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Top News Highlights: Antony Blinken meets India’s foreign minister amid the India-Canada row, A committee calls for protecting religious buildings in Manipur, A gunman kills several people at a Rotterdam university, and more.
Today’s Latest News Transcript at 10:30 AM on 29 September 2023
In top national news: Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Thursday with India’s foreign minister amid a simmering row between New Delhi and Ottawa over allegations of Indian government involvement in the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada. Blinken and S Jaishankar met Thursday at the State Department as the U.S. tries to navigate the dispute between its northern neighbour and the South Asian country critical to its Indo-Pacific strategy to counter China’s rising influence in the region. Neither man spoke to the controversy that has disrupted Canada-India relations in very brief comments to reporters, but a U.S. official said the topic was raised. The official said Blinken encouraged India to cooperate with the Canadian probe.
In other news: With places of worship being vandalised in the ethnic clashes that have roiled Manipur since May, a three-member committee of former judges, constituted by the Supreme Court, has asked the state government to “immediately identify” all religious buildings in the state and protect them from damage, destruction and encroachment. The panel has also asked the state to ensure “the protection of the properties of the displaced persons as well as the properties which have been destroyed/ burnt in the violence and prevent their encroachment”. In a statement earlier this month, the Manipur Police stated that 386 religious structures in the state had been vandalised through arson during the ongoing violence.
The US Embassy has issued over a million non-immigrant visas to Indian travellers so far this year, achieving ahead of time a target it set for this year after opening up weekend slots to clear the pandemic-related backlog. The millionth visa, the US Embassy said in a statement Thursday, was personally handed over by US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti to Ranju Singh, who is visiting the US along with her spouse to meet their son, a student. Non-immigrant visa categories include those for business, travel, student visas and crew visas. Describing it as one of the most robust travel relationships in the world, the US Embassy said over 1.2 million Indians visited the country last year.
In news from Asian Games 2023: Minutes after winning a wushu silver, tears flowed down Naorem Roshibina Devi’s face. These, however, weren’t tears of joy. While in Hangzhou, her mind was on the ethnic violence back home in Manipur. Hailing from Bishnupur district, one of the epicentres of ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities that have kept the state on the boil for months now, Devi, a Meitei, said she’s spent sleepless nights worrying about her parents. She said: “I dedicate this medal to Manipur.” The silver was an improvement on the bronze she won five years ago in Jakarta. And when she stepped off the podium at the Xiaoshan Guali Sports Centre, Devi spoke from the heart.
In top international news: Several people were killed on Thursday by a gunman who opened fire in a classroom at a university in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam and a nearby house, police said. A 32-year-old suspect was arrested after police said on social media that shots had been fired at the Rotterdam Medical Centre and a home. They also said fires had broken out at both locations. It was unclear how many people were hurt at each location. Videos posted online showed police instructing students, some wearing medical gowns, to run outside as heavily armed arrest teams arrived at the scene. One video showed a man in handcuffs wearing what appeared to be camouflage pants.
In news from the UK: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty has decided to liquidate her investment company Catamaran Ventures UK Ltd, according to official company filings with the UK’s Companies House this week. The 43-year-old businesswoman had incorporated the venture in 2013 with her husband as one of the directors before he resigned in 2015. According to the latest financial statement for the year ended December 2022 available for the company on Wednesday, Murty as the only director of the firm has now decided to wind down her firm as a going concern. The value of the company’s investments for the period was stated at just over GBP 3.8 million.
In news from Sweden: Three people were killed overnight in separate incidents in Sweden as deadly violence linked to a feud between criminal gangs escalated. Late Wednesday, an 18-year-old man was shot dead in a Stockholm suburb. Hours later, a man was killed and another was wounded in a shooting in Jordbro, south of the Swedish capital. Early Thursday a woman in her 20s died in an explosion in Uppsala, west of Stockholm. The blast, which damaged five houses, is being treated by the police as a murder.
Lastly, Israel reopened a main crossing with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, allowing thousands of Palestinian labourers to enter the country for the first time since sealing it last week. The crossing reopens after weeks of violent protests along Gaza’s frontier with Israel, where demonstrators have thrown explosives and rocks and flew incendiary balloons that sparked fires. The protests have driven up tensions, prompting Israel to launch airstrikes in the territory that targeted military posts belonging to the militant Hamas that rules Gaza. Cogat, the Israeli defence body that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, said late Wednesday that the crossing would reopen and said such measures could continue if calm was maintained.
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Today's Top News Headlines and Latest News at 10:30 am on 29 … – The Indian Express
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