Two temple committees in Malappuram organised a huge Iftar for Muslims during the holy month of Ramzan, serving as an example of interfaith peace.
On April 7 and March 28, respectively, committees of the Sree Puthuveppu Manaliyarkavu Bhagavathi temple in Othalur and the Chathangadu Sree Maha Vishnu temple in Vaniyannur in Tirur staged the mass Iftar on the premises of the respective temple grounds.
According to a report by the TNIE, Muslims in large numbers participated in both gatherings.
“It was an initiative taken by a group of youngsters in the area. Our aim is to strengthen the bond between people from the Hindu and Muslim communities. Religious harmony is important and we want to celebrate every festival together in a peaceful and jovial atmosphere,” the report quoted Krishnan Pavittapuram, secretary of the Sree Puthuveppu Manaliyarkavu Bhagavathi temple.
Dijith K, one of the event’s organisers, said that a member of the Muslim community sponsored the annadanam during the temple’s annual installation celebration, which this year coincided with Ramadan. “We will continue to organise the mass Iftar in the coming years,” Dijith said.
For Chathangadu Sree Maha Vishnu Temple, this is the second iftar.
“Like the previous year, people from the Muslim community could not attend the annadanam this year as our annual installation festival fell during the Ramzan month. So, we organised the mass Iftar a day after the annual festival. We will organise it next year if the date of the annual installation festival falls during Ramzan month,” said Lakshmanan K K, temple committee secretary.
Panakkad Rasheed Ali Shihab Thangal, an IUML leader who attended the Vaniyannur Iftar, praised the temple’s decision.
“The temple has set a model for others to follow. All communities should live in harmony in the country. We should move forward while respecting and helping each other. There should be no space for hatred in our hearts,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE) will not be holding a practical exam for Class 10.
JKBOSE will rely on the internal tests held by schools during the academic session.
“Twenty marks internal exams are held at the school level. It is already a set procedure. Schools will forward us the 20 marks internal results. There is nothing new in that,” Lal Hussain, Joint Secretary, Examination, BOSE.
However, BOSE will hold external practicals for Class 11 and 12. “We will be holding the external practicals of Class 11 and 12,” he said.
Class X exam in soft zones of Kashmir concluded on Wednesday. More than 63500 students appeared for the matriculation exam. In August last year, the government shifted the academic session to March in sync with National Education Policy (NEP). Exams in hard zones started from April 8. Hard zones are those areas that are snowbound and not reachable. Since access to the area was difficult during March, the government decided to hold their exam separately.
Class 10 will go first on April 8. It will be followed by the Class 12 exam which will kick off on April 11. The exam for class 11 will start on April 12.
Meanwhile, the admission process to the next classes has kicked off in Kashmir. Several schools have started issuing admission forms to students for the next classes. Private schools too have completed the process.
This follows the decision of the Jammu and Kashmir government to provisionally promote 10 standard students to the next class in a bid to avoid academic loss.
As per the ‘Uniform Academic calendar, the students who appear in Class 10 and 11 examinations shall be provisionally admitted in Class 11th and 12th respectively after the conclusion of the Board examination.
According to a government order, students, who are declared unsuccessful shall be permitted to continue their studies in Class 11th and 12th till the result of the Biannual/Annual Private examinations is declared. “In respect of the candidates who fail to pass in Bi-annual examination, provisional admission shall be canceled,” the order said.
The Louisville shooting comes just two weeks after three children and three adults were killed at a Christian elementary school in Nashville. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that one of the victims, Cindy Peak, was friends with his wife Maria.
“What happened at Covenant School was a tragedy beyond comprehension. Like many of you, I’ve experienced tragedy in my own life, and I’ve experienced the day after that tragedy. … Cindy was supposed to come over to have dinner with Maria last night after she filled in as a substitute teacher yesterday at Covenant,” Lee said in an address the day after the shooting.
After both shootings, local police confirmed that the shooter was dead.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
In news just coming in, five people, including three children have been killed at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The suspected shooter is reportedly dead.
According to the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), the shooting happened in Old National Bank at about 8:30 am ((12:30 GMT)). Six people, including an officer, have been injured.
BREAKING: Five people were killed and six wounded, including a police officer, in a shooting at a downtown Louisville bank. The shooter is dead. pic.twitter.com/owKJ7dtw0X
“The shooter was confirmed to be dead on the scene. We do not know exactly the circumstances of his death at this time,” Deputy Police Chief Paul Humphrey told reporters.
There is NO active aggressor at JCTC at 8th Chestnut streets. We are confirming that there was a shooting outside, and the suspects fled prior to police arrival.
In an emotional statement, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said he lost two friends in the shooting. “This is awful. We got to do what we have done in the last three years. We got to wrap put hands around these families,” he said.
(This is a developing story. Refresh for the latest updates)
Devin Patrick Kelley, a former Air Force service member, opened fire during a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in November 2017. The shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a press release. “Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”
The tentative settlements will resolve claims by more than 75 plaintiffs arising out of the shooting, DOJ said.
DOJ reached a $127.5 million settlement with the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 and a $88 million settlement to the families of those killed in the South Carolina church shooting in 2015.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Jose Sanchez took over as mayor just four days after the Lunar New Year shooting that killed 11 people and injured nine. The Monterey Park City Council member and longtime civics teacher had spent years studying firearm laws, helping his class of high school seniors craft gun-safety legislation that reached the House floor. He thought he knew what to expect.
Nothing could have prepared him.
He was running on two to three hours of sleep a night as he juggled the demands of teaching with the tragedy’s aftermath. Meetings with state and federal government officials. Vigils and community events. Round-the-clock emails from residents worried about safety.
The father of three small children, he started bringing his oldest child to the office so they could spend more time together. Her sixth birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, which had been set for the day after the shooting, was canceled.
Two days after a gunman opened fire in a ballroom dance studio, Sanchez was back in his classroom at Alhambra High School, trying to talk with his students about what had happened without breaking down.
“I remember at the end of that period, a student patted me on the shoulder and asked if I was OK,” he said. “It’s not that often that my students ask me how I’m doing.”
Sanchez, a Democrat, had thought about the probability of a shooting while running his first campaign for elected office. He remembers telling his wife he would make sure Monterey Park was prepared.
The city, a majority Asian American suburb outside of Los Angeles that for decades attracted immigrants with the promise of good schools and single-family homes, had largely been spared from the proliferation of shootings across the nation.
His wife warned him that he was thinking about gun safety too much, and he wondered if she was right. That issue had consumed him since 2016, when he and a group of students visiting UCLA barricaded themselves in a women’s restroom after a professor was shot and killed.
“I wish I didn’t have to think about this issue,” Sanchez said. “And now that it has happened, it makes you think, how could we have been better prepared? What can we do now to prevent another one?”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Under 60 passes are expected to be handed out at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday — meaning the members of the media will have to camp out overnight to get a seat. Trump’s arraignment is scheduled for 2:15 p.m., but he’s due to surrender to the Manhattan DA at the lower Manhattan courthouse around 11:00 a.m.
A judge will unseal the criminal indictment Tuesday on charges related to a 2016 payment to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels.
Outside Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan Tuesday afternoon, over 50 supporters of the former president gathered to welcome him back to New York. Trump is expected to spend the night in his penthouse at the famed skyscraper before leaving by motorcade for the court in the morning.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Netanyahu’s dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signaled that the prime minister and his allies will barrel ahead this week with the overhaul plan. Gallant had been the first senior member of the ruling Likud party to speak out against it, saying the deep divisions were threatening to weaken the military.
In a brief statement, Netanyahu’s office said late Sunday the prime minister had dismissed Gallant. Netanyahu later tweeted “we must all stand strong against refusal.”
Tens of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets in protest after Netanyahu’s announcement, blocking Tel Aviv’s main artery, transforming the Ayalon highway into a sea of blue-and-white Israeli flags and lighting a large bonfire in the middle of the road.
Demonstrations took place in Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, where thousands of people gathered outside Netanyahu’s private residence. Police scuffled with protesters and sprayed the crowd with a water cannon.
Inon Aizik, 27, said he came to demonstrate outside Netanyahu’s private residence in central Jerusalem because “bad things are happening in this country,” referring to the judicial overhaul as “a quick legislative blitz.”
Netanyahu’s decision came less than a day after Gallant, a former senior general, called for a pause in the controversial legislation until after next month’s Independence Day holidays, citing the turmoil in the ranks of the military.
Gallant had voiced concerns that the divisions in society were hurting morale in the military and emboldening Israel’s enemies. “I see how the source of our strength is being eroded,” Gallant said.
While several other Likud members had indicated they might follow Gallant, the party quickly closed ranks on Sunday, clearing the way for his dismissal.
Galit Distal Atbaryan, Netanyahu’s public diplomacy minister, said that Netanyahu summoned Gallant to his office and told him “that he doesn’t have any faith in him anymore and therefore he is fired.”
Gallant tweeted shortly after the announcement that “the security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life mission.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Gallant’s dismissal “harms national security and ignores warnings of all defense officials.”
Israel’s consul general in New York City, Assaf Zamir, resigned in protest.
Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet security agency, is expected to replace him. Dichter had reportedly flirted with joining Gallant but instead announced Sunday he was backing the prime minister.
Netanyahu’s government is pushing ahead for a parliamentary vote this week on a centerpiece of the overhaul — a law that would give the governing coalition the final say over all judicial appointments. It also seeks to pass laws that would grant parliament the authority to override Supreme Court decisions with a basic majority and limit judicial review of laws.
Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies.
But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition. They also say that Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges, has a conflict of interest.
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets over the past three months to demonstrate against the plan in the largest demonstrations in the country’s 75-year history.
Leaders of Israel’s vibrant high-tech industry have said the changes will scare away investors, former top security officials have spoken out against the plan and key allies, including the United States and Germany, have voiced concerns.
In recent weeks discontent has even surged from within Israel’s army – the most popular and respected institution among Israel’s Jewish majority. A growing number of Israeli reservists, including fighter pilots, have threatened to withdraw from voluntary duty in the past weeks.
Israel’s military is facing a surge in fighting in the occupied West Bank, threats from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and concerns that archenemy Iran is close to developing a nuclear-weapons capability.
Violence both in Israel and the occupied West Bank has escalated over the past few weeks to heights unseen in years.
Manuel Trajtenberg, head of an influential Israeli think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies, said, “Netanyahu can dismiss his defense minister, he cannot dismiss the warnings he heard from Gallant.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli good governance group on Sunday asked the country’s Supreme Court to punish Netanyahu for allegedly violating a conflict of interest agreement meant to prevent him from dealing with the country’s judiciary while he is on trial for corruption.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a fierce opponent of the overhaul, asked the court to force Netanyahu to obey the law and sanction him either with a fine or prison time for not doing so. It said he was not above the law.
“A prime minister who doesn’t obey the court and the provisions of the law is privileged and an anarchist,” said Eliad Shraga, the head of the group, echoing language used by Netanyahu and his allies against protesters opposed to the overhaul. “The prime minister will be forced to bow his head before the law and comply with the provisions of the law.”
The prime minister responded saying the appeal should be dismissed and said that the Supreme Court didn’t have grounds to intervene.
Netanyahu is barred by the country’s attorney general from directly dealing with his government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary, based on a conflict of interest agreement he is bound to, and which the Supreme Court acknowledged in a ruling over Netanyahu’s fitness to serve while on trial for corruption. Instead, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, a close confidant of Netanyahu, is spearheading the overhaul.
But on Thursday, after parliament passed a law making it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, Netanyahu said he was unshackled from the attorney general’s decision and vowed to wade into the crisis and “mend the rift” in the nation. That declaration prompted the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to warn that Netanyahu was breaking his conflict of interest agreement.
The fast-paced legal and political developments have catapulted Israel into uncharted territory and toward a burgeoning constitutional crisis, said Guy Lurie, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
“We are at the start of a constitutional crisis in the sense that there is a disagreement over the source of authority and legitimacy of different governing bodies,” he said.
Netanyahu is on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate affairs involving wealthy associates and powerful media moguls. He denies wrongdoing and dismisses critics who say he will try to seek an escape route from the charges through the legal overhaul.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday he would postpone a controversial reform that would give parliament more control over the country’s judiciary, after weeks of mass protests against the legislation.
“When there’s an option to avoid civil war through dialogue, I take a time off for dialogue,” he said in a press statement delivered shortly after 8 p.m. local time amid ongoing protests involving supporters from both sides. He added that “out of national responsibility,” he is delaying the final readings of the divisive judicial appointments bill until the next session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, which starts in early May.
Netanyahu sparked weeks of chaos with proposals to rein in Israel’s top court, while he is currently on trial for corruption himself and could benefit from the overhaul.
The proposed reform consists of a series of bills that would grant the Knesset more oversight over the country’s judiciary — including how judges are selected, what laws the Supreme Court can rule on, as well as overturning Supreme Court decisions.
Monday’s announcement follows calls for action from President Isaac Herzog, who had demanded earlier in the day that the government “halt the legislative process immediately” in a statement on Twitter.
The legal overhaul was an important part of Netanyahu’s program upon returning to power last December to head a coalition government that has been described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history.
Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has said that Netanyahu, who is standing trial on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, should not be involved in a judicial overhaul before the end of his court cases, in case of a potential conflict of interest.
Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing, calling the corruption charges “a witch hunt.”
The judicial reform has triggered enormous protests nationwide in the past three months. On Sunday evening, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in cities across the country to oppose Netanyahu’s dismissal of his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for challenging the reform, announced by the prime minister’s office in a brief statement.
In reaction, Gallant wrote on Twitter: “The security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life mission.”
The growing popular dissent against the judicial overhaul grew Monday as the leader of Israel’s top trade union called for a general strike, according to French newswire AFP. According to The Times of Israel, all flights were grounded at the country’s main international airport, while public hospitals only provided emergency care.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered once again in front of parliament on Monday to protest the reforms, while far-right leaders, like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, had called their supporters to a join counter-rally in support of the reform, which was reportedly also attended by several thousand government supporters later in the day.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
