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Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad today urged Prime Minster Narendra Modi to repeal the three farm laws, voicing the united stand of the opposition during a debate on the contentious laws that have trigged a massive agitation by farmers at Delhi’s borders.

“The British too had once withdrawn a farm law ruling its rule,” the senior Congress leader said.

The farmer protest is being discussed in parliament in a near 15-hour slot, after the government agreed for it in a breakthrough in its talks with the opposition. The discussion is taking place the Rajya Sabha, where Question Hour has been suspended for two days.

During the discussion, Mr Azad also asked PM Modi to set up a committee to look for “those who have bene missing since January 26”, while condemning the unprecedented violence in the capital on Republic Day after a tractor rally by farmers turned rogue. “There should be strict action against the culprits,” he said.

Over 16 opposition parties had demanded a five-hour standalone discussion on the farmer protests, which the government agreed to increase to 15.

BJP Rajya Sabha member Vijaypal Singh Tomar, meanwhile, strongly pushed for the agricultural laws while initiating the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address to the join sitting of parliament last Friday.

Opposition parties, which tried to block the farm bills in parliament last year, had requested President Ram Nath Kovind not to sign on the bills. The bills, they had said, were passed in the Rajya Sabha in an undemocratic manner. The President, however, had given his assent to all three bills.

Farmers fear the new laws will deprive them of guaranteed minimum earnings and leave them open to exploitation by big business. Eleven rounds of talks have been held between the farmers and the government but there been no breakthrough. The farmers have turned down the centre’s last offer to put the laws on hold for 18 months while a special committee conducts negotiations.

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US actor Dustin Diamond, best known for playing the nerdy Screech on the hit TV series Saved By The Bell, died Monday, his agent said, just weeks after being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He was 44. “He was diagnosed with this brutal, relentless form of malignant cancer only three weeks ago. In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system,” the agent, Roger Paul, told news agency AFP. “Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful.” Diamond, a California native, launched his career with Good Morning, Miss Bliss, a series about junior high students that only lasted one season, but which spawned Saved By The Bell.

Dustin Diamond’s Screech character, along with several others, were transported to the fictional Bayside High School in California for Bell, which aired for four seasons starting in 1989.

The light-hearted show tackling the highs and lows of adolescence was popular both in the United States and abroad.

Diamond’s offbeat Samuel “Screech” Powers was the perfect foil for Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Zack Morris.

Even though he was a major reason for the show’s success, Diamond’s career did not take off afterwards.

– ‘You will be missed’ –

Other than some Saved By The Bell spinoffs and made-for-television movies, he worked infrequently in small roles.

In 2009, his tell-all book“Behind The Bell contained some juicy behind-the-scenes tales of the set — but Diamond later admitted it was full of fabricated anecdotes.

In 2015, he was sentenced to four months in prison for carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct in connection with a stabbing at a bar.

He was released from jail a month early in 2016 for good behavior.

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The BS6 Benelli TRK 502 Adventure bike has been now launched in India. The Metallic Dark Grey colour option is priced at ₹ 4.80 lakh while the Benelli Red and Pure White colour options are priced at ₹ 4.90 lakh. All prices are ex-showroom India. The good news is that the BS6 variant is about ₹ 30,000 less than the BS4 variant. Bookings and deliveries for the BS6 TRK 502 are now open and interested customers can book the motorcycle by paying ₹ 10,000, at all 38 Benelli India dealerships across India. The 500 cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin engine is now Bharat Stage 6 (BS6) compliant and makes 47 bhp at 8,500 rpm along with 46 Nm at 6,000 rpm.

Commenting on the TRK 502 launch, Vikas Jhabakh, Managing Director, Benelli India, said, “We are delighted to introduce the BS6 TRK 502. It is the perfect amalgamation of an innovative technological phenomenon, unmatched ergonomics, enhanced functionality and uncompromised quality. With the transition to BS6 norms, we are confident in further strengthening our footprint in the premium touring segment.” He further added, “We are working towards expanding our dealership reach and will continue to add more models in the BS6 format over the course of the year 2021, ensuring that there is something for every biking enthusiast in the Benelli portfolio.”

Along with the BS6 engine, the BS6 Benelli TRK 502 also gets feature updates in the form of new Aluminium-frame hand guards, larger rear view mirrors backlit switchgear and a new instrument console, which is part digital, part analogue. The seating and ergonomics undergo a slight change as well. The styling of the motorcycle stays the same as before.

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raghnewsJapan’s vaccination roll-out faces logistical hurdles that could further delay the slow-moving campaign, experts and officials say, complicating plans to deliver wide-scale coronavirus inoculations in time for the Olympics.

Already the last major industrial country to start mass vaccinations, Japan is likely to be hampered on the ground by a lack of containers and dry ice, and difficulties in recruiting medical staff, more than a dozen people involved in the inoculation drive told Reuters.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has said vaccines are critical to holding a successful Olympics after last year’s delay. The first shots for medical workers are planned at the end of February, leaving just 145 days until the start of the Games on July 23.

Japan will need to deliver about 870,000 injections a day to inoculate half its population by then, with each person needing two shots of the vaccine.

“The government’s plan puts a big burden on the individual municipalities in giving out the vaccines,” said Koji Wada, an adviser on the government’s COVID-19 response. “The big metropolitan areas like Tokyo may have the infrastructure to roll out the vaccinations smoothly, but more rural areas… could have more difficulty.”

In an interview on Wednesday, Yuji Kuroiwa, the governor of Kanagawa, a prefecture neighbouring Tokyo, acknowledged that the massive task of vaccinating the general public would fall on individual municipalities.

“Though we’re extremely hopeful about the vaccine, it is still difficult to forecast how widespread and effective vaccinations will be in time for the Olympics,” he said.

Companies that specialise in moving medicines say there may not be enough specialised containers to transport the Pfizer Inc vaccine, which has to be stored at minus 75 degrees Celsius, much colder than standard freezers.

A government source told Reuters that officials did not begin assessing whether there were enough containers or dry ice to pack freezer boxes until late last year.

Japan’s vaccination tsar, Taro Kono, outlined the scale of the challenge last week. The coordination of medical workers, transport, freezer production, needle disposal and dealing with local governments are handled by different ministries, he said on Twitter.

Medical staff, already exhausted from caring for a third, deadly wave of infections, will need to be mobilised to give out shots.

The vaccine is still not approved, although that is widely expected by the middle of next month. Ahead of that, the health ministry on Wednesday carried out a mock inoculation exercise in a college gym in Kawasaki, 17 miles (27 km) south of Tokyo.

DRY ICE

Japan has purchased enough Pfizer vaccines to inoculate 72 million people, more than half its population. The government is buying some 20,000 speciality coolers and sourcing massive quantities of dry ice for its transportation.

Japan produces about 350,000 tonnes of dry ice per year, but it’s mostly for food preservation, according to an official with one of the major makers. To transport the vaccine, the government will need either a granular or powder type of ice, which can keep temperatures colder than the standard dry-ice blocks used for food.

“It’s not just a case of being able to switch a part on a machine, the production method (for the ice) is different,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. “It would take several months to retool.

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Tennis great Margaret Court insisted Tuesday she would not give back a high-profile Australian honour after a backlash over her views on the LGBTQ community, claiming she “loves” gay and transgender people. The 78-year-old, the all-time record holder for Grand Slam titles who is now a church pastor, was elevated to a Companion of the Order of Australia on the country’s national day Tuesday. But news of the award — Australia’s highest honour — saw Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews slam her “disgraceful” and “hurtful” opinions.

And respected broadcaster Kerry O’Brien rejected his Australia Day gong in protest at the “insensitive” decision to honour Court, while LGBTQ advocate Dr Clara Tuck Meng Soo said she would hand back the medal she received in 2016.

Court has attracted controversy over her stance on sexuality and support of gay conversion therapy, drawing condemnation for saying “tennis is full of lesbians” and describing transgender children as “the work of the devil”.

She enraged fellow tennis greats including Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova when she announced a boycott of national airline Qantas for its CEO’s support of same-sex marriage, which Australia introduced in 2017.

“No,” Court said, when asked on Melbourne radio station 3AW if she would return the award.

“Because I loved representing my nation. When I got my AO (Officer of the Order of Australia) it was for my community outreach area, where we put out 75 tonnes of food a week.

“This was for my tennis and I think it was a long time coming and I’m very honoured… We did nothing but play for our nation.”

Court, one of only five players to win all four Majors in the same year, refused to be drawn on Andrews’ stance, while claiming her previous comments had been misrepresented by the media.

“I don’t hate anybody, I love people and I love gay people and transgender people. We get them into our community services, we never turn anybody away,” she said.

“I can be bullied, I’ve been bullied a lot in the last few years and I don’t mind, that’s all right.

“But if I say anything, then I’m a bigot and I’m everything else and I don’t like that and I think the press has caused a lot of that.”

Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles has stood since 1973. Serena Williams, one behind on 23, will make her latest attempt to equal Court at next month’s Australian Open.

Promoted

Court said she would not be heading to Melbourne Park this year, where one of the show courts is named after her.

“No, I wasn’t invited,” she said. “With coronavirus, we’ve been so busy with our community work. I haven’t even thought about it.”

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Karisma Kapoor shares a lot of foodie stories on her Instagram account.

On Sunday, she dug into a plate of gajar ka halwa and shared its pic.

Find an easy recipe of traditional gajar ka halwa inside.

Karisma Kapoor is inarguably one of the fittest actors of our generation and inspiration of many. At 46, the mother of two juggles her work, finds time for her friends and looks after her diet with ease. Just when you begin to think that it is impossible for the diva to sneak in some desserts and maintain that physique, she surprises us with pictures of her occasional feasts. We all know how much Karisma loves to bake; she is also known to send homemade chocolate cakes to her sister Kareena and other BFFs from the industry. On Sunday, however, she decided to go desi and gorged on a plateful of gajar ka halwa.

Looks like Karisma Kapoor has a bit of weak spot for desserts. She was present at one of the gatherings that took place at Kareena’s old apartment, where the girls ordered in a bunch decadent desserts like salted caramel cheesecake and caramel custard. What is your secret Karisma? We are all ears!

About Sushmita SenguptaSharing a strong penchant for food, Sushmita loves all things good, cheesy and greasy. Her other favourite pastime activities other than discussing food includes, reading, watching movies and binge-watching TV shows.

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India is launching one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccination drives on Saturday, setting in motion a complex deployment plan aimed at stemming the wide spread of infections across a nation of more than 1.3 billion people.

At hospitals and vaccination centers across major cities — from Mumbai to New Delhi — tens of thousands of key front-line workers are expected to line up to receive and administer the first vaccines.

The inoculation campaign across the world’s second-most populous country will be a crash course over whether Covid-19 can be swiftly tamed in nations with disjointed health and transportation networks. Officially more than 10.5 million people in India have been infected with the disease that has also killed at least 150,000.

Unexpected Glitches

The effort comes as more-developed nations have struggled in trying to rush out inoculations. Though the U.S. and other countries have stockpiled hundreds of millions of doses, the pace of vaccinations has been challenged by unexpected glitches and logistical problems.

India’s rollout is one of the earliest and most ambitious in Asia, where many nations are taking a slower approach in inoculating their populations. That’s partly because those countries are facing less severe virus outbreaks than India, which has the second-highest number of infections in the world.

A cold storage haulage truck containing Covid-19 vaccines stops while being escorted by police

The country has initially granted emergency licenses to the two-dose vaccines manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and the Serum Institute of India Ltd. The latter has partnered with AstraZeneca Plc to make at least one billion doses of their shot. New Delhi has already made its first purchase of 11 million Astra shots, as well as 5.5 million vials of Covaxin, the indigenous inoculation produced by Bharat Biotech.

Plans drawn up by the health ministry outline steps to vaccinate 300 million people in the first stage through August.

In an initial round, 30 million health-care and front line workers — such as police and defense force staff — will receive injections. In the second phase, about 270 million people above the age of 50 and those at particular risk to Covid will be inoculated. The process will draw on existing networks used to vaccinate tens of millions of babies each year against diseases such as polio.

The country’s deployment blue print “has a level of detail which I haven’t seen in any other rollout plans,” said Prashant Yadav, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington.

Bottleneck Risks

However, those arrangements may face bottlenecks and vaccine wastage when implemented by the country’s four levels of government, particularly once deployment fans out to rural hinterland, he said.

“There are going to be clinics in places which don’t have as much demand as was originally planned, which requires changing the plan, making supply shift to other locations quickly,” Yadav said. “Is the decision-making going to be agile?”

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The wait is over, guys! On Yash’s birthday eve, the makers of much-awaited KGF: Chapter 2 unveiled the teaser of the film and oh boy – magnificent would be an understatement. The teaser was scheduled to release on the south star’s birthday on Friday but the makers dropped it on the Internet on Thursday night. The over 2-minute-long video shows glimpses of Raveena Tandon and Sanjay Dutt’s respective characters in the first half – Yash took over the second half of the teaser (but are you surprised? We aren’t). In the sequel to Yash’s 2018 film KGF: Chapter 1, the actor reprises his role as Rocky, who is adamant about fulfilling the promise he made to his dying mother, that he won’t die poor.

Sanjay Dutt stars as Adheera, Rocky’s nemesis while Raveena Tandon is playing the role of Ramika Sen, a powerful political leader. At the end of the teaser, Rocky can be seen single-handedly taking down his enemies with the help of a machine gun.

A voiceover in the teaser can be heard saying: “History tells us that powerful people come from powerful places. History was wrong. Powerful people make places powerful.”

Sanjay Dutt unveiled the teaser of KGF: Chapter 2 with a thank you note for his fans. He wrote: “The love that you all have shown for #Adheera till now has been overwhelming. Sharing KGF: Chapter 2 teaser.”

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Top United Nations leadership expressed sadness and concern over the violence in Washington DC by pro-Trump demonstrators who stormed the US Capitol as lawmakers gathered to certify the presidential election results.

“The Secretary-General is saddened by the events at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C,” on Wednesday, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said in a note to correspondents.

“In such circumstances, it is important that political leaders impress on their followers the need to refrain from violence, as well as to respect democratic processes and the rule of law,” the UN chief said.

President of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, tweeted that as president of the 193-member UN body, “I’m saddened & concerned by today’s developments at the Capitol in #WashingtonDC. The US is one of the world’s major democracies. I believe that peace & respect for democratic processes will prevail in our host country at this critical time.”

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Call it a Shilpa Shetty appreciation post if you please but there is no denying the fact that she is a vision at 45. The actress, who is currently on a vacation in Goa along with her family, shared a picture perfect moment from her holiday diaries. While there’s still time for weekend, Shilpa Shetty is busy enjoying already. In her words: “I’m weekending on a Wednesday.” Shilpa looks gorgeous in what looks like a printed bodycon dress as she soaks up the sun on Goa. She captioned the post: “In the mood to beat every age-old cliché

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AUS vs IND, 2nd Test: Sachin Tendulkar Wants ‘Umpire’s Call’ In DRS “Thoroughly Looked Into” By ICC

Sachin Tendulkar expressed displeasure over ‘Umpire’s Call’ in the Decision Review System (DRS) after Australia batsmen Joe Burns and Marnus Labuschagne were ruled ‘not out’ on review after ball-tracking returned ‘Umpire’s Call’ on Day 3 of the second Test between India and Australia in Melbourne. Jasprit Bumrah hit Burns on the pads and India appealed. The on-field umpire ruled it as not out and after some deliberation India captain Ajinkya Rahane went for a review. However, DRS returning “Umpire’s Call” meant that the on-field not out decision stayed. Had the on-field umpire given it out and Australia reviewed it, the decision would have stood.

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Attention from across the world. But besides the bone of contention that between the government and protesting farmers, it is the many heart-warming gestures that have been happening at the site that have impressed the people. Recently, a team of 21 firemen from the Rania fire station, Sirsa, Haryana, who had come to Singhu border to support the protest started a langar of gol gappas at the site after they saw a child loitering around the vendor without any money to buy the gol gappas while the vendor had barely made any money with people preferring to eat at langar (community kitchen) at the protest site.

Fireman Surender Kamboj and his friends then decided to give a little Christmas treat for all and bought the entire stock of gol gappas from the vendor, Mohammad Salim, for Rs. 1000, who had earned just 500 in three days. The pop-up gol gappa langar was an instant hit as the entire stock was sold in mere half an hour!

The 33-year old Surender Kamboj said that what prompted them to start the innovative langar was the child who kept loitering around the vendor, when asked what he wanted to said ‘gol gappa’ but did not have any money to buy. On the other hand, the ‘gol gappa’ seller had not earned anything as people have been eating at ‘langars’ (community kitchen). “He could sell his stock and we got a chance to do ‘sewa’ (service). It was a win-win situation for everybody,” said Ravindra Kumar, Mr Kamboj’s colleague.

The spontaneous action the firemen impressed everyone around including the farmers.

About Aanchal MathurAanchal doesn’t share food. A cake in her vicinity is sure to disappear in a record time of 10 seconds. Besides loading up on sugar, she loves bingeing on FRIENDS with a plate of momos. Most likely to find her soulmate on a food app.

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The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has halted numerous important activities for millions. Now, with the holiday season around the corner, the pandemic continues to impact the celebrations.

Source:- yahoo 

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Volkswagen India To Increase Prices For Polo And Vento From January 2021

Volkswagen India has announced a price revision by up to 2.5 per cent across the Polo and Vento model range. The price hike will be applicable from January 2021, and the company has attributed the increase to the rising input costs.

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