Page 2429 - Politics
Yemen peace talks set for early December in Sweden: US
Peace talks aimed at ending the war in Yemen have been set for early December in Sweden, between Huthi rebels and the UN-recognised government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said. He said on Wednesday the Saudis and United Arab Emirates - who have militarily backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in the brutal three-year-old war - "are fully on board, by the way." "It looks like that very, very early in December, up in Sweden, we'll see both the Huthi rebel side and the UN-recognized government, President Hadi's government, will be up there." Mattis last month made a surprise call for a ceasefire in Yemen and urged warring parties to enter negotiations within the next 30 days. The United Nations has now pushed that deadline back to the end of the year. Mattis' latest comments came as the US State Department said talks must not be delayed any longer, and UN envoy Martin Griffiths was in Sanaa for talks with rebel leaders to push them to join the peace talks in Sweden. Griffiths .
Russia loses Interpol presidency vote
Interpol has elected South Korean Kim Jong-yang as its president, rejecting the controversial Russian frontrunner.
Rajasthan polls: Congress fields seniors to pacify rebels
As Thursday is the last day for the withdrawal of nominations for the Rajasthan Assembly elections, Congress is making all-out efforts to pacify its rebel leaders.Reportedly, as many as 50 Congress leaders have turned rebels. Many of these have either resigned from the party or have filed nomination as Independent candidate.To deal with the situation, Congress has divided the state into seven zones and entrusted national and regional leaders with the responsibility of looking after these zones.Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president and Lok Sabha MP Sunil Jakhar have been given the responsibility of Bikaner while Rajiv Shukla along with Sanjay Singh and Madhusudan Mistry will look after Udaipur.The other leaders who have been entrusted with the responsibility of different zones are-- Imran Kidwai and Akhilesh Singh for Ajmer, Haribhau Rathod and Vilas Muttemwar for Jodhpur, Akhilesh Singh and Parvez Hashmi for Kota, Bhupinder Hooda and Rajya ...
Congress CM candidate for Rajasthan to be finalised post elections: Sachin Pilot
Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) president Sachin Pilot on Wednesday subdued the speculations on Congress chief ministerial candidate and asserted that the party will decide on the name of the chief ministerial candidate for Rajasthan after the electoral victory.He said, "Chief Minister will be elected from Congress party only. People of Rajasthan have already made their mind. Our party has a policy that we fight elections unitedly. After the victory, the legislators along with Congress party will decide on who would be the Chief Minister. We have never declared Chief Minister ahead of elections and won't do now as well."Pilot further criticised the Vasundhara Raje-led Rajasthan government and claimed that people of the state are disappointed with her governance."The election is very important for the people of Rajasthan. They have to make choice for their future. People of Rajasthan are upset with the governance of Vasundhara Raje. People want change now, they will vote ...
Inside Trump's refusal to testify in the Mueller probe
The date had been picked, the location too, and the plan was penciled in: President Donald Trump would be whisked from the White House to Camp David on a quiet winter Saturday to answer questions from special counsel Robert Mueller's team. But as the January 27, 2018, date neared and Mueller provided the topics he wanted to discuss, Trump's lawyers balked. Attorney John Dowd then fired off a searing letter disputing Mueller's authority to question the president. The interview was off. Nearly a year later, Trump has still not spoken directly to Mueller's team and may never. Through private letters, tense meetings and considerable public posturing, the president's lawyers have engaged in a tangled, tortured back-and-forth with the special counsel to prevent the president from sitting down for a face-to-face with enormous political and legal consequences. The prolonged negotiation speaks to the high stakes for Trump, Mueller's investigation of his campaign and the presidency. Any ...
Pakistan's role in disturbing communal harmony in India exposed
Pakistan's malicious attempt to disturb communal harmony in India has been exposed again with the arrest of 26-year-old Bikramjit Singh alias Dhariwal Baggey, an operative of Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), for his involvement in Amritsar grenade blast.On November 18, two men on motorcycles threw a grenade at a Sikh religious gathering of about 250 people in the holy city, killing three and injuring around 20 others.Bikram has given significant information indicating that the grenade was provided to the assailants by one Happy in Pakistan.Happy a.k.a. Harmeet Singh Happy is the chief of Pakistan based Khalistan Liberation Force, who had earlier masterminded the conspiracy to carry out the targeted killings of political leaders and workers, including a Christian Pastor in Ludhiana and Jalandhar two years ago.Sources reveal that Harmeet Singh carried out such attempts in active participation with Pakistani establishment and the spy agency, ISI.The recent attack on Nirankari Bhawan is .
US to install observation posts on Syria-Turkey border: Mattis
The US military will install observation posts along Syria's northern border with Turkey to help minimise tensions between the Turks and Washington's Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State group (IS), defense secretary Jim Mattis has said. "We are putting in observation posts in several locations up along the... northern Syrian border," Mattis told reporters Wednesday. He added that the goal was to ensure the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, "are not drawn off that fight," so "that we can crush what's left of the geographic caliphate." "They will be very clearly marked locations day and night so that the Turks know where they're at," he added, noting that the decision was taken in close cooperation with Turkey. The SDF announced on November 11 it would resume its offensive against IS after having previously called it off due to new tensions with Turkey, which had shelled its positions in northern Syria. The violence caused ..
BJP, Congress are brothers who can't be believed: KCR
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief and Telangana caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday said that "both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are brothers who cannot be believed".Addressing a public meeting at Devarakonda, Rao, who is commonly known as KCR also announced that he will enter into the national politics after the Telangana polls.He also accused TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy and senior leader Jana Reddy of cheating the people of Nalgonda district and added, "Around 85 tribal areas are converted into Gram Panchayat which benefited the people of Lambada community in the district. No one can stop the victory of TRS in Devarakonda."At another public meeting in Jadcherla, Rao credited his government for completing all the pending projects in the Mahabubnagar district and criticised Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.He said, "All the pending projects in the district are about to complete in few months. Chandrababu Naidu was the Chief ..
Telangana: Junior doctor to fight elections as independent candidate
A junior doctor of a Telangana hospital has filed his nomination as an independent candidate from the Musheerabad constituency for upcoming Telangana Assembly polls.Vijender, who is a junior doctor at Osmania General Hospital said that if he wins from the Musheerabad constituency he will use the government funds in a transparent and accountable way."I am pursuing post graduation (final year) in Department of Community Medicine from Osmania Medical College. My intention to enter into politics is to help people. In these seventy years, our elders have elected wrong people due to which we are suffering. It's not about having experience in politics but about how much we are helping people. If I win from the constituency I will use the government funds in a publically transparent and accountable way," he told ANI."Nowadays common people are spending more money on education and health, people are not preferring government schools due to lack of facilities and infrastructure. If I win I will
US and South Korea to scale back major military exercise
The United States and South Korea will scale back a major military exercise next spring to avoid setting back diplomacy over North Korea's nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said. Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon that the exercise, known as Foal Eagle and conducted each spring in South Korea to keep ground, air, naval and special operations forces prepared for combat, will be "reduced in scope." "Foal Eagle is being reorganised a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy," he said. North Korea has vigorously protested these and other large-scale annual military exercises, calling them provocations and a dress rehearsal for an invasion. The US and South Korea insist the maneuvers are purely defensive. In October the US and South Korea cancelled a major exercise, Vigilant Ace, that was to be conducted in December, and after President Donald Trump's June summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the US cancelled a major summertime
Trump's embrace of Saudi Arabia causes GOP rift
President Donald Trump's embrace of Saudi Arabia has exposed a foreign policy rift in the Republican Party, as some of his GOP colleagues warn that not punishing the kingdom for its role in killing a US-based columnist will have dangerous consequences. Many Republicans even Sens Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, who share their views on the matter with the president have denounced Trump's decision not to levy harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday he was "astounded" by Trump's statement and likened it to a press release for Saudi Arabia. "It is a delicate situation when we have a long-term ally that we've had for decades, but we have a crown prince that I believe ordered the killing of a journalist," Corker told Chattanooga TV station WTVC in his home state of ...
Brexit goes down to wire as May calls last-day talks
Negotiations to secure an orderly Brexit deal will go down to the wire after Theresa May said she would return to Brussels for more talks on the eve of a planned signing summit. After an inconclusive trip to Brussels to meet EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker, the British prime minister Wednesday said she would return on Saturday to finalise preparations for a full EU meeting the next day. This implies that the texts of the deal will not be final before a meeting of top EU diplomats - the summit's so-called "sherpas" - on Friday, and will frustrate some European leaders. "There are some further issues that need resolution. We have given direction to our negotiators this evening. The work on those issues will now start immediately," May said in a statement. "I believe we have been able to give sufficient direction for them to be able to resolve those remaining issues," she said, adding that she would meet Juncker again on Saturday. With less than four days until Sunday's meeting, a European .
Dissolved assembly due to impossibility of forming stable govt: J-K Guv
Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, on Wednesday issued a statement clarifying his decision of dissolving the state assembly.According to an official statement, he took the decision due to "the impossibility of forming a stable government by the coming together of political parties with opposing political ideologies including some which have been demanding the dissolution of the Assembly."He also pointed out that the experience of the past few years reflects that "with the fractured mandate which is currently in the Assembly, it is impossible to form a stable government comprising like-minded parties."Malik dissolved the assembly shortly after Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti wrote a letter to him staking claim to form the government in the state in alliance with the National Conference (NC) and the Congress party. However, Mehbooba said that she failed to get through the governor via fax and hence shared a copy of the letter on Twitter. BJP ally Sajid Lone
Mufti, Abdullah display bonhomie amid J-K political turmoil
Amid the political turmoil in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah were found endorsing each other's view on Twitter.Soon after Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the state assembly on Wednesday evening, Mehbooba and Omar took to Twitter to vent out their ire.In one of her tweets, Mehbooba expressed her gratitude to Omar for supporting her amid the political tension. "In my twenty-six-year-old career as a politician, I thought I had seen it all! But like they say never say never! Nevertheless, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to @OmarAbdullah and @Ambikasoni4 ji for helping us achieve the seemingly impossible," she tweeted.Responding to Mehbooba's tweet, Abdullah wrote, "And I never thought I'd be retweeting anything you said while agreeing with you. Politics truly is a strange world. Good luck for the battle ahead. Once again the wisdom of the people will ...
U.S. Republican senators urge vote on new NAFTA deal this year
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twelve U.S. Republican Senators on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to submit the deal to update the North American Free Trade Agreement to Congress for passage by year-end, before Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives.
Opposition fumes as J&K Guv dissolves assembly
A political tussle broke out in the state of Jammu and Kashmir soon after governor Satya Pal Malik suddenly dissolved the state assembly on Wednesday.Speaking to ANI, senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz dubbed the governor's decision "unconstitutional" and said, "What governor has done is unconstitutional, the National Conference and Congress must have supported Mehbooba Mufti that's why she had written a letter to the governor. He should have at least given chance to them."Malik dissolved the assembly allegedly hours before Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti and BJP ally Sajid Lone of the People's Conference staked claim to form a government in the state.Calling the turn of events "unfortunate", Soz said that Lone will understand sooner or later that he is supporting the wrong party."Satya Pal Malik wants Ram Madhav to form a government. Lone will understand sooner or later that he is supporting the wrong party. This is very unfortunate," the Congress leader ...
'BJP will focus on image building, not winning Mizoram polls'
Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will focus on image building and not on winning the upcoming assembly polls in the state."We are not a very big party in the region, but I think there is major competition between Congress and Mizo National Front (MNF). we are trying to build our image. More than forming a government, we are focusing on building the BJP's presence (in the state). Our first priority is we should have candidates all over the state," he told ANI.Acknowledging the limited presence of the BJP in Mizoram, Sarma added "Mizoram Congress has a different constitution; they are different from the Delhi Congress. For the first time, we have fielded 40 candidates in the state."A total of 209 candidates are contesting the Mizoram assembly elections which are slated to be held in a single phase on November 28.Of 209, the ruling Congress has fielded 40 candidates while the BJP and MNF are contesting in 39 and 40 assembly seats, ...
Trump praises Saudi Arabia amid pressure over ally
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised Saudi Arabia for helping to lower oil prices as pressure intensified for the United States to impose tougher sanctions on its Middle East ally over dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
US, South Korea scaling back military exercise: Mattis
The United States and South Korea have scaled down a joint military exercise scheduled for the spring of 2019 to facilitate nuclear talks with North Korea, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday. "Foal Eagle is being reorganized a bit to keep it at a level that will not be harmful to diplomacy," Mattis said, adding that it would be "reduced in scope." US and South Korean forces have been training together for years, and routinely rehearse everything from beach landings to an invasion from the North and even "decapitation" strikes targeting the North Korean regime. But personal insults and threats of war between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were replaced last year by a rapid diplomatic rapprochement. The thaw culminated in a historic summit in Singapore in June, where the leaders signed a vaguely-worded document on denuclearization of the peninsula. The US and South Korea have since suspended most of their major joint exercises, including the ...
Take steps to allow journalists work without impediments: PCI to Jharkhand govt
The Press Council of India (PCI) has urged the Jharkhand government to take remedial steps so that journalists are allowed to carry out their professional obligations without any impediments, according to a statement. The PCI said it has noted with concern the reports of the alleged lathi-charge on journalists in Ranchi during the coverage of a function on Jharkhand Foundation Day on November 15. "It urges the state government to take such remedial steps as deem necessary so that journalists are allowed to carry out their professional obligations without any impediments," the statement said. The PCI has taken suo motu cognisance of the matter and a report on facts of the case is being sought from the Jharkhand government. "Simultaneously, a Fact Finding Team constituted to look into the death of a journalist at Chattra, Jharkhand will also meet the victim journalists and concerned authorities," it added. The team is being asked to submit its report preferably within six weeks. The ...