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Archives for September 2018

Congress restless over Rafale deal since it couldn’t make money: Nirmala

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Attacking the Congress for its offensive against the Modi government on the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the party was “restless” because it could not make money.

She accused the previous Congress government of negotiating with “brokers” and not buying important equipment required for the defence forces.

“… and with brokers and dalal they were still buying time, not buying important equipment. But we are buying now and that’s where I think the Congress is being restless. Restless because they couldn’t make money. …(they) couldn’t perform, left the Air Force where it was,”
she told reporters.

The minister was replying to the Congress attack on the government that has been accused of being involved in a scam in the purchase of Rafale jet fighters from France.

She said the Congress was desperate and its desperation showed.

“That this government could run without any allegation of corruption. For them it’s just not going down the throat. They are just not able to digest the fact. Search for corruption. You can’t find, so throw an allegation and let them keep giving explanations. I’m finished with it, I’ll go to the next allegation. That is their approach,” she said about the Congress offensive.

(IANS)

Chess Olympiad: Fifth seeded Indian teams win fifth round

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The fifth seeded Indian teams under open and women’s category won their matches comfortably against Paraguay and Argentina, respectively, in the 43rd World Chess Olympiad in Georgia.

Both the Indian teams won with identical scores 3.5-0.5 against their respective rivals.

In the open section, recovering from the quick 26-move defeat he suffered on Thursday against Fabiano Caruana, former World Champion Viswanathan Anand coasted to a comfortable 26-move victory against Neuris Delgado Ramirez.

On the second board, P.Harikrishna drew his game against Guillermo Vazquez in 59 moves.

The team captain and coach R.B. Ramesh decided to retain K. Sasikiran on the fourth board and rest young Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi.

As a result, B. Adhiban playing on the third board defeated Antonio Almiron in 35 moves.

On the fourth board, Sasikiran did not find any difficulty in packing off the much lower rated Paulo Jodorcovsky Werjivker in 35 moves.

In the women’s section, India’s top most ranked player Koneru Humpy defeated Carolina Lujan in 52 moves.

On the second board, Harika Dronavalli found herself in problem and managed to draw against Claudia Amura in 65 moves.

The other two players Eesha Karavade and Tania Sachdeva defeated their opponents.

The Indian women’s team has not lost any round till now.

On the other hand, the Indian open team has suffered one loss and only Anand has lost a game while his team mates have either won or split the points with their opponents.

Top cricketers to feature in T10 League’s second edition

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Eight teams have formed some of the best combinations from a pool of 64 top cricketers in the Players Draft for the second edition of the T10 League, it was announced on Friday.

The limited ten-over format cricket will be played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium between November 23 to December 2.

Eight teams — Kerala Kings, Punjab Legends, Maratha Arabians, Bengal Tigers, The Karachians, Rajputs, Northern Warriors and Pakhtoons — have been drawn in to two groups to fight it out in the 2nd Season of T10 League.

This year, two teams — The Karachians and Northern Warriors — have been added to the list of the earlier six teams. This will expand the support and fan base of the T10 League.

This year’s Players’ Draft featured a number of Afghan players who displayed exceptional skills in international cricket.

Last year’s champions Kerala Kings have picked up top class cricketers like Chris Gale, Junaid Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane, Tom Curran, Fabian Allen, Niroshan Dickwella, Benny Howell, as well as Imran Nazir – making a strong come back after being on the sidelines for a while.

Players such as Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Luke Ronchi, Muhammad Sami, Zahir Khan, Umar Akmal, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tom Moores, Anwar Ali, Jade Dernbach and Hassan Khan have been selected by Punjabi Legends.

Bengal Tigers have picked up Morne Morkel, Aamir Yamin, Mohammed Nabi, Kusal Perera, Sherfane Rutherford, Kevon Cooper, Dan Christian, Ali Khan and Rayad Emrit from the draft while Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Asif Ali have been selected by the team previously.

Maratha Arabians, led by the Afghan sensation Rashid Khan, have picked up Alex Hales, Kamran Akmal, James Faulkner, Lasith Malinga, James Vince, Liam Livingstone, Brendan Taylor, Adam Lyth, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Najibullah Zadran and Richard Gleeson.

Pakhtoon team picked up Liam Dawson, Mohammed Irfan, David Willy, Colin Munroe, Andre Fletcher, Sohail Khan, Sharfuddin Ashraf, Chadwick Walton, Shahpur Zadran, Cameron Delport and Gulbadin Naib while team Rajputs chose Mohammed Hafeez, Rilee Rossouw, Mohammed Shahzad, Tymal Mills, Carlos Brathwaite, Rahat Ali, Samit Patel, Qais Ahmad, Ben Dunks, Peter Trego and Shan Masood.

Among the newcomers, the Karachians picked up Jofra Archer, Thisara Perera, Ben Cutting, Muhammad Nawaz, David Malan, Fawad Ahmed, Isuru Udana, Joe Clarke, Samiullah Shenwari and Muhammed Irfan Jr.

Another newcomer, Northern Warriors chose Ravi Bopara, Rovman Powell, Harry Gurney, Chris Green, Obed McCoy, Lendl Simmons, Kharry Pierre and Kennar Lewis from the draft to be added to Dwayne Smith, Nicholas Pooran.

Welcoming the pool of international cricketers, Nawab Shaji Ul Mulk, Chairman of the T10 League, said: “The Players’ Draft has been an out and out success, with a wider participation of players from all over the world.”

“In addition to the reputed senior star cricketers, the draft also witnessed bids for some of the most sought after young players who have great potential to contribute to the game of cricket,” he added.

IANS

Rahul attacks ABVP for insulting MP professor

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Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday criticised activists of the right-wing student body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for insulting a senior professor of in Madhya Pradesh.

“A teacher was insulted by student leaders of ruling party in Mandsaur. A professor is touching the feet of the students who are threatening them. What kind of sacraments is being followed in the country where teachers are regarded as God. What kind of treatment is this…,” Gandhi tweeted.

According to news reports, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliated student organisation ABVP activists called the government college professor in Mandsaur “anti-national” when he asked them not to raise slogans outside his classroom.

A video that emerged on Thursday showed the professor, apparently upset, running after ABVP activists to touch their feet even as they tried to stop him.

Snubbed at Saarc meet, Qureshi makes personal attack on Sushma

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Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has turned the diplomatic snub by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the Saarc meeting into a personal vendetta, making a unprofessional remarks in public about her to the accompaniment of derisive laughter.

“I was quite concerned when I saw the Minister for External Affairs, when I was in the room she looked pale to me,” Qureshi said while laughing. “She looked very worried. I wish, I wish we could have smiled at each other.”

He made the remarks at the Asia Society here on Friday, a day after Sushma Swaraj had refused to interact with him at the South Asian Association Regional Cooperation (Saarc) ministerial meeting and left after delivering her speech without staying on for his address.

Most people in the audience, which included a large number of people of Pakistani descent, did not join his laughter.

With exaggerated gestures, Qureshi added: “I could see the immense strain and when she left, she wasn’t even willing to engage with the media. I had no problem, but I could see the pressure, but I could see the political pressure on her, politics, nothing else, politics, domestic politics.”

After the Saarc meeting on Thursday he had insinuated to the Pakistani media that may be she was feeling unwell, according to Samaa TV.

Sushma Swaraj, however, went on to have her scheduled meetings with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al Muallem.

India had initially agreed last week to recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request for holding talks between Sushma Swaraj and Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

However, New Delhi cancelled the talks a day later after three Indian police personnel were killed in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan issued a stamp honouring a terrorist leader.

In keeping with India’s resolve not to engage diplomatically with Pakistan while the terrorism issue persisted, Sushma Swaraj has steadfastly refused to engage with Qureshi even informally while in New York for the UN General Assembly meeting.

Asked by a Pakistani journalist about why the talks didn’t take place, Qureshi replied alluding to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party, but without naming them.

“Why are they reluctant? Simply, sir, politics, elections, elections, the scare of the electorate. They have taken the pendulum, they have swung the pendulum to such an extreme, now they are finding it difficult to bring it back.”

“And with elections around the corner and they felt it could boomerang, that’s why they were shy,” he added.

But recalling Khan’s offer in his first speech after the election to take two steps for every step India took, Qureshi reiterated Islamabad’s keenness for talks.

“Whenever you are ready, our message is loud and clear, Pakistan will never shy away because we want to move on, we want the region to develop,” he said.

Qureshi said the Pakistan election that brought Khan to power was a turning point for the nation.

“People of Pakistan are clear that extremism has to be reversed, militancy is not what we need. Terrorism has hit us more than anyone else.”

About the growing ties between New Delhi and Washington, Qureshi said: “Today India is a strategic partner of the US, (but) we have no problem with that.”

However, displaying a sense of insecurity, he added: “… But why lose old friends? Have new ones, why lose old friends.”

In return for continued help to the US in Afghanistan, he wanted Washington to pressure India on relations with Pakistan.

“If the US wants us to help (in Afghanistan) and we want to help in our own interest, because we want peace in the region, then they have to tell their new strategic partner to give us ease on the eastern side so we can concentrate on areas of mutual interest,” he said.

Trump holds up India as democracy lifting millions out of poverty

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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday held up India as an example to the world of a country that successfully lifted millions out of poverty while upholding democracy and freedom.

Addressing the General Assembly, he said India was part of a “beautiful constellation” of countries working for a common future.

In speech that emphasised his America First policy with a declaration that he rejected the “ideology of globalism” for a belief in patriotism, he reiterated his hardline against countries such as China, Iran and Venezuela.

He demanded that Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut their “horrible prices.”

IANS

Indian man charged in Dubai for groping woman

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A Dubai court has charged an Indian man with groping a woman while she was walking late at night.

Prosecutors on Monday accused the 30-year-old man, a driver, of taking the Filipina woman by surprise, inappropriately touching her and then fleeing the scene, reports the Khaleej Times.

The man denied the charge, claiming that he touched her by mistake.

The complainant, a 25-year-old waitress, told the prosecution that she did not know the suspect prior to the incident.

“It was at 1.20 a.m. on August 3. I was near a restaurant and was about to go to a supermarket. My friend was with me. There were five to six men coming in the opposite way. One of them groped me intentionally. I yelled at him but he then replied in a very abusive and vulgar manner.”

He did not just ignore her screams for help but also laughed and continued his way.

“I followed them and kept screaming until an African man came and restrained the defendant,” the complainant said.

A ruling will be pronounced on October 11.

IANS

384 dead in Indonesia earthquakes, tsunami

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Over 380 people were confirmed dead on Saturday after earthquakes, including a powerful 7.5 magnitude tremor, and tsunami struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Rescue workers were struggling to reach certain affected areas amid fears that the toll can still rise.

Three hundred-eighty four people died in the city of Palu, where preparations for a beach festival had been underway when the tsunami hit on Friday, following the strong earthquake. National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that 540 people were injured and 29 were still missing.

Video on social media showed people screaming and fleeing in panic for safety. Thousands of homes collapsed, along with hospitals, hotels and shopping centres. Strong aftershocks continued to rock Palu on Saturday.

Sutopo said houses were swept away and families were reported missing. “We have found corpses from the earthquake as well as bodies swept up by the tsunami.”

He said the government was set to declare a state of emergency and stressed that the most important task was to restore power and communications to the region.

There were other vulnerable coastal areas where communications were down. Officials had been unable to make contact with Donggala, a fishing community near Palu that was also reported to have been hit by the tsunami, the BBC reported.

The BNPB spokesperson said telecommunications and air-transport experts arrived at the airport in Palu, the city most affected by the earthquake along with Donggala, and work to repair some of the damaged electrical equipment had started.

The airports in Poso, Tolitoli, Luwuk and Mamuju were open.

Komang Adi Sujendra, the Director of Undata Hospital in Palu, said in a video message posted online said that the area had no electricity, that phone and Internet service had been disrupted and that road access was limited. He sought help from the public.

Authorities estimated the tsunami’s waves to be about 10 feet high, but a video reported to have been taken in Palu showed a wave that seemed even higher crashing over the roofs of one-storey buildings. TV footage showed dozens of injured people being treated outside in makeshift medical tents.

Palu and Donggala are home to more than 600,000 people. The country’s military had started sending cargo planes of relief aid from the capital.

The earthquake hit just off central Sulawesi at a depth of 10 km on Friday, the US Geological Survey said. A tsunami warning was issued, but lifted within the hour.

A magnitude-6.1 quake earlier on Friday in the same region killed at least one person and led to the collapse of a number of buildings.

The disaster followed on from the earthquakes and aftershocks on Lombok island where 557 people died and nearly 400,000 were displaced between July 29 and August 19.

The country’s deadliest earthquake with a magnitude of around 9.1 struck off the tip of Sumatra island in 2014, triggering a tsunami that killed nearly 280,000 people in Indonesia and other Indian Ocean nations.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity, where some 7,000 earthquakes, mostly moderate, are recorded each year.

(IANS)

Himachal rescue operation enters final stage

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The rescue operation in Himachal’s Lahaul Valley entered its final stages on Saturday as a large number of people, comprising largely tourists, were evacuated safely from the snow-marooned region.

The last batch of tourists stuck at various locations in the valley for over a week were brought to Keylong, district headquarters of Lahaul-Spiti, and at Sarchu from where they were rescued by road on Saturday as the weather cleared, a government official told IANS over phone from Kullu town.

Airlifting of tourists by the Indian Air Force (IAF) could not start on Saturday. It has been hampered since Friday afternoon owing to the onset of snowfall in the high hills, including Keylong, 122 km north of the picturesque Manali tourist resort.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Yunus Khan told IANS nearly 500 people would be transported by road on Saturday from Keylong to Manali via the Rohtang tunnel.

Likewise, from Sarchu, some 222 km from Manali, the stranded people would be taken towards Leh in Jammu and Kashmir by road as the weather permits.

It has been one of the longest and largest rescue operations of its kind, the official said on the fifth day of rescue.

Over 2,000 persons, including 30 foreigners, have been rescued since September 24. Out of these, 211 were airlifted and the remaining evacuated by road via under-constructed Rohtang tunnel, officials said.

Khan said the rescue operation has been carried out in three formats.

First, the IAF is airlifting the tourists from vulnerable spots. Second, the BRO is rescuing the people by road. And third, the local administration is providing logistic support to both the IAF and the BRO in rescuing people.

Work to clear snow from the Rohtang Pass and Baralacha Pass is in final stage, he said.

Two light utility helicopters were additionally deployed along with three IAF choppers, including MI-17, to speed-up the rescue in Lahaul.

Early snowfall in the higher reaches, cloudburst and heavy rain devastated large parts of the state from September 22 to 24.

Heavy snowfall on the Rohtang Pass, the Kunzum Pass and the Baralacha Pass had cut-off the Lahaul and Spiti Valleys, affecting a large number of tourists and hampering water and electricity supply.

(IANS)

Germany to stick to Iran n-deal: Minister

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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said that Berlin is committed to the Iran nuclear deal even though Washington has pulled out.

“The nuclear agreement with Iran may not be perfect. But so far, it has prevented Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and averted an escalation that, three years ago, was highly likely,” Mass told the General Assembly on Friday.

“That’s not insignificant,” he said. “We, Europeans, therefore stand together by the agreement.”

“The fact that we stand by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) does not mean that we are turning a blind eye to Iran’s destructive role in the region or to its ballistic missile program,” said the Minister, referring to the July 2015 nuclear deal drawn between Iran and the six nations — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US.

US President Donald Trump in May announced his decision to withdraw from the deal and renew sanctions on Iran, Xinhua news agency reported.

Maas also talked about measures to circumvent the US sanctions against Iran. “We are working on keeping economic exchange with Iran possible, and we call on Iran to continue its full commitment.”

Earlier on Monday, EU’s foreign and security policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the European Union will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran.

The legal entity will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with EU law and could be open to other partners in the world, Mogherini told reporters in New York after she chaired a meeting of the foreign ministers from Iran and the five countries that were still committed to the deal.

(IANS)

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