A look at the headlines right now:

  1. India tells Turkish president not to interfere in its affairs after he backs Pakistan on Kashmir: Recep Tayyip Erdogan had expressed concern about ‘the struggle of Kashmiris’ in a speech in the Pakistani Parliament.
  2. Shah Faesal, in detention since August in Kashmir, now booked under Public Safety Act: The bureaucrat-turned-politician was detained at the Delhi airport in August before he was scheduled to fly abroad.
  3. Four policemen injured in clashes with anti-CAA protestors in Chennai, say reports: There were also reports of some protestors suffering injuries.
  4. Telecom firms told to pay Rs 1.47 lakh crore dues by midnight, hours after SC pulls up government: Vodafone is facing potential collapse after the top court issued contempt notices to the companies for not paying the money till now. Airtel has informed the telecom department it will deposit Rs 10,000 crore by February 20, and the remaining amount ‘well before’ March 17, said media reports.
  5. Peaceful anti-CAA protestors can’t be called traitors or anti-nationals, says Bombay HC: A group of citizens had moved the court after police did not let them protest against the law in Maharashtra’s Beed district.
  6. China’s coronavirus toll rises to 1,523, number of new cases drops significantly over last one day: The total number of confirmed cases across the country now stands at 66,492, of which 11,053 are severe.
  7. Supreme Court sets six-month deadline for itself to list appeals for hearing on death penalty: The court issued an office order on Wednesday to give guidelines for the handling of death-row cases expeditiously.
  8. ‘You didn’t act either,’ EC tells former CEC SY Quraishi after he criticised the poll body’s leniency on hate speech: SY Quraishi, who headed the Election Commission from 2010 to 2012, wondered in an article why legal action was not taken against hate speech in recent weeks.
  9. BJP lost Delhi polls due to Congress’ ‘sudden disappearance’, claims Prakash Javadekar: The Union minister said ‘there was a direct fight between the BJP and the AAP’ because of the Congress’s irrelevance in the elections in the national Capital.
  10. ED and CBI file status reports of inquiry into the Chidambarams in Airtel-Maxis case: The directorate told a court in Delhi that an active inquiry was being conducted, while the CBI said it had sent a letter rogatory to Malaysia.