Kerala girl found dead in US with bullet wounds

Kerala girl found dead in US with bullet wounds

01.12.2021

A 19-year-old girl from Kerala was found dead with bullet injuries at her apartment in Montgomery, the capital of US state of Alabama, on Monday. Mariyam Soosan Mathew, a native of Niranam near Thiruvalla, was found dead in her room, as per information received by her relatives in India. According to the metropolitan of the Ahmedabad diocese Geevarghese Mar Yulios, who spoke to Mariyam’s father, a bullet fired from the apartment on the next floor had pierced through the ceiling and hit Mariyam. He added that celebrations were being held in the apartment above as part of the Thanksgiving weekend. Mariyam’s father, Boban Mathew, was a council member of the Ahmedabad diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church while the family was in Muscat. They had relocated to Montgomery only few months ago after Mariyam’s mother, who is a nurse, got a job there. The family is trying to take the mortal remains to Kerala for the funeral. TNN

Prepare for common entrance for UG, PG seats from 2022-23: UGC

NTA UMBRELLA

Prepare for common entrance for UG, PG seats from 2022-23: UGC

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:01.12.2021

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to central universities to “take appropriate measures” for conducting the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission in undergraduate and postgraduate courses from the 2022-23 academic session onwards. It also stated that willing state and private universities too can adopt this computer-based test, which will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in 13 languages.

TOI was first to report that the education ministry was finalising the procedural details of CET to be conducted in 45 central universities from 2022 onwards and that the details would be announced in December.

The UGC has also said that for PhD admissions, NET scores shall be considered, wherever feasible.

The letter sent to the vice chancellors of the central universities stated, “After detailed deliberations, it was resolved that the CET for UG and PG courses may be conducted from the 2022-23 academic session through NTA.” The plan was put on hold this year due the ongoing Covid pandemic.

The exams, envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020, are likely to be conducted twice a year. According to the NEP 2020 document: “The NTA will facilitate a single entrance exam for admissions to universities across the country. It will offer a ‘high quality common aptitude test’ like the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test, conducted in US & Canada), as well as specialised common subject examinations, at least twice every year.”

The CET for admissions to central universities, which includes the likes of JNU, BHU and DU, would be a three-hour test, divided into two sections — common aptitude test (50 questions) and domain specific tests (30 questions each) — and will eliminate the individual exams that many of the universities conduct presently.The UGC in its letter said: “Accordingly, all central universities are advised to take appropriate measures for the Common Entrance Test from the academic session 2022-23.”

Unarmed, ‘tiger’ mom snatches kid from leopard jaws

Unarmed, ‘tiger’ mom snatches kid from leopard jaws

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal: 01.12.2021

A tribal woman took on a leopard with her bare hands and snatched her six year-old son from its jaws in a bloody fight in a village near Sanjay Gandhi National Park in MP’s Sidhi on Sunday.

The Baiga woman chased the leopard and caught up with it just when it sat down with its ‘prey’, say sources. She came out of the fight injured, but with the child in her arms. The boy also has deep claw and fang wounds, but scars — and the memory of his unarmed mother wrestling a leopard — are all that will remain.

Kiran, the feisty mother, lives in Badi Jhiriya village in the buffer zone of the national park. On Sunday evening, she was sitting with her children next to a fire outside her hut, waiting for her husband to return, unaware that a leopard was watching them. Her youngest child, a few months old, was in her lap.

In a flash, the leopard darted out of the shadows, caught six-year-old Rahul in its jaws, and ran off. Kiran was up in a flash, too. She handed the newborn to one of her other kids and sprinted after the animal. Even in the darkness, she kept up with the spotted cat and found it sitting in some bushes. Kiran says she lunged at the leopard, grabbed Rahul and pulled with all her strength. The predator seemed taken by surprise, and she could tear Rahul from its grasp.

Unwilling to give up its prey, the leopard lashed out with its claws and cut mother and child. Kiran fought back, screaming for help. By then, villagers were already running to her aid. The pounding feet and the shouts unnerved the leopard, which scampered back into the forest. The villagers took mother and child her to hospital.

Kiran with her son in Badi Jhiriya village in Madhya Pradesh

Convicted 4 yrs ago, Mallya told by SC to appear for sentencing

Convicted 4 yrs ago, Mallya told by SC to appear for sentencing

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:01.12.2021

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked fugitive businessman Vijay Mallay, sheltered in the UK despite proceedings for his extradition to India attaining finality, to appear before it on January 18 for quantification of sentence, more than four years after he was convicted for contempt of court for transferring abroad $40 million from United Spirits despite the SC barring it.

On May 9, 2017, the SC had convicted Mallya guilty of contempt of court and directed him to appear personally before it on July 10, 2017 for determination of quantum of punishment. But Mallya had already fled the country to the UK by then and never bothered to appear before the court. while contesting in various forums the Indian government’s attempts to extradite him. After he lost in resisting his extradition, he appears to have entered into “secret” proceedings with the UK government.

The MEA, through solicitor general Tushar Mehta, told a bench of Justices UU Lalit, SR Bhat and Bela M Trivedi that the extradition proceedings have attained finality but the UK government hasn’t divulged any detail of the “secret” proceedings pending qua Mallya, which is delaying his extradition.

The Justice Lalit-led bench said he was found guilty of contempt of court on May 9, 2017 and has never bothered to appear before the court. Thereafter, even though the court had directed the Centre to secure his presence before the SC, it could not be done because of pending proceedings in the UK. Adjournments and intervention of pandemic delayed hearing on quantification of Mallya’s sentence, the bench said.

“If the person wants to appear before us on January18, he can do so. Otherwise, he can be brought before court through extradition. If these options don’t happen, he can appear through a lawyer,” the bench said and appointed advocate Jaideep Gupta as amicus curiae to assist court in the matter.

6 med colleges to be set up in MP; half in tribal areas

6 med colleges to be set up in MP; half in tribal areas

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal:01.12.2021

The state cabinet, headed by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on Tuesday approved the setting up of six new medical colleges at a cost of Rs 1,547 crore. Half of them will come up in the tribal-dominated districts — Mandla, Sheopur and Mandsaur.

The other three will be built in Singrauli, Rajgarh and Neemuch. Announcing this after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, home minister Narottam Mishra said, “It must be mentioned that in the Congress regime, before the BJP government with Shivraj Singh Chouhan as CM, there were only five medical colleges in the state. Today, there are 20.” P4

Death for child rape bill withdrawn

The MP cabinet on Tuesday withdrew the Criminal Law MP(Amendment) Bill 2017 that carried provision of death penalty for rape of minor girls. This was done as the Centre has passed the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018 in Parliament, raising minimum punishment for rape of women from seven years to 10 years. “In 2017, because little girls were being raped, we sent a law to the Centre for approval. But the Centre, in 2018, made the law themselves. Our law which was sent for assent of the President has been sent back and the cabinet decided to withdraw the same on Tuesday,” home minister said.

Stenographer caught with ₹1 lakh bribe

Stenographer caught with ₹1 lakh bribe

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:01.12.2021

Sleuths from Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday caught a stenographer attached with the sub-registrar’s office, Malleswaram, while accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh on behalf of superintendent of the same office.

According to an ACB release, Meenakshi accepted the bribe on behalf of superintendent Somashekaraiah. A complaint was filed by an association member of Bescom contractors association. “Somashekaraiah demanded the bribe to initiate proceedings into the elections of Bescom contractors association. They should have been held in 2020 but were postponed due to Covid-19. Somashekaraiah asked for Rs 1 lakh to begin the election work,” the press note read.

GP secretary trapped

The same day, ACB officials caught a secretary with Gollahalli gram panchayat in Ramanagar while accepting Rs 18,000 bribe from a land owner to carry out an official favour. The accused, S Krishnappa, had demanded Rs 20,000 from a farmer for e-khata of his land, said the ACB release. The complainant had paid an advance of Rs 2,000 and the trap was set up when he visited Krishnappa to pay the remaining amount.

K’taka to test all int’l flyers; 7-day home quarantine if -ve

K’taka to test all int’l flyers; 7-day home quarantine if -ve

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:01.12.2021

In the backdrop of concerns over Omicron variant, the Karnataka government said on Tuesday that all international passengers will have to mandatorily undergo RT-PCR tests on arrival in Karnataka airports.

Those who test negative must remain in home quarantine for seven days; those who test positive will be hospitalized and treated separately. The state will soon issue a notification on when the new travel guidelines come into force.

After chairing a meeting of the Covid Technical Advisory Committee, health minister K Sudhakar said: “Currently, the RT-PCR test on arrival is conducted only on passengers coming from ‘at-risk’ countries notified by the Centre. Going forward, we have been instructed by the CM to test travellers from all countries.”

The state will write to the Centre seeking ban on travellers from the countries where Omicron variant has been detected. The state witnesses around 2,500 international arrivals per day, with a majority of them landing at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and the Mangaluru international airport. “Those who are symptomatic and negative will have to undergo testing at home on the fifth day of their arrival. Asymptomatic passengers will be tested on the seventh day,” the minister said.

15 nursing students test +ve in Tumakuru

Cluster outbreaks in state educational institutions continue as 15 students in two nursing colleges in Tumakuru district tested positive. The samples of all 15 students have been sent to Bengaluru for genomic sequencing to find out the variant of the virus that they are infected with. P 4

Travel plans disrupted

While incoming passengers have to pay for the test (Rs 3,000 for the quick one), the state will deploy tech tools such as Quarantine App and Tele Medicine to track and treat them.

The government’s travel restrictions, which come ahead of Christmas-New Year season, has disrupted travel plans of thousands of Bengalureans, especially technology professionals working in the US and European countries and locals planning to fly abroad for vacation. Many would be forced to cancel or alter their travel plans fearing more restrictions in the coming weeks, thereby sending the travel and hospitality sector into a tizzy.

Sudhakar justified the restrictions, stating: “Unlike other countries which are banning foreign travelers following the fear of Omicron, we have been considerate and are telling people to undergo quarantine for a week at home. The new strain seems to be contagious. We need to take preventive action now so that we do not regret later.”