Trump honours 10-year-old Indian-American girl for COVID-19 help
Washington: Sravya Annappareddy, a 10-year-old Indian-American girl, has been honoured by President Donald Trump for donating cookies to nurses and firefighters and sending personalised greeting cards to healthcare workers fighting COVID-19 pandemic in the US, the worst affected country in the world.
Sravya is a Girl Scouts Troop member and a fourth-grade student at the Hanover Hills Elementary School in Maryland.
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on Friday paid tribute to several American heroes who are helping on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, including Girl Scouts from Maryland who donated cookies to nurses and firefighters.
"The men and women we honor today remind us that the bonds that unite us in times of hardship can also raise us to new heights as we reopen and recover and rebuild," The Washington Times quoted the president as saying.
Sravya was among three 10-year-old Girl Scouts honoured by Trump for their help. Her parents are from Andhra Pradesh.
Girl Scouts Laila Khan, Lauren Matney and Sravya of Troop 744 in Elkridge, Maryland, all 10 years old, donated 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to local doctors, nurses and firefighters. They also wrote 200 personalised cards for health care workers, the report said.
"While we are honoured that our troop was invited to be here today, we know that we are just part of the millions of other children out there that are doing amazing things to support their communities, their friends and their families. It is a privilege to be here representing all of them," said Khan, who represented the troop.
Among the honorees was Amy Ford, a nurse from Williamson, West Virginia, who travelled to Brooklyn, New York, to work in a hospital besieged with COVID-19 patients.
"For the past 42 days, she's been working 12-hour shifts in the intensive care units of Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn. Amy has been serving the coronavirus patients around the clock, and she once held the hand of an elderly patient all night long, just so the woman would not feel alone," Trump said.
The novel coronavirus which originated in Wuhan in December last year has claimed 315,185 lives and infected over 4.7 million people globally. The US is the worst affected country with 89,562 deaths and over 1.4 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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Man arrested with Rs 2.54-crore heroin in Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.
The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.
Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.
The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.
Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.
The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.
