SAMBALPUR  MONDAY  MAY 05, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION BILLIONAIRE WARREN BUFFETT TO BOW OUT BY END OF THE YEAR Decision brings curtains down on a six-decade run heading Berkshire Hathaway that made Buffett the world’s most influential investor VICE-CHAIRMAN GREG ABEL IS SUCCESSOR MINCES NO WORDS ON DOLLAR’S FUTURE Buffett had such a devoted following among investors that markets would move when his investments were disclosed. Buffett said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board that Vice Chairman Greg Abel should replace him. Abel has been Buffett’s designated successor for years, and already manages Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses ■ ■ Buffett said the market turmoil that generated headlines after US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement last month ‘is really nothing’ to be worried about On the fate of the US dollar, Buffett said, “We would not really invest in a currency that is going to ‘hell’ $1.18 trillion IS THE ESTIMATED SIZE OF THE BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY EMPIRE 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 Befitting reply to those who hurt India: Rajnath Air Chief Marshal meets Modi amid rising cross-border tensions RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR, M AYA N K S I N G H & F AYA Z W A N I @ New Delhi/Srinagar AMID the rising tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, according to sources. There was no official statement on the meeting, but the two were understood to have discussed the security situation. The Air Chief Marshal’s oneon-one-meeting with the prime minister came a day after Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi met Modi. Later in the day, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh said he will see to it that the armed forces give a “befitting reply” to India’s enemies. Issuing a stern warning to Pakistan—without directly naming the country—Singh said: “As the defence minister, it is my responsibility to work with my soldiers and ensure the protection of the country’s borders. And it is my responsibility to give a befitting reply, by working with the armed forces, to those who cast an evil eye on our country.” Singh’s strong words came during his speech Iran’s foreign minister to visit Pak, India After Tehran said it would use its ties with India and Pakistan to ease tensions, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is set to visit Pakistan on Monday, and India after that. Tehran said the visit is “part of regular consultations with neighbouring countries” at the Sanatan Sanskriti Jagran Mahotsav event in Delhi. Meanwhile, officials said Pakistan continued to breach the ceasefire agreement for the 10th continuous night. “During the night of May 3 and 4, Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked small arms fire across the LoC in areas opposite Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, Mendhar, Naushera, Sunderbani, and Akhnoor in J&K,” an army official said, adding that Indian forces responded promptly and proportionately . Although there have been no casualties or injuries in the cross-border firing, it has led to escalation of tension at the frontiers, causing panic among border residents. X handles of Bilawal, Imran blocked The social media accounts of Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former Pak PM Imran Khan will not be available in India as the government on Sunday withheld their X handles. The action is part of the digital crackdown on Pak handles Also, while heavy weaponry such as mortars and artillery has not yet been used, the continuous use of small arms including light machine guns by both sides has raised concerns that the situation may escalate into intense clashes. Pakistan’s continuous ceasefire violations and targeting of army posts along the Line of Control in multiple sectors from Kashmir to Jammu region has put the border ceasefire pact in threat and danger. Fearing further escalation of the situation, the border residents in Jammu and Kashmir are cleaning and fortifying their underground bunkers and stock-piling essentials to prepare for any eventuality. Farmers are also hurriedly completing the harvesting of crops in the border areas. Need partners, not preachers: EAM tells EU J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on Europe to show greater sensitivity and mutuality of interest if it wants deeper ties with India, saying New Delhi is looking for “partners, not preachers.” Speaking at the ‘ rctic Circle A India Forum’ during an interactive session on Sunday, Jaishankar highlighted India’s long-standing advocacy of ‘Russia realism’ and pointed to the ‘important fit’ and ‘complementarity’ between the two countries, describing Russia as a resource provider and India as a resource consumer. He also criticised Western efforts to resolve the RussiaUkraine conflict without involving Moscow, terming them a challenge to the basics of realism. “Just like I am an advocate of Russia realism, I am also an advocate of America realism,” he said. “I think the best way to engage today’s America is also through finding mutuality of interests rather than putting ideological differences upfront and then allowing it to cloud the possibilities of working together,” he added. Responding to a question on India’s expectations from Europe, he said Europe must move beyond preaching and instead act on the basis of shared interests. “When we look out at the world, we look for partners; we do not look for preache r s, p a r t i c u l a rl y preachers who do not practise at home and preach abroad,” he said. Jaishankar has repeatedly called out what he sees as Western duplicity in global affairs, especially Europe’s selective application of international EXPRESS READ ED POWERS SC reconstitutes bench to hear pleas New Delhi: The Supreme Court has reconstituted a three-judge bench to decide if its 2022 verdict upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s powers to arrest and attach property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) needs reconsideration | P7 FLOWER PICKER A man collecting white lotus from a pond on the suburbs of Bhubaneswar, on Sunday | DEBADATTA MALLICK Iran-backed Houthis attack Israel’s ‘HIGHLIGHT BJP’s RESISTANCE’ Three of a main airport with hypersonic missile Cong asks state units to family killed up ante on caste census TRAGIC MISHAP as tractor turns turtle E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Jajpur A pall of gloom descended on Charinangal village after three members of a family including a minor were killed in a road crash near Pattamundai canal within Balichandrapur police limits here on Saturday evening. The deceased were identified as Utsav Dalei (61), his wife Benga Dalei (56) and their grandson Duryodhan Dalei (15) of Charinangal under Badachana tehsil. They were killed after the tractor in which they were travelling turned turtle at Bahadurnagar. Sources said in a bid to salvage their crop from an approaching thunderstorm, the couple and their grandson were returning home from their farm field with the harvest when the mishap took place. After the tractor over tur ned, the trio was trapped under the vehicle and sustained serious injuries. On hearing their cries for help, locals rushed to the spot and rescued them. They were taken to Badachana community health centre where the doctors declared them dead. Two other persons, who were injured in the incident, have been hospitalised, police said. The bodies were sent to the local hospital for postmortem. Police have registered a case in connection with the incident and further investigation is underway said an officer of , Balichandrapur police station. A G E N C I E S @ Tel Aviv / New Delhi A missile launched by Iranianbacked Houthi rebels of Yemen briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at Israel’s main inter national air por t on Sunday . The Houthis have been striking Israel throughout the war in Gaza in solidarity with Palestinians. The attack on BenGurion International Airport came hours before Israeli Cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify military operations in the Gaza Strip. The armed wing of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the missile attack. Houthi military spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Saree said in a video statement that the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport. The Israeli military confirmed that the attack, which gouged a large crater in the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, was launched from Yemen and had struck despite “several attempts... to intercept the missile”. A photographer said the missile hit near the parking lots of Terminal 3, the airport’s largest. The crater was just hundreds of metres P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Israeli security forces inspect the site where the projectile was fired by Yemen’s Houthis on Sunday, leading to suspension of flight services | AP from the tarmac. This was the first time a missile struck the airport since the war began. Passengers were heard yelling and scrambling for cover in footage shared by Israeli media. Air raid sirens were sounded in multiple parts of Israel. In response, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed retribution: “Whoever harms us, we will harm them sevenfold.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a multi-phased response to Yemen’s Houthis. “It’s not bang, principles. He has long argued that for Europe to be taken seriously it must show consistency , in upholding values such as territorial integrity, rather than bending rules to suit its own interests. Pointing to what he terms a lopsided worldview, Jaishankar in the past had said that the Europe must move beyond the belief that its problems are global concerns, while the rest of the world’s issues are not its responsibility . “Some of Europe is still struggling with that problem. Some of it has changed,” he noted, suggesting that Europe has entered “a certain zone of reality check.” bang and we’re done, but there will be bangs,” he said. Scores of flights operating from the Ben-Gurion international airport to different countries were cancelled. Germany’s Lufthansa airline and British Airways suspended flights to Tel Aviv till May 7, while Air India announced a temporary termination of all its operations to and from Tel Aviv till May 6 after the diversion of its New Delhi to Tel Aviv flight, carrying nearly 200 passengers, to Abu Dhabi due P9 to the attack. STEPPING up pressure on the Union government to conduct the caste census as announced by the Union cabinet recently, the Congress asked its state units on Sunday to highlight the BJP’s resistance to ‘caste enumeration’ in the past and Rahul Gandhi’s consistent efforts in pushing for it. In a circular, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal directed all state units to raise demands made in the C WC m e e t i n g l a s t week, including carrying out the caste census without delay and implementation of Article 15(5), during the upcoming ‘Samvidhan Bachao Rallies’ scheduled to be held across all states and districts. Venugopal also urged state units to convey the party’s historical and ongoing commitments at the grassroots level, including the leadership role played by Rahul Gandhi. “In particular, the demand for the immediate implementation of Article 15(5) should be prominently highlighted,” he said. The article pertains to reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs in private educational institutions. The party directed all PCCs that during the assembly-level ‘Save Constitution’ rallies and house-to-house campaigns scheduled till May 30, the state units must organise ‘chaupal meetings’ with active participation from social activists, civil society activists, teachers, lawyers, shopkeepers, self-help groups memb e r s, a n d B a h u j a n communities. The circular called upon the state units to “expose the BJP’s antiBahujan ideology, its resistance to caste enumeration, and its efforts to suppress social justice”. It urged leaders to mobilise broad-based public support for the caste census and full implementation of Article 15(5). “These efforts must reflect a unified communication strategy that brings clarity, conviction, and high visibility to our campaign for social justice. PCCs are requested to treat this campaign with top priority .” PLOT REGISTRATION Two addl tehsildars suspended by govt Bhubaneswar: The state government on Sunday placed two revenue officials in additional tehsildar rank under suspension and issued show-cause notice to around 400 subregistrars in connection with alleged registration of part plots in violation of law | P2 TRUMP TO MEET SIX GULF LEADERS IN RIYADH TO BOOST POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TIES US President Donald Trump is due to meet the heads of state of six Gulf countries while on a visit to Riyadh later this month, a source close to the Saudi government told AFP on Sunday | P9 Odisha’s malaria woes spill over with 63.6% rise in cases, double deaths in 2024 HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @ Bhubaneswar ODISHA’S much-celebrated success in reducing malaria by 80 per cent (pc) in 2018 appears to be fading away with the state witnessing an alarming 63.6 pc rise in malaria cases in 2024 compared to the previous year, and topping the incidence chart in the country . According to National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC) data, the state reported 68,693 malaria cases, including the highest 50,501 P falciparum, and eight deaths last year. Around 41,973 cases and four deaths were recorded in 2023. It fuelled the country’s malaria tally by contributing around 26.7 pc of the total 2.57 lakh cases. The state was followed by Jharkhand (42,352), Chhattisgarh (33,023) West Bengal (21,802), Maharashtra (21,078), Mizoram (16,899) and Uttar Pradesh (13,477). Officials said 78 pc cases were from five districts - Kalahandi, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Koraput and Malkangiri. The dis- tricts are among 21 high prevalent areas where targeted interventions are being made under the state’s flagship malaria elimination initiative Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (DAMaN) to achieve malaria elimination by 2030. The resurgence of the disease coupled with a spike in asymptomatic cases has prompted the Centre to raise serious concern over the effectiveness and reporting mechanisms of DAMaN. What has pressed the alarm bell ring- HIGH BURDEN DISTRICTS Kalahandi 14,426 Rayagada 13,738 Kandhamal 11,140 Koraput 9,461 Malkangiri 4,407 Boudh 2,964 Mayurbhanj 2,802 ing is the under-reporting of asymptomatic cases by the state. In an official communication (accessed by TNIE) to the Odi- sha government, the NCVBDC has questioned why a significant portion of malaria cases detected through mass screening exercises under the DAMaN programme and in tribal residential schools are not being reported in the national surveillance system M4. The M4 format is used to record fortnightly case information from a sub-centre, PHC, district or state, and is part of the health management infor mation system. The NCVBDC data indicated 28,293 malaria cases were detected in 2023 through DAMaN. However, these cases are not part of the 41,973 cases officially reported through routine surveillance, indicating over two-thirds of the actual cases are being overlooked in national records. Asymptomatic patients become a ‘reservoir’ for parasite transmission and may act as a precursor of symptomatic malaria. “ cases detected in DAMaN All are identified using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), which can detect high-parasitemia infections with more than 100-200 parasites per microlitre,” the letter noted. CONTINUED ON P5