No talks with Afghan’s Taliban, will 'finish' it: Donald Trump

Agencies
January 30, 2018

Washington, Jan 30: President Donald Trump told visiting members of the UN Security Council today the US would no longer talk with the Taliban following a recent string of deadly attacks in Afghanistan.

Trump railed against a series of "atrocities" in Afghanistan and said as a result the US would not engage in any future talks with the Taliban as the administration seeks to end a stalemate in America's longest war."Innocent people are being killed left and right. Bombing, in the middle of children, in the middle of families, bombing, killing all over Afghanistan," Trump said. "So we don't want to talk with the Taliban. There may be a time but it's going to be a long time."The president's comments followed a deadly car bombing attack in Kabul, the Afghan capital, that killed at least 95 people and wounded 158 more. Earlier this month, Americans were killed and injured in the Taliban's 13-hour siege of a hotel in Kabul.

Trump's remarks at the diplomatic luncheon marked a shift in tone on Afghanistan. The US has said previously that any peace talks with the Taliban need to be part of an Afghan-led process, but the US has never precluded talking to the Taliban.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who sat next to the president at the luncheon, has said previously that after an effective military effort, a political settlement including some Taliban might be possible, echoing language from former President Barack Obama's administration.

 Tillerson had said the US would support peace talks with the Taliban "without preconditions."Earlier in the month, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who helped organize today's luncheon, said the US policy on Afghanistan was working and the parties were "closer to talks with the Taliban and the peace process than we've seen before."Several attempts to hold peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have failed.

In 2013, hopes were raised when the Taliban opened an office in Qatar aimed at facilitating those talks, but a controversy over the Taliban's move to hoist the flag it used in Afghanistan during its five-year rule ultimately derailed the talks. Since then, efforts to lure the Taliban into talks have yielded little progress.

Trump has sought to change the course of the long-running conflict, sending thousands more US troops to Afghanistan and moving away from a "time-based" approach to one that more explicitly links US assistance to concrete results from the Afghan government.

There are now about 14,000 US forces there, and more trainers and advisers are scheduled to deploy in the coming months.Defence Secretary Jim Mattis earlier this month said this will make it possible for US advisers to serve with more of the Afghan units, strengthening them in the fight against the insurgents. The US-led coalition has also increased targeting of Taliban opium operations, including narcotic processing facilities in Helmand Province in the south.

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News Network
July 14,2020

Washington, Jul 14: Florida on Sunday reported a record 15,300 new coronavirus cases, the most by any state in a single day even as the coronavirus cases in the country have surged to 3,363,056.

The Washington Post reported that the huge number was result of both increased testing and widespread community transmission. The numbers shattered previous highs of 11,694 reported by California last week and 11,571 reported by New York on April 15.

Natalie E. Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida wrote that with Florida largely open for business, he doesn't expect this surge to slow.

Nationally, the conversation over reopening has become increasingly fraught amid the newly soaring case numbers, with much of the debate centering on whether schools should open their doors in the fall, reported the Post.

The Health workers in California and Texas too are facing an influx of COVID-19 patients where officials reported seven day averages for new cases - 8,664 and 9060 respectively.

According to the report, Florida has reported nearly 70,000 cases in last week alone, the most of any state.

Even though the COVID-19 cases are surging, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stuck to an aggressive reopening plan with state officials recently ordering schools to reopen five days a week in the new academic year.

The state is also set to hold the Republican National Convention next month in Jacksonville's VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, an indoor facility that seats about 15,000, reported Washington Post.

Seven-day averages for new cases -- considered a more reliable indicator of the virus's impact than single-day totals -- hit new highs in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Minneapolis, Jun 2: An official autopsy released Monday ruled that George Floyd, the African-American man whose death at police hands set off unrest across the United States, died in a homicide involving "neck compression".

George, 46, died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," and the manner of death was "homicide," the Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis said in a statement.

Floyd's other significant health conditions were listed as "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use."

The statement added that the "manner of death is not a legal determination of culpability or intent."

It emphasized that under Minnesota state law "the Medical Examiner is a neutral and independent office and is separate and distinct from any prosecutorial authority or law enforcement agency."

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News Network
July 11,2020

Kanpur, Jul 11: "The Uttar Pradesh administration has done the right thing by taking action against my son," said an old and feeble Ram Kumar Dubey, father of gangster Vikas Dubey.

The father said his son killed eight police officials and it was an unforgivable sin.

"Had he listened to us, his life would not have ended this way. Vikas never helped us in any way. Due to him, even our ancestral property was razed to the ground. He also killed eight policemen, which is an unforgivable sin. The administration has done the right thing. Had they not done so, tomorrow others would have acted similarly," Ram Kumar said.

"It is the chief minister's duty to protect every individual. The police is an extension of that. He attacked them which cannot be forgiven. I will not even take part in his cremation," he added.

Ram Kumar Dubey said that his only appeal to the government is to allow him entry to his ancestral property now.

Vikas Dubey was cremated at Bhairav Ghat in Kanpur. His wife, younger son and brother-in-law were present and no other member of his family attended the last rites.

Vikas Dubey was arrested by the police in Ujjain on Thursday morning. He was on the run for the last six days and had come to the city to offer prayers at a temple, where he was identified by a security guard.

He was killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police earlier today after he "attempted to flee".

The gangster was the main accused in the encounter that took place in Bikru village in Chaubeypur area of Kanpur last week, in which a group of assailants opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him.

Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter.

Vikas Dubey managed to escape after the incident. Uttar Pradesh police had launched a hunt and raised a bounty on him for Rs 5 lakh.

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