3 Mangalureans among 4 NRIs killed in Saudi Arabia road mishap

Microsoft has announced an investigation into the Azure cloud server outage in the US and other parts of the world.

The outage caused temporary grounding of flights of low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines in the US.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience," the company said on X.

Now, the ground stop has been lifted, and the company is in the process of resuming flight operations.

In India, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Air India Express and Akasa Airlines also faced difficulties. Most of the passengers were unable to do their web checkin online.

"Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable," Akasa Airlines said in a statement.

"Our systems are currently impacted by a Microsoft outage, which is also affecting other companies. During this time, booking, check-in, access to your boarding pass, and some flights may be impacted. We appreciate your patience," said IndiGo on X.

"As our systems are impacted by an ongoing issue with Microsoft Azure, we are experiencing high volumes at contact centre. Please contact us only if your travel is within 24 hrs," added IndiGo.

"Global digital infrastructure issues with cloud services are temporarily impacting operations across multiple airlines, airports and other businesses globally. As a result, our website, reservation and airport check-in systems are also impacted. Please plan your travel and keep sufficient time in hand for airport procedures. We regret the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding during this time," said Air India Express on X

Currently, the affected airlines are doing manual check-ins and boarding processes at the airports.

Down under, Sydney Airport in Australia is facing service outage. It has requested the passenger to leave home early to avoid delays.

"A global technical outage has impacted some airline operations and terminal services. Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening.   We have activated our contingency plans and deployed additional staff to our terminals.   If you're travelling today make sure you leave plenty of time to come to the airport and check with your airline regarding the status of your flight," Syndney Airport posted the message on X.

"CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that services numerous industries, was down across parts of the world Friday morning, halting news broadcasts and grounding flights," reported reported.

"I am aware of a large-scale technical outage affecting a number of companies and services across Australia this afternoon. Our current information is this outage relates to a technical issue with a third-party software platform employed by affected companies," said the office of Australia's National Cyber Security Coordinator Michelle McGuinness on X. 

Hong Kond Airport is facing IT service outage and has now switched to manual check-in and boarding processes.

Air France and Paris airports are also facing similar issues, reported Reuters. Add to that, Paris Olympic committee said that its IT operations have been impacted by a global cyber outage.

"We have activated contingency plans in order to continue operations," the organising committee said in a statement.

Taiwan's two major airlines, China Airlines and Eva Air, have been spared are unaffected.

Even Microsoft 365, which offers access to Word, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, Intune, PowerBI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Defender, Viva Engage and other productivity tools has become inaccessible to clients around the world, including major cities across India.

The Microsoft 365 service health status reads-- "Users may be unable to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services".

Indian Government's statement 

“MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Bharat. 

Computers with CrowdStrike cybersecurity applications are struck with Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) issue.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team has recommended user to follow the process shared by CrowdStrike on Reddit below:

Step 1: Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.

Step 2: Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory

Step 3: Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys” and delete it.

Step 4: Boot the host device normally. This should fix the BSoD problem. 

Kalaburagi, July 17: BJP leader Manikanth Rathod has been arrested in connection with theft of rice meant for Anna Bhagya scheme, police said on Wednesday.

The Shahapur police arrested Rathod from his residence in the district headquarter town of Kalaburagi.

"Manikanth has been arrested in connection with the theft of 6,077 quintals of rice worth more than Rs two crore from a government warehouse in Shahapur in Yadgir district," the sources said.

The BJP leader was summoned by the police to appear before it for questioning, which he ignored due to which he was arrested.

Rathod had contested the 2023 assembly election on the BJP ticket against Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank Kharge and lost.

Anna Bhagya scheme offers 10 kg food grains to each member of the family belonging to the economically weaker sections of the society every month.

Bengaluru: Senior JD(S) lawmaker HD Revanna on Tuesday launched a diatribe against Director-General of Police Alok Mohan in Karnataka Assembly, dubbing him as “unfit” to be the top cop.

But an emotional Revanna also said that his son Prajwal Revanna, the former Hassan MP accused of mass sexual abuse, should be hanged if found guilty.

“If my son has committed wrongs, then let him be hanged. I won’t say no,” Revanna said in his first Assembly appearance after his family was embroiled in the Hassan sexual abuse case. 

“I’ve been a lawmaker for 25 years. I’ve spent 40 years in public life. Against me, some woman is brought to the Director-General’s office. The DG gets the complaint filed. Isn’t he nalayak to be the DG? He’s unfit. This is a shameless government,” Revanna said. 

This riled up members of the ruling Congress, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who asked Deputy Speaker Ramappa Lamani in the chair to expunge the comments. 

Revanna was arrested on May 4 in a kidnap and illegal confinement case linked to the Hassan sexual abuse saga. 

Revanna rose to speak after Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka drew a comparison between the manner in which Special Investigation Teams (SIT) are probing the Hassan sexual abuse case and the embezzlement at the Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation. 

“Revanna, Bhavani and our former Hassan MLA Preetham...they’re facing an SIT. But that SIT is so strong...all of them went to court seeking justice fearing arrest,” Ashoka said. “But with the other SIT, there’s no fear,” he said, adding that former minister B Nagendra was not summoned for investigation for over 30 days. 

Senior BJP lawmaker S Suresh Kumar interjected. “There’s SIT and there’s SSIT. The SIT is Special Investigation Team. The SSIT is the Siddaramaiah Shivakumar Investigation Team,” he said. Taking exception, Shivakumar said the comment should be expunged.