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Telugu teachers rescued from IS captivity in Libya return home

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t-gopalakrishna-c-balaramkishan

Hyderabad: Two Telugu teachers, who were rescued last week after over a year-long captivity by Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Libya, returned home on Saturday.

T Gopikrishna and C Balram Kishan reached Hyderabad from New Delhi in the early hours.

They merely said they were happy to reunite with their families, but declined to answer any queries from the media or share their experiences in captivity.

The two teachers of the University of Sirte were abducted by IS terrorists on July 29, 2015 while on their way to Tripoli airport to return to India.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had announced on September 15 that they had been rescued.

Gopikrishna (35), an Assistant Professor at the University of Sirte, belongs to Tekkali in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, while Balram Kishan (52), a Professor at the same university, hails from Telangana’s Karimnagar district.

“I am very happy to reunite with my family. I don’t have any words to express my happiness,” said Gopikrishna talking to media persons at his residence in Nacharam, Hyderabad.

He thanked the Libyan Army and the Government of India, especially the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). “Thanks to their efforts, I could safely come back and reunite with my family,” said Gopikrishna flanked by his wife and daughter.

“I am really excited to return home after long captivity. I have already given all information to the MEA as to what happened during my 414-day captivity,” he said.

Gopikrishna declined to speak on how they were freed and how they were treated in captivity.

“I can’t reveal all those details to you. I have given the information to the ministry,” he said.

The two teachers had reached New Delhi on Friday, after which officials of the MEA met and debriefed them.

Balram taught English and Gopikrishna Computer Science at Sirte University. They were among the four Indians kidnapped by IS the same day. Two of them were released a few days later.

Lakshmikant and Vijay Kumar, hailing from Karnataka, had returned safely following their release earlier.

(IANS)

KJ George to be sworn into Karnataka Cabinet on Monday

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KJ George

Bengaluru: After the Karnataka CID gave a clean chit to former minister KJ George and two senior police officers in connection with the alleged suicide of Deputy Superintendent of Police M K Ganapathy, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will reinstated KJ George as minister in the Karnataka Cabinet on Monday.

After his reinstatement, George might be re-allotted the Bengaluru Development portfolio.

The Bengaluru MLA was forced to resign as Bengaluru minister after an FIR was filed against him.

Before hanging himself to death, Ganapathy (51) had given an interview to a local TV channel alleging that George and senior IPS officers Pranob Mohanthy and AM Prasad had harassed him, and that they were responsible for his impending suicide.

The incident had kicked up a huge storm in the state.

Although the government ordered an investigation, George had not stepped down as minister.

Ganapathy’s son Nehal then lodged private complaint with a court in Madikeri, which ordered an FIR to be filed against George. It was after this, that George resigned.

Congress Working President Dinesh Gundu Rao maintained that there had been no need for George to resign. However, George had done so as he did not want to embarrass the party.

Eventually, the CID had filed its B Report to the Madikeri Court stating that there is no clear evidence against three who were named in the case and a clean chit was given.

(Agencies)

First Test: Latham, Williamson put Kiwis on top

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Kanpur: Tom Latham and Kane Williamson struck half-centuries to take New Zealand to a comfortable position before heavy rain forced match officials to call off the final session’s play on the second day of the first cricket Test against India here on Friday.

Latham (56 batting) and Williamson (66 batting) were the two New Zealand batsmen holding fort in the middle at the Green Park Stadium with the visitors on 152/1 in their first innings in response to India’s first innings total of 318 runs.

The duo held the Indian bowlers at bay and steadied the visitors’ innings following the early departure of the dangerous Martin Guptill (21).

New Zealand now trail the hosts by 166 runs with nine wickets remaining.

Latham had hit five boundaries so far during his patient 137-ball stay in the middle while Williamson had managed to find the ropes seven times in his 115-ball knock.

Fast bowler Umesh Yadav (1/22) was the only Indian to bag a wicket, trapping Guptill leg before.

Rain played spoilsport just as the players were about to leave the field for tea with a steady drizzle forcing the groundsmen to bring the covers out.

Resumption of play was subsequently postponed for an indefinite period.

With the rain continuing to lash the ground more than an hour after the tea interval, the match officials eventually decided to call it a day.

The ongoing Test is the 500th for India and the hosts will be eager for a win in order to make the occasion even more special.

India, who made their debut as a Test cricket playing nation against England in 1932, are also be targeting the top spot in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings by clinching the three-Test series.

A 1-0 or 2-1 win will take India to 111 points, similar to current top spot holder Pakistan but ahead of them on decimal points while a 2-0 win margin will see India surge ahead at 113 points.

A 3-0 win will move India to 115 points. New Zealand, which is currently on 95 points, will remain at the seventh position with any of these margins with the maximum drop to 91 points in case they lose all the three matches.

A 1-1 series draw will result in India dropping to the fourth position on 108 points and New Zealand rising to fifth on 97 points.

If New Zealand is able to beat India by 1-0 or 2-1, they will move to the fifth position at 100 points with India one slot ahead on fourth with 104 points. New Zealand can overtake India to take the fourth position only with an improbable 3-0 win.

Should India go to the top of the rankings, it would be the third time this year and fourth overall.

Earlier on Friday, with the pitch beginning to show signs of wear and tear, the Indian bowlers got a fair amount of turn and movement off the wicket.

But despite the challenging conditions, the New Zealand batsmen still managed to maintain a decent scoring rate.

Except for Yadav, the rest of the Indian bowlers — Mohammed Shami (0/26), Ravindra Jadeja (0/47), Ravichandran Ashwin (0/44) and Murali Vijay (0/5) — were unable to bag any wicket although there were quite a few close calls.

The visitors suffered their first blow in the 10th over with Guptill, who seemed to be in good form, beaten by an in-swinger from Yadav.

The ball moved very slightly after pitching around the off-stump before hitting Guptill’s pads plumb in front of the middle stump.

Guptill smashed three boundaries during his 31-ball knock.

Williamson then joined Latham in the middle and the duo ensured that the visitors lost no more wickets before lunch.

The duo continued to bat on steadily after lunch, finding the boundaries at regular intervals.

Ashwin bowled quite well, getting the ball to loop and dip in the air. He came close to bagging a wicket on a few occasions, most notably when Williamson was beaten by the vicious turn and the ball hit the back of his helmet. One of the helmet flaps came off and hit the stumps, but did not have enough force to disturb the bails.

Jadeja too beat the batsmen on several occasions and there were quite a few loud appeals for leg before.

The left-arm spinner will consider himself unlucky not to have got Latham’s wicket when the ball got the inside edge, hit the Kiwi’s boot and went to Lokesh Rahul at short leg.

Rahul managed to hold onto the ball after some initial fumble, but the third umpire ruled Latham not out as the ball had hit the grill of the fielder’s helmet.

During the morning session, the hosts were bowled out for 318 runs early on Day Two.

The Men in Blue scored 27 runs in seven overs to get past the 300-run mark in their historic 500th Test.

Resuming the day on 291/9, Ravindra Jadeja scored an unbeaten 42 from 44 balls with seven boundaries and a six, putting on an invaluable stand of 41 runs for the final wicket with Yadav, who survived 15 balls before gloving a short ball from pacer Wagner to New Zealand wicketkeeper Bradley-John Watling for nine runs.

For New Zealand, spinner Mitchell Santner (3/94) and fast bowler Trent Boult (3/67) claimed three wickets each, while Wagner (2/42) bagged a couple. Inderbir Singh Sodhi (1/50) and Mark Craig (1/59) got one wicket each.

(IANS)

SC cancels Subrata Roy’s parole

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday cancelled the parole of Sahara chief Subrata Roy and two other directors and directed to take them into custody.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur cancelled the “interim arrangements” of granting him parole after market regulator SEBI’s counsel Pratap Venugopal told the bench that all the properties given by Sahara to the market regulator were already under attachment by Income Tax authorities.

Apparantly annoyed over this, the Chief Justice immediately ordered the cancellation of parole and directed Roy and the two other directors to be taken into custody and they will remain so till october 3 when the matter will again be taken up for hearing.

(Agencies)

Sadaa-e-Ittehad prays for rain to end Cauvery dispute

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Bengaluru: Sadaa-e-Ittehad, a Karnataka-based Muslim organisation, held special prayers here today, hoping it would bring an end to the ongoing Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Sadaa-e-Ittehad also condemned the attack on the army base in Uri, which left 18 jawans dead. They appealed the union govt to take action against the perpetrators of the attack.

Mr Mumtaz Ali, Syed Zameer Pasha, Moula Tauqeer Raza, Anwar Sharief, Mujahid Ali Baba, Moulana Syed Dilwar, Azeer Mohammed Sait, Hussain Abidi and Syed Sardar were part of the event.

Muslims, Christians, Dalits Stage Protest Demanding Ban on Cow Vigilantism

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New Delh: Several Muslim, Christian and Dalit organisations on Friday staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar here, demanding a ban on “cow vigilantism” and sought passage of the Communal Violence Bill.

The protesters also submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee, urging him to play his role in defending the constitutional rights of the people “who are increasingly being persecuted” allegedly under the NDA government at the Centre.

“We demand the cow vigilantism be banned and people be allowed to eat the food of their choice,” All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat president Navaid Hamid said.

“A commission should be formed to report whether the recent events are part of organised crimes orchestrated by parties to polarise votes for political mileage and to suggest proper mechanism to prevent deterioration of democratic system by overuse of polarisation tactics leading to vast loss of lives and properties and displacement of people from their cozy homes,” Jamat-e-Islami Hind vice-president Nusrat Ali said.

Maulana Abdul Hameed, General Secretary of Jamiatul Ulama Hind, demanded that judicial inquiry be initiated in major cases that occurred in Dadri, Dingerhedi, Paida village of Bijnore and the killing of youth allegedly by cow vigilantes in Ahmedabad.

“The Communal Violence Bill should be made a law as soon as possible so that communal forces should be suitably dealt with for maintaining peace and law and order in the country,” he said.

The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005, seeks to empower the government to prevent and control communal violence, provide for speedy investigation and trial of offences and rehabilitate victims of such violence.

The protesters also demanded that due compensation should be paid by governments concerned to the victims and their families and a standard method be evolved for equal compensation to people across the communities and proper rules be devised for immediate relief to affected families.

Other organisations which participated in the protest include Lokraj Sanghtan, Dalit Federation AMOD, All India Shia Council and Students Islamic Organisation of India.

(PTI)

Karnataka Council unanimously decides not to release Cauvery water to TN

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cauvery

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Legislative Council on Friday unanimously decided not to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, saying the water was needed for drinking purposes in the state.

A special session of the house was convened to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court’s September 20 order to Karnataka to release 6,000 cusecs of water daily till September 27.

After the subject was discussed, the Council passed a unanimous resolution that the water in the dams would be used for drinking purposes in the state and that the water cannot be released to Tamil Nadu.

(Agencies)

India, France ink deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets

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Rafale fighters

New Delhi: India and France today signed the Euro 7.87-billion deal for Rafale fighter jets, equipped with latest missiles and weapon system besides multiple India- specific modifications that will give the IAF cutting edge capability over arch rival Pakistan.

The deal was signed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his visiting French counterpart Jean Yves Le Drian sixteen months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s plans to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in fly away condition during his trip to France.

The deal comes with a saving of nearly 750 million Euros, gained through hard negotiations by the Indian side, over the one struck during the previous UPA government, which was scrapped by the Narendra Modi government, besides a 50 per cent offset clause.

The 50 per cent offset clause means that Indian businesses, both big and small, will gain work to the tune of over three billion Euros.

These combat aircraft, delivery of which will start in 36 months and will be completed in 66 months from the date the contract is inked, comes equipped with state-of-the-art missiles like ‘Meteor’ and ‘Scalp’ that will give IAF a capability that had been sorely missing in its arsenal.

The features that make the Rafale a strategic weapon in the hands of IAF include its Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Meteor air-to-air missile with a range in excess of 150 km.

Its integration on the Rafale jets will mean IAF can hit targets inside both Pakistan and across the northern and eastern borders while staying within India’s territorial boundary.

Pakistan at present has only a BVR with 80 km range. During the Kargil war, India had used a BVR of 50 km range while Pakistan had none. However, Pakistan later acquired 80-km-range BVR, but now with ‘Meteor’, the balance of power in the air space has again tilted in India’s favour.

‘Scalp’, a long-range air-to-ground cruise missile with a range in excess of 300 km, also gives IAF an edge over its adversaries. Sources said the “vanilla price” of just the 36 aircraft is about 3.42 billion Euros. The armaments cost about 710 million Euros while Indian specific changes, including integration of Israeli helmet-mounted displays, will cost 1,700 million Euros.

Associate supplies for the 36 fighter jets will cost about 1800 million Euros while performance-based logistics will cost about 353 million Euros.

(PTI)

Scarlett Keeling case: 8 years on, Goa court acquits both accused

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New Delhi: A Goa court acquitted on Friday two men accused of raping and killing British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling in 2008, triggering outrage in a case that put a global spotlight on the dark underbelly of India’s tourism industry.

“I find them not guilty of all charges,” Judge Vandana Tendulkar said after the trial of Samson D’Souza and Placido Carvalho in the state capital Panaji.

But Scarlett’s mother Fiona MacKeown said she was devastated by the outcome and promised to fight to overturn the verdict.

“I am reeling. It’s been eight years of agony. I feel devastated and will definitely be challenging the verdict,” she told reporters outside the court.

“We had been waiting all this time and it’s just rubbish. India’s whole judicial system has totally let me down,” she added.

“Somebody murdered my daughter in this country and somebody must be held accountable.”

Fifteen-year-old Keeling’s bruised and half-naked body was found on popular Anjuna beach eight years ago. Her death made headlines worldwide and triggered a debate on how unsafe the popular tourist destination was for foreigners, especially women.

Police initially dismissed the teenager’s death as an accident but opened a murder probe after Keeling’s mother, Fiona MacKeown, pushed for a second autopsy, which proved she had been drugged and raped.

MacKeown also accused local authorities of trying to cover up the death to protect drug gangs operating in Goa.

Several weeks after the attack, local men D’Souza and Carvalho were arrested.

(Agencies)

Kiwi bowlers push India on backfoot

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Kanpur: India faltered after a sound start to their first innings as New Zealand banked on a strong bowling performance to grab the upper hand on the opening day of their first cricket Test here on Thursday.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, the Indians had a promising start to their innings, doing well in the pre-lunch session. But the Kiwi bowlers hit back, claiming eight wickets in the next two sessions for the hosts to finish the day at 291/9.

In the historic 500th Test match for India, Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav were at the crease at the close of play on 16 and eight runs, respectively.

For New Zealand, pacer Trent Boult (3/57) and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (3/77) picked up three wickets each while Neil Wagner (1/42), Mark Craig (1/59) and Indian-origin leg-spinner Inderbir Singh Sodhi (1/50) chipped in with a wicket apiece.

Most of the Indian batsmen fell to poor shots after misreading the turn or bounce of the ball rather than any top quality bowling by the visitors.

The Indians started off on a positive note with opener Lokesh Rahul hitting Boult for a couple of boundaries in the very first over of the series.

The New Zealand pacers recovered thereafter to restrict the flow of runs to some extent.

Rahul, however, continued to target Boult, hitting a couple of consecutive boundaries off the pacer in the seventh over.

The opener swept Santner for a six in the 11th over, but the spinner had his revenge off the very next ball when Rahul misread an outgoing delivery.

Rahul scored at a decent rate, posting 32 runs off 39 deliveries. His innings was studded with four boundaries and a six.

Cheteshwar Pujara then joined Murali Vijay in the middle and the duo negotiated the New Zealand bowling with skill and patience to ensure that the hosts went into the lunch break at a decent 105/1.

Santner was the only Kiwi bowler to bag a wicket in the morning session.

The rest of the Kiwi bowlers toiled away without reward under hot and humid conditions.

But whatever advantage the hosts had managed to claim was fritterred away in the post-lunch session as the Kiwi bowlers struck back to claim the crucial wickets of Vijay, Pujara and Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

Boult outfoxed Vijay in the very first over after lunch with a cross-seam short pitched delivery. The Indian opener was surprised by the extra bounce as the ball took the outer edge of his bat and travelled to where first slip should have been.

But the lack of a fielder at that position saved Vijay and the Kiwis could only watch as the ball raced to the boundary.

Santner bagged his second wicket when Pujara misread the spin on a slightly overpitched delivery which did not turn much after pitching. Pujara played for the spin, expecting it to turn towards the off-stump but only managed to offer a tame caught and bowled chance to Santner.

Kohli (9) seemed to be in good touch, hitting two boundaries during his short stay at the crease. But he fell to a rash shot, attempting to pull Wagner for a six. The Indian captain misjudged the bounce and the ball flew off the top edge for a relatively easy catch for Sodhi.

The Kiwis continued their resurgence after tea, clinching five wickets in the final session.

Craig sent back Ajinkya Rahane (18) shortly after the resumption when the batsman edged one to Tom Latham at short leg.

Rohit Sharma (35) and Ravichandran Ashwin (40) then tried to stitch together a partnership before the former attempted a rash shot off Santner, only to see Sodhi palm the catch at long on.

Wriddhiman Saha (0) and Ashwin soon went back in quick succession while Mohammed Shami’s (0) off-stump was uprooted by a beautiful delivery from Boult.

Earlier, Indian skipper Kohli won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test of the three-match series against New Zealand at the Green Park Stadium here.

India are playing their historic 500th Test. The hosts are playing with six batsmen, two fast bowlers and two spinners while the visiting New Zealand are playing with three spinners and two fast bowlers.

India have played 14 Tests under Kohli’s captaincy so far, winning 10 of them. The hosts will be eager to register their 11th win under Kohli and make the historic 500th Test a memorable one for cricket lovers in the country.

(IANS)

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