The Indian Panorama

Year: 2015

  • France retaliates to Paris terror attacks, hits ISIS Heart

    France retaliates to Paris terror attacks, hits ISIS Heart

    France’s military launched “massive” retaliatory airstrikes against Islamic State sites in Syria on Sunday night, November 15, saying French aircraft struck a command center and training camp at Raqqa.

    President François Hollande, who vowed to be “unforgiving with the barbarians” of the Islamic State after the carnage in Paris, decided on the airstrikes in a meeting with his national security team on Saturday, November 14, officials said.

    Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday’s (November 13) suicide bombings and shootings, which have re-ignited a row over Europe’s refugee crisis and drawn calls to block a huge influx of Muslim asylum-seekers.

    The French Air Force posted videos on its Facebook page of the planes embarking on the raid of the extremist group’s de facto capital. The strikes come two days after the worst attacks in Paris since World War II.

    The French Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted a command post, a training camp and a weapons depot, dropping 20 bombs on Raqqa. It said 10 fighter jets in the operation came from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in coordination with U.S. forces.

    France has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria for months as part of a US-led operation. Following Friday’s mayhem, Paris vowed to destroy the group. Underlining its resolve, French jets on Sunday launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, hitting its stronghold in Raqqa.

    “The raid … including 10 fighter jets, was launched simultaneously from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Twenty bombs were dropped,” the Defence Ministry said. Among the targets were a munitions depot and training camp, it said.

    There was no word on casualties or the damage inflicted.

    Speaking in Turkey at the G-20 summit, French Foreign Minister Lauren Fabius said, “France has always said that because she has been threatened and attacked by (Isis) it would be normal that she react in the framework of self defense,” The Financial Times reported. “It would be normal to take action. That’s what we did with the strikes on Raqqa, which is their headquarter. We cannot let (Isis) act without reacting.”

    Initial reports from activists on the ground in Raqqa, which could not be verified independently, said that hospitals had not reported any civilian casualties. Yet they also said the targeted sites included clinics, a museum and other buildings in an urban area, leaving the full extent of the damage unknown.

    Warplanes continued to hover over the city close to midnight, according to residents and activist groups. Residents have seen the city bombed by Syrian, American and Russian warplanes. They have been terrorized by public executions by the Islamic State. Now they are wary of yet another power arriving to pummel the city.

  • Prem Ratan Dhan Payo | Movie Review

    Prem Ratan Dhan Payo | Movie Review

    Salman Khan and Sooraj Barjatya’s muchawaited Diwali release, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, has not only broken the first day collection record of Happy New Year, which was last year’s Diwali release, but has also emerged as the highest single day grosser of all time.

    Prem_Ratan_Dhan_Payo_Release_PosterStory: Prem Dilwale, Ayodhya’s Ram Leela artist, admires Princess Maithili (Sonam) and her charitable work. Prem decides to meet Maithili at the coronation of her fiance Prince Vijay (Salman) in Pritampur. But Vijay’s fallen prey to a conspiracy by his wicked brother Ajay (Neil) and relative Chirag (Armaan). As Vijay suffers their violent assault, Pritampur’s Diwan (Anupam) asks Prem to play Vijay’s part and protect Maithili.

    This film is Salman Khan’s triumph. He simply blows the top off the theatres with a double role that makes you laugh, gasp, sigh and cry. Salman performs with superb finesse. His Vijay is tense, terse and taut, radiating machismo but no gentleness, loneliness with kingsized ego. His Prem is luminous with life. The acting is ace this year is Salman’s finest yet in cinematic grace.

    Sonam carries off her princess beautifully with a free, passionate soul. Deepak Dobriyal delights as Prem’s sidekick Kanhaiya, Armaan works a violent swagger well while Neil sulks as a sour prince whose gimlet has way too much lime. Playing bitter sisters, Swara and Aashika have one of the film’s sweetest moments with a brother who stops being a royal pain.

  • Fawad Khan invites Shah Rukh Khan to visit Pakistan

    Fawad Khan invites Shah Rukh Khan to visit Pakistan

    MUMBAI: Pakistani actor Fawad Khan has invited Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan to visit Pakistan.

    Speaking at a charity event, Fawad Khan said that SRK is a good friend of his and that he would be inviting him to his hometown, Peshawar.

    Well, we can only wait and see if SRK accepts the invitation. Shah Rukh Khan has not announced his decision yet.

    The Pakistani-born actor made the offer to Shah Rukh Khan after leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and extremist organization Shiv Sena accused the Bollywood star of being a “Pakistani agent”.

    King Khan had also said that he will not hesitate to return his Padma Shri award as a sign of protest over the rising cases of intolerance in India.

    Pakistani artistes Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Ghulam Ali were recently targeted by the Shiv Sena.

  • Muslim female pushed in front of a train in London

    Muslim female pushed in front of a train in London

    LONDON: A man is being held on charges of attempted murder after he pushed a Muslim woman into the path of an oncoming train in London’s Piccadilly Circus station.

    The video footage of the incident shows the suspect identified as Yoshiyuki Shinohara was standing behind the Muslim woman and pushed her in front of the train.

    The female rebounded back onto the platform after hitting the train. The citizens, after watching the scene, rushed to the aid of the woman.

    The name of the woman has not been disclosed as yet.

    A British Transport Police spokesperson said that she received only minor injuries.

    Director of enforcement and on-street operations at Transport for London, Steve Burton said, “This type of shocking incident is extremely rare.”

    “Our staff acted quickly to assist the woman and other customers at the scene, and we are working closely with the police as they carry out their investigation.”

    The officials mentioned that the investigation is underway and the Shinohara has been taken into custody.

    The suspect will be presented before a court on November 25.

  • Canada’s India-Born Defence Minister Faces Racist Remarks

    Canada’s India-Born Defence Minister Faces Racist Remarks

    TORONTO:  Canada’s newly-appointed Sikh Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has allegedly faced racist remarks by a soldier on social media, prompting the Canadian Armed Forces to launch a probe.

    The military declined to identify the soldier or precisely what was written, but a source said the non- commissioned member from Quebec, made an “inappropriate statement” on Facebook about India-born Mr Sajjan’s “ethnic background”, The Globe and Mail reported.

    Mr Sajjan immigrated to Canada from India when he was a young boy.

    The offensive post, which was written in French, was quickly removed.

    A Forces spokesman said the army’s chain of command is probing the matter.

    Mr Sajjan is a decorated military veteran who served three tours of duty for the Forces in Afghanistan, and one in Bosnia, and worked as a detective in the Vancouver Police Service.

    The incident of disrespect to the minister prompted Chief Warrant Officer Kevin West to send an e-mail to soldiers warning against such conduct, the newspaper said.

    He lamented the fact a high-ranking member of the Forces made “negative” comments about the minister and warned them against disrespectful behaviour, adding that to say he is angry would be an understatement.

    The Forces issued a strong statement Wednesday condemning the behaviour.

    “We are very much aware of an incident in which a Canadian Armed Forces member wrote inappropriate comments on social media about the new Minister of National Defence,” Forces spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier said.

    “Racist attitudes are not compatible with military ethos and with effective military service. Any conduct that reflects such attitudes will not be tolerated,” he said.

    “The institution is entirely committed to the principle of equality of all people and the dignity and worth of every human being,” the Forces spokesman said.

    “As previously stated by Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance, bullies have no place in the organisation.”

  • Republican Candidate Ted Cruz Calls to Suspend H-1B Visa for 6 Months

    Republican Candidate Ted Cruz Calls to Suspend H-1B Visa for 6 Months

    WASHINGTON:  A leading Republican presidential candidate has called for suspending the issuance of H-1B visa for six months to investigate abuses against the most sought work visa by Indian IT professionals.

    “In order to strengthen our immigration system, protect national security and better serve American workers, we must suspend the issuance of all H-1B visas for 180 days to complete a comprehensive investigation and audit of pervasive allegations of abuse of the program,” said Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz as he rolled out his immigration reform plan.

    “New allegations detail appalling abuses of the H-1B visa program – a program meant to create American jobs and spur economic growth. I will suspend the program for 180 days to investigate abuses,” said Mr Cruz whose popularity ratings in the last few weeks have increased nationwide.

    Interestingly, as a Senator from Texas, Mr Cruz had backed quintupling the number of H-1B visas. Mr Cruz also called for halting increases in legal immigration so long as American unemployment remains unacceptably high.

    “The purpose of legal immigration should be to grow the economy, not to displace American workers. Under no circumstances should legal immigration levels be adjusted upwards so long as work-force participation rates remain below historical averages,” he said.

    Cruz sought to end birthright citizenship. “Birthright citizenship was not intended to legalise the children of people who are breaking the law by entering and staying in the country illegally. I will take steps to pass legislation or a constitutional amendment to end it,” Mr Cruz said.

    In his speech in Orlando, Florida Mr Cruz said if elected as the president he will suspend the H-1B program for 180 days to investigate abuses and enact fundamental reforms of this program to ensure that it protects American workers.

    “A Cruz administration will enforce existing protections for American workers and amend the H-1B visa program to fulfill its original purpose,” he said.

    Calling for creating a “layoff cool-off” period for all H-1B visa applications, he said companies must wait one or two years between laying off a worker and bringing in any H-1B foreign workers to ensure that the program is not used to displace American workers.

    Observing that the recent lack of federal oversight of the H-1B visa program has fueled a cottage industry of diploma mills, he said, foreign academic institutions must meet minimum accreditation standards at least as stringent as those imposed on American universities in order to qualify for the advanced-degree requirement.

    Under his plan, Mr Cruz said companies will provide sworn statements and documentation that detail their efforts to hire Americans before requesting foreign workers through the H-1B visa program.

    Individuals who make false statements in these affidavits will be subject to perjury charges, he said.

  • PM Modi Conveys Condolence to Lord Swaraj Paul Over Son’s Death

    PM Modi Conveys Condolence to Lord Swaraj Paul Over Son’s Death

    LONDON:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi today personally conveyed his condolence to NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul, whose son Angad died a few days ago after falling from his penthouse in central London.

    Prime Minister Modi, who had telephoned Lord Paul to offer his condolence immediately after the tragedy on Sunday, met Lord Paul at his hotel in London.

    “He was very generous, unbelievably warm and kind,” Lord Paul said after meeting the Prime Minister at Taj St James’ Hotel in London, where PM Modi was staying during his three-day UK visit.

    Top Indian leaders including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Ministers — Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh — and others have conveyed their condolence to Lord Paul.

    Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq and Omar Abdullah have also conveyed their grief.

    Angad Paul’s cremation was held yesterday at the Golders Green electric crematorium where over 1,000 mourners offered their condolences to Lord Paul, his wife Aruna and Angad’s widow Michelle.

  • Andhra-Born Minister Dipika Damerla Blazes a Trail in Canada

    Andhra-Born Minister Dipika Damerla Blazes a Trail in Canada

    TORONTO:  Andhra-born Dipika Damerla, who is the first Indian-origin woman minister in Canada’s biggest province of Ontario, is blazing a trail in community service.

    If thanks to her efforts Indian-Canadians in the neighbouring Mississauga just enjoyed their first-ever Diwali fireworks, the community may soon have dedicated places for cremation and disposal of the ashes.

    “Now I am working with the authorities for getting dedicated cremation grounds for Hindus and Sikhs and the spots where they can scatter the ashes. Though the Indo-Canadian population is increasing rapidly, there is no community-specific cremation place and spots for disposing of the ashes,” says Ms Damerla, who is Ontario’s associate minister for long-term care with a budget of almost $4 billion.

    Secunderabad-born Ms Damerla is the first Andhra woman to hold any ministerial position in North America. “Maybe perhaps I am the first Andhra woman to hold a ministerial position outside India,” says the young minister who was appointed to the position last year after her Liberal Party was re-elected to the office.

    Daughter of an armyman, she came to Canada in 1991 after finishing her under-graduation. On completing her MBA from the famous Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, she served as a corporate executive with the country’s two top banks – the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia – before quitting to raise her daughter.

    She is also a former TV journalist who has worked with Toronto-based OMNI TV channel which serves Canada’s south Asian communities. In fact, it was her interaction as a journalist with politicians which led her to joining the office of the then Premier Dalton McGuinty in 2007 and then enter politics.

    “We Indians have robust interest in politics. Look how many Indo-Canadians have been elected as MPs this time. The reason is that it is very difficult for middle class people to break into politics in India. But when these same people come here as immigrants, they can enter politics easily,” says Ms Damerla, sitting in the office of her constituency of Mississauga East-Cooksville on the outskirts of Toronto.

    In 2011, Ms Damerla says, she decided to enter electoral politics and seek elections to serve the community. “It was not easy, particularly when you are a first-generation immigrant and a woman. But I grew up confident in my identity and I had that strong robust self-esteem,” she says.

    She won her first election to the Ontario provincial parliament (equal to state assembly in India) and got re-elected in 2014.

    Ms Damerla says she is excited to visit India in February with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. “We will be going to Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Amritsar from February 1. Canada and our Ontario province have so much to offer to India for its smart-city concept, water management, and clean technology needs. When we met Prime Minister Modi here in Toronto in April, he asked our Premier: ‘When can you come?’.’

  • AAP Leaders in Canada to Woo NRI Punjabi Indians Abroad

    AAP Leaders in Canada to Woo NRI Punjabi Indians Abroad

    NEW DELHI:  With eyes set on the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, a delegation of AAP leaders has flown to Canada to woo the NRI Punjabi Indian community settled in the North American country in a bid to strengthen the party’s voter base in the state as well as attract overseas donation.

    Top AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, also the party’s Punjab affairs in-charge, and Ashutosh along with leaders from the state have started holding dialogues with the Punjab natives.

    Incidentally, it is Mr Singh’s second visit to Canada this year. “The trip is meant for interaction and engagement with those who belong to Punjab,” Ashutosh said over phone.

    When contacted, a party leader said, “Canada is to the people of Punjab what Delhi and Mumbai are to Biharis and UPiites. A lot of migrant population from the state is settled in Canada and therefore, households in each village will have have someone or the other working in Canada.”

    “The Indians working in Canada not only hold economic power because of the money they send back, but can also influence voters. More importantly, they are also a major source of fund for the party,” the AAP leader said.

    Of the overseas donation received by the AAP, major contributors are from the US and Canada.

    The party had sought to reach out to Punjab natives in Canada during the Lok Sabha polls as well.

    “During such visits, we canvas support for the party and such delegations also help spread party’s tentacles. In fact all the parties do this,” the AAP leader said.

    Apart from Canada, a lot of natives from Punjab are also settled in Australia, the US, the UK and Malaysia. AAP is planning to send party delegations in these countries in coming days to garner support and raise funds.

    With an aim to wrest power in Punjab after having made its presence felt in the state during the Lok Sabha elections, AAP had recently made structural changes in the state unit, which irked many in the party.

    AAP had opened its account in the Lok Sabha by winning four seats in Punjab in 2014 general elections. However, two of its MPs — Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa — have been suspended on the charge of anti-party activities.

  • World Bank approves $500 mn loan to Pakistan

    World Bank approves $500 mn loan to Pakistan

    ISLAMABAD (TIP): The World Bank has approved a USD 500 million loan to cash-strapped Pakistan for energy sector reform in the country reeling under frequent power cuts.

    The loan, scheduled to be issued in April, was delayed due to government’s failure to implement key conditions imposed by the bank.

    After the government fulfilled over half a dozen conditions, including setting up an independent entity to purchase electricity from producers, the loan was finally approved by the World Bank (WB).

    Finance ministry confirmed in a statement on Thursday that ” USD 500 million loan was approved”.

    The loan will be utilised for budget financing, unlike project loans that are used for creating assets, it said.

    Among the conditions met included giving an application to the power sector regulator for determining multi-year electricity tariffs to make power distribution companies attractive for privatisation.

    The government also agreed to submit the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Bill to the parliament.

    It also agreed to set up the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) Guarantee Limited.

    The WB and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had decided to give USD 2 billion to Pakistan for energy sector reforms under a medium-term programme. The programme was part of USD 10 billion that the international lenders had agreed to provide over a period of three years.

    The amount included USD 6.6 billion bailout package of the International Monetary Fund.

    In May last year, Pakistan received USD 1 billion as first tranche from both the international financial institutions.

    The second tranche of roughly the same amount was scheduled to be approved in June this year, which the WB and the ADB delayed due to the federal government’s inability to implement the promised reforms.

    Long hours of power outages has been haunting Pakistan for about a decade.

    The Pakistan government is working on several projects and has announced to include more than 10,500 MW in the national grid by the end of 2018, when the first phase of the ambitious USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is expected to be completed.

    Pakistan will also produce 40,000 MW of electricity through nuclear power plants by 2050 to overcome frequent outages.

  • Bangladesh bloggers fear deadly backlash won’t end soon

    DHAKA, BANGLADESH (TIP): Omi Rahman Pial has changed homes five times in the last three months. He hasn’t seen his young daughter in weeks and is afraid to be seen on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital and home to several grisly killings of secular bloggers like him.

    “I am a refugee in my own country,” he said. “And under the threat of being killed, nowhere to go. Where should I go? So if you want to see the maximum punishment a blogger could get in Bangladesh, look at me.”

    Fear is running high following months in which four bloggers and three other people have been killed, allegedly by Islamist radicals. Many bloggers have gone into hiding, and some have left the country.

    Authorities blame the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its main Islamist ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, saying they want to destabilize the country ahead of executions, expected late this year, of two influential politicians from the two parties for war crimes. Some of the victims were involved in a movement that has pressed for capital punishment for those politicians and several others for actions during the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan. Two of the politicians have been executed.

    The parties deny involvement in the killings, saying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government is pushing hard-liners to strike back by cracking down on its opponents. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility, but authorities deny that the Sunni extremist group has any presence in the South Asian country.

    The blogger attacks have made many fear the rise of religious radicalism in this Muslim-majority nation known since independence for its secularism.

    The first strike this year came in February when American-Bangladeshi blogger and writer Avijit Roy was hacked to death as he and his wife walked on the campus of Dhaka University. Then three other secular bloggers have been killed in daylight attacks in Dhaka and outside.

    Early this fall, two foreigners – an Italian aid worker and a Japanese agriculture researcher – were killed within a week of each other. The IS group claimed responsibility, as it did Oct. 31, when assailants attacked two book publishers in their Dhaka offices; one died man died and three others were critically injured.

    “I am scared. They may kill me anytime,” Pial said in an apartment he shares with another blogger who has also gone into hiding, fearing for his life.

    “I have not seen my 6-year-old daughter for weeks, my wife is safe for now as she is outside the country with a scholarship. I don’t go outside for days,” Pial said.

    “It’s a difficult time for us, for the nation. I don’t know where we are heading to.”

    Pial often appears in television talk shows and stands against radical religious ideologies, war criminals and the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which he says should be banned for extremism and its stand against the country’s independence. He views the killings by suspected radicals as part of a “pseudo-war” against the ongoing war-crimes proceedings, which he has advocated for years.

  • Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya see glimmer of hope in Suu Kyi victory

    Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya see glimmer of hope in Suu Kyi victory

    SITTWE, MYANMAR (TIP): Noor Bagum would have liked to have voted for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy
    (NLD) but, like the majority of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, she took no part in the historic election the Nobel laureate won by a landslide.

    Stripped of their right to cast ballots by the current government, many Rohingya now hope that, with the NLD able to rule largely on its own, a Suu Kyi-led government will work to restore their lives and many of the rights they have lost.

    “I hope that things will get a little bit better,” said Noor Bagum, a 28-year-old mother-of-five, whose village was destroyed during violence between Buddhists and Muslims that swept through Myanmar’s western Rakhine State in 2012.

    Dealing with the Rohingya will be one of the most controversial – and unavoidable – of a long list of issues Suu Kyi will inherit from the current government.

    Feted by many in the West for her role as champion of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement during long years of military rule, she has been criticized overseas, and by some in Myanmar, for saying little about the abuses faced by the group.

    When an NLD government takes power in March, she will come under mounting international pressure to take a definitive stance in their defence.

    But speaking out for the Rohingya would carry a political cost at home. The group is widely disliked in Myanmar, where they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh -including by some in Suu Kyi’s party. She risks haemorrhaging support by taking up the cause of the beleaguered minority.

    LOCAL RIVAL

    The NLD also faces a powerful local rival -the Arakan National Party (ANP) – that has been accused of stoking anti-Muslim sentiment and has called for the deportation of Rohingya. The ANP won most of the 29 national level seats in Rakhine and took decisive control of the state’s regional assembly.

    “We’ll be damned if we do, and we’ll be damned if we don’t,” said Win Htein, a senior NLD leader, adding that standing up for the Rohingya would give the ANP “ample reason to criticize the NLD”.

    Although many have lived in Myanmar for generations, the Rohingya are not one of the 135 ethnic groups recognised under the country’s citizenship law and are thus entitled to only limited rights.

  • Hundreds of teachers sacked from Pakistan ‘ghost schools’

    QUETTA (TIP): Pakistan authorities have halted funding to hundreds of “ghost schools” and fired 450 absentee teachers, with officials vowing on Nov 10 to launch a crackdown on the practice in the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

    “We have detected and stopped funds to some 650 ghost schools and sacked 450 teachers who never taught at any school but were drawing salaries,” Abdul Saboor Kakar, the provincial education secretary told AFP.

    He said most of the schools only existed on paper, while others had been abandoned as there were no teachers or students attending them.

    Raza Mohammad Braich, the provincial minister of education, confirmed the details and said authorities had detected several hundred more schools and teachers that would come under the clampdown.

    “Education is our top priority and we are purging all ghost schools and cracking down on absentee teachers, most of them were recruited on political grounds in the past,” Braich told AFP.

    Braich said that Baluchistan has some 12,500 government schools and officials were making efforts to improve them.

    Education rates in Pakistan are still dismally low, although steady progress has been noticed during the last few decades, an education ministry report said this year.

    At present, about one third of primary school age children are out of school, while 42% of the population aged 10 and above is illiterate.

    At the national level, about two thirds of women aged 15 and over cannot read and write, and 35 percent of girls remain out of school, according to the Education for All 2015 National Review report.

    “It is estimated that over 6.7 million children are out of school, and majority of them (62%) are girls,” the report says.

  • Bihar elections debacle will test PM Modi’s foreign policy 

    Bihar elections debacle will test PM Modi’s foreign policy 

    The debate within the country on the wider implications of the election results on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal image and his ability to pursue his political and economic agenda has also been of interest to our major external partners seeking economic opportunities in a rising India and working with us on regional and global challenges.

    Just as the Bihar elections have been followed with interest in India-related foreign circles, Modi’s ascension to power too had received attention abroad.

    The apprehensions raised domestically about a Modi victory by all those opposed to him and the BJP, often viscerally, affected views outside, especially as those attacking him belonged to sections of our society in contact with foreign diplomats, interest groups, academicians, journalists and so on.

    Modi’s impressive electoral victory and state interests of foreign countries, however, made them engage the new Indian leader without reservations, even as domestic opponents continued to politically assault him.

    For them, after years of weak coalition governments, the country had now a single-party majority government in Delhi, which raised hopes of a decisive leadership and revival of the stalled economic reforms agenda.

    Modi’s dynamism on the foreign policy front reinforced his image externally as an energetic, self-confident, ambitious, reform-minded leader with innovative ideas for India’s development, even as domestic critics carped at his frequent foreign travels and the personal publicity they garnered for him.

    The rapturous welcome he received from the Indian diaspora during his visits abroad attested to Modi’s personal popularity and that of his ideas, which raised his profile as a leader even more, causing still more anguish to his opponents at home. The electoral battering of the BJP in the Delhi state elections did not have much external impact, barring raising some speculation about whether the BJP could be worsted in the election in Bihar and the implications of that in terms of governance at the Centre and the implementation of the government’s promise to ease of doing business in India and introduce other policy and procedural reforms. For our external partners, India’s economic opening is of critical interest, not the electoral ups and downs in state level elections that do not threaten the survival of the Union government.

    For them, the question, therefore, was whether a setback to the BJP in Bihar might mean a derailment of the government’s economic agenda, a slowing down of reforms, more populist policies, a loss of political will, more focus on domestic political management and diminished external ambitions.

    They are aware that the government does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha and, therefore, cannot pass the legislation it wants, as in the case of the Land Acquisition Bill and the GST.

    In that context, the outcome of the Bihar elections in view of their impact on the prospects of the BJP obtaining in due course a majority in the Upper House, would have been of interest to foreign governments and investors.

    The electoral bludgeoning of the BJP in Bihar will no doubt be a subject of analysis by foreign diplomats in Delhi for the benefit of their respective foreign offices, not to mention the foreign media, especially in our neighborhood.

    Those neighboring countries apprehensive of a strong Indian government at the Centre, especially a BJP government, would welcome the BJP’s defeat in Bihar as this might, in their view, turn the government’s attention inwards, cause some loss of confidence and give these countries greater room to challenge India’s interests. For others, it would not be very material in terms of bilateral ties.

    Barack Obama lost majority in both houses of the US Congress and in many ways his domestic agenda ran aground because of lobbies and legislative opposition, but that has not affected the momentum of India-US bilateral ties.

    François Hollande of France has seen his domestic popularity fall precipitously without affecting our bilateral relations in any domain.

    Nawaz Sharif has been considerably weakened domestically without any material impact of that on the substance of US policy towards Pakistan.

    Whether David Cameron was prime minister in a coalition government earlier and now rules on his own has not changed India- UK equations.

    Many such examples can be given.

    Relations: All this implies that whatever course correction Modi and the BJP may undertake domestically because of Bihar, our external relations are on a different track. The economic expectations of our foreign partners can be met substantially by the government through policy measures and administrative action.

    Clean India, Clean Ganga, Digital India, Skills India, Start-Up India, Make in India, Smart Cities — the various Modi campaigns can be progressed irrespective of the shrillness of the Opposition.

    Perhaps faster progress in implementing the developmental agenda would be more productive politically for later state-level elections.

    The BJP’s poor performance in Bihar, one hopes, will not make elements of our society even more reckless in opposing Modi.

    Their hyped-up campaign against rising intolerance and suppression of dissent, the return of awards by literary figures, historians, scientists, etc, the vastly disproportionate reaction to a couple of reprehensible criminal incidents of a local nature, seems to be a concerted effort to denigrate him by distorting reality and, in the process, undermining national interest by giving foreign lobbies a specific agenda, a handle to beat India with.

     

  • ‘Most rape is really women regretting sex the next morning,’ American police chief claims

    ‘Most rape is really women regretting sex the next morning,’ American police chief claims

    WASHINGTON (TIP): An American college police chief has come under fire for reportedly claiming that most cases of rape are “women waking up the next morning with a guilt complex”.

    Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s student newspaper The Stallion quoted Bryan Golden as making the comment, WALB News reports.

    In an article exploring sexual assaults on college campuses, Golden was quoted as saying: “Most of these sexual assaults are women waking up the next morning with a guilt complex.

    “That ain’t rape, that’s being stupid. When the dust settles, it was all consensual.

    “It doesn’t happen here. It doesn’t show up here. They’re about as much a rape as a goat roping.”

    Golden was reportedly suspended over the remarks, but is now back at work at the Georgia state college, the television station reported.

    It said that he is also undergoing sexual assault sensitivity training.

    Golden declined to be interviewed by the station for its investigation into his comments.

    But he had previously told The Stallion that its report of his comments was “not an accurate rendition” of what he had said.

    “Regarding such situations as rape, murder and natural death, I explained why we call on other agencies to handle these cases,” he said.

    “Thankfully, they do not happen on this campus often enough for many officers to be proficient in working on such crimes, coupled with the fact that we do not have the staff to devote the amount of time to such an investigation.”

    The police chief added: “I have been out on medical leave for several weeks and do not recall much of this conversation.

    “We talked very openly about these issues bit this article excerpt is not an accurate rendition of our conversation.”

    The editor and reporters of the newspaper said they had found the alleged comments shocking and other members of the police force did not share them.

    The college’s president Dr David Bridges said: “We don’t support [the comments]. They were wrong. We don’t in any way condone them. They don’t represent the general view of the college.”

    He said sexual assault was not a problem on the college’s campus, but help was there for victims in a number of forms.

    What people think constitutes rape was explored in the UK earlier this month in the BBC3 documentary ‘Is this Rape? Sex on Trial’, which involved asking a group of 24 teenagers as well as members of the public to watch a dramatized sexual scenario and vote on whether they would call it rape or not.

  • Paris comes under terrorist attacks

    Paris comes under terrorist attacks

    PARIS (TIP): Terrorists, in the form of masked suicide bombers and gunmen, November 13 evening, launched a series of terror attacks in and around Central Paris which left over 160 people dead across six sites, including at least eight attackers with unknown motivations. Death toll reports varied in the confusion of the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

    This was on a night when thousands of Paris residents and tourists were reveling and fans were enjoying a soccer match at Stade de France between France and world champion Germany before being ripped by coordinated attacks, leaving a nation in mourning and the world in shock.

    The map shows locations of terrorist strikes
    The map shows locations of terrorist strikes

    After the attacks, President Hollande declared a state of emergency and announced that he was closing the country’s borders. Hollande, who had to be evacuated from the stadium when the bombs went off outside, said in a televised address that the nation would stand firm and united.

    An estimated 100 people were killed inside Le Bataclan, a concert hall in the 11th arrondissement, after a trio of terrorists armed with AK-47’s detonated explosive vests during a show by the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal. The suicide bombing followed a hostage standoff between the attackers and French police stationed outside the venue, with the madmen executing hostages one by one inside.

    One eyewitness inside the Bataclan told the New York Times that one of the gunmen blamed the French president, yelling in French, “This is because of all the harm done by Hollande to Muslims all over the world.”

    The Paris prosecutor Francois Molins’ office said that eight attackers were dead after a string of attacks around the French capital, seven of them in suicide bombings. The eighth attacker was killed by security forces when they raided the Bataclan.

    Barrack Obama called Hollande to offer the condolences of the American people, the White House said.

    “The President reiterated the United States’ steadfast, unwavering support for the people of France, our oldest ally and friend, and reaffirmed the offer of any necessary support to the French investigation,” the White House said.

    British Prime Minister David Cameron who was hosting Indian PM Modi, said in a message on Twitter: “I am shocked by the events in Paris tonight. Our thoughts and prayers are with the French people. We will do whatever we can to help.”

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris that has killed at least 160 people, saying that the “news from Paris is anguishing and dreadful”.

    “News from Paris is anguishing & dreadful. Prayers with families of the deceased. We are united with people of France in this tragic hour,” Modi tweeted soon after the attacks.

    Russian leader Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Hollande and the people of France. “Russia strongly condemns this inhumane killing and is ready to provide any and all assistance to investigate these terrorist crimes,” he said.

    France has been on edge since Islamic extremists attacked the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery store early this year. Twenty people, including three attackers, were left dead in the slaughter.

    ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to some media reports & eye witness accounts.

    A witness told BFM television that he heard rounds of automatic rifle fire and someone shouting

    “it’s for Syria” and “Allahu Akbar” – the Arabic for “God is great” – before slaughtering around 100 music fans at a concert hall.

    The attacks came just hours after British ISIS butcher Jihadi John was said to have been killed by a US drone strike in Syria.

     

  • Obama to huddle with European leaders on Islamic State fight

    Obama to huddle with European leaders on Islamic State fight

    WASHINGTON (TIP): President Barack Obama will huddle with the leaders of Germany, Britain, Italy and France next week in hopes of making “incremental progress” in the fight against the Islamic State group, the White House said Thursday.

    The leaders will gather in Turkey on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit, regrouping after diplomats emerge from a second round of talks on Syria’s crisis over the weekend in Vienna. But Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, suggested a major breakthrough was unlikely.

    “I don’t think anybody expects a single outcome that all of a sudden readily resolves all of these difficult issues,” Rice said.

    Russia, which is circulating a new proposal to end the Syrian conflict, won’t participate in the meeting in Turkey, and Obama had no plans to hold a formal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin while both are in Antalya, Turkey, for the G20 summit. Still, Rice said Obama and Putin would have “ample opportunity for discussion” during informal run-ins at the summit.

    Obama’s longtime antagonist, Putin is coming to the annual gathering of the world’s 20 largest economies in a stronger position than last year, when he left the summit early as world leaders took turns railing against his actions in Ukraine.

    Efforts by the US and European countries to punish Russia with economic sanctions have done little to change Putin’s approach in Ukraine. And in recent weeks, Putin has re-emerged as a key player in the Syria conflict, opening an air campaign against groups fighting Syria’s government and now drafting a plan for a lengthy political transition.

    The White House said Ukraine was also on the agenda when Obama meets with Western European leaders.

    The president departs on Saturday for a trip to Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines, aimed in large part at bolster his campaign to realign U.S. engagement overseas toward Asia. Aside from attending a trio of economic summits, Obama’s key goal for the trip is to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the US recently struck with nations in the Asia-Pacific and in North America. He also hopes to rally support for a global climate deal that world leaders hope to finalize in Paris within weeks.

    With those priorities in mind, Obama will also squeeze in a series of smaller sit-downs with leaders of other countries also attending the summits. In Antalya, Obama will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party pulled off a surprise victory in recent elections but who faces criticism for a crackdown on media freedoms. In Asia, Obama will hold his first meetings with the newly installed prime ministers of Canada and Australia, and hold separate meetings with the leaders of Malaysia, Japan, Laos, Singapore and the Philippines.

    Although Obama won’t meet individually with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two leaders will cross paths in Manila, amid ongoing tensions over China’s territorial claims in disputed waters off its coast. Ahead of the trip, the White House called for a global “code of conduct” to govern maritime disputes in the South China Sea and elsewhere, with Rice pledging it would be “a central issue of discussion.”

    Another pressing theme for Obama’s 9-day trip is the refugee crisis in Europe, which has been inundated by hundreds of thousands of migrants in recent months many of them from Syria. European leaders have struggled to develop a coordinated response, with some countries building fences, reintroducing border controls and fighting among themselves about the relative burden each host nation should bear.

     

  • Pentagon says it targeted ‘Jihadi John’

    Pentagon says it targeted ‘Jihadi John’

    WASHINGTON (TIP): The Pentagon said late Thursday that it had targeted Mohammed Emwazi, a member of the Islamic State often referred to as Jihadi John, in an airstrike near Raqqa, Syria.

    Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the military was “assessing the results” of the strike to determine if Emwazi had been killed.

    Emwazi, considered the most prominent British member of the militant group, was shown in videos in 2014 and 2015 killing several U.S. and other Western hostages. European governments, including those in Britain and France, are grappling with how to stem the tide of thousands of European citizens who are traveling to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State.

    Emwazi, born in Kuwait and reared in London, has appeared as a black-masked figure in videos in which U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven J. Sotloff and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig are beheaded. The militant traveled to Syria in 2012.

    Emwazi, who is in his mid-20s, grew up in a trim housing estate in West London and graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in computer programming.

    In the mid-2000s, he was part of a loose network of young Muslims, some with friendships going back to childhood, who became deeply alienated from British and Western society.

    The North London Boys, as the network is sometimes called, has sent dozens of young men to fight, first in Somalia and more recently in Syria.

    The men appear to have been motivated initially by a civil war in Somalia.

    Court documents show that Emwazi and others were well known to the British security services. According to a legal document from 2012, they were part of “a network of United Kingdom and East African-based Islamist extremists involved in the provision of funds and equipment to Somalia for terrorism-related purposes.”

  • China, India taking advantage of US: Donald Trump

    China, India taking advantage of US: Donald Trump

    WASHINGTON (TIP): Terming China as “number-one abuser”, leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has alleged that the Communist nation, along with India, is taking advantage of the US through its economic policies.

    Trump said China was becoming a “major force” and is now creating problems both economically and through its behaviour in the South China Sea.

    “If you look at the way China and India and almost everybody takes advantage of the US – China in particular, because they’re so good. It’s the number-one abuser of this country,” Trump said during the fourth debate of the party.

    “China is a problem, both economically in what they’re doing in the South China Sea, I mean, they are becoming a very, very major force,” Trump said.

    He said that it was through “currency manipulation” that does not even find a mention in almost 6,000-page (TPP) agreement that the countries were taking advantage of the US.

    While several other Republican candidates joined Trump on the China issue, there were no takers for his allegations against India, which was mentioned only once in the debate.

    “We lose a fortune on trade. The US loses with everybody. We’re losing now over USD 500 billion in terms of imbalance with China, USD 75 billion a year imbalance with Japan,” Trump said.

    John Kasich, governor of Ohio, said China did not own the South China Sea.

    “I give the (US) President some credit for being able to move a naval force in there to let the Chinese know that we’re not going to put up with it any more,” he said.

    Russia and president Vladimir Putin too figured prominently during the debate.

    “What we have to recognise is that Putin is trying to really spread his influence throughout the Middle East. This is going to be his base. And we have to oppose him there in an effective way,” said presidential candidate Ben Carson.

    “We also must recognise that it’s a very complex place. You know, the Chinese are there, as well as the Russians, and you have all kinds of factions there,” he said.

    Jeb Bush said President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both do not believe the US has a leadership role to play.

    “And we are now paying a price, and it will have a huge impact on the economy of this country if we don’t deal with this,” he said.

    He favoured a no-fly zone in Syria.

    “We should have a support for the remnants of the Syrian Free Army, and create safe zones. If you want to deal with the four million refugees that are leaving Syria because of the devastation there, then we ought to create safe zones for them to stay in the region rather than go to Europe. And, that requires American leadership,” Bush said.

    (Source: PTI)

  • Nine killed as plane crashes into apartment in US

    Nine killed as plane crashes into apartment in US

    CHICAGO (TIP): All nine people on board a private corporate jet were killed when it crashed into an apartment building in Akron in the US state of Ohio, the owner and operator of the plane said.

    Augusto Lewkowicz, the owner and operator of the Hawker 800 jet, said seven passengers and two crew members were on board the plane.

    Authorities said no one on the plane survived, but they would not yet confirm the number of people on board or dead, Ohio.com reported.

    It appeared no one on the ground in the Ellet neighborhood where the crash occurred was injured or killed.

    Eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane fall out of the sky and a huge ball of fire after the crash, which happened shortly before 3 pm local time yesterday.

    Lewkowicz told the Beacon Journal that he would not release the names of the passengers or crew members in the fatal crash near the corner of Mogadore and Skelton roads.

    “I owe responses to the family members first,” Lewkowicz said.

    It wasn’t known whether any of the crash victims were from the Akron area.

    The jet was on the second leg of a charter that began on Monday, Lewkowicz said, noting that there was no indication before the crash that anything was wrong.

    “It was a perfectly well-maintained aircraft with no squawks,” Lewkowicz said, adding that there was no chatter from the pilots to indicate anything was out of the ordinary.

    The flight was chartered by Execuflight, a Florida company. The plane, according to FlightAware.com records, originated in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, flying to St. Paul, Minnesota, then to the Quad City International Airport in Moline, Illinois, then on to Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Missouri before finishing the day at Cincinnati Municipal Airport. (Source: PTI)

  • White House condemns ‘horrific terrorist attacks’ in Beirut

    WASHINGTON (TIP): The White House condemned the “horrific terrorist” twin bomb blasts claimed by the Islamic State extremist group that killed 41 people in Beirut on Nov 12.

    “Such acts of terror only reinforce our commitment to support the institutions of the Lebanese state, including the security services, to ensure a stable, sovereign, and secure Lebanon,” national security council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

    (Source: AFP)

  • RETURNING MEDALS AN INSULT TO NATION: MANOHAR PARRIKAR

    RETURNING MEDALS AN INSULT TO NATION: MANOHAR PARRIKAR

    NEW DELHI (TIP): The government is fast losing patience with military veterans who continue to protest against what they say is a “diluted” one rank, one pension (OROP). Holding that attempts by some to burn their medals was “an insult” to the nation, defence minister Manohar Parrikar put the onus on the ex-servicemen to prove there was no political motive behind their continuing agitation.

    “If I say anything, it will become an allegation. Let them prove that it is not political,” Parrikar said in response to queries if he saw any political linkage to the continuing agitation after the government first announced OROP on September 5 and then notified it on November 7.

    Speaking after dedicating the first squadron of P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft in Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu on Friday, Parrikar said medals were awarded to military personnel for bravery and recognition of their sacrifices for the nation. “Burning and returning them is an insult to the nation and the armed forces… I don’t appreciate it,” he said.

    Instead, the veterans should submit their grievances to the one-person judicial commission that was being set up to look into the anomalies arising out of OROP implementation. “We have given the maximum possible, and fulfilled the promise made by BJP during the elections,” he said.

    The OROP notified for the over 24 lakh ex-servicemen and six lakh widows in the country will entail an additional outgo of over Rs 8,000 crore every year. OROP basically means payment of uniform pension to personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement.

    But the veterans say the government has not resolved any of the seven main anomalies pointed out by them. They are particularly incensed that the government did not accept their case for “pension equalization or adjustment” every year, and instead notified that it will be done only at five-year intervals. This, the veterans say, will mean “one rank, five pensions” and not OROP as it has been consistently defined.

    An even bigger worry for the armed forces is the notification clause that serving personnel who now opt for premature retirement (PMR) or discharge will not get OROP benefits. “This is totally against the overarching aim to keep the armed forces young and fighting fit,” said a senior officer.

    “The entire cadre management of the forces, which have a steeply-pyramidal promotional structure, is dependent on hundreds of officers and thousands of jawans taking PMR every year after finishing their pensionable service. This ensures recruitment of young and fresh blood,” he added.

  • Indian Prime Minister Modi on 3 day visit to UK to strengthen bilateral ties

    Indian Prime Minister Modi on 3 day visit to UK to strengthen bilateral ties

    LONDON (TIP): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in London, November 12 on his three-day maiden visit to the United Kingdom. “My visit to UK is the first Prime Ministerial visit in almost a decade. I have had the opportunity to meet Prime Minister David Cameron at various international forums and our meetings have been productive. Prime Minister Cameron is a good friend of India’s, and we in India have had the privilege of welcoming him thrice during his first term as Prime Minister,” Modi had written in a Facebook post ahead of the visit.

    At the start of Modi’s visit, Cameron promised to “set this relationship free” from its colonial past, referring to the complex ties between the two nations dating back to Britain’s time as colonial ruler until the mid- 20th century. Cameron said relations between the two countries, once “imprisoned by the past,” were now a “modern, dynamic partnership” between the world’s fifth-largest economy – Britain – and India, which could soon rank third. Cameron said he wanted to create “a stronger economic partnership, a stronger defense partnership and a stronger global partnership.”

    Cameron said the two countries were expected to sign 9 billion pounds ($14 billion, 12.7 billion euros) worth of deals during the visit, including a plan for London’s financial district to become a center of offshore rupee bonds. Other agreements expected to be signed during the visit covered financing for Indian infrastructure, cooperation in nuclear energy, and joint research in new technology.

    Hailing billions in new business deals and investments between the India and the UK, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to modernize India, the world’s largest democracy. Modi remarked that the visit was “a huge moment for our two great nations.”

    Putting economic engagement at the centrestage of their relations, India and the United Kingdom said Thursday that they will sign commercial deals of 9.2 billion pounds over the next three days as Prime Minister Narendra Modi began the first bilateral visit to the country by an Indian prime minister since 2006. New Delhi promised a new “fast-track mechanism” as the two sides firmed up at least 27 deals, covering sectors ranging from banking to energy, skill development to environment. The UK said it plans to invest in three Indian smart cities and the two sides also announced the signing of a civilian nuclear agreement.

    Modi’s three-day trip is not an official state visit since Modi is not a head of state, but he was nevertheless welcomed with great honors, including a fly-past by the Royal Air Force Red Arrows and a lunch with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 13, 2015 arrived at the Buckingham Palace where he was received by Queen Elizabeth II for lunch on the second day of his three-day visit to Britain.

    “Her Majesty The Queen with PM
    @narendramodi at Buckingham Palace,” PMO India tweeted.

    “Building on the bonds of history. PM
    @narendra Modi calls on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” tweeted Vikas Swarup, spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs.

    After his lunch with the Queen, Mr Modi was shown a collection of items from the palace’s stores including a shawl given to the Queen by Mahatma Gandhi in 1947 as a wedding present.

    In an exchange of gifts, Mr Modi gave the Queen photographs of her visit to India in 1961 and a gift box including Darjeeling tea from West Bengal and silk Tanchoi scarves from his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi.

    In return, Mr Modi was presented with a silver dish and signed photos.

    Earlier, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced they would go on tour of India next spring.

    Prior to this, Modi, along with British Prime Minister David Cameron, attended a meeting of the UK-India CEO Forum at Lancaster House. The two countries have sealed £9bn worth of commercial deals in the retail, logistics, energy, finance, IT, education and health sectors, which No 10 said had created or safeguarded 1,900 jobs.

    Speaking at an event marking the Indian diaspora’s contribution to the UK, he said it was “a historic day for a great partnership between two great nations”.

    He had been greeted by huge cheers from the 60,000-strong crowd as he arrived on stage with UK PM David Cameron.

    At the start of his speech in London, Mr Modi said: “I would like to ensure you that the dreams you have dreamt – and the dreams every Indian has dreamt – India is capable of fulfilling these dreams. There is no reason for India to remain a poor country.” He also mentioned the need for FDI in India and equated it as FDI = First Develop India.

    Mr Cameron introduced his Indian counterpart to the stage, he said the UK-India relationship was “about our potential”, and said both countries were “united by the scale of our ambition”.

    “Team India, team UK – together we are a winning combination,” he added.

    The crowds applauded when he said it would not be long before there was a British Indian prime minister in Downing Street.

    Asserting that Narendra Modi has proved his critics wrong, British Prime Minister David Cameron today said that his Indian counterpart has worked tremendously after forming the government in New Delhi and said ‘acche din zaroor aayega’.

    Cameron, who was addressing the Indian diaspora at the Wembley stadium here, said that Modi had rightly said ‘acche din aane wale hain’ prior to the elections in the country.

    “They said a ‘chai wala’ would never govern the largest democracy, but he proved them wrong. He rightly said ‘acche din aane wale hain’. But with his energy, with his vision, with his ambition. I will go on further and say ‘ acche din zaroor aayega’,” he said amid a thumping applause from the crowd.

    Mr Modi, who greeted the gathered crowd with a “Namaste”, gave his speech mainly in Hindi, aside from a short welcoming opening in English.

    It is worth noting that Modi  has spent one in every eight days overseas since his election last year.

  • The Jewish man who found his long-lost Nazi twin brother

    CALIFORNIA(TIP): A California man who found his long-lost twin brother has died of cancer at 82-years-old.

    In 1933, Jack Yufe was born in Trinidad with his identical twin brother but 6-months later the boy’s parents would separate.

    Mr Yufe lived with his father and was raised Jewish, eventually serving in the Israeli Navy, while his brother Oskar Stohr lived with his mother in Germany. Mr Stohr grew up as a Nazi, eventually joining the Hitler Youth, the Los Angeles Times reports.

    The brothers remained in contact with each other and reunited when they were 21-years-old.

    They shared the same mannerisms, humor and nervous ticks. But they would never agree on Palestine and Israeli politics nor the cause of World War II, the Washington Post reports.

    Cal State Fullerton psychology professor Nancy Segal wrote a book on the brother’s aptly titled “Indivisible by Two: Lives of Extraordinary Twins.”

    Professor Segal told the Times that the twins has an “extraordinary love-hate relationship.”

    “They were repelled and fascinated by each other. They could not let go of the twinship,” she said.

    The Post reports that Mr Yufe iis survived by three daughters: Anita Yufe, Hovi Reader and Debvra Gregory; And his two stepsons Renee and Enrique Vega.

  • Barack Obama calls Paris attacks ‘outrageous attempt to terrorise’ civilians

    Barack Obama calls Paris attacks ‘outrageous attempt to terrorise’ civilians

    WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama pledged his government’s support to France on Friday after a series of attacks in Paris, but said he did not yet know the details of what had happened and that the situation was still unfolding.

    “Once again we’ve seen an outrageous attempt to terrorise innocent civilians,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

    “We stand prepared and ready to provide whatever assistance that the government and the people of France need,” he said, and pledged to “bring these terrorists to justice and go after any terrorist networks” involved.

    “Those who think that they can terrorise the people of France or the values that they stand for are wrong,” Obama said. (Source: Reuters)