US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that he is confident that the world’s free nations will join together to face the challenges from China to India and other countries in Asia. “I think that the whole world is coalescing around the challenge that we face (from China)… I am confident that democracies, the free nations of the world, will push back on these,” he said while replying to a question about the Chinese confrontation with India in the Ladakh region. He said that India was “an important partner” of the US and “I have a great relationship…
Author: Our Correspondent
National carrier Air India has approved a scheme whereby employees can opt for a leave without pay scheme for six months to up to five years. An internal order, dated July 7, authorises Air India Chairperson and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal to send an employee on compulsory leave without pay for six months or a period of two years, extendable up to five years. Employees who will be send on such leaves would be identified on the basis of factors like suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in…
Social networking website Twitter witnessed a major breach with accounts of several prominent people getting hacked. The hacked account posted messages exhorting followers to fork up cryptocurrency. The accounts hacked included those belonging to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Waren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg, Elon Musk, Kanye West, and others. The corporate accounts for Uber and Apple were also affected during the major breach. The fake tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to a bitcoin address. Some of the bogus tweets were swiftly deleted but there appeared to be a struggle to regain control of…
After more than two months of a bitter standoff between India and China along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, both countries met for talks. After a 14-hour marathon meeting between Indian and Chinese military leaders, the two sides agreed on total disengagement from all flashpoints along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with the exception of finger area. Earlier, it was reported that both India and China have agreed on total disengagement but top sources in the government now tells that the Chinese are showing reluctance in moving back completely out of the Pangong finger area. India, during the discussions,…
Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday recorded 493 fresh COVID-19 cases with 11 new fatalities within the past 24 hours, taking the coronavirus price past 200 within the union territory, officials said. These details were issued by the Jammu and Kashmir administration late on Wednesday night. As many as 493 new cases of the contagion were detected within the union territory during the past 24 hours taking the COVID tally to 11,666, the officials said. “Eleven persons, who were COVID-19 positive, have died over the past 24 hours in Jammu and Kashmir,” the officials said, adding, all the deaths happened within…
The Bombay supreme court on Tuesday said the migrants’ issue wasn’t handled properly in West Bengal amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore the government there at one point of your time even refused to allow labourers from other parts of the country to return to their homes. A division bench of judge Dipankar Datta and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai made the observation while hearing a petition filed by Centre of Indian Trade Unions, a Mumbai-based union body, raising concerns over the plight of migrant workers stranded in Maharashtra within the wake of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. According to the petitioner, the method…
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday accused rebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot of involvement in horse trading with the BJP to topple his government within the state. Pilot was faraway from the posts of the Rajasthan deputy chief minister and therefore the state Congress president on Tuesday amid a tussle for power with Gehlot. On Tuesday too, the CM had accused the rebel leader of playing into the hands of the BJP, which he said wanted a repeat of the Madhya Pradesh episode where the Congress government collapsed in March after a rebellion by Jyotiraditya Scindia. In an interaction…
Merajuddin Malla, a local BJP leader from Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla who was abducted by unknown persons has been rescued. According to officials, Malla was rescued following a day-long operation by security forces and J&K Police. The operation to rescue Merajuddin Malla who is also the vice president of the Municipal Committee in Baramulla’s Watergam, was initiated with the detention of family members of Lashkar’s Sopore Commander Sajad alias Haider. Malla’s abduction came two days after Haider had threatened the kin of J&K Police along with BJP party workers of dire consequences. The militant had also issued similar threats to…
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Wednesday announced that its telecommunications arm, Jio is partnering with Google to develop an Android-based operating system that will feature in entry-level smartphones. The development was shared by Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani at the 43rd Reliance Industries Annual General Meeting (AGM) that took place online owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Ambani during the AGM stated that the company is aiming to make India “2G-mukt.” To achieve this, the company hopes to provide affordable “4G or even 5G” smartphones running Android-based operating system. “Google and Reliance Jio are partnering to build a value-engineered Android-based smartphone…
Astronomers have spotted one of the most powerful and oldest explosions that took place nearly 10 billion years ago. The explosion that has been named SGRB181123B occurred just 3.8 billion years after the Big Bang – the cosmological event that led to the formation of our universe. Astronomers claim that the discovery offered a “rare opportunity” to study the neutron star mergers from when the universe was a “teenager.” It is also said to be the second most-distant, well-established short gamma ray burst (SGRB) ever detected and the most distant event “with an optical afterglow.” The research was published on…