Page 189 - Politics

Iran denies tankers attack as tensions soar

Iran dismissed as "baseless" Friday US accusations that it carried out twin attacks that left two tankers ablaze in the Gulf of Oman, escalating tensions across the region and sending world oil prices soaring. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Washington would defend its forces and allies in the region, and the United States pressed its case as the UN Security Council met to address the incident -- the second in a month in the strategic shipping lane. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Friday that the US administration had "immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran without a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence". He accused it of seeking to "sabotage diplomacy" amid a visit to Iran by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and "cover up its economic terrorism against Iran" in enforcing crippling unilateral sanctions. With tensions spiralling between Iran and the United States, the European Union called for "maximum restraint" and UN chief Antonio Guterres ..

DMK MLA passes away

Two senior leaders of the DMK including a sitting legislator died on Friday, the party said. Vikravandi DMK MLA K Radhamani was not keeping well for sometime and died at a hospital in neighbouring Puducherry, it said. Former DMK Rajya Sabha member S Sivasubramanian, who was also ailing for some time, passed away Friday. DMK President MK Stalin condoled the death of his colleagues and recalled their contributions to the growth of the party. Expressing shock and grief over the death of Radhamani and Sivasubramanian, he extended his sympathies to the families of the deceased. Radhamani represented Vikravandi constituency in Villupuram district and had risen through the party ranks. Following his demise, the strength of the DMK in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly has come down by one to 100. Subramanian, Stalin recalled, had been active in the DMK since 1971 and he had been elected MLA in 1989. He had served as Rajya Sabha MP from 1998 to 2004.

UP falters in wheat procurement target

The Yogi Adityanath government has failed to achieve its target of purchasing 55 lakh metric tonne (MT) of wheat from farmers at Minimum Support Price (MSP) during the kharif season from March to May.

AP: Jagan Reddy goes on scheme renaming spree

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday reviewed and renamed various schemes and policies of the previous government led by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu here.Reddy-led YSRCP government renamed 'NTR Vaidya Seva' as 'YSR Arogyasri' and a government order (GO) has been released in this regard. The 'Arogyasri' scheme was launched by late former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy and its name was changed to NTR Vaidya Seva during the TDP regime in the state, government officials said.While 'NTR Bharosa' welfare pensions scheme was renamed as 'YSR Aasara', the mid-day meal scheme has been renamed as 'YSR Akshaya Patra'.The state government also announced that the 'Annadata Sukhibhava', a scheme that was announced by the TDP government before the elections in the state, has been cancelled and introduced a new scheme called 'YSR Rytu Bharosa'. Both schemes aim at providing input subsidy to farmers, with central component, officials said.The state ...

Shivpal, Akhilesh unwilling to unite

Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav's efforts to bring his son Akhilesh Yadav and younger brother Shivpal Singh Yadav together do not seem to be bearing fruit.

Jaya Prada seeks disqualification of Azam Khan

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jaya Prada has challenged the election of Samajwadi Party MP Mohd Azam Khan to the Lok Sabha in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.

Kerala medicos on strike demanding hike in stipend

Over 3,000 post-graduate medical students and house surgeons across state-run medical college and hospitals on Friday went on a token strike demanding increase in their stipends.

Israeli jets hit Gaza after rocket fire into Israel

Israeli aircraft struck Hamas bases in Gaza early Friday, the military said, after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants hit a Jewish theological seminary in southern Israel. There were no reported casualties on either side. "Last night, a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory," Friday's military statement said. It said that in response the Israeli Air Force "fighter jets and aircraft targeted terror infrastructure in military compounds and a Hamas naval force military compound as part of a strike on a number of Hamas terror sites throughout the Gaza Strip." The seminary, in the town of Sderot, was empty at the time of the rocket attack as students had left to return to their homes elsewhere to celebrate the Jewish sabbath -- which begins on Friday-- with their families. "If the rocket had hit a few hours earlier there would have been a disaster," former defence minister Amir Peretz, a Sderot resident, said in an interview Friday with Israeli public radio. .

SCO Summit: PM Modi to meet Iranian President

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) Summit here on Friday, amid mounting tension in the Persian Gulf.The meeting will be held against the backdrop of the US sanctions on Iran as well as Tehran's partial withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA).The US recently announced that no fresh sanction waivers will be issued to existing importers of Iranian oil, including India.The issue had come up during a meeting between former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif during the latter's visit to India last month. After the meeting, Swaraj had said that a decision on buying oil from Iran will be taken after the general elections.Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani here on Thursday.

Iran denies role in Gulf of Oman attacks

Iran's foreign ministry Friday dismissed as "baseless" US accusations of being behind attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, adding Washington was trying to "sabotage diplomacy". The US had "immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran --(without) a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet. That showed it was "abundantly clear that the #B_Team is moving to a #PlanB: Sabotage diplomacy -- including by @AbeShinzo -- and cover up its #EconomicTerrorism against Iran". Zarif regularly uses the term "B Team" to refer to US National Security Advisor John Bolton as well as Israel's prime minister, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are all pushing a hard line on Tehran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of being behind Thursday's attacks which left at least one of the tankers ablaze off the Iranian coast, while the crews had to abandon ship. "It is the assessment of the United States that the ...

Nepal clears legal hurdles to buy arms from US

Nepal has cleared legal hurdles to import arms from the US government which has been pending for over a year following the differences over payment modality, a media report said.

Iran denies 'baseless' US accusation of being behind Gulf of Oman attacks: foreign ministry

Iran's foreign ministry on Friday dismissed the US accusation that it was behind the attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman as "baseless". Responding to the "baseless accusations" of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi insisted that Iran had come to "help" the ships in distress and "saved" their crew as quick as possible, according to a statement published on his Telegram channel.

Chandrayaan-2 Mission delayed due to policy differences under UPA 2: Ex-Isro chief

The Chandrayaan-2 mission was originally slated for launch 2012 but was delayed due to policy difference under UPA 2 government, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told ANI on Wednesday."Though the delay is not a serious issue. Chandrayaan-1 was launched 10 years back and a follow-up mission was Chandrayaan-2 was originally planned to be launched in 2012. But due to policy differences under the UPA 2 government, it was delayed," he said on Friday."But under the NDA government, Modi Ji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) has given maximum thrust to such projects like space mission under the leadership of Dr. Sivan, the current Chairperson of ISRO. Several designs have been made in the past few months. I would like to congratulate ISRO for getting ready such a complicated satellite," he added.Nair led the Chandrayaan-1 orbiter mission in 2008. He was as the Chairman of ISRO then and the Secretary in the Department of Space from 2003 to 2009. In October 2018, he joined the ruling Bharatiya .

PM Modi meets Kyrgyz Prez Jeenbekov ahead of SCO Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov ahead of the SCO Council of Heads of State meeting here. Jeenbekov is also the current Chair of the SCO Summit 2019. Prime Minister Modi was welcomed by the Kyrgyz President as he arrived at the Ala Archa Presidential Palace ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State meeting. "President Sooronbay Jeenbekov of #Kyrgyz Republic, current Chair of #SCOSummit2019 warmly welcomed PM @narendramodi as he arrived at the Ala Archa Presidential Palace ahead of the SCO Council of Heads of State Meeting today morning," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet. The meeting between the two leaders is their first interaction after Modi's re-election following the stunning victory of the BJP in the general elections last month. Modi arrived in the Kyrgyz capital on Thursday for the two-day SCO summit. The SCO is a China-led 8-member economic and ...

EU ministers agree to Macron-backed eurozone budget: minister

EU finance ministers agreed on the broad outlines of a eurozone budget early Friday, France's finance minister said, a key reform pushed by Paris that was scaled back amid deep resistance by the Netherlands. "We did tonight what we had set out to do: we've created a genuine eurozone budget," Bruno Le Maire said after more than 12 hours of talks. "For the first time, we have created an operational budget that will help eurozone countries to converge and become more competitive. It's a breakthrough," he told AFP. "For the first time, we will start thinking about the future as a coherent bloc and coordinating our economic policies," he added. The spokesman for the President of the Eurogroup Mario Centeno in a tweet welcomed the deal reached by the ministers adding the details would be announced at a press conference later on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron had championed the hard won budget, seen by many as one of the missing links in the single currency almost a decade after ...

Jaganmohan Reddy to meet Amit Shah in Delhi today

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital today.As per Reddy's itinerary, the meeting will take place in the evening.Reddy assumed charge of his office at state secretariat after his resounding victory in the state elections on June 8.In the Andhra Pradesh Assembly election, Reddy's YSRCP got an absolute majority by winning 151 out of 175 seats.On May 30, the YSRCP chief took oath as the second chief minister of Andhra Pradesh since its bifurcation.

US cautions India over buying S-400 missile defence system from Russia

The S-400 is known as Russia's most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system

Imran Khan breaks diplomatic protocol at SCO summit

Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan yet again broke the diplomatic protocol, this time at the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit held in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek on Thursday.In a video shared on the official Twitter handle of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Khan is seen seating while everyone else stood to welcome the head of states entering the hall. Upon realizing that he was perhaps the only one seated, he stood briefly and then seated himself again before the others did.Khan earlier broke the diplomatic protocol at the 14th OIC summit held in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.During a meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz at the sidelines of the summit, Khan spoke to Salman's interpreter and walked off before the message could be translated to the king. The video was widely circulated on social media and Khan was criticized, both by his countrymen and Saudi Arabia for apparently disrespecting the king.Khan and the leaders of the SCO ..

Government agency calls on Trump to fire Conway

An independent US government agency has called on President Donald Trump to fire counsellor Kellyanne Conway, accusing her of multiple instances of violating the law that prohibits top government officials from using their position to influence the country's elections.

Abe asks Iran to release American captives: Report

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked Iranian leaders during his Tehran visit to release American captives detained by the country, at the request of US President Donald Trump, Kyodo News Agency quoted a Japanese government source as saying on Friday.