Adani to buy remaining 51 per cent stake in BQ-publisher Quintillion Business Media

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement has censured the Israeli regime’s police officers for their repeated “fascist” calls for settlers to carry guns while commemorating the Rosh HaShanah holidays for the Jewish New Year.

In a statement on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the renewed calls on settlers to bear firearms are a public incitement to murder that encourages the Jewish extremists to commit further crimes against Palestinian people.

“This fascist call and other similar calls by Zionist officials require clear condemnation from the international community and measures to hold them accountable before international courts,” he said.

Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates warned about increasing calls for Israeli settlers to carry guns, terming it “a racist incitement against Palestinians.”

The ministry said in a Friday statement that it “views the calls by the commander of Moriya police station in al-Quds for Israeli settlers to carry guns as an extreme danger.”

The statement described such calls as “An official incitement to carry out extrajudicial killings of Palestinians and an authorization for fanatics to take the law into their own hands motivated by their dark agenda.”

The Palestinian foreign ministry held the Israeli regime, particularly far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for the fallout of these moves.

Official data has shown that more than 160,000 Israelis carry guns, in addition to the police, security personnel and the army.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 280 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The international community views the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions due to their construction on the occupied territories.

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Bengaluru, Sept 13: Former Karnataka Chief Ministers B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP and H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) -- will not be attending the 'special emergency meeting' called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday to discuss the issue of releasing Cauvery river water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu. 

The meeting was convened at short notice following the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday recommending that Karnataka release 5,000 cusecs of water every day for the next 15 days to Tamil Nadu.

Bommai and Kumaraswamy said they are preoccupied with prior commitments but made their stand clear on the issue.

The Chief Minister's office said late on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, ministers of the Cauvery basin region, former chief ministers of all parties, senior ministers of the state cabinet, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members were invited to participate in the emergency meeting.

While Yediyurappa is travelling to attend the BJP central election committee meeting in the national capital, Bommai too said, he will not be able to participate in the meeting as he is visiting his home constituency of Shiggavi in Haveri district to take part in an event.

'The state government invited late last night for a meeting to discuss the Cauvery dispute. However, I am not able to attend the meeting called by the government, as I have to participate in the pre-scheduled event in my constituency,' Bommai said on 'X'.

'Our stand on the Cauvery issue is clear. The state government should not release water to Tamil Nadu for any reason. The state government should make the Supreme Court and the CWMA (Cauvery Water Management Authority) understand the ground situation in the state,' he added.

Kumaraswamy too said he will not be able to attend the meeting as he has to attend a pre-scheduled event in Hassan.

Questioning the recommendation or direction to Karnataka to release water to Tamil Nadu, he urged the state government to reject it.

Terming CWRC's recommendation as 'unjust', he said because of water scarcity in the Cauvery basin area, Karnataka government asked farmers not to cultivate crops; there will also be shortage of drinking water in the days to come.

Further, hitting out at the state government for releasing water to TN all these days, despite Karnataka facing scarcity, Kumaraswamy said, "It doesn't have the basic understanding or guts or courage to protect the interest of the state...they don't have commitment towards the people. What will they do for drinking water in the days to come, from where will they provide it to the people of Bengaluru?" Also, pointing out that there is no distress formula on water sharing till now, he expressed his displeasure about Cauvery bodies, and alleged that people of Karnataka are repeatedly being subject to oppression.

Following the CWRC's recommendation, Siddaramaiah on Tuesday held an emergency meeting regarding the next steps to be taken. Shivakumar, several senior ministers and officials including Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma, and Chief Minister's Legal Advisor A S Ponnanna participated in the meeting.

Shivakumar made it clear that Karnataka is in no position to release Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, as it doesn't have enough water storage, due to lack of adequate rainfall in the river basin region.

He had said that the matter is next going to come before the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA), in a couple of days, and Karnataka will vehemently put forward its stand before it. 

A rare, powerful earthquake that struck Morocco late Friday night, killing hundreds of people and damaging historic buildings, was "exceptional", according to an expert. According to latest reports at least 632 people died and 329 were injured in the quake.

Residents of Marrakech, the nearest big city to the epicentre, said some buildings had collapsed in the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and local television showed pictures of a fallen mosque minaret with rubble lying on smashed cars.

Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Speaking to Moroccan news network 2M TV, Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, said, "Mountainous regions in general do not produce earthquakes of this size,” he said. "It is the strongest earthquake recorded in the region.”

In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths. The Agadir quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.

Shallow quakes more dangerous

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11.11pm (3.11am UAE time), with shaking that lasted several seconds. The US agency reported a magnitude-4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later.

The USGS said the epicentre was 18 kilometres below the Earth’s surface, while Morocco’s seismic agency put it at 8 kilometres down. In either case, such shallow quakes are more dangerous.

The epicentre of Friday's tremor was high in the Atlas Mountains, roughly 70 kilometres south of Marrakech. It was also near Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa and Oukaimeden, a popular Moroccan ski resort.

The quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria's Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.