Kolkata, Jan 9: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she will boycott the opposition meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on January 13 to protest the violence unleashed in the state allegedly by Left Front and Congress workers during a trade union strike.

The 24-hour nationwide strike by central trade unions in West Bengal on Wednesday was marked by incidents of violence and arson, blocking of railway tracks and roads by protestors trying to enforce the shutdown.

Banerjee said "double standards" of the Left Front and Congress will not be tolerated.

"I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on January 13 in New Delhi as I don't support the violence that the Left and Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday)," the chief minister said at the state Assembly.

Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of opposition parties, including the Left, to discuss the situation arising out of violence on various university campuses and protests in the country over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

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Rome, Feb 22 (AP): Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.

Francis, who has been hospitalised for a week with a complex lung infection, also received blood transfusions after tests showed a condition associated with anemia, the Vatican said in a late update.

“The Holy Father continues to be alert and spent the day in an armchair although in more pain than yesterday. At the moment the prognosis is reserved,” the statement said.