India

Iran, Iraq top security officials stress boosting cooperation

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In his remarks, Iran’s top security official referred to the Tehran-Baghdad joint efforts to finalize a comprehensive security agreement that will guarantee stability and improve the security conditions at the borders of the two countries and said that the strict implementation of this agreement will lead to reduce of terrorist threats and prevent of border insecurity.

The implementation of the agreement will also prepare the ground for developing Iran-Iraq relations in different fields more than before, according to him.

Stating that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the crisis-causing policies and actions of the United States as the main source of insecurity in the region, Shamkhani stressed that the US’s mischief is continuing and the continuation of this process, which disrupts security and stability in the region, cannot be tolerated.

Considering the assassination of anti-terror commanders to be a clear example of the US’s crisis-causing policies, Iran’s top security official added that pursuing the trial and punishment of the perpetrators of this terrorist crime is one of the main priorities of the security cooperation between Iran and Iraq.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Shamkhani considered the anti-security movements of terrorist elements in northern Iraq as another component of insecurity in the region, calling for strict implementation of the security agreement between the two countries which can prevent the evil actions of these groups completely.

He also hailed the role of Iraq in reaching the recent agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Al-Araji, for his part, said that Baghdad will spare no effort to fully implement the security agreement, adding that his country will not allow any group or country to use Iraqi soil to create insecurity in Iran.

Welcoming the recent agreement between Tehran and Riyadh, the Iraqi security official stressed that the Iraqi government is fully prepared to help the realization of the agreements reached between Tehran and Riyadh as soon as possible, which will benefit both countries and increase stability and security in the region.

He also said that the Iraqi government is committed to the implementation of the law of the parliament regarding the withdrawal of foreign military forces.

Referring to the huge damages that the insecurity has imposed on Iraq and the region during the past years, al-Araji called for developing joint efforts to counter insecurity, as well as boosting Iran-Iraq cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, and industry.

MP/IRN85061612

Top News

North Korea Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missile

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North Korea Fires Short-Range Ballistic Missile

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, the fourth show of force in a week as South Korea and the United States stage major military drills.

Seoul and Washington have ramped up defence cooperation in the face of growing military and nuclear threats from the North, which has conducted a series of increasingly provocative banned weapons tests in recent months.

South Korea and the United States are in the middle of 11 days of joint drills known as Freedom Shield, their largest in five years.

North Korea views all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion and has repeatedly warned it would take “overwhelming” action in response.

“Our military detected one short-range ballistic missile fired from around the Tongchang-ri area in North Pyongan province at 11:05 am (0205 GMT) towards the East Sea,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

The missile flew 800 kilometres (500 miles) and was under analysis by US and South Korean intelligence, the JCS said in a statement, calling the launch “a serious provocation” that violated UN sanctions.

“Our military will maintain a solid readiness posture based on its ability to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation by North Korea, while carrying out intensive and thorough combined exercises and drills,” it said.

Tokyo also confirmed the launch, with deputy defence minister Toshiro Ino telling reporters Japan had “lodged a vehement protest to and strongly condemned (North Korea) through our embassy in Beijing”.

The US military’s Indo-Pacific Command condemned the launch, saying it highlighted “the destabilising impact” of North Korea’s banned weapons programmes.

South Korea’s defence ministry said hours after the launch it had staged joint air drills with the United States featuring at least one US B-1B long-range bomber.

The drills also involved South Korean F-35A stealth fighter jets and US F-16 fighters and took place as part of the Freedom Shield exercise. The exercise had “greatly enhanced the allies’ interoperability… and wartime capabilities”, the ministry said in a statement.

– ‘War maniacs’ –
The latest launch came a day after North Korean state media reported that more than 800,000 young North Koreans had volunteered to join the army to fight “US imperialists”.

The young volunteers were determined to “mercilessly wipe out the war maniacs” and joined the army to “defend the country”, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

On Thursday, Pyongyang test-fired its largest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-17, its second ICBM test this year. It described the launch as a response to the “frantic” US-South Korea drills.

The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting Monday over the ICBM launch at the request of the United States and Japan, Yonhap news agency reported.

In a statement carried by KCNA on Sunday, the North’s foreign ministry “strongly” warned the US and other countries to include “legitimate self-defensive countermeasures of the DPRK for the discussion of the UNSC.” DPRK is the acronym of North Korea’s official name.

Analysts previously said North Korea would likely use the drills as an excuse to carry out more missile launches and perhaps even a nuclear test.

The ICBM launch followed two short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday and two strategic cruise missiles fired from a submarine last Sunday.

The recent flurry of aggression by Pyongyang has pushed Seoul and Tokyo to mend fences over historical disputes and try to boost security cooperation.

Just hours after the ICBM was fired Thursday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrived in Japan for the first full-scale leaders’ summit between the countries in 12 years.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the recent missile launches had several purposes, including protesting against the joint drills as well as testing trilateral responses from South Korea, the United States and Japan.

North Korea declared itself last year an “irreversible” nuclear power and leader Kim Jong Un recently called for an “exponential” increase in weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons.

Kim also ordered the North Korean military this month to intensify drills to prepare for a “real war”.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Hyderabad

Telangana: Deccan Development Society founder PV Satheesh passes away

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PV Satheesh, founder of Deccan Development Society, fondly called as the Telangana Millet Man passed away in Hyderabad.

Updated On – 02:18 PM, Sun – 19 March 23

Telangana: Deccan Development Society founder PV Satheesh passes away

Sangareddy: Founder of Zaheerabad-based Deccan Development Society (DDS) PV Satheesh (77) passed away in a private hospital in Hyderabad while undergoing treatment for health issues in the early hours of Sunday. He was fondly called as the Telangana Millet Man.

Satheesh founded the DDS in 1983 in Zaheerabad to conserve traditional crops besides improving the lives of women from  backward sections of Zaheerabad area. During the last four decades, the DDS has won several awards for its work. The DDS women had won the Equator prize presented by United National Development Programme. 

As the news of the demise of Satheesh spread in the Zaheerabad area, the people associated with DDS turned emotional. 

Top News

Manipur Chief Minister Hints At Drive To Detect Illegal Immigrants

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Manipur Chief Minister Hints At Drive To Detect Illegal Immigrants

N Biren Singh was addressing a press conference in Imphal (File)

Imphal:

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh has hinted that his government is contemplating strong measures to detect illegal immigrants in the state and initiate legal proceedings for their deportation.

This in the backdrop of escalating protests by different student organisations and other outfits, demanding the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur.

Government sources have not ruled out NRC type detection, deletion and deportation of illegal immigrants mostly from neighbouring Myanmar.

“It is a positive sign of the indigenous people’s concern regarding the escalating infiltration of outsiders in the state. I feel now the indigenous people of Manipur have started knowing the gravity of the seriousness of influx”, the chief minister said at a press conference in Imphal on Saturday.

The chief minister also highlighted that the centre has already extended the Inner Line Permit System (IIP) to the state in recognition of the potential threat to the native population posed by the rising number of immigrants.

“There has to be a mechanism of illegal immigrant movement from across the international border,” Mr Singh opined.

Sources added that the focus is now on verification drive to be taken up in five districts, including Chandel, Churachandpur, Tengnoupal, Kamjong and Pherzawl for identifying illegal immigrants.

Business

Indian economy losing steam, says Chidambaram

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India is growing but the sequential quarter growth is declining and the economy is losing steam, said former Union finance minister P Chidambaram

Published Date – 07:45 AM, Sun – 19 March 23

Indian economy losing steam, says Chidambaram
File photo: Chidambaram

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram Saturday said India is growing but the sequential quarter growth is declining and the economy is “losing steam”. He also accused the Narendra Modi government of “neglecting” the poor and the very poor.

“The reality is we are growing but the quarter upon quarter growth or the sequential quarter growth is declining — 13.2 per cent, 6.3 per cent, 4.4 per cent and the fourth quarter, my estimate is, between 4.1 per cent and 4.3 per cent.

“So, it is a declining quarterly growth rate, which means the Indian economy is losing steam,” Chidambaram said at the India Today Conclave.

Asked about India growing faster among the major economies of the world, the former finance minister said, “There is no boast in saying ‘I am the one-eyed monarch of the blind’. The point is China, when it grows at 3 per cent or 3.5 per cent, will still add every year to its annual wealth or annual output several times more than India growing at 7 per cent.” “China is five-and-a-half-times larger than India. Therefore, the relevant number is the per capita income and (according to) per capita income, we are still a very poor country, he said.

Chidambaram also said the BJP-led NDA government was wrong in not providing fiscal stimulus during the pandemic.

“The government was wrong in not giving a fiscal stimulus. That’s why three crore people had to migrate from other cities and states, back to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Asked what would be the one thing he would credit the government with, Chidambaram said he would give credit to this government for its single-minded focus on containing the deficit and debt management.

“I have no hesitation in giving credit where it is due, but all I am pointing out is there is so much more to be done,” Chidambaram said.

“A prime minister with so much energy, drive and control over his party can do so much more. Instead of that, we are talking about a non-interview and documentary. Why are we wasting time on those things?” he posed.

Neelkanth Mishra, who is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said what is extremely important right now is that in this global financial turbulence if India is seen as a stable economy, it will continue to attract foreign investors, foreign companies, which can bring skills and technology.

“So on a five-year basis, the expectations of India’s GDP growth should be that India will contribute 12-15 per cent of incremental GDP in the next five years,” he said.

Mishra also contended that the quarterly GDP numbers are extremely inaccurate.

Sports

Jehan Daruvala roars to Saudi Arabia podium

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India’s Jehan Daruvala said, ”To be honest, there are a bunch of mixed emotions,”

Published Date – 03:45 PM, Sun – 19 March 23

Jehan Daruvala roars to Saudi Arabia podium

Jeddah: India’s Jehan Daruvala raced to his 16th Formula 2 podium on Saturday with a hard-fought third-place finish in the Sprint race of the championship’s Saudi Arabian round, here.

The 24-year-old MP Motorsport driver started fifth and was hustling eventual winner Ayumu Iwasa for the win but dropped to third just three laps from the end after making a daring bid for the lead that very nearly earned him his first win of the season.

Still, he crossed the line just over a second behind Iwasa and less than half a second behind runner-up Victor Martins to score his second successive podium around the barrier-lined, high-speed sweeps of the Red Sea track.

”To be honest, there are a bunch of mixed emotions,” said Jehan after the race on Saturday.

”I would definitely say I was disappointed I didn’t win because the car was very good and I had a lot of pace today but also not disappointed because I took a lot of risks.

I have no regrets. I tried to win the race and, in the end, it didn’t pay off,” he added.

Jehan made a lightning start off the line but was boxed in by the Campos cars of Ralph Boschung and compatriot Kush Maini.

A second-lap safety car that bunched the field up gave him a shot at passing Maini and Jehan duly seized the opportunity to muscle his way past his fellow Indian and set off in pursuit of Red Bull-backed racer Jak Crawford.

Jehan dispatched Crawford on Lap 7 just seconds before a collision between Theo Pourchaire and Oliver Bearman triggered a second safety car period.

Jehan was hot on second-placed Boschung’s heels as the race got underway. The Swiss racer was powerless to resist the MP Motorsport racer’s charge as he swept around the outside of Turn 1 to take second.

He then battled Iwasa, while also keeping the rapid Martins behind him at bay, before ultimately having to concede after his turn 1 gamble for a fifth F2 win failed to pay off.

The podium was Jehan’s first of the season. Set to move up one spot on the grid to fourth after a penalty for Theo Pourchaire, he has a good chance of completing a podium sweep.

Jehan, however, is eyeing victory.

”All in all, I’m happy,” he said.

”I think I can even fight for the win tomorrow in the Feature Race,” he added.

Middle East

‘Zionists blur line between anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism to bully Palestine supporters’

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The Zionists have been making attempts to make it difficult to clearly see the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and used it as a weapon to pressure supporters of Palestine, according to an academic.

Professor David Miller, sacked from his professorship at the University of Bristol in 2021 after a sustained campaign by Britain’s Israel lobby accusing him of being anti-Semitic, told Press TV that the Zionist lobby has deployed its tricks in Canada, with the connivance of the Canadian government, big tech and a group of international lawmakers to delegitimize anyone who speaks out against the Israeli regime’s daily atrocities.

“[They] purposefully blur the line between anti-semitism and anti-Zionism, … which has been the weapon of choice used by Zionists to bludgeon Palestinian supporters ever since,” Miller said during Press TV’s weekly show Palestine Declassified.

Last September, an international parliamentary committee met in Washington DC, to demand that Twitter remove the account of Palestinian-Canadian Laith Marouf, a multimedia producer and senior consultant at the Community Media Advocacy Centre in Canada. He has a long record of active support for Palestinian rights.

The Interparliamentary Task Force To Combat Online Antisemitism hearing was held on September 16 and heard from Twitter, YouTube, Meta, and TikTok executives.

The members of the Task Force included members of Zionist lobby groups and those committed to supporting Israel.

Andrew Percy, UK’s Conservative MP who converted to Judaism, and Alex Sobel, a longtime supporter of the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), along with Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch, the CEO of the Zionist lobby group, the American Jewish Committee were among the members of the Task Force.

Well-known Canadian politician and jurist Irwin Cotler was another member of the Task Force. He is Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, a position receiving CA$ 5.6 million over five years beginning in 2022.

Miller called the Task Force and its mission a “setup.”

“With the exception of the executives from social media, every one of [the task force members] was a Zionist, no representative of Arab or Palestinian origin, who might speak for the rights of the Palestinians, was involved in the task force, the whole thing was a setup,” he said.

Miller added that the pro-Zionist figures in the Task Force are “assets” of the Israeli regime.

“These are not people who represent the US government or the Canadian government, or any other government, they are assets of Israel,” he said.

He also said social media companies also bow to pressure from the Zionist groups because “they call on for advice about what anti-Semitism is about and what hate speeches are from Zionist organizations.”

Marouf also told Press TV that the Zionists like to target those who are the most outspoken in order to scare the rest of the Palestinian Arab and Muslim communities and anybody who stands with them for their rights.

“This isn’t really about me or why I am a target. It is that attempt to create a lightning rod that Zionists light whenever they’re creating these fear campaigns,” he said.

India

Watch: Millions of dead fish wash up in Australia

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Videos going viral on social media platforms show dead fish floating on the Darling River in the region, marking one of the largest fish death events.

Published Date – 02:38 PM, Sun – 19 March 23

Watch: Millions of dead fish wash up in Australia

Hyderabad: The past Friday morning for some residents in Australia will be one to remember. Millions of dead fish have washed up in southeast Australia’s Menindee town, as per reports.

Videos going viral on social media platforms show dead fish floating on the Darling River in the region, marking one of the largest fish death events. Around 500 people live in the town in far-west New South Wales. The Darling-Baaka river is a part of the Murray Darling Basin, Australia’s largest river system, reported BBC.

The Department of Primary Industries said that it is the result of the ongoing heat wave in the country. In an elaborate Facebook post, they wrote, “This event is ongoing as a heatwave across western NSW continues to put further stress on a system that has experienced extreme conditions from wide-scale flooding.”

They recognise the fish species to be Bony Herring and said they can be, “more susceptible to environmental stresses like low oxygen levels, especially during extreme conditions such as increased temperatures currently being experienced in the area.”

Residents of Menindee town complained of a terrible smell from the dead fish and began small-scale cleaning drives. The local community depends on the river for various needs.

 

https://www.facebook.com/NSWDPIFisheries/posts/520332413609323

India

Two injured as British-era bridge collapses in Bihar

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The eyewitnesses said that as soon as the truck-laden with stone chips came on the bridge, it collapsed.

Published Date – 12:45 PM, Sun – 19 March 23

Two injured as British-era bridge collapses in Bihar

Patna: Two persons were injured after a British-era road bridge collapsed in Bihar‘s Saran district on Sunday.

The injured persons were the driver and helper of the truck. The eyewitnesses said that as soon as the truck-laden with stone chips came on the bridge, it collapsed.

The truck was on its way from the Taraye block and was heading towards Bhalua Bazar. The British-era bridge was built on River Mahanadi and was in a bad shape since the last flood. The bridge structure was deteriorating and cracks had developed at several places.

Despite all these deterioration, the road construction department did not declare it a dangerous bridge. There was no warning sign board on either side of the bridge.

When the bridge collapsed, a loud sound was heard. The local villagers rushed to the spot and rescued the injured driver and helper. They were admitted in the Sadar hospital Chapra and their condition was stable.

India

Research scholar held for child sex abuse in Tamil Nadu: CBI

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a research scholar whose name was not released to the media, was allegedly forcing the victims to watch sexual acts with other adult persons, threatening them with publishing the pictures/video on social media and for bringing more minor girls.

Updated On – 02:38 PM, Sun – 19 March 23

Research scholar held for child sex abuse in Tamil Nadu: CBI

Hyderabad: Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a research scholar pursuing his PhD aged about 35 years on charges of child sexual abuse in Thanjavur of Tamil Nadu, according to a bureau press release here on Sunday.

The 35-year-old research scholar, whose name was not released to the media, was alleged to have been sexually abusing a child for last four years. Charges against the arrested man included forcing victims to perform penetrative sexual acts on them as well on other minor children, including a minor victim girl, clicking photographs and recording video; forcing the victims to watch sexual acts with other adult persons, threatening them with publishing the pictures/video on social media and for bringing more minor girls.

The arrest came after a case was registered on the allegations of creating, collecting, seeking, browsing, downloading, exchanging/distributing material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form, the press release added.

The CBI officials found Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images and videos from the INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database. The analysis of the images using cyber forensic tools, location of incident was traced to Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu. Analysis of videos revealed that a few victims were allegedly being sexually abused by male persons. Searches were conducted at the premises of accused which led to recovery of incriminating electronic gadgets.

The CBI had set up a specialised unit in 2020 to handle cases of Online Child Sexual Abuse Material and joined INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Abuse Database (ICSE) in 2022. Further, 90th INTERPOL General Assembly hosted by India at New Delhi in 2022 passed an important resolution for supporting countries in their efforts to identify and investigate online child sexual exploitation.