Gunmen kill 7 policemen in Pakistan during polio campaign

Karachi, Apr 20, 2016 (PTI)

At least seven policemen were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in two separate attacks during a polio camapign in this Pakistani port city which has witnessed a spate of target killings.

Four policemen were killed while providing security to the polio vaccine team in Orangi. Three others were shot dead in another part of the area, police said.

"They were eight assailants on four motorcycles who first attacked a police mobile in which four policemen were on duty," a police spokeswoman said.

"While fleeing after the target killings they also shot at three other policemen," he said.

"The killers apparently were targeting the policemen and not the polio workers who were present at the scene of the first attack during the polio immunisation drive that began today," he said.

Polio workers have long been targeted in the country by Islamist groups including the Taliban militants which claim that the polio immunisation drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.

In January, at least 15 people, including 12 policemen and a paramilitary soldier, were killed in a suicide bombing targeting polio workers in Quetta.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

Children in Pakistan's Federally-Administered Tribal Areas cannot be vaccinated as the outlawed Taliban has banned the campaigns since June 2012. 

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'Cash-strapped ISIS killing injured fighters to sell organs'

Cairo, Apr 20, 2016 (PTI)

Cash-strapped Islamic State terror group has been killing its injured fighters so that their organs can be extracted and sold on the black market abroad, according to media reports.

"Doctors were threatened to take out the body organs of a wounded ISIL militant," the Arabic-language al-Sabah newspaper reported citing an unnamed source in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

The terrorists are suffering a budget shortage after their recent loss of territory in the Southern part of Mosul and for the same reason it is reportedly killing its own militants who have been injured in southern Mosul to take out their body organs such as hearts and kidneys to sell them in the black market, the Iranian FARS news agency reported.

It also cited Spanish daily El Mondo as saying that faced with an increased number of wounded members in the Syrian army and popular forces' attacks, the ISIS is using the body organs of its captives for transplantation.

According to the daily, the ISIS also forces the prisoners in Mosul jails to donate blood and postpones the execution of those sentenced to death to use their blood as much as possible.

Medical sources were quoted as saying that the personnel in one of hospitals in Mosul have seen corpses of at least 183 people whose organs had been taken out of their bodies.

Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations Mohamed Alhakim had made the similar accusations last year, saying that the ISIS is trafficking human organs and has executed a dozen doctors for failing to go along with the programme.

Alhakim based his claim on the discovery of dozens of bodies left in shallow mass graves near the city of Mosul, currently an ISIS stronghold.

The media reports come just days after it emerged that the Islamic State's income has plummeted by a whopping 30 per cent to USD 56 million since last year.

Significant territory losses means the number of people living in the Jihadi caliphate slumped from nine million at the start of 2015 to fewer than six million, according to the tax report by the US-based consultancy firm IHS.

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EU hits Google with anti-trust charges over Android

Brussels, Apr 20, 2016, (AFP)

The EU slapped Google with anti-trust charges today over its widely-used Android mobile phone operating system, in a fresh salvo by Brussels against the Silicon Valley giant.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google had used practices such as making manufacturers pre-install its search engine as the default in order to preserve its market dominance.

"The preliminary conclusions from our investigations is that these practices breach EU competition law," Vestager told a press conference, adding that Brussels believed that "Google has abused its dominant position"

She added: "We have found that Google pursues an overall strategy on mobile devices to protect and expand its dominant position in Internet search."

The charges are a massive blow to one of the Google's most strategic businesses that could alter a global smartphone sector that is fast taking over traditional PC's as the biggest segment in the world of computing.

The EU in its charge sheet accused Google of obstructing innovation by giving unfair prominence to its own apps, especially its search engine, in deals with mobile manufacturers such as Samsung or Huawei.

Google is also accused of restricting manufacturers from installing rival operating systems on their phones.

The Android operating system captures about 80 per cent of the world market for mobile phones, far ahead of its closest rival Apple.

The case is the second attack by the EU against Google. Last year, the EU formally charged the company for abusing its dominance of the search engine market in Europe.

In both cases, Google risks a fine of 10 percent of worldwide global sales for one year, which would amount to a USD 7.4 billion fine on the basis of 2015 revenues.

Google said it would work with the EU to show that consumers benefitted from Android.

"Android has helped foster a remarkable -- and, importantly, sustainable -- ecosystem, based on open-source software and open innovation," Kent Walker, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Google, said in a statement.

"We look forward to working with the European Commission to demonstrate that Android is good for competition and good for consumers."  

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US opens criminal probe linked to Panama Paper revelations

Washington, Apr 20, 2016, (AFP)

The US Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation involving the leaked Panama Papers on offshore shell companies, according to an official letter to the group that brought the records to light.

The letter from the office of Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara, obtained by AFP today, asks to discuss the investigation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which worked with media outlets to reveal the documents.

The letter, dated April 3 and obtained from the ICIJ, said Bharara's office "has opened a criminal investigation regarding matters to which the Panama Papers are relevant."

His office said it "would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak as soon as possible" with someone from ICIJ on the matter.

The letter gave no information on the subject of the investigation, and was not a subpoena that would force the ICIJ to turn over any of the 11.5 million confidential documents leaked from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Access to the documents remains limited to a handful of international media organisations.
Reports from the ICIJ and the media groups based on the Panama Papers link a number of international leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and leaders and top officials in Ukraine, China and Argentina, to offshore shell companies that can be used to hide wealth and launder money.

Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was also forced to resign after the documents showed he and his wife made use of an offshore company.

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Parrikar raises JeM chief issue with Chinese counterpart

Beijing, Apr 18, 2016 (PTI)

 Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today firmly conveyed India's reservations to Chinese leaders over Beijing blocking its efforts to get Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN.
In a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan, Parrikar said that "India attaches highest priority to relations with China and was committed to further developing friendly and cooperative relations with China".

While expressing India's wish to engage China closely, he firmly conveyed New Delhi's reservations over Beijing's move in the UN to block bid to get Jaish-e-Muhammad chief banned.

"We expressed what happened in the UN is not in the right direction and they have to take a common line on terrorism which is in the interests of India and China," Parrikar later told the Indian media here.

He said the Chinese officials in response noted India's concerns.
Last month, China had vetoed India's bid to get Azhar designated as terrorist by the UN Sanctions Committee, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

India believes Azhar is the mastermind behind several attacks in the country, including the terror strike on an air base in Pathankot early this year.

"We have made our stand very clear on India's reservation in regard to China's activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)" where Pakistan and China are building a USD 46 billion Economic Corridor linking the two countries, Parrikar said.

The Chinese officials in turn explained that it is an economic project and not aimed against India.

"Basically our concerns were noted by them and I expect them to act," Parrikar said, adding that more engagement between the two countries would address such issues in future, while immediate response cannot be expected.

He later met China's highest military official Gen Fan Changlong, the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which is the overall commanding body of the 2.3 million strong military. It is headed by President Xi Jinping.

The defence minister would meet Premier Li Keqiang tomorrow and later visit Chengdu, the headquarters of recently integrated western command military which has jurisdiction over entire borders with India.

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