KOCHI l wednesday l October 30, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l LATE city EDITION After India, now Brazil opts out of China’s Belt and Road Initiative Brazil has decided not to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), becoming the 2nd BRICS member after India to opt out of the project WILL COOPERATE IN OTHER WAYS, SAYS OFFICIAL Brazil, headed by President Lula da Silva, will instead seek alternative ways to collaborate with Chinese investors. Brazil wants to ‘take the relationship with China to a new level, without having to sign an accession contract’, Celso Amorim, special presidential adviser for international affairs, told Brazilian newspaper O Globo. India was the first BRICS country to publicly oppose BRI ■ Nov 20 Realpolitik, Trump factor in play ■ Explaining that Brazil does not want to take Chinese projects as ‘an insurance policy’, the official said, “We are not entering into a treaty” The prevailing opinion in Brazil is that joining the project would not only fail to bring any tangible benefits for Brazil in the short term but could also make relations with a potential Trump administration more difficult China had hoped to bring Brazil on board during Prez Xi Jinping’s visit 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 Charles, Camilla on secret B’luru trip for treatment Subhash Chandra NS & R i s h i ta K h a nn a @Bengaluru King Charles III is on his first secret visit to Bengaluru after his coronation as king of the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey, London. He arrived in Bengaluru on October 27 and will be at the Soukya International Holistic Health Centre (SIHHC) in Whitefield for wellness treatment till Wednesday night, when he is expected to fly to London. Sources privy to his secret visit informed this newspaper that King Charles arrived in Bengalu- ru directly from Samoa where he attended the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting from October 21-26. His visit to Bengaluru was strictly kept under wraps and he was directly taken to SIHHC where he was also joined by his wife Queen Camilla. According to sources, the couple’s day begins with a morning yoga session, followed by breakfast and rejuvenation treatment before lunch. After a brief rest, a second round of therapies follows, ending with a meditation session before dinner and lights out by 9 pm. They have 102 hurt in blast during temple fireworks in Kasaragod Charles and Camilla in one of their previous visits for wellness treatment | Source: SIHHC been enjoying long walks around the campus, visiting the organic farm and cattle shed. Considering the high-profile secret visit, a high-security ring was thrown around SIHHC. The health centre, founded by Dr Issac Mathai, is located in Sam- ethanahalli, Whitefield, on Bengaluru’s outskirts. This integrative medical facility combines traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda, Homeopathy , Yoga, and Naturopathy, along with over 30 complementary therapies like Reflexology, Acupres- sure, Acupuncture and Dietetics. Although this is his first visit as a monarch, Charles has visited the centre on nine earlier occasions, and celebrated Deepavali on three occasions there. The royal couple has earlier taken wellness treatments, including antia g i n g , d e t ox i f i c at i o n a n d rejuvenation. On November 14, 2019, the couple celebrated the then Prince Charles’ 71st birthday at SIHHC, an event which attracted a lot of publicity unlike this visit. Formerly the Prince of Wales, Charles became King after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022. with India to slap penalties on GE Drug syndicatebusted Mexican links over fighter jet engines delay UJWAL JALALI @ New Delhi Delivery schedule running late by two years; first batch expected by March 2025 Way past Deadline Air Force ordered 83 LCA Tejas Mk1As from HAL for D46,000 crore in 2021; delivery was to start in March 2024 but delayed due to non-receipt of engines from GE Stricter norms The government is working on a new procurement system under which sensitive information about the arms and equipment could be safeguarded M aya nk S i n g h @ New Delhi THE Centre has decided to impose penalties on US manufacturer GE Aerospace for delays in the delivery of jet engines for Indian Air Force’s indigenous light combat aircraft, Tejas Mk-1A. The government is also tightening the procurement norms to safeguard the sensitive details of defence contracts, highly placed sources told this newspaper. The penalty clause against GE Aerospace has been invoked for the delay in the supply of GE-404 engines contracted by India for the Mk-1A series. All defence contracts carry a penalty clause to make the contractors follow a fixed timeline; in case of breach of this timeline, they will have to pay a reasonable compensation. Sources said GE Aerospace shifted delivery schedule multiple times, cumulatively leading to a delay of two years. The delivery was supposed to start in 2023; it has now been pushed back to March 2025, going by the GE’s latest schedule. GE has been contracted to manufacture and deliver 99 jet engines (GE-404) and not even one has been delivered, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) sources told this newspaper. The deal, signed between HAL and GE Aerospace in 2021, was worth $716 million. Flagging the inordinate delays, Chief of Air Staff A P Singh had earlier said: “It is a known fact that Tejas has been delayed. There is no doubt. There is also a promise that the production rate will be increased to 24 aircraft per year. If that promise is kept, the delays can be caught up with. The first aim is not to let our aircraft strength go down.” Sources in the know said the delays are purely a logistics matter involving GE Aerospace, which is facing some issues with its suppliers, and that HAL could not be faulted for this. The delays were also flagged at the highest levels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the issue during his visit to the US in September. The government is also working on a new procurement system to protect sensitive information. “We are working to get hold of a model so that we are not hauled to courts and asked to reveal national secrets,” a senior official told this newspaper. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Special Cell of Delhi Police, in a joint operation, on Tuesday dismantled a meth manufacturing lab being run clandestinely in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and arrested four persons, including a former warden of Tihar Jail, a Delhi-based businessman and a Mumbai-based chemist. The crackdown has revealed scintillating details of the syndicate, such as the lab’s links with notorious Mexican drug cartel, Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). The meth manufactured at the Noida lab was tested by a member of the Mexican cartel in Delhi. CJNG is considered one of the most dangerous criminal networks in Mexico and the second-most powerful after the Sinaloa Cartel. It is heavily militarised, has its own ‘Special Operation Group’ that travels in armoured vehicles. Cannibalism of a victim is one of the ways the cartel trains its new recruits. Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths on October 25 raided the factory in Kasna Industrial Area of Noida. “We found about 95 kg of methamphetamine in solid and liquid forms,” Deputy Director General (NCB) Gyaneshwar Singh said. The value of seized drugs is estimated to be around `100 crore. Preliminary probe revealed that the Delhi-based businessman, who was found inside the factory at the time of the raid along with the former Tihar Jail warden, were instrumental in setting up of the illegal factory procuring chemicals required to , produce meth and importing the machinery . Court junks plea, P P Divya held for abetment of suicide E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @Kannur Smoke seen at Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple in Nileshwar, Kasaragod, following the explosion | Express E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kasaragod Revelry gave way to horror on Tuesday after an explosion during a fireworks display at a temple in Kasaragod left 102 people injured, seven of them critically The Nileshwar police . arrested three persons following the incident. Kasaragod District Police Chief Shilpa D said permission had not been obtained for bursting the crackers. The injured persons have been admitted to hospitals in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode and Mangaluru. The incident occurred around midnight during the ‘Theyyam Mahotsavam’ at Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple 21 in ICU in Nileshwar. A large A total of 154 people number of people from reeceived treatment across the district had following the turned up, as it was the accident. Of them, first theyyam perform102 were found to ance to be held this year have suffered burns in a temple in the north and hospitalised. Of Malabar region. During the fireworks the injured, 21 were admitted to the ICU, display, sparks flew into seven of whom were the storage room nearby placed on ventilator where more firecrackers support. The were kept, resulting in condition of one the explosion. “It was around midvictim is critical. night. The theyyam performance was on, and a huge crowd, including women and children, had come to the temple to witness it. Many people were standing near the storage shed for a better view. Crackers were being burst at the time,” said Gopi, 59, an eyewitness. Suddenly, sparks from the fireworks fell into the shed where firecrackers for the day’s programme were kept, he said. “There was a loud sound. Many people got trapped inside the shed as a wall behind them prevented their escape. However, the injured persons were ● More on P4 rescued,” Gopi said.  Police taking P P Divya for medical examination after recording her arrest | Express Even...if the deceased is a person who has no integrity and received bribe, the petitioner/accused on getting information ought to have set the law in motion by approaching appropriate law enforcing authority Thalassery Principal Sessions Court Hours after the Thalassery Principal Sessions Court denied her anticipatory bail, former Kannur district panchayat president P P Divya was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the death of additional district magistrate (ADM) Naveen Babu. Divya, the lone accused in abetment of suicide case, was produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Taliparamba, and sent to 14-day judicial custody She is lodged at the Women’s Prison in . Pallikkunnu. Divya will move the Thalassery court for bail on Wednesday Babu’s wife Manjusha said . she will file a petition against the bail plea. The court’s remarks while dismissing Divya’s plea came as a huge blow to her attempts to portray herself as a “crusader against corruption.” Judge K T Nizar Ahammed said Divya’s “uninvited” presence and her speech at the ADM’s farewell function on October 14 were a ‘premeditated act’ intended to humiliate Babu. The court also found no evidence to prove the corruption charges against the ADM, which had been the main content of the speech. As per the statement of District Collector Arun K Vijayan, the ADM had come to his chamber after the incident at the function and told him that he ● More on P5 committed a mistake.  diwali in white house US President Joe Biden speaks at a reception in celebration of Diwali, in the East Room of the White House | AFP EXP R E S S R E A D Qassem new Hezbollah head Terrorists gunned down in Akhnoor KSEB consumers to get ‘GST-less’ bill Beirut: Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement announced that it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hasan Nasrallah as leader after the latter’s death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month. P9 Srinagar: Security forces gunned down two militants holed up in a forest area in Jammu’s Akhnoor sector, taking the number of terrorists killed in the two-hour encounter near the LoC to three. P8 T’Puram: KSEB has updated its billing software after the Centre decided to exempt GST on meter rent, and testing for meters, transformers, and capacitors. Now, consumers will get the new bill without the 18% GST on meter rent. P4 20 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express + 4-PAGE PULLOUT Simple yet extensive Releasing this November, a Malayalam encyclopaedia on AI V a r s h a S o m a r a j @T’Puram An encyclopaedia dedicated entirely to Artificial Intelligence (AI), that too in Malayalam. After the success of its AIthemed journal, the team at State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications (SIEP) is gearing up to release an encyclopaedia featuring detailed, easy-to-grasp write-ups on 121 topics dealing with various aspects of AI. The work is nearing completion. In fact, 80% of it is finished, said editor Rajesh Kumar S. The release of the encyclopaedia, ‘Nirmithabudhi’, is slated for November. The encyclopaedia will offer readers insights into the science behind AI as well as its ethical and legal implications. It will explore a range of topics, including the history of AI, responsible AI, privacy , fairness, cognitive computing, AI in healthcare, smart homes, digital twins, predictive analytics, cloud computing, and more. The team has high hopes the encyclopaedia will be well-received. Work on the encyclopaedia was launched in February. The content has been contributed by AI experts, researchers, and professionals from around the globe. A 11-member advisory board, chaired by Professor Leena Mary of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Kottayam, oversaw selection of topics. One of the major challenges, according to the editorial team, was finding AI experts who could write in Malayalam. “We wanted to ensure the information is accessible to the public. So we chose writers who could present complex topics in a simplified manner,” said Rajesh Kumar S, SIEP sub-editor and editor of the encyclopaedia. Out of the five concise encyclopaedias planned this financial year, ‘Nirmithabudhi’ will be the second to be released. The book, spanning approximately 230 pages, is being printed in a first batch of 1,000 copies, with additional copies to be printed based on demand. The layout and final touches are in progress. The cost is yet ● More on P4 to be fixed.