Goan liquor worth 1.16 lakh sized, one held

Bengaluru, Mar 2: The Karnataka Department of Public Instruction has directed the School heads across the State to grant leave to students and staff suffering from fever, cold, cough and other respiratory infections.

As precautionary measure following the COVID-19 (known as coronavirus) outbreak at the global level, the department issued a circular in this regard here on Monday.

If any student, teacher or staff is suffering from respiratory infections, they should be granted leave. They should be allowed to come back to school only after confirming from the doctor that they are cured, the circular added.

Dammam, Feb 3: Harish Bangera, 32, who was arrested in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia more than a month ago after offensive Facebook post went viral, has remained incommunicado.

Bangera, who hails from Goyadibettu in Bijadi village of Kundapur taluk, Udupi district, was an air-conditioning technician for a company in Dammam, capital of Saudi's eastern province.

He was arrested on December 20, 2019 after he posted derogatory messages on Facebook against crown prince Mohammad bin Salman and went on to claim that a Ram temple will be built in the holy city of Makkah too just like in Ayodhya where the Babri mosque was demolished.

Fearing legal action, he later posted a video pleading for forgiveness. “I have committed a mistake. Please forgive me. I will never upload any such posts again," he is seen saying in the video.

After his arrest, his roommate, who happens to be a Pakistani, has reportedly made several attempt to contact him, but in vain. He also has approached many Indian and Saudi authorities in his bid to get Bangera out of prison, sources said.

The Saudi authorities have not even responded to the messages of Indian Ministry of External Affairs. "We've made many efforts to contact the Saudi authorities but they haven't responded,” MEA sources said.