two bank accounts illegally in drugs case related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death: A special court has ordered the de-freezing of bank accounts of two accused persons in the drugs case.
  8. Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia gets interim anticipatory bail in drugs case: Majithia was booked under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in December. He had moved the court for anticipatory bail after a Mohali court dismissed his plea on December 24.
  9. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi jailed for four more years for possessing walkie-talkie: Suu Kyi has been charged in dozens of criminal cases after the country’s Army took over the government following a coup in 2020.
  10. Actor Bob Saget, best known for role in ‘Full House’, dies at 65: Saget died in Florida, where he was to perform his standup comedy act, ‘I Don’t Do Negative’. His death was confirmed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which said that they had found the actor unresponsive in a hotel room at Ritz Carlton.