HIGHLIGHTS

Following are the top stories at 9.50 pm: NATION DEL88 FARMERS-LDALL MEETING Govt, farmers break bread, not much ice: Talks deadlocked over MSP, repeal of laws; consensus on two issues New Delhi: The government and farm unions reached some common ground on Wednesday to resolve protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning, but the two sides remained deadlocked over the main contentious issues of the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee for MSP. DEL87 DEF-RAJNATH India cannot accept any unilateral change of LAC: Rajnath on continuing border standoff with China in Ladakh New Delhi: As the over seven-month-long border standoff with China showed no signs of solution, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said India cannot accept any unilateral change of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and hoped the Ladakh deadlock will be resolved through talks.

DEL92 VIRUS-LD UK STRAIN 14 more detected with new coronavirus strain in India; Flights connecting UK suspended til Jan 7 New Delhi: Fourteen more people were found infected with the UK strain of the coronavirus on Wednesday in the country, with West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh reporting such cases for the first time, taking the total tally to 20 in two days. DEL10 VIRUS-LD CASES COVID-19: India records 20,549 fresh cases New Delhi: India's COVID-19 caseload rose to 1,02,44,852 with 20,549 new infections being reported in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 98.34 lakh pushing the national recovery rate to 95.99 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

DEL94 VIRUS-VACCINE-CDSCO CDSCO expert panel to reconvene on Jan 1 to consider emergency use authorisation for COVID vaccines New Delhi: An expert panel in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) that met on Wednesday to consider emergency use authorisation applications by the SII for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine and Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' will reconvene on January 1 to further deliberate on the matter. DEL66 JK-2NDLD ENCOUNTER J-K police say 3 militants killed in encounter; families claim they were not involved in militancy Srinagar: Police on Wednesday claimed to have killed three militants in an overnight encounter in the city's Parimpora area but families of the slain youths said they had no connection with militancy and that two of them were students.

DEL32 UP-CONVERSION-CIVIL SERVANTS Retd bureaucrats term UP 'epicentre of hate politics', seek withdrawal of anti-conversion ordinance New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh has become the ''epicentre of the politics of hate, division and bigotry'' and the institutions of governance are ''steeped in communal poison,'' alleged 104 retired civil servants in a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. DEL39 MH-PAWAR-INTERVIEW Maha govt stable, attempts to bring it down won't succeed: Pawar New Delhi: Confident that any attempt by BJP to bring down the Maharashtra government won't succeed, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has asserted that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation is stable and it will continue to rule the state.

DEL47 SPEAKER-KA-DY CHAIRMAN-PROBE LS speaker calls for high-level probe into death of Karnataka Legislative Council Dy chairman New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday called for a high-level probe by an independent agency into the death of Karnataka Legislative Council Deputy Chairman S L Dharme Gowda. DEL33 AVI-SUSPENSION-INTERNATIONAL Suspension of scheduled international passenger flights extended till Jan 31 New Delhi: The coronavirus-induced suspension of scheduled international passenger flights has been extended till January 31, aviation regulator DGCA said on Wednesday.

BUSINESS DEL70 BIZ-TAX-LD DEADLINE Income tax return filing deadline extended till Jan 10 New Delhi: The government on Wednesday extended the deadline to file income tax return (ITR) for individuals by 10 days to January 10, 2021. DCM34 BIZ-SAILORS-CHINA-MANDAVIYA Diplomatic talks with China on; stuck Indian sailors to reach India soon: Mandaviya New Delhi: The government on Wednesday said 39 Indian sailors stuck in China will be brought back soon as diplomatic talks are on with the neighbouring country.

FOREIGN FGN46 UK-LD BREXIT UK MPs approve 'historic' Brexit trade deal with EU London: Members of the UK Parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of the Brexit trade deal 521 votes to 73. By Aditi Khanna FGN45 NEPAL-PRACHANDA-OLI 'Tired of making deals' with Prachanda, says PM Oli Kathmandu: Embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said on Wednesday that he is ''tired of making deals'' with the rival faction leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' and accused him of breaching various agreements reached between them on several occasions to keep the ruling Nepal Communist Party's unity intact. FGN28 VIRUS-UK-OXFORD-LD VACCINE UK approves Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine London: The UK on Wednesday approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by scientists at Oxford University and produced by AstraZeneca for human use, the second coronavirus vaccine to be cleared for rollout in Britain after the Pfizer/BioNTech jabs. By Aditi Khanna.