News in Short

• The Delhi high court dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as the city police commissioner.
• On August 25, the Supreme Court asked the high court to decide within two weeks the plea pending before it against the appointment. The bench reserved its order on September 27.
• The plea contended that a high-powered committee comprising the Chief Justice of India, Prime Minister, and the Leader of Opposition, on May 24 rejected the appointment of Asthana as CBI director due to procedural lapses.

• The Haryana government lifted a 54-year-old ban that forbid its employees from joining the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh and Jamaat-e-Islami.
• Chief Secretary VijaiVardhan issued the instructions via a letter to all department heads lifting the ban that was put in place by his predecessors in 1967.
• The office of then chief secretary in 1967 had issued instructions that participation of employees in organisations such as the RSS and the Jamaat-e-Islamiwould attract disciplinary actions.

• Tropical Storm Pamela rapidly strengthened as it moved along Mexico’s Pacific coast and it was forecast to become a major hurricane.
• The US National Hurricane Centre said Pamela’s centre was about 700 kilometers south-southwest of Mazatlan and was moving northwest at about 11 kph.
• Pamela was forecast to take a turn toward the north and northeast, passing south of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

• Ireland’s Amy Hunter became the youngest player to score an ODI century, bettering the record previously held by India’s Mithali Raj.
• Hunter made her international debut against Scotland in May aged 15.She is just the fourth woman to hit an ODI century for Ireland and the first since 2000.
• The youngest male batter to score an ODI century remains Pakistan’s ShahidAfridi, who scored 102 against Sri Lanka in 1996 aged 16 years and 217 days.

• Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi will host a special summit of the Group of 20 major economies to discuss Afghanistan.
• Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on Aug. 15, the country is struggling with drought and severe poverty after decades of war.
• The U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is due to join the summit, underlining the central role given to the United Nations in tackling the crisis.