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As frosty winds continued to whip parts of northern India, including Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana, the mercury dropped to 2.4 degrees Celsius in the national capital on Tuesday as the cold wave made a comeback after a brief respite. 

The Safdarjung observatory in Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the mercury stood at 2 degrees Celsius at Lodhi Road, at 2.2 degrees Celsius at Delhi Ridge and at 2.8 degrees Celsius at Ayanagar till 5.30 am on Tuesday morning. 

Meanwhile, bone-chilling weather conditions swept north and northwest India with the minimum temperature settling in the range of one to three degrees Celsius in many parts. 

With India getting 14 out of 15 members of the UN Security Council on its side, China today was forced to give up the “technical” hold on the designation of Lahore-based Lashkar-e-Toiba’s deputy chief Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist by the 1267 UN Sanctions committee. Brother-in-law of designated terrorist and LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, Makki used to raise funds from the Middle East for the terror group under the garb of being head of the foreign relations committee. The US Justice Department had put a bounty of USD two million on Makki’s head in November 2010.

According to diplomats based in New York, China was isolated in the UNSC over Makki as India made it clear that it would continue raising the listing of the Lashkar terrorist and the role played by China in providing cover to Pakistan-based groups till its objective was achieved. China, as a permanent UNSC member, had put a technical hold on listing Makki as a global terrorist in the 1267 committee in July 2022. India also wants 26/11 killer Sajjid Mir of LeT to be listed as a global terrorist by the same committee.

BJP national president JP Nadda on Monday called on the party's executive members to prepare to win the nine Assembly polls to be held in 2023.

Speaking at the BJP national executive meeting at Delhi's NDMC Convention Centre, Nadda underlined the importance of winning the nine polls in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

While Nadda praised the party's win in the recently held Gujarat Assembly polls, in which BJP won 150 of 182 seats, as "extraordinary and historic", he also said that the margin by which the BJP lost in Himachal Pradesh was less than one percent.

Paving the way for registration of an FIR against BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on a woman's complaint alleging rape, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed his plea challenging an order of the Delhi High Court for lodging a First Information Report and launching an investigation.

The apex court, which observed it will not interfere with the high court order, said all remedies available under the law are open for Hussain, a former Union minister.

"Let there be a fair investigation and, if there is nothing, it will exonerate you (Hussain)," a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta told the counsel appearing for Hussain.

Pakistan-based militant Abdul Rehman Makki was listed as a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Monday. 

The development comes after India, in June last year, slammed China after it blocked the proposal to list Makki under the Sanctions Committee, also known as the UNSC 1267 Committee.

In a statement, the UN said, "On 16 January 2023, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da'esh), Al-Qaida, and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities approved the addition of the entry specified below to its ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2610 (2021) and adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations."