PM Modi arrives in Japan on his first-ever diplomatic visit outside subcontinent

Modi, who is on a five-day visit arrived at the Osaka International Airport to begin the first leg of his five-day visit to Japan.
   
In the first leg of his trip, he will see the 'smart city' experiment in Japan considering that he intends to build 100 smart cities in India.
   
Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will have substantive summit meeting in Tokyo on September 1 during which the two sides will look at ways to take the Strategic and Global Partnership forward.
   
Modi has a substantive agenda during the trip which he hopes will ‘write a new chapter’ in bilateral ties and take the Strategic and Global Partnership to a higher level.
   
Underlining the importance of the visit, the ‘excited’ Modi said on the eve of the trip that Japan has ‘paramount importance’ in his vision for India's development and progress.
   
India has ‘great expectations’ from the visit, the External Affairs Ministry has said.
   
Cooperation in the fields of defence, civil nuclear, infrastructure development and rare earth materials is expected to top the agenda of the discussions.

Some agreements, including in defence and civil nuclear sectors, are expected to be signed. Among the agreements to be signed is one on joint production of rare earth materials.
   
"I am keenly looking forward to my visit to Japan at the invitation of my good friend, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for the annual summit between India and Japan," Modi said in his pre-departure statement.
   
Noting that this will be his first bilateral visit outside the immediate neighbourhood as Prime Minister, he said that it underlines ‘the high priority’ that Japan receives in India's foreign and economic policies.
   
"It is also a reflection of Japan's paramount importance in my vision for development and prosperity in India and in peace, stability and prosperity in Asia at large," Modi said.
   
"I am confident that my visit will write a new chapter in the annals of the relations between Asia's two oldest democracies and take our strategic and global partnership to the next higher level," he said.

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Digvijay, Azad, Janardan Dwivedi to lead Congress campaign in UP

The treasurer of All India Congress Committee, Motilal Vora, released the list of party's star campaigners.

The other prominent faces are AICC secretary and incharge of UP affairs Madhusudan Mistry, senior leaders Mohsina Kidwai, Salman Khurshid, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Beni Prasad Verma, Motilal Vora, party spokesman Virendra Madan said here.

Pramod Tiwari, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, UPCC president Nirmal Khatri, leader of the party in UP Assembly Pradeep Mathur, senior leaders Sanjay Singh, Avinash Pandey, RPN Singh, Jitin Prasad, Rajiv Shukla, Raj Babbar, Pradeep Jain Aditya, Sachin Pilot, Begum Noor Bano, Nagma, Naseeb Singh are among the leaders who will tour the bypoll bound areas and address gatherings, he said.

The campaign programme will be announced soon, Madan said.

Congress is buoyed after its alliance with RJD and JDU clinched six out of the 10 Assembly seats in the Bihar by-election held on August 21.

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Russian interference in Ukraine is intolerable: United States

“Based on Russia's effort to escalate the situation militarily, we have seen the continued movement of equipment and material across the border from Russia into Ukraine,” the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.

“We've even seen pretty definitive reports that Russian troops are now firing on Ukrainian military positions. The international community is completely unwilling to tolerate Russian interference in Ukraine,” Earnest added

The White House official warned of “additional economic costs that can be imposed by the United States on Russia”.

Earnest also commented on the findings by NATO that claimed that Russia had sent at least 1,000 troops to fight with pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine, along with air defence systems, artillery, tanks and armored vehicles; and had massed 20,000 troops near the border.

“The evidence that has been presented by NATO is compelling. It does indicate that Russia is continuing to do the kind of things for using their military might to further destabilize the situation in Ukraine,” he said.

The official urged “Russia to use their influence in Ukraine to try to deescalate the situation.”

Earnest also lashed out at Russia for denying its role in the escalating tension in Ukraine.

“As the Russian military has allowed weapons and material to be transferred across the border, fired on Ukrainian military positions and put boots on the ground in Ukraine; we have regularly marshaled evidence to indicate what exactly is happening, despite the protestations of the Russian government.”

“The denial by the Russian government is without any credibility, and we've been pretty candid about that,” Earnest said.

Talking about the visit of US President Barack Obama to Europe next week for NATO meeting, the official said “The situation in Russia would be on top of the agenda of the US President when he travels to Europe next week,” he said.

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AirAsia launches free user trial of on board WiFi service

The trial will be available for free for up to 60 passengers on selected flights from now until October.

The Airline has not given details of the sectors on which WiFi would be available.

Those using the service will have an Internet data quota of 1 MB and will enjoy a special package allowing them to chat via applications like LINE, WhatsApp and WeChat.

Passengers will be informed via an in-flight announcement if the plane is equipped with the WiFi service.

They will be able to try the service by logging on to the Connectivity Portal with a digital token code that is automatically generated upon clicking the ‘Get Access’ button on the portal.

Each token code is valid for one device and the free user trial will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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Paes-Stepanek advance to third round of US Open

The sixth seeded pairing defeated Chinese Taipei's Yen Hsun-Lu and Czech Republic's Jiri Vesley 7-6 (3) 6-3 in a contest which lasted an hour and 23 minutes.
   
In the intensely contested opening set, both the teams exchanged a break of serve and were guilty of committing an equal number of unforced errors.
   
Lu and Vesley, however, gave away easy points by committing as many as four double faults, eventually falling short in the tie-breaker.
    
But Paes and Stepanek dominated the second set, clinching two break points and being distinctly better on their second serve.
   
The sixth seeds will next take on the winners of the match between 11th-seeded Spanish pair of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez and the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Igor Sisling.
   
In the junior competition, Ojasvinee Singh entered the second round of qualifiers after beating local favourite Alexandra Sanford 6-3 6-2.

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Alia Bhatt prefers Karan Johar over dad for advice

On a recent appearance on a television show, the 21-year-old confessed that she shares her concerns about career, life and love with Karan Johar, said a source.

"I prefer calling Karan Johar over my father for advice on my films. I even go to him for concerns related to relationships as my father thinks no man will ever be good enough for me," Alia said on the show.

She also spoke about her fear of plants, as well as about her reported link-ups with Arjun Kapoor and Varun Dhawan. To that, she said, "Two good looking people are bound to get attracted to each other, who knows I may or may not have taken it forward."

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Stock markets dream run continues as Sensex, Nifty log new peaks

The Sensex, which rose for the fifth straight day, has closed at a new peak in each of last three sessions. Brokers said trading activity also picked up pace ahead of the expiry of monthly equity derivatives on Thursday.

Defence stocks were in the limelight and rose by up to 20 percent on Wednesday after government notified increase in FDI limit to 49 percent through approval route in the sector.

The benchmark S&P BSE 30-share Sensex resumed on strong footing and traded in a range between 26,599.12 and 26,492.50 before registering its fresh closing high of 26,560.15, a net rise of 117.34 points or 0.44 percent. It surpassed its previous closing peak of 26,442.81 logged on Tuesday.

The 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also opened higher and moved in a tight range of 30 points before ending up by 31.30 points or 0.40 percent at 7,936.05 new closing peak. Its previous peak on closing basis was 7,913.20 (August 22).

"Positive global cues and likelihood for further monetary stimulus from European Central Bank (ECB) boosted the market sentiment stocks from oil and gas sector also gained on hopes of proper reforms for subsidies," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.

Sentiments remained upbeat after Oil Ministry said it will seek Cabinet nod for freeing diesel prices after retail rates achieve parity with global levels, and has proposed to cut subsidy payout by upstream firms like ONGC and Oil India by half, said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.

Most Asian indices rose tracking US stocks that jumped a new peak on Tuesday after data showed consumer confidence rose in August for a fourth straight month, to its strongest level since February 2008. Also, durable goods orders surged in July to a new monthly record.

Europe was under pressure with the FTSE (UK) mildly up as "Ukraine issue was in focus", said Kiran Kumar Kavikondala, Director and CEO, WealthRays Securities.

 

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