Saudi Arabia undergoes major cabinet reshuffle

Mangaluru: Six youths including teenagers have been arrested by the Bantwal Rural Police in connection with a brutal assault on 21-year-old Aboobakar (name changed to hide identity), an incident that was widely shared on social media after footage revealed the victim tied to a pole and violently beaten.

The arrested individuals, all from Kanchinadkapadavu, Sajipanadu village in Ullal Taluk, have been identified as Mohammad Sapwan (25), Mohammad Rizwan (25), Irfan (27), Anis Ahmad (19), Nasir (27), and Shakeer (18). According to police reports, the assault took place on November 7 in Kanchinadkapadavu.

The sequence of events began when Aboobakar was reportedly called to a residence in Kanchinadkapadavu by a female relative. Upon his arrival, he was confronted by the accused, who questioned his presence, tied him to a pole with ropes, and attacked him while he was shirtless. 

Aboobakar managed to file a police complaint the following day, detailing the assault. As his injuries worsened, he was admitted to a private hospital in Mangaluru.

While in the hospital, Aboobakar alleged that his attackers intended to kill him during the assault. This statement led to additional charges of attempted murder being filed. 

Police officials stated that the suspects were subsequently apprehended, charged with group assault and attempted murder, and placed in judicial custody. The investigation is ongoing, and further details are awaited.

Mangaluru: District-in-Charge Minister and Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dinesh Gundu Rao, announced that a day-care chemotherapy centre will soon be established at District Wenlock Hospital. Speaking to mediapersons after reviewing the activities at Wenlock and Government Lady Goschen Hospital, he shared the government’s plans to enhance healthcare services in the region.

Key Initiatives Announced

•    Day-Care Chemotherapy Centre:

• Ten beds will be reserved for cancer patients.
• The government will collaborate with Yenepoya Hospital to provide chemotherapy treatments.
• All required facilities for the centre are already in place, awaiting inauguration by the Chief Minister.

•    Wenlock Hospital Facelift:

• Critical Care Block: To be built at a cost of ₹24 crore.
• Integrated Public Health (IPH) Lab: Planned with a budget of ₹1 crore.
• New OPD Block: As per a 2017 agreement, KMC Hospital will take up construction. Discussions with KMC management are underway.

•    Additional Requirements:

• A new mortuary and post-mortem building.
• Paramedical college building.
• Modern kitchen.
• Bridge connecting two buildings within the hospital.

•    Total facelift cost: ₹6 crore to ₹10 crore, utilizing funds from the Department of Health and Family Welfare and CSR contributions.

•    Timeline:
By December or January, priority works will be finalized. The superintendents of Wenlock and Lady Goschen Hospitals are scheduled to visit Bengaluru next week to discuss these projects.

•    MRI Fee Allegations:
The minister assured that allegations of patients being charged for MRI scans at Wenlock Hospital will be resolved at the earliest.
These measures aim to improve healthcare accessibility and infrastructure, positioning Wenlock Hospital as a state-of-the-art facility in the region.

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.