kalaburagi l Sunday l January 04, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l city EDITION NCC to train 10,000 cadets to deal with cyber attacks National Cadet Corps will train a group of 10,000 ‘cyber warriors’ who can contribute to bolstering India’s digital defence mechanism special hubs for training in the offing cadets to be linked to national database NCC has also planned to train one lakh cadets as first responders in the wake of natural disasters, Director General, NCC, Lt Gen Virendra Vats said at a press conference on the NCC’s Republic Day Camp 2026 in New Delhi. NCC has started work on raising four to five hubs across the country where select cadets can be trained on drone and counter-drone aspects trained and linked with the national database, so that the services can be used by the nation in case of need in future, Vats said ■ NCC plans to increase its strength from 17 lakh to 20 lakh in a phased manner, and is looking to achieve this goal by 2028 ■ These cadets will be known as Yuva Apda Mitras, and they will be 40% of the ncc’s total current strength comprises girls 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 U.S. snatches maduro Venezuela Prez, wife being taken to America in dramatic coup; US will run country for now A G E N CIES @ Caracas SC order on Khalid’s bail tomorrow S U CHIT R A K ALYA N MOHA N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court will on Monday pronounce its order on the bail petitions of Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam and five others in the 2020 Delhi riots larger conspiracy case. They were booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and provisions of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly being the masterminds of the riots. A two-judge bench comprising just i c e s A ra v i n d Kumar and N V Anjaria had res e r v e d their verdict on December 10. The verdict comes in the wake of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani writing a note to Khalid, recalling his words on ‘bitterness’ and the importance of not letting it “consume one’s self ”. Parallelly eight American , lawmakers wrote to Indian Ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra on December 30, urging a fair and timely trial for Khalid and others in accordance with international law and bail for the duration of the court’s proceedings. A videograb of a blaze in Caracas on Saturday; US President Donald Trump releases the first photograph of Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima en route to the US | X/AP The United States hit Venezuela with a ‘large-scale strike’ early Saturday and said president Nicolas Madurao and his wife had been captured and shipped out of the country after months of intense pressure on the leftist government in an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack. Later in the evening, Trump, in a televised address, said the US is going to “run” Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. He said no US servicemen were killed in the operation and the US is “ready” to stage a second “and much larger” attack on the country if needed. Further, American oil firms will head into Venezuela to tap its massive crude re- ripple effect kkr drop bangladesh player, focus shifts to T20 World Cup ties E x pr e s s N e w s s e r v i c e @ Chennai Amidst the rising criticism over signing Bangladesh seamer Mustafizur Rahman, Kolkata Knight Riders released the player from their IPL 2026 squad following instructions from the cricket board. On Friday Shah Rukh , Khan and his franchise came under severe attack from certain quarters for buying the Bangaldeshi bowler. The BCCI on Saturday said that it has instructed the franchise to release the Bangladesh player citing current situation in the country . What seems to be even more interesting is that Bangladesh would be playing four matches in India — three in Kokata, one in Mumbai — during the T20 World Cup starting next month. Bangladesh Cricket Board has already called for an emergency meeting on Saturday night. If the matches do get affected, then the entire World Cup schedule might have to be rejigged. Pakistan, which re- fused to play in India because of security reasons, will play in Sri Lanka. As for KKR, it confirmed “that the BCCI/ IPL, as the regulator of the IPL, has instructed it to release Mustafizur from the squad ahead of upcoming IPL season. The release has been carried out following due process and consultations.” KKR had signed Rahman for `9.2 crore in the auction last month — the only Bangladeshi player to get picked — but had come under criticism on social media and from political parties owing to tur moil there. Shortly after BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said that they have asked KKR to release Rahman, the franchise confirmed the development. The BCCI said that KKR would allowed a replacement. “Due to the recent developments that are going on all across, BCCI has instructed the franchise KKR to release one of their players, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh,” Saikia told a news agency . serves, he said. The legal authority for the strike and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand was not immediately clear. The surreal American military action, which plucked a nation’s sitting leader from office, echoed the US invasion of Panama that led to the seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 exactly 36 years ago. In a series of fast-moving events, Caracas was rocked by seven explosions, accompanied avoid travel, says mea advisory The Ministry of External Affairs urged Indians to avoid all non-essential travel to Venezuela. It asked Indian nationals to contact +58-412-9584288 in case of an emergerncy by the sound of attack helicopters, around 2 am local time (11.30 am IST). The strikes, which targeted a major military base and an airbase, among other sites, continued for nearly an hour. Maduro’s government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations, calling it an ‘imperialist attack’ and urging citizens to take to the streets. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, would face charges after an indictment in New York. Before Saturday’s capture, Maduro appeared on state television on Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas. The strike came after the Trump administration spent months increasing pressure on Maduro, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, accused of carrying drugs. Russia and China, leading Venezuela allies, condemned the “armed aggression” and demanded clarity about Maduro’s fate. “Such hegemonic behaviour by US violates international law...infringes upon Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threatens peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean. China firmly opposes it,” the foreign ministry said.  P11 Crisis and Opportunity WITH THIS ISSUE PLUS 12 PAGES Govt planning to make ELCITA part of GBA or B’luru South dist? M o h a m m e d Ya c o o b @Bengaluru Directions from Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar and senior officials of the Urban Development Department to the Electronic City Industrial Township Authority (ELCITA) to share details of property tax collection are being seen as a move to either merge ELCITA with the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) area or push the IT belt into the administrative limits of Bengaluru South District, which was earlier Ramanagara, in the coming days. ELCITA has also been told to inform the government whether its funds are being spent on the development of panchayats around the IT hub. The direction was reportedly issued at a review meeting chaired by the DCM on Saturday. Chief officers of six town municipalities -- Anekal, Bommasandra, Hunasam a r a n a h a l l i , C h i k k a b a n av a r a , Chandapura and Jigani -- attended the meeting and briefed the DCM about the developmental activities and revenue capabilities in their limits. P7 In five years, more tigers died outside protected reserves J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi INDIA’s tiger conservation success story has a flip side. More big cats are dying outside protected reserves than inside them. Latest data from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) shows that in 2025, India recorded 166 tiger deaths, the second-highest in recent years and a sharp jump from 126 in 2024 (see table). In all, around 51% of 725 recorded fatalities in the last five years occurred outside tiger reserves, driven by the fact that about 30% of the country’s ti- gers now roam freely outside notified protected areas and exposing them to risks like human conflict, road accidents, electrocution and poisoning. A senior NTCA officer, who asked not to be named, pointed to severe staffing shortages. “We’re stretched thin in the field. Our forensic labs are understaffed too, which delays sample analysis and slows our response. That’s partly why poachers aren’t caught and prosecuted quickly enough.” The backlog tells the story. While 24 tigers were confirmed killed by poachers in 2019, five Tiger deaths outside protected forest areas Total % of total Year Mortality Outside mortality outside 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 166 126 182 122 129 88 65 100 52 64 53.01 51.58 54.94 42.62 49.61 cases from that year remain under investigation. The pending cases have shot up: from 37 in 2020 to 58 in 2021, 51 in 2022, 64 in 2023, 67 in 2024, and 140 in 2025. The latest State of Tiger report confirms one in five staff positions remain empty across tiger reserves. Some locations are missing 40% or more of required protection personnel. Twenty reserves reported inadequate anti-poaching staff. The rising number of tiger deaths outside protected areas prompted the Environment Ministry to launch a pilot to manage human-tiger conflicts across 10 states, with an allocation of `88 crore. “This pilot scheme doesn’t address the core issue of staff shortage,” said the officer. 3/4 of all tigers in india India hosts 75% of the world’s tiger populace. As per All India Tiger Estimation 2022, India’s tiger population is 3,682. India has 58 tiger reserves No funds, 600 unaided Kannada schools may shut R a s h m i Pat i l @Bengaluru While thousands of government schools are on the verge of closure, the picture is no different for unaided Kannada medium schools. Around 600 such schools and colleges are on the verge of shutting down because of lack of funds to pay the salaries of teachers or to develop their infrastructure. Teachers from these schools have now written to Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa, asking him to release funds to clear their salaries. Santhosh, a teacher at Vanitha Kannada High School in Kirthi Nagar, Bommanakatte, in Shivamogga, said, “The last time that an unaided school was converted into aided was in 1995. The last time that grants were given by the government to provide salaries for teachers was also the same year.” He said, “We don’t charge a single rupee from students at our school, but provide quality education. If the schools shut down, many teachers will lose their jobs and over 6,000 chil- dren will be impacted. More importantly there will be no Kan, nada medium schools which are as important as English medium ones. We had earlier protested demanding grants from the government and to convert unaided schools into aided, but nothing has been done. We had over 100 students in our school, but most of them shifted after more aided and English medium schools emerged in our neighbourhood. We now have only 60 students.” He pointed out that every year, unaided Kannada medium schools have recorded a pass percentage of 90 in SSLC exams. GC Shivappa, president, Unaided Kannada Medium Schools, Karnataka, said, “The minister said on the floor of the House that our schools would be included in the coming budget. When we met him personally on Saturday, he made us the same promise. But previous education ministers too had stated that these schools would be part of the budget, but that never happened.” Madhu Bangarappa was not available for comments. express read 14 Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh encounters 6 cops hurt in mob attack during raid on TMC leader Sukma/Bijapur: At least 14 Maoists, including wanted ultras Vetti Mangdu and Madvi Hunga and six women, were killed in separate encounters in Sukma and Bijapur districts in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on Saturday | P10 Kolkata: Six policemen were injured after a mob attacked them during a raid at the residence of a local Trinamool Congress leader Musa Mollah on Friday night. Mine persons have been arrested in connection with the incident | P10