Page 2226 - Politics

Nancy Pelosi strikes deal with Democrat rebels

Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi has struck a deal with some of her party rebels intent on denying her the House speakership, paving the way for her to reclaim the position she lost eight years ago.

US should pursue tough-minded strategy on Pak, says American think-tank

Pakistan, it said, had the most important external impact on the prospects for success of Trump's South Asia policy

Gehlot, Pilot leave for Delhi to meet Rahul Gandhi

Congress chief ministerial hopefuls for Rajasthan Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot have left for New Delhi to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The meeting is likely to take place at 10 am.After the meeting, Rahul Gandhi is expected to take a call on the next chief minister of Rajasthan where the Congress won a whopping 99 of 199 Assembly seats, dethroning Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party.Pilot on Wednesday had informed that the decision on the chief ministership would be taken on Thursday by the party president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the party."Whatever the MLAs have to say they will say in the meeting and the final decision is left to the Congress president and other party leaders. We will take a call on Thursday," Pilot had said.Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Wednesday had confirmed that the process of appointing chief ministers for the state of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh was underway.Speaking to ANI, Surjewala said, "The process ..

US bill over reciprocity of access to Tibet awaits Trump's signature

The unanimous passage of a bill that insists on reciprocity between the US and China over travel access to Tibet is seen as a clear message that the US Congress is sending to Beijing about the situation in Tibet.

May survives no-confidence vote triggered by Conservative MPs

UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday survived a vote of no-confidence triggered by members of her own ruling Conservative Party over her handling of the country exiting the European Union (EU).

UK PM Theresa May survives confidence vote in leadership

British Prime Minister Theresa May has survived a political crisis over her Brexit deal, winning a crucial vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party. May is now immune from a leadership challenge for at least a year. She secured 63 per cent votes with 200 in favour of her and 117 against, out of a total of 317 of her Conservative Party MPs. The vote had been triggered earlier in the day after the required 48 MPs from her Tory party filed letters of no-confidence with the influential 1922 Committee. "Whilst I am grateful for the support, a significant number of my colleagues did cast a vote against me and I have listened to what they have said," May said in a statement outside Downing Street soon after the results were declared. "Following this ballot, we now need to get on with the job of delivering the Brexit for the British people and building a better future for this country. A Brexit that delivers on the vote of the people," she said, adding that she intended .

Putin's Stasi ID card found in Germany

An East German secret police identity card belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was a Soviet spy in the then socialist country in the early 1980s has been found in East German secret police archives in Dresden.The pass sports a black and white picture of a young Putin printed on green passport-style paper. Putin was then a mid-ranking Soviet officer and was posted in Dresden, East Germany from 1985 to 1990.At that time, he used to work for the KGB spy service as a liaison officer with the East German State Security Service, commonly known as "Stasi", CNN reported.The identity card was publicly released by BTSU, the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of former East Germany, and published in German newspaper Bild.Dagmar Hovestadt, the spokesperson for the Stasi records agency, told CNN that Putin would have used the identity pass to access Stasi facilities."In the 15 districts of East Germany, the KGB representatives thus received access .

Khamenei accuses US of plotting civil war in Iran

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday accused the United States of attempting to plunge Iran into chaos by trying to stage a civil war in the country with the help of economic sanctions and security issues."The US is planning to cause a civil war by creating divisions in Iran through economic sanctions and security issues," Khamenei was quoted by Anadolu News Agency as saying.He made the remarks while speaking to families of Iranian soldiers who died in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and in the Syrian civil war since 2011.Warning of repercussions from their side, Khamenei urged the people to remain "vigilant".Last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif chided the US over its "unbelievable" sale of weapons to the Middle East, saying that it is turning the region into a "powder keg". Slamming the US government, Zarif asserted that the arms being brought to the Middle East would undermine peace and security in the region.Ties between Tehran and Washington .

Canada warns U.S. not to politicise extradition cases

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Wednesday warned the United States not to politicise extradition cases, a day after President Donald Trump said he could intervene in the affair of a Chinese executive detained in Canada at Washington's request.

Visa on arrival for Indian tourists visiting Myanmar to begin today

In a good news for the Indian tourists visiting Myanmar, India's Ambassador to Myanmar Vikram Misri has announced that the visa-on-arrival facility for the Indian nationals will begin effectively from Thursday.Speaking to reporters here, Misri said: "The process has already started. So effectively from tomorrow (Thursday), when any Indian tourists arrive at any of the three international airports here (Nay Pyi Taw, Yangon and Mandalay), they would be able to secure a visa on arrival."The announcement comes in the midst of President Ram Nath Kovind's current five-day visit to Myanmar.Echoing similar sentiments, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said: "One of the important outcomes of this visit is that the visa on arrival will be given for Indians arriving by air. This will increase tourism and people to people exchange between the two countries."Highlighting the importance of the visit, Gokhale underlined that President Kovind had excellent meetings with his Myanmarese counterpart U Win

US Congress legalises industrial hemp cultivation

The US Congress on Wednesday approved the legalisation of large-scale hemp cultivation and its removal from a list of controlled substances. "This is the culmination of a lot of work by a number of us here in Washington but really the victory is for the growers, processors, manufacturers and consumers who stand to benefit from this growing market place," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. The measure was supported by both Republicans and Democrats who argued it was an opportunity for American farmers. It appears in a major law on agriculture that was adopted by a clear majority in the House of Representatives (369-47) after comfortably passing the Senate (87-13) the day before. The law has not yet been signed by President Donald Trump. "I'll be happy to loan him my hemp pen for the occasion," joked McConnell, a conservative from the state of Kentucky who had vigorously defended the measure after already pushing for the authorisation of pilot programmes in 2014. The measure ..

Theresa May wins confidence vote in leadership

British Prime Minister Theresa May won a crucial vote of confidence in her leadership on Wednesday, with 200 votes cast in favour of her and 117 against out of a total of 317 of her Conservative Party MPs. The vote had been triggered earlier in the day after the required 48 MPs from her Tory party filed letters of no-confidence with the influential 1922 Committee. "Whilst I am grateful for the support, a significant number of my colleagues did cast a vote against me and I have listened to what they have said," May said in a statement outside Downing Street soon after the results were declared. "Following this ballot, we now need to get on with the job of delivering the Brexit for the British people and building a better future for this country. A Brexit that delivers on the vote of the people," she said, adding that she intended to carry on negotiating with the European Union (EU) over controversial aspects of her Brexit deal when she heads to Brussels for a pre-scheduled European ...

May wins confidence vote by big margin

UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday won by a large margin a confidence vote by her fellow Conservative members of parliament.

Regional parties will take Indian politics by storm: Owaisi

AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has predicted that the regional parties will take the Indian politics by storm, providing an alternative to both Congress and BJP.

CNPC suspends investment in Iran's South Pars after U.S. pressure - sources

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has suspended investment in Iran's South Pars natural gas project in response to U.S. pressure and to minimize tensions amid trade talks between Beijing and Washington, three Chinese state oil executives said.

Tory MPs kick off first no-trust vote against May

Members of parliament from UK's Conservative Party on Wednesday evening kicked off the no confidence vote against Prime Minister Theresa May, the first of its kind in nearly 40 years.

UK PM says will quit by 2022 as she fights to remain leader

British Prime Minister Theresa May told her MPs on Wednesday she expects to step down before the next scheduled election in 2022, as she fought an immediate attempt to unseat her over her handling of Brexit by warning it could derail the process. May offered the concession to members of her Conservative party ahead of a confidence vote triggered by hardliners who hate the divorce deal she agreed with the EU last month. "It is not her intention to lead the party in the 2022 general election," Solicitor General Robert Buckland told the BBC after the meeting. "Quite rightly she is focusing on the here and now and the need for Brexit to be delivered." MPs and ministers have rallied round May since the confidence vote was announced on Wednesday morning, sending the pound rising amid expectations she would win. In a defiant statement earlier outside her Downing Street office, the prime minister said she was "ready to finish the job" by taking Britain out of the European Union next ...

Bengal government asks BJP to meet top officials on 'Rath Yatra'

A day after the Calcutta High Court division bench turned down its objections to holding talks with two of three BJP representatives, the West Bengal government on Wednesday wrote to the state BJP leadership asking them to meet top officials led by the Chief Secretary at the city police headquarters in Lalbazar on Thursday to deliberate on the party's "Rath Yatra" programme, informed sources said.

J&K BJP 'anti-Dalit', victimised me for being one: Expelled leader

Days after his expulsion from the BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit, Gagan Bhagat on Wednesday accused the state party leadership of being "anti-Dalit" and alleged he was victimised for being one. He claimed that the party's debacle in the recently concluded assembly elections in five states was a result of its "anti-Dalit" ideology. Going against the party line, Bhagat had on December 3 moved the Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of state assembly. The apex court, however, dismissed his petition on Monday, saying there was no merit in the pleas filed by the former legislator. He was expelled by the BJP on the same day with immediate effect for his "continued indiscipline, anti-party and anti-Jammu activities." "I am a Dalit and faced victimisation from the party which is 100 per cent anti-Dalit...I was always given the position where my caste fits," Bhagat told reporters here. "I have always faced discrimination because of the anti-Dalit attitude of the party leadership. Scheduled

UK's May plans to quit before 2022 election: MPs

British Prime Minister Theresa May told her MPs Wednesday she plans to quit before the 2022 election, as she seeks their support in a confidence vote, lawmakers said. "She said she does not intend to lead the 2022 election," Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke told journalists after the closed-door meeting, which was followed by a confidence vote whose results are expected around 2100 GMT. Cabinet minister Amber Rudd confirmed May's vow not to stand in 2022, as did MP Robert Buckland. "She said 'in my heart I would like to lead the party into the next election' and then that was the introductory phrase to her indication that she would accept the fact that that would not happen, that is not her intention," Buckland said. There was some doubt about whether May had unequivocally ruled out leading the party into any snap general election should her government fall before 2022. But MP Nick Boles said she had been "crystal clear" that she would not lead the party into the next general ...