kottayam l Sunday l january 10, 2021 l `8.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition Indonesia plane with 62 aboard feared crashed Pontianak-bound domestic carrier loses contact four minutes after take off from Jakarta on Saturday around 1 pm (IST) Suspected debris found in sea, search on Plunged 10,000 feet in one minute Teams have been dispatched to search the waters north of Jakarta. However, rescuers said suspected debris had been found in the sea. According to Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya, the Boeing 737-500 run by budget airline Sriwijaya Air had 62, including 12 crew, people on board. No radio beacon signal has been detected, officials said ■ ■ Tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed said that the flight “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta” The 26-year-old plane was of the 737 Classic series, not to be confused with 737 MAX that was grounded over safety concerns 2018 A lion air boeing 737 max flight had crashed in indonesia, killing 189 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Trump all set to be impeached for second time Prez-elect Joe Biden says impeachment for Cong to decide, adds Trump not fit to serve Cicilline of Rhode Island began drafting while they were shelOutgoing US President Don- tering in a place during Wednesald Trump, accused of inciting day’s chaos at the Capitol. his supporters to mount a vioIf the process goes ahead, it lent insurrection on Capitol would be the second time the Hill — in which five House has pursued people died — is all set impeachment against to become the only US Trump. In December President to be im2019, the lower champeached twice, with ber impeached him on If he does not House Speaker Nancy charges of abuse of resign, I have Pelosi saying she would power and obstruction instructed the move forward with im- Rules Committee of Congress. But the peachment if Trump to be prepared to Senate acquitted him move forward did not resign on both the charges in with a motion for February 2020. No US immediately . impeachment “If he does not, I president has ever have instructed the been impeached Nancy Pelosi, Rules Committee to be twice. House Speaker prepared to move forHowever, the prosward with Congresspect of an impeachman Jamie Raskin’s 25th ment conviction seems remote Amendment legislation and a because of Trump’s Republimotion for impeachment,” can broad support in the Pelosi said. Senate. According to reports, nearly President-elect Joe Biden 160 House of Representatives said impeachment was for ConDemocrats have signed on the gress to decide, but added in bill, which congressmen Ted the same breath that he has felt Lieu of California and David Trump was not fit to serve. Express News Service Vehicles pass through the newly inaugurated Vyttila flyover on Saturday | A Sanesh KOCHI FLYOVERS OPEN FOR TRAFFIC Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the flyovers at Vyttila and Kundannoor on Saturday morning 13,000 vehicles pass through Vyttila junction in an hour on an average iNSIDE Pinarayi condemns the unauthorised opening of Vyttila flyover by V4Kerala activists and criticises retired High Court judge Kemal Pasha for supporting it Former chief minister Oommen Chandy takes a dig at the LDF government over the fanfare at the flyovers’ opening B169.08cr was the total cost of the flyovers A view of the Kundannoor flyover | A Sanesh Vyttila junction continues to choke | P4 first shot Vaccination starts on Jan 16, 3-cr frontliners to get jab first E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi The vaccination drive against Covid-19 will begin on January 16, the Centre on Saturday announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the preparedness for the exercise. “After the detailed review, it was decided that in view of the forthcoming festivals, including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc., the Covid-19 vaccination will start from January 16,” said the Union Ministry of Health in a statement. The Drug Controller General of India had granted restricted emergency use or accelerated approval for two vaccines — Covidshield and Covaxin — which, according to him, had established safety and immunogenicity . An estimated three crore healthcare and frontline workers would be the first to get the jab, followed by the above 50year age, and the under-50 age groups with co-morbidities. The second group numbers around 27 crore. The Vyttila flyover project was launched in December 2017 and was expected to be completed within 18 months. But floods and the Covid situation delayed the work. Overcoming the challenges, the PWD completed the work saving L6.73 crore from the estimated cost of L93.07 crore. But some people are trying to create controversy to get publicity — Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister Two flyover junctions new accident spots? | P4 PLUS 12 PAGES US President Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter due to the “risk of further incitement of violence”, the social media giant has announced, days after his supporters stormed the US Capitol and caused the deaths of four civilians and a police officer. The unprecedented move by the California-based social media platform comes after Trump tweeted that he would not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden GOP senator asks Trump to resign Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has said President Donald Trump should resign, making her the first Republican senator to say he should leave office as backlash grows against his goading of violent supporters who stormed the Capitol. “I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski said. 10 babies die in fire VS to quit as panel chairman, leaves official house at maha hospital E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai A fire broke out at the Sick Newborn Care Unit of the Bhandara district general hospital, leaving ten infants dead on Saturday early morning. The fire brigade rescued seven children from the blaze suspected to have been sparked by an electrical short circuit. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray ordered a high-level six-member committee to probe into the mishap, besides announcing an ex gratia of `5 lakh each to the parents of the deceased children. Pointing towards the negligence of the hospital authorities, the disconsolate parents alleged that no staff was present when the fire broke out around midnight. A reply to a query under RTI Act in 2018 had revealed that the hospital was ill-equipped to deal with fire accidents, and had pointed towards a lack of safety equipment on the premises. Further, no fire audit has been done at the hospital since 2018. Soon after the mishap, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar ordered fire audits at all government hospitals across the state. Condoling with the parents, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Heartw r e n c h i n g t r a g e dy i n Bhandara, Maharashtra, where we have lost precious young lives. My thoughts are with all the bereaved families. I hope the injured recover as early as possible”. The health minister said of the ten children, seven had died due to suffocation, while three were burnt. EXPRESS READ Jose K Mani quits RS post, eyes assembly Kottayam: Putting an end to speculations, Kerala Congress (M) chairman Jose K Mani resigned from the position of Rajya Sabha MP. Speculations are rife that he will contest from Pala or Kaduthuruthy in the upcoming assembly polls. Ex-Union minister Solanki passes away Ahmedabad: Former foreign minister and Congress veteran Madhavsinh Solanki, who had also served as chief minister of Gujarat, died in Gandhinagar on early Saturday morning, Congress leaders said. He was 93. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram Former chief minister V S Achuthanandan is set to leave the post of Administrative Reforms Commission chairman due to health reasons. The commission’s tenure runs concurrently with the current assembly . Ahead of stepping down, Achuthanandan on Friday moved from Kowdiar House, his official residence, to Velikkakath, the house of his son V A Arun Kumar at Barto Hill VS wants to finish off on the the remaining reports quickly. It might take two weeks. He’ll step down soon after that An Administrative Reforms Commission official in the state capital. The commission has so far filed eight reports before the state government. Achuthanandan is likely to step down once the remaining five reports are submitted. “VS wants to finish off the remaining work quickly. It might take two weeks,” an official working with the panel said. C P Nair and Neela Gangadharan are the other members of the panel while Sheela Thomas is the member secretary . Signal, Telegram in race to replace WhatsApp as messaging platform BISMAH MALIK @ Bengaluru with WhatsApp’s new privacy policy receiving flak from all over, rival platforms Signal and Telegram have reported a sudden spike in downloads. The quit WhatsApp campaign got momentum after the richest person in the world, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, tweeted that everybody switch to Signal. In the frenzy that followed, Signal’s registration systems reportedly crashed as it could not handle the surge of new users coming on board. The new privacy policy which , will kick in from February 8, requires users to agree to let owner Facebook and its subsidiaries collect sensitive data. According to data sourced from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, downloads for Signal and Telegram in India jumped 55% and 14%, respectively, on a week-on-week basis, in the first week of January In . contrast, the growth for What- sApp has remained flat between December 26 and Januray 6. However, WhatsApp still remains the leader with 430 million users in India against Telegram’s 45 million and Signal’s 1-2 million users, according to Counterpoint research. The Facebook-owned app recorded 2.4 million downloads in India, while Telegram had 1.6 million and Signal 17,000 between January1 and 6. On Saturday, WhatsApp clarified its latest update does not change its data-sharing practices with Facebook WITH THI S I S S UE India’s Bread Revolution Twitter Kicks out Don permanently i n d i a - a u stra l i a ser i es Bumrah, Siraj ‘racially abused’; team lodges complaint Venkata K r i s hna B @ Chennai Racial abuse reared its ugly head on Saturday when India team management lodged an official complaint against abuses, allegedly racial, hurled at two of its players during the third Test against Australia in Sydney The matter was taken . up with International Cricket Council match referee David Boon and security officials at the Sydney Cricket Ground. According to team sources, it involved pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj who Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were allegedly subjected to racial abuse during the Sydney Test | AFP pointed out they were “racially abused” by a section of the crowd. It is learnt that some spectators started hurling abusive words at Bumrah and Siraj while they were fielding in the boundary. As the day progressed cuss words apparently turned racial. It is learnt that Siraj was allegdely subject to even monkey word, which led the pacer to inform stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. The matter was brought to the notice of the on-field umpires Paul Reifel and Paul Wil- son and Boon. According to a member of the Indian team, Boon and the SCG security officials have already spoken to the players and are set to review the video footage to identify the fans. No Brisbane, BCCI requests CA It is learnt the BCCI has requested Cricket Australia to shift the final Test from Brisbane. The BCCI cited the UK variant of the coronavirus as the reason for not travelling to Brisbane and requested Sydney be the venue. EPS is CM candidate for 2021 polls The AIADMK general council on Saturday unanimously endorsed Edappadi K Palaniswami as its chief ministerial candidate for the ensuing Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. P5 Achuthanandan is one of the founder leaders of the CPM. The 97-year-old has not been active for sometime now due to age-related ailments. He had suffered a minor stroke last year. Achuthanandan has been one of the major crowd pullers for the Left front including in the 2016 assembly polls. He did not join campaigning during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in which the Left front suffered a major setback. He is quite unlikely to contest the assembly polls again. Man guns down wife in front of young son, ends life E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kasaragod A day after a young couple approached the Adhur police to resolve their dispute, the man shot Baby dead his wife and ended his life, said an officer. Vijayan, 40, of Vadakkekara at Kanathur in Muliyar panchayat shot dead his wife Baby 35, at close range using , a country-made gun and then hanged himself in their neighbour’s rubber plantation, said Adhur sub-inspector Rathnakaran E. The couple’s six-year-old son Abhishek saw his father shooting his mother, said the officer. The bullet from the single-barrel rifle pierced through Baby’s head, killing her instantly . The incident happened at 11.50am on Saturday he said. , “The son ran out to the neighbour’s house and told them that his father killed his mother,” Ratnakaran said. Another woman from the neighbourhood rushed to the couple’s house hearing the ● More on P5 gunshot.