Kolkata: Purported image of a few pages of the English second language question paper was circulated on social media, sometime after the class 10 state board examinations began in West Bengal on Friday, the second day of the exams.
The image of the question paper was uploaded on WhatsApp from an exam centre in Malda district, Education Minister Bratya Basu said.
West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) President Ramanuj Ganguly said it cannot be termed a leak as only three of the 16 pages of the question paper were circulated on WhatsApp one and a half hours after the three-hour-long exam started at 12 noon.
“How can it be called a leak? The candidates were inside the exam centres and the exams were already in progress. You can describe it as an attempt by someone to sabotage the smooth conduct of the examination process. The board will not treat the issue lightly,” he said when contacted by PTI.
Ganguly, who is touring exam centres in various districts since Friday, said the board has requested the state administration to trace the origin of this WhatsApp post which was later forwarded many times.
“The image of the question paper was circulated from an exam centre in Malda district. As stated by the Board president, I also think it is an act of sabotage. The board President will probably submit a report by tomorrow,” the education minister told reporters on the sidelines of an event.
A guardian of an examinee in a north Kolkata school, who got the image on her WhatsApp number, said it was forwarded from one of her acquaintances in Murshidabad district.
Altogether 6,98,627 candidates are writing papers in 2,867 centres in the Madhyamik Examination conducted by the WBBSE. The exams began on February 23 and will continue till March 4.
In 2022, a purported image of the English question paper similarly surfaced on social media but the Board had said it was fake with no resemblance to the original one.
In past editions of the Madhyamik exams between 2017 and 2019, there had been similar instances when images of purported question papers of English, Physical Science and other subjects circulated on social media after the start of the exams. However, each time they did not tally with the original.
Hyderabad: YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP from Kadapa, Y.S. Avinash Reddy on Friday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for questioning in former Andhra Pradesh minister, Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy’s murder case.
Avinash Reddy, a cousin of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, appeared before the CBI officials in Hyderabad. He was reportedly being questioned in the presence of his lawyer.
This is the second time that the Lok Sabha member from Kadapa is being questioned by the central agency in the case.
Vivekananda Reddy, who was found murdered at his house in Kadapa district in 2019, was paternal uncle of Jaganmohan Reddy and Avinash Reddy.
The CBI officials questioned Avinash Reddy for more than four-and-a-half hours on January 28.
Avinash Reddy’s father Y.S. Bhaskar Reddy was also summoned by the CBI on Thursday, but he has sought more time from the agency.
The questioning of the MP assumed significance in the wake of an affidavit filed by the CBI in Telangana High Court two days ago while opposing the bail petition of Sunil Yadav, one of the accused.
The investigating agency stated that Avinash Reddy, his father Y.S. Bhaskar Reddy and their follower D. Siva Sankar Reddy had hatched a criminal conspiracy to kill Vivekananda Reddy over conflicting political ambitions.
The CBI submitted to the court that the trio used other accused Yerra Gangi Reddy, Sunil Yadav, Dastagiri and others who worked for Vivekananda Reddy to execute the murder plot.
Avinash Reddy and Bhaskar Reddy had a grouse against Vivekananda Reddy as the latter was opposed to YSRCP fielding Avinash as the party candidate from Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency. The former minister wanted Jagan Mohan Reddy to field his sister Y.S. Sharmila or mother Y.S. Vijayamma.
The CBI claimed that Rs 40 crore was offered to the other accused to carry out the murder.
The investigating agency also stated in its counter that Vivekananda Reddy was not happy with his brother Bhaskar Reddy and nephew Avinash Reddy as they had sabotaged his chances in the MLC election in 2017 in Kadapa. Avinash and his father wanted Siva Sankar as MLC candidate, but when Jagan Mohan Reddy fielded Vivekananda, the trio ensured he was defeated.
Vivekananda Reddy was the younger brother of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, father of Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He was found murdered mysteriously at his residence at Pulivendula in Kadapa district on March 15, 2019, a month ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The 68-year-old former state minister and former MP was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged in and killed him. He was killed hours before he was to launch the YSR Congress Party’s election campaign in Kadapa.
Though three Special Investigation Teams (SITs) conducted the probe they failed to solve the mystery.
The CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Sunitha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.
The CBI filed a charge sheet in the murder case on October 26, 2021 and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on January 31, 2022
In November last year, the Supreme Court transferred to a CBI court in Hyderabad the trial and probe into the larger conspiracy behind the murder. The apex court observed that doubts raised by Sunitha Reddy about getting a fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh were reasonable.
Hyderabad: Sukesh Gupta, one of the owners of MBS Jewellers, on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in a money laundering case.
The jeweller appeared before the ED officials at the agency’s regional office here.
The Telangana High Court on Monday had directed Gupta to appear before the ED and answer queries on information he had furnished. The court had refused to further stay the ED proceedings.
The court had earlier stayed the ED case and appointed a senior counsel as amicus curiae.
The central agency had commenced an investigation against Gupta based on an FIR filed by the CBI in 2014 on alleged irregularities committed by him in operating provisions of the gold import scheme.
Gupta had entered into an MoU with Metals Minerals Trading Corporation (MMTC), a public sector enterprise, under provisions of the scheme. He allegedly received gold on credit from MMTC Ltd to maintain forex positions without paying an additional five per cent tax. The agency reportedly identified fake invoices and vouchers pertaining to jewellery sales to customers.
The ED investigated their bank transactions and reportedly found that they deposited demonetised currency in banks and exchanged them for new notes.
The alleged irregularities by MBS Jewellers and other sister companies in buying gold in collusion with the officials of MMTC allegedly caused a loss to the tune of over Rs 504 crore including interest to the MMTC.
In August 2021, the ED had attached properties worth Rs 363.51 crore of MBS Jewellers, MBS Impex and other group entities under PMLA.
The action was taken on the basis of an FIR registered by the ACB and the CBI against Sukesh Gupta and his companies for defrauding MMTC. The CBI had filed the chargesheet in 2014.
In October last year, the ED had arrested Sukesh Gupta after searches at MBS Jewellers Private Limited and Musaddilal Gems and Jewels India Private Limited. The agency had seized gold jewellery stock worth Rs 149.10 crore and an amount of Rs 1.96 crore.
But brinkmanship between the president’s team and the media giant stretched for days and then hours heading into the weekend of the big game. It started Friday morning when the White House announced that an interview with Fox Soul — which came as a surprise to many — had been scrapped for good.
“The President was looking forward to an interview with Fox Soul to discuss the Super Bowl, the State of the Union, and critical issues impacting the everyday lives of Black Americans,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet. “We’ve been informed that Fox Corp. has asked for the interview to be cancelled.”
Hours later, Fox Corp. issued a statement citing “some initial confusion” the night before, but concluding that Fox Soul still looked forward to hosting the interview.
But by Friday evening — a point by which presidents and TV networks traditionally record Super Bowl interviews ahead of the Sunday program — a White House official informed POLITICO that nothing had changed since providing the earlier comments.
“FOX has since put out a statement indicating the interview was rescheduled, which is inaccurate,” the White House official said. While the person did not elaborate, Biden was not expected to conduct a Super Bowl interview of any kind.
The saga comes after initial talks fell apart between the White House and Fox News, the company’s highly-rated network. Earlier this week, a Fox anchor said the White House had ghosted the network. In the days that followed, Fox representatives confirmed that productive discussions were effectively over.
White House officials declined to provide specifics on why their outreach to Fox stopped. Fox’s Bret Baier was viewed as the most likely anchor from the news and conservative opinion network to land the president. Biden sat down in previous years with news anchors from NBC and CBS.
The decision not to have Biden tangle with one of Fox News’ top anchors means the White House was willing to sacrifice a massive pre-game audience on Sunday to which the president could share his message. But it also suggests the White House was unwilling to reward a network that houses prime-time hosts who mercilessly assail the administration and Democrats.
Instead, Biden’s team worked on landing an agreement with Fox Soul, a streaming outfit part of Fox’s TV stations division and geared toward a Black audience. White House officials had arranged for the interview to be conducted by Fox Sports host Mike Hill and actress Vivica A. Fox. Fox Soul general manager James DuBose had planned to produce the interview. All three flew Friday from Los Angeles to Washington for the interview.
The White House seeking out Fox Soul was seen as a way to have the president avoid appearing with a Fox News personality while still going through with an interview. Biden has yet to sit for an interview with Fox News, making a different calculation than his former boss, Barack Obama. While the Obama White House is remembered for icing Fox News journalists — leading other networks to offer their solidarity — Obama did sit for a pair of pre-game interviews with former Fox host Bill O’Reilly.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Hyderabad: YSR Congress Party Lok Sabha MP from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh Avinash Reddy on Saturday appeared before the CBI officials here in connection with the murder of Vivekananda Reddy, younger brother of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in 2019.
The probe agency had earlier summoned him on January 24 but the MP sought more time, following which the CBI has given him a new date of January 28.
Sources said he was called as witness in the case.
Avinash is cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The CBI had filed a charge sheet in the murder case on October 26, 2021 and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on January 31, 2022.
Vivekananda Reddy was the brother of Rajasekhara Reddy and uncle of Jagan Mohan Reddy. He was found murdered at his residence in Pulivendula, the constituency now represented by his nephew, on the night of March 15, 2019, weeks before the State assembly elections.
The Supreme Court in November transferred the high-profile murder trial of Vivekananda Reddy to a special court in Telangana, after taking note of allegations by the deceased’s widow and daughter about influential people attempting to scuttle the trial in his home State.
Bengaluru: Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director Anjum Parvez on Saturday appeared before the police in connection with the collapse of an iron pillar at the site of construction of Bengaluru Metro. Two persons were killed in the incident.
A woman and her son were killed following the collapse of the iron pillar that fell on them while passing through the site of construction. The deceased were identified as 25-year-old Tejaswini and her two-and-half-year old son Vihan. The woman was on a motorcycle along with her husband and another son.
The Govindapura police had served notice to Anjum Parvez regarding the case. He appeared before the DCP (East) Bhimashankar Guled and attended the inquiry.
“I attended the inquiry as I was summoned by the police. A report has been sought by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) regarding the incident and precautions that need to be taken in future to prevent such incidents,” said Parvez.
“The reports have to be submitted. The engineers are being trained to take up security measures. Action will be initiated against the construction company as per the contract agreement,” he said, adding: “We will see to it that in future such incidents don’t take place.”
Following the incident, the “negligence” of BMRCL” was criticised by the deceased’s family as well as the general public.
The victim’s family had lodged a complaint in this regard against the contractor and the Nagarjuna Construction Company.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Home Minister Araga Jnanendra have assured action against the guilty.
The Karnataka High Court has also taken up the case on its own for the probe.
Bengaluru: The north Karnataka region known for harmony and peaceful co-existence plays an important role in shaping the political scenario of the state.
Consisting of 13 districts, the voting pattern has seen a paradigm shift. The region, which was a Congress bastion, is now rallying behind the state’s ruling BJP.
The BJP wins a major chunk of seats from north Karnataka and Congress is struggling to return to its days of glory. The JD (S) has managed to show its existence. It appears, though, that cracks have developed in the Lingayat vote bank this time, giving an opportunity to the Congress.
Among the 224 Assembly seats, the region has more than 100. A major chunk of seats are won by the BJP.
After the elevation of Mallikarjun Kharge as the Congress President, the party is hoping to make a comeback.
Political analysts explain that Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and Kharge’s combination will make magic for the party in north Karnataka region.
The ruling BJP in the state draws its core strength from north Karnataka and garners a major chunk of seats from the region.
Lingayat votes, which play an important role in elections in the region, were garnered by the BJP under the leadership of former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, a Lingayat strongman.
However, the ensured vote bank appears to be shaky this time.
A change of guard in the leadership, hostile posture of Lingayat seer Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swamiji of Panchamasali sub sect, a war of words between senior BJP leaders of the region seems to affect the ruling BJP.
Gali Janardhana Reddy’s new party Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha is also likely to pose a challenge to both Congress and BJP.
Janardhana Reddy has stated that in spite of national parties not attaching any importance, his party would make an impact in the upcoming Assembly elections.
The Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha is likely to disturb national parties in Kalyan Karnataka region comprising districts of Raichur, Koppal, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Yadgir, Ballary and Vijanaynagara.
Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swamiji has attacked Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai for failing to give reservation for Panchamasali sub sect under OBC quota. Vijayapura BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal stated that it is a failure on part of Bommai and he has disappointed the community.
Minister for Large and Medium Industries Murugesh Nirani had charged that the Lingayat seer is acting on the behalf of the Congress.
However, the agitation for reservation is being taken up for years and the issue is likely to hit the prospectus of BJP in the upcoming elections, say analysts.
The BJP has got a shot in the arm by approving DPR for Kalasa-Banduri project which will mitigate the drinking water problem in major districts of north Karnataka.
The Congress has also organised a massive rally for speedy implementation of the project.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts this month and laying the foundation stone and inauguration of more than Rs 10,000 crore for development works in the region is seen as an attempt to outreach to the people of North Karnataka.
The BJP is expecting a boost in 41 constituencies of the region.
Experts say that this time, it won’t be a cake walk for the saffron part in north Karnataka. However, the BJP camp is upbeat and confident that the Hindutva agenda will work for them.
The absence of Keith Pelley as the DP World Tour’s year got under way in Abu Dhabi this week was explained by the man himself in a note to players. “Unfortunately, the majority of my time has been, and is being, occupied in preparing for next month’s arbitration hearing,” said the chief executive of the European Tour Group.
In February, Pelley’s business will face off with LIV rebels who believe they should retain the right to play on this platform in addition to their own. Pelley said: “The hearing is also taking up a considerable amount of time for several other senior members of our staff, as well as a significant amount of financial resource, all of which in the ordinary course of things would have been more usefully deployed across our business to further benefit all our members.”
That remark irritated Lee Westwood, who criticised “propaganda” being used against him and his fellow LIV converts. Pelley’s comment was harmless enough; his organisation views LIV as a competitive rival, one with a bottomless cash pit which could plunge golf’s traditional ecosystem into irrelevance. A jab or three back is fair.
Where Westwood was on stronger ground was with his audible concern over the pull of the DP World Tour. The Abu Dhabi Championship, a $9m curtain raiser, features only one player from the world’s top 20. Rory McIlroy will add lustre to next week’s Dubai Desert Classic but Viktor Hovland will not defend his title. Major winners Jon Rahm and Matt Fitzpatrick, poster boys for European golf, are skipping the Middle East swing entirely. Has LIV, plus the demands of the PGA Tour, materially harmed the DP World Tour?
The answer, as with everything in this sport just now, is far from straightforward. The last set of accounts filed by the European Tour Group – for the financial year 2021 – showed cash in hand of £79m. Profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was in excess of £17m. While the 2022 figures are unknown, this year will enjoy coffers boosted by the Ryder Cup in Rome. While other sporting bodies had their finances decimated by the impact of Covid, it is difficult to portray the European Tour’s business as anything other than strong. The situation has been helped by strategic alliance with the PGA Tour, which bought into and has subsequently increased their stake in the European Tour’s media production wing. Rank and file golfers have never had it so good.
“Look at the numbers,” says the Ryder Cup vice captain, Nicolas Colsaerts. “People just lose sense of reality. Take a step back and look at where we were five, 10 years ago compared to now.” This season, DP World Tour players will compete for a record $144.2m. Growth has been promised by Pelley, to $162m by 2027.
The HSBC Championship, currently taking place in Abu Dhabi, features only one player from the world’s top 20. Photograph: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
If the DP World Tour’s duty is to provide opportunity for a membership in excess of 400, that undoubtedly exists. As does a new minimum earning guarantee of $150,000 for anybody who competes in 15 tournaments. “When you get a tour card, you get a bill for a minimum of 80-100 grand for expenses,” says Marc Warren.
In BMW, HSBC and Rolex, Pelley has maintained long-term partnerships with illustrious companies. Hero MotorCorp, a huge backer of golf on both sides of the Atlantic, stepped in to the breach after Slync’s sponsorship of the Desert Classic collapsed. Broadcast deals, an ongoing problem for LIV, are a DP World Tour strong suit.
These are matters of commerce. There is also an emerging player element. “I think the European side of golf is in very safe hands,” says the 2018 Open champion, Francesco Molinari. “There’s loads of young talent coming through. Yeah, some weeks you’re going to get better fields than others. It’s not really anything different from the last few years. When you get to the top of the game, you play a little bit more in America, but we have got young European talent coming through.”
Still, the inability or unwillingness of so many top players to travel to Abu Dhabi or Dubai raises questions. “This is a great event but it has half the prize fund of 25-30 events around the world,” says Bernd Wiesberger, the 37-year-old Austrian, who hopes to continue to juggle LIV and the DP World Tour. “None of the top guys will play more than 18-20 events.” Wiesberger believes the world ranking standing of tournaments such as Abu Dhabi is “troubling.”
Worthy of question, too, is the failure of the PGA and DP World Tours to agree elevated status – meaning a purse of at least $20m – to any tournament in Europe and especially the UK. There are soft runs and competitions with no broader reach, although that has always been the case. Last year’s Scottish Open pulled a marquee field because of geographical proximity to St Andrews and the Open Championship; with the third major of 2023 taking place on the Wirral, East Lothian may suffer.
Speculation continues that Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, the defending champion in Abu Dhabi, will be coaxed to the LIV scene. Such a scenario would be a blow to Pelley but far from a fatal one. The chief executive has high-profile support. “We got sidetracked to thinking that $100m is normal,” says the 2019 Open champion, Shane Lowry. “Everybody is throwing out these figures that are just astronomical. As a tour, could this tour be better? We could all be better in anything that we do. But I think that with a steady growth over the next number of years, this tour will keep improving.” Different golfers are applying different metrics. Golf’s battle for hearts and minds continues apace.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
The Wiki biography was last edited on April 29, 2011. It contains basic information that matches up with the newly sworn-in congressman, including Devolder being born on July 22, 1988, to a Brazilian family with a European background.
Santos has used the name Anthony Devolder elsewhere for online accounts.
His office referred calls for comment to an outside aide, who did not immediately respond. But if the person who created the Anthony Devolder Wiki bio was anyone other than Santos, it would mean someone used the same alias and same biographical details as him a dozen years ago, all for a user page no one else would see.
The surfacing of the Wiki biography is another twist in a weeks-long saga of lies and embellishments. The New York Republican has been caught fabricating his own resume on everything from his business career, educational achievements and the nature of his mother’s death. He has admitted that he misled about critical parts of his biography, but has also insisted that other politicians have done the same.
The Wiki bio for Anthony Devolder, which is full of spelling and grammatical errors, appears to contain fantastical descriptions of his supposed career in show business. It claims that he had a part in Disney’s “Hannah Montana,” among other examples.
It was, it appears, just the first in several attempts by Santos to edit his bio on the internet encyclopedia — steps that further show the degree to which he has gone to curate his life story.
In November, a Wiki user named Devmaster88 edited the Wikipedia page for then congressman-elect George Santos (a page separate from the Wiki bio for Anthony Devolder). The user changed the section about Santos’ personal life and made edits to his middle name. Around that time another account, georgedevolder22, also made edits to Santos’ public Wikipedia page, removing the entire middle name, Anthony Devolder, so that the biography was shortened to George Santos.
The identity of the users is not revealed by Wikipedia. But both accounts have subsequently been blocked from the site. Moderators, as part of the ban, wrote that Devmaster88 was “abusing multiple accounts” and that it was likely an extension of Georgedevolder22.
Santos, a Republican, has pushed back on relatively few accusations that he has lied about his past. But he did deny the drag performances that were first revealed by MSNBC reporter Marisa Kabas, who posted a photo she alleges to be of Santos dressed in drag in 2008. Kabas also spoke with a Brazilian drag queen who allegedly was friends with Santos when he lived near Rio de Janeiro and used the stage name Kitara.
On Thursday, the New York Post translated a video from Portuguese in which a person who appears to be Santos discusses performing in drag. The video was later posted online by the Daily Mail.
Santos has rebuffed repeated calls from fellow Republicans to resign his seat over the fabrications, even as he has come under investigation over his finances. In recent days he denied separate allegations from New Jersey veterans claiming that he absconded with thousands of dollars earmarked for life-saving surgery for one of their sick dogs.
In the 2011 Wiki bio, the user Anthony Devolder sprinkles show business credits that ring similarly untrue. He describes his Hollywood career as taking off after a meeting with a producer of the 1996 blockbuster “Independence Day.” He name drops the director Steven Spielberg (he misspelled his last name as “Spilberg”), and claims to have starred in “a few T.V shows and DISNEY Channel shows such as ‘the suite life of Zack and Cody” and the hit “Hanna[h] Montana.”
The Wiki bio concludes with Santos writing that, two years prior, he “taped his very first movie startting [sp] Uma Turman, [sp] Chris Odanald, [sp] Melllisa George, [sp] and Alicia Silver Stone [sp] in the movie “THE INVASION.”
“The Invasion” is a 2007 sci-fi/thriller with roots in the “Body Snatchers” storyline and stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
