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Hello Jammu News at 6:18:00 PM 0


London, Jan 17 :  Embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May won a confidence vote on Wednesday and averted a general election, a day after her government suffered a historic parliamentary defeat over her Brexit divorce deal with the European Union. 

Her government won by 325 votes to 306 - a majority of 19. 

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn argued that May's "zombie" administration had lost the right to govern during a six hour debate on his motion.

His party has not ruled out tabling further no-confidence motions. 

After her victory, May told MPs that she would "continue to work to deliver on the solemn promise to the people of this country to deliver on the result of the referendum and leave the European Union".

She invited leaders of all parties to have individual meetings with her on the way ahead for Brexit, starting tonight, but called on them to approach them with a "constructive spirit".

"We must find solutions that are negotiable and command sufficient support in this House," she added.

May also reiterated a promise to return to the Commons on Monday to give MPs another vote on her plans.

"The House has put its confidence in this government," she said.

"I stand ready to work with any member of this House to deliver Brexit and ensure that this House retains the confidence of the British people." 

The Democratic Unionist Party, which props up May's minority government, also voted to keep her administration in power despite their strong opposition to the Brexit deal.



May's divorce deal to leave the EU was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs on Tuesday, triggering a no-confidence motion against her government and leaving the country with no plans for Brexit on March 29.

The PM's bid to get the Withdrawal Agreement, struck between London and Brussels, was rejected by 432 votes to 202 - a majority of 230, the biggest defeat ever suffered by a British premier in modern history. 

Within minutes after the defeat, the biggest for a sitting British government in history, opposition leader Corbyn's Labour party moved a motion of no-confidence against the May government to be held on Wednesday.

Britain is set to exit the 28-member European Union, which it joined in 1973, on March 29. With just over two months to go until the scheduled departure, Britain is still undecide on what to do. 

May, 62, has spent two years negotiating the divorce plan aimed at bringing about an orderly Brexit and setting up a 21- month transition period to negotiate a free-trade deal with Brussels.

Her deal included both the withdrawal agreement on the terms on which the UK leaves the EU and a political declaration for the future relationship.

May had survived a no-confidence vote by her own Conservative Party in December.                PTI
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Hello Jammu News at 2:51:00 PM 0



New Delhi, Jan 11 : India has granted consular access to Christian Michel, a British national who was brought here from the UAE last month in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland chopper deal scam.

The British High Commission had sought consular access to Michel after he was arrested in the first week of December. 

"Consular access has been granted to Michel," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

Michel, 57, was brought to India following his extradition by the United Arab Emirates in connection with the chopper deal case. At present, he is lodged in Tihar jail here.

It is learnt that consular access to Michel was granted on Thursday.

Michel is one of the three middlemen, being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate in the case, besides Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. Michel has denied the charges. 

Asked about Pakistan's call for talks with India to improve strained ties, Kumar accused Pakistan of trying to mainstream terror organisations, and said there was no seriousness in its statement on dialogue. 

India has been maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.        PTI
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Hello Jammu News at 6:08:00 PM 0

New Delhi, Sep 15: A show next month seeks to expose discerning Indian families to the concept of a UK boarding school education, what that choice entails and the numerous benefits that such an experience can bring for a student.

The first ever British Boarding Schools Show in India will be held in New Delhi and Mumbai and will bring the registrars (directors of admissions) and heads from a selection of leading boarding schools from across the UK.

Visiting families to the show can therefore discover firsthand what it means to board in the UK, and learn about the incredible opportunities that these schools can offer them quite apart from just a world class academic offering, says William Petty, director of Bonas MacFarlane Education, London.

Bonas Macfarlane, a provider of private tuition and educational advice in the UK is organising the show.

There will be special benefits for Indian students.

"An Indian student aiming for a leading UK university or US college place can do much to enhance their chances of successful applications merely by moving to a UK-based school. We would argue that they would be far better prepared by a UK boarding school for starters, but also they would be considered as Indian nationals applying from Britain and therefore in a hugely smaller pool of applicants than those applying directly from India," says Petty.

Citing recent data, he says an Indian student applying to Cambridge from a UK independent school is 300 per cent more likely to succeed than they would be applying from an Indian school.

So why are they eyeing Indian students?

"Over the last two decades, the number of Indians boarding in the UK has fallen as more and more high-achieving schools were founded in India offering qualifications such as iGCSE, A-level and the IB programme. In the last five years though those numbers have began to rise once more," Petty told PTI.

"We feel that this is just the beginning of a renaissance for Indian students birding in the UK. We feel that there are a huge number of children and students in India who would gain so much from life at a British boarding school and we are extremely excited to be re-introducing the idea to Indian families," he says.

According to him, the average British boarding school will have an enormous array of academic subjects on offer, sometimes across multiple qualifications, a plethora of co-curricular activities, community projects, high level sports, music and creative arts.

Petty says there will be no such conditions like students opting for studies in the UK will have to stay there for further studies.

"Student visas apply only to the institution where an Indian student is attending on a full time basis for the duration of the course of study. Once the studies have been completed the visa expires within a few months," he says.

He also dismisses as unfounded recent reports that some of the UK's most in-demand private schools were willing to accept donations in return for coveted places.

"Many British boarding schools are charitable trusts and whilst their fees seem high they generate very little profit. Therefore the schools rely on donations and endowments to maintain bursaries and develop new facilities," Petty says.

"It is a model upon which the Ivy League colleges of America are built. Schools are very careful that all students are subjected to the same admissions process and assessment procedures and that for each student who is accepted they can prove that the child deserves the place on their own merits," he adds. (PTI)
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Hello Jammu News at 5:50:00 PM 0

New Delhi, Aug 9: A senior bureaucrat of the government has alleged "racial discrimination" and "rude behaviour" by the British Airways, which deplaned him and his family from a flight to Berlin from London last month minutes before take off because his three-year-old son was crying onboard.

The bureaucrat, in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on August 3, has alleged that another Indian family, sitting behind them, was also offloaded as they offered biscuits to the child to console him.

The incident happened on July 23.

The bureaucrat alleged that the crew got the plane (BA 8495) to return to the tarmac, where the security personnel took their boarding passes away. The customer care service manager did not give reasons for offloading them nor the management took action against the crew despite lodging a complaint, he claimed.

"We had to make our own arrangements for staying and travelling to Berlin the next day by paying a very hefty amount," he said, adding that the other Indian family was given tickets for a flight the next day, without any accommodation though.

The bureaucrat is a joint secretary-level officer in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

When contacted, a British Airways spokesperson said, "We take such claims very seriously and do not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We have started a full investigation and are in contact with the customer."

Narrating his family's ordeal in the two-page letter to Prabhu, the officer demanded a thorough investigation and strictest possible action against the British Airways staff.

He said while his wife managed to calm their son, an "aggrieved" crew member approached them and started scolding the boy, asking him to get back to his seat. The boy had a window seat, but the mother had taken him into her arms to console him.

"With this unusual behaviour of the male crew member, my son got terrified and started crying intensively. My wife again put the boy on his designated seat and fastened the seat-belt, even though he kept on crying intensively being in a terrified state of mind due to the scolding by the male crew member," the officer wrote to Prabhu.

He alleged that when the plane started moving towards the runway, the crew member came back, shouting, "You bloody keep quite, otherwise you would be thrown out of the window."  (PTI)
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