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Nasheman News : Thirty houses were damaged by an avalanche that hit Jammu and Kashmir’s Gurez border area. No casualties have been reported so far, officials said.
While 22 houses were completely damaged, eight were partially damaged by the avalanche that hit Khandiyal village in Bandipora district on Thursday evening, officials said.
Authorities have been regularly issuing avalanche warnings for vulnerable areas of the state which has witnessed heavy snowfall this winter.
Nasheman News : Two terror suspects, owing allegiance to the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant outfit, have been nabbed from Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, Director General of Police (DGP) O.P. Singh said on Friday.
Singh said, based on intelligence inputs, the two suspects were caught by the Anti-Terror Squad of the state police.
Nasheman News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred the Seoul Peace Prize here on Friday. He dedicated the Prize to the people of India and donated its amount to the Namami Gange Fund.
Expressing his gratitude after receiving the Prize, Modi said, “I believe that this award belongs not to me but to the people of India. It belongs to the success India has achieved in the less than five years powered by the strengths and skills of 1.3 billion Indians and on their behalf, I humbly accept the award and express my gratitude.”
He said the award was a recognition of the philosophy that gave the world the message of “Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam (the world is a family)”. “It is for the culture that has given the message of peace even on the battle field. In the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna preached the Bhagwad Gita during the battle,” he said.
The Prime Minister said, “The Seoul Peace Prize is for the land which prays may there be peace everywhere in the sky, in the space, all over planet, in nature. May there be eternal peace.
“This award is for the people who have always put societal good above individual ambitions. And I am honoured that it is being conferred on me this year, when we celebrate the 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.”
Donating the award money to the Namami Gange fund, Modi said, “I would like to contribute the monetary award of $200,000 i.e. Rs 1 crore 30 lakh to the Namami Gange fund for our efforts to clean river Ganga, which is not just the economic lifeline of millions of people but is also held sacred by us.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to look into request for for early hearing of a plea filed for the review of judgment on Rafale deal. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi told petitioner Prashant Bhushan that he would consider his plea for early hearing in the Rafale case.
CJI Gogoi, however, refused to give a specific date for the hearing saying that an appropriate bench of the Supreme Court is yet to be constituted in the matter. CJI Gogoi told Bhushan that he would do something for the listing of the case.
India and France signed a defence deal in 2016, replacing the one being negotiated during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets. The deal ran into controversy with the opposition parties led by the Congress alleged irregularities and favouritism in the Rafale contract.
The government rejected the allegations leveled by the Congress and other opposition parties saying that the Rafale deal was in the best interest of the country.
Some people including former Union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, and Bhushan filed petitions seeking the Supreme Court’s direction for a probe into the Rafale deal. The Supreme Court had delivered its judgment in December last year. The apex court ruling virtually vindicated the government’s stand that due process was followed in finalising the Rs 59,000 crore deal with France.
The court refused to order a probe into the deal and also ruled out “commercial favouritism” in the defence contract. The apex court ruling fuelled more controversy over reference to the Rafale deal pricing details having been seen by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
The Congress leaders including party president Rahul Gandhi countered it saying the CAG report on Rafale had not come to the PAC. Fresh media reports gave more ammunition to the opposition, which tried to corner the government over the issue.
The government blamed the reference to CAG in the Supreme Court ruling on typographical error and moved a plea for correction in the judgment.
Later, more petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking review of its judgment in the case. Bhushan is one of the petitioners seeking review of the Supreme Court judgment on Rafale deal alleging that the government misled the court and tried to hide information from it.
The apex court is yet to constitute a bench for hearing the petitions for review of the December ruling in Rafale deal case. Meanwhile, on February 15, the Supreme Court expressed unhappiness with some of the review pleas pointing out that defective petitions were filed with the intention of seeking publicity in media.
Agencies
![Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is welcomed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the presidential palace in New Delhi [Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2019/2/21/32c430fb72da4f1a89336eb9b1bbd944_18.jpg?ssl=1)
Saudi Arabia will release 850 Indians from its prisons after a request from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) visit to New Delhi, India’s Foreign Ministry has said.
Saudi jails hold the greatest number of Indians incarcerated in any country abroad. As of January 2019, 2,224 Indians were in prison in the kingdom for crimes including murder, kidnapping, bribery, and offences related to drugs and alcohol, according to Indian Foreign Ministry figures.
The approximately 2.7 million Indians in Saudi Arabia form the largest expatriate community in the kingdom, with many working in low-paid jobs in sectors such as construction, domestic services and retailing that Saudis spurn.
“At the request of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has ordered the release of 850 Indian prisoners lodged in Saudi jails,” India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia ordered the release of about 2,100 Pakistani prisoners from its jails, according to Pakistan’s information minister.
MBS, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, paid a visit to India’s regional rival earlier this week, before flying to New Delhi.READ MORE
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia signed investment agreements with Pakistan worth $20bn. In New Delhi on Wednesday, MBS said he expected investment opportunities worth more than $100bn in India over the next two years.
The crown prince’s Asian tour, which will include China, is regarded as part of an effort to help rebuild his reputation abroad after the killing last October of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership.
Saudi officials have denied accusations that MBS ordered Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and have detained 11 suspects in connection with the killing.
An investigation by Cobrapost website has exposed as many as 36 celebrities from the Indian entertainment industry, who agreed to promote a political party for money by posting favourable messages on their social media accounts to help create a favorable environment in the run-up to 2019 elections.
These celebrities included actors from TV and films, singers, social media celebrities and stand-up comedians. Among actors, some of the notable names are Sunny Leonne, Vivek Oberoi, Jackie Shroff, Tisca Chopra, Shakti Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Shreyas Talpade, Amisha Patel, Mahima Chaudhry, Puneet Issar, Surendra Pal, Pankaj Dheer and his son Nikitin Dheer, Deepshikha Nagpal, Akhilendra Mishra, Rohit Roy, Rahul Bhat, Salim Zaidi, Rakhi Sawant, Aman Verma, Hiten Tejwani and wife Gauri Pradhan, Evelyn Sharma, Minissha Lamba and Koena Mitra.
Among other celebrities and singers included Poonam Pandey, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kailash Kher, Mika Singh and Baba Sehgal. Raju Srivastava, Sunil Pal, Rajpal Yadav, Upasana Singh, Krushna Abhishek and Vijay Ishwarlal Pawar were some of the known comedians, who too accepted on camera to promote a political party in exchange of money. Choreographer Ganesh Acharya and former Bigg Boss contestant Sambhavana Seth too were caught on camera accepting the offer of money to help a political party in the election campaign by using their social media accounts.
Cobrapost reporters approached these celebrities by posing as the representatives of a non-existent PR agency and using fake names. They contacted these celebrities with a simple question, “would you be willing to promote a political party discreetly on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram?” Almost all celebrities answered in affirmative as long as the fee was right.
Celebrities agreeing to post messages using their social media accounts for a fee wasn’t the only shocking discovery of the Cobrapost expose. Some of the admissions made on camera showed that they had no hesitation to commit what’s essentially a crime in exchange of money. For example, most of them were willing to accept the bulk of their fee in cash, which in other words means black money.
Pornstar-actor Sunny Leonne told Cobrapost journalists that she will support the BJP if the Centre’s Narendra Modi government gave her husband Daniel Weber the status of Overseas Citizen of India.
She said, “Modi Sir ne Daniel ko overseas citizen banaya toh hum zaroor support karenge(We will definitely support provided Modi Sir [the BJP government] grant Daniel overseas citizen status).”
Sunny has in excess of 23 million followers on Facebook, close to 4 million on Twitter and nearly 19 million on Instagram. According to one Cobrapost reporter, who was a part of the investigation, Sunny asked for Rs 5 crore for pushing the BJP’s agenda using her social media pages.
Actor Vivek Oberoi, who will be seen playing the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the biopic made his father Suresh Oberoi, was so eager to close the ‘deal that he was heard saying on the camera, “I would like to tell you to close the formalities before I leave so that I can start it from September, because after that I would go to Kerala and from there to Azerbaijan. I can tweet from anywhere, but if you close these formalities, I would arrive at an understanding. [Turning to his manager]You can discuss it all with them and also give me a list of issues with facts and figures in the form of a docket. After that, I, you and my social media team will make a phase out [sic] plan; for instance, today we will cover this topic, and the topic to be covered every week, month you will mail me in a chunk, telling me we will be covering these issues in 1, 2, 3 and 4 week, we will talk about this issue).”
Sonu Sood asked for Rs. 20 crore to execute the task offered to him by the Cobrapost journalists. He later demanded Rs. 2.50 crore a month, saying, “Let me tell you directly … Since if I am talking to you … you see I think I shall work seriously. There can be five or seven [posts/tweets]. My messages will be very, very strong and nice. If I say I will do only four not five on a given day … I will repeat something written by somebody else, for example, and I will add my answer to it. Is that okay? I will do all that … but I feel that the price 1.5 crore you have quoted, it should be at least 2.5).”
Former Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya, suggested that he would use his mobile phone to make videos for the promotion of the BJP in situations which look natural. He said, “It should look natural. Suppose, I am at a traffic signal and I say something while sitting in my car or sipping tea at a coffee shop … yes [that would look] natural).”
Here too, the former singer did not lose a chance to spew venom against Muslims. Referring to a controversial statement made by one of the BJP legislators from Hyderabad, Bhattacharya observed, “This fellow did the right thing. Raja Singh, the BJP MLA from Hyderabad, visits me. He is Yogi [Adityanath] of Hyderabad. He had said why give Rohingyas any shelter, why not shoot them. This should be the attitude … No, I will say shoot the Rohingyas and shoot those who support them. First kill their supporters and then them).” Bhattacharya was involved in a controversy after he abused a female journalist on Twitter before abusing Janta Ka Reporter’s editor-in-chief Rifat Jawaid on a LIVE TV in 2016. He was later arrested by the Mumbai Police with his Twitter account being disabled by the microblogging site.
Shakti Kapoor had no hesitation in accepting all cash to discreetly push the BJP’s agenda using his social media account as he bragged how he had been a supporter of the saffron party. He said that the BJP had made him its star campaigner for Uttarakhand in 2014, when he and Modi gave public speeches from the same stage.
Singer Mika Singh said, “Why not make a small tweet on NRC in Assam? Mika is willing to help “Sahi baat … Main chahta hoon ki aap mujhe uska content bhej do main usko halka-fulka edit kar doonga”
Courtesy : Cobrapost
The Principal, Staff and students of Baldwin Women’s Methodist College held a silent demonstration by forming a “Human Chain” around the college campus. This was collectively done to show solidarity to the valiant soldiers at the borders and also to condemn the heinous attack on the CRPF soldiers at Pulwama.
Around 600 students along with the Principal, Manager and Faculty members formed a human chain holding placards to emphasise vehemently the grief over the loss of CRPF personnel, to stand by the bereaved family and to condemn the cowardly attack on the CRPF soldiers by the terrorists. The principal addressed the students urging them to spread the message of peace and acceptance, to uphold one’s patriotism and to honour the efforts of the brave soldiers who risk their lives to keep the nation safe.
The entire program was orchestrated by the student leaders and supported by Principal of Baldwin Women’s Methodist College, Mrs. Lydia. P. Samuel, Manager Pastor. David Livingstone and the faculty members.
Nasheman News :A Delhi Court on Thursday adjourned to March 7 a case against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, accused of abetting suicide of Sunanda Pushkar, his wife.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj adjourned the hearing after Delhi Police sought more time to prepare its argument on the issue of framing of charges against the parliamentarian.
Tharoor’s lawyer Vikas Pahwa told the court there are some discrepancies in documents provided by the police in the case.
Meanwhile, Tharoor moved an application seeking to travel to Bahrain and Qatar. The court said it will hear the Congress leader’s plea seeking permission for foreign visit on Friday.
On May 14, 2018, police submitted the charge sheet against Tharoor under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to abetment of suicide and cruelty to wife.
Pushkar, 51, died under mysterious circumstances at a hotel in south Delhi on January 17, 2014, days after she alleged that Tharoor was having an affair with a Pakistani journalist.
Mubu TV Received “Best Entertainment Channel” Award In Mumbai.
Just recently Mubu TV received “Best Entertainment Channel” award in Mumbai. Of late Manish Srivastava of Mubu TV received 2 awards at Film & Media Excellence Award 2019 in Mumbai.
One award was awarded for “Best Entertainment Channel” & the other one was for Return Of School days serial.
The award function was attended by celebs from TV & film industry. Some of the celebs who attended the function were – Jasleen Matharu, Flora Saini, Rajiv Nigam, Sunil Savra, Navya Singh, Vinod Bachchan.
The award was organized by Arun Sharma of Media Federation of India. This award was unique as celebs & media both received the award on the same platform.
Nasheman News : Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been ruled out of the upcoming Twenty20 International and One-Day International series against Australia due to lower back stiffness, BCCI announced on Thursday.
Left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been named replacement for Hardik for the ODIs. However, no replacement has been named in the T20I squad.
The BCCI medical team decided to rest the all-rounder and let him undergo strength and conditioning work for his lower back at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, BCCI said in a statement.