A group of passengers slapped another traveller onboard a ThaiSmile aircraft at least 20 times, pulled his hair, and punched him as their flight was getting ready for take-off from Bangkok to Kolkata. Yet the airline didn’t deem the incident a security risk and decided to resume the journey after a short delay.
According to the incident report filed by the airline, on December 26 at around 5 pm local time, a bunch of passengers assaulted a co-traveller as the flight was getting ready for take-off after the latter refused to follow safety instructions by the cabin crew and straighten his seatback.
IAF test-fires extended range BrahMos cruise missile from SU-30MKI
The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday successfully fired the Extended Range (ER) version of BrahMos air-launched supersonic cruise missile against a ship target from a SU-30MKI fighter aircraft.
“The missile achieved the desired mission objectives in the Bay of Bengal region. With this, IAF has achieved a significant capability boost to carry out precision strikes from SU-30MKI aircraft against land/sea targets over very long ranges,” the IAF said in a statement.
The extended range capability of the missile coupled with the high performance of the SU-30MKI aircraft gives the IAF a strategic reach and allows it to dominate the future battle fields, the IAF added.
The current air-launched missile weighs 2.65 tonnes, which will come down to 1.33 tonnes with the BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) that is under development. With this a SU-30MKI will be able to carry up to four BrahMos-NG missiles, while the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) will be able to carry two missiles, as reported by The Hindu earlier.
Negative COVID report mandatory for flyers to India from China, 5 other countries from January 1
A negative COVID report will be a must for passengers arriving in India from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand from January 1, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on December 29.
The COVID test must be conducted within 72 hours of undertaking the journey to India and the negative report from the RT-PCR test has to be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal before their departure, the Minister said.
This requirement is in addition to the random testing of international passengers on their arrival in India irrespective of their port of departure. Last week, the government made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of passengers arriving on each international flight.
Already many countries, including the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy have announced testing requirements for passengers from China.
Cough syrup deaths | India seeks details from Uzbekistan on investigations
India is in touch with the Uzbak authorities and has sought details of their investigation into the death of 18 children after allegedly consuming cough syrup made by an Indian firm, the External Affairs Ministry said on December 29.
MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said consular assistance is being provided to some linked to the company who are facing legal action there.
Arindam Baghchi, spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, during a media briefing in New Delhi, on December 29, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI
Noting that the Uzbek authorities have not formally taken up the matter with New Delhi, he said, “Nevertheless, our embassy has contacted the Uzbek side and is seeking further details of their investigation ... We understand that legal action has been initiated by the Uzbek authorities against some people, including the local representative of the company there.”
“And in that context, we are extending necessary consular assistance to those individuals or individual,” he said.
Election Commission says ready with remote EVM which will enable migrants to vote outside their States
The Election Commission of India on Thursday said that it has developed a prototype for a Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine which would enable remote voting by migrant voters.
Remote Electronic Voting Machines (RVM) can handle multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth.
The ECI said that it has invited all recognized 8 national and 57 State political parties on January 16 to demonstrate the functioning of the multi-constituency prototype Remote EVM and has already shared a concept note with them on legal, operational, administrative and technological challenges.
In brief
A special court in Mumbai on Thursday remanded former managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, Chanda, her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot to judicial custody in the ICICI bank fraud case. The couple was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 23 and Mr. Dhoot was arrested on December 26. Special CBI judge A.A. Sayed on Thursday sent them to judicial custody till January 10 after CBI’s counsel informed the court that their custody was no longer needed.
Multiple regions of Ukraine, including its capital, faced a massive Russian missile attack on December 29, 2022, the biggest wave of strikes in weeks targeting power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing weather. Air raid sirens rang out across the country. Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said preliminary reports showed Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and Ukrainian forces shot down 54 of them. Several people were wounded, although there were no immediate reports of any deaths.
