New Delhi, April 19,2024: The first of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls on Friday remained largely peaceful with voter turnout exceeding 60% at 7 in the evening.
With this, the fate of as many as 1,625 candidates across 21 states and union territories (UTs) have been locked in EVMs (electronic voting machines).
After the polling began today, sporadic incidents of violence were reported from West Bengal and strife-torn Manipur.
In Tripura, where voting took place for one seat, the vote percentage was the highest at 79.90%. This was followed by West Bengal (three seats), where voter turnout was recorded at 77.57%.
At 47.49%, voter turnout was the lowest in Bihar where four seats were up for grabs.
“The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 PM in many constituencies. Also, voters reaching the polling stations till the end of polling hour are allowed to cast their vote,” Election Commission of India (ECI) said in a press note.
The poll body noted that final figures of voter turnout will be known by Saturday after scrutiny of form 17A.
In phase-I of the general election, polling has been completed for 10 states/UTs to elect 18th Lok Sabha along with polling for state legislative assemblies of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern part of the country.
As many as 102 parliamentary constituencies went to polls today. States including Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territories of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep completed their voting process.
States which saw voting on a few parliamentary constituencies included West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Voting on the remaining seats would be held in subsequent phases.
Remaining six phases of polls will continue till 1st of June with around 97 crore voters lined up to vote. Counting of votes is scheduled on June 4, 2024.
The counting of votes for the Assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will be on June 2.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third straight term and forming the government at the Centre, opposition parties under the banner of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) are seeking to upstage the ruling party.
Ramallah, Apr 18,2024: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa stressed on Wednesday the key challenges facing the Gaza Strip amid ongoing conflict.
In a meeting with Muhannad Hadi, the UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Palestine, Mustafa said the challenges include ensuring the quality and suitability of emergency aid, refining the mechanisms for aid delivery and distribution to meet the urgent needs across the Gaza Strip, as well as restoring essential services disrupted by the conflict.
According to a statement from his office, the prime minister emphasized the importance of fully opening all crossings with the enclave, especially in the north of the Strip, and coordinating relief efforts fully between international partners, civil society, and relief institutions with relevant ministries.
For his part, the UN coordinator affirmed full coordination with the government and relevant ministries to benefit from all available resources fully to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of citizens, according to the statement.
On the same day, Mustafa also discussed the humanitarian aid for Gaza with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, calling for international intervention to stop aggressions in the West Bank and settlement expansion.
The prime minister also addressed the financial strains caused by Israeli deductions from Palestinian clearance funds, urging Britain and the global community to pressure Israel to release the withheld funds. He reaffirmed Palestine’s efforts towards full UN membership and international recognition.
Washington, Apr 17,2024: The White House on Tuesday announced the decision to impose new sanctions on Iran with measures including punishing the Islamic Republic’s missile and drone program.
“In the coming days, the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Iran, including its missile and drone program as well as new sanctions against entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Defense Ministry,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.
The announcement came after Iran carried out a massive military operation against Israel on Saturday, in which hundreds of missiles and drones were launched. Tehran said the attack was a response to the Israeli strike on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital city of Damascus on April 1, which killed seven Iranians, including two veteran commanders.
Sullivan’s announcement followed a similar one made earlier in the day by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, who didn’t elaborate much on the detail at a press conference ahead of the unveiling of this year’s Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Despite the Washington’s harsh condemnation of Iran’s attack against Israel, local media reports suggest that the U.S. government only resorts to diplomatic and economic tools in response, out of fear that any use of force might lead to the conflict in the Middle East escalating to a degree where it becomes uncontrollable.
DUBAI: April 16,2024: Heavy rainfall caused flash flooding in Oman on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, killing at least 17 people as rescuers searched for survivors, authorities said Monday. In one incident, a group of school children and a driver died when their vehicle was overtaken, authorities said.
Heavy rains also were expected over Dubai in the neighboring United Arab Emirates and other regions of the Arabian Peninsula.
Civil defense officials gave the death toll for the rains, which saw Oman’s North Al Sharqiyah province hardest hit. The Royal Oman Police and the Omani military deployed to the province to transport citizens out of flooded areas, Oman News Agency reported.
Gaza, April 11,2024: The Ministry of Health in Gaza said Wednesday that the Palestinian death toll has risen to 33,482 as a result of ongoing Israeli attacks.
During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 122 Palestinians and wounded 56 others, bringing the total death toll to 33,482 and injuries to 76,049 since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the ministry said in a statement.
Some victims are still under the rubble and on the roads as the Israeli army prevents ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them, according to the statement.
Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.
SINGAPORE, April 8,22024: Large amounts of climate-warming refrigerant gases from China and Turkey are being smuggled illegally into Europe, undermining a global pact to phase them out, a report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said on Monday.
The gases are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a range of chemicals used mostly for cooling in industry and retail, which do not damage the ozone layer like other banned refrigerants, but as greenhouse gases can be several thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Despite commitments to reduce HFC use, law enforcement agencies across the European Union are struggling to keep track of illicit shipments entering via Turkey, Russia or Ukraine, with smugglers resorting to increasingly sophisticated tactics to evade detection, the EIA said following a two-year undercover investigation.
“It’s still pretty easy to find illegal HFCs in the European market,” said Fin Walravens, a senior EIA campaigner. “There are signs that traders are adapting their methods, that they are getting a bit of savvy trying to evade authorities.”
“If you can sneak in the most polluting, nastiest gas, you’re basically getting the biggest buck.”
As part of the 2016 Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol, European and other industrial countries are committed to slash HFC use by 85% from 2012 to 2036. To make the phase-down happen, authorised HFC producers and consumers are assigned quotas that are reduced gradually.
But with demand still strong, the phase-downs have driven up prices, creating incentives for smugglers – many of whom are also licensed traders – to make more supply available, the report showed.
“It is so much easier if you’re licensed to just exceed your quota: it is so hard to prove,” said Walravens. “The phase-down is meant to make HFCs expensive and make people think alternatives are better and more cost effective, but if illegal trade comes in and is sold at half the price, the whole system crumbles.”
A 2021 EIA investigation suggested illegal HFCs smuggled into Europe could amount to 20-30% of legally traded volumes, the equivalent of up to 30 million tons of CO2. The new report did not give a revised estimate, but Walravens said “very little has changed”.
China is the world’s biggest HFC producer, with 39 authorised manufacturers granted production permits equivalent to 185 million tons of CO2 this year. It issued new rules in December to punish firms that exceed their quotas.
Even when alternative products are available, enforcing chemical phase-outs has been a major challenge, with some governments “unable or unwilling to crack down”, said Ian Rae of the University of Melbourne, who was a technical adviser to the Montreal Protocol.
“There always seems to be demand from customers who have been happy with the old product and reluctant to change to the new, which can be more expensive,” he said.
United Nations, April 6,2024: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Friday the appointment of former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as his special envoy on Myanmar.
Bishop, who served as Australian foreign minister between 2013 and 2018 and is currently chancellor of the Australian National University, replaces Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore.
The announcement said Bishop brings extensive political, legal, management and senior leadership experience to her new role.
Bishop has held several high-level positions in the Australian government, including ministerial portfolios for education, women’s issues, and aging. She was a member of the Australian Parliament from 1998 to 2019, following a 20-year legal career.
Ramallah, Apr 1,2024: The Palestinian new government headed by Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa was sworn in here in the West Bank on Sunday.
The new government consists of 23 ministerial portfolios, including at least six ministers from the Gaza Strip. Mustafa will also take over the position of foreign minister from veteran diplomat Riyad Al-Maliki.
During the swearing-in ceremony in front of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Mustafa pledged that his new government would serve all Palestinians, stressing the government’s political references are the Palestine Liberation Organization and its political program and international commitments, as mandated by the letter of assignment outlined by Abbas.
At a meeting with the new government after the ceremony, Abbas reaffirmed that work is underway in coordination with Arab and international parties to stop the conflict in Gaza.
“Our political goal is to achieve freedom, independence and liberation from the (Israeli) occupation, and we are working with concerned Arab and international parties to obtain full membership in the United Nations,” said the president, according to the official news agency WAFA.
On March 14, Abbas tasked Mustafa, the head of the Palestine Investment Fund and his longtime economic advisor, to form the 19th government, according to WAFA.
His appointment came after the former government resigned in light of challenging circumstances amid the developments in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, as well as mounting pressure on Abbas to reform the Palestinian Authority and establish a political framework capable of governing a future Palestinian state in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict.