‘UAE Will Not Accept Interference From Iran, Turkey’; Huge public engagement for ‘Designing the Next 50’; Advantage BJP as Nitish Withers in Bihar – all in Asian Lite Daily – click here to read the full edition.
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India Covid Cases Cross 86.4L
With 44,281 new coronavirus infections and 512 deaths in the past 24 hours, India’s overall tally stood at 86,35,921 on Wednesday as the toll touched 1,27,571, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
Currently, there are 4,94,657 active cases, whereas 80,13,783 patients have been cured and discharged so far.
The recovery rate stands at 92.69 per cent, and the fatality rate is 1.48 per cent, the Ministry said.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) conducted 11,53,294 sample tests on Tuesday, taking the total tested samples to 12,07,69,151.
Though Maharashtra continued to be the worst-hit state with 96,437 active cases and 45,325 Covid-19 deaths, it was Delhi’s fresh cases of the day that leaped past the western city’s daily figures.
On Tuesday, the national capital reported 7,830 new coronavirus cases and 83 deaths, the highest ever single-day tally since the onset of the pandemic.
The other worst hit are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.
The overall global coronavirus cases has surpassed the 500-lakh mark, while deaths have surged to 12,70,171, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The six-day forum kicked off on Monday in the Tunisian capital of Tunis, with UN Acting Special Representative Stephanie Williams and other 75 representatives attending the event….reports Asian Lite News
The European Union (EU) has welcomed the holding of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum aimed at ending the years-long conflict in the war-torn country.
“The EU Heads of Mission welcome the recent positive and courageous steps taken by Libyans to end years of conflict and division and to move towards the stability, unity and sovereignty of their country free of foreign interference,” Xinhua news agency quoted the bloc as saying in a statement on Monday.
It also called for a full inclusion and participation of women in the country’s peace process.
SIRTE, Oct. 14, 2016 (Xinhua) — Members of the forces loyal to Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) gather in the coastal city of Sirte, east of the capital Tripoli, during their military operation to clear the Islamic State (IS) group’s jihadists from the city, on Oct. 14, 2016. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia/IANS)
The six-day forum kicked off on Monday in the Tunisian capital of Tunis, with UN Acting Special Representative Stephanie Williams and other 75 representatives attending the event.
The forum’s overall objective is a consensus on a unified governance framework to “restore Libya’s sovereignty and the democratic legitimacy of Libyan institutions”, according to a statement by the UN Support Mission in Libya.
The eastern-based army and the Tripoli-based UN-backed government engaged in a deadly armed conflict for more than a year in and around Tripoli, which ended recently with the UN-backed government taking over all of western Libya after the withdrawal of the eastern-based troops.
They have signed a UN-sponsored permanent cease-fire agreement.
In the first phase, the new route will include two weekly flights starting from January 31, 2021…reports Asian Lite News
Israel’s Israir has announced that it will operate direct passenger flights to Bahrain, becoming the first airline to announce a regular direct route between the two countries after they agreed to fully normalise relations in September.
In a statement on Monday, the airline said that flights from the Ben Gurion International Airpor outside Tel Aviv, to the Bahrain International Airport near the capital Manama will take about two and a half hours, reports Xinhua news agency.
In the first phase, the new route will include two weekly flights starting from January 31, 2021.
The direct flights became possible after Saudi Arabia agreed in early September to allow Israeli planes to fly over its territory.
In September, Israir announced it will operate direct passenger flights to the United Arab Emirates, which also signed a normalization agreement with Israel.
Also last month, Arkia, Israel’s second-largest airline, had announced direct flight services to Dubai, which will begin from January 3, 2021.
Also read:1st lawsuit filed against Israeli settlers in West Bank
The development came as President Donald Trump has refused to concede to his Democratic rival and incumbent President-elect Joe Biden. Meanwhile Barr’s announcement prompted the resignation of senior Justice Department official Richard Pilger…reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
US Attorney General William Barr has allowed prosecutors to launch a probe into alleged irregularities in the recently-concluded 2020 presidential election, the media reported on Tuesday.
The development came as President Donald Trump has refused to concede to his Democratic rival and incumbent President-elect Joe Biden, who was projected the winner of the November 3 election after crossing the threshold of 270 electoral college votes needed to secure victory.
In a memo, Barr authorised federal prosecutors “to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases, as I have already done inspecific instances”.
“Such inquiries and reviews may be conducted if there are clear and apparently credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state,” he added.
While acknowledging it was imperative that “credible allegations be addressed in a timely and effective manner”, Barr noted that it was “equally imperative that Department personnel exercise appropriate caution and maintain absolute commitment to fairness, neutrality and non-partisanship”.
“While serious allegations should be handled with great care, specious, speculative, fanciful or far fetched claims should not be a basis for initiating federal inquiries,” he added.
DOJ official resigned
Barr’s announcement prompted the resignation of senior Justice Department official Richard Pilger, who would have overseen such investigations, the BBC reported.
“Having familiarised myself with the new policy and its ramifications… I must regretfully resign from my role,” he was quoted as saying in an email to colleagues just hours after the announcement.
Also on Monday, the Trump re-election campaign filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania federal court, seeking an emergency injunction to stop state officials from certifying Biden’s victory in the key swing state.
But the state’s Attorney General, Josh Shapiro, called the lawsuit “meritless”.
Meanwhile, atates must resolve recounts and court contests over the final outcome by December 8.
The outcome will be finalised when members of the US Electoral College meet on December 14.
Fox News cut away
Fox News cut away from a live briefing by White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany as she accused the Democrats of fraud and illegal voting.
As the network cut away from Monday’s briefing, Fox News host Neil Cavuto said: “She is charging that the other side is welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting. Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continuing showing you this.
“Maybe they do have something to back that up, but that’s an explosive charge to make that the other side is effectively rigging and cheating.”
At the briefing, McEnany declared that the presidential election is “not over” and that Republicans had “only begun the process of obtaining an accurate, honest vote count”, The Hill news website reported.
“You don’t take these positions because you want an honest election,”she said and accused Democrats of “welcoming fraud” and “welcoming illegal voting”.
When asked if she knew that fraudulent ballots were cast, the Press Secretary said: “What we are asking for right now is patience as we explore these equal protection claims among others.”
The development comes as President Donald Trump has refused to concede to his Democratic rival and incumbent President-elect Joe Biden, who was declared as the winner of the November election by major news networks, reports The Hill news.
Biden has been projected as the winner in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, and also holds leads in Arizona and Georgia.
In a statement on, the Taliban has assured the new US administration, which will come to power in January 2021, of remaining committed to the implementation of the Doha peace agreement, saying it was an “excellent document” to end the decades-long war in Afghanistan.
In the statement, the group said the implementation of the US-Taliban agreement “is the most reasonable and effective tool for ending the conflict with the US”, referring to their fight against American forces, TOLO News reported.
“We remain committed to the agreement on our part and view it as a powerful basis for solving the Afghan issue and we also give preference to solving our internal problems through dialogue and negotiations,” it added.
In a historic move, the Taliban signed the peace deal with the US on February 29, under which the militant group will not attack American forces inside Afghanistan.
The agreement also requires the withdrawal of American troops within 14 months since the intimation of peace process.
The peace negotiations were inaugurated in Doha on September 12 with the hope to end the four decades of war in the country.
Negotiating teams representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban held more than 10 meetings. But direct negotiations were yet to begin.
Tuesday’s statement came two days after the Taliban said that Biden should respect the Doha Agreement because it was not made with a single person but with the American government, the media reported on Monday.
A spokesman for the Taliban told the media that when the new US administration comes in power, it will need to acclaim the agreement, reports Khaama Press.
Taliban hopes that the Biden administration will abide by the Doha Peace protocols, the spokesman said.
The two developments come amidst a sharp increase in Taliban attacks on Afghan forces in many parts of the country.
Also Read: Khalilzad urges Taliban to stick to the peace deal
Saeb Erekat, the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), died Tuesday, weeks after being infected by the coronavirus, reports Arab News. He was a veteran peace negotiator and prominent international spokesman for the Palestinians for more than three decades.
The 65 year old American-educated Erekat was involved in nearly every round of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians going back to the landmark Madrid conference in 1991, when he famously showed up draped in a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism.
Over the next few decades Erekat was a constant presence in Western media, where he tirelessly advocated for a negotiated two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, defended the Palestinian leadership and blamed Israel for the failure to reach an agreement, the report added.
The fate of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is hanging in balance. He will be the leader of the second largest faction in the alliance. BJP is emerging as the largest party in Bihar polls as the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance edging out Grand Alliance …. Reports Asian Lite Newsdek
The BJP seems to have almost secured the single-largest party position in Bihar Assembly polls with trends showing it has an edge over the key opposition party RJD with a big gap, leading the NDA above the half-way mark in a close contest with Grand Alliance or the Mahagathbandhan (MGB).
Latest Election Commission results showed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) lead on 73 out of 242 seats, taking the count of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to 127. The ruling NDA’s partner JDU, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is leading on 47 seats with its partners Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) on seven seats and no improvement in former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).
Second in position, the key rival opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)is leading on 60 seats taking the Grand Alliance’s count to 100. Congress is at fourth position in major political parties in Bihar and second in Grand Alliance by securing 21 seats followed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) (14), Communist Party of India (CPI) (3) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (2).
The trend comes after the counting of votes in the first four hours till 12 noon. As per the counting trend, the JD(U)-BJP alliance is now ahead in 127 seats in the state while the MGB is leading on 100 constituencies for the 243-seat Bihar assembly.
While the BJP-led NDA fielded candidates on 121 seats, the Nitish Kumar-led party contested on 122 seats.
The results are mostly from counting of the postal ballots and EVMs simultaneously at 1,06,515 polling stations across the state
Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party is leading on five seats followed by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) (3) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on one seat. However, six Independent candidates were leading from different seats in the state.
Counting of votes got underway in the morning for the three-phase Bihar Assembly elections that may herald a new era in state politics, with exit polls predicting a victory for the RJD-led Grand Alliance.
The magic number for the winner is 122 in the 243-seat Assembly. The JDU-led NDA and the RJD-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) are the main contenders.
As elections ended last week, exit polls unanimously predicted a clear edge for the Grand Alliance led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.
Moscow has started deploying 1,960 peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday….reports Asian Lite News
Russia has deployed peacekeepers in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region as a “complete ceasefire” which came into effect on Tuesday midnight was agreed by the two warring countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia, President Vladimir Putin said.
In a televised address on Monday night, Putin said that he signed an agreement with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declaring a “complete cessation of fire and all hostilities” in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, reports Xinhua news agency.
Azerbaijan and Armeniaalso agreed to stop at their positions they have held, Putin said.
Moscow has started deploying 1,960 peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.
A man shows a house damaged during the new round of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Fuzuli district of Azerbaijan, Sept. 30, 2020. (Photo by Tofik Babayev/Xinhua/IANS)
A Russian peacekeeping contingent is being deployed consisting of 1,960 military personnel, 90 armoured personnel carriers, 380 vehicles and pieces of special equipment, the Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Armenia will exchange war prisoners, other detained persons and bodies of the dead, while all economic and transport links of the region will be unblocked, according to the Russian leader.
Internally displaced persons and refugees will return to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh and its surrounding areas under the care of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Putin said.
“We presume that the agreements will create the necessary conditions for a long-term and full-format settlement of the crisis around Nagorno-Karabakh on a just basis and in the interests of the Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples,” the President added.
This is the fourth ceasefire since last month.
(160405) — NAGORNO-KARABAKH, April 5, 2016 (Xinhua) — Houses damaged in recent conflicts are seen in Azerbaijan’s Gapanli village bordering Nagorno-Karabakh region, on April 5, 2016. The Armenian and Azerbaijani Defense Ministries both confirmed Tuesday that a ceasefire agreement in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region is currently being prepared. (Xinhua/Tofik Babayev)(dh)
The three others — two brokered by Russia (October 10, 17) and one by the US (October 26) — collapsed after Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations and attacks.
A new round of armed conflict broke out on September 27 along the contact line of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but mostly governed by the Republic of Artsakh, a de facto independent state with an Armenian ethnic majority.
The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, April 2016 and in July this year.
Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over the region in 1988-94, eventually declaring a ceasefire.
However, a settlement was never reached.
Also read:Armenian, Azerbaijani FMs meet Pompeo in Washington
The BJP surged ahead of its ally JDU as well as political rival RJD in Bihar polls, maintaining the NDA’s half-way mark in a close contest with Grand Alliance or the Mahagathbandhan (MGB).
Inputs revealed by Election Commission after almost one-third couting of ballots in six-hour rigorous exercise till 2 p.m. reveal this trend. Counting for the 243-seat Bihar Assembly polls began at 8 a.m.
As per the Election Commission, almost 1 crore electoral ballots had been counted after six hours. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) till then had secured a lead on 75 out of 243 seats, taking the count of the NDA to 132.
The ruling NDA’s partner JDU, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was till 2 p.m. leading on 51 seats with its partners Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) on five seats and former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha’s (HAM) on one.
BJP and its ally JDU’s key rival opposition RJD was leading on 62 seats taking the Grand Alliance’s count to 100. By securing 19 seats, the Congress is at fourth position in major political parties in Bihar and second in the Grand Alliance. The grand old party is followed by three left partners’ that lead on 19 seats — the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (Liberation) (13) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) on three seats each.
As per the counting trend, the JD(U)-BJP alliance is now ahead in 132 seats in the state while the MGB is leading on 100 constituencies for the Bihar assembly polls.
While the BJP-led NDA fielded candidates on 121 seats, the Nitish Kumar-led party contested on 122 seats.
The results are mostly from counting of the postal ballots and EVMs simultaneously at 1,06,515 polling stations across the state. However, the counting of around 3 crore ballots is still pending.
Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party seems to be losing space as it declined to two seats in leading trends from five, which was noted till 12 noon, followed by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) (3) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on two seats. Four Independent candidates were leading at different seats in the state.
Counting of votes got underway in the morning for the three-phase Bihar Assembly elections that may herald a new era in state politics, with exit polls predicting a victory for the RJD-led Grand Alliance.
The magic number for the winner is 122 in the 243-seat Assembly. The JDU-led NDA and the RJD-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) are the main contenders.
As elections ended last week, exit polls unanimously predicted a clear edge for the Grand Alliance led by RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav.
However, the final results will come tonight after the counting of 57.09 per cent ballots as the voters have exercised their franchise and locked the future of thousands of candidates in ballot boxes in the three-phase Assembly elections in the state that were held on October 28, November 3 and November 7.