Maiden ‘Mangalorean Carnival 2017’ in Dubai on Oct 20

Bengaluru, Feb 2: A woman from Bengaluru lost Rs 2.8 lakh to a 'foreign friend' who promised her gifts, including gold jewellery and foreign currency.

Priya, 37, of Banashankari III Stage, told police a man named Bright Wills from England befriended her on social media in December 2019.

On December 20, Wills said he would send gold ornaments and some British pounds as gifts to celebrate their friendship and took her postal address.

“A woman claiming to be an official from the customs office, Delhi, called me on December 21. She told me there was a courier from England in my name and I should pay Rs 75,000 tow ards customs clearance. I believed her and transferred Rs 75,000 to a bank account number provided by her. On December 23, another woman called and said gold ornaments had been sent to me by courier and I had to pay Rs 2.1 lakh towards the paperwork. I transferred the money to another account number mentioned by her," Priya told police.

"On December 25, I received an email which said I should make a surety deposit of Rs 4.3 lakh within 48 hours or else the courier would be sent back to its original destination. I realised I had been cheated by Wills and others. Till now, I have paid Rs 2.8 lakh to them," she claimed.

Udupi/Mangaluru, Mar 1: A total of twenty leaplings were born in the hospitals of the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada (DK) districts on Saturday, February 29, district health department said on Sunday.

According to the district health department, sixteen babies were born in DK district while Udupi district saw four births. More boys than girls were born in DK (12–4) and it was the inverse in Udupi district (3–1).

Bengaluru, Jan 31: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday got the green signal from the BJP central leadership for the much-awaited cabinet expansion in the state and he is mostly likely to induct 11 ministers. Yediyurappa said the date of swearing-in will be decided in a day or two, although he indicated that it would most likely be held on February 3.

Currently, there are 18 ministers, including the chief minister, in the cabinet that has a sanctioned strength of 34. Sixteen berths are vacant. "Many of our suggestions have been accepted by Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda. If there are differences, we will discuss in Bengaluru and finalise it," Yediyurappa told reporters after meeting Shah in the Parliament Complex here.

Except for one or two, most of the disqualified JDS-Congress MLAs who got re-elected in the bypolls on BJP tickets will be made ministers, he said, adding there won't be any additional deputy chief ministers. However, sources said, a total of 11 ministers would be inducted into the cabinet.

"We discussed yesterday and now also. Shah has agreed to almost everything," Yediyurappa said, adding he is returning back "happy" after getting the nod for the cabinet expansion. "I am going happy," he said.

Yediyurappa had been anxiously waiting for the party high command's approval to expand his ministry amid intense lobbying by the aspirants. Opposition parties have been critical of the BJP and Yediyurappa over the delay in the cabinet expansion, alleging he was weak and that his administration had collapsed.