LEAD

At least four cases of the Omicron sub-variant BF.7, the Covid strain driving China's current surge of cases, have been detected in India so far.

Here are 10 things about the new Covid variant BF.7:

So far, two cases have been reported from Gujarat, two from Odisha, in which the BF.7 variant has been detected. It has already been detected in several other countries, including the US and UK and European nations such as Belgium, Germany, France and Denmark. 

The government, though advising people to wear masks in crowded places, has said that there is no need to panic — a suggestion repeated by Adar Poonawalla of vaccine maker Serum Institute of India (SII). 

After Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena directed the Chief Secretary to recover Rs 97 crore from Aam Aadmi Party for political advertisements which it published as the government advertisement on Tuesday, AAP said that BJP should give Rs 22,000 crore first, then we will pay the amount.

"The BJP`s various state governments issued advertisements that have been published here in Delhi. We want to ask that when will Rs 22,000 crore spent on the advertisements be recovered from them. The day that money is recovered, we will also give Rs 97 crore," said AAP MLA Sourabh Bhardwaj said while addressing media on Tuesday.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar took a jibe at Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and said that Indian Army is not in LAC on Rahul Gandhi’s orders. Gandhi had earlier said that the “government is sleeping”.

Speaking at an India Today event, Jaishankar said India has done the biggest-ever LAC deployment to counter Chinese deployments, which were scaled up since 2020.

“The Army is deployed to counter any attempt to unilaterally alter the LAC, that is the commitment of the Indian Army. If we were in denial, then Army won’t be deployed there,” said Jaishankar, reported Times of India.

The crisis in the Congress' Telangana unit deepened on Sunday with 13 leaders, who had defected to the party from the TDP in the past, announcing their resignations from party posts.

Narender Reddy, Seethakka, Vijay Rama Rao, Erra Shekhar, and others said they would send their resignations to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Working President.

This came a day after some senior leaders announced the launching of "save Congress in Telangana" movement to protect the party from leaders who came from other parties. They called a battle between the original Congress and migrants from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

India on Friday blasted Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto over his offensive personal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a "new low even for Pakistan".

In a firm and unsparing condemnation of Bilawal Bhutto's remarks at the UN, New Delhi said Pakistan lacks the credentials to cast aspersions on India and added that "Make in Pakistan terrorism" has to stop.  

In a highly objectionable comment on Thursday, Bilawal Bhutto had said: "Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India." He was reacting to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar calling Pakistan the "epicentre of terrorism" in a powerful takedown.