Muslims in Mangaluru offer Eid al-Adha prayers as rain takes a break

Mangaluru: The by-election to the legislative council from the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi local authorities' constituency will be a contest among four candidates. An independent candidate, Muhammed Riyaz, has withdrawn his nomination on Monday, the last day for withdrawal.

Deputy commissioner Mullai Muhilan MP stated that candidates Kishore BR (BJP), Raju Poojary (Congress), Anwar Sadat S (SDPI), and Dinakar Ullal (independent) will be in the fray. 

Polling will be held at 392 booths in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts between 8am and 4pm on Oct 21.

A total of 6,032 voters from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi are eligible to vote. While there will be 234 polling booths in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi will have 158 stations. Gram panchayat members, corporators of the Mangaluru City Corporation, members of city municipal councils, town municipal councils, town panchayats, MLAs, MLCs, and Lok Sabha members are eligible to vote.

Election observer of the Election Commission of India (ECI), Pankaj Kumar Pandey, reviewed the poll preparations at the deputy commissioner's office on Monday. He issued directions to officials regarding arrangements to be made during the election and counting of votes.

The deputy commissioner stated that out of 6,032 voters, 3,127 are women and 2,905 are men. He said the counting of votes will be held at St Aloysius PU College in the city on Oct 24.

Udupi deputy commissioner Vidya Kumari K, city police commissioner Anupam Agrawal, Dakshina Kannada ZP CEO Anandh K, Dakshina Kannada SP Yathish N, Udupi SP Arun K, and additional deputy commissioners Santhosh Kumar G and Mamatha Devi were present.

US and British warplanes have bombed Yemen's capital city of Sana'a and several other areas, amid the country’s solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the Lebanese nation in the face of Israel's brutal aggression.

Yemen's al-Masirah television network said the US-British aggression targeted the al-Hafa and Jirban areas in the north and south of the capital with six airstrikes on Thursday morning.

The television network also said the warplanes struck the northwestern Yemeni city of Sa'ada as well as the Kahlan and al-Abla areas east of the city.

The US military has used "B-2 stealth bombers for the 1st time in airstrikes on Yemen,” the television network said.

Yemen's official Saba Net news agency reported that US-British aggression aircraft launched 15 raids on the capital Sana'a and the Sa’ada province.

The agency cited a security source as saying that the aircraft targeted with six raids the areas in the north and south of the capital, and launched nine raids in Sa'ada.

A US defense official confirmed that the strikes were conducted using the B-2 bomber, which is usually deployed to strike areas heavily defended by air defense systems.

Source: Airstrikes did not hit weapons depots 

A Yemeni military source told the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV channel that the airstrikes did not hit weapons depots belonging to Yemen's Ansarullah, and did not affect their capabilities as claimed by the Pentagon.

The source said the use of B-2 stealth bombers in the attacks indicates "panic" in the US military over the possibility of its drones being shot down in Yemeni airspace, after several MQ-9 drones were shot down by the Houthi movement in recent months.

Any American-British aircraft or weapon used to strike Yemen "cannot neutralize the strategic weapons that the Yemeni army has prepared and continues to prepare and develop," the source said.

He added that attacks on Yemen will not succeed in forcing the Ansarullah movement to stop its support of Gaza and Lebanon.

Nasreddin Amer, Deputy Minister of Information in the Sana'a-based administration, condemned the American and British aggression, saying, “The position of the Yemeni nation toward Palestine and Lebanon will not change with these attacks.”

Amer stressed that the United States will “pay the price” of the dawn aggression against Yemen.

"We confirm that the American aggression will not pass without a response," said a statement from Ansarullah's political bureau.

Earlier on Tuesday, US and British forces conducted four airstrikes on the al-Luhayyah district in Hudaydah Province, in western Yemen. The day earlier, they carried out two airstrikes on the al-Salif district in western Hudaydah.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they will not stop their attacks until unrelenting Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.

So far, Israel has killed at least 42,409 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 99,153 others in Gaza. The regime has also intensified its deadly attacks against Lebanon over the past year, killing upwards of 2,300 Lebanese people.

New Delhi: After the MUDA chairman stepped down from his post on Wednesday, the BJP demanded that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also resign immediately as he is "deeply embroiled" in the land "scam".

Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) chairman K Marigowda resigned from his post amid the row over alleged irregularities in allotment of sites to Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi B M.

"MUDA chairman has tendered his resignation... I call upon Siddaramaiah that if you have the slightest morality left in you, you should step down immediately. You should not wait for today's sunset," BJP national spokesperson and MP Sambit Patra said at a press conference here.

He said Marigowda's resignation and Siddaramaiah's wife "offering" to return the MUDA sites allocated to her make it clear that the chief minister is "deeply involved in the scam from head to toe".

"There is no doubt about it," Patra said.

Earlier in the day, Marigowda submitted his resignation to the Urban Development Department secretary.

"I have resigned following directions from the CM. Also, as I had health issues, I have resigned... there was no pressure on me, as I had health issues I have resigned," Marigowda told reporters in Bengaluru.

Responding to a question, he said, "The investigation is on, and it will continue...it will be known from the probe whether there were any irregularities." Siddaramaiah is facing probes by the Lokayukta and the Enforcement Directorate into alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by the MUDA.

The chief minister has denied any wrongdoing and rejected the opposition's calls for his resignation.