December 27: Top news at noon

Two major mishaps averted at Delhi, Goa airports

Two major mishaps were averted on Tuesday – in the national capital’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport and the other in Goa. While two aircraft of private carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet came face-to-face allegedly due to an ATC miscommunication at the Delhi airport, a Jet Airways flight veered off the runway at Dabolim Airport in Goa.

While the IndiGo plane that had arrived from Lucknow had over 160 passengers onboard, the Hyderabad-bound SpiceJet aircraft was carrying 187 passengers when the incident took place, according to sources. The matter has been reported to the aviation regulator DGCA, which has initiated a probe into the incident. SpiceJet confirmed the incident and said that at no point of time the safety of its passengers was at risk. The IndiGo spokesperson was not available for comments. Meanwhile, the Navy said its prompt response in rescuing passengers onboard the Mumbai-bound flight that veered off the runway at Dabolim Airport in Goa had averted the incident from turning into a “catastrophe”. The incident took place at around 5 am when Jet Airways flight 9W 2374 that had arrived from Dubai and was bound for Mumbai, skidded off the runway while aligning for the take off. As many as 15 passengers suffered "minor injuries and fractures" during the evacuation process.

Will spare no effort to secure release of Father Tom, says Sushma Swaraj

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said India will spare no effort to secure release of Father Tom Uzhunnalil, a Keralite priest abducted nearly nine months ago by the terror group Islamic State in war-torn Yemen. The minister’s remarks come a day after a purported video by the priest appealing to the government to free him surfaced. “We have spared no effort and we will spare no effort to secure Fr Tom’s release from captivity,” Swaraj tweeted. Father Uzhunnalil was abducted in March by Islamic State from port city of Aden. He had gone missing after the terror group attacked a care home run by Mother Teresas Missionaries of Charity.

Sensex recovers in opening trade, rupee slips

The benchmark BSE Sensex recovered by over 81 points in opening trade on Tuesday largely on the back of value buying in blue-chip stocks such as Cipla, Reliance Industries and TCS. The 30-share index rebounded 81.01 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 25,888.11, with all sectoral indices led by consumer durables, healthcare, IT, FMCG, auto and capital goods stocks trading in the positive zone, rising by up to 1%. The barometer had lost 233.6 points in the previous session. Also, the NSE Nifty was trading higher by 20.7 points at 7,928.95. Meanwhile, the rupee slipped further by 14 paise to 67.88 against the US currency in late morning deals following bouts of month-end dollar demand from banks and importers amid continued capital outflows. Earlier, the Indian rupee opened lower by 10 paise at 67.84 as against Monday's closing of 67.74 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market.

TN fishermen attacked, chased away by Sri Lankan Navy

Nearly 3,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen from the island town of Rameswaram were forced to return without their catch after they were allegedly attacked and chased away by the Sri Lankan Navy for fishing off Katchatheevu. At least five fishermen were injured when they were attacked by the Lankan naval personnel using pipes on Monday, said Rameswaram Fishermen Association President S Emiret. “The naval men also snapped the nets of about 100 boats forcing all the fishermen to flee and return to the shore last night,” he said. “The fishermen had ventured into the sea in more than 600 boats and were fishing off Katchatheevu when they were attacked,” Emiret added.