Trump says he is planning to attend Jimmy Carter's funeral
Palm Beach (AP/PTI): President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's planning to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.
Asked about it as he walked into a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump responded, "I'll be there.” Pressed on whether he'd spoken to members of Carter's family, Trump said he'd rather not say.
Funeral services honouring Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, will be held in Georgia and Washington, beginning January 4 and concluding January 9.
Trump was a frequent and fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of November's election, using the rising inflation rates of the 1970s to unfavourably compare President Joe Biden to Carter and his administration.
But the president-elect was gracious about the former president in posts on his social media site after Carter's death Sunday, writing that the nation “owed him a debt of gratitude.”
“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realised that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for,” Trump wrote of Carter. “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.”
Wearing a tuxedo as he entered the festivities, Trump took a few minutes of questions from reporters on various topics. He was asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, but said only, “We're going to see what happens."
The president-elect added of hostages seized more than a year ago by Hamas, “I'll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon."
Trump also said he thought 2025 would be a “great year” and "we're going to do fantastically well as a country.”
“There's a whole light over the whole world, not just our country. They're a lot of happy people,” Trump said of recent weeks.
Asked about his resolutions for the new year, Trump said, “I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well.”
Trump later took the stage to briefly address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago and promised “to do a great job as your president.”
Biden, for his part, spent New Year's Eve celebrating the wedding of his niece Missy Owens in Greenville, Delaware, followed by the reception in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Biden and first lady Jill Biden cut short their traditional holiday trip to the US Virgin Islands to attend the ceremony.
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Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
