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Aus girl on terror charges 'wanted to send USD 3,760 to IS'
Sydney, Mar 24, 2016 (AFP)
A 16-year-old Sydney schoolgirl facing terrorism financing charges was refused bail today as an Australian court heard she was allegedly plotting to send 5,000 Australian dollars (USD 3,760) to the Islamic State group. The teenager, who cannot be named under Australian law due to her age, cried after a magistrate in a Sydney court said she was to be remanded in custody, local media reported.
She was arrested on Tuesday and later charged with one count of obtaining funds to, from or for a terrorist organisation, which carries a maximum penalty on conviction of 25 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged the girl was handed 5,000 dollars in cash by a 20-year-old man named Milad Atai that she was meant to send to her relative, an alleged IS fighter.
The pair were seized by police shortly after the exchange, which had followed an extensive operation that included an informant posing as a young extremist, the court was told.
Magistrate Paula Russell said the case against the girl "appears to be a strong one" as she refused bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
"I am not of a view that the prosecution case is a weak one... on the contrary, it appears to be a strong one," she told the court.
"I have not been satisfied exceptional circumstances exist... In that case bail is refused." The girl's case and Atai's, who has also been remanded in custody, is due back in court in May.
Canberra has been increasingly concerned about home-grown extremism and raised the terror threat alert level to high in September 2014.
Authorities have conducted a series of counter-terrorism raids in several cities and new national security laws have been passed.
Since September 2014, 14 people have been charged under Appleby, a rolling operation investigating people suspected of being involved in domestic acts of terrorism, Australians fighting in Syria and Iraq and the funding of terrorist organisations.
Iraq says it's launched offensive to recapture IS-held Mosul
Baghdad, Mar 24, 2016, AP:
The Iraqi military backed by US-led coalition aircraft today launched a long-awaited operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, a military spokesman said.
In the push, Iraqi forces retook several villages on the outskirts of the town of Makhmour, east of Mosul, early in the morning today and hoisted the Iraqi flag there, according to the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, Brigadier general Yahya Rasool.
It was not immediately clear how long such a complex and taxing offensive would take.
Only recently, Iraqi and US officials refrained to give a specific time on when the Mosul operation could begin, saying it would take many months to prepare Iraq's still struggling military for the long-anticipated task of retaking the key city.
Some US and Iraqi officials have said it may not even be possible to retake it this year, despite repeated vows by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
Iraqi state-run TV interrupted its morning program today with a series of news alerts announcing the operation and broadcasting patriotic songs and flag-waving video clips. Rasool told The Associated Press that the US-led international coalition was providing air support but would not divulge more details on the offensive, which he said was dubbed "Operation Conquest."
Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, fell to Islamic State group during the militants' June 2014 onslaught that captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq and also neighbouring Syria.
Mosul, located about 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, became also the largest city in the Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate on the territories the militants control.
Rasool's declaration came only few days after the United States announced that it has set up a small Marine artillery outpost in northern Iraq to protect a nearby Iraqi military base in Makhour.
On Saturday, the militants fired to rockets at the base, killing a US Marin and wounding several others.
IS trains 400 fighters to attack Europe in wave of bloodshed
Paris, Mar 24, 2016, (AP):
The Islamic State group has trained at least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terror cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum carnage. The network of agile and semiautonomous cells shows the reach of the extremist group in Europe even as it loses ground in Syria and Iraq.
The officials, including European and Iraqi intelligence officials and a French lawmaker who follows the jihadi networks, described camps in Syria, Iraq and possibly the former Soviet bloc where attackers are trained to attack the West.
Before being killed in a police raid, the ringleader of the Nov 13 Paris attacks claimed to have entered Europe in a multinational group of 90 fighters, who scattered "more or less everywhere."
But the biggest break yet in the Paris attacks investigation the arrest on Friday of fugitive Salah Abdes lamâ did not thwart the multipronged attack just four days later on the Belgian capital's airport and metro that left 31 people dead and an estimated 270 wounded. Three suicide bombers also died.
Just as in Paris, Belgian authorities were searching for at least one fugitive in Tuesday's attacks — this time for a man seen on security footage in the airport with the two suicide attackers.
The fear is that the man, whose identity Belgian officials say is not known, will find Abdeslam's path instructive.
After fleeing Paris immediately after the November attacks, Abdeslam forged a new network back in his childhood neighborhood of Molenbeek, long known as a haven for jihadis, and renewed plotting, according to Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders "Not only did he drop out of sight, but he did so to organize another attack, with accomplices everywhere. With suicide belts. Two attacks organized just like in Paris. And his arrest, since they knew he was going to talk, it was a response: So what if he was arrested? 'We'll show you that it doesn't change a thing,'" said French Senator Nathalie Goulet, co-head of a commission tracking jihadi networks.
China-Nepal rail link can be extended to India; experts
Beijing, Mar 23, 2016, (PTI)
As China plans to extend its Tibet railway network to Nepal, Chinese experts say the USD four billion project passing through seismic zones in the Himalayas could be extended to India to improve Tibet's connectivity with South Asia.
"Building the rail line may encounter many difficulties as it will pass the seismic zone and the Himalayan Mountains. However, given the current technologies, it will not be a big problem," Wang Dehua, director of the Institute for Southern and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Centre for International Studies said.
At least USD four billion is needed for the project and is expected to be completed within five years, Wang told state- run Global Times.
"The rail link could be a very good opportunity for the country to connect to India and would enhance bilateral relations," he added.
The Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli in his meeting with Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang on Monday has asked for Chinese help to build a monorail in Kathmandu and a railway line from the Tibetan border town Gyirong to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, Oli's foreign affairs advisor, Gopal Khanal has been quoted as saying by Japan's Kyodo news agency.
"The two sides have also agreed on building railways in Nepal," he said. Hou Yanqi, deputy head of the Chinese foreign ministry's Asia Division, told the media after Li-Oli meeting that the government would encourage Chinese firms to look at the internal rail plan to extend the rail network to Nepal.
China was already planning to extend the railway from the Tibetan city of Xigaze to Gyirong on the Nepali border, she said.
Zhao Gancheng, director of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies told Global Times that the railway may lessen Nepal's dependence on India but does not mean that China is trying to compete with India for influence on Nepal.
After Oli-Li meeting the two countries signed 10 agreements including the transit treaty which would provide an additional avenue for land-locked Nepal for import and export of materials which are currently conducted through Kolkata port.
Brussels bombers named as brothers linked to Paris suspect
Brussels, Mar 23, 2016 (AFP)
Two suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Brussels are believed to be brothers who were being sought for links with Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the Paris attacks, RTBF television reported today, citing police sources.
RTBF named the two as Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, saying Khalid last week rented an apartment in Brussels under a false name where police found Abdeslam's fingerprints after a raid.
Police arrested Abdeslam, Europe's most wanted man, in a dramatic operation in Brussels on Friday that had been hailed as a "victory" in Belgium's campaign against terrorism.
Khalid is also linked to renting an apartment in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi from where Abdeslam and the other Brussels-based Islamic State jihadists set off to carry out the November 13 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead.
A police source told AFP on Tuesday that a man in the middle of three men seen on closed circuit television at the airport just before the twin blasts could be Ibrahim El Bakraoui.
Other reports Wednesday said one of the brothers, who they did not name, could have been involved in the separate attack Tuesday on the Brussels metro station of Maalbeek, which left about 20 dead.
Belgian police earlier Wednesday issued an appeal for information about the two men believed to have blown themselves up at the airport.
The police posted several tweets with the caption "Terrorism: who knows this man?", showing CCTV close-ups of two men pushing trolleys with suitcases through the airport departure hall.
They gave three slightly different images for each of the two men who the federal prosecutor said Tuesday had likely blown themselves up in the attack.
A third man, dressed in a light coloured jacket and wearing a dark hat, who was shown with the two others in a CCTV grab issued Tuesday, is believed to have fled the scene and is now the subject of a massive manhunt.
2 suicide bombers at Brussels airport, looking for third
BRUSSELS, March 22, 2016, (Reuters):
The twin bomb attacks on Brussels airport today may have been carried out by two suicide bombers and the police are "actively looking" for a third attacker, the federal prosecutor said.
"There is a photo of three men taken at Zaventem airport and it is possible that two of them carried out a suicide attack while the third is being actively sought," federal prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw said, after police issued a wanted notice for the man.
Huge manhunt after IS kills 35 in Brussels bombings
Brussels: March 23, 2016, AFP
Paris attacks' prime suspect was held in city four days ago
Belgium pressed a huge manhunt today after Islamic State bombers attacked Brussels airport and a metro train, killing around 35 people and wounding hundreds as jihadists once again struck at the heart of Europe. Two massive suicide blasts by men with bombs in their bags hit Zaventem Airport, leaving blood and mangled bodies strewn across the check-in hall and sending terrified travellers fleeing.
Belgian authorities released pictures of two of the suspects pushing trolleys with their bombs through the terminal and said they were "actively searching" for a third man whose explosives did not to go off.
Police helicopters hovered over the city late into the night and raids were under way across Belgium, prosecutors said, adding that a bomb, an Islamic State flag and chemicals had been found in one apartment.
The fact that extremists were able to hit high-profile targets in Brussels, capital of the European Union, just months after IS militants killed 130 people in Paris, will raise fresh questions about the continent's ability to prevent terrorism.
It also underscores doubts about how Belgium has allowed extremism to develop unchecked, coming days after the arrest in Brussels of key Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam following four months on the run.
Brussels residents held a candlelit vigil in the Place de la Bourse square where they sang songs and waved the Belgian flag, while on social media thousands of people shared images of beloved Belgian cartoon character Tintin in tears.
"This is a day of tragedy, a black day," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said, describing the bombings as the "deadliest attacks we have ever seen in Belgium". But as Belgium began three days of national mourning today, he insisted the country would not be cowed by the "blind, violent and cowardly" attacks.
"People were just going to work, to school and they have been cut down by the most extreme barbarity," Michel said. "We will continue to protect liberty, our way of life." The Islamic State claimed the bombings, saying "soldiers of the caliphate" had carried out the attacks against "the crusader state" of Belgium.
Leaders across Europe reacted with outrage, with the EU vowing to combat terrorism "with all means necessary" on a continent that has been on high alert for months. "The whole of Europe has been hit," said French President Francois Hollande, whose country is still reeling from November's attacks.
Landmarks from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to Berlin's Brandenburg Gate were lit up in the black, yellow and red of Belgium's national flag in solidarity.
US President Barack Obama vowed to stand with Belgium in the face of the "outrageous" attacks and ordered US flags flown at half mast, while the FBI and New York police said they would send investigators to help.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said those responsible for the "despicable" bombings should face justice, while Belgian King Philippe condemned the "cowardly and odious" attacks. Hundreds of flights and trains were cancelled as Europe tightened security, while the US warned citizens about the "potential risks" of travelling in Europe and New York and Washington stepped up security.
There were chaotic scenes at Brussels airport after the bombers struck around at around 8:00 am (1230 IST), as plumes of dark smoke could be seen rising from holes punched through the roof of the building by the blasts.
"A lot of people lost limbs. One man had lost both legs and there was a policeman with a totally mangled leg," airport baggage security officer Alphonse Lyoura told AFP, his hands bloodied.
About an hour after the airport blasts, a third explosion rocked Maalbeek metro station, in the heart of the city's EU quarter, just as commuters were making their way to work. Paramedics tended to commuters with bloodied faces as the city's normally peaceful streets filled with the wailing of sirens.
Pierre Meys, spokesman for the Brussels fire brigade, told AFP at least 14 people had been killed at the airport, while Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said "around 20" died in the metro.
Among them was Adelma Marina Tapia Ruiz, a Peruvian woman who had been living in Brussels for six years and was with her family in the airport when the blast went off, according to the foreign ministry.
More than 200 people were wounded in the two attacks, including four Mormon missionaries -- three Americans and one French -- two Britons, two Colombians and an Ecuadoran. France said eight of its nationals were hurt, though it was unclear if this included the Mormon.
Belgian authorities published surveillance images showing the three male suspects of the airport attack. Two had dark hair and were wearing a glove on only one hand, and a third, who is being hunted by Belgian police, was wearing a hat and a white coat. "They came in a taxi with their suitcases, their bombs were in their bags," Zaventem mayor Francis Vermeiren said.
"They put their suitcases on trolleys, the first two bombs exploded. The third also put his on a trolley but he must have panicked, it didn't explode."
Belgian authorities had been on alert after Abdeslam, Europe's most wanted man, told investigators he had been planning an attack on Brussels.
Last Tuesday an Algerian IS-linked militant was killed in a shoot-out in the south of the city.
Investigators believe Abdeslam slipped out of the apartment as the gun battle erupted. He was arrested three days later in Brussels' gritty Molenbeek district, just around the corner from his family home.
Around 35 people were killed and over 200 injured today in a series of explosions that ripped through Brussels airport and a metro train, the latest attacks claimed by Islamic State militant group to rock Europe.
Security was tightened across the jittery continent and transport links paralysed after the bombings that Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel branded "blind, violent and cowardly".
"This is a day of tragedy, a black day," Michel said on national television. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Foreign Minister Didier Reynders warned that authorities fear suspects could still be at large in the city that is home to both NATO and the European Union.
The bloodshed came just four days after the dramatic arrest in Brussels of Salah Abdeslam -- the prime suspect in the Paris terror attacks claimed by the Islamic State group -- after four months on the run.
Belgian authorities had been on alert after Abdeslam, Europe's most wanted man, told investigators he had been planning an attack on Brussels.
Two blasts shattered the main hall of Zaventem Airport at around 8:00am (1330 IST), with prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw saying there was probably at least one suicide bomber.
A third hit a train at Maalbeek metro station in the heart of the city's EU quarter, just as commuters were making their way to work in rush hour.
Pierre Meys, spokesman for the Brussels fire brigade, told AFP at least 14 people had been killed at the airport, while Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur said "around 20" died in the underground blast. More than 200 people have been wounded, several critically.
Witnesses said victims lay in pools of blood at the airport, their limbs blown off. There were chaotic scenes as passengers fled in panic, with a thick plume of smoke rising from the main terminal building.
"A man shouted a few words in Arabic and then I heard a huge blast," airport baggage security officer Alphonse Lyoura told AFP, his hands bloodied.
"A lot of people lost limbs. One man had lost both legs and there was a policeman with a totally mangled leg."
An army team later blew up a suspect package at the shuttered airport, with media reporting police had found an unexploded suicide vest.
At Maalbeek station, paramedics tended to commuters with bloodied faces as the streets filled with the wailing of sirens.
At least two Polish nationals and a Briton were confirmed among the injured in a city that is the EU's symbolic capital.
The bombings triggered a transport shutdown, with flights halted and metro, tram and bus services all suspended.
Airports across Europe swiftly announced they were boosting security, including in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. Across the Atlantic, New York and Washington ordered extra counter-terror officers to crowded areas and train stations.
24 Hindus die after consuming spurious liquor in Pak
Karachi, Mar 22, 2016, (PTI)
At least 24 Hindus, including six women, have died after consuming spurious liquor during Holi celebrations in Pakistan's Sindh, two years after a similar tragedy struck the country's southern province.
Police said 35 people were rushed to a hospital in the Tando Mohammad Khan district late last night, where 24 of them died. Six were women.
"They were celebrating the festival of Holi this week and purchased the cheap liquor from a dealer in Tando Muhammad Khan," senior police official in Hyderabad, Haq Nawaz, said.
"The condition of the remaining persons was also not good," he said. Following the tragedy, residents staged a protest against the police for failing to stop the illegal sale of hooch in their neighbourhood.
Authorities have suspended the area Station House Officer. Two persons have been arrested for brewing the illegal drink.
The latest incident is a reminder of a similar tragedy in Hyderabad and Karachi in 2014 during Eid-ul Azha celebrations when 29 people had died after consuming hooch.
Alcohol consumption is banned in Pakistan for Muslims but non-Muslims are allowed to ration alcohol from special liquor shops run by provincial excise departments.
Blocked from presidency, Suu Kyi to be Myanmar foreign min
Naypyidaw, Mar 22, 2016, (AFP)
Aung San Suu Kyi will be foreign minister in Myanmar's first civilian government for decades, her party said today, giving the democracy champion a formal post despite being blocked from the presidency.
The Nobel laureate has already vowed to rule above the man picked as president, Htin Kyaw, in the government which comes to power next week in the former army-ruled nation.
Suu Kyi was the sole woman and one of only six members of her National League for Democracy party in a cabinet list read out to lawmakers early today by the parliament speaker Mann Win Khaing Than, who did not specify which position she or others would hold.
But NLD spokesman Zaw Myint Maung later confirmed she would lead the foreign ministry and hinted that she would also hold other roles, without specifying which ones.
"She will be the foreign minister, mainly. If she wants to share the duties she has in other ministries with qualified people, she can assign them," he told reporters.
The NLD only named 15 ministers for 18 posts chosen by the civilian government, sparking speculation that Suu Kyi would take on four portfolios -- widely believed to be foreign affairs, education, energy and the president's office.
Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, 70, is the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero and towered over the country's democracy movement as it waged a spirited and non-violent struggle against almost half a century of military rule. But she is blocked from the presidency by the junta-drafted constitution because her two sons are British, as was her late husband.
Myanmar has undergone a stunning political transformation in recent years, blossoming from isolation under the junta to become an increasingly vibrant nation. Its growing political openness was crowned by a historic November election that saw the NLD storm to victory. But the country still faces huge challenges, including the continued might of an army that for years viewed Suu Kyi and her party with deep suspicion.
The NLD has operated under a veil of secrecy since the polls, only revealing its choice of president days before his election by parliament last week.
Suu Kyi has held several rounds of talks with army chief Min Aung Hlaing since the elections, but was unable to remove the constitutional barrier to her presidency.
The foreign ministry role gives her international clout and a seat at the influential military-dominated Security Council.
"She wants to be at the heart of government. She wants to do it properly and formally and -- this is important to her -- legally," Trevor Wilson, an academic at Australian National University and former ambassador to Myanmar, told AFP.
Under Myanmar's complex political rules, the cabinet role means she will have to forgo her seat in parliament, although her party insisted she would maintain her chairmanship of the NLD.
Pak hands over 86 Indian fishermen to India at Wagah Border
Lahore, Mar 21, 2016 (PTI)
Pakistan today handed over 86 Indian fishermen to India at the Wagah Border, a day after they were released by the authorities upon completing their one-year sentence for allegedly trespassing into Pakistan's territorial waters.
"We have handed over 86 Indian fishermen to the Indian authorities today after verifying their documents," Rangers official Maj Waheed told PTI.
Pakistan yesterday released 86 Indian fishermen from Malir Jail in Karachi, second time this month that Pakistan released Indian fishermen.
Some 87 Indian fishermen were also released on March 6 and today's release of 86 brings the total to 173.
The fishermen arrived here in the morning by train. The Edhi Foundation arranged buses for them to the Wagah Border.
The fishermen were released after they completed their sentences of one year. Some 377 more Indian prisoners are languishing in the Malir jail out of whom 116 have to complete their sentences while the remaining 261 are undertrials.
All the fishermen hail from Gujarat. One of the freed prisoners Nanu Jeta told Dawn News that he was grateful for the facilities extended to him by the jail staff here.
Both Indian and Pakistani fishermen are often arrested for illegal fishing since the Arabian Sea border is not clearly defined and many boats lack the technology to fix their precise location.
In two incidents last month, Pakistan arrested 108 Indian fishermen and seized a total of 20 boats for what they called was illegally fishing in Pakistan's territorial waters.
The prime surviving suspect for the Nov. 13 Paris attacks planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium with fellow Islamic State militants but changed his mind, he told Belgian investigators on Saturday.
The admission by Salah Abdeslam came a day after he was shot in the leg and captured during a police raid in Brussels, ending an intensive four-month manhunt.
"He wanted to blow himself up at the Stade de France and ... backed out," said the lead French investigator, Francois Molins,
quoting Abdeslam's statement to a magistrate in Brussels before he was transferred to a secure jail in Bruges.
The gun and bomb attacks on the stadium, bars and a concert hall killed 130 people and marked the deadliest militant assault in Europe since 2004.
Molins told reporters in Paris that people should treat with caution initial statements by the 26-year-old French national. But his capture and apparent urge to talk marked a major breakthrough for investigators after the trail had seemed to go cold.
Abdeslam's lawyer said he admitted being in Paris during the attacks but gave no details. He told reporters his client, born and raised by Moroccan immigrants in Brussels, had cooperated with investigators but would fight extradition to France.
Legal experts said his challenge was unlikely to succeed but would buy him weeks, possibly months, to prepare his defence.
Belgian prosecutors charged Abdeslam and a man arrested with him with "participation in terrorist murder".
Abdeslam's elder brother Brahim, with whom he used to run a bar, was among the suicide bombers. Salah's confession suggested he was the 10th man mentioned in an Islamic State claim of responsibility for the attacks, after which police found one suicide vest abandoned in garbage.
Abdeslam's family, who had urged him to give himself up, said through their lawyer that they had a "sense of relief".
Authorities hope the arrest may help disrupt other militant cells that Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said were certainly "out there" and planning further violence. French security services stepped up their measures at frontier crossings after a global warning from Interpol that other fugitives might try to move country.
"We've won a battle against the forces of ignorance but the struggle isn't over," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said.
The case has raised tensions with France but Michel and French President Francois Hollande, who was in Brussels for an EU summit when Abdeslam was arrested, praised each other's security services. Hollande was attending an international soccer match at the Stade de France when the bombers struck.
FLIGHT RISK
A man using false papers in the names of Amine Choukri and Monir Ahmed Alaaj was also charged with terrorist murder. As Choukri, he was documented by German police in the city of Ulm in October when he was stopped in a car with Abdeslam. French prosecutor Molins said Abdeslam travelled widely to prepare the attacks.
A third man in the house when the pair were arrested was charged with belonging to a terrorist organisation. He and a woman who was present were charged with concealing criminals.
Police had sought Abdeslam since he called two acquaintances in Belgium in a panic, hours after the attacks, to have them collect him and bring him home. Suspected to be as far away as Syria, it seems he was in Brussels all or most of the time.
Failure to complete his mission could have limited his access to any support from Syria-based Islamic State; the chief Belgian investigator on the case said he had instead relied on a network of friends, family and neighbours with whom he had a history of drug trafficking and petty crime.
Security agencies' difficulties in penetrating some Muslim communities, particularly in pursuit of Belgium's unusually high number of citizens fighting in Syria, have been a key factor in the inquiry.
PARIS RELIEF
As Parisians, and families of the victims, voiced relief at the arrest, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after an emergency cabinet meeting that a trial could answer questions for those who suffered in the attacks.
"Abdeslam will have to answer to French justice for his acts," he said. "It is an important blow to the terrorist organisation Daesh (Islamic State) in Europe."
A trickle of people came to a makeshift memorial in central Paris, near the scene of much of the bloodshed, to pay their respects.
"It's really a relief," said Emilien Bouthillier, who works in the neighbourhood. "I can't wait for Belgium to transfer and return him to France so he can be tried the way he should be."
Friday's armed swoop came after Abdeslam's fingerprints were found at an apartment following a bloody raid on Tuesday in which an Algerian was shot dead and police officers wounded.
Later, local media said, a tip-off and a tapped telephone led police to a mobile phone number used by Abdeslam and, by triangulating the device's location, established where he was.
At his nearby newspaper store, a vendor named Dominique said Abdeslam had been well known and liked in the community: "He was a very nice lad before," he said. "How can things go this far?"
10 simultaneous terror attack feared in London: report
London, Mar 20, 2016, (PTI)
Security agencies in the UK have been alerted to prepare for up to 10 simultaneous terror attacks in London as they fear repetition of Paris-style attack here by terrorists returning from Syria, according to a media report today. A minister familiar with the proposals said: "We used to plan for three simultaneous attacks but Paris has shown that you need to be ready for more than that. We are ready if someone tries with seven, eight, nine, ten".
The National Crime Agency has been ordered to make a crackdown on firearms a priority amid fears of a Paris-style attack by terrorists returning from Syria, the Sunday Times reported.
Army regiments outside London are also on standby to help the The Special Air Services (SAS) and Metropolitan police in the event of a multiple target attack.
The army's counter terrorist bomb disposal unit is also building a team at Didcot barracks in Oxfordshire to combat a chemical or biological "dirty bomb".
A recent SAS training exercise involved tackling improvised explosive devices laced with weapons of mass destruction.
Extremists in Britain's jails face a security clampdown amid concerns about a terrorist atrocity.
Officials fear terrorist prisoners will attempt to film an attack against non-Muslim prison guards and post it online using smuggled mobile phones.
The moves come as it was claimed Belgian police deliberately shot Salah Abdeslam, 26, who played a key role in Paris attacks in November, in the knee during a raid in Brussels on Friday as punishment for an earlier assault on their colleagues.
"It was a little present for wounding police officers," an investigation source said.
Abdeslam told Belgian investigators he was supposed to blow himself up in Paris but backed out at the last moment.
Istanbul suicide attack kills 4, wounds 20: Governor
Istanbul, Mar 19, 2016 (AFP)
A suicide bombing rocked a major shopping street in Istanbul today, killing four people and wounding 20 others just six days after a deadly attack in Ankara, Turkish authorities said. The attack took place on Istiklal Caddesi, a pedestrian street that was relatively quiet this morning but is usually thronged with shoppers, strollers and buskers later in the day.
"This is a suicide attack, a terrorist attack," Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin told reporters at the scene, saying the bomber was also killed.
Three of the wounded were in serious condition, he said.
The bomb exploded near a shopping mall, but Sahin said the intended target was a local authority building in the Beyoglu neighbourhood, where Istiklal Caddesi is situated.
The street, which adjoins Taksim Square in the European part of the city, was evacuated after the attack, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Armed police sealed off the area while a police helicopter hovered overhead.
CCTV footage published online by Dogan news agency appeared to show the moment of the blast with a fireball erupting near a handful of passersby, sending them rushing for cover.
Television images showed several ambulances ferrying the injured to hospital.
Turkey, which has been rocked by five major bombings since July, had been on high alert for further attacks ahead of Kurdish New Year celebrations on Monday.
A Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for an attack on March 13 on a busy transport hub in Ankara that killed 35 people.
TAK, which also claimed a similar car bombing in Ankara in mid February that killed 29 people, has ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) against which the Turkish army is waging a major military campaign.
A court in Ankara yesterday evening remanded five people in custody on suspicion of links to last week's attack in the capital which was carried out by a 24-year-old female student named by TAK as Seher Cagla Demir.
In a statement, TAK said the bombing aimed to avenge Kurds killed during a ongoing military offensive against the PKK in the majority Kurdish southeast and said it had not meant to target civilians.
Yesterday, Turkish airforce planes continued to bomb PKK hideouts in mountains across the border in northern Iraq, an army statement said.
During the week, the US embassy in Ankara had issued a warning to its citizens in Turkey to exercise caution ahead of the Kurdish Nevruz (New Year) celebrations, which have been a flashpoint for pro-Kurdish demonstrations in the past.
The Islamic State jihadist group was blamed for three other large-scale attacks in recent months, including a suicide attack in January in Istanbul in which 12 German tourists were killed and an attack on a peace rally in Ankara in October that claimed 103 lives.
Two Indians are among sixty-two people killed after a Dubai airliner crashed and caught fire early today while landing in strong winds in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
The names of the Indians in the list put out by Russian authorities are: Anju Kathirvel Aiyappan and Mohan Shyam, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
"Our mission is checking with the local university and Indian nationals for confirmation," he said.
Flydubai Boeing 737 was making its second attempt to land in bad weather when it missed the runway, erupting in a huge fireball as it crashed and leaving debris scattered across a wide area.
There were 55 passengers and seven crew members on board at the time of the crash. Russian investigators confirmed that all 62 people on board were killed.
Other passengers killed the accident include: 44 Russians, 8 Ukrainian and one from Uzbekistan.
An ailing Pervez Musharraf today left for Dubai hours after the Pakistani government allowed the former dictator facing trial in a number of cases, including for high treason, to go abroad for medical treatment.
"I am a commando and I love my homeland. I will come back in a few weeks or months," said 72-year-old Musharraf, who is suffering from a spinal cord ailment.
Vowing to face all pending cases against him, Musharraf said he was keeping himself abreast with developments in the country and will actively take part in politics after his return.
He said he was going abroad to seek "medical treatment of a decade-old illness which has now developed several complications".
The former military ruler boarded the Emirates flight 611 bound for Dubai that departed from Karachi airport at 3.55 am (0425 IST).
"He was the last person to be embarked on the plane and then the gate was closed. The retired general appeared relaxed," a media report quoted an airport source as saying. He landed in Dubai at 5am.
"Musharraf intends to go back to Pakistan after his medical treatment as he wants to serve the country," said Muhammad Amjad, Secretary General of All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) – a political party led by Musharraf.
Amjad told reporters in Dubai that a team of doctors would decide about the former ruler's next destination for medical treatment.
Musharraf, who went into self-imposed exile in Dubai after being forced to resign as president facing impeachment following the 2008 elections, had returned to Pakistan in 2013 but was implicated in several cases.
He was not allowed to leave the country until government yesterday evening allowed him to go abroad for treatment following orders by the Supreme Court a day earlier.
His lawyer informed the government yesterday that Musharraf will come back after four to six weeks and face all cases, prompting the government to let him go.
Musharraf has been facing high treason trial since 2013 and he was barred from leaving the country in 2014 by the government. The order was declared as illegal by the Sindh High Court the same year.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the decision of the Sindh High Court, rejecting the appeal by the government.
Interior minister Nisar Ali Khan yesterday told a press briefing that after consultation, the government decided to let Musharraf leave the country for treatment.
He said Musharraf's lawyers had formally asked the government to allow him to undertake foreign travels.
"The government has decided to allow Musharraf to travel abroad for treatment. He has also committed he will face all cases against him in court," Khan said.
He was referring to several cases faced by Musharraf including the high treason charged in a special court for suspending the constitution in 2007, which has been declared under Article 6 as being punishable by death.
He was indicted in April, 2014 but since then no progress has been made in the case for various reasons.
Musharraf's APML said yesterday that he had a backbone- related issue and needed to go to the UAE to see a doctor.
It is believed that the decision to let Musharraf go out of the country will help heal a rift between the powerful army and the government, as the former was unhappy over treason trial of the former chief of army staff.
Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
He was implicated in a slew of court cases after returning from five years in self-exile in Dubai to contest the general election in 2013 which he lost.
Obama addresses US role in Argentina's 'dirty war'
Buenos Aires, Mar 24, 2016 (AFP)
President Barack Obama will today tackle one of the most troubled periods of US history with Argentina, visiting a memorial to victims of the country's murderous US-backed dictatorship. Obama will visit the Parque de la Memoria near Buenos Aires, a monument to the estimated 30,000 people who were killed or went missing from 1976-1983, and deliver a speech.
Obama's two day visit coincides with the 40th anniversary of a right-wing military coup, which the US government condoned and which ushered in the dictatorship.
During his visit, Obama has tried to present a softer side of the hemisphere's preeminent power.
He joked about tasting Argentina's national beverage mate for the first time and about trying to meet football superstar Lionel Messi, while fondly recalling reading books by Argentine writers Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar.
He even had a go at tango -- with a pro, at a state dinner, no less. Looking relaxed while practicing a few steps with dancer Mora Godoy, while his First Lady Michelle Obama gave it a whirl with dancer Jose Lugones, the Obamas held their own on tango's home turf.
But the past has never been far away. In 2002, Washington declassified 4,000 diplomatic cables which showed US officials, including then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger, encouraged the military junta's purge of leftists.
While acknowledging "moments" in American foreign policy "that were counterproductive" Obama pushed for reconciliation during his first full day in Argentina Wednesday.
In a strategic gesture, Obama agreed to declassify sensitive military and intelligence records linked to the "dirty war."
The intelligence and military documents could shed new light on the depth of US involvement in the coup and in the purges which followed.
"Prior US government releases have detailed human rights abuses and US policymaking in Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador," said Carlos Osorio at the National Security Archive.
They may also shed more light on the extent of US involvement in "Operation Condor," a plan among secret police agencies across the Southern Cone to target communists, leftists and dissidents.
"We all need and we are entitled to know what the truth is," said Argentine President Mauricio Macri, who had asked for the documents to be released.
Obama's visit has angered some victims' groups. Several have called on Obama to apologize for US support of the military regime.
Kejriwal named among world's 50 greatest leaders by Fortune
New York, Mar 25, 2016, (PTI):
Arvind Kejriwal has been named among the world's 50 greatest leaders by Fortune magazine with the Delhi Chief Minister being the sole Indian leader on the list topped by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Fortune's third annual 'World's 50 Greatest Leaders' list features men and women from across the globe from the fields of business, government, philanthropy and the arts who are "transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same."
47-year-old Aam Aadmi Party chief is ranked 42nd on the list and is the sole leader from India.
However, South Carolina's Indian-American Governor Nikki Haley is also on the list at 17th while another Indian- American Resham Saujani is at the 20th spot.
Fortune credits Kejriwal for his efforts to curb pollution in New Delhi through the scheme of allowing vehicles of odd and even numbers on alternate days on the city's roads.
"When Kejriwal unveiled a blueprint to tackle the smog in New Delhi -- called the world's most polluted city by the World Health Organization -- many were sceptical. A key component: an 'odd-even' pilot project in which vehicles were allowed on the roads only on alternate days.
"The uplifting result of the pilot this January: roads were less clogged, hourly particulate air pollution concentrations dropped by 13 per cent, and citizens could breathe deep," Fortune said.
It said leadership is not "demagoguery, pandering, even populism" but is defined by people across the world "you've never heard of who are rallying followers to make life better in ways you never imagined."
"...the New Delhi 'government official' risking his career to fight pollution; the Italian mayor welcoming Middle East migrants to his tiny town—improving its economy and brightening their prospects," the US-based magazine said in a reference to Kejriwal and Domenico Lucano, the Mayor of the Italian town of Riace, who was ranked 40th on the list.
"The leaders you'll meet here, known and new, will lift your mood and upgrade your assessment of the world's future. Some may inspire you to join their followers. And those unheard-ofs, so seemingly ordinary, may even prompt you to rethink your own potential as an inspiring leader," Fortune said.
Bezos, who topped the list this year, has been on the list all three times, along with Pope Francis who comes in at the 4th position followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The list includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2), Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at (3), US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (22), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde (36), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair and CEO Melinda Gates and Susan Desmond-Hellmann (41), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (48) and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay (50).
Also on the list is Saujani, Founder and CEO of tech organization 'Girls Who Code'. Fortune lauded the 40-year old former Wall Street attorney for her message that girls should be taught to be brave rather than perfect.
Her organization aims to get more women into computer science and by the end of this year, more than 40,000 girls will have gone through its training and internship programmes, Fortune said.
Giving company to Kejriwal from South Asia is Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the number 10 spot.
Fortune said the 68-year -old politician, the only female leader among the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states, has "deftly navigated the competing demands of Islamic tradition and women's rights".
"She has committed Bangladesh, the nation with the world's fourth-largest Muslim population, to securing legal protections for women and helping them attain more education, financial freedom, and political power," it said, adding that Bangladesh scores better on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index than any other South Asian country.
Obama honors victims of US-backed Argentina dictators
Buenos Aires, Mar 25, 2016, (AFP):
President Barack Obama paid homage to victims of Argentina's former US-backed dictatorship, admitting the United States was "slow to speak out for human rights" in those dark days. Obama became the first US president to formally acknowledge the victims of the 1976-1983 military regime, which declassified documents have revealed was supported by top US officials.
"There's been controversy about the policies of the United States early in those dark days, and the United States, when it reflects on what happened here, has to examine its own policies as well, and its own past," Obama said yesterday.
He spoke at Remembrance Park, a monument in Buenos Aires to the 30,000 people who were killed or went missing under the dictatorship. He paid tribute to victims' families. "Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don't live up to the ideals that we stand for; when we've been slow to speak out for human rights. And that was the case here."
Tens of thousands of people joined a noisy demonstration later in Buenos Aires to mark the 40th anniversary of the US-backed coup that brought the dictators to power. They marched to the din of drums, carrying pictures of victims. Similar anniversary marches were called in towns across the country.
Some rights groups complained Obama had not gone far enough. "The self-criticism was totally light," said Taty Almeida, founder of the victims' campaign group Madres Linea Fundadora.
She added that Argentine President Mauricio Macri and Obama "insisted we have to look to the future. They do not acknowledge the genocide and state terrorism that was supported by the United States."
Victims' groups had been angered by the choice of the date for Obama's visit, given the US support for the coup at the time.
But they welcomed his promise to declassify further documents to shed more light on the fates of the regime's victims.
After the memorial ceremony Obama with his wife Michelle, her mother and the couple's daughters flew to the Andean resort of Bariloche, where they went for a hike and boat ride in a national park.
Locals lined the road smiling and waving as Obama's motorcade took the family from Bariloche airport, but at one place a crowd of protesters demonstrated noisily, some raising their middle fingers.
Early today, the Obamas left Argentina to return home to Washington.
