Work underway on Putin's instructions about nuclear tests, says Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov
Moscow (PTI): Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said President Vladimir Putin's latest instructions about studying the feasibility of resuming nuclear tests “is being worked on.”
During his Security Council meeting on November 5, at which Lavrov was absent, Putin instructed the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defence, the intelligence services, and civilian agencies to submit proposals on the possibility of preparing for nuclear weapons tests by Russia if the US were to walk out of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) moratorium on nuclear tests.
“The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accepted for implementation the instruction given by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Security Council meeting on November 5; it has been accepted for implementation and is being worked on,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by official news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti.
“The public will be informed of the results,” Lavrov was quoted by the Russian agencies.
According to Lavrov, Moscow has not yet received any explanation of US President Donald Trump’s comment on the resumption of nuclear tests from Washington through diplomatic channels.
“So far, we have not received any explanation of what President Donald Trump meant when he announced the resumption of nuclear tests,” Lavrov told reporters, TASS said.
During the televised meeting with his Security Council, Putin was seen asserting that Russia will restart the nuclear tests only if the US did so first.
It was in response to US President Donald Trump's announcement last week that his administration plans to resume testing of the US' own nuclear assets after a gap of over three decades.
Ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 30, Trump announced that the US will start testing nuclear weapons on an “equal basis” with rival powers.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
