Year: 2020

700 Km traffic jams in Paris as residents flee ahead of 2nd Covid-19 lockdown

Editor

Dystopian images of logjams that stretched for 435 miles (700 kilometers) at one point Thursday evening — exacerbated by the upcoming long holiday weekend — were a grim sign of a return to the dark days of the spring. Parisians fleeing for the countryside jammed the roads ahead of France’s lockdown to slow the spread of resurgent coronavirus infections, and there was only a sprinkling of people hurrying along city sidewalks Friday as the nationwide restrictions went into effect. Dystopian images of logjams that stretched for 435 miles (700 kilometers)…

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Talks with India only if Kashmir ‘Siege’ is lifted: Imran Khan

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Imran Khan says he is open to dialogue if Kashmiris are given the right to self-determination as per the UN resolutions. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has reiterated that he is prepared to hold talks with neighbouring India only if it lifts its “military siege” on Indian-administered Kashmir and gives its residents the right to self-determination. Khan made the remarks during a short video address released on Tuesday to coincide with the anniversary of the day Indian security forces entered the part of Kashmir it administers in 1947, two months…

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Against “Imperial Laws” Mirwaiz Led Hurriyat calls for shutdown on 31 October

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Mirwaiz Umar Farooq-led All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has called for a shutdown on 31 October, Saturday, to “register strong resentment against anti-people law”. The statement by the AHPC, led by chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, senior leaders Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Ghani Lone and Masroor Abbas Ansari, said: “People of J&K are not some dumb driven cattle who will yield to these imperial laws. People have proved by the strength of their unfailing will and their immense sacrifices, that they are not a dead but alive and determined nation…

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Kashmiri’s decry ‘Land Grab’ as India enacts new Laws

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Residents fear laws are aimed at a ‘land grab’ to dilute the Muslim-majority character of the disputed region, now directly under New Delhi’s control India has enacted a series of new laws – and amended some – allowing any of its nationals to buy land in the disputed Indian-administered Kashmir, a move that has been condemned by the residents. Kashmiris fear the new laws, notified on Tuesday, are aimed at a “land grab” to dilute the Muslim-majority character of the region, whose partial autonomy was scrapped in August 2019, bringing…

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Citing Mehbooba Mufti’s actions and words TS Bajwa, Ved Mahajan & Hussain A Waffa resigns from PDP

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Three leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have resigned citing Mehbooba Mufti’s “actions and undesirable utterances”, according to news agency ANI on Monday. The PDP leaders TS Bajwa, Ved Mahajan and Hussain A Waffa, who resigned from the PDP, wrote to party president Mufti citing their reasons. According to ANI, they said in the letter that they are “feeling quite uncomfortable over some of her actions and undesirable utterances especially which hurt patriotic sentiments”. Mufti had said last week that her party’s members would not raise the tricolour unless…

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Ladakh isn’t only target, China has ramped up military presence across LAC

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Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party is executing plans to control Buddhist culture in Tibet while the People’s Liberation Army builds a military wall on the border with India. China has been massively ramping up its military infrastructure, not just around the stand-off locations but along other stretches of the Line of Actual Control under the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command. The deployment and the renewed focus on infrastructure upgrade has prompted Indian officials to suspect that the rapid militarisation of the border may be also linked to continuing efforts by President…

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Omar takes at Prasad, says don’t presume what SC will say about Article 370

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National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah took a dig at Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday over his remarks that Article 370 of the Constitution would not be restored, and urged him not to presume what the Supreme Court judges would decide on the matter. “Dear Ravi Shankar Prasad ji, we don’t expect you to restore anything but unless you are suggesting the Supreme Court has surrendered its independence & takes dictation from you please don’t presume to know what the Hon judges will decide,” Abdullah wrote on Twitter.…

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Jobs go scarce as unemployment rate soars across J&K

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Two separate reports on unemployment have placed J&K among the worst performers in job creation. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) figures, J&K has 16.2 percent unemployment rate, which is the second worst among states/union territories in India. The unemployment rates are produced by CMIE using its Consumer Pyramids Household Survey machinery. CMIE has pegged India’s unemployment rate at 6.7 percent which means J&K has much higher unemployment rate than the national average. According to the periodic labour force survey of urban areas for July-September 2019, Jammu…

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Bid to hoist tricolor at PDP’s Jammu office foiled

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Several ABVP activists were briefly detained on Sunday after they staged a protest outside the PDP office here against the recent remarks of its president Mehbooba Mufti and allegedly threw paint at a billboard with her picture on it, officials said. Over six ABVP activists, carrying National flags, appeared outside the heavily guarded Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) office at Gandhi Nagar and broke the police cordon to throw green paint on Mufti’s picture on the billboard near the entrance of the office, they said. Controversial statementThe former J&K CM on…

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BJP workers detained while trying to hoist tricolour at Lal Chowk

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Jammu and Kashmir police detained three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers from frontier district of Kupwara as they tried to hoist tricolour at Ghanta Ghar (Clock tower) in the commercial hub of Lal Chowk in capital Srinagar on Monday. Reports said the trio included Mir Basharat, BJP spokesman for Kupwara district, Mir Ishfaq and Akhtar Khan. Ahead of his detention, Basharat told news agency KNO that they had reached Lal Chowk early morning to hoist tricolour to send a message to members of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar declaration. “Our message…

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