Month: November 2020

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday (local time) expressed support for Austria amidst the ongoing “terror attack” in Vienna.

Macron wrote on Twitter: “We French share the shock and grief of the Austrian people struck this evening by an attack in the heart of their capital, Vienna. After France, a friendly country is attacked. This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give up.”

One person was killed and several people were seriously injured in multiple shootings Monday evening in central Vienna, the Vienna Police (LPD Wien) confirmed via its Twitter handle.

“A perpetrator was shot dead by the police, while a police officer is among the seriously injured,” the LPD Wien wrote on Twitter.

There are six different shooting locations and the attackers used long guns, it added.

Terming it a “hideous terrorist attack”, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz also condemned the shootings while thanking the emergency services who risked their lives to save people.

“We are currently going through difficult times in our republic. I would like to thank all the emergency services who risk their lives, especially today for our safety. Our police will take decisive action against the perpetrators of this hideous terrorist attack,” he tweeted.

The local police also advised the public to stay indoors and refrain from using public transportation.

“Still active: Stay at home! If you’re on the Streets, take shelter! Keep away from public places, don’t use public Transportation!” the Vienna Police said.

(ANI)

As tensions between Australia and China rise, Beijing is expected to ban imports of Canberra wheat, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

The ban will put Australian $560 million (US$394 million) trade between the two countries in doubt, with the grain.

From Friday, barley, sugar, red wine, timber, coal, lobster, copper ore and copper concentrates from Australia, are expected to be barred from China even if the goods have been paid for and have arrived at ports. The ban on wheat is likely to follow, although a date has not yet been set, sources told the SCMP.

Chinese importers, which have shipments of the first seven banned goods arriving after Friday have been told that they will have to bear the expense of any uncleared goods.

Chinese importers have been told to obey these rules strictly and suspend all orders for commercial reasons.

“Chinese importers have been told to obey these rules strictly and suspend all orders for commercial reasons,” said a trade source in China familiar with the impending ban, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.

“Shipments arriving at the port before Friday will be released, but those arriving after will stay at port. It does not matter if it is already in the bonded area.”

Chinese and Australian relations have deteriorated after Canberra called in April for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus without first consulting Beijing.

Beijing has since imposed a large anti-dumping duty on Australian barley, banned beef exports from five abattoirs and instigated anti-dumping and subsidy investigations into cheap Australian wine in China.

Yesterday it was reported that importers across Beijing are expected to brace for a possible round of sanctions on copper ore and copper concentrate as well as sugar this week.

The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), on Friday, issued a notice to exporters claiming that it had found a pest in imported log timber from Queensland and has banned all log exports from the Australian state.

The Chinese customs agency further claimed that it had found contamination in barley shipments from Australian grain exporter Emerald Grain as well. (ANI)

The unanimous election of 10 MPs from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand on Monday in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections has brought down the Congress strength in the House to 38 from 40.

The BJP’s strength in the upper House has now gone up to 92 from 86 and the rise in numbers is likely to make it easy for the ruling party to get legislations passed in the 245-member House with support of allies and friendly parties.

The dipping strength of Congress in the Rajya Sabha is a reflection of downslide it has suffered over the past six years in state polls.

The combined strength of the Congress in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is below the hundred-mark. The party has 51 MPs in the lower House of Parliament.

The Congress has lost two successive Lok Sabha elections and at present does not have any MP from Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur.

A Congress Rajya Sabha MP, who did not want to be named, said that the party’s strength in the upper House was apparently at a “historic low” but it is expecting “positive news” from assembly polls in Bihar and assembly bypolls in Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier this year, the Congress lost its government in Madhya Pradesh to the BJP. The party had lost coalition government with JD-S in Karnataka last year.

Ten MPs from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand were unanimously elected to the upper House on Monday. Eight of the elected members in Uttar Pradesh belong to BJP while one each is from the Samajwadi Party and the BSP.

The ten Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh who are retiring on November 25 include three from BJP — Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh and Neeraj Shekhar, four from SP – Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav, Ram Prakash Verma and Javed Ali Khan, two from BSP — Rajaram and Veer Singh, and PL Punia of the Congress.

Congress leader Raj Babbar is retiring as Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Neeraj Shekhar, Arun Singh and Ram Gopal Yadav have been re-elected to the upper House as BJP members. (ANI)

Tens of thousands Bangaldeshi Muslims took to the street in a mammoth rally against France and French President Emmanuel Macron in Dhaka on Monday.

The anti-France protest was organized by Hafazat-e-Islam and attended by its followers and students of Islamic seminaries who gathered in the Bangladeshi capital from across the country.

The protesters carried placards that used derogatory terms for the French President while some held his effigies garlanded by a string of footwear, a mark of disrespect in South Asia.

The protesters demanded a blanket ban on French products in the country and even severing of diplomatic ties with the European country.

They also demanded public condemnation of French Government by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as well as closure of French consulate in Dhaka.

The main organizer is an body of Islamic believers who have demanded in the past the imposition of Sharia, Islamic law, in the country

In Islam, any depiction of the prophet is prohibited. The issue reemerged following the gruesome beheading near Paris of a French teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class. The 18-year-old Chechen refugee who carried out the attack was later shot dead by police.

Anti-French protests have since rocked various Muslim-dominated countries in the world, led by Pakistan and Turkey.

Adding a political and patriotic colour to Diwali, firecrackers named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s recently acquired fighter jets Rafael have hit local markets in Gujarat’s Rajkot.

While the Rafael skyshots and Modi bomb are bringing in the much-needed demand the shop owners are looking for, the business is still not on par with the preceding years.

“Every business sector is facing problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government is bringing in new guidelines which is adversely affecting the businesses. The government has said not to burst crackers after 10 pm. This may prevent people from buying more firecrackers,” said Aakash, a firecracker shopowner in Rajkot said on Monday.

Firecracker merchants in the city believe that the people will buy fewer firecrackers due to the government order on not bursting firecrackers between 10 pm and 6 am.

“The economic impact of the pandemic has also affected the buyers and they are also avoiding spending much of firecrackers this Diwali. Our profit margin has also reduced on firecrackers,” Aakash said.

He further said that manufacturers have also launched firecrackers named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rafale but even they are unable to attract enough buyers.

Another shopowner in the area, Chetanbhai, said that no Chinese firecrackers have been imported this year due to the ongoing border tension with the neighboring country. “Most of the firecrackers being sold this year were made in India,” he said.

Diwali, popularly called the festival of lights, is celebrated with lighting earthen lamps and bursting crackers. This year, the festival will be celebrated on November 14. (ANI)

Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has summoned the employees of KWAAN talent management agency and Karishma Prakash, manager of actor Deepika Padukone.

Prakash was recently summoned by the NCB in connection with the Bollywood drug case and has not responded to the summons till now. She is untraceable, as per an officer from NCB.

Karishma’s house was raided a few days ago and NCB had seized some drugs also from her place. She has already been given two summons by the NCB but she hasn’t responded to any of them.

She has filed an anticipatory bail application in Special NDPS court, the hearing for which is likely to be held on Tuesday. (ANI)

The Taliban have suffered heavy casualties during fierce clashes with the Afghan security forces in Kandahar province, as 175 terrorists, including several commanders, have been killed, a source in the Afghan National Directorate of Security told Sputnik on Monday.

According to the source, 175 terrorists were killed and 26 others were wounded during the clashes, which took place in the Arghandab district of the southern province.

As many as seven Taliban commanders were killed during the military operation overnight, the source added.

A Taliban spokesman had said earlier that the terrorist organisation had only suffered minor losses.

Kandahar province has become a hotbed of violence over recent days, as clashes between government forces and the Taliban have intensified.

Police and security sources in the region have reported dozens of Taliban casualties over the past week as the Afghan military launched a barrage of air and artillery strikes.

The heavy fighting is taking place as the Afghan government and the Taliban remain locked in peace talks in the Qatari capital of Doha. Both parties have said that they are looking to reach a secure and lasting ceasefire, although little progress has been made since the talks began on September 12. (ANI/Sputnik)

Indian shuttler PV Sindhu on Monday shared an oblique tweet to create awareness regarding the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and how people should work together towards defeating the virus.

Sindhu posted a lengthy message in a Twitter post, which has three pictures. In the first picture, the badminton player wrote “Denmark Open was the last straw. I retire”.

However, later in the post, Sindhu clarified that she may have given her fans a “mini heart attack” but she did it so that her fans “sit up and take notice”.

“I’ve been thinking about coming clean with my feelings for a while now. I admit I have been struggling to deal with it. It just feels so wrong, you know. That’s why I’m writing today to tell you that I’m done. It’s understandable if you’re shocked or confused but by the time you finish reading this you would have learnt about my point of view, and hopefully, will support it too,” Sindhu wrote.

“This pandemic has been an eye-opener for me. I could train hard to fight the toughest of opponents, tooth and nail, right till the final shot of the game. I have done it before, I can do it again. But how do I defeat this invisible virus that has the entire world in a fix? It has been months at home and we still question ourselves every time we step out. Internalizing all this and reading about so many heart-breaking stories online has got me to question a lot about myself and this world we live in. Not being able to represent India in the Denmark Open was the last straw,” she added.

The shuttler then said she chooses to retire from this negativity, uncertainty, and “our lackadaisical attitude towards the virus.”

“Today, I choose to retire from this current sense of unrest. I retire from this negativity, the constant fear, uncertainty. I choose to retire from a complete lack of control over the unknown. Most importantly, I choose to retire from substandard hygiene standards and our lackadaisical attitude towards the virus,” the badminton player said.

“We must not digress; we need to be better prepared. We must defeat this virus together. The choices we make today will define our future and the future of the next generation. We cannot afford to let them down. I may have given you guys a mini-heart attack; unprecedented times require unprecedented measures. I guess I needed to get you guys to sit up and take notice,” she added.

“That being said, we must be hopeful about the light shining at the end of the tunnel. Yes, Denmark Open didn’t happen but that won’t stop me from training. When life comes at you, one must come back twice as hard. So will I for the Asia Open. I refuse to give up without putting up a solid fight. I refuse to give up without conquering this fear. And will carry on doing so till we have a safer world,” Sindhu concluded. (ANI)

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) President Chirag Paswan on Monday said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a “patluram” (turncoat) as he earlier disregarded Lalu Prasad Yadav but formed the government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 2015 and may join the Mahagathbandan after the ensuing polls.

“The Chief Minister has been holding ‘Sushasan’ babu tag for the last 15 years. But now, his loot is being exposed. He never spoke about Munger and doesn’t speak a word on corruption. He is known as ‘Palturam’ as he was against Lalu and then formed the government with them in 2015. He came to power in Bihar after a long political battle with RJD chief Lalu Prasad. A few years later, he ended up forging an alliance with his arch-rival,” Paswan said at a press conference here.

Paswan claimed that if the current Chief Minister wins even by mistake, then his first (Nitish Kumar’s) choice will be to form the government of the grand alliance.

Responding to police action in Munger, Paswan said that the Nitish Kumar government has become “Mahishasur”.

“What can be a bigger crime than your own cops firing on innocent people and shooting Durga bhakts. Nitish Kumar government has become a form of Mahishasur. Everyone knows that crowd swells up during Durga Puja, so will you shoot at people to control the crowd?” he asked.

The LJP added that when he was working in Bollywood then people used to insult him by calling him ‘Bihari’ and Nitish Kumar was the Chief Minister at that time as well.

“Nitish Kumar is desperate whereas LJP is excited. Nitish Kumar did a lot of corruption and hence after November 10 Nitish Kumar will never be chosen as the Chief Minister of Bihar,” he said.

He also took a jibe at job promises made by both RJD and BJP and said, “Today, just before the elections, these people are giving lollipops, someone says, this is a lollipop for 10 lakh jobs, someone says, this is a lollipop of 19 lakh jobs. If you had so many jobs, were you waiting for the election till now?” (ANI)