Jerusalem, June 8: US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on Sunday after Iran fired missile barrages at Israel in response to airstrikes in Beirut, Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news reported.

Neither Netanyahu’s nor Trump’s office immediately commented on the call.

Before the call, Trump told Israel’s Channel 12 News that he would tell Netanyahu not to strike back because he did not want US-Iran ceasefire negotiations to collapse, Xinhua news agency reported.

“What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough,” Trump told Fox News. “Get back to the table and make a deal.”

Trump also claimed that Washington and Tehran had been close to reaching an agreement before Iran launched the missiles earlier in the day.

“We’re very close. I would say an agreement would be signed on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week. And now this takes place,” he said.

“It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” Trump said.

In another interview with US media outlet Axios, Trump said he will call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and press him not to retaliate for Iran’s missile attack.

“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump said.

According to CNN, Iran fired at least 10 ballistic missiles toward Israel in at least three separate waves on Sunday. The Israeli military said all of the missiles were intercepted.

Two Israeli sources cited by CNN said Israel would deliver a “powerful” response to the attack, raising concerns about further escalation in the region.

The Israeli military said Sunday night that Iran has so far fired four missile barrages towards the country.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The missiles have triggered sirens across northern Israel.

Chennai, June 6 : Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) president Dr Anbumani Ramadoss has urged the Tamil Nadu government to immediately announce a comprehensive Kuruvai package and extend financial and infrastructural support to farmers, warning that the delayed release of water from the Mettur Dam could severely affect paddy cultivation across the Cauvery delta region.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Anbumani said the steadily declining water level in the Mettur reservoir, coupled with the absence of any significant southwest monsoon activity in the Cauvery catchment areas, has made it increasingly unlikely that water will be released from the dam on June 12, the traditional date for the commencement of Kuruvai cultivation.

Every year, water from the Mettur Dam is released into the Cauvery River to support paddy cultivation in more than 10 irrigation districts, including Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai. However, the reservoir currently holds only 41.60 TMC of water, with the water level standing at around 79 feet, far below the level considered ideal for irrigation release.

Anbumani noted that for a sustained release of water throughout the Kuruvai season, the reservoir level should exceed 90 feet and receive at least 1.5 TMC of inflow daily. He said a minimum of 12 TMC of additional storage and inflows of around 18,000 cusecs into the reservoir would be required to ensure uninterrupted irrigation.

The PMK leader also pointed out that Karnataka’s major Cauvery basin reservoirs currently hold only a fraction of their combined storage capacity. According to him, the Krishna Raja Sagar, Kabini, Harangi, and Hemavathi reservoirs together contain only 33.45 TMC of water, representing just 29.08 per cent of their total capacity of 114.57 TMC. Given these low storage levels, he said Karnataka is unlikely to release substantial quantities of water downstream.

Anbumani warned that if the Mettur Dam is not opened on schedule, the area under Kuruvai cultivation could fall below 3 lakh acres this year, compared to 6.13 lakh acres cultivated during the previous season. Such a decline, he said, would result in significant income losses for farmers and reduce employment opportunities for agricultural labourers.

To mitigate the impact, he called on the state government to encourage farmers to utilise groundwater resources and immediately roll out a Kuruvai package covering subsidised seeds, fertilisers and micronutrients.

He further demanded uninterrupted 24-hour three-phase power supply for agricultural operations and an input subsidy of Rs 5,000 per acre to support farmers facing uncertainty ahead of the cultivation season.

Report Islamabad, June 6 At least 432 cases of sexual assault and kidnapping were registered by Pakistani police in Islamabad between January and May this year, local media reported. Citing police sources, Pakistan’s leading daily, Dawn, reported that a total of 55 cases of sexual assault were recorded during the reporting period. Among the 55 sexual assault cases, 15 were registered in the Soan Zone, followed by 13 in the Sadar Zone, 12 in the Rural Zone, 9 in the Industrial Area Zone, and 6 in the City Zone. Additionally, a zone-wise breakdown of the 377 kidnapping cases revealed that the Sadar Zone recorded the highest number at 99, followed by the Soan Zone with 89, the Rural Zone with 76, the City Zone with 44, and the Industrial Area Zone with 29 cases. Of the kidnapping cases, one involved a victim who was reportedly kidnapped from Islamabad and was later found murdered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In a separate incident, three persons allegedly raped a boy in the area of Pindorian on February 28 and recorded the heinous act.

The data further revealed a series of sexual assaults across Islamabad. In one incident, a girl was reportedly gang-raped by five persons in the area of I-16 on March 19, while another case involved sexual assault of a boy by three persons in Sihala on March 31. In another 24 cases of sexual assault registered during the period, the victims included 15 girls, three women, and a boy. It added that the 15-year-old boy was assaulted at gunpoint by two persons in Mehrban Town on April 15, Dawn reported. Reports suggest that police registered 69 cases under Section 365, which pertains to kidnapping or abduction with the intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person.

The cases involved 64 male and five female victims. In one such incident, a man was allegedly abducted from outside his residence in Sector F-6/1 on May 4, and his body was recovered from Mardan the following day. Last month, a report highlighted that the sexual assault of a young 19-year-old mother in Pakistan’s Rawat area in Islamabad was not an isolated incident but reflected a broader pattern, raising concerns about systemic challenges in addressing gender-based violence in the country. It stressed that the case had brought attention to these interconnected issues, underscoring how structural weaknesses continue to shape the safety and security of women. According to the report in ‘Asian News Post,’ the persistence of sexual violence in Pakistan is closely connected to the “perception of impunity”, where perpetrators believe they can escape without facing consequences.