Israel confirms Shani Louk is no more: Who was Shani Louk?
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Probably Shani Louk was killed in firing in the parking area where she
had rushed to escape in her car by militants who had taken position there
also, even as she was talking to her mother on phone and assuring her that
she was moving to a safe place. That's all we know of her last, for sure.
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TEL AVIV, Oct 31: The 23-year old German-Israeli Shani Louk, the artist who
was taken away by the Hamas militants in the gruesome attack of October 7 on
a Supernova music festival of thousands gathered in the southern region near
the Gaza border, was declared dead on Monday by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs after weeks of speculations of her fate and horrible visuals of savage
torture swirling in the social media.
“We are devastated to share that the body of 23-year old German-Israeli Shani
(Louk) was found and identified,” the Ministry posted on X on Monday.
CNN quoting authentic sources reported that Louk’s death was announced after
forensic examiners found a bone fragment (petrous part of the temporal bone)
from her skull. A DNA test concluded the identity.
She was believed to have been among the over 200 hostages taken away by the
Hamas terrorists to Gaza after they invaded and attacked inside Israel. Five
have been released till Monday: An Israeli soldier, an American woman and her
daughter, and later an 85-year-old Israeli woman and her 79-year-old friend.
At the festival site (near Kibbutz Re’im, southern Israel bordering Gaza) alone
260 bodies were found. The militants had encircled the festival crowds of thousands
and gunned down a large number of revellers. Over 1,400 people were killed elsewhere
in the rocket and ground attack on Israel by the Hamas militants in the early
hours on the day.
A chronolgy of Louk's last moments
Probably Shani Louk was killed in firing in the parking area where she had
tried to escape in her car by militants who had taken position there also, even
as she was talking to her mother on phone and assuring her that she was moving
to a safe place. That is all we know of her last for sure.
She was taken away and paraded in a truck in Gaza (it was not confirmed she
was still alive or dead lying in the truck, although her mother identified her
by her dreadlocks seeing the videos). Hamas had released a video showing a woman
lying in the back of a pickup truck, which on social media her mother took an
unwilling glance.
Her mother Ricarda Louk has accepted the reality. She had last spoken to her
daughter even as the firing was going on. Shani was a dual Israeli- German citizen.
Video of Louk, a tattoo artist, taken before the massacre showed her dancing
with friends at the festival.
Shani Louk was attending a music festival for peace at the Gaza border on October
7, but she never returned home.
The young German-Israeli artist has been found dead after “sadistic” terrorists
“chopped off her head,” Israel’s President said on Monday.
Israel’s President Herzog: “Her skull was found. That means those barbaric,
sadistic animals simply chopped off her head.”
A report said she was found dead on Monday. The IDF soldiers located her body
in Gaza and brought her back to Israel, it claimed.
Another report said, "In reality it is a piece of her skull that was found
and identified. The rest of her body has not actually been found. The assumption
right now is that she was beheaded."
"Hundreds of innocent young men and women celebrating peace and love were butchered
by Hamas, turning the Nova music festival into a river of blood, " a social
media post lamented.
A demand is growing for an “everyone for everyone” deal involving the release
of the hostages in exchange for Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons,
estimated to be 6,630 people.
On Monday, Hamas released a short video showing three women who are believed
to be captives held by the Palestinian militant group. The video shows them
seated in plastic chairs facing the camera, while one woman addresses Netanyahu
(in the middle ) directly with increasing fury, CNN reported.
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
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Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
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Gujarat
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