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[00:00:10] Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host Vishnu and these are the major news stories of Saturday, December 21, 2024.
[00:00:20] Delhi left-in-governor V.K. Saxena granted permission to the Directorate of Enforcement to prosecute Ahmadine Party Chief Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the excise policy scam.
[00:00:31] It was on December 5 that the ED approached the left-in-governor seeking permission to prosecute the former Chief Minister.
[00:00:37] The move comes a few days after the Ahmadine Party announced Kejriwal's candidacy in the upcoming Assembly elections.
[00:00:44] Kejriwal walked out of jail on September 13 after obtaining bail from the Supreme Court in the case related to the excise policy registered by the CBI.
[00:00:51] According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours were extended to the license holders.
[00:01:01] The death toll from a car ramming at a German Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg rose to four on Saturday, according to German newspaper Bild, after a Saudi man was arrested on suspicion of ploughing a car into the crowd.
[00:01:13] Scores of people were injured in the attack on Friday evening, which came amid fierce debate over security and migration during an election campaign in Europe's largest economy, in which the far-right is polling strongly.
[00:01:23] The Bild report said 41 people were critically injured, 86 were receiving hospital treatment for serious injuries and another 78 sustained minor injuries.
[00:01:34] Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
[00:01:58] The Pope, as a leader of the Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
[00:02:13] A French court sentenced eight people to prison terms ranging from one to 16 years for their roles in a hate campaign that culminated in the murder of a teacher who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
[00:02:25] Days after Samuel Paty showed his pupils the caricature in October 2020, an 18-year-old assailant stabbed and beheaded him outside his school in Paris.
[00:02:34] The assailant was shot dead by police moments after.
[00:02:36] Among those convicted on Friday was the father of a student whose false account of Patty's use of the caricatures triggered a wave of social media posts targeting the middle school teacher.
[00:02:46] The Travancourt Devosum Board has decided to cap the daily virtual queue bookings for the Shabarimala I Upper Temple for five days from December 25-26 and from January 12-14 as part of the crowd management measures for the Mandala Magara Veloka Festival.
[00:03:00] On December 25, only 54,000 devotees will be allowed to visit the shrine while the number will be capped at 60,000 on December 26.
[00:03:08] Authorities are likely to suspend spot booking facilities for pilgrims during these five days.
[00:03:13] Official data reveals that over 20,000 devotees currently use spot booking to visit the shrine daily.
[00:03:20] That brings us to the end of this episode.
[00:03:22] Thanks for listening to Daily News Tours.
[00:03:23] Hosted and produced by me, Vishnu Umar Lederin.
[00:03:25] Follow www.onmonoderma.com for detailed updates on the latest news and be sure to come back tomorrow.