TIRUCHY l sunday l june 16, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l LATE city EDITION Zelenskyy hopes peace meeting in swiss resort will make history Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the summit brought the focus back on the war. Joint efforts can stop it and establish peace 50 heads of state expected to attend Host has three items on the agenda Switzerland, which is hosting the peace summit, said more than 50 heads of state and government will join the meet at the B’rgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. Russia and China and a bunch of other nations will not participitate. The US has sent Vice President Kamala Harris to the event. An official from India will be attending the summit | P9 ■ Switzerland has three items on the peace summit agenda: nuclear safety of the Zaporizhzhia power plant; humanitarian assistance and exchange of PoWs; and food security, which has been disrupted because of war ■ Putin wants any peace deal to be built around Ukraine’s neutral status and limits on its armed forces, while delaying talks about Russia-occupied areas 100 delegates are attending the peace summit in the swiss resort 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 Victim families to get `8 lakh relief, wages for four years India-Middle east corridor gets g7 shot E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi Agencies The founder of the company whose 49 employees died in an inferno at their residence in Kuwait three days ago, on Saturday offered a public apology . As many as 45 of the victims were Indians. K G Abraham, 70, the founder of the NBTC Group that hired them, hails from Pathanamthitta. He dismissed charges of overcrowding in the residential apartments or irregularities in the building permits. He said the company will protect the families of the victims, including providing educational support to students. “We are sorry We are so sor. ry. I was crying at home hearing about the tragic accident. They are our people. They are like our families. Some of them had been working with us for 25-27 years,” Abraham said. “We believe this did not happen because of our mistake. But, still we will take the responsibility. They were working with us. They built our company They are our family . .” He said the company will give `8 lakh each to the families of the deceased. If the Group of Seven summit in Italy was all about heavy-duty diplomacy it had , its moments of fun as well. Like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni taking a selfie video with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tagging it as Meloni and sharing it from her official X handle as well as her Instagram account. Her four words as caption — Hi friends, from #Melodi — broke the internet with 23 million views in 10 hours. Modi attended the summit at t h e i nv i t at i o n o f h o s t Meloni. As for the business end of the summit, the G7 industrialised nations committed themselves to promoting concrete infrastructure initiatives such as the IndiaMiddle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) in their communique at the end of the meet, also attended by Modi. The communique also reiterated the commitment to a ‘free and open IndoPacific’ based on the rule of law. “We will further promote Italian PM Giorgia Meloni takes a selfie with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the G7 summit in Italy | PTI concrete G7 PGII (Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment) initiatives, flagship projects, and complementary initiatives to develop transformative economic corridors for quality infrastructure and investment, such as the deepening of our coordination and financing for the Lobito Corridor, the Luzon Corridor, the Middle Corridor, and the India-Middle EastEurope Economic Corridor, also building on the EU Global Gateway the Great Green , Wall Initiative, and the Mattei Plan for Africa launched by Italy,” the communique read. The IMEC envisages a vast road, railroad and shipping network among Saudi Arabia, India, the US and Europe to ensure integration among Asia, the Middle East and the West. It is also seen as an initiative by like-minded nations to gain strategic influence in the face of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has faced increasing c r i t i c i s m ove r l a ck o f transparency . AIADMK decides to stay off bypoll, blames DMK S KUMARESAN @ Chennai In a surprise move, the principal opposition party AIADMK, , has decided to boycott the Vikravandi bypoll scheduled for July 10. Explaining the reason for the decision to boycott the bypoll, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said the DMK will misuse government machinery and use its muscle and money power to prevent the byelection from being conducted in a free and fair manner. “The AIADMK would focus on the 2026 Assembly election and form the next government in the state,” EPS said. The decision to boycott the bypoll was taken at the party’s state-level functionaries’ meet held under EPS at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai on Saturday. DMK said the AIADMK’s decision exposed its clandestine ties with the BJP . In a statement, EPS expressed concern over the way byelections are being conducted under the DMK regime. He recalled that a similar decision to boycott polls was taken during the DMK regime between 2006-11 when former CM J Jayalalithaa was heading the AIADMK. She had boycotted the bypolls for Ilayangudi, Kambam, Thondamuthur, Bargur, and Srivaikundam seats in 2009, EPS said. P5 E X P RESS READ WITH THIS ISSUE 8 Maoists, 1 jawan killed in Chhattisgarh encounter ejaz kaiser @ Raipur: Eight fighters of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), including three women, and a jawan were killed in a gunfight at the forested terrain of Maad region of Narayanpur district, about 400 km south of Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Saturday. Besides the jawan, two other security officials sustained injuries, said Sunderraj P, Bastar’s Inspector General of Police. The injured jawans have been airlifted to a hospital in Raipur and are said to be out of danger. All three belonged to the Special Task Force (STF). The deceased jawan was identified as Nitish Ekka. He is a resident of Jashpur district. The bodies of the radicals have been recovered but are yet to be identified. Security forces are continuing to comb the area. Since January, the forces have liquidated as many as 131 Maoists after various operations in Bastar. Second Coming PLUS 12 PAGES
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