Kathmandu, May 23 (PTI) The death toll following the two devastating earthquakes that have struck Nepal has reached 8,635 with over 300 people, including 89 foreigners, still missing.

At least 79 foreigners, including 49 Indians have been killed in the devastating earthquakes, according to a statement by the Nepal police.

About 240 Nepalese nationals and 89 foreigners have still been missing since the April 25 earthquake, police said.

Of the total number of foreign military personnel deployed from 18 countries for rescue and search operations, 2,509 people, including 851 Indians, have already left the country after completing their assignments.

However, 1,807 foreign military personnel,?including 564 Indians, are in the process of returning to their home countries, according to a statement by the Nepal Army.

The 7.9-magnitude earthquake which struck Nepal on April 25 and another measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale on May 12 have left 8,635 people dead, 21,845 injured and destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses.

Five aftershocks measuring between 4 to 5 on the Richter Scale were recorded yesterday. Over 255 aftershocks of over 4 magnitude have been recorded in the country since the April 25 earthquake.

Eight MI-17 helicopters and five ALH choppers from India, 3 MI-17 choppers from China, 3 UH1Y and 4 MV-228 choppers from the US have conducted their flights in search and rescue works, airlifting injured people, managing debris and supplying relief materials to various earthquake-hit areas.

Meanwhile, Nepal is facing a crunch of labourers in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake of April 25 as some 20,000 Nepali migrant labourers have left the country in the past one month.

After two earthquakes and a series of aftershocks, a large number of migrant workers have again started returning to foreign countries, which makes it difficult for the government to implement its plan to employ around 1,00,000 volunteers in rebuilding the quake affected districts, experts said.

Kathmandu, the capital city is also facing labour crunch as many skilled and semi-skilled Indian nationals, who were working in different service sectors have returned to their homes after the earthquake.

There is a shortage of barbers, plumbers, vegetable vendors and carpenters in Kathmandu these days as most of the labourers come from across the border, mainly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Panaji, May 23 (PTI) Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today refused to reduce the value added tax (VAT) on petrol.

“We will not reduce the VAT on petrol prices. There is no demand from people to reduce it. If VAT is reduced, petrol will cost lesser than diesel which is not a good situation,” Parsekar told reporters on the sidelines of an IT convention.

The BJP-led government had abolished VAT on petrol when it came to power in 2012 reducing the prices by Rs 11.

Later, the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had imposed a VAT of 3.5 per cent on it which was later increased twice by Parsekar to 15 per cent.

Parsekar had said VAT would be reduced if petrol prices cross Rs 60 per litre mark.

The hike in petroleum prices last week had raised the petrol prices to Rs 63.50 per litre in the state.

Parsekar ruled out review of VAT on petrol products and said the increase in taxations was to compensate the losses due to mining closure.

The mining industry in the state has been closed since last more than two years.

Her conviction in a corruption scandal last year had cut short her fourth term as the chief minister, but earlier this month, an appeals court cleared her.

She will take oath on Saturday morning, officials said.

Her replacement O Panneerselvam quit on Friday, paving the way for her return.

Jayalalitha, a former actress, is one of India’s most colourful politicians.

She has been a leading figure in south Indian politics for three decades.

Ms Jayalalitha was convicted and sentenced for four years by a trial court last September.

She was found guilty of amassing unaccounted-for wealth of more than $10m (£6.4m) and had to quit as the chief minister.

The appeals court ruling earlier this month paved the way for her returning as the head of Tamil Nadu government.

On Friday morning, Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah’s office said in a statement that Mr Panneerselvam, party leader and loyalist who was heading the government in her absence, resigned along with his cabinet ministers.

The governor accepted the resignations and invited Ms Jayalalitha to form a government “at the earliest”, the statement added.

Later in the afternoon, Ms Jayalalitha called on the governor and accepted his invitation to form the government.

Thousands of supporters flashed victory signs and threw flower petals at her car as it sped through the streets of Chennai.

Earlier, legislators belonging to her regional AIADMK party met and elected Ms Jayalalitha as the leader of the legislature party.

“This is the happiest day of our life,” former minister Sellur K Raju told the NDTV news channel.

Former actress who appeared in more than 100 films

Chief minister of Tamil Nadu on four occasions – from 1991-96, briefly in 2011, 2002-06 and 2011-14

Has alternated in power with her great rival, 90-year-old DMK party leader M Karunanidhi

Feted by various Indian prime ministers over the last 20 years trying to win her support

Critics accuse her of establishing a personality cult, but supporters praise her poverty relief efforts

Known for her extravagant lifestyle – police once discovered more than 10,000 saris and 750 pairs of shoes in a raid on her premises.

New Delhi, May 23 (PTI) Attacking Congress over dual power centres during UPA’s reign, BJP today said its rule has restored the credibility, dignity and stature of the post of Prime Minister, who has the last word in this government.

“UPA’s attempt to reduce the stature of Prime Minister’s position by setting up power centre outside the government, we always felt such a system cannot continue in a democracy and we have reversed that,” senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at a press conference to mark the first anniversary of Narendra Modi government.

“The last year has restored the credibility, dignity and stature of the Prime Minister’s Office. In this government, the last word belongs to the Prime Minister and that is how it should be,” he said.

Jaitley asserted that the party has become the central pole of Indian politics and the national polity will now be guided along pro-BJP and anti-BJP lines.

BJP also announced a host of programmes including 200 big rallies and 5,000 public meetings across the country to mark the first anniversary of its government which all Union and state ministers, party MPs and office bearers will address.

Jaitley also said minorities in the country were safe and in the last one year, government has made attempts to ensure there is no social tension.

On provocative statements made by BJP leaders, he said they were told not to do so and some incidents like attacks on churches were found to be law and order issues.

“Today all such religious institutions have been provided with security, which was never there in the past,” he said.

He said the party and the government together displayed a lot of coordination and there is enthusiasm among party workers across the country. “Our party and our cadres are proud of our performance,” he asserted.

“Policy paralysis has been replaced by quick decision- making process, reluctance has been replaced by decisiveness.

There is clarity of direction in the government. A very big change is that corruption has been replaced by transparent governance.
Crony capitalism has been replaced by liberal policy-based governance,” he said

Polls have opened in Ireland, where voters are making history as the republic becomes the first nation to ask its electorate to legalise gay marriage.

More than 3m voters have been invited to cast ballots in Ireland’s 43 constituencies, with the result to follow on Saturday. Polling stations opened at 7am BST and they close at 10pm.

The voting follows a hard-fought and occasionally rancorous battle between conservative and liberal Ireland.

Though some 20 other countries worldwide have already legalised gay marriage, Ireland would be the first to do so through a referendum. The move would mark the culmination of an improbable journey in a country in which homosexual acts were still illegal as recently as 1993.

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The Fine Gael-Labour government, alongside the main opposition parties, said they were confident that Ireland will vote yes today despite strong campaigning in the last few days by those opposed to same-sex marriage.

The government point to an extra 68,000 new people of voting age who have signed on to the electoral register within the last fortnight. The administration in Dublin sees this as a sign that younger voters will turn out in higher numbers than in previous referendums to back the yes side. In every opinion poll the yes camp has been ahead of the no side.

In his final live televised interview ahead of the polling stations opening, Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, urged voters to vote yes “for love and for equality”.

But the no campaign, comprised mainly of lay Catholic intellectuals, writers and activists, have warned that a yes vote will create a crisis of personal conscience in Ireland. An alliance of evangelical Catholics and Protestants have distributed more than 90,000 anti-gay marriage pamphlets over the last week across Ireland urging a no vote.

Paddy Monaghan, one of the co-ordinators of the alliance of 100 religious activists, issued a warning on the eve of the referendum.

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“We have warned in our pamphlet about the major implications on the issue of conscience if there is a yes vote on Friday. If there is a yes vote, will the Muslim printer in Ireland now be obliged to print cartoons of Muhammad? Redefining marriage is sold to us by the media and political establishment as a permissive measure but it will quickly become coercive,” Monaghan said.

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In the last week of campaigning, the first female Anglican bishop in Ireland, England, Scotland or Wales, Pat Storey, has written to all her clergy in Meath and Kildare, explaining her reasons for voting no.

Focusing on fears stirred up by the no camp about children allegedly being forcibly adopted by gay couples, Bishop Storey said: “You cannot redefine marriage without including information and reference to children, family and the good of society. It is my view that, where possible, children benefit most from both genders parenting them. That is not to say that single parents who find themselves alone do not do an immensely great job in raising their children. Yet I believe that it is God’s intention that, where feasible, children should have a mother and father.”

Until this week the yes-no battle was coloured by accusations that opponents of gay marriage were misleading the public over claims about forced adoptions or same-sex couples having a supposed right to obtain children through surrogacy. The yes camp has pointed out that the commissioner overseeing the campaign has dismissed these claims and emphasised they were not connected to gay marriage.

In the last few days, the campaign has turned much uglier, with yes advocates revealing the amount of vitriolic abuse they have received. Irish Times writer Una Mullally tweeted a link to a letter she was sent which referred to her revelation during the campaign that she has cancer. The letter writer told her: “Sorry to hear about your cancer but maybe it is the will of God.”

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Referring to Mullally’s going public about her illness, her sexuality and her support for the yes side, the letter writer continued: “After all you have been relentlessly pushing the twisted idea of gay marriage which would destroy the family as we know it and ruin the lives of generations of innocent children victimised by the narcissism of their ‘parents’.”

Mullally’s correspondent ended the letter with further personalised, racially tinged abuse directed at her and her partner: “My advice is to accept that you are both homosexual and not very pretty, as there are far worse fates; you might be black for instance.”

Meanwhile, Colm O’Gorman, the current executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, prominent yes campaigner and survivor of clerical child sex abuse, disclosed on Thursday that a no voter tweeted him a picture of a gay man being thrown to his death off a building by Islamic State extremists. O’Gorman said the image was vile.

Currently 17 countries, including Spain, France, Argentina and Denmark along with several states in the US, allow same-sex couples to marry, and two others have passed legislation paving the way for legalisation.

Ireland, however, is unique because it is the only nation to ask its electorate to endorse gay marriage in a plebiscite. The result will be known on Saturday afternoon.

he United States Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors earthquakes across the world, said on Wednesday that while the chances of future aftershocks in Nepal were lower than its previous forecast, strong tremors could be felt in the Himalayan nation in the next week.

“The aftershocks are a normal occurrence after large earthquakes, and are expected to continue in Nepal but occur less often with time. The probability of future aftershocks is lower than in our forecast of May 13 due to the additional time that has passed since magnitude 7.3 earthquake on May 12, 2015, which was itself an aftershock of the Gorkha mainshock,” the USGS said in an advisory released on Wednesday.

“Within the week of May 20 to May 26, the USGS estimates that the chance of at least one magnitude 5 to 6 aftershock is about 40% and up to 3 such events are likely to occur,” it said.

Two mild tremors were felt on Tuesday in Kathmandu and surrounding areas affected by the April 25 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people in Nepal. The temblor also hit parts of northern India, killing more than 60 people across Uttar, Bihar and West Bengal.

A second powerful earthquake in less than three weeks spread panic in Nepal on May 12, bringing down buildings weakened by the first disaster and killing at least 66 people, including 17 in neighbouring India and one in Chinese Tibet.

Most of the reported fatalities were in villages and towns east of Kathmandu, only just beginning to pick up the pieces from the April 25 quake.

A total of 248 aftershocks of over 4-magnitude have been recorded since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal.

“Aftershocks have the potential to create damage, just like other earthquakes… Some aftershocks may be strong enough to be felt widely throughout the area and may cause additional damage, particularly to vulnerable structures and those already weakened by the mainshock and the aftershocks,” the USGS said.

More than 600 temples, statues and museums across the country were damaged in Nepal’s deadliest earthquake on record, including Kathmandu’s 200-foot Dharahara Tower, built in 1832, which collapsed.

The little-seen older brother of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has surfaced in London, according to a series of reports, attending concerts by Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall.

A man identified as Kim Jong-chul was filmed by Japanese TV crews at the guitarist’s concert on Thursday evening.

Broadcaster TBS filmed Kim, wearing dark sunglasses and clad in a leather jacket, getting out of a people carrier outside the central London venue, flanked by suited men who appeared to be North Korean officials.

More TBS footage shows the 33-year-old applauding in the crowd and then leaving the venue via a corridor. “How was the concert?” asked the TBS reporter, in response to which one of Kim’s entourage places a hand over the camera lens.

The NK News website cited an anonymous source who also filmed Kim’s exit as confirming the man was brother of North Korea’s leader. According to this source, the older Kim saw Clapton play on both Wednesday and Thursday, sitting near the stage.

“He wasn’t so distinctive,” NK News quoted the source as saying. “But the obviously older guy next to him was clearly neither a typical Clapton fan or dressed for a gig.”

According to NK News, Japanese and South Korean media learned of Kim’s appearance at the Wednesday concert and so arrived in force the next day.

He is the middle of the three sons of North Korea’s late leader, Kim Jong-il, who died in 2011. The eldest of the trio, Kim Jong-nam, 44, who has a different mother to the other siblings, was seen as most likely to succeed as leader before an incident in 2001 when he tried to enter Japan on a false passport, supposedly to visit Disneyland.

While Kim Jong-chul has previously held some mid-level official positions, he has kept a low profile under the rule of his younger brother.

North Korea is officially run on a highly nationalistic and insular philosophy of self-reliance, known as juche. But top-ranking citizens have previously shown a taste for foreign culture. Kim Jong-il was well know for his love of foreign cuisine and US cinema, while his youngest son is a basketball fan who has repeatedly met former NBA star Dennis Rodman.

According to the Financial Times in 2008, North Korea had formally invited Clapton to play in the country. The overtures reportedly followed a concert in Pyongyang by the New York Philharmonic.

New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) Settlement of the border issue is “critical” for India-China ties, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said today, as he called for a “larger plan” for “tackling” that country to resolve all ticklish matters.

Doval also said that while India’s relations with China “are looking up” there was a need to remain at a “very very high alert”.

Delivering the annual K F Rustamji lecture, Doval, who leads the Indian side at the talks of Special Representatives with China, also dwelt on China’s emergence as world’s economic power and its relations with Pakistan.

The event is organised by the BSF in memory of Rustamji, the founder Director General of of the force who retired in late 1960’s but was reemployed as first Special Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs. He is the only police officer who has been awarded Padma Vibushan, the country’s second highest civilian award.

Doval, a former Intelligence Bureau Chief, said “…we might have to see China border in a different way once the boundary is settled….

“We have got a very long border we have got 3,488-km long border, a very difficult and mountainous terrain snow-clad…

now for the bilateral relations with China, border is the critical and vital issue,” he said speaking on the topic ‘Challenges of Securing India?s Borders; Strategising the Response?.

He said all advancement made in the “relationship” with China gets centred around and becomes important on settlement of the border.

Doval said while the bilateral relations with China “are looking up” there was a need to remain at a “very very high alert”.

“We are particularly concerned about the Eastern sector where the claims have been made on Tawang(in Arunachal Pradesh) which is totally in contravention of accepted principles,” Doval said and expressed surprise that while McMahon line was agreed till Burma by China, the same was not accepted thereafter.

The line is named after Sir Henry McMahon, foreign secretary of the British-run Government of India and the chief negotiator of settling disputes with China in 1914.

“The fact is there is settled population in these areas particularly in Tawang and other areas which have been participating in the national mainstream all through.

“So, these are the ticklish issues. But these ticklish issues have to be talked about, deliberated and worked out, he said, adding there was a need for working out a “larger plan for tackling China”.

The comments by Doval came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to China asked Beijing to “reconsider its approach on some issues that hold us back”, an apparent reference to the long-pending boundary issue.

Hisar, May 22 (PTI) Police today claimed to have arrested one person along with his brother for allegedly killing his 20-year-old daughter here at Dhana Kalan village.

Sonia, a student of BA Final year, had allegedly eloped with her boyfriend of same village on May 9.

However, both were found by police two days later from Gurgaon railway station on the basis of complaint filed by girl’s father Ravi Dutt.

Sonia was handed over to the family by the police, they said.

However, she died under mysterious circumstances on May 19 and her family cremated the body next day without conducting postmortem, police said.

After learning about the girl’s death, police lodged a case against girl’s father Ravi Dutt, his brother Krishan Saini and another relative Rajender under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed) and other sections of the IPC against them.

Ravi Dutt and Krishan Saini were arrested, police said, further investigation is underway

Alleged Islamic State recruit Areeb Majeed has told the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that one of the reasons why he returned to India was the “un-Islamic” activities of the IS such as “treating men and women as sex slaves”. He has also said “Indians are sidelined… treated as second-class citizens” by the IS.

This statement forms part of an over 8,000-page chargesheet filed Wednesday by the NIA against Majeed and his three wanted friends. Majeed has been charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 125 of the Indian Penal Code.
The four young men from Kalyan — Areeb Majeed, Fahad Shaikh, Amaan Tandel and Saheem Tanki — left their homes and went to fight for the IS in Iraq and Syria in May 2014.

Unlike what we saw in the videos on the Internet and what we were preached by our handlers, the IS is into un-Islamic activities in Iraq. They treat men and women as sex slaves. I was appalled by what I saw. Women are relegated as sex objects. This disillusioned me and I decided to return to India,” Majeed said in his statement. “The IS claims they are fighting under the Caliphate, but the ground realities are completely different,” he said.
The other reason for his return, Majeed said, is the “blatant discrimination” shown by the banned outfit towards jihadis from India. “While the Arabs are treated as the real fighters, the Indians are sidelined. They are treated as second-class citizens. They are never considered good enough to fight the real war and relegated as support staff. Indians are never put on the front line,” he said.

Majeed said that in September, when he was based in Raqqa after completing basic training, he volunteered to drive an explosives-laden vehicle behind enemy lines, but was disappointed when the IS cancelled the plan at the last minute. He said he suspected this was done because he was Indian.
He claimed he was hit by bullets and was once injured in a bombing, but did not receive any medical attention. “When I was treating myself for the injuries in Raqqa, which I sustained during the bombing, I realised there was no point being here. I got further dissuaded by the manner in which the IS operated in Iraq,” he said.
Majeed said that in September, he called his family in India. He said his mother started weeping when she heard his voice since they had already given him up for dead and had performed the ghaibana namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayer in absentia) after they got a call from Tanki in August, informing them that Majeed had been killed in a bombing. After learning that Areeb was alive, his family insisted that he return. The family pressure, coupled with his disillusionment with the IS, made him return, he said.
The chargesheet also details Majeed’s indoctrination and his six-month stay in Iraq. According to the chargesheet, Majeed was primarily indoctrinated about the IS over the Internet. A few Indians and foreign nationals also brainwashed him and his three friends, it says. “Areeb used his Samsung Note 1 to browse the Internet and download jihadi literature,” the chargesheet says. The NIA has attached 87 documents and 46 articles, including Call Data Records, to the chargesheet
The chargseheet claims it was local preacher Adil Dolaris, also from Kalyan, who introduced Majeed to an Afghan national named Rehman Daulati and an alleged Iraqi militant Ahmed Rateb Hussein Zade. Daulati, who had obtained an engineering degree from Navi Mumbai, moved to Afghanistan in 2014. He got in touch with the four youth in 2013. He was also the one who partly financed their trip to Iraq. “The cost of the trip was Rs 2.39 lakh, Dalauti contributed around Rs 1.5 lakh,” the chargesheet states. “Despite shifting to Afghanistan, Daulati intermittently travelled to India. When the youth expressed their desire to travel to Iraq, Daulati promised to help them,” it says.
Other than Daulati, the four also established contact with an alleged IS operative identified as Abu Fatima, who instructed them that on their arrival in Baghdad, they should all stand outside a particular mosque in Mosul. On May 30, the four took a cab to the mosque and stood outside. From there, they called Dalauti and Fatima. Fatima then directed another alleged IS operative identified as Ali to take them for training.
Majeed also claimed that Fahad operated the suspended Twitter handle @magnetgas. The account was created in India and later operated by him in Iraq. It was primarily used to follow IS activities, especially concerning Indian jihadis. After receiving basic combat training, the four were christened Abu Ali Al Hindi (Areeb), Abu Utman Al Hindi (Saleem), Abu Bakar Al Hindi (Fahad) and Abu Umar Al Hindi (Aman) . The ‘Al Hindi’ suffix is used by the IS to identify Indian jihadis.