Junior Digest

Kabul, Dec 19 ,2020: A major explosion in the eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province on killed 15 children and injured another 20 people, officials and police sources said on Saturday.

Officials said that it is still not clear as to what caused the explosion which happened in the Gilan district, but witnesses said that a bomb went off in the back of a rickshaw, BBC report said.

Some other witnesses suggested that a piece of unexploded ordnance blew up when children tried to sell it to a vendor.

Taliban militants also said that the explosion happened accidentally.

The explosion happened close to a house in a village where a Koran recital ceremony was under way.

A bomb went off after a man driving a motorised rickshaw entered the village and was surrounded by children, Wahidullah Jumazada, a spokesman for the Ghazni provincial governor said.

The spokesman further added that the death toll could rise.

Levels of violence in the country have remained high despite the start of negotiations between Afghan and Taliban officials.

Dec 16,2020:An audio message from a man identifying himself as the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram has claimed that the armed group was responsible for the abduction of hundreds of students from an all-boys school in the northwestern state of Katsina.

The number of missing students remains unclear. Military spokesman General John Enenche told Channels TV on Monday that 333 pupils were unaccounted for after heavily armed gunmen raided the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in the town of Kankara.

“I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina,” said the man in Tuesday’s voice message.

Boko Haram and its splinter faction, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), have for years waged a violent armed campaign in the northeast of the country and neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In 2014, Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language, abducted hundreds of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok.

The man in the audio message offered no proof for the claim. No video footage was released of the missing boys. There was no immediate comment by Nigerian authorities.

Late on Monday, the governor of Katsina state, Aminu Bello Masari, said the abductors “have made contacts with the government”.

“Talks are ongoing to ensure their safety and return to their respective families,” he said on Twitter, without identifying the kidnappers.
A joint rescue operation was launched on Saturday by Nigeria’s police, air force and army, according to the government. The army said on Monday it had located the hideout of the men, and that a military operation was under way.

On Sunday, parents and family members gathered at the school, issuing a plea to authorities to bring the missing boys to safety.

Washington, Dec 17,2020: The worldwide number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surpassed 74 million, Johns Hopkins University says.

The exact number of the coronavirus cases stood at 74,087,090 as of 23:45 GMT on Wednesday. More than 1.64 million people have died of the disease, the university added.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. The biggest number of cases so far have been registered in the United States, India and Brazil.

New Delhi , December 15,2020: With farmers firm on their demand about repealing of the three agriculture laws passed by the Centre, their protest entered the 20th day on Tuesday with demonstrations continuing on Sant Nirankari Samagam ground in Burari on the outskirts of Delhi and at various border points.
The protesting farmers on Monday observed a daylong hunger strike against the three new agricultural laws. Union Agriculture Minister Tomar has said that the government will hold further talks and want to hold a discussion with farmers’ leaders on clause by clause of the farm laws.
They also claimed that more people are expected to join the ongoing agitation at Delhi border points.Ten organisations from various states such as Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Bihar and Haryana associated with All India Kisan Coordination Committee met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday to extend their support on three farm laws enacted by the government recently.
The committee submitted a memorandum to Tomar which said that some elements in the farmers’ agitation in some parts of the country, especially in Delhi, were trying to create misunderstanding among farmers about the farm laws. The memorandum urged the government not to withdraw the three laws under the pressure of farmers’ agitation in some parts of the country. “Because, if it happens, farmers from different parts of the country will be bound to come on the streets for their rights,” it said.
Agriculture Minister Tomar said after the meeting that members of All India Kisan Coordination Committee had come from Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar. “They supported farm bills and gave us a letter on the same. They said that the Modi government has done this for the welfare of farmers and they welcome and support it,” he said.
Asked about a meeting with the leaders of protesting farmers, Tomar said the government has said it is ready for talks.
“We have said that we are ready for the talks. The government will definitely do it if their (farmer unions’) proposal comes…We want the discussions to be held clause by clause. They will give their opinion on our proposal, we will definitely hold further talks,” he said.
Gurnam Singh Chaduni, President, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Haryana) on Monday said that the government is misleading everyone regarding the MSP. Gurnam Singh Chaduni was speaking from the Tikri border (Delhi-Haryana) border.
“One thing the BJP is spreading that MSP will be given. Its ministers are repeatedly saying. The government is misleading everyone on MSP. Home Minister Amit Shah replied to us during 8th December meet that they can’t buy all 23 crops at MSP as its costs Rs 17 lakh crores,” Gurnam Singh Chaduni said.
Farmers have been protesting on the outskirts of Delhi since late November 26 demanding the government to repeal the newly enacted farm laws. However, the government has held six rounds of talks with farmers’ organisations including the meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah offering changes to the laws and written assurances.
Various Union Ministers including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Kailash Choudhary have appealed farmers to end their agitation and come for talks with the government.
Farmers have been protesting on different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws-Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

Dec 17,2020:A Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth early on Thursday in the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples, the Xinhua news agency said.

The capsule carrying the samples collected by the Chang’e-5 space probe landed in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, Xinhua said, quoting the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The agency’s director, Zhang Kejian, declared the mission a success, Xinhua said.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said that President Xi Jinping congratulated the team involved in the probe shortly after the mission was completed.

“For China, this is really significant. They really want this to be source of national pride, and a source of triumph.”

With this mission, China became only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.
Beijing is looking to catch up with Washington and Moscow after taking decades to match its rivals’ achievements and has poured billions into its military-run space programme.

Chang’e-5, named after a mythical Chinese Moon goddess, landed on the Moon on December 1. While there, it raised the Chinese flag, the country’s space agency said.
‘Ocean of Storms’

When the probe left the Moon two days later, that marked the first time that China had achieved takeoff from an extraterrestrial body, it said.

The module then went through the delicate operation of linking up in lunar orbit with the part of the spacecraft that brought the samples back to Earth.

Scientists hope the samples will help them learn about the Moon’s origins, formation and volcanic activity on its surface.

The Chang’e-5 mission was to collect two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of material in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum – or “Ocean of Storms” – a vast, previously unexplored lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.
The capsule will be airlifted to Beijing for opening, and the Moon samples will be delivered to a research team for analysis and study, the space agency said.
Space dream

China will make some of the samples available to scientists in other countries, Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of CNSA, has said.

Xinhua described the mission as one of the most challenging and complicated in China’s aerospace history.

The probe comprised separate craft to get to the Moon, land on it and collect the samples, get back up and then return the rocks and soil to Earth, Xinhua said.

The return capsule entered the Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 120km (75 miles). When it was about 10km above land, a parachute opened and it landed smoothly, after which a search team recovered it, the agency said.

This was the first such attempt to collect such samples since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.
Under President Xi, plans for China’s “space dream”, as he calls it, have been put into overdrive.

China hopes to have a crewed space station by 2022 and eventually send humans to the Moon by the 2030s, Al Jazeera’s Yu said.

“What China really wants to do going forward is eventually become a major power when it comes to space exploration.”

She noted that China was very careful in managing the launch and the landing, avoiding a live broadcast of the event “to avoid any embarrassment should anything go wrong.”

“The Chinese government is trying to manage this narrative very carefully, because they see this as an important for the international image of China.”
China launched its first satellite in 1970, while human spaceflight took decades longer – with Yang Liwei becoming the country’s first “taikonaut” in 2003.

A Chinese lunar rover landed on the far side of the Moon in January 2019 in a global first that boosted Beijing’s aspirations to become a space superpower.

The latest probe is among a slew of ambitious targets, which include creating a powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a lunar base, a permanently crewed space station, and a Mars rover.

New Delhi, Dec 16,2020: All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) on Tuesday said that the government is holding diversionary talks with the groups that don’t even represent the struggling farmers.

The farmer body also accused the government of the alleged loot in agriculture sector by the corporates, and also accused the BJP of setting a false narrative that the farmer protests are sponsored from abroad.

Talking about the the new bills , the organisation said that Government’s document confesses that these laws will ‘open up avenues for agribusiness’, not farmers.

Private investment in agriculture, in place of government investing and helping farmers will completely wipe out government mandis, warehousing, and just as has happened in Public Sector industry, Health Services, Schools, Clean Water supply and is happening in Electricity supply.

The main feature of the laws, which the Government does not wish to solve is that it will promote establishment of Private Mandis and Company’s Farm Contracts with farmers, the AIKSCC said in a statement released here.

AIKSCC also said that massive rallies shall take place at Kolkata on Wednesday, in Manipur on Saturday, Mumbai on December 22 and Patna on December 29th.

Meanwhile, support is continuously pouring in with strength at all the road blocks at around Delhi borders, while number of farmers are increasing.

The farmer protest continued for the 20th day around the national capital at the major border entry points, especially at the centre point of protests, the Singhu border.

Farmers also increased at the Gazipur point where more farmers joined in.

GENEVA ,Dec 15,2020: World Trade Organization negotiators have failed to reach a deal by a year-end deadline to cut subsidies that lead to overfishing, the chairman of the talks told delegates at a closed-door meeting on Monday.

Colombia’s Santiago Wills said it had been impossible to reach the U.N. target due to time lost due to the coronavirus pandemic, two sources at the meeting told Reuters. However, Wills said that a deal had been closer than ever, and that the “tremendous” progress gave him confidence in a future deal.

World leaders committed in 2015 to a series of U.N. targets and one of them mandates the Geneva-based trade watchdog to strike a deal on ending government subsidies worth billions of dollars that contribute to over-fishing by 2020.

China, the European Union, the United States, South Korea and Japan are among the main subsidisers.

The failure is a significant blow to the world’s fish stocks, since environmentalists say an ambitious deal could reverse a steep decline, and to the WTO, which faces questions about its ability to strike multilateral agreements.

“It is disappointing,” said Remi Parmentier, strategic adviser for Friends of Ocean Action, who has been an environmental advocate at the WTO for two decades.

“They have had 20 years to fix it and on certain issues they are still almost at square one.”

The U.N. food agency has said that nearly 90% of marine fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Britain’s Prince Charles have both urged action at the WTO.

The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that an ambitious deal could lead to a 12.5% increase in global fish biomass by 2050, based on a model it shared with negotiators.

“If countries reach an agreement on harmful fishing subsidies that keeps loopholes to a minimum, they will achieve a conservation victory that could have a long-lasting, positive impact on our global ocean,” said Isabel Jarrett, manager of Pew’s project to end harmful fishing subsidies.

“OH, DEAR FISH”

Delegates praised bridge-building efforts by Wills, who had shown his commitment to the talks in an unexpected way by tweeting a Valentine’s poem to the world’s fish: “Oh dear fish/Protect you we must;/In the @WTO/You can trust…”

Negotiators had been working on a confidential draft text for months but a November copy seen by Reuters still contained dozens of areas of disagreement.

A major area of contention has been a section outlining carve-outs from the rules for developing countries, submitted by India. One delegate from a wealthy country said these were so broad as to render the agreement meaningless.

Since China is the biggest subsidiser and has in the past resisted pressure to curb its fleets, the talks’ success is seen as hinging partly on Beijing’s willingness to make concessions.

Some expressed frustration at China’s opposition to a provision targeting exploitation of the high seas by industrial fishing fleets.

China’s ambassador said in September that such a prohibition “would go beyond our mandate”. But Beijing has said it is willing to “fully engage” and a spokeswoman in Geneva declined to spell out its current position.

The absence of a WTO director-general also played a part the talks’ failure, since he or she would ordinarily be able to help clinch a deal, Wills said.

Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo stepped down early in August and a candidate selected by a WTO panel to replace him was blocked by Washington.

Future progress on fisheries may depend on whether a two-yearly meeting of trade ministers, scheduled for last June in Kazakhstan but cancelled due to COVID-19, can be resurrected.

Dec 15,2020:LONDON, UK — John le Carre, the spy-turned-novelist whose elegant and intricate narratives defined the Cold War espionage thriller and brought acclaim to a genre critics had once ignored, has died. He was 89.

Le Carre’s literary agency, Curtis Brown, said Sunday that he died in Cornwall, southwest England on Saturday after a short illness. The death was not related to COVID-19.

In such classics as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and “The Honourable Schoolboy,” Le Carre combined terse, but lyrical prose with the kind of complexity expected in literary fiction. His books grappled with betrayal, moral compromise and the psychological toll of a secret life. In the quiet, watchful spymaster George Smiley, he created one of 20th-century fiction’s iconic characters — a decent man at the heart of a web of deceit.

For le Carre, the world of espionage was a “metaphor for the human condition.”

Born David Cornwell, le Carre worked for Britain’s intelligence service before turning his experience into fiction in works including “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy” and “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.”

New Delhi, Dec 16,2020: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade here next month.

It was announced by the British foreign secretary Dominic Raab on Tuesday after holding talks with External Affairs minister Dr. S Jaishankar.

Addressing a joint press conference after the talks, Dr Jaishankar said the two sides held discussion on a wide range of issues and focus has been on how to take the bilateral ties to a higher level.

“In recent years as you know, there have been very big changes in global politics and we both believe that our interests are better served by working together more effectively,” he said.

The Minister said that important issues, including the situation in Afghanistan as also developments in Gulf and evolution of the Indo-Pacific region came up for discussion.

He said that challenges posed by terrorism and radicalism which are shared concerns were also discussed.

“Prime Minister Boris Johnson has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join the UK-hosted G7 summit next year. The UK Prime Minister has also accepted the very generous invitation to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations (as chief guest) in January which is a great honour,” the UK foreign secretary said.

New Delhi , December 15,2020: The Indian Railways, through its 21 Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), is organising a mega recruitment drive in three phases starting from Tuesday for filling up about 1.4 lakh vacancies.
The Ministry of Railways, in a release dated December 11, 2020, stated that more than 2.44 crore candidates will be appearing in different cities across the country to participate in the recruitment drive.
According to the official release, the first phase of the exam will commence from December 15 till December 18, 2020, for isolated and ministerial categories. This will be followed by NTPC categories from December 28 to tentatively till March 2021 and the third recruitment for Level-1 from tentatively April 2020 onwards till June end, 2021.
RRBs have made extensive preparations for conducting examinations of this large scale in COVID-19 pandemic times following SOPs as laid down by the government ensuring social distancing, compulsory use of masks, sanitisers, curtailing shifts for conducting exams to only two shifts per day.
“Efforts are being made by RRBs to ensure that as far as possible the candidates are accommodated in their own State so that they can reach their exam centres by undertaking the overnight journey. Female and PWD candidates are accommodated within their home states. However, considering the skewed distribution of candidates area-wise, there will be unavoidable interstate movements. Railways will be running special exam trains to cater to the travel requirements of the candidates, wherever required and feasible. Chief Secretaries of concerned State Governments have also been requested to extend support of local administration to RRBs for conducting CBTs in secure and safe manner ensuring social distancing,” the Indian Railways said.
According to the Indian Railways, candidates will be checked for the temperature at entry using thermo guns.
“Candidates having temperature more than prescribed limits will not be allowed inside the exam venue. Intimation in this regard will also be sent to their registered email and mobile number regarding the rescheduling of such candidates. The exact date of the re-scheduled exam of such candidates will be intimated subsequently. The candidate should use his/her own facemask. Candidate has to produce COVID-19 self-declaration in the prescribed format at the entry and in absence of the same he/she will not be allowed into the exam venue. After each shift the exam centre will be sanitised before starting another shift,” it said.
In order to safeguard the health of the candidates and other personnel involved in the conduct of exams amid COVID-19, the latest instructions, guidelines, and orders issued by the Central and respective State governments concerning COVID 19 will be followed and ensured, the Indian Railways stated.

Berlin [Germany], December 16,2020: Up to 250,000 people may lose their jobs, with roughly 50,000 enterprises facing bankruptcy, if the German government does not provide adequate financial support to cover the losses caused by new anti-coronavirus restrictions that will close non-essential shops in the country, the German Retail Federation (HDE) said on Tuesday.
On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that non-essential stores would be closed in the country starting December 16, and the restrictions would stay in force until January 10.
“The aid provisioned by the German government is important, but should be adjusted to the current needs in details, and also provided without bureaucratic hurdles and rapidly … otherwise, almost 50,000 enterprises with 250,000 employees will have no prospects in the future,” the statement, published on the HDE’s website, read.

According to the HDE, the restrictions will mostly affect the enterprises that are not able to shift to online marketing to continue operation during the lockdown.
“The lockdown affects the retail industry in extremely various ways. While online marketing and food sales are performing well, the trade enterprises affected by the restrictions are losing a fifth of their turnover. For stationary trade enterprises this means a 2.7 per cent loss in 2020, that is almost 13 billion euro (USD 15,8 billion),” the HDE said.
The statement stressed that German shops had to close ahead of the New Year holiday, when enterprises traditionally gain a large amount of profit. According to HDE’s expectations, the German retail industry will lose roughly seven percent of its turnover, compared to the same period in 2019.
The federation noted that the restrictions on shops would benefit the enterprises engaged in online marketing, and their turnover would increase by 20 million euros.
According to Johns Hopkins University, Germany has confirmed 6,451 new cases of the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, with the total number of infections reaching 1,357,261. On Monday, Germany registered 8,976 new daily COVID-19 cases.

Tehran, Iran,Dec15,2020: President Hassan Rouhani said Iran will not accept any preconditions in returning to the nuclear deal it signed with world powers and will not negotiate its missiles programme or regional activities.

The United States and European powers have said in recent weeks they remain committed to revitalising the nuclear deal – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – which outgoing US President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018.

However, they said they expect Iran to negotiate on its contentious missiles programme and its support of proxies in the region – which the US and Europe maintain is destabilising the Middle East.

In his first news conference in Tehran since February when the first COVID-19 cases in Iran were identified, the president defied calls by the incoming Biden administration in the US and European powers.

“We will not accept any pre-conditions from anybody. Neither is the JCPOA negotiable, nor can we set it out on the negotiation table and discuss it part by part,” he said in the televised event.

“Either everyone will implement the JCPOA as it is or they don’t. If they do, we will too.”
‘Non-negotiable’ missiles programme

In an interview with Der Spiegel earlier this month, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas suggested a “nuclear agreement plus” is needed.

But Rouhani was adamant these issues have nothing to do with the nuclear deal and cannot be broached.

“They had talked to us about these before. When the P5+1 was talking to us as part of the JCPOA they discussed all of this,” Rouhani said in reference to nuclear signatories – the US, France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, and Germany.

“The US tried for months to include the missiles programme and we told them it’s non-negotiable. They tried for months to include regional issues as well. They were all discussed and rejected.”

The Iranian president said Trump was unaware of this, but President-elect Joe Biden – who was vice president when the JCPOA was signed under President Barack Obama – was there and knows all of this.

“What can be on the table is that everyone will return to their full commitments,” Rouhani said.

Dec 16,2020:Yemen is the country most at risk of a humanitarian catastrophe in 2021, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned, marking the third year running the war-ravaged nation has earned the grim recognition.

Continued conflict, widespread hunger and a collapsing international aid response threaten to dramatically worsen the current crisis in Yemen next year, the IRC said on Wednesday.

Tamuna Sabadze, the aid agency’s director for Yemen, said support was critical, now more “than ever”.

In an interview with Al Jazeera from the capital, Sanaa, she called for “more commitment than we see today” from internal, regional and global actors to end the conflict.

“Without this, things will not change in Yemen; the ordinary civilians of Yemen will really have no future and no hope.

“Twenty-four million people are in need of some kind of humanitarian aid – be it food, protection, health services, or education.

“The majority of the country really needs the UN and humanitarian funding in order to meet their basic day-to-day needs.”

The IRC’s watchlist for 2021, ranked from one to 10, comprised: Yemen; Afghanistan; Syria; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Ethiopia; Burkina Faso; South Sudan; Nigeria; Venezuela and Mozambique.

A further 10 countries were also on the list but were unranked in terms of gravity: Cameroon; the Central African Republic; Chad; Colombia; Lebanon; Mali; Niger; Palestine; Somalia and Sudan.

Abeer Fowzi, IRC’s deputy nutrition coordinator, said: “In the face of an unprecedented threat, the world has turned its back on Yemen.

“Never before have Yemenis faced so little support from the international community – or so many simultaneous challenges.”

Financial support for the country is drying up, with UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warning in November Yemen had received less than half of the emergency funds it needed this year.

Lowcock told the UN Security Council the 2020 appeal for Yemen had received only about $1.5bn in donations to date, some 45 percent of the $3.4bn required. By this time last year it had received almost $3bn, he said.

According to the UN, 80 percent of Yemen’s 30 million people need some form of aid or protection.

About 13.5 million Yemenis currently face acute food insecurity, including 16,500 people living in famine-like conditions, UN data shows.

In 2014, the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel group seized large swaths of the country, including Sanaa.

The war escalated in March 2015, when a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in an attempt to restore the government of Riyadh-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has been assisted by several Western powers, including the United States.

Both sides have since been accused of war crimes during fighting that has killed more than 100,000 people to date, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project.

Peace talks aimed at resolving the conflict have been stalled since late 2018, despite repeated efforts by UN officials to revive negotiations and end what it calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Crises grip Afghanistan, Ethiopia

Afghanistan was ranked second after Yemen. An ongoing deadlock in peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government has thwarted an end to the country’s nearly 20-year war.

“Humanitarian needs in Afghanistan are growing rapidly amid COVID-19 and unrelenting violence – which could rise rapidly in 2021 if intra-Afghan peace talks fail to make progress,” the IRC said.

Ethiopia rose into the top five on the watchlist for the first time, because of an unfolding crisis in the northern Tigray region.

Since November 4, the Ethiopian government headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been battling forces loyal to the region’s former rulers, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Abiy won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for making peace with neighbouring Eritrea and ushering in democratic reforms in Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation and home to myriad ethnic groups.

His government forces took control of Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region, more than two weeks ago and officials claim that pockets of fighting remain.

But analysts said the ongoing conflict threatens to deepen Ethiopia’s political, economic and health challenges and could complicate efforts to transition towards democratisation.

“In 2021, Ethiopia plans to organise elections, which often come with heightened risks of violence and instability, and find durable solutions to inter-ethnic conflicts, including over boundaries,” Adem K Abebe, an adviser on constitution building and governance at the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, told Al Jazeera.

“There is also a need to rebuild Tigray – an impoverished region already suffering from the locust invasion – and deliver on services.

“All of this under difficult economic conditions and with limited resources.”

Washington , December 17,2020: The cyberattack on the US government agencies is still a developing situation, a joint statement of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said.

“Over the course of the past several days, the FBI, CISA, and ODNI have become aware of a significant and ongoing cybersecurity campaign. Pursuant to Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 41, the FBI, CISA, and ODNI have formed a Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG) to coordinate a whole-of-government response to this significant cyber incident. The UCG is intended to unify the individual efforts of these agencies as they focus on their separate responsibilities. This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government,” the statement said on late Wednesday.
“As the lead for threat response, the FBI is investigating and gathering intelligence in order to attribute, pursue, and disrupt the responsible threat actors. The FBI is engaging with known and suspected victims, and information gained through FBI’s efforts will provide indicators to network defenders and intelligence to our government partners to enable further action,” the statement added.

New Delhi, Dec 18 ,2020: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the government is seeking to ensure that farmers in the country get more incomes and that would be possible with more value addition in farm produce and greater engagement with the needs of the world.

Goyal called for realigning the country’s trade and economic policies with that of the world and said with 3B objectives — Bigger trade basket, Better trade basket, Balanced trade- “we can see huge and exponential growth in our trade relationship. ”

“We wish to ensure that the farmers of India get even greater incomes which would only be possible with more value-added on our farm produce and greater engagement with the rest of the world, to meet the needs of the international community, ” he said, addressing the CII partnership summit.

He said there is “tremendous scope” for Australian investment into India as the country has opened up food processing sector to greater value addition.

Goyal also said that diversification of supply chains is critical for managing the risks associated with the supply of inputs, including disciplining non-transparent and opaque economies.

He said the trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative among India, Japan and Australia will help diversify the supply chain of various inputs.

The minister said that areas like tourism will create a lot of jobs under the new framework of labour codes and make tourism projects in India more viable and invited Australian companies to look at the Indian potential.

Kochi , December 16,2020: The National Cadet Corps informed the Kerala High Court that that transgender person cannot be allowed into the NCC as there is no provision for the same.
The divisions created in NCC were only for boys and girl cadets as per the existing policy, the NCC said.
It also informed that it is the prerogative of the central government to constitute a new division for the transgender.

The submission by Lieutenant Colonel Prem Chand Jha, Officer Commanding, Kerala Battalion NCC, Thiruvananthapuram was made in response to a petition filed by Hina Haneefa, a transwoman and a student of Thiruvananthapuram University college, challenging the NCC’s exclusion of transgender persons from their program in the college.
The Officer Commanding further stated that “the divisions created in the NCC were only for male and female genders. Moreover, in NCC, facilities, training modules and other curriculums provided to both the divisions were different from each other.”
“In fact, before constituting a new division for the third gender, the Centre had to conduct a major exercise in terms of reviewing the infrastructure facilities, modules, and facilities that are binding to such divisions. Any induction of a candidate not from male or female gender without due deliberations by the authorities would have far-reaching ramifications. The issue of raising a new division was a policy decision,” he stated.
He also said that the petitioner has chosen to be called transgender female which falls in the third gender category as a transwoman whereas enrolment in NCC as a cadet is open only to a male and female gender.
He added that that one of the primary aims of NCC was to groom the cadets for a future with the Armed forces whereas, there was no provision existing for the entry of transgender (Female/male) into the Indian Armed Forces.

Paris,Dec 16,2020: Boutiques in the centre of the French capital shut early and shoppers hurried home to meet a new 8:00 p.m. curfew that took effect on Tuesday to try to prevent a new spike in COVID-19 infections.

“I completely lost track of time and didn’t realise it was so late,” said 40-year-old Paris resident Jun, who was in the Opera district just before curfew. “I’m going to head home.”

Around the usually bustling shopping district, shop fronts were dark and of the few people on the streets, most were heading towards the metro station.

Tuesday brought new freedoms for people in France because it was the end of a stay-at-home order. This had meant that, around the clock, people could only venture out for a limited time and for essential trips, to shop, or to exercise.

But that was replaced instead with a nightly curfew. From 8:00 p.m until 6:00 a.m. people can only go out for work, on official business, or for medical reasons. Anyone breaking curfew is liable for a 135 euro ($164) fine.

Officials have warned that they will be strictly enforcing the new rules. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Tuesday evening joined a police patrol in Yvelines, west of Paris, to check that people were complying.

“The government has decided to be particularly tough on unlawful parties,” the minister said.

Infection rates in France have declined sharply since the peak of the second wave last month. But scientists warn of the risk of a third wave of infection if people let down their guard during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

SANTIAGO,Dec 17,2020: More than 30,000 tremors have rocked Antarctica since the end of August, according to the University of Chile, a spike in seismic activity that has intrigued researchers who study the remote, snowbound continent.

Scientists with the university’s National Seismological Center said the small quakes – including one stronger shake of magnitude 6 – were detected in the Bransfield Strait, a 60-mile wide (96-km) ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.

Several tectonic plates and microplates meet near the strait, leading to frequent rumbling, but the past three months have been unusual, according to the center.

“Most of the seismicity is concentrated at the beginning of the sequence, mainly during the month of September, with more than a thousand earthquakes a day,” the center said.

The shakes have become so frequent that the strait itself, once increasing in width at a rate of about 7 or 8 mm (0.30 inch) a year is now expanding 15 cm (6 inches) a year, the center said.

“It’s a 20-fold increase … which suggests that right this minute … the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from the Antarctic peninsula,” said Sergio Barrientos, the center’s director.

The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, and scientists closely monitor the changing climate’s impact on its icebergs and glaciers.

But climate scientist Raul Cordero of the University of Santiago said it was not yet clear how the tremors might be affecting the region’s ice.

“There’s no evidence that this kind of seismic activity … has significant effects on the stability of polar ice caps,” Cordero told Reuters.

Bengaluru, Dec 15 ,2020: Renowned aerospace scientist and Padma Vibhushan awardee Prof Roddam Narasimha, passed away here Monday night.
He was 87.
He is survived by a wife and daughter.
According to family sources the celebrated scientist, who had served as the Scientific Advisor to the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, had breathed his last at a private hospital, after a brief illness.
The deceased, a former director of the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), had contributed his might in the design and development of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas fighter aircraft.
Prof Roddam, honoured with the nation’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 2013 and was also the recipient of the prestigious Bhatnagar Prize and the 2008 Trieste Science Prize.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others had condoled the demise of the celebrated scientist Prof Roddam Narasimha.

Dec 15,2020:The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine whether a “simplictor declaration” that the Emergency of 1975 was unconstitutional will be feasible or desirable after the passage of 45 years.

A Bench led by Justice S.K. Kaul reluctantly, and after much persuasion from senior advocate Harish Salve, agreed to consider the limited question on a request made by 94-year-old Veera Sarin, who said the “errors of history should be corrected and never happen again”.

“Something wrong may have happened at a particular point of history… But it has been 45 years now. Many of the persons are no longer with us…”, Justice Kaul, leading a three-judge Bench, expressed his doubts.

But Mr. Salve, for Ms. Sarin, replied “this may perhaps be the right time to do it”.

“There was abuse of powers… If we do not tend to correct the errors of history, it will go on. For 19 months, the fundamental rights of this country were under the jackboots. We have to revisit this error. She [Sarin] wants a declaration that the Emergency was unconstitutional. For that, she cannot go to any other court”, Mr. Salve submitted.

The court issued notice to the government.

During the hearing, Justice Kaul, amidst discussion with his Bench mates, tried to dissuade Mr. Salve, saying “digging up the Emergency” now would be odd as the people involved were no more.

“Hitler is dead and gone, but even now people in their eighties and nineties are pulled for their crimes against humanity”, Mr. Salve replied.

“One cannot cannot compare this with the Holocaust and its consequences”, Justice Kaul tried to bridle the petitioner side.

“It [Emergency] is not that old… Our generation is still around. Our friends and colleagues were put in jail. McCarthyism was happening then… What happened to a nascent democracy was a fraud on the Constitution… This great assault on the Constitution must be examined… We have an advanced court. Should we not as citizens have our court decide this ultimate abuse of power?”, Mr. Salve persisted.
Amendments to plea

The court allowed him to make some amendments to the petition by December 18.

In her petition, Ms. Sarin, also represented by advocates Anannya Ghosh and Neela Gokhale, said she and her family were victims of the excesses of that “grave and dark period of our nation’s history”.

Their gold jewellery and diamond business based in Karol Bagh and Connaught Place in the National Capital were plundered by the government authorities during the Emergency period when civil rights and liberties were suspended. Her husband never recovered from the shock of the family business going under and eventually died.

Bhopal, Dec 18,2020: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the new agricultural laws brought by his government have not come overnight, but were long overdue and insisted that the existing regime of support price for farm produce will continue.

Political parties, agriculture experts and progressive farmers demanded such agri reforms for long, he said and attacked the opposition for misleading cultivators on the issue of MSP (minimum support price) and APMCs.

Opposition parties, when in power, sat over the Swaminathan committee report for years, but the BJP-led government implemented its recommendations in the interest of farmers, said the PM as the ongoing protests by cultivators outside Delhi entered the 23rd day.

The new agriculture laws have not come overnight but political parties, agriculture experts and progressive farmers have demanded them for a long time, Modi said in a virtual address to the farmers of Madhya Pradesh.

Coming down heavily on those misleading farmers, Modi said, People should seek replies from those who have talked about these reforms in their manifestos for long but never implemented them.

“If they want to take credit for these farm laws, they should do so, but they should stop misleading farmers on the issue by spreading lies, he said.

Modi said MSP and Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) mechanisms will continue even after the implementation of the new farm laws.

Hundreds of farmers are camping at several Delhi border points to press for the repeal of the Centre’s new farm laws.

New Delhi , December 16 ,2020: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will light up ‘Swarnim Vijay Mashaal’ at the National War Memorial (NWM) in Delhi on Wednesday and kickstart the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the Ministry of Defence said.

In an official release on Tuesday, the Ministry said, “In December 1971, the Indian Armed Forces secured a decisive and historic Victory over Pakistan Army, which led to the creation of a Nation – Bangladesh and also resulted in the largest Military Surrender after the World War – II. From 16 December, the Nation will be celebrating 50 Years of India-Pak War, also called ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh’. Various commemorative events are planned across the Nation.”
Prime Minister Modi will be received by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the venue.
The Prime Minister, Chief of Defence Staff and Tri-Service Chiefs will lay wreath and pay homage to the fallen soldiers.
The Prime Minister will light up the ‘Swarnim Vijay Mashaal’ from the eternal flame of NWM on the occasion.
“Four Victory Mashaals (flames) will be lit from the Eternal Flame of NWM. These Mashaals will be carried to various parts of the country including to villages of Param Vir Chakra and MahaVir Chakra Awardees of 1971 War. Soil from the villages of these Awardees and from areas where major battles were fought in 1971 are being brought to the NWM,” read the release.
Various commemorative events will be conducted pan-India wherein war ‘Veterans and Veer Naris’ will be felicitated and events like band displays, seminars, exhibitions, equipment displays, film festivals, conclave and adventure activities are planned.
Minister of Defence for state Shripad Yesso Naik and other senior civil and military officials of the Ministry of Defence will also be present on the occasion.
Vijay Diwas is celebrated every year on December 16 to mark India’s triumph in liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971.
In one of the fastest and shortest campaigns of military history, a new nation was born as a result of the swift campaign undertaken by the Indian Army.
After facing defeat in the 1971 war, the then Army Chief of Pakistan General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, along with his 93,000 troops, surrendered to allied forces which also comprised of Indian Army personnel.