The Indian Panorama

Year: 2022

  • Enforcement Directorate attaches journalist Rana Ayyub’s assets worth Rs 1.77 crore

    Enforcement Directorate attaches journalist Rana Ayyub’s assets worth Rs 1.77 crore

    New Delhi (TIP)-The enforcement directorate has locked assets worth over Rs 1.77 crore belonging to journalist Rana Ayyub, the Hindu reported. The action comes after an FIR was registered last year by the Indirapuram Police Station in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, alleging that the journalist acquired money from the public in the name of charity.

    The ED had initiated an investigation against Ayyub in September when the FIR was registered. Both the ED and the income tax department have since been investigating the transactions in question, Hindustan Times reported. On Thursday, the ED locked the assets.

    A note from the ED said: “Funds totalling Rs 2,69,44,680 were raised on Ketto by Rana Ayyub. These funds were withdrawn in the bank accounts of her sister/father. Of this amount, Rs 72,01,786 was withdrawn in her own bank account.”

    The note alleged that “fake bills” purportedly prepared by Ayyub were found. “Expenses made for personal travel by air were claimed as expenses for relief work,” it claimed.

    The FIR was filed in September based on a complaint by Vikas Sankrityayan, co-founder of the Hindu IT Cell, a Hindu supremacist group. Sankrityayan accused Ayyub of “illegally acquiring money from the general public in the name of charity” on Ketto, a crowdfunding website, after Ayyub raised money through the platform for three relief campaigns.

    He also claimed she had violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act because she was a “journalist by profession” and was “receiving foreign money without any approval certificate or registration from the government”.

    The ED has claimed that the funds were raised in a pre-planned manner, in the name of charity and that they were not completely used for the stated purpose. The agency also said that Ayyub parked some of the funds in a current account and created a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds raised on Ketto. When the FIR was filed, Ayyub had released a statement on Twitter, calling it “baseless” and “malicious”. She stated that the donations received via Ketto were accounted for and had not been misused.

  • ‘We are watching, will interfere only at right time’: SC on hijab row

    ‘We are watching, will interfere only at right time’: SC on hijab row

    New Delhi (TIP)-On a petition linked to the hijab row raging in Karnataka, the Supreme Court on February 11 rejected an urgent hearing and said, “We will interfere only at an appropriate time.”

    A girl in Karnataka had approached the Supreme Court after the High Court yesterday advised students to avoid wearing “religious garments” until it decides on a case involving hijab restrictions in schools and colleges.

    “Don’t spread these things to a national level. We will interfere only at an appropriate time,” Chief Justice NV Ramana said, declining an urgent hearing on the petition.

    When a lawyer pressed the court to take it up, arguing that the case had “far-reaching implications” and that students had been wearing the hijab or head scarf for 10 years, the Supreme Court remained firm.

    “Please do not spread it to larger levels. we know what is happening. Think over, is it proper to bring these things to Delhi? The national level? If there is anything wrong, we will protect…” Chief Justice Ramana said.

    The girl’s petition had challenged the Karnataka High Court’s remarks that educational institutions in the state can open for now but with no religious clothing on campus, for the sake of peace.

    Schools and colleges were shut down earlier this week in an escalating row over hijab restrictions in class. The protests that began against a hijab ban in one government-run college in Udupi spread to many other institutions where girls wearing hijabs were not allowed entry. As saffron scarf-wearing students launched rival protests, violence at one college forced the police to fire teargas to control the flare-up.

    The Karnataka High Court is hearing a petition challenging hijab restrictions in colleges. Yesterday, a three-member bench said it would resume the hearing on Monday.

    The student who has challenged the High Court’s comments says in her appeal to the Supreme Court that practical exams begin on February 15 and “any interference on students’ access to educational institutions will impede their education”.

    She argued that wearing the hijab is within the constitutional right of expression, right to privacy and “Freedom of Conscience”, so the High Court order violates the constitution.

    “The government has issued an order thereby denying entry to the Muslim Women wearing Hijab in the educational institutions. The impugned order creates an unreasonable classification between the non-Muslim female students and the Muslim female students and thereby is in straight violation of the concept of secularism which forms the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. The impugned order is also in sheer violation of Articles 14, 15, 19, 21 and 25 of the Indian Constitution and also violates the core principles of the International Conventions that India is a signatory to,” her appeal to the Supreme Court said.

    The Supreme Court had yesterday refused to take up another petition, filed by student Fathima Bushra, challenging the Karnataka government’s order last week banning clothes which it said “disturb equality, integrity and public order”.

    “In the event of the administrative committee not selecting a uniform, clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public law and order should not be worn,” the Karnataka government’s order had said.

    As Congress leader Kapil Sibal, a senior lawyer, urged the Supreme Court to take up Fathima Bushra’s petition, saying the issue is “spreading across the country”, Chief Justice Ramana had said: “We will see.”     Source: NDTV

     

  • Valentine’s Day

    Valentine’s Day

    Valentine’s Day, also called St. Valentine’s Day, holiday (February 14) when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. Given their similarities, it has been suggested that the holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I forbid the celebration of Lupercalia and is sometimes attributed with replacing it with St. Valentine’s Day, but the true origin of the holiday is vague at best. Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance until about the 14th century. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on Monday, February 14, 2022.

    Although there were several Christian martyrs named Valentine, the day may have taken its name from a priest who was martyred about 270 CE by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus. According to legend, the priest signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and, by some accounts, healed from blindness. Other accounts hold that it was St. Valentine of Terni, a bishop, for whom the holiday was named, though it is possible the two saints were actually one person. Another common legend states that St. Valentine defied the emperor’s orders and secretly married couples to spare the husbands from war. It is for this reason that his feast day is associated with love.

    Formal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used. The first commercial valentines in the United States were printed in the mid-1800s. Valentines commonly depict Cupid, the Roman god of love, along with hearts, traditionally the seat of emotion. Because it was thought that the avian mating season begins in mid-February, birds also became a symbol of the day. Traditional gifts include candy and flowers, particularly red roses, a symbol of beauty and love.

    What Do People Do?

    Many people around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day by showing appreciation for the people they love or adore. Some people take their loved ones for a romantic dinner at a restaurant while others may choose this day to propose or get married. Many people give greeting cards, chocolates, jewelry or flowers, particularly roses, to their partners or admirers on Valentine’s Day.

    It is also a time to appreciate friends in some social circles and cultures. For example, Valentine’s Day in Finland refers to “Friend’s day”, which is more about remembering all friends rather than focusing solely on romance. Valentine’s Day in Guatemala is known as Day of Love and Friendship). It is similar to Valentine’s Day customs and traditions countries such as the United States but it is also a time for many to show their appreciation for their friends.

    Public Life

    Valentine’s Day is not a public holiday in many countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, restaurants, hotels and shopping centers may be busy around this time of the year.

    Background

    The origins of Valentine’s Day are not clear but many sources believe that it stems from the story of St Valentine, a Roman priest who was martyred on or around February 14 in the year 270 CE. How he became the patron saint of lovers remains a mystery but one theory is that the church used the day of St Valentine’s martyrdom to Christianize the old Roman Lupercalia, a pagan festival held around the middle of February. The ancient ceremony included putting girls’ names in a box and letting the boys draw them out. Couples would then be paired off until the following year. The Christian church substituted saints’ names for girls’ names in hope that the participant would model his life after the saint whose name he drew. However, it was once again girls’ names that ended up in the box by the 16th century. Eventually the custom of sending anonymous cards or messages to those whom one admired became the accepted way of celebrating Valentine’s Day. There was an increase in interest in Valentine’s Day, first in the United States and then in Canada, in the mid-19th century. Early versions of Valentine cards fashioned of satin and lace and ornamented with flowers, ribbons, and images of cupids or birds appeared in England in the 1880s.

    The Legend of St. Valentine

    The history of Valentine’s Day–and the story of its patron saint–is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

    The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

  • Iran unveil new missile with reported region-wide range

    Tehran (TIP): Iran unveiled a new missile on february 9 with a reported range that would allow it to reach both US bases in the region as well as targets inside its archfoe Israel. State TV reported that the missile has solid fuel and a range of 1,450 kilometers, or 900 miles. It is called the Khaibar-buster, a reference to a Jewish castle overrun by Muslim warriors in the early days of Islam.

    It said the missile has high accuracy, is manufactured completely domestically, and can defeat missile shield systems. The information has not been independently verified. Israel’s closest point to Iran is some 1,000 kilometers, or 620 miles, away.

    The report comes as negotiations continue in Vienna to revive Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Iran, which has long said it does not seek nuclear weapons, insists its missile program is only a deterrent. Iran has missiles that can travel up to 2,000 kilometers, 1250 miles. Earlier in January Iran tested an engine for a solid-fuel rocket designed to launch satellites. AP

  • Camilla will get Kohinoor once Prince Charles becomes king, says report

    Camilla will get Kohinoor once Prince Charles becomes king, says report

    London (TIP): Duchess of Cornwall Camilla will be given the priceless Kohinoor crown at Prince Charles’s coronation, the Daily Mail reported in an exclusive story. On February 6, Queen Elizabeth announced that the Duchess of Cornwall would become Queen Consort when her husband, the Queen’s son Prince Charles, finally accedes to the throne. To put this into context, the throne is inherited and those who marry into the royal family cannot take it. This means that although Camilla will take the title “Queen Consort” she could never be made “Queen”. The Queen’s announcement came on a day that marked the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

    The Daily Mail report on Sunday said Camilla will have the Queen Mother’s priceless platinum and diamond crown placed on her head when Charles is made king.

    The Kohinoor, also spelled as Koh-i-noor or Koh-i-nur, is a precious 105.6 carat diamond of indeterminable origins whose recorded history goes back to the Mughal era when Babur mentions it in his diary. Babur mentions in his diary entry that Alauddin Khalji of the Khilji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate had acquired the diamond in one of his invasions of the kingdoms of southern India in the 14th Century and that it passed to succeeding dynasties of the Sultanate. Babur received the diamond in1526 as a tribute to his conquest of Delhi and Agra in the Battle of Panipat. (TNS)

  • UK PM Johnson reshuffles Cabinet; appoints Rees-Mogg as minister for Brexit Opportunities

    UK PM Johnson reshuffles Cabinet; appoints Rees-Mogg as minister for Brexit Opportunities

    London (TIP): Embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under pressure to resign over parties in Downing Street during lockdown, on february 8 reshuffled his Cabinet and appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg as the minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency.

    Rees-Mogg, 52, currently leader of the House of Commons, will be based in the Cabinet Office. Mark Spencer, the current Chief Whip, will replace Rees Mogg as the Leader of Commons. Rees-Mogg, a prominent Leave campaigner during the 2016 EU referendum, will be a full member of the Cabinet, having previously only attended it. Spencer, who was previously chief whip, will continue to attend. Chris Heaton-Harris has become the new Chief Whip, in charge of disciplining Conservative MPs.

    Stuart Andrew, former Deputy Chief Whip, will be the minister for housing.

    Andrew, the MP for Pudsey since 2010, previously held the position of Treasurer of HM Household and was a Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Commons. The shake-up of the ministerial team follows the appointment of Stephen Barclay as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.

    It also comes as Johnson, 57, seeks to relaunch his administration following the ‘Partygate’ row. He is facing intense pressure to step down from the Opposition and Conservative MPs.

    The Prime Minister has already changed many of his advisers and other staff of 10 Downing Street, as he attempts to ward off calls from the Opposition and some of his own MPs, to resign.

    At the sub-cabinet level, Stuart Andrew has moved from being deputy chief whip to housing minister.

    In her report on gatherings that took place in 10 Downing Street during lockdowns, published last week, senior civil servant Sue Gray criticised “failures of leadership and judgement”.

    In response, Johnson has promised a “change” in culture and to consult Conservative MPs more on setting policy. Meanwhile, Johnson’s office said that the prime minister has no intention of apologising after falsely claiming that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute serial sex offender Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions.

    The reshuffle follows several backbench Tory MPs criticising his leadership If 54 MPs write letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee, this will prompt a vote of no-confidence in the prime minister.

    If he lost this, there would be a full leadership contest, in which Johnson could not run.

    At the last Cabinet reshuffle in September last year, Nadine Dorries became culture secretary and Liz Truss became foreign secretary, while Dominic Raab was moved from the Foreign Office to become the deputy prime minister.

    Last week, Prime Minister Johnson’s five aides, including longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, principal private secretary Martin Reynolds and communications director Jack Doyle, resigned from their posts within hours of each other.

    They stepped down after a damning investigation revealed that multiple parties took place at Downing Street while the rest of the United Kingdom was living under strict Covid-19 lockdown rules.

    Officers from the Met Police are investigating a total of 12 Downing Street parties.

    It is believed that as many as six of those could have been attended by the Prime Minister. (PTI)

  • UK, Russia diplomats clash over Ukraine

    Moscow (TIP): Britain’s top diplomat urged Russia on February 10 to defuse tensions over Ukraine and take the path of diplomacy even as thousands of Russian troops engaged in sweeping manoeuvres in Belarus as part of a military buildup near Ukraine that has fueled Western fears of an invasion.

    UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned Russia that attacking its neighbour would “have massive consequences and carry severe costs”, urging Moscow to de-escalate the tensions.

    Facing Truss across the table, the grim-faced Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov set a stern tone for the talks, emphasising that Moscow won’t accept Western lecturing. — AP

    Prince Charles isolating after testing positive for Covid-19

    London (TIP): Britain’s Prince Charles has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating, his office said february 10. A message on the royal’s official Twitter page said Charles tested positive on Thursday morning and was “deeply disappointed” not to be able to attend a scheduled visit in Winchester, England. No other details were immediately available.

    Charles, 73, met dozens of people during a Wednesday evening reception at the British Museum.

    The heir to the throne previously contracted the coronavirus in March 2020. Officials said he had mild COVID-19 symptoms then. Charles and his wife, Camilla, isolated at Queen Elizabeth II’s Balmoral estate in Scotland at the time. Spain’s King Felipe VI, 54, and Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, 81, also tested positive for the coronavirus this week. AP

  • UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak admits attending Downing Street lockdown party

    UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak admits attending Downing Street lockdown party

    London (TIP): UK’s Indian-origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak has admitted to attending Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown birthday party in 2020 but refused to say what happened when he entered the room and claimed that he was there for a meeting to discuss the Covid-19 situation. His comments came after Johnson’s five aides, including longstanding policy chief Munira Mirza, chief of staff Dan Rosenfield, principal private secretary Martin Reynolds and communications director Jack Doyle, resigned from their posts within hours of each other on February 10.

    They stepped down after a damning investigation revealed that multiple parties took place at Downing Street while the rest of the United Kingdom was living under strict Covid-19 lockdown rules.

    Sunak, who lives next door to the Prime Minister in Downing Street, is also reported to have attended a surprise birthday party for Johnson in No. 10’s Cabinet Room in June 2020.

    He admitted to attending Johnson’s lockdown birthday party in 2020 but refused to say what happened when he entered the room, the Mirror newspaper reported.

    The Chancellor said that he was in the Cabinet Room for Johnson’s lockdown birthday party but insisted he was there for a meeting to discuss the Covid-19 situation.

    He acknowledged that the scandal surrounding parties during lockdown at Downing Street has damaged the public’s trust in the government, the BBC reported.

    The Chancellor, however, said that he believed his plans to deal with the cost of living crisis would help restore it.

    Sunak, 41, insisted that Prime Minister Johnson, who is facing growing calls for his resignation, has his “full support.” Dismissing talk of him replacing Johnson, the Chancellor said that the Prime Minister had always told the truth about the parties.

    “Yes, of course he does. He is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,” he said. Asked whether the parties held in violation of Covid-19 lockdown rules damaged the public’s confidence in the government, Sunak said “Yes, I think it has. I can appreciate people’s frustration. And I think it’s now the job of all of us in government, all politicians, to restore people’s trust”.

    As an embattled Johnson faces intense pressure to step down from the opposition and Conservative MPs, some Tory MPs believe that Sunak, as one of the most powerful figures in the government, is the frontrunner to replace Johnson.

    But Sunak quelled such talk. “Well, that’s very kind of them to suggest that. But what I think people want from me is to focus on my job.

    “I know a few of my colleagues have said that and they’ll have their reasons for doing that. But I don’t think that’s the situation we’re in. The Prime Minister has my full support,” he told the BBC.

    Asked whether he would run to be the next Tory leader and Prime Minister, should there be a vacancy, Sunak said “No, that’s not what I’m focused on.” Officers from the Met Police are investigating a total of 12 Downing Street parties. (PTI)

  • Australia to reopen borders to vaccinated tourists from Feb 21

    Canberra (TIP): Australia will open its borders to all vaccinated tourists and business travellers from February 21 in a further relaxation of pandemic restrictions announced February 7 . Australia imposed some of the world’s toughest travel restrictions on its citizens and permanent residents in March 2020 to prevent them from bringing Covid-19 home.

    When the border restrictions were relaxed in November in response to an increasing vaccination rate among the Australian population, international students and skilled migrants were prioritised over tourists in being welcomed back to Australia.

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his senior ministers agreed on Monday that the border would reopen to all vaccinated visa holders from February 21. He referred to Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic being deported by the Australian government last month because he was not vaccinated against Covid. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said visitors who could provide proof of a medical reason why they could not be vaccinated could apply for a travel exemption. — AP

  • Pakistan offers PR scheme for wealthy foreign nationals, including Sikhs in US and Canada, to attract investment

    Islamabad (TIP) : Pakistani lawmakers are mulling a proposed amendment to the civil service rules that will bar top government officials from holding dual nationality and could affect over 20,000 bureaucrats, according to a media report on Feb 11.

    The Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951 explicitly allows a citizen of Pakistan to hold dual nationality. Pakistanis with dual citizenship are currently forbidden to run for public office, sit in parliament, contest elections or join the army. In a ruling in September 2012, the country’s top court disqualified eleven lawmakers for failing to disclose their dual nationalities upon taking office. The amendment to the civil service rules came up before the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat on Thursday during a discussion on the ‘The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021′ moved by Senator Afnan Ullah Khan in the sitting held on January 17, 2022.

    The proposed amendment bars civil servants from holding dual nationality and suggests a timeline for dual national civil servants to relinquish their foreign nationality, the Dawn newspaper reported. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan was of the view that government servants should not hold dual nationality during service, arguing that one person cannot be loyal to two countries at the same time. (PTI)

  • Eight killed and five injured in accident in Nepal: Police

    Kathmandu (TIP): A passenger vehicle carrying a newly-wed couple and some of the wedding attendants skidded off a hilly road in Western Nepal on february 5, killing eight people and injuring five others, police said. The accident happened in the country’s Pyuthan district when the jeep bound to Libang of Gaumukhi rural municipality from Lung of Naubahini rural municipality carrying the couple and their wedding attendants skidded off and fell 150 metres down the road. “At least eight people died and five others sustained injuries in the accident,” a senior police official said. Six persons died on the spot and two others died while undergoing treatment in a local hospital. “Five people including the bride and groom were injured in the incident,” the official said. Similar accidents are common in Western Nepal during winter due to the dense fog and slippery roads. Last year in November, a passenger bus skidded off the road in Western Nepal, killing at least 12 people and wounding nearly 20. (PTI)

  • Myanmar piles on 11th corruption charge against Suu Kyi

    Bangkok (TIP): Police in Myanmar have filed an 11th corruption charge against Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s elected leader who was ousted from power by a military takeover a year ago, state-controlled media reported February 11.

    The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that Suu Kyi was being charged under the Anti-Corruption Law covering bribery, which carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.

    Suu Kyi has faced a raft of charges since she was taken into custody when the military seized power on Feb. 1 last year. Her supporters and human rights groups say the cases against her are baseless, and have been contrived to bar her return to politics and participation in a new election the army has promised by 2023.

    Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after being convicted of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus restrictions. She is also being tried on the charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. Australian economist Sean Turnell, who was her advisor, is a co-defendant.

    A court session in the capital Naypyitaw in the secrets case was postponed Thursday because the 76-year-old Suu Kyi was suffering from low blood pressure, causing dizziness, said a person familiar with the proceedings, speaking on condition of anonymity because the hearings are closed. But she was back in court Friday when hearings began on five corruption charges related to granting permission to rent and buy a helicopter.  (AP)

  • Malaysia’s ex-PM Mahathir discharged from heart hospital

    Malaysia’s ex-PM Mahathir discharged from heart hospital

    Kuala Lumpur (TIP): Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was discharged on Feb 6 from the National Heart Institute two weeks after he was admitted and will recuperate at home, the hospital said.

    The 96-year-old two-time former premier, once the world’s oldest leader, was admitted to the coronary care unit on Jan 20 for the third time in just over a month. The latest hospital stay followed an elective medical procedure at the same facility on Jan 7. In December, he was admitted for a full medical checkup and observation. The hospital said Mahathir will have to follow up for continuation of his medical treatment, without giving any details. His prolonged stay at the hospital has sparked concerns over his health. But the nonagenarian said in a video message on Friday that he is recovering well.

    The brief video posted on social media showed Mahathir walking into his house unassisted, reading a newspaper and having tea with his wife. Mahathir said in the video that he has been allowed to return home in the day but goes back to the hospital in the evening.

    He looked frail and weaker than usual as he thanked those who had prayed for his recovery and sent him flowers and cards.

    “My hope is that soon I would be able to recover fully,” he added.

    Mahathir has had two coronary bypass surgeries but was still robust and sharp witted. He led the opposition to a historic election victory in 2018 that ousted a corruption-tainted government in the first peaceful transfer of power since Malaysia’s independence in 1957.

    Mahathir became the world’s oldest leader at 92 for a second stint but that triumph lasted only 22 months as his government collapsed due to infighting. That didn’t stop him, and Mahathir formed a new ethnic Malay party in 2020 to oppose the new leadership. AP

  • Pregnant Pakistani woman gets nail hammered into her head so that she gives birth to a son

    Pregnant Pakistani woman gets nail hammered into her head so that she gives birth to a son

    Islamabad (TIP): The belief that a son could provide better financial security to parents than daughters had this Pakistani woman do something, which was unbelievable. A pregnant Pakistani woman, who had three daughters, had a nail hammered into her head by a faith healer who said it would guarantee that she gave birth to a boy. The injured woman was admitted at the Lady Reading Hospital in northwestern Peshawar city where she underwent surgery to remove the nail from her skull, according to Pakistani media reports.

    The woman’s X-ray showed that the five-centimetre (two-inch) nail had pierced the top of the woman’s forehead but missed her brain.

    “The family said that she was at home and became unconscious,” Dr Suleman told the Dawn newspaper. He added that attempts were also made to remove the nail at her home. The woman is a mother to three daughters. It is said that the victim was allegedly threatened by her husband to give birth to a boy, and that he would abandon her if she gave birth to a fourth girl.

    Media reports claimed that the woman went to the faith healer after it was revealed through an ultrasound that she was about to give birth to a daughter again. The Capital City Police Peshawar (CCPO) Abbas Ahsan told Geo News TV that the victim support officers have been directed to meet the woman to counsel her and get details of the incident, adding that “a legal action will be taken against her husband and the culprits involved.” (TNS)

  • Indian-origin Malaysian man sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Singapore

    Indian-origin Malaysian man sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Singapore

    SINGAPORE (TIP): A Malaysian man of Indian origin has been sentenced to death by a court here for delivering heroin in Singapore and acting as a middleman for drug traffickers, according to a media report.

    Kishor Kumar Raguan, 41, rode his motorcycle into Singapore to deliver a bag containing more than 900 grams of a powdery substance in July 2016. The four bundles inside the bag brought in were later analyzed to contain 36.5 grams of heroin. The law provides for the death penalty if the amount of heroin trafficked is more than 15 grams.

    Singaporean national of Chinese-origin Pung Ah Kiang, 61, who received the bag from Raguan, was sentenced to life imprisonment for possessing the drugs for the purpose of trafficking.

    In written grounds released on Friday, High Court Justice Audrey Lim said she found that both Raguan and Pung knew that the bundles contained heroin, The Straits Times newspaper reported on Friday.

    Rejecting Raguan’s defense that he believed the bag contained “stones”, the judge said the Indian-origin man, who was involved in drug activities, had failed to show that he genuinely believed the bundles contained something innocuous.

    She found that Kishor was told that the items to be delivered were “kallu”, which he knew referred to heroin.

    Justice Lim also rejected Pung’s claim that he did not know what was in the bag and was merely keeping it temporarily for his brother-in-law. She imposed life imprisonment on Pung as he was certified by the prosecution to have substantively assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities, the report said. “As the prosecution did not issue Kishor with a certificate of substantive assistance…I passed the mandatory death sentence on him,” it quoted the judge as saying. Raguan had brought the bag containing the bundles of drugs into Singapore on July 29, 2016 and delivered it to Pung near his Paya Lebar condominium.

    Pung was arrested by CNB officers as he was walking back to his condominium. He was then escorted to his home, where more drugs were found. Raguan’s DNA was found on the bundles he delivered to Pung. The prosecution contended that Raguan knew he was delivering “kallu” – a street name for heroin – and was told to collect Singapore dollars 6,000 from Pung.

    The prosecution said Raguan was no stranger to illegal drugs as he had acted as a middleman for drug transactions. In his defense, Raguan said he was promised USD 160 to deliver something to Singapore and was told that the item was “like a stone”. He claimed that he thought they could either be decorative stones or rocks and pebbles but did not think too much about it.

    The convict claimed that he unraveled the black tape of the bundles but did not recognize the “brown-colored things” inside.

  • Indian American Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna partners with Zighrana to launch signature Made-in-India perfume in New York

    Indian American Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna partners with Zighrana to launch signature Made-in-India perfume in New York

    NEW YORK CITY (TIP): A traditional Indian essence and wellness products company has partnered with Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna to launch a signature Made-in-India perfume here, aiming to usher in a “new dawn” for India’s arrival in the global perfumes industry.

    Zighrana has collaborated with Khanna to launch the flagship perfume that will bear his name and be called “‘Vikas Khanna’ by Zighrana”. The product will be launched on February 14, marked as Valentine’s Day, at the Consulate General of India in New York.

    A company press release said the launch of the ‘Make in India’ perfume, to be unveiled by Consul General of India in New York Randhir Jaiswal, “will usher in a new dawn for India’s arrival in the global perfumes industry”. Hailing from Kannauj, the perfume capital of India, the new product is Zighrana’s “humble attempt to capture the essence of Incredible India”.

    The company said it is delighted to work with Khanna, an Indian cultural icon and entrepreneur on the path-breaking venture. In keeping with the Michelin-star chef’s culinary expertise, the new perfume ‘Vikas Khanna’ by Zighrana is a “unique blend of spices like cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, sandalwood, jasmine and rose which have come to define the unique smells of India for more than a millennia.”

    The company said it has used precious ingredients like pure rose oil that is both resource and labor intensive to generate, taking nearly 100 kg of flowers to make as little as 20 gm of rose oil. Entrepreneur Swapnil Pathak Sharma from the company said that through this unique collaboration, she aims to ensure that India’s age-old fragrance industry gets its due global recognition.

    Sharma hails from a family which has been in the field of traditional Indian essence and wellness products since 1911. “I have worked hard to ensure that our latest forte into the perfume industry is at par if not better than the global standards of excellence in the perfume industry,” she told media. Khanna said in a tweet that since he moved to the US in 2000 his “mission is to bring Indian Culture, Cuisine, Arts & history with me. I’m completely dedicated to choose projects that represent those values. Proud to bring the legacy of #Kannauj India’s perfume capital in form of #VikasKhannaByZighrana on Feb 14.”

    Khanna had posted a photo holding the signature perfume bearing his name, along with Jaiswal, Sharma and her father, Akhilesh Pathak.

    On the collaboration with Khanna, Sharma said the world-renowned chef and entrepreneur is a cultural brand ambassador for incredible India and he understands both India’s rich tradition as well as its place in the modern world.

    “Our discussions revealed that we have to come up with an aroma that is a reflection of the great Indian culinary, and given his background as a world-class chef there was nothing better but to develop a perfume inspired by our spices as his signature perfume,” she said. With the launch, Zighrana aims to make an entry into the global marketplace of perfumes with the brand new product “which showcases the soul of India in the global cultural capital of New York,” the release added. Through the flagship perfume, Sharma said she aims to bring forth the history and legacy of her family of being in the fragrance industry for 111 years.

    “It’s high time India should mark its strong presence in the fragrance market and reach out to the world. New York is an intersection of different cultural influences,” which makes it the ideal platform to project the Indian heritage of perfumery.

    “It is an honest attempt to bring the Indian fragrance to the world stage, given that I am the fourth generation in this industry,” she said.

    Going forward, Sharma said she plans to come out with more distinct fragrances representing India’s history and culture.

    “We will be coming up soon with perfume on ‘Kannauj’ and also a unique fragrance developed for celebrating India’s 75 years of independence in the form of ‘India at 75’.” The company will also be diversifying its portfolio and wants to bring its traditional attars in the US market, besides exploring opportunities in the scented candles market.

    (Based on a press release)

  • Indian American Himanshu B. Patel to advise Congressman Sessions on Crypto

    Indian American Himanshu B. Patel to advise Congressman Sessions on Crypto

    WASHINGTON, (D.C.): Congressman Pete Sessions has appointed Indian-American Himanshu B Patel as his chief economic development and energy infrastructure advisor for his Crypto Technical Working Group.

    In a statement, Sessions said it is vital for the United States and India to take the lead globally on setting standards on innovative frontiers in areas of financial digital technologies and energy infrastructure developments.

    “I am excited to be working closely with Himanshu Patel. His counsel is important to my team and I as we look to better educate other policymakers and engage the global business community. I am confident that enhanced collaboration between knowledgeable experts and world-class leaders will advance efforts on a mutually beneficial global scale,” he said. Patel, in a statement, said that his appointment on Sessions’ team and the Crypto Technical Working Group would lead the way for collaborative discussions around digital currency and cryptocurrency for a fair market and movement to green world policies to promote electric vehicles. He is the founder and managing director of Triton Electric Vehicles, which is working towards building global capabilities of producing EV trucks and cars from India. “I will be focusing on how to bring the US and India interests together to accelerate these innovations while doing so in a way that addresses the challenges our energy infrastructure faces as these innovations come online and continue to increase,” Patel said.

  • Indian American software engineer in Seattle goes missing

    Indian American software engineer in Seattle goes missing

    SEATTLE, WA (TIP): Saurabh Gupte, an Indian American who works at Amazon went down from his 6th floor apartment in Trio Condos in Seattle to throw trash on Monday, February 7 morning, and never returned, according to local media reports.

    “Something has happened,” his wife Shraddha Gupte was cited as saying by KIRO 7. “I don’t know what happened but I’m requesting to every one of you please please please help me.” Security cameras in the building captured Gupte, 34, in the parking garage when he went down after finishing a work meeting around noon, Shraddha said. He then headed back to the 6th floor to grab the trash and take it to the chute down the hall. That was the last time anyone saw him.

    “He’s really calm, simple and kind guy,” said Shraddha. “He’s a loving husband, loving son, he’s a loving father. We just had a baby. He’s 4 months old.” At the time of his disappearance, Gupte said her husband didn’t have his keys wallet or phone with him, and all he was wearing was a shirt, sweatpants and flip flops. She has no reason to believe he just left and is worried something may have happened to him inside the Belltown condominium, according to KIRO 7.

    “This is just a nightmare for all of us, you know? Just a nightmare,” Gupte was quoted as saying. Now their family and friends are posting signs and raising awareness of Saurabh’s disappearance hoping that someone will recognize his photo and help reunite this family.Read: Indian American professor goes missing on Mount Rainier hike (October 20, 2020)

    “There’s some hope that I can find him, we will find him together. He’s somewhere here and we will surely find with everyone’s help,” Shraddha said. The Seattle Police Department is investigating and asking anyone with information on Gupte’s disappearance to call 911, according to King 5. Gupte was last seen in flip flops and sweats. He left his phone and keys in the condo near Western Avenue and Denny Way, according to King5. His wife and 4-month-old baby were still home at the time.“He loves me, he loves his family, he loves his parents, he loves his baby. I don’t know how he just disappeared. He’s not that kind of guy who would just walk away,” Shraddha Gupte said.Read: Missing Belltown man took out the trash and never came back (February 8, 2022)

    She said her husband is in good health, physically and mentally, and there was nothing about him that worried her. “I just want everyone’s help to find my husband Saurabh, he’s really very kind and friendly. I want my Saurabh back, my baby wants his father back,” she said.

    According to Seattle police, Saurabh Gupte is 5 feet 7 inches tall, and weighs 180 pounds. He was last seen wearing a dark brown t-shirt, dark blue pants, and flip flops. “Please call 911 if seen,” SPD said in a tweet.

  • Indian Americans condemn vandalization of Gandhi statue in New York

    Indian Americans condemn vandalization of Gandhi statue in New York

    NEW YORK (TIP): Indian-American community leaders on Monday, February 7, condemned the vandalism of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in New York and said this is disrespect to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, two leaders who sought to eradicate hate. A life-sized bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi was vandalized in Union Square, New York City on Saturday, February 5. The incident was strongly condemned as ‘despicable’ by the Consulate General of India. The eight-foot-high statue, located in Manhattan’s Union Square, was defaced by unknown persons, the Indian Consulate in New York had said. “As an African-American practitioner of the Hindu dharma, I am deeply offended that anyone would disrespect Mahatma Gandhi, who inspired MLK (Martin Luther King) to take up the mission of non-violence, which inspired major changes in society that are still positively impacting our lives today,” said Balabhadra Bhattacharya Dasa (Benny Tillman), president of the Vedic Friends Association. Utsav Chakrabarti, executive director of the HinduPACT said that this is not the first time that a statue of Gandhi had been vandalized in the US. “In the past few years, statues of Mahatma Gandhi have been vandalized by groups aligned with radical Islamists and their sympathizers in South Asian communities,” he claimed.

    (Source: PTI)

  • U.S. urges Canada to use federal powers to end bridge blockade

    U.S. urges Canada to use federal powers to end bridge blockade

    The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest U.S.-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries, and the effects of the blockade there were felt rapidly.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): The Biden administration urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government Thursday, February 10, to use its federal powers to end the truck blockade by Canadians protesting the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, as the bumper-to-bumper demonstration forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production, according to an AP report.

    For the fourth straight day, scores of truckers taking part in what they dubbed the Freedom Convoy blocked the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, disrupting the flow of auto parts and other products between the two countries.

    The White House said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke with their Canadian counterparts and urged them to help resolve the standoff.

    Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Royal Canadian Mounted Police reinforcements are being sent to Windsor, Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta where another border blockade is happening.A federal government official said they are not ruling out any options. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

    Mr. Trudeau met virtually with leaders of Canada’s opposition late Thursday and said he spoke with Windsor’s mayor. He said it is causing real harm to workers and economies on both sides of the border.

    Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, moved to cut off funding for the protests by successfully asking a court to freeze millions of dollars in donations to the convoy through crowd-funding site GiveSendGo. Ford has called the protests an occupation.

    Canadian officials previously got GoFundMe to cut off funding after protest organizers used the site to raise about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.8 million.) GoFundMe determined that the fundraising effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.

    With political and economic pressure mounting, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announced the city will seek a court injunction to end the occupation. “The economic harm is not sustainable, and it must come to an end,” he said.

    In the U.S., authorities braced for the possibility of similar truck-borne protests inspired by the Canadians, and authorities in Paris and Belgium banned road blockades to head off disruptions there, too. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a bulletin to local and state law enforcement agencies that it has received reports that truckers are planning to “potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities” in a protest against vaccine mandates and other issues.

    The agency said the convoy could begin in Southern California as early as this weekend, possibly disrupting traffic around the Super Bowl, and reach Washington in March in time for the State of the Union address, according to a copy of Tuesday’s bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. The White House said the department is “surging additional staff” to the Super Bowl just in case.

    The ban on road blockades in Europe and the threat of prison and heavy fines were likewise prompted by online chatter from groups calling on drivers to converge on Paris and Brussels over the next few days.

    The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest U.S.-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries, and the effects of the blockade there were felt rapidly.

    Ford said its Windsor engine plant reopened Thursday after being shut down on Wednesday because of a lack of parts. But the factory and the company’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, were operating at reduced capacity, the automaker said.

    On the U.S. side, GM sent the first shift home two hours early Thursday at its Flint, Michigan, heavy-duty pickup truck plant due to parts shortages. Stellantis cut short the first shift Friday at its Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, due to parts shortages

    Also, Honda will temporarily stop production on one assembly line during the day shift Friday at its plant in Alliston, Ontario. It’s because of border delays. U.S. Plants are scheduled to run normally Friday. Toyota said three of its plants in Ontario closed for the rest of the week because of parts shortages, and production also had to be curtailed in Georgetown, Kentucky.

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urged Canadian authorities to quickly resolve the standoff, saying: “It’s hitting paychecks and production lines. That is unacceptable.” Hundreds of demonstrators in trucks have also paralyzed the streets of downtown Ottawa for almost two weeks now and have now closed three border crossings: at Windsor; at Coutts, Alberta, opposite Montana; and at Emerson, Manitoba, across from North Dakota.

    The protesters are decrying vaccine mandates for truckers and other COVID-19 restrictions and are railing against Mr. Trudeau, even though many of Canada’s precautions, such as mask rules and vaccine passports for getting into restaurants, theaters and other places, were enacted by provincial authorities, not the federal government, and are already rapidly being lifted as the omicron surge levels off.

    Mr. Trudeau continued to stand firm against lifting vaccine mandates, including a requirement that all truck drivers entering the country be fully vaccinated. But because an estimated 90% of the nation’s truckers are already inoculated, some conservatives have called on the Prime Minister to drop the mandate.

    The convoy has been promoted and cheered on by many Fox News personalities and attracted support from the likes of former President Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

    The Associated Press identified more than a dozen Facebook groups encompassing roughly a half-million members that are being used to drum up support for the Canadian protests or plan similar ones in the U.S. and Europe.

    To get around the blockade and into Canada, truckers in the Detroit area have had to drive 70 miles north to Port Huron, Michigan, and cross the Blue Water Bridge, where there was a two-hour delay leaving the U.S.

    The blockade is happening at a bad time for the U.S. auto industry. Supplies of new vehicles already are low across the nation because of the global shortage of computer chips, which has forced automakers to temporarily close factories. “The disruptions we are seeing at the U.S.-Canada border — at the Detroit-Windsor Ambassador Bridge and at other crossings — are adding to the significant supply chain strains on manufacturers and other businesses in the United States,” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and Business Roundtable said in a joint statement. “We respectfully urge the Canadian government to act swiftly to address the disruption to the flow of trade and its impact on manufacturers and other businesses on both sides of the border.”

  • Supreme Court refuses to intervene on Karnataka hijab row

    Supreme Court refuses to intervene on Karnataka hijab row

    NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Court on Friday, February 11, refused to intervene in the Karnataka hijab controversy, saying “We will take it up at an appropriate time.” “You should think if such issues should be brought at the national level,” a Bench led by CJI NV Ramana told senior advocate Devdatt Kamat.

    Seeking to challenge the Karnataka High Court’s interim order restraining students from wearing religious dress till it decided the issues arising out of the hijab controversy, Kamat urged the top court to take up the matter on Monday.

    But the CJI refused to oblige him. “We are also watching what’s happening in the state… Constitutional rights are for everybody, and this court will protect it. We will list at appropriate time,” the CJI said.

    Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed Kamat’s submission, saying the issue shouldn’t be politicized. The high court order was not available, he pointed out.

    One of the advocates pointed out that examinations were scheduled to commence from February 15 and the petitioners had to choose between the examinations and their faith. But the Bench wasn’t impressed.

    This is the second time in as many days that the top court has refused to intervene.

    On Thursday, February 10, senior advocate Kapil Sibal had urged CJI Ramana to take up a petition filed by Fatima Bushra – a student of Government PU College, Udupi – in view of its pan-India ramifications.

    “The problem is that schools and colleges are closed…Girls are being stoned. It’s spreading across the country,” Sibal had said.

    “Please wait…let the high court decide… They’re hearing it,” the CJI had told Sibal, refusing an urgent listing.

    After hearing the matter on Thursday, a three-judge Bench led by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi had asked students not to go to educational institutes in religious dress.

    “It’s a matter of a few days. Please cooperate, Chief Justice Awasthi had said, posting the matter for Monday. “We will restrain everyone from adopting religious practices while we are hearing…But till the matter is pending consideration…these students and all the stakeholders shall not insist on wearing religious garments, may be headdress or saffron shawl. We will restrain everyone. Because we want peace and tranquility in the state,” the high court had said.There are three petitions filed in the top court. The petitioners have contended that despite the freedom of conscience and the right to religion guaranteed by Article 25(1) of the Constitution, she and other girl students were not allowed to wear hijab.

    They said there was a direct infringement of fundamental rights and also as events are happening in multiple states and likely to spread further, it would be better and proper that the apex court took cognizance of the issue.

    They wanted the top court to decide the issue to avoid conflicting decisions by different high courts.

    (With inputs from agencies)

  • Russia launches Belarus military drills as West fears Ukraine invasion

    Russia launches Belarus military drills as West fears Ukraine invasion

    NEW YORK (TIP): The United States has said Russia is also dispatching some 30,000 troops to Ukraine’s neighbor Belarus for the exercises that started on Thursday, February 10.

    Russia and Belarus launched joint military drills on Thursday, February 10 that heightened tensions and added urgency to diplomatic efforts by NATO leaders to avert a feared invasion of Ukraine.

    The war games, set to run until February 20, are the latest point of contention between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Kyiv quickly denounced the maneuvers as “psychological pressure”.

    French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the exercises “a very violent gesture”, while British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss used a visit to Moscow to accuse Russia of attempting “to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty”.

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the buildup was “a dangerous moment for European security”.

    Western leaders have been warning for weeks that Russia could be preparing to  escalate an eight-year separatist conflict in east Ukraine after building up of some 1,00,000 troops around the former Soviet state.The United States has said Russia is also dispatching some 30,000 troops to Ukraine’s neighbor Belarus for the exercises that started on Thursday.

    Columns of Russian missile systems rolled across snow-carpeted fields on the eve of the start of the drills in footage released by the Defense Ministry. Russia has also sent six warships through the Bosphorus for naval drills on the Black Sea and the neighboring Sea of Azov.Kyiv denounced their presence as “unprecedented” attempt to cut off Ukraine for both seas.

    Moscow and Minsk have not disclosed how many troops are taking part in the military exercises in Belarus.“The objective of the exercises is to practice suppressing and repelling external aggression with a defensive operation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

    Answering Western concerns, the Kremlin has insisted the Russian troops in Belarus will go home after the exercises.

    But Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said “the accumulation of forces at the border is psychological pressure from our neighbors”. Kyiv has launched its own military drills expected to mirror Russia’s games in Belarus, but officials have said little about them out apparent fear of escalating tensions.

    The diplomatic crisis has spurred weeks of talks between Russian, Western and Ukrainian officials.

    Those efforts have drawn cautious optimism for negotiated solution, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying he had secured a pledge from Russian leader Vladimir Putin that Moscow “would not be the source of an escalation”.

    Russia has put sweeping security demands to the United States and the Washington-led NATO military alliance with the aim of reducing their role in eastern Europe and former Soviet states.

    Britain’s Ms. Truss was the latest Western diplomat to travel to Moscow to sound on Russia’s latest stance.

    Ms. Truss told her counterpart Sergei Lavrov in opening remarks that Britain “cannot ignore” Russia’s troop buildup or “attempts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty”. “There is an alternative route, a diplomatic route that avoids conflict and bloodshed,” she said. “I am here to urge Russia to take that path”.

    Mr. Lavrov replied that Western threats towards Moscow would do nothing to ease tensions over Ukraine.

    “Ideological approaches, ultimatums, threats — this is the road to nowhere,” Mr. Lavrov said.

    Ms. Truss’s trip comes just days after Macron conducted a round of shuttle diplomacy between Moscow and Kyiv, and then briefed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about his progress in Berlin.

    The German chancellor will travel to Kyiv and Moscow next week for separate meetings with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders, including his first in person meeting with Putin.

    Mr. Scholz is due to meet Baltic leaders in Berlin on Thursday. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meanwhile meet with NATO officials before travelling to Warsaw to hold talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

    Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned on Wednesday that Putin has continued sending troops to the border.

    The United States has been sending a steady supply of ammunition to Ukraine, delivering its tenth shipment by a military cargo jet on Wednesday night.

    Ukrainian officials have used more cautious language to describe the immediacy of the threat of the Russian build-up.

    Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said Wednesday the Russian forces on the frontier were being used primarily “for political pressure and blackmail”. Fighting between Kyiv’s army and Russian-backed separatists who control parts of two breakaway regions has claimed more than 14,000 lives since breaking out in 2014.It began weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, sparking a wave of economic penalties from the West, which the United States and the European have said they will expand if Russia escalates again.

    (Agencies)

  • India slams UN terror report for ‘ignoring’ JeM, Lashkar links

    India slams UN terror report for ‘ignoring’ JeM, Lashkar links

    UNITED NATIONS (TIP): India has expressed dismay at the failure of the UN Secretary General’s report on ISIS to take note of the close links between proscribed terrorist groups, such as Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, despite New Delhi repeatedly flagging these concerns. India has been consistently highlighting the threat of terrorism in its neighborhood. It has said these security fears have been further exacerbated by the changed political situation in Afghanistan. The ‘14th report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIS to international peace and security and the range of United Nations efforts in support of member states in countering the threat’ notes that the security landscape in Afghanistan changed dramatically on August 15, following a Taliban military campaign that took control in the country, including Kabul. The report says the dreaded Islamic State terrorist group aims to position itself as the “chief rejectionist force” in Afghanistan, expands into neighboring Central and South Asian countries and is viewed by the Taliban as its primary armed threat. Speaking at the Security Council briefing on ‘Threat to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts’ that took up the UNSG report, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti said on Wednesday, February 9, that India had been reiterating the close links between proscribed terrorist entities such as Lashkar-e-Toiba and other terror groups, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad. “It is essential that we don’t lose sight of the ease with which the proscribed Haqqani Network, with support from their patron state, have worked along with prominent terrorist organizations like Al-Qaida and ISIS-K in South Asia,” he said, in a reference to Pakistan.

    (Source: PTI)

  • Indian-origin cop Neil Basu in short-list to be Scotland Yard chief

    Indian-origin cop Neil Basu in short-list to be Scotland Yard chief

    LONDON (TIP): Neil Basu, an Indian-origin British police officer, is widely believed in political and media circles to be in a short-list of candidates who could become the next London Metropolitan Police Commissioner or chief of the hallowed Scotland Yard.

    But his plain-speaking in the past may have rubbed decision-makers Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel the wrong way. The post of police commissioner of the British capital became vacant on Thursday after the incumbent Cressida Dick, the first woman to occupy the position, resigned after London Mayor Sadiq Khan lost confidence in her.

    Son of an Indian doctor father from Kolkata and Welsh mother, Anil Kanti ‘Neil’ Basu, 53, assistant commissioner rank, has been a rising star at the Yard, a highly rated officer, for some time. An economics graduate from Nottingham University, he joined the Met Police in 1992 and was head of counterterrorism and specialist operations, before becoming director of the College of Policing. The widely read Mail on Sunday in a profile of him said he is “well-liked within the force and by intelligence officials at MI5 (Britain’s internal intelligence gathering body)”. The Guardian wrote: “He is widely seen as capable and is mostly well thought of.’ If appointed, he will be the first ethnic minority person to become London’s police commissioner, one of the most coveted jobs in policing in the world.”   But the paper said he may not be in Johnson’s good books after he told this publication as counter-terrorism chief in an August 2019 interview that a no-deal Brexit would mean Britain’s safety and security would suffer. At that point there was considerable danger of the UK crashing out of the European Union (EU) without an agreement, which it later avoided, but not without a frictionless relationship. Basu had warned key crime-fighting tools developed in the EU, such as biometric sharing, would be lost. According to The Times, Basu last year also clashed with Patel after he urged the home office in Britain to introduce positive discrimination to make the police more diverse. He said equality laws in the UK may need to be changed if police forces are to boost ethnic minority recruits.

    On paper, the Home Secretary and London Mayor choose by consensus the city’s police commissioner. In practice, Patel is unlikely to take a decision without consulting Johnson. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called on Johnson to “publicly recuse” himself from selecting Dick’s successor, because the prime minister is being investigated by the force for allegedly violating Covid-19 lockdown laws by hosting or attending barred social gatherings.

    (Source: IANS)

  • Ambassador Sandhu meets officers of Indian descent at US Naval Academy

    Ambassador Sandhu meets officers of Indian descent at US Naval Academy

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): India’s Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu met a group of officers of Indian descent serving in the US Navy during a rare visit to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, describing them as a “firm anchor” of India-US ties. There are a number of Indian-origin midshipmen at the Naval Academy, the second oldest of the five US service academies. “It was a delight to meet young officers of Indian descent at the US Naval Academy, proudly serving in the US Navy. A firm anchor of India US ties,” Sandhu tweeted along with pictures of him interacting with the officers. The ambassador held discussions with Superintendent Vice Admiral Sean Buck and had an interaction with some of the midshipmen of Indian descent on Friday.

    Established on October 10, 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the Naval Academy educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. The entire campus (known to insiders as “the Yard”) is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845, when the Naval Academy was formed in Annapolis, Maryland’s capital city. Candidates for admission generally must both apply directly to the academy and receive a nomination, usually from a member of Congress. Students are officers-in-training with the rank of midshipman. Tuition for midshipmen is fully funded by the Navy in exchange for an active-duty service obligation upon graduation. Approximately 1,200 “plebes” (an abbreviation of the Ancient Roman word plebeian) enter the academy each summer for the rigorous Plebe Summer. About 1,000 midshipmen graduate. Graduates are either commissioned as ensigns in the Navy or second lieutenants in the Marine 2 | Naval Attache, Washington DC Corps, but a small number can also be cross commissioned as officers in other US services, and the services of allied nations.

    (Source: PTI)