Patna, Jun 1 : Five Indian Mujahideen militants, convicted by a special NIA court in the 2013 Bodh Gaya blasts case, were sentenced to life imprisonment today.
Special NIA judge Manoj Kumar Sinha awarded the punishment to the five accused – Imtiyaz Ansari, Haider Ali, Mujib Ullah, Omair Siddiqui and Azharuddin Qureishi – who had been convicted on May 25.
The world-renowned Buddhist pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya was rocked by a series of blasts on July 7, 2013. Though there were no casualties, several people, including some monks, were injured.
In addition to the five convicts, another accused, Taufiq Ahmed, was held guilty in the case by a juvenile court in October last year and sent to remand home for three years.
All six are also facing trial along with others in the Patna blasts case of 2013.
A series of bombs had exploded at a massive election rally of then Gujarat chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi, killing six people and injuring 89.
Madrid, June 1 : Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy admitted defeat today ahead of a no-confidence vote which was certain to topple him, paving the way for a takeover by opposition leader Pedro Sanchez, his arch rival.
“It’s been an honour — there is none bigger — to have been Spain’s prime minister,” he told parliament after congratulating Sanchez, with lawmakers from his conservative Popular Party (PP) giving him a standing ovation.
Barring any last-minute U-turn, an absolute majority of lawmakers, among them Catalan separatists and Basque nationalists, will vote through a no-confidence motion filed last week by the Socialists following a corruption scandal involving the PP.
“Today we are signing a new page in the history of democracy in our country,” Sanchez told parliament where MPs were to begin voting.
But PP lawmaker Rafael Hernando told him he would be entering the prime minister’s office “through the back door” after failing to win the vote in 2015 and 2016.
“For the first time we may get a prime minister who didn’t win elections,” he retorted.
In order to push through the no-confidence motion, the Socialists, who hold just 84 of the parliament’s 350 seats, have had to cosy up to parties they have previously clashed with, like Catalan separatists and the anti-establishment Podemos.
As such, even if he has pledged to govern long enough to restore “institutional stability,” Sanchez’s new government will likely be highly unstable.
New Delhi, June 1: The Delhi High Court reserved its order on a PIL seeking “detailed investigation” into alleged lapses of the Centre in saving 39 Indians, who were killed by terror outfit ISIS after their abduction from Mosul in Iraq in 2014.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar heard the arguments of the petitioner advocate and the counsel for the Centre, who raised questions over the maintainability of the plea, and said it would pass an order later.
The petitioner — advocate Mehmood Pracha — contended that the Centre was aware long back that the abducted Indians had been killed by the terror outfit, but had chosen not to disclose it and kept taking the stand that they were alive.
He claimed that there were glaring anomalies in the statement made by the External Affairs Minister on the floor of Parliament.
Advocate Manik Dogra, appearing for the Centre and the Intelligence Bureau, argued that there was no public interest in this petition which should be dismissed with cost.
He highlighted the efforts made by the government to rescue the Indians, who were taken hostage at Mosul and said helplines were also set up by the Indian embassy.
During the hearing, the bench asked Pracha whether he could tell who had killed those Indians.
The petitioner said he was seeking an investigation for this purpose only as he wanted to know when and how the Indians were killed.
He had earlier said when the bodies were brought back to India in March this year, the government did not allow the families of the victims to open the caskets.
The Centre’s counsel had earlier said that the government does not say “missing, presumed dead”. He had added that “till 100 per cent confirmation of death, we continue to believe they are alive.”
Pracha had in 2015 moved the court challenging a look-out circular issued against him to prevent him and his delegation from going to Iraq.
In his PIL, he has claimed that the reason he was stopped from travelling to Iraq was to ensure that his delegation did not find out about the fate of the 39 Indians, whose bodies were recently exhumed from a mass grave in Badosh, a village near Mosul, and brought back.
Berlin, May 31 : German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned today against the threat of protectionism in global trade ahead of a deadline for steep US import duties on steel and aluminium imports from Europe.
Maas told reporters that international partners could have “no interest in the clock being turned back in trade policy” as a Friday deadline for the new tariffs ticked down.
“To put it clearly: protectionism and isolation with regard to free trade must be kept from getting the upper hand again,” he said after talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Trade officials from Washington and Brussels have continued discussions to find a solution, such as import quotas, that would convince US President Donald Trump to extend the exemption for the European Union from the 25 per cent tariff on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.
But The Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with the matter saying a last-minute deal appeared unlikely, and the tariff announcement could come as early as today.
Trump imposed the tariffs in March to address global oversupply of the metals, but though it was largely aimed at China it hit US allies as well.
Wang said Beijing shared Berlin’s concerns about upheaval in the international order.
“We both think that there are unprecedented deep changes in global affairs,” he said.
“There are many problems — unilateralism, protectionism. China and Germany as responsible countries… must help provide stability.” Wang said China aimed to “deepen dialogue and coordination” and announced a visit to Germany in July by Premier Li Keqiang.
The EU has vowed to hit back at the US with tariffs on American goods, including iconic items such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes, blue jeans and bourbon whiskey.
Germany, the EU’s top economy, would be particularly vulnerable to the steel and aluminium tariffs due to its heavy reliance on the auto industry.
The German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), which has calculated that autos and car parts accounted for over a quarter of Germany’s 111.5 billion euros (USD 130.3 billion) in exports to the United States last year, said the US move “should almost be seen as a provocation”.
German carmakers exported nearly half a million vehicles to the US in 2017, but they also built over 800,000 cars at American factories where they employ some 36,500 people — and car parts producers around 80,000 more.
New Delhi/Lucknow/Mumbai/Patna, May 31 : In a big setback to the ruling BJP, opposition parties today appeared winning 11 bypolls, limiting the saffron party and its allies to just three, out of four Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats across 11 states — riding high on strengthening non-BJP unity in run-up to the 2019 general elections.
With prestige at stake in every single bypoll, the BJP was seen losing the high-profile Kairana Lok Sabha seat in politically important Uttar Pradesh to a united Opposition after a communally-charged election campaign, while similar appeared the result for Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, as per the trends and results announced by the Election Commission.
However, the BJP retained another Lok Sabha seat from Maharashtra, Palghar, where it had faced a challenge from its own ally Shiv Sena but the Opposition could not pose a united fight. BJP’s Rajendra Gavit won the seat, defeating Shiv Sena’s Shrinivas Wanaga by 29574 votes.
The fourth Lok Sabha seat, Nagaland, for which bypoll was held earlier this week appeared to be going in favour of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), a BJP allly in the north eastern state.
While the Lok Sabha bypoll results appeared equally divided at 2-2 between the BJP-plus-allies and the opposition parties, figures for the 10 assembly bypolls came as a big setback for the ruling party which could manage just one (in Uttarakhand), while Congress bagged three (in Meghalaya, Karnataka and Punjab’s Shahkot) and others got six — JMM got two in Jharkhand, while CPI (M), SP, RJD and Trinamool one each in Kerala, UP, Bihar and West Bengal, respectively.
The results appeared more slanted against the BJP after taking into account the parties that had won these seats before bypolls were necessitated. While the BJP alliance was seen retaining two Lok Sabha seats — one in Maharashtra and another in Nagaland — it failed to retain two others — UP’s Kairana and Maharashtra’s Palghar.
Similarly in 10 assembly seats, the BJP and its allies failed to retain seats like Noorpur in UP and Shahkot in Punjab, while the opposition parties such as Congress, CPI (M), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Trinamool retained their respective seats.
The BJP retained Tharali assembly seat in Uttarakhand, but Samajwadi Party snatched Noorpur in neighbouring UP from the saffron party. SP’s Naeemul Hasan cruised ahead of his nearest BJP rival Avni Singh to win this seat.
In Bihar, opposition RJD won Jokihat assembly seat by defeating BJP’s ally JD(U) by a huge margin. The result was being seen as a big jolt to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who dumped the RJD and Congress last year to join hands with the BJP to form a new coalition government in Bihar.
Commenting on the results, senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said one has to take two steps backward before a big leap.
Asked about the BJP’s performance in these by-elections ahead of next year’s general polls, Singh said, “For a massive leap, one always has to go two steps backward.”
“We are going to take a massive leap,” he added.
AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal latched onto the bypoll results to attack the BJP and said it reflects the anger against the Modi government.
The trends from UP showed the biggest electoral ubset for the BJP with the joint opposition candidate, RLD’s Tabassum Hasan, leading by a big margin in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency. The seat fell vacant following death of the BJP candidate Mriganka Singh’s father, Hukum Singh.
Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Tabassum Hasan, supported by the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, established an early lead over Mriganka Singh right from the beginning to establish an almost invincible lead by noon.
In Maharashtra, the BJP retained Palghar but was staring at defeat in the Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha constituency, which the BJP had won in the 2014 elections. The NCP’s Madhukar Kukade was leading over the BJP’s Hemant Patle, as per latest trends.
The Congress has won one assembly seat in Maharashtra without any contest after all other parties withdrew their candidates.
Punjab’s ruling Congress candidate Hardev Singh Ladi wrested the Shahkot assembly seat from the Shiromani Akali Dal, defeating the party’s nominee Naib Singh Kohar with a margin of 38,801 votes, an election office spokesperson said.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh hailed the Congress victory as a “vindication” of the government’s people-centric policies, a rejection of the “negative” politics of SAD and “decimation” of AAP.
Trinamool’s Dulal Das won Maheshtala assembly bypoll in West Bengal, defeating BJP’s Sujit Kumar Ghosh by 62,827 votes.
Kerala’s ruling CPI(M)-led LDF’s Saji Cheriyan also won the Chengannur Assembly bypoll by a huge margin of 20,956 votes over his nearest Congress rival D Vijaykumar, while the BJP candidate came third.
JMM retained both Silli and Gomia assembly seats in Jharkhand. In Gomia, JMM’s Babita Devi defeated AJSU nominee Lambodar Mahto by 13,00 votes while BJP’s nominee Madhavlal Singh stood third on the seat.
In Silli, JMM’s Seema Mahto defeated AJSU chief and former state Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto by 13,
While the link between smoking and a range of cancers is well known, the World Health Organization warned Thursday there was too little awareness of tobacco’s impact on the human heart.
On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day Thursday, the UN health agency hailed that smoking had declined significantly since year 2000, but warned that there were still far too many people indulging in the dangerous habit.
And it cautioned that research showed there was “a serious lack of knowledge” about the different health risks associated with tobacco.
Tobacco use has been linked to more than seven million deaths worldwide each year, including some 890,000 from breathing in second-hand smoke.
But many people are unaware that nearly half of those deaths, around three million, are due to cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and stroke, WHO warned.
“Most people know that using tobacco causes cancer and lung disease, but many people aren’t aware that tobacco also causes heart disease and stroke – the world’s leading killers,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
“Tobacco doesn’t just cause cancer. It quite literally breaks hearts,” he said.
Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including tar and others that can narrow arteries and damage blood vessels, and nicotine, which is associated with increases in heart rate and blood pressure.
At the same time, smoking unleashes poisonous gases like carbon monoxide, which replaces oxygen in the blood, thereby reducing the availability of oxygen for the heart muscle, WHO said.
The agency pointed out that tobacco use is responsible for around 17 percent of the nearly 18 million deaths from cardiovascular disease around the globe each year.
Yet in many countries, there is very low awareness that smoking significantly increases your chances of developing cardiovascular disease.
In China for instance, a large WHO survey showed that more than 60 percent of the population is unaware that smoking can cause heart attacks, while in India and Indonesia, more than half of adults are unaware that smoking can cause stroke.
“Governments have the power in their hands to protect their citizens from suffering needlessly from heart disease,” said Douglas Bettcher, who heads WHO’s non-communicable disease prevention unit.
According to a new WHO report on smoking trends and prevalence, the percentage of people worldwide who indulge in the habit has dropped from 27 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2016.
But it warned that the pace of reduction was too slow.
Due to population growth, the number of smokers in the world has remained relatively stable at around 1.1 billion, Bettcher told reporters.
More than half of the world’s children are threatened by conflict, poverty or sexual discrimination, Save the Children said in a report published on Wednesday.
Entitled “Many Faces of Exclusion”, the study ranked 175 countries in terms of the threat of child labour, exclusion from education, child marriage and early pregnancy.
It found that 1.2 billion children worldwide were at risk from at least one of the three main threats.
Eight of the 10 countries which ranked worst for children were in west and central Africa, with the greatest threat level in Niger.
By contrast, Singapore and Slovenia were classed as the countries with the lowest incidence of such problems.
“More than half the world’s children start their lives held back because they are a girl, because they are poor or because they are growing up in a war zone,” said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the charity’s chief executive.
“Governments can and must do more to give every child the best possible start in life,” she added.
“The fact that countries with similar levels of income deliver such different outcomes for children shows that policy, funding and political commitment make a critical difference.”
The report said more than one billion children live in countries hit by poverty and 240 million in countries affected by conflict and fragility.
More than 575 million girls live in countries “where gender bias is a serious issue”, it found.
Some 20 countries, including South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan, account for 153 million children living under all three threats of child labour, exclusion from education and child marriage.
Lucknow, May 31: Gearing up for the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas’ to be held in Varanasi from January 21 to 23, 2019, the Union Government has asked the Yogi Adityanath administration to locate a feasible site for the function.The directives were given by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Gen V.K.Singh (Retd) during a meeting held with a delegation from Uttar Pradesh led by NRI Minister Swati Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday.
New Delhi, May 31: The Delhi High Court today held that a court in Bengaluru has the jurisdiction to hear the dispute between ISRO’s Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia which has won an arbitral award of USD 672 million from an international tribunal.
Devas had moved the high court for implementation of the arbitral award by seeking attachment of bank accounts of Antrix.
However, Antrix had challenged the maintainability of Devas’ plea which was rejected by a single judge bench of the court last year.
Later, Antrix filed an appeal, which was today allowed by a division bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Yogesh Khanna that said the City Civil Court in Bengaluru, where Antrix had challenged the arbitral award, alone can hear it.
Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce’ arbitration body, International Court of Arbitration, in its September 2015 ruling had asked Antrix to pay damages amounting to USD 672 million (Rs 4,432 crore) to Devas for “unlawfully” terminating a deal in 2011 citing national security reasons.
The single judge had on February 28 last year rejected Antrix’s contention that the Delhi High Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear Devas’ plea as the contract was executed in Bengaluru and both the companies were also based there.
The single judge had said that though the City Civil Court in Bangalore may have the territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction, it cannot grant any of the reliefs sought by Antrix in its plea there.
Antrix, in its 2011 plea in Bengaluru, had sought directions to Devas for restraining it from proceeding with the ICC arbitration, contrary to the agreement between them, and from getting it modified by the ICC.
Antrix had contended that till the court in Bengaluru decided whether it had the jurisdiction, the Delhi High Court could not have taken up the plea of Devas.
The single judge had disagreed with Antrix’ contention, saying that the only order that could possibly be passed by the Bangalore City Civil Court was that none of the reliefs sought by Antrix in its 2011 plea could be granted.
The judge had said that waiting indefinitely for such a decision would be an exercise in futility .
He had also directed Antrix to withdraw its plea from the Bengaluru court.
Antrix had filed a plea in November 2015 in the Bengaluru court challenging the arbitral award.
Beijing, May 31: China today said the Trump adminstration is hurting its own credibility by every “flip-flop and U-turn” on trade tariffs, and warned that it does not want a trade war but will take forceful measures to defend its legitimate interests.
Hitting back at the Trump administration’s threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on USD 50 billion goods imported from China, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “In international relations, every flip-flop and U-turn by a country will undermine and hurt its own credibility.”
She said the US’ threat to raise duties on Chinese goods goes against the consensus the two countries reached in Washington and jointly announced earlier in May.
She urged the US to keep its “word and work” with China according to the spirit demonstrated in the joint announcement.
“China does not want, but is not afraid of, a trade war,” Hua said. “China will surely take resolute and powerful steps to safeguard its legitimate rights if the US insists on acting recklessly.”
Hua also called for handling trade disputes through talks on an equal basis and in a constructive way, which is “in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of both the Chinese and American people, as well as the common aspirations of the international community.”
The White House yesterday announced that it will impose a hefty 25 per cent tariff on the USD 50 billion worth of Chinese goods containing “industrially significant” technology including those related to the ‘Made in China 2025’ programme, days after the two sides reached an agreement and vowed not to launch a trade war against each other.
The announcement came just ahead of US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’s visit to China from Saturday.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said yesterday that the US statement is contrary to the consensuses the two sides previously reached in Washington.
The ministry said the White House tactical statement is both unexpected and within expectation.
“Whatever measures the US takes, China has the confidence, capability and experience to defend the interests of Chinese people and the core interests of the country,” it said.
It urged US to act in accordance with the spirit of recent bilateral joint statement.
The trade spat between the top two economies of the world began last month with President Donald Trump imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into US.
China retaliated by imposing additional tariffs worth about USD three billion on 128 American products.
Trump, while demanding China to reduce the USD 375 billion by USD 100 billion retaliated with USD 50 billion tariffs on Chinese products.
In retaliation, China announced plans to impose new tariffs of 25 per cent worth USD 50 billion on 106 American products including items like soybeans which could hurt American farmers. The two countries have not yet implemented their tariff increases.
During the media briefing, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson also expressed concern over reports that the US is planning to restrict visas of Chinese students studying advanced subjects like robotics, aviation and high-tech manufacturing to one year.
According to report, Chinese citizens seeking visas will need special clearance from multiple US agencies if they work as researchers or managers for companies on a US Commerce Department list of entities requiring higher scrutiny.
“People to people exchanges constitutes important foundation in international relations,” Hua said.
Visa facilitation is reciprocal and serves the interest of both the countries, she said, adding that both the countries need to take measures to facilitate visas to create more favourable conditions than doing the contrary.
Of the more than a million foreign students who enrolled at universities in the US in 2016-17 over 3.50 lakhs or about 35 per cent, were Chinese, the Open Doors study by the Institute of International Education, a non-profit organisation supported by the US government, said.
Over 1.65 lakh Indian students enrolled in US universities in 2016.
Observers say any visa restrictions on high tech field education could hurt China’s big push into high tech manufacturing including robotics and artificial intelligence.
Moscow, May 30: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to North Korea tomorrow to discuss the reclusive state’s nuclear programme and bilateral cooperation, the foreign ministry said.
“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s official visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will take place on May 31,” the foreign ministry said in a statement today.