kollam l monday l december 08, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION FORMULA one: Dream comes true for new king Norris McLaren’s British driver Lando Norris navigates tricky test in season-closing Abu Dhabi GP on Sunday to clinch his maiden F1 crown emotional brit ends max’s dominance champ thrives under pressure A tearful Norris won the title by two points ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who relinquished his crown after four consecutive years, in a tense and emotional season-ending race dominated by strategy and tactics. Max, despite finishing on top of the podium, fell just short in the overall equation as Norris finished third to seal the deal | P11 ■ The 26-year-old showed great discipline and patience as he executed his race under extreme pressure knowing that any error could gift the title to Verstappen or teammate Oscar Piastri ■ A journey that began with kart racing when he was eight years old, Norris became Britain’s first F1 world champ since 2020 423 NORRIS FINISHED WITH 423 POINTS WHILE VERSTAPPEN ENDED WITH 421 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 Fireworks during dance performance likely caused blaze; nightclub did not have fire safety clearance; owners on the run; probe ordered New rules for Goa clubs Anjuna  Baga Beach Following the tragedy, the Goa administration has issued an order to all nightclubs, restaurants and bars to maintain a valid fire NOC, enforce occupancy limits, ensure working alarms, detectors and firefighting systems, use certified electrical setups and keep exits illuminated goa Arpora Calangute A videograb of the fire in Arpora in North Goa late on Sunday. Eyewitnesses said the nightclub did not have well-defined exits | Express 25 killed in blaze at packed Goa nightclub s u dhir s u r ya w anshi @Mumbai A massive fire tore through a jampacked nightclub in North Goa around midnight on Sunday, killing at least twenty-five people, including five tourists and 20 employees of the club. The club, ‘Birch by Romeo Lane’ at Arpora, 25 km from Panaji, did not have the mandatory fire department no-objection certificate. Since the club stands in the backwater of Arpora river, a narrow bridge leading to it made it tough for panic-stricken tourists to escape, fire officials said. A preliminary inquiry found that electric firework inside the nightclub was the likely cause of the blaze, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said, adding that he had ordered chief secretary Dr V Candavelou and DGP Alok Kumar to identify and act against government officials who allowed the club to operate without fire safety clearance. The club’s chief general manager Rajiv Modak, general manager Vivek Singh, bar manager Rajiv Singhania and gate manager Riyanshu Thakur were arrested by the police. Separately police have launched a manhunt for , the club owners — Saurabh Luthra and Gaurav Luthra, who’ve been named in the FIR. At least 100 people were on the dance floor at the time of the fire. In an attempt to rush out, some visitors ran downstairs to the kitchen where they got trapped in the blaze along with the staff, said Fatima Shaikh, a tourist from Hyderabad. “There was a sudden commotion as the flames started erupting. We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames,” she said. Officials said there were no proper exits to the premises. Police have detained the sarpanch of Arpora-Nagoa Panchayat, Roshan Redkar, who had issued a trade licence to the nightclub in 2013. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, condoled the deaths. An ex-gratia of `5 lakh for the kin of each deceased and `50,000 for the injured was announced by the CM. Verdict in actor assault case today P R A M D A S @ Kochi Over eight years after the traumatic incident and nearly five years since the start of trial, the long-awaited verdict in the 2017 actor abduction and sexual assault case is set to be delivered at 11am on Monday. Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court judge Honey M Varghese will pass the verdict following extensive trial proceedings that commenced on January 30, 2020. Actor Dileep is the eighth accused in the case that shook Kerala. According to the prosecution, the survivor was abducted by a six-member gang and raped by first accused N S Sunil aka Pulsar Suni inside a moving car in Ernakulam on February 17, 2017. He also recorded the brutal assault on his mobile phone. Special public prosecutor V Ajakumar told TNIE the prosecution took all necessary steps to ensure t h e c u l p r i t s we re brought before the law. “The prosecution produced all digital and documentary evidence, including CCTV visuals and material, to prove the offences levelled against the accused persons,” he said, adding that the primary conspiracy was between Suni and actor Dileep to allegedly record vid- P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Droupadi Murmu, President Rahul calls for fair probe Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while extending condolences to the bereaved families, said the tragedy reflected a serious failure of safety measures and governance. “The authorities should conduct a transparent probe to ensure similar tragedies are avoided in the future.” Passengers looking for their bags in the massive buildup of unclaimed luggage at IGI Airport on Sunday | Sayantan Ghosh IndiGo flight ops stabilising, cancellations down to 650 S L A L I T H A @ New Delhi AIR travel chaos due to IndiGo’s operational disruptions continued on Sunday though , the situation appeared to improve with the country’s largest airline set to operate 1,650 flights until midnight – up from 1,565 on Saturday and 706 on Friday . This still resulted in 650 flights across the country being cancelled with hundreds of them delayed by hours. In a statement, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said air travel operations across the country were stabilising. “All other domestic airlines are operating smoothly and at full capacity, while IndiGo’s performance has shown steady improvement today, with flight schedules moving back towards normal levels. IndiGo’s flight operations are likely to reach upto 1,650 by the end of today (Sunday),” its statement read. To ensure financial protection for passengers, the ministry directed IndiGo to complete refunds for cancelled or severely delayed flights by 8:00 PM on Sunday . The ministry also asked IndiGo to ensure that no additional fees are levied for rescheduling travel impacted by cancellations. On how much more refund was pending, an Indigo source said the process of calculating the amount to be refunded was still on. The ministry also said In- Refunds being processed IndiGo has processed refunds of I610 crore so far against cancelled or delayed flights, and delivered 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers as of Saturday, the civil aviation ministry said India lose to Germany in Jr Hockey WC semifinal lead on, good shepherd Archbishop of Goa and Daman and seventh Patriarch of the East Indies, Cardinal Filipe Neri António Sebastião do Rosário Ferrão, hands over pastoral crosier to newly consecrated Bishop Antony Kattiparambil after his anointment, in Kochi on Sunday. Antony Kattiparambil was ordained the Bishop of Cochin diocese of Roman Catholic Church | A Sanesh | P2 Chennai: Seven-time champions and title holders Germany marched into the final of the Junior Hockey World Cup with an emphatic 5-1 victory over hosts India in the semifinal played in Chennai on Sunday. India will now play Argentina for the bronze medal on Wednesday, while Germany will take on Spain in the final. Spain had earlier defeated Argentina 2-1 in the first semifinal. P11 Over 10,000 prisoners in state’s jails excluded from SIR More than 10,000 prisoners lodged in jails across the state will not be part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the office of the Chief Election Officer has said. The reason: SIR guidelines do not mention how to execute the process in the case of prisoners. Senior officials with the office of the CEO-Kerala said prisoners will not be considered for SIR as they are not ‘or- dinarily residents’ of their address since they are in jail. They will have to apply again for inclusion in electoral roll upon their release, the officials said, adding that the eligibility will be decided by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). As of October 20, there were more than 10,053 prisoners — 9,802 men and 251 women — housed in around 57 jail institutions in the state. They include 4,598 remand prisoners, 1,130 undertrials and 4,004 convicts. Being carried out based on the electoral rolls as of October 27, the SIR process in the state began on November 4. “SIR guidelines only mention that individuals above 18, who are ordinarily residents of their address, and are otherwise not disqualified from voting, may be included in the process,” said a higher official with the CEO office. “With the current provisions, all prisoners — convicts, remand prisoners and others— will be excluded from the process,” the official said. “When a Manju Warrier news of his relationship with Kavya Madhavan. The prosecution said its conspiracy case rests on a meticulous reconstruction of events, communications, custodial disclosures, and digital evidence, all of which point to a covert agreement between Dileep and Suni. The proceedings witnessed tensions, with both the prosecution and the victim filing petitions alleging bias by the trial judge. By the time 80 witnesses were examined, petitions seeking transfer of the case were filed, which were dismissed by the High Court. During the trial, 261 witnesses were examP2 ined.  PM to open Vande Mataram debate in Lok Sabha today Deeply pained by the tragic fire incident in North Goa resulting in the loss of lives. My heartfelt condolences. May they find strength during this difficult time. I pray for the speedy recovery EXPRESS READ A s w in A s o k K u mar @ T’Puram eos of the sexual assault in order to defame and demoralise the survivor. After filing the chargesheet against the first six accused, the special investigation team moved against Dileep to establish the conspiracy. Dileep appeared before the team on July 5, 2017, and was questioned for around 12 hours. After gathering additional evidence, the police arrested him on July 10. He remained in jail for 86 days before being released on bail on October 3, 2017. According to the prosecution, Dileep believed the survivor had divulged to his wife person is jailed, he/she is not permitted to vote. However, their names will not be removed from the electoral roll. But since the conditions are different here and the prisoners cannot be treated as ‘ordinarily residents’ of their address, we don’t have a legal provision to accommodate them in the SIR process,” the official said. “They will have to reapply as a fresh voter to be part of the electoral roll, the final decision of which rests with the ERO,” the official added.  ● More on P5 Prisoners in Kerala Male 9,802 Female 251 Total 10,053 Remand prisoners 4,598 Undertrials 1,130 Convicts 4,004 Civil detainees 14 Under Goonda Act 307 (As of October 20, 2025) Source: Kerala Prisons Website diGo successfully delivered 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers as of December 6. It had mandated a 48-houir deadline for delivery of luggage separated from flyers due to the flight delay and cancellation chaos. In an update on the situation, Indigo said its on-time performance shot up to 75% on Sunday from 30% on Saturday . The airline also said it will “root cause analysis” into flight disruptions. Meanwhile, the aviation watchdog on Sunday extended the deadline to submit the response to Monday 6 pm. IndiGo sources said the airline would soon respond to the DGCA’s show cause notice to its CEO Pieter Elbers. “We are readying our response by explaining the reasons that flights were cancelled and delayed and the steps we are taking to mitigate them,” a source said. THE penultimate week of the Parliament session is set to be very busy with both Houses set , to debate ‘Vande Mataram’ and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will open the debate on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram in the Lok Sabha, where he is expected to highlight several previously unknown facets of the national song. The BJP has been allotted three hours for its interventions in the Lok Sabha, while the total debate time will span about 10 hours. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to be the second speaker in the debate, which will also feature the participation of Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Hooda, Manipur MP Dr Bimol Akoijam, and Praniti Shinde, among others. The Rajya Sabha will take up the debate on Vande Mataram on Tuesday, with Home Minister Amit Shah leading the discussion. Health Minister and Leader of the Rajya Sabha J P Nadda will be the second speaker. The debate on Vande Mataram is likely to see fireworks as the Congress and BJP were at loggerheads over the latter’s allegations that important stanzas of the national song were dropped in 1937, which sowed the seeds of partition. Boosting ties with India top agenda of US official’s visit j ayanth j a c o b @ New Delhi A top US official is scheduled to visit New Delhi and Bengaluru from December 7 to 11. The visit of US’ under secretary of state for political affairs Allison Hooker is expected to sharpen the strategic focus of the US-India partnership at a time when both sides are navigating economic friction, geopolitical volatility and rapid technological shifts. According to the US Embassy, Hooker will prioritise advancing the USIndia strategic partnership, deepening economic and commercial ties, expanding American exports, and accelerating collaboration in emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and space explora- tion. Her visit comes amid renewed efforts in Washington and New Delhi to stabilise ties after weeks of heightened tensions over US’ 50% tariff. Hooker has been closely involved in India engagement in recent months. In September, she met Indian ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra, as both sides worked to ease friction over trade and energy issues. In November, Indian public-sector oil companies signed a one-year agreement with US energy majors to import 2.2 million tonnes of LPG, roughly 10% of India’s annual LPG imports. Then, India and the US finalised a $946 million sustainment package for the Indian Navy’s fleet of 24 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, strengthening defence industrial ties.