Junior Digest

Kolkata, June 17: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said those who accuse her of appeasing Muslims are friends of neither the Hindus nor the Muslims.

“Some accuse me of (doing) Muslim appeasement. My question to them is whether loving Hindus means you have to hate Muslims. I respect and love all communities and religion.

This country belongs to everybody,” she said.

“Those who say I appease Muslims are the friends of neither the Hindus nor the Muslims,” Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said while addressing a special prayer gathering on Red Road here to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

The BJP and some other organisations have been charging Banerjee with appeasement of Muslims for political reasons.

Referring to the general election in 2019, the chief minister also called for an end to communal hatred and lynching in the country.

“We have to understand that terrorists don’t belong to any religion. We all have to fight together in the 2019 to make this country free from the reign of communal hatred and lynching. Let’s work together to build a new India,” she said.

Her comments comes amid reports of lynching in various parts of the country in recent past.

The chief minister said it was due to her protest that the Niti Aayog meeting which was earlier scheduled for today was changed to tomorrow.

“My question to the Central government officials is whether they are not aware that Eid is scheduled to be celebrated on June 16. Why was the Niti Aayog meeting kept on that day? I had written to the Central government urging it to change the date so that it doesn’t clash with Eid,” she said.

Banerjee had yesterday confirmed her participation in the Niti Aayog’s rescheduled governing council meeting in New Delhi on June 17.

New Delhi/Srinagar, Jun 19 : The three-year Jammu and Kashmir government, wracked by bitter political feuds and worsening security challenges, collapsed today with the BJP pulling out of its alliance with the PDP setting the stage for yet another round of governor’s rule.

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav made the surprise announcement after the party high command summoned its Jammu and Kashmir ministers for emergency consultations in New Delhi. A few hours later, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation to Governor N N Vohra amid a swirl of political activity in Srinagar and New Delhi.

“”It has become untenable for the BJP to continue in the alliance government in the state,” Madhav told reporters at a hurriedly called press conference.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, whose party is the third biggest in the assembly, captured the drama with one sentence, “I wish Mehbooba Mufti had resigned herself… instead of the having the rug pulled from under her feet.”

The BJP won 25 seats and the PDP 28 in the 87-member assembly and came together in alliance, two months after the December 2014 elections. The NC has 15 seats, the Congress 12 and others seven.

Although the BJP and the PDP had campaigned vigorously against each other, they came together with an Agenda of Alliance in the hope of pulling the state out of the cycle of violence. But the Alliance never took hold and the two parties disagreed on most issues even as the security situation continued to deteriorate.

Both Omar and the Congress said they will not form an alliance with any party to form government in the state. The BJP also said it favours governor’s rule.

If imposed, it will be the fourth time since 2008 and the eighth time since 1977.

Madhav said the decision to withdraw was taken after consulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah.

Immediately after his news conference, senior PDP minister and party’s chief spokesperson Naeem Akhthar told reporters in Srinagar that the BJP’s decision had caught the party by surprise.

The BJP blamed the PDP for failing to improve the security conditions in the Kashmir Valley. Madhav cited last week’s killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari in the heart of Srinagar in the highly secured area of Press Enclave by unidentified gunmen. The same day — two days before Eid — an Army jawan was abducted while going on Eid leave and killed.

“Keeping in mind that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and in order to control the prevailing situation in the state, we have decided that the reins of power in the state be handed over to the governor,” Madhav added.

Terrorism, violence and radicalism have risen and the fundamental rights of citizens, including right to life and free speech, are in danger, the BJP leader said.

BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta told reporters in Delhi that he and his ministerial colleagues have submitted their resignations to the governor as well as to the chief minister.

“Centre did everything for the Valley. We’ve tried to put a full-stop to the ceasefire violations by Pakistan. PDP has not been successful in fulfilling its promises. Our leaders have been facing a lot of difficulties from PDP in developmental works in Jammu and Ladakh,” Madhav said.

“We are not questioning the intentions of PDP but they have failed in improving the condition of life in Kashmir,” he added.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said here that the BJP had committed a “Himalayan blunder” by forming a government with the PDP.

He said the BJP, a national party, should not have allied with PDP, a regional player.

“The regional parties should have been allowed to form an alliance among themselves,” he told reporters.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he was ordering the establishment of a sixth branch of the military to clear the way for American dominance of space.

At least eight people were killed Saturday in Managua, police sources said, raising to 178 the number of deaths in anti-government unrest that began two months ago in Nicaragua.

Six of the dead were members of a single family whose home was burned down at dawn after a group of hooded armed men threw a Molotov cocktail, while the other two were attacked while clearing road barricades, police said in a statement.

Two inhabitants of the house survived by throwing themselves from a balcony, one of them a woman in serious condition and the other a child admitted to the hospital with burns, according to neighbors.

“This act of terror is a crime against humanity and cannot go unpunished,” tweeted Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States.

Protests for two months have escalated in a bid to pressure President Daniel Ortega to exit — upheaval the government has met with brutal repression.

The latest violence comes as the country’s Catholic bishops attempt to reboot fragile negotiations between government and civil society representatives.

In a surprise announcement late Friday, the clergy said rival government and civil delegates had agreed to create a “verification” commission and invite independent international bodies to probe the violence.

Under the new agreement, Managua would urge the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — an autonomous branch of the Organization of American States — to investigate “all deaths and acts of violence, the identification of those responsible and a comprehensive plan for the victims so that effective justice is achieved,” Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes said.

“We believe that Kim Jong Un understands the urgency… that we must do this quickly,” he said of the effort to have North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons.

Washington’s top diplomat was in Seoul to brief his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Tuesday’s historic talks — the first between sitting leaders of the two countries — after which a triumphant President Donald Trump said the world can “sleep well”.

“There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea,” he tweeted Wednesday.

Despite the US leader’s positive tone, North Korea observers remain concerned that Kim provided no specific guarantees at the summit while notching up a huge publicity win.

And there appeared to be concern in South Korea and Japan too.

Guwahati/Agartala, Jun 17: The flood situation in Assam worsened today as four more people lost their lives, taking the death toll in the region to 17, officials said.
Although the situation improved marginally in Tripura and Mizoram in the past 24 hours, one more person died in Manipur from flood-related incidents.

According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), four persons lost their lives in flood and landslide related incidents during the last 24 hours.
While one person each died at Sadar and Lakhipur revenue circles in Cachar district, one person lost his life at Lanka in Hojai, it added.

Heavy rainfall triggered landslide at Mahur, Harangajao and Maibang under Haflong revenue circle in Dima Hasao, where one person lost his life, the ASDMA said.

With this, the total number of persons losing their lives has gone up to seven in the first wave of flood this year.

The ASDMA said over 4.25 lakh people have been affected in Assam’s Hojai, Karbi Anglong East, Karbi Anglong West, Golaghat, Karimganj, Hailakandi and Cachar districts.

Karimganj has been the worst-affected with over 1.95 lakh people, followed by Hailakandi with almost 1.89 lakh people.

Currently, 716 villages are under water and 3,292 hectares of crop areas have been damaged, the ASDMA said.

Due to landslide between the Bandarkhal and Damchara station, rail movement continued to remain suspended in the Lumding-Badarpur section, Northeast Frontier Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Pranav Jyoti Sharma said.

The ASDMA said authorities are running 213 relief camps and distribution centres in five districts, where 1,00,010 people have taken shelter.

Nearly 350 people have been evacuated to safer places during the last 24 hours by the SDRF and NDRF personnel from Karimganj, Hailakandi and Cacahar.

Landslides have taken place at three locations in Guwahati city, but no casualties has been reported so far.

Currently, Brahmaputra at Nimatighat in Jorhat, while Barak at AP Ghat in Cachar and Badarpurghat in Karimganj are flowing above the danger marks.

Other rivers like Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat, Jia Bharali at NT Road crossing in Sonitpur, Kopili at Kampur in Nagaon, Katakhal at Matizuri in Hailakandi and Kushiyara at Karimganj town are flowing above the danger marks.

In Manipur, one person died in Imphal West district, official sources said.

However, the intensity of rainfall decreased in Imphal this morning, but the situation was yet to improve in the valley districts of Thoubal, Imphal West and Bishnupur, they said.

A fisherman drowned in a swollen river in Imphal West district yesterday, a report issued by the Relief and Disaster Management Department noted, adding that more than 1.8 lakh people have been affected by the floods.

The number of damaged houses across the state has increased to 22,624 yesterday from 12,500 on Thursday, necessitating the setting up of 48 new relief camps, it said.

The flood situation has slightly improved in Tripura even as over 40,000 people continue to remain stranded in 189 relief camps across the state, the sources said.

The flood situation also improved in Mizoram today with the water level of river Tlawng and Langkaih receding, officials said.

Disaster Management and Rehabilitation department officials said though the water level of Tlawng and Langkaih river in Lunglei district has started receding, but 500 families were displaced and a number of houses were still under the water.

President Donald Trump inched closer to an all-out trade war by unveiling plans Monday to impose 10 percent tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods if Beijing doesn’t bend to US demands.

With the world’s two largest economies on the brink of a full-fledged confrontation, spooking markets and worrying business leaders, Trump said he was pushing forward with fresh punitive measures over Beijing’s “unacceptable” move to raise its own tariffs.

“Further action must be taken to encourage China to change its unfair practices, open its market to United States goods and accept a more balanced trade relationship with the United States,” Trump said in a statement.

The US leader warned he would go even further, with punitive measures on an extra $200 billion of Chinese goods — for a possible total of $450 billion of goods, or most Chinese imports — “if China increases its tariffs yet again.”

Last week, Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports, prompting Beijing to follow suit with matching duties on American imported goods.

Trump had already warned at the time of “additional tariffs” should Beijing hit back with tit-for-tat duties on American goods.

“The trade relationship between the United States and China must be much more equitable,” the president said in explaining his decision.

“I have an excellent relationship with President Xi (Jinping), and we will continue working together on many issues. But the United States will no longer be taken advantage of on trade by China and other countries in the world.”

Trump moved forward with measures after months of sometimes fraught shuttle diplomacy in which Chinese offers to purchase more American goods failed to assuage his grievances over the soaring trade imbalance and China’s aggressive industrial development policies.

China had offered to ramp up purchases of American goods by only $70 billion to help cut the yawning trade imbalance with the United States, whereas Trump had demanded a $200 billion deficit cut.

Srinagar, Jun 14 : Veteran journalist and Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari and his PSO were shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside the newspaper’s office in the heart of this Jammu and Kashmir summer capital, police officials said today.

Bukhari, who was in his 50s, was leaving his office in Press Enclave in the city centre Lal Chowk for an iftar party when he was shot, officials said.

While one of the personal security officers (PSO) guarding him was killed, another policeman and a civilian were injured, they added.

The condition of the two injured in the shooting, which comes a day ahead of Eid, is critical, they said.

It was not immediately clear how many gunmen attacked Bukhari, who earlier worked with The Hindu newspaper as its Kashmir correspondent.

Bukhari was instrumental in organising several conferences for peace in the Kashmir Valley. He was also part of the Track II process with Pakistan.

 The United States, Mexico and Canada won the right to host the 2026 World Cup after easily beating Morocco in a vote by FIFA member nations on Wednesday.

The joint North American bid received 134 of the 203 votes, while Morocco polled 65 in the ballot at a FIFA Congress held in Moscow on the eve of the 2018 World Cup.

Global football’s showpiece event will return to the North American continent for the first time since 1994 when the United States hosted the tournament.

Bid leader Carlos Cordeiro said his team was “humbled by the trust our colleagues in the FIFA family have put in our bid” and his tournament had an opportunity to put football “on a new and sustainable path for generations to come.”

It will be the first World Cup to be expanded to 48 teams, posing an enormous logistical challenge for the hosts.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino was believed to have strongly backed the North American bid behind the scenes because the trio of countries involved backed him in 2016 when he took over after the corruption-tainted reign of Sepp Blatter.

New Delhi, June 15: India on Thursday outright rejected a UN report alleging human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir and registered strong protest with the global body saying the very credibility of the UN institute is at stake by such reports.
“Our protest and views in the matter have been conveyed unequivocally to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. We are deeply concerned that individual prejudices are being allowed to undermine the credibility of a UN institution,” an MEA spokesperson said in response to a question here.
Stating that the report was “fallacious and motivated”, the MEA spokesman said: “India rejects the report. It is fallacious, tendentious and motivated. We question the intent in bringing out such a report”.
In a strongly worded reactions, the MEA spokesman said the report is “motivated” and it “deliberately ignores that fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution to every Indian citizen, including in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, are protected also by an independent judiciary, human rights commissions, free and vibrant media and an active civil society”.
The UN report mentions alleged human rights violations in both “Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir” and even sought international inquiry.
“Such malicious reports cannot undermine the will of the people and the Government of India to take all measures necessary to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country from cross border terrorism,” the spokesperson said.
The MEA official further said, it is “disturbing” that those behind this report have chosen to describe internationally designated and UN-proscribed terrorist entities as “armed groups” and terrorists as “leaders”. “This undermines the UN-led consensus on zero tolerance to terrorism”.
That way, MEA spokesperson said: “The report violates India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India”.
“Pakistan is in illegal and forcible occupation of a part of the Indian state through aggression. We have repeatedly called upon Pakistan to vacate the occupied territories,” the spokesperson said adding the “incorrect description” of Indian territory in the report is mischievous, misleading and unacceptable.
“There are no entities such as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” and “Gilgit-Baltistan,” India has asserted.
“Terrorism is the most egregious violation of human rights. Yet the authors have conveniently ignored the pattern of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and territories under its illegal control,” the spokesperson said. He further said: “Cross-border terror and incitement is aimed at suppressing the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, disrupting its political and social fabric and undermining India’s integrity”.
“India rejects the report. It is fallacious, tendentious and motivated. We question the intent in bringing out such a report,” MEA spokesperson said. The spokesperson also said that the report was only a “selective compilation of largely unverified information”.
“It is overtly prejudiced and seeks to build a false narrative,” the MEA spokesman asserted.
The 49-page report titled “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir: Developments in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir from June 2016 to April 2018, and General Human Rights Concerns in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan” was submitted by the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights before UN’s Human Rights council.
UN High Commission for Human Rights is headed by Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, a former Jordan Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Mr Hussein also served as Jordan’s Ambassador to the United States.

New Delhi, June 15 : Taking cognizance of the Supreme Court order allowing the central government to go ahead with reservation in promotion for employees belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category, the Centre on Friday issued a formal notification on the same.

Managua’s auxiliary bishop Silvio Jose Baez reported that a 15-year-old altar boy from the country’s second largest city Leon died after a paramilitary’s bullet struck him in the chest.

“God welcomes (him) to the altar of heaven,” the bishop tweeted.

He also warned of riot police indiscriminately shooting in the streets of Nindiri, a city 20 kilometers (12 miles) southeast of Managua.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) raised to 162 the death toll from two months of sociopolitical upheaval that President Daniel Ortega’s government has met with a brutal crackdown.

Nagarote, 42 kilometers northwest of Managua, saw hours of fiery exchanges between armed Ortega-backed forces and activists with mortars that resulted in at least one anti-government activist death, the local vicar Juan Lopez said.

Another death, the details of which remained unclear, occurred in Masatepe in similar street battles.

And in Tipitapa, 20 kilometers north of the capital, heavy clashes ensued when paramilitary gangs attempted to forcibly remove the blockades erected by activists.

Amid the confrontations that saw a bus set alight, hundreds of women took to the streets banging on “cazuela” clay pots, waving handkerchiefs and shouting at aggressors to “go away” — a tactic that ultimately worked, according to local footage.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a magnificent hat-trick on Friday to rescue a point for Portugal against Spain in the dying minutes as the World Cup in Russia caught alight.

Ronaldo’s 51st career hat-trick in the 3-3 draw cancelled out two goals from Diego Costa and a strike from Nacho just as Spain looked like putting their chaotic week behind them with a morale-boosting win.

Elsewhere on day two of the tournament in Russia, Egypt left out Mohamed Salah and suffered a gut-wrenching 1-0 defeat in the final minutes to Uruguay, while Iran snatched a last-gasp win against Morocco courtesy of an own goal.

The Group B clash between Ronaldo’s European champions and 2010 World Cup winners Spain in Sochi was a red-letter day on the competition’s calendar and it did not disappoint.

It was given added spice after the Spanish federation sacked Julen Lopetegui on the eve of the tournament after Real Madrid announced he would be taking over at the Bernabeu following the tournament.

Former Real stalwart Fernando Hierro has been thrown into the deep end as head coach, with little coaching experience and huge pressure on his shoulders.

Hierro watched from the sidelines as his team edged ahead 3-2 in the second half after twice battling back from behind in the match in the Black Sea resort city.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the fourth minute from a penalty that he himself won and struck again on the cusp of half-time when Spain goalkeeper David de Gea failed to make a routine save.

Both times Atletico Madrid’s Costa equalised and Spain took the lead through Nacho in the 58th minute, who struck the ball sweetly past Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio.

Spain appeared to be in control in the closing stages but when Ronaldo was awarded a free kick on the edge of the area the stadium held its breath.

The Real Madrid man took his time lining up the shot before delivering emphatically, curling the ball past the despairing dive of De Gea.

New Delhi, June 17: Amid alarming reports of water shortage and related problems from different parts of the country, renowned activist “waterman” Rajendra Singh has feared forced migration from the country in the next seven years, if effective steps are not taken on urgent basis for optimally saving available water and replenishing ground water by way of check on wasteful draining of rain water.

Almost 90 cities and towns in the country have been facing situation of ‘Day Zero’ with taps running dry for days, as around 2.5 villages or settlements are in the want of safe drinking water and more than 72 per cent of the areas in the country are overdrawing ground water and heading for early crisis of ‘Day-Zero,’ when there would be no water available, the Magsaysay award-winning crusader told UNI.

Government authorities at the level of the Centre, states and the rural and

urban local self government bodies, have demonstrated total apathy to their role in protecting resources and replenishing water table, Mr Singh, whose NGO Tarun Bharat Sangh had been successfully revived several streams and water bodies at different places, said.

The apathy is evident from the fact that an allocation of Rs 1,600 crore was

made for aquifers mapping in the country three years ago, however, the concerned agencies and authorities failed to do so or even utilise fully the fund allocated.

Presently, people are migrating from problem prone rural areas to urban

towns aggravating the situation there but within 7 years the situation might

worsen and we might witness forced migration from the country as being

witnessed in several countries like Syria, Sudan, Palestine, the Waterman

said, sharing experience during his visits to over 35 crisis prone countries in

Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

Syria has virtually faced water war as Sudan is confronted with waterborne

diseases, he pointed out.

Referring to water woes in the national capital of New Delhi, Mr Singh said

that contamination of ground water due to high concentration of fluorides, nitrates and even poisonous arsenic are also caused by over exploitation of ground water as it triggers more mixing of minerals from the rocks.

“So the top most priority for the government is to ensure conservation of the

aquifers and urgent and effective measure to replenish and recharge ground

water by way of total rain water harvesting”, Mr Singh said.

“We are required to totally prevent wasteful draining of rain water, tap every

drop of it and fully return to the earth through water harvesting structures”, he elaborated.

“If earnest and concerted steps are taken, the situation can improve within next 4-5 years. There are instances, when some countries averted crisis by way of their sincere efforts.

‘For instance, parched Cape Town in South Africa had succeeded in its efforts, when the authorities and people there managed to push back the Day Zero–when taps could run dry–to 2019,’ Mr Singh maintained.

Yemeni forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive Wednesday to retake the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, a key aid hub, sparking calls from the United Nations for restraint.

Pro-government troops began the assault despite mounting international fears about the humanitarian fallout, pressing toward Hodeida airport south of the city after receiving a “green light” from the coalition.

The Red Sea port, controlled by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels who hail from northern Yemen, serves as the entry point for 70 percent of the impoverished country’s imports as it teeters on the brink of famine.

The UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said he was continuing to hold negotiations on keeping the key port open to aid deliveries.