The processing time for students applying under the Student Direct Stream (SDS) was significantly shorter and approval rates higher, something that will change after Canada ended the scheme on Friday.

Trinidad's Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has revealed but asserted that "extra effort in national security preparations and response readiness"

The ICC on Friday said seven venues in the Caribbean and three cities of USA will co-host the next year's men's T20 World Cup from June 4-30.

Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank accounts and shares and mutual fund holdings of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi to recover dues totalling Rs 5.35 crore. The latest decision has been taken after Choksi failed to pay the fine imposed on him in October 2022 by Sebi in a case pertaining to indulging in fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd. Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of the promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi, both of whom are facing charges of defrauding state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 14,000 crore.

Sebi on Thursday sent a notice to fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi asking him to pay Rs 5.35 crore in a case pertaining to fraudulent trading in the shares of Gitanjali Gems Ltd and warned of arrest and attachment of assets as well as bank accounts if he fails to make the payment within 15 days. The demand notice came after Choksi failed to pay a fine imposed on him by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi.

Based on repeated appeals from Choksi, who is wanted in the Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud in Punjab National Bank and is holed in Antigua and Barbuda after fleeing from India in 2018, the CCF removed his name from the Red Notice list in November 2022, the CBI said in a statement.

The name of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi wanted in a Rs 13,000-crore scam in the Punjab National Bank is understood to have been removed from the Interpol database of Red Notices on the basis of his plea to the Lyon-headquartered agency, people in the know of the development said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remained tight-lipped on the development. The Red Notice is highest form of alert issued by the 195-member country-strong Interpol to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.

The diamantaire's counsel said there is a vigilance manual circular that the consortium can lodge only one FIR. Each consortium member cannot lodge separate FIRs, he said.

King Charles III, Britain's new monarch who ascended to the throne on the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, has a strong connection with India and its age-old traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda.

A fly-past by a 220-ft-long majestic Indian tricolour, made of khadi, over the iconic Hudson river and the display of a giant billboard at Times Square are among the highlights of the grand celebrations planned to mark 75 years of India's Independence in New York this week.

With this, India joins 60 other countries that collect PNR details of international passengers.

All the proceedings against Choksi of illegal entry into Dominica were dropped on May 20, the spokesperson said.

Subhash Shankar Parab, a key accused in the Rs 7,000 crore diamantaire Nirav Modi bank fraud case, was "deported" from Cairo on Tuesday after a long diplomatic and legal process, officials said in New Delhi. A CBI team had gone to Egypt's capital to bring back 50-year-old Parab, who was allegedly kept in illegal confinement in a Cairo suburb by Modi, the fugitive diamantaire, they said. The CBI had been chasing Parab, deputy general manager (finance) in Modi's Firestar Diamond and understood to be a key witness to the Letters of Undertaking (LoU) submitted to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to siphon off over Rs 7,000 crore, they said.

Abstaining in the UN General Assembly on a vote to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, India on Thursday asserted that if it has 'chosen' any side, it is the side of 'peace and it is for an immediate end to violence.'

India on Thursday abstained in the UN General Assembly on a vote moved by the US to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Nivethan Radhakrishnan fired Australia to third place in the ICC Under 19 World Cup

England kept their nerve to become the first team to reach the ICC Under-19 World Cup final after edging a thriller with Afghanistan by 15 runs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium at North Sound in Antigua on Tuesday.

In a repeat of the 2020 final, India bowled first and dismissed the Tigers for 111 at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua and Barbuda before their batters chased down the modest target for the loss of five wickets.

'I was shocked by the kidnapping episode. I could have lost my life.'

India will begin their campaign against South Africa at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on January 15.

India is placed in Group B alongside debutants Uganda, South Africa and Ireland for the ICC Under-19 men's cricket World Cup, to be held in the West Indies across four countries from January 14 to February 5 2022.

India has received the third set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals under an automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, as part of an annual exercise under which the European nation has shared the particulars of nearly 33 lakh financial accounts with 96 countries.

Diamantaire Mehul Choksi has landed in Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been staying since 2018 after leaving India, after 51 days of custody in neighbouring Dominica for illegal entry which his lawyers claim was a kidnapping plan, local media reported. Choksi, 62, was given bail by Dominica High Court to travel back to Antigua for seeking medical help from a neurologist based there. After depositing bail money of EC Dollars 10,000, Choksi in a shirt and shorts flew back to Antigua in a chartered plane, Antigua News Room reported.

Diamantaire Mehul Choksi will "only" return to Dominica to face trial for illegal entry into that country when a doctor "certifies" that he is fit to stand trial, the media there reported citing conditions laid down by the Dominica high court while granting him bail. In a major setback to Indian efforts to bring him from the Caribbean country, Dominica high court Judge Bernie Stephenson allowed the businessman to return to Antigua and Barbuda, where he has been living as a citizen since 2018 after leaving India, to seek medical advice from neurologist Hayden Osborne at the Mount St. John's Medical Centre, Dominica News Online reported. Choksi is having a clot in brain besides other health issues such as diabetes and hypertension, his legal team has submitted.

The Dominica high court has granted bail to fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, allowing him to travel to Antigua and Barbuda for treatment of his neurological condition, local media there reported. The high court has granted a consent order permitting Choksi to go to Antigua, where he has been staying as a citizen since 2018 after he left India, after depositing Eastern Caribbean Dollars 10,000 (approximately Rs 2.75 lakh as per exchange rate) as bail money, Antigua Breaking News reported. The court has also stayed the ongoing trial before a magistrate for his alleged illegal entry into Dominica on May 23, it said.

Alleging that his arrest in Dominica for illegal entry was "dictated" by representatives of the Indian government, absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi has filed a case in the high court of Roseau, seeking to quash the proceedings against him, local media there reported. The case was filed against the immigration minister of the Caribbean nation, its police chief and the investigating officer of the case. Choksi, who went missing from Antigua and Barbuda where he had been living since 2018 after his escape from India, was arrested on May 23 in neighbouring Dominica for illegal entry. He was declared a prohibited immigrant by the Ministry of Immigration in Dominica.

It was perhaps over-enthusiasm that prompted the Indian investigative agencies to take a private jet to Dominica to bring back fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi. Predictably, the eight-member team had to return empty-handed after almost a week-long wait. The agencies were banking too much on the "state-less" status of Mr Choksi, as Antigua, which had given him citizenship in 2017, wasn't willing to take him back. Thus, the calculation was that Mr Choksi would be whisked away from the Dominican courtroom to the waiting plane. The reason for the optimism was also because Antigua is friendly territory for India.

About 40 per cent of the money lost by banks in the PNB scam and the fraud linked to fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya's defunct Kingfisher Airlines has been realised by way of sale of shares seized under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday.

Of the 4.10 crore to be shared through COVAX, 1.40 crore will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 1.60 crore to Asia.

Companies owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi have allegedly siphoned off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit, a CBI investigation into the scam has detected. The findings were submitted by the CBI in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court in Mumbai last week, where the agency said the PNB was conned by its employees who were allegedly hand in gloves with Choksi and his company executives and who facilitated the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy. The PNB officials at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 letters of undertaking (LoUs) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.

A Dominica Magistrate Court has adjourned till June 25 the hearing into alleged illegal entry of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi into the Caribbean island nation, local media there reported. On Monday, the Magistrate Court was to start hearing the case of Choksi's "illegal entry" into the country on May 23 but he was a "no show", a media website Natureislenews reported. His legal team submitted a medical certificate from the doctors of Dominica China Friendship Hospital, where Choksi is being held, of "mental stress" and elevated blood pressure.

Currently, Choksi has got interim relief from immediate repatriation to India by the Dominican court.

"Well, he never used words like escape or shared with me such a plan like this. However, he did ask me twice if I have ever been to Cuba, he also told me that the next time we may meet in Cuba. He never explained the escape plan but I'm certain that Dominica is not his final destination but if you ask my opinion, I can be more and more certain that Cuba could have been his final destination," Barbara told ANI.

Fugitive Diamantaire Mehul Choksi who is held in Dominica after his mysterious disappearance from Antigua and Barbuda has alleged that his "friend" Barbara Jabarica was instrumental in his abduction which involved musclemen claiming to be Antiguan Police and mercenaries looking like Indians. The police have started the investigation after receiving a complaint from Choksi, Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.

Dominica high court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of diamond trader Mehul Choksi, local media reported. Judge Bernie Stephenson will decide the next date of hearing after meeting both sides, Antigua News Room said. The adjournment is to allow lawyers for Choksi and the Dominica government "to agree on the language to be used with respect to the injunction filed to prevent his removal from Dominica", the media outlet reported.

'My husband is no longer an Indian citizen. 'In 2017, he ceased to be an Indian citizen.' 'The safest place on earth for him is Antigua'

The Dominica high court on Wednesday ordered that diamantaire Mehul Choksi be produced before a magistrate there to answer charges of his illegal entry into the Caribbean island country, local media reported. Dominica high court Judge Bernie Stephenson issued the orders after nearly three hours of hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of Choksi who had claimed that he was abducted from neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda and forcefully brought to the Caribbean Island nation. She adjourned the habeas corpus matter till Thursday, Dominica News Online reported.

The Government of Dominica has told a court there to reject the habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of businessman Mehul Choksi who had claimed that he was abducted and forcefully brought to the Caribbean island nation, local media reported. The high court of Dominica ordered that the businessman be produced in a magistrate court to answer charges of his illegal entry into the country and adjourned the hearing on the habeas corpus petition till Thursday, according to local media. Rejecting the submission of Choksi who is wanted in India in an alleged Rs 13,500 crore loan fraud case in Punjab National Bank, the prosecution said the habeas corpus petition does not stand as he had illegally entered the country and was subsequently detained.

He said that Government of Dominica and law enforcement agencies, unless the court rules otherwise, can deport him to India because he is an Indian citizen, Antigua News Room reported.

The Dominica high court has stayed the removal of Choksi from its soil and put a gag order on the developments till the matter is heard in an open court on June 2.