WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard LEBANON NAIM QASSEM NEW HEZBOLLAH HEAD Hezbollah announced on Tuesday it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hasan Nasrallah as leader after his death last month. NOV 20 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  NEW DELHI  J8.00  CHINA HAD HOPED TO BRING BRAZIL ON BOARD DURING PREZ XI JINPING’S VISIT PAGES 12 AFTER INDIA, NOW BRAZIL OPTS OUT OF CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE Brazil has decided not to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), becoming the 2nd BRICS member after India to opt out of the project Charles, Camilla on secret B’luru trip for treatment SUBHASH CHANDRA NS & R I S H I TA K H A N N A @Bengaluru KING Charles III is on his first secret visit to Bengaluru after his coronation as king of the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey, London. He arrived in Bengaluru on October 27 and will be at the Soukya International Holistic Health Centre (SIHHC) in Whitefield for wellness treatment till Wednesday night, when he is expected to fly to London. Sources privy to his secret visit informed this newspaper that King Charles arrived in Bengalu- ru directly from Samoa where he attended the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting from October 21-26. His visit to Bengaluru was strictly kept under wraps and he was directly taken to SIHHC where he was also joined by his wife Queen Camilla. According to sources, the couple’s day begins with a morning yoga session, followed by breakfast and rejuvenation treatment before lunch. After a brief rest, a second round of therapies follows, ending with a meditation session before dinner and lights out by 9 pm. They have 102 INJURED IN BLAST DURING KERALA TEMPLE FIREWORKS Charles and Camilla in one of their previous visits for wellness treatment | SOURCE: SIHHC been enjoying long walks around the campus, visiting the organic farm and cattle shed. Considering the high-profile secret visit, a high-security ring was thrown around SIHHC. The health centre, founded by Dr Issac Mathai, is located in Sam- ethanahalli, Whitefield, on Bengaluru’s outskirts. This integrative medical facility combines traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda, Homeopathy , Yoga, and Naturopathy, along with over 30 complementary therapies like Reflexology, Acupres- sure, Acupuncture and Dietetics. Although this is his first visit as a monarch, Charles has visited the centre on nine earlier occasions, and celebrated Deepavali on three occasions there. The royal couple has earlier taken wellness treatments, including antia g i n g , d e t ox i f i c at i o n a n d rejuvenation. On November 14, 2019, the couple celebrated the then Prince Charles’ 71st birthday at SIHHC, an event which attracted a lot of publicity unlike this visit. Formerly the Prince of Wales, Charles became King after the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022. India to slap penalties on GE over fighter jet engines delay Delivery schedule running late by two years; first batch expected by March 2025 WAY PAST DEADLINE Air Force ordered 83 LCA Tejas Mk1As from HAL for `46,000 crore in 2021; delivery was to start in March 2024 but delayed due to non-receipt of engines from GE STRICTER NORMS The government is working on a new procurement system under which sensitive information about the arms and equipment could be safeguarded M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi THE Centre has decided to impose penalties on US manufacturer GE Aerospace for delays in the delivery of jet engines for Indian Air Force’s indigenous light combat aircraft, Tejas Mk-1A. The government is also tightening the procurement norms to safeguard the sensitive details of defence contracts, highly placed sources told this newspaper. The penalty clause against GE Aerospace has been invoked for the delay in the supply of GE-404 engines contracted by India for the Mk-1A series. All defence contracts carry a penalty clause to make the contractors follow a fixed timeline; in case of breach of this timeline, they will have to pay a reasonable compensation. Sources said GE Aerospace shifted delivery schedule multiple times, cumulatively leading to a delay of two years. The delivery was supposed to start in 2023; it has now been pushed back to March 2025, going by the GE’s latest schedule. GE has been contracted to manufacture and deliver 99 jet engines (GE-404) and not even one has been delivered, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) sources told this newspaper. The deal, signed between HAL and GE Aerospace in 2021, was worth $716 million. Flagging the inordinate delays, Chief of Air Staff A P Singh had earlier said: “It is a known fact that Tejas has been delayed. There is no doubt. There is also a promise that the production rate will be increased to 24 aircraft per year. If that promise is kept, the delays can be caught up with. The first aim is not to let our aircraft strength go down.” Sources in the know said the delays are purely a logistics matter involving GE Aerospace, which is facing some issues with its suppliers, and that HAL could not be faulted for this. The delays were also flagged at the highest levels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising the issue during his visit to the US in September. The government is also working on a new procurement system to protect sensitive information. “We are working to get hold of a model so that we are not hauled to courts and asked to reveal national secrets,” a senior official told this newspaper. Drug syndicate with Mexican links busted U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi THE Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Special Cell of Delhi Police, in a joint operation, on Tuesday dismantled a meth manufacturing lab being run clandestinely in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and arrested four persons, including a former warden of Tihar Jail, a Delhi-based businessman and a Mumbai-based chemist. The crackdown has revealed scintillating details of the syndicate, such as the lab’s links with notorious Mexican drug cartel, Cartel De Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). The meth manufactured at the Noida lab was tested by a member of the Mexican cartel in Delhi. CJNG is considered one of the most dangerous criminal networks in Mexico and the second-most powerful after the Sinaloa Cartel. It is heavily militarised, has its own ‘Special Operation Group’ that travels in armoured vehicles. Cannibalism of a victim is one of the ways the cartel trains its new recruits. Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths on October 25 raided the factory in Kasna Industrial Area of Noida. “We found about 95 kg of methamphetamine in solid and liquid forms,” Deputy Director General (NCB) Gyaneshwar Singh said. The value of seized drugs is estimated to be around `100 crore. Preliminary probe revealed that the Delhi-based businessman, who was found inside the factory at the time of the raid along with the former Tihar Jail warden, were instrumental in setting up of the illegal factory procuring chemicals required to , produce meth and importing the machinery . FOOD POISONING 4 elephants dead, 5 critical in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve STRONG BONDING Smoke billowing from Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple in Nileshwar, Kasaragod, after the blast | EXPRESS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kasaragod REVELRY gave way to horror on Tuesday after an explosion during a fireworks display at a temple in Kerala’s Kasaragod district left 102 people injured, seven of them critically The in. jured have been admitted in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode and Mangaluru hospitals. Sources said the firecrackers had been kept near the temple compound. The Nileshwar police booked eight persons, including seven temple committee members. Three have been arrested. District Police Chief Shilpa D said permission had not been obtained for bursting the crackers. “There were no safety measures, including fire extinguishers,” she said. The incident occurred around midnight during the ‘Theyyam Mahotsavam’ at the Anjoottambalam Veerarkavu temple in Nileshwar. A large number of people from across the district had turned up for the event, as it was the first theyyam performance to be held this year in a temple in the north Malabar region. During the fireworks display sparks flew into , the storage room nearby where more firecrackers were kept, resulting in the explosion. “It was around midnight. The theyyam performance was on, and a huge crowd, including women and children, had come to the temple to witness it. Many people were standing near the storage shed for a better view. Crackers were being burst at the time,” said Gopi, 59, an eyewitness. Suddenly, sparks from the fireworks fell into the shed where firecrackers for the day’s programme were kept, he said. “There was a loud sound. Many people got trapped inside the shed as a wall behind them prevented their escape,” Gopi said. Two days’ celebrations had been planned for the ‘mahotsavam’. Following the mishap, all the celebrations were cancelled. Four other members of the herd refused to go away from the area, leaving their dead and ill companions behind HOME TO JUMBOS The BTR has become home to a herd of wild elephants since 2018. More than 50 jumbos from C’garh have recently made BTR their habitat A N U R A A G S I N G H @ Bhopal FOUR wild elephants — three females and a male — were found dead in the jungles of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) core area in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday The four ele. phants were part of a 13-strong herd of jumbos. Condition of at least five other elephants of the same herd is reportedly in very bad shape and they are unable to walk, while the remaining four are there with the dead and ill elephants. A team of veterinary doctors has been rushed to provide care to ill elephants, so have forensic experts from School of Wildlife Forensic and Health from Jabalpur, read a statement of the MP forest department’s principal chief conservator of forest. Also, a team of State Tiger Strike Force — the wildlife crime investigation arm of the forest department — is rushing to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to find the reasons behind the deaths. Preliminary investigations by the BTR management suggest the possibility of the elephants having consumed a large volume of standing Kodo-Kutki crop (millet grains used as rice), which could have led to food poisoning. The forest department in Bhopal said that detailed probe would lead to ascertaining the real cause. The incident came to light at around 4 pm when BTR patrolling teams found three elephants lying in Salkhaniya-Charakvar jungles under Khitauli range’s core area. Intensifying the patrolling led the teams to another elephant in similar condition a short distance away and five others in extremely bad health. Vets were pressed into service and it was found that the four elephants had died while the health of five others was deteriorating. DIWALI IN WHITE HOUSE US President Joe Biden speaks at a reception in celebration of Diwali, in the East Room of the White House | AFP EXPRESS READ RBI moves 102 tonnes gold to Indian vaults Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India added 102 tonnes to its domestic gold reserves between April and September 2024, taking the total domestic gold holdings to 510.46 tonnes. The move is in line with the practice of moving gold kept abroad, to local vaults located in Mumbai and Nagpur 12 killed, 35 injured in Sikar bus accident At least 12 people were killed and 35 passengers injured after a private bus crashed into the wing wall of a flyover in Rajasthan’s Sikar on Tuesday, police said. The bus was speeding and filled with passengers due to which the driver lost control and the vehicle rammed into the wing wall of the flyover. Noida carpenter held over threat calls to Salman, Zeeshan U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi THE Noida Police have arrested a 20-yearold man for allegedly threatening to kill actor Salman Khan and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) leader Baba Siddique’s son Zeeshan Siddique, official sources said on Tuesday . The accused, identified as Mohammad Tayyab Ansari, was nabbed based on the input provided by the Mumbai Police. The Noida cops handed him over to their Mumbai counterparts. According to a senior police officer, Ansari, who hails from Bareilly district in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly made the threatening call on a phone number which he had picked up from the internet. It was a ‘helpline’ number issued by the Mumbai Police. “The Mumbai Police alerted us about the presence of the accused in Noida. The technical surveillance was further mounted, after which we zeroed in on Ansari’s location to Sector 92,” the officer said. A joint operation by the police forces of both states was conducted in which they raided an under-construction house in Sector 92, and Ansari was arrested from there on charges of threatening and demanding `10 crore extortion money. The mobile phone used in the offence was recovered from the accused. “Ansari was working as a carpenter at a house in Sector 92. He will be interrogated by the Mumbai Police. However, prima facie, he doesn’t seem to be associated with any gang,” the officer said. SECTOR 92, NOIDA The accused has been arrested from an underconstruction house in Sector 92. A cellphone used in the crime was recovered Lawyers, cops in pitched battle at Ghaziabad court U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi THE Ghaziabad’s District and Sessions Court turned into a battleground following clashes between lawyers and cops over a bail hearing on Tuesday . The clashes broke out when a group of lawyers, pressing for a priority hearing on an anticipatory bail plea, entered into an alteration with District Judge Anil Kumar , who insisted on going by the case list sequence. The judge then called cops to restore order. They used batons to disperse the lawyers who were raising slogans against the judge. While some lawyers were injured, cops claimed that a police outpost was set ablaze by the protesting mob. Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra said cops used minimal force when the lawyers tried to assault the judge. Former Bar Association chief Nahar Singh Yadav submitted a complaint to Allahabad HC.