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Cyclone Lashes @ Zimbabwe

About 100 people are missing in parts of eastern Zimbabwe hit by the peripheral effects of tropical cyclone Idai which has lashed Mozambique, a local lawmaker said Saturday.

More than thousands of people have been affected, power cut off and major bridges flooded in parts of the Manicaland province which borders Mozambique.

As per source "The information we have so far is that over 100 people are missing and some of them" may have died, Joshua Sacco, a member of parliament in Chimanimani district.


About 25 houses were swept away following a mudslide at Ngangu township in Chimanimani urban. There were people inside. They are part of the missing.

As Tropical cyclone Idai battered central Mozambique on Friday killing at least 19 people and cutting off more than half a million in Beira, one of the country's largest cities.

Officials in Mozambique said that heavy rains earlier in the week, before the cyclone struck, had already claimed another 66 lives, injured scores and displaced 17,000 people.

Heavy to heavy rains in neighbouring Malawi this week have affected almost a million people and claimed 56 lives, according to the latest government toll.

Mumbai bridge collapse

Mumbai Municipal Corporation has ordered an inquiry into Thursday's foot overbridge collapse after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said he asked BMC chief Ajoy Mehta to fix "primary responsibility". "It is shocking that such an accident can take place even after a structural audit. Primary responsibility will be fixed by this evening. I have asked civic chief to find out names of those responsible," Fadnavis said while speaking to reporters after meeting the injured in St George's Hospital nearby.

Audit report of the Mumbai bridge collapse, accessed by CNN-News18, has revealed that the bridge was certified to be in a "good condition" and only needed minor repairs. Two nurses on their way to work among the six people killed and 32 injured as a major portion of a foot overbridge near the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station in Mumbai collapsed on Thursday evening.

As Ranjana Tambe (40) and Apoorva Prabhu (35) were nurses at GT hospital and had been working since 2005, their colleagues said. Incidentally, several of the injured in the collapse were taken to GT hospital. Both the nurses, who were on their way for night shift, were from Dombivili. While Tambe was a nurse in ward 6, Prabhu was a nurse in the operation theatre and is survived by her husband and two children.

Bridge collapse, on the busy Dadabhai Naoroji Road, was the third in less than 18 months in the maximum city. On July 3, 2018, a pedestrian pathway of Gokhale Bridge over Andheri railway station in suburban Mumbai had collapsed, killing two and injuring five others. Nine months before, in 2017, 23 people were killed in a stampede when the Elphinstone Bridge had collapsed.

Collapse happened around 7.30 pm Thursday evening when a major portion of the bridge caved in, officials said. Some motorists who were passing beneath the bridge when it came down, were among those injured.

PM Narendra Modi said he was deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to the accident. “My thoughts are with the bereaved families. Wishing that the injured recover at the earliest. Maharashtra Government is providing all possible assistance to those affected,” he tweeted.

CM Devendra Fadnavis, announced a probe and said the guilty will be punished. He said that the bridge was audited last year and was found to be structurally sound. Also announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

Terror Attack in New Zealand Mosque | Bangladesh cricket players escaped

NEW ZEALAND: Terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques left at least 49 dead Friday, with one gunman - identified as an Australian extremist, apparently livestreaming the assault that triggered the lockdown of the New Zealand city.

One of witnesses spoke of victims being shot at close range, with women and children also believed to be among those killed.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says "It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack," saying it marked "one of New Zealand's darkest days".

Also said "From what we know, it does appear to have been well planned,"adding that in addition to the dead another 20 people were seriously injured.

Gunman at one mosque was an Australian-born citizen, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in Sydney, describing him as "an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist".

It was not clear how many attackers were involved, but Ardern said three men had been taken into custody.

2 IEDS (improvised explosive devices) were also found and neutralised by the military, police said.

Palestinian man who was in one of the mosques said he saw someone being shot in the head.

"I heard three quick shots, then after about 10 seconds it started again. It must have been an automatic, no one could pull a trigger that quick," one witness public told.

Somehow he escaped "Then people started running out. Some were covered in blood," he said, adding that he joined the fleeing crowd and managed to escape.

Video and documents circulating online, but not officially confirmed, suggested the shooter had streamed his attack on Facebook Live.

upon checking wih AFP has examined the footage, which has subsequently been taken down. Journalists experienced in verification techniques said it appeared to be genuine.

New Zealand police says "extremely distressing" and urged web users not to share it.

Manifesto had also been posted online on accounts linked to the same Facebook page, suggesting the attack was racially motivated.

Social media account had also posted a number of pictures of a semi-automatic weapon covered in the names of historical figures, many of whom were involved in the killing of Muslims.

Masjid al Noor in central Christchurch was filled with worshippers, when the attack happened.

Bangladesh cricket team, which had been in Christchurch for a test match against New Zealand that was later cancelled, all escaped without injury.

Spokesman said the attack happened as some of players got off a team bus and were about to enter the mosque.

"They are safe. But they are mentally shocked. We have asked the team to stay confined in the hotel," he told AFP.

This Mass shootings are rare in New Zealand, which tightened its gun laws to restrict access to semi-automatic rifles in 1992, two years after a mentally ill man shot dead 13 people in the South Island town of Aramoana.

Anyone over 16 can apply for a standard firearms licence after doing a safety course, which allows them to purchase and use a shotgun unsupervised.

Earlier in Christchurch, a relatively small city in the south of New Zealand, hit global headlines in 2011 when it was struck by a deadly earthquake.

VIT students bagged 1.5 lakhs prize money in Hackathon

3 Institutions took part in 36-hour competition

Vellore: Highly talented students of Vellore Institute of Technology cracked the maximum problem statements presented by Honeywell at ‘WEHACK 3.0’ as a part of the Honeywell Automation Challenge 2019 at the campus recently.

36-hour hackathon was conducted simultaneously at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad and Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, involving prize money of 1,50,000. Honeywell sponsored the event to help bring the university’s brightest and most creative problem solvers.

Hackathon’s themes included artificial intelligence, machine learning, image processing and data mining.

VIT teams cracked the maximum problems within the said time-frame. Senior Engineering Manager, K. Venkatswara Reddy of Honeywell handed over the prizes to the winning teams.

First prize was bagged by Chaitanya Kini, Yashvardhan Mathur and Sriharsha, while Nanda Kishor, Anish Kumar and Mayank Senapathi were the runners-up.

Solutions provided by the students were out-of-the-box and at par with many of the esteemed universities.

Officials said “Honeywell recognises that with technology evolving and changing every day, there is a continuing need to develop a strong talent pool for the industry,”

Ambur Mazharul Uloom School protest

Ambur: As students at a minority Muslim school at Ambur in Tamil Nadu staged a protest and boycotted classes demanding that they should be permitted to write their Standard X board exams in Urdu.

Students of Mazharul Uloom Higher Secondary School near Ambur in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu have been demanding that the state education department authorities allow them to write their Class X board exam in their mother tongue Urdu and not in Tamil.

The district education officer Marx rushed to the site of the protest and held negotiations with them. He urged them to call off their protest immediately. He assured them that their demand will be considered and the administration will initiate necessary steps to allow the students to take up their exam in Urdu.

TN state government had passed a legislation in 2006 (called Tamil Language Act of 2006) which said that all schools under the state board must teach Tamil as a subject (as a language) starting from the first standard in 2006; first and second standards in 2007; first, second and third standards in 2008, and so on. Accordingly, by the year 2016, all students up to the 10th standard were expected to be taught Tamil as a subject from the first to tenth standards.

As per provisions of the Tamil Language Act of 2006, even the minority schools must teach Tamil in addition to their mother tongue.

An interim order on a batch of petitions filed by linguistic minority institutions and individual students challenging the Tamil Language Act enacted in 2006, the Madras High Court granted exemption to the students having mother tongue other than Tamil from writing Tamil language paper during the board exams.

The High Court clarified that the exemption from writing part I Tamil language paper during class 10 board exams for academic year 2016-17 will only be applicable for schools and students who have already applied for it. The court also directed the School Education Department to decide as per law on fresh applications seeking exemption for students, whose mother tongue is not Tamil, from writing the Tamil language paper.

Mother forgets baby at ariport | flight returned

Saudi Arabian Airlines flight had to make a last minute turn-around because a passenger forgot her baby behind at the airport.

Flight to Kuala Lumpur returned to its gate at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, after the panicked woman alerted the cabin crew that she forgot to bring her child on board.

Video clip of the pilot requesting permission from the Air Traffic Control is going viral on the social media. He is heard murmuring: “May God be with us. Can we come back or what?”

Airport authority says “Ok, head back to the gate. This is totally a new one for us!”

World's Oldest living person | 116 Years old

116-year-old Japanese woman who still enjoys studying math and playing board games has been recognised as the world's oldest person, the Guinness World Records said on Saturday.

Old lady Kane Tanaka was born on 2 January 1903, the year when the Wright brothers launched the first powered flight, according to Guinness.

Ms Tanaka's birthday was celebrated at the nursing home where she lives in western Japan's Fukuoka by city mayor Soichiro Takashima and other well-wishers.

Most cute answer: When asked what moment she was the most happy in life, she replied: "Now."

Ms Tanaka married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth.

She normally wakes each morning at 6 am and passes the afternoons by studying mathematics and practicing calligraphy. "One of Kane's favourite pastimes is a game of Othello and she's become an expert at classic board game, often beating rest-home staff," Guinness said.

Country Japan has one of the world's highest life expectancies and has been home to several people recognised as among the oldest humans to have ever lived.

Also they include Jiroemon Kimura, the longest-living man on record, who died soon after his 116th birthday in June 2013.

Earlier verified person ever -- Jeanne Louise Calment of France -- died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to Guinness.