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Turkey, US suspend visa services in tit-for-tat fallout

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Turkish and US missions mutually restrict services, say they need to reassess each other’s commitment to staff security.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets his US counterpart, Donald Trump, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Turkey on Sunday suspended non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the United States, in a tit-for-tat move amid escalating tensions between the NATO allies.

Just hours after the US mission to Turkey announced it was restricting visa services, saying that recent events had forced it to “reassess” Ankara’s commitment to the security of US facilities and staff, the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC, hit back with an almost identical statement.

“In order to minimise the number of visitors to our Embassy and Consulates while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in US,” read its statement on Twitter, echoing the earlier US announcement.

A first version of the Turkish statement had said the measure would apply “to visas in passports”.

But a later version said the measure “will apply to sticker visas as well as e-Visas and border visas”, leaving open the question of whether US travellers who already have visas would be allowed to enter Turkey.

The earlier US statement, meanwhile, said it was suspending the processing of “non-immigrant” visas, a specific category that relates to tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work or study.

Immigrant visa services are for those seeking to live in the US permanently.

The escalation in diplomatic tensions comes a few days after the arrest of a US consulate employee in Istanbul for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Muslim leader blamed by Ankara for a failed coup attempt last year. Gulen denies involvement.

Washington said it was “deeply disturbed” by the employee’s arrest.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency identified the consulate employee as Metin Topuz, a male Turkish citizen.

It said he was arrested late on Wednesday on charges of espionage and attempts to damage the constitutional order and Turkey’s government.

Al Jazeera correspondent Sinem Koseoglu said this is the first in Turkey-US bilateral relations since 1960s. “I am expecting Turkey not be willing to escalate the tension,” she said.

‘War of words’

Turkey has pressed, so far in vain, for the US to extradite Gulen, while tensions have also risen over Washington’s military support for Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.

The YPG group is considered by Ankara to be an extension of the banned PKK, which has waged an armed campaign for three decades in southeast Turkey.

“It’s clear that this [suspension of visa services] is just one more ratcheting up of the war of words between the US and Turkey,” Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman, reporting from Washington, DC, said.

Ackerman said that Turkish authorities “had imprisoned more than a dozen American-Turkish citizens” living in Turkey over the past year or so, including an Izmir-based Christian pastor.

Missionary Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in the western city of Izmir, has been held by Turkish authorities since October 2016 on charges of being a member of Gulen’s group.

“You can see that this more than just the accusations about one man in the Istanbul consulate,” Ackerman said.

Al Jazeera’s Diane Eastabrook, also reporting from Washington, DC, said the escalation comes just a few months after a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the US, in which he reaffirmed friendly ties between the two countries.

“Turkey is a strategic ally to the US,” she said.

“It’s a NATO ally, and there is a NATO base in Turkey which the US uses. As the US continues with its war against ISIL, it needs to have that presence in Turkey and it needs those close ties with this very important ally,” Eastabrook added.

“This [diplomatic tension] has repercussions throughout Europe and the Middle East, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days,” she added.

KVS 48th National sports meet ends, Bengaluru region emerge champions

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Bengaluru: Sincerity and dedication are the keys to excel in the field of sports, said GK Srivastava, IAS Additional Commissioner of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, New Delhi.He was speaking at the closing ceremony of the 48th KVS National Sports Meet for girls at Sree Kanteerva Stadium on Sunday. He said KVS has provided the finest platform for its students to take advantage and utilise the opportunity to become good sportspersons.

Over 3,500 girl’s students of Kendriya Vidyalayas from across the country participated
in the four-day event held at various Kendriya Vidyalayas in the city.

Arjuna Awardee and former national badminton champion U Vimal Kumar, who was the guest of honour at the closing ceremony, said he was delighted to see such a big gathering of girl athletes. It looks as though a mini India has gathered at the stadium. He asked the students to work hard and at the same time not neglect their studies. The combination of sports and education can make best sportspersons, SriKumar said.

P Deva Kumar, deputy commissioner, KVS, Bengaluru region said the sports meet of the KVS went on well and thanked all the participants for displaying sportsmanship during this grand sporting event. Overall championship trophy was bagged by Bengaluru region with120 points followed by Delhi region with 96 points. Ernakulum region won the best overall marchpast trophy.

Region wise final winners:

Archery: Gurugram, Athletics: Delhi, Judu: Delhi,
Lawn Tennis: Chennai, Swimming: Bengaluru, Table Tennis: Guwahati, Taekwondo: Bengaluru, Yoga: Delhi, Basketball: Bhopal, Handball: Jabalpur, Hockey: Lucknow, Kabbadi: Jammu,
Khokho: Bengaluru, Volley Ball: Gurugram,
Badminton: Tinsukia

Chennithala demands probe into spike in Amit Shah’s son’s business wealth

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Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party in Kerala on Monday demanded a comprehensive probe into allegations of phenomenal rise in the business owned by Jay Shah, son of BJP national president Amit Shah.

Leader of Opposition and Congress veteran Ramesh Chennithala in a press release said that the “fake image of the stand taken by the BJP against corruption has fallen flat with the revelation of the huge growth achieved by the business owned by the junior Shah”.

“In a matter of three years after the Narendra Modi government, when the country’s economy went into a crisis, the phenomenal growth of the business of Amit Shah’s son speaks volumes of the things that are happening. While the ordinary man was hit badly on account of demonetisation, the corporates had a field day. Now that the allegations have surfaced, the BJP has been caught on the back foot and the need of the hour is for a comprehensive probe into these allegations,” said Chennithala.

Chennithala’s demand has come at a time when the Kerala unit of the BJP led by state president Kummanem Rajasekheran is on a state-wide padyatra against the CPI-M. The yatra, which began on October 3 and will reach here on October 17, is being participated by every top national leader of the party besides Union Ministers.

The BJP has termed the media report on Jay Shah’s alleged rise in wealth as “malicious and defamatory” and is going ahead with filing a defamation suit against it.

(IANS)

Will pay half to avoid fare hike, let us take over Delhi Metro: Arvind Kejriwal to Centre

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New Delhi: Amid a face-off with the Centre over a proposed metro fare hike, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has offered to take over the Delhi Metro claiming to make it more efficient and said the Aam Aadmi Party government was ready to provide half the funds needed to meet the gap in its finances for three months.

In a letter to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Mr Kejriwal said the Centre bore the entire loss of Kolkata Metro and there should be no difficulty if it provided half the funds in the case of Delhi.

Mr Puri had on Friday told the Delhi government it would need to pay Rs. 3,000 crore annually for five years if it wanted to stop fare hikes on the Delhi Metro.

Arvind Kejriwal said Mr Puri’s contention that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was bound to follow the Fare Fixation Committee’s recommendations seemed “untenable”.

Citing Section 86 of the DMRC Act, he said it was the Centre which had set up the fourth Fare Fixation Committee after a lapse of seven years. Therefore, the Union minister’s contention that the central government was “powerless” in respect of fare fixation was “flawed”.

The Fare Fixation Committee-recommended fare hike, a second in seven months, will come into effect on October 10.

Mr Kejriwal said the AAP government was confident it would be able to fund the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation by improving its efficiency rather than imposing fare hikes.

“As for your suggestion regarding a grant to the DMRC (Delhi Metro) for meeting the gap in their finances, my government is willing to bear half the grant if only a matching grant is provided by the central government.”

“As you know, the central government and the Delhi government are 50-50 owners of the DMRC (Delhi Metro) and its equity etc. have been shared in this proportion all along,” Mr Kejriwal said in his letter.

“Let an assessment be made of the financial gap likely to be created on account of the postponement of the second fare hike and we will be able to bear half of it,” he said.

Sources in the Delhi government said that the chief minister offered to provide on a short-term basis, half the funds the DMRC (Delhi Metro) needed to meet the gap in its finances so that another Fare Fixation Committee could be set up to recommend fresh fares.

Besides cooperative federalism, the point remains that the Centre and Delhi government are equal partners in the DMRC, Mr Kejriwal said. “From the recent developments, it is becoming evident that the relationship is not one of equal partners since what the Delhi government proposes is often summarily disposed by the Cental government.”

“If the Central government agrees, Delhi government would be willing to take over the DMRC (Delhi Metro),” he said.

Fares will go up by a maximum of Rs. 10 after the latest hike comes into effect.

The existing fare structure is: up to 2 kms — Rs. 10, 2-5 kms — Rs. 15, 5-12 kms — Rs. 20, 12-21 kms — Rs. 30, 21-32 kms — Rs. 40 and for journeys beyond 32 kms — Rs. 50.

From October 10, for a distance of up to two kilometres, the fare will remain Rs. 10, but for a distance between two and five kilometres, it will go up from Rs. 15 to Rs. 20. For the subsequent slabs, it will go up by Rs. 10 each, which means the maximum fare will be Rs. 60.

Delhi Metro managing director Mangu Singh also met the chief minister at his residence today. It was immediately not known as to what transpired at the meeting.

(PTI)

No firecrackers for Delhi-NCR during Diwali: SC

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that there will be no sale of firecrackers during Diwali, as it restored a November 2016 order banning the sale and stocking of firecrackers in Delhi and National Capital Region.

A bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri, while restoring the order, said: “We should see at least in one Diwali the impact of a cracker-free festivity.”

However, the court said that the September 12, 2017 order lifting the ban on the sale and stocking of firecrackers in Delhi NCR will be back into effect from November 1.

(IANS)

Why was Jay Shah’s company shut down ahead of demonetisation, asks Congress

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New Delhi: The Congress on Monday demanded to know why Temple Enterprises, a firm owned by BJP chief Amit Shahs son Jay Shah, shut down four weeks before the November 8 demonetisation, and demanded the setting up of an inquiry commission of two sitting judges of the Supreme Court to look into alleged irregularities in the companies owned by the junior Shah.

“We are not levelling any allegations (of criminality) in this. But it should be made public which commodities were exported/imported by Jay Shah’s firm Temple Enterprises and to which countries so that they earned Rs 51 crore from foreign countries and their turnover swelled by 16,000 times,” Congress leader and former Union Minister Anand Sharma said.

“And after showing a sudden spike of 16,000 times in its turnover, why did the company suddenly shut down just ahead of demonetisation?” Sharma said.

Temple Enterprise Private Limited, in which Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah was a director, was incorporated on August 23, 2004.

On Sunday, Congress leader Kapil Sibal said at a media briefing that Temple Enterprises had recorded losses in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 of Rs 6,230 and Rs 1,724, respectively but showed a profit of about Rs 18,000 in 2014-15.

But the following year (in 2015-16), the company’s turnover jumped to Rs 80 crore, he said.

“This is beyond comprehension as to why persons who had the potential to raise their company’s turnover 16,000 times in a year, and who got Rs 51 crore from foreign countries, would suddenly decide to shut down the company,” Sharma said.

He said if any other company would have shown such hike in turnover, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department would have landed at their door to find out how it happened.

The Congress also demanded to know how many firms, especially those without any prior experience or core competence in renewable energy, were extended loans of Rs 10 crore or above by government-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Authority (IREDA).

The IREDA, a PSU under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, had extended a loan of Rs 10.35 crore to Kusum Finserve, a company owned by Jay Shah that dealt in shares and stocks before getting a contract to build a 2.1 MW windmill in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh.

“What is the status of that windmill as of now. Does a windmill exist at the site?” Sharma said.

“We request the Prime Minister to break his silence over this issue and constitute an inquiry commission consisting of two sitting judges of the Supreme Court to look into the matter. If there is no irregularity, let it come into the public domain,” the Congress leader said.

Sharma also alleged that the loan of Rs 25 crore given by Kalupur Cooperative Bank to Kusum Finserve against a security of Rs 7 crore was not in conformity with the RBI guidelines.

(IANS)

16 kids die at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College in last 24 hours

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Lucknow: Sixteen children, including ten infants, died at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur during the last 24 hours, authorities said on Monday.

Of the children who died, ten were admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) while six were in the paediatric ICU.

According to reports, 20 patients — including six from Deoria, two from Kushinagar, four each from Gorakhpur and Maharajganj, and one patient each from Basti and Balrampur — afflicted with encephalitis have been admitted to the hospital in the last 24 hours.

As many as three dozen patients, mostly affected by encephalitis, were being treated at BRD Medical College. Five patients from Bihar were also being treated there, doctors said.

Officials said that 1,470 patients have been admitted to the BRD Medical College since January this year, adding that a total of 310 have died.

The BRD Medical College hit the headlines earlier in August when 63 children, including infants, died within a span of one week due to disruption of oxygen supply by the vendor.

The FIR was lodged against nine people, including the owner of the oxygen supplying company and the principal of BRD Medical College.

Doctors said the latest deaths did not occur due to lack of oxygen, treatment or anything else but the fact that they were brought to the hospital in a very critical condition.

(IANS)

Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel Literature Prize

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Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for works including Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, wins prestigious prize.

by Al Jazeera

The 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

Born in Japan in 1954, the author’s family moved to England when he was five years old.

The writer, “in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”, said the Nobel Prize committee in a statement on Thursday.

He is best known for the dystopian work Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, a book Ishiguro has said he wrote in just four weeks.

The 62-year-old also writes screenplays.

Ishiguro studied at the University of Kent, receiving an undergraduate degree in English and Philosophy and later received a Master’s degree from the University of East Anglia in Creative Writing.

His latest book, The Buried Giant, was published in 2015.

Social media users took to Twitter to congratulate Ishiguro on the high acclaim.

“Congrats to Kazuo Ishiguro on the Nobel! REMAINS OF THE DAY was perfect, emotionally, politically, structurally. Makes me burn with envy,” tweeted author Raj Balasubramanyam.

“Kazuo Ishiguro! The Nobel committee somewhat begins to redeem itself after last year’s blooper,” said writer and journalist Abubakar A Ibrahim, in an apparent dig at the 2016 decision to award Bob Dylan.

Sri Lanka batsman Gunathilaka suspended for six games

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Danushka Gunathilaka of Sri Lanka (Photo: Bipin Patel/IANS)

Colombo: Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Thursday announced the suspension of batsman Danushka Gunathilaka for six international matches together with a 20 per cent fine of his applicable annual contract fee for misconduct and breach of contract.

According to a SLC statement, the 26-year-old violated Section 30 (a-ii ) and 30 (b) of its Constitution of clauses 3.1.2, 3.1.9, 3.3.1, and 3.4 of his contract with Sri Lanka Cricket during the series against India last month.

According to a report on the espncricinfo website, Gunathilaka missed a training session, turned up for a match without his gear, and was generally found to have had an indifferent attitude towards training during the series.

“The suspension is effective September 30, 2017, and is issued by the Executive Committee by the powers vested in it vide Section 30 (c) of the SLC Constitution and Clause 10. 3 of the contract entered into with the said player,” the statement read.

Gunathilaka has pleaded guilty to the charges.

(IANS)

Gujarat HC rejects Zakia Jafri’s plea against SIT clean chit to Modi

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Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected the plea of Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain former MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top officials in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The court rejected Zakia Jafri’s plea on allegations of “a larger conspiracy” behind the riots.

Ehsan Jafri, a Congress leader, was one of the 69 people killed when a large mob attacked Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

(IANS)

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