Sporadic violence at some places; voters in six districts of Nagaland boycott; Tripura records highest polling at 80.17% New Delhi: A voter turnout of over  62% was recorded in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections covering 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories amid sporadic incidents of violence at some places and an accidental explosion of a grenade launcher shell in Chhattisgarh that left a CRPF jawan dead. The Election Commission said polling for the first and biggest phase of the seven-phase elections remained largely peaceful.  Voters braved the heat in most parts w ..read more

New Delhi: Accusing the Enforcement Directorate of being “petty” and “politicising” what he ate, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asserted before a court that the food he consumed was in conformity with the diet chart prepared by his doctor and sought insulin to be administered to him in jail. The embattled politician moved a fresh petition before the court for a direction to the jail authorities to allow him access to insulin to keep his “alarming” sugar levels under control. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, his counsel, said Kejriwal has not been administered insulin to contro ..read more

Mapusa : The tar ball nuisance has raised its ugly head yet  again. The Little  Vagator beach (Ozran) in North Goa  has been seeing the re-emergence of the black sticky substance in the last four days,  causing inconveniences to tourists  and local visitors. Locals said that tar balls appear in May every year. However, this year they have made their presence felt a bit early. Beach cleaning workers undertake removal of the nuisance from the shore, but the black substance continues to bother everybody, the locals said.  “Tar balls have resurfaced on the beach in th ..read more

Dubai: An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early on Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country. No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. However, tensions have been high since the Saturday assault on Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own strikes targeting Iran in Syria. Speaking at the G7 mee ..read more

PTI United Nations The US has vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on the latest Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations, an outcome lauded by Israel but criticised by Palestine as “unfair, immoral, and unjustified”. The 15-nation Council voted on a draft resolution on Thursday that would have recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly “that the state of Palestine be admitted to membership in the United Nations”. The resolution got 12 votes in its favour, with Switzerland and the UK abstaining and the US casting its veto. To be adopted, the draft re ..read more

He may be stepping into electoral politics after 17 years, and that too with very short time on hand for campaigning, but this is not deterring INDIA bloc’s Congress candidate Ramakant Khalap in the least. The former Union minister, who recently announced that he is feeling young and full of energy, told Soiru Velip of The Navhind TImes that his candidature has been welcomed by the people of the North Goa parliamentary constituency, who have pinned their hopes of finally finding a voice at the Centre on him, something which he alleges  the incumbent BJP MP has failed to do in all his five ..read more

Sankhali: In yet another tragic death involving a worker of electricity department, a lineman was electrocuted while he had climbed up a pole to undertake repair work at Valshi, Bicholim on Friday morning. The name of the deceased was disclosed as Manoj Zambaulikar (34), a resident of Gaonkarwada- Piligao.  Enraged villagers slammed the electricity department and protested against shifting of the body to hospital. They demanded presence of the officials concerned at the site and when they arrived, accompanied by the police, they were confronted and asked as to who was to be blamed for the ..read more

Experts raise concerns over survival of Panaji’s translocated heritage tree  By Asmita Polji Pernem: The 90-year-old banyan tree at Girkarwada in Arambol that fell on August 5, 2020, following a particularly heavy spell of rain had, at the time, become an icon of Goa’s conservation efforts, with the community rallying to ensure its successful re-rooting.  However, during a recent visit by ‘The Navhind Times’ to the site and conversations with locals, it was found that despite all the efforts that went into replanting the tree—kknown as ‘The Source’ —it died. “After the tree was repla ..read more

Ravindra Jadeja’s fifty, MS Dhoni’s cameo in vain as Super Kings suffer eight-wicket defeat Lucknow: Openers KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock, who made classy fifties on a slow pitch, produced a chasing masterclass to power Lucknow Super Giants to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match here on Friday. Asked to bat first, Ravindra Jadeja came up with a solid unbeaten 57 before Moeen Ali (30 off 20) and MS Dhoni (28 off 9) went on a six-hitting spree to take CSK to a fighting 176 for six. In reply, Rahul (82) and De Kock (54) batted with authority during their mat ..read more

‘Allegations baseless, ready to challenge them on any public platform’ Sankhali/Mapusa: That the election campaign for the May 7 Lok Sabha polls is heating up was evident on Sunday when Power Minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar and the BJP’s North Goa candidate Shripad Naik levelled charges against Congress candidate Ramakant Khalap over the Mapusa Urban Co-Operative Bank, of which the former Union law minister was chairman for many years. Dhavalikar said that during Khalap’s chairmanship, the bank went through a bad phase and put investors in deep trouble. Naik also said that there is a ne ..read more