India suspends flights to and from UK till Jan 7 over new covid strain

The Israeli regime is recruiting African asylum seekers to kill Palestinians in the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in exchange for permanent residency status, according to a report.

The report, ran by the Israeli paper Haaretz on Sunday, revealed that the project is conducted in an organized manner, with the guidance of military establishment legal advisers.  

In Gaza, the death toll passes 41,200 with close to 100,000 more injured in almost a year since the Israeli regime forces launched their genocidal war. However, the continued violence is prompting some Jewish Israelis to leave the occupied Palestinian land.

To make up for the loss, Tel Aviv is offering the incentive of permanent residency status to asylum seekers who agree to join the Israeli regime forces ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Haaretz has learned that some people have expressed objections to the practice, arguing that it exploits people who have fled their countries due to war. However, according to those sources, these voices have been silenced.

“This is a very problematic matter,” one source was quoted as saying by Haaretz.

According to the report, there are currently some 30,000 African asylum seekers living in the occupied territories, most of them young men. Around 3,500 are Sudanese citizens with temporary status granted by the court because the regime has not processed and ruled on their applications.

Unnamed sources who spoke with Haaretz also revealed that while there were some inquiries about granting status to asylum seekers who assisted in the genocidal war in Gaza, none were actually given status.

Haaretz also learned that the Interior Ministry explored the possibility of drafting the children of asylum seekers, who were educated in schools in the occupied territories, into the Israeli military.

In the past, the regime allowed the children of foreign workers to serve in the military in exchange for granting status to their immediate family members.

African refugees, who came to the occupied territories seeking asylum, were previously kept in internment camps and deported without their own consent.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted unauthorised bulldozer action against private property, anywhere in the country, till October 1, dismissing concerns by the government that demolitions sanctioned after following due process could be impacted. 

The "heavens won't fall if we ask you to hold your hands till the next hearing", a bench of Justice BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan declared.

An irate top court - which has already come down hard, twice this month, on 'bulldozer justice' meted out by various state governments - also warned the government against "grandstanding" and "glorification" of this practice. "No demolition, till next, date, without permission of this court," the government was told, and warned the Election Commission may also be put on notice.

The court's reference to the poll panel is significant given elections are due in Jammu and Kashmir (the first Assembly election in a decade) and Haryana, where the Bharatiya Janata Party is looking to return to power. Elections are also due this year in BJP-ruled Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

The court, however, also clarified its order is not applicable to removal of encroachments in public spaces such as roads, railway tracks, water bodies, etc.

Mangaluru: The Unicode Consortium has announced the inclusion of Tulu script in its latest version, Unicode 16. This update adds 80 characters to the Unicode Standard, marking a significant milestone for the Tulu-speaking community.

According to officials, the journey to this achievement began in 2001 when a member of the Unicode Consortium helped fix the Kannada script in Unicode and simultaneously advocated for the inclusion of Tulu.

Despite initial misunderstandings with the Tulu Academy in Mangaluru, the groundwork was laid for future developments. Initially, three Tulu experts had worked on the subject, including S A Krishnaiah, a Tulu scholar.

"In 2014, efforts to create a Tulu Wikipedia gained momentum, leading to its launch on August 6, 2016. By 2017, the Tulu Academy recognised the need for Tulu Unicode, forming a committee to finalise the characters with technical guidance. Concurrently, another proposal for the Tilari script was submitted," Krishnaiah said.

After extensive correspondence, the script was officially added to Unicode under the name Tulu-Tigalari. While there are minor differences between the Tulu Academy's list and the finalised Unicode version, most characters have been included. Notably, Tulu digits and some diacritic marks necessary for writing Sanskrit in Tulu script were added, he said.

According to him, the inclusion of the Tulu script in Unicode will have a significant positive impact on digital communication for Tulu speakers, including enhanced digital presence. Tulu speakers can now use their native script across various digital platforms, including social media, websites, and messaging apps, fostering a stronger online presence.

The availability of Tulu in Unicode will facilitate the creation of educational materials, such as textbooks and online courses, in the Tulu script, supporting language learning and literacy, he said.

The development of Unicode-encoded fonts, keyboard software, and converters will streamline the use of Tulu in digital communication, making it easier for users to type and share information in their native script, he said.

Being part of the Unicode Standard gives Tulu global recognition, encouraging more software and application developers to support the script, thereby increasing its usability and visibility, the Tulu scholar said.

Overall, this will empower Tulu speakers to communicate more effectively and confidently in their language, both locally and globally.

It is estimated that over 1.8 million people worldwide speak Tulu. Most Tulu speakers live in the coastal areas of Karnataka and Kerala, India, in regions known as Tulu Nadu. There are also Tulu speakers in the Gulf countries and the United States, he said.

Tulu is a Dravidian language and is related to Kannada, the official language of Karnataka. Tulu has a rich oral tradition, but there isn't much written in the language. Tulu's script is similar to Malayalam and originated from the Grantha script.

A long-drawn fight is ongoing to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The Dravidian University at Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh has a special Tulu chair, he added.