MADURAI 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 50 heads of state expected to attend 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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the summit brought the focus back on the war. Joint efforts can stop it and establish peace Host has three items on the agenda ■ 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 Ami d s e l f i e d i p l o m a c y India-Middle east corridor gets g7 shot 8 Maoists, 1 STF jawan killed in Chhattisgarh encounter e j a z ka i ser @ 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 resi- dent of Jashpur district. Based on intelligence inputs about the presence of senior Maoist members, a joint operation was conducted by the District Reserved Guards, the STF, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Border Security Force on Saturday morning, Sunderraj said. The operation continued throughout the day along the Kutul, Farasbeda and Kodtameta jungles resulting in the death of the Maoists and jawan, he added. The bodies of the radicals have been recovered but are yet to be identified. Security forces are continuing to comb the area. So far they have recovered INSAS rifles, .303 rifles, BGL launcher and shells, a huge cache of ammunition, besides items of daily use from the gunfight site. About 1,200 jawans are engaged in the anti-Maoist joint operation for the first time in the Maad area, an insurgent stronghold. Since January the , forces have liquidated as many as 131 Maoists after various operations in Bastar. Expressing grief over the death of the STF jawan, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said, “The Maoists are shaken by consistent tough actions against them. Our government is committed to eliminating them. We will not sit quiet till the mission is achieved.” AIADMK decides to stay off bypoll, blames DMK S K U M A R E S A N @ 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 mis- Italian PM Giorgia Meloni takes a selfie with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during the G7 summit in Italy | PTI A g en c i es 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 the invitation of host Meloni. As for the business end of the summit, the G7 industrialised nations committed themselves to promoting con- express read CM: Rahul’s sweet box shattered PM’s visits Coimbatore: “Rahul Gandhi’s one sweet box shattered PM Modi’s eight visits to Tamil Nadu. I can’t forget Rahul Gandhi’s affection ever,” CM MK Stalin told DMK workers on Saturday | P4 WITH THIS ISSUE Second Coming PLUS 12 PAGES crete infrastructure initiatives such as the India-Middle 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 Indo-Pacific’ based on the rule of law. “We will further promote 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 In- dia-Middle East-Europe 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 criticism over lack of transparency and disregard for sovereignty of the nations. The IMEC was firmed up on the sidelines of the G20 summit in India last year. 14 die after tempo accident 26 tourists were travelling to Tungnath -Chopta in Uttarakhand when their tempo fell into the Alaknanda. Ten injured and hospitalised in AIIMS Rishikesh | P8 Victim families to get `8 lakh relief, wages for four years E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Kochi 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. KG Abraham, 70, the founder of the NBTC Group dismissed charges of overcrowding in the residential apartments or irregularities in 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 sorry . . 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. “Further, there is insurance coverage for all the employees. This will ensure that the families receive four years’ salaries of the victims.” t20 world cup Crash out in different conditions ka lyan i man g a l e @ Chennai THE day the 2024 T20 World Cup started, nobody would have imagined that halfway through the tour nament, amongst the four semi-finalists from the previous edition, only India would have confirmed their position in Super 8. There were talks of sluggish pitches, weather disruptions, one-sided matches but in the end what mattered was the results. To be fair, teams that played well won. The tourna- ment has truly turned global too. New Zealand and Pakistan are already eliminated. The future of defending champion England is only partially in their hands (they play late on Satuday night). Meanwhile, Afghanistan and the USA have qualified for the Super 8 for the first time. The reasons for the struggle of the so-called big teams can be traced to the conditions in the US. At the same time, the associate nations raised the bar. There were a handful of upsets, but there could have been many more. For example, during the chase of 136 against Papua New Guinea in the second fixture of the WC, West Indies were in trouble with 10 runs required per over. USA took it a step further with a super-over win against Pakistan. On Saturday Nepal lost by just , one run against South Africa. The usual contenders like India, Australia and West Indies have remained unbeaten, however, it is the unusual suspects who made T20 WC interesting. six Teams in Super 8 so far United States are the only associate team to have qualified for Super 8 so far. Other teams are India, Australia, Afghanistan, West Indies and South Africa. England, Bangladesh, Netherlands and Scotland still have a chance use 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 be- ing 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
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