Pakistan resorted to unprovoked firing and shelling along the line of control (LoC) on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district. Defence Ministry spokesman, Colonel Devender Anand said, “At about 11.20 a.m. today, Pakistan initiated the unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms and shelling with mortars along the LoC in Kirni sector of Poonch. “Indian army is retaliating befittingly”. Pakistan has been violating ceasefire in this sector frequently during the recent days. Last week, a girl, a woman and a man were killed in the shelling from Pakistan in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district.
Author: Our Correspondent
The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), the apex body of saints and seers, has threatened to launch a massive agitation if strong action is not taken against those responsible in the Palghar incident where two sadhus and their driver were lynched by a mob on Thursday night (April 16). “Lakhs of Naga sadhus and members of various akharas will march to Maharashtra after lockdown is lifted if all the guilty are not punished. The Maharashtra government should terminate all the police officers who failed to protect the saints,” Mahant Giri said. ABAP president Mahant Narendra Giri said there is ”Ravan…
China has included parts of Arunachal Pradesh within its international boundaries, an updated version issued by Sky Map has revealed. Sky Map, China’s authority on digital maps, is constructed and operated by a unit directly under Beijing’s National Surveying and Mapping Geographic Information Bureau. Recently, Sky Map users discovered that it has updated the country’s map with the latest national borders, including India’s Arunachal Pradesh, a DW media report said. Arunachal Pradesh, a hill state in the Northeast bordering Tibet, was part of British India in 1913-14 and formally included in India when the Mac Mohan Line was established as…
The US blockade against Cuba has hindered the arrival of international aid for the Caribbean island to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a top official said here. “Besides donations from China, we have received help from different countries,” as well as from the Unicef, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), among others, Xinhua news agency quoted Francisco Duran, Health Ministry’s national director for epidemiology, as saying on Monday. “Despite the US blockade, solidarity with Cuba goes on,” he added. The Chinese government and companies have been supporting Cuba’s efforts to stem the spread of the…
An article was published on April 15 in a Pakistani newspaper says Pakistan has discreetly removed the names of around 4,000 terrorists from its watchlist, including that of one of the major planners of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup has revealed. Due to Pakistan’s long history of exporting terror to India and the rest of the world, the country has been placed under grey list by Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for terror funding. Dissatisfied with Pakistan’s efforts to curb terror-funding, the FATF in February noted that Islamabad had addressed only 14…
Millions of children around the world have been driven from their homes and across borders by conflict, violence and other forms of harm. UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi have called for support for displaced children amid the rapid spread of COVID-19. Displaced children are among those with the most limited access to prevention services, testing, treatment and other essential support, they said in a joint statement on Monday, Xinhua reported. In addition, the pandemic and containment measures are likely to have negative consequences for their safety and education, which…
A gunman disguised as a policeman killed at least 18 people, including a female Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer, in the worst mass shooting in Canada’s modern history. The 12-hour rampage started late on Saturday and ended with a car chase. Police said the suspect shot people at different locations in Nova Scotia, many of them randomly. He was killed in a confrontation with police. He was reported to have been driving what looked like a police car. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as “a tragedy”. “Violence of any kind has no place in Canada. We…
An agreement had been reached between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival, Benny Gantz, on Monday. An agreement for an emergency unity government, in which both will hold the top post in rotation, reports said. The deal, signed on Monday night at the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem amid near-total lockdown, brings political stability to Israel after three inconclusive elections and a year of political paralysis, the BBC reported. Both men had faced calls to avoid a fourth election and form a coalition to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic. The Israeli Health Ministry has reported 13,654 confirmed…
Sri Lanka’s Elections Commission has announced it would conduct the country’s parliamentary polls on June 20. The polls were initially planned to be held on April 25 but were postponed by the Elections Commission last month following the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. The government information department said in a statement that following the decision by the Elections Commission, a special gazette notice would be issued declaring June 20 as the new date for the polls, Xinhua reported. Chief of the Elections Commission Mahinda Deshapriya had said earlier that it was impossible to conduct an elections on the announced date…
The office of Ayushman Bharat that comes under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been sealed and 25 employees have been quarantined after an employee who is PS to the Additional Chief Executive Officer, tested positive for COVID-19. “As soon as the employee was confirmed with novel coronavirus our office was sealed. At least 25 employees have been quarantined,” the source told IANS, adding, “thankfully the staff was not much because 50 per cent employees are working from home. The total number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in India is at 17,656, with 559 deaths so far,…