Trump, Cruz feud over wives as Republican race turns ugly

Washington, Mar 25, 2016, (PTI):

The Republican presidential nominee race has hit a new low with front-runner Donald Trump and his nearest rival Ted Cruz dragging each other's wives in their political squabbling which is rarely seen in American politics.
"It's not easy to tick me off. I don't get angry often. But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that'll do it every time," Texas Senator Cruz told reporters in Wisconsin as the Republican race to the White House entered a nasty phase.

"Donald, you're a snivelling coward. Leave Heidi the hell alone," an angry Cruz said hours after the real estate tycoon launched a series of attacks against his wife.

Earlier, Trump shared an image on Twitter comparing his wife, Melania, a former model, to Cruz's wife, stating, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

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Bilawal wants equal rights for Pakistan's minorities

Karachi, Mar 24, 2016, (PTI):

PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today called for equal rights for all citizens in Pakistan, irrespective of their religion, and said the minorities must have the opportunity to hold important government positions.

"If a Muslim can become the President of India, then why can't a person belonging to the minority community hold an important official position in Pakistan," Bilawal told a large gathering of Hindu supporters in Umarkot district.

Umarkot houses the largest population of Hindus in the southern Sindh province which has been a traditional hold of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The only son of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto visited Umarkot to take part in the Holi celebrations with the Hindu community.

"I want a Pakistan where every citizen no matter from which community has equal rights," Bilawal said.

"It cannot be that Pakistan for Muslims is different from Pakistan for the minorities. It cannot be that Pakistan for men is different from Pakistan for women," he said.
The Hindu community leaders presented a traditional Rajasthani headgear and smeared colour on his face to celebrate the festival as Bilawal also tossed powder colors in the air to kickoff the function.

The PPP chief vowed to fight for the rights of minorities and insisted law should be equal for everyone.

"We can't have a country where Muslims and minorities, rich and poor, labourers and businessmen, farmers and landlord, men and women live with separate statuses."
"I do not want one kind of Pakistan for Pervez Musharraf and a different Pakistan for Benazir Bhutto," he added.

He said the Pakistan dreamt off by Quaid-e-Azam envisioned a country where the state didn't have to do anything with the religion of individuals and where everyone was free to go to their own places of worship.

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Six arrested in Brussels after attacks: prosecutors

Brussels, Mar 25, 2016, (AFP):

 Six people were arrested in a series of police operations in the Belgian capital, the federal prosecutor's office said, two days after jihadist attacks in Brussels left 31 dead.
Three of the suspects were detained yesterday "outside the door of the federal prosecutor's office", in the city centre, spokesman Eric Van der Sypt said.

Two further people were arrested elsewhere in the city and the sixth was detained in Jette, on the outskirts of the capital, the spokesman said, without giving any further details on their identity.

"It will be decided tomorrow if an arrest warrant (charges) are brought against these people," he added.

At least two men identified by police from surveillance footage at the airport and metro station where the attacks took place are still at large.

Raids have also taken place in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek where the three airport attackers left from on Tuesday morning carrying three explosive-packed suitcases. There have been no arrests in the neighbourhood.

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FBI defends handling of Apple case after retreat

Washington, Mar 24, 2016 (AFP)

The FBI today defended the handling of its legal battle with Apple over encryption following an abrupt retreat from its bid to force the tech giant to help unlock an attacker's iPhone.

FBI director James Comey said his agency only decided to back down from its efforts after it found an outside party that appeared to have the ability to extract data from the iPhone without Apple's help.

Comey made the comments in a statement, which was also posted as a letter to the Wall Street Journal, responding to an editorial critical of the government's handling of the investigation into a handset used by one of the shooters in last year's deadly attacks in San Bernardino, California.

"You are simply wrong to assert that the FBI and the Justice Department lied about our ability to access the San Bernardino killer's phone," Comey wrote.

"I would have thought that you, as advocates of market forces, would realize the impact of the San Bernardino litigation. It stimulated creative people around the world to see what they might be able to do. And I'm not embarrassed to admit that all technical creativity does not reside in government. Lots of folks came to us with ideas. It looks like one of those ideas may work and that is a very good thing."

He added that the case "was not about trying to send a message or set a precedent; it was and is about fully investigating a terrorist attack."

The Justice Department asked for a postponement a day before a critical hearing before a California judge on the effort to force Apple to provide technical assistance.

The Journal said the government's handling of the case offered "reasons to doubt their credibility and even basic competence."

The editorial said the Justice Department's legal effort was "reckless" and that the FBI "fibbed by saying the Apple case is about one phone."

Other backers of Apple's position have also questioned the government's tactics and claimed the move was aimed at using the case to build public support for increased surveillance.

Federal prosecutors and Apple spent weeks trading a volley of legal briefs related to the FBI's demand that the tech company help investigators unlock the phone used by Syed Farook, who died in a shootout after the deadly December 2 attacks in San Bernardino.

Several news reports have said the FBI may be using an Israeli forensics company that has developed a technique to transfer data out of the iPhone without deleting the contents.

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Kerry in Moscow to urge Putin to soften Assad stance

Moscow, Mar 24, 2016 (AFP)

US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Moscow today to see if President Vladimir Putin can be convinced to support an end to Bashar al-Assad's rule in Syria.

Kerry met his counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and was later to head to the Kremlin for talks with the Russian leader and sound him out on the crises in Syria and Ukraine.

The top US diplomat said this week's bomb attacks in Brussels demonstrated that countries must come together to conquer the extremist threat wherever it may strike.

"I know that many people are very hopeful, Sergei," Kerry said, in brief remarks before the two men held closed-door talks at a foreign ministry conference centre in Moscow.

"Our counterparts, whom you and I have both talked to in the last days, are hopeful that these meetings here in Moscow today have an ability to be able to further define and chart the road ahead so that we can bring this conflict in Syria to a close as fast as possible."

Lavrov told Kerry diplomatic efforts had been focused on creating a "balance of interests" among all sides involved in the Syrian crisis, including Moscow and Washington.

But US officials fear the Syrian opposition will drop out of UN-mediated peace talks in Geneva unless Russia's ally Assad agrees to step down as part of a political transition.

Putin has stood by Assad, and even sent Russian warplanes to fight to protect his regime and strike the extremist Islamic State group, which has seized territory in the east of the country.

But Moscow recently announced a partial withdrawal of its forces from Syria, creating what Washington believes is an opportunity to press for a change of stance on the regime.

"What we're looking for, and what we've been looking for, for a long time is how are we going to transition away from Assad's leadership," a senior US official told reporters.

In a sign of Russia's strengthened role as a Middle East powerbroker, both Kerry and Putin met separately with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Kerry's visit also comes while Europe faces a security crisis after Tuesday's attacks in Brussels, which left 31 dead and 300 injured.

Yesterday, Lavrov called for Europe to drop its "geopolitical games" and unite behind efforts to fight terrorism, as Russia continues its air strikes in Syria.

Kerry acknowledged that the ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the United States between Assad and the armed opposition has led to a "beneficial reduction" of violence in Syria. 

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