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Imran Khan hopes US-Taliban talks end Afghan suffering

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Islamabad,  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said he hoped that the Islamabad-backed US-Taliban negotiations which was held a day earlier in the UAE, could bring an end to “almost three decades of suffering of the brave Afghan people”.

“Pakistan has helped in the dialogue between Taliban and the US in Abu Dhabi,” Khan tweeted.

“Let us pray that this leads to peace and ends almost three decades of suffering of the brave Afghan people. Pakistan will be doing everything within its power to further the peace process.”

Khan’s remarks come a day after US diplomats and Taliban representatives met in the United Arab Emirates for the first round of talks facilitated by Pakistan on finding a negotiated settlement for the Afghan war, Dawn news reported.

The meeting in Abu Dhabi was also attended by officials from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

There were no statements from the participating parties at the end of the daylong meeting, although Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal had officially announced the start of the talks through a tweet.

It was the third meeting between the Taliban and US officials since the appointment of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as Washington’s special envoy for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. 

Their meeting last month had continued for three days.

However, it was the first meeting sponsored by Islamabad and also the first outside Doha which hosts Taliban’s political office and was the venue of the earlier two rounds. 

Pakistan had arranged the meeting after receiving a request from US President Donald Trump for help in the peace process a fortnight ago. 

The Afghan government was not represented at Monday’s meeting because Taliban have stood firmly on not talking to them whom they call the “puppet regime” and insisted on speaking directly to the US.

Replace Modi with Gadkari: Maharashtra leader tells RSS

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Mumbai, In a huge embarrassment, a prominent Maharashtra farmer leader has demanded that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) must replace Prime Minster Narendra Modi with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wishes to win the 2019 general elections.

The demand has come from a state-government panel, Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM) Chairman Kishore Tiwari, on a day when Modi was in Maharashtra to attend a series of events, including laying foundation stones for Metro Rails in Thane and Pune.

In his letter to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and General Secretary Bhaiyyaji Suresh Joshi, Tiwari said the BJP’s defeat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh was the direct outcome of “arrogant leaders” who implemented devastating decisions like demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST), fuel prices hike and other anti-people measures.

“Leaders who pursue an extremist and dictatorial attitude in the party and government are dangerous for the society and the country… This has been witnessed before and if history is not to be repeated, hand over the reins to Gadkari for the 2019 polls,” Tiwari said.

On December 11, the VNSSM chief, who is accorded a Ministerial status, had categorically asked the BJP to “get rid of both Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah” for their anti-farmers and anti-people policies, which led to the party’s stunning defeats in the just concluded elections.

Accusing Modi and Shah of upturning the good works done by the former BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Tiwari said they (Modi-Shah) seem to be interested “only in grandiose Bullet Trains and Metro Rail projects”.

In his letters to the RSS top brass, Tiwari said that considering the “dictatorial approach” of Modi and Shah, which has unleashed fear in the country, it was imperative to have an acceptable and gentle leader like Gadkari, who can take along all viewpoints and friendly parties, evolve consensus and remove fear among people.

He said the 61-year-old Gadkari, a staunch BJP-RSS activist since decades, was “adequately qualified” for the top post since he has also headed the BJP as National President, besides ministerial capacities in Maharashtra and now at the Centre.

We don’t deny shelter to the needy: Mamata on Bengal

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Kolkata,  West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said her government is equally considerate towards all minorities and the state never denies shelter to anyone.

On the issue of migration, she said: “Today is International Migrants Day. It is our humanitarian obligation to give refuge to migrants.

“In Bangla we will take care of anyone who seeks shelter in our state, to the best of our abilities.”

She added that her government does not differentiate between people in their hour of need. 

“Today is Minority Rights Day. We are all equal and united. Unity in diversity is our strength,” Banerjee tweeted.

Highlighting her Trinamool Congress’ contribution towards the minorities, she said: “You will be happy to know that in Bangla, we have distributed scholarships to over 1.7 crore minority students, the highest in the country.”

Chinese university cancels Aamir Khan event for not seeking prior permission

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Beijing,  A Chinese university had reportedly cancelled Bollywood’s actor Aamir Khan’s fan meet, citing the organiser’s failure to seek permission to use the campus.

Khan is currently in China to promote his latest movie “Thugs of Hindustan”. 

The event, which was to take plac eon Monday, in Guangdong University of Finance and Economics (GUFE) in Guangzhou was for the promotion of the movie which is slated to release in China next week.

According to the Chinese media, the school did not know about the promotional event until Monday.

“The message was spread only among a small group of students through social media. The school only knew about it when students talked about the event hours before it was about to take place,” the Global Times quoted an employee of the varsity as saying.

However, the Weibo account that promotes Khan’s films announced the school had cancelled the event “unilaterally” as the “the students were overly enthusiastic”.

The post angered many students, who said the university did not know about the event at all before Monday.

Many students said they waited outside the event site for over an hour.

“It is obviously the organiser’s fault for not applying to the school to use an on-campus building,” net user Swim Xinzhu, a student from GUFE, said.

“We have held similar events before and there would be no issue if the organiser had reported in advance,” an employee of the varsity said.

The organiser’s deputy manager, a Beijing-based film-promoting company, reposted the Weibo post by Khan’s film account, saying they were contacting the film crew and the school to figure out what caused the poor communication.

The fan meet was soon relocated to a Four Seasons hotel not far from the campus and ended at around 11 p.m. on Monday night.


Legendary classical singer Arun Bhaduri dead

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Kolkata, Legendary classical singer Pandit Arun Bhaduri, known for his deep and sonorous voice, passed away at a city hospital on Monday following age-related ailments and respiratory distress, family sources said.

Bhaduri, 75, is survived by wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandson.

Born in West Bengal’s Murshidabad on October 7, 1943, Bhaduri received his initial lessons in Indian music from Mohammed Abu Daud, before fine-tuning his knowledge on the nuances and embellishments of the Hindustani Classical Music from Mohammed Sagiruddin Khan.

Later, he was also taught by the late Ustad Ishtiaq Hussain Khan of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, and Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh.

Greatly influenced by Ustad Ameer Khan, Bhaduri imbibed his aesthetic qualities, and successfully created a style of his own by fusing the various styles he learnt from the stalwarts.

He joined the ITC Sangeet Research Academy as a musician scholar and rose to become one of its most venerated Gurus.

A top grade radio and television artiste, Bhaduri received invitations from music festivals in the UK, the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Bangladesh.

Bhaduri is also known for his excellent rendering of Bengali songs and bhajans.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed grief at Bhaduri’s demise.

Recalling that the state government had conferred on him the state’s highest civilian award, Banga Bibhusan, in 2014 for his outstanding contribution to music, Banerjee said his passing away would “create a big void in the world of music and culture”.

Australia defeat India in second Test

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Perth,  Australia defeated India by 146 runs in the second Test to level the four-match series at 1-1 here on Tuesday.

India were dismissed for 140 runs in their second innings on the fifth and final day.

Starting the final day at the overnight score of 112/5, the visitors seemed over-awed by the daunting challenge of getting 170-odd runs in difficult conditions against the formidable Australian bowling.

The Indians needed at least one big partnership but none of their batsmen could stick around for too long and were bundled out pretty quickly.

Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc was the most successful among the Australian bowlers with three wickets each.

Although the pitch did not have too much turn, Lyon did well to outfox the Indian batsmen with his variations and richly deserved his match haul of eight wickets.

The visitors lost their first wicket of the day soon after the start when Hanuma Vihari was dismissed by Starc.

Pant was dismissed by Lyon a short while later when he went for a drive and the inside edge went to Peter Handscomb on the onside.

The Indian tail did not wag too much and the Australians cleaned up the remaining wickets to clinch a well deserved victory.

Brief Scores 

India: 283 and 140 (Ajinkya Rahane 30, Rishabh Pant 30; Nathan Lyon 3/39, Mitchell Starc 3/46) vs Australia: 326 and 243

4 transgenders complete Sabarimala darshan

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Sabarimala, Four transgenders draped in sarees, who were earlier denied permission to visit the Sabarimala temple on Sunday, completed their darshan of the Lord Ayyappa shrine on Tuesday after securing permission a day ago.

Arriving at Erumely early in the day, the four devotees from Ernakulam draped in their choice of attire — saree — were given security cover as they started their climb from Pamba at 8 a.m.

By 9.45 a.m. amidst tight security they were on the hallowed 18-steps and completed paying their obeisance to the deity. There were no protest from any quarter.

The four devotees were on Sunday prevented by the police at Erumely from completing their climb to the hilltop temple after they wished to perform their darshan in sarees.

They had then complained to Kottayam Superintendent of Police. Later on Monday they even approached Kerala High Court-appointed Director General of Police A. Hemachandran who is part of a three member committee overseeing the pilgrimage.

Later in the day, one of the transgenders, Ananya told the media they have secured permission.

The Kerala High Court on November 27 had set up the three-member observer panel to oversee the Sabarimala pilgrimage season, after numerous complaints surfaced against the manner in which the police were acting in the temple town.

Besides Hemachandran, the panel also consisted of P.R. Raman and S. Sirijagan, both retired high court judges.

The Committee got in touch with the Sabarimala tantri and the Pandalam Royal family, who gave their nod for it.

This particular group got the nod as in the past too, transgenders have prayed at the temple.

The temple town has witnessed protests by Hindu groups since a September 28 Supreme Court verdict allowed women of all ages to enter the temple, including those hitherto banned girls and women aged between 10 and 50.

Himachal CM seeks release of Indians stranded in Saudi Arabia

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Shimla, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday spoke with Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj over phone regarding bringing back 14 Indians stranded in Saudi Arabia due to visa problems.

According to reports, 12 persons belonged to Himachal Pradesh and two were from Punjab. They are currently lodged in a police station in Riyadh.

Thakur urged the Union Minister to personally take up the matter with the authorities for their release as they had gone to Saudi Arabia for earning their livelihood, an official statement said.

The Chief Minister said he has also written a letter to Swaraj, requesting her to ensure their safe passage to India at the earliest.

Thakur assured the families of the stranded persons that the state government would make all-out efforts for bringing them back home at the earliest.

He said the Union Minister has assured him that the Central government would extend all possible help for their early evacuation.

Two travel agents were booked by Himachal Pradesh Police for allegedly defrauding 14 youths from Mandi district.

The agents had allegedly charged Rs 90,000 from each youth, promising a job on a tourist visa.


Google to pump in $1 billion to build new offices

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Nasheman news San FranciscoGoogle revealed that it would invest USD 1 billion in the construction of new offices in New York, an announcement that comes weeks after both Amazon and Apple made known their individual expansion projects in the Big Apple.

In a posting on the company’s blog, Google Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said the name of the new campus, which will occupy 158,000 sq metres (1.7 million sq feet), will be Google Hudson Square and will be located between Soho and Greenwich Village neighborhoods of Manhattan, EFE news reported on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google’s director of public policy and government relations, William Floyd, noted that his company’s talk about increasing its payroll in New York over the next 10 years by another 7,000 employees is a “conservative estimate.”

“New York City continues to be a great source of diverse, world-class talent – that’s what brought Google to the city in 2000 and that’s what keeps us here,” Porat said.

Google, with headquarters in Mountain View, California, joins two other tech giants from the West Coast, Amazon and Apple, which recently announced plans to further expand their presence in New York.

Brexit turmoil: Britain gears up for make or break week

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London, Weekends are usually peaceful days at Westminster. But the ongoing Brexit debate has changed Britains ground zero of power.


The Big Ben and other towers are covered with polythene sheets to shield the public from viewing the ongoing restoration work at the seat of mother of all parliaments. But it’s the government in the seat of power which needs a restorative touch.

As Parliament prepares to vote on Brexit next Tuesday, the day India looks with bated breath at the poll results from five states, there is massive lobbying in the British corridors of power to fortify the different camps. The empty corners of Westminster are occupied by TV crews from all over the world.

The British public too is watching with bated breath as new twists appear every day on the Brexit drama in Parliament. The limelight is on Prime Minister Theresa May along with her cabinet; Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn; seasoned politician Sir Vince Cable; maverick former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson; Tory chief Brandon Lewis; and Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, formally known as the Conservative Private Members’ Committee.

The list of main characters, of course, keeps changing with the addition of new figures. The focus, of course is on the 650 members of the House of Commons as every vote is precious in this crucial battle. The next few days will define the legacy of May’s premiership. It could see Parliament wresting control from the ministers on the future direction of the UK’s departure from the EU.

While, the ministers are busy visiting constituencies to convince their electorate about the deal and senior politicians are hopping from one TV studio to another to win the support of audiences. Despite the threat from alliance partner Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), May is going ahead with the vote on December 11. It will be among the most contentious in recent history with MPs divided on all sides of the House. 

It comes after five days of intense debate, which was preceded by the government being found in contempt of Parliament for the first time in history. The numbers appear to be against the Prime Minister, and with amendments from across the Brexit spectrum being tabled, the vote could produce a variety of outcomes — an attempted renegotiation, a no-deal Brexit and even a second referendum. 

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Monday will release its judgment in a legal challenge over whether the UK can unilaterally withdraw its Article 50 notification on leaving the EU. The ECJ’s chief legal expert, Manuel Campos Sanchez-Bordona, has said that Britain should be able to cancel Brexit without needing the consent of the other EU member states. He also rejected the contention that Article 50 only allows the possibility of revocation following a unanimous decision of the European Council.

If the court’s judgment follows the advocate’s opinion, it would be a blow to May just 24 hours before MPs have their meaningful vote on the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. The judgment is due at 8 a.m. UK time (1 p.m. IST) on Monday.

The Prime Minister and her close team members are rejecting all the pleas and going ahead with the vote. As the opposition to the deal gathers momentum, the vote could be defeated by a 200 plus margin. But the TINA (there is no alternative) factor and the probability of extreme-left wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn grabbing power are dithering the Conservative fold. 

Sir Graham Brady, the likely consensus candidate to replace May, is trying to preserve the party unity behind the Prime Minister. He conveyed a backbenchers’ appeal to consider delaying the vote. But Downing Street remains adamant despite growing cabinet unease. 

After the vote on Tuesday, attention will turn to Strasbourg on Wednesday as MEPs hold a debate on the outcome of the Commons’ vote. EU Chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, made it clear that May’s deal is the only opportunity for the UK to leave the European Union in an orderly fashion. That means, if the Parliament reject the deal, Britain may exit EU without a deal. The Bank of England already predicted a grim picture if the country exits EU without a deal. The economy will be the worst victim in this battle.

Brexit has already taken its toll on community ties. Immigrant pockets are worried about the aggressive debate over Brexit. The Indian community is also divided over the issue. Rami Ranger, chairman of the Conservative Friends of India (CFI), a prominent businessman, is backing the Prime minister. 

“Brexit is not about my way or highway! It is about cooperation and collaboration as a sovereign nation. Britain’s economic strength underpins our sovereignty,” Ranger said. “Totally wrong to assume that Britain will be under foreign powers with May’s Brexit deal. In fact, cooperation and collaboration underpins our sovereignty,” he added.

“The objective is not to scupper the PM’s Brexit deal, instead it should be to protect the economy, jobs and influence in the world when we no longer have an empire to dictate our terms to others. Our economy is already shrinking,” he said.

Meanwhile Virendra Sharma, the Labour MP from Ealing Southall, is leading the opposition campaign.

“The way the Prime Minister has handled the negotiations with the European Union over the past two years has been disastrous,” Sharma said. “We are now facing a situation where we have a bad deal that does not work for our country and is unlikely to be endorsed by Parliament. This is a result of the government’s failure and refusal to adopt the kind of approach I have been calling for that could have safeguarded jobs and the economy.”

Still there is no clear picture about the outcome of Brexit. Good, bad or ugly, the vote on Dec 11 will decide the fate of Great Britain. 

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