Breaking HIGHLIGHTS: Union Health Minister To Visit Assam On Tuesday To Review COVID Situation In North-Eastern States
Breaking News, 16 August 2021 HIGHLIGHTS: This blog brings to you the latest breaking news from across India and the world. Refresh the page to find the latest updates.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to visit Assam tomorrow to review the COVID-19 situation in North-Eastern states & also to review construction works at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Changsari.
Pfizer & BioNTech announce the submission of initial data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support booster dose of COVID19 vaccine.
Delhi Cantt rape case: Parents of the deceased child move High Court seeking direction for judicial inquiry and constitution of Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a probe.
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigned on Monday after less than 18 months in power, apologizing for his shortcomings but blaming those hungry for power.
There will be no cut in excise duty on fuel as of now. Exchequer is burdened by interest payments being made for oil bonds floated by UPA Govt. The Govt has paid over 62,000 crores in interest in the last 5 years on oil bonds itself: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.
"We'll still have to pay interest of Rs 37,000 crores by 2026. Despite interest payments, principal outstanding of over 1.30 lakh crores is still pending. If I didn't have the burden of oil bonds, I would have been in a position to reduce excise duty on fuel," she added.
The glitches in the new income tax portal are expected to be fixed entirely in the next 2-3 days, the Finance Minister said.
"We've sent a file to LG for his approval to set up a high-level committee for a probe to find out how many COVID patients died due to oxygen shortage. I've written to Union HM Amit Shah, urging him to direct LG not to stop the formation of the committee": Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia said as quoted by ANI.
Ministry of External Affairs and others who are responsible for it will make all the arrangements: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on the evacuation of Sikhs & Hindus from Afghanistan
The AI-126 Chicago-Delhi flight that was diverted to Sharjah for refuelling due to the closure of Afghan airspace has landed now.
AI-174 San Francisco-Delhi will also land at Sharjah approximately in an hour.
A meeting between Sushmita Dev, who resigned from Congress today, and TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee is underway at the latter's office at Camac Street in Kolkata
The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Haiti rises to 1,297, reports Reuters, as crews desperately dug through collapsed buildings for survivors in the Caribbean nation still reeling from its president's assassination.
In Les Cayes, as in other hard-hit cities on the southwestern peninsula, most of the population spent the night sleeping outdoors in front of their houses -- or what remained of them -- amid fears of new aftershocks.
The streets there were filled with the grinding sounds of heavy equipment lifting debris from collapsed buildings, as well as the quieter sounds of people pulling away rubble by hand in desperate searches for the missing.
Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh urges External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar for "immediate evacuation of all Indians, including around 200 Sikhs, stuck in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover".
Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, in a statement, called the Centre's silence on the Afghan crisis "deeply disturbing" and "beyond any reasonable understanding".
"Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister need to come out and clearly spell out our policy for safe return of our citizens, embassy personnel as also our future relationship," he wrote in a statement on Twitter.
I tried speaking with Sushmita Dev, her phone was off She was a dedicated Cong worker & perhaps is, even today. Cong President Sonia Gandhi has not received any letter from her. She's mature enough to take her decisions, can't comment until I speak with her:Randeep Surjewala,Cong
After quitting Congress, Sushmita Dev is likely to join TMC. Sources claim that after joining TMC, Sushmita can become the in charge of Tripura where assembly elections are to be held next year. Tripura has a large number of Bengali-speaking population and Sushmita's leadership can help TMC.
Sushmita Dev, who was the National President of Mahila Congress, resigned from the Congress party a day ago. In her resignation to the party, Sushmita thanked Sonia Gandhi for giving her the opportunity and guidance and also sought best wishes for the next innings.
All commercial flights are suspended at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, a statement reads.
The statement calls on the people to avoid crowds at the airport, as reported by TOLO News.
Ali Ahmad Jilali, a U.S.-based academic, and former Afghan interior minister is likely to be named to head an interim administration in Kabul, according to a report by Reuters.
Afghan nationals protest outside the White House against the US President after Afghanistan's capital Kabul fell to the Taliban.
Govt has told Air India to put two aircraft on standby for emergency evacuations from Kabul. Air India has prepared a set crew for emergency operations from Kabul to New Delhi: Govt Sources
The collapse of Kabul without any resistance to the Taliban will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history, former US President Donald Trump has said.
What Joe Biden has done with Afghanistan is legendary. It will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history, Trump said in a short statement hours after the Taliban occupied the presidential palace in Kabul and its elected leader Ashraf Ghani fled the country along with his senior officials reportedly to Tajikistan.
There was no word from the White House on the developments in Kabul. President Joe Biden, who is spending his weekend in Camp David, held a secure video conference with his top national security advisors, the White House said.
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley described it as a failure of the Biden Administration.
It's not always what you do, it's how you do it. Begging the Taliban to let Americans out of Afghanistan is not how any combat veteran or military family thought this would end. Their sacrifices mattered. Now we all know more serious threats will follow, she said.
If I were still the Secretary of State with a Commander in Chief like President Trump, the Taliban would have understood that there were real costs to pay if there were plots against America. Qasem Soleimani learned that lesson, and the Taliban would have learned it as well, said former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an interview to Fox News.
The United States has said that it would deploy as many as 6,000 of its troops at the Kabul airport to ensure safe departure of its citizens and those from its friends and allies from Afghanistan which has now been taken over by the Taliban, in a sudden an unprecedented collapse of the elected regime led by President Ashraf Ghani.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also made a series of calls to the counterparts of his key allies. India was not one of them.
Simultaneously more than 60 countries led by the United States and the European Union issued a joint statement urging those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to bear responsibility and accountability for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order.
At present we are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of US and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights, said a joint statement issued by the Department of State and the Defense Department.
Over the next 48 hours, we will have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts, and will be taking over air traffic control. Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the US mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals, it said.
We will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for US Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks. For all categories, Afghans who have cleared security screening will continue to be transferred directly to the United States. And we will find additional locations for those yet to be screened, the statement said.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said that he had fled the country on Sunday to “prevent a flood of bloodshed", as the Taliban entered the capital, capping a lightning offensive across the country.
Taliban militants have now entered the capital. Three senior Taliban sources told AFP that the insurgents had taken control of the presidential palace and were holding a meeting on security in the capital.
Ghani said he believed “countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be destroyed" if he had stayed behind.
“The Taliban have won… and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," he said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Shillong District Magistrate Isawanda Laloo promulgated total curfew from 8 pm on Sunday in Shillong agglomeration as the situation in Shillong remained tense over a number of stray incidents reported in parts of the town. In her order, the district magistrate said, “in view of the urgency of the matter this order has been made exparte and will remain in force till 5 am of August 7 or till further orders.”
Meanwhile, Meghalaya Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui has written to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to relieve him from the Home (Police) Department with immediate effect, even as he proposed judicial enquiry into the alleged killing of former Militant leader in Shillong.
In the letter, Rymbui said, “Considering the gravity of the situation, I would request you to relieve the Home (Police) Department from me with immediate effect.”
“This will facilitate free and fair enquiry taken by the government to bring out the truth of the incident. I propose judicial enquiry be conducted,” the Minister added.
Background
Breaking News, 16 August 2021 HIGHLIGHTS: Violence, including stone-pelting and setting a police vehicle afire, rocked Shillong on Sunday, following the "killing" of a former militant leader on Friday, leading the authorities to enforce curfew and suspend internet services in four Meghalaya districts, officials said.
Meghalaya Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui resigned on Sunday night in wake of the violence.
Demanding a judicial inquiry into the Shillong violence, Rymbui, in his resignation letter to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, said that he was shocked at the killing of HNLC ex-leader Chesterfield Thangkhiew following the police raid at his residence exceeding the lawful tenets of the law.
"Considering the gravity of the situation, I request you to relieve me of the Home (Police) Department with immediate effect. This will facilitate free and fair enquiry taken by the government to bring out the truth of the incident," Rymbui said.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has left the country for Tajikistan, a senior interior ministry official said on Sunday as reported by news agency Reuters.
Former President Hamid Karzai has meanwhile assured the people in a message that he will stay in the country. He is urging people to stay home and is trying to resolve the issue through dialogue, TOLO news reported.
Ashraf Ghani has left Afghanistan along with his close aides, the Afghanistan-based news platform reported sources as saying.
Reportedly, sources close to the Taliban said that the group agreed for Ghani to resign after a political agreement, followed by handing over the power to a transitional government.
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