Light showers in Uttar Pradesh bring respite from heat

Uttar Pradesh got some respite from the heat wave with parts of the state receiving light to moderate rainfall and thundershowers in the last 24 hours.

The Met office sources here said that highest rainfall was measured in Bareilly at 3 cm.

Day temperatures fell appreciably in Meerut, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Bareilly divisions, the weatherman said.

But Etawah continued as the hottest place in the state with a temperature of 45.6 degrees Celsius.

The forecast is mainly for dry weather in western part of the state, though there is a chance of rain or thundershowers at isolated places in the eastern parts of the state in the next 24 hours.

Misplaced mobile phone leads Jaipur police to gang of robbers

Jaipur: A mobile phone left behind at the crime scene led police to a gang of five robbers who looted over Rs. 16 lakh at gunpoint from a businessman in Jaipur, police said today.

Commissioner of police Biju George Joseph said that the accused, all hailing from western Uttar Pradesh, were nabbed within four hours of the incident last night.

Police raided their rented accommodation and caught them while the gang was in the process of dividing the booty amongst themselves.

"One of the accused, Shaukin, had gone to... a shopping complex five days back when he noticed businessman Rajendra Tambi carrying money home in a bag.

"It was then that he decided to rob him and called the four accomplices from Uttar Pradesh to carry out the crime," Joseph added.

After conducting recces for a couple of days, they decided to execute their plan last night and intercepted Tambi outside his house in Shastry Nagar with a bag containing Rs. 16.83 lakh cash, police said. After snatching the bag at gunpoint, the five accused fled the scene, they added.

But one of them left his mobile phone behind and upon discovering the same, dialled the number after reaching their room in the Hasanpura area, enabling police to trace the location.

Police said that a revolver and the money have been seized from their possession.

The other accused involved in the crime were identified as Raja, Murshid, Nakib and Meherwan.

'American Corner' opened in Hyderabad

Hyderabad:Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the US Department of State Wendy Sherman and US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell today unveiled 'American Corner', seventh in the country, at St Francis College for Women in Hyderabad.

It would be a collaboration between the US consulate and the college.

American Corners are dedicated information spaces hosted in schools, colleges, libraries, etc. that help introduce visitors to different aspects of the USA.

"The opening of this new American Corner reinforces what people of India and the United State are already doing - bringing our two countries closer together," Sherman said.

Powell said the American Corner will provide a window on life and culture in the USA.

Schoolkids open an umbrella manufacturing unit

Thrissur: Come monsoon, the kids here are set to unravel a riot of colours in different designs.

This year’s school season will see a whole new lot of umbrellas in the market, with the students of Sarvodayam Vocational Higher Secondary school in Thrissur opening an umbrella manufacturing unit in their school. The initiative, Oru Kudayum Kunju Pengalum’, is named after a famous Malayalam short story and it aims at raising funds to support their fellow students suffering from chronic diseases.

It all started on May 1st, when a batch of 50 students in the school took training in umbrella manufacturing from Krishnendu, now a 6th standard student of the same school. The students were given a week-long training in the craft, including designing and screen printing etc and they picked up the art so fast that the manufacturing unit was set up in the next week itself.

“We always wanted our students to give back to the community. But these inspiring kids exceeded our expectations to implement a scheme to improve the lives of those in need’’, said Sasi Kumar, the school manager, who devised the scheme.

With over a thousand umbrellas neatly stacked one above the other in its store room, the school has now launched the trade fair to sell the product and raise money. Besides, the school has also deployed a marketing team from the Commerce stream to identify the market and improve sales.Priced between Rs 200 and 300, the product has already got a few takers, mostly people living around the school, in addition to the school students.

Premonsoon showers play truant in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: This year too, summer showers have failed Tamil Nadu. While a little bit of rain in the last few days have helped bring down the deficit to minus 31 per cent compared to minus 39 per cent recorded till last Wednesday, weathermen believe that the state might end up with 30 per cent deficit of pre-monsoon rains.

For the period starting March 1 to May 29, TN and Puducherry have rece­ived only 86.2 mm compared to normal cumulative rainfall of 124.1 mm. Last year, the state ended the summer season with 86.1 mm rainfall only. Weathermen say that there are possibilities of thundershowers in the northern districts for another two or three days.

“There was almost some rain in the state for the last five days. So the deficit level has come down. With just two more days to go, we might end the pre-monsoon with about minus 30 per cent rainfall in TN and Puducherry,” said Dr Y.E.­A. Raj, deputy director general of meteorology, Regi­onal Meteorological Centre (RMC), Chennai.

He pointed out that May month was comparatively better than the previous two months. “Summer rains show lot of variability. But for good rains betw­een March 5 and 10, we did not receive any rainfall in March and April. Fortu­nately we received some rainfall everyday in May in TN,” he added.

For a 24-hour period ending 8.30 am on Wednesday, Ketti in Nilgiris district recorded the maximum rainfall of 5 cm in the state. Pennagaram in Dhar­mapuri district, Gudiy­atham in Vellore district and Shoolagiri in Krish­nagiri district registered 4 cm rainfall each.

“Even though the observatory in Nungambakkam did not register any rainfall, there was some amo­unt of rainfall in the city,” said Dr Raj, adding that the airport town and nearby areas were cooled down by the showers in the Kathipara area, which led to drop in temperature levels.

While Meenambakkam recorded 38 degree Celsius, Nungambakkam temperature was on the higher side at 39.5 degree Celsius despite the setting of sea breeze at 1.35 pm on Wednesday. “We can exp­ect the temperature levels to stay two degree Celsius above normal for a few more days,” he added.

CBSE Class 10 results: girls do better than boys again

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Thursday declared the results for its Class 10 examinations, with 98.76 percent students clearing the exam for admission to higher classes.

This is marginally up from 98.19 percent in 2012.

The performance of girls is marginally better than boys - a pass percentage of 98.94 percent for girls as compared to 98.64 percent for boys.

The overall pass percentage in the Chennai region is 99.80, which is the highest among all regions in the country. Panchkula region ranks second with a pass percentage of 99.45 percent, followed by Ajmer with 99.38 percent, Bhubaneshwar with 99.37 percent, Patna with 99.30 percent, and Allahabad with 99.17 percent.

Delhi stands seventh with a pass percentage of 98.40 percent, and the Guwahati region is at the bottom of the table with a pass percentage of 90.93.

A total of 1,25,7893 candidates registered for Class 10 board examinations this year, an increase of about 6.67 percent over the last year.

The results are reflected in grades. The CBSE had set up 3,002 centres for the smooth conduct of the examinations.

The board said a total of 10 cases of cheating came to light this year, as compared to 11 cases last year.

Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia to process 12,000 more passes

Dubai: The Indian embassy in Riyadh will start the verification and delivery process of a third batch of 12,000 applications for emergency certificates sought by expatriate Indian workers in Saudi Arabia who want to leave that country for good.

The embassy has already issued 24,000 exit passes and the third batch will be processed from Monday, the Saudi Gazette reported on Thursday.

Indian workers have been thronging the Indian embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah ever since a new labour policy was implemented in that Gulf nation.

The new Nitaqat or Saudisation policy makes it mandatory for all Saudi companies to reserve 10 per cent of jobs for Saudi nationals.

Affected Indian workers are trying to take advantage of a grace period announced by the Saudi government that will end July 3.

There are around two million expatriate Indians in Saudi Arabia, many of them blue collar workers.