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Siachen survivor’s condition remains critical: Army hospital

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Siachen

New Delhi: The condition of Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad of 19 Madras regiment, who was rescued alive six days after being buried under tonnes of ice in Siachen Glacier, remains very critical, the army said today.

“He continues to battle the odds and his medical condition remains very critical,” a medical bulletin issued by Army Research and Referral Hospital here said.

Hanamanthappa remains ventilator-dependent since arrival in the hospital yesterday, it said. The medical team at R&R Hospital is monitoring his situation continuously and is treating him with best expertise and resources available in the world, the bulletin said.

The hospital has said he is expected to have a stormy course in the “next 24 hours” due to the complications caused by re-warming and establishment of blood flow to the cold parts of the body.

Hanamanthappa was flown out by a helicopter yesterday from the site of the avalanche that hit his post at Siachen Glacier along with a medical specialist to the base camp at the glacier, from where he was brought to the Thois air base.

He was then transferred to Delhi by a fixed-wing aircraft of IAF along with a critical care specialist of the force and a medical specialist from the base camp.

Hanamanthappa is being treated by a team of intensivists, neurologist, nephrologist, endocrinologist and surgeons. He has been administered fluids, drugs to bring up his blood pressure, besides antibiotics.

(Agencies)

No leopard in Bengaluru school: Official

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leopard

Bengaluru: Fears of another leopard prowling in and around a private school on Tuesday night were unfounded and its so-called sighting was a speculation, a top official said on Wednesday.

“No leopard was seen or traced in and around the school by our forest staff after a night-long search operation though the school remains shut as a precaution,” Karnataka chief wildlife warden Ravi Ralph told IANS here.

As rumours of another leopard sighting spread causing panic, the Vibgyor International School declared a holiday for its over 1,000 students and faculty members to ensure their safety.

“We decided to shut the school for the day (Wednesday). Those who turned up with their wards were advised to return home,” a school official told reporters.

A surprise entry of an eight-year-old leopard into the school early on Sunday and its rescue after a 12-hour operation in which five people were injured has shocked people in Bengaluru.

“We are launching an online platform to spread awareness on leopards and other animals who may enter villages, towns or cities stealthily but do not harm them as they are not man-eaters like tigers,” Ralph said.

“With forest fringes, lakes and other water bodies disappearing for various reasons, wild animals are finding it difficult to hunt for prey and get water to sustain,” Ralph said.

The leopard which was tranquilised and captured had strayed into the city’s eastern suburb on Sunday through bushes, boulders, hills and thick plantations across the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border in search of prey and water.

As it was a holiday, students and teachers were lucky to have escaped from being attacked by the wild animal.

The leopard was put in an iron cage and shifted to the Bannarghatta national zoo park.

(IANS)

Wipro Consumer Care announces Santoor Scholarships for financially disadvantaged Girl Students Pursuing Higher Education

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Wipro Consumer Care

Hyderabad: In an endeavor to encourage underprivileged girl students who wish to pursue their higher education after Grade 12, Wipro Consumer Care in association with “Wipro Cares” has announced Santoor Scholarship programme, an initiative which will provide free scholarships. The scholarship programme will be a recurring annual programme. It will be rolled out in 2016-17 and will initially cover the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The grant given to each of the beneficiaries could be utilized for tuition fees or other expenses incidental only to education.

The Santoor Scholarship programme was announced in Hyderabad today in the presence of Shri. Kadiam Srihari, Hon. Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Education, Govt. of Telangana, Shri. R Kishore Babu, Minister for Social and Tribal Welfare, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Benhur Mahesh Dutt Ekka, IAS, Secretary, SC development department, Govt. of Telangana, Dr. R. S. Praveen Kumar, IPS, Secretary, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Institutions Society, Dr. Vijayakumar, Secretary, Social welfare Department, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. M. Padma, IAS, Director (TW Dept.), Principal Secretary to Govt., TW Dept., Govt. of Andhra Pradesh and Col V. Ramulu, I.Po.S., Secretary, Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Institutions Society.

Santoor scholarships are open to girls from underprivileged and disadvantaged backgrounds who wish to pursue their diploma/degree. To qualify, the student must have passed her grade 10 and 12 from a government school/college. Applications will be available with the government junior college principals. Students interested are required to go through the application process and meet the eligibility criteria to be considered for the scholarship. The scholarship shall be Rs. 36,000 per annum if the diploma/degree college is located in a large city and Rs. 24,000 otherwise. Sixty percent of the scholarships is earmarked for students who wish to pursue higher education in the fields of humanities, liberal arts and sciences. The remaining forty percent can be availed by students pursuing professional courses.

Mr. Anil Chugh, Chief Executive – Wipro Consumer Care said, “As a responsible corporate, we believe in creating opportunities for the growing generation and offer support and confidence to those in need. The Santoor Scholarship Programme in association with “Wipro Cares” is dedicated to provide the much-needed breakthrough in the education of underprivileged girls and support them to continue their higher studies.”

Bollywood Films Round Up

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rajniesh duggall,karan vahi,sugandha mishra & swati sharrma

Rajniesh Duggall, Nidhi Subbaiah, Swati Sharrma, Karan Vahi & Sugandha Mishra On The Sets Of Comedy Classes

Actors Rajniesh Duggall & Nidhi Subbaiah & singer Swati Sharrma along with actors Sugandha Mishra & Karan Wahi went to Comedy classes to promote their film Direct Ishq releasing on 19th Feb, 2016.

The film is produced by Pradeep Sharma of Baba Motion Pictures Pvt ltd. Karan Vahi & Sugandha Mishra hosted the show which will be aired on valentine’s day 14th Feb, on Life OK Channel. Rajniesh Duggall & Nidhi Subbaiah performed on different songs in the show.

JNU erupts over ‘Shaheed Afzal Guru’, ‘Azad Kashmir’; rival student groups clash, police deployed

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Jawaharlal Nehru University Afzal Guru

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday night witnessed clashes between two student groups over Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged on February 09, 2013 in Tihar Jail.

The incident happened after a group of students organised a programme and termed the hanging of the Parliament attack convict as “judicial killing”.

The students allegedly shouted slogans hailing ‘Shaeed Afzal Guru’ and also chanted anti-India slogans. They also expressed solidarity with “struggle” of Kashmiri migrants and advocated for ‘Azad Kashmir’.

Notably, the university authorities had not give permission to hold any programme supporting Afzal Guru as they “feared” the same might “disrupt” peace on campus.

Student organisers had pasted posters across the campus inviting them to gather for a protest march against “judicial killing of Afzal Guru” and in solidarity with “struggle” of Kashmiri migrants, at varsity’s Sabarmati dhaba.

Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) affiliated ABVP objected to such a program and complained to the Vice Chancellor.

However, when the other group didn’t relent and went ahead with the event, the ABVP supporters went ahead and protested, which led to the scuffle between the two student groups.

The authorities later called the police in order to restore law and order in the campus.

JNU VC Jagdeesh Kumar told PTI, “Earlier we were told that it is going to be a cultural programme. When I got to know that it is a protest, we decided to cancel the programme as it is administration’s responsibility to ensure peace and calm on campus.”

(PTI)

 

Sri Lanka overwhelm India in 1st T20I

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India-Srilanka

Pune: Sri Lanka rode on a strong bowling performance to defeat India by five wickets in their first Twenty20 International (T20I) at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here on Tuesday.

Chasing a meagre target of 102 runs, the Lankans were boosted by a 39-run partnership by Dinesh Chandimal (35) and Chamara Kapugedera (25) to romp home with two overs to spare.

Earlier, rookie pacers Kasun Rajitha (3/29) and Dasun Shanaka (3/16) played a crucial role for the visitors with a three-wicket haul each.

Rajitha enjoyed a memorable debut, bagging two wickets in his very first over in international cricket.

Fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera (2/14) also bowled well, picking up a couple of wickets, including that of star batsman Yuvraj Singh.

Ravichandran Ashwin scored an unbeaten 31 to be the highest scorer for India.

Asked to bat first on a green wicket, the Indian batsmen struggled to cope with the appreciable swing and off-the-pitch movement generated by the Lankan pacers.

Rajitha handed Sri Lanka the advantage right at the start by dismissing Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Raane in the opening over.

Sharma virtually gifted away his wicket, placing a lofted drive off Rajitha neatly into the hands of Chameera at long-off.

Rahane also fell to a careless shot, offering and easy upper edge to Chandimal at short extra cover while attempting to play across the line.

The right-arm pacer should have bagged another wicket in his second over when Suresh Raina was surprised by the extra bounce of a short pitched delivery. The upper edge carried to third man where Danushka Gunathilaka dropped a sitter.

Shikhar Dhawan enjoyed no such luck a short while later when he attempted to smash a slightly outgoing delivery to the leg side. The ball took the flew off the top edge to third man where Gunathilaka made amends for his previous error.

When Shanaka sent back Raina and India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni with a couple of beautiful deliveries in the ninth over, India were in deep trouble at 51/5.

Ashwin tried to produce a late fight-back lower down the order, but rapidly ran out of partners as wickets continued to fall at the other end.

Defending a small total, the hosts had a glimmer of hope when veteran pacer Ashish Nehra dismissed debutant opener Niroshan Dickwella in the third ball of the Sri Lankan innings. Gunathilaka — the other opener — went cheaply as well, miscueing a pull off a short pitched delivery by Nehra.

Chandimal and Kapugedera then took charge, ably negotiating the Indian bowling despite a couple of close calls.

The introduction of Ashwin into the attack paid rich dividends for India as the off-spinner put Lankans in some trouble by bagging two wickets for just 13 runs in his three overs.

But Milinda Siriwardana (21 not out) played a spirited innings lower down the order to guide the visitors to victory with 12 balls to spare.

(IANS)

Bengaluru police bust child trafficking racket, 16 arrested

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Bengaluru

Bengaluru: City police on Monday claimed to have unearthed a crime syndicate allegedly involved in the illegal transportation of children to the US with 16 people, including the suspected kingpin, being taken into custody.

In a crackdown, 14 teams of officers conducted raids in various police stations in Bengaluru City Commissionerate and registered about 13 cases and “secured” 16 persons including Uday Prathap Singh who was identified as the kingpin, and two women for various offenses.

Police said on the basis of information collected, it was found that Singh along with his other syndicate members lured a couple or a single male/female and projected them as real husband and wife, and accordingly documents were prepared to obtain passport and other travel documents.

They said Singh through his agents in Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other places brought children under the age of 10 years and paired them with the couples in Bengaluru who acted as family.

While the couple and the children got trained about behaving like a family, other team members prepared documents like rental agreement, birth certificate, voter cards, ration cards and applied for obtaining passport as family members.

After obtaining passport through “fraudulent means”, another team in Tamil Nadu used to assist the “family” to get Non-immigration B1/B2 VISA (Business and pleasure visa) from the US consulate at Chennai.

Police said based on credible information, collection of actionable intelligence and preliminary inquiry, SIT has made prima facie case about human trafficking of children to US in which 16 couples were shortlisted and their antecedents verified clandestinely.

(IANS)

Canada to end ISIL air strikes within weeks

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Ottawa to pull jets from Syria and Iraq but instead will triple number of special forces training Iraqi Kurdish forces.

As well as training Kurdish forces, Canada will arm them with weapons such as assault rifles, machine guns and light mortars

As well as training Kurdish forces, Canada will arm them with weapons such as assault rifles, machine guns and light mortars

by Al Jazeera

Canada is to end its participation in air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria and Iraq within two weeks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced.

Following up on campaign promises he made last year to withdraw Canada’s jets, Trudeau said on Monday that his country’s contribution to the fight against ISIL would be extended until the end of March 2017 – but would be “a non-combat mission”.

“It is important to understand that while air strike operations can be very useful to achieve short-term military and territorial gains, they do not on their own achieve long-term stability for local communities,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

“We will be supporting and empowering local forces to take their fight directly to ISIL so that kilometre by kilometre they can reclaim their homes, their land and their future.”

Training support

Trudeau said Canada will triple the number of special forces deployed to train Iraqi Kurdish forces on the ground over the next two years.

As well as training them, Canada will also arm the Kurdish forces with light weapons such as assault rifles, machine guns and light mortars, as well as optical systems for the weapons and ammunition.

The number of elite Canadian commandos helping to train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq will also jump from 69 to 230, bringing the total of Canadian soldiers deployed in the region from about 650 to about 830.

Canada will also provide $CAD840m ($609m) in humanitarian assistance over three years, and has allocated  $270m to “build local capacity” in Jordan and Lebanon, which are hosting more than two million Syrian refugees.

While the country will pull its six CF-18 Hornet fighter jets from the bombing mission, it will keep its aircrew and support personnel for one CC-150 Polaris aerial refuelling aircraft and up to two CP-140 Aurora spy planes.

‘Step backward’

The US had asked coalition members to boost their military contributions in Iraq and Syria against ISIL after the deadly attacks in Paris in November. However, Trudeau, who was sworn in last November, had already promised to withdraw his jets during his election campaign.

Trudeau promised to put the new policy to a debate in parliament when the House of Commons resumes next week.

Rona Ambrose, leader of the official opposition and interim leader of the Conservative Party, denounced the plan to withdraw the fighter jets as “a step backwards for Canada”.

Helene Laverdiere, foreign affairs spokesperson for the left-wing New Democratic Party, said Canada should focus on stopping the flow of arms, funds and foreign fighters, including improving anti-radicalisation efforts at home.

“We are concerned that the Liberal government has chosen to place Canadian Forces personnel deeper into an open-ended combat military mission in Iraq – a mission that fails to even define what success would look like,” Laverdiere said.

US President Barak Obama “welcomed Canada’s current and new contributions to coalition efforts and highlighted Canada’s leadership in the coalition”, the White House said in a statement without specifically mentioning Canada’s decision to halt air strikes.

58,000 children ‘facing death’ in drought-hit Somalia

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UN calls for urgent support for tens of thousands of children amid severe drought exacerbated by a strong El Nino.

Nearly 305,000 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, according to the UN [Reuters]

Nearly 305,000 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, according to the UN [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

More than 58,000 children in drought-hit Somalia will starve to death if they do not receive urgent support, the United Nations has warned.

The situation in the country, where dry conditions are exacerbated by an exceptionally strong El Nino weather pattern, is “alarming and could get worse”, the UN said on Monday.

It added that an estimated 4.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and some 950,000 people “struggle every day to meet their food needs”.

“The level of malnutrition, especially among children, is of serious concern, with nearly 305,000 children under the age of five years acutely malnourished,” said Peter de Clercq, the UN aid chief for Somalia.

“We estimate that 58,300 children face death if they are not treated,” he added

The warnings, based on the latest data collected by the UN, come four years after intense drought and war sparked a famine killing more than 250,000 people.

Northern Somali areas, including self-declared independent Somaliland along the Gulf of Aden and semi-autonomous Puntland, are especially hard-hit.

“We are deeply concerned … with severe drought conditions intensifying in Puntland and Somaliland, many more people risk relapsing into crisis,” the UN said, calling for $885m in aid.

The warning comes as neighbouring Ethiopia struggles to combat its worst drought for 30 years.

At least 10.2 million people need food aid in Ethiopia, a figure the UN has warned could double within months, leaving a fifth of the population to go hungry.

In South Africa, five of the country’s nine provinces have been declared disaster zones in what has been described as the worst drought in 20 years.

El Nino is triggered by a warming in sea surface temperatures in the Pacific. It can cause unusually heavy rains in some parts of the world and drought elsewhere.

Headley was tasked with recruiting spies from Indian Army

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Mumbai: Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley on Tuesday described how he was assigned to gather military intelligence in India and recruit spies from the Indian Army.

On the second day of his deposition through video conferencing from a US jail before the Special TADA Court here, Headley said he was tasked with luring spies from the Indian Army to work for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

In his response to questions posed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Headley admitted to working both for the LeT and the ISI.

Headley on Monday revealed that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks were planned over a year in Pakistan.

Detailing the planning for the 26/11 strike, Headley said in November-December 2007 he had attended a meeting in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir along with his LeT contact Sajid Mir and Abu Khafa, in which they asked him to conduct a recce of the Hotel Taj Mahal Palace and other locations in Mumbai.

At the meeting, the LeT leaders gave information about a conference of Indian defence officials and scientists at the luxury hotel opposite Gateway of India which they wanted to hit, Headley told the court of Special Judge G.A. Sanap.

He was specifically asked by his handlers to survey and videograph the second floor of the hotel which he did along with his wife Faiza, selected the landing site for the vessels which would sneak in from the Arabian Sea at Colaba, and discussed everything with Major Iqbal of the Pakistan Army.

Besides Hotel Taj, Headley made videos of Leopold Cafe, Colaba Police Station, the local markets and restaurants in Colaba, the naval and air force stations, the Maharashtra Police headquarters, Hotel Trident-Oberoi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, and the Siddhi Vinayak temple in Prabhadevi.

“Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal were satisfied with the videos and photos of the hotel which I gave them,” Headley said, adding that the plan to target Hotel Taj conference hall was later scrapped for “logistics reasons”.

All the data and locations were stored in a GPS device for future uses, he added.

Headley unravelled before the Special Court how the LeT and Al-Qaeda, which he termed a “terrorist organisation”, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahiddeen and other groups in Pakistan function under the “United Jihad Council” and were working against India.

He said the LeT and ISI have a close nexus with the ISI providing the “financial, military and moral support”, Nikam later told media persons.

Admitting that he served both the LeT and ISI, he said Hafez Sayeed was LeT’s “spiritual leader,” Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was its “operational commander” and worked with the sole aim of spreading terror in India.

Headley said that in 2003, he was present at a LeT meeting when Maulana Masood Azhar made a guest speech about his anti-India activities and his release from India (in December 1999 in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814).

Headley’s deposition will resume again on Wednesday, Nikam told media persons.

(Agencies)

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