Category: ENGLISH

LOS ANGELES  – California s latest wildfire has spread rapidly in the US state s central mountains, just as firefighters were bringing a big blaze south of Los Angeles under control, authorities said Sunday. The Mosquito Fire has now swept through an area of more than 41,000 acres (16,600 hectares) in the Sierra Nevada range northeast of San Francisco in just four days, the official Cal Fire website reported. Cal Fire said the blaze, covering parts of El Dorado and Placer counties, is just 10 percent contained. It said while…

BERLIN (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Germany on Sunday in his latest diplomatic effort to persuade Western powers to ditch their tattered nuclear deal with the Jewish state s arch nemesis Iran. Israel has long opposed a revival of the 2015 accord, which has been moribund since then US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions on Tehran. Momentum that built towards a restored agreement last month appears to have slowed, after the three European nations party to the agreement — Germany, France…

EDINBURGH  – Mourners will on Monday get the first opportunity to pay respects before the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, as it lies in an Edinburgh cathedral where King Charles III himself will mount a vigil. Thousands of people are expected to line up for the chance to see the flag-draped casket at St Giles  Cathedral in the Scottish capital, a week before her funeral in London. The new monarch will walk behind his mother s coffin in a sombre procession leading from Holyroodhouse palace, where it arrived on Sunday after…

MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin on Sunday warned his French counterpart of the potential “catastrophic consequences” of what he said were Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine. During a telephone call with Emmanuel Macron, Putin “drew attention to regular Ukrainian attacks on (Zaporizhzhia nuclear) facilities, including a radioactive waste storage facility, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” the Kremlin said in a statement. The largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been a focal point of fighting in recent weeks, raising concerns…

Kyiv: Russia attacked power stations and other infrastructure, causing widespread outages across Ukraine as Kyiv’s forces pressed a swift counteroffensive that has driven Moscow’s troops from swaths of territory it had occupied in the northeast. The bombardment on Sunday ignited a massive fire at a power station on Kharkiv’s western outskirts and killed at least one person. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the “deliberate and cynical missile strikes” against civilian targets as acts of terrorism. Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv appeared to be without power Sunday night. Cars drove through darkened streets,…

Gurugram: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would probe Sonali Phogat’s death if the family is not satisfied with the Goa police’s investigation. While talking to mediapersons in Haryana, Khattar said, “We had asked for a CBI probe in writing but they’ve stated that first Goa would complete their own investigation and if the family is not satisfied with it, the investigation will be handed over to CBI.” Earlier today, a Khap Mahapanchayat was held in Hisar demanding a CBI inquiry…

Jaisalmer: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address the valedictory session of a national-level meeting of the BJP’s OBC Morcha or OBC wing in Jodhpur today. The meet will be held at home turf of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Shah is also lined up to deliver the inaugural speech at the meeting of the BJP’s booth-level workers in Jodhpur. The home minister arrived at the Air Force station in Jaisalmer earlier on Friday evening. He will interact with BSF officials at the south sector headquarters in Dabla (Jaisalmer) and spend…

VIENNA  – A blackout caused by fresh shelling near Ukraine s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has compromised the site s safety, the UN atomic watchdog warned Friday, adding the plant s operator is considering shutting down the sole remaining reactor. “Shelling has caused a complete blackout in Energodar (town) and compromised the safe operation of the nearby Zaporizhzhia (plant),” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi tweeted, calling it a “dramatic development”. “This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand,” he said, calling for “the immediate cessation of all shelling…

Hindus are urging all Bellevue School District (BSD) schools in Washington to close on their most popular festival Diwali; which falls on October 24 this year. Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that it was simply not fair with Hindu pupils in BSD schools as they had to be at school on their most popular festival, while schools were closed around other religious days. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, stated that since it was vital for Hindu families to celebrate…