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Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman led the Indian delegation to the 3rd RCEP Inter-sessional Ministerial Meeting on 21-22 May 2017 in Hanoi in which Trade Ministers of 15 other RCEP countries participated.
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How to apply for compensation if you were a victim of the terrorist attack in Manchester on 22 May 2017
Applications can be made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012, by those victims injured, or the families of those killed in the attack.
If you have been bereaved or suffered a personal injury as a result of this incident you can find out more about applying. Alternatively, you can call the CICA helpline on 0300 003 3601.
You do not need a paid representative, such as a solicitor or claims management company, to apply to CICA for compensation. Our Guide provides information about free independent advice that may be available from local support services or other charitable organisations.
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23 May 2017 – The benefits of Myanmar’s economic growth, reform and reconciliation efforts have not yet reached children in the country’s remote, conflict-affected areas, leaving an estimated 2.2 million children in need of better humanitarian assistance, a United Nations report has revealed.
“Myanmar faces a real challenge in ensuring that children everywhere – and not just in urban areas – gain from the country’s rapid development,” said Justin Forsyth, the Deputy Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“There is a risk that many children and their families are excluded. This is especially the case for poorer children living in remote areas or trapped in situations of tension and conflict,” he added.
The Child Alert report issued today by UNICEF attributed unresolved conflict, poverty and under-development to that situation.
The report stressed that investing some of the financial dividends earned from Myanmar’s recent economic growth, in services that will benefit children and youth, can help steer the country towards a more prosperous and stable future.
The report notes that social and economic measures undertaken by the Government since 2010 are beginning to strengthen the systems that boost children’s health, education and protection.
A draft child law, and increased public funding for immunization programmes and education have demonstrated a stronger commitment to furthering children’s rights in the country, UNICEF said.
However, the agency pointed out that life for many children in Myanmar remains a struggle: up to 150 children under the age of five die each day, while nearly 30 per cent suffer from moderate or severe malnutrition. More than half of all children live below the poverty line.
In Rakhine state, 120,000 internally displaced people – including many ethnic Rohingyas – live in camps as a result of inter-communal conflict that erupted in 2012. Violence surged again last year following attacks on border guard posts.
In remote Kachin, Shan and Kayin states and other border areas, recurrent clashes between the Myanmar military and Ethnic Armed Organisations continue to drive families from their homes. Civilians find themselves at risk from poverty, statelessness, and trafficking, while having only limited access to essential health and education services.
The report calls for improved humanitarian access to an estimated 2.2 million children affected by violence, and for an end to rights violations including the use of children as soldiers.
The report was released ahead of the second national Peace Conference in Myanmar on May 24, which UNICEF says is an opportunity to commit to stronger protection of children from conflict.
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Below is the statement from Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale to the Scottish Parliament following the Manchester terror attack:
“They would have been dressed in pink, in sparkles, bunny ears perched on their heads and grins on their faces. The very picture of innocence.
“The children who went to see American pop star and Disney TV actress, Ariana Grande, at the Manchester Arena last night would have been unable to contain their excitement. The atmosphere would have been electric.
“Every one of us has been there – been one of them. Enthralled by the sound and vision of a pop star at their peak. Desperate to see, in the flesh, the person whose image we’ve plastered on our bedroom walls.
“Being at a gig is a moment of sheer joy.
“Last night that joy was destroyed in a despicable act of cowardice.
“All that excitement, that innocent elation, turned to fear, to shock, and to horror.
“Just hours after they arrived, children left the concert crying, screaming, utterly bewildered by what had just happened; their ears ringing, not with the echo of pop music, but with the blast of a bomb.
“Today, those children will know that 22 of those who had shared the joy of the concert alongside them, are dead.
“That 59 people are in hospital with terrible injuries. And that too many parents are still desperately searching for the children who haven’t come home.
“Those children too will know the phrase ‘suicide bomber’ and the appalling reality of what that means.
“A story which they might have watched on Newsround, couched in age-appropriate language to soften the roughest of edges, has brutally intruded into their young lives.
“For us, as adults, hearing the news of terrorist atrocities – be they bombs, or bullets, or cars mowing people down in the street – is all too sadly now commonplace.
“We tend to cover our children’s ears and eyes to protect them from the knowledge.
“And we hold them closer, all too aware of the fragility of their precious lives.
“But for those children and young people who witnessed last night’s abominable act, there is no softening the blow, no making it better, no suggesting that these things don’t happen here, or to us, or to people we know.
“They are now fully aware that when someone determines to kill others, when someone purposefully straps a bomb to their body with a twisted plan to detonate it among innocent children, that there is nothing any one of us can do to prevent the horrific, inevitable, outcome.
“And we cannot explain it to them. How can you tell an eight-year-old that there is a justifiable reason that children died last night? How can you explain the actions, the thought-process, of someone who can look at a concert full of young people and see nothing but a target?
“But what we can do is respond well. We can teach our children that the only way to counter such barbarity is not with hate and with fear, but with compassion, tolerance, kindness and love.
“Like the people of Manchester did last night; flocking to help, taking people home, offering places to stay, and searching for children who had become separated from their parents.
“Like those who work in our emergency services did – as they always do – running, unflinching, towards horror, rather than away from it, to offer comfort and care and rescue.
“No doubt over the coming days we will discover the name of the coward who chose to kill excited children at a concert, and there will be attempts to understand why they did it.
“For those who are grieving there will be no worthy answers. For those left traumatised, there will be no comprehension.
“What there will be though is a toughening of our resolve in the face of terror.
“A renewal of our belief in the enduring British values of tolerance and respect.
“And a determination to make sure that such horrific acts will never undermine our freedom, nor our democracy.”
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Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal launched the Saral Eindhan Vitaran Application (SEVA), developed in-house by Coal India Limited (CIL) for power sector consumers, here today.