New Delhi, March 21: London’s Heathrow Airport has been shut down for the day after a fire in a substation in the western part of the city led to a power outage and has left more than 16,000 homes without electricity.

According to British media over 150 people have also been evacuated.

In an X post on Friday morning (India time), the airport advised passengers not to travel and also to contact their respective airlines for further details.

“Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 11.59 pm on March 21,” the airport said.

An airport spokesperson told the Media, “Whilst fire crews are responding, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored… we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”

As per reports several flights have already been diverted while the airport authorities “expect significant disruption over the coming days”.

The reports have mentioned that the Scottish and Southern Electricity Network, which supplies power to nearly four million homes in central and southern England, as well as the north of Scotland, said the fire broke out at the North Hyde substation and that emergency services were on the scene.

The London Fire Brigade reported that a transformer inside the substation caught fire, prompting a large-scale emergency response. Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters were deployed to the scene. As a precaution, a 200-metre cordon has been established, and residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of smoke.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, handling around 1,300 landings and take-offs each day. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year.

Sanaa, March 21: Yemen’s Houthi group early morning Friday claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack on southern Tel Aviv, a Houthi military spokesperson said in a televised statement.

“In support of the Palestinian people and response to the massacres perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip, our forces carried out a qualitative military operation targeting an Israeli military target south of Tel Aviv, using a hypersonic ballistic missile,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in the statement aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV.

“This is the second operation within 24 hours,” he said, referring to the first ballistic missile attack that the group said was aimed at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, which Israel announced it intercepted.

He reiterated that the group would continue attacks on Israel and its ships until the war on Gaza ceases and crossings reopen to allow aid in, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Thursday morning, the Houthi group also claimed it had launched strikes against the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the northern Red Sea, marking the fifth such strike since Saturday.

In response, the US military has resumed air attacks on Houthi targets since Saturday, claiming its campaign aims to protect international shipping. The new round of US airstrikes has killed dozens of people, according to Houthi-run health authorities.

The Houthi group controls a large swath of Yemen, including the strategic Hodeidah port and the capital Sanaa, after a civil war broke out in 2014.

Mumbai: Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim has demanded grants to schools, assistance to minority institutions and introduction of educational scholarships. Minorities, especially Muslims, are facing problems in the state due to pending issues of the minority community in the state. Assembly member Abu Asim Azmi has sent a letter to the Minister of Minority Affairs demanding immediate attention to the issues and pending issues of Muslims and also requested to resolve the issues.

In the letter, Azmi said that the free matriculation scholarship given to minority students in the state has been stopped and the dropout rate of students leaving Turkish education schools is around 50 percent and there is a fear that the dropout rate will increase due to the discontinuation of the scholarship. Therefore, the Justice Department should announce Fatima Sheikh Scholarship for students from class 1 to 10. In addition, Rs 5,000 is provided for vocational courses as no government subsidy is provided for courses like microbiology. The education grant for minority students will be increased from Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000. There is also a need to consider what steps the government should take to ensure this and start scholarships.

The government’s decision to provide a grant of Rs 10 lakh for infrastructure facilities to minority schools was implemented during the model code of conduct for the assembly elections, but no proposal has been sought in this regard yet. The proposal for the year 2023-24 under the grant scheme for infrastructure facilities to minority schools is pending due to the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections and the grant has not been distributed to the schools yet. Steps should also be taken to distribute the grant to eligible schools of minority communities.

The above vacancies are for officers and employees in the Maulana Azad Economic Development Corporation and the Ministry of Minority Development, established for the betterment of the minority community. Only 20% of the grants sanctioned for the betterment of the minority community have been spent so far and the above mentioned vacant posts should be filled up by making appointments as early as possible.