SDPI holds ‘Raj Bhavan Chalo’ demanding repeal of NRC in Assam

Bengaluru, Mar 12: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan on Wednesday said rumours that the state government has asked offices to remain closed tomorrow are false.

He clarified that the government has asked employers to explore the option of work from home amid the coronavirus scare.

"The rumours that the Govt has asked offices to remain closed tomorrow are false. We have asked employers to explore options of work from home for their employees. Let us be vigilant about this issue and not fall prey to any such rumours," Ashwathnarayan tweeted.

Meanwhile, Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi has cancelled all seminars, workshops or conferences in the premises in the wake of coronavirus spread.

"All the functions including seminars, workshops, conferences are to be cancelled. This is for urgent and necessary compliance," officials from the hospital said.

Bengaluru, Jul 13: In an attempt to avoid the ugly scene of migrant workers walking to their native places due to the current week-long lockdown imposed in the state, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is running 1,600 additional buses on Monday and Tuesday to help them return safely.

The KSRTC has already run 249 additional buses from the State capital and has so far ferried 6,641 passengers and 231 buses have been booked.

The KSRTC appealed to the public not to panic as additional buses have been deployed. "After ensuring social distance and conducting thermal screening, passengers will be allowed to travel. It has already been planned to operate additional buses," the corporation stated in a press release here.

Istanbul: Mosques in Turkey reopened on Friday for mass prayers after more than two months as the government further eased strict restrictions to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

Turkey has been shifting since May to a "new normal" by easing lockdown measures and opening shopping malls, barbershops and hair salons.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said many other sites -- restaurants and cafes as well as libraries, parks and beaches -- will reopen from Monday.

Hundreds of worshippers wearing protective masks performed mass prayers outside Istanbul's historic Blue Mosque for the first time since mosques were shut down in March.

In the Ottoman-era Fatih mosque, worshippers prayed both inside and outside, with the municipality handing out disinfectants and disposable carpets.

"I have waited a lot for this, I have prayed a lot. I can say it's like a new birth, thanks to God, he has brought us back here," he said.

Another worshipper, Asum Tekif, 50, said: "It has a been a long time... we missed the mosques."

Turkey, a country of 83 million, has so far recorded 4,489 coronavirus-related deaths and 162,120 confirmed cases.

Prayers in Hagia Sophia

Muslim clerics on Friday recited prayers in the Hagia Sophia, the world famous Istanbul landmark which is now a museum after serving as a church and a mosque.

The prayers were held to celebrate the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople, today's Istanbul, by the Ottomans in 1453.

"It is very important to commemorate the 567th anniversary of the conquest ... through prayers in the Hagia Sophia," said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the ceremony via videoconference.

The stunning edifice was first built as a church in the sixth century under the Byzantine Empire as the centrepiece of its capital Constantinople.

After the Ottoman conquest, it was converted into a mosque before being turned into a museum during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in the 1930s.

But there have been hints about reconverting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Last year, Erdogan himself mooted the possibility of turning Hagia Sofia museum into a mosque.

Such calls have sparked anger among Christians and raised tensions with neighbouring Greece.

In 2015, a Muslim cleric recited the Koran in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years to mark the opening of an exhibition.

After Friday prayers at the Blue Mosque, a small group of Muslim worshippers shouted: "Let the chains break and let the Hagia Sophia open".

The group was later dispersed by the police who stopped them from protesting near Hagia Sophia that sits immediately opposite the Blue Mosque.