Mangaluru: Cops open fire at saffronite rowdies in self-defence; arrest one

Bengaluru, Feb 27: About 60kg of unaccounted gold ornaments worth Rs. 21 crore were unearthed by officers of the Commercial Taxes Department of Karnataka Government.

The ornaments were recovered after the department conducted surprise inspections and raided business premises of wholesale jewellery dealers in Ranganatha Mansion and Sakalajee Market in Chickpet area of Bengaluru on Tuesday.

"The raid was based on information that many traders from other states visit the city and carry gold jewels without any valid documents and supply it to local jewellers without invoices," said Srikar MS Commissioner of Commercial Taxes in a statement.

The officers raided the premises of 23 jewellers and found 60 kg gold ornaments in stock which were not covered by valid documents. A penalty was levied on the undocumented ornaments.

"It is informed that the enforcement wing is keeping a close watch on the interstate movement of gold, silver and all the dealers in the state are hereby advised not to buy any goods without valid purchase invoices, added Srikar MS.

The Himachal Pradesh police have confirmed the arrested a man for injuring a pregnant cow by feeding her wheat flour ball laced with firecrackers. 

The cow’s jaw was blown off-- reprising the tragic story of a pregnant elephant that lost its life after eating a pineapple stuffed with a firecracker in Kerala.

While the incident took place on May 26 in Jhandutta area of Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district, it came to light only on Saturday, May 6, when the cow’s owner, Gurdayal Singh, uploaded a video of the injured animal on social media.

In the video, Gurdiyal Singh describes how the cow’s mouth had been injured after one Nandlal fed her explosives.

He confirmed that Nandlal works as a mechanic in Singh’s neighbourhood. Singh said that Nandlal has no remorse for his action. Nandlal has said that he is not scared of the repercussions and that he will continue to do whatever he deems fit. “Even the village sarpanch cannot harm me”, challenged Nandlal when confronted by Singh. 

The cow has given birth to a healthy calf since but Singh said the animal is still not able to eat because of an injured jaw and is being administered Glucose.

The video went viral with people demanding strict action against the person who fed firecrackers to the animal.

The practice of studding dough balls with firecrackers isn’t uncommon in Himachal, and farmers resort to this to keep wild animals, especially boards, off their fields. In the Kerala incident too, the explosive-filled-fruit was meant for wild boars. In many parts of the country, including Himachal, the method is also used to hunt for bush meat -- an illegal practice.

Bilaspur superintendent of oolice (SP) Devakar Sharma confirmed the incident and said the cow was fed a highly explosive firecracker popularly called “aalu bomb”. 

Aalu is Hindi for potato. He said a case under Section 286 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has been registered and the role of the neighbours named by Singh is being investigated.

Washington, Jun 30: Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the US science journal PNAS.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses "all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans," say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers then carried out various experiments including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans -- principally fever, coughing and sneezing. 

G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses.

Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4.

According to blood tests which showed up antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4 percent of swine workers had already been infected.

The tests showed that as many as 4.4 percent of the general population also appeared to have been exposed.

The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human -- the scientists' main worry.

"It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic," the researchers wrote.

The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs.

"The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses," said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University.

A zoonotic infection is caused by a pathogen that has jumped from a non-human animal into a human.