Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 4: All 46 Indian nurses abducted from Tikrit in strife-torn Iraq were released by ISIS militants on Friday. The development came as a rare piece of positive news amid a bloody war raged by the Sunni insurgents.
The nurses will fly back to Kerala on Saturday morning, IANS quoted chief minister Oommen Chandy as saying.
Chandy told the news agency over telephone from New Delhi that an Air India flight will depart from the Indian capital on Friday evening to Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region, to evacuate the nurses.
"There will be one official each from the Kerala and central governments on the plane. The nurses will board the flight at Erbil and the plane will reach Kochi at 7am tomorrow (Saturday)."
The nurses, all from Kerala, were on Thursday taken from Tikrit to Mosul by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) militants. They reached Mosul unharmed on Thursday night, their relatives said. The nurses worked at a hospital in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown.
A glimmer of hope appeared for their relatives on Friday morning after one of the nurses sent a text message to her family members in Kerala.
"We got an SMS saying they (the nurses) are on their way to Erbil airport, which is 70kms away from Mosul. If everything goes well, they will be back in the country late tonight," a relative told HT. However, Chandy later said the anxious family members will have to wait a bit more.
AFP quoted Tincy Thomas, an abducted nurse, as saying, "Some here ... they are saying ... we will go to Erbil."
An Indian diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the news agency that the group was expected to reach Erbil, which is a short drive from Mosul but has been insulated from the unrest.
According to the relatives, militants did not misbehave with the hostages, whose ordeal began on June 11.
Early on Friday, Shobha Sasikumar, mother of abducted nurse Shruti, said, "My daughter called me last night saying they reached Mosul around 11pm (Indian time). They are in an old building that is without electricity. So far, the abductors were friendly towards them."
The abduction of the nurses, all of them women and from Kerala, had spelt a fresh trouble for India. A month ago, ISIS militants, who now control northern and western Iraq, snatched 40 Indian construction workers from Mosul. All but one of them are still in captivity. The Centre had said on Thursday that it was trying its best to combat the crisis.
The government sought the help of some prominent Indians settled in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Some reports also said external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj called up politicians in Gulf countries and sought their help in view of the crisis in Iraq.
The release of the Indian nurses will be a big boost to the Centre's diplomatic efforts. According to sources in the government, the "decision" to make the nurses obey ISIS order to move to Mosul came after Swaraj and Chandy held talks twice on Thursday when nurses were also spoken to.
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46 Indian nurses freed, will return from Iraq tomorrow morning: Reports
July 4, 2014
With 5,609 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally reaches 1,12,359
News Network
May 21,2020
New Delhi, May 21: As many as 5,609 new COVID-19 cases were reported in India in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 1,12,359 according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Out of the total cases, 63,624 are active cases, 45,300 patients have been cured/discharged or have migrated and 3,435 deaths have been reported.
With 39,297 cases in total, Maharashtra remains the worst affected state in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu (13,191 cases), Gujarat (12,537 cases), and Delhi (11,088 cases).
The nationwide lockdown imposed as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus has been extended till May 31.
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Fuel prices raised for 21st consecutive day: Petrol price up by Rs 0.25, diesel by Rs 0.21
News Network
June 27,2020
New Delhi, Jun 27: Fuel prices were hiked by the oil marketing companies for the 21st day in a row on Saturday. Petrol and diesel will now cost Rs 80.38/litre and Rs 80.40/litre respectively in the national capital.
The price of petrol is increased by Rs 0.25 per litre while that of diesel by Rs 0.21 per litre.
Rates differ from state to state depending on the incidence of value-added tax (VAT).
Notably, oil marketing companies have been adjusting retail rates in line with costs after an 82-day break from rate revision amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. These firms on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs.
The Congress party had called the increase in the price of petrol and diesel 'unjust', 'thoughtless' and demanded from the Central government to roll back increase with immediate effect and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the citizens of this country.
In an official statement, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had said that no government should levy and impose such unacceptable strain on its people.
Before the nation entered the lockdown, the average price of petrol and diesel in Delhi was Rs 69.60 per litre and Rs 62.30 per litre respectively.
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Zuckerberg worries that if India can ban TikTok, it can also ban Facebook: Report
Agencies
July 23,2020
Expressing concern over the ban imposed on TikTok by the government of India, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly called the development in the south Asian country “worrisome”.
TikTok was amongst the 59 Chinese apps that were banned in India but why it hogs the maximum limelight because TikTok had the second-largest user base in India with over 200 million users.
As per The Verge writer Casey Newton, Zuckerberg was worried about TikTok’s India ban. Although it soon cashed into the opportunity and released a TikTok clone “Reels”, the government’s reason behind banning the app in India wasn’t received well by Mark Zuckerberg.
He had said that if India can ban a platform with over 200 million users in India without citing concrete reasons, it can also ban Facebook if something goes amiss on the security and privacy front.
Why Mark finds it particularly worrisome because Facebook is already involved in a lot tussle with the governments across the world involving national security concerns.
“Facebook already faces fights around the world from governments on both the left and the right related to issues that fit under the broad umbrella of national security: election interference, influence campaigns, hate speech, and even just plain-old democratic speech. Zuckerberg knows that the leap from banning TikTok on national security grounds to banning Facebook on national security grounds is more of a short hop,” the report by Casey read.
Facebook till now has not faced any kind of issue in India but considering the debacle with the other governments, it is not entirely wrong to worry about its future in India if any national security issue arises. Back in 2016, Facebook’s Free Basics service, which means a free but restricted internet service, was banned in India by the telecom regulators.
The TRAI had said that the Free Basic services were banned in India because it violated the principles of net neutrality. With Free Basics services, Facebook had planned to bring more unconnected users online. But since 2016, there has been no major tussle between the Indian government and Zuckerberg due to national security issues.
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