Daily News Dose: Kerala bids tearful farewell to KPAC Lalitha | Feb 23, 2022

Hello listeners, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Ajish Jimmy George


1) The funeral of Malayalam actor KPAC Lalitha who passed away on Tuesday night was held at Wadakkancherry in Thrissur district of Kerala with state honours. She was 74.

The mortal remains of the actor was taken to Thrissur after being kept at Layam Koothambalam in Tripunithara for the public to pay tribute.

Several members of the Malayalam film industry including actors Mammootty, Mohanlal, star-couple Kavya Madhavan and Dileep, director Shaji Kailas, and Renji Panicker paid tribute to the late actor.

2) The Enforcement Directorate arrested Maharashtra Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday in a money-laundering probe linked to the activities of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and his aides.

The 62-year-old NCP leader was taken into custody after he was questioned for at the ED office in south Mumbai's Ballard Estate area.

According to ED officials, Malik's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and he was arrested under the same provisions as he was evasive in his replies.

NCP workers said he was taken by the ED from his residence at around 6am.

We will fight and win. We won't bow down, Malik said waving to waiting media as he stepped out of the ED office after spending eight hours in there. Malik was then taken by ED officials in a vehicle for medical check-up.

3) The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal against a single judge order upholding the re-appointment of Dr Gopinath Ravindran as the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Kannur University.

The latest order would be a relief for the state government as his reappointment was one of the reasons for its recent tiff with Governor Arif Mohammed Khan.

4) The Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of offline board examinations for classes 10 and 12 to be conducted by the CBSE and several other boards this year, saying such petitions give false hope and create confusion among students who are going to appear in these exams.

The apex court observed that the petition is ill-advised and premature and the authorities are yet to take appropriate decision with regard to conducting exams of the various boards.

Let the students do their job and let the authorities do their jobs, the bench observed.

The CBSE has decided to conduct term two board exams for class 10 and class 12 from April 26.

5) US President Joe Biden has announced a set of sweeping sanctions targeting Russia's ability to do business with the West, asserting that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin's decision to order troops into parts of eastern Ukraine was a violation of international law.

Announcing the "first tranche" of US sanctions on Russia for its moves against Ukraine, including on two large financial institutions, Russian sovereign debt and Russian elites and their family members, Biden said the American actions would effectively "cut off Russia's government from Western finance."

In a brief address from the White House on Tuesday, Biden also announced that he was moving additional troops and equipment to "strengthen" US allies in the Baltic nations on NATO's eastern flank, but made clear they would not be there to "fight Russia."

6) India logged 15,102 new coronavirus infections, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,28,67,031, while the active cases declined to 1,64,522.

According to the Union Health Ministry data updated at 8am on Wednesday, The death toll climbed to 5,12,622.

The daily positivity rate was recorded as 1.28 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded as 1.80 per cent.

That brings us to the end of this episode! Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.