From the Newsroom: Mehbooba Mufti denied passport over ‘national security’ concerns

In your evening news brief, Mehbooba Mufti denied passport over ‘national security’ concerns; MV Ever Given, the container ship stuck in the Suez canal, moves 80% in the right direction and Lebanon parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri says that country would sink like the Titanic if it could not form a government.

Hi, this is Ahmed Shariff and you are listening to, From The Newsroom— your daily evening news catch up show from Deccan Herald.

Here is the top news of March 29, 2021:

PDP president and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti was not issued a passport over “national security” concerns under the Passport Act 1967.

“Passport Office refused to issue my passport based on CID's report citing it as 'detrimental to the security of India. This is the level of normalcy achieved in Kashmir since Aug 2019 that an ex-Chief Minister holding a passport is a threat to the sovereignty of a mighty nation," she tweeted while sharing a letter from the Passport Office, Srinagar.

The enormous container ship blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week has been turned 80 per cent in the right direction, officials said Monday, raising hopes the vital trade route could soon be clear.

But its owner said that while the giant ship "has turned", it was still not yet fully unwedged.

The MV Ever Given, longer than four football fields, became wedged diagonally across the canal during a sandstorm last Tuesday, strangling world supply chains and costing the global economy billions.

Influential parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday that Lebanon would sink like the Titanic if it could not form a government.

Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri and President Michel Aoun have been at loggerheads over a new cabinet for months, dashing hopes of a reversal of Lebanon's deepening financial meltdown.

The assembly was due to discuss a $200 million emergency fund to pay for fuel for Lebanon's electricity company. The energy ministry has said there are no funds to pay for imports beyond March.

Source: DHNS/ AFP/ Reuters