Coimbatore l Monday l January 20, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION AXELSEN, aN SE-yOUNG CRUISE TO EASY TITLE WINS AT iNDIA oPEN Double Olympic gold medallist Viktor Axelsen secures third India Open title as Olympic & world champion An dominated right from word go Viktor Axelsen An Se-Young great dane erases malaysia heartbreak doubles delight for japanese, chinese pairs Viktor Axelsen erased the disappointment of falling in the opening round of Malaysian Open super 1000 last week to the same opponent. For An, it was an effortless 21-12 21-9 win over P Chochuwong. Malaysian duo of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin, who ended India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty’s run in semis pocketed the doubles title ■ ■ In the women’s doubles final, Japan’s Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto beat Kim Hye Jeong and Kong Hee-Yong of South Korea 21-15, 21-13 In mixed, China’s Jiang Zhen Bang and Wei Ya Xin prevailed 21-18 21-17 over Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue | P11 3rd Axelsen wins India open for record third time 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 Peace dawns on Gaza after 15 months of war Hamas releases three hostages; hardliner quits Netanyahu’s govt AGENCIES B’luru techie gets free phone, loses `2.8 crore e x p r ess n e w s se r v ice @ B’luru After the ‘dubious parcel at Customs’ scam and ‘digital arrest’ scare, cyber fraudsters have come up with a new trick to gobble up your money: give a free mobile phone, and use it to siphon off money from your bank account. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield) Shivakumar Gunare said this new type of crime was reported in Bengaluru where a techie lost `2.8 crore. A fraudster posing as a bank representative told the man the bank had approved a credit card for him, and due to his good credit score, he was eligible to get a free mobile phone. Unknown to him, the phone had pre-installed cloning software, configured in such a way that no messages from the bank, including OTPs would be received on it. Instead, it would be redirected to the fraudster’s device. A week after he inserted a SIM card into the device, he found `2.8 crore was debited from his FD account. Upon enquiring at the bank, he learned the money had been siphoned off by fraudsters. protests and celebrations in washington Trump to be sworn-in as President today; scores of protesters take to the streets for causes they believe are under threat | P9 MAJOR FIRE AT KUMBH MELA NO CASUALTIES REPORTED  A major fire broke out at the Kumbh Mela site in Prayagraj on Sunday after a suspected leak from an LPG cylinder caused an explosion  The fire is believed to have started at Geeta press tent in Sector 19 around 4 pm  The blaze quickly spread and engulfed around 40 tents  15 fire tenders were pressed into action and the blaze was brought under control within an hour | p8 express read Gomutra has med value: IIT-M chief Chennai: IIT-Madras director V Kamakoti has drawn flak for promoting gomutra’s (cow urine) “medicinal value” and its alleged ability to cure conditions like irritable bowel syndrome and fever at an event held on Maatu Pongal day. The video clip of the event that went viral online sparked strong reactions | P2 TN’s borrowing within debt limit: FM Virudhunagar: In response to AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s comments that the state’s finances are in doldrums, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said the debt limit was 28.9% for 2024-25 and TN’s borrowing was within that limit at 26.47% | P4 Suspected Bangladeshi national held in Saif Ali Khan attack case S U D H I R S U R YAWAN S H I @ Mumbai MUMBAI police on Sunday arrested Shariful Islam Shehzad, a suspected Bangladeshi national, in connection with the attack on actor Saif Ali Khan. He was produced before a local court, which remanded him in five days in police custody . Shehzad, 30, was arrested from Thane’s Labour Camp area, where he used to work as a housekeeper in a bar. “Prima-facie, the accused is a Bangladeshi and he changed his name to Vijay Das after entering India illegally He came . to Mumbai some 5-6 months ago. The accused used to work in a housekeeping agency said ,” Dixit Gedam, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 9. While seeking 14 days police custody in court, the prosecution said the police was looking to probe if there was an “international conspiracy” behind the attack. It submitted 15 reasons for seeking 14 days custo- dy, including how the accused entered India and who helped him. However, the court gave only five days custody . However, defence lawyer Sandeep Sherkhane said the police made the arrest without proper investigation and that his client was residing in India for several years with family “First . of all, Saif Ali Khan has never made any statement or does not have any grievance with anyone that would create a threat for him from Bangladesh or any other country He does not . have any international cases. They (police) changed the angle of the case just because the accused is Bangladeshi,” he said. Dinesh Prajapati, another defence advocate, said the police did not produce any document to prove the accused is a Bangladeshi national. Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh police said a suspect who was detained at Durg railway station on Saturday was released on Sunday morning. Shariful Islam Shehzad Bangladesh connection Police say Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla from Bangladesh entered India illegally. He also changed his name to Vijay Das. He used to work for a housekeeping agency but became unemployed recently Sudden rain sinks 50K ha bumper harvest TN paddy rate drops, of samba in coastal delta rice price may fall 10% A n to n y Fe r n a n do @ Nagapattinam Farmers in the coastal delta region are worried as sudden, unseasonal rainfall in Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts and Puducherry’s Karaikal in the past two days has left their harvest-ready samba paddy under water. Officials said that nearly one-third or 50,000 hectares of the 1,35,000 hectares under cultivation in the region have been inundated. In Nagapattinam, a majority of farmers skipped kuruvai cultivation due to the delay in release of Cauvery water from the Mettur dam and have cultivated samba paddy on about 63,000 hectares. Of this, paddy on around 10,000 hectares has been harvested so far. The remaining is expected to be harvested this month. The unseasonal heavy rain that lashed the region over the past two days has come as M S T h a n a r a j @ Madurai Officials said nearly one-third of land under cultivation in Mayiladuthurai, Nagai and Karaikal inundated | Express a bolt from the blue. According to official data, the Nagapattinam district recorded a total rainfall of 34.6cm during the 24-hour period ending Sunday morning. Agriculture officials estimate that this has affected samba crop on around 25,000 hectares in Nagapattinam alone.  P5 The retail price of fine varieties of rice, which are being sold at `60 to `70 per kg, may come down by at least 10% over the next few weeks as paddy prices have dropped significantly in the open market. With bumper harvest expected this year, paddy prices have dropped in the open market by `200 to `300 per 62kg bag in Tamil Nadu, say rice traders. RNR paddy which was sold at `1,700 to `2,000 , per bag, is presently being sold at `1,300 to `1,400 in Ramanathapuram, sources said. According to Dr A C Mohan, secretary, Federation of Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners and Paddy Rice Dealers Association, “On an average, rice production in the country was around 1,300 to 1,350 lakh metric tonnes over the last few years, but this fell by about 3.5% in 202324. Due to Ukraine war, which led to rise in global demand for foodgrains, and increase in customs duty the prices went up significantly in the mar, ket. But this year, a bumper crop yield is expected. This has led to drop in paddy price at the farmgate level and will reflect in the price of rice varieties, too, over the next few weeks.  P5 THE much-awaited ceasefire in the Gaza Strip took effect on Sunday following an almost three-hour delay after Hamas was late to name the three hostages it plans to release first. The truce, which started at 11.15 am local time (2.15pm IST), is the first step toward ending the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and returning the remaining hostages abducted in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack. Hamas blamed the delay in handing over the names on “technical field reasons,” and said it is committed to the deal announced last week. An Israeli official confirmed that Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were released in the evening. Gonen was abducted from the Nova music festival, while the other two were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Damari is an Israeli-British dual citizen. Hamas was supposed to provide the three names before the start of the ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Displaced Palestinians walk through the destruction caused by Israeli offensive in Rafah, as a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect Sunday | AfP Netanyahu said the militants had not lived up to their commitment. In the interim between 8.30 am and when the ceasefire took hold, Israeli fire killed at least 26 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry . Israel’s hardline national security minister Itamar BenGvir, meanwhile, said his Otzma Yehudit party was quitting the government in protest over the ceasefire agreement. BenGvir’s departure weakens Netanyahu’s coalition but will not affect the truce. The ceasefire deal was announced last week after a year of intensive mediation by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire should see a total of 33 hostages returned from Gaza and the remaining Palestinian prisoners and detainees released. Negotiations on the far more difficult second phase of this ceasefire should begin in just over two weeks.  P9