A look at the headlines right now:

  1. Pakistan says it granted India consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav, New Delhi downplays claim: This is the first time the former Indian Navy officer will meet his mother and wife since his arrest in March 2016.  
  2. Bengaluru becomes the first Indian city to get its own logo: Nammur, the start-up company that designed the logo, received a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. 
  3. Mob beats up man in Alwar for allegedly smuggling, slaughtering cows, victim arrested: BJP MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja said that those who smuggle bovines may be killed.
  4. Guatemala to shift its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: The announcement was made by President Jimmy Morales on Monday in a Facebook post.
  5. Rahul Gandhi has pulled Congress out from the ashes, says Shiv Sena: The BJP’s alliance partner said the saffron party’s campaign against the Congress president was unsuccessful.  
  6. Centre has not paid more than 50,000 madrassa teachers for two years, says report: The madrassas were registered under the government’s Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrassas under which it is supposed to pay a part of the salary. 
  7. King Felipe of Spain urges Catalans to choose coexistence over confrontation: In his annual Christmas Eve address, the monarch urged the leaders of the region’s pro-independence parties to act and think responsibly.
  8. J&K shivers as cold wave intensifies, Ooty records sub-zero temperature for first time in 3 years: Kargil, where the temperature plummeted to minus 11.4 degrees Celsius, was the coldest place in the country for the second consecutive day on Sunday.
  9. Pope Francis cites Biblical story of Mary and Joseph to highlight plight of refugees worldwide: The pontiff, in his speech at the Christmas Eve Mass, said he hoped others would not feel that ‘there is no room for them on this earth’.. 
  10. On Christmas Day, Google’s doodle is a penguin family packing for a vacation: This is the second of the four-slide doodles that the search engine will release for the December festivities..