2 young doctors die as car plunges into river mistaking it for road after birthday celebration

News Network
October 2, 2023

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Kochi, Oct 2: Two doctors were killed after reportedly being misguided by GPS in the deep night in Gothuruth area of Kerala’s Ernakulam district. The doctors were in car on an unfamiliar road amid heavy downpour when they turned on GPS to navigate better.

The victims are Dr Advaith (29) died and so did his colleague Dr Ajmal Asif (29). 

Dr Advaith, who was at the wheel of the Honda Civic past midnight, turned on GPS. Soon they came to a waterlogged stretch of road and as the map pointed straight ahead, Dr Advaith drove straight ahead. But there was a river ahead and not a road. The car started sinking.  

While two doctors lost their lives, three others in the Civic managed to extricate themselves and were rescued. The incident occurred at 12:30am on. 

Dr Advaith had turned 29 on Saturday and the five of them were returning to Kodungallur from Kochi where they had gone for some birthday shopping.

According to police and Ashok Ravi, senior manager of Kodungallur CRAFT Hospital where the doctors worked, Dr Gaziq Thabseer, one of the survivors, revealed that the accident occurred after GPS rerouted them. 

“Yes we were using GPS. However, since I was not driving, I can’t confirm if it was a technical glitch of the application or a human error,” he said.

“It was Dr Advaith’s birthday, and the doctors went to Kochi to celebrate it with a male nurse in our hospital. Dr Ajmal’s fiancée was also part of the celebration,” Ravi said.

During monsoons, the GPS algorithm guides drivers to roads with less traffic but experts say less busy roads are not necessarily safer. “Also, one should always remember to select the mode of travel on the map. A four-wheeler can’t go the way a bike goes,” an expert said.

Dr Ajmal was a native of Thrissur district and Dr Advaith was from Kollam. Those who survived are Jismon and Tamanna, besides Dr Thabseer, who works in the cardiology department of CRAFT Hospital. Jismon is a nurse in the hospital and Tamanna is an MBBS student in Palakkad. All three have been admitted to a Kochi hospital. Dr Advaith’s mortal remains were shifted to Kalamassery Medical College and Dr Ajmal’s body was moved to Thrissur Medical College for autopsy.

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News Network
April 11,2025

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New Israeli strikes have killed over a dozen people, including seven children, in the besieged territory as the regime is pressing ahead with its bloody military onslaught against Palestinians.

Gaza's civil defense agency said the bodies of 10 people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the al-Farra family home in central Khan Younis.

Witnesses reported continuous and intensive Israeli tank fire in the city. 

Moreover, one Palestinian was killed and four others were wounded following an aerial attack on a group of civilians in Rafah.

In central Gaza, Israeli drones struck a group of civilians in Deir el-Balah, following which a number of casualties were transferred to the al-Aqsa Hospital.

Two more people killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a group of civilians in the al-Atatra area in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

On Friday morning, the Israeli military released an “urgent and serious” evacuation notice for residents living in various neighborhoods east of Gaza City.

The United Nations on Friday said its analysis of 36 recent Israeli strikes in Gaza showed only women and children were killed and decried the human cost of the war.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani cited an April 6 strike on a residential building of the Abu Issa family in Deir al-Balah, which reportedly killed one girl, four women, and one four-year-old boy.

Even the areas where Palestinians were being instructed to go in the expanding number of Israeli "evacuation orders" were also being subjected to attacks, she said.

Israel has said its troops are seizing "large areas" in Gaza and incorporating them into buffer zones cleared of their inhabitants.

The UN rights office warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders are resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking spaces in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"Let us be clear, these so-called evacuation orders are actually displacement orders, leading to displacement of the population of Gaza into ever shrinking spaces," Shamdasani said.

"The permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territories amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and it is a crime against humanity."

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Shamsadani said between March 18 and April 9, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people.

"In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children," she said.

"Overall, a large percentage of fatalities are children and women, according to information recorded by our Office," she added.

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News Network
April 7,2025

Mangaluru, Apr 7: A price storm is brewing in Mangaluru’s hotel and restaurant industry. Faced with skyrocketing raw material costs and mounting overheads, hoteliers are preparing to hike food prices by up to 10% within a month — a move that could hit the pockets of thousands of diners across Dakshina Kannada.

From milk and oil to LPG and staples like rice and toor dal, prices have surged, pushing both vegetarian and non-vegetarian establishments to the brink. Over 65% of hotels operate in rented spaces, and labour shortages are adding fuel to the fire.

Swarna Sunder of Dinki Dine says running a hotel without burdening customers is becoming near-impossible. “Costs are rising daily. We’re trying to strike a balance, but a hike is inevitable,” he said, calling Mangaluru a highly price-sensitive market.

Industry leaders, including the Dakshina Kannada Hotel Owners Association, are expected to meet soon to formalize the revision.

Meanwhile, hoteliers blame "unhealthy competition" for further disrupting the sector. “Some serve unlimited fish meals under ₹60 — it’s unsustainable and unfair,” said a hotelier, adding that such practices are forcing smaller eateries to shut shop.

Chandrahas Shetty, president of the district association, confirmed that rising input costs have left them with little choice but to revise menus.

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News Network
April 18,2025

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The US military has struck the western Yemeni oil port of Ras Isa, leaving dozens of workers and paramedics dead, and dozens more injured.

The facility in Hudaydah governorate was hit at least two times on Thursday night, with the second strike coming as civil defense and rescue teams were extinguishing fires and recovering victims. The second attack killed at least five paramedics.

The Palestinian Information Center and al-Manar TV now report that at least 38 people have been killed in that attack, while 102 others injured.

The Yemeni government slammed the attack as a clear war crime aimed at supporting the Zionist regime and enabling it to continue the Gaza genocide.

It said the strikes prove that the US deliberately attacks civilian infrastructure in Yemen with false justifications.

The government vowed that this crime would not pass without painful punishment, and the US would reap nothing but humiliating defeat and failure.

The US military claimed the port was a source of fuel for the Ansarullah resistance movement.

The governorates of Sana'a, al-Bayda and Hudaydah were also hit with multiple strikes.

The United States intensified its deadly attacks on the country last month at President Donald Trump’s direct orders.

Washington claims the raids are strictly aimed at protecting shipping activity around Yemen, alleging that the regional waterways’ maritime security had been endangered by Sana’a.

Yemeni officials have, however, roundly rejected such claims, underlining that the country only targeted vessels belonging to the Israeli regime and ships taking supplies to it.

The operations implemented by Yemen’s Armed Forces began in October 2023, when the Israeli regime, the US’s most cherished regional ally, began taking the Gaza Strip under a genocidal war.

More than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed as a result of the warfare, which receives hugely enhanced and unstinting arms support on the part of Washington.

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