Monthly Archives: November 2019

Iraq PM says will resign after bloody protests 

Iraq’s embattled premier announced he will resign in keeping with the wishes of the country’s top Shiite cleric, after nearly two months of anti-government protests that have cost more than 400 lives. Adel Abdel Mahdi’s written statement was greeted with cheers and blaring music across

Johnson seeks to focus UK election on Brexit, not his flaws 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson struggled to move Britain’s election debate away from questions about his character and onto Brexit, promising to bolster protection for British businesses and farmers once the country has left the European Union. Johnson tried to brush aside criticism of his past

The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019

Highlights of the Ordinance and the Bill Currently, domestic companies with annual turnover of up to Rs 400 crore pay income tax at the rate of 25%. For other domestic companies, the tax rate is 30%.  The Bill provides domestic companies with an option to

Malegaon blast: SC to hear after 2 weeks plea against bail granted to Sadhvi Pragya The Supreme Court said it would hear after two weeks a plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s April 2017 order granting bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. Thakur, now a sitting BJP MP, was granted bail on April 25, 2017 by the high court which said “no prima facie” case was made out against her in the case. Seven people were killed in a bomb blast on September 29, 2008 at Malegaon, a communally-sensitive textile town in Nasik district of north Maharashtra. The plea, filed by the father of one of the blast victims, came up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar. The apex court said it would hear the matter after two weeks. Petitioner Nisar Ahmed Haji Sayed Bilal, father of one of the blast victims, has alleged in his plea that Thakur was a “powerful person” and could influence the witnesses in the case. “The high court failed to appreciate that Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur is an influential person and is likely to wield her power and influence in an illegal and unlawful manner to tamper with evidence and influence witnesses,” he has said in his plea. It has claimed that there was ample evidence against her, and “her role, involvement and complicity in planning and executing the conspiracy for committing Malegaon blast is writ large on the case record”. The petition said she had been denied bail by a special court in Mumbai several times — in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 — on the ground that “a prima facie case is clearly made out against her”. A Special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court had earlier ruled that the ATS had wrongly applied MCOCA in the case against Thakur, co-accused former Lt Col Prasad Purohit and nine others. pti 

The Supreme Court said it would hear after two weeks a plea challenging the Bombay High Court’s April 2017 order granting bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. Thakur, now a sitting BJP MP, was granted