bengaluru l Friday l July 10, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 40 l late city EDITION Sir: Voter base in Odisha, Sikkim Mizoram & Manipur shrinks by 22L Around 22 lakh voters have been left out of the draft electoral rolls in Mizoram, Odisha, Manipur and Sikkim where Phase 3 of the SIR is underway voter count down to 3.46 cr from 3.68 cr 20 lakh names dropped in odisha alone The collective voter base in these states, which stood at 3.68 crore before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, has now shrunk to 3.46 crore, according to data made available in the public domain over the past few days. People left out of the draft rolls still have a chance to be included in the final rolls to be published later this year ■ ■ The largest deletion of names—20.11 lakh—was in Odisha, where over 8.3 lakh electors were found to be deceased, while 10.07 lakh had either shifted residence or were found absent The four states are among the 16 states and three Union Territories where electoral roll revision is underway with a staggered schedule May 30 when phase 3 of the special intensive revision was rolled out 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 Australia eases Ayatollah laid to rest, Iran hits US military targets in Gulf uranium hurdle in win-win deal A G E N CI E S @ Mashhad Modi’s cricket analogy caps major push to enhance bilateral defence and trade ties J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi India and Australia on Thursday finalised a long-pending arrangement for Australian uranium exports to India for peaceful civilian use and unveiled a sweeping defence and security framework, signalling a sharper convergence of interests in the Indo-Pacific. The announcements came after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Melbourne, where they also reaffirmed their commitment to concluding the long-delayed Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and expanding cooperation in critical minerals, cyber security clean energy , and advanced technologies. Setting a light-hearted tone, Modi likened the bilateral relationship to cricket. “Our meetings feel like a cricket match— the agenda has the focus of a One-Day match, decisions are as fast as T20, and our partnership is as long and deep as a Test match,” he said. The centrepiece of the visit was the finalisation of the administrative arrangement under the 2014 India-Australia Civil Nuclear Agreement, clearing the way for Australia, one of the world’s largest uranium producers, to supply uranium for India’s civilian nuclear programme after years of delays over safeguards and implementation. No volume of uranium exports was announced. The leaders also issued a new ‘Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation’, replacing the 2009 security declaration and significantly broadening military engagement. The framework envisages stronger strategic coordination, more complex joint military exercises, greater interoperability between the armed forces, enhanced cyber cooperation, counter-terrorism collaboration, defence industrial PM Narendra Modi with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese at an event in Melbourne on Thursday | PTI Developing a critical minerals corridor The two sides unveiled the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains (PACTS) and agreed to develop a critical minerals corridor to secure supply chains vital for clean energy and advanced manufacturing partnerships and humanitarian assistance. A key outcome was the launch of the ‘India-Australia Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap’, alongside an MoU between the Indian Coast Guard and Australia’s Maritime Border Command to strengthen maritime domain awareness, information sharing and operational coordination. The expanded agenda comes as both countries seek to bolster cooperation amid China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. Stressing the strategic significance of the region, Modi said, “The Indo-Pacific... symbolises the shared aspirations of like-minded democracies like India and Australia.” He announced the launch of an “India-Australia Defence Innovation Corridor” to connect defence industries and startups and said both nations would cooperate in shipbuilding, ship repair and maintenance. Australia will also host an Indian military instructor at the Australian Defence College in 2028-29.  P9 Metro gets TMC funds HC allows party to use stuck at BSK, frozen money taken off track E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru Less than three weeks after Namma Metro services were crippled for nearly five hours on Purple Line, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) on Thursday reported yet another technical snag, marking the third such incident in the past 20 days, delaying services on the Green Line during peak hour. According to BMRCL, the latest disruption occurred at 8.23 am on the Green Line when a train at Banashankari Metro station developed a signalling issue and was unable to move. The incident led to delays across the corridor during the morning peak hours. The train was withdrawn from service after passengers were safely deboarded to facilitate the movement of other trains, BMRCL said, adding that the train was taken off the track for inspection of the issue. In a statement, BMRCL said Green Line services were affected between 8.23 am and 8.38 am due to a technical issue.  P2 The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the Mamata-led Trinamool Congress use of funds from frozen bank accounts for day-to-day administrative and legal expenses | P10 Amid fresh escalation in its conflict with the US, Iran on Thursday buried its slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a shrine in his hometown in Mashhad, marking the culmination of a week of mass funeral processions and rallies. As the body of Khamenei, who was killed in a US airstrike on the first day of the war on February 28, was taken through crammed streets of Mashhad, a sea of black-clad mourners waved Iranian flags, photographs of the late leader, and red placards with revolutionary slogans. Many reportedly called for revenge and rejected any compromise with the US to end the war. Beating their chests and weeping, mourners lined the route as they waited for Khamenei’s coffin to arrive at the city’s shrine of Imam Reza, the holiest site for Shia Muslims in Iran and the burial place he had chosen in his will. Early in the day, Tehran attacked “US bases and strategic centres” in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar after Washington bombed Iranian cities for a second consecutive night. Reports said sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters, and Jordan, where the US has stationed troops and aircraft. Iran said it fired 10 ballistic missiles at Jordan’s Azraq military base, which hosts the US Air Forces Central’s 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing. Year & date when monsoon covered entire India A truck carrying the remains of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, on Thursday | ap Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand 2026 9 July Ramakrishna Badseshi @ Kalaburagi 2025 29 June 2024 2 July 2023 2 July 2022 2 July 2021 12 July 2020 26 June 2019 19 July 2018 29 June 2017 19 July 2016 13 July 2015 26 June 2014 17 July A boy collects water from a hand pump outside his partially submerged house after heavy rain, at a village in Khowai district of Tripura on Thursday | PTI Married minor’s rapist gets 20 yrs in jail, parents, hubby 1 yr each Damaged buildings after a landslide near Kaddukhal on National Highway 707A following heavy rainfall, in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand | PTI Day late, but monsoon covers India J i t end r a C h o u be y @ New Delhi The Southwest monsoon on Thursday fully covered the entire nation, marking a day’s delay from the normal arrival date of July 8. The last time it covered the whole country by July 9 was in 2011. This year’s monsoon onset over Kerala occurred on June 4, which was three days later than the climatological normal date of June 1. Last year, the monsoon had covered the entire nation by June 29, almost nine days earlier than normal. At 108%, last year’s monsoon was well above normal. In contrast, this year’s precipitation is expected to be the reverse. In June, the monsoon deficit was 40% of the long-period average, resulting in the fifth lowest rainfall (99.5 mm) ever recorded for that month. However, good rainfall since July has helped reduce the deficit to -15.2% by July 9. India has received a total of 195.5 mm of rainfall in the current season, compared to the total long-term expectation of 230.4 mm. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the monsoon advanced further into the remaining parts of the north Arabian Sea, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab on Thursday thus covering the entire country It also forecast a below, . normal to deficient rainfall for the country, anticipating around 90% of the long-period average from June to September. This below-normal expectation is attributed to the emergence of a strong El Niño phenomenon, which refers to the abnormal warming of the East Pacific Ocean. In India, El Niño is synonymous with a weaker monsoon. The IMD also predicted a fresh cyclonic circulation over Bay of Bengal adjoining Odisha and West Bengal in the next few days. The poor monsoon affected kharif sowing, with only 350 lakh hectares sown so far — about 92 lakh hectares less than normal. Kotla, Delhi A tree collapses on a parked car following incessant rain in Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla stadium area on Thursday | Sayantan Ghosh Vasundhara, Ghaziabad A section of a road in Ghaziabad caved in beside an underconstruction basement, sending a car into the pit | Express Raigad dist, Maharashtra Gas cylinders adrift in the Patalganga after being swept away from a HPCL bottling plant, in Raigad district | PTI In an unusual Pocso Act case where a minor married girl was raped, Additional District and Sessions Court in Kalaburagi sentenced not only the rapist but the girl’s parents and her husband. In a verdict delivered on Tuesday, Judge SL Chouhan sentenced the rapist, Nagappa Chadabanur, for 20 years in jail and imposed a Rs 50,000 fine. The court also handed out one-year jail terms and Rs 10,000 fine each for the victim’s parents and her husband under the Child Marriage Prohibition Act. According to Special Public Prosecutor (POCSO) Shantaveera Tuppad, Chadabanur used to tease the victim. To ward off the accused’s threat, the parents of the minor girl conducted her marriage to another person. However, Chadabanur kidnapped the girl on September 5, 2024, and raped her. Later the accused dropped her at Wadi Railway Station saying he would come back with some money . The girl returned to her village and told her parents about the sexual assault. The parents then registered a complaint at the Wadi Police Station. The court has asked the Legal Services Authority to pay Rs 5 lakh to the victim. express read 7 killed as MUV collides with truck in Yellapur Yellapur: Seven people in a MUV were killed and two others sustained injuries when the vehicle rammed an oncoming truck. The accident happened at Aarthi Bail village in Uttara Kannada district on Thursday. PM Narendra Modi condoled the accident in a post on X | P6 WITH THIS ISSUE CITY’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE Khowai dist, Tripura Bitcoin case: Home dept denies M’luru gets Karnataka’s first dry sanction, four cops off the hook waste-to-fuel pellet plant 40 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) green push E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e V i n c en t D ’ S o u z a @ Mangaluru In a first for Karnataka, the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has commissioned a dry waste-to-fuel pellet manufacturing plant at Kemral near Mangaluru, converting nonrecyclable waste into an alternative industrial fuel and reducing the need to transport such waste hundreds of kilometres for disposal. The facility gives commercial value to waste that was earlier considered unusable, including discarded clothes, The dry waste-to-fuel pellet manufacturing plant near Mangaluru footwear, single-use plastics and other non-recyclable dry waste, by processing it into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) pel- lets for use in industrial boilers. The project was commissioned a fortnight ago under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin). Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat CEO Narwade Vinayak Karbhari said the project was conceived after a study visit to a similar plant in Maharashtra. Around Rs 50 lakh has been spent on machinery, including a pulveriser and pelletiser, while the existing dry waste processing shed at Kemral was upgraded for the facility  P7 . @ Bengaluru Four police officers, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), have been dropped from the chargesheet despite the Special Investigation Team (SIT) claiming to have found evidence against them in the alle ged Bitcoin ille gal transfer case. The officers were excluded after the Karnataka Home department denied prosecution sanction against them. The SIT, however, has filed a chargesheet against cy- ber expert KS Santosh Kumar. The SIT of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) was probing allegations that notorious hacker Srikrishna Ramesh, alias Sriki, was illegally detained by police officers and coerced into transferring Bitcoins worth several crores of rupees. The CID registered a case against former Central Crime Branch (CCB) of ficers Shridhar K Pujar, DM Prashanth Babu, Lakshmekanthayya and Chandradhara, and cyber expert Santosh Kumar. All five were arrested during the course of the investigation. Recently, the SIT filed a chargesheet before the 1st Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court against Kumar. However, the names of DySP Shridhar K Pujar and police inspectors Prashanth Babu, Lakshmekanthayya and Chandradhara have been dropped. According to the chargesheet, the SIT found evidence, including witness statements and technical material, indicating that the four police officers had allegedly acted in collusion with Santosh Kumar in an attempt to transfer Bitcoins from hacker Sriki.  P7