Hong Kong media said Monday that the pro-democracy camp had won a commanding majority of the 452 district council seats at stake, taking control of at least 17 of the city’s 18 district councils.

HONG KONG: The pro-democracy opposition won a resounding victory in Hong Kong elections, according to media tallies, in a clear rebuke to city leader Carrie Lam and her handling of violent protests that have divided the Chinese territory.

Hong Kong media said Monday that the pro-democracy camp had won a commanding majority of the 452 district council seats at stake, taking control of at least 17 of the city’s 18 district councils.

The result of Sunday’s elections could force the central government in Beijing to rethink how to handle the unrest, which is now in its sixth month. The district councils have little power, but the vote became a referendum on public support for the protests.

“It’s nothing short of a revolution. This is a landslide,” said Willy Lam, a political expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“It’s a sound repudiation of the Carrie Lam administration and shows the silent majority are behind the demands of the protesters.”

The media tallies are based on official results for the individual races.

The pro-democracy camp hailed its strong gains in the normally low-key race as a victory for the people. Former Democratic Party chairman Lee Wing-tat said that Carrie Lam should give serious consideration to the demands of the protesters and in particular a call for an independent commission to investigate the events of the past six months.

“It is a genuine referendum of the people of Hong Kong,” he said at a news conference. “The Democratic Party hopes our chief executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, receives the same message because the votes make a clear voice of the Hong Kong people.”

Lam issued a statement saying her government respects the results and will listen to and seriously reflect on the opinions of members of the public.

“There are various analyses and interpretations in the community in relation to the results, and quite a few are of the view that the results reflect people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society,” she said.

A record 71% of Hong Kong’s 4.1 million registered voters cast ballots Sunday, well exceeding the 47% turnout in the district council elections four years ago. A large number of votes was slowing down the counting.

The largest pro-Beijing political party suffered a major setback, with at least 155 of its 182 candidates defeated, according to media tallies.

Horace Cheung, the vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said the loss was the collective responsibility of the party, and that the party would reflect on the outcome to prepare for coming challenges.

Among the losing incumbents was controversial pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who was stabbed with a knife while campaigning this month.

The winners included former student leaders and a candidate who replaced activist Joshua Wong, the only person barred from running in the election.

Pro-democracy rally organizer Jimmy Sham, who was beaten by hammer-wielding assailants last month, also triumphed, as did a pro-democracy lawmaker who had part of his ear bitten off by an assailant.

The demonstrations have turned increasingly violent. Protesters have smashed storefronts of businesses seen as sympathetic to China, torched toll booths, shut down a major tunnel and engaged in pitched battles with police, countering tear gas volleys and water cannons with torrents of gasoline bombs.

More than 5,000 people have been arrested in the unrest that has contributed to Hong Kong’s first recession in a decade.

The vote is the only fully democratic one in Hong Kong. Members of the legislature are chosen partly by popular vote and partly by interest groups representing different sectors of society, and the city’s leader is picked by a 1,200-member body that is dominated by supporters of the central government in Beijing.

Dixon Sing, a political science lecturer with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the election result was “tantamount to a rejection of the hard-line policy of Beijing and the Hong Kong government.”

A win would give the pro-democracy camp 117 seats in the panel that elects the city’s leader, bolstering its influence, but Beijing isn’t likely to soften its stance or make any concessions to the protesters, he said.

Strengthening crude oil prices also impacted the rupee movement in the market, forex dealers said.

MUMBAI: The rupee on Monday fell 2 paise to 71.73 against the US dollar in early trade, amid increased demand of the greenback by banks and importers.

Strengthening crude oil prices also impacted the rupee movement in the market, forex dealers said.

However, a higher opening in domestic equity markets and persistent foreign fund inflows restricted the rupee’s fall, they added.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 71.68, showing a rise of just 3 paise over its previous closing.

The domestic unit, however, paired all its early gains to trade lower at 71.73 against the dollar.

The rupee on Friday had closed at 71.71 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, surged 0.21 per cent to USD 63.52 per barrel.

Foreign investors have continued with their bullish outlook and bought equities worth Rs 305.72 crore on Friday, according to provisional data.

Domestic bourses opened on a positive note on Monday with benchmark Sensex was trading 143 points up at 40,502.82 in the opening session and Nifty rose 0.44 per cent to 11,967.20.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.04 per cent to 98.25.

The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.50 per cent in morning trade.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has the maximum number of such sites, has the potential to attract the Sikh community from across the globe.

PESHAWAR: Indian-origin British historian and author Bobby Singh Bansal, who is considered as an authority on Sikh heritage in Pakistan, has claimed that 90 per cent of the Sikh heritage sites are located in the country, mostly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, as he underlined their potential to promote religious tourism.

Speaking at a guest talk titled ‘From Kartarpur to Khyber Pass’ at the Victoria Memorial Hall of Peshawar Museum on Friday, the UK-born historian took the audience to an interesting journey through a historic landscape dotted with Sikh era monuments, forts, battlefields, shrines, tombs, gurdwaras and havelies.

He said 90 per cent of the Sikh heritage sites are located in Pakistan.

The KP province, which has the maximum number of such sites, has the potential to attract the Sikh community from across the globe.

Bansal, who is also a filmmaker, talked about Sikh personalities associated with the KP province, particularly General Hari Singh Nalwa and Akali Phoola Singh.

Both died in KP and their tombs are there.

The ‘Jamrud Fort’ in Khyber district is a “goldmine” for attracting Sikh tourists because of the tomb of Nalwa there, he said.

Nalwa was the commander-in-chief of the army of the Sikh Empire.

“He is one of the most revered personalities among the Sikhs and people from the community would want to visit his tomb.

The love and association for Hari Singh Nalwa by Sikh community could be gauged from the fact that my own car number plate carry his name,” Bansal said.

If Pakistan allows Sikh diaspora to visit the cremation site and tomb of Nalwa, the community members from across the globe will rush to the site, he said.

He also highlighted other Sikh-era monuments, including the tomb of Akali Phoola Singh in Nowshera, the Balahisar Fort, Gor Ghattree, the Shabqadar Fort and the Bhai Biba Singh temple.

“These places should be on Sikh tourist map of KP. This topic is of particular interest to the Sikh diaspora from around the world who would like to travel to KP and be part of organised tours to be able to view this shared heritage,” he said at the lecture organised by the KP Directorate of Archeology.

Bansal, who is also the director of the Sikh Heritage Foundation UK, narrated his experiences of visiting the KP province since the1980s and the subsequent research, which led him to visit and document all the Sikh monuments in KP from 2007 to 2019.

Bansal is the man behind Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s life-size statue that was unveiled at the Mai Jindan Haveli in the Lahore Fort on the occasion of 180th death anniversary of the legendary Sikh ruler in June.

His father migrated to the UK from India in the early 1960s.

Mahinda, the current main opposition leader, will assume duties soon after incumbent Wickremesinghe steps down formally on Thursday.

COLOMBO: Newly-elected Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday appointed his elder brother and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister of the island nation. Mahinda Rajapaksa will be sworn in on Thursday. 

The move came hours after PM Ranil Wickremesinghe resigned saying he was respecting the people’s mandate and stepping down although his United National Party enjoyed a majority in Parliament.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former defence secretary, had defeated Sri Lanka Deputy Prime Minister Sajith Premadasa in the presidential poll polling 52.25 per cent of the votes.

With the Rajapaksa brothers, who are considered to be close to China, assuming power in the island nation, there seems to be a sense of worry in New Delhi. 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday was in Colombo and met the newly-elected president hours after he assumed office. 

Sri Lanka, which enjoys a strategic position in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), cosying up to China has been a cause for concern for India. 

Earlier in July, Sri Lanka was forced to lease the Hambantota port to China after it failed to repay a debt. India has also raised concerns over the docking of Chinese warships at Sri Lankan ports.

Earlier in the day, the senior Rajapaksa had demanded the prime minister’s resignation and said that governance would improve if the president and the Cabinet are from the same party.

“I think it is better if we have general elections. Many Cabinet members have already stepped down. I think it is more effective to have a government where the President and Cabinet are from the same party,” Sri Lankan media quoted him as saying.

An autopsy showed that she had died of “bleeding after several dog bites to the upper and lower limbs and the head,” prosecutor Frederic Trinh said.

A pregnant woman was killed by dogs while walking her own dog in a forest in northern France during a hunt with hounds, investigators said Tuesday.

The body of the 29-year-old woman was found Saturday in a forest outside the town of Villers-Cotterets, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) northeast of Paris, the prosecutor’s office in nearby Soissons said.

An autopsy showed that she had died of “bleeding after several dog bites to the upper and lower limbs and the head,” prosecutor Frederic Trinh said.

Some of the bites were “post mortem”, he added. 

Trinh said that tests had been carried out on 93 dogs, including some hounds from the hunt and five dogs belonging to the women herself, to try establish which ones attacked her.

The police have launched an investigation into manslaughter by dog attack.

According to local newspaper Le Courrier Picard, the dogs were hunting deer.

The woman had called her partner while walking her dog to report the presence of “threatening dogs”, the prosecutor’s office said.

It was he who later discovered her body.

The meeting has come on the sidelines of the 6th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

BANGKOK: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday held a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand with a focus on deepening ties.

The bilateral meetings took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), a platform comprising ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners including India.

Apart from his bilateral meetings with US Secretary of Defence Mark T Esper, Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono, Australian Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and New Zealand’s Defence Minister Ron Mark, he also had deliberations with Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand General Prawit Wongsuwan.

Singh reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral defence relations with the respective leaders and discussed ways to further improving the ties, an official statement said.

It was Singh’s first meeting with US Secretary of Defence.

“Both the leaders expressed satisfaction over the increasing defence engagements between the two countries and looked forward to meeting again for the 2+2 meeting in Washington DC later next month,” the statement said.

Singh also discussed the regional security situation and shared with Esper India’s vision and perspective on the Indo-Pacific, it said.

In his meeting with General Prawit, he discussed wide-range of issues pertaining to bilateral relations between India and Thailand.

Singh complimented the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand for the successful conduct of activities during the year as the chair of ADMM-Plus and ASEAN for 2019.

He also apprised General Prawit about the Act East policy of the government and the centrality of ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific policy.

Singh’s meeting with the Japanese Defence Minister was also his first with the leader.

“Both of them will meet again in New Delhi for the 2+2 meeting scheduled later this month. Both the leaders had a detailed discussion on adding further momentum to India-Japan defence cooperation,” the statement said.

They expressed satisfaction over the defence engagements and exercises between the Armed Forces, it said.

Singh also met his counterparts from Australia and New Zealand and discussed ongoing defence cooperation and potential areas for enhanced engagement.

The Australia Defence Minister is likely to visit New Delhi early next year during the Raisina dialogue.

The ADMM-Plus meeting will be held tomorrow in which Defence Ministers of 18 ADMM-Plus countries will take part.

Varthaman was captured by the Pakistani Army on February 27 after his MiG-21 Bison jet was shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani jets during aerial combat.

KARACHI: Pakistan has displayed a mannequin resembling Indian Air Force pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who downed its jet during aerial combat and was held captive for three days, in an exhibit at a museum run by the Pakistan Air Force in Karachi, according to a media report.

Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan this week inaugurated an entire new section of Pakistan Air Force Museum where a mannequin painted to resemble Varthaman with his signature handlebar moustache has been put on display, the Express Tribune reported.

Close to his statue are placed a tea mug and the fuselage and tail of Varthaman’s aircraft, MiG-21.

The gallery named Operation Swift Retort” also contains images re-enacting the moment Varthaman aircraft was shot down, and photographs showing him being handed back to India at the Wagah border crossing.

Varthaman was captured by the Pakistani Army on February 27 after his MiG-21 Bison jet was shot down in a dogfight with Pakistani jets during aerial combat.

Before his jet was hit, he downed an F-16 fighter of Pakistan.

He was released on the night of March 1 by Pakistan.

Varthaman, who showed courage and grace in handling the most difficult circumstances, was conferred the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest wartime gallantry medal.

The Patek Philippe ‘Grandmaster Chime’ was sold as part of the Only Watch auction held by Christie’s on Saturday to benefit research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy

A one-of-a-kind Patek Philippe watch sold for $31 million (Rs 222 crore) at a charity auction in Geneva, making it the most expensive wristwatch ever auctioned.

The Patek was sold as part of the Only Watch auction held by Christie’s on Saturday to benefit research on Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

For the sale, watchmakers including Patek, Audemars Piguet and F.P. Journe created and donated one-of-a-kind watches, which are coveted by top watch collectors around the world. The fact that the sale was for charity helped boost the bidding prices, according to the auctioneers, CNBC reported.

The buyer of the watch has not been identified.

The Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime reference 6300A-010 is the only one of its kind that will be made in stainless steel.

It has 20 complications, including a grande and petite sonnerie, a minute repeater, instantaneous perpetual calendar with a four-digit year display, second time zone, and 24-hour and minute subdial. The watch’s most unique feature is front and back dials – one salmon coloured, the other black – that can be flipped or reversed.

The steel Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime Ref. 6300A-010 smashed the previous record for an auctioned watch – the $17.7 million fetched in 2017 for the Rolex Daytona once owned by Paul Newman.

Dineshwar Budhidat of Queens fatally stabbed his wife Donne Dojoy, 27, who worked as a bartender and then hanged himself from a tree on Friday, a report in The New York Post said.

NEW YORK: A 33-year-old man in the US allegedly stabbed his wife to death and then hanged himself because he was jealous of her liking for Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan, according to a media report.

.Budhidat was “extremely jealous” because his wife was a huge fan of Hrithik, Dojoy’s friends told The Post, adding that her liking for the actor sent him into fits of rage.

She told me when she was at home watching a movie or listening to a song (with Hrithik in it), he would ask her to take it off because he would get so jealous,” Mala Ramdhani, 52, a karaoke singer at Gemini’s Ultra Lounge in Ozone Park, where Dojoy tended bar, said.

“Any movie Hrithik acted in, she wanted to see it,” Ramdhani said.

The report said Dojoy had moved out of her apartment where she lived in with her husband but had agreed to stop by the place to watch a movie and be with Budhidat.

But later in the evening, Budhidat texted his wife’s sister, saying he had killed her, and instructing that the key to the apartment could be found under a flower pot, police sources said later Friday.

He then left behind his wife’s stabbed body and hanged himself from a tree in a field nearby, the report said.

The New York Daily News reported that Budhidat had assaulted her weeks after they got married in July.

Dojoy even had an order of protection against Budhidat that came in a court case which stemmed from his arrest in August for slapping and strangling Dojoy a week earlier inside their Queens apartment.

“I think he loved her but at the same time, he was obsessed with her, because of the type of job she did,” Rodney, a friend of Dojoy’s, said in the report.

“She looked good, she always made her money, so he was probably jealous of her. Dojoy had told her friends that he was controlling and even violent with her at times.”

“She talked about him abusing her, controlling her, beating her, scaring her, threatening to kill her,” Rodney added.

“She never took it seriously because she loved him.”

Dojoy’s aunt, Silvin Dojoy, called her niece “a lovely young lady.”

“A beautiful girl. She was intelligent, and she worked hard.”

Of the husband, she said, “He was a coward. Who acts like that? Lift your hands against a woman? That’s a cowardly act. There is no reason for him to have done what he did. It’s unbelievable. He had no right to do what he did.”

While 225-odd pilgrims were allowed to visit the holy shrine in the neighbouring country through the corridor on Sunday, the number swelled to 400 devotees on Monday.

DERA BABA NANAK/AMRITSAR: A total of about 625 pilgrims were allowed to visit Darbar Sahib Gurdwara at Kartarpur in Pakistan through the Kartarpur Corridor in two days (Sunday and Monday) after its grand unveiling on November 9 by PM Narendra Modi.

While 225-odd pilgrims were allowed to visit the holy shrine in the neighbouring country through the corridor on Sunday, the number swelled to 400 devotees on Monday.

The poor turnout is due to the fact that a large number of pilgrims are still confused about whether or not they require a passport to travel through the corridor.

Besides, they are facing technical problems while applying on the portal. The newly built Integrated Check Post on the Indian side is also incomplete.

On the inauguration of the corridor, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh led the first jatha of 550 pilgrims, many of them high-profile people.

As per the agreement between Indian and Pakistan, the neighbouring country will allow 5,000 Indian pilgrims daily to visit the gurdwara where Guru Nanak Dev spent last 18 years of his life.

The opening of Kartarpur Corridor has rekindled hope among Sikhs devotees for the revival of ‘Punj-Aab’ bus service between Amritsar and Lahore-Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak.

The bus service was suspended by Pakistan after the Union government revoked Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

One had to travel to Delhi to get the visa from the Pakistani High Commission, a tedious process. Expressing hope that the bus service would be revived, SGPC chief secretary Roop Singh said, “We can depute our staff to get the devotees’ documents processed from the high commission. We are ready to act as a facilitator if entrusted with the responsibility.”

Dera Baba Nanak: A sea of devotees thronged the historic Gurdwara Ber Sahib here, which reverberated with the sound of Gurbani (hyms), and took a dip in the holy Kali Bein, a day before the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

More than 25 lakh pilgrims have visited here in last 10 days. Most of the pilgrims are coming from Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and Maharashtra, apart from the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

Devotees also thronged Darbar Sahib at Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur, Golden Temple in Amritsar and Nada Sahib in Panchkula.