Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in over 400 WhatsApp messages that he sent to a fellow Saudi exile before he was murdered in October, described Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as a “beast” and a “pac-man” who would devour all in his path, even his supporters, a media report said.

Khashoggi had sent the texts to Montreal-based activist Omar Abdulaziz, the CNN report said on Monday.

The messages shared by Abdulaziz, which include voice recordings, photos and videos, paint a picture of a man deeply troubled by what he regarded as the petulance of the Crown Prince.

“The more victims he eats, the more he wants,” says Khashoggi in one message sent in May, just after a group of Saudi activists had been rounded up.

“I will not be surprised if the oppression will reach even those who are cheering him on.”

In almost daily exchanges between October 2017 and August 2018, Khashoggi and Abdulaziz conceived plans to form an electronic army to engage young Saudis back home and debunk state propaganda on social media, leveraging Khashoggi’s establishment profile and the 27-year-old Abdulaziz’s 340,000-strong Twitter following.

“(Jamal]) believed that MBS (the Crown Prince) is the issue, is the problem and he said this kid should be stopped,” Abdulaziz said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

But in August, when he believed their conversations may have been intercepted by Saudi authorities, a sense of foreboding descends over Khashoggi.

“God help us,” he wrote.

Two months later, he was dead.

Abdulaziz on Sunday launched a lawsuit against an Israeli company that invented the software he believes was used to hack his phone.

“The hacking of my phone played a major role in what happened to Jamal, I am really sorry to say,” Abdelaziz told CNN. “The guilt is killing me.”

Abdulaziz began speaking out against the Saudi regime as a college student in Canada. His pointed criticisms of government policies drew the attention of the Saudi state, which cancelled his university scholarship.

Canada granted him asylum in 2014 and made him a permanent resident three years later.

Abdulaziz first spoke publicly about his contact with Khashoggi last month after researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab reported his phone had been hacked by military-grade spyware.

IANS

 Taking a dig at Narendra Modi over the fall in crop prices, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the Prime Minister was creating two Indias — one for corporates and the other for farmers.

“Modiji is creating two Indias. One India is of Anil Ambani, in which Modi gives Rs 30,000 crore Rafale contract though they have no experience of building aircraft. The other is of farmers in which just Rs 1,040 is given for 750 kg of onion that is cultivated after four months of hard work,” Gandhi tweeted.

A farmer from Maharashtra who received Rs 1,064 for selling 750 kg of onions sent the amount to Modi a few days ago as a mark of protest.

On Friday, Gandhi participated in a protest march organised by farmer organisations in Delhi for loan waiver and remunerative crop prices.

IANS

 With the Train 18 speeding up to 180 kmph between Kota junction and Kurlasi station during a trial on Sunday, efforts are on to launch the first indigenously-built Trainset on December 25 between New Delhi and Varanasi.

“Christmas Day also happens to be the birthday of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and it would be a tribute to the great statesman if we manage to launch the next-generation train on that day,” a senior railway official told IANS.

Since the input cost of the Rs 100-crore train is high, the fare structure will be also be higher than the normal fare.

However, the official added that the decision on its launch date and fare were yet to be taken as the trial was not yet complete.

According to the tentative plan, the train will start from New Delhi station at 6 a.m. and is expected to reach Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, at 2 p.m.

For the return journey, the train will start at 2.30 p.m., from Varanasi and reach the national capital at 10.30 p.m.

It was a thrilling experience onboard Train 18 during the various trials on Sunday — including a speed run on a straight track, speed test on one degree curve at 150 kmph, and two degree curve at 140 and 150 kmph — on the 113 km stretch from Kota to Kurlasi under the watchful eyes senior railway officials as well as those from the national transporter’s Research Design and Standards Organisation.

Ladoos were distributed in the train when it clocked 180 kmph. The first sweets were offered to loco pilot Padam Singh Gurjar and his assistant Onkar Yadav.

“We are quite excited to be part of this great occasion,” Padam Singh told IANS after having the sweet.

“I feel proud to be part of this historic trial,” added Yadav.

It was a smooth ride for those inside — occupying rotating seats to match the direction of the train – as the Train 18 became the first train to touch such high speed on the Indian rail network.

The train started its trial run at 9.30 a.m., from Kota, and returned to the junction at 6 p.m., after negotiating several rivers, bridges and curves.

The Trainset does not require a locomotive as it is a self-propelled on electric traction, like metro trains.

Now the Trainset has to undergo what is called a long confirmatory run and also test its emergency braking distance before it gets a clearance from the Commissioner, Railway Safety (CRS), for commercial operations to commence.

“We are expecting the trials to be over in a week and after that we will seek CRS clearance,” said the official.

Although the speed touched 180 kmph during Sunday’s trial run, the Train-18 will only be allowed to run at a maximum speed of 160 kmph in its commercial operations.

After the successful completion of 115 kmph test run on the Bareli-Moradabad section last week, the next-generation train — indigenously developed at Chennai’s Integral Coach Factory — is required to undergo the 180 kmph trial run here till December 4.

Equipped with world class facilities, the Rs 100 crore Trainset aims to take passenger-comfort to a new level with onboard WiFi, a GPS-based information system, touch-free bio-vacuum toilets, LED lighting, mobile charging points, and a climate control system that adjusts the temperature according to occupancy and weather.

The 16-coach train will have two executive compartments with 52 seats each, and trailer coaches will have 78 seats each.

IANS

Terrorism is the biggest stumbling block to world peace, stability and progress and the magnitude of threat multiply when it is state-sponsored, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said on Saturday.

Addressing the Asia-Pacific Summit-2018 here, he said that India has been a victim of state-sponsored terrorism for a long time and emphasised that terrorism or terror groups should not be glorified.

The four-day summit, on the theme “Addressing Critical Challenges of Our Time: Independence, Mutual Prosperity and Universal Values”, has been organised by the South Korea-based Universal Peace Federation and supported by the Government of Nepal.

“Terrorism has emerged as a biggest challenge in today’s world, which does not makes any distinction between the borders, gender or religions,” he said at the conference being attended by leaders from the Asia-Pacific region, including India, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

“In the recent times, the world has become aware about the terrorism and steps have been taken in the recent times to break the network of terror-funding, but an international law on terrorism is to be made,” Gowda said.

“There is need for an international to check spread of terrorism. A proposal to make a law against terrorism is yet to be passed in the United Nations, as the member states have failed to reach a consensus on the definition of terrorism,” he added.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, addressing the summit, said he agrees with what former Indian prime minister has said that “there is no good or bad terrorism.”

He claimed that Pakistan is also affected by terrorism for a very long time, as many people came to his country during the Afghan war as a refugee and were still living in the country.

He said during his regime, action was taken against terrorism, as many innocent people were killed in terror attacks and also Pakistan’s economy was affected.

Highlighting the importance of ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he said this corridor not exclusive which will increase connectivity in the region.

The USD 60 billion CPEC is part of China’s multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes.

India is opposed to the BRI as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Gilani also alleged that misinformation was being spread about the CPEC in the region when it is being promoted as part of the projects like development of ports, establishment of special economic zones and setting up of other basic infrastructure needed for development.

Meanwhile, addressing the summit, Myanmar’s special counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, called for cooperation between nations to seek peace and mutual prosperity.

In her keynote address, she said, the world today is facing the dangers of terrorism, poverty, natural calamity, and conflict.

“Only by promoting a culture of peace in this world of interdependence will it be possible to create harmony between diverse countries and societies,” she said.

“At the basis of conflict is ill-will which seeks to hurt and to destroy and thus to open the way to conflict, which in turn spews out an ever-renewing cycle of hate and fear, snuffing out the light of peace,” Suu Kyi, who is facing international criticism for her alleged inaction amidst the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, said.

PTI

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday told the people of Telangana that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi are all “alike” and urged the voters not to be fooled by the lot in the upcoming Assembly polls on December 7.

Gandhi said that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) are the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘B’ and ‘C’ team, respectively.

“TRS is the BJP’s ‘B’ team and KCR operates as Modi’s Telangana Rubber Stamp. Owaisi’s AIMIM is the BJP’s ‘C’ team, whose role is to split the anti-BJP or KCR vote.

“Great people of Telangana, Modi, KCR and Owaisi are one. They speak in twisted tongues. Do not be fooled by them,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

Earlier in the day, the Congress chief said: “Telangana was born of idealism and great dreams. But, four years of TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) or BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) incompetence, arrogance and corruption has made the people cynical.”

“I am in Telangana today to address public meetings and to assure the great people of this state that the Congress will help fulfil their dreams.”

There are two more days left for campaigning to end in Telangana.

Elections to the 119-member Assembly are scheduled for Friday. Counting of votes will take place on December 11.

IANS

Democrat Kamala Harris, the first Indian-American to serve in the US Senate, said she will make a decision about a potential 2020 presidential bid during the upcoming holiday season.

“It will ultimately be a family decision,” Harris, who represents the state of California, told MSNBC during an event in San Francisco.

“And over the holiday, I will make that decision with my family.”

Harris, 54, was elected to the Senate in 2016.

She ranked fifth in a November poll of Democratic voters’ preferred nominee to take on President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, Politico news reported on Sunday.

Harris has sent $25,000 to the Democratic parties in four early nominating states: Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada and New Hampshire.

In October, she visited Iowa, South Carolina and Wisconsin to campaign for Democratic candidates ahead of the midterm elections.

IANS

Former MP and actress Ramya has suddenly vacated her rented house in Vidyanagar of Mandhya district on late Sunday night.

Ramya’s close aide loaded her belongings in two trucks bearing Kerala registration number and shifted it to an unknown place informed sources. Ramya had been renting in Vidyanagar for many years and her vacating the house suddenly have spread speculations that Ramya might be contesting for the forthcoming elections from another constituency.

Recently, Ramya had faced a lot of criticism from Ambareesh’s fans for failing to pay homage to her mentor Ambareesh. Ambareesh was the one who encouraged Ramya to enter into politics but  Ramya did not attend his funeral which has enraged the rebel stars fans. They had expressed their anger by raising slogans against her.

PTI

“No Congress MLA or leader has complained against me to the party high command” claimed former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday, December 2.

Addressing presspersons here Siddaramaiah blamed that media is simply creating rumours that few Congress leaders, who are feeling let down by the coalition government have complained against him to the party high command.

He further added that he knows his party member very well and expressed that no one has any kind of grudge against him with regard to any issue.

Siddaramaiah questioned that why can’t the city corporations run Indira canteens when they are receiving funds from the state government. The government has no dearth of funds for running Indira canteens, BJP party is simply creating issues with this regard, he added.

PTI

Taking strong objection to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “Lord Hanuman is Dalit” remark, state minister Om Prakash Rajbhar said it was wrong to divide Gods into castes.

Addressing a public meeting in Shamli district on Sunday, the backward classes welfare minister criticised his own government for starting a controversy with such statements.

It is wrong to divide Gods into castes and due to this controversy, Dalit community is demanding to takeover Hanuman temples, he said.

While addressing a rally in Rajasthan’s Alwar district last week, Adityanath had said, “Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit. ‘Bajrang Bali’ worked to unite all Indian communities, from north to south and east to west”.

Reacting to the remarks, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar had Sunday said members of the community should take over all Hanuman temples in the country and appoint Dalits as priests there.

Rajbhar also hit out at the state government for not providing 27 per cent reservation to the Kashyap community.

PTI

Five people were killed and 11 others injured on Monday when a truck rammed into a tractor carrying pilgrims in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district, police said

The accident took place on the highway near Boodha village.

According to the police, the pilgrims were on the way to a fair in Ratangarh, which draws people from across the region.

All the victims were from Bhajanpura village.

Senior police official Ashok Verma said of the 11 injured, five were in critical condition.

IANS