Hamas reviewing Israel truce offer Hamas said on Saturday it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza amid Egypt ian efforts to broker a deal to end the months-long war and stave off an Israeli offensive on Rafah. Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the Israeli offer was in response to a proposal from Hamas two weeks ago | AFP | P9 TIRUCHY l sunday l april 28, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l LATE CITY EDITION 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 Houthis attack oil ship bound for India Centre gives `276cr flood relief, CM slams BJP for ‘meagre’ sum 1 E X P RESS N E W S SER V I C E @ Chennai y e s h i s e l i @ New Delhi YEMEN-based Houthi rebels on early Saturday fired ballistic missiles on an oil tanker travelling through the Red Sea heading towards India from Russia. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said the Panama-flagged, Seychelles-registered Andromeda Star was attacked twice. The crew is safe and the vessel is en route to its destination Vadinar port in Gujarat. The incident occurred 14 nautical miles off Al Mukha, Yemen. Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree in a pre-recorded statement claimed responsibility for the attack. The oil tanker originated from Primorsk, Russia. “The first was an explosion close to the vessel and the second consisted of two missile attacks, which damaged the vessel,” according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations. The US military’s Central Command said there was a ‘minor damage’ to the oil tanker. Last year, Houthis said they will continue to target Israelbound vessels. Since November, they have launched more than 50 attacks on the ships passing through Red Sea, seized one vessel and sank another one. Ahead of the Game WITH THIS ISSUE PLUS 12 PAGES 2 1. A view of the forest fire in Uttarakhand. 2. An IAF helicopter fills water from the Bhimtal lake in Nainital district to douse the fire | Express IAF steps in as U’khand burns N ARE N DRA SE T HI @ Dehradun With forest fires engulfing the Nanda range in Nainital district of Uttarakhand, the Centre deployed a Air Force helicopter on Saturday to control the blaze. Parallelly, the state government requested the assistance of the Army . The IAF’s Mi-17 helicopter did 13 sorties, drawing water from the Naini and Bhimtal lakes in a Bambi bucket and emptying it over the flames in the Pines, Bhumiadhar, Jyolikot, Narayan Nagar, Bhawali, Ramgarh and Mukteshwar areas. Fire-fighting operations are expected to continue on Sunday as well. Nainital Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pramod Kumar said, “The wildfire is spreading from the pine forests to the Lariyakanta forests. Efforts are on with the assistance of an IAF helicopter to extinguish it.” An ITI building was partially burnt in the massive fire in the pine forest near Nainital. The fire also reached close to the High Court Colony in Nainital but didn’t cause any damage. Dense smoke enveloped the road from Nainital to Bhawali, disrupting movement of vehicles for hours. Forest department sources said wildfires are spreading due to limited rainfall. Nishant Verma, nodal officer of Uttarakhand’s forest department for forest fires, said, “As of April 25, the forest department has recorded 146 cases of man-made fires. Of these, 17 individuals have been identified. As for 129 other cases, the perpetrators are unknown.” Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami reviewed the efforts to extinguish the fires with officials of the Kumaon division at the Forest Training Academy in Haldwani. After much political wrangling and efforts by Tamil Nadu, including filing of a case before the Supreme Court and multiple meetings with the central authorities, the union government has released `276.10 crore to the state as relief for Cyclone Michaung, which affected the northern districts in December 2023, and for flood damage suffered by the southern districts in January this year. Almost all the non-BJP parties of the state slammed the centre for giving Tamil Nadu such “meagre” amount. “Peo- ple are watching every move of the BJP government which is betraying Tamil Nadu by providing neither justice nor money,” Chief Minister MK Stalin said in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). “The state gover nment had sought `37,907 crore and had already spent `2,477 crore on relief measures during the calamities,” the CM pointed out in the post. Commenting on the development, CPM’s Madurai Lok Sabha candidate Su Venkatesan said, “What BJP has towards Tamil Nadu is not anger. It is hatred, endless hatred.” continued on p5 22 TN districts get `150cr for drinking water supply CM M K Stalin said `150 crore will be allocated to 22 districts to ensure uninterrupted drinking water supply. Chairing a review meeting, the CM said summer has brought two kinds of crisis to TN — “excessive heat and increasing demand for drinking water” | P4 1,000 rehydration points to supply free ORS packs As temperature may rise by 3-5˚C, 1,000 rehydration points will be set up across the state to offer free oral rehydration salts (ORS) packets to people. While other districts will have 15 to 25 rehydration points each, Chennai district will have 75 points | P4 Veteran vs fresher fight and seer swing bowling P r a m o d k u m a r V a i d ya @ Hubballi Though a prominent pontiff bowed out of the contest after promising a scintillating match, the Lok Sabha election scene in Dharwad continues to be as intense and exciting. Influential Lingayat pontiff Dingaleshwar Swamiji had spiced up the polls by announcing his candidature but later opted out. While making his pitch, the Swamiji had sharply attacked sitting MP and Union minister Pralhad Joshi (61), accusing him of dishonouring the Lingayats and victimising its leaders. With the BJP repeating Joshi from Dharwad, the Congress hopes the Swamiji could be a force multiplier against him. At stake in Dharwad is the BJP’s prestige as it has held this Lingayat majority constituency for seven consecutive terms. The Congress is trying its best to knock out Joshi. Their straight fight is being closely watched because of Joshi’s perceived proximity to the BJP brass. Instead of fielding a Lingayat against Joshi, the Congress gave the ticket to an AHINDA (a Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits coined by Karnataka’s first backward class leader Devraj Urs), which has stood firmly behind Chief Minister Siddara- Illustration: Mandar Pardikar maiah. The party’s nominee, Vinod Asuti (34), who belongs to the Kuruba community and is a debutant in the LS poll. The Congress is playing the youth card against Joshi. For his part, Joshi is emphasising on the track record of the NDA government in development and his performance as a parliamentarian in the last two decades. As the constituency has eluded the Congress since 1996, its campaign is focused on the wider reach of the five guarantees implemented by the state government and the other guarantees in the party’s manifesto.
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