Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday at the Hyderabad House here during his four-day visit to India.
Solih arrived in India at the invitation of PM Modi and both the leaders are expected to review the progress in the wide-ranging partnership between the two countries.
He is accompanied by a high-level official and business delegation.
“A warm welcome to a close friend and maritime neighbour! President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of Maldives arrives in New Delhi for an official visit. An opportunity to nurture the unwavering friendship between our two countries and lend further momentum to the multifaceted partnership,” MEA tweeted.
During the visit, President Solih will meet the President and hold talks with the Prime Minister. The External Affairs Minister will call on President Solih.
Besides official engagements in New Delhi, President Solih will be holding a discussion with an Indian business delegation in Delhi.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday carried out searches at multiple locations in the national capital and other places in the alleged National Herald money laundering case.
The National Herald case pertains to investigating the alleged financial irregularities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognizance of the Income Tax department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi owned 38 per cent shares each.
The YIL promoters include Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.
Two minors lost their lives after their house collapsed following a landslide in the Parvathamukhi village in Dakshina Kannada district.
Dakshina Kannada SP Rishikesh Sonawane said that their bodies were recovered on Monday. The landslide was reported due to heavy rainfall in the state.
“The bodies of two minor girls were recovered by NDMF and SDMF personnel,” SP Rishikesh Sonawane. Earlier on July 7, three people died after a landslide in the DK district.
Due to heavy rainfall, severe water-logging, inundatiion on parts of a highway, agricultural fields and low-lying areas, life has been disturbed across the state. Bhatkal town in Uttara Kannada district has also been affected badly for the last two weeks.
Indian Meteorological Department has issued a ‘heavy rains’ alert for the coastal Karnataka region and north Interior Karnataka till August 6.
The IMD on Sunday in its weather forecast issued an orange alert for August 2 for the districts of Kodagu, Hassan, Chikmagalur, and Shimoga. For 3rd August, an alert has been issued for Uttar Kannada, Shimoga, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshin Kannada, and Kodagu.
“Avoid going to areas that face water logging problems often. Avoid staying in vulnerable structures,” the MeT department said in a press release.
In a detailed weather update, the department today said that fairly widespread to heavy rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning was very likely over coastal and north interior Karnataka from 2-4 August.
According to the district administration, which declared a holiday for all schools, anganwadis, and colleges in Sullia and Kadaba taluks on Tuesday, the situation was pretty bad in many villages of the two taluks.
Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra will visit the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency, a stronghold of Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra on August 7 and interact with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers during the three-day tour, a senior leader said on Tuesday.
Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra was named as an accused in connection with the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri last year in which four farmers were killed. “Ajay Kumar Mishra is coming to visit the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency on August 7.
During his three-day visit, he will interact with BJP workers, hold meetings with local leaders of the party, and review development works,” said BJP leader Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
Given the acrimony with former ally Shiv Sena, the BJP has identified some 16 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 48 in Maharashtra where it has decided to focus more and prepare the ground for the party candidates for the 2024 general elections. In the three elections held after the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency came into existence in 2009, 2014, and 2019, the Shiv Sena won twice and the Congress once.
The constituency is currently represented by Vinayak Raut of Shiv Sena, a Uddhav Thackeray loyalist. Of the six assembly segments under this constituency, the BJP holds the Kankavli constituency which is represented by Nitesh Rane, son of Union minister Narayan Rane, a former Shivsainik and bete noire of Uddhav Thackeray.
In 2009, Rane’s other son Nilesh Rane won the Lok Sabha election from the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency by defeating Suresh Prabhu of Shiv Sena.
Brandon King’s fiery knock of 68 after Obed McCoy’s six-wicket haul guided West Indies to the five-wicket win over India in the second T20I of the five-match series at the Warner Park, St Kitts on Monday.
West Indies maintained a stronghold on the match in the chase with opener Brandon King playing an anchoring role after Obed McCoy’s six-wicket haul helped the hosts bundle out India for 138 runs.
Chasing a target of 139, West Indies got off to a good start as their openers Brandon King and Kyle Mayers started smashing Indian bowlers all around the ground. But their stint of blistering batting was cut short by Hardik Pandya as he dismissed Mayers in the 6.1 over.
Mayers’s wicket invited captain Nicholas Pooran to the crease, who could not do much and went back to the pavilion after scoring 14 runs in 11 balls on the delivery of Ravichandran Ashwin.
The star batter of West Indies Shimron Hetmyer could not do much and was sent back to the hut by Ravindra Jadeja.
In the 15.3 over of the innings, Brandon King was dismissed after scoring 68 runs in 52 balls by Avesh Khan.
At that point of the run chase, King had done his part to take his team closer to winning the second T20I against India.
After 17 overs the equation of the chase went down to 27 runs in 18 balls Devon Thomas and Rovman Powell started playing aggressive and smashed Pandya for a six over the long-on.
Arshdeep Singh gave India a breakthrough as he dismissed hard-hitting batter Powell in the 19th over of the innings. Powell’s wicket invited Odean Smith to the crease.
In the last thrilling over of the innings hosts needed 10 runs in 6 balls. Devon Thomas hammered Avesh Khan for back-to-back one six and one four to guide his team to the victory with five wickets in hands.
Earlier, the hosts were dominant during the Indian innings, dismissing skipper Rohit Sharma was sent off the very first ball after which India struggled to get proceeding.
McCoy’s figures of 6/17 were the best by a West Indies bowler in T20Is and India were all out for just 138 runs on a ground that is known to allow batters to hit sixes.
Brief score: India 138 (Ravindra Jadeja 27, Hardik Pandya 31; Obed McCoy 6-17) vs West Indies 141/5 (Brandon King 68, Nicholas Pooran 14; Hardik Pandya 1-11).
Most wanted terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri killed in drone attack
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) added a “deceased” caption under the profile image of Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on its website, after the most wanted terrorist was killed by the US in an air strike in Kabul.
Zawahiri was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan on Saturday, according to US President Joe Biden.
There is what the profile of Zawahiri was on the FBI website before his killing was announced.
In a televised address on Monday (local time), US President Joe Biden said that “Justice has been delivered.”
al-Zawahiri was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists and a mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks was killed in a drone strike carried out by the US in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday
“On Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully conducted an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed the emir of al-Qa’ida: Ayman al-Zawahiri. Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a video address from the Blue Room Balcony at the White House.
“He will never again, never again, allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe haven because he is gone and we’re going to make sure that nothing else happens,” he added.
Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11 and he also acted as Osama Bin Ladens personal physician.
Al-Qaeda, who had just turned 71, took over the leadership of Al-Qaeda after the US Forces hunted down Osama bin Laden in Jalalabad of Pakistan. 11 years after Laden was killed, Zawahiri had become an international symbol of the group, and a global terrorist with a reward of USD 25 million on his head.
In 1993, he took over the leadership of Islamic Jihad in Egypt and became a leading figure in a campaign in the mid-1990s to overthrow the government and set up a purist Islamic state. He was found to be involved in the killing of over 1,200 Egyptians.
Years later, Zawahiri became number two on the list of “most wanted terrorists” announced by the US government in 2001.
In 1998, Zawahiri finally merged the Egyptian Islamic Jihad with Al-Qaeda.
Zawahiri was indicted for his alleged role in the bombings of August 7, 1998, when nearly simultaneous bombs blew up in front of the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in Africa – 224 people died in the blasts, including 12 Americans, and more than 4,500 people were wounded.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday in Rajya Sabha said that scheduled domestic airlines are not charging any fee for completing web check-in formalities.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation General VK Singh (retired) in a written reply to a question about whether most of the airline companies in the country are assigning most of the seats to the passengers on a payment basis in the name of online check-in before travelling.
Singh replied that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued Air Transport Circular (ATC)-01 of 2021 titled, “Unbundle of Services and fees by scheduled airlines” as per which, some services like preferential seating have been allowed to be unbundled and charged separately from the travellers.
Such unbundled services are provided on an “opt-in” basis by Airlines and are not mandatory in nature. The question was raised by S Selvaganabathy, BJP MP from Pudducherry.
He further asked whether any guidelines have been issued by Government to the airline companies to regulate the sale and allotment of seats. Singh replied that there is also a provision for auto seat assignment to the passengers who have not selected any seat for web check-in before scheduled departure.
Scheduled domestic airlines are not charging any fee for completing web check-in formalities.
As far as check-in at Airports is concerned, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has advised all the scheduled airlines not to charge any additional amount for issuing boarding passes at the airport check-in counters as the same cannot be considered within ‘tariff’ as provided under Rule 135 of The Aircraft Rules, 1937.
Ministry of Civil Aviation or Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been receiving grievances related to air transport. They are redressed as per the established mechanism or extant guidelines in the matter, Singh added.
Earlier, DGCA had made it clear that airlines charging for preferred seats is as per the unbundling of fare and is left to airlines and we have no role in that.
Ahead of the release of Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, the film triggered controversy after “#BoycottLaalSinghChaddha” started trending on Twitter.
Apparently, some Twitter users went through the archives and dug up Aamir’s controversial “India’s growing intolerance” statement and circulated it on the micro-blogging site.
Reacting to the boycott trend, Aamir while speaking to Mumbai reporters requested people to watch his film. “That Boycott Bollywood… Boycott Aamir Khan… Boycott Laal Singh Chaddha… I feel sad also because a lot of people who are saying this in their hearts believe I am someone who doesn’t like India… In their hearts they believe that… And that’s quite untrue,” Aamir quoted as a saying.
“I really love the country… That’s how I am. It is rather unfortunate if some people feel that way.I want to assure everyone that it’s not the case so please don’t boycott my films, please watch my films,” he pleaded.
Well, this is not the first time that netizens have expressed anger towards the upcoming film. Earlier, when the makers of the film launched the trailer in May, the same hashtag was trending.
Talking about the controversial statement in question, in 2015, Aamir Khan said in an interview, “Our country is very tolerant, but there are people who spread ill-will”. His wife Kiran Rao also made headlines for saying that she considered leaving the country for the safety of their children.
Helmed by Advait Chandan, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ is an official Hindi adaptation of the Academy Award-winning 1994 film ‘Forrest Gump’, which had Tom Hanks in the lead role. It is scheduled to release on August 11. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Mona Singh are also a part of the film.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde today visited the residence of Sahitya Ratna Demokratira Anna Bhau Sathe in Ghatkopar on the occasion of his birth anniversary.
On this occasion Chief Minister Shri. Shinde saluted Anna Bhau Sathe by offering a wreath.
Also, his family members were also interrogated.
On this occasion, MP Rahul Shewale along with the officials of Sahitya Ratna Demokratar Anna Bhau Sathe Smarak Samiti were present.
Under the Directorate of Sports and Youth Services, the District Sports Officer, Mumbai Suburban, is inviting applications from the meritorious sportspersons (male, female and disabled sportspersons) and sports mentors of Mumbai Suburban District for the District Sports Award for the year 2021-22.
District sports awards are given to meritorious sportspersons, and sports guides in the district to appreciate their work/contribution and to encourage them.
For the year 2021-22, meritorious athletes (men, women and disabled athletes) and sports mentors will be awarded.
The award eligibility criteria are as follows. Sports Mentor Award: The applicant applying for the award should have resided in the concerned district for 15 consecutive years in Maharashtra.
Should have completed 35 years of age. Should have worked as Sports Guide for 10 years continuously. Performance in that district will be taken into consideration for scoring.
Also, sports guides who have produced at least state and national medal winners in the senior category as well as junior school, rural and women (Khelo India) medal winners up to the national level in the last ten years will be eligible for the award.
