James Dobbins has stepped down as US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.
Kerry said Dobbins’ deputy, Daniel Feldman, will succeed him, Xinhua reported.
As the first special envoy for Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in December 2001, Dobbins, a 72-year-old foreign service officer, took up his current post in May last year.
Army troops today foiled group of terrorists from infilitrating into India along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a Defence spokesman said.
The terrorists were trying to infiltrate from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) along the LoC in Krishnagati (KG) sector of Poonch district, the spokesman said.
The troops thwarted the bid by firing on them, he said adding there was no loss of life on this side of the LoC.
PTI
In a bid to improve coordination between the party and the government, the BJP Wednesday decided that union ministers would visit the party office every day and meet party workers.
This would lead to better coordination, and also strengthen the democratic system, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said.
The party also decided that a minister on an official visit to any part of the country will make sure to visit the local party office.
Expressing concern over misuse of anti-dowry law by “disgruntled” wives against her husband and in-laws, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that police cannot arrest accused in such cases “automatically” and it must give reasons for taking such steps which would be judicially examined.
The apex court said the attitude to arrest first and then proceed with the rest is “despicable” which must be curbed and directed all state governments to ensure that police do not resort to arresting in all offences punishable up to seven- year jail term including dowry harassment cases.
Fierce clashes continued in Iraq as security forces launched airstrikes against Sunni militants across several provinces in the country, security and medical sources said.
Iraqi aircraft pounded several neighbourhoods and a popular market in the city of Shirqat, 280 km north of Baghdad, destroying five houses and killing 18 people, Xinhua quoted a provincial police source as saying on condition of anonymity.
The death toll in the recent Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) pipeline blast at Nagaram village in East Godavari district touched 21, after one more person succumbed to his injuries in hospital, it was officially announced here on Wednesday.
“One person named K Venkataratnam (42) who was undergoing treatment in Kakinada Trust Hospital died today. With this, the total number of deaths in the gas pipeline blast has gone up to 21,” District Collector Neetu Prasad said.
Iran’s foreign minister today said his country and world powers have a “unique opportunity to make history” by agreeing on a nuclear deal, as talks enter a crucial final round.
Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking as the five permanent members of the United Nations, plus Germany, prepare to sit down with Iran in Vienna tomorrow in a bid to reach a historic deal by a July 20 deadline.
The world powers want Iran to scale down its nuclear activities in order to ease long-held fears that Tehran might develop atomic weapons.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu released a “white paper” on electricity on Wednesday, explaining how the Congress government ruined the power sector and pushed the state into a deep crisis during the last decade.
This is the first in a series of six white papers which the Chandrababu Naidu government said it would publish about different sectors to “put the facts before the public”, “educate them” and invite suggestions for improvements and find the “way forward”.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Carnegie Mellon University President Subra Suresh are among several immigrants who will be honoured this week on the occasion of America’s independence day for their achievements and contributions towards making the US “vibrant and strong”.
The Carnegie Corporation of New York, its Board of Trustees and staff will celebrate naturalised citizens on July 4th and honour a group of distinguished immigrants and their achievements in its ‘Pride of America’ full-page public service ad in The New York Times.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal along with his party legislators will Thursday meet President Pranab Mukherjee over the alleged “horse trading” by the BJP in Delhi, and will demand fresh assembly elections in the capital.
“All AAP MLAs meeting the President tomo (sic) at 6.30 p.m. to request him to dissolve Delhi assembly n (sic) hold elections,” Kejriwal tweeted Wednesday.
“BJP attempting horse trading in Delhi, desperately approaching our MLAs…,” the Aam Aadmi Party chief and former Delhi chief minister added.
With West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress content with its MP Tapas Paul’s apology for his rape remarks, opposition parties Wednesday targeted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her inaction in the case.
State Congress president and former union minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused Banerjee of “shamelessly shielding her proteges”.
Leader of Opposition and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) veteran Surjya Kanta Mishra held the Trinamool chief equally responsible for the remarks that have attracted nationwide condemnation.
Amid reports that BJP was spied upon by the US National Security Agency, Congress today said it condemns all kinds of snooping by any sovereign country on any other sovereign nation.
Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that the party condemns “all other forms of snooping also”, an obvious dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the snoopgate controversy involving the spying upon on a young woman.
Insisting that the party needed to know facts about the NSA snooping, he said, “We don’t accept that any particular person in the government facilitated or permitted.”
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was charged Wednesday with influence peddling and corruption after being questioned by judiciary police for 15 hours.
Sarkozy, 59, is the first former French president who has had to declare as a detainee in a criminal investigation, in which if convicted he faces up to 10 years in jail.
After the accusation, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said “no one is above the law”, adding that Sarkozy should be treated as innocent until proven otherwise.
India on Wednesday sought an assurance from the United States (US) that any such surveillance on Indian entities, Government and citizens would not recur as it happened in the recent past.
Junior doctors in the city today called off their strike following an assurance from the Telangana Government to take concrete action on their demands like providing security in hospital premises.
Telangana Home Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy and Health Minister T Rajaiah held talks with the doctors after which they announced their decision to end the stir, which began three days ago following an attack on some physicians at a Government hospital here.
An Egyptian court today sentenced a son of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and one of his friends to a year in prison each for possession and use of hashish.
Abdullah Morsi, 19, and his friend were arrested on March 1 after allegedly being found in possession of two hashish joints while they were in a car parked by the roadside in Qalyubia province, north of Cairo.
The two were freed the next day pending investigation after agreeing to give urine samples, which the prosecution says tested positive.
China has banned civil servants, students and teachers in its mainly Muslim Xinjiang region from taking part in Ramadan fasting, government websites said, prompting condemnation from an exile group today.
China’s ruling Communist party is officially atheist, and for years has restricted fasting in Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
Xinjiang sees regular and often deadly clashes between Uighurs and state security forces, and Beijing has blamed recent deadly attacks elsewhere in China on militants seeking independence for the resource-rich region.
Actress Alia Bhatt, who has delivered three back to back hit films, feels she has still not tasted ultimate success yet.
To a recent incident of paparazzi boycotting actress Shraddha Kapoor here, for reportedly behaving snobbish at one of the promotional events of her film ‘Ek Villain’, Alia said, reacting diplomatically, she cannot comment on others.
On starry attitude of actors, she said, “I don’t think we should comment about others. I don’t want to make it into a negative thing.”
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday approved the implementation of the ‘UP e-pension system’ for the benefit of lakhs of pensioners in the state.
A state government spokesman said under the system, filling up of pension forms, checking, verification and payment will be done based on an online system.
The mechanism – ‘UP e-pension system’ – has been developed with the help of the National Informatics Centre.
An Egyptian court Wednesday sentenced the son of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and one of his friends to a year in prison for possession of drugs.
The duo was also fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (around $1,400).
Abdullah Morsi, 20, along with his friend, was arrested in Qalioubiya province in northern Cairo for allegedly possessing two cigarettes stuffed with hashish in March this year, Xinhua reported
Five Turkish opposition parties Wednesday announced their support for Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, former Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, to run for the upcoming presidential elections in the country.
The five opposition parties include the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Democratic Left Party (DSP), the Independent Turkey Party (BTP) and the Democratic Party (DP), Xinhua reported.
The leaders of the CHP and the MHP signed a joint declaration in Ankara Wednesday.
Testifying as a defence witness in the 2G spectrum allocation case, former telecom minister A. Raja told a special court here Wednesday that after holding a meeting with then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and solicitor general G.E. Vahanvati, he “apprised” then prime minister Manmohan Singh about various telecom-related issues, including allocation of 2G spectrum.
An infiltration bid by militants was foiled by alert soldiers on the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, the army said Wednesday.
“An attempted infiltration bid by a group of terrorists was foiled by alert troops in Krishna Ghati sector of the LoC around midnight July 2,” defence spokesman Colonel Manish Mehta told IANS in Jammu.
The army has tightened vigil on the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the state July 4.
BJP today hit back at Congress for its remarks against Narendra Modi government over Chief Justice of India’s criticism on Gopal Subramaniam row, saying Congress has no moral right to raise the issue as it has caused “the most damage” to institutions during its rule.
While holding the independence of the judiciary in high esteem, BJP justified the government action in the case saying it has every right to put forth its views under the Constitution.
Breaking its silence, government today defended its decision to return the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium to appoint senior lawyer Gopal Subramanium as a judge of the apex court, saying its move was based on “proper, cogent and sound” grounds.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that the government has the right to be consulted in appointment of judges in the higher judiciary, a day after Chief Justice of India R M Lodha took exception to the government’s handling of the issue.