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Afghanistan has surged in recent years, said a UN report published Sunday, indicating an expansion of the drug's production following the Taliban's crackdown on the opiate trade. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have clamped down on the decades-old, lucrative trade in poppy tar — the psychoactive substance in heroin -since surging back to power two years ago. But while heroin trade has slowed, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), methamphetamine trafficking in and around Afghanistan has «intensified since the ban». By monitoring drug busts in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, UNODC has found a «drastic, nearly twelvefold increase in seizures of the drug in five years from 2.5 tons in 2017 to 29.7 tons in 2021», said a statement announcing the report.

Nazis during World War II for hiding Jews, will be beatified Sunday, the first time an entire family is given one of Catholicism's highest honours. The ceremony in the family's hometown of Markowa in south-east Poland will be attended by over 30,000 people, including 80 bishops, 1,000 priests, the country's chief rabbi and an Israeli delegation. It was there, on March 24, 1944, that German police acting on a tip-off shot dead Jozef Ulma and his wife Wiktoria, who was seven months pregnant and partially gave birth during the execution. Their children, Stanislawa, Barbara, Wladyslav, Franciszek, Antoni and Maria, aged between two and eight, were killed too, along with the eight Jews the family had been hiding in the attic. The eight — Shaul Goldmann and his five children, including his daughter Lea Didner and her five-year-old daughter, and Golda Gruenfeld — were also shot, before the family farmhouse was looted and set on fire.

JCB) Excavators, one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction equipment like backhoe loaders and telescopic handlers, aims to increase exports from its India unit this year to 45% of its output, up from 10% five years ago, a top executive said. India, one of the fastest-growing major economies, is JCB's largest market outside Europe. Here, the Bamford family-owned company is also looking to test its recently developed hydrogen combustion engine, its chairman, Lord Bamford, told reporters at the company's global headquarters in Rocester, UK. JCB is also looking to make electrolysers which will produce hydrogen from water for testing its zero-emission backhoe loaders — a first in the construction equipment sector — Bamford said, adding that the electrolysers will be produced for captive consumption. The company plans to commence production of the electrolysers in the next 18 months at its UK facility.

₹15,000 each as toolkit incentives through e-vouchers or eRUPI, apart from collateral free enterprise development loans at concessional rate of interest. Further, the artisans would also get an incentive of ₹1 per transaction for maximum of 100 transactions per month, showed a presentation prepared by the MSME ministry. The artisans would have to go through a skill verification phase followed by a five-day training session.

Ajay Singh Chautala was unanimously re-elected as the national president of the Jannayak Janta Party — part of the ruling coalition led by the BJP in Haryana — at a party meeting here on Sunday, JJP leaders said. The JJP, which held its national and state executive meeting in Hisar, decided to hold a rally in Dadri — part of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh parliamentary constituency — on September 17. It was decided at the meeting that former deputy prime minister Devi Lal's birth anniversary will be celebrated by the party in Rajasthan's Sikar district on September 25 as 'Kisan Vijay Samman Divas' to honour farmers, soldiers, and women. Notably, the party has decided to contest the upcoming elections in Rajasthan and is looking to contest 25-30 seats there. JJP is also eyeing to contest the Bhiwani-Mahendergarh and Hisar Lok Sabha seats, though its ally, BJP, has already said it is preparing to contest all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

NEW DELHI : The adoption of the New Delhi declaration at the end of the G20 Summit without impediments has given the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a platform to advance its political outreach and electoral campaign ahead of next year’s general election, riding on the triumph of an event it claims is a result of iPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. The PM himself had earlier referred to the summit as an opportunity to present the country on the international arena.

Bengaluru Bandh News: The Federation of the Karnataka State Private Transport Association has called a bandh on Monday, 11 September, which means all private commercial vehicles plying in Karnataka's capital city will cease services on Monday. The Bengaluru Bandh begins on Sunday Midnight and will continue till Monday midnight. According to media reports, some private schools in the city have declared a holiday on Monday.

Rolling Stone magazine has named FACE, the first solo album of BTS band member Park Jimin, as one of the best music albums of 2023. The Rolling Stone called the now solo artist’s album “a compelling showcase of the silky-voiced singer-dancer’s pop strengths."

Two foreign aid workers have reportedly been killed in eastern Ukraine when Russian shelling hit a van carrying a team of four working with a Ukrainian NGO

G20 Summit on Sunday, the senior politician noted that the world was ‘larger than five’. The remarks came mere hours after US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his support for a reformed UNSC with India as a permanent member.

Railway Board chairperson Jaya Verma Sinha has asked all employees to work on five key priorities — safety, integrity, capacity augmentation, revenue generation, and customer amenities and experience. Calling these five priorities as "Indian Railways' Panch Pran", Sinha, in her first written communication to employees after taking charge as Chairperson and CEO of the Railway Board on September 1, said that the national transporter has a rich and enduring legacy spanning more than 150 years. «In recent years, we have embarked on a transformative journey marked by unprecedented investments in tracks, rolling stock, stations and terminals,» Sinha wrote. Noting that safety is paramount, she said, «We must recognise that every accident can be prevented, and it is incumbent upon us to ensure strict adherence to established safety protocols.

Narendra Modi on Sunday discussed strengthening trade and infrastructure relations with Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Modi met Erdogan on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit that concluded here on Sunday. «We talked about ways to further cement trade and infrastructure linkages between India and Turkiye,» Modi said on X. Addressing a press conference here, Erdogan expressed confidence in tapping the huge potential of cooperation between the two countries. «India is our greatest trade partner in South Asia.

G20 Summit) on Saturday saw the New Delhi G20 Leaders Declaration get accepted with ‘100% consensus’. The declaration that was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Day 1 of G20 Summit, focused on ‘war in Ukraine’ and geopolitical tensions, sustainable growth, creating an inclusive world among other points. There were four Indian Foreign Services officers who burnt the midnight oil to draft the New Delhi G20 Leaders Declaration which achieved a reported ‘100% consensus’, a historic achievement.

Narendra Modi on Sunday urged world leaders at the G20 leaders' summit to make global structure, including the UN Security Council, reflective of current realities. Speaking at a summit session, Modi staked a claim for India’s permanent membership at the UNSC and cautioned that individuals and institutions that do not adapt to change lose their relevance over time. The five permanent UN members with veto power in the organisation are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China.

manufacturing output. Historically, India has not been strongly oriented towards manufacturing as a core economic focus. However, the long-term policy is changing, giving equal importance to domestic industries.

World Trade Organization will have a tough task ahead to make WTO's dispute settlement system fully functional by 2024 due to divergent approaches proposed by countries like China, and the European Union, experts say. On September 9, G20 leaders expressed their commitment to conducting discussions for having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system of WTO by 2024. Besides formulating norms for global exports and imports, the Geneva-based 164-member multi-lateral body adjudicates trade disputes among the member countries. The dispute settlement mechanism of WTO has been derailed due to a non-functional appellate body since December 2019. «We reiterate the need to pursue WTO reform to improve all its functions through an inclusive member-driven process, and remain committed to conducting discussions with a view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024, » the G20 declaration has said. Trade experts said that all the members would have to work together to achieve this 2024 goal. «G20 members have agreed to pursue WTO reforms, specifically aiming for a functional dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024.

Russia and the U.S. both praised a G20 summit declaration that stopped short of directly criticising Moscow for the war in Ukraine as the bloc's leaders headed into the final day of deliberations on Sunday. The world's biggest economies adopted a consensus declaration in New Delhi on Saturday that avoided condemning Russia for the war but highlighted the human suffering the conflict had caused and called on all states not to use force to grab territory. «Everything was reflected in a balanced form,» Svetlana Lukash, the Russian G20 sherpa, or government negotiator, was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Interfax. «All members of the G20 have agreed to act as one in the interests of peace, security and conflict resolution around the world.» White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters the declaration «does a very good job of standing up for the principle that states cannot use force to seek territorial acquisition or to violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of other states». Germany and Britain have also praised the resolution but Ukraine has said «it was nothing to be proud of».CATCH ALL LIVE UPDATES OF G20 SUMMIT HERE In the weeks leading to the summit, sharply differing views on the war had threatened to derail the meeting, with the West demanding members call out Moscow for the invasion and Russia saying it would block any resolution that did not reflect its position. The summit also admitted the African Union which includes 55 member states, as a permanent member of the G20. On Sunday, the leaders, including U.S.

G20 summit declaration, which refrained from explicitly condemning Moscow for its actions in the Ukraine conflict. Russia expressed the view that the leaders of the G20 acted in the spirit of conflict resolution as discussions continued on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Hyderabad: The Congress would announce five 'guarantees' to Telangana people ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections at a public meeting to be held here on September 17.

Indian Biogas Association (IBA). Biofuel alliance can be a win-win situation for G20 countries and the environment, IBA said. According to a study by the IBA, the biofuel alliance can generate opportunities worth USD 500 billion in the next three years for G20 countries. The findings of the study assume significance as India is currently hosting the G20 leaders' Summit in New Delhi.Biogas can generate an opportunity of USD 200 billion, considering the least investment required, compared to other energy generation options and easy availability of raw materials, it stated.

Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, with blasts ringing out across the Ukrainian capital and its region for almost two hours and drone debris falling on several of the city's central districts, Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine's Land Forces said that the country's air defence systems destroyed 25 out of 32 Russia-launched Iran-made Shahed drones, most of which targeted Kyiv and the Kyiv region. Reuters witnesses heard at least five blasts across Kyiv, and Ukrainian media footage showed a number of cars damaged. «Drones came onto the capital in groups and from different directions,» Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's city military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that one person was injured in the historic Podil neighbourhood and a fire broke out near one of the city's parks. Debris from downed drones fell on the Darnytskyi, Solomianskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Sviatoshynskyi and Podil districts, Klitschko and the city's military administration said. In the Shevchenkivskyi district, drone debris sparked a fire in an apartment, which was quickly extinguished. There were no immediate reports of injuries, Popko said on the Telegram messaging app. There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attacks.