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Los Angeles, Sep 14 (IANS) The US now joins a list of nearly 30 other countries with circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) identified by the WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The polioviruses found in New York, both from the case of paralytic polio in an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County in New York and in several wastewater samples from communities near the patient's residence, meet the WHO's criteria for cVDPV, according to the CDC.

It means that poliovirus continues to be transmitted in Rockland County and surrounding areas, said the US health agency.

The virus' genetic sequences from the patient from Rockland County and wastewater specimens collected in New York have been linked to wastewater samples in Jerusalem, Israel, and London, indicating community transmission, according to the health agency.

The cVDPV occurs when local immunity to poliovirus is low enough to allow prolonged transmission of the original weakened virus in the oral polio vaccine, according to the CDC.

As the virus circulates and more genetic changes occur, the virus can regain its ability to infect the central nervous system and cause paralysis, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Polio vaccination is the safest and best way to fight this debilitating disease and it is imperative that people in these communities who are unvaccinated get up to date on polio vaccination right away," said Jose R. Romero, Director of CDC's National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday recovered incriminating documents and digital evidence following raids at 36 locations across the country in connection with irregularities in the exams for Jammu and Kashmir Police Sub-Inspectors (JKPSI).

Raids were conducted at 36 locations in Jammu, Srinagar, Karnal, Mahendergarh and Rewari in Haryana, Gandhidham in Gujarat, Delhi, Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh and Bengaluru.

Searches were conducted at the premises of Khalid Jehangir, former Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB); Ashok Kumar Mann, then controller and an examiner; as well as some officials of the J&K Police and CRPF, including a DSP.

The CBI had registered the case on August 3 on the request of J&K government against 33 accused persons over allegations of irregularities in the written examination for the post of sub-inspector in J&K Police conducted by the JKSSB in March.

The results were declared on June 4. There were allegations regarding malpractices in the examination. The J&K government had constituted an inquiry committee to look into the matter. It was alleged that a conspiracy was hatched between officials of JKSSB, a Bengaluru-based private company, beneficiary candidates and others, leading to gross irregularities in the conduct of the written examin for sub-inspectors' post.

There was abnormally high percentage of selected candidates from Jammu, Rajouri and Samba districts. Violation of rules by JKSSB was found in assigning the task of setting the question paper to the Bengaluru-based private company.

Searches were earlier conducted on August 5 at 30 locations, including in Jammu, Srinagar and Bengaluru at the premises of the accused persons.

Investigation has revealed alleged payment of Rs 20-30 lakh by the willing candidates to the accused for accessing the question paper before the commencement of the examination.

--IANS
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Patna, Sep 13 (IANS) Lalan Singh, the national president of JD-U, claimed on Tuesday that the country will become 'BJP-mukt Bharat' after the 2024 general elections.

His remarks came soon after BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted that Daman and Diu has become 'mukt' from JD-U, adding that a revolt is expected to take place in JD-U's Bihar unit as well.

Earlier on Monday, in a big blow to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, as many as 15 district panchayat members of JD(U)'s Daman and Diu unit joined the BJP, helping the saffron party storm to power in the Zila Panchayat.

Lalan Singh said: "Don't worry Sushil Ji, the country will become 'mukt' from BJP in 2024. The people of the country will get relief from communalism, price rise, unemployment, and an atmosphere of communal harmony will be established after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections."

--IANS
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By Altaf Hussain Janjua
Srinagar, Sep 13 (IANS) The Indian Army launched 'Operation Rakshak and many other such operations to wipe out the enemies in Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1998.


But the army's 'Operation Sadbhavana' in Jammu and Kashmir is for the welfare of the people. It is especially to help people in rural areas and areas near the Line of Control (LoC) where lives and property have been destroyed due to insurgency and militancy.

Under Operation Sadbhavana, the areas covered near the Line of Control include Rajouri, Poonch, Karna, Uri, Tingdar, Kiran, Nowshera, Sunderbani, Akhnur etc. It has played an important role in healing people's wounds by providing them with employment opportunities, medical and educational facilities and infrastructure development. The army has reached areas where no politician or administration man has been able to reach till date.

According to locals near the LoC in Poonch district, Operation Sadbhavana is providing necessary equipment for children's education, medical facilities, conducting medical camps from time to time, running awareness programmes, sewing 'kadhai' programme for women, various vocational courses for youth including welding, computer diploma, plumbing, bakery, motor mechanics, etc., due to which people are getting a lot of relief.

Noor Alam, a resident of Karmara, said, "Everyone living near the LoC has immense respect for the Indian Army because the only hope and support of the border residents is the army. If someone gets sick in the evening, they go to the nearby army camp for medicine or ointment and if there is a need to transport the patient to the hospital, the army even arranges for the vehicle."

Siva Singh, a border resident of Sunderbani, said, "In our region, the army has played an important role in providing employment to the youth. The army is conducting professional courses for one to three months every day, after which the youth are getting employment easily. Free driving classes are also being conducted, which enables many young people to pass the driving test and get licence."

Not only this, the army is also working in providing information to the public about various schemes being run by the Central government. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the army spread awareness about Coronavirus and delivered the required medical equipment to the local residents.

The army also takes the lead in promoting sports, organising local and traditional fairs etc.

It is also normal to hold regular meetings with respected citizens to promote mutual brotherhood and establish peace in the region. The organisation of Iftar parties in the form of Eid Milan and Ramadan is also a part of the army's Operation Sadbhavana.

Jammu-based defence spokesman Lt. Col. Devendra Anand said, "The army is trying to protect the country's borders as well as help in improving the quality of life of the border residents under this Operation. In Poonch, Rajouri, Doda, Reasi, Ramban, Kishtwar, Baramulla and Kupwara, some important activity is organised every day and it is a matter of satisfaction for us. We have been 100 per cent successful in winning the trust of the people."

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif are likely to have a meeting during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which is scheduled to be held on September 15-16 at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

If it materialises, then this would be the first meeting between the two leaders.

Modi had met then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on December 25, 2015, when he had landed in Lahore in a surprise stop-over to the country while on his way back to Delhi after completing a day-long visit to Afghanistan. It was the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian Prime Minister in more than 10 years.

Meanwhile, Modi will be visiting Samarkand to attend the 22nd meeting of the SCO council of heads of state, official sources said.

The SCO is the largest regional bloc in the world comprising eight full members -- India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

The Prime Minister is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the SCO summit.

Modi is visiting Uzbekistan on the invitation of the country's President, Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The SCO summit will be attended by leaders of SCO member states, observer states, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said.

At the summit, the leaders would be reviewing SCO's activities of the past 20 years and discuss various aspects related to multilateral cooperation as well as issues of regional and global importance, official sources said.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 13 (IANS) Continuing its drive against encroachment, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the civic agency, carried out a ruthless demolition drive at 18 locations in Bengaluru on Tuesday, the second day.

The official note from BBMP stated that the demolition drive has been carried out in the Mahadevapura zone and Yelahanka zones. In Mahadevapura zone, demolition drives were carried out at Shantiniketan Layout, Papaiah Reddy Layout and Challaghatta localities.

These areas were inundated and saw major water-logging problems during heavy rains. The team of engineers, revenue officers, marshals and police personnel were present during the drive in which two Hitachi and eight JCB machines were used.

Nalapad Academy in Challaghatta has encroached upon 2.5 meters of width, and 150.5 meters of storm water drain has been encroached. Fifty meters of encroachment has been cleared and the drive will continue.

In Shantiniketan Layout, seven buildings and four compound walls have been cleared. Meanwhile, owners of flats and buildings complained that they have purchased from builders and banks have also given loans for them. Now, BBMP is demolishing without any notice and they don't know where to go.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has informed the session that Rs 600 crore has already been released to build infrastructure across the state. He also announced that he would give Rs 1,800 crore for development of storm water drains in Bengaluru. The work would be finished within a set time-frame.

Krishna Bhairegowda, Congress MLA, stated in the session that brand Bengaluru is affected globally and the government must ensure that all storm water drains in Bengaluru must be developed.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) There has been complete disengagement between Indian and Chinese forces at a key flashpoint in the Ladakh sector, government sources said on Tuesday.

The process, which started on September 8 after months of talks and 16 rounds of Corps Commander meetings, as per sources, entail both two sides moving back after their May 2020 friction. Both sides have verified their posts at LAC by the ground commanders, the sources added.

According to the sources, both India and China moved back their frontline troops from the face-off site of PP-15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh and dismantled temporary infrastructure there as part of a five-day disengagement process.

Sources close to developments averred that full details of the disengagement and the verification was done by the ground commanders.

Asked about the disengagement at PP-15 on the sidelines of an event, Army Chief General Manoj Pande had said: "I will have to go and take stock. But, it (disengagement process) is going as per schedule, and what was decided."

--IANS
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By Yashwant Raj
Washington, Sep 13 (IANS) Former US President Donald Trump is back with another Hindi slogan: "Bharat and US Sabse Achhe Dost (India and US are best friends)".


Trump recorded this new catchphrase at his Mar-a-Lago residence recently for Shalabh Kumar, a Chicago-based businessman, Republican donor and strategist, who was also behind Trump's first Hindi slogan in 2016: "Ab ki bar, Trump Sarkar", which was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's poll slogan "Ab ki bar, Modi sarkar".

Kumar said Trump, who doesn't speak any Hindi at all, had an easier time recording the slogan than many people in Kumar's own team, who had trouble pronouncing the word 'Bharat' correctly. Most of them couldn't get it right, Kumar recalled with a laugh, despite "hundreds of takes".

The former President got it in "just three takes", Kumar said.

Trump had a far more difficult time with the first slogan though. In Kumar's telling, Trump had done 12 takes to finally get it right, recording it at his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower, which also served as the head office of the Trump Organization and, then, his residence. The former President now lives in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago club resort.

"We will use the slogan in the upcoming midterm elections in November," Kumar said, discussing the creation of the new slogan exclusively with this reporter.

The slogan is intended to mobilise Indian/Hindu American voters in support of Republicans, especially the key candidates endorsed by the former President - J.D. Vance in Ohio, Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin - and party candidates in Arizona, a one-time Republican stronghold that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won in 2020, blocking Trump's path to re-election.

Indian Americans have emerged as a crucial vote bank in swing states where election outcomes can turn on thin margins, as slim as a thousand or few thousands.

A 2020 report by US think-tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted that "in select swing states, the Indian American population is larger than the margin of victory that separated (Democratic Presidential nominee) Hillary Clinton and Trump in the closely-contested 2016 Presidential race".

The Indian American community has grown to more than four million -- said to be slightly more than 1 pert cent of the total population -- but registered voters among them are less than the total registered voters, which stood at 160 million in 2020. They are located all over the country -- the largest concentrations are in California, Texas, New Jersey, New York and Illinois.

But they matter more in swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and, now, Georgia and Arizona, where their numbers, though smaller, are more than the margins of victory or defeat -- Biden had won Wisconsin by 20,000 votes (Trump had won the state by 22,000 in 2016), Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes (Trump won it by 50,000 in 2016), and Georgia by 12,000 votes (Trump had won it by 2,11,141 votes in 2016).

Both the Democratic and Republican parties now woo Indian Americans aggressively. Kumar said Trump's slogan will feature in an ad that will play on TV channels viewed mostly by Indian Americans, starting October when candidates will be in the last month of campaigning for US House of Representatives, Senate (a third of the 100 seats) and state-wide officials such as governors and state legislatures.

Kumar has been working with Trump since 2016 but things cooled between them towards the end of the former President's terms. Kumar stayed away from Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, but is back in the good graces of the former President. They recently appeared together in an NDTV interview.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 13 (IANS) The streets of Kolkata turned into a virtual battlefield on Tuesday afternoon as BJP activists, marching to the West Bengal Secretariat to protest corruption issues, clashed with police.

A police vehicle was torched, while a BJP councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, an Assistant Commissioner of Police and several others, including both BJP supporters and police personnel, were injured.

At around 3 p.m., an group of BJP supporters led by party's national Vice President, Dilip Ghosh and the party's state General Secretary, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, started moving towards the state secretariat, Nabanna from BJP's state headquarters at Muralidhar Sen Lane.

As they reached central Kolkata, they came to know that Leader of Opposition in Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari had been arrested and taken to the Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar. At this, a section of BJP supporters from the arms, led by Chattopadhyay started marching towards the police headquarters and were able to reach its gates after breaking through the barricades.

Although the police were initially pushed back, soon a huge contingent of security personnel, led by senior officials of Kolkata Police, stopped the BJP supporters, following which clashes broke out there.

Violence also spread to the adjacent Mahatma Gandhi Road, where a police PCR van was allegedly set on fire by BJP supporters.

An ACP and BJP councillor Meena Devi Purohit, along with several others, were injured.

Mahatma Gandhi Road, being a trading hub, has a number of shops with many storing inflammable items. The burning PCR van created panic in the locality and the traders quickly pulled down the shutters of their shops. However, the fire tenders quickly rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire before it could spread further.

A police kiosk there was also vandalised by the BJP supporters.

However, BJP state President Sukanta Majumdar alleged that the PCR van was set on fire by the police only and blame put on his party supporters. Senior city officials rubbished his claims.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) In the past few weeks, several shocking videos of young to middle aged people collapsing due to sudden heart attacks have gone viral.

Heart attacks, cardiac arrest and other cardiovascular diseases in large numbers of young Indians is becoming a major cause of concern.

According to cardiologists, there has been a spate of persons suffering heart attacks in their 20s and 30s over the last decade.

The findings say that Indians get heart disease 10 years earlier than their Western counterparts. As per the findings of Indian Heart Association, heart disease tends to strike Indians at an earlier age (almost 33 per cent earlier) compared to other demographics.

CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of IANS to understand people's views about the sudden rise in heart disease in young Indians.

The survey found that the biggest proportion of Indians, 31 per cent, believe that stress is the key reason for collapsing young hearts.

At the same, while 25 per cent of the respondents cited poor lifestyle as the main reason, 8 per cent of the respondents said that it is related to the side effects of Covid-19.

Similar sentiments were shared by both the urban and rural respondents.

During the survey, the biggest urban respondents, 35 per cent, and rural respondents, 29 per cent, blamed stress for the increase in cardiovascular diseases in young Indians.

After stress, the second largest proportion of urban respondents, 25 per cent, and rural respondents, 25 per cent, said that poor lifestyle is to be blamed.

During the survey, stress was cited as the main reason for increasing cases of heart attacks in young Indians by the respondents of different age categories.

Notably, maximum number of respondents in the age group of 35-44 years asserted that tension is killing young hearts.

Even the largest proportion of very young respondents, 25 per cent, in the age category of 18-24 years blamed stress.

After stress, the largest proportion of respondents from different age groups opined that poor lifestyle is the key reason for increase in heart disease in young Indians.

Many believe that it is related to side effects of lethal coronavirus.

--IANS
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