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Sania-Martina reach US Open semis

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sania-mirza-martina-hingis

New York: The Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis earned a straight sets victory to enter the women’s doubles semi-finals of the US Open at the Flushing Meadows here.

The top seeds took just an hour and 25 minutes to beat Chinese Taipei ninth seeds Yung-Jan Chan and Hao-Ching Chan 7-6(5), 6-1 on Tuesday. They will next take on Italian 11th seeds Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta on Thursday for a place in the final.

Playing at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, the world’s top two players were equally matched in the first set by the Chan sisters. Both pairs broke the other twice which led the set into the tie-breaker where Sania and Martina lived up to their billing to take the lead in the match.

Having lost a closely fought first set, the Chan sisters were not as feisty in the second set and were broken twice to lose the second set and the match.

Overall, Sania and Martina won 70 of the 121 points played in the match and had more winners and less unforced errors.

Later, India’s Karman Kaur Thandi defeated Russian Evgeniya Levashova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to enter the girls singles third round where she will take on Hungarian second seed Dalma Galfi.

But it was the end of the road for Pranjala Yadlapalli, who partnering Mexican Jessica Hinojosa Gomez, lost the girls doubles opener 1-6, 0-6 to American pair of Tornado Alicia Black and Ingrid Neel.

(IANS)

Bengaluru braces for more dark hours

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power_cut

Bengaluru: Life in Bengaluru is going from bad to worse. The unscheduled power cuts are creating headache for Bengalurians from all walks of life.

The Karnataka government announced 4-hour mandatory load shedding every day in the IT capital of the nation to make matters worse for the residents.

The government, last week, had announced 2 hours of mandatory power cut in Bengaluru because of insufficient power generation this year. However, in an expected move, the government increased the duration of power cut to 4 hours in Bengaluru while the rest of the state will be without electricity for 8-10 hours every day.

While the government is pointing fingers at deficient rainfall leading to poor storage of water at hydel power projects, in reality, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government has not commissioned any new project after assuming power in Karnataka.

The Congress government, which is already facing severe criticism for its indifferent attitude towards the people, will now face additional blame because of the power crisis. The agricultural sector, industry and the IT sector are the worst hit because of the power crisis.

(Agencies)

Kerala-based Muslim outfit launches campaign against IS, Al-Qaeda

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Kerala campaign against IS Al-Qaeda

Thiruvananthapuram: A Kerala-based Muslim outfit has launched an intensive campaign to wean away its youth from the influence of terror groups like Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

The campaign assumes significance in the wake of deportation of two Kerala youths by UAE for allegedly supporting IS ideology in the social media, after which state police had initiated a probe.

Kerala Nadvathul Muhjahideen, a progressive movement in the community, has embarked on an ambitious anti-terror and communal drive through meetings and awareness programmes.

“Our campaign is against the fundamental, communal and terror ideologies spreading among youths,” KDM Youth wing State President Abdul Majeed Swalahi said.

“We are getting good response for the campaign which began seven months ago,” he said.

Swalahi said pamphlets containing messages to counter the hate mongering of outfits like IS are also being used during the campaign.

He said the terrorist groups whether it be IS, al Qaeda or Boko Haram were using the name of Prophet Muhammed and distorting the glorified history of Islam.

“The focus of the campaign is based on the humanism in the teachings of Prophet Muhammed”, he added.

Majeed said youths were unknowingly falling prey to various propaganda of these terror outfits and ‘some of them get into trouble by reacting in the social media’.

Hence ‘we are creating an awareness among youths how vigilant they should be while sharing messages in the social media, especially in Facebook’, he said.

Swalahi alleged that both majority and minority fundamentalist groups were trying to indulge in communal polarisation through the social media.

(Agencies)

UN calls on Israel to halt demolition of 13,000 Palestinian homes

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Some 13,000 Palestinian homes are scheduled for demolition in the occupied West Bank. (AFP/File)

Some 13,000 Palestinian homes are scheduled for demolition in the occupied West Bank. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on Israel to halt a plan to demolish some 13,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank.

“As we have said repeatedly, the secretary general calls on the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in New York on Tuesday.

The UN chief also called on Israeli authorities “to revoke plans that would result in the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities, and to implement an inclusive planning and zoning regime that will enable Palestinians’ residential and community development needs to be met,” Dujarric added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a Monday report that the Palestinian structures are currently under Israeli demolition orders, adding that the orders “leave affected households in a state of chronic uncertainty and threat.”

It also warned that the destruction of Palestinian homes leads to “displacement and disruption of livelihoods” among other things.

Tel Aviv claims the Palestinian structures are demolished because they were built without construction permits, but Palestinians argue such authorizations are routinely denied.

On September 3, Israel destroyed seven Palestinian structures in the East Tayba Bedouin community of the central West Bank, displacing nine Palestinians, including five children.

The Tel Aviv regime intensified the destruction of Palestinian homes last month, razing to the ground as many as 143 Palestinian structures, which is the highest such number in five years.

In August, 31 international organizations, including Oxfam and Amnesty International, criticized a “surge” in West Bank demolitions, saying Tel Aviv is using them to seize property for the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

More than half a million Israelis live in more than 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank in 1967.

The settlements are considered illegal by the UN and many countries because the territories were occupied by Israel and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

EU sets deadline to relocate 160,000 refugees

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EU Commission President Juncker calls on member nations to agree on plan by next week as he unveils $2bn refugee fund.

eu-refugee

by Al Jazeera

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on EU countries to agree by next week to share 160,000 refugees, as thousands continued to stream across European borders, fleeing from war and persecution.

In an impassioned appeal on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Juncker unveiled a list of new proposals to help Europe confront its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

The plan, which will see Germany and France take in the lion’s share of refugees, is likely to run into serious resistance from some member states.

Juncker warned that Greece, Italy and Hungary, where most of the refugees are currently camped out, can no longer cope alone.

“It is time for bold, determined action by the European Union,” Juncker told EU lawmakers, noting that some 500,000 migrants have entered Europe this year, many from conflict-torn Syria and Libya.

In his proposal, Juncker wants 22 of the member states to accept another 120,000 people, on top of the 40,000 already agreed upon in June, bringing the total number to 160,000.

All the 120,000 additional refugees are currently in Greece, Italy and Hungary. Under the new proposal Germany will take in 31,443 refugees; France, 24,031; Spain, 14,931; Poland, 9,287; and The Netherlands, 7,214. Other member nations will take the rest based on wealth, population, unemployment rate and the number of asylum applicants already processed.

“It is a matter of humanity and human dignity,” Juncker said.

“We are fighting against Islamic State, why are we not ready to accept those who are fleeing Islamic State?” he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that has taken over territories in Iraq and Syria.

“It is high time to act, to manage the refugee crisis, because there is no alternative. No rhetoric. Action is what is needed for the time.”

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Strasbourg, said the EU leader “told it like it is”, making the point that many Europeans themselves have been refugees at in recent years.

Stiff resistance

Under the proposal, countries refusing to take in refugees could face financial penalties.

Germany, which hosts the largest number of refugees, has already backed the idea. It has welcomed Syrian refugees, waiving EU rules and saying it expects to deal with more than 800,000 asylum seekers this year alone.

Italy, which is one of the main arrival points for thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean is also in favour and so are France and Spain.

But the plan has met stiff opposition from countries like Hungary, which is building a fence to keep refugees away from its borders.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from the Roszke on the Hungarian Serbian border on Wednesday, said Hungary has already clamped down on refugees crossing the country, and has stopped providing information to countries like Austria about the movement of refugees.

Its neighbours, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Slovak Republic have also said that mandatory and permanent quotas would be unacceptable.

Following Juncker’s speech on Wednesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Europe does not need a new plan to deal with the crisis, and instead stick to an earlier agreement.

“It is necessary to move from negotiating tables to action and to work hard on those measures that we have approved with other EU leaders and agreed on in the past months,” Sobotka said in a statement.

The EU’s first refugee plan never won full support, and only around 32,000 refugees have been allocated. Hungary was among the countries to reject it, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

Juncker wants both plans endorsed on Monday at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels. “This has to be done in a compulsory way,” he said.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the new plan and also called for it to be made compulsory.

On Monday, France threw its weight behind the EU plan by saying that it would take in 24,000 refugees this year, exactly the figure the new scheme calls for.

Britain, which is not taking part, announced separately that it would welcome up to 20,000 refugees currently in countries outside of the EU over the next five years.

On Wednesday, the Commission also unveiled a plan to set up a $2bn fund to help African nations better manage their borders and help reduce the number of refugees heading for Europe.

Australia to strike ISIL in Syria and take refugees

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Prime Minister Tony Abbott says Australia will target armed group within days, and accept 12,000 Syrians and Iraqis.

Abbott reversed on comments made on Sunday, when he said Australia was not planning to boost the overall intake of refugees [EPA]

Abbott reversed on comments made on Sunday, when he said Australia was not planning to boost the overall intake of refugees [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Australia has announced it will launch air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group targets in Syria within days and resettle an additional 12,000 refugees from the deepening humanitarian and security crisis in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott also announced Wednesday that his government will pay an additional $31m to support 240,000 Syrians and Iraqis in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.

On Sunday, Abbott said Australia would allocate more spaces in its 13,750 annual intake quota to those fleeing violence in Syria, but did not plan to boost the overall intake, sparking criticism from across the political spectrum.

The opposition Labor Party was among the critics, calling for an additional 10,000 refugees to be resettled from Syria.

After Abbott announced an even higher figure on Wednesday, opposition leader Bill Shorten said that the plan had bipartisan support.

The Australian government will give preference to women, children and families from persecuted minorities from Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, Abbott said.

The prime minister also announced that Australia’s involvement in strikes against ISIL, which already take place in Iraq, could extend to Syria within days.

“Destroying this death cult is essential, not just to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East but also to ending the threat to Australia and the wider world,” Abbott said.

The government said the legal basis for extending air operations into Syria was the collective self-defence of Iraq as the armed group did not respect national borders.

“We are exercising the right to collective self-defence under Article 51 of the UN charter in striking Daesh [ISIL] in Syria,” Abbott said, adding that the focus of the campaign would be on ISIL, and not the Assad government.

“We have no legal basis at this point in time for wider strikes in Syria and we don’t intend to make wider strikes in Syria,” he said.

​Asaram’s daughter-in-law says was aware of Narayan Sai’s illicit affairs

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narayan sai

Indore: Asaram’s daughter-in-law Janaki has claimed knowledge of her husband, Narayan Sai’s illicit relationships with a number of women.

As per a complaint filed by Janaki, Asaram’s daughter-in-law, her husband had illicit relationships with a number of women and was involved in promiscuity which came to her knowledge only after their marriage. As per a media report she has claimed that Sai has a love child too.

Janaki has also alleged threat to her life from supporters of Narayan Sai and has requested for security cover during a maintenance and domestic violence-related hearing in a family court here on Tuesday.

Sai is currently behind bars in a rape case filed by a Surat-based woman, who was the inmate of his ashram here between 2002 and 2005.

(Agencies)

Saudi diplomat booked for allegedly abducting, raping two Nepali women

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rape

New Delhi: India could be trapped in a major diplomatic scandal after a senior diplomat belonging to the Saudi Embassy was accused, along with his wife, of allegedly abducting and raping two Nepalese women in Gurgaon.

According to the FIR filed by the police in Gurgaon, the two women had been lured to India with a false promise of jobs, and then sold to the diplomat, who is the First Secretary at the embassy.

According to the statements of the victims, aged 30 and 32, they were held captive by the First Secretary’s family for over three months, and were taken to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for a few days as well. During the entire period, the women said, they were repeatedly raped and forced to perform “unnatural sex” for the diplomat and other Saudi nationals, often at knife-point.

An official who was aware of the women’s account of their captivity called the details “horrifying.”

Reportedly, the Saudi embassy, dismissing the charges as “completely false” and “contrary to facts in our possession”, said it would wait for the Indian government to clarify on the matter as per diplomatic norms.

An MEA official said the Saudi embassy’s version and that of the Nepalese embassy that has taken up the issue “were different and need to be reconciled.”

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) and Gurgaon police spokesperson Rajesh Chechi said the women were rescued by Gurgaon police after a Nepalese NGO that deals with trafficking heard about their plight from another Nepali victim.

The women had been held in the upmarket residential area of DLF-Phase II in Gurgaon. The Gurgaon police raided the home after the Nepalese embassy in Delhi contacted the government for help. A rape case had been registered, PTI reported, but the diplomat was “untraceable.”

“We have sought a report from the local police,” the MEA spokesperson said.

Officials said they feared the diplomat, whose wife and father have also been charged, has taken a flight out of Delhi already.

An official said that given their diplomatic status “there was no chance” of arrest. “Despite the terrible nature of the crime, unless the Saudi Arabian government waives it, the immunity will protect them completely.”

The victims, residents of Banglung and Biratnagar districts in Nepal, said they had been lured by a woman trafficker to Delhi four months ago on the promise of a job and handsome salary in Saudi Arabia. The two were, however, sold to another agent in Delhi for Rs.1 lakh each and then to the Saudi diplomat, who they identified as ‘Majid’. “Majid first took the two women to Saudi Arabia. The abuse continued after he returned with them to Delhi three months ago and kept them in captivity at his DLF house,” said Bal Krishan, the president of Maiti Nepal India.

The ordeal of the two women came to light when another woman sold to the diplomat 10 days ago managed to escape and alerted Maiti Nepal India that works in the areas of prostitution, trafficking and child labour. The NGO contacted the Nepal embassy and a letter was written to the Gurgaon police in this regard.

The Gurgaon police team then raided the house on Monday afternoon and rescued the women. Mr. Krishan, who was present during the rescue, said the diplomat’s family put up a resistance.

The case mirrors cases of trafficking and slavery in the U.K. and the U.S. In 2011, a case in the U.K. involving two Indonesian women held as slaves by a Saudi diplomat in London had caused an uproar after details emerged of their ill-treatment.

In 2013, another case involving two women from the Philippines, held captive for months by the Saudi defence attaché and his wife living in a mansion in Virginia, U.S., had led to similar outrage.

In both cases, the diplomats could not be prosecuted due to immunity, and a U.K. court ruled that the Indonesian women were not eligible for any compensation either. In this case, Nepal embassy officials said that they were hoping to pursue the case with Saudi authorities, and would help repatriate the two victims to Nepal at the earliest.

(Agencies)

India’s cabinet approves new gold bond scheme with interest

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gold

New Delhi: India on Wednesday approved a new sovereign gold bond scheme, as also a monetisation scheme to incentivise people to park their gold assets in a paper format and earn interest, while seeking to productively use vast amounts of this idle metal in the economy.

Under the gold bond scheme, approved by a meeting of the cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, up to 500 grams worth of bonds per annum can be bought by an individual with lock-in of five-seven years and appropriate interest so that they are protected from volatility.

The gold monetisation scheme, also approved on Wednesday, calls for people to deposit their gold with authorised agencies for a short-, medium- or long-term periods, for which they will be given certificates of holding, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at a briefing.

“This will also bear interest,” Jaitley said, adding: “This has been done to replenish the Reserve Bank’s gold reserves.”

According to the World Gold Council, an estimated 22,000-23,000 tonnes of gold is lying idle with households and institutions in India. The annual imports amount to around 850-1,000 tonnes valued at $35 billion to $45 billion.

Officials said the objective of these two schemes are three-fold: Mobilise idle gold with people, give a fillip to the gems and jewellery sector by making the metal available from banks on loan and reduce the reliance on imported gold and conserve foreign exchange.

In his budget speech on Feb 28, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government will come up with two schemes for gold — one on monetisation, or permitting gold deposits with banks on interest, and the other on redeemable gold sovereign bonds also with fixed interest.

(Agencies)

Bihar polls to be held in 5 phases, starting Oct 12 through Nov 5

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Counting will take place on November 8

Nasim Zaidi- Chief Election Commisioner. File photo: PTI

Nasim Zaidi- Chief Election Commisioner. File photo: PTI

New Delhi: The assembly polls in Bihar will be held across five phases, beginning on October 12 and ending on November 5.

The vote count will take place on November 8.

“The model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect,” said Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi here.

The term of the 243-member Bihar assembly comes to an end on November 29.

The first phase of polls begin on October 12, the second phase of voting is on October 16, the third phase of ballotting is on October 28, the fourth phase is on November 1 while the fifth and the last phase is on November 5.

(IANS)

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