Saudi King upends royal succession, names son Mohammed, 31, as 1st heir

Agencies
June 21, 2017

Riyadh, Jun 21: Saudi Arabia's King Salman has appointed his 31-year-old son, Mohammed bin Salman, as heir, in a major reshuffle announced early on Wednesday.

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A royal decree removed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a 57-year-old nephew of the king, as next-in-line to the throne and replaced him with Mohammed bin Salman, 31, who was previously the deputy crown prince.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the newly-announced crown prince was also named deputy prime minister and maintained his post as defence minister.

The former crown prince was also fired from his post as interior minister, the decree said.

Saudi Arabia's Allegiance Council voted 34 to 31 in favour of the changes, according to the state-owned al-Arabiya channel.

The Saudi king called for a public pledging of allegiance to the new crown prince on Wednesday, the channel said.

Restructuring power

Some royal observers had long suspected Mohammed bin Salman's rise to power under his father's reign might also accelerate his ascension to the throne.

The young prince was little known to Saudis and outsiders before Salman became king in January 2015. He had previously been in charge of his father's royal court when Salman was the crown prince.

Over the weekend, the king had issued a decree restructuring Saudi Arabia's system for prosecutions that stripped Mohammed bin Nayef of longstanding powers overseeing criminal investigations.

Instead King Salman ordered that a newly-named Office of Public Prosecution and prosecutor report directly to the monarch.

Mohammed bin Nayef was not believed to have played a significant role in Saudi and UAE-led efforts to isolate Qatar for its alleged support of Islamist groups and ties with Iran.

The prince had appeared to be slipping from public eye as his nephew, Mohammed bin Salman, embarked on major overseas visits, including a trip to the White House to meet President Donald Trump in March.

That visit to Washington helped lay the foundation for Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May, which marked the president's first overseas visit.

The trip was promoted heavily by the kingdom as proof of its weight in the region and wider Muslim world.

Yemen and Iran

Despite Mohammed bin Salman's ambitions, which include overhauling the kingdom's economy away from its reliance on oil, the prince has faced criticism for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which he oversees as defence minister.

The war, launched more than two years ago, has failed to dislodge Iranian-allied rebels known as Houthis from the capital, Sanaa, and has had devastating effects on the impoverished country.

Rights groups say Saudi forces have killed scores of civilians and have called on the US, as well as the UK and France, to halt the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia that could be used in the Yemen war.

The newly-minted crown prince also ruled out any chance of dialogue with Iran.

In remarks aired on Saudi TV in May, Mohammed bin Salman framed the tensions with Iran in sectarian terms and said it is Iran's goal "to control the Islamic world" and to spread its Shia doctrine.

He also vowed to take "the battle" to Iran.

Iran and Saudi Arabia's rivalry has played out in proxy wars across the region.

They back opposite sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen and they support political rivals in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq.

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News Network
April 1,2020

Mysore,  Apr 1: A team of the state Health Ministry on Monday visited the pharmaceuticals company whose several employees were tested positive for COVID-19.

The team asked the remaining employees to stay under quarantine in separate rooms.

"The department is investigating whether this company has got any connection with China or received any object which might have brought coronavirus with it," said Jawaid Akhtar, principal secretary of the health department.

Karnataka Health Minister on Wednesday confirmed that the current COVID-19 positive cases in the state stood at 101.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases have reached 1,637 in India, including 1,466 active cases, 133 cured/discharged/migrated people and 38 deaths.

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News Network
July 21,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 20: The Karnataka Congress on Monday slammed the State government's decision to distribute beds used by COVID-19 patients to Government-run hostels and called it as a "ridiculous" decision.

"It's ridiculous that the Govt plans to distribute beds used by COVID patients to Govt run hostels," read a tweet from the Karnataka Congress president DK Shivkumar.

He further said that the Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa should give these beds to his ministers, MLAs and officials.

He further went on to urge parents and students to speak "against this move" by the State government.

"Let CM @BSYBJP give these beds to his Ministers, MLAs & Officials! We are launching a movement against this Govt & appeal to parents, students & youths to speak against this move," Shivkumar's tweet read further.

Along with the tweet he also shared a video as well.

Karnataka reported 3,648 COVID-19 cases and 72 deaths on Monday, taking active cases to 42,216 and death toll to 1,403. Bengaluru recorded the highest number of cases and deaths today at 1,452 & 31, respectively, said the State Health Department.

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News Network
March 31,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 31: Venkara Raghava, a software engineer from Bengaluru, who was infected with the coronavirus has recovered and is currently "doing perfectly well".

"I am doing perfectly well now. I had travelled to Los Angeles via Heathrow airport and that is when I came in contact with many travellers. I might have picked up the infection there," Raghava told news agency.

It was in Los Angeles when he started getting a 'low-grade fever' which led him to prepone his flight to Bengaluru. "When I landed back in Bengaluru on March 8, I had a fever and I isolated myself. The same day I went to a hospital where my travel history was taken and I tested positive for COVID-19", he said.

The next day, he was admitted to the isolation centre. His entire family was also tested but the results came back negative.

When asked about what does suffering from COVID-19 feel like, he responded that it was a like a regular viral fever and was "nothing to be scared of". "The fever is very grinding, and since my childhood, I never had a fever. I had a fever for almost 15 days consistently 100 degrees (F)," he said.

About his experience at the isolation centre, he said that it was an experience unlike that of a hospital. "At the isolation centre, one has to take care of themselves, unlike a hospital where doctors and nurses take care of the patient. I had to put a wet cloth on myself and you cannot overdose yourself with Calpol or Paracetamol," he said.

For him, "The tough times are now over" and now he has fully recovered but in the process, he ended up losing about five kilograms. "After the fifteenth day when I woke up with no fever, they took a test for the nose and the throat and it came back negative," he recalled, and on March 22, he was set free.

For one week, he has been in self-quarantine at home "being completely watchful" that the symptoms do not reoccur.

The number of total coronavirus cases reached 1,251 on Monday. There are 1117 active cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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