A dozen killed as terrorists attack Iran parliament, Khomeini tomb

June 7, 2017

Tehran, Jun 7: Iran's Parliament (Majlis) and the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in the capital Tehran have come under terrorist attack.

attack

According to reports, a dozen people have been killed in Wednesday's attacks while another 42 have been injured and admitted to 3 hospitals to receive treatment.

The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The attack on the parliament happened when at least four gunmen, disguised as women, entered the visitors' hall of the building, opening fire on the security guards there. According to an Interior Ministry statement, the terrorists were all killed before they could make it to the administrative building of the parliament.

The assault has forced a lockdown on the legislature.

Tehran MP Elias Hazrati has said that the assailants were armed with two Kalashnikovs and a handgun.

According to lawmaker Mehdi Kiaee, the situation is under control inside the parliament, while security forces are working to restore calm there.

As seen in the footage below, Anti-Terror Special Forces have been deployed to the Majlis.

An Interior Ministry source said a bomber had blown himself up on the fourth floor of the parliament building, where he was holed up.

Separately, gunmen attacked the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum in Tehran, opening fire on people inside and wounding a number of them.

Tehran terrorist attacks: As they happened

After the attacks ended, the Interior Ministry issued a statement, elaborating on the terror incidents. According to the statement, the first terror group, comprised of two people, entered the mausoleum at around 10:30 a.m. local time (0500 GMT). The first terrorist blew up his explosives but the second was killed during firefight with security forces.

Concurrently with the attack at the mausoleum, the second terror team, which included four people, sought to enter the office building of the parliament but were confronted by security forces, the statement said.

The ministry said that one terrorist blew his explosives up and the three others were killed in shootouts during clashes with security forces as they were seeking to reach upper floors of the parliament building.

It added that the country's Supreme National Security Council will hold a meeting later in the day to investigate different aspects of the attacks.

Tasnim said earlier that the hostage rescue team of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had arrested two “terrorists” at the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum.

An ambulance belonging to the Welfare Organization of Iran was targeted when terrorists fired 16 bullets at the vehicle at the mausoleum. Nobody was injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, IRNA cited an official with the Intelligence Ministry's Counter-terrorism Department as saying that several terrorist teams had entered the capital earlier in the day.

One of the terrorist teams was busted before managing to stage any attacks, while two others attacked the parliament building and the mausoleum. At the shrine, one bomber was killed before setting off his explosives, but another managed to blow himself up.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani condemned the attacks as “cowardly” and said they meant to undermine Tehran's anti-terror fight.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in Turkey for an official visit, also condemned the “indiscriminate” terror attacks. He described terrorism as a global challenge and warned about rising insecurity and terror acts in the region.

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News Network
February 1,2020

Washington, Feb 1: The Indian economy experienced some abrupt slowdown in 2019 due to turbulence in non-banking financial institutions and major reform measures such as GST and demonetisation, but it is not in a recession, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

"The Indian economy indeed has experienced an abrupt slowdown in 2019. We had to revise our growth projections, downwards to four percent for last year. We are expecting 5.8 per cent (growth rate) in 2020 and then an upward trajectory to 6.5 percent in 2021," Georgieva told a group of foreign journalists here on Friday.

"It appears that the main reason for this slowdown was the non-banking financial institutions experiencing a turbulence," she said on the eve of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting the annual budget in Parliament on Saturday.

She said India had undertaken some important reforms that over the longer term would be beneficial for the country, but they do have some short-term impact.

"For example, coming with the unified tax system, and the demonetisation that took place. These are steps that over time are beneficial, but of course they might, might be somewhat disruptive over short term," Georgieva said in response to a question.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director said that there is not a lot of fiscal space in India. “But we also recognise that the policies of the government on that side, on the fiscal side have been prudent. We will see how the reading of the budget, the submission of the budget goes, tomorrow,” she said.

In the medium-term, she said, the IMF remains optimistic about India. “This is why we see that upswing potential for the growth in the country,” she said.

Georgieva said that the current economic slowdown cannot be described as a recession. "No.... You're far from that. But it is a significant slowdown, not the recession," she said.

The IMF managing Director noted that the consumption in India also slowed down and that contributed to the overall slowdown in the economy. The IMF would be keen to see what India does to get relatively sound macroeconomic fundamentals to pay off in terms of better growth trajectory, she said ahead of the budget.

One thing that is important for India is that budgetary revenue have been below target. "The country knows that. The finance minister knows it. They need to increase budgetary revenue collection so they can improve their fiscal position. I said it's tight on the spending side, but I also want to stress that there is room to improve collection on the revenue side," she said.

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News Network
April 6,2020

Tokyo, April 6: Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to declare a state of emergency in view of the surging cases of coronavirus in the country, especially in Tokyo and other large cities, government sources said on Monday.

Pressure had been mounting on Abe to make the declaration amid a spurt in COVID-19 cases recently, with calls for the move from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and the Japan Medical Association intensifying, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Tokyo metropolitan government, along with healthcare specialists, said that the number of hospital beds available for coronavirus patients will soon reach capacity, with the health ministry rapidly trying to secure more beds.

Adding to pressure on the government to demonstrably bolster its preventive and countermeasures to the spread of the virus, a panel of government experts warned recently that the country's healthcare system could collapse if coronavirus cases continue to spike.

The healthcare system in Tokyo and four other prefectures are under increased strain and "drastic countermeasures need to be taken as quickly as possible," the experts said.

As of Sunday, 143 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Tokyo, a record daily high for the capital, bringing the total to 1,034, with Japan's health ministry and local governments adding that nationwide cases rose to 3,531 as of Sunday afternoon.

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News Network
July 3,2020

Jul 3: China under President Xi Jinping has stepped up its "aggressive" foreign policy toward India and "resisted" efforts to clarify the Line of Actual Control that prevented a lasting peace from being realised, according to a report released by a US Congress appointed commission.

The armies of India and China have been locked in a bitter standoff at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last seven weeks, and the tension escalated after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in the Galwan Valley on June 15.

“Under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up its aggressive foreign policy toward New Delhi. Since 2013, China has engaged in five major altercations with India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” said a brief issued by US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

"Beijing and New Delhi have signed a series of agreements and committed to confidence-building measures to stabilise their border, but China has resisted efforts to clarify the LAC, preventing a lasting peace from being realised,” said the report and was prepared at the request of the Commission to support its deliberations.

Authored by Will Green, a Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs Team at the Commission, the report says that the Chinese government is particularly fearful of India’s growing relationship with the United States and its allies and partners.

“The latest border clash is part of a broader pattern in which Beijing seeks to warn New Delhi against aligning with Washington,” it said.

After Xi assumed power in 2012, there was a significant increase in clashes, despite the fact that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi several times and Beijing and New Delhi have agreed to a series of confidence-building mechanisms designed to mitigate tensions.

Prior to 2013, the last major border clash was in 1987. The 1950s and 1960s were a particularly tense period, culminating in 1962 with a war that left thousands of soldiers dead on both sides, according to the records of China's People's Liberation Army, the report said.

“The 2020 skirmish is in line with Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy. The clash came as Beijing was aggressively pressing its other expansive sovereignty claims in the Indo-Pacific region, such as over Taiwan and in the South and East China seas,” it said.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are vital to global trade.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the area.

Several weeks before the clash in the Galwan Valley, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe called on Beijing to “use fighting to promote stability” as the country’s external security environment worsened, a potential indication of China’s intent to proactively initiate military tensions with its neighbours to project an image of strength, the report said.

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