Month: January 2020

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal made a U-turn, hours after he claimed he never received any money from the Popular Front of India (PFI). He accepted having received 77 lakh as litigation fee for appearing in the Supreme Court between August 2017 to March 2018 for Hadiya in a case related to her marriage with Shafiya Jahan.   On March 8, 2018, the Supreme Court overruled a Kerala High Court order that had annulled the marriage of 22-year-old Hadiya to Shafin Jahan, on a petition filed by her father. Hadiya,…

The central Chinese city of Wuhan has been locked down after being identified as the epicenter of a new SARS-like virus, which has infected 4,515 people and killed 106 in the country.   Wuhan, the capital city of the province of Hubei, is China’s industrial heartland. A huge centre of industry, including iron and steel, manufacturing, according to UNESCO, half the world’s long-span bridges and 60 per cent of China’s high-speed railways were designed by Wuhan designers. As a traditional industrial hub it has attracted large numbers of migrants seeking work.…

According to sources, the US Embassy in Baghdad was targeted in a rocket attack on Sunday, with at least one projectile hitting the heavily fortified compound. Officials remained tight-lipped on the details of the attack. One rocket hit an embassy cafeteria while two other landed nearby.   Following the news of the shelling, the US state department called on Baghdad to fulfil its obligations to protect diplomatic facilities.   Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said he had ordered an investigation and for troops to be deployed in the area. Iraq’s…

According to sources, a plane carrying more than 80 passengers on board has crashed and burst into flames in a Taliban-controlled region of Afghanistan. The Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains and is brutally cold in winter. The mountainous terrain and the location of the crash, in Taliban-held Deh Yak district, could hamper search and rescue efforts.   Local officials said the Boeing 737-400 was believed to belong to Ariana Afghan Airlines, and went down in a remote and mountainous part of Ghazni province, southwest…

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will finally admit that the real source of the coronavirus is from a lab in Wuhan linked to its covert biological weapon programs.   As the “novel” coronavirus originated in Wuhan is spreading to ten countries, more and more people including international bio-weapon experts are questioning its link to the Wuhan P4 lab located about 20 miles from a seafood market where the first few cases of human infections were found.   As per a reliable source, CCP will admit to the public of an “accidental” leak of lab-created…

The Cabinet has ordered the closure of Hindustan Fluorocarbons, a maker of the ozone-depleting gas called hydro chlorofluorocarbon (HCFC-22) that is used as a refrigerant. Under the Montreal Protocol’s provisions, Hindustan Fluorocarbons is allowed to produce only 282 tons of the gas per year from April, not enough to keep the company sustainable.   Its plant is located near Hyderabad.   India has consciously chosen a path for environment friendly and energy efficient technologies while phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs). Importantly, India is one among the few countries globally…

The United States wants India to buy at least another $5-6 billion worth of American poultry and farm goods if New Delhi wants to win reinstatement of a key U.S. trade concession, four sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump cited trade barriers last year when removing India from its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme that allowed zero tariffs on $5.6 billion of exports to the United States. In retaliation, India slapped higher tariffs on some farm goods such as almonds, walnuts and apples, one of…

With more than 1,400 people infected worldwide due to outbreak of coronavirus, most of China and Hong Kong have been declared as virus emergency and have scrapped celebrations and restricted links to mainland China.   President Xi Jinping said China was facing a “grave situation” as the death toll jumped to 42, overshadowing celebrations of the Lunar New Year that began on Saturday. China also announced further transport restrictions.   Australia confirmed its first four cases on Saturday, Malaysia confirmed four and France reported Europe’s first cases on Friday, as…

Billionaire George Soros is newly added to the list of PM Modi’s haters. He too like others is not impressed the way PM Modi is dealing with India.   Speaking in Davos, Soros said, “Far from being reversed, it made further headway. The biggest and most frightening setback came where a democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state,” Soros said while speaking on nationalism.   His statements assume significance as it comes at a time when the Modi government has been facing backlash over the newly amended Citizenship Act.…

In a letter to Haryana’s CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has termed the appointment of IPS officer OP Singh as Principal Secretary (Sports) “defective and illegal”.    In the letter, Khemka, who had earlier held the post, said that the rank of Principal Secretary is a cadre post of IAS officers, which they get only after years of seniority.   Appointment of an outsider to the post of Principal Secretary without affording equal opportunity to others similarly placed is violative of Articles 14 & 16 of…