Saudi prince who called for reforms passes away at 87

Agencies
December 23, 2018

Riyadh, Dec 23: Prayers were held Sunday for Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz, a senior member of the royal family who supported women's rights and once led a group of dissident princes, who died at the age of 87.

Prince Talal was an older brother to King Salman and the father of businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. He is the son of the founder and first ruler of modern Saudi Arabia, the late King Abdulaziz, whose sons have ruled since his death, with the throne passing from brother to brother.

Prince Talal's son Prince Abdulaziz bin Talal announced on Twitter that his father passed away on Saturday. The royal court also released a statement about his passing.

Prince Talal served as minister of communications in the 1950s and minister of finance in the early 1960s. In 1957, Prince Talal founded the first school for girls in Riyadh, according to the Saudi newspaper Arab News. The school was founded at a time when females had no access to formal education in the landlocked capital and schools were open to boys only.

Soon after he was appointed finance minister, he struck out and led a group of princes who called for a constitutional monarchy that distributes some of the king's powers. The royals, who became known as the Free Princes Movement, called for a constitution to govern the kingdom, rather than rules based solely on clerical interpretation of the Quran and other religious doctrine.

Prince Talal led the group from Beirut and Cairo, which under then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was an adversary of Riyadh. The prince was stripped of his nationality and his assets were seized.

After rifts emerged between Prince Talal and Cairo, he was allowed to return to Saudi Arabia in 1964 under King Faisal, who had deposed his brother King Saud that same year.

Prince Talal served until 2011 as a member of the Allegiance Council, a body of senior princes who are meant to meet and choose the next king among themselves. He'd reportedly left the council after questioning its efficacy when a senior prince was appointed to the line of succession without the council being fully consulted.

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Agencies
June 19,2020

New Delhi, Jun 19: Delhi minister Satyendar Jain's health has deteriorated further. He is infected with the coronavirus. Jain has also been diagnosed with pneumonia. He is being shifted to an ICU.  According to doctors, Jain is now kept full-time on oxygen support as his oxygen saturation level has dipped.  

Jain was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital early Tuesday after running high fever and suffering a sudden drop in oxygen level. The 55-year-old leader's test result came positive on Wednesday evening after a second test. Jain was brought to the hospital and was administered a test for the novel coronavirus infection on Tuesday morning, for which he tested negative. But he still ran fever and showed symptoms, so another test was done after 24 hours of the first.

He will now be shifted Max Hospital in Saket and administered plasma therapy. 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also wished for Jain's speedy recovery.

On Thursday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia took over the charge of health, PWD, power and other departments held by Jain. Jain will remain the cabinet minister without any portfolio in the Arvind Kejriwal government until he recovers. 

On Sunday, Jain attended a high-level meeting on the coronavirus situation in the national capital, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, which was also attended by Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mar 4: Twenty-one Italian tourists and three Indian tour operators have been sent to an ITBP quarantine facility in Delhi on Tuesday for suspected coronavirus exposure, official sources said.

Health Ministry sources said these foreigners, 13 women and eight men, were in the same group of which an Italian and his wife have tested positive in Rajasthan capital Jaipur.

“His (Italian in Jaipur) condition is stable,” a source said.

Three Indians, who were accompanying this Italian group as tour operators, have also been sent to the ITBP facility in Chhawla area of south-west Delhi, they said.

All these people, staying at a five-star hotel in south Delhi, have been put in “preventive isolation” at the ITBP camp and their samples will be taken on Wednesday, sources said.

The centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an IAF plane from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week.

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News Network
January 23,2020

Patna, Jan 23: "They should go wherever they want," Bihar Chief Minister and JDU supremo Nitish Kumar said on Thursday when asked of Prashant Kishor and Pavan Verma's repeated questions about the party's stand's on the newly enacted Citizenship Act.

"It is their personal decision. They should go wherever they want. We don't have an objection. Don't look at JDU in the context of statements by some people. JDU works with determination. We have a clear stand and don't have any confusion," the Chief Minister told reporters here.

"If they have something to tell, they should come and discuss it within the party. They should go wherever they want. They have my good wishes," he said.

JDU spokesperson and national general secretary Pavan Verma has questioned his party's alliance with the BJP in Delhi Assembly polls while Kishor has more than once made his differences with the party known on the issue of the amended Citizenship Act, and National Register of Citizens.

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