Israel confirms Shani Louk is no more: Who was Shani Louk?
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.
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.
Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday
where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal
rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.
Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.
TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top
politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as
Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may,
one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple
question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A
question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!
His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to
welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala
Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked
that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."
Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a
person.
Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one
after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic
clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required
'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.
The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for
the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken
psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."
Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and
advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate
yourself.
But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at
Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on
for six days, and every year it is celebrated.
Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.
Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK
this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We
are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying
stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium,
said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious
retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from
shoplifting.
Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every
aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American
culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval
Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that
she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her
"moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants
don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.
"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary."
Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala,
which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the
countdown for a war on the streets?
It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.
Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he
himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan
Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his
video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak
more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for
Tamil Nadu."
Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner
space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and
spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the
meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the
culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer
self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)
Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell
theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the
age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao
Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has
had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other
diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a
tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.
The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised
city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating
outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!
“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.
Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.
TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a
different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for
students' admission to courses.
As recently as Tuesday Craig Robertson had posted on Facebook: "Perhaps
Utah will become famous this week as the place a sniper took out Biden the
Marxist." Biden was scheduled to make his first visit to Utah as President
Wednesday afternoon.
Maruti is recalling 87,599 S-Presso and Eeco vehicles to inspect and possibly
replace parts in the steering system. All reputed companies around the
world do recall their products when a defect comes to light.
Meanwhile, a question arises why just in about a year so many accidents have
taken place involving Mercedes sent to India while the car has won safety awards
abroad? In most cases, the vehicle collided with divider, while manoeuvring a
turn. Was there a split second delay in the steering system coming to a grip
when at high speed? Did anybody in India bother to study a pattern in several
of these accidents that took place one after other?
Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died when his Mercedes-Benz-SUV hit
a divider in Gujarat. Cricketer Rishabh Pant's Mercedes-Benz-SUV rammed a divider
in Uttarakhand and smashed. It went up in flames but he escaped with injuries.
Brother of PM Narendra Modi, Prahlad Modi's Mercedes-Benz-SUV met with a similar
accident in Mysuru. And many more.
Experts blame violation of the Visual Flying Rules (VFR) for most of the
chopper crashes in the mountains as the leading cause. VFR means fly only
visually - because of the lack of navigation aids in remote areas or unreliability
of GPS-like aids in hilly terrains or a remote manipulation of instruments
in cases of sabotage - as the topography plays havoc especially in the monsoon
(mid-June to September).
Even when VFR is followed, most crashes occur due to CFIT (Controlled Flight
into Terrain) - that is, everything else is OK but the aircraft collides with
hills or trees hidden by the clouds. This also occurs mostly in the monsoon.
On Tueday with Manang, the chopper was brand new, pilot was highly experienced.
But it hit an 'invisible' tree and then crashed against a hillside. This
CFIT occurred when the pilot tried to dodge patches of clouds even as he was
following the VFR.
Simply put, everyone knows flying in the hills during the monsoon is risky,
but the companies want to make more money in any which case. This type of
tragedy is very frequently invited in the Indian hill State of Uttarakhand
as well, where pilots are even made to fly without the mandatory rest.