Month: January 2022

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Indian troops martyr one more youth in IIOJK

Srinagar, January 01, 2022 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism martyred one more Kashmiri youth in Kupwara district, today. The troops martyred the youth during a cordon and search operation in Jumagund area of the district. The operation continued till last reports came in. The fresh killing raised the number of the martyred youth to 10 since Wednesday night.

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NC, PDP workers protest against delimitation draft, detention of their leaders

Srinagar, January 01, 2022 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, scores of activists of the National Conference (NC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) took out separate protest marches in Srinagar on Saturday after authorities detained top leaders of the parties ahead of a proposed sit-in against the draft proposals of the Delimitation Commission.

The protest call was given by the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an amalgam of various regional political parties in IIOJK including the NC, the PDP, CPI-M, Peoples Movement and Awami National Conference.

The NC activists, including party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar and youth wing president Salman Sagar, took out a protest march from NC headquarters Nawa-iin Srinagar. The party activists tried to move towards Gupkar Road but were stopped by the police outside the party office.

“We wanted to take out a peaceful protest march against the Delimitation Commission’s draft proposals, but were stopped by the police. They did not even allow us to hold a sit-in,” Ghulam Nabi Dar said. He alleged that the police dragged the party activists back to the office.

PDP activists also took out a protest March demanding restoration of Articles 370 and 35-A which were revoked by the Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government on August 5, 2019. The PDP activists, who were stopped by the police near GPO, later they dispersed peacefully.

Meanwhile, NC vice president Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti praised their party colleagues for the protests. Well done to my NC colleagues for managing to come out and register our protest about all that is being done to disempower the people, Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter.

“Despite the despotic administration’s attempts to foil our protests, PDP and NC workers managed to hit the streets in Srinagar today to raise their voice against the illegal revocation of Article 370. I salute their courage and resolve,” Mehbooba said in a tweet.

Earlier, the authorities foiled the proposed protest march of the PAGD in Srinagar against the draft proposals of the Delimitation Commission by detaining prominent leaders of the alliance including Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and M Y Tarigami.

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APHC leaders concerned over surge in Indian state terrorism in IIOJK

Srinagar, January 01, 2022 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders, Farida Bahenji and Yasmeen Raja, have expressed serious concern over the surge in Indian state terrorism in the territory. Farida Bahenji and Yasmeen Raja in a joint statement issued in Srinagar described the prevailing situation in the occupied territory as extremely grim with regard to the protection of civilians.

They said that the Kashmiris were facing so-called cordon and search operations by Indian troops, raids by India’s notorious National Investigation Agency, and termination of government employees, arrest of students, businessmen, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals and political activists. The APHC leaders said that fascist Modi government was victimizing the people of IIOJK for demanding their right to self-determination and trying to communalize all institutions of the territory.

They said the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, ill-treatment of women, ban on political activities and violation of all basic human rights by Indian troops had become a norm in the occupied territory. They urged the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to take immediate notice of the systematic genocide of the Kashmiris by the Indian forces in IIOJK and put pressure on India to give the Kashmiri people the right to decide their political future by themselves.

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Concern expressed over continued Indian state terrorism in IIOJK

Muzaffarabad, January 01, 2022 (PPI-OT): All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APHC-AJK) chapter leader, Zahid Ashraf, paying tributes to martyrs of December 2021, has expressed serious concern over the continued Indian state terrorism in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Zahid Ashraf talking to media in Muzaffarabad said that fascist Modi-led Indian regime during the so-called cordon and search operations was targeting Kashmiri youth and arresting them on fake charges.

He said, the Indian government and its forces are victimizing the people of the territory for demanding their right to self-determination and urged the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take cognizance of the atrocities and genocide of the Kashmiris by the Indian forces in IIOJK.

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India records 22,775 new Covid cases, active infections cross 1 lakh

New Delhi, January 01, 2022 (PPI-OT): India saw a single-day rise of 22,775 new Covid cases while the number of active cases surpassed one lakh and omicron infection tally reached 1,431, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. India logged 161 fresh omicron infections, taking the total tally of such cases in the country to 1,431. Of the 1,431 patients infected with the omicron variant of the virus so far, 374 have either recuperated or migrated, according to the ministry’s data updated at 8 am.

The country also recorded 22,775 fresh Covid cases and 406 more fatalities due to the viral disease. Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 454 new cases followed by Delhi at 351, Kerala 118 and Gujarat 115. The fresh cases raised India’s tally of Covid cases to 3, 48,61,579, while the active cases increased to 1,04,781, according to the latest data. The death toll from the pandemic climbed to 4,81,080 with 406 new fatalities, the data stated.

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Genocide calls against Muslims: Immediate action against Hindu right-wing members in India sought

New Delhi, January 01, 2022 (PPI-OT): Five former chiefs of staff of the Indian armed forces and over a hundred other people, including bureaucrats, journalists and prominent citizens, have written to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister, Narendra Modi seeking immediate action against Hindu right-wing members for inciting violence.

The recent calls were made in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar and Delhi, where the group gave open genocide calls against Muslim citizens of India. The letter also mentions targeting other minorities like Christians, Dalits, and Sikhs of the country.

Addressed to India’s President and Prime Minister, it said, “We, the undersigned, are writing to you about recent events in Haridwar, Delhi and elsewhere, openly calling for the genocide of Indian Muslims. In addition, other minorities – Christians, Dalits and Sikhs are also being targeted.”

The letter further reads, “India’s Armed Forces, the Army, Navy and Air Force, together with CAPFs and Police, are responsible for National Security – external and internal, respectively. All of the above have sworn to uphold India’s Constitution and our secular values.”

“We are seriously perturbed by the content of speeches made during a 3-day religious conclave called a Dharma Sansad, of Hindu Sadhus and other leaders, held at Haridwar between 17-19 December 2021. There were repeated calls for establishing a Hindu Rashtra and, if required, picking up weapons and killing of India’s Muslims in the name of protecting Hinduism”, it said.

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Europe Tops 100 Million Coronavirus Cases in Pandemic

Europe has surpassed 100 million cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began nearly two years ago, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Worldwide, nearly 290 million cases have been recorded.

Nearly 5 million of Europe’s cases were reported in the last seven days, with 17 of the 52 countries or territories that make up Europe setting single-day new case records thanks to the highly contagious omicron variant, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday.

More than 1 million of those cases were reported in France, which has joined the U.S., India, Brazil, Britain and Russia to become the sixth country to confirm more than 10 million cases since the pandemic began, Reuters reported.

India’s health ministry reported 22,775 new cases of the coronavirus Saturday, saying the new cases bring the country’s omicron variant count to 1,431. Public health officials, however, have warned that the country’s COVID-19 tallies are likely undercounted.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday that paramedics in the Australian state of New South Wales had a “record breaking” level of calls overnight, resulting in its busiest night in 126 years, as the omicron variant of coronavirus sweeps across the globe.

New South Wales Ambulance Inspector Kay Armstrong told the newspaper the telephone calls included, “the usual business of New Year’s Eve—alcohol-related cases, accidents, obviously mischief—and then we had COVID on top of that.” The Herald reported paramedics also received “time-wasting calls from people wanting COVID-19 test results.”

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of Britain’s NHS Confederation, said the omicron variant will “test the limits of finite NHS [National Health Service] capacity even more than a typical winter.” Taylor also predicted that hospitals will be forced to make “difficult choices” because of the variant.

CNN reports that more than 30 colleges and universities have changed the starting date of their spring semesters as the omicron variant crosses the United States.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Saturday reported more than 289 million global COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. The center said 9.1 billion vaccinations have been administered.

Source: Voice of America

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US Seeks New 5G Delay to Study Interference with Planes

U.S. authorities have asked telecom operators AT&T and Verizon to delay for up to two weeks their already postponed rollout of 5G networks amid uncertainty about interference with vital flight safety equipment.

The U.S. rollout of the high-speed mobile broadband technology had been set for December 5, but was delayed to January 5 after aerospace giants Airbus and Boeing raised concerns about potential interference with the devices used by planes to measure altitude.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Steve Dickson, asked for the latest delay in a letter sent Friday to AT&T and Verizon, two of the country’s biggest telecom operators.

The U.S. letter asked the companies to “continue to pause introducing commercial C-Band service” — the frequency range used for 5G — “for an additional short period of no more than two weeks beyond the currently scheduled deployment date of January 5.”

The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. officials’ letter assures the companies that 5G service will be able to begin “as planned in January with certain exceptions around priority airports.”

The officials say their priority has been “to protect flight safety, while ensuring that 5G deployment and aviation operations can co-exist.”

Last February, Verizon and AT&T were authorized to start using 3.7-3.8 GHz frequency bands on December 5, after obtaining licenses worth tens of billions of dollars.

But when Airbus and Boeing raised their concerns about possible interference with airplanes’ radio altimeters, which can operate in the same frequencies, the launch date was pushed back to January.

The FAA requested further information about the instruments, and it issued directives limiting the use of altimeters in certain situations, which sparked airline fears over the potential costs.

When Verizon and AT&T wrote to federal authorities in November to confirm their intention to start deploying 5G in January, they said they would take extra precautions beyond those required by U.S. law until July 2022 while the FAA completes its investigation.

The conflict between 5G networks and aircraft equipment led French authorities to recommend switching off mobile phones with 5G on planes in February.

France’s civil aviation authority said interference from a signal on a nearby frequency to the radio altimeter could cause “critical” errors during landing.

Source: Voice of America