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Ludhiana: A meeting called by two realtors to resolve a property dispute turned violent as gunshots were fired on the spot in Khasi Kalan village of Meharban on Wednesday afternoon. At least two persons suffered bullet injuries and have been admitted to the hospital. The realtors were partners in the past, but had later parted ways. The injured men, Sukhjeet Singh and Sukhdev Singh, are residents of Khasi Kalan. While Sukhjeet has been admitted to a private hospital in Mohali, Sukhdev is undergoing treatment at Christian Medical College and Hospital here. Sukhjeet’s condition is said to be critical. Investigating officer from Meharban police station, ASI Radhey Sham, said the initial inquiry revealed that both Sukhjeet and Sukhdev were partners in real estate business. Some time ago, they had a fight over a piece of land. To resolve the matter, the duo and their aides had gathered in the village. During this, they had a verbal spat which led to a scuffle. In the midst off all thise, gunshots were fired and both Sukhjeet and Sukhdev sustained bullet injuries. ASI said it is yet to be ascertained who fired at the spot and how many weapons were used there. Police are questioning the witnesses reluctant to talk to the police. tnn We also published the following articles recently Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa contemplates retirement after completing religious punishment Former MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa hinted at political retirement after completing religious penance at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib. He performed services for two days, mirroring similar actions by other Akali leaders. Dhindsa clarified his earlier statement, stating his acceptance of any elected party president doesn't imply support for Sukhbir Badal. Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa performs sewa at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib; says well accept Sukhbir if elected again Former MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa carried out religious services at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib following a directive from Sri Akal Takht Sahib. He condemned the recent gunfire incident at Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, citing concerns about Punjab's law and order. Dhindsa affirmed acceptance of the party's elected president, including Sukhbir Badal, emphasizing the need for Akali Dal unity and generational transition. 16-yr-old girl succumbs to gunshot injury Tragedy struck Jamu village in Kanpur as a 16-year-old girl was found dead from a gunshot wound in her home. Police discovered a country-made firearm and cartridges at the scene. The girl was rushed to Bidhnu CHC, but declared dead on arrival. Authorities are investigating the incident, questioning the victim's father and relatives. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , and Mini Crossword .

BERLIN (AP) — Harry Kane scored a hat trick including two penalties for Bayern Munich to beat Augsburg 3-0 in the Bundesliga on Friday. The win stretched Bayern’s lead to eight points ahead of the rest of the 11th round, and Kane took his goals tally to a league-leading 14. The England forward is the fastest player to reach 50 goals in the Bundesliga in what was his 43rd game. However, coach Vincent Kompany should be concerned by his team’s ongoing difficulty of scoring in matches it dominates. Bayern previously defeated St. Pauli and Benfica only 1-0. Kompany’s team had to wait until stoppage time before Kane sealed the result with his second penalty. Two minutes later, Kane scored with a header after controlling Leon Goretzka's cross with his first touch for a flattering scoreline. “We had to be patient,” Kane said. “And at halftime that’s what we said, to keep doing what we’re doing. We had a few chances in the first half and we just had to be a bit more clinical and obviously, thankfully, we got the penalty to kind of open the game up.” Mads Pedersen was penalized for handball following a VAR review and Kane duly broke the deadlock in the 63rd. Bayern continued as before with 80% possession, but had to wait for Keven Schlotterbeck to be penalized through VAR for a foul on Kane. Kane sealed the result in the third minute of stoppage time and there was still time for him to grab another. It’s Bayern’s seventh consecutive win without conceding a goal since it conceded four at Barcelona (4-1) on Oct. 23 in the Champions League. “You can see now that we have a solid defense and that's the basis, also in games like today's,” Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich said. “When it's a game of patience, then it's important for us to know that sometimes one goal will have to do. Like today we added two more before the finish, but in the end you only need to score one more than the opponent.” Bayern next hosts Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday, then Borussia Dortmund away in the Bundesliga next weekend, before defending champion Bayer Leverkusen visits in the third round of the German Cup. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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Did you buy raw milk from one of these LA County retailers? You may need to return itThe Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands has scheduled a public meeting to gather community input on a proposed communications tower. The meeting will take place on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Lansdowne office council chambers at 1233 Prince Street. The session will focus on Tower Application T00-2024-002, which proposes the construction of a 45-metre communications facility at 27 Hill Island Heights. Township staff will present a report with background information and recommendations, after which council will decide its position on the proposal by resolution. The tower, submitted by FB Connect on behalf of Xplore Inc., is designed to enhance internet and data services for the Hill Island and Honey Bee Island areas, as well as along Highway 137. The structure will feature a triangular, self-supporting design with a small three-by-three-metre footprint and an anti-climb mechanism. Antennae for transmitting and receiving data will be mounted on the upper portion, with provisions for future technological upgrades. Before proposing the new facility, Xplore Inc. investigated the feasibility of using existing tower infrastructure within 0.5 kilometres of the site. According to the township staff report, no suitable structures were identified. The proposed installation is also noted as having the potential to support colocation with other licensed carriers, reducing the need for additional tower construction in the area. Residents are encouraged to attend the meeting in person or participate virtually to share their views. The consultation process is a required step before approving the installation and operation of the communications facility. The township is emphasizing the importance of community involvement in shaping the future of connectivity for the region. For further details on how to join the meeting virtually or by phone, residents can contact the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands office, at 613-659-2415, or 1-866-220-2327. Keith Dempsey is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Brockville Recorder and Times. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.Republicans rally around Hegseth, Trump's Pentagon pick, as Gaetz withdraws for attorney general

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Ransomware attack on software supplier disrupts operations for Starbucks and other retailersNew York: In the Sotheby’s Auction House sale room - an intimate, carpeted seventh-floor auditorium on the Upper East Side - it’s not uncommon to see standing-room-only attendance. Or for the bidding crowd to crane their necks around one another to get a glimpse of what’s spotlighted against the richly blue wall at the front. But on Wednesday night, the typical low-volume chatter was punctuated by something unusual. One phrase kept leaping out of murmured conversations all over the room: "The banana ... ?” " ... the banana!” Occasionally, in a British accent: "The ba-na.” The live portion of Wednesday’s "The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction” featured works by some of the 20th and 21st century’s best-known artists - Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein and Jeff Koons among them. But the main attraction, indisputably, was Maurizio Cattelan’s "Comedian”: a work that consists of a single banana affixed to a wall by a diagonal slash of silver duct tape. Cattelan made headlines around the art world and the world when "Comedian” was first sold at Galerie Perrotin’s booth at Art Basel Miami in 2019. "Is this really art?” it invited people to ask, then wordlessly showed them the answer: Three editions sold for between $120,000 and $150,000 each. As The Washington Post’s Sebastian Smee wrote at the time, the immediate outcry over whether a banana taped to a wall was capital-A art or not was understandable. Still, he wrote, "Comedian” offered up "a sharp critique of how art is commodified” and uses "humor, theatricality and a sense of the absurd to do so.” The piece seems to have hit its target, raising questions about what it means for a work of art to so flagrantly mock the capitalism of the community from which it emerged. Like several other Cattelan works, "Comedian” has been called an "art prank.” But on Wednesday night at Sotheby’s, a buyer of one of the original "Comedian” editions sold it at auction for a whopping $6.24 million - and it became hard to tell who was in on the joke. Cattelan’s provocative works have a history of frustrating and delighting art lovers. Jerry Saltz of New York magazine wrote in 2011 that the artist’s work "is often dismissed as a bunch of sight gags, one-liners, and kitsch. He’s considered an entertainer more than an artist, a poseur joker who mocks the system that makes him able to be a millionaire poseur joker.” Smee wrote in 2019 that he didn’t "ultimately think Cattelan’s banana and tape is great art” and that it was "not as smart and challenging as other things he has done” - such as a statue of a small, frail Adolf Hitler, kneeling in prayer. Outside observers have noted that the extreme impermanence of "Comedian” tests the patience of a museum-going public trained to associate antiquity with prestige. The banana, by contrast, has more than once been unceremoniously eaten by a visitor and promptly replaced, with only a slight scuffle of reprimand. But David Galperin, the head of contemporary art for Sotheby’s U.S. operation, described "Comedian” as "universal in its instantaneity.” "It transcends geographies, language, understanding, cultural differences,” he said after Wednesday’s auction. "And the result today, I think, spoke to its universality, the way it kind of pierces through the cultural zeitgeist to the very center.” At Wednesday’s auction, "Comedian” sat 10th on the list of live-auction items, and when Lot No. 10 came up, so did almost every smartphone in the room. Bidding began at $800,000, and bids came "fast and furious,” as Galperin put it later. The auction house’s estimated range of $1 million to $1.5 million quickly faded into the rearview as seven bidders - a "very strong depth of bidding,” Galperin said - fought among themselves. Around the $5 million mark, bidding briefly stalled, and the murmurs rose to a buzz. "The hammer’s coming out. This is it, final time. Don’t let it slip away,” joked auctioneer Oliver Barker, to titters and groans throughout the room. "I’m selling it here, the world’s most expensive banana,” he added moments later, then clacked the hammer forthe winning bid: $5.2 million, before the addition of the buyer’s premium (a fee paid to the auction house on top of the sale price). A mild eruption of polite Upper East Side applause broke out; this was, after all, a room full of polished women in tall boots, long coats, pearls, headbands and lady jackets with gleaming round buttons (and a striking number of men in sneakers). The buyer, Sotheby’s later revealed, was Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and the founder of cryptocurrency firm Tron. Sun bought the piece by phone. Crypto bros, it turns out, love "Comedian.” "We were not surprised, but we were excited early on by the response and engagement that we had from the cryptocurrency community,” Galperin said. "It became very apparent very fast that the entire community was energized and aligned by the philosophy and the conceptual basis of ‘Comedian’ - the questions it asks around originality, uniqueness, authorship, the conceptual nature of a work of art, the value. All of these are questions that the cryptocurrency community has been, and is, really engaged with.” Indeed, there’s an argument to be made that "Comedian” is like a physical version of an NFT: easily reproducible, with only a certificate separating the original from the copycats. When Sun takes ownership of "Comedian,” what he’ll actually acquire "is a certificate of authenticity, along with detailed installation instructions, which grants [him] the right to reproduce that work,” Galperin explained. "The only material manifestation of it is in the certificate of authenticity.” And there, really, is the great joke of "Comedian” and its astronomical price tag: As Galperin put it, "Comedian” can consist of " banana, duct tape.” Sun’s new $6 million

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The military’s tradition of tracking Santa Claus on his gravity-defying sweep across the globe will carry on this Christmas Eve, even if the U.S. government shuts down , officials said Friday. Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online . “We fully expect for Santa to take flight on Dec. 24 and NORAD will track him,” the U.S.-Canadian agency said in a statement. On any other night, NORAD is scanning the heavens for potential threats , such as last year’s Chinese spy balloon . But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, are fielding questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?” The endeavor is supported by local and corporate sponsors, who also help shield the tradition from Washington dysfunction. Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer, told The Associated Press that there are “screams and giggles and laughter” when families call in, usually on speakerphone. Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Do you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early.” NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War , predating ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics . Here’s how it began and why the phones keep ringing. It started with a child’s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number. A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war. Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a tiny voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list. “He went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,’” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999. Realizing an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup summoned a deep, jolly voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?” Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears mistakenly printed the top-secret number. He hung up, but the phone soon rang again with a young girl reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said. In the pre-digital age, the agency used a 60-by-80-foot (18-by-24-meter) plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. A staff member jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole. The tradition was born. “Note to the kiddies,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Santa Claus Friday was assured safe passage into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.” In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was guarded against possible attack from “those who do not believe in Christmas.” Some grinchy journalists have nitpicked Shoup’s story, questioning whether a misprint or a misdial prompted the boy’s call. In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo cited an International News Service story from Dec. 1, 1955, about a child’s call to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number. “When a childish voice asked COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should — considering the season: ‘There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction,'” Shoup said in the brief piece. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations. Phone calls aside, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he recognized an opportunity when a staff member drew Santa on the glass map in 1955. A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, “You leave it right there,” and summoned public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost morale for the troops and public alike. “Why, it made the military look good — like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said. Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the phone calls. “And later in life he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People saying ‘Thank you, Colonel, for having, you know, this sense of humor.’” NORAD’s tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that have endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010. Ad campaigns or movies try to “kidnap” Santa for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, by contrast, takes an essential element of Santa’s story and views it through a technological lens. In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada — known as the northern warning system — are the first to detect Santa. He leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night. “That’s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest every single day start to kick in,” Cunningham said. “A probably little-known fact is that Rudolph’s nose that glows red emanates a lot of heat. And so those satellites track (Santa) through that heat source.” NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.org , that will track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, mountain standard time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to midnight, mountain time.