Dubai: Major fire beaks out at Address Downtown hotel on New Year eve

December 31, 2015

Dubai, Dec 31: A huge fire ripped through a luxury Dubai hotel tonight as people gathered to watch New Year's Eve celebrations, injuring at least 16 people, authorities said.

downtown

Dubai's government media office tweeted that a "fire has been reported in the Address Downtown hotel. Authorities are currently on-site to address the incident swiftly and safely".

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

The 63-storey building, which is close to Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, was engulfed in flames across several floors as sirens wailed and helicopters hovered overhead, witnesses said.

Dubai's police chief said all the hotel's residents had been evacuated from the scene of the blaze, which had still not been extinguished some two hours after it broke out.

"All the residents are out," General Khamis Matar al-Mzeima said.

"Until the fire is put out, we will not have information on what caused it," he added.

"At least 14 people have been slightly injured, along with one medium injury, and a heart attack case registered due to people pushing" amid the smoke, the media office tweeted.

Witness Raphael Slama told AFP the fire started at around 9:30 pm (1730 GMT) and rapidly spread upwards across dozens of floors.

The government tweeted that the fire erupted on the 20th floor and affected only the outer facade of the building.

"Four firefighting teams have been deployed" to fight the blaze, it added.

Authorities said earlier that they had deployed thousands of security personnel to ensure visitors and residents could enjoy the New Year's festivities safely.

The emirate had promised a "spectacular" fireworks display that was set to kick-off at midnight from the Burj Khalifa before spreading to various locations across the city.

A spokeswoman for the government said the planned festivities would go ahead despite the fire."New Year's celebrations will proceed according to schedule," Mona al-Marri was quoted by Al-Arabiya as saying, before confirming on her Twitter account.

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News Network
March 9,2020

Kalaburagi, Mar 9: As the International Women's Day was celebrated all across the globe, the Department of Post inaugurated the first-ever all-women-employees operating post office here in Kalaburagi.

"Today, we have declared the Jagat Post Office under the Kalaburagi district as women's post office. From today onwards, women staff is going to work here exclusively," CG Kamble, Assistant Superintendent, Post Office, told media.

One of the employees of the post office inaugurated on Monday said: "We are happy that we can work freely as all the employees here are women. Similarly, the government must also take steps to identify one of the offices in the state as only women employees' office."

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News Network
June 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 18: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Prathap Simha Nayak, M.T.B. Nagaraj, R. Shankar and Sunil Valyapure to contest in the June 29 biennial elections for 4 of the 7 Karnataka legislative Council seats, an official said.

"Our high command selected 3 of the 4 candidates the state core committee recommended on Tuesday, excluding H.R. Vishwanath, a former Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) rebel, who lost in the December 5 Assembly by-elections from Hunsur in Mysuru district on a BJP ticket," a party official said.

Nagaraj, a former Congress rebel, who also lost in the Assembly by-election from Hoskote in Bengaluru Rural district on a BJP ticket, was the state housing minister in the 14-month-old JD-S-Congress coalition government, which fell on July 23, 2019 after 17 of their rebels resigned then.

Shankar, who was an Independent and a minister in the former coalition government, was not given the BJP ticket to contest in the December Assembly bypolls though he too resigned from the Ranebennur assembly seat in Haveri district, about 340km northwest of Bengaluru, along with former Congress and JD-S rebels.

Valyapure is the party's grass-root leader from Chincholi in Gulbarga district in the state's northern region, about 586km from Bengaluru.

Valyapure extensively campaigned in the May 2019 general elections and ensured the victory of BJP candidate Umesh Yadav from the reserved Gulbarga Lok Sabha seat, defeating Congress senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

Nayak is also the party's grassroot cadre who rose from the ranks to become its Dakshina Kannada district president in the state's coastal region.

As the ruling party has 116 legislators in the 225-member Assembly, all its 4 candidates will need 28 votes each to win the contest.

Of the 7 outgoing Council members, 5 are from the Congress and one each from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and an Independent.

With 68 lawmakers, the Congress will be able to retain 2 seats and the JD-S one as it has only 34 legislators in the lower house.

The Congress has nominated its outgoing Rajya Sabha member B.K. Hariprasad and outgoing Council member Naseer Ahmed to contest for 2 Council seats.

Of the 75-member Council, the opposition Congress has 37, BJP 19, JD-S 16, two Independents and one Chairman.

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News Network
January 3,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called on young scientists of India to "Innovate, Patent, Produce and Prosper," and said these four steps would lead our country towards faster development. The Prime Minister also stressed on the need to transform the landscape of Indian science, technology and innovation.

"The growth story of India depends on its success in the science and technology sector. There is a need to transform the landscape of Indian science, technology and innovation," Modi said.

Speaking after inaugurating the 107th Session of Indian Science Congress, he said, "My motto for the young scientists in this country is -Innovate, Patent, Produce and Prosper. These four steps will lead our country towards faster development."

"If we innovate we will patent and that in turn will make our production smoother and when we take these products to the people of our country, I'm sure they will prosper," he said, adding that innovation for the people and by the people is the direction of our new India. The Prime Minister also said he was happy to learn that India's ranking has improved in the Global Innovation Index to 52.

"Our programmes have created more technology business incubators in the last five years than in the previous 50 years. I congratulate our scientists for this achievement," he added.

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