Month: May 2025

[ad_1] Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti question ‘mass detentions’ after Pahalgam attack SRINAGAR: Chief minister Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti expressed concern Tuesday over large-scale detentions in J&K after the April 22 Pahalgam attack.Omar cited reports of detentions from various parts of the Valley and argued that such actions conveyed the message that Kashmiris were being punished. He cautioned against such a perception gaining ground at a time when the people of J&K, especially in Kashmir, had hit the streets for the first time against the attackers.Former CM Mehbooba referred to her Pahalgam visit Monday and said many locals feared they would be arbitrarily detained by police. “In the aftermath of the heinous terror attack in Pahalgam, the response has included a sweeping clampdown with thousands of civilians reportedly taken into custody,” the PDP president said.Mehbooba said she had […]

[ad_1] This is a representational image MUMBAI: The cost to operate, sustain, and modernize current nuclear forces and purchase new ones in the US will shoot up to $946 billion over the 2025-2034 period — 25% higher than the 2023 estimate — which works out to an average of about $95 billion a year, according to the latest estimate of the US Congressional Budget Office.The report released in April shows that the estimate includes $357 billion to operate and sustain current and future nuclear forces and other supporting activities; $309 billion to modernize strategic and tactical nuclear delivery systems and the weapons they carry; $72 billion to modernize facilities and equipment for the nuclear weapons laboratory complex; $79 billion to modernize command, control, communications, and early-warning systems, and $129 billion to cover potential additional costs in excess of projected budgeted […]

[ad_1] SRINAGAR: Two soldiers died and two more were injured after an Army vehicle fell into a deep gorge near the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Tuesday afternoon. The accident came barely two days after three Army men lost their lives in a similar tragedy in Ramban district.Officials said Tuesday’s accident occurred in Teetwal area near the LoC after the driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle, which rolled down a steep slope and plunged into a gorge. A rescue operation was immediately launched, and four Army men were transported to a nearby medical facility, where two soldiers were declared dead upon arrival, said an official.Earlier on Sunday, three soldiers died after their truck skidded off the road and crashed into a 700ft-deep gorge in Ramban. The truck was part of a convoy heading from […]

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: The Congress seems to be in a Catch-22 situation. While on the one hand it has openly backed the Centre to take any action against Pakistan to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, on the other, it is not missing any opportunity to attack the Modi government. On Tuesday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cancelled his Kashmir visit after "receiving an intelligence report three days before" the Pahalgam terror attack last month.Kharge further claimed that during an all-party meeting last month, the Centre had accepted "intelligence failure" in the Pahalgam carnage and said the Union government should be held accountable for "not reinforcing" security arrangements in Kashmir to protect people, even after such inputs."A major terrorist attack took place in the country on April 22, in which 26 people were killed. There […]

[ad_1] AI-generated image (Credit: Bing image creator) China's finance minister has criticized US tariffs for introducing “unprecedented huge risks” to global economic stability, according to a ministry publication released Tuesday. Simultaneously, China’s foreign ministry, via state-run Xinhua news agency, stated that the US must change its “threatening” stance if it hopes to reach any agreement. The ongoing trade dispute between the two major economies continues to escalate. US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs of up to 145 per cent on Chinese goods, while Beijing has retaliated with 125 per cent duties on American imports. Speaking at an Asian Development Bank (ADB) conference in Milan that began on Sunday, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an refrained from directly naming the US but attributed rising risks to “a certain country (that) has launched tariff wars and trade wars.” “The current international situation is […]

[ad_1] US President Donald Trump US President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that India has agreed to drop tariffs on American imports to "nothing", asserting that the decision was made solely because of him.“In India, as an example, is one of the highest tariffs in the world. We’re not going to put up with that and they’ve agreed already to drop it,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a media interaction alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.“They’ll drop it to nothing. They’ve already agreed. They wouldn’t have done this for anybody else but me.”Trump, however, offered no details on the sectors or goods affected by the supposed agreement. India has, however, not officially made any statements in this regard as trade talks with the US remain underway.A conditional proposalSources familiar with the ongoing negotiations told Bloomberg that India […]