PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 2,2023: The suicide bomber who killed more than 100 people at a mosque in a police compound in the Pakistan city of Peshawar this week wore a police uniform and entered the high security area on a motorbike, a provincial police chief said on Thursday.
The bomber behind Monday’s attack had been identified as a member of a militant network, Moazzam Jah Ansari, police chief of Khyber Pashtunkhwa province, told reporters without giving further details.
“I admit this was a security lapse. My men could not stop it. This is my fault,” Ansari said.
The bombing was the deadliest in a decade to hit Peshawar, a northwestern city that has suffered decades of Islamist militant violence and is located near the restive Pashtun tribal lands bordering Afghanistan.
It took place as hundreds of worshipers gathered for noon prayers at a mosque that was purpose built for the police and their families inside the high-security Police Lines district.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 on Wednesday.
This is the 11th annual budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government, and the fifth for Sitharaman as Finance Minister.
The new budget includes a few significant decisions amid a series of economic challenges, especially the steep inflation.
Here’s more on the Budget for 2023.
Key announcements by Sitharaman
For the fiscal year (FY) 2023, growth has been estimated at 7%.
Sitharaman also announced spending Rs. 2,200 crore for the horticulture sector.
The agricultural credit target has also been increased to Rs. 20 lakh crore.
She also proposed a capital expenditure of Rs. 10 lakh crore for the next FY.
The outlay for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna will be Rs. 79,000 crore.
Government to bear Rs. 2 lakh crore under foodgrain scheme
According to the finance minister, the entire expenditure of about Rs. 2 lakh crore under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana will be borne by the central government under new budget outlays.
She said the free food grain scheme has already been implemented in the country.
Sitharaman added that the scheme would be a top priority for the government next year as well.
Big boost to the investment sector
Sitharaman said the capital investment outlay would be increased by 33% to Rs. 10 lakh crore (3.3% of GDP).
The provision for interest-free 50-year loans to state governments had been extended for another year.
She said this would be done with an increased budget of Rs. 1.3 lakh crore to encourage infrastructure investment and to reward complementary policy initiatives.
Railway outlay increased nine times since 2013-14
Railway outlay is now at Rs. 2.40 lakh crore, as per the finance minister. She announced that the total outlay for the Indian Railway budget will be Rs 2.40 lakh crore, which is nine times more than the total outlay in 2013-14.
Green energy comes under priority sector
Sitharaman said the government will focus on green energy in the next fiscal year.
She said green hydrogen, clean energy storage, and transmission are the key drivers of the government’s “Green Growth” priority sector.
She announced the inter-state transmission system of 13 GW of renewable energy from Ladakh with an investment of Rs. 20,700 crore including Central support of Rs. 8,300 crore.
ICMR labs, 157 new nursing colleges announced
According to Sitharaman, the country would get 157 new nursing colleges and additional Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) labs to get more trained nurses as well as boost research and innovation.
She said a mission to eliminate sickle cell anemia by 2047 would be launched soon. It will include raising awareness and universal screening of seven crore individuals in afflicted areas, she noted.
Major relief under new income tax regime
The government announced significant changes in the new tax regime and extended rebates on income up to Rs. 7 lakhs.
The tax slabs have been made more flexible under the new tax regime.
The new tax rates are 0-Rs. 3 lakh (nil), Rs. 3-6. lakh (5%), Rs. 6-9 lakh (10%), Rs. 9-12 lakh (15%), Rs. 12-15 lakh (20%) and above 15 lakh (30%).
Fiscal deficit cut significantly
The fiscal deficit target for FY24 has been cut from 6.4% of GDP to 5.9%. “I reiterate my intention to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5 percent of GDP by 2025-26,” the finance minister said.
The Maldives’ President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has been declared the winner of a contentious presidential primary, but his rival has yet to concede the election amid allegations of voter fraud, heightening political uncertainty in the popular Indian Ocean tourist destination.
The governing Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said on Sunday that Solih won 61 percent of the vote while his opponent Mohamed Nasheed garnered 38 percent. The election – held on Saturday – was tense with at least five people arrested for disrupting voting and brawls breaking out between rival factions at several polling stations.
The outcome was a blow for Nasheed, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and was the Maldives’ first democratically elected leader. The 55-year-old had been hoping for a comeback after a “terrorism” conviction that was widely seen as politically motivated prevented him from running in the last presidential election.
Solih, who had won the 2018 vote after contesting in Nasheed’s stead, appealed for unity.
Speaking to a crowd of cheering supporters in the capital, Male’, the 60-year-old said, “our rivalry is now over”.
“Now is the time to unite and work together to win the upcoming presidential election for the MDP,” he said.
Malé, Jan 28,2023: The Maldives ruling party’s primary elections were underway on Saturday between incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and former president and speaker of the parliament, Mohamed Nasheed, ahead of presidential elections in the archipelago, scheduled to be held on Sep. 9.
Voting in the presidential primary election of the main party of the ruling coalition, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), began at 9 am.
A total of 57,000 members are eligible to cast their ballots in the election, which will conclude at 5 pm, according to the party.
The results of the primary election, the largest to date in the history of the Maldives, are expected to be announced in the evening.
During the two-week long campaign in the run-up to the primary, both candidates traded accusations of corruption and misuse of government funds.
Solih, who was selected as the party’s 2018 presidential candidate after Nasheed was declared ineligible to run by the Election Commission, accused his rival of corruption and negligence during his term as president, between 2008 and 2012.
Even as the ruling party votes to elect its candidate for the presidential elections, the candidate of the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) remains unknown after a Maldivian court sentenced former president Abdulla Yameen (2013-2018) to 11 years in jail in December for money laundering and accepting bribes during his term, in one of the biggest corruption scandals in the archipelago.
Jan 27,2023:Russia says the delivery of NATO battle tanks to Ukraine is evidence of “direct and growing” US and European involvement in the war, with one analyst suggesting supplying nations could become potential targets.
The comments come after the United States and Germany on Wednesday said they would arm Ukraine with dozens of heavy tanks in its fight against Russian forces.
Kyiv has been seeking hundreds of modern tanks to give its troops the firepower to break Russian defensive lines and reclaim occupied territory in Ukraine’s south and east. Ukraine and Russia have been relying primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tanks.
BEIRUT,Jan 25,2023: The judge probing the 2020 Beirut blast has charged Lebanon’s top public prosecutor, the then-premier and other senior current and former officials in connection with the devastating explosion, judicial sources said and court summons show.
Judge Tarek Bitar unexpectedly resumed an inquiry today after it was paralysed for more than a year by political resistance and legal complaints filed by top officials he was seeking to question.
The explosion on Aug 4, 2020, was caused by hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port in poor conditions since it was unloaded in 2013.
So far, no senior official has been held to account.
Bitar has charged former prime minister Hassan Diab, former interior minister Nouhad Machnouk and former public works minister Ghazi Zeaiter with homicide with probable intent, according to court summons seen by Reuters today.
He also charged prosecutor-general Ghassan Oweidat, the head of Lebanon’s domestic intelligence agency major-general Abbas Ibrahim, former army commander Jean Kahwaji and other current and former security and judicial officials, court sources said.
It was not immediately clear what they had been charged with, but one judicial source said Bitar had found Oweidat had not acted responsibly with regards to the ammonium nitrate.
Reuters could not immediately reach Diab or Oweidat for comment.
Ibrahim declined to comment on reports he had been charged when contacted by Reuters yesterday.
Kahwaji, Zeaiter and Machnouk declined to comment.
All those previously charged by Bitar have denied wrongdoing.
Oweidat today sent Bitar an official letter saying that Bitar’s probe remained suspended and that no official decision had been taken on whether he could continue investigating, according to a copy of the correspondence seen by Reuters.
Differing opinions within the judiciary over whether Bitar was allowed to resume his probe mean that some of his decisions could go unimplemented, analysts say.
Bitar’s previous efforts to interrogate top officials over the explosion that killed 220 people and shattered parts of Beirut have been hindered by factions including the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah.
A source with knowledge of Hezbollah’s position noted Oweidat’s letter and said that accusing the country’s top prosecutor “would only deepen the crisis”.
The source said the party would “wait and watch the reactions.”
Hezbollah has campaigned against Bitar as he sought to question its allies and it also accused Washington of meddling in the probe.
The US ambassador has denied the accusation.
The embassy today tweeted that the US “supports and urges Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation” into the blast.
The Lebanese judiciary, where appointments depend largely on political backing, has long been prone to political influence.
Bitar’s investigation was paralysed in early 2022 by the retirement of judges from a court that must rule on several such complaints against Bitar before he can continue.
The court has been awaiting the appointment of new judges to resume its work, a step authorities have not taken.
Bitar met French judges visiting Beirut last week as part of a French investigation into the explosion, whose victims included two French nationals.
He was unable to share documents with them at the time because the investigation was frozen.
Bitar resumed work on the basis of a legal interpretation challenging the reasons for its suspension, the judicial sources said.
Diab, an academic, became prime minister in January 2020 and resigned less than a week after the blast.
Bitar’s predecessor swiftly charged him and several former officials with negligence over the chemicals, but that judge was removed in 2021 following political interference in the file.
Diab said in a statement in 2020 that he was confident his hands were clean and that he had dealt transparently with the file of the Beirut port explosion.
Jan 23,2023:Russia has downgraded diplomatic relations with Estonia and ordered its ambassador to leave, citing the Baltic nation’s “total Russophobia”.
Moscow’s move on Monday marks the first time it has expelled an ambassador of an EU country since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
“The Russian side decided to downgrade the diplomatic representative in both countries to charge d’affaires ad interim,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “The ambassador of the Estonian Republic will have to leave the Russian Federation on February 7.”
The measures follow Estonia’s decision to drastically reduce staff levels at Russia’s embassy in Tallinn.
Responding to Russia’s decision, Estonia on Monday said it would also expel the Russian ambassador from Tallinn in retaliation.
“We stand by the principle of parity in relations with Russia,” the Estonian ministry of foreign affairs said in a tweet.
In a January 11 statement, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu outlined plans to ease relations with Russia “to the absolute minimum”.
“Now we are setting a limit to the number of Russian diplomats working in Estonia in order to achieve parity. Today’s step is in correlation with the low point of our relations in general,” he said, referring to ties that have been harmed by Moscow’s invasion.
Estonian Ambassador Margus Laidre was informed of the decision after being summoned to the foreign ministry in Moscow, the ministry said, as it accused Estonia of “purposefully destroying” relations with Moscow.
Russia slammed Estonia’s “total Russophobia” and the “the cultivation of hostility” by Tallinn to the “rank of state policy”.
Commenting on the downgrading of ties, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Estonian government “got what it deserved”.
Estonia is a staunch ally of Ukraine and has called for Western countries to send tanks to Kyiv to counter Moscow’s offensive. In October, its parliament adopted a statement declaring Russia a “terrorist regime”.
The Baltic country was once part of the Soviet Union and has had difficult relations with Russia for years.
Russia ordered the closure of Tallinn’s consulate in St Petersburg in April.
Wellington: Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s incumbent minister for police, education and public service, is set to replace Jacinda Ardern as the country’s next Prime Minister following the latter’s surprise announcement to step down next month. Hipkins is currently the only nominee for the Labour leadership and will still need to be formally endorsed by the party in the House of Representatives on Sunday before he can assume the top post, the BBC reported on Saturday.
If he receives the endorsement, Ardern will formally tender her resignation to the Governor-General on February 7, who will then on behalf of King Charles III appoint Hipkins as Prime Minister. Hipkins, 44, was first elected to Parliament in 2008 and appointed minister for Covid-19 in November 2020. During her resignation announcement on Thursday, Ardern — who at 37 became the youngest female head of government in the world when she took office in 2017 — said she did not have “enough in the tank” to lead and added that the past five-and-a-half years had been the “most fulfilling” of her life.
WELLINGTON, Jan 19,2023: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday made a shock announcement she had “no more in the tank” to continue leading the country and would step down no later than early February and not seek re-election.
Ardern, holding back tears, said that it had been a tough five and a half years as prime minister and that she was only human and needed to step aside.
“This summer, I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term – because that is what this year requires. I have not been able to do that,” Ardern, 42, told a news conference.
“I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so called ‘real’ reason was… The only interesting angle you will find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human,” she continued.
“Politicians are human. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.”
A ruling New Zealand Labour Party vote for a new leader will take place on Sunday; the party leader will be prime minister until the next general election. Ardern’s term as leader will conclude no later than Feb. 7 and a general election will be held on Oct. 14.