3 Palestinians killed, 376 injured in attack by Israeli soldiers

Agencies
October 6, 2018

Gaza, Oct 6: Three Palestinians were killed and 376 injured in clashes between thousands of Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson of Gaza Health Ministry told reporters that three Palestinians, including a child, were killed by Israeli soldiers' gunfire in eastern Gaza City, Xinhua reported.

A total of 192 of the injured were hospitalised, including 126 shot by Israeli soldiers' live gunshots, he said.

Al-Qedra said that among the casualties, two paramedics and two journalists, including a female, were also injured.

Since the outbreak of the clashes called 'Great March of Return' on March 30, the Israeli army has shot dead 197 Palestinians and wounded more than 21,000 others, he said.

Clashes on Friday broke out when thousands of Palestinians joined the 28th Friday of the event.

Demonstrators gathered before the fence of the border between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel. They burned tires, waved Palestinian flags, and threw stones at the Israeli soldiers stationed on the border with the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition at the crowds of the protesters who were calling for ending the Israeli blockade.

The demonstrators also cut parts of the barbed wire of the fence of the border, where some of them managed to infiltrate into Israel. They burned tires and returned to Gaza.

Several masked activists released dozens of arson balloons during the protests, which landed into Israel and caused large fires to various farms and natural resorts, according to Israeli media reports.

Security officials and an Israeli army statement said that Israeli army drones fired two missiles at Palestinians who cut the barbed wire of the fence of the border and threw homemade hand grenades at the soldiers, no injuries reported.

Khaled al-Batsh, a senior Islamic Jihad movement leader, told reporters in eastern Gaza that the Palestinians will carry on the rallies "until we achieve victory and reach our goals."

Meanwhile, Hamas movement's spokesperson in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, also said that the practical response to the Israeli threats to end the Great March of Return is "an endless and largest popular participation."

Efforts sponsored by Egypt and the UN to reach calm between Israel and Hamas-led factions had so far achieved no progress.

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News Network
July 9,2020

New Delhi, Jul 9: The Central Board of Secondary Education has strongly defended its decision to drop topics like democratic rights, citizenship, federalism, secularism etc in the name of reducing the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

The board has claimed that the dropped lessons "are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT".

The CBSE said it had to come up with the clarification after realizing its decision was "interpreted differently".

"The rationalisation of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken by the Board for nearly 190 subjects of class 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only. The objective is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency situation and prevent learning gaps," it said.

While it has said that no questions can be asked from the reduced syllabus in the next board exams, the CBSE has also directed schools to follow alternative calendars prepared by the NCERT.

"Therefore each of the topics that have been wrongly mentioned in media as deleted have been covered under Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT which is already in force for all the affiliated schools of the Board," it clarified.

On Wednesday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Shocked to know that the central Government has dropped topics like citizenship, federalism, secularism and partisan in the name of reducing CBSE course during the COVID crisis."

"We strongly object to this and appeal the HRD Ministry to ensure these vital lessons aren't curtailed at any cost," Banerjee added.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said the Women's IPL or the Challenger series, as it is better known, is "very much on", ending speculation about the parent body not having a plan for Harmanpreet Kaur and her team.

The men's IPL will be held between September 19 and November 8 or 10 (final date yet to be locked in) in the UAE due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in India. The women's IPL will also be fit in to the schedule, according to the BCCI chief.

"I can confirm to you that the women's IPL is very much on and we do have a plan in place for the national team also," Ganguly told PTI ahead of the IPL Governing Council meeting later on Sunday.

The BCCI president, who is awaiting a Supreme Court verdict on waiver of the cooling-off period to continue in the position, did not divulge details but another senior official privy to the development said that women's Challenger will be held during the last phase of IPL like last year.

"The women's Challenger series is likely to be held between November 1-10 and there could be a camp before that," the source said.

The former India captain also said that the centrally contracted women players will have a camp which has been delayed due to the prevailing situation in the country.

"We couldn't have exposed any of our cricketers -- be it male or female to health risk. It would have been dangerous," Ganguly said.

"The NCA also remained shut because of Covid-19. But we have a plan in place and we will have a camp for women, I can tell you that," he added.

The BCCI's cricket operations team is chalking up a schedule where Indian women are likely to have two full-fledged white-ball series against South Africa and the West Indies before playing the ODI World Cup in New Zealand. 

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News Network
January 27,2020

Kabul, Jan 27: A passenger plane crashed on Monday in a Taliban-held area of Afghanistan's Ghazni province, local officials said.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1:10 p.m. local time in Deh Yak district, which is held by the Taliban. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash.

The number of people on board and their fate was not immediately known, nor was the cause of the crash.

Ariana Airlines, Afghanistan's national carrier, dismissed the claim that one of their planes had crashed in a statement on their website, saying all their aircraft were operational and safe.

The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter.

The last major commercial air crash in Afghanistan occurred in 2005 when a Kam Air flight from western Herat to the capital Kabul crashed into the mountains as it tried to land in snowy weather.

The war however has seen a number of deadly crashes of military aircraft. One of the most spectacular occurred in 2013 when an American Boeing 747 cargo jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Bagram air base north of Kabul en route to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. All seven crew member were killed.

Afghanistan's aviation industry suffered desperately during the rule of the Taliban when its only airline Ariana was subject to punishing sanctions and allowed to fly only to Saudi Arabia for Hajj flights.

Since the overthrow of the religious regime smaller private airlines have emerged but the industry is still a nascent one.

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