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Policemen stand guard at the site where a bombing damaged residential buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. Russian forces pressed their assault on Ukrainian cities Friday. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Installation of Shivaji's statue causes stir, stone-hurling in Telangana
Prohibitory orders were clamped in Bodhan town of Nizamabad district , Telangana, on Sunday after two groups protested and pelted each other with stones over installation of a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, police said.
Teargas shells to disperse the crowd brought the situation under control. A constable was injured in the stone-hurling and sent for a medical examination, said the police.
According to them, the statue was placed by one group, which was opposed by another. This resulted in protests and stone-hurling.
The prohibitory orders under Section 144 (of CrPC) were imposed, said Nizamabad Commissioner of Police KR Nagaraju.
Police pickets were set up and preventive arrests were being made, another senior police official-in-charge of law and order told PTI. No permission was obtained for installing the statue, said the official. Additional policemen were deployed and peace was ensured, he said.
Meanwhile, BJP leader and party MP from Nizamabad Dharmapuri Arvind tweeted: "The Bodhan Municipal Council had accepted to the proposed Shivaji Maharaj's idol and passed resolution. Yet, the TRS-MIM hooligans are creating ruckus & tensions in the town".
"Now, the ruling TRS councillor openly threatened to disrupt law & order of the Bodhan town, if #ShivajiMaharaj's idol is installed!," the BJP leader said in another tweet.
Pope Francis slams Ukraine war as 'sacrilege', 'repugnant'
Pope Francis has denounced Russia's repugnant war against Ukraine as cruel and sacrilegious inhumanity.
In some of his strongest words yet since Russia's invasion on February 24, Francis on Sunday told thousands of people in St. Peter's Square that every day brings more atrocities in what is a senseless massacre.
There is no justification for this,'' Francis said, in an apparent reference to Russia, which sought to justify its invasion as vital for its own defense. But Francis again stopped short of naming Russia as the aggressor.
Pontiffs typically have decried wars and their devastating toll on civilians without citing warmongers by name.
Francis also called on all actors in the international community to work toward ending the war.
Again this week, missiles, bombs, rained down on the elderly, children and pregnant mothers,'' the pope said.
His thoughts, he said, went to the millions who flee. And I feel great pain for those who don't even have the chance to escape,'' Francis added.
The pope said that above all, defenseless life should get respected and protected, not eliminated.
That priority comes before any strategy,'' Francis said, before leading those in the square in a moment of silent prayer.
Pak oppn threatens sit-in inside House if no-trust motion not tabled
The political matrix in Pakistan continues to twist and turn in favour and against the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is faced with a formidable opposition alliance, which has also taken support of many breakaway party members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the number of which continues to creep up, to pile up pressure on him.
The opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has continued to gain more support from breakaway members of the ruling party. It now claims support of about three dozen members, who are ready to vote against the government in the no-confidence motion, which would be a decider of the future of Imran Khan and his politics.
On Saturday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) threatened the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, stating that if he did not put the no-confidence resolution against Imran Khan on the day's agenda for the Parliament session of March 21, the joint opposition party members would stage a sit-in inside the parliament and would also disrupt the proceedings of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Conference of Foreign Ministers (CFM).
However, the opposition was quick to tone down its stance on the latter and assured the Foreign Ministers of the Muslim countries that "a conducive atmosphere in accordance with the traditional spirit of hospitality, respect, and zeal would be ensured".
"The opposition pledges to do its utmost to create an atmosphere in which the distinguished guests will be able to carry out their activities with full attention, dedication and determination," it said in a statement.
Later, Bilawal Bhutto's spokesperson also put out a clarification, stating that the PPP Co-Chairman was not against the OIC meeting, "but against the government's escape from the no-confidence motion".
Target is to make J-K free of terror, corruption: L-G
The Jammu and Kashmir administration intends to make the union territory a developed society free of terror and corruption, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said on Sunday.
In his address at the attestation-cum-passing out parade of 636 newly recruited Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at the Subsidiary Training Centre here, Sinha lauded the role of the security forces for bravely facing various challenges, including infiltration attempts, and smuggling of weapons and narcotics from across the border.
Jammu and Kashmir is full of diversity, which is our strength. We have faced all the challenges successfully and our security forces are alert. They have played a pivotal role in building a new Jammu and Kashmir by thwarting the anti-national elements, Sinha said.
The Lieutenant Governor, who inspected the parade and took salute at the march past, said the decades-old terror ecosystem needs to be dismantled completely.
We have continued our efforts to deal a decisive blow on corruption, terror financing, and terror ecosystem to make Jammu and Kashmir a developed society, free of corruption and fear. This is our target, he said.
Sinha urged the fresh BSF recruits to live up to the tradition and expectation of the force and the people, and perform their duties with professionalism so that no enemy can violate the country's borders.
IMF asked Pak to show how it will fund $1.5 bn subsidy package: minister
The International Money Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to explain how it would fund a $1.5 billion subsidy package announced by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Sunday.
"There are no issues. We have given them details as to where the funds would come from," Tarin said, adding the IMF wanted details of the resources to fund the subsidy in fuel and electricity, which Pakistan has frozen for the next four months until the new budget.
The IMF has begun the seventh review of the $6 billion rescue package agreed with Pakistan in 2019, and Tarin said he will have a final meeting with the lender on Tuesday.
The IMF asked it will need to see the agreements of the dividends of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) as well as details of the spare funds the central government will get from provinces.
"We have done our homework," Tarin said.
Some of the subsidy money would also come from above-target revenues Pakistan was getting this fiscal year, he had said previously.
India's oil imports from US to rise amid criticism for Russian purchases
India's oil imports from the United States will rise by 11% this year, officials said on Saturday, as the severely energy-deficient country looks to secure supplies from producers around the world, including heavily sanctioned Russia.
The surge in oil prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine last month threatens to fan Indian inflation, stretch public finances and hurt growth just when it was emerging from a pandemic-induced slowdown.
New Delhi faces criticism from the West for its long-standing political and security ties with Moscow, with some saying that engaging in business with Russia will help fund its war. India has urged an end to the violence in Ukraine but abstained from voting against Russia.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, meeting his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during a visit on Saturday, said he will encourage a unified approach on Ukraine.
India buys most of its oil from the Middle East, but the United States has emerged as the fourth-biggest source and this year supplies will rise substantially, a government official briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Iraq supplies 23% of India's oil, followed by Saudi Arabia at 18% and the United Arab Emirates at 11%. The U.S. share of the Indian market will rise to 8% this year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
Russia has been a marginal player in the Indian market, but since its Feb. 24 invasion has been offering discounted oil to soften the blow of sweeping sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries.
Indian Oil Corp., the country's top refiner, recently ordered 3 million barrels of Russian oil through a tender, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp has booked 2 million barrels for May loading.
India welcomes competing offers for oil sales including from Moscow, especially when global prices have jumped, another government official said, defending the decision to buy from Russia.
India, Australia to conclude early harvest deal by month-end: Sources
India and Australia will conclude an early harvest agreement by the end of this month, said sources on Sunday.
An early harvest agreement is aimed at liberalising tariffs on the trade of certain goods between two countries or trading blocs before a comprehensive agreement.
The development comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison will hold the second India-Australia Virtual Summit on Monday to lay the way forward on new initiatives and enhance cooperation in a diverse range of sectors between the two countries.
According to the sources, the two countries will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of critical minerals, which will help increase India's access to metallic coal and lithium in Australia.
Australia will also announce a Rs 1,500 crore investment in India in multiple sectors, which will be the largest ever investment by the Australian government in India, added sources.
Further, the Union Minister of Coal and Mines in India, Pralhad Joshi, will visit Australia soon, as per the sources.
The second India-Australia Virtual Summit follows the first Virtual Summit in June 2020 when the relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. During the upcoming virtual summit, the leaders will take stock of progress made on various initiatives under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The Leaders are expected to commit to closer cooperation in trade, critical minerals, migration and mobility, and education, among others, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a press statement.
Jail was torture camp during Emergency, TN CM Stalin says in autobiography
Marked by a sense of detachment 'like a saint', late DMK patriarch and his father M Karunanidhi handed him over to police during the infamous Emergency period, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has reminisced in his autobiography.
Recounting his entry into the Central Prison here following arrest in 1976, Stalin in his autobiography described the jail time as a 'torture camp' that reverberated with wail.
Though shocking, it gave 'Sakthi' (strength) to an ideologically committed person to face anything. "That day, I got the strength to face anything," Stalin said.
The Emergency was imposed by the then Indira Gandhi government in 1975 and was in place till 1977. The period was infamous for widespread arrests of opposition political leaders and curtailment of civil liberties.
Stalin's 334-page autobiography in Tamil, 'Ungalil Oruvan' (One among you) Part I, was released here recently by Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi.
Hours after the DMK government in Tamil Nadu led by Karunanidhi was dismissed on January 31, 1976, Stalin recalled that police arrived at their Gopalapuram residence here looking for him. However, he was at a nearby town of Mathuranthakam at the time.
When police officers said they had an order to search the house to ascertain if Stalin was available or not, Karunanidhi told them, 'by all means' and informed them that his son was out of town and would be back home the next day. Also, Karunaidhi 'offered' himself to be arrested.
The Chief Minister recalled that he and others had an apprehension that 'Thalaivar' (party chief Karunanidhi) could be arrested, but the 'jail breeze was blowing towards me.'
UP legislature party meet likely on March 24, name Yogi leader
The BJP's Uttar Pradesh legislature party is to formally elect Chief Minister-designate Yogi Adityanath as its leader in its meeting likely to be held on March 24, a day before his swearing-in, a senior party leader said.
The March 25 swearing-in of Adityanath is to be held in Ikana Stadium on Shaheed Path in Lucknow.
The grand swearing-in ceremony is expected to be attended by a galaxy of senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national president J P Nadda, besides other central ministers.
"The date of the meeting of the BJP legislature party is yet to be finalised. However, there is a possibility that the meeting will be held on March 24," a senior UP BJP leader told PTI on Sunday.
When contacted, another prominent party leader said, "A meeting of the BJP MLAs was to be held on March 21 but it seems to have been postponed to March 24."
Ukraine says Russia bombs another shelter in besieged city
Ukrainian authorities said Sunday that Russia's military bombed an art school sheltering some 400 people in the embattled port city of Mariupol, where Ukraine's president said an unrelenting Russian siege would be remembered for centuries to come.
It was the second time in less than a week that city officials reported a public building where residents had taken shelter coming under attack. A bomb hit a Mariupol theatre with more than 1,300 believed to be inside on Wednesday, local officials said.
There was no immediate word on casualties from the reported strike on the art school, which The Associated Press could not independently verify.
Ukrainian officials have not given an update on the search of the theatre since Friday, when they said at least 130 had been rescued.
Mariupol, a strategic port on the Azov Sea, has been under bombardment for at least three weeks and has seen some of the worst horrors of the war in Ukraine.
At least 2,300 people have died, some of whom had to be buried in mass graves, and food, water and electricity have run low.
To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation.
Opposition JUI-F asks Imran Khan to step down, call fresh polls in Pak
Terming Pakistan Prime Minister "arrogant", Pakistan opposition leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari said that Imran Khan has lost the confidence in the parliament and the nation would soon listen to good news.
Addressing a graduates' conference on Saturday held at the Timergara Rest house ground in Peshawar as chief guest, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) general secretary said that a total of 34 Members of National Assembly (MNAs) from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had expressed their no-confidence in the Prime Minister, The Frontier Post reported.
He said that the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf leadership had lost its moral authority to rule over the country any more. He asked the Prime Minister to step down and announce a fresh general election for face saving, the media outlet reported.
Meanwhile, country's National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has summoned a session of the Lower House at the Parliament in Islamabad on March 25 for a no-trust motion against Imran Khan.
"Pakistan's National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has summoned a session of the Lower House at the Parliament House in Islamabad on Friday at 11 a.m," Radio Pakistan reported on Sunday.
Ukraine crisis: Patriot air defense systems move into Slovakia
Slovakia's Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad says the first multinational NATO units with the Patriot air defense systems have been moving to his country.
Nad said on Sunday the transfers will continue in the next days.
Germany and the Netherlands have agreed to send their troops armed with the Patriots to Slovakia.
The troops are some of the 2,100 soldiers from several NATO members, including the United States, who will form a battlegroup on Slovak territory as the alliance boosts its defenses in its eastern flank following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Nad says the Patriots will be initially deployed at the armed forces base of Sliac in central Slovakia before they will be stationed at various places to protect the largest possible Slovak territory.
Uddhav rejects AIMIM pact offer, says it's part of BJP's plan to defame Sena's Hindutva agenda
Asserting that Shiv Sena is a "Hindutvavadi" party, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday rejected AIMIM's offer for an alliance calling it a "conspiracy" by the opposition BJP to defame the Sena, which heads the Maha Vikas Aghahdi (MVA) government.
Thackeray, who heads Shiv Sena, virtually addressed a meeting of the party MPs and office-bearers here wherein he lashed out at BJP, the former ally of Sena, on Hindutva and other issues.
Who has sought an alliance with the AIMIM? This is a game plan and conspiracy of the BJP. The AIMIM and the BJP have a tacit understanding. The BJP has ordered the AIMIM to defame the Shiv Sena, to raise questions on Shiv Sena's Hindutva. Accordingly, the AIMIM leaders are making the offer of alliance, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut told reporters quoting Thackeray.
On Saturday, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Imtiaz Jaleel caused a stir stating that his party can ally with the Shiv Sena-led MVA to prevent the BJP from coming to power, evoking sharp reactions from Sena.
The NCP and Congress, the other two partners in the MVA, had said the AIMIM must prove that it was a "like-minded" party and not the "BJP's B-team".
Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, said the Sena will launch 'Shiv Sampark Mohim', a mass outreach programme, on March 22 in 19 districts across Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in Maharashtra on Thackeray's orders to dispel the confusion the BJP was trying to create about Sena on various issues.
When 'timekeeper to the nation' turned lifeline for Kashmiri Pandits in distress
It may not be the best times for the ailing public sector Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) -- once famous as 'timekeepers to the nation'. But when insurgency was at its worst in the Kashmir Valley, this public sector watch maker made a big difference to around 500 Kashmiri Pandit employees and their families.
Sometime in 1972, the Bengaluru-headquartered HMT set up a watchmaking unit in the Kashmir Valley. Originally established in Srinagar, the unit which was later shifted to Zainakot on the outskirts, employed around 1,540 locals. Of these, 540 employees were non-Muslims, comprising largely of Kashmiri Pandits and some Sikhs.
Manmohan Kaul (76) was a part of HMT's Kashmir journey from inception till he took voluntary retirement as AGM-Finance at Bengaluru in 2001. To this day, those long gone days remain etched in his memory.
"Things were going on very nicely in the beginning. There were experts and engineers from Bangalore, and it came up very nicely. The first industrial culture in Kashmir was brought by HMT Srinagar. Things were going on smoothly till 1989. Thereafter, things started changing."
In the late 1980s, a massive surge in militancy and targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits led to the biggest exodus of the community in the early 90s. In just a few months, the Kashmir Valley was literally emptied of its original Hindu inhabitants. At the HMT unit in Kashmir, the then 34-year old Kaul remained optimistic till the end.
"Silently, they were doing their job. Probably they were preparing for 1990. Because people knew.They knew something big was going to happen. But we were innocent, we never thought it will happen to this extent. Because earlier also it has happened so many times. But it would die down in course of time. We remained under that impression but it turned out to be catastrophic."
BJP UP chief urges party candidates who lost assembly polls to continue working for public
The Bharatiya Janata Party chief of Uttar Pradesh, Swatantra Dev Singh on Sunday wrote a letter to candidates who lost their State Assembly elections and reminded them of the lines of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Recalling the lines written by Atal ji, he wrote, "Ye bhi sahi, vo bhi sahi (this too right, that too right)" in public service.
In the letter, Singh said that the people have given BJP an opportunity to form the government in Uttar Pradesh again, so the credit for this extraordinary achievement goes to the tenacity, sacrifice and hard work of all the candidates.
Motivating the party workers to continue serving the public, he said that this could be a momentary break on the duty path, not a rest.
"All the workers will serve the people with devotion and dedication as before and will continue to contribute to the pride of the country and the state," the letter read.
The BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh by winning 255 out of 403 constituencies, securing a 41.29 per cent vote share. Adityanath will be the first Chief Minister in the last 37 years to return to power after completing a full term in the state.
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First Published: Mar 20 2022 | 6:26 AM IST
