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New York, Jan 10 (IANS) NASA has named Indian-American aerospace industry expert A.C. Charania as its new chief technologist to serve as principal advisor on technology policy and programs at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

In his role, Charania will align NASA's agency wide technology investments with mission needs across six mission directorates and oversee technology collaboration with other federal agencies, the private sector, and external stakeholders.

The role is housed within NASA's Office for Technology, Policy, and Strategy.

"The rate of advancement we seek in the 21st century is dependent upon selecting and maturing a portfolio of technologies into systems to execute our missions," Charania said in a NASA press statement.

"With this in mind, there are incredible opportunities in partnerships within and outside of NASA. I now look forward to the opportunity to work with the entire community to increase the rate of space and aviation progress," he added.

Charania will serve as principal advisor to Administrator Bill Nelson.Prior to joining NASA, he served as vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics, a firm that works to bring certified autonomous vehicles to commercial aviation.

His previous experience also includes working at Blue Origin to mature its lunar permanence strategy, Blue Moon lunar lander program, and multiple technology initiatives with NASA.

"A.C. is an experienced leader in managing large, rapidly shifting technology portfolios. I am eager for him to apply his knowledge and enthusiasm at NASA," Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy, said in a press statement.

Lal served as acting chief technologist prior to the appointment of Charania, whose first day working at NASA Headquarters was January 3.

Charania has also worked in strategy and business development for the Virgin Galactic (now Virgin Orbit) LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle program.

He also served in multiple management and technology roles at SpaceWorks Enterprises, including helping to incubate two startups, Generation Orbit and Terminal Velocity Aerospace.

Charania led the formation of the FastForward industry group focused on high-speed point-to-point transportation, was a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, and served on the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group Commercial Advisory Board, according to the agency release.

He received a bachelor's and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a bachelor's in economics from Emory University.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) A Mumbai man was honey-trapped by a woman and forced to smuggle cocaine worth Rs 28.10 crore from Ethiopia into India.

This came to light when the man was held with 2.81 kg of cocaine by the Customs officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai after his arrival from Ethiopia.

A customs official on the condition of anonymity, told IANS that the 49-year-old man, a Mumbai resident, had met a woman on social media. Soon they became friends and the woman lured him to come to Ethiopia.

The man left his private job and went there to meet her. But, on reaching there, when he tried to contact the woman, she told him that she was in Mumbai only. Some men there forced him to carry the bag which had the cocaine in it. The man had no choice but to carry the bag, said a source.

"He was sent back to Mumbai with the cocaine consignment. The accused concealed cocaine in a duffle bag. It was intercepted by the customs officials on the basis of intelligence surveillance," said the official.

The official said that during the investigation he broke down and told the officials that a woman was forcing him to do all this. He said that he was being blackmailed.

"The man has violated provisions of section 8 of the NDPS Act, and has committed an offence punishable under Section 21, Section 23 and Section 29 of NDPS Act. Accordingly, he was placed under arrest. The said the drugs, which is cocaine, has been seized along with concealing material under section 43(a) of NDPS Act," said the official.

The official said that they have informed the local police about the honey-trap matter to investigate.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS) Based on intelligence inputs, the cops of Golabari Police station in Kolkata, adjacent Howrah district, have arrested nine illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from near Howrah station late on Monday night. A local Indian agent was also arrested.

District police sources said that they received information that these nine illegal Bangladeshi immigrants arrived at Howrah with the intention of settling there. Accordingly, the cops of the Golabari Police station started keeping a watch in the areas adjacent to Howrah station.

During that screening process they noticed two cars. They stopped the cars and demanded identity proof from the commuters. After that, it was revealed that nine of the ten passengers were illegal Bangladeshi residents, of which six were men and three were women. They have been booked under various sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

District police source said that none of them had proper documents to come to India and the local agent arrested along with them helped in crossing the border illegally.

"Preliminary investigation has revealed that they were basically economic immigrants and the local agent arrested was supposed to take them to Bangalore for employment," a district police official said.

They are being interrogated now to ascertain how they illegally crossed the border, especially the area through which they infiltrated. They will be presented at a lower court in Howrah district on Tuesday. The police as per rules will be informing the matter to the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Jan 10 (IANS) Karnataka Police have booked an FIR and launched a hunt for a man who has been accused of deliberately running his car over a dog and killing it in Bengaluru, police said on Tuesday.

According to police, the incident took place on January 7 and came to light lately after the video of the gruesome incident went viral on social media.

The video shows the street dog sleeping in the middle of the road, trying to move away after knowing the car is coming towards it. The car driver, after observing the dog moving away, increases the speed and crushes it under wheels intentionally.

The dog under the wheel died on the spot. The efforts of locals to help the dog have gone in vain. The locals said that if the car driver would have given a horn, or slowed down a bit, the dog would have moved away.

The police have identified the car registration number (KA 05 MP 5836) and launched a hunt for the driver.

--IANS
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Jamnagar, Jan 10 (IANS) After almost nine hours of detailed inspection, agencies on Tuesday confirmed that no suspicious object has been found in Goa-bound Russia's Azur Airlines flight and termed the bomb threat email a "hoax call".

The flight will soon be cleared for take-off.

Jamnagar District Collector Saurabh Pardhi said, "NSG and State Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) teams have thoroughly inspected the ZF2401 flight and found no suspicious substance. The flight will soon be given clearance and most probably by 10 to 10.30 a.m, it will be permitted to take off from Jamnagar airport for Goa."

On Monday night, Goa ATC had received an email intimating that there is a bomb on a Russian flight that took off from Moscow and is going to land at Goa. The flight was diverted to Jamnagar airport where it made an emergency at 10.50 p.m.

Jamnagar BDDS team and later NSG team carried out a detailed inspection that lasted till Tuesday morning.

---IANS
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San Francisco, Jan 10 (IANS) Social networking platform Instagram has announced that it will remove the shopping tab from the main bar at the bottom of the screen, starting next month.

Moreover, the button to create a new post will move down, reports The Verge.

However, the Reels tab, which is currently present in the front and centre on the navigation bar, will replace the Shop tab.

The company also said that shopping will still be a part of the platform even without its shortcut on the home feed.

"You will still be able to set up and run your shop on Instagram as we continue to invest in shopping experiences that provide the most value for people and businesses across feed, stories, reels, ads and more," the company said in its support page.

In September last year, the company had started testing a main feed without a shopping button and said it wanted to "simplify Instagram experience" for users, the report said.

Meanwhile, last month, Meta had introduced new sharing features including 'Notes' on Instagram, that would help users to feel closer to the people they care about.

--IANS
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Jakarta, Jan 10 (IANS) A massive earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck Indonesia's Maluku province on Tuesday, prompting authorities to issue a tsunami alert.

The quake occurred at 12.47 a.m. with its epicentre located 148 km northwest of Maluku Tenggara Barat (Kepulauan Tanimbar) district and a depth of 131 km under the seabed, Xinhua news agency reported citing the authorities as saying.

The tremors were also felt in several nearby provinces.

Three aftershocks from weak to moderate levels followed the main quake, according to the authorities.

As a precautionary measure, some 2,000 Maluku residents have shifted to higher grounds over fears of a potential tsunami, a disaster management official said.

The tsunami alert has been issued for Maluku and the nearby province of Southeast Sulawesi.

Meanwhile, officials have confirmed that several houses and buildings were destroyed as a result of the quake.

Some of them had cracks, while several others collapsed, another disaster management official told Xinhua.

The official said that an assessment would be conducted to find out the exact the impact of the temblor.

So far, he said, there were no preliminary reports of injuries or fatalities.

"We have carried out several times of drill over an anticipation of tsunami. So when the quake happened, the residents rushed to leave the coastal areas and headed to higher grounds," the official said.

The last time Indonesia was hit by a tsunami was during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

On December 26, 2004, the powerful earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale struck with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

With waves up to 100 ft high, the tsunami devastated communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries in one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

Indonesia reported the highest number deaths at 130,736.

--IANS
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Pilibhit (UP), Jan 10 (IANS) A 33-year-old man was killed and dragged away by an adult male tiger to a nearby sugarcane field in Tanda Bijesi village of the district.

The incident took place under Neuria police limits.

Local forest officials said that the missing man's body was recovered from the cane field, half eaten by the big cat.

The corpse of the victim, Gokul Malik, was later sent for autopsy.

According to his family, Malik had gone for work to neighbouring Bangawan village in Uttarakhand. When he did not return home on Sunday, his family started looking for him.

Divisional forest officer of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, Naveen Khandelwal, and wildlife division Sanjeev Kumar and police officers reached the spot to collect information.

A team of forest officials from Uttarakhand also visited the place.

Following the incident, forest officials have deployed three field teams to monitor the tiger's movement and the Wildlife Trust of India has installed four camera traps.

Officials said, "The tiger might have strayed from the Surai range and retreated to the forest. We are collecting more information about it. Pug marks were measured to be 13x13cm which indicates that it was an adult male tiger."

Chief conservator of forest (Bareilly zone), Lalit Verma, said, "The tiger might attack another villager again. We are trying to monitor the movement for the next 48 hours through camera traps, field units. If we find the big cat near some other village, we'll immediately seek permission from the chief wildlife warden to tranquilise and relocate it to another forest."

--IANS
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Brasilia, Jan 10 (IANS) Some 1,500 people have been arrested in Brazil in the wake of the violent riots staged by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace in the country's capital.

Authorities arrested 1,200 people on Monday in addition to 300 detained on Sunday just hours after the riots took place, reports the BBC.

According to Justice Minister Flavio Dino, some 40 buses which had been used to transport protesters to the capital had been seized.

Also on Monday, heavily armed officers dismantled a camp of Bolsonaro supporters in Brasilia -- one of a number that have been set up outside army barracks around the country since the presidential election in October 2022.

Sunday's violence came exactly a week after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in.

Lula, who was President between January 2003 and December 2010, defeated Bolsonaro by a narrow margin in the October 31, 2022 run-off election.

Wearing shirts in the colours of Brazil's flag -- yellow and green -- the protesters vandalised the buildings in capital Brasilia that house the South American nation's key democratic institutions, reports the BBC.

The police had to resort to firing tear gas when the demonstrators wrapped in the national flag surrounded the presidential palace.

The violence left behind widespread damage -- almost every window on the presidential palace building's ground floor had been destroyed, forcing crews to remove each pane of glass and replace it with a new one.

The cobblestone pavement outside the palace also showed signs of damage, with large patches torn out by the rioters.

In the nearby Congress building, valuable works of art, including several high-profile pieces, were reportedly damaged by water or defaced during the riot, the BBC reported.

Lula and the heads of Congress and the Supreme Court said they "reject the terrorist acts and criminal, coup-mongering vandalism that occurred" on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Brasília Governor Ibaneis Rocha has been removed from his post for 90 days by the Supreme Court after being accused of failing to prevent the riot and of being "painfully silent" in the face of the attack.

Rocha has apologised for the violence.

Heads of state around the world have also denounced the violence, with the leaders of the US, Canada and Mexico issuing a joint statement on Monday condemning "attacks on Brazil's democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power".

Late on Monday, President Joe Biden "conveyed the unwavering support of the US for Brazil's democracy" during a phone call with Lula, the White House said in a statement.

It added that the Brazilian leader had accepted Biden's invitation to visit Washington in early February.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) One of Asia's largest literature festivals, the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) will be held at Kozhikode beach from January 12 to 15.

From Nobel laureates to Booker Prize-winning writers, and senior politicians to historians, journalists, film and theatre personalities, performers and artists, and diplomats, the sixth edition promises to host a spectacular list of delegates.

KLF is part of the tourist calendar of the region with participation from across India and from other parts of the world. The state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would inaugurate the four-day festival.

With a footfall of 3 lakh in the previous years, the sixth edition has also launched its own app. With the festival growing every year in huge numbers, a surge to 40,000 registrations is expected this year.

The app will allow the passing of information to a larger audience. Along with the basic features such as viewing schedules, and speakers list, the app will also allow the public to register for the literature festival, update regarding session changes, run contests and news pertaining to the literature festival.

Nearly 400 speakers from 12 countries are expected to attend the event to be held in six venues spread across the Kozhikode beach. They include Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan, 2022 Booker Prize winner Shehan Karunatilaka, International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree, Noble Laureates Ada Yonath and Abhijit Banerjee, American Indologist Wendy Doniger, Piyush Pandey, authors Jeffrey Archer, Francesc Miralles, Shobhaa De, Tushar Gandhi, MT Vasudevan Nair, Jerry Pinto, Shashi Tharoor, T. Padmanabhan, K. Satchidanandan, M. Mukundan, K.R. Meera and Sudha Murthy, historians Ramachandra Guha, William Dalrymple, and Manu S. Pillai, and Remo Fernandes. Film personalities Emily Perkins and Prakash Raj, politician Kapil Sibal, entrepreneur Kris Gopalakrishnan, and economist Sanjeev Sanyal, among others will also be present.

Invitees from Turkey, Spain, the US, Britain, Israel, New Zealand, the Middle East, the Far East, and other parts of the world will also be present.

The sessions at KLF, aim to map literature through discussions on aspects of science and technology, art, cinema, politics, music, environment, literature, pandemic & its impact, business and entrepreneurship, health, art and leisure, travel and tourism, gender, economy, culture genomics, history and politics, and various facets that shape human consciousness.

Fireside chats at night, music concerts and classical, theatre, and performing artists will make up the entertainment quotient at the festival.

--IANS
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