3 MAY 2016

Ø  The lone Italian marine, Salvatore Girone, facing a murder charge in India could return home soon in the wake of a decision of an international tribunal at The Hague. The verdict is the first big pronouncement of the PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague), after Italy approached it in June 2015. Two Italian marines — Massimiliano Latorre and Mr. Girone are facing the charge of murdering two Indian fishermen in 2012 off the Kerala coast. The fishermen were killed when the marines on duty aboard MV Enrica Lexie, an Italian-flagged oil tanker, fired at them. However, differences have cropped up between the two countries over the details of the verdict which will govern the marine’s return. While India has claimed that the verdict upholds the Supreme Court’s authority, Italian officials have said it is a vindication of their position that India has no jurisdiction.

Ø  Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections slated for early next year and a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi, the Expenditure Finance Committee on Monday approved projects worth nearly Rs. 3,000 crore for the government’s flagship programme, Namami Gange. This is the biggest-ever approval for projects meant to clean up the Ganga — till now a total of Rs. 4,000 crore has been spent on cleaning the river through many governments since 1985. A decision has been taken to fast-track the integrated Ganga conservation programme, a year after the Union Cabinet approved it in May 2015. Mr. Modi, who launched on Sunday environment friendly e-boats at the Assi Ghat of the Ganga in Varanasi, is expected to review the progress after the end of the current session of Parliament.

Ø  Sixteen years after the Navy last inducted a submarine, it is set to commission a new line of conventional submarines by year end but for some time they will operate without their crucial weapon systems, torpedoes, procurement of which are yet again caught up in allegations of wrongdoings. Kalvari, the first of Project-75 Scorpene submarines weighing about 1,600 tonnes, sailed out of Mumbai harbour on Sunday for sea trials and is scheduled to be commissioned into the Navy in September. However, the procurement of heavy weight torpedoes from Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquel of Italy, a subsidiary of defence major Finmeccanica has been stuck due to the VVIP chopper scam and ongoing ban on the company and its subsidiaries. The Navy last inducted a conventional diesel-electric submarine, INS Sindhushastra, procured from Russia in July 2000.

Ø  Indian-origin Islamic State (IS) terrorist from Britain Siddhartha Dhar, dubbed as the “New Jihadi John”, is a senior commander of the dreaded outfit, according to a media report. Nihad Barakat, a Yazidi teenager held as a sex slave by the group, was quoted as saying by The Independent that she was kidnapped and trafficked by Dhar, who is now based in Mosul, the group’s Iraqi stronghold. Dhar, a British Hindu who converted to Islam and now goes by the name Abu Rumaysah, had skipped police bail in the U.K. to travel to Syria with his wife and young children in 2014. In an interview for a new documentary series for U.K.-based British Muslim TV about life on the frontline in Iraq, Ms. Barakat said Dhar was among the foreign fighters who enslaved her.