Explosions heard in Iran hours after ceasefire with Israel: Reports
Tehran: Hours after a ceasefire between Iran and Israel was announced by the U.S. President Donald Trump, loud explosions were reported in the Iranian capital, Tehran, shortly after both nations had agreed to halt hostilities and that Tel Aviv would not launch an attack on Iran, reported India Today.
Citing the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA), Aljazeera stated that witnesses heard explosions near the northern city of Babolsar, where air defences were reportedly activated.
Israel claimed it carried out a retaliatory strike on an Iranian radar installation in response to Tehran allegedly launching two ballistic missiles.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told President Trump that he could not cancel a planned military response, citing Iran’s breach of the ceasefire, according to a report by Axios.
Air raid sirens blared across northern Israel, with Tel Aviv alleging that Iran fired a new wave of missiles in the wake of the ceasefire agreement. In response, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been ordered to "respond forcefully" to what he described as a “clear violation” of the truce.
However, Iran denied the accusation. State media reported that no missiles were fired towards Israel after the ceasefire took effect, dismissing Tel Aviv’s claims as misinformation.
Meanwhile, President Trump expressed frustration over the escalation. In comments reported by Al Jazeera, he criticized both nations for violating the agreement, but stated that he was "really unhappy" with Israel’s actions. He urged the Israeli leadership to halt airstrikes and “bring your pilots home, now.”
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
