Resolve tensions with India bilaterally: Trump to Imran

Agencies
August 17, 2019

Washington, Aug 17: US President Donald Trump on Friday conveyed the importance of India and Pakistan reducing tensions through bilateral dialogue on the Kashmir issue during a phone call with Prime Minister Imran Khan, the White House said.

The phone conversation between Trump and Khan took place before the close-door-consultation of the 15 members of the UN Security Council in New York. The White House readout of the call was issued after the meeting concluded at the UN headquarters in New York.

“The President conveyed the importance of India and Pakistan reducing tensions through bilateral dialogue regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,” Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

The White House said Trump spoke with Khan to “discuss regional developments” and to follow up on the latter’s visit to Washington, DC, last month.

“The two leaders further discussed how they will continue to build on the growing relationship between the United States and Pakistan and the momentum created during their recent meeting at the White House,” Gidley said.

In Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Khan took the US President "into confidence" regarding the UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters after the Indian government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

"Prime Minister Khan conveyed Pakistan's concern on recent developments in Kashmir and the threat they pose to the regional peace," Qureshi was quoted as saying by state-run Radio Pakistan.

The Foreign Minister said the conversation between the two leaders was held in a "cordial environment". They also agreed to remain in contact over the Kashmir issue, he said.

They also discussed the situation in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Khan said Pakistan has been playing a "constructive role to bring peace in Afghanistan and it made efforts in the past and will do so in future too."

Qureshi said Pakistan has contacted four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and are "also trying to contact French President so that his country understands our position".

The UN Security Council on Friday held a rare closed-door meeting to discuss India revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir after Pakistan, backed by its all-weather ally, China, requested "closed consultations" on the issue.

The meeting was open only to the five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members.

China, a permanent member of the UNSC and close ally of Pakistan, had asked for "closed consultations" in the Council.

On August 5, India revoked Article 370 of the Constitution removing special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and also bifurcated the state into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Reacting to India's decision, Pakistan expelled the Indian High Commissioner soon after deciding to downgrade diplomatic ties with New Delhi.

India has categorically told the international community that its move to scrap Article 370 of the Constitution revoking the special status to Jammu and Kashmir was an internal matter and has also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.

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News Network
March 13,2020

New Delhi, Mar 13: Delhi's Tis Hazari Court on Friday sentenced expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and six others to 10 years imprisonment for the death of Unnao rape survivor's father. Sengar is already serving life imprisonment for raping the minor.

While sentencing them, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said, "There can be no denying that rule of law was broken. Sengar was a public functionary and had to maintain the rule of law. The way the crime has been committed, it does not call for leniency."

Sengar and his brother Atul has been directed to give 10 lakh compensation to family of the victim for loss of their father. "There are four minor children involved, three girls and one boy. They have also been uprooted from native place," the judge said.

Seven people, including Sengar, his brother and two police personnel, were held guilty for culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy, earlier this month.

The case pertains to the death of rape survivor's father in custody on April 9, 2018. It was alleged that he was assaulted following a quarrel with some of the accused in the case.

He was taken to the police station and then framed for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm. Pursuant to this, he was sent to custodial remand, during which he died.

The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the Supreme Court's directions in August last year. Both the death and illegal firearm case was later clubbed by the court.

During the arguments on sentencing on March 12, Sengar had told the court that he should be "hanged and acid poured into his eyes if he has done anything wrong".

The former MLA had also raped the daughter of the deceased in 2017 in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district and was sent to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life", last year.

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News Network
March 2,2020

Paris, Mar 2: A global agency says the spreading new virus could make the world economy shrink this quarter, for the first time since the international financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says Monday in a special report on the impact of the virus that the world economy is still expected to grow overall this year and rebound next year.

But it lowered its forecasts for global growth in 2020 by half a percentage point, to 2.4 per cent, and said the figure could go as low as 1.5 per cent if the virus lasts long and spreads widely.

The last time world GDP shrank on a quarter-on-quarter basis was at the end of 2008, during the depths of the financial crisis. On a full-year basis, it last shrank in 2009.

The OECD said China's reduced production is hitting Asia particularly hard but also companies around the world that depend on its goods.

It urged governments to act fast to prevent contagion and restore consumer confidence.

The Paris-based OECD, which advises developed economies on policy, said the impact of this virus is much higher than past outbreaks because "the global economy has become substantially more interconnected, and China plays a far greater role in global output, trade, tourism and commodity markets."

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder will be hanged on March 3 at 6 am a Delhi court said on Monday.

The Patiala House Court on Monday issued fresh death warrants against four convicts while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents.

Earlier, Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had earlier issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

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