One of the gunmen behind the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach had links to Hyderabad, the Telangana Police said. Fifty-year-old Sajid Akram finished his Bachelor of Commerce in the city before migrating to Australia in November 1998 after marrying a woman of European origin, it said.

“Telangana Police has no adverse record against Sajid Akram during his stay in India prior to his departure in 1998,” the police said in a release. The factors that allegedly led to the radicalisation of Sajid Akram and his son Naveed did not seem to have any connection with India, it added.

Naveed Akram was born in Australia and is an Australian citizen, the police noted.

Fifteen people were killed on Tuesday when a shooting targeting a celebration of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach. Forty-two people were hospitalised, including five in critical condition. Sajid Akram was shot dead by police at the scene, while Naveed Akram was taken to hospital. Read more.

The Kerala government directed the organisers of the 2025 International Film Festival of Kerala to go ahead with its full screening schedule, including 14 films for which the Union government has not granted permission.

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry had earlier denied permission to screen 19 films, including four about Palestine.

The ministry later allowed five films, including two about Palestine, to be shown. No reasons had been provided for denying permission for the screenings, said an official of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, which reports to the state’s cultural affairs department.

State Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian directed the academy to screen all the films on the schedule of the event. He accused the Union government of adopting “an anti-democratic approach towards Kerala’s progressive art and cultural tradition”. Read on.

Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra, the co-owners of the Goa nightclub where a fire killed 25 people earlier this month, landed in Delhi after being deported from Thailand. The Goa Police was present at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to arrest them.

They are expected to be produced before a Delhi court, where the Goa Police will seek a transit remand to take them to Goa for further investigation, officials said.

The fire had erupted around midnight on December 7 in a club named Birch by Romeo Lane, located near Baga beach. Twenty staff members and five tourists were killed. A preliminary inquiry has said that “electric firecrackers” set off inside the premises triggered the fire.

The brothers were in the national capital when the blaze erupted. The Goa Police alleged that they had fled the country for Thailand hours after the fire broke out, a claim that the brothers denied. Read on.

Vehicles without a valid Pollution Under Control certificate will not be allowed to refuel at petrol pumps in Delhi from Thursday. The certificate indicates that a vehicle’s emissions are within pollution norms and are not harmful to the environment.

Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that vehicle owners had been given one day to comply with the rule on the certificate.

Sirsa said that the air quality in Delhi remained better for nearly eight months this year compared to the same period last year due to sustained efforts by the Bharatiya Janata Party government over the past ten months.

The air quality in Delhi improved marginally to the “very poor” category on Tuesday from “severe plus” on Monday. Since December 13, Delhi and the adjoining National Capital Region have also been under Stage 4 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan to curb pollution. Read on.

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