📰 Poland wants sanctions against Russia to go on
Minister says New Delhi should be careful with Moscow
•Russia’s annexation of Crimea has violated international law and India should be cautious about Moscow’s intentions in South Asia, says Marek Magierowski, Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland.
•The Minister told The Hindu that Russia had jeopardised the security of Eastern Europe by stationing nuclear-tipped missiles, and hence, sanctions were necessary to counter this threat.
•“We do understand that India’s experiences with Russia are very different as you have never been occupied by Russia. But India should be very careful with Moscow,” said Mr. Magierowski emphasising that Poland’s opinion was based on tough military measures that Russia had taken against it in recent years.
Highly disturbing event
•Expressing Warsaw’s concern about Russia’s designs, the visiting Minister, who participated in meetings in Kolkata and Delhi, said that annexation of Crimea was a “highly disturbing” event for international law.
•“The annexation of Crimea was the first time in post-War Europe that the borders were moved,” Mr. Magierowski said on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue.
Hostile measures
•He said that Poland is not in favour of spreading Russophobia [anti-Russia sentiment] but stressed that Russia had been undertaking hostile military measures against Eastern Europe apart from using aggressive propaganda.
•“Nuclear tipped missiles are stationed barely 350 km from Warsaw and that is why we feel that sanctions must remain against Russia till it comes around to respect international law,” he said.
•He also said that it is necessary to cooperate with Russia in the international arena.
•“Since January 1, we have joined the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member. So we are willing to cooperate with Russia for fruitful discussions. We are not phobic but are pragmatic,” said the Minister highlighting Poland’s desire to find peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis which directly affects Poland.
•“We have a large number of Ukrainian immigrants in Poland and we have integrated them into our society,” he said elaborating the commonalities that existed between Poland and Ukraine.
•Mr. Magierowski visited West Bengal to participate in a trade show where he interacted with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
•He also expressed hope of a high-level visit to his nation from India.
•“The last Prime Ministerial visit from India was in 1979,” the Minister said, indicating an absence of India’s focus on Eastern Europe.
📰 Pak. raises Jadhav case at UN debate on Afghan terror funding
•Pakistan raked up the issue of Indian death-row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav in the UN Security Council after it was accused by India, the U.S. and Afghanistan of providing safe havens to terrorists.
•Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Maleeha Lodhi was responding to Indian Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin, who said Pakistan needed to change its “mindset” of differentiating between good and bad terrorists.
•India urged the UN Security Council to focus on challenges posed by terrorism emanating from the safe havens from across the border.
•In response, Ms. Lodhi raked up the case of Mr. Jadhav, who was arrested in March last year and sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged espionage.
•“Those who talk of changing mindset need to look within, at their own record of subversion against my country as our capture of an Indian spy has proven beyond doubt,” Ms. Lodhi told the members of the UN Security Council, without naming Mr. Jadhav.
U.S. insistence
•Earlier, the U.S. told the UN Security Council that it wanted to work cohesively and effectively with Pakistan, but the relationship could not be successful if the latter continued to provide safe haven to terror organisations. Washington insisted that Islamabad join its efforts to bring a resolution to the conflict. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai also reiterated the presence of terrorist safe haven across the border.
📰 U.S. violated our sovereignty: China
Says it dispatched a warship to drive away U.S. ship that sailed close to the disputed South China Sea
•Beijing on Saturday said it had dispatched a warship to drive away a U.S. missile destroyer which had “violated” its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the disputed South China Sea.
•The USS Hopper sailed within 12 nautical miles of Huangyan Island on the night of January 17 without alerting Beijing, the Foreign Ministry said, referring to the shoal by its Chinese name.
‘Safety under threat’
•Also known as Scarborough Shoal, the ring of reefs lies about 230 km (140 miles) from the Philippines in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s claims are hotly contested by other nations.
•The U.S. vessel “violated China’s sovereignty and security interests”, and put the safety of nearby Chinese vessels “under grave threat”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.
•China’s Defence Ministry said in a separate statement that a Chinese frigate “immediately took actions to identify and verify the U.S. ship and drove it away by warning” it.
•The USS Hopper recently entered the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet area of operations, where the ship is on an “independent deployment”, according to a statement released earlier this month on the Navy’s website.
Ship’s mission
•Its mission in Asia involves “security cooperation, building partner capacity, and performing routine operations within the area”.
•News of the encounter follows Friday’s release of a new U.S. national defence strategy that says America is facing “growing threats” from China and Russia.
•China is a “strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbours while militarizing features in the South China Sea”, the document says.
•China’s Defence Ministry dismissed these claims on Saturday, saying “the situation in the South China Sea has steadily stabilised,” in comments attributed to spokesperson Wu Qian.
•But it added, “the United States has repeatedly sent warships illegally into the adjacent waters of the South China Sea islands and reefs.”
•Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.
•China seized Scarborough Shoal in 2012 after a brief standoff with the Philippine navy. The shoal is also claimed by Taiwan.
📰 Myanmar making final plans for repatriation
•Myanmar is making final preparations to take back the first batch of Rohingya Muslims who fled conflict in the troubled Rakhine State, State media said on Saturday, despite growing doubts about the plan among refugees and in the UN.
•Rakhine State Chief Minister Nyi Pu “insisted on completion of the finishing touches on buildings, medical clinics and sanitation infrastructures” during a visit to repatriation camps in the State on Friday, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
•It published a photo of Mr. Pu’s delegation standing by a long, wooden house for the returnees at the camp near the town of Maungtaw. A wire-mesh fence topped by barbed wire appears in the background of the photo. Myanmar will start receiving Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh at two reception centres and the temporary camp near Maungtaw starting Tuesday and continuing over the next two years, under an agreement the two countries signed this week.
•However, Rohingya Muslim insurgents said on Saturday that the repatriation plan was “not acceptable” and “the Burmese [Myanmarese] terrorist government is deceitfully and crookedly offering Rohingya refugees to settle down in so-called temporary camps”.
•Government spokesman Zaw Htay did not respond to requests for comment on their statement.
📰 SC sets aside HC order on action against magistrate
•The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court which had recommended action against a magistrate who granted bail to an accused within four days of rejection of his pre-arrest bail by a higher court.
•The High Court had termed the action of the magistrate “judicial impropriety” and “gross indiscipline” and recommended that the Chief Justice take appropriate action.
•A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said the approach of the High Court was “erroneous in law” and set aside the order passed by the single judge of the High Court.
•“Merely, because an application for anticipatory bail preferred by the appellant was rejected, it could not be said that thereafter the magistrate was precluded from even considering the application for grant of regular bail,” the Bench said.
•The apex court said, “The grounds for grant of anticipatory bail are altogether different from that of regular bail.
•“No doubt, anticipatory bail was rejected on August 26, 2016, and within four days thereafter regular bail was granted. However, the High Court could not have cancelled the bail, only on the ground that the anticipatory bail was rejected,” it said.
•The Bench said that the High Court was also wrong in observing that the only remedy for the accused — who was arrested for allegedly providing fake educational degree certificates on payment — was to approach the High Court.
•Advocate D.K. Thakur, appearing for the Himachal Pradesh government, claimed that the accused had threatened the complainant immediately after coming out on bail.
•The top court said it was an event that occurred after the accused came out on bail and could be a ground which could be raised by the complainant before a trial court for cancellation of bail.
•An FIR was lodged at Dharamshala police station of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh. The accused Chander Kant was charged with the offences of forgery, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and other sections of IPC.
•After registration of the FIR and when the probe was pending, the accused had moved high court seeking anticipatory bail, which was dismissed on August 26, 2016.
•Thereafter, the accused was arrested and taken into police custody. After his police remand got over, he moved a regular bail application, which the judicial officer allowed and enlarged him on bail on August 30, 2016.
•The complainant challenged the order of magistrate granting bail to the accused before the high court, which on June 2, 2017, after seeking explanation, passed various strictures against the judicial officer.
•The judicial officer in her explanation to the high court had said there were “direct or indirect directions to grant bail liberally. Taking into consideration that anticipatory bail has been rejected but now as the accused remanded to custody and opportunity was given to police for custodial interrogation and recovery, I considered it to be a changed circumstance“.
•However, the single judge in his order said, “To my mind, the action of the magistrate is clearly subversive to judicial discipline and amounts to gross impropriety because so long the order passed by this court was in force, the magistrate could not have entertained the application for bail much less granted the bail.”
•The high court said, “Judicial discipline requires decorum known to law which warrants that the appellate directions should be followed in the hierarchical system by the court which exists in this country.”
•“It is necessary for each lower tier to accept loyally the decisions of the higher tier. The judicial system only works if someone is allowed to have the last word and if that last word, once spoken, is loyally accepted,” the bench had said.
•It had said that once the judgement rendered by the high court was absolutely clear and the bail granted to the accused had been rejected by a detailed order, then judicial comity, discipline, concomitance, pragmatism, poignantly point, per force to observe constitutional propriety and adhere to the decision, so rendered by the high court.
📰 Industry seeks clear Artificial Intelligence policy
Policy will augment intelligence, not displace jobs: Prasad
•Stating that Artificial Intelligence (AI) had the potential to help solve complex developmental challenges in India, including improving food and water security, the industry sought clearly defined policy priorities and access to ‘clean data’ for application of AI.
•Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday interacted with more than 30 representatives from the industry and academia, including AI experts from the IITs at Kharagpur, Madras, Hyderabad and Patna and representatives from Microsoft, Google, IBM, Accenture, NVIDIA and Nasscom.
•While acknowledging that work had already been done in the field by U.S. and China, the Minister said that India’s model of uptake and scale-up of AI would be one that was indigenous to India and built on the principle of augmenting intelligence and not displacement of jobs, the Centre said in an official statement.
•During the workshop, industry and academia were unanimous in seeking support for getting clean data for evolving effective solutions through the application of AI. “They also opined that the government should define policy priorities in the application of AI. This would facilitate them in pursuing a strategy that would benefit the country most,” the statement said.
•Further, the industry stressed that data had to be made available for innovation and India being a country with large number of languages and dialects, there was a need to translate data in a usable format. “Country has all [the] ingredients to be a hub centre for data analysis.”
Robust legal framework
•The Minister said that the government would help facilitate interactions between the industry, government and academia and would come up with a robust legal framework for developing the ecosystem for AI.
•Replying to a query, he said while data privacy was an important tenet of an individual’s rights, innovation cannot be curbed under the garb of privacy, according to the statement.
•“AI applications had a potential to help improve food and water security for the country, help improve traffic management and also help expedite particular types of cases in the judiciary,” the participants pointed out.
📰 Demystifying Science: What was the ‘Rainbow Dinosaur?’
•This month, in January, palaeontologists discovered a unique dinosaur fossil with feathers so well-preserved that they were able to see the microscopic colour-bearing structures of the feathers. By comparing the shapes of those feather structures with the ones in modern day bird feathers, they were able to infer that the new dino, Caihong juji, had iridescent rainbow feathers like a hummingbird.
•Caihong juji was tiny, about the size of a duck, with a bony crest on its head and long, ribbon-like feathers. And, based on analysis of its fossilised feathers, the feathers on its head, wings, and tail were probably iridescent, with colours that shimmered and shifted in the light. Its name reflects its appearance; in Mandarin, it means “rainbow with the big crest.” The new species was first discovered by a farmer in northeastern China and the Paleontological Museum of Liaoning acquired the fossil from him.—Science Daily
