New Japan PM an old friend, will give priority to India: government

[email protected] (The Hindu)
December 18, 2012

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New Delhi, December 18: More than incoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's professed proclivity towards India, New Delhi is hoping that the next Government in Tokyo will be more decisive on strategic issues.

The trend of India-Japan relations under three Prime Ministers of the previous Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) remained positive but India's responses had to be re-calibrated because each Premier had a different take on the geo-political situation and trends, said Government sources.

Officials concede that Mr. Abe had set India-Japan ties on the high road when he was Prime Minister five years back. They also concur with the assessment by strategic experts that he retained his assessment of India as a key spoke in Japan's scheme of things even after demitting office. But they feel it would be wrong to talk about one entity. “The Government is not supporting one person or the other. It is wrong to crow about the importance of one entity. It is not as if he is special and others are not,” said the sources.

“The only thing we wish is that the new Government will be more decisive. The trend with the DPJ Government continued in the same positive vein as with Liberative Democratic Party (LDP) Governments. But certain decisions took time and the DPJ Government spoke in different voices at the same time,” they added.

The strategic orientation of each DPJ Prime Minister was different. When Yukio Hatoyama became Prime Minister, he tried to draw a line on U.S.-Japan-China relations. His successor Naoto Kan tried to but couldn't turn around this approach. And Yoshihiko Noda, who followed as Prime Minister, put up the U.S.-Japan alliance as the basis of Tokyo's foreign policy and international strategy.

The accent on different strategic line ups by successive Prime Ministers of the same party, feel the sources, is now in the past and India-Japan ties would further enhance and expand due to Mr. Abe's ideological orientation — he wants to revise Japan's Constitution by designating the defence forces as military and enhanced defence ties with nations (that includes India in the first tier) that do not harbour ill will against Japan.

This means that India's defence and strategic ties with Japan could become stronger. Even if the civil nuclear agreement could take some time, India could look forward to the removal of some of its companies from the list that restricts their interaction with Japanese companies.

The last such revision took place two years back, around the time India agreed to hold a 2 + 2 dialogue involving Defence and Foreign Secretaries from both countries. Ironically, the removal of some Indian companies from the Japanese export control list benefited Tokyo more during its time of need.

Indian Rare Earths Limited, which was on Japan's export control list but was removed in 2010, has come to the rescue of Japan's automobile industry by promising to supply the mineral. China had refused to supply rare earth materials.




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News Network
March 16,2024

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Ottawa, Mar 16: An Indian-origin couple and their teenage daughter were killed in a "suspicious" fire which tore through their home last week in Canada's Ontario province, police said on Friday.

A fire engulfed a home at the Big Sky Way and Van Kirk Drive area of Brampton on March 7, a press release by the Peel Police said.

After the blaze was put out, investigators located what was believed to be human remains within the gutted house, but the number of people killed couldn't be ascertained at the time.

The charred remains were on Friday identified as those of three family members: 51-year-old Rajiv Warikoo; his wife, 47-year-old Shilpa Kotha; and their 16-year-old daughter, Mahek Warikoo.

Police said that they resided at the address before the fire.

Peel police Constable Taryn Young on Friday said the fire had been deemed suspicious, the CTV news channel reported.

"At this time, we are investigating this with our homicide bureau, and we are deeming this as suspicious as the Ontario Fire Marshal has deemed that this fire was not accidental," the report quoted Young as saying.

"There's not much left to it," Young said when asked about the possible cause of the fire.

"Looking into something like that as a fire marshal, I'm sure it's very tough when there is not much left to look at. But we are exhausting all avenues," she said.

The deceased family's neighbour, Kenneth Yousaf, said that the family had lived on the street for about 15 years, and he never noticed any problems with them.

Yousaf said he was alerted to the fire last week by a family member, who heard a big "bang." "When we came out, the house was on fire. So sad. Within a few hours, everything was down to the ground," the report quoted Yousaf as saying.

In a press release, police said they are continuing to investigate the deaths of the three family members and urged anyone with information to come forward.

"The circumstances surrounding the house fire remains the focus of an active investigation, and anyone with information or video footage (dashcam or otherwise) is urged to contact Homicide detectives," police said.

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March 28,2024

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Russia says it is "extremely hard to believe" that Daesh could have staged the recent hugely deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall that the country's intelligence and security officials have blamed on Ukraine and its Western backers.

Four gunmen burst into the Russian capital's Crocus City Hall on Friday and began shooting at the people, who were attending an event. The Takfiri terrorist group has allegedly claimed responsibility for the massacre that killed at least 143.

Speaking on Wednesday, however, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova cast that claim into serious doubt.

"In order to ward off suspicions from the collective West, they urgently needed to come up with something, so they resorted to ISIS (Daesh), pulled an ace out of their sleeve, and literally a few hours after the terrorist attack, the Anglo-Saxon media began disseminating precisely these versions," she said.

The chief of the Russian internal intelligence (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov has suggested that not only Ukraine, but also the United States and Britain might have been behind the shooting.

The Russian Federal Security Service has also said the gunmen planned to travel to Ukraine, where they were to be welcomed as "heroes." The FSB said Western intelligence services aided the attackers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also suggested that Ukraine stood to derive benefit from the attack and that Kiev might have played a role.

He has said that someone on the Ukrainian side had prepared a "window" for the gunmen to escape across the border before they were captured in western Russia on Friday night.

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March 25,2024

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A teenager who led over 100 people to safety during Friday’s terrorist attack at a Moscow concert hall, has been hailed as a hero. 15-year-old Islam Khalilov, who worked part-time in one of the cloakrooms at Crocus City, recounted the events of the tragic evening to the Ruptly video agency.

The concert venue situated just outside of Moscow was packed ahead of a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic, when a group of terrorists armed with assault rifles forced their way into the building. They fired indiscriminately at fleeing people and then set the concert hall on fire.

According to the latest estimates, the attack has claimed the lives of at least 137 people, with about 180 injured.

Khalilov told the video agency that “it was when people started running from the escalator, from the stairway” that he realized that an emergency was occurring. The teenager said that he was acting on “instincts” at the time and used his thorough knowledge of the premises to quickly arrange visitors’ evacuation toward another building within the Crocus City complex.

“I started shouting all across the foyer, all across Crocus City Hall - ‘Folks, there’s a shooting! All run to the expo!’ – and I was showing where they had to go and was helping everyone,” he explained.

According to the cloakroom attendant, “there was a stampede, and everyone was in shock at first. No one knew what to do and where to go.”

Khalilov added that he himself was running behind the entire group to make sure he had not left anyone behind.

The teenager admitted to being “really scared” all along, but still managed to make the right use the instructions he’d previously been given on how to evacuate patrons in case of an emergency.

He told Ruptly that, at one point, he had caught a glimpse of one of the terrorists.

“I saw one, [he was] bearded and in green fatigues, he was walking around with an assault rifle,” the teenager recounted.

He also recalled seeing a man getting fatally shot by one of the assailants, adding that he “can’t stop thinking about it.”

The 15-year-old said he doesn’t consider himself a hero, and that he was just doing his job.

Explaining what helped him overcome fear, Khalilov reasoned that “It’s better to sacrifice yourself than to let a hundred people die.”

After Khalilov’s feat had been reported-on by several Russian media outlets, his favorite football club, FC Spartak Moscow, invited him to a meeting where he was presented with free passes to their matches.

Popular Russian rap artist Morgenstern said he had transferred 1,000,000 rubles ($11,000) to the teenager – something that Khalilov has confirmed to media.

The leader of Russia's Muslims, Mufti Ravil Guynutdin, has announced that Khalilov would receive a medal for his bravery.

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