Comics Curmudgeon readers! Do you love this blog and yearn for a novel written by its creator? Well, good news: Josh Fruhlinger's The Enthusiast is that novel! It's even about newspaper comic strips, partly. Check it out! Hey y’all: it’s your comment … of … the WEEK! “If we do have to accept a more […]

via http://dvdp.tumblr.com/post/16832958868/todays-smile-by-qubibi-meta

The Navi Mumbai police restarted the search operation with experts' help early this month. Pic/Hanif Patel

The search for murdered policewoman Ashwini Bidre's mortal remains has reached the final stage. Of the nine locations that came up during the search, two, showing strong signals of presence of a metal object, have been zeroed on.

Having a radius of five metres, both locations are covered with mud that's nearly two metres deep. The police will now take a call on how to remove the objects from these locations, as they will need specialised machinery for it. After an initial investigation, the police had procured a gradiometer, an equipment to locate metal objects underwater, from Israel. "During the two-day search operation, experts found nine spots with the help of the equipment; strong signals emanated at two of the spots," said an officer.

These two locations are expected to have objects at a depth of 25 to 40 metres below the water surface. "The depth varies according to tide. Our search also revealed that the objects are covered with one-metre thick mud, which is hard and can't be removed manually," said the officer. These spots also have deep wells, said a source, adding, "Sending divers in these wells can be dangerous to their lives. Hence, we are considering bringing in machines capable of drilling deep underwater."

Bidre's husband Raju Gore told mid-day, "We are looking forward to the next step from the police, which involves removing the objects and lifting them to the surface."

The body was found on Wednesday

The Vashi police have identified the woman they found stuffed in a metal trunk on Wednesday morning - Kiran Temba Sherpa, 50. A resident of Turbhe, she used to work as a housekeeping staffer in a private firm. The police have refused to divulge any other information, saying they are close to cracking the case.

Around 11 am on Wednesday, a resident of Vashi Gaon had called up the police and told them that a trunk had been washed ashore near Vashi creek, and a foul smell was coming from it. Senior inspector Ajay Landage and his team had reached the spot and found the woman's body with several clothes inside. Officers had then circulated her photo to find out who she was.

Yesterday, a few residents of Turbhe went to the police station and identified the woman. Landage said, "We've got information about her family, but we won't disclose it as probe is on."

The police are confident of cracking the case soon and have registered a case under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) against unknown person/s.

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

A day before voting in the fourth and final phase for 48 seats in Maharashtra today, statistics available with the Election Commission of India (ECI) showed that the worth of drugs, alcohol, precious metals etc. seized here over the past 32 days, was Rs 156.52 crore. The total worth of seizures of such items across the country, is Rs 3,244.59 crore.

As per ECI data about the seizures (from March 26 to April 28), the worth of precious metals (gold, silver etc), Rs 70.12 crore, was the highest in Maharashtra. This was followed by cash worth Rs 52.91 crore. Liquor worth Rs 25.64 crore was also seized. Drugs worth Rs 7.33 crore and freebies worth R9 crore were also seized.

Mumbai specific data
As per a press release issued by the chief electoral officer, Maharashtra, cash worth Rs 18.14 crore was seized from Mumbai city alone and 15 cases related to the violation of the Model Code of Conduct were filed. As per ECI data, from the time the Code of Conduct came into place till date, there have been seizures worth Rs 3,244.59 crore across the country. Of these, the total cash seized was Rs 781.82 crore, the liquor seized was worth R245.738 crore, and the drugs seized were worth Rs 1,193.81 crore. The worth of the precious metals seized was Rs 970.953 crore and the worth of freebies etc seized was Rs 52.26s 7 crore.

Rs 18.14cr
Worth of the cash seized in Mumbai

Rs 52.91cr
Worth of the cash seized in Maharashtra

Rs 781.82cr
Worth of the cash seized across the country

Liquor sales spike this month
Liquor sales have increased in the past 25 days by 10% in Thane district. Last year this month, 19,62,000 litres of liquor was sold in Thane district, and this year this month 20,06,000 litres of liquor has been sold so far. According to an Excise Department official, despite the severe summer, people are consuming whisky, while compared to last year, the sale of beer has reduced.

Earlier this month mid-day had reported that the Thane Election Commission and ED have sent notices to wine shop owners regarding maintaining proper sale records, to avoid cancellation of licences. "We have told them that we will compare sales of this period during last year and take action if they have increased drastically," said an ED official.
The ED and EC have been extra vigilant due to illegal sales during elections.

ED official Y Rathod, said, "Owners usually keep their shops open for longer hours during elections and sell liquor illegally. We have extra teams this time and have followed with strict checking. Due to this the transportation of liquor reduced during the elections. Also wine shop owners have kept their records clear this time."

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput on Tuesday shared the daily routine he has been following over a couple of months now, which he says has done wonders for him. "Of all the various approaches I've tried in the last few months, these meta skills have worked wonders with the best ROI of time..

1. 7 hours of optimised sleep ...2. Regular meditation 3. Writing a journal. 4. Frequent Exercise 5. Optimising digital time and 6. Intermittent fasting," Sushant wrote on Instagram.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Of all the various approaches I’ve tried in the last few months, these meta skills have worked wonders with the best ROI of time :) 👇🏻 1. 7 hours of optimised sleep 💤 2. Regular meditation 🧘‍♂️ 3. Writing a journal. 🖊 4. Frequent Exercise 🏋️‍♂️ 5. Optimising digital time 🤳🏻 and 6. Intermittent fasting 😇 Try them, if you will, and share your secrets for upgrading quality of life! #eyeofastorm ⚡️

A post shared by Sushant Singh Rajput (@sushantsinghrajput) onMay 4, 2020 at 10:55pm PDT

He even asked his followers to try the above mentioned approaches to upgrade their quality of life.

Also, amid the lockdown, the "Kai Po Che" actor is trying his hand at coding.

A few days ago, he shared a picture of his coding notes saying how he has been trying to learn coding and that it is "an extremely exciting process".

Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news

Asian stock markets are higher today as Chinese and Hong Kong shares show gains. The Shanghai Composite is up 0.6% while the Hang Seng is up 0.9%. The Nikkei 225 is trading up by 1.8%. Wall Street's indices climbed on Thursday, with the Nasdaq erasing losses for 2020, following a clutch of upbeat earnings reports led by PayPal as investors looked past more weak jobs data caused by the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.

Trends on SGX Nifty indicated a positive opening for the index in India with a 91 points gain.

India share markets opened higher. The BSE Sensex is trading up by 542 points while the NSE Nifty is trading up by 158 points. The BSE Mid Cap index and BSE Small Cap index opened up by 0.9% and 0.6% respectively.

All sectoral indices are trading in green with metal stocks and banking stocks witnessing maximum buying interest.

Note that the�coronavirus impact�has shaken markets worldwide. For the�BSE Sensex, FY20 was the second worst year post FY08, the year of the global financial crisis.

Good Time to Start Investing Now?

Naturally, there is an atmosphere of fear all round.

Is it time to sell stocks now? Will the correction get worse?

History has shown that after years like the one we had just now, the next 3 years are good for the markets. In fact, these corrections are the rare times when you find businesses with solid fundamentals at reasonable valuations.

If you can�find good businesses�that can survive the current crisis, you will do well in the long run.

Moving on, the rupee is currently trading at 75.57 against the�US$.

Gold prices are currently trading up 1.7% at Rs 46,161.

Gold prices in India edged lower in yesterday's trade though it remained in a narrow range.

On MCX, June gold futures fell about Rs 30 to Rs 45,340 per 10 gram, extending losses to the third day.

Gold prices had fallen about Rs 426 per 10 gram in the previous session. Silver futures also gave up early gains and were down 0.1% to 41,803 per kg.

In global markets, gold prices edge higher today after a sharp fall in the previous session.

Spot gold climbed 0.3% to US$1,690.19 per ounce, after a 1% fall in the previous session. Despite bleak economic data, the dollar's strength is weighing on gold.

The US dollar today touched a more than one-week high against a basket of major currencies. Besides firmer dollar, some bullion refineries restarted have production, easing supply-side concerns.

Moving on to mutual funds sector. Investors pumped Rs 837.8 billion in equity-oriented mutual fund (MF) schemes in FY20, registering a decline of 25% from the Rs 1.11-trillion inflows in the preceding year.

However, this was the sixth successive year of net inflows in equity mutual funds, according to data by the Association of Mutual Funds in India.

The flows into equity funds in the last fiscal were lower than the flows in 2018-19 primarily because of the equity markets displaying volatility, which made some investors take a break from making fresh equity investments.

Net inflows in these funds were Rs 1.7 trillion in FY18, Rs 703.7 billion in FY17, Rs 740.2 billion in FY16, and Rs 710.3 billion in FY15. However, they had witnessed a net outflow of Rs 92.7 billion in FY14.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent�share market updates here.

The Australian Government has secured an exemption from new US metal tariffs, Trade Minister Steven Ciobo has said.

The UAE's Cabinet has announced that wholesale trading in gold and diamonds will be made exempt from value-added tax.

Highlights : A way to utilize existing chemotherapy in a more efficient manner in treating pancreat