Junior Digest

Kyiv/MariupolFeb 24,2022: Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides on Thursday after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since World War 2.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war in a predawn televised address, explosions and gunfire were heard throughout the morning in Kyiv, a city of 3-million people.

Missiles rained down on Ukrainian targets and authorities reported columns of troops pouring across Ukraine’s borders from Russia and Belarus to the north and east, and landing on the southern coasts from the Black Sea and Azov Sea.

The assault brought a calamitous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to avert war. US President Joe Biden met his Group of Seven counterparts virtually on Thursday to discuss harsh sanctions, and was due to speak later on Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to defend their country and said arms would be given to anyone prepared to fight.

“What we have heard today are not just missile blasts, fighting and the rumble of aircraft. This is the sound of a new Iron Curtain, which has come down and is closing Russia off from the civilised world,” Zelenskiy said. “Our national task is to make sure this curtain does not fall across our land.”

Fierce fighting was taking place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast, Kherson and Odessa in the south, and at a military airport near the capital Kyiv, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said.
Zelenskiy said troops were trying to fend off Russians attempting to capture the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, just 90km north of the capital. Regional officials said Ukrainian authorities had lost control of some territory in the Kherson region near Russian-occupied Crimea.

The highway heading west out of Kyiv was choked with traffic across five lanes as residents fled.

Biden called the Russian action an “unprovoked and unjustified attack”. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would impose a severe new round of sanctions.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said: “These are among the darkest hours of Europe since the Second World War.”
Russian bombing

In his address, Putin said he had ordered “a special military operation” to protect people, including Russian citizens, subjected to “genocide” in Ukraine — an accusation the West calls baseless propaganda.

“And for this we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine,” Putin said.

A resident of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city and close to the Russian border, said windows in apartment blocks were shaking from constant blasts.

Blasts could be heard in the southeasterly port of Mariupol, near a frontline held by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Civilians in Mariupol packed bags; “We are going into hiding,” a woman said.

Ukrainian military authorities said 20 Russian helicopters and Mi-8 aircraft had landed paratroopers at Hostomel airport in the Kyiv region, where forces from both sides were fighting for control.

Unconfirmed reports of casualties included Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian bombardment and border guards defending the frontier, while Russia said three civilians had been wounded by Ukrainian shelling near the border.

Authorities in the southwesterly Odessa region said 18 people had been killed in a missile attack. At least six people were killed in Brovary, a town near Kyiv, authorities there said.

Ukraine’s military said it had destroyed four Russian tanks near Kharkiv, killed 50 troops near a town in Luhansk region, and downed six Russian warplanes in the east.

Russia denied that any of its aircraft or armoured vehicles had been destroyed. Russian-backed separatists said they had downed two Ukrainian planes.

Even with a full-blown invasion under way, Putin’s ultimate aim is obscure. He said he did not plan a military occupation, only to disarm Ukraine and purge it of nationalists.

The outright annexation of such a vast, hostile country could be beyond even Russia’s military capabilities.

A senior US defence official said Washington believed the invasion was intended to “decapitate” Zelenskiy’s government.

But it is hard to see Ukrainians accepting any new leadership installed by Moscow.

“I think we must fight all those who invade our country so strongly,” said one man stuck in traffic trying to leave Kyiv. “I would hang every single one of them from bridges.”

Biden has ruled out sending US troops to defend Ukraine, but Washington has reinforced its Nato allies in the region with extra troops and planes.

Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers, and both it and Ukraine are among the top exporters of grain. War and sanctions will disrupt economies around the world already facing a supply crisis as they emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

Stocks plunged and bond prices leapt; the dollar and gold soared. Brent oil surged past $100/barrel for the first time since 2014.

At least three major buyers of Russian oil said they had been denied letters of credit from Western banks, needed for shipments to go ahead.

A democratic nation of 44-million people, Ukraine is Europe’s biggest country by area after Russia itself. It voted for independence at the fall of the Soviet Union and aims to join Nato and the EU, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.

Putin, who denied for months that he was planning an invasion, has called Ukraine an artificial construct carved from Russia by its enemies — a characterisation Ukrainians see as an attempt to erase their more than 1,000-year-old history.

While many Ukrainians, particularly in the east, speak Russian as a native language, virtually all identify themselves as Ukrainian.
In Kyiv, queues of people waited to withdraw money and buy supplies of food and water. Cars stretched for dozens of kilometres on the highway leading west towards Poland, where Western countries have prepared to receive hundreds of thousands of refugees.

“We’re afraid of bombardments,” said Oxana, stuck in her car with her three-year-old daughter on the back seat. “This is so scary.”

June 21,2022:More than 100 people, mostly from the Amhara ethnic group, have been killed in an attack in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, according to witnesses, who blamed the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) for one of the deadliest attacks in recent memory.

However, two other witnesses said more than 200 people have been killed. The regional government in Oromia confirmed the attack but did not give details about casualty figures. The central government in Addis Ababa could not be reached for comments.
“I have counted 230 bodies. I am afraid this is the deadliest attack against civilians we have seen in our lifetime,” Abdul-Seid Tahir, a resident of Gimbi county, told The Associated Press news agency after barely escaping the attack on Saturday.

Earlier, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had condemned what he described as “horrific acts” in Oromiya, without giving details. “Attacks on innocent civilians and destruction of livelihoods by illegal and irregular forces is unacceptable,” he said on Twitter.

The attack comes as ethnic strife threatens to break apart Africa’s second-most populous country. Fighting that erupted in 2020 in the northern Tigray region spilled over into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara last year.

Thousands of people have been killed, and several million others have been displaced from their homes as a result of the fighting between forces loyal to Abiy and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and their allies.

The violence has eased since the federal government declared a unilateral ceasefire in March.
On Sunday, the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission called on the federal government to find a “lasting solution” to the killing of civilians and protect them from such attacks.

June 3,2022:In an emotional speech broadcast live on national television, United States President Joe Biden has called on lawmakers to pass legislation to curb gun violence in the country, a week after 19 children were shot dead by a gunman in their school.

Biden proposed a number of laws, including a ban on assault weapons, which was allowed to lapse under a Republican administration in 2004. Other proposals included a limit on high capacity magazines, secure storage laws, “red flag” laws, universal background checks and the removal of protection laws for gun manufacturers.

“It’s time to act,” Biden said from the White House. “For the children we have lost. For the children we can save. For the nation we love. Let’s meet the moment. It’s time to act.”

The impassioned speech, broadcast during primetime in the US, followed a series of mass shootings across the country in which gunmen have targeted Black people in Buffalo, schoolchildren in Uvalde and doctors in Tulsa.

Peppering his speech with declarations of “enough”, Biden said too many places in the US had become “killing fields”, and urged Republicans in the Senate to back changes to legislation that would make the country safer for everyone.

Alluding to the mid-term elections later this year, he said gun control was a matter of “common sense” and stressed that the Second Amendment, which gun proponents use to curb regulation, was not absolute.

Jason Nichols, a social and political analyst, at the University of Maryland, told Al Jazeera that while he did not expect Republicans to commit to a ban on assault weapons, the November polls might encourage them to adopt some of Biden’s other proposals.

Republicans and some Democrats have blocked tougher gun regulation even after horrific mass shootings such as the murder of 20 young children at a primary school in Sandy Hook, Connecticut in 2012.

Kyiv,Feb 25,2022: Missiles pounded the Ukrainian capital on Friday as Russian forces pressed their advance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the international community to do more, saying sanctions announced so far were not enough.

Air raid sirens wailed over Kyiv amid unconfirmed reports that a Russian plane had been shot down and crashed into a building a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion that has shocked the world.

A senior Ukrainian official said Russian forces would enter areas just outside the capital, Kyiv, later on Friday and that Ukrainian troops were defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered.

An estimated 100,000 people fled as explosions and gunfire rocked major cities. Dozens have been reported killed. Russian troops seized the Chernobyl former nuclear power plant north of Kyiv as they advanced on the city from Belarus.

US and Ukrainian officials say Russia aims to capture Kyiv and topple the government, which Putin regards as a puppet of the United States.
Zelenskiy said he understood Russian troops were coming for him but vowed to stay in Kyiv.

“(The) enemy has marked me down as the number one target,” Zelenskiy said in a video message. “My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state.”

“I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine.”

Russia launched its invasion by land, air and sea on Thursday following a declaration of war by Putin, in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

Putin says Russia is carrying out “a special military operation” to stop the Ukrainian government from committing genocide against its own people – an accusation the West calls “baseless”. He also says Ukraine is an illegitimate state whose lands historically belong to Russia.

Ukrainian forces downed an enemy aircraft over Kyiv early on Friday, which then crashed into a residential building and set it ablaze, said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister.

It was unclear whether the aircraft was manned or whether it could be a missile. Kyiv municipal authorities said at least eight people were injured when the object crashed into an apartment block.

“Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany.”

Authorities said intense fighting was under way in the city of Sumy in the northeast.

Aug 30,2022:Citing the death of the petitioner, the Supreme Court has closed a case involving contempt of court against late former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh in the Babri Masjid demolition issue.
The court notes that with the passage of time and in view of the 2019 Ayodhya verdict, the matter does not survive.

Only the contempt matter against Kalyan Singh and others was initiated because the UP government allowed the Rath Yatra and the Babri demolition, despite the assurance of security by the government.

Only these matters have been closed by the Supreme Court since it has been more than 30 years and the petitioner and the former chief minister are dead.

Other cases arising out of the demolition are not affected.

WASHINGTON ,Feb 17,2022: U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is “very high” but the door to a diplomatic solution remained open.

Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House, Biden said there was “every indication we have is that they are prepared to go into Ukraine” and there was no plan for him to hold a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked how high the threat of Russian invasion was at the moment, Biden said, “It’s very high.”

He said Russia had not moved back its forces from the Ukrainian border and the United States had reason to believe Russia was engaged in a false flag operation that Moscow would use to justify an invasion.

But he said a diplomatic solution remained possible, which is why he had asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to go to the United Nations to make a statement on Thursday.

Ahmedabad:Feb 18,2022: A special court here on Friday awarded death sentence to 38 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case, which claimed 56 lives and left over 200 injured.

The court sentenced 38 of the 49 convicts to death under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The 11 others were sentenced to life in jail till death.
Judge A R Patel also awarded compensation of Rs one lakh each to those killed in the blasts, and Rs 50,000 for each victim with serious injuries and Rs 25,000 each for those with minor ones.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.85 lakh each on the 48 convicts.

Patel had on February 8 declared 49 of the total 78 accused as guilty under various offences of the Indian Penal Code, including for murder, sedition and waging war against the state, as well as under offences of the UAPA and Explosive Substances Act.

Bombs went off in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, at various spots including the state government-run civil hospital, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation-run LG Hospital, on buses, parked bicycles, in cars and other places, killing 56 persons.

New Delhi,June 02,2022: Home Minister Amit Shah will chair a high-level meeting on June 3 to discuss security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the second such exercise in less than a fortnight which comes at a time when terrorists have been carrying out targeted killings in the Valley.

Officials said Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, and senior functionaries of the central government and union territory would participate in the meeting which is also expected to take stock of the arrangements for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, being held after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the second high-level meeting in less than a fortnight on the Kashmir issue.

In the last meeting on June 17, the home minister had advocated pro-active and coordinated counter-terror operations and had asked security forces to ensure zero cross-border infiltration and wipe out terrorism from the union territory.

The meeting comes in the wake of terrorists carrying out three targeted killings, including of a woman teacher hailing from Samba district of Jammu region at Kulgam on Tuesday.

On May 18, terrorists had entered into a wine shop at Baramulla in North Kashmir and threw a grenade, killing one person hailing from Jammu region and injuring three others.

On May 24, a policeman, Saifullah Qadri, was shot dead outside his residence in Srinagar while a television artiste Amreen Bhat was gunned down in Budgam two days later.

Scores of Kashmiri Pandits, who were employed under a prime minister’s package in 2012, have been staging continuous protests threatening mass exodus since the killing of Rahul Bhat, who was shot dead by terrorists on May 12 in Chadoora area of Budgam district in central Kashmir.

After the previous meeting, an official statement had said that the home minister directed security forces and the police to conduct coordinated counter-terrorism operations pro-actively.

The home minister had said that in order to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a prosperous and peaceful Jammu and Kashmir, security forces should ensure zero cross-border infiltration.

Taking stock of the Amarnath Yatra preparedness, Shah had said a “hassle-free” journey for the pilgrims is a priority of the Modi government and directed all arrangements, including additional electricity, water, and telecom facilities be made.

He had also stressed for enhancement of mobile connectivity along the yatra route as he directed that earth moving equipment should be placed at vantage points to clear the route in case of landslides.
The home minister had asked for an adequate number of oxygen cylinders, medical beds at an altitude of more than 6,000 feet and deployment of ambulances and helicopters to deal with any emergency medical situation.

During the previous meeting, it was also decided to enable WiFi hotspots to ensure connectivity throughout the 39 km of the yatra route from Pahalgam in south Kashmir.

The other route is through Baltal in central Kashmir where a pilgrim treks for nearly 15 km. The yatra could not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic and was cut short in 2019 just before the abrogation of Article 370. About three lakh pilgrims are likely to take part in the pilgrimage that is expected to end on August 11.

About 12,000 paramilitary personnel (120 companies) in addition to Jammu and Kashmir Police are expected to be deployed along the two pilgrimage routes, one from Pahalgam and the other via Baltal, officials said. Drone cameras will help the security forces to ensure the protection of the pilgrims.

July 08,2022:Shinzo Abe, a former Japanese prime minister, has been shot at on Friday while running for office in Nara. The 67-year-old former world leader was taken by ambulance to the hospital. As per reports, Abe was most likely shot from behind. The incident happened around 11.30 am (8.30 am IST). Ahead of the election on Sunday, Abe was giving a campaign speech on a street outside the train station. During his speech, two bangs were clearly audible . Videos and photographs taken show his security guards racing to his rescue.
As the perpetrator fired several shots, Abe was struck toward the left of his chest. The former PM apparently took a blow as one of the shot had hit him in the neck. According to police sources, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41 years old, who is thought to reside in Nara City, has been detained on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly shooting Shinzo Abe. Speaking to the media on Friday morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno stated that he was unaware of Abe’s current state. He mentioned that such barbaric act “must be condoned.” Before being transferred to the hospital, Abe was reportedly in cardiac arrest, according to the Nara City Fire Department.

Aug 12,2022:Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict S. Nalini has approached the Supreme Court seeking premature release from life imprisonment.

The Madras High Court had, in June, dismissed writ petitions filed by S. Nalini and R.P. Ravichandran, the life convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to release them forthwith without waiting further for the Governor’s nod to a September 9, 2018, Cabinet recommendation.

The High Court had held that the Governor’s signature was sine qua non under Article 161 of the Constitution. The court had also observed that it could not exercise extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to pass an order similar to the one that released A.G. Perarivalan, another convict in the assassination case, on May 18.

Perarivalan had served over 30 years in prison.

Aug 29,2022:Russian forces have pounded Ukrainian towns across the river from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, officials said, while reports of shelling around the facility fuelled fears of a radiation disaster.

Captured by Russian troops in March but run by Ukrainian staff, Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been a major hotspot in the six-month conflict with both sides trading blame for recent shelling near the plant.

Russian forces fired at Enerhodar, the city where the plant is located, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said late on Sunday on his Telegram channel alongside a video of fire fighters dousing burning cars.
Russian forces also kept up their shelling in the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east, officials there said.

July 23,2022:Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with its investigation into the teacher recruitment scam, an official of the agency said. Chatterjee, who was the state education minister when the scam took place, was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling in connection with the probe.

Chatterjee, who is currently the industry minister, was taken to the ED’s office at CGO Complex in Salt Lake area.
“He was not cooperating with our officers who were questioning him since Friday morning. He will be produced before a court during the day,” the ED official told PTI.

ED has also detained Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of Chatterjee, after Rs 21 crore in cash was seized from her property, he added.

NEW YORK, Aug 13,2022: Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born novelist who spent years in hiding after Iran urged Muslims to kill him because of his writing, was stabbed in the neck and torso onstage at a lecture in New York state on Friday and airlifted to a hospital, police said.

After hours of surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak on Friday evening after an attack condemned by writers and politicians around the world as an assault on the freedom of expression.

Rushdie, 75, was being introduced to give a talk to an audience of hundreds on artistic freedom at western New York’s Chautauqua Institution when a man rushed to the stage and lunged at the novelist, who has lived with a bounty on his head since the late 1980s.

New Delhi, Jan 17,2022: The Supreme Court on Monday junked an appeal filed by Devas Multimedia challenging an order to wind up the company.

A bench comprising Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice V Ramasubramanian dismissed the appeal filed by Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLAT) had upheld the earlier order of the Bengaluru bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which had on May 25, 2021 directed winding up of Devas Multimedia and appointed a provisional liquidator for the purpose.

The NCLT’s direction came over a petition filed by Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The NCLT had said Devas Multimedia was incorporated with a fraudulent motive to collude and connive with the then officials of Antrix Corporation to get bandwidth from it by entering into an agreement in 2005, which was subsequently cancelled by the government.

New Delhi, Feb 23,2022: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will examine a report submitted by an Inquiry Commission headed by Justice (Retired) V S Sirpurkar into the alleged murders of four men accused of gang-rape and murder in an alleged “encounter” with police in Hyderabad on December 6, 2019. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli said after the lawyers’ argument that it will examine the inquiry report. The Commission probed the alleged murders of four men, who were accused of gang-raping and murdering a veterinarian, in an alleged gun battle with the police. The Supreme Court said that no intervention application in the case will be allowed. “We will see the report and read it,” the bench said. The Commission submitted its report to the Supreme Court on January 28 this year. It collected various records including investigation reports, forensic reports, post-mortem report, photographs as well as videos. The Commission held hearings for 47 days between August 21 and November 15, 2021. It examined 57 witnesses during this period and recorded their evidence. Its members also inspected various places associated with the incident.

Washington,Aug 14,2022: Renowned author Salman Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and will be able to talk, a day after he was stabbed in western New York State on Friday morning during a lecture.

Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed that Rushdie was taken off a ventilator and could be able to talk, without giving further details, according to the Washington Post.
Earlier, Hadi Matar, who is suspected of stabbing Indian-born-British author Salman Rushdie, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder in the second degree and other charges in a New York court.

Matar was arraigned in centralised arraignment on Saturday and was remanded without bail at Chautauqua County Jail.

According to Nathaniel Barone, his public defender said that Matar pleaded not guilty, CNN reported.

On Friday, Matar was brought before a court on charges of attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree and was remanded without bail at Chautauqua County Jail.

May 25,2022:Another school shooting has taken place in the US, killing 19 innocent children and two adults in a country where children have to be trained to expect an attack.2 teachers were also dead in Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas.

In Uvalde, Texas, a gunman walked into a school on May 24 and murdered children in what should be the safest space they have.

Killer Salvador Ramos, meanwhile, was shot dead at the scene in the 27th school shooting so far this year.

Many are drawing on comparisons to the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut in 2012, the state Murphy represents.
The brutal attack has prompted more concerns about the US’ lack of gun control which allows people, including deranged killers, to access guns.

Senator Chris Murphy addressed the senate and pleaded with his fellow legislators to enact, asking tearfully: “What are we doing here?”

President Joe Biden emotionally asked: “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”

May 31,2022:In the captured Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the consequences of crimes committed by the Russian aggressor are much greater than the 22,000 civilians killed.
That’s according to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko, Mariupol City Council reports on Telegram.

“We estimated the death toll at 22,000 people in Mariupol. But more and more facts show that the consequences of the Ruscist crime are much worse. This and the dire state of the local population under occupation need special attention of the global community,” the mayor stressed.

It is noted that 25 new trench areas have appeared at the Staryi Krym Cemetery over the past month. The bodies are placed in several layers and then “masked” with plates as individual burials.

In total, the City Council said that the invaders have buried at least 16,000 Mariupol residents in mass graves near the villages of Staryi Krym, Manhush and Vynohradne since mid-April.

Another 5,000 people were buried by municipal service by mid-March. Thousands of bodies still remain under the rubble, in natural cemeteries and in temporary mortuaries.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, journalists used satellite images to locate mass burials of Mariupol residents near the village of Manhush, in the cemetery in the village of Vynohradne and in the cemetery in the village of Staryi Krym.

The satellite also recorded the fourth mass grave near the Central Cemetery in Mariupol, which was reported by local authorities. It appeared in early March.

Russia’s aggression provoked one of the biggest humanitarian catastrophes in Mariupol. The city is practically destroyed by Russian shelling, without normal energy, water and gas supply, it is on the verge of environmental and infectious disaster.

Today, more than 100,000 civilians remain in captured Mariupol. The Russian invaders declared collaborator Konstantin Ivashchenko the “mayor” of Mariupol and created an image of a “city life going back to normal.”