Flight chartered by ‘Expertise’ repatriates stranded Saudi Kannadigas to Mangaluru along with employees

Udupi, Jan 30: Fishermen in Udupi’s Malpe have netted ‘spanner crab’, a rare variety of deep sea crab, mostly found in Australia and Hawaiian coast.

Hundreds of onlookers were surprised to the see the catch when it was brought to Malpe harbour by the fisherman Prashanth Kunder and others on Tuesday evening.

Dr Shivakumar Haragi, Assistant Professor at Karnatak University, PG Centre Department of Marine Biology, Karwar identified this crab variety as ‘spanner crab’ and the scientific name of this crab is Ranina Ranina.

Ranina Ranina is mainly nocturnal as it remains active during night and is found buried in sand during the day .It is easily distinguished from other crab species in its habitat due to its red carapace and elongated midsection.

Resembling a frog in its shape, this crab species is found mainly in Africa, Hawaiian coast and also in the Great Barrier Reef, located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Its lifetime is seven to nine years and each crab weighs around 400-900 grams.

Prashanth Kunder and his associates have also netted a rare fish variety called yellow-edged lyretail. Another unique variety fish netted by Prashanth is epinephelus flavocaeruleus.

Bengaluru, May 15 Reformed underworld don N Muthappa Rai died battling cancer at a private hospital here on Friday, hospital sources said.

Rai, 68, was suffering from brain cancer for the past one year and was admitted at Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road, where he died at 2.30 am, the sources said. Rai is survived by two sons.

Born into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family in Dakshina Kannada''s Puttur town, Rai entered the crime world at a very young age.

Karnataka police issued arrest warrants against Rai in eight cases, including murder and conspiracy.

In 2002, Rai was deported to India from the United Arab Emirates. On arrival, he was questioned by various investigation agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), and by the Karnataka police. He was later acquitted due to the lack of evidences.

In his reformed years, Rai founded charitable organisation ''Jaya Karnataka''.

Rai has appeared in Tulu film ''Kanchilda Baale'' in 2011 and Kannada film ''Katari Veera Surasundarangi'' in 2012.

Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma wanted to make a movie based on Rai''s life. The film roped in actor Vivek Oberoi for the lead role and was shot in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Dubai and London. However, it has not been released due to production delays.

Rai was enthusiastic about the film and even celebrated his birthday with Varma and Oberoi.

After his cancer diagnosis, Rai withdrew from public life and resigned from Jaya Karnataka.

His last rites are likely to be performed at Bidadi on Friday, family sources said.

Bengaluru, May 22: Karnataka Congress delegation met Chief Election Commissioner, Dr B Basavaraju in Bengaluru, urging him to guide Karnataka Government to conduct local body elections and not to allow State government to nominate their party men to the local bodies.

The delegation was led by Congress leader Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar.

"They (State government) wants to postpone the election, they have a lot of other provisions. We are demanding to protect the law, the government doesn't have the power to interfere in the system. We will not allow the state government to nominate their party men.

The CM and his entire team is responsible for this, they are killing the democracy and Panchayati Raj system of the State," said Shivakumar while speaking to the reporters.

The local body elections were scheduled to take place in the month of March or April, which were postponed in view of the COVID-19 crisis.

However, the date for conducting the local body elections has not been decided yet.