dharmapuri l tuesday l july 15, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Shubhanshu Shukla, Axiom-4 team on return path to earth After an 18-day stay at the International Space Station (ISS), astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others set off for return on Monday will splash down off U.S. at 3.01 pm today spacecraft will be exposed to 1,600°C Shukla, the second Indian astronaut to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 odyssey, will board Dragon spacecraft at 2 pm IST and embark on the return journey two hours later. “Undocking from ISS is scheduled for 4.35 pm IST,” Axiom Space said. After a 22.5-hour journey, the crew will splash down off California at 3.01 pm IST on Tuesday ■ ■ Final preparations include detaching the capsule’s trunk and orienting the heat shield ahead of atmospheric entry, which will expose the spacecraft to temperatures nearing 1,600 degrees Celsius Parachutes will deploy in two stages — first stabilising around 5.7 km altitude followed by main parachutes at roughly two km `550 cr was paid by isro for Shukla’s travel to the ISS 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 Last-ditch efforts on to save Indian nurse Time to address j aya n t h j a c o b @ New Delhi AS the execution date of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya draws near, intense efforts are underway to convince the victim’s family to accept blood money, the only legal route to saving her life under Yemeni law. Nimisha Priya, a native of Kerala, is reportedly scheduled to be executed on July 16 for the alleged 2017 murder of her Yemeni business partner Talal Abdo Mahdi. “All efforts are on to save Nimisha Priya,” her lawyer Sub- hash Chandran told this paper. the negotiations, Musliyar — “In the latest efforts, through officially known as Sheikh the intervention of influential Abubakr Ahmad — has stepped Sunni Muslim cleric in personally and is Kanthapuram AP Aboomaking “all possible efbacker Musliyar, we forts” to open a channel have reached out to one of reconciliation. He of the family members, has held talks with relias well as some local gious authorities in authorities and reliYemen, who in turn are gious leaders. We are in contact with the vicNimisha Priya trying our best so that tim’s family . the family accepts the “Right now, the only blood money and the Kerala hope is that the family accepts nurse is spared from death the blood money said a source. ,” row.” An office has been opened at According to sources close to Musliyar’s headquarters in Kerala to coordinate these efforts. However, there has been no official confirmation from the victim’s family . Earlier today, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that it has limited diplomatic levers to intervene in the matter. Appearing before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, Attorney General R Venkataramani said, “the government is trying its best...” The fate of Priya now hinges on the victim’s family’s willingness to accept the offer. oH lORD’S: tail comes good but falls 22 SHORT F i r o z M i r z a @ London B Saroja Devi J a n 7, 1 9 3 8 J u ly 14, 2 02 5 Doe-eyed beauty who held audience in thrall A S h a r a d h a a @ Chennai L egendary actor B Saroja Devi, the doeeyed ‘ bhinaya SarasA wati’ who held the southern film industries in thrall, passed away at her residence in Bengaluru early on Monday due to age-related health issues. She was 87. Born on January 7, 1938, in Bengaluru, Saroja Devi was encouraged by her parents, especially by her father, a police officer, to learn dance, which eventually opened the doors to the silver screen, and she made her debut in national awardwinning Kannada film Mahakavi Kalidasa in 1955. In a career spanning seven decades and over 200 films, she ruled hearts across languages —Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Hindi. While being active in multiple languages was quite normal in those days, the hallmark of her career was her stellar success in each of these industries. She had an enviable number of superhits with repeated pairings opposite the legends of various industries, including MG Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, and Gemini Ganesan in Tamil, Dr Rajkumar in Kannada, and N T Rama Rao in Telugu. But it was in Tamil cinema that she shone the brightest, particularly alongside M G Ramachandran (MGR), the iconic superstar, former CM and founder of the AIADMK, who considered her his ‘lucky mascot’. They acted in 48 films together and their very first film, Nadodi Mannan (1958), catapulted the ‘Kannadathu Paingli’ (Kannada’s parrot) to superstardom overnight. Some of their other films like Anbe Vaa (1966) and Arasa Kattalai (1967) have been celebrated as cult classics. Her wellknown films with legendary Sivaji Ganesan included Bhaaga Pirivinai (1959), Palum Pazhamum (1961), and Aalayamani (1962). She had starred with Sivaji Ganesan in 22 movies.  P5 IT was as if the final day was on slow burn. It was cooking, but slowly; one run at a time across one over after another. Runs were coming in ones. The boundaries had dried up. Yet, the capacity crowd kept egging the players. This was Test cricket garbed in its finest orb. It was getting increasingly irritating for Ben Stokes and Co as Ravindra Jadeja and Nos. 10 and 11 — Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj — were trying to enact one of modern cricket’s greatest heists. What looked improbable at lunch looked promising at tea. It is not always that a crowd cheers a leave or a forward defensive. Not always do tail-enders play over 80 balls. On Monday they just did that and brought , India closer to England’s target of 193. While Bumrah and Siraj were being cheered loudly for their defence, the Bharat Army were chanting ‘Oh Ravi Jadeja’, a song to the tune of the ‘Seven Nation Army’ they have composed for the all-rounder. Jadeja played 181 balls for his unbeaten 61 while Bumrah (5) and Siraj (4) faced 54 and 30 balls. All together, they England players celebrate after India’s final wicket (Mohammed Siraj) falls in the third Test at Lord’s on Monday. England take 2-1 lead | PTI played 212 legal deliveries. Like the Test, even the end was slow. Siraj blocked a Bashir’s delivery but the revs on the ball took it to the leg stump. A feather touch dislodged one bail. Jadeja looked on helplessly at the drama from the other end. The hosts erupted in joy. Just like they had done at the same venue six years ago when England were crowned world champions by the barest of margins. On the evidence of London, Manchester could be another cracker.  P13 de-escalation: EAM to Wang Yi Jaishankar meets his Chinese counterpart, urges lifting of restrictive trade practices J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi In a firm and forward-looking message during talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said that that lasting peace along the India-China border remains the bedrock for restoring strategic trust and advancing bilateral relations. Jaishankar, who is China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers meeting, told his Chinese counterpart that that recent progress in resolving border friction and maintaining tranquility helped ease tensions, laying the groundwork for broader normalisation. “We have made good progress in the past nine months for the normalisation of our bilateral relations. It is a result of the resolution of friction along the border and our ability to maintain peace and tranquility External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Monday | PTI there. This is the fundamental basis for mutual strategic trust and for smooth development of bilateral relations,” he said. “It is now incumbent on us to address other aspects related to the border, including de-escalation,” Jaishankar said. The minister, who is visiting China for the first time after the 2020 border clashes, said over the past year, both sides have made tangible progress toward nor malising ties, thanks to resumed dialogue and increasing high-level engagement. 4 IAS officers appointed as spokespersons of TN govt EXPRE S S NEW S S ERVICE @ Chennai For the first time in Tamil Nadu, the state government on Monday appointed four senior IAS officers as its official spokespersons to disseminate information about government welfare schemes to the public. The appointment of J Radhakrishnan (CMD, TNEB), Gagandeep Singh Bedi (Secretary , Rural Development), Dheeraj Kumar (Secretary, Home and Excise) and P Amudha (Secretary Revenue) as the spokesper, sons assumes significance as it has been done months ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, and amid a raft of measures initiated by the ruling DMK to reach out to the people. According to an official release, the spokespersons have been appointed to disseminate infor mation about welfare schemes and matters relating to various departments to the public through media in an accurate manner, and to coordinate among various departments. The secretaries of other departments will share information regarding the announcements of their departments to the spokespersons.  P7