WION morning news brief, January 2, 2018
Follow UsHours after US President Donald Trump's tweet accusing it of "lies and deceit", Pakistan summoned US Ambassador David Hale on Monday night to lodge a protest, news reports quoted US embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire as saying. The US envoy was summoned by the Pakistan Foreign Office at 9 pm, a report in the Express Tribune said.
Kim Jong Un on Monday warned the United States he has a "nuclear button" on his desk ready for use if North Korea is threatened, but offered an olive branch to South Korea, saying he was "open to dialogue" with Seoul. After a year dominated by fiery rhetoric and escalating tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme, Kim used his televised New Year's Day speech to declare North Korea "a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power" and call for lower military tensions and improved ties with the South.
Fresh protests broke out as night fell in Iran Monday with reports of a policeman shot dead, as the authorities moved to crack down on days of unrest across the country. There was a heavy police presence in Tehran as small groups of protesters ran through the city centre shouting anti-regime slogans, local agencies reported.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 seeking to criminalise instant divorce, triple talaq, is set to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The opposition party, Congress, Left, AIADMK and the DMK from Tamil Nadu have supported the bill but called for modifications of the provisions, claiming that it could hamper the sentiments of Muslim women, that leaders in Lok Sabha had earlier argued.
A senior member of the erstwhile Mewar royal family, Mahendra Singh, has questioned the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for endorsing Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati claiming the film "misrepresents" revered heroic characters and may cause "social unrest". In a letter to Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, the Mewar royal alleged that CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi had not considered all factors and "this public deception" suggested incompetence and complicity.