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Showing posts from May 4, 2014

'My Tibetan roots and the quest for a free Tibet will not change'

DHARAMSHALA: Beginning a new chapter in country's poll history, Tibetan residents in this north Indian hill town participated in the democratic process on Wednesday to elect a member of parliament. As many as 217 Tibetans have enrolled themselves as voters for the Kangra parliamentary seat. "I am happy to have voted in the India general elections today. It was an opportunity as well as a learning experience for me. I will be among the over 800 million people voting in India. It makes me feel that I have a voice in India now. However, my Tibetan roots and the quest for free Tibet will not change. My next target is to get an Indian passport. It shouldn't be hard now," said Lobsang Wangyal (44), a prominent Tibetan activist who is also the director of Miss Tibet pageant. "My voice will now have power and value," added Wangyal, producer and director of the Tibetan Music Awards. Officials said about 150 Tibetans had exercised their ballot in various polling stat

More than 30 Russian and Chechen 'terrorists' killed in Ukraine as local forces escalate attacks on pro-Moscow militia

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Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said four government troops also died Another 20 troops were injured during fighting in Slovyansk Gun battles took place at various locations around the city  Flights from Donetsk Airport were suspended by 'government order' Kiev authorities tried to reassert control in Odessa by appointing a governor More than 30 pro-Russian and Chechen 'terrorists' have been killed during gun battles in eastern Ukraine as tensions in the region continue to escalate.  Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page that four government troops also died and another 20 were injured during clashes between local forces and pro-Moscow militia in Slovyansk. Fighting took place at various positions around the city during the government's biggest effort to quash unrest in the mainly Russian-speaking east. +18 Militia: A pro-Russia gunman holds his weapon outside a local administrative building in the centre of Slovyansk

Al Qaida’s ISIL, Sunni tribes take Fallujah

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BAGHDAD — Sunni rebels, led by Al Qaida, have captured a leading city in Iraq. Opposition sources said Sunni fighters, directed by Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have taken control over Fallujah. Al Qaida-linked rebels have gained control of the key Anbar province city of Fallujah. The sources said ISIL led tribal forces in expelling the last bastion of Iraq Army troops and pro-government militias from the city, located in the Anbar province. “This [Sunni capture of Fallujah] is because of the poor decisions of the military leadership and its lack of understanding of the security file in Anbar,” Rafi Issawi, a Sunni opposition leader, said. “This is not to mention the absence of military forces on the ground which gave ISIL the opportunity to take control of Fallujah.” Issawi, a former finance minister who heads the Future Movement, told the Saudi daily A-Sharq Al Awsat that government forces were driven out of Fallujah. He said numerous Sunni tribes h

Yemen reports ‘growing’ Chechen presence in Al Qaida insurgency

CAIRO — On May 3, Yemen reported the killing of a Chechen commander of Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Security sources said Chechens have been playing an expanding role in AQAP. They said AQAP has been recruiting Muslims from such Russian provinces as Chechnya and Dagestan as well as neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. 041913_Boston_Chechnyia_640“The Chechen element is growing throughout Al Qaida and Yemen is no exception,” a source said. The sources said Muslims from the former Soviet Union have been flocking to Yemen over the past year. They said some of the Russian-speaking Muslims were taken from their home countries while others were transferred from Iraq and Syria. The sources said the commander, identified as Abu Islam Al Shishani, died in a battle with Yemen Army troops in the southern province of Abyan. “Al Qaida’s Abu Islam Al Shishani, a Chechen national, was killed in the Majalah area,” the Yemeni Defense Ministry said. The sources said Al Shishani, a nomme de

Kadyrov Denies Chechen Military Involvement in Ukraine Fighting

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Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov has rejected as “absurd” reports that Chechens are fighting on the side of pro-Russian rebels in the east Ukrainian town of Slovyansk. Two days earlier, an unnamed Ukrainian commander had said on May 5 that Chechens were fighting alongside the insurgents. Acting Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov repeated that allegation in a post on his Facebook page. Speaking to journalists in Grozny, Kadyrov said categorically that “there are no Chechen battalions in Ukraine.” He added that if there were, those individuals who had alleged Chechen involvement would have fled from Slovyansk in terror long ago. This was not the first time the Ukrainian military had reported the participation of Chechen forces in the ongoing standoff. Two months ago, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff claimed that Chechnya’s infamous Vostok motor-rifle battalion had been deployed to the Crimean town of Djankoy. In fact, the Vostok battalion was disbanded in late 20

Tibetan Death Sparks Wider Protest Against Chinese Mine

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The death this week of a Tibetan villager who threw himself from a building in Tibet’s Chamdo prefecture to oppose construction of a Chinese mine has sparked a wider protest, with area residents demonstrating outside local government offices and another man attempting suicide in their bid to scrap the project, Tibetan sources in exile said. Phakpa Gyaltsen, 32, jumped to his death on Wednesday in Dzogang (in Chinese, Zuogang) county’s Tongbar town after stabbing himself twice when authorities attempted to halt his protest, sources said. Gyaltsen had told local Tibetans he would “do something” to oppose Chinese plans to excavate gold in an area of Dzogang near Madok Tso called Ache Jema, where villagers had worked in groups of three to guard the site from miners, one source said. Following Gyaltsen’s death, area residents gathered in front of Tongbar government offices to demand a halt to the Chinese plans to build a mine, a Tibetan living in Europe told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Thurs

Shelling Kills 11 People in Fallujah

H ealth officials say shelling killed 11 people on May 10 in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which has been held by anti-government fighters since December. Doctor Ahmed Shami of Fallujah's main hospital told the French news agency AFP that a further 20 people were wounded by the bombardment.  The latest casualties come a day after Iraqi forces launched a large-scale military operation to regain control of Fallujah, a predominantly Sunni city in Anbar Province west of Baghdad.  According to Iraq's Defense Ministry, government forces have killed many fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and confiscated a large amount of weapons and several vehicles.  Reports say mosques and houses were damaged during the operation.  More than 300 people, mostly civilians have been killed in Fallujah since the beginning of the year.  Source:  http://www.rferl.org/content/shelling-kills-11-people-fallujah-iraq/25380008.html

Spate of hate attacks as Israel ups security for Pope

JERUSALEM - Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a Jerusalem church on Friday, despite Israeli police stepping up security around religious sites ahead of a visit by Pope Francis later this month. "Price tag... King David for the Jews... Jesus is garbage" was spray-painted in Hebrew on the wall of St George's, a Romanian Orthodox church near an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. "Price tag" is a euphemism for hate attacks by Jewish extremists. Police said that "Death to Arabs" was found written on a house in the Old City in east Jerusalem, and swastikas were scrawled on the wall of a west Jerusalem apartment. The Roman Catholic church has demanded Israeli action after Hebrew graffiti reading "Death to Arabs and Christians and to everyone who hates Israel" was daubed on its Notre Dame complex in Jerusalem on Monday. "The bishops are very concerned about the lack of security and lack of responsiveness from the political sector, and

Militants hold Red Cross workers for 7 hours in east Ukraine

KIEV - Pro-Russian militants held several Red Cross workers hostage for seven hours in the rebel eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, severely beating one before freeing them in Saturday's early hours, a local Red Cross official said. A spokesman for the self-styled "Donetsk People's Republic", which is holding a referendum on Sunday on breaking with Kiev, said the workers had been detained on Friday evening by rebel activists on suspicion of espionage. He could not clarify the nature of the accusations levelled against them or say where they had been held. The Red Cross official gave no further details, though the internet newspaper Novosti Donbassa said a Frenchman had been among seven held by activists who entered the Red Cross building in Donetsk. There was no confirmation of this. "They were released at two o'clock. One had beeen heavily beaten," Red Cross official Irina Tsaryuk told Reuters. Red Cross headquarters in Geneva said simply that there ha

#BringBackOurGirls Nigeria ignored warning of Boko Haram kidnap – Amnesty International

LAGOS - Nigeria's military had advanced warning of the April 14 attack by Boko Haram that led to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls but failed to take immediate action, Amnesty International said Friday. "Damning testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal that Nigerian security forces failed to act on advance warnings about Boko Haram's armed raid on the state-run boarding school in Chibok which led to the abduction," the rights group said. Amnesty said it had verified the information about the abduction with "credible sources". "Amnesty International has confirmed... that Nigeria's military headquarters in Maiduguri was aware of the impending attack soon after 7:00 PM (1800 GMT) on 14 April, close to four hours before Boko Haram began their assault on the town," the group said. The military however could not assemble the troops needed to suppress the attack, "due to poor resources and a reported fear of engagin

Moro: MILF And Philippines Sign Annex On Normalization

The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels have started the procedure to create the different bodies that will implement the normalization process for the proposed Bangsamoro political entity, which includes the decommissioning of the MILF. Mohagher Iqbal, MILF peace panel chairman and head of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, said the two panels met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from April 24 to 25 to discuss the composition of the bodies. International Decommissioning Body The gradual decommissioning of MILF forces and weapons will be overseen by the International Decommissioning Body (IDB). The IDB shall be composed of three foreign experts, including the chairperson, and four local experts jointly nominated by the parties. The parties shall also invite three states to provide the foreign experts. In a phone interview with GMA News Online, Iqbal said they have sent a letter to Brunei and Norway to ask them to nominate members for the IDB. “