National interest: Germany primed for big Euro kick-off The three-time champions look to shake-off their listless recent tournament performances as the doors open for 2024 edition of Euros. Germany will face Scotland in first match. France, Portugal start as favourites Thanks to their depth, France, 2018 World Cup champions and 2022 runners-up, begin as favourites. The side is stacked with world-class performers, including Kylian Mbappe. Portugal, which is having a Golden Generation of sorts, rivals France in terms of squad depth. Can Cristiano Ronaldo, fresh of an underwhelming season in Saudi, win a second Euro? kochi l friday l june 14, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION 24 Number of teams in the 2024 event. The final is set for July 14 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 24 Keralites among 49 killed in Kuwait fire NEET grace marks 23 from the state who died in Wednesday’s accident identified; bodies to be brought to Kochi in special aircraft today E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram The massive fire that ripped through a six-storey apartment at Al Mangaf in Kuwait has claimed the lives of 24 Keralites, the NORKA said on Thursday The blaze that broke out in . the building that housed labourers of an Indian company on Wednesday morning has so far claimed 49 lives, of which 42 are Indians. Out of 24 Keralites who lost their lives, 23 have been identified. Of these, five are from Pathanamthitta district, four from Kollam, three each from Kottayam and Kannur, two each from Thiruvananthapuram, Kasaragod and Malappuram and one each from Alappuzha and Thrissur districts. Some of the bodies that are yet to be identified will be subjected to DNA test and the process will take two weeks to complete, said NORKA Principal Secretary Dr K Vasuki. She said the immediate priority is to bring back the bodies, for which the Union government has arranged a special aircraft. The bodies of Keralites will be flown to Kochi in a special aircraft on Friday morning, where they will be received by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ministers and senior bureaucrats, according to chief minister’s office. From Kochi, the bodies will Centre denies nod for Veena’s Kuwait travel Kochi: The Union government on Thursday shot down Health Minister Veena George’s plan to travel to Kuwait to coordinate the repatriation of the bodies of Malayalees. “It’s extremely saddening that the state’s efforts to coordinate the repatriation of bodies, and to visit those injured was shot down by the Centre,” Veena said. P4 Doval gets third consecutive term as Nat’l Security Advisor R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @New Delhi Ajit Doval P K Mishra Spymaster Ajit Doval was reappointed National Security Advisor (NSA) for a third consecutive term and so was bureaucrat P K Mishra as the principal secretary to the prime minister with effect from June 10, the government said on Thursday . Their terms will be co-terminus with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or until further orders, whichever is earlier, a government statement said. Both will continue to hold the rank of cabinet minister in the table of precedence. They accompany Modi whenever he goes abroad, like he did on Thursday for the Group of Seven summit in Italy . be taken to the victims’ houses in special ambulances. NORKA with the help of the district administration has arranged an ambulance fleet for transporting the bodies. “The state government in coordination with the Union government and Kuwaiti government have been making all efforts to bring back the bodies at the earliest,” Vasuki said. The treatment of those who sustained serious injuries will continue in Kuwaiti hospitals as they have been admitted to the intensive care units and are not in a condition to be shifted. According to NORKA CEO Ajith Kolassery, there are some Keralites among the nine persons who are currently under treatment in ICUs with serious injuries. Meanwhile, a special state cabinet that met on Thursday decided to provide `5 lakh each to the family of the deceased and `1 lakh each to those inP4 jured in the fire accident. Su c h i t r a K a lyan M o hant y @ New Delhi Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh meets Indians, who were injured in the fire accident, at the Jaber hospital in Kuwait on Thursday | PTI mins to receive bodies The NBTC Group, for which the people housed in the The bodies of Keralites who building were working, has died in the fire accident will announced I8lakh as be flown to Kochi in a special immediate financial solace aircraft on Friday morning. for the family of the deceased. The company Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ministers and senior said other benefits and bureaucrats will receive the jobs will be provided to the kin of the victims. bodies, according to CMO NIT-C fines five students `33 lakh over night curfew protest on campus E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kozhikode In a controversial decision, authorities of National Institute of TechnologyCalicut (NIT-Calicut) have slapped a huge fine of `33 lakh on five students who led a protest against imposition of night curfew on the campus in March. A show-cause notice was is- axed, retest offered sued on Thursday to the students in order to claim the loss suffered by the institute due to students’ protests. The penalty amount, ing to `6,61,155 per student, was imposed on Vaishakh Premkumar and Ben Thomas of the department of electronics, Kailash Nath of the department of computer science and engi- neering, Irshad Ibrahim of the department of mechanical engineering, and Adarsh of the department of material science and engineering. The protest which took place on March 22 resulted in significant disruptions on the campus. The protesters prevented employees from entering the campus, and a working day was lost, according to NIT-C offi● More on P5 cials. The Centre on Thursday cancelled the grace marks awarded to 1,563 students who took the NEET-UG entrance exam for medical courses following a national uproar and gave them the option of taking a retest on June 23. Those who take the retest will lose their pre-grace marks; those who don’t will get to retain their score minus the compensatory marks. The decision came after a four-member panel examined the controversy and suggested remedial measures to allay the fears of the students, the gover nment told the Supreme Court. The committee was of the view that the award of grace marks on grounds of loss of time while taking the test resulted in a skewed situation as it had to be limited to the questions that remained un-attempted. The National Testing Agency (NTA) had earlier granted compensatory marks to students in six centres who had complained of loss of time. It created a furore amid allegations of paper leaks and other malpractices in Students shout slogans against the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG entrance exam, in Kolkata on Thursday | PTI some places. A vacation bench comprising justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta termed the NTA’s decision fairly reasonable and refused to stall the counselling for NEETUG, scheduled to commence from July 6. They however, said , all the admissions will be subject to the outcome of the petitions that sought cancellation of the exam held on May 5 on the grounds of question paper leak and other malpractices. The bench also said it cannot expand the scope of the Centre’s decision to those students who had not approached the court yet. EXPRESS READ Pema Khandu sworn in Arunachal Pradesh CM Guwahati: BJP leader Pema Khandu was on Thursday sworn in as the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for the third time in a row. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Lt Gen (retired) KT Parnaik at a function held in Itanagar. P8 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express
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