Hyderabad

YS Sharmila to fly to Delhi tomorrow to discuss merger with Congress

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She will be accompanied with YSRTP leaders. After meeting the AICC leadership, the party is expected to make an official announcement in New Delhi.

Published Date – 02:21 PM, Tue – 2 January 24


YS Sharmila to fly to Delhi tomorrow to discuss merger with Congress


Hyderabad: YSRTP founder YS Sharmila will be leaving to New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss her party’s merger with the Congress with the AICC leadership, including Congress Parliamentary Party president Sonia Gandhi and MP Rahul Gandhi.

She will be accompanied with YSRTP leaders. After meeting the AICC leadership, the party is expected to make an official announcement in New Delhi.

YS Sharmila, daughter of former Chief Minister the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, has been working on merging her party with the Congress. To this effect, she held a meeting with YSRTP leaders here on Tuesday.

YSRTP’s merger with the Congress is in the final stages. It could be done on January 4, unconfirmed reports said.

She is likely to entrusted with the Andhra Pradesh Congress (APCC) Committee affairs. There is also speculation that she might be nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

It may be recalled that YSRTP had not contested the Telangana Assembly elections held on November 30 and supported the Congress.

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4 Palestinians Killed In Clashes As Israel Troops Raid West Bank: Report

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4 Palestinians Killed In Clashes As Israel Troops Raid West Bank: Report

Israeli troops searched homes and businesses, and took surveillance footage (File)

West Bank, Gaza:

Israeli troops killed four Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, sources on both sides said, with the army describing the four as “terrorists”.

“Four Palestinians were martyred by occupation bullets in the town of Azzun,” the Palestinian health ministry said.

The official Wafa news agency said the men were shot dead when clashes erupted as Israeli troops raided the town.

“Israeli occupation soldiers fired live ammunition, stun grenades, and tear gas at residents during the raid,” the report said.

Israeli troops searched homes and businesses, and took surveillance footage from several shops, Wafa reported.

The army said troops had returned fire after fighters shot at them and threw explosives.

“At the end of an exchange of fire, they killed four terrorists and confiscated three Carlo-type weapons (locally produced submachine guns) that were used by them,” the army said in a statement.

A soldier was moderately wounded, it added.

In a separate exchange of fire, troops “neutralised” a Palestinian fighter who fired at them in the town of Qalqilya, the army said without elaborating.

Israeli forces made seven arrests in the West Bank overnight, the army said, adding that more than 2,550 people have been arrested in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since the Six-Day War of 1967 and tensions have escalated since the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Since October 7, at least 321 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry. More than 520 Palestinians were killed in the territory last year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

World

Maduro hopes Venezuela will join BRICS in 2024

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“At the summit in South Africa, Venezuela was accepted as a partner. And I hope that at the next summit in Russia <…> Venezuela will join BRICS+ as a permanent member,” Maduro said in a traditional interview on January 1 with the newspaper Le Monde diplomatique, TASS reports.

He stressed that “BRICS is the future of humanity,” pointing at the economic potential of the group and the capabilities of the New BRICS Development Bank.

“We are betting on BRICS as part of a new world, a new balance, as part of the Bolivarian geopolitical concept, a world of balance, a world of equals,” Maduro concluded.

BRICS was formed in 2006 and initially included Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined the intergovernmental organization in 2011. In August 2023, six new members were invited to join the association, including Argentina, but at the end of December it refused to join the group. Five new members (Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia) began full-fledged work in BRICS on January 1 under the chairmanship of Russia.

RHM/PR

Middle East

Tel Aviv violates Syrian sovereignty, strikes near Damascus

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The Zionist regime violated Syria’s sovereignty on the second day of 2024 when it conducted an air raid against a number of locations in the countryside of Damascus.

According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), a Syrian military source noted that at 4:35 am (local time) on January 2, 2024, the “Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points in the Damascus countryside.”

The statement further stressed that the aggression “resulted in some material damages” with no mention of any martyrs or wounded.

This aggression follows an earlier raid that targeted Aleppo, Syria, earlier on Saturday. The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that the Israeli occupation targeted several areas to the south of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, at around 5:20 PM (local time).

The aerial aggression was conducted through the Mediterranean, to the west of the country, the ministry added.

Three civilians were killed as a result of the attack which targeted farmland in Aleppo’s countryside, while two other civilians were injured.

AMK/PR

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Explained: Why Homegrown Akash Missile System Seen As India's 'Iron Dome'

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Explained: Why Homegrown Akash Missile System Is Seen As India's Iron Dome

The Akash missile can engage four targets from a single firing unit

New Delhi:

India’s homegrown surface-to-air missile (SAM) system Akash is getting a lot of attention from other nations as they consider buying the advanced weapons platform. Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and produced by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), Akash is a short-range SAM that can protect vulnerable areas and points from air attacks.

The DRDO has said India is the first nation that made a system capable of engaging four aerial targets at the same time at 25 km range by command guidance using a single firing unit.

Here are some key points about the Akash SAM, which is also being seen as India’s “Iron Dome”, the system used by Israel to intercept incoming rocket barrages.

  • After Armenia, Brazil, and Egypt have shown interest on the Akash SAM.
  • The Akash weapon system can engage multiple targets at the same time in a group or autonomous mode.
  • Akash has built-in electronic counter-counter measures (ECCM) features, which can help the missile punch through enemy jamming and other methods of evasion.
  • The entire Akash weapon system has been configured on mobile platforms. This makes it agile and nimble as it can be transported fast anywhere.
  • The Akash mobile system also enhances its survivability by moving from one place to another after firing missiles and before the enemy can launch a counter-attack, mostly with anti-radiation missiles that home in on radar emissions.
  • The Akash is in service with both the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF).
  • Akash’s comparison with Israel’s Iron Dome comes from the fact that the Indian system, which is much larger than the Iron Dome missiles, can also intercept unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other types of smaller incoming projectiles, apart from helicopters and aircraft.
  • The Akash system, however, is seen mainly for defence against bigger aerial threats like aircraft, than small rockets that the Iron Dome is mostly used to intercept.
  • The Akash SAM can hit targets between 4.5 km to 25 km, with an effective altitude of 100 meters to 20 km.
  • The missile is 5,870 mm long, has a diameter of 350 mm, and weighs 710 kg. It can be made fully automatic with a quick response time from target detection to kill. Its open-system architecture ensures adaptability to existing and futuristic air defence environments.

Middle East

Tel Aviv hit by rockets, 71 vehicles destroyed in 4 days

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Spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obaida in a statement on Monday said that over the past four days, al-Qassam’s forces have managed to kill at least 16 Israeli forces and partially or completely destroy 71 Israeli military vehicles in 42 military missions.

The missions, Abu Obaida said, involved targeting the regime’s troops with anti-personnel ammunition and explosive devices such as booby traps and landmines, as well as engaging the enemy’s forces in close-range combat and sniper operations.

Noting that Palestinian forces have also targeted an Israeli helicopter in the skies over the Gaza Strip, Abu Obaida added, “Our combatants downed two reconnaissance drones and captured another.”

Most recently, the Israeli military reported the killing of an officer in the northern Gaza Strip, saying that the fatality brought the death toll among the regime’s forces to 507 since October 7, 2023, when Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza started.

Abu Obaida added that al-Qassam’s forces have also targeted the coastal city of Tel Aviv in the occupied territories with a barrage of M90 rockets.

“They also shelled [Israeli forces’] headquarters, field command rooms, and military gatherings with mortar shells and short-range missiles across the Gaza Strip,” he said.

The Zionist regime waged a bloody war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Close to 22,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israel’s onslaught so far.

AMK/PressTV

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Video: Roads Split Open, Swallow Cars As Massive Quake Hits Japan

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The video shows sidewalks ripped open from beneath.

At least 30 people have been killed and scores more are feared trapped under debris after a devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Japan on New Year’s Day. The massive quake was followed by over 150 back-to-back tremors over the next 24 hours that added to the trail of destruction.

Videos recorded by locals showed collapsed houses, cracked roads and frightened residents rushing to take cover as the quake jolted buildings and trains. One such video was shared by a resident driving around his neighbourhood after the quake hit Ishikawa, the worst affected region. The video shows sidewalks ripped open from beneath and cars parked outside houses buried inside the cracks. As the the car moves ahead, collapsed houses are seen and worried residents walk out away from the rubble.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said “very extensive damage” has been confirmed and “numerous casualties” have been reported.

On Monday waves at least 1.2 metres high hit Wajima, and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere.

While Japan lifted all tsunami warnings on Tuesday, rescuers are now working round the clock to find survivors in the collapsed rubble of buildings. “We have to race against time to search for and rescue victims of the disaster,” the prime minister said. 

A total of 62,000 people had been ordered to evacuate from their homes.

Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left over 18,500 people dead or missing.

The 2011 tsunami also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

World

Choosing the most influential person of 2023

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For that purpose,10 have been picked as the most influential person of the year 2023 after consultation with the international politics experts. Finally, the winner (the most influential person of the year) will be introduced through the poll.

The nominees are:

1- Mohammed Deif, a Hamas’s military wing’s commander who designed Al-Aqsa Storm Operation;

2- Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky. Head of Nigeria’s Islamic Movement;

3- Yahya Sinwar, leader of Hamas’s political wing in Gaza;

4- Hasan Bitmez, former deputy leader of Turkish Islamist SP party who used to be an advocate of Palestine;

5- Martyred IRGC general Razi Mousavi;

6: Abu Obeida, the spokesman of Hamas military wing, Qassam Brigades;

7- Imran Khan, former Pakistani prime minister;

8– Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi, leader of Yemeni Ansarullah;

9- Wael Dahdouh , Al Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza;

10- Xi Jinping, Chinese president.

Check out this link to vote for the most influential person of the year 2023.

MNA

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Manipur Violence: 9 Casualties Registered And Curfew Imposed | Manipur News Today

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Violence erupts in Manipur’s Thoubal district, leading to four deaths, five critical injuries, and curfew reimposition.

Published Date – 01:09 PM, Tue – 2 January 24


Manipur Violence: 9 Casualties Registered And Curfew Imposed | Manipur News Today


Hyderabad: Violence erupts in Manipur’s Thoubal district, leading to four deaths, five critical injuries, and curfew reimposition. Ethnic tensions escalate with gunmen targeting locals for extortion, sparking confrontations and fires.

Watch:

Hyderabad

IMD predicts zero cold wave days in Telangana for January

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According to the report released by IMD, zero cold wave events are expected in the State throughout January, with minimum temperatures likely to remain notably above normal levels.

Published Date – 01:40 PM, Tue – 2 January 24


IMD predicts zero cold wave days in Telangana for January

File Pic

Hyderabad: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its Monthly Outlook for Rainfall and Temperature has forecasted a significant deviation from the norm for Telangana this January.

According to the report released by IMD, zero cold wave events are expected in the State throughout January, with minimum temperatures likely to remain notably above normal levels.

The IMD’s report specifically highlights the anticipation of above-normal rainfall in Telangana for January, with projections extending this pattern through to March. This prediction comes on the heels of a week-long trend where the average minimum temperatures in Hyderabad have consistently remained higher than the seasonal average.

On Tuesday, the city experienced minimum temperatures hovering around 17.4 degrees Celsius, contrasting sharply with the typical 14.9 degrees Celsius expected at this time of year.

Looking ahead, IMD-Hyderabad forecasts a continuation of this trend, with minimum temperatures forecasted to fluctuate between 17 and 18 degrees Celsius for the upcoming five days. Additionally, fog or mist conditions in the morning are anticipated during this period.