New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) Sri Lanka wants to take back all Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are now in India, country’s High Commissioner to India Austin Fernando said on Friday.

“With around 5,000 of these refugees having already returned, we now want to take the rest of them back to their original places,” Fernando said while delivering a speech on “Post 2015: Reconciliation Milestones in Sri Lanka”, organised by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club here.

According to Fernando, who took charge as the new Sri Lankan High Commissioner in November last year, there are around 100,000 of these refugees who had come to India during the civil war in the Indian Ocean island nation that ended in 2009.

He said that while some 20 to 30 per cent of these people would like to stay on in India, the rest would like to go back, adding that he would soon be going to south India to meet them.

“We will tell them that we will look after them,” the High Commissioner said.

“They need a roof over their head, they should be safe, their children should get education,” he stated.

“They must also get employment after returning.”

Asked whether Colombo has a deadline to take back these people, Fernando said there is no time frame as such but “we would like to take them at the earliest”.

“There are many logistical problems as well,” he said.

Stating that the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner is in close touch with these people, he said that Colombo and New Delhi need to have a serious dialogue on this issue.

Fernando also assured that immigration will not be a problem for those who are returning.

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[Nasheman news] Washington US President Donald Trump has promised a “major announcement” about the ongoing government shutdown as it entered its 29th day on Saturday, while Democrats hope to increase pressure on his presidency by pursuing allegations by his former lawyer that Trump had made him lie to Congress.

Trump tweeted on Friday night that he will make the announcement at 3 p.m. on Saturday from the White House “concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border and the Shutdown”.

While he left the nation in suspense about his plans, there was a small sign of progress in finding a solution to the shutdown with the Democrats offering to add $1.87 billion to the budget for border security, but not for the wall. 

Trump has been adamant about getting $5.7 billion in the budget to build the wall along the Mexican border, which the Democrats have refused with equal vehemence. 

Because of their disagreement there is no budget and all but the essential government operations have been shutdown temporarily because there is no money to pay for them.

About 800,000 workers are off work because of the shutdown and most, including those working, haven’t been paid since January 11.

At the border with Mexico, about 7,000 Central Americans who came in a caravan hoping to enter the US are camped out there in make-shift shelter and some have been repelled by the border patrol with teargas when they tried to crash the border. Another caravan of thousands is on its way. 

Meanwhile, Democrats have found a new avenue to go after Trump from a report in the BuzzFeed News website that the President’s former personal attorney , Michael Cohen, had told investigators looking into allegations of Russian interference into the elections that Trump had asked him to lie to Congress about negotiations for a hotel in Moscow.

If the website’s report based on two unidentified sources from investigation is true, he could be guilty of crimes that could be grounds for impeachment.

Democrat Senator Ralph Blumenthal demanded that the Senate Judiciary Committee ask Cohen to testify. 

He said that if the reports the reports were true, Trump would be guilty of obstruction of justice, suborning perjury, and conspiracy to violate laws prohibiting false statements to Congress.

Cohen is scheduled to testify before a House committee on February 7.

His credibility, though, is at risk because he has admitted in court in November that he had lied to Congressional committees investigating the Russian links about the Trump Organization’s plans for building a hotel in Moscow.

After being convicted, he was sentenced to three years in prison for that and other offences and Trump pounced on it. Cohen is “lying to reduce his jail time,” Trump tweeted.

Robert Mueller, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, was appointed in 2017 to probe allegations of Russian involvement in the 2016 election as well as collusion by Trump or his campaign with Moscow. 

After 20 months of investigations he has not come up publicly with any direct Russian connections to Trump and Cohen’s allegations, if proved true, will give Democrats the anti-Trump ammunition they have been seeking.

The standoff over the budget has descended into cheap drama with Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocking Trump from delivering the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of the Congress and the president retaliating by refusing to let her use a government plane to visit US troops in Afghanistan.

The Democrat’s offer of additional money for border security is an attempt to show both that they are willing to make some compromise and to make clear that the mainstream of the party is against open borders and unchecked immigration, which some in the party advocate.

Trump’s planned speech on Saturday will come after a nation-wide Women’s March starting that morning to protest his policies considered detrimental to women, demand the preservation of abortion rights and to promote their rights, as well as those of minorities and immigrants.

The March has been an annual event after the first massive event held in 2017 in Washington the day after Trump’s swearing-in. Drawing abut 500,000 participants it is considered to be among the biggest demonstrations held in the nation’s capital.

Reflecting the nation’s deep polarisation, an anti-abortion rally was held in Washington on Friday with thousands participating. Trump sent a prerecorded message of support to the rally and Vice President Mike Pence attended it personally, telling them: “We will stand with you until that great day comes where we restore the sanctity of life to the centre of American law.” 

Unlike in India, abortion continues to be a live issue with political conservatives, mostly in the Republican Party, constantly vowing to criminalise it – a position supported by Trump – making it a symbol of the nation’s political divide.

Nasheman News :  Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa took oath as the 26th Chief Justice of Pakistan at a ceremony here on Friday.

Chief Justice Khosa is scheduled to retire on December 21, 2019, Dawn news reports.

President Arif Alvi administered the oath to Justice Khosa before an audience of top government and military officials, Supreme Court judges, senior lawyers and dignitaries at the Aiwan-i-Sadr (Presidential Palace).

Justice Khosa has, over the course of his nearly two decade long career, decided about 55,000 cases. A special bench headed by him has decided over 10,000 cases of a criminal nature since 2014.

At outgoing Chief Justice Saqib Nisar’s full court reference on Thursday, Justice Khosa introduced the agenda for his tenure: “To attend to the causes that contribute towards delay in disposition of cases at all levels of the judicial hierarchy.”

Justice Khosa had observed that there are 1.9 million cases pending before all courts across the country compared to just 3,000 judges and magistrates. 

[Nasheman news] San Francisco Facebook has announced to invest over $300 million over the next three years to support local news organisations.

In a blog post, Campbell Brown, Vice President, Global News Partnerships, said that Facebook wants to support local journalists and newsrooms with their news gathering needs in the immediate future and help these organisations build sustainable business models, through both its product and partnership work.

“We heard one consistent answer: people want more local news, and local newsrooms are looking for more support. That’s why today we’re announcing an expanded effort around local news in the years ahead,” Brown said late on Tuesday.

In 2018, Google also committed $300 million for over three years to strengthen quality journalism, support sustainable business models and empower newsrooms through technological innovation. 

It was also committing to spend $300 million over the next three years on its various journalism-related projects.

According to Facebook, it would invest $300 million in news programmes, partnerships and content.

Among the components is a Pulitzer Centre — a $5 million endowment gift to launch “Bringing Stories Home”, a gift that will provide local newsrooms across the US with reporting grants to foster coverage on topics that affect local communities.

“Report for America” is a $2 million investment in the initiative to place 1,000 journalists in local newsrooms across America over the next five years.

“This year, we’ll commit over $20 million to continue our local ‘Accelerator’ programme in the US and to expand the model globally, including in Europe,” said Brown.

[Nasheman news] New Delhi Search engine giant Google on Tuesday celebrated the birth anniversary of Sake Dean Mahomed who was the first Indian author to publish a book in English and later, to open an Indian restaurant in Britain.

Born in 1759 in Patna, Mahomed went on to find success as the “The Shampooing Surgeon of Brighton”, opening a spa in the British seaside town that attracted the rich and the royal.

In 1810 after moving to London, he opened the ‘Hindostanee Coffee House’, Britain’s first Indian restaurant. However, Mahomed was forced to close his luxurious restaurant in 1812.

He later moved his family to the beachside town of Brighton and opened a spa named ‘Mahomed’s Baths’ which offered luxurious herbal steam baths whose specialty was a combination of a steam bath and an Indian therapeutic massage – a treatment he named ‘shampooing’, inspired by the Hindi word ‘champissage’ meaning a head massage.

He also published a book about the therapeutic benefits of the treatment with testimonials from his patients. 

In 1822, King George IV appointed Mahomed as his personal ‘shampooing surgeon’, which greatly improved his business. A portrait of Mahomed also hangs in the Brighton Museum.

[Nasheman news] WashingtonUS President Donald Trump has sent a letter to North Koran leader Kim Jong-un, an informed familiar with the ongoing denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang told CNN.

The letter comes as the two sides negotiate details of a second meeting between the two leaders. It was flown to Pyongyang and delivered by hand, the source said on Monday night.

According to the source, North Korea’s former intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol — one of Pyongyang’s top negotiators — could visit Washington to finalise details of the upcoming summit.

CNN had previously reported that US scouting teams visited Bangkok, Hanoi and Hawaii as they search for a location for the second summit.

Last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in threw his support behind another Trump-Kim meeting, saying it would be a turning point “that will firmly solidify peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

During his visit to Beijing last week, Kim said that Pyongyang will make efforts for the second summit with the US leader to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community.

North Korea will continue sticking to the stance of denuclearization and resolving the Korean Peninsula issue through dialogue and consultation, he added.

Trump and Kim held a historic summit last June in Singapore where they had agreed to work towards denuclearization in return for security guarantees from Washington.

Talks are currently stalled due to the lack of a clear disarmament road map.

Nasheman News :  At least seven people were killed and another was injured in a Boeing 707 plane crash near the Iranian city Karaj on Monday, the media reported.

The cargo plane with 16 on board crashed in a residential area, 45 km west of Tehran, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) quoted Pir Hossein Kolivand, head of the Emergency Centre of Iran, as saying.

The plane was flying from Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek and was carrying a cargo of meat to Iran, the Iranian Army said in a statement.

It was supposed to land in Karaj’s Payam Airport but chose to land in the Fath airport for an unknown reason, Naser Charkhsaz, Chief of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, told ISNA.

According to Press TV, the pilot took the plane to the Fath airfield by mistake, which was not suited for large cargo aircraft.

After landing in the wrong airport, the plane got out of control and overshot the runway, hitting an empty residential building and catching fire.

It was not clear who owned the plane. A spokesman for Iran’s civil aviation department said the plane belonged to Kyrgyzstan, while Kyrgyzstan’s Manas International Airport said it was operated by Iran’s Payam Air.

Armed forces shoot at mourners and protesters who tried to attend funeral prayers of two rebels killed in gun battle.

At least 11 people have been injured after Indian security forces opened fire on mourners, who were attending the funeral of two rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Zeenat ul-Islam was killed along with his associate on Saturday in a gun battle with Indian troops.

Thousands of people on Sunday marched towards his village, Sugan in Shopian district, to offer funeral prayers despite the barricades and deployment of troops along the way.

To stop people from joining the funeral prayers, government forces fired bullets, shotgun pellets and tear gas to stop the mourners, leading to street clashes as groups of youths pelted stones at the troops, police and residents said.

Kashmir sees its deadliest year in about a decade

According to Anadolu Agency, six injured were brought to the district hospital in Pulwama.

One of the injured is in critical condition, according to local media reports.

Both India and Pakistan claim the territory of Kashmir in its entirety but they control parts of the Himalayan region.

Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebel cause that the territory stays united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. READ MORE

Kashmir’s youngest pellet gun victim could lose complete sight

The disputed territory, over which India and Pakistan have fought three wars, is currently under the president’s rule after India dissolved the state assembly in November.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.

Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

According to rights groups, 2018 was the country’s most deadly year in almost a decade.

Aljazeera

[Nasheman news] BeijingAnyone who wishes to buy firecrackers to celebrate the Chinese New Year, beginning on February 5, will have to present their identity document, authorities said on Monday.

Stores will have devices to identify and register buyers, who will be held accountable in case of an incident, according to an official from the Beijing Emergency Management Bureau Tang Mingming.

Tang also said that Beijing has decided to reduce the number of stores selling fireworks and firecrackers from around 80 to 30, and they can only sell them from January 30 to February 9, reports Efe news.

Other Chinese cities joined in to avoid further pollution and for safety reasons.

With the ban, launched in 2018, Beijing ended 12 years of fireworks being allowed on virtually every street, causing big fires like that of 2009 in the city skyscraper Hotel Mandarin Oriental.

The Chinese often set off firecrackers and fireworks during these festivities not only for aesthetic purposes but also due to the belief that noise and fire dispel evil spirits that lurk around this time, ensuring a prosperous and fortunate year.

 Nasheman News : German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European spirit has been strengthened through the management of common challenges and Europe will have a better future through cooperation and not nationalism.

She gave a joint statement to the press with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday at the start of her two-day visit to Athens, reported Xinhua news agency.

“We have been through difficult years. What we have achieved was to strengthen the European spirit,” the German leader stressed during the remarks broadcast by Greek state television ERT.

Merkel praised Greece for its achievements despite the difficulties of the recent years of the debt crisis, such as the historic agreement reached last summer for the resolution of the Macedonia name dispute.

The deal, which is currently in the process of ratification by the parliaments of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece, will benefit the entire Europe, the chancellor stressed.

She reiterated Germany’s support to Greece’s efforts to stand on its feet, noting the need to continue on the path of reform in the post-bailout era.

“Today you are coming to a different Greece, which after many challenges has managed to overcome the crisis and enter the path of growth,” the Greek prime minister said.

“I believe that Greece is not only gradually exiting the crisis but is turning from part of the problem into part of the solution,” the Greek leader said, underlining that his country is a pillar of stability in a region suffering from destabilisation.

The German chancellor’s visit marks the end of a difficult period in bilateral relations, opening new prospects, Tsipras noted, referring to past differences regarding the way to address the Greek debt crisis, which was overcome through compromises.

He also stressed the need for closer cooperation in finding solutions to more problems as Europe faces more challenges, like the rise of the populist far-right.

The leaders also highlighted the need to establish a comprehensive European migration and asylum policy to deal with the refugee-migrant crisis, which has also tested the EU in recent years.

During the meeting at the prime minister’s office, police used tear gas to disperse leftist and far-right protesters who held two different demonstrations against the chancellor’s visit.

“We are here to protest against Merkel’s visit. She came indeed to check what the entire EU leadership has created in Greece. We are against and we demand that our country be liberated from the shackles of the EU and the debt load,” Nikos Adamopoulos, one of the leftist protesters, told Xinhua.

The German leader is scheduled to hold a meeting with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and main opposition New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday before departing from Athens.