Vaishali makes history, wins Candidates 2026 GM R Vaishali etched her name in the record books as she beat Kateryna Lagno and won the Women’s Candidates 2026. She became the Women’s World Championship Challenger and will face reigning world champion Ju Wenjun. She is also the second Indian woman after Koneru Humpy (2011) to feature in title match | Michal Walusza/FIDE mangaluru l Thursday l April 16, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Indian panel to visit US next week for talks Delimitation: Oppn to vote down Constitution change P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi An Indian delegation will be in the US from April 20 to 22 to take forward the negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Wednesday . This will be the first such inperson engagement between the two sides after the US Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs as illegal. The ruling had prompted both sides to recalibrate their positions ahead of the next round of talks. “The negotiating teams will be meeting in person after a gap of about 3-4 months. They have been engaging virtually We are . looking at finalising the legal agreement, which is a logical follow-up of the joint statement released on 7th February,” Agarwal said. The BTA was initially to be signed by mid-March. Ahead of the three-day special session of Parliament, Opposition parties decided to vote against the proposed Constitution amendment bill on delimitation, Congress President Mallikar jun Kharg e said on Wednesday. Top Opposition leaders had met at Kharge’s residence here to discuss strategy on the women’s reservation law and the proposed delimitation amendment. Kharge stressed that the Opposition has always supported women’s reservation in Parliament, but was concerned about the manner in which the bill is being brought. “It is politically motivated. Just to gag and suppress Opposition parties, the government is doing this,” Kharge said after the meeting. “We are continuously supporting women’s reservation. We are insisting that the earlier amendment that was passed, be implemented. They (the BJP- bILATERAL TRADE Asim Munir in Tehran to MLA Kulkarni convicted in draw US, Iran back to talks murder case agencies Efforts to extend the US– Iran ceasefire saw progress on Wednesday, with both sides expected to return to the table soon, reports said. A Pakistani delegation, led by day Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, reached Tehran. A senior US official said there is continued engagement between the US and Iran to reach a deal to extend the week-old truce. Earlier, reports quoting 47 Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge addresses the press after a meeting of Opposition leaders on the special Parliament session, in Delhi on Wednesday | Shekhar yadav led government) are playing tricks with delimitation. Therefore, all parties have taken a decision unitedly to oppose this bill,” he added. Besides Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, other leaders at the meeting included DMK’s T R Baalu, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, Trinamool’s Sagarika Ghosh, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant, NCP-SCP’s Supriya Sule, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav (joining virtually), CPI’s Annie Raja, CPI-M’s Nilotpal Basu, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, Independent MP Kapil Sibal, IUML’s E T Mohd Bashir and RSP’s N K Premchandran, apart from Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh. Leaders from Kerala and Tamil Nadu said that the women’s reservation Act should be implemented within the existing framework of 543 seats. regional officials said the two countries had reached an “in principle agreement” to extend the truce to give room for diplomacy . However, the official said Washington has not formally agreed to an extension of the ceasefire. The current ceasefire will expire on April 22. Meanwhile, President Trump said the war was “very close to over”. Iran had threatened to block all trade across the region if the US blockade of its ports P11 continued.  express read Man hurls paralysed mom to death from 4th floor Bengaluru: A 75-year-old paralysed woman was killed by her 42-yearold son who threw her from the fourth floor of a building in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The deceased, Savithramma, had been bedridden for the past four years and was dependent on her son C Venkatesh. The police arrested Venkatesh following a complaint by building owner E Vikram, who claimed that the accused lifted his mother from their second floor home to the terrace and threw her down. ENS Rakshith Gowda @ Bengaluru Congress MLA from Dharwad Vinay Kulkarni and 16 others were convicted on Wednesday in the 2016 murder of Zilla Panchayat member Yogesh Goudar. The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on Thursday He had hired the oth. er convicts to kill Goudar over personal and political enmity . Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat of the Special Court for sitting and former MPs/MLAs, convicted 17 of the 21 accused on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence or providing false information and others. It, however, acquitted Kulkarni and another accused, Chandrashekar Indi, of charges under the Arms Act. Accused No. 1 Basavaraj and No. 17 Shivanand Shrishaila Biradar turned approvers. The court also acquitted accused No. 20 Vasudev and No. 21 Somashekhar Nyamagoud, giving them P4 the benefit of doubt.