Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently chairing a Cabinet meeting during which an ordinance to award death penalty to those convicted of raping a child up to 12 years of age is likely to come up for discussion.
Against the backdrop of outrage over the incidents of rape of minors in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao and Jammu’s Kathua, the government reportedly plans to bring the ordinance to amend the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act). While the meeting is underway, another rape case, this time of a four-month-old baby in MP’s Indore, has triggered outrage. Sources added that the Union Cabinet is also likely to discuss an ordinance on preventing loan defaulters from leaving the country since the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 could not be taken up in the disruptions-hit Budget Session.
Archives for 2018
Stolen UEFA Europa League trophy recovered
The UEFA Europa League trophy has been recovered, two days after it was stolen, after a private exhibition in Mexico’s Guanajuato state, officials said.
The trophy was recovered on Friday, Efe news reported citing the office of the prosecutor general of the Guanajuato.
The trophy, designed by Milan-based firm GDE Bertoni, represents the second most important tournament in Europe after the Champions League, and had been exhibited to employees and sports enthusiasts by a sponsor company in the city of Leon and was stolen from a vehicle after the exhibition.
Sources in the prosecutor’s office said complaint of the theft of the trophy — made of pure silver and set on a marble base — was lodged on Friday morning.
The authorities tweeted out an image of the trophy safely laid in cloth to prove that it was in friendly hands, but did not provide more detail of the incident, goal.com reported.
Semifinals of the Europa League are set to begin next week and the trophy will be awarded to the winners on May 16 in Lyon, France.
Chennai crush Rajasthan by 64 runs
Opener Shane Watson hit a fantastic 106-run knock as Chennai Super Kings (CSK) thrashed Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 64 runs here on Friday to register their third win in four games in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Veteran Australian all-rounder Watson took just 51 deliveries to bring up his third IPL century, guided by nine boundaries and six sixes, to propel Chennai to a massive 204/5 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium which is the southern franchise’s new home venue.
In reply, Rajasthan were bowled out for 140 in 18.3 overs as they suffered second straight loss after winning the first two.
Put in to bat, Chennai were off to a decent start as openers Watson and Ambati Rayudu (12) shared a 50-run partnership for the opening wicket in 4.2 overs.
Medium pacer Ben Laughlin drew the first blood for Rajasthan as he sent back Rayudu in the fifth over.
Watson was then joined by Suresh Raina and the duo stitched together an 81-run partnership for the second wicket. Raina chipped in with a crucial 47-run knock before falling in the 12th over to a Shreyas Gopal delivery which left CSK on 131/2.
K. Gowtham, Stuart Binny and Ben Stokes were severely punished by Raina and Watson. The Australian hit spinner Gowtham for at three sixes, while left-arm medium pacer Jaydev Unadkat also got hit for two sixes by the retired international.
CSK then lost the wickets of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (5) and Sam Billings (3) with the addition of another 30 runs. It was leggie Shreyas again, who struck to dismiss both the Chennai batters.
Meanwhile, Watson kept the scoreboard ticking and added 41 runs with Dwayne Bravo to take CSK past the 200-run mark. Bravo remained unbeaten on 24 runs facing 16 balls.
The Australian all-rounder however, fell in the last over but it was too late for Rajasthan as CSK posted a massive 205-run target against them.
For Rajasthan, Shreyas was the pick of the bowlers, with figures of 3/20, while Australian Laughlin bagged a couple of wickets conceding 38 runs.
During the chase, Rajasthan lost wickets at regular intervals and never looked like to be in contention. Their start to the innings was quite poor.
Deepak Chahar’s away-moving ball was edged to first slip by Heinrich Klassen but Watson dropped the catch coming at his chest height in the second delivery of the first over. However, Shardul Thakur removed the South African, who was bowled in the fifth delivery of the second over, with the visiting side’s score at 20.
In the following over, Chahar dismissed Sanju Samson (2) as the Kerala batsman failed to handle a bouncer, managing it to touch it with the top-end of the bat.
Chahar then dismissed Ajinkya Rahane (16 off 11) when the latter missed the line attempting a cross-bat stroke, leaving his side at 32/3 in 4.3 overs.
The writing was on the wall for Rajasthan and a 45-run fourth-wicket stand between Englishmen Ben Stokes (45 off 37) and Jos Buttler (22 off 17) could do little to give them some hopes.
Buttler perished as the ball went up in the air after he failed to time a rising delivery from medium pacer Dwayne Bravo. Imran Tahir took an easy catch to end the partnership, with Rajasthan at 77/4 in 10.1 overs.
Bravo then sent back Rahul Tripathi (5) before left-hander Stokes was caught on the leg side by Sam Billings as he tried to slog sweep leg-spinner Tahir. The wicket of Stokes was nail in the coffin for the visitors who were reduced to 111/6 in 13.5 overs.
Watson then got the wicket of K. Gowtham (1) and Bravo dismissed Stuart Binny (10) to complete the formalities for Chennai.
Brief Scores: Chennai Super Kings: 204/5 (Shane Watson 106, Suresh Raina 46; Shreyas Iyer 3/20) vs Rajasthan Royals: 140 all out in 18.3 overs (Ben Stokes 45, Jos Buttler 22; Karn Sharma 2/13, Dwayne Bravo 2/16, Shardul Thakur 2/18).
‘Sanju’ teaser to release on April 24 morning
Acclaimed filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, who is busy with the post-production of his upcoming film “Sanju”, featuring actor Ranbir Kapoor, has confirmed that the film’s teaser will be released on Tuesday morning.
Refuting news of its release during an IPL match on April 24, Hirani said: “It is not a correct news that it is going to be released during the Indian Premier League (IPL) match. As far as I understand, we are launching the teaser before that.
“It will be in the morning of April 24. In the evening, it will be shown during the IPL match.”
Hirani said this while interacting with the media on Friday, along with Subhash Ghai at the 5th Veda Session organised by Whistling Woods International Film Institute.
There were reports earlier that Hirani would release the first look of the biopic on Sanjay Dutt before the April 24 IPL clash and a teaser would be shown in the presence of Ranbir and Sanjay on the Cricket Live show on Star Sports.
When asked whether “Sanju” would help to re-establish Ranbir again, the “3 Idiots” and “PK” director said: “He was always a Superstar. He never went away.
“He is fantastic actor and I really enjoyed working with him and in future, I would love to work with him again on a film.”
Talking about the need of more film institutes in India, on the lines of Whistling Woods Institute, Hirani said: “I think we need more number of film institute’s as we have very less.
“There are channels, we are making so many films in a year. We are the largest producer of films in the world. There are television shows and now there is the digital platform as well, so, for all that, we need good technicians.
“I feel Subhash Ghai is doing a commendable work through his Whistling Woods Institute by imparting knowledge to film students. My son also studies here so it is inspiring to see the kind of work happening here.”
“Sanju” is a biographical drama, written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film is based on the life of actor Sanjay Dutt, with Ranbir Kapoor portraying the role.
“Sanju” is set to be released on June 29.
(IANS)
Indian boxers will improve medals tally at Asiad: Boxer Vikas Krishan Yadav
Praising his fellow boxers for their performance at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, star pugilist and gold medal winner Vikas Krishan Yadav asserted that the Indian squad will improve their medal haul at the Asian Games later this year.
India picked up nine boxing medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, earlier this month. All the eight Indian boxers in the men’s categories finished on the podium while five-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom won gold in the women’s 48 kg division.
Vikas was confident that Indian boxers will put up a much better show at this year’s Asian Games than the 2014 edition, although he admitted that the standard will be much tougher than the Commonwealth Games.
“There is no comparison between the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The Asiad is like a mini Olympics. Countries like Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Mongolia, China and former Soviet nations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are among the stronger nations in world boxing. The Asian Games is going to be much tougher. We will not get such easy competition like the Commonwealth Games,” Vikas told IANS.
“But still we should improve our medal haul at the Asian Games, including at least one gold. Last time we got just two medals when Satish and I got bronzes in our respective categories. This time we should get four to five medals,” he added.
However, the 26-year-old felt that with all eight Indian boxers among the men reaching the semi-finals of their respective categories, the number of gold medals should have been higher.
Gaurav Solanki, who emerged champion in the flyweight (52kg) division, was the only Indian apart from Vikas to win gold among the men.
“Overall performance was good, but we could have won more gold medals. Manish (Kaushik), Amit (Phangal) and Satish (Kumar) all lost by very small margins in their respective finals. All these finals were extremely close and could have gone either way,” the Haryana pugilist said.
“The final bouts that our boxers won, like me and Gaurav Solanki, were by 5:0 margins. But the finals that we lost were by scores like 3:2. So the fact that five of our boxers did so well after reaching their respective finals reveals volumes of our high standards,” he added.
Vikas, who won gold in the middleweight (75kg) category in Gold Coast, asserted that he did not face too much of a challenge on his way to the maiden Commonwealth Games title of his career.
“It was not tough for me at all. Everybody was saying that I had a very tough draw, but I did not face too much of a challenge. I had a bit of a trouble in the quarter-finals, but after that I beat three Olympians from the 2016 Rio Games one after the other,” the Indian Army boxer said.
“Fighting three Olympians in consecutive bouts is not an easy task. But I registered one-sided victories in each of those bouts,” he added.
(IANS)
Fear of defeat made Siddaramaiah to contest in 2nd seat – says Ananth Kumar
Senior BJP leader and Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Sri. H. N. Ananth Kumar
has said Chief Minister, Sri. Siddaramaiah has chosen to contest from second constituency as he has sensed defeat in his
home constituency of Chamundeshwari.
Addressing a Press Conference here today the BJP leader said the Congress Chief Minister had been telling that
he would contest only from Chamundeshwari but had now indicated his contest also from Badami constituency in
Bagalkot district. He had sensed groundswell against him in his home turf.
Sri. Ananth Kumar said there was no surprise in his migration from Chamundeshwari to Badami. In fact, he had
mastered the art of migration. Sri Siddaramaiah began his political journey from anti-Congress Socialist Movement
spearheaded by Jayaprakash Narayan, and he dedicated most part of his political life in criticising the policies of NehruGandhi
family led Congress. Finally, he landed up in Congress, the political party which hated most. It was an ideological
migration of Siddaramaiah.
The Union Minister said Sri Siddaramaiah was a “Master of Aayaram Gayaram”. He was a “Migratory Bird”.
Spending some time in Janata Party he moved over to Janata Dal, Samajwadi Janata Party and later Janata Dal (Secular).
He started AHINDA politics and set up his own political outfit and finally defected to most opportunistic and corrupt
Congress. It was his migration of parties. His brand of migratory politics had taken a full circle with his shifting to another
constituency.
Sri Ananth Kumar said the people of Karnataka were fed up with Siddaramaiah led Congress regime. The
increased incidents of heinous crime, lawlessness, corruption had become a hallmark of Congress regime. Over 3600
farmers committed suicides. It showed how distressed condition the agriculture community was in. Wherever, Sri.
Siddaramaiah might go and contest elections but people were just waiting to defeat him.
When asked whether the battle had been set between Siddaramaiah and BJP, the Union Minister said the
Congress leader was resisted by his own party men. The grand old party was totally divided between old Congressmen
like Sri Mallikarjun Kharge and recent entrants like Sri Siddaramaiah. The recent migrants had totally corned old guards.
Now, it was Low Command in Congress once known for High Command culture.
Mr. Ananth Kumar expressed confidence that the BJP would form the next Government with two-thirds
majority. The BJP performance in Karnataka would be like that of UP.
He said the BJP President, Sri. Amith Shah had a unique style of functioning and would reach out to people from
different walks of life during his visit. The party had membership of more than 11 crore in India and one crore in
Karnataka. We had opened call centres in all 224 constituencies, through which the members were being put to party
work.
On the question why his party targeted only Congress he said it was because Congress was its main opponent.
Though the JDS was in the reckoning in some part of Karnataka the people knew that only BJP could dislodge Congress.
He termed the Congress party’s bid to impeach Chief Justice of India was extremely unfortunate. It was an
onslaught on constitutional institution. The line between Constitution and constitutional institute was very thin, and its
sanctity should be protected, he added.
– S.
Indian-American teen wins $100K in Jeopardy college quiz contest
Indian-American teenager, Dhruv Gaur, has won the $100,000 Jeopardy college quiz championship.
The first-year student at Ivy League Brown University emerged the champion on Friday in the two-day final round of the college edition of America’s most popular quiz show televised nation-wide.
He faced another Indian-American, Rishab Jain, in the semi-final round on Wednesday before getting to the finals.
Gaur had scored a perfect score of 1,600 in the national-wide college entrance exam, Scholastic Aptitude Test.
About his plans for the winnings, a Jeopardy news release quoted him as saying, “I’m just going to save it until I need it for grad school or to pursue an opportunity I might really want in the future.”
“My little brother is really interested in investing, so I’ll give him some so he can give the stock market a go,” he added.
Viraj Mehta, who came third in the 2017 edition, made news because either intentionally or accidentally he was seen flashing his middle finger — an obscene gesture — while being interviewed by the show’s host Alext Trebek.
Several media pounced on the gesture seen fleetingly on the show.
Vinita Kailasanath is the only other Indian-American, who won the college championship, which was in 2001.
In the teen championships for high-schoolers, Sharath Narayan won the $100,000 prize in 2016.
Two other Indian-Americans had earlier won the teen championship.
G20 financial leaders see downside risks to global economy from trade disputes
Financial leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) have expressed concerns that trade disputes among major economies could pose downside risks to the global economy, Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne has said.
“Concerns on trade disputes occupied some part of the discussions that we had yesterday, and, of course, it is still one of the three main concerns in terms of the downside risks for the economy,” Dujovne told reporters in Washington on Friday after wrapping up a two-day meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors under Argentina’s presidency, Xinhua reported.
“We discussed trade and the potential impacts on the global economy and the potential disruption that modifications on the trade scheme can actually pose to the global economy,” he said.
While some differences over trade appeared in the last few months, Dujovne said G20 members “still have a very big consensus on the benefits of trade for growth.”
“The idea that the gains from trade have to be evenly shared is a concern that was placed both by advanced economies and emerging economies,” echoed Argentine central bank governor Federico Sturzenegger, noting “there was general appeal for multilateralism”.
However, the G20 meeting didn’t discuss specific trade measures, which are appropriate for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to deal with, according to Dujovne.
Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said at the meeting that current global recovery is facing “substantial challenges from a strong wave of anti-globalization and unilateralism.”
He urged G20 members to “firmly support the multilateral trading system” and strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination so as to lay a solid foundation for sustainable global growth, according to a statement posted on the website of China’s Ministry of Finance.
The G20 meeting comes after the Trump administration recently announced additional tariffs on imported steel and aluminium and threatened to impose broad tariffs against Chinese imports.
These unilateral protectionist measures have sparked widespread criticism and provoked threats of retaliation from major trading partners, raising the prospect of escalating global trade conflicts that threaten global recovery.
Over 5 killed in Nicaraguan protests
Violent anti-government protests that spread across Nicaragua in response to its social security system reforms have claimed more than five lives in three days of rioting, reports said.
The violence follows the decision of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government to push through reforms that would apply a five per cent tax to old-age and disability pensions and increase the contributions paid by both employees and employers.
The reforms, which went into effect on Wednesday, were in response to the financial crisis affecting its National Social Security Institute (INSS), The Guardian reported.
Some reports over Friday night put the death toll between five and 10. Consecutive governments have been accused of using the INSS as a source of “petty cash”.
Rosario Murillo, the vice-president and wife of President Daniel Ortega, has defended the reforms in national radio address.
Murillo has comparing the protests to “vampires, needing blood to feed their political agendas”.
Alleged fraud in electoral processes have allowed Ortega to control the country’s national assembly and make important constitutional changes, including his own right to serve more than two terms as president.
Russia advocates broader UN presence in Syria
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said building up the presence of the United Nations (UN) in Syria deserves attention as it will help collect reliable information.
Russia cannot accept the situation that UN agencies produce reports and statements based on information from other sources than UN’s own ones, he said at a joint press conference on Friday following talks with visiting UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, Xinhua reported.
Lavrov criticised the US-led missile strikes on Syria last week as they undermined the Geneva talks for the Syrian settlement under the auspices of the UN at a time when Russia, Turkey and Iran very closely approached the resumption of the Geneva process.
He asked the UN to step up humanitarian aid to the Syrian people and help with the reconstruction of housing, infrastructure and facilities of the war-torn country’s national economy.
De Mistura said at the press conference he was pleased that Russia remains committed to pushing for a political settlement of the Syrian crisis.
He said the deconfliction mechanism between Russian and the US forces in Syria has been effective and should continue.
De Mistura expressed the hope that experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will visit Douma district near the Syrian capital of Damascus as soon as possible to investigate an alleged chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government forces.
The US, Britain and France launched intensive missile attacks on Syria on April 14, saying the move was in response to the alleged chemical weapon attack.
Damascus denied the accusation and Russia said its military experts found no traces of toxic substances in Douma.
The OPCW experts are now in Syria for the investigation, but so far they have not visited Douma.
Western countries accused Russia of hindering the OPCW investigation, while Moscow said that the experts cannot enter the area due to a lack of the UN’s permission over safety concerns following the US-led strikes.
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