THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l friday l june 14, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION National interest: Germany primed for big Euro kick-off 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? The three-time champions look to shake-off their listless recent tournament performances as the doors open for 2024 edition of Euros. A look Holders Italy in the Group of Death ■ ■ After failing to advance to the last WC, Italy, the defending European champs, enjoyed a serene qualifying campaign. However, they find themselves in a challenging group with Spain, Albania and Croatia Other teams that have a chance include England, who can lay claim to having the best players of Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga 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 ess Ne w s S e 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. Non-bailable arrest warrant out against BSY E XPR E S S N E W S S E RVIC E @ Bengaluru A POCSO trial court in Bengaluru on Thursday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa. Judge N M Ramesh passed the order after hearing an application filed by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing a POCSO case registered against the veteran BJP leader. In its plea, the CID stated that Yediyurappa, 81, did not appear before it despite summons. Special public prosecutor Ashok Naik said the accused is influential and is trying to cover up the case. Police booked Yediyurappa under Section 8 of the POCSO Act and Section 354A of the IPC based on a complaint filed on March 14 by the mother of a 17-yearold girl. The complaint alleged Yediyurappa sexually assaulted the minor girl on February 2 at his residence. The complainant, 54, was a cancer patient and she died at a private hospital last month. Earlier this week, the complainant’s son moved court alleging lack of progress in the case. Yediyurappa has denied the charge and filed a plea in the Karnataka HC seeking the quashing of the case. 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express 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 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. @ 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 5 students Pema Khandu `33 lakh over protest takes oath as Arunachal CM In a controversial decision, authorities of National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-Calicut) have imposed 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 issued on Thursday to the students in order to claim the loss suffered by the institute due to students’ protests. The penalty, amounting 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 engineering, 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 officials. The NIT-C administration has given the students a seven-day window to respond to the penalty notice, emphasising that the fines were intended to compensate for the perceived losses incurred due stir fallout The students staged the protest after the dean issued a circular on March 20 introducing new regulations on the campus According to the circular, the students were required to return to their hostels by midnight, and the campus canteen was to be closed at 11pm to the protest. “We will seek legal advice before responding to the show-cause notice issued by the registrar,” Kailash Nath told TNIE. “I first received the notice on Thursday morning and we were indeed surprised to see it, as none of the claims raised by the institute in the notice are true. The main gate was closed as part of the protest, but regular activities of the college were unaffected. We were only trying to talk to the director of the campus as representatives of the Students Affairs Council (SAC) as the students were facing many issues due to unwanted restrictions on the campus. The institute authorities are still not trying to understand the difficulties faced by students. Instead, they are busy making the lives of students ● More on P5 tough,” he said. Doval gets third consecutive term as NSA RA J E S H K U M AR THA K UR @New Delhi 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 The appointments indicate . S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y night curfew E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @Kozhikode Ajit Doval (left) and P K Mishra the PM’s trust in these top officers. After retirement as Intelligence Bureau director in 2005, Doval founded the Vivekananda International Foundation, a public policy thinktank. He worked with the IB for more than 33 years in different roles and in areas like the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab. Modi picked him as the country’s fifth NSA in 2014. During his first tenure, Doval is believed to have played a pivotal role in the surgical strikes on terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the Uri terror attack. As for Mishra, he served as additional principal secretary in the PMO in Modi’s first term as prime minister. In September 2019, he was elevated as principal secretary to the prime minister. Mishra is a 1972 batch retired IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre. Besides, two other appointments of former IAS officers of Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh cadres — Amit Khare and Tarun Kapoor — were made advisors in the Prime Minister’s Office for two years. express read BJP mulls nominating Smriti, Munda to RS Prime minister reviews security situation in J&K Govt hosps all set to get more geriatric clinics New Delhi: The BJP may consider nominating at least three of its defeated party candidates in the recent Lok Sabha polls to the Rajya Sabha — Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda and RK Singh, all Union ministers in the Modi 2.0 team. P7 New Delhi: Hours before departing to Italy for attending the G-7 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a meeting with officials and reviewed the situation in Jammu and Kashmir following recent terror attacks. P7 Kochi: Taking into consideration the growing elderly population, a slew of geriatric clinics are being set up at taluk, district and medical college hospitals in the state. Such facilities are available at a few govt hospitals and plan is to extend them across state, officials said. P2 axed, retest offered Pema Khandu took oath as Arunachal Pradesh CM for the third time in a row. Amit Shah and Nadda were among BJP leaders who were present | P8 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 some places. A vacation bench Students shout slogans against the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG entrance exam, in Kolkata on Thursday | PTI comprising justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta termed the NTA’s decision fairly reasonable and refused to stall the counselling for NEET-UG, scheduled to commence from July 6. They how, ever, 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 Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.
14062024 of The New Indian Express-Thiruvananthapuram