Tehran, Sep 27: The Secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) denied in a statement that Iran would take military retaliatory action in response to the recent aviation restrictions imposed on the country, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

The SNSC issued the statement in response to certain “misleading” interpretations and quotes from recent remarks by its Secretary Mohsen Rezaei regarding the air transport issue, which have given rise to questions and ambiguities.

It said the claim that Iran would resort to military retaliation in response to recent aviation restrictions was rejected, adding that negotiations with relevant countries were being pursued seriously to remove certain “illegal” aviation restrictions, Xinhua news agency reported.

The SNSC underlined that there were numerous non-military ways to retaliate against those complying with the restrictions, which could be applied to certain airports if necessary, while expressing hope that the situation would not reach that point.

Earlier this week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that “all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world” from Wednesday, threatening to impose secondary sanctions on companies that provide them with aviation services.

He told broadcaster CNBC that when Iranian carriers land at an airport, “you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets, or you will be knocked out of the dollar system.”

In an interview with state-run IRIB TV on Wednesday hours after the US sanctions on Iranian airlines took effect, Rezaei called on countries, especially Iran’s neighbors, not to join the U.S. “adventurism” as it would soon be doomed to failure.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected Iran’s proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and is likely to resume bombing Tehran after the November midterm elections in the US.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had rejected the proposal, citing US officials familiar with the matter.

Trump, who has vowed that Iran will never acquire a nuclear bomb, was sceptical that Tehran would meet his demands and considers a renewed bombing campaign likely, according to the report.

He also posted an image on his Truth Social platform showing a map with the Strait of Hormuz circled and labelled “Trump Strait.”

Kolkata, Sep 27: The bodies of three elephants — a mother elephant and her two calves — were spotted in a paddy field at Salboni in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, on Sunday morning.

An initial investigation has suggested that the three elephants came in contact with a high-tension electricity wire.

The bodies were first noticed by the local villagers in the morning, who subsequently brought the matter to the notice of the local forest department office.

According to local sources, a herd of elephants was passing through the village. An electric pump was installed to irrigate the farmland with a live wire passing through the land. It is believed that the three elephants died after touching the wire and getting electrocuted.

At the time the report was filed, the forest department officials had reached the spot and started an investigation. They said that the cause of the deaths will be clear after the autopsy.

However, an insider from the state forest department said that the electrocution death of elephants is nothing new in the Jangalmahal region, which is a major elephant zone in the state.

“In the past, elephants died in these forest areas due to electrocution. There had been a lot of uproar about that. There has been a common tendency among farmers in the region to surround their farmlands with electric wires to protect their crops,” the state forest department official said.

Last month, a middle-aged tusker died after getting electrocuted as it came into contact with an illegally energised fence erected around farmland in the Falakata block of Alipurduar district.

The state forest department insider said that in the past, there had been several attempts by the department to stop the villagers from erecting illegally energised fences around their farmland, as this causes elephant deaths, especially when they are passing in a herd from one forest to another.

“Earlier, there had been instances of penalising the offenders on this count. However, the fencing activity has continued,” he added.

Mumbai, Sep 26: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday trained guns on the Election Commission of India, issuing a joint call to the people of Maharashtra and announcing a grand public protest rally in Mumbai on October 4.

Launching a blistering attack, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS accused the Election Commission of deceiving voters and functioning as an extended wing of the ruling party at the Centre.

While the MNS and Shiv Sena UBT are leading the organisational groundwork for the demonstration, the leaders emphasised that the protest goes beyond partisan politics.

Framing the October 4 rally as a mass public movement, the organisers confirmed plans to engage in dialogue with all political parties across the spectrum to forge a unified opposition front.

“This is a rally of the people. To ensure it does not remain confined to a single party but becomes the collective voice of the entire political system and the citizenry, we will reach out to all political parties to join this front,” the statement read.

The statement framed the upcoming agitation as a decisive battle to safeguard the nation’s democratic framework and institutional integrity.

Calling upon citizens to flood the streets of Mumbai, the movement aims to register a strong protest against what the leaders term institutional bias and voter list manipulation under the SIR process. The venue and exact time for the October 4 Mumbai rally will be officially announced shortly.

The statement concluded with a direct appeal to the public to “participate in this rally in large numbers. Come together to save the democracy of this country and the Constitution of this nation!”

Earlier, launching a scathing attack on the BJP and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Raj Thackeray demanded the immediate cancellation of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

He accused the ruling party of leveraging key institutional figures to maintain an “endless grip on power” and called upon all opposition parties across the country to unite for a massive agitation to bring back paper ballots.