Page 559 - Politics
AP source: Barr opens a second investigation of Russia probe
Attorney General William Barr has appointed a US attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was "lawful and appropriate," a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday. Barr appointed John Durham, the US attorney in Connecticut, to conduct the inquiry, the person said. The person could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. Durham's appointment comes about a month after Barr told members of Congress he believed "spying did occur" on the Trump campaign in 2016. He later said he didn't mean anything pejorative and was gathering a team to look into the origins of the special counsel's investigation. Barr provided no details about what "spying" may have taken place but appeared to be alluding to a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained on a former Trump associate, Carter Page, and the FBI's use of an informant while the bureau was ...
Centre approves 2nd ICP for Tripura
The Centre has approved the Tripura government's proposal for setting up a second Integrated Check Post (ICP) and two new border 'haats' in the state to improve trade and bilateral relations with neighbouring Bangladesh, an official said on Tuesday. The decision was taken during an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by the secretary of border management of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)in Delhi on Monday, Special Secretary, Industries and Commerce of Tripura, Kiran Gitye told PTI. The Land Port Authority of India (LPI) would construct the ICP at Sabroom sub-division in South Tripura and this will be the second ICP along the Indo-Bangla border in the state after Akhaura ICP here, which was set up in 2013. Gitte, who represented Tripura in the meeting said, the two border 'haats' (markets) would also be set up at Raghna in North Tripura district bordering Sylhet district and Ghosh Khamar in South Tripura district bordering Feni district of Bangladesh. The ICP project ..
Modi govt is sinking ship, even RSS deserting it: Mayawati
BSP chief Mayawati Tuesday called the Narendra Modi government a sinking ship which even its ideologue RSS is deserting and said the country now needed a real prime minister, not a chaiwala or a chowkidar. She also attacked the fashion among politicians of visiting temples during the poll campaign and said the Election Commission should take note. Narendra Modi government boat is sinking, and everyone knows this, she said at a press conference here. The biggest example of this is that the RSS is also deserting them, she said, claiming that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers are missing from the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign. I cannot spot them anywhere in the election doing hard work with their 'jholaas' (bags), thanks to the non-fulfilment of promises and the intense resentment by the people, Mayawati said. As a result of this, Modi is sweating, she claimed. The BSP supremo said the country will not be fooled by "dual personalities" any more. "The country has already seen a ..
NDA will get two-third majority: Rajnath
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party will win more seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections than in 2014 and added that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will get a two-third majority.
Opposition supports terrorists, Pakistan: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday accused the Samajwadi Party (SP), BSP and the Congress of backing terrorists and Pakistan.
Newly appointed Thai Senate includes many soldiers, police
Thailand's newly appointed 250-member Senate, which will play a crucial role in selecting the country's next prime minister, will have more than 100 members of the police and military who have wielded power since a 2014 coup ousted an elected government. The appointments became effective Tuesday, when they were published in the Royal Gazette. Virtually all represent conservative elements in Thai society. They include former members of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, as well as many members of the unelected parliament that served under his junta. The senators are expected to act as a bloc supporting Prayuth when a joint vote to choose the next prime minister is held in the next few weeks with the 500 members of the House of Representatives elected in March.
Priyanka's Himachal visit cancelled due to bad weather
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi's proposed visit to Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday was cancelled due to bad weather. Priyanka was scheduled to address a rally in Sundernagar in support of Mandi Congress candidate Aashray Sharma, a state party leader said. Aashray is pitted against sitting BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma. He is the grandson of former Union Minister Sukh Ram. Aashray's father Anil Sharma has recently resigned from the state cabinet. All four seats in Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls on May 19. Anil Sharma, along with his son Ashray and father Sukh Ram had switched over to Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. He won the Mandi Vidhan Sabha seat and became power minister in the BJP government.
Pakistan says US has not imposed any visa restrictions
Pakistan on Tuesday denied imposition of visa restrictions by the United States, Radio Pakistan reported."The United States has not imposed any visa restrictions against Pakistan. It is just going to deport over seventy illegal Pakistanis," said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.He said Pakistan has asked the US to fulfil legal requirements about the Pakistanis being deported.This comes weeks after US State Department announced that it is imposing visa sanctions on Pakistan after it refused to take back its citizen deportees and visa over-stayers, as per the US State Department."Consular operations in Pakistan remain unchanged. This is a bilateral issue of ongoing discussion between the US and Pakistani governments and we are not going to get into the specifics at the time," US State Department spokesperson said on April 27.Other countries against whom the US has introduced visa restrictions are Ghana, Guyana, the Gambia, Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Myanmar and Laos.
Sidhu won't campaign for Congress in Punjab: Wife
Congress star campaigner and Punjab cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu will not campaign for his party in his home state as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has asked him not to, his wife and former BJP MLA Navjot Kaur said on Tuesday.
Our victory is certain, asserts Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Tuesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies were set to win the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Govt extends ban on LTTE for five more years: Home Ministry
The central government on Tuesday extended for five more years the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terror group that was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The ban has been extended under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, a notification issued by the Union Home ministry stated. India had banned the LTTE after the assassination of Gandhi in 1991. The ban on the group was last extended for five years in 2014. The LTTE, a terror outfit based in Sri Lanka but having its supporters, sympathisers and agents in India, came up in 1976. Its objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, and amounts to cession and secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union and thus falls within the ambit of unlawful activities, the notification said. The LTTE's continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty .
Post-Balakot strikes, Indian Army to move air defence units closer to Pakistan border
After a deep internal review of the recent conflict with Pakistan, the Indian Army is planning to deploy a number of its air defence units close to the border to thwart aerial threats emanating from Pakistan."Some of the fighting formations including air defence and other defensive formations are now planned to be moved closer to the borders," top Army sources told ANI."With these air defence units deployed closer to the border, we would be able to tackle any possible aerial strike from enemy side and thwart it close to the border itself," they said.The sources said the location of the air defence units deployed in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan were reviewed by the force and it was felt that a number of them can be moved to forward locations to thwart enemy aerial strikes close to the borders itself.The air defence assets of the Indian Army include the indigenous Akash air defence missile systems along with the Russian Kvadrat and other old legacy systems. The force
Rebel Rajbhar backs Opposition candidates in UP
In a fresh rebellion, dissident Cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government om Prakash Rajbhar, on Monday announced support for Opposition candidates in the seventh and the final phase of voting for the Lok Sabha elections.
BJP slips but maintains advantage in betting market
The 120-year-old satta bazar, or betting market, at Indore has rarely been so quiet during election season as this time around. The IPL cricket championship which concluded on Sunday was one distraction. But the bigger reason was the police raid a month ago that sent it into a hush.
Ullu hun, par itna bhi nahi: Mani Shankar Aiyar refuses to comment on 'neech aadmi' remark
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, who revived his 'neech aadmi' jibe by terming it 'prophetic' in an article published recently, refused to comment on his remark saying he did not want to be involved in the media's "games."Speaking to media here on Tuesday, Aiyar, while refusing to give any clarification on terming Modi 'foul-mouthed' in an article for an online publication, said, "There is no need for clarification. I have been told that the Congress party has given an official statement. There is a whole article, picking out one line from it and saying "now talk on this". I am not ready to be involved in your games, 'main ullu hoon, lekin itna bada ullu nahi hoon' (I could be stupid but not so stupid).""Anything I say is misused because there are people who hate me. They hate me because I speak the truth but I will keep doing so", he added.He also accused media of "victimising" him and said significant damage has been caused to his reputation because of the media."It is media's ...
Voices critical of CPEC being suppressed in Pakistan, US lawmakers told
People and the media in Pakistan are "scared" of speaking against the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as those critical of it are being suppressed, treated as anti-national or branded as terrorists, a former official in the Obama administration has told US lawmakers. The USD 60 billion CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of the multi-million dollar Border and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes. Testifying before a Congressional committee, Shamila Chaudhary from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, told the lawmakers last week that at the very local level, people who criticise the CPEC are often labelled as terrorists. "Rarely will you read an article that's critical ...
Trump says will meet Xi, Putin in June
US President Donald Trump has said he expects to have a "very fruitful" meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next month in Japan, amid escalating trade conflict between the world's two largest economies. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump also said he expects to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. "We are going to be meeting, as you know, at the G20 in Japan. And that will be, I think, probably a very fruitful meeting," Trump said on the possibility of his meeting with Xi. The President's remarks came as trade war between the US and China escalated after Trump last Friday increased the import duty on Chinese products worth USD 200 billion from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. He has also started the process of a similar increase on the remaining Chinese imports of over USD 300 billion. "We are taking in, right now, hundreds of billions of dollars. We are taking in billions of dollars of tariffs.... We have never taken in 10 cents until I got ...
BJP will win more seats than it got in 2014: Rajnath
Exuding confidence that BJP will win more seats than it did in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Union Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said that thepossibility of a two-third majority cannot be ruled out."In comparison to 2004 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP will win with greater majority this time. The possibility of a two-third majority cannot be ruled out. The hopes and desires people had from the prime minister in the 2014 elections have now taken the shape of trust," he told media persons.Lauding the Modi-led government for its capability on the economic front, he said: "Inflation did not become an issue during the last five years and did not come up during the election campaign as well. This shows the financial capabilities of our government."Attacking the Mamata Banerjee government over the issue of violence in West Bengal on polling day, he said: "There is no place for political violence in a healthy democracy. It's unfortunate that more and more incidents of violence are taking ...
MNM seeks TN minister's ouster after 'cut-Haasan's tongue' remark
The Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) on Tuesday sought the removal of a Tamil Nadu minister who said party chief Kamal Haasan's tongue should be cut off for commenting that independent India's "first extremist was a Hindu". MNM general secretary A Arunachalam strongly condemned senior AIADMK leader K T Rajendra Bhalaji's comments, saying it showed that the minister lacked "political ethics and personal dignity". "As the elected representative of the people and the minister for milk and dairy development, Mr Rajendra Bhalaji has broken the promise he made when he took oath as a minister. So he must be removed from his post immediately," Arunachalam said in a statement. On Monday, Bhalaji had said Haasan's tongue should be cut off for saying that free India's "first extremist was a Hindu". "His tongue should be cut off... he has said (free India's first extremist) was a Hindu. Extremism has no religion, neither Hindu nor Muslim nor Christian," the minister had said. Haasan had said on Sunday ..
Stalin doesn't see chances of Third Front govt
A day after his meeting with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, DMK chief M K Stalin on Tuesday said he does not see the possibility of the formation of a government of the Third Front at the Centre, but added significantly that it will be known only after the election results."I don't see the chance of a government of a Third Front. It will be known only after the results on May 23," Stalin told reporters.He was asked wheth there is a possibility of formation of a Third Front government consisting of non-BJP, non-Congress parties at the Centre in the context of his meeting with Rao at his residence on Monday.Stalin said Rao came to Tamil Nadu not for forming government but to visit temples. His meeting with him was just a courtesy visit.Asked about BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan's statement that Rao's meeting with him could make some impact, he shot back that it was only her wishful thinking.DMK has fought the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu leading the anti-BJP ...