2 NRIs donate Rs 13.5 cr to Tirupati temple
Tirupati (AP): Two US-based entrepreneurs on Saturday donated Rs 13.5 crore to the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at nearby Tirumala. The NRI devotees, originally from Andhra Pradesh, donated the offerings as a fulfilment of their vow, a temple official said. While Ika Ravi made a Rs 10-crore online donation to the e-Hundi of Lord Venkateswara, Srinivas Guttikonda personally handed over donation of Rs 3.5 crore through demand draft. PTI
Thane doc booked for ‘cruelty’ to animals
Thane: A doctor has been booked here on charges of causing "cruelty" to animals. Virendra Pal Singh, who runs a hospital in Kalyan town, has been booked on the basis of a complaint by an animal rights group that the 48-year-old physician had nine dogs in his custody without taking permission from civic authorities. The medical practitioner did not take proper care of the canines, who were kept in unhygienic conditions on the hospital premises, the complainant said. PTI
Drug to treat smallpox, in case of terror attack
Washington: US regulators have approved the first treatment for smallpox — a deadly disease that was wiped out four decades ago — in case the virus is used in a terror attack. Smallpox, which is highly contagious, was eradicated worldwide by 1980 after a huge vaccination campaign. But people born since then haven't been vaccinated, and small samples of the smallpox virus were saved for research purposes, leaving the possibility it could be used as a biological weapon. AP
