Mangaluru, Dec 19: The Customs officials at the Mangaluru International Airport arrested a person who was carrying gold weighing 247.7 grms in a form of bar pasted on his head.
In a tweet on Wednesday, the Customs sleuths said the passenger had pasted the gold bar on his head and covered it with false hair. He was checked soon after his arrival by an Air India flight from Dubai.
The gold seized was valued at Rs 9.57 lakh.
Kasaragod, Feb 3: The third novel coronavirus case has been reported in India, with another Keralite student who returned from Wuhan University on Monday testing positive for the infection.
The medical student is in an isolation ward at Kanhangad government hospital in Kasaragod, Health Minister K K Shailaja informed the state assembly.
The condition of the student is "stable", she said.
Out of the 104 samples tested till Sunday, three have tested positive.
This is the third positive case reported from Kerala.
Two earlier positive cases, also of students who came back from Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, were reported from Thrissur and Alapuzha districts.
The minister made the statement in the assembly under Rule 300 in the wake of three positive cases reported from the state.
A total of 1,999 people, who have a travel history from China and other affected countries, are under observation in Kerala, of whom 75 are in isolation wards of various hospitals.
The remaining 1,924 are under home quarantine as per a medical bulletin issued on Sunday night.
The minister has made it clear that those under observation at home should keep away from public functions and should not participate in any events or go out of their homes during the 28 day incubation period.
Hubli, May 2: Around 1400 migrant workers from neighbouring districts, working at brick manufacturing factories in Hubli were sent to their respective districts on buses, amid coronavirus lockdown on Friday.
Dr Purushottam, Nodal Officer, COVID-19 task force said, "Total 1473 labourers from eight neighbouring districts, working in the brick manufacturing units of our district were sent by 74 buses. 876 labourers are from Kalburgi where we are sending 44 buses, 350 labourers are from Vijaypura where we are sending 27 buses."
He continued saying that 20 persons will be accommodated in a bus while maintaining social distancing.
"Before the labourers boarded, the buses were disinfected. NWKRTC officials took a special interest in doing so. The District Collector has written letters to the concerned DCs regarding shifting of labourers in every bus, one Nodal Officer will handover them to the local officials," Dr Purushottam added.
On Friday, the buses were sent to seven districts and one bus will be sent today.
Washington, Apr 29: A US government panel on Tuesday called for India to be put on a religious freedom blacklist over a "drastic" downturn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, triggering a sharp rebuttal from New Delhi.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends but does not set policy, and there is virtually no chance the State Department will follow its lead on India, an increasingly close US ally.
In an annual report, the bipartisan panel narrowly agreed that India should join the ranks of "countries of particular concern" that would be subject to sanctions if they do not improve their records.
"In 2019, religious freedom conditions in India experienced a drastic turn downward, with religious minorities under increasing assault," the report said.
It called on the United States to impose punitive measures, including visa bans, on Indian officials believed responsible and grant funding to civil society groups that monitor hate speech.
The commission said that Modi's Hindu nationalist government, which won a convincing election victory last year, "allowed violence against minorities and their houses of worship to continue with impunity, and also engaged in and tolerated hate speech and incitement to violence."
It pointed to comments by Home Minister Amit Shah, who notoriously referred to mostly Muslim migrants as "termites," and to a citizenship law that has triggered nationwide protests.
It also highlighted the revocation of the autonomy of Kashmir, which was India's only Muslim-majority state, and allegations that Delhi police turned a blind eye to mobs who attacked Muslim neighborhoods in February this year.
Coronavirus state-wise India update: Total number of confirmed cases, deaths on April 29
The Indian government, long irritated by the commission's comments, quickly rejected the report.
"Its biased and tendentious comments against India are not new. But on this occasion, its misrepresentation has reached new levels," foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.
"We regard it as an organization of particular concern and will treat it accordingly," he said in a statement.
The State Department designates nine "countries of particular concern" on religious freedom -- China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The commission asked that all nine countries remain on the list. In addition to India, it sought the inclusion of four more -- Nigeria, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.
Pakistan, India's historic rival, was added by the State Department in 2018 after years of appeals by the commission.
In its latest report, the commission said that Pakistan "continued to trend negatively," voicing alarm at forced conversions of Hindus and other minorities, abuse of blasphemy prosecutions and a ban on the Ahmadi sect calling itself Muslim.
India's citizenship law fast-tracks naturalization for minorities from neighbouring countries -- but not if they are Muslim.
Modi's government says it is not targeting Muslims but rather providing refuge to persecuted people and should be commended.
But critics consider it a watershed move by Modi to define the world's largest democracy as a Hindu nation and chip away at independent India's founding principle of secularism.
Tony Perkins, the commission's chair, called the law a "tipping point" and voiced concern about a registry in the northeastern state of Assam, under which 1.9 million people failed to produce documentation to prove that they were Indian citizens before 1971 when mostly Muslim migrants flowed in during Bangladesh's bloody war of independence.
"The intentions of the national leaders are to bring this about throughout the entire country," Perkins told an online news conference.
"You could potentially have 100 million people, mostly Muslims, left stateless because of their religion. That would be, obviously, an international issue," said Perkins, a Christian activist known for his opposition to gay rights who is close to President Donald Trump's administration.
Three of the nine commissioners dissented -- including another prominent Christian conservative, Gary Bauer, who voiced alarm about India's direction but said the ally could not be likened to non-democracies such as China.
"I am deeply concerned that this public denunciation risks exactly the opposite outcome than the one we all desire," Bauer said.
Trump, who called for a ban on Muslim immigration to the US when he ran for president, hailed Modi on a February visit to New Delhi.
Comments
Add new comment