EU-Ukraine Summit To Take Place In Kyiv On Friday

Ukraine's prime minister announced that a summit with the European Union will take place in Kyiv on Friday that would send a "powerful signal" to Moscow and the world, almost a year after Russia launched its invasion.

Also on Tuesday, Ukraine said it was expecting up to 140 modern tanks from its Western allies, as Russian forces claimed new ground close to the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut.

"The Ukraine-EU summit will be held in Kyiv on February 3," Prime Minister Denys Shmygal told a government meeting, calling the event "extremely important" for Kyiv's bid to join the European bloc.

"The fact that this summit will be held in Kyiv is a powerful signal to both partners and enemies."

No details were provided on who would be attending on the European Union side.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24 last year, and his forces have repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure including in the capital Kyiv.

The Ukrainian prime minister also said that another key event will take place on Thursday, when consultations between the government of Ukraine and the European Commission will take place "for the first time in our history."

Ukraine gained EU candidacy status in June last year.

- Weapons 'breakthough' -

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that a dozen countries had promised more than one hundred tanks after Germany and Washington signed off on the deliveries last week.

"These are Leopard 2, Challenger 2, M1 Abrams," added the foreign minister without specifying a timeline for the deliveries.

The decision to supply the weapons came after weeks of diplomatic wrangling and was seen as a breakthrough in the West's backing for Ukraine in its fight to win back territory from Russian forces.

Now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging the West to supply fighter jets and long-range missiles.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he will be discussing the new requests for advanced weaponry with Zelensky.

"We're going to talk," Biden told reporters, speaking the morning after he answered with an emphatic "no" when asked at the White House whether he favoured sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu meanwhile announced that his country would send 12 more Caesar truck-mounted howitzers to Ukraine.

Alongside other Western-supplied mobile cannons, the Caesar was credited last year with helping Ukraine strike targets deep behind Russian lines, undermining Moscow's offensive.

Despite the flows of Western weapons, Russia has recently claimed gains in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Its defence ministry announced it had "liberated" the village of Blagodatne north of Bakhmut.

Blagodatne lies on a highway leading towards Bakhmut, and its announced capture comes not long after Ukraine conceded it had given up the nearby salt-mining town of Soledar.

AFP journalists around 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of Bakhmut heard sporadic shelling coming from Vugledar, which both Moscow and Kyiv have said is seeing an uptick in fighting.

On Tuesday Kyiv said a 12-year-old boy and 70-year-old man were killed during Russia's latest barrage.

Regional prosecutors said Russian shelling in Bakhmut had also wounded five people.

- 'Razing Bakhmut' -

"It's very tense, the more time passes the worse, worse and worse it gets," said Oleksandr, a 45-year-old Ukrainian serviceman operating a mortar near Vugledar.

In the mostly destroyed village of Bogoyavlenka, journalists said there was no running water or electricity and its streets were deserted apart from Ukrainian servicemen.

Russia has been seeking to seize Bakhmut for months in some of the heaviest fighting since Putin sent troops to Ukraine.

"The Russians are razing Bakhmut to the ground, killing everyone they can get their hands on," said Pavlo Kyrylenko the region's governor.

Over the weekend Russia's private military group Wagner claimed its units were in control of Blagodatne. Kyiv denied the claim at the time, saying it repelled Russian attacks on the settlement.

Meanwhile Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Ukraine of using banned anti-personnel landmines against invading Russian forces, saying almost 50 civilians, including five children, had been wounded.

Ukraine's defence ministry insisted the army upholds its treaty obligations against mines, but will not comment on the types of weapons used until the war ends.

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China Extends Diplomatic, Military Support To Myanmar: Report

Despite strong civilian resistance, the military junta still controls Myanmar and China has also extended diplomatic and military support to the army leaders, Europe Asia Foundation reported.

The junta takeover in Myanmar will complete its second year in February and in those time periods State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other senior civilian leaders were arrested and also witnessed support from China.

According to an intergovernmental not-for-profit organisation, Myanmar saw a wave of protests and all sections of Myanmar society participated in it. The demonstrations have morphed into an armed struggle against the military in the past two years.

And in such a situation, China's support came as a relief for the Myanmar Junta. Immediately after the coup, the Chinese official media played down the political developments as nothing more than a cabinet reshuffle in which a set of "new union ministers [was] appointed for 11 ministries while 24 deputy ministers were removed". This raises pertinent questions about China's interests in the political developments of Myanmar, the report said.

Beijing extended diplomatic support to the Myanmar military. For instance, in April 2021, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, in his interactions with his Thailand and Brunei counterparts, urged ASEAN members to 'fend off external interference' and ensure a 'soft landing' of the situation in Myanmar, as per the report in Europe Asia Foundation.

Moreover, while the rest of the international community hesitated to interact with the military known as Tatmadaw leadership, in 2021, Myanmar's foreign minister travelled to China to interact with his counterpart. Subsequently, in July 2022, China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, attended the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) meeting in Myanmar.

Even militarily, China had extended its support to Myanmar. In December 2021, China provided Myanmar with a 'Ming-class' diesel-electric submarine. At the moment, there is no clarity if the Myanmar navy has agreed to the conditionality of allowing the presence of Chinese technicians onboard.

Even the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, in his report, noted that China, along with others such as Russia, has transferred weapons systems to Myanmar "with the full knowledge that they would be used to attack civilians".

Understandably, China's sustained diplomatic and military support to the Tatmadaw aggravated the anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar, Europe Asia Foundation reported.

Notwithstanding this growing anti-Chinese sentiment in Myanmar, it is unlikely that Beijing will scale down or alter the trajectory of its engagement because Myanmar is a vital land route to access and increase the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean region. Further, the Tatmadaw dependence on China's diplomatic and military support considerably expands Beijing's influence in continental Southeast Asia.

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US Justice Department Investigating Tesla Self-Driving Features

The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Tesla's driver-assistance features, the company said Tuesday in a financial document.

The filing comes amid an ongoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) review of the electric carmaker's "Autopilot" system.

"The company has received requests from the DOJ for documents related to Tesla's Autopilot and FSD (full self-driving) features," the Securities and Exchange Commission filing said Tuesday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has regularly promised that a fully autonomous vehicle is just around the corner, but his cars still only feature "driving assistance" -- which helps drivers change lanes or identify stop signs -- and not full autonomy that would allow drivers to look away from the road.

The company did not say what exactly the requests were, but according to media reports, the department is looking into whether Tesla's claims about the reliability of its driver assistance systems could leave drivers with a false sense of security.

This is not the first time Tesla's public marketing statements have come under regulatory scrutiny.

On its website, Tesla says its Autopilot and its Full Self Driving Capability options "require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment."

But National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy in 2021 told CNBC that using the term "full self-driving" is "misleading."

And the California Department of Motor Vehicles last year filed a complaint against the company for using advertising language that could make its products seem more capable than they are.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the Justice Department investigation has been opened for similar reasons.  

The NHTSA's probe includes investigations into several safety incidents associated with the driver assistance systems.

"To our knowledge no government agency in any ongoing investigation has concluded that any wrongdoing occurred," Tesla said in its Tuesday filing.

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Hungary Most Corrupt EU Member In 2022: Report

Hungary slid to bottom place among EU nations in a corruption index, with graft watchdog Transparency International on Tuesday alleging misuse by "political elites" of state and bloc funds.

Hungary has been embroiled in a long running spat with Brussels over corruption and rule of law concerns that have led to the freezing of billions of euros of bloc funding.

In a bid to unlock the funds, Budapest committed to a range of legal and anti-corruption reforms, including the set-up of a watchdog that includes a Transparency International staff member.

Hungary replaced Bulgaria as the last among EU and western European countries in the group's "Corruption Perceptions Index" report for 2022 launched on Tuesday.

The report noted "a decade of democratic backsliding and systemic deterioration of the rule of law at the hands of the ruling party".

"Evidence is mounting against political elites on their misuse of both state and EU funds," it said.

Budapest hit back at Transparency, pointing to a corruption scandal in Brussels that emerged last month with one of the assembly's vice presidents charged in connection with allegations of bribery.

"It is interesting that Transparency International did not investigate either the Brussels bureaucracy or the European Parliament," a government statement said.

The statement accused the watchdog of "belonging to the Soros network" referring to the 92-year-old Hungarian-born US financier George Soros who Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuses of meddling in Hungarian and global politics.

The annual Transparency report ranks 180 countries around the world and territories on a corruption scale since 1995 based on surveys with experts and businesspeople.

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BJP Plans 12-Day Campaign On Budget To Highlight Pro-People Measures

The BJP will start a 12-day nationwide campaign on Wednesday to make people aware of the "pro-people" measures announced in the Union Budget, party leaders said.

The campaign that will begin the day the budget is presented in Parliament will be coordinated by senior BJP leader Sushil Modi and it will conclude on February 12, they said.

BJP president JP Nadda has formed a task-force comprising nine members, including party general secretary Sunil Bansal and heads of its farmer and youth wings, to organise discussions, press conferences or seminars on the Union Budget in all districts of the country, they said.

On Wednesday, a day after the Union Budget is presented in Parliament, chief ministers of all BJP-ruled states, as part of the campaign, will hold press conferences, party leaders said, adding that in states where the party is not in power, BJP unit heads and leaders of opposition in the assembly will hold press conferences.

In 50 major cities of the country, ministers of the Narendra Modi government will hold press conferences to highlight the "pro-people" measures announced in the Union Budget, they said.

To finalise programmes and decide the blueprint of the BJP's campaign on the Union Budget, a task-force constituted for it met at the BJP headquarters here on Monday.

This Union Budget will the last full-fledged budget of the second term of the Modi government as general elections will be held in 2024. Hence, the ruling BJP at the Centre wants to make the most out of this campaign.

Earlier too the BJP has organised nationwide public awareness exercises to make people aware about various reforms and initiatives announced by the Modi government in its Union Budgets.

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Over 1,000 US Flights Cancelled Due To Winter Storm

More than 1,000 Monday flights into or out of the United States have been canceled due to a severe winter storm, with about half of those coming from Southwest Airlines Co.

A total of 1,019 flights were canceled as of 6:00 pm ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.

Low-cost carrier Southwest earlier this month faced U.S. government backlash for canceling 16,700 flights over the holidays as it grappled with bad weather and outdated technology.

The company has scrapped about 12% of its Monday schedule, while American Airlines Group Inc has canceled 6%, or 200 flights.

The fresh cancellations come as the U.S. aviation sector recovers from a nationwide ground stop imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over a computer issue.

For Tuesday so far, 797 flights are scheduled to be canceled into or out of the United States.

Southwest Airlines and other major U.S. airlines have issued winter weather waivers. A waiver allows customers to change their itinerary with no fare differences if they remain in the same cabin as originally booked.

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Probe Into Activist Narendra Dabholkar's Murder Over, CBI Tells Court

 The CBI filed a closure report on Monday, telling the Bombay High Court that their investigation into the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar was over.

The Bombay High Court had asked the CBI to inform within three weeks whether the investigation into Dabholkar's murder had been completed. The closure report was filed on Monday.

A bench of Justices Ajay S Gadkari and Prakash D Naik gave three weeks' time to the Central Bureau of Investigation to inform the court so that it could decide whether to continue with the trial.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of Narendra Dabholkar, seeking a continuation of the Bombay High Court's monitoring of the case.

Dabholkar, 67, was shot dead in August 2013 in Pune. The Pune Police initially probed the murder but the case was handed over to the CBI in 2014 following a court order.

The CBI told the court that it had completed the investigation into the murder of Dabholkar and the investigating officer had submitted the closure report to the competent authority.

On behalf of Mukta Dabholkar, her lawyer told the court that the CBI had not investigated the case properly and there were still many lapses.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against five accused persons in the case. The court, earlier this month, asked the central agency to apprise it of the status of its investigation in the case.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the CBI, told the court that as far as the CBI is concerned, the investigation has been conducted and is now complete. Out of 32 witnesses, 15 have been cross-examined, he informed the court.

The court then asked the CBI whether further surveillance was required. To this, advocate Anil Singh, appearing for the CBI, submitted that no further investigation was needed as the investigating officer had filed a report and it was pending before the competent authority.

The court then asked the CBI to decide how much time would it take to decide. To this, Singh sought three weeks' time for the CBI to take a final decision on the matter.

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Uttarakhand's Chamoli Official Submits Settlement Plan For Joshimath

Chamoli District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana on Monday suggested three options for the settlement of the displaced people in land subsidence-hit Joshimath, officials said.

Mr Khurana who heads a committee working on a settlement plan for Joshimath submitted his recommendations to a high-powered panel chaired by Additional Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan here.

The first option offers a one-time settlement by providing financial assistance to the affected land/building owners, Disaster Management Secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha said at a press conference here.

They will be paid compensation as a one-time settlement for their damaged land or buildings as per the prescribed norms, he said.

However, before they are paid fully, the land/building of the affected person will have to be registered in favour of the state government, he said.

Under the second option, land up to a maximum area of 100 square metres will be provided to the affected land/building owners for house construction and compensation for the affected building. In case of more than 100 square metres of land, the affected landowners will be paid for the rest of the land according to the norms.

Before making the full payment to the affected land/building owners and before allotting land up to an area of 100 square metres for house construction, the registry of the land/building of the affected person will have to be done in favour of the state government, the officials said.

Under the third option, a building will be constructed on a land up to the maximum area of 75 square metres at the identified place for the rehabilitation of the affected.

If the valuation of the affected residential building/land is more than the land/accommodation being provided, then the remaining amount will be paid to the displaced.

In this option too, the registry of the disaster affected land/building will have to be done in favour of the state government. The three options proposed by the Chamoli DM have been found to be suitable and will now be presented before the state cabinet for its consideration and approval, the disaster management secretary said.

The DM has proposed to give funds for retrofitting of houses/buildings which have small cracks and are located on "safe" land.

The number of affected families which need to be permanently relocated will be decided after various technical institutions submit their survey reports to the government, Mr Sinha said.

A decision will also be taken regarding the work related to mitigation of disaster/stabilization of the area, toe erosion, drainage plan when the final report of the technical institutes conducting their studies are received.

Instructions were also given by the high powered committee that along with affected families/individuals of Joshimath area, action should be taken to waive electricity/water bills for six months for affected commercial establishments.

Mr Sinha said students of three schools hit by subsidence in Joshimath have been transferred to other schools and will be provided free transportation by the administration.

The water discharge from an unknown source in JP colony area has lowered further to 67 litres per minute (LPM) and the number of houses that developed cracks still stands at 863, he said.

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14 Get Life Sentence In Connection With Ex-BJP MLA's Murder

 A local court here on Monday sentenced 14 people to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of former Iglas MLA Malkhan Singh and his bodyguard.

District and Sessions judge Pankaj Kumar Singh also slapped a fine of Rs 1.50 lakh on the main accused and former zila panchayat chairman Tejveer Singh.

Malkhan Singh was the BJP MLA from Iglas assembly constituency from 1996 to 2002.

Assistant district advocate Manu Raj Bahadur said Malkhan Singh was sitting outside his residence on March 20, 2006 with his friends when Tejveer Singh came there with 14-15 men and killed the MLA and his bodyguard.

A case was registered in the matter on a complaint by Malkhan Singh's elder brother and eyewitness Dalveer Singh. On the directions of the Allahabad High Court, the matter was transferred to Bulandshahr in 2008.

Of the 18 accused persons, two have died and two are absconding.

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Stones Thrown At My Convoy, Says Nitish Kumar's Sulking Aide

Disgruntled JD(U) leader Upendra Kushwaha, who recently raised a banner of revolt against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Monday alleged that his car was pelted with stones in Bhojpur district of the state.

Mr Kushwaha, who is also a member of the state legislative council, made the allegation on his official Twitter handle, tagging Nitish Kumar and the Bihar Police.

"Some anti-social elements attacked my car at Nayka Tola, Jagdishpur (Bhojpur). They ran away when security personnel tried to chase them," Mr Kushwaha tweeted in Hindi.

The district police said it was investigating the matter and trying to identify the culprits. No injuries have been reported in the incident.

Mr Kushwaha, upon return to the state capital, claimed he was clueless about the identity and motive of the attackers.

The former Union minister has been in a sulk ever since Mr Kumar rebuffed speculations of his induction as deputy CM, making it clear that only RJD's Tejashwi Yadav will hold the post.

Mr Kushwaha, who returned to the JD(U) in 2021, merging his Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, has since been demanding that terms of the alleged deal struck with the RJD while forging alliance in August last year be made public.

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Putin "Threatened Me" With Missile Attack, Claims UK PM Boris Johnson

President Vladimir Putin threatened to personally target Boris Johnson with a missile attack just before ordering Russian forces into Ukraine, the former UK prime minister has claimed.

The apparent threat came in a phone call just ahead of the invasion on February 24, according to a new BBC documentary to be broadcast on Monday.

Johnson and other Western leaders had been hurrying to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine and try to deter a Russian attack.

"He sort of threatened me at one point and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute', or something like that," Johnson quoted Putin as saying.

Johnson emerged as one of the most impassioned Western backers of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

But prior to the invasion, he says he was at pains to tell Putin that there was no imminent prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, while warning him that any invasion would mean "more NATO, not less NATO" on Russia's borders.

"He said, 'Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join NATO any time soon.

"'What is any time soon?' And I said, 'well it's not going to join NATO for the foreseeable future. You know that perfectly well'."

On the missile threat, Johnson added: "I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate." 

The BBC documentary charts the growing divide between the Russian leader and the West in the years before the invasion of Ukraine.

It also features Zelensky reflecting on his thwarted ambitions to join NATO prior to Russia's attack.

"If you know that tomorrow Russia will occupy Ukraine, why don't you give me something today I can stop it with?" he says.

"Or if you can't give it to me, then stop it yourself."

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Woman Gets Child's Custody After Ex-Husband Fails To Appear In High Court

The High Court of Karnataka has allowed a 34-year-old woman to take her child to Australia and settle down there without her former husband's consent.

Justice M Nagaprasanna allowed the plea of the mother under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 after the biological father failed to attend the court proceedings. Rakshitha sought legal sanction to obtain permanent residence for her child in Australia.

The petitioner, who is residing in Australia, moved the High Court against her first husband CC Shashikumar, a farmer from Kunigal.

The couple was married in 2006 and after the birth of the daughter their relationship turned sour, leading to divorce. Both, had filed a compromise divorce petition with certain conditions.

One of the conditions of the petition was that the former husband would have visitation rights to the only child.

The woman filed an application before the Family Court in 2022 for relaxation of this clause as her former husband had not even once visited the child in the last 8 years.

As the father of the child did not respond to the court's summons, the court cancelled the visitation rights.

The mother and child were living in Australia on Tourist visa, which is set to expire. Hence, she sought to secure a permanent visa to settle down permanently in Australia.

As per the terms of Migration Rules of the Australian Government, the woman was required to produce a legal custody document of the child and written permission of the local court to take the minor child out of the jurisdiction of India.

Subsequently, the woman had filed a plea in the Family Court seeking permission to take the child to Australia, under Section 26 of the Act.

However, the court rejected the application saying a fresh petition has to be filed seeking custody of the child "as the Court becomes functus officio once the proceedings are closed." The woman then approached the high court, which delivered the judgement on January 19, 2023.

Allowing the plea, the bench said it was appropriate to grant the permission "to take the child beyond the shores of this nation as was prayed for in the application only to avoid multiplicity of litigation which eventually will result in an order of this kind as the husband has not been contesting the matter in any of the proceedings and the child in terms of the compromise is already in the custody of the mother/wife/petitioner."

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Not Going To Be "Cheated Again": BJP On Realignment With Nitish Kumar

BJP workers from across Bihar have been categorically told that there was no question of a realignment with "unpopular" Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the party's state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal said on Sunday.

He made the averment upon the conclusion of the party's two-day state executive meeting in North Bihar district of Darbhanga.

"We have sought to stamp out rumours among our party cadre about such a realignment. Of course, the CM has the proclivity to oscillate like a pendulum. But we are not going to be cheated by him again", said the BJP leader whose party lost power in Bihar when Kumar and JD(U) walked out of an alliance with the saffron party to stitch together a new one with RJD and Congress.

"Nitish Kumar has grown hugely unpopular. It was his unpopularity that had caused his JD(U) to perform badly in assembly polls of 2020, when we did much better", said Mr Jaiswal.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed magnanimity (udaarta) in deciding to stick to the promise made before elections and Kumar ended up enjoying another term in office. But, the habitual betrayer that he is, Kumar abused the trust reposed in him by PM", alleged the Bihar BJP chief.

Mr Kumar had junked the BJP accusing it of trying to split the JD(U) with the help of his former close aide RCP Singh. 

The party has also accused the BJP of an attempted sabotage in the assembly polls when many saffron party rebels were fielded by Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party against JD(U) candidates.

Mr Jaiswal reiterated that the BJP was now aiming at forming its own government in Bihar after winning the next assembly polls and claimed that the tone will be set in the Lok Sabha elections next year in which "we have set for ourselves a target of more than 35 out 40 seats in the state".

Mr Jaiswal also said, tongue in cheek, "today is the birth anniversary of George Fernandes who was a mentor to Nitish. When Nitish did not shy away from betraying him, he can ditch anyone else". 

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535 Fall Sick Due To Water Contamination In Many Villages In Himachal

The number of people taken ill after allegedly consuming contaminated water in a dozen villages of Nadaun sub-division in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur district rose to 535 on Sunday.

People from a dozen villages, including Banh, Jandgi Gujran, Jandali Rajputan, Panyala, Pathiyalu, Niyati, Rangas Chowki Haar, Thain and Sankar have been affected by the outbreak of water-borne diseases.

Rajeev Kumar, the head of Rangas panchayat, had earlier in the day said the number of people taken ill crossed 300. Some patients have been referred to hospitals in Hamirpur.

Two to three people in every household have taken ill after consuming contaminated water provided by the Jal Shakti department, he added.

It is believed that the high amount of bacteria in the water is causing the illness, Mr Kumar said. He attributed it to contamination of the pit from which the water is supplied.

Villagers said the water was supplied without being filtered from an under-construction tank, causing the outbreak.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who is also the MLA from Naudan, has directed the district administration and the Health department to take proper care of the patients and ensure no shortage of medicines and other items.

He has also sought a complete report from state- and district-level agencies.

Health department teams have reached the affected villages to provide treatment to the people under the direct supervision of Chief Medical Officer (Hamirpur) Dr RK Agnihotri.

Officials from the Jal Shakti department have swung into action. It has stopped water supply to the affected villages and sent samples for testing.

Bottled water is being distributed among the people after supply was stopped, said a junior engineer in the department.

Deputy Commissioner Debasweta Banik said essential medicines, ORS packets, chlorine tablets and other materials were delivered to the villages through doctors, health and Asha workers.

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Amid Rising Tensions In Middle East, Dubai Offers Olive Branch

A private museum in the United Arab Emirates unveiled on Saturday a Torah scroll that survived the Holocaust, the latest sign of what Israel and its new Arab allies describe as a new approach to understanding Jewish history in the Middle East.

Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, founder of the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai's historic district, said the display, unveiled for International Holocaust Remembrance Day would help combat "big denial" of the Holocaust in the region.

"For us peace is a complete peace," Al Mansoori said. "Many people have forgotten the Jews are part of the region. So here, we're trying to show ... the good days between the Jews and the Arabs in the past."

The scroll is on permanent loan to the museum from the Memorial Scrolls Trust, which looks after more than 1,000 Czech scrolls saved from the Holocaust and later sent to London.

"I lived in the Arab world when I was young, and the term Holocaust does not exist ... So this is a huge step," said Edwin Shuker, an Iraqi-Jewish businessman and vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who facilitated the loan.

Israel has reached out to promote understanding of Judaism among its new allies in the two years since the UAE and fellow Gulf state Bahrain, followed by Morocco and Sudan, forged ties with it under U.S.-brokered pacts known as the Abraham Accords.

The history of the killing of six million Jews by Nazi Germany is little taught in the Arab world, where some politicians say it was wrongly used to justify the creation of Israel in 1948 at the expense of Palestinian Arabs.

In the years that followed Israel establishment, major Jewish communities that had existed for centuries throughout the Middle East largely disappeared, with hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrating from Arab countries to the new state.

The Emirati embassy in Washington, in a Twitter post earlier this month, said the UAE would include Holocaust education at schools, the first country in the region to do so.

"It's important to remember what happened. It's important to make sure that it will never happen again. And it's important to stand here together, all of us, Israelis, Emiratis and others in order to say: Not anymore," Israeli ambassador to the UAE, Amir Hayek, told Reuters on the sidelines of the museum event.

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Centre Shows Step-Motherly Treatment Towards State: Telangana Minister

Alleging that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre shows step-motherly treatment towards Telangana, ruling BRS leader and Telangana IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao claimed his party is ready for early polls if the BJP dissolves the Lok Sabha, showing its willingness for early elections.

The BJP-led government has not announced any new institution or funds to Telangana and not even delivered on the promises made to the State in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, he alleged.

"They say 'sab ka saath, sab ka vishwas'. But, their actions are 'sab kuch bakwas' (all rubbish). The value of rupee is moving towards the 'pathalam' (abyss), the debt is mounting towards the sky. Such is the situation prevailing in the country today," he told reporters in Nizamabad.

The NDA government waived off loans for its "corporate friends", he alleged.

"...especially those in BJP in the State, they talk big. If they have guts, let them dissolve Parliament. Then, we can go for early polls together," he said.

The BRS and BJP have been engaged in political one-upmanship ahead of Legislative Assembly polls to be held towards this year-end. 

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8-Year-Old Boy Drowns In Pit Outside School In Gujarat: Cops

An eight-year-old boy drowned in a water-filled pit outside a government school in Gujarat's Surendranagar district, police said on Saturday.

Locals found the body of Kuldeep Munjpara floating in the pit outside the school in Dhama village while they were looking for him after he failed to return home till Friday evening, an official from Zinzuwada police station said.

Villagers have alleged that the authorities had dug the pit under a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) scheme, but had failed to cover it.

"The boy drowned in a pit filled with water leaking from a pipeline. His body was recovered by villagers who went to look for him near the school," said sub-inspector N L Sankhat said.

No one had seen the boy going near the pit. The child's parents started looking for him when he did not return home till evening, the official said, adding that the body was sent for post-mortem.

Villager and community leader Suryakant Varsani said the administration has to take action to prevent such accidents from occurring in future.

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Around 2 Months After Daughter's Murder, Couple Found Dead At Odisha Home

Two months after the murder of their only daughter, a couple in Odisha's Bargarh district was found dead in their house, police said on Saturday.

The bodies of Raghu Bhue, 55, and Pratishtha Bhue, 50, have been sent for autopsy. A case of unnatural death has been registered by police and investigation into the incident is underway, an officer said.

According to preliminary investigation, it appears that the couple could not overcome the death of their only daughter and took the extreme step. However, the matter is under investigation, the officer said.

The only daughter of the couple Sasmita Bhue, 24 was murdered on December 2 last year by a young person in the village when she had gone to collect water from the tube-well. The accused was arrested and is now in jail now, the officer said.

Inspector-in-charge (IIC) of the Bhatli police station, Ranjit Naik said, the couple was in deep grief after the death of their daughter. They were hardly coming out of their house and even stopped talking to their neighbours.

"My elder brother Raghu and sister-in-law were always crying after the death of their daughter. They didn't open the door this morning. And when we opened the door, we found them dead", said the victim Raghu's younger brother Narendra Bhue.

The family members decided to donate the eyes of the couple.

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Fear Of Defeat In Karnataka Elections "Haunts Congress": Basavaraj Bommai

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday hit out at the Congress party saying "the party use cheap language which shows that they are scared of defeat in the upcoming Karnataka assembly election."

Speaking at Jan Sankalp Yatra in M.K Hubli in Belagavi, he said, "The Congress has now remembered 'Praja Dhwani' but what did they do while they were in power from 2013 to 2018? In the name of social justice, they cheated SC/ST communities. The present BJP government has ensured social justice. When Farmers were in difficulty, it was CM Yediyurappa who went to their rescue. While he was the CM, Yediyurappa had given free power supply, interest-free agro loan, input subsidy during the flood fury, support price for food produces and subsidy for the working classes."

"We have introduced Vidyanidhi scheme for the children of farmers, and extended to the children of coolies, fishermen and cab drivers, Rs 5 lakh for youths," the CM said.

Mr Bommai further said that the Congress party had promised 200 units of free power while Yediyurappa as CM had given unrestricted power in 2008 and it is continued even now. The Congress party is copying the BJP schemes, he claimed.

"This is the land of brave hearts like Rani Chennamma, Sangolli Rayanna and Amateur Balappa who openly fought against the Britishers. But today, the organizations like PFI and SDPI are trying to destabilize the nation through terrorism and to disturb peace and tranquillity in Karnataka. To check this, Amit Shah took a bold decision to ban PFI and check terrorist activities. Let that organisation come up again under a different name Shah is capable of taking strong action against them. So, the country is safe and secure," he added.

"Development is possible only if the country is safe and secure, and everyone must support to strengthen the laws. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is effectively dealing with terrorism from across the border. No one was living peacefully during the Congress-led-UPA government was in power, due to bomb blasts and terrorist attacks. Now everything has stopped due to the Modi government and the engine government must come in Karnataka also," he concluded.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and others dignitaries were also present at the event.

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Uncontrolled Construction Caused Joshimath's Land Subsidence, Say Experts

Unplanned and uncontrolled construction in the name of development in Uttarakhand has brought Joshimath on the brink of sinking, experts said on Saturday and demanded that Himalayas be declared an eco-sensitive zone.

In a resolution passed at the roundtable organised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), experts termed as "inadequate" the steps taken to deal with the prevailing situation in subsidence-hit Joshimath.

They also asked the government to consider taking long-term measures to address the problem, saying a similar situation may arise in Nainital, Mussoorie and other areas of Garhwal as well if the "so-called development driven by human greed" is not checked in the hill state.

"Declare Himalayas as an eco-sensitive zone. Regulate big projects causing devastation," the resolution said. While the width of the road under the Char Dham road widening project must be regulated to intermediate standard to minimize the damage to the terrain, Char Dham railways project should be reassessed and re-looked at, it added.

"Chardham railways is an over ambitious project that will cause much devastation and will further overburden the tourist centric state of Uttarakhand. This project should be reassessed and re-looked at," the resolution said.

A detailed carrying capacity assessment of Uttarakhand should be done to ensure that the number of tourists visiting these places is accounted for and also to ensure that tourist flow doesn't cause environmental overburdening, it added.

The roundtable, organised to deliberate on the topic 'Imminent Himalayan Crisis', was attended by former chairperson of a Supreme Court-appointed committee on the Centre's Char Dham project Ravi Chopra, its former member Hemant Dhyani and others, SJM co-convenor Awshwani Mahajan told PTI.

"Sri Adi Shankaracharya founded the city in the eighth century, where the holy Jyotirlinga is located, which is known as Joshimath (Jyotir Math). Today, this math is at the brink of collapse. The news of the sinking of Joshimath has shaken the whole country," Mr Mahajan said.

"Even though some steps have been taken in view of the current crisis, experts believe that the sinking of this first Jyotir Math established by Adi Shankaracharya cannot be stopped," he added.

Terming the steps taken by the government to deal with the prevailing situation as "inadequate", the resolution noted that while on one hand a large number of people are going to be displaced due to the sinking of Joshimath, on the other, the solution is being sought only by way of rehabilitation of affected residents. "Currently the work on mega projects in this area - the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) hydropower project, Helang bypass road construction which is part of Chardham road widening project and ropeways project, has been stopped by the district administration succumbing to the local protests," it noted.

It can be seen that areas such as Bhagirathi ESZ, where large scale mega projects have not been implemented and the local ecology has not been tampered with, land subsidence, landslide incidents and devastating disaster events are minimum to none, it underlined.

"This is proof enough that the indiscriminate, unplanned robust construction everywhere else in Uttarakhand has directly or indirectly impacted and aggravated the disaster like situation," it added.

It is worth mentioning that the way the mountain was cut at the foothills of Joshimath for the construction of Chardham Marg and how without a proper hydrogeological study, the NTPC dug a tunnel in the middle of the mountain, this fragile mountain was destroyed," the resolution noted.

"It is also noticed that due to robust and unplanned construction of high-rise hotels and buildings, there is inadequate arrangement for sanitation, which makes Joshimath more unstable and burdened," it said.

"Due to all this, today the entire area of Joshimath is sinking and there is no way we can save the same," it added.

In the name of development, the resolution noted, construction work and tampering with nature is going on continuously all over Uttarakhand. Due to the massive deforestation, there is hardly any greenery left on the mountains; and due to this, landslides have become a common feature in these youngest fold mountains, it claimed.

"Disastrous construction in the name of development without assessing the expected impact is becoming the cause of today's and earlier tragedies. This crisis can be avoided only by curbing this indiscriminate construction," the resolution said.

"In view of this type of rapid destruction in the past, it has become necessary to consider that the so-called development driven by human greed cannot be allowed to continue. It is necessary that long-term measures are taken to deal with this problem," it demanded.

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UN General Assembly President's 3-Day India Visit Begins Tomorrow

President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Csaba Korosi will arrive in India on a three-day visit on Sunday, during which he is expected to discuss with his Indian interlocutors ways to deal with various challenges facing the globe.

It will be Csaba Korosi's first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed the UNGA presidency in September 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, announcing his trip.

Csaba Korosi is scheduled to witness the "Beating the Retreat" ceremony at the historic Vijay Chowk in the heart of New Delhi.

The president of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (PGA) will hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on key multilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.

"The PGA's visit to India will be an opportunity to exchange views on global challenges that the United Nations is currently seized with," the MEA said in a statement.

"It would help reinforce India's abiding commitment to multilateralism, including through its ongoing G20 Presidency, and how it would address these global challenges meaningfully for a better future for the Global South," it added.

Csaba Korosi has already outlined five priorities for his UNGA presidency, which include standing firm on basic principles of the UN charter, making significant and measurable progress in sustainability transformation, enhancing the role of science in decision making and increasing solidarity to better endure new chapters of crises facing the world.

"Given the PGA's strong interest in India's expertise in water management and experience in SDGs (sustainable development goals), he would also be interacting with senior officials of NITI Aayog and India's G20 Presidency team to explore the scaling up of India's best practices," the MEA said.

On January 30, Csaba Korosi will deliver a public address at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) on his presidency theme of "Solutions through Solidarity, Sustainability and Science in the UN".

The UNGA president will travel to Bengaluru on January 31, where his engagements include an interaction with scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and a field visit to an IISc-led water conservation project.

Csaba Korosi is also expected to visit development projects in and around Bengaluru and interact with the UN-India country team, the MEA said.

The governor of Karnataka would be hosting a dinner in his honour, it added.

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No Security Lapse In Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra: Jammu And Kashmir Police

After the Congress alleged lapses in security arrangments in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Jammu & Kashmir Police on Friday said that it was not consulted before taking any decision on discontinuation of the yatra after 1 km by the organisers.

Taking to Twitter, the Jammu & Kashmir Police said, "JKP was not consulted before taking any decision on discontinuation of Yatra after conducting 1 km yatra by organizers. The rest of yatra continued #peacefully. There was no security lapse at all. We will provide foolproof security."

"Only authorised persons identified by organisers and the frisked crowd were allowed inside towards the route of Yatra," the police added.

The police further stated, "Organisers and managers of BJY did not intimate about large gatherings from Banihal joining the Yatra, which thronged near the starting point."

"Full security arrangements were in place including 15 Coys of CAPFs and 10 Coys of JKP, comprising of ROPs and QRTs, route domination, lateral deployment and SFs were deployed for high-ridge and other deployments," it added.

On Friday, Congress In-Charge of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, Rajani Patil alleged security lapses in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, and accused the administration of the Union Territory of failing to manage the crowd.

"J&K UT Administration failed to provide security to Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi. Security lapses indicate the unfair and unprepared attitude of the UT administration. Office Of LG J-K," Rajani Patil said in a tweet along with a picture from the spot.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary KC Venugopal said that there was no security personnel with the Bharat Jodo Yatra for 15 minutes, and termed it a 'serious lapse'.

"The security has been mishandled by concerned agencies here. For 15 mins, there have been no security officers with the Bharat Jodo Yatra here. This is a serious lapse. Rahul Gandhi and other yatris cannot walk without security," Venugopal said speaking to mediapersons.

Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, which is in its final leg in Jammu & Kashmir, resumed on Friday morning from the National Highway-44, Banihal Railway station, in the UT's Ramban district.

Security was tightened in the area in the wake of the recent twin blasts on the outskirts of Jammu city on January 22 which rocked a busy locality in Narwal leaving atleast nine people injured.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, which started in Kanyakumari on September 7, will conclude on January 30 in Srinagar after covering 3,970 km, 12 states and two Union territories. The reports of the Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi's security breach have come to the fore.

A security breach emerged at the Bharat Jodo Yatra on January 17 when an unknown man came out of the crowd and tried to hug Rahul Gandhi in Tanda in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district. However, Gandhi later termed him "excited" and said it was the people's enthusiasm.

Earlier on January 4, the Congress wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah alleging "security breaches" in the Bharat Jodo Yatra which entered the national capital on December 24.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal in a letter to the Centre said the Delhi Police behaved like "mute spectators", and completely failed to control the surging crowd and maintain a perimeter around Rahul Gandhi, who is assigned Z+ security.

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US House Panel To Vote Next Month On Possible TikTok Ban

The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote next month on a bill aimed at blocking the use of China's popular social media app TikTok in the United States, the committee confirmed on Friday.

The measure, planned by the panel's chair Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican, would aim to give the White House the legal tools to ban TikTok over U.S. national security concerns.

"The concern is that this app gives the Chinese government a back door into our phones," McCaul told Bloomberg News, which reported on the timing of the vote earlier.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked the app's use in the United States but lost a series of court battles over the measure.

The Biden administration in June 2021 formally abandoned that effort. Then in December, Republican Senator Marco Rubio unveiled bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok, which would also block all transactions from any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia.

But a ban of the short video app, which is owned by ByteDance and is popular among teens, would face significant hurdles in Congress to pass, and would need 60 votes in the Senate.

For three years, TikTok - which has more than 100 million U.S. users - has been seeking to assure Washington that the personal data of U.S. citizens cannot be accessed and its content cannot be manipulated by China's Communist Party or anyone else under Beijing's influence.

TikTok did not immediately respond Friday but said earlier of congressional efforts to ban it: "It is troubling that rather than encouraging the administration to conclude its national security review of TikTok, some members of Congress have decided to push for a politically-motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States."

The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed on to China's government.

CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for months aiming to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of U.S. TikTok users.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the bill on Friday. "It's under review by (CFIUS) so I am just not going to get into details on that," Jean-Pierre said.

Last month, Biden signed legislation that included a ban on federal employees using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices. More than 25 U.S. states have also banned the use of TikTok on state-owned devices.

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7 Killed In Shooting Outside East Jerusalem Synagogue, Suspect Dead

At least seven people were killed in a shooting outside a synagogue in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Friday, with the gunman killed at the scene, police and medics said.  

"Earlier this evening at around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT), a terrorist arrived at a synagogue in the Neve Yaakov boulevard in Jerusalem and proceeded to shoot at a number of people in the area," a police statement said.

"Police forces quickly arrived at the scene, engaged with the terrorist and opened fire at him. The terrorist was neutralised," it added.

A police spokesman told AFP that seven people had been killed.  

Police were dismantling a white vehicle at the scene, believed to have belonged to the shooter.  

Fadi Dekidek, a paramedic with the Magen David Adom emergency response agency, said "this is a very serious terror attack."

The MDA reported a total of 10 gunshot victims, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy.

"I heard a lot of bullets," Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives near the synagogue, told AFP at the scene.

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On Holocaust Day, Polish PM Accuses Putin Of Building 'New Camps'

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Friday used the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of building "new camps" while waging war against Ukraine.

"On the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, let us remember that to the east Putin is building new camps," Morawiecki said on Facebook.

"Solidarity and consistent support for Ukraine are effective ways to ensure that history does not come full circle," he added.

Morawiecki did not elaborate on his accusation against Russia, though it echoed a claim made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year.

In an address in October, Zelensky spoke of Olenivka, "a concentration camp where our prisoners are kept".

UN investigators also said last year they had documented more than 400 arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Poland on Friday marked the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau at the site of the former camp in the southern Polish city of Oswiecim.

Attendees included religious leaders, Holocaust survivors and Douglas Emhoff, the Jewish husband of US Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Auschwitz museum had earlier said that Russia had not been invited to this year's commemoration given its "aggression against a free and independent Ukraine".

The museum denounced the Russian offensive as a "barbaric act" on the day Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.

Auschwitz-Birkenau has become a symbol of Nazi Germany's genocide of six million European Jews, one million of whom died at the camp between 1940 and 1945 along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.

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Zelensky's Party Sacks Lawmaker For Wartime Trip To Thailand

Ukraine's ruling party has kicked out a lawmaker from its parliamentary faction after reports he had travelled to Thailand during Ukraine's grinding war with Russia sparked a public outcry.

Party spokesperson Yulia Paliychuk said on Friday that Mykola Tyshchenko was expelled from Servant of the People's voting bloc after an announcement appeared briefly on the website of the Ukrainian embassy in Thailand saying Mr Tyshchenko would meet members of the Ukrainian population at a hotel there.

Mr Tyshchenko said on Facebook he had been on a business trip in Asia with approval of party leaders, "acting exclusively in the interests of Ukraine". Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said he had approved no such trip.

The winter visit to sun-soaked Southeast Asia comes amid a crackdown by President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at projecting an image of greater accountability for officials.

More than a dozen senior officials were fired or resigned this week, including a deputy prosecutor who had come under fire in the press for a holiday in Spain, in the biggest shakeup of the Kyiv leadership since the war began.

President Zelensky has announced a ban this week on private trips abroad by officials. Most Ukrainian men aged 18-60 have already been barred from leaving the country under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Februrary last year.

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"Website Hacked, Democracy Stifled": Kamal Haasan's Party

The website of Makkal Needhi Maiam, a party floated by actor-politician Kamal Haasan has been hacked, the party said on Friday.

Hours after the website was hacked, MNM's Twitter handle announced that the "official website of the party has been hacked by some miscreants" and that the party would not be cowed down by such threat and would give a befitting reply.

The official website of Makkal Needhi Maiam has been hacked by miscreants who thrive on stifling the voice of Democracy !

Unruffled, we will react appropriately and continue to stand tall !

— Makkal Needhi Maiam | மக்கள் நீதி மய்யம் (@maiamofficial) January 27, 2023

Many eyebrows were raised and the party workers were surprised over a statement posted on the website proclaiming to merge MNM with the Congress on January 30.

The statement has since been withdrawn and a party spokesperson said, "no such decision was made (on the merger) and that it was the handiwork of the hackers."

MNM had announced to support the Congress candidate in the Erode East by-election scheduled for February 27. It may be recalled that Haasan had joined the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo yatra last month.

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Pinarayi Vijayan Accuses RSS Of Treating Minorities As "Enemies", BJP Hits Back

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday accused the Sangh Parivar of treating Muslims and Christians as 'enemies of the nation' and urged everyone to unite against such divisive actions, drawing sharp criticism from the BJP.

Mr Vijayan said that the Constitution, which was the best weapon to fight against caste discrimination and religious hatred, was presently under attack.

The CM alleged that the Sangh Parivar and the RSS have made it clear that their aim was to turn India into a 'Hindu rashtra'.

He also accused the party in power at the Centre of being followers of a political group which did not take part in the freedom struggle.

"They are attacking the very roots of our country, its democracy and the Constitution," he said while speaking after inaugurating the Constitution Protection Conference and Secular Meet.

In his speech at the event held here, Mr Vijayan said that if the Constitution was destroyed, everything -- from an individual's dignity to the sovereignty of the country -- would be lost, he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP hit back, saying the CM has no moral right to utter a single word on the Constitution.

BJP state president K Surendran alleged that Mr Vijayan does not give any importance to the Constitution and accused him of 'whitewashing' extremist and terror groups.

The Kerala CM also alleged that besides the attacks on the Constitution, there were also attempts to rewrite history.

Examples of the same that he mentioned were -- the terming of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination as a 'death' and the claims from certain quarters that B R Ambedkar was not one of the drafters of the Constitution.

Apart from that, in some parts of the country Muslims are being termed as the opposite of Hindu, he claimed.

Mr Vijayan claimed that not only religious minorities, but Dalits and tribals were also under threat and were being attacked and exploited in various parts of the country.

The Constitution was one of the best weapons to fight against caste discrimination and religious hatred and therefore, it should be protected against the attacks on it and values upheld by it.

He further alleged that the Constitution was under threat from those duty bound to protect it.

Those who take oath on the Constitution were airing dangerous views that were contrary to it.

Mr Vijayan said that even persons in the highest Constitutional positions were making statements that could derail Constitutional principles.

One example of the same, according to Mr Vijayan, was the Indian Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's recent statement which in effect meant that the Supreme Court decision of 1973, upholding the 'basic structure doctrine', was not correct and that the Parliament was sovereign and judiciary will not be allowed to encroach upon it.

"It is the country which is sovereign and the Constitution ensures it," he said.

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5 US Police Officers Charged With Murder Over Beating Of Black Man

US authorities on Thursday charged five officers with second-degree murder over the fatal beating of a Black man in the eastern state of Tennessee following a traffic stop.

Tyre Nichols, 29, was stopped on January 7 for what the Memphis Police Department said was reckless driving.

After a chase ensued, "police brutalized him to the point of being unrecognizable," family attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.

The five officers, who are also Black, were fired after an internal police investigation found them to have "violated multiple department policies, including excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid," the MPD said last Friday.

Nichols was transported to the hospital in critical condition, according to police, where he died on January 10.

"These officers were found to be directly responsible for the physical abuse of Mr Nichols," Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said late Wednesday.

"This is not just a professional failing, this is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual. This incident was heinous, reckless and inhumane."

The five officers -- Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr -- were additionally charged with aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping. All are now in police custody.

"The news today from Memphis officials that these five officers are being held criminally accountable for their deadly and brutal actions gives us hope as we continue to push for justice for Tyre," the family's lawyers said.

Officials have said a video of the episode exists and will be released sometime after 6 pm Central time Friday (0000 GMT Saturday).

"I expect you to feel outrage in the disregard of basic human rights," Davis said.

Family lawyers who watched the clip said they had seen "with our own eyes the disgusting way in which he lost his life at the hands of Memphis police."

The lawyers added that the beating of Nichols "points to the desperate need for change and reform to ensure this violence stops occurring during low-threat procedures, like in this case, a traffic stop."

Racial injustice and police brutality has been in the spotlight in the United States since the 2020 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

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Canada Says It Will Send 4 Leopard 2 Tanks To Ukraine

Canada will send four Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said on Thursday, after Germany this week allowed other countries to re-export the German-built tank.

"This donation, combined with the contributions of allies and partners, will significantly help the armed forces of Ukraine" in the their defense against the Russian invasion, Anand told reporters in Ottawa.

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Bengali Is 2nd-Largest Spoken Language In Asia: Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday, while presiding over a 'Hatey Khori' event held in the state on the occasion of Saraswati Puja, said Bengali is the 2nd-largest spoken language in Asia and 5th in the world.

"We must remember that we should learn our mother tongue no matter where we live," she added.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also congratulated West Bengal governor Dr CV Ananda Bose for taking a particular interest in Bengali.

"I want to congratulate the Governor for taking special interest in our mother tongue," she said.

The West Bengal chief minister was attending Governor Bose's 'Hatey Khori' event at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.

The 74th Republic Day was celebrated with characteristic fervour and enthusiasm across West Bengal on Thursday, with Governor Bose presiding over an hour-long parade by the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, policemen, and civilians, including students.

A military helicopter showered rose petals on Red Road, the venue of the official programme.

The Governor hoisted the Tricolour. Also present on the occasion, apart from Ms Banerjee were her Cabinet colleagues, senior officials of the state, and the three wings of the Indian Armed Forces.

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Archaeologist Unveil Possibly 'Oldest' Mummy Found In Egypt

Egyptologists have uncovered a Pharaonic tomb near the capital Cairo containing what may be the oldest and "most complete" mummy yet to be discovered in the country, the excavation team leader said on Thursday.

The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre shaft in a recently uncovered group of fifth and sixth dynasty tombs near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Zahi Hawass, director of the team, told reporters.

The mummy, of a man named Hekashepes, was in a limestone sarcophagus that had been sealed in mortar.

The mummy, of a man named Hekashepes, was in a limestone sarcophagus.

"This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date," Hawass, one of Egypt's former ministers of antiquities, said in a statement.

Among other tombs found was one belonging to Khnumdjedef, an inspector of officials, a supervisor of nobles and a priest during the reign of Unas, last pharaoh of the fifth dynasty. It was decorated with scenes of daily life.

Another tomb belonged to Meri, "keeper of the secrets and assistant to the great leader of the palace".

Numerous statues were found among the tombs, including one representing a man and his wife and several servants, the statement said.

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Man Dies By Suicide; Note Accuses Lenders, Ex Colleagues Of Harassment

A 35-year-old man allegedly died by suicide by jumping in front of a suburban train in Maharashtra's Thane district, a police official said on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday night between Ambernath and Badlapur stations on Central Railway's main line, the official added.

"The man was identified as Girish Nandlal Chube. A note found from the spot has named some people due to which he had to take this extreme step," Kalyan Railway police station senior inspector Mukesh Dhage said.

Police sources said the man also made a clip in which he has narrated that he lost his job after two colleagues complained to the firm's owner.

He said he had to take Rs 1 lakh from some people as he was out of a job and these lenders were harassing him, these sources said.

These persons and two colleagues have been named in the video clip, which has gone viral on social media.

No one has been arrested in this case, he added.

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1 Killed In Southern Spain Church Stabbing Attack, Terror Link Probed

A church official was killed and a priest seriously wounded late Wednesday when a man wielding a machete stormed two churches in southern Spain, the government said.

Prosecutors immediately opened a terror probe into the attack in the southern port city of Algeciras in Spain's Andalusia region.

"Just after 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) this evening, a man entered the church of San Isidro in Algeciras, where, armed with a machete, he attacked the priest, leaving him seriously wounded," an interior ministry statement said.

"Subsequently, he entered the church of Nuestra Senora de La Palma in which, after causing damages, he attacked the verger. The verger managed to get out of the church but was caught by the attacker outside and sustained mortal injuries," it said.

"Moments later, (the assailant) was disarmed and arrested and is currently in police custody."

A police source told AFP the assailant was wearing a long robe and had "shouted something" as he carried out the attack.

Eyewitnesses at Nuestra Senora de La Palma told local media that a man ran into the building at around 7:30 pm just as they were finishing the Eucharist service. They said he was shouting and had started to throw icons, crosses and candles to the floor.

Prosecutors moved quickly to open a terror probe which is being led by a judge from the Audiencia Nacional, Spain's top criminal court which handles terror-related cases, sources at the public prosecutor's office said without giving further details.

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Our Struggle Against Hindi Imposition Will Continue, Says MK Stalin

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday accused the BJP-led Centre of being 'brazen' over 'imposition' of Hindi and asserted that his party, the ruling DMK, would continue to resist any attempts to force the language upon the people or the State.

Addressing a Language Martyrs Day public meeting here, held in honour of those who had died as part of the anti-Hindi agitation in the State in the past, MK Stalin said the ruling BJP at the Centre has made it a practice to "impose Hindi."

"The BJP government which is ruling the Indian Union has made it a practice to impose Hindi -- from administration to education-- (and) they think they have come to power to impose Hindi."

"Like one nation, one religion, one election, one (entrance) test, one food, one culture, they are trying to destroy the culture of other national races with one language," CM Stalin, also the DMK president, charged.

Recalling an October 2022 State Assembly resolution against Hindi imposition, MK Stalin said "Our struggles against Hindi imposition will continue. Our efforts to protect Tamil will continue forever."

He alleged, "The BJP government is brazenly into Hindi imposition." While it celebrates Hindi Day, the same was not the case with other State languages.

"The importance shown to Hindi is not only ignoring other languages but also amounts to destroying them," he said.

He further said that between 2017-20, the Centre granted Rs 643 crore towards promoting Sanskrit. The allocation for Tamil was a little lesss than Rs 23 crore, he added.

"We are not enemy to any language. One can learn as many languages out of one's own interest. At the same time, we will oppose any move to impose something," the Chief Minister added.

Following the several anti-Hindi agitations, former Chief Minister CN Annadurai had brought a legislation to ensure a two-language formula of Tamil and English because of which the youth from the State were successful in many parts of the world, CM Stalin said.

"Anna did this to ensure the sacrifice of the language martyrs did not go waste," MK Stalin said about the two-language formula.

He recalled that Anna, the DMK founder, after leading the party to power in 1967 for the first time, gave Tamil Nadu its present name.

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17-Year-Old Girl Gang-Raped In Car In Nagpur, 2 Arrested

A teenage girl was allegedly raped by two persons in a car in Nagpur district of Maharashtra after they gave her lift in the vehicle, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place in the Saoner area, around 40 km from Nagpur, on Monday evening and accused have been arrested, they said.

According to the police, the accused gave lift to the 17-year-old victim in their car, parked the vehicle in an isolated spot and raped her.

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Watch: Man Shows What It Looks Like To Go On A Coffee Date With Three Cats In New York

If you are a pet parent, then you know the pure joy of pampering your pet. Now, a video has gone viral on the internet which shows three cats on a coffee date with a man in New York City. The three furry cats named Sponge Cake, Mocha, and Donut went on a coffee date with their hooman.

The video posted Sponge Cake + Mocha + Donut on Instagram, the clip shows the three felines having a wonderful day in NYC. The video further shows cats sniffing croissants and then being rewarded with treats. The video will definitely make you smile.

The caption of the video reads, "Would you like to join us for coffee in NYC?"

Watch the video here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sponge Cake + Mocha + Donut (@spongecake_thescottishfold)

The video was posted on January 14 and so far it has amassed 4.7 million views on Instagram. Netizens posted adorable comments for the cats. A user wrote, "Save a spot for me."

Another user wrote, "Yeah mine would immediately run away to explore the entirety of the city and probably get hit by a bus not 5 minutes later."

The third user commented, "Awwww the babies never run away when you put them in the stroller?"

The fourth user wrote, "Oh no- we missed you by only 10 minutes! My son was laughing- of all the tourist sites, I want to see the cats!"

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Delhi Records Season's Best Air Quality

Delhi logged the season's best air quality on Wednesday, with favourable wind speed dispersing pollutants.

The 24-hour average air quality index settled at 160 at 4 pm, the best after the AQI of 154 recorded on October 14 last year.  An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

This was the first moderate air quality day in January this year.

Delhi did not record any good, satisfactory or moderate air quality day in November. It, however, saw three moderate air quality days in December.

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Two People Found Dead In Well In Rajasthan: Cops

The bodies of a 27-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were found in a well in Rajasthan's Sirohi district on Tuesday, police said.

The incident took place in Marwada Khalsa village, which comes under the Swaroopganj police station area of the district, they said.

The deceased were identified as Arjun Kumar Meghwal and Inka Kumari.

Police officials said the family members of the victims told them that the woman accidentally fell into the well and man jumped in to save her.

A case has been registered under section 174 of the CrPC and an investigation is underway, they added.

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Justin Bieber Sells Music Rights For $200 Million

Pop juggernaut Justin Bieber has sold his music publishing and recording catalog shares to the Blackstone-backed Hipgnosis Songs Capital for $200 million, the company said Tuesday -- marking the industry's latest blockbuster rights deal.

The sale has been rumored for weeks, and sees the 28-year-old join a who's who of artists who have cashed out recently on their catalogs.

Hipgnosis did not publicly disclose terms of the deal, but a source close to the matter told AFP it was worth around $200 million.

Contemporary stars including Justin Timberlake and Shakira have sold large stakes in their work -- both also struck deals with Hipgnosis -- but the move has mostly been seen among legacy artists like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

The staggering sums -- Springsteen's catalog went to Sony for a reported half a billion dollars -- are considered safe bets both for older artists getting their finances in order and investors who can count on consistent returns from time-tested music and the viability of streaming.

Younger catalogs are seen as riskier territory, but Bieber is one of the best-selling artists of all time, and now Hipgnosis has his share in some of the 21st century's biggest hits including "Baby" and "Sorry."

Hipgnosis Songs Capital is a $1 billion venture between financial giant Blackstone and the British Hipgnosis Song Management.

According to the deal, Hipgnosis has acquired Bieber's publishing copyrights to his 290-song back catalog -- all of his music released prior to December 31, 2021 -- including his writer's share.

It also includes his artist rights to his lucrative master recordings as well as neighboring rights royalties -- a right that sees its owner receive a payment every time a song is played publicly.

But while Hipgnosis will receive the revenues, Bieber's longtime home Universal will continue to administer the catalog, Variety reported.

'Remarkable'

After the Canada native was discovered on YouTube as a teen, Bieber skyrocketed to global fame, selling more than 150 million records.

He has charted eight number-one records on Billboard's top albums list, and his songs have streamed on Spotify alone more than 32 billion times.

"The impact of Justin Bieber on global culture over the last 14 years has truly been remarkable," said Hipgnosis chief Merck Mercuriadis, a longtime music industry executive, in a statement.

"At only 28 years of age, he is one of a handful of defining artists of the streaming era that has revitalized the entire music industry, taking a loyal and worldwide audience with him on a journey from teen phenomenon to culturally important artist."

Bieber's health has suffered recently, with the star going on an indefinite touring hiatus after he revealed he'd been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, a rare complication of shingles that for him caused partial facial paralysis.

Lucrative asset class

Music catalogs have always changed hands, but the current publishing sales boom had escalated rapidly, with financial markets increasingly drawn to lucrative music portfolios as an asset class.

Mercuriadis' Hipgnosis, which went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2018, has played a large part in publicizing the spike in sales.

The sector had seemed to cool over the past year, but the Bieber deal shows investors are still hungry for music acquisitions.

Along with Springsteen and Dylan major deals across the industry included work from Sting, Stevie Nicks, Paul Simon, Motley Crue, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and from the estates of David Bowie and Leonard Cohen.

The owners of a song's publishing rights receive a cut in a number of scenarios, including radio play and streaming, album sales, and use in advertising and movies. Recording rights govern reproduction and distribution.

The flurry of sales came amid a wider conversation over artists' ownership of the work, amplified in large part by Taylor Swift, who has found resounding success as she re-records her first six albums so she can control their master recording rights.

That moved stemmed from Swift's very public feud with Scooter Braun, the music manager whose company once owned her original masters, and later sold them to the investment firm Shamrock Holdings.

Braun has been Bieber's manager for 15 years, and in a statement said "when Justin made the decision to make a catalogue deal we quickly found the best partner to preserve and grow this amazing legacy was Merck and Hipgnosis."

"Justin is truly a once in a generation artist and that is reflected and acknowledged by the magnitude of this deal."

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"Unlawful": US Sues Google For Abusing Dominance Over Online Ad Market

The US Justice Department sued Google on Tuesday for its dominance of the online advertising market, launching a fresh legal battle against the California-based tech giant.

The federal antitrust suit accused Google of unlawfully maintaining a monopoly that had "corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry."

"Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," the suit added.

The case was launched by the US Justice Department (DOJ) in conjunction with eight states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Central to the case is Google's dominance of the ad tech business, the technology that companies rely on for their online advertising needs.

The prosecutors said Google "now controls" the crucial sector, meaning website creators earn less and advertisers pay more, all while innovation is choked by the lack of rivals.

"In pursuit of outsized profits, Google has caused great harm to online publishers and advertisers and American consumers," said Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement.

The federal case follows state lawsuits against Google that have alleged it illegally dominates the markets for online search, advertising technology and apps on the Android mobile platform.

Google has denied vehemently it is a monopoly, saying rivals in the online ad market include Amazon, Facebook-owner Meta and Microsoft.

"Today's lawsuit from the DOJ attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector," a Google spokesperson said in an email.

The lawsuit "is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow," Google added.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, a big tech lobby, said the lawsuit failed to take into account offline rivals that include ads in newspapers and on TV and radio.

"The government's contention that digital ads aren't in competition with print, broadcast, and outdoor advertising defies reason," CCIA said in a statement.

The United States is home to global tech giants Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta and has largely depended on the courts to curb their power.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden urged Republican and Democratic lawmakers to break years of political gridlock and pass laws that would set stricter rules for Big Tech.

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Russian Athletes Should Not Compete At 2024 Paris Olympics: Zelensky Tells Macron

Russian athletes should have "no place" at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday as his country marked 11 months of war.

"I particularly emphasised that athletes from Russia should have no place at the Olympic Games in Paris," Zelensky wrote on Telegram following a telephone call with Macron.

Russia launched its invasion on February 24 last year, just days after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee swiftly sanctioned Russia and neighbouring Belarus, which Moscow's troops used as a launchpad for the assault.

No international sporting event has been organised in Russia or Belarus since the outbreak of the conflict and the countries' national symbols have been removed from such major competitions.

IOC chief Thomas Bach said last year that he would like to see the sporting sanctions extended in 2023 and a strong Ukrainian team at the Paris Olympics and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.

Zelensky in December called for all Russian athletes to be completely isolated from international competitions.

The Ukrainian president also told Bach that he fiercely opposed the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee's view that Russian and Belarusian athletes could compete at the Paris games as long as they did not bear their countries' flags.

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"How Close...": Ex US Secretary Of State On India-Pak Nuke Threat After Balakot

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that he was awakened to speak to his then Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj who told him that Pakistan was preparing for a nuclear attack in the wake of the Balakot surgical strike in February 2019 and India is preparing its own escalatory response.

In his latest book 'Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love' that hit the stores on Tuesday, Pompeo says that the incident took place when he was in Hanoi for the US-North Korea Summit on February 27-28 and his team worked overnight with both New Delhi and Islamabad to avert this crisis.

"I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019. The truth is, I don't know precisely the answer either; I just know it was too close," Pompeo writes.

India's warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans.

"I'll never forget the night I was in Hanoi, Vietnam when - as if negotiating with the North Koreans on nuclear weapons wasn't enough - India and Pakistan started threatening each other in connection with a decades-long dispute over the northern border region of Kashmir," Pompeo says.

"After an Islamist terrorist attack in Kashmir- probably enabled in part by Pakistan's lax counterterror policies - killed forty Indians, India responded with an air strike against terrorists inside Pakistan. The Pakistanis shot down a plane in a subsequent dogfight and kept the Indian pilot prisoner," he said.

"In Hanoi, I was awakened to speak with my Indian counterpart. He believed the Pakistanis had begun to prepare their nuclear weapons for a strike. India, he informed me, was contemplating its own escalation. I asked him to do nothing and give us a minute to sort things out (sic)," Pompeo writes in his book, which wrongly refers to Swaraj as "he".

"I began to work with Ambassador (then National Security Advisor John) Bolton, who was with me in the tiny secure communications facility in our hotel. I reached the actual leader of Pakistan, (Army chief) General (Qamar Javed) Bajwa, with whom I had engaged many times. I told him what the Indians had told me. He said it wasn't true," Pompeo says.

"As one might expect, he believed the Indians were preparing their nuclear weapons for deployment. It took us a few hours - and remarkably good work by our teams on the ground in New Delhi and Islamabad - to convince each side that the other was not preparing for nuclear war," the 59-year-old top former American diplomat wrote in his book.

There was no immediate comment from the Ministry of External Affairs on Pompeo's claims.

"No other nation could have done what we did that night to avoid a horrible outcome. As with all diplomacy, the people working the problem set matter a great deal, at least in the short run. I was fortunate to have great team members in place in India, none more so than Ken Juster, an incredibly capable ambassador. Ken loves India and its people," he said.

"And, most of all, he loves the American people and worked his tail off for us every day. My most senior diplomat, David Hale, had also been the US ambassador to Pakistan and knew that our relationship with India was a priority," Pompeo said.

"General McMaster and Admiral Philip Davidson, the head of what came to be renamed the US Indo-Pacific Command, understood India's importance, too," he said.

"Although often frustrated by the Indians, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer - a brilliant trade negotiator and a Bob Dole staff alumnus, making him a near-Kansan - was a great partner working to deepen economic ties. We all shared the view that America had to make a bold strategic effort to tighten our ties with India and break the mold with new ideas," Pompeo writes in his book.

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2 Masterpieces Missing From Swiss Museum Post Fire

A leading Swiss art museum said Tuesday that two 17th century paintings had gone missing after hundreds of artworks were moved due to a small fire last August.

Zurich's Kunsthaus museum said that it had reported the disappearance of the works, two small paintings by Flemish painter Robert van den Hoecke and Dutch Golden Age artist Dirck de Bray, to police.

The museum explained that more than 700 works had been taken down to be cleaned and restored after a fire broke out in the building overnight on August 3, 2022.

Since the beginning of 2023, two of those pieces have been "untraceable," Kunsthaus said in a statement.

"Internal searches remained unsuccessful," it said, adding that "since theft can no longer be ruled out, Kunsthaus filed a complaint with police on January 13."

The museum said it was assisting the police in their investigation and that it was hopeful the two works, both painted on oak and framed and covered with a glass sheet, would be found undamaged.

The works have now been listed in the Art Loss Register, the world's largest database of lost and stolen art, the museum said, adding that it had also launched its own investigation.

"Nearly three-quarters of our stock of paintings and sculptures are long-term loans or individual donations," museum chief Ann Demeester, said in the statement.

"That works are currently missing despite significant security measures has left us shaken," she said, adding that the museum had set up a crisis team to address the situation.

"Beyond recuperating the paintings, the aim is to draw lessons from this unfortunate incident."

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