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An Indian student, Shreya Bedi, in the US was scammed by imposters posing as ICE agents, who coerced her into buying $5,000 in gift cards. Facing financial difficulties, she warns others about such scams and emphasises the importance of skepticism.

An Indian student in the United States was duped by scammers pretending to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, reported Newsweek.

Shreya Bedi, a Master’s student at Indiana University Bloomington came to the United States in 2022 on an F-1 visa.

She received the call on May 29th when the imposters said that she had violated immigration laws and forced her to purchase $5000 worth of gift cards as ‘bond’ payments in order to avoid arrest and deportation.

“He gave me his name and badge number and told me to verify his office details by going to ice.gov and looking up the office in Maryland. I could confirm it was the same phone number he was calling from,” Bedi said.

Subsequently, she received a second phone call from someone else posing as an officer from Olympia Police Department, and she was told not to disconnect the call as her phone was being monitored. They said that there was an arrest warrant for her.

“I felt completely trapped because they kept me on the phone for three hours straight, repeatedly warning me that hanging up or contacting anyone would violate my case and make things worse. I was too scared to risk it,” said Bedi.

Amid the ongoing Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, the Defence Ministry is going to take up Rs 10,000 crore proposal to buy three sophisticated spy planes to help Indian Air Force get a clear air-to-ground picture to carry out precision strikes against enemy ground targets like radar stations, air defence units and other mobile objects.

The Rs 10,000 crore project for the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (I-STAR) is expected to be taken up for clearance at a high-level defence ministry meeting scheduled to be held in the fourth week of June, defence officials told ANI.

The ISTAR provides air-to-ground surveillance to the forces to help them in carrying out precision strikes.

The spy aircraft project being developed by the Defence Research and Development includes the acquisition of three aircraft through an open tender from foreign manufacturers, including Boeing and Bombardier.

The onboard systems on the aircraft would be completely indigenous, as the DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems has already successfully developed them, they said.

The systems have already been proven and developed by the CABS and they will just have to be integrated with the three aircraft which would be acquired and modified for the purpose, they said.

The development of an ISTAR system would also add India to a select club of nations with such a capability, including the US, UK, Israel and a few others.

ISTAR thus provides dynamic and time-sensitive targeting capability and contributes significantly to meeting the nation’s security goals.

It will aid in limiting the scale and complexity of undetected hostile threats. It has multi-spectral surveillance capability to detect, locate and monitor irregular forces.

The I-STAR system shall be for carrying out intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting by day and night from stand-off ranges.

The ISTAR systems are operated at high altitudes from large stand-off ranges and will be used for intelligence processing, exploitation, dissemination and generation of the common operating picture.

The ISTAR aircraft will be a system comprising airborne and ground segments.

The India Meteorological Department has issued red alerts for Idukki, Kannur, and Kasaragod districts and orange alerts for the remaining districts.

Heavy rain lashed many districts of Kerala on Friday, disrupting normal life and causing waterlogging.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued red alerts for Idukki, Kannur, and Kasaragod districts and orange alerts for the remaining districts today.

Authorities in several districts have declared holidays for educational institutions under their jurisdiction.

As per the India Meteorological Department (IMD), strong westerly winds are likely to persist at lower tropospheric levels over Kerala and the Lakshadweep region for the next two to three days, resulting in widespread rainfall.

The IMD stated, “Strong westerlies likely to continue at lower tropospheric levels over Kerala and the Lakshadweep region during the next 2-3 days. Under the influence of these, widespread rainfall activity with scattered Heavy rainfall to Very Heavy rainfall with isolated Extremely Heavy rainfall is very likely to occur over Kerala on 29th & 30th May 2025. Heavy rainfall is very likely to occur at isolated places over Kerala on 31st May, 1st and 2nd June 2025.”

District administrations across Kerala have declared a holiday for all educational institutions in several districts on May 30 (Friday).

The precautionary measure applies to professional colleges, anganwadis, tuition centers, madrassas, and special coaching classes.

The action was taken against the advisory committee of the Kottukkal Manjippuzha temple in Kollam, which is managed by the TDB.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), the top temple body in Kerala’s Travancore region, dissolved the advisory committee of a temple following the rendition of the RSS ‘gana geetham’ (prayer song) during a recent musical concert held there.

The action was taken against the advisory committee of the Kottukkal Manjippuzha temple in Kollam, which is managed by the TDB.

A TDB statement issued on Tuesday said the decision followed an inquiry into the rendition of the ‘gana geetham’ and the erection of flags belonging to political and communal outfits on the temple premises.

The Board found that the advisory committee had committed serious lapses in connection with both incidents.

It added that an existing order strictly prohibits the erection of flagpoles of political and communal organisations in temples and on temple premises under the TDB’s control.

Authorities said that some containers have been found along the coasts of southern Kollam and coastal Alappuzha districts.

Containers from a Liberian cargo ship that sank off the Kerala coast have started washing ashore, while the oil spill spreading from the vessel has prompted authorities to issue a high alert along the state’s coastline, officials said on Monday.

Authorities said that some containers have been found along the coasts of southern Kollam and coastal Alappuzha districts.

In the wake of the sinking of the ship off the Kerala coast, a high-level meeting was convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to assess the situation.

An advisory has been issued urging coastal residents and fishermen to remain vigilant.

So far, nine containers have washed ashore, and an advisory has been reiterated for coastal residents and fishermen to remain alert, according to a statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

The cargo ship capsized and sank early on Sunday, leading to a significant oil spill. According to the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), the sunken vessel had 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil in its tanks.

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