INDIAN, CHINESE MILITARIES HOLD BRIGADE COMMANDER-LEVEL TALKS

Indian and Chinese militaries on Sunday held another round of talks in

eastern Ladakh in an attempt to calm tensions even as the situation remained

"delicate" with both sides further rushing in additional troops and weapons

following last week's confrontations, government sources said. The nearly

four-hour brigade commander-level interaction near Chushul could not produce

any tangible outcome, they said.

The sources said the Indian Army has been on a very high level of alert and

is ready to deal with any eventuality in the area. The overall situation in

the region continued to be delicate, they said.

Tension escalated in the region after Indian troops foiled attempts by

Chinese military to occupy Indian territories in the southern bank of

Pangong lake area on the intervening night of August 29 and 30. Following

the confrontation, India occupied a number of strategic heights in the

Chushul sector overlooking crucial bases of the Chinese military. Since

then, China has deployed additional troops, tanks and anti-tank guided

missiles in the area.

India too has strengthened its combat capabilities.

FIVE STATES, ONE UT WITH HIGH COVID-19 CASELOAD ASKED TO SCALE UP TESTING

The Centre has asked 5 states and one UT from where 35 districts have been

reporting high active COVID-19 caseload and fatality rate to strengthen

containment measures and scale-up testing to bring down positivity rate

below five per cent.

These 35 districts comprise all 11 districts in Delhi, Kolkata, Howrah,

North 24 Parganas and 24 South Parganas in West Bengal; Pune, Nagpur, Thane,

Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Raigad,

Jalgaon, Solapur, Satara, Palghar, Aurangabad, Dhule and Nanded in

Maharashtra; Surat in Gujarat; Pondicherry in Puducherry and East Singhbhum

in Jharkhand.

In a review meeting held on Saturday, they were asked to ensure strict

perimeter control, strengthen the active case search focusing on the

comorbid and elderly population, early identification by ramping up testing

and optional utilization of RT-PCR testing capacity to break the chain of

transmission of the disease, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

ABDUCTIONS OF ARUNCHAL YOUTHS: HOTLINE MESSAGE SENT TO CHINA'S PLA

A day after local media reported that five youths from Arunachal Pradesh

were "abducted" by the Chinese Army, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday

said the Indian Army had sent a hotline message to the establishment of

People's Liberation Army and a response was awaited.

On Saturday, the Indian Army and police said they had received no such

complaint even though a police team had left for the remote border village

in Upper Subansiri district where the youths are said to reside.

The incident came to light after a tweet by Tapir Gao, MP from East

Arunachal constituency.

Congress MLA Ninong Ering, in his tweet, attached screenshots from Facebook

by one Prakash Ringling who wrote that his brother and four others were

abducted by the PLA in the Sera-7 area on the Indo-China border. "So, kindly

request to state govt and Indian Army authority take immediate actions,"

wrote Ringling.

AT 66%, LITERACY RATE IS LOWEST IN AP

Which state has a higher literacy rate: Andhra Pradesh or Bihar, Telangana

or Assam, Karnataka or Uttarakhand? If you picked the southern state each

time, you were wrong and by a considerable margin.

AP's rate of 66.4% is the lowest among states and UTs and lower than Bihar's

70.9%. Telangana's 72.8% is well below the national average of 77.7% while

Assam is well above it at 85.9% and Karnataka's 77.2% pales in comparison to

Uttarakhand's 87.6%, which is bettered only by Kerala and Delhi. Maharashtra

is sixth with 84.8%.

Data from a 2017-18 National Statistical Office report on education reveals

these counter-intuitive truths.

Kerala remains by some distance the best among the major states with a

literacy rate of 96.2%. More impressively, the gap between male and female

literacy is the smallest in Kerala at just 2.2 percentage points. To put

that in context, the gap at the all-India level is 14.4 percentage points

with male literacy at 84.7% and female literacy at 70.3%.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

GERMANY RAISES PRESSURE ON RUSSIA IN NAVALNY POISONING PROBE

Germany on Sunday increased the pressure on Russia over the poisoning of

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, warning that a lack of support

by Moscow in the investigation could "force" Germany to rethink the fate of

a German-Russian gas pipeline project.

"I hope the Russians won't force us to change our position regarding the

Nord Stream 2" pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea, German Foreign

Minister Heiko Maas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Maas also said "if there won't be any contributions from the Russian side

regarding the investigation in the coming days, we will have to consult with

our partners." He did not exclude possible sanctions against Russia, telling

the newspaper that such measures should be "pinpointed effectively."

However, Maas also admitted that halting the building of the nearly

completed gas pipeline would harm German and European companies as well as

Russia.

"Whoever demands this has to be aware of the consequences," he said. "More

than 100 companies from 12 European countries are involved (in the

construction), about half of them from Germany." The German government has

come under growing pressure to use the joint German-Russian pipeline project

as leverage in getting Russia to provide answers on Navalny. The Nord Stream

2 project would deliver Russian gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea

when completed, bypassing Ukraine.

NEW BOOK HURLS RACIST CHARGES AT DONALD TRUMP

Michael Cohen, a former attorney of Donald Trump, has accused the US

President of making racist remarks against his predecessor, Barak Obama.

In his upcoming book, Disloyal: A Memoir, slated to be released this week,

Cohen has described Trump as "a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a

predator, a con man and a person interested in using the presidency

exclusively for his personal financial benefit".

Cohen also said Trump's disdain for Barack Obama was "so extreme" that he

would publicly question the former President's birthplace. In private, Trump

would describe Obama as a "Manchurian candidate" who graduated with an Ivy

League degree only through "affirmative action".

According to a CNN report citing Cohen, after Obama became the US President

in 2008, Trump had said, "Tell me one country run by a black person that

isn't a sh*thole.They are all complete f*cking toilets."

Cohen's upcoming book also includes a photo of Trump sitting at his desk

with a Black man seated across from him. The man was reportedly hired to

play Obama. The book contains a screenshot of the video in which Trump

"ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him".

After Nelson Mandela's death in 2013, the CNN report said, Trump had

allegedly remarked that "Mandela f*cked the whole country (South Africa) up.

Now it's a sh*thole. F*ck Mandela. He was no leader."

THE REST

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OIL SPILL FEARS DISSIPATE AS FIRE ALMOST DOUSED ON SRI LANKAN COAST

The fears of an oil spill due to a fire in a crude laden vessel off the Sri

Lankan coast appears to have dissipated with the authorities on Sunday

saying here that the blaze has almost been doused.

While intense fire-fighting efforts taken up by the Indian Coast Guard and

Sri Lankan Air Force and Navy since September 3 had led to localisation of

the fire in the ship, a defence release said no oil spill has been reported.

"Fire appears to be doused and no flame and smoke is visible.

The Panama registered MT (Motor Tanker) New Diamond, a Greek owned vessel

and under charter by Indian Oil Corporation was carrying 2,70,000 tonnes of

crude oil from Kuwait to India's Paradip port when its engine room caught

fire off Sangamankanda's coast in Lanka's eastern district of Ampara.

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Sri Lankan ships, fast patrol vessels and tugs

have been deployed in the fire fighting exercise. The oil tanker, which was

taken to safe waters, is being held by a tug about 42 miles from the nearest

coast for preventing drifting of the ship and to facilitate fire fighting.

LETTER WRITERS JITIN, RAJ BABBAR MISSING FROM CONG UP POLL PANELS

Two prominent Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders who recently signed the

controversial letter seeking leadership changes in the party are missing

from the poll panels announced for the state on Sunday.

Both former minister Jitin Prasada and former UP Congress chief Raj Babbar

who joined 23 dissenters to seek Congress overhaul recently are absent from

the five committees party chief Sonia Gandhi approved yesterday in

preparation of the next state election.

FULL REFUND FOR AIR TICKETS BOOKED DURING LOCKDOWN 1 & 2

Passengers are entitled to full refund for air tickets booked during

Lockdown 1 and 2 during which air travel was banned due to COVID-19

pandemic, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

"If the tickets have been booked during the first lockdown period, i.e. 25th

of March, 2020 to 14th of April, 2020 for the journeys to be undertaken in

both first and second lockdown period i.e. from 25th of March, 2020 to 3rd

of May, 2020, in all such cases, full refund shall be given by the airlines

immediately," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said regarding

domestic airlines' tickets booked directly by the passenger with airlines.

Similarly, for international travel when the ticket has been booked on an

Indian carrier and the booking is ex-India, it said, "If the tickets have

been booked during the lockdown period for travel within the lockdown

period, in all such cases full refund shall be given by the airlines

immediately.

The affidavit has been filed in response to a PIL demanding full automatic

refund of money for tickets booked for flights during the COVID19 lockdown.

LANGUAGE WAR ADDS FIRE TO TWITTER ON SUNDAY

Late Tamil film director K Balachander would have least imagined that a

simple dialogue he wrote in his 1980 movie - Varumayin Niram Sivappu - to

highlight the state of unemployed youth - would one day be used to trigger a

language war.

"I am a Tamil speaking Indian" said one tweet yesterday. "Hindi Theriyadhu

Poda" said another tweet, gently. "I am an Indian. I don't speak Hindi" said

yet another.

Soon celebrities and politicians were tweeting photographs of them wearing

tshirts with these lines embossed on them. From actor Shanthanu to music

composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, from DMK MP Kanimozhi to the youth wing

president Udhayanidhi Stalin were seen flaunting the t-shirts. "I am saying

it respectfully," Udhayanidhi said in a video, while voicing just the "poda"

part of the slogan 'Hindi theriyadhu poda' on his t-shirt.

While the New Education Policy and Kanimozhi's airport episode had brought

back the attempts to impose Hindi on Tamil Nadu's political stage once

again, the fresh campaign on Sunday seem to take it to another level. It

looked like some frustrated soul got fed up explaining "successful life"

without Hindi to the barbs of those supporting the cause of Hindi.

MANY THINGS ABOUT COVID STILL UNKNOWN - TOP INDIAN EXPERTS WRITE

Indian health experts have admitted science has answered few questions on

the Covid-19 pandemic so far, and "unknowns about the virus exceed known"

even today.

In an editorial published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR),

a peer-reviewed medical journal by the Indian Council of Medical Research

(ICMR), top health experts Dr Priya Abraham and Dr Rajesh Bhatia said the

"efficacy of vaccines" also remains uncertain.

"Combating the pandemic shall require complete understanding of the virus,

its pathogenesis, epidemiological and clinical dimensions, and availability

of safe and efficacious therapeutic and prophylactic tools especially for

vulnerable and high risk populations," said the editorial, titled 'The

enigmatic COVID-19 pandemic', published on 5 September. It added, "Answers

to these research questions may get us closer to having reliable and

affordable pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions."

According to the authors, Covid-19's "duration of persistence of protective

immunity remain elusive till date". "The uncertainty of long-term immune

response has potential implications for the efficacy of vaccines," they

added.

DRAFT GUIDELINES ON DISCLAIMERS, ENDORSEMENTS IN ADS

The government has come out with a comprehensive set of draft guidelines on

advertising under which 'disclaimers' that are not easily noticeable by or

legible or easily understandable to an ordinary consumer will be treated as

misleading advertisements under the Consumer Protection Act.

The violation of these guidelines would face action by the recently

established Central Consumer Protection Authority.

The draft guidelines also specify that an advertisement should not describe

a product or service as "free", "without charge" or other similar terms, if

the consumer has to pay anything other than the cost while purchasing a

product or service for delivery of the same.

On those who endorse advertisements, the guidelines propose that they should

take due care to ensure that all descriptions, claims and comparisons that

they endorse or that are made in advertisements they appear in are capable

of being objectively ascertained and are capable of substantiation.

Endorsers should also take due care to ensure that an advert "does not

convey ... express or implied representations that would be false,

misleading or deceptive if made by the trader or manufacturer or advertiser

of the relevant product or service."

If an endorsement of a product or service is made through a testimonial, the

guidelines propose that such endorsement should reflect the genuine,

reasonably current opinion of the endorser, and should be based on either

adequate information about or experience with the product or service being

endorsed.

BOLLYWOOD LASHES OUT AT MEDIA FOR MOBBING RHEA CHAKRABORTY AT NCB OFFICE

Several Bollywood personalities, including actors Taapsee Pannu, Swara

Bhasker, and filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, criticised media's mobbing of actor

Rhea Chakraborty, flouting all standard protocols amid COVID-19 pandemic, as

she reached Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) office on Sunday.

Taapsee Pannu took to Twitter and lamented the treatment being meted out to

Rhea Chakraborty in the case. "In the name of justice these people have

lynched a human being off her right to live even before proven guilty. I

sincerely pray karma finds the address of each and every human being part of

this lowest low of mankind we are witness to," the actor wrote.

This was the "lowest" the country had stooped to, said Swara Bhasker.

"India. witness our lowest! Shameful witch hunt! Disgusting," she wrote.

Dia Mirza said the behaviour by the media present on ground was

"reprehensible". "The law must and will take it's course. This behaviour

reprehensible in every way. Enough! Why can't Rhea be given space and the

right to physical distancing? Why are the media behaving like vultures?

Please please give her space. Stop attacking/dehumanising her & her family,"

the actor wrote.

The NCB, over the last two days, has arrested Rhea Chakraborty's younger

brother Showik Chakraborty (24), Rajput's house manager Samuel Miranda (33)

and Dipesh Sawant, a member of the actor's personal staff, in this case.

IPL 2020 SCHEDULE OUT, MI TO FACE CSK IN SEASON-OPENER

Moved out of India due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, the upcoming edition of

the world's biggest T20 league will be held in the three venues of Dubai,

Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the UAE. The first match will be played on Sep 19

and the final on Nov 10.

There will be 10 double headers, with the first match starting at 3:30pm IST

and the second 7:30pm, according to a BCCI release. These have all been

scheduled in October when the temperatures are expected to ease a bit to

allow afternoon matches.

In all, 24 matches will be held in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12 in Sharjah.

Venues for the playoffs and the IPL 2020 final will be announced later.

The upcoming 53-day edition is by far the longest in the history of the

league.

The IPL rules call for a mandatory six-day quarantine period for every

individual upon arrival in the UAE. Abu Dhabi has a 14-day quarantine rule.

Australia are currently touring England where they play their last ODI on

Sep 16. But some of those cricketeres who will then head for IPL will switch

from one bio-bubble to another, and the IPL Governing Council chairman

Brijesh Patel is said to be negotiating with the local authorities to obtain

a relaxation.

NOVAK DJOKOVIC OUT OF US OPEN 2020 AFTER HITTING LINE JUDGE WITH BALL

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his fourth-round match at the

U.S. Open after he accidentally hit a line judge with a tennis ball Sunday.

It was a stunning end to Djokovic's bid for an 18th Grand Slam title.

Djokovic had just lost a game to his opponent, Pablo Carreno Busta, to fall

behind 6-5 in the first set. As he walked to the sideline for the

changeover, Djokovic smacked a ball behind him. The ball hit a female line

judge in the neck, who dropped to her knees at the back of the court.

After a discussion of several minutes with officials on court, Djokovic

walked over to shake hands with Carreno Busta, and the default was

announced.

Djokovic did not attend the post-match press conference but issued a

statement on Instagram later on Sunday.

"This whole situation has left me really sad and empty," he wrote. "I

checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is

feeling ok. I'm extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So

unintended. So wrong."

"As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my

disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution

as a player and human being," he wrote. "I apologize to the @usopen

tournament and everyone associated for my behavior. I'm very grateful to my

team and family for being my rock support, and my fans for always being

there with me. Thank you and I'm so sorry."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

When you praise someone you call yourself his equal. - JW von Goethe

OFF TRACK

An eccentric philosophy professor gave a one question final exam after a

semester dealing with a broad array of topics. "Using everything we have

learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist."

Fingers flew, erasers erased, notebooks were filled in furious fashion. Some

students wrote over 30 pages in one hour attempting to refute the existence

of the chair. One member of the class however, was up and finished in less

than a minute.

A week later when the grades were posted, the rest of the group wondered how

he could have gotten an "A" when he had barely written