News in pictures: Trump gaffe demotes France's Macron; Girl raped, beheaded in India; 'We look with envy across Pakistan border'; Biden, Harris wish Hindus; Flooding in Hyderabad; IPL betting racket busted...

12-YEAR-OLD DIFFERENTLY-ABLED GIRL RAPED, BEHEADED BY COUSIN, 25: Indian state of Gujarat's police have arrested a man for raping and killing his 12-year-old specially-abled cousin in Dantiwada area of Banaskantha district on Saturday. "The case came to light when Dantiwada police found a decapitated body near the pond near Moti Bhakhar village,," said Dr Kushal Ojha, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Deesa. "In CCTV footage the accused Nitin Mali (25), cousin of the deceased, was found to be riding with the victim on his bike. Primary investigation revealed that Nitin, raped the victim and later beheaded her due to the fear of getting exposed," the DSP added.

JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS GREET HINDUS ON NAVRATRI: US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris on Saturday greeted Hindus on the occasion of beginning of Navratri festival and wished for victory of good over evil once again. "As the Hindu festival of Navratri begins, Jill and I send our best wishes to all those celebrating in the US and around the world. May good once again triumph over evil — and usher in new beginnings and opportunity for all," Biden tweeted on Saturday. Senator Harris, who scripted history in US politics by becoming the first Indian-American and Black woman to get a major party's vice presidential nomination, also extended greetings on Navratri.

ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN ACCUSE EACH OTHER OF VIOLATING NEW CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT: Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other on Sunday of violating a new humanitarian ceasefire in fighting over Azerbaijan's ethnic Armenian-controlled enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The truce came into force last midnight (2000 GMT).

VIETNAM BARRACKS HIT BY LANDSLIDE; MANY PERSONNEL MISSING: A landslide early on Sunday left at least 22 military personnel missing in Vietnam's central province of Quang Tri, the government said, in what could be the largest military loss in peace time as the country battles the worst flooding in years. Intense rainfall since early October has caused floods and mudslides that have killed more than 70 people in central Vietnam, with more heavy rain expected over the next few days. The landslide hit the barracks of a unit of Vietnam's 4th Military Region, the government said in a statement on its website, days after another landslide killed 13 people, mostly soldiers, in the neighbouring province of Thua Thien Hue.

INDIAN PM MODI CONDOLES DEMISE OF DR JOSEPH MAR THOMA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to Dr Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan, head of the Mar Thoma Church, who passed away in Thiruvalla in the Indian state of Kerala on Sunday. "His Grace the Most Rev. Dr Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan was a remarkable personality who served humanity and worked hard to improve the lives the poor and downtrodden. He was blessed with an abundance of empathy and humility. His noble ideals will always be remembered. RIP," PM Modi said. Dr Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan was 90 years old.

HEAVY RAINS CAUSE FLOODING IN HYDERABAD'S CHANDRAYANGUTTA: Heavy flooding was witnessed in Chandrayangutta area of the Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday. Earlier eight members of a family had been washed away in the floods, in the area, caused by heavy rains in the recent days.

GERMAN PRESIDENT IN QUARANTINE: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier entered quarantine after one of his bodyguards tested positive for COVID-19, according to a spokeswoman for the president's office. Steinmeier's first test was negative. Further tests are planned in the coming days, Xinhua news agency reported.

WE LOOK WITH ENVY ACROSS PAKISTAN BORDER OVER COVID-19 SITUATION, SAYS THAROOR: Indian Congress leader Shashi Tharoor used a Pakistani platform to state that things with respect to coronavirus in India were "not good" and "we look with envy" across the border and that people in Pakistan seem to be having "a pleasant time of it in terms of being able to return to normalcy". He, however, noted that the gap between reported cases in India and Pakistan would be due to far more testing being done by former and that did not know how many people or percentage of the population was being tested by the latter.

GLOBAL COVID-19 CASES CROSS 39.5 MILLION: The global coronavirus caseload now stands at 39.5 million cases, according to the latest updates provided by Johns Hopkins University. According to the University tracker, there are 39,502,909 COVID-19 cases globally and 1,106,705 patients globally have succumbed to the virus. Globally, 27,148,927 patients infected from the virus have recovered, the tracker states. The US continues to be the worst-affected country due to the virus with 8,086,780 cases and 218,980 fatalities, which are the most deaths in the world. India and Brazil are the second and third most-affected countries from the virus with 7,432,680 cases and 5,200,300 cases respectively. Russia is fourth on the list with 1,376,020 cases across the country.

IPL CRICKET BETTING RACKET BUSTED IN PRAYAGRAJ: Amid the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), police here busted a betting racket and arrested five persons during a raid in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. According to the Superintendent of Police (SP) Dhaval Jaiswal, the police teams recovered Rs 1 lakh in cash, a car, and six mobiles from the possession of the accused on the operations carried out on October 16.

2.2 MILLION FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ADS REJECTED AHEAD OF US VOTE: A total of 2.2 million ads on Facebook and Instagram have been rejected and 120,000 posts withdrawn for attempting to "obstruct voting" in the upcoming US presidential election, Facebook's vice president Nick Clegg said in an interview published Sunday. In addition, warnings were posted on 150 million examples of false information posted online, the former British deputy prime minister told the French weekly Journal du Dimanche.

BOOZE SPIKED WITH METHANOL KILLS 20 IN COSTA RICA: Twenty people have died in recent days in Costa Rica after drinking alcohol spiked with methanol, the health ministry said Saturday. Health authorities have been on alert since early October, when the first deaths related to the tainted alcohol were reported in the La Carpio area of western San Jose.There have been a total of 52 suspected cases of poisoning in various regions of the country linked to cane alcohol, known by its local name guaro, the ministry said in a statement.

TRUMP GAFFE DEMOTES FRANCE'S MACRON: President Donald Trump likes to make fun of his rival Joe Biden's verbal lapses but on Saturday he made his own goof as he took a pot shot at French President Emmanuel Macron and effectively demoted him. Trump's error downgrading Macron to prime minister came as he spoke at a campaign rally in Michigan, one of a flurry of stops he is making in the final three weeks of the presidential race as he trails Democrat Biden in the polls.