Hindustan Times (Delhi)

5 killed in Okhla cylinder blast

- HT Correspond­ent htreporter­s@hindustant­imes.com

The bridegroom survived but he lost five family members, including his mother, when a cooking gas cylinder at a temporary kitchen for his wedding outside their shanty exploded.

The explosion ignited the lone and narrow door of their low house and flames engulfed the premises within minutes, trapping 26-year-old Ravikant and eight people from the family at a slum in south-east Delhi’s Okhla on Monday night.

Mother Usha, aunts Lalsa and Santra, younger brother Shashikant, and six-year-old cousin sister Khushi were charred to death.

The groom, who was to get married on Wednesday, father Surender and cousins Guddu and Jitender suffered serious burns.

Police said on Tuesday the accident happened when a family member lit the stove at the makeshift kitchen to make tea around 9.40pm. The kitchen was set up to cook food for guests who had come to attend the wedding.

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European Union antitrust regulators hit Alphabet unit Google with a record 2.42-billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine on Tuesday for illegally favouring its own online shopping service in its search results.

The move indicates the European regulators will likely take a tough line with the Silicon Valley giant in two other ongoing cases.

The European Commission said the world’s most popular internet search engine has 90 days to stop favouring its own shopping service or face a further penalty of up to 5% of Alphabet’s average daily global turnover.

The commission found Google systematic­ally giving its own comparison shopping service prominent placement in search results, demoting those of rivals.

“What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantl­y, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation,” European Competitio­n commission­er Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

Google has “respectful­ly” disagreed with the EU action.

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 ?? SAUMYA KHANDELWAL/HT ?? Five people lost their lives in a cylinder blast at a slum in Okhla on Monday night.
SAUMYA KHANDELWAL/HT Five people lost their lives in a cylinder blast at a slum in Okhla on Monday night.

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