5 from Bengaluru enjoying Eid holidays in Mandya drown in Visvesvaraya Canal

The Israeli regime has conducted a series of deadly airstrikes on the Syrian capital of Damascus, with Syrian media reporting three rounds of strikes in the capital area in one night.

An Israeli aircraft launched several missiles from the occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday, targeting locations southwest of Damascus.

Syrian air defenses successfully intercepted many of these missiles, according to the Syrian state media.

According to the Syrian military, the Israeli aggression led to the martyrdom of three civilians, the injury of nine others, and significant damage to private property.

The Al Mayadeen news outlet reports that local journalist Safaa Ahmad was among those killed in the attack, which hit the Mezzeh neighborhood in the Syrian capital. Rescue crews are dealing with fires on the ground.

Syrian television said one of its anchors was killed in the Israeli strike on Damascus on Tuesday.

State television said in a statement that it "mourns anchor Safaa Ahmad who was martyred in the Israeli aggression on the capital Damascus."

The official SANA news agency earlier said "air defense systems are intercepting hostile targets for the third time tonight in the Damascus area," using a phrase that usually refers to Israeli aggression.

Subsequently, another wave of attacks was aimed at the suburbs of Damascus which was intercepted by air defenses.

Syria has consistently called on the UN Security Council to take action against these assaults, which it views as clear violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Israel frequently targets military positions inside Syria, especially those of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists.

The Tel Aviv regime rarely comments on its attacks on Syrian territories, which many see as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s phenomenal success in confronting and decimating terrorism.

Damascus has time and again called on the UN Security Council to put an end to the regime’s attacks that violate Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Israeli attacks on Syria come amid the regime’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 41,600 people, mostly women and children, over the past year.

New Delhi: Downloading and watching child pornography is an offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Supreme Court ruled today in a landmark judgment on the stringent law to prevent child abuse.

The bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala set aside the Madras High Court order that had ruled that merely downloading and watching child pornography was not an offence under the POCSO Act. The Supreme Court noted that the high court had committed an "egregious error" in passing the judgment.

The Madras High Court's order had come in a case in which a 28-year-old man was charged with downloading child pornography on his phone. The court had quashed the criminal proceedings against the man and said children these days are grappling with the serious issue of watching pornography and society must be mature enough to educate them instead of punishing them.

The Supreme Court today restored the criminal proceedings against the man.

At the outset, Justice Pardiwala thanked the Chief Justice for the opportunity to pen this judgment. The order focused on Section 15 of the POCSO Act which lays down punishment for the storage of pornographic material involving children.

"Any person who stores any pornographic material involving a child and fails to report or destroy it is punishable with a fine of not less than five thousand rupees., and repeat offence will be punishable with fine of not less than ten thousand rupees. If the material is stored for further transmitting or propagating, then along with fine, it is punishable with upto three years of imprisonment. For storing child pornographic material for commercial purpose is punishable with three to five years of imprisonment, and in subsequent conviction, upto seven years of imprisonment," the Section says.

Justice Pardiwala said that in this case, mens rea is to be gathered from actus rea -- mens rea refers to the intent behind the crime and actus rea is the actual criminal act.

"We have said on the lingering impact of child pornography on the victimisation and abuse of children... We have suggested to the Parliament to bring an amendment to POCSO... so that child pornography can be referred to as child sexually abusive and exploitative material. We have suggested an ordinance can be brought in. We have asked all courts not to refer to child pornography in any order," the bench said.

The Chief Justice called it a "landmark judgment" and thanked Justice Pardiwala.

The BJP has selected Kishore Kumar Puttur as its candidate for the bypoll to Karnataka Legislative Council from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Local Authorities’ Constituency. The by-election will be held on October 21.

Kishore Kumar is presently serving as the General Secretary of Dakshina Kannada BJP unit. He had served as vice president of State BJP Yuva Morcha from 2014 to 2016.

The by-election will be held to the seat vacated by Kota Srinivas Poojary of the BJP who has been elected as the Lok Sabha member from Udupi-Chikmagaluru Lok Sabha constituency. The vacancy was created on June 15, 2024 following Poojary’s resignation to the Council. His term in the council was till January, 2028.

In the last Council election held for the dual member constituency in December 2021, Poojary had secured 3,672 votes while the Congress candidate Manjunath Bhandary had secured 2079 votes. Poojary and Bhandary had secured required votes from the first preferential votes and had won the election.

There were several aspirants for the BJP ticket including former MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, DK BJP president Satish Kumpala, Mangaluru divisional in-charge Uday Kumar Shetty, former minister Pramod Madhwaraj and former Udupi district BJP president Kuilady Suresh Nayak.

The Congress is yet to announce its candidate for the election. KPCC working president Manjunath Bhandary in a recent press meet in Mangaluru had said that an opportunity will be given to congress leaders from Udupi district to contest by-election.

The Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Local Authorities’ Constituency has 6037 voters including 3551 from Dakshina Kannada comprising eight MLAs, one MP. The last date for filing nomination is October 3 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is October 7. The counting will be held on October 24.