Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in 1 day for terror and other offences

In a relief to Sadhguru, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the police action against Isha Foundation and transferred the matter from the Madras High Court to the top court, PTI reported.

Sadhguru's Isha Foundation today moved the Supreme Court against a Madras High Court order to submit details of all criminal cases against it, ANI reported.

Isha Foundation sought a stay on Madras High Court order, told Supreme Court that 500 policemen raided it, probing every corner, PTI reported.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Isha Foundation sought an urgent hearing today.

A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud said that you can't let Police or Army enter a place like this, the agency reported.

One of the women appeared online and said she was staying at the Isha Yoga Centre willingly. The woman told the Supreme Court that both of the sisters are at the Ashram out of their own will and this harassment from their father's side has been continuing for the last eight years.

The top court said it would interact with the two women online in their chambers right away.

Tamil Nadu Police on Tuesday launched an inquiry against Isha Foundation run by yoga guru Jaggi Vasudev over several allegations, a day after the Madras High Court sought a status report on all criminal cases registered against the organisation.

A multi-departmental team led by K Karthikeyan, Coimbatore Rural District Superintendent of Police, and consisting of officials from the Social Welfare Department and the District Child Protection Committee launched the inquiry at the sprawling premises of Isha Foundation in Thondamuthur.

 “We have launched an inquiry based on the court order,” a senior police official told DH from Coimbatore. The police team sought details of cases registered against the foundation in the past and inquired with several inmates about their condition in the ashram.

The inquiry came a day after the court ordered the police to conduct an enquiry and file a report on a habeas corpus petition filed by retired professor S Kamaraj, who alleged that his two daughters were being held captive at the ashram.

When contacted, a spokesperson for Isha Foundation admitted that a team led by the district SP was conducting an inquiry at the premises and that there were no searches. “They are enquiring with residents and volunteers, understanding the lifestyle, understanding how they come in and stay etc,” the spokesperson said.

The foundation also said the two women have clearly stated that they are staying in Isha Yoga Centre out of their own volition. “Now that the matter is seized by the court, we hope truth will prevail and there is an end to all the unnecessary controversies created,” the foundation said.

Hezbollah has launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv for the first time, triggering sirens in the city and elsewhere including Netanya, the Lebanese resistance group says. 

Warning sirens sounded in Israel’s economic capital Tel Aviv as a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by air defense systems after it was detected crossing from Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

There were no reports of damage or casualties and the military said there was no change to civil defense instructions for central Israel.

The Israeli military said that for the "first time ever" a missile fired by Hezbollah reached the Tel Aviv area. "It is the first time ever a Hezbollah missile reached Tel Aviv area."

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October last year, shortly after the regime launched a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip following a surprise operation by Hamas.

Earlier, Hezbollah targeted the Israeli Ilaniya military base at the northern side of the occupied territories with a salvo of Fadi-1 rockets. 

The base is reportedly affiliated with the 146th Reserve Division of the Israeli military, which is part of the Northern Command.

The group announced in a brief statement that the operation was carried out in defense of Lebanon and its people. 

Hezbollah also said it targeted a military base near Safad twice with salvos of rockets.

The group stated that it targeted “the Dado base near Safad – the headquarters of the Israeli military’s Northern Command – with a total of 90 rockets in defense of Lebanon and its people.”

Hezbollah said in a separate statement that it unleashed a squadron of attack drones on the headquarters of the Israeli army’s Special Naval Task Force at the Alit Base.

The group said the attack on the Alit base, south of the major port city of Haifa, targeted “the locations of [Israeli] officers and soldiers” and achieved direct hits.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 41,467 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel while stressing that they are prepared in case it occurs.

Two Israeli wars waged against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006 were met with strong resistance from Hezbollah, resulting in the retreat of the regime in both conflicts.

A Palestinian prisoners’ rights group says Israeli forces have abducted a total of 108 journalists during violent raids across the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip ever since the regime’s onslaught on the besieged coastal territory started more than a year ago.

The Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, which is also known as Addameer, said in a statement on Monday that at least 58 journalists remain in Israeli custody, including six female journalists and 22 journalists from Gaza whose identities have been confirmed.

Addameer added that at least 16 of the journalists are being held under administrative detention.

An overwhelming majority of Palestinian prisoners are arrested under a quasi-judicial process known as administrative detention, under which Palestinians are initially jailed for six months. Their detentions can then be repeatedly extended for an indefinite period without charge or trial.

Neither the administrative detainees, who include women and children, nor their lawyers are allowed to see the “secret evidence” that Israeli forces say form the basis for their arrests.

Addameer noted that more than 9,000 orders of administrative detention have been issued since October 7 last year, ranging between new orders and renewals, including orders against children and women.

The report comes as another Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, bringing the total death toll of journalists killed since October 7 last year to 175.

The government media office in the Gaza Strip in a statement identified the victim as Hassan Hamad, without giving details about the circumstances of his death.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation,” it said.

The media office also called on the international community and international organizations to “deter the occupation and prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes.”

Journalists operating in the Palestinian territory are faced with increased dangers as they report on the conflict amidst Israeli ground assaults and airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and power outages.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 last year, after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.

So far, the Israeli war on Gaza has killed at least 41,909 Palestinians, most of them women, children, and adolescents, and injured 97,303 others.