The protesting farmers will continue their march to Delhi but hold another round of talks on Sunday. The decision came at a third round of talks late last night even as Friday looks forward to a nationwide strike over the farmers’ issue.

The meeting in Chandigarh was held amid a standoff on the Punjab-Haryana borders as thousands of farmers marching to Delhi were met with tear gas and water cannons by the cops. The protesters’ demands mainly include a law guaranteeing a minimum support price (MSP) for crops and a farm law waiver, among others.

Two Union Ministers – Arjun Munda and Piyush Goyal – and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann attended the meeting. Following the meeting, Arjun Munda, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, told reporters the issues will be discussed in detail at the Sunday meeting, during which the two sides will try to find a solution.

Bhagwant Mann said they had a very positive conversation and a consensus was reached on several issues. The farmers have assured they would maintain peace during their protest, he said while accusing the Haryana government of sending their cops into Punjab during the standoff.

The farmers say they will continue their march to Delhi and that no conclusion can be drawn since the talks are still on. They also took up the issues of police action on them and their social media pages were taken down.

The farmers said the government has sought further discussion on issues like the MSP and farm loan waiver, but discussions must also lead to timely solutions. “We said that we should not just keep discussing the issues, we should also find solutions. They said they need time,” said Sarwan Pandher, a farmer leader.

Gatherings have been banned in Noida because of a ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a major farmers’ organization involved in the 2020-21 farmers’ protest, and Central Trade Unions. These organisations are not part of the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, but broadly their demands are the same.

The organisations have called on farmers to suspend all agricultural work between 6 am-4 pm on Friday and stage road blockades across the country. The senior leaders of nine Central Trade Unions will also hold a joint protest at Jantar Mantar over 21 demands, which include a law on MSP, minimum pension, and minimum wage.

An Indian-origin techie is suspected of killing his wife and four-year-old twins before turning the gun on himself in a gruesome murder-suicide in California, police said today. The statement comes days after Anand Sujith Henry, 42, his wife Alice Priyanka, 40, and their twin sons Noah and Neithan were found dead at their $2.1 million home in California’s San Mateo.

The couple was found dead with gunshot wounds inside a bathroom when cops visited the house for a welfare check on Monday. The children were discovered dead in a bedroom.

“At this time, next of kin have been notified and we can now confirm the identities as Anand Henry (father), Alice Benziger (mother), and their minor twin boys. A 9mm handgun legally registered to Henry was located on the bathroom floor where both adults’ bodies were located,” the San Mateo Police Department said in a statement.

Police allege that Henry, a former Meta employee, was responsible for all four deaths.

“Both Henry and Benziger succumbed to gunshot wounds and based on the investigation to date between, Anand Henry has been identified as the suspect,” the police department said.

“Our investigation shows Benziger succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, while Henry suffered from a single shot. The cause of death for the minor boys is still pending pathology, but we can confirm they did not die from gunfire or show signs of bodily trauma,” officials added.

The family, originally from Kerala, had been living in the US for the past nine years. While Anand was a software engineer, Alice was a senior analyst. According to court records, Anand had filed for divorce in 2016 but did not go through with it.

Authorities said there was no history of violence at the home and the one instance when cops had been called in the past was when the family spotted a mountain lion in their backyard.

But when people who knew the family could not get in contact with them over the weekend, police responded to the scene to do a welfare check. The motive behind the murder-suicide is still unknown.

“Our investigation into the motive for this tragedy continues. While we can’t undo this horrific incident, we would like to share with our community both domestic violence and mental health resources, because there is help and/or assistance out there, and something like this does not need to happen again,” police said.

The wife of RRR cinematographer KK Senthil Kumar, Roohi, passed away on Thursday. She reportedly succumbed to multiple health issues and was declared dead at KIMS Hospital in Secunderabad.