CANBERRA: A record 13 women, including the first female Muslim, were sworn in as ministers in Australia’s new government on Wednesday.

The ceremony conducted by Governor-General David Hurley in the capital, Canberra, came 11 days after new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese led the center-left Labor Party to an election victory over the incumbent conservatives.

“Proud to lead an inclusive government that is as diverse as Australia itself,” Albanese wrote on Twitter. “Welcome to all these new Labor members.”

Anne Aly was sworn in as Australia’s first female Muslim minister while Ed Husic became the first Muslim to serve in Cabinet

Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong were sworn in early last week so they could fly to Tokyo for a summit with President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Of the 30 ministers appointed to the new government, nearly half are women. Women also hold a record 10 spots out of 23 in core Cabinet roles. With some votes still to be counted from last month’s election, the Labor Party has secured enough seats to hold an outright majority in the 150-seat House.

Albanese’s Cabinet includes some new faces as well as some lawmakers who served in the previous Labor government that last held power nine years ago.

“We have an overflow of talent on our side of the parliament,” Albanese said, adding that “it’s the most experienced incoming Labor government in our history since federation.”

Albanese has been getting support from an unusual source: British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg.

Bragg wrote on Twitter that he’d awoken to find that “the new prime minister of Australia had quoted my lyrics in his first press conference.”  Bragg went on to say he wasn’t surprised as he’s been friends with Albanese for more than 20 years after they met at a theater in Sydney and bonded over a shared love of music and compassionate politics.

“The challenges he faces are daunting and I don’t envy him his success,” Bragg wrote. “Some of us just sing about making the world a better place ” he now has the responsibility of delivering on that promise.

LUCKNOW: A local court on Tuesday said that if the Hindu parties want to move an application for appointment of a commission to survey the Tilewali Masjid here, they may approach the civil judge before whom the regular suit pertaining to the issue is already pending.

The order came from the district court while hearing a civil revision petition by the Muslim side that challenged the order passed on September 25, 2017 by the civil judge declining to reject the regular suit entirely.

The regular suit was filed by Lord Shesh Nagesh Tileshwar Mahadev in the court of civil judge (junior division) South in the state capital in 2013.

In the suit, it is claimed that there is a temple of Lord Shesh Nagesh at Tilewali Masjid in Lucknow and it was being damaged by the defendants.

The plaintiff had demanded ownership right on the premises and also permission to offer prayers at the site.

When the regular suit was filed, it was opposed by the Muslim side which claimed that the suit was time-barred.

After hearing the parties, the civil judge declined to reject the entire suit on September 25, 2017.

Maulana Syed Shah Fazlur Rahman then moved the district judge on October 11, 2017 filing a civil revision against the order.

Meanwhile, the Hindu parties moved an application before the district judge seeking the appointment of a Commission to survey the premises, so that the site could be protected.

Additional District Judge Kalpana said that the application could be filed before the civil judge because the regular suit is still pending before it.

The ADJ, however, fixed July 2 as the next date for hearing the revision petition.

On the other hand, a fresh revision petition has been filed in a district court in Mathura urging it to direct a survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque and verify the claims of signs of a temple there.

“Additional District Judge Sanjay Chaudhary has set July 8 for the disposal of a revision application,” district government counsel Sanjai Gaur said on Tuesday.

Last week, Additional District Judge Sanjai Chaudhari, while disposing of a similar application, had directed a lower court to speedily decide the plea for appointing a court commissioner to survey the Shahi Idgah mosque and verify the claims of temple signs there.

The revision applications came after the lower court of civil judge (senior division), which is hearing a bunch of suits for the removal of Shahi Idgah Masjid from near the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple, on May 23 fixed the next hearing on July 1 on their application for appointing the survey commissioner.

The petitioners have been seeking an urgent order while expressing apprehension that the evidence of the temple structure may be damaged or destroyed.

The judge had decided to hear the matter on the reopening of courts after the summer vacation, instead of passing an order, the counsel for petitioner Dinesh Chandra Sharma, who has now moved the district court, said.

Sharma, treasurer of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, is among those who have filed the suits.

The petitioners had claimed in the earlier application that temple signs are present in the mosque, and had also expressed apprehension that the same (marks) may be disfigured, or destroyed by the defendant of the suit, Sharma said.

It has been requested in the revision application to cancel the order of the lower court and pass an order for the survey, the counsel for the petitioner said.

The lower court is hearing a bunch of suits for the removal of Shahi Idgah Masjid from near the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in the Katra Keshav Dev Temple complex and subsequent interim applications for appointing a court commissioner to survey the mosque.

The petitioners have sought the mosque’s survey, claiming the existence of several signs of temples, like those of “om, swastika and lotus” inside it besides its alleged “Hindu architecture”.

The pleas have been filed by deity Thakur Keshav Dev Ji Maharaj virajman (in-situ) in its capacity as a juristic person, represented by advocates Mahendra Pratap Singh and Rajendra Maheshwari as its “next friend”, among others.

The other petitioners included United Hindu Front founder Jai Bhagwan Goyal, a Delhi resident, and Vrindavan’s Dharm Raksha Sangh president Saurabh Gaur.

The defendants are secretary Intezamia Committee Shahi Masjid Idgah, Mathura, chairman of UP Sunni Central Waqf Board Lucknow, managing trustee of Sri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan Mathura and secretary of Sri Krishna Janmabhumi Trust, Mathura.

BENGALURU: With the India Meteorological Department confirming the arrival of the Southwest Monsoon in Karnataka on Tuesday, the government said it has already prepared a checklist to deal with emergencies. Karnataka, which falls under the South Peninsula region, is likely to witness “normal to above normal” rainfall, which is about 82 per cent.

I have already given a checklist to deputy commissioners, identified vulnerable areas, and formulated action plans at the gram panchayat level,” Revenue Secretary TK Anil Kumar said. With the state likely to witness good rainfall this season, Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) Commissioner Manoj Rajan has predicted that districts in North Karnataka are likely to have above normal rain, and the upper catchment areas of Krishna and Bheema river basins, falling in Maharashtra, will also have above normal rain.

ain likely to be above normal in  Telangana: IMD

Hyderabad: As monsoon is set to arrive in Telangana, India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a long range forecast stating that southwest monsoon 2022 is going to be above normal in most parts of the State this season. The ongoing La Nina conditions from the previous year were slightly weakened in January and subsequently in this February, but again started strengthening from March 2022 onwards.

COLOMBO: Cash-strapped Sri Lanka saw its highest inflation on record for the eighth consecutive month in May, official data showed Wednesday, as the island nation grapples with its worst-ever economic crisis. 

The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) rose 39.1 percent year-on-year last month, up from 29.8 percent in April, according to the statistics department. Food inflation in Colombo came in at 57.4 percent, up from 46.6 percent in April. 

The price increases in May were yet to fully capture the sharp increases in fuel, one of the many vital commodities in scarce supply across the country.

Private economists say consumer prices are rising even faster than official records show, with one John Hopkins University analyst tracking March inflation at 133 percent — more than six times the official figure.

Sri Lanka’s import-dependent economy has been hammered by a critical foreign currency shortage, leading to months of acute shortages of food, medicines and other essentials. 

Faced with a huge cash crunch, the government on Tuesday raised taxes across the board by rolling back cuts ordered by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019. Weeks of protests outside the president’s seafront office have demanded his resignation over government mismanagement of the crisis.

Sri Lanka has defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt and is seeking international aid to revive its bankrupt economy, including from the International Monetary Fund.

The Kolkata-based Anthropological Survey of India (ANSI), which has, “of late”, expressed “disinclination” to proceed with the exercise to trace the genetic origins of early Indians because the issue is “politically loaded”, is also part of this project which was initially conceived in 2019. A budget of `10 crore has been earmarked for procuring the DNA profilers and the other related scientific gadgets, sources said. The aim, according to the ANSI, is to “develop a resource of cell lines and DNA samples that can be used to study DNA sequence polymorphism in contemporary Indian populations”.

More importantly, the ANSI seeks to “establish (the) Indian role in the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa” because “modern humans could have taken the ‘southern route of dispersal’, utilising the coastlines to travel from Africa, through Arabia, across the Indian subcontinent and then into South-East Asia and finally into Australia”. 

Secondly, the ANSI wants to understand the genetic diversity of Indian populations among various ethnic groups in different regions of India based on direct re-sequencing of haploid genomes. By its own admission, under this project, the ANSI has studied 75 communities comprising 7,807 blood samples from different parts of the country. These communities include the Jarawa, Nicobarese, Andh, Kathodi, Madia, Malpaharia, Munda, Bhoi Khasi, Nihal, Toto, Dirang Monpa, Paitei, Lepcha and a host of others

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the country’s growth rate is weakening and there is no sign of the promised “recovery”.

“The NSO figures are out: the most striking graph is the quarterly growth rates in 2021-22 of 20.1, 8.4, 5.4 and 4.1 per cent.”

“That graph tells all. The growth rate is weakening with every quarter and there is no sign of the promised ‘recovery’,” Chidambaram said on Twitter.

The former finance minister said the GDP in 2021-22 is barely above the level achieved in 2019-20.

“That means that after you two years, India’s economy is at about the same level as it was on 31-3-2020,” he added.

JAIPUR: Ten of 13 independent MLAs in Rajasthan met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Congress candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections here on Tuesday night.

State Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra and party candidates Mukul Wasnik, Pramod Tiwari and Randeep Singh Surjewal were present on the occasion.

The elections to four seats of the Rajya Sabha in Rajasthan will take place on June 10.

The Congress has fielded three candidates and the BJP one.

Backed by the BJP, media baron Subhash Chandra filed his nomination for the elections to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, a move that could scuttle the Congress chances of winning a third seat from Rajasthan.

Essel Group chairman Chandra is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Haryana and his term is going to expire on August 1.

The filing of papers by him as an independent prompted Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to allege that the BJP wants to indulge in horse trading.

The ruling Congress in Rajasthan with its 108 MLAs in the state Assembly is set to win two of the four seats going to the elections.

After winning two seats, the Congress will have 26 surplus votes, 15 short of the required 41 to win the third seat.

On the other hand, the BJP has 71 MLAs in the state Assembly and set to win one seat, after which it will be left with 30 surplus votes.

The Congress is expecting support of independent MLAs and legislators of other parties to win the third seat.

NEW DELHI: The condition of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who is admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, is “perfectly stable”, hospital sources said on Tuesday.

He was admitted to the Medicine Department of the facility on Sunday for a routine medical check-up.

His condition is perfectly stable, hospital sources said, amid reports in a section of the media that his condition was not good.

Khan was released from the Sitapur Jail in Uttar Pradesh on May 20, a day after the Supreme Court had granted him interim bail in a cheating case.