Top 5 news at 1pm on Sept 2: Nationwide trade union strike, PM Modi on India-Egypt ties, bomb blast in Pak and more

Essential services like banking and public transport, as also work at public sector entities, have been hit as 10 central trade unions have gone on a one-day nationwide strike to protest against low wages. rime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that India and Egypt will work to deepen ‘deepen our cooperation in agriculture, skill development and health sectors’. At least 10 people were killed and 30 others injured on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a court in Mardan district in Pakistan’s restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Here are the top 5 stories of the hour. 

1. Bharat Bandh: 18 crore govt workers on one-day nationwide strike to protest against 'minimum wage' decision

Essential services like banking and public transport, as also work at public sector entities, have been hit as 10 central trade unions have gone on a one-day nationwide strike to protest against the government’s “indifference” to their demands for better wages and facilities and the “anti-worker” changes in labour laws. Here is the list of what is affected by the nationwide strike and what is not.

2. India-Egypt to work together in agriculture, skill development and health sectors: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that India and Egypt will work to deepen ‘deepen our cooperation in agriculture, skill development and health sectors’. Addressing the joint press conference with Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New Delhi, PM Modi said that the he and Egyptian president have agreed to build on multiple pillars of India-Egypt relationship. 

3. Suicide bomb blast kills 10, injures 30 in Pakistan's Mardan, hours after Peshawar terrorist attack

At least 10 people were killed and 30 others injured on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a court in Mardan district in Pakistan’s restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. The attacker detonated a hand grenade before exploding his suicide vest among the morning crowds at the court, the district police officer said. Officials said that 10 people were killed, of which at least one was a police officer, local media reported.

4.Sandeep Kumar sex scandal: Delhi Police starts probe in objectionable CD case

Delhi Police Crime Branch started a probe in the "objectionable" CD episode which led to sacking of AAP minister Sandeep Kumar within hours of a BJP delegation meeting Commissioner Alok Kumar in this regard. The probe into "objectionable" CD which surfaced yesterday showing Kumar in a compromising position with a woman has been given to Crime Branch on the order of commissioner of police sources in the Delhi Police said.

5. Mother Teresa: The miracle that made her saint

Monica Besra, a tribal woman in eastern India, is said to be the miracle which set the path for sainthood for Indian Nobel Peace prize winner Mother Teresa, who will be canonised in Vatican City on September 4. According to foreign media, Besra was so sick in 1998 that she could barely walk. But when nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, helped her tumour was gone within hours.