The Castro family has ruled the socialist nation since a revolution ushered in the rule of Fidel Castro in 1959 [AP]

by Al Jazeera

Cuba will open a session of its National Assembly on Wednesday that will mark the end of an era in the socialist nation.

President Raul Castro, 86, is expected to step down after two five-year terms during the assembly, marking the completion of Castro rule on the socialist nation.

First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel is expected to assume the position of Cuba’s president as the handpicked successor after a party vote on Thursday.

The Castro family has ruled the socialist nation since a revolution ushered in the rule of Fidel Castro in 1959.

The expected transfer of power comes at a precarious time in Cuba’s history. Cuban allies in Latin America have been voted out of government positions across the region in recent years.

A detente between the US and Cuba, longtime adversaries, has slowed after right-wing Donald Trump became president in 2017.

Cuba is also facing economic difficulties after Castro initiated market-style reforms that were agreed to in 2011. Though the reforms caused a boom in the Cuban economy, they have since slowed.

“Despite the errors and insufficiencies recognised in this plenary, the situation is more favourable than a few years ago,” Castro, 86, was quoted as saying by party newspaper Granma.

Political campaigning is outlawed in Cuba, so little is known about Diaz-Canel’s plans to navigate these challenges.

However, there is reason to believe the presumed president will continue with liberalising social policies, given his past support for LGBT rights, expanded internet access and loosening government controls on media.

Still, Diaz-Canel is not known to support changing Cuba’s government from the one-party system in place since the revolution, a demand from ant-Castro politicians in Washington.

According to Ted Piccone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, the Trump administration will most likely “double down” on its “embrace of punitive regime change” in Cuba after Diaz-Canel assumes power.

Castro will remain the head of the ruling Communist Party until 2021 and is expected to continue to play a big role in policy decisions.

Veteran journalist T.V.R. Shenoy passed away at a private hospital here on Tuesday night, family sources said. He was 77.
He is survived by his wife Sarojam and daughter Sujatha and son Ajith.

His body will be flown to Delhi, where the last rites would be performed.

Conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2003, he had been working as a journalist in Delhi for a long time.

Hailing from Cherai in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, Shenoy began his career with Indian Express and in 1965, joined the Delhi bureau of Malayala Manorama and served with them for well over a quarter of a century.

He was a former Editor of The Week magazine and Sunday Mail and wrote on diverse issues as a columnist.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while condoling the death of Shenoy, remarked that he was the foremost Malayali journalist in the country.

“On account of his five decade professional career happening in Delhi, he was often the ‘ambassador’ of Kerala in Delhi,” he said, adding that while people differed with him on political aspects of his writings, he was always highly-respected by all.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that he has lost an “elder brother” as he, while being an MP, always used to discuss various issues with Shenoy, who was a friend, philosopher and guide to him.

“Shenoy was a towering journalist and his loss is going to be a loss for journalism,” he added.

(IANS)

Malaysian Investment Development Authority Mumbai had an Interactive Meeting with Members of FKCCI at Cabinet Hall, FKCCI.
Mr. Sudhakar S Shetty, Sr.Vice-President, welcoming Mr.Roswaidin Mohd. Zain, Consul General, Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) said there are good opportunities for our businessmen to invest in Malaysia, as it is hub for ASEAN Countries, with the increase in Trade between India and ASEAN Countries. Malaysia is a good option.

In their presentation Mr. Roswaidin Mohd. Zain stated India has good opportunities in Electrical, Electronics, Chemical, Medical, Tourism, IT etc., Malaysia has population of 32 million. The Malaysian Economy is very open and liberal for business. The Government is very pro-active and it takes the opinion of the Chambers in formulating the policies. India is the 9th largest Trading Partner with Malaysia.

During the Interaction with the members, he explained that Malaysia allows 100% repatriation of profits and there is no limit on the investment to be made. The work permits are allowed based on the project which is set-up in Malaysia. Already many Indian companies have set-up offices in Malaysia. It is easy to start business in Malaysia.

The programme was moderated by Mr.D. Suresh Kumar, Chairman, International Business Committee, Mr. C.R. Janardhana, Vice-President, FKCCI proposed Vote of Thanks, Mr. Vivek Kudtarkar, Investment Officer, MIDA coordinated the visit.

Floral tributes being paid at Babasaheb’s Statue in the Parliament House Complex

The grateful Nation is remembering Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar on his 127th birth anniversary on Saturday (April 14).

Floral tributes is being paid at Babasaheb’s Statue in the Parliament House Complex this morning.

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, chief architect of the Constitution of India, was born on 14th April, 1891 at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, which is now known as Dr Ambedkar Nagar. He was also the first law minister of India.

Earlier, on the eve of Babasaheb’s birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the Dr. Ambedkar National Memorial to the nation on Friday.

Speaking at the function in New Delhi, Modi said, the memorial is a tribute to Baba Saheb Ambedkar. He said, his government is following the path shown by Baba Saheb and moving ahead with the mantra of Sabka Saath – Sabka Vikas to ensure that the benefits of development reach all section of society.

The Prime Minister said, the government will not allow dilution of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He said, it is his government which has strengthened this act to prevent atrocities against Dalits. The Prime Minister said, special courts are being set up for urgent hearing of cases involving atrocities on SCs and STs.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Kailash Satyarthi, along with the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery will launch a report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) aimed at eliminating forced labour, human trafficking, modern slavery and child labour.

“This is one of a series of five public events relating to key themes of human rights and good governance that CHRI is running on the sidelines of the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here,” CHRI Director Sanjoy Hazarika said in a statement.

“Our events highlight the need to not just challenge stakeholders to uphold the law but the need for civil society groups to develop strong partnerships with media, academia and other groups and engage with governments to ensure that the changes sought are sustainable and aren’t pushed under the carpet,” he said.

The SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) 8.7 report — ‘Creating an Effective Coalition to Achieve SDG 8.7’ — that makes specific recommendations to heads of governments will be launched on April 13 at the National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place here.

CHRI will convene a panel discussion after the release.

Experts in the panel include Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE QC, Roy Walmsley from World Prison Brief, Jago Russell from Fair Trials, Martin Schönteich from OSJI and Catherine Heard from the Institute of Criminal Policy Research.

Alison Hannah from Penal Reform International, Anika Holterhof from UNODC, Sanjoy Hazarika, International Director of CHRI and Madhurima Dhanuka, Programme Coordinator, Prison Reforms,

Kremlin said that Moscow supports serious initiatives on the Syrian crisis and other international issues [File: Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A Kremlin spokesperson has said that Russia does not engage in Twitter diplomacy after US President Donald Trump used the social media platform to warn Moscow of imminent military action in Syria, the Interfax news agency reported.

“We do not participate in Twitter diplomacy,” Dimitri Peskov was quoted as saying by Interfax.

“We support serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already fragile situation.”

Trump told Russia in an early morning tweet on Wednesday to prepare for “nice and new and ‘smart!'” missile attacks in Syria after an alleged chemical attack on the last rebel stronghold in the country.

In response to Trump’s tweet, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “Smart missiles should fly towards terrorists, not [Syria’s] lawful government, which has spent several years fighting against international terrorism on its territory.”

Peskov said his country, which has been involved in the Syrian conflict since 2015 and an ally to President Bashar al-Assad, is convinced that the allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta’s city of Douma is false and cannot be used as a pretext to undertake any military steps against Syria.

Peskov also expressed Moscow’s support for serious initiatives on the Syrian crisis and other international issues.

UK discusses options

In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May summoned her senior ministers to a special cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss options for joining the United States in possible military action against Syria.

May is prepared to take action against the Assad government in Syria without first seeking parliamentary consent, sources have told the BBC.

May recalled the ministers from their Easter holiday for a special cabinet meeting in Downing Street later on Thursday to discuss Britain’s response to what she has cast as a barbaric attack that cannot go unchallenged.

“The chemical weapons attack that took place on Saturday in Douma in Syria was a shocking and barbaric act,” May told reporters on Wednesday. “All the indications are that the Syrian regime was responsible.”

The Daily Telegraph newspaper said May had ordered British submarines to move within missile range of Syria in readiness for strikes against the Syrian military.

On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council rejected rival draft resolutions by the US and Russia to set up a new expert body to probe chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

The US proposal called for establishing an independent investigative mechanism to conduct on-site inspections to find out who used chemical weapons, while Russia proposed its own plan to send investigators to the site of the alleged attack.

Google on Wednesday paid a Doodle tribute to the legendary singer-actor Kundanlal Saigal, considered India’s first ‘superstar’, on his 114th birth anniversary.

The Doodle, designed by Vidhya Nagarajan depicts Saigal sporting a kurta and a ‘gamcha’, with his well-oiled shiny hair side-parted to the right — as was his style — his spiritually dreamy eyes gazing up as he croons a number on a traditional microphone, against the backdrop of the Calcutta (Kolkata) of the early 1900s with visible road traffic.

The Indian film industry was born in Kolkata, before it gradually shifted to Mumbai in the mid-1930s to grow into Bollywood — the world’s biggest in terms of the sheer number of films produced and released annually.

Born on April 11, 1904 in Jammu, Saigal used to be accompanied his devout mother Kesarbai to various religious functions, while his father Amarchard remained busy as a courtier with the Jammu and Kashmir Maharaja.

He would listen keenly to the bhajans, kirtans and devotional songs often accompanied by classical music and dance, and also occasionally acted as Sita during the Ramlila celebrations in Jammu.

Dropping out after early schooling, the young Saigal took up odd jobs and tried to indulge in his passion for singing whenever he got a chance. He then met a businessman, Mehrchand Jain, and they became longtime friends, attending music concerts (mehfils and mushairas). They then shifted to Calcutta and Jain coaxed Saigal to pursue his singing career seriously — a fact later gratefully acknowledged by the legendary singer.

In the early 1930s, a classical exponent and music director, Harishchandra Bali, gave him his first break in singing, introduced him to well-connected people and Saigal landed a singing contract with B.N. Sircar’s New Theatres company on a fabulous salary of Rs 200 per month.

At that time, the silent films era, cradled by the venerable Dhundiraj Govind alias Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913 with “Raja Harishchandra”, was setting with the country’s first talkie, “Alam Ara”, released in 1931.

With his powerful, canorous, nasal yet mellifluous voice, Saigal easily managed to carve a niche for himself at the dawn of the talkie era.

Around that time, the Indian Gramophone Co. released Bali’s album comprising a couple of Punjabi songs rendered by Saigal, but it was only in 1932 that he first acted and sang under the screen name of ‘Saigal Kashmiri’ for three films — “Mohabbat Ke Aansu”, “Subah Ka Sitara” and “Zinda Laash”.

Unfortunately, all bombed at the box office and in 1933, he changed to his original name, Kundanlal Saigal, under which he acted and sang for “Yahudi Ki Ladki” and “Puran Bhagat”.

A set of four bhajans by Saigal in “Puran Bhagat” became a national rage, and after his next venture, “Chandidas” (1934), a new superstar was born in the fledgling Indian film industry.

Saigal then played the career-defining role of an alcoholic torn between the love of his life and a nautch girl in “Devdas” (1935), based on the similarly titled immortal classic by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The film was directed by P. C. Barua.

Though Saigal picked up Bengali well during his sojourn in Calcutta, the country’s first Nobel laureate, litterateur Rabindranath Tagore, first heard out Saigal before giving permission to a non-Bengali to sing his compositions.

Saigal did not let him down, and the singer became the darling of all Bengalis with his 30-odd songs in their ‘matrabhasa’ (Mother Tongue).

In those days, it was the norm to sing ‘live’ before the camera that recorded all, which finally gave way to ‘playback’ singing, till 1938, Saigal continued in the traditional style.

In 1941, he moved to Bombay (Mumbai) where the modern-day Bollywood had already taken strong roots with several top production houses churning out films in quick succession.

However, by that time, Saigal had become an incurable alcoholic which affected both his physical and professional health — there was a time when he could not sing a word before a taking a long swig.

In his short life-span of just 42 years, including 15 years as a professional actor-singer, Saigal left a treasure trove of over 36 films including 28 in Hindi, seven in Bengali and one Tamil, besides around 185 songs, many of which are hummed even today.

Among the best remembered films are: “Puran Bhagat”, “Devdas”, “President”, “Streetsinger”, “Chandidas”, “Tansen”, “Bhakta Surdas”, “My Sister”, and his final “Parwana” before his demise on January 18, 1947, when India was standing at the doorstep of Independence.

His songs include: “Ek Bangla Bane Nyara”, “Jab Dil Hi Toot Gaya”, “Do Naina Matwale Tihare”, “Main Kya Janoo Kya Jadu Hai,” “Hum Apana Unhe Bana Na Sake”, “Babul Mora”, etc.

Besides bequeathing his own films and songs and inspiring many others like Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar and more, with Mukesh even styling himself after Saigal in his early career.

There are thousands of Saigal fan clubs or music clubs, including in Mumbai, which congregate regularly to render his melodies and remember one of the greatest singers of India.

Three persons, including a yoga guru and a Congress leader, were killed on Wednesday in a three-vehicle pile-up on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district, police said.

The incident took place near Faguha Bhatia when a car was hit by another car coming from the wrong side. A third car also hit it from the rear.

Yoga guru Laxmipati Verma, who was a close associate of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, died on the spot along with Congress leader Dharam Raj Verma. Hari Mohan Agarwal (58), who was in another car, was also killed.

Six others who were critically injured were rushed to a hospital.

More than 18,000 people are still staying at Fiji evacuation centres after tropical cyclone Keni hit the country a day earlier with heavy rain and destructive winds, the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) said on Wednesday.
NDMO said most evacuees will only return to their homes when it is safe, Xinhua news agency reported.

Anare Leweniqila, Director of NDMO, said the impact of Keni on Fiji was still unknown and their focus right now was to provide emergency services to the affected people.

Fiji’s Kadavu Island suffered a direct hit and devastation to homes and plantation from Keni with its highly destructive winds wiping out homes, uprooting trees and capsizing boats on the south side of the island.

Keni also caused the death of one man in Ba, a town in western Fiji.

Currently, 90 roads across Fiji remained closed due to damage caused by heavy rain and flooding while all schools in the western part and Kadavu island that were being used as evacuation centres were also closed.

Keni is the second tropical cyclone to hit Fiji in just over a week after tropical cyclone Josie caused six deaths over the Easter long weekend.