A parking fee dispute in Nainital escalated when tourists from Uttar Pradesh were charged Rs 1,500 for a delayed vehicle check-out.
China on Friday said it would raise tariffs on US goods to 125 per cent from 84 per cent, hours after President Xi Jinping urged the European Union to join hands with Beijing in resisting “unilateral bullying”, referring to the massive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
The new levy, which will come into effect on Saturday, was announced after Trump this week raised the tariffs for China to 145 per cent, further escalating the ongoing trade war between the world’s two top economies.
“The US’s imposition of abnormally high tariffs on China seriously violates international trade rules, basic economic laws and common sense,” Beijing’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement shared by the finance ministry.
China also said it would “ignore” further tariff hikes by President Trump as US goods would no longer make economic sense for importers. Beijing said the US “should bear full responsibility” for the global economic “turbulence” unleashed by President Trump’s tariffs.
Washington’s levies “(caused) the current world economy, global markets and multilateral trading systems to suffer serious shocks and severe turbulence”, a spokesperson for Beijing’s Commerce Ministry said.
Beijing also said that President Trump decided to freeze tariffs on other countries partly after “pressure from China”.
The US President on Wednesday announced a 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs on all countries, barring China. He said he was raising tariffs on Chinese imports, citing a “lack of respect” from Beijing.
A previous round of US tariffs had come into force on Wednesday, hiking up duties on Chinese imports to 104 per cent.
China then responded to the 104 per cent duties, saying it would raise its tariffs on US imports from 34 per cent to 84 per cent, effective from Thursday.
Xi Jinping on Friday met his Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sanchez, in Beijing and stressed that there are “no winners” in tariff wars.
State-run news agency Xinhua said the Chinese President also warned the European Union it needed to cooperate with China so the two can ride out the mounting trade war with Washington.
“China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,” he said, asserting this would not only “safeguard legitimate rights and interests… but also safeguard international fairness and justice.”
The escalation in the US-China trade war comes days after President Trump called his Chinese counterpart a “smart man”.
“I think President Xi is a man who knows exactly what needs to be done. He’s a very smart man. He loves his country. I know that for a fact. I know him very well,” he told reporters at the White House this week.
“And I think he’s going to want to make a deal. I think that’s going to happen. We’ll get a phone call at some point, and everything will be ready,” he added.
“It is going to be a great thing for us, the world and for humanity,” Trump said.
(With agency inputs)
A nose pin turned out to be a key lead for the police probing the death of a woman, whose body was found in a drain in Delhi nearly a month ago. They have arrested businessman Anil Kumar, the woman’s husband of 20 years, suspecting that he killed her and dumped her body in drain.
On March 15, the body was found wrapped in a bedsheet and tied to a stone and cement sack, in a drain in Delhi. The police identified the woman using her nose pin – which helped them unravel the murder mystery.
The nose pin led the police to a jewellery store in South Delhi and upon checking the records, they found the nose pin was bought by Anil Kumar, a property dealer in Delhi who lived at a farmhouse in Gurugram. The bill was issued in his name.
The woman was identified as Seema Singh, 47.
The cops then reached out to Mr Kumar and found out that Seema Singh was his wife. When the officials requested to speak to her, Mr Kumar said she had gone to Vrindavan without phone. This raised suspicion.
The police then reached Mr Kumar’s office in Dwarka where they found his mother-in-law’s number in a diary. On contacting the family, Ms Singh’s sister Babita told them they hadn’t spoken to her since March 11. The family was equally worried.
Babita informed the police that when they contacted Mr Kumar, he told them Seema was in Jaipur and that she wasn’t in a mood to speak. She said he had assured him he would make her speak to them whenever she feels better.
This continued for several days. Ms Singh’s family said they wanted to go to the police, but Mr Kumar’s assurances made them kept waiting.
On April 1, the family was called to identify a woman’s body. And they found out it was her. A day later, her elder son too identified the body as her mother’s. Ms Singh was strangled to death, the family said citing the post-mortem report. They also claimed that only the couple – Mr Kumar and Ms Singh – had keys to their Dwarka house.
Mr Kumar and his guard Shiv Shankar have been arrested.
(With inputs from Navin Nischal)