News in pictures: Kerala gold smuggling case; Woman close to Vatican cardinal held; Global COVID cases surge; Minor girl raped, hangs self in India…

FORMER PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO KERALA CM SEEKS ANTICIPATORY BAIL IN GOLD SMUGGLING CASE: M Sivasankar, former principal secretary of the South Indian state of Kerala’s Chief Minister's Office, on Wednesday moved the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail in connection with the gold smuggling case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. Kerala gold smuggling case pertains to the smuggling of gold in the state through diplomatic channels. The matter had come to light after 30 kg gold worth Rs 14.82 crores smuggled in a consignment camouflaged as diplomatic baggage was busted by the Customs in Thiruvananthapuram on July 5. https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india

BLINDFOLDED MARTIAL ARTS MASTER FROM ANDHRA SMASHES 49 COCONUTS PLACED AROUND STUDENT: Martial arts master P Prabhakar Reddy and his student Boyilla Rakesh from Nellore of Andhra Pradesh have achieved Guinness World Record for smashing 49 coconuts with a Hammer around the person blindfolded within one minute, last month. While the master with blindfolded eyes, the student laid beneath, between coconuts. The master broke coconuts by smashing them with a hammer, without causing any harm to the student. https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india

WOMAN CLOSE TO VATICAN CARDINAL ARRESTED: The Vatican's swirling corruption investigation has taken a mysterious new twist with the arrest on an international warrant of a Sardinian woman said to be close to one of the Holy See's most powerful cardinals before his downfall. Italy's financial police said Wednesday that Cecilia Marogna had been arrested in Milan late Tuesday on a warrant issued by the Vatican City State. An official of the Guardia di Finanza, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the agency had no further information since officers merely executed the warrant on behalf of a foreign country, the Vatican. https://gulfnews.com/world

UAE SENDS SECOND MEDICAL AID SHIPMENT TO COSTA RICA: The UAE on Wednesday sent a second aid plane carrying 12 metric tonnes of medical supplies and testing kits to Costa Rica. This aid will assist approximately 12,000 medical professionals as they work to contain the COVID-19 virus. https://gulfnews.com/uae

GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS CASES CROSS 38.09 MILLION: More than 38.09 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and around 1.09 million have died, according to a Reuters tally published on Wednesday. With 215,119 deaths and around 7.83 million confirmed cases, the United States topped the list of twenty countries with the highest recorded infections and deaths in the world, followed by India, Brazil, Russia, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Peru, Mexico, France, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Iran, Chile, Iraq, Bangladesh, Italy, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. https://gulfnews.com/world

RUSSIA CALLS ON ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN TO FULFILL AGREEMENTS ON KARABAKH: Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has called on his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts, in phone talks, to fully implement the recently reached agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Late last week, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers agreed, after lengthy talks in Moscow, to a ceasefire in Karabakh and exchange prisoners and bodies. "During the negotiations, Russian Federation Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu called on his counterparts to fully meet the commitments under the agreements reached in Moscow on October 10," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. https://gulfnews.com/world

NEW ZEALAND SCRAP ENGLAND FOOTBALL FRIENDLY: New Zealand pulled out of next month's football friendly against England on Wednesday, saying "complications" caused by COVID-19 had made it too difficult to field a team at Wembley on November 12. "The shifting nature of travel restrictions and commercial flight availability under Covid means that we do not have certainty we could assemble a squad at Wembley," New Zealand Football CEO Andrew Pragnell said in a statement. https://gulfnews.com/sport

CHINA WIND GIANTS SURGE MORE THAN 20% ON AGGRESSIVE PROPOSAL: Chinese wind power equipment makers advanced as the industry proposed an aggressive installation plan that would boost capacity 14-fold through 2060 to help the country reach its goal of being carbon-neutral by then. China's biggest wind turbine maker, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co., jumped as much as 23% in Hong Kong in the biggest increase since August 2014 to make it the best performer in the MSCI China Index. Shandong Shuangyi Technology Co. rallied 20% to a record high in Shenzhen and Titan Wind Energy Suzhou Co. surged 10%. https://gulfnews.com/business

NORTHERN IRELAND SET TO CLOSE SCHOOLS: Northern Ireland is set to sign off on new curbs designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, including school closures. The UK region's power-sharing executive will meet on Wednesday to finalize the recommendations, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said in an interview with broadcaster RTE. McDonald said schools should close temporarily. https://gulfnews.com/world/europe

RAHUL GANDHI BLAMES "BJP'S HATE-FILLED CULTURAL NATIONALISM" FOR DIP IN PER CAPITA GDP: India’s Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a potshot at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Centre over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comparing India's per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with that of neighbouring Bangladesh. Sharing a projection by the IMF-World Economic Outlook, Gandhi said that Bangladesh's per capita GDP could overtake India's in the coming years. https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india

MINOR GIRL GANG RAPED, HANGS SELF: A minor girl was found hanging at her residence in Chitrakoot on Tuesday after allegedly being gang-raped. According to Rajnish Kumar Yadav, Circle Officer, the victim's family informed about the incident around 8am yesterday. "The family member had come to the police station earlier on October 8 after finding the girl in the field. However, the case was not registered as they were not sure about the names of the accused," said Yadav. https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india

16 SECURITY PERSONNEL KILLED IN TALIBAN ATTACK: As many as 16 Afghan security personnel were killed and more than 10 injured in a Taliban attack, TOLO news reported on Wednesday. Citing sources, it was reported that at least 16 security force members were killed and more than 10 others were wounded in a Taliban attack on security checkpoints in the Gozargah-e-Noor district of Baghlan province. https://gulfnews.com/world

THREE-PERSON CREW BLASTS OFF FOR ISS: Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off to the International Space Station Wednesday aboard a Russian capsule, in the first such launch since SpaceX's game-changing debut manned flight from US soil. Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and NASA's Kathleen Rubins launched from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0545 GMT on Wednesday, according to footage broadcast by the two space agencies. A NASA TV commentator said everything was normal, citing communications between Russian mission control and the crew, while Roscosmos said the capsule had successfully gone into orbit. https://gulfnews.com/world

TIKTOK VIDEO PROPELS FLEETWOOD MAC CLASSIC INTO TOP 100: A viral TikTok video featuring a laid-back skateboarder lip-synching to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" has propelled the 1977 hit back into the Billboard Hot 100 after an absence of more than three decades. TikTok user doggface208's antics - as he cruised down the street, sipping a family-sized bottle of cranberry juice - quickly struck a chord, racking up 8.6 million likes. And beyond propelling its creator - real name Nathan Apodaca - to viral fame, the video has reignited interest in the 70's country-rock legends. https://gulfnews.com/world

GREEK NEO-NAZI CHIEF SENTENCED TO 13 YEARS IN PRISON: A Greek court on Wednesday handed a 13-year prison sentence to the leader of neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn for running a criminal organisation disguised as a political party. The court also gave a life sentence to the Golden Dawn member who murdered anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013, the act that sparked the investigation into the paramilitary group.