A look at the headlines right now:

  1. After dense smog, Delhi government asks all primary schools to remain shut on Wednesday: Earlier, the Indian Medical Association declared a public health emergency in Delhi as smog enveloped the city.
  2. The next generation will look at demonetisation with great pride, says Arun Jaitley: Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said demonetisation and GST were ‘twin blows’ for India’s economy and small businesses.
  3. JeM chief Masood Azhar’s nephew among three militants killed in Pulwama encounter: The M4 rifle found the site of the shootout in Aglar Kandi proved that militants were getting help from across the border, the Indian Army chief said.
  4. NIA seizes over Rs 36 crore in demonetised notes, arrests nine in Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case: The men were arrested in New Delhi on Monday, carrying 28 cartons of the scrapped notes in four vehicles.
  5. Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on corruption sends oil prices soaring to highest since July 2015: Banks have begun to freeze accounts of several suspects, and private jets were not allowed to take off from some airports, local reports said.
  6. After Paradise Papers, European Union pushes to create blacklist of tax havens: Around 60 countries have already been warned that they may be blacklisted because of their tax rules, reports said.
  7. Marital rape a ‘disgraceful offence’, not criminalising it hurts women, says Gujarat High Court: The court will now examine whether forcing one’s wife to perform oral sex should be a criminal offence, and if yes, under which law.
  8. US President Donald Trump urges North Korea to ‘make a deal’ over its nuclear programme: He said the US would not hesitate to use military force against Pyongyang, but ‘hoped to God’ it would not come to that.
  9. United States Air Force admits to error that let Texas church gunman buy weapons: The armed force said it should have entered the domestic violence record of Devin P Kelley in a database that licensed gun sellers use to run background checks.
  10. Earth will become a sizzling fireball by 2600 AD, warns Stephen Hawking: The physicist said that if humanity has to survive another million years it must find another planet.