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U.S. bans electronics items as carry-on luggage on non-stop flights from 8 countries The U.S. government is temporarily barring passengers on certain flights originating in eight countries from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronic items in carry-on luggage starting Tuesday. The reason for the ban was not immediately clear. U.S. security officials would not comment. The ban was revealed on Monday in statements from the Royal Jordanian Airlines and the official news agency of Saudi Arabia. A U.S. official told the  Associated Press  that the ban will apply to non-stop flights to the U.S. from 10 international airports serving Cairo, Amman, Kuwait City, Casablanca, Doha, Riyadh, Jeddah, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Another U.S. official said the ban would affect nine airlines in total, and the Transportation Security Administration would inform the affected airlines on Tuesday. The officials, not authorised to disclose the details of the ban ahea

US officials begin fingerprinting refugee families on Nauru Asylum seekers say U.S. security officers have begun fingerprinting refugees held on Pacific islands in the final stage of assessing who will find new lives in the United States. Department of Homeland Security officers are taking biometric details from refugees on Nauru, including fingerprints, heights and weights, according to a document circulated among asylum seekers and provided to AP on Monday by Mehdi, a refugee on the island nation who for security reasons did not want his family name published. Mr. Mehdi says U.S. officials began scheduling appointments with asylum seeker families on Nauru from Monday. President Donald Trump has reluctantly agreed to honor an Obama administration deal to accept up to 1,250 refugees refused entry into Australia, but has said they will be subjected to “extreme vetting.”

Pakistan’s first woman Foreign Secretary takes charge Pakistan’s first-ever woman Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua on Monday assumed charge as the new head of the Foreign Ministry. Ms. Janjua, who was serving as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, was appointed as Foreign Secretary last month in place of Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry who was appointed as ambassador to the United States. “Tehmina Janjua has assumed charge as the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan today, 20th March 2017,” Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria tweeted. She joined the Foreign Service in 1984 and has vast experience in multilateral diplomacy. Seasoned diplomat Ms. Janjua is a seasoned diplomat with a career spanning over 32 years. She holds Master’s degrees from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad and Columbia University, New York. She has rich experience of working in bilateral and multilateral domains both at Headquarters and Missions abroad. Ms. Janjua also served as Spoke

Karnataka moves review plea challenging abatement of its appeal against Jayalalithaa The Karnataka government on Tuesday moved a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging the abatement of its appeal against former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case. The State said the Supreme Court's finding in its February 14, 2017 judgment that the corruption case against Ms. Jayalalithaa stood abated with her demise on December 5, 2016 was an “error on the face of the record” which merits a re-look. In a scathing judgment based on an appeal filed by the Karnataka government, a Bench of Justices P.C. Ghose and Amitava Roy made damaging observations against Ms. Jayalalithaa, albeit posthumously, of how she had criminally conspired with co-accused V.K. Sasikala at her Poes Garden residence to launder ill-gotten wealth. The Supreme Court had set aside the Karnataka High Court's acquittal of Sasikala, V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Ilavarasi i

Amazon, Grofers, Big Basket seek FDI nod for food retailing Amazon, Grofers and Big Basket have submitted FDI proposals to the government for undertaking retail trading of food products, Parliament was informed today. The government had last year allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) for trading, including through e—commerce, in respect of food products manufactured and produced in India. “Government has been interacting with investors to identify issues for promoting FDI in the food processing sector. Several issues, including sale of home and personal care product have been raised by investors,” Minister of State for Food Processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said in a written reply to Lok Sabha. “Amazon Corporate Holdings Pvt Ltd, Grofers India Pvt Ltd and Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt Ltd (Big Basket) have submitted foreign investment proposals for approval of the government for undertaking retail trading of food products in India,” she added.

Rupee hits 1-1/2 yr high, surges 78 paise on BJP sweep The rupee surged by a massive 78 paise to end at a nearly one-and—a—half year high of 65.82 against the US dollar on frantic unwinding of the American currency following BJP’s emphatic victory in Uttar Pradesh. Forex market sentiment soared on hopes that BJP’s stellar show in state polls would pave the way for the Modi government to focus on key reform measures. The home currency resumed on a strong footing at 66.20 from last Friday’s closing value of 66.60 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market on heavy dollar unwinding from speculative traders and exporters tracking weekend developments. Maintaining its bullish momentum against the dollar, the rupee hit a fresh intra—day high of 65.76 in late afternoon deals before ending at 65.82, showing a solid gain of 78 paise, or 1.17 per cent. This is the highest closing of the rupee since November 6, 2015 when it had ended at 65.76. Meanwhile, the RBI fixed t

Pakistani actress Veena Malik gets divorce Pakistani actress Veena Malik has ended her three-year-old marriage with Asad Khattak after a family court here granted them divorce. The court in Lahore accepted Veena’s ‘khula’ (divorce) application and ruled in her favour after non-pursuance of the case by Mr. Khattak. As she had filed for divorce, she will to have return 25 per cent of the ‘haq mehr’ (dower money) to Mr. Khatak. According to a court official, the 33-year-old actress had filed a plea seeking divorce in the Lahore family court in first week of this January as the couple had developed differences and could not live together. The court had summoned Mr. Khattak but he neither appeared nor filed a reply. On this, the court accepted Ms. Veena’s plea and issued a decree last month validating divorce between the couple, the official said. The couple kept the development under wraps. They had got married in December 2013 in a court in Du

Trump talks about general surveillance in wiretapping tweets: Official US President Donald Trump means general surveillance when tweeting his Obama wiretapping accusation, a White House official said. “I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election,” Xinhua news agency quoted White House spokesman Sean Spicer as saying at a daily press briefing on Monday. “The President used the word wiretaps in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities,” said the spokesman. “The House and the Senate Intelligence Committees will now look into that and provide a report back. I think there’s been numerous reports from a variety of outlets over the last couple months that seem to indicate that there has been different types of surveillance that occurred during the 2016 election,” he added.

Most German employers happy with refugees’ work: survey A large majority of German companies who have taken on refugees are satisfied with their work, although most hires have been for low-skilled positions, according to a survey conducted last month and published on Tuesday. The first of the estimated 1.2 million people who arrived in Germany in 2015 and 2016 from countries including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are starting to enter the labour market. About 14 per cent have found a job. More than three-quarters of the employers who took part in the survey said they had only few or no difficulties in daily work with the refugees they had hired. Those who did have difficulties most frequently cited a lack of German-language skills, vocational skills, different work habits and uncertainty relating to the length of the employee’s stay in Germany.

Manohar Parrikar sworn in as Goa Chief Minister Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as Goa Chief Minister at the Raj Bhavan in Panaji on Tuesday evening. Nine Ministers also took oath. Governor Mridula Sinha administered the oath of office and secrecy to the Chief Minister and Ministers. Former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, BJP national president Amit Shah, Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu and other dignitaries were present. Ministers who were sworn in included Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavlikar, Babu alias Manohar Azgaonkar (Both MGP); Francisco D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar (BJP); Vijay Sardesai, Jayesh Salgaonkar and Vinod Palienkar (Goa Forward Party); and Rohan Khavte and Govind Gaude (both Independents). After the ceremony Mr. Parrikar said that he would prove his majority on Thursday as directed by the Supreme Court. Portfolio allocation would be taken up after the trust vote, he added. Thanking all the 22 M