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Showing posts from February 22, 2015

Toll in Philippine clashes with Islamic militants rises to 26

A military assault on Islamic militants in the southern Philippines entered its fifth day on Saturday, with the toll rising to 24 guerrillas and two soldiers dead, officials said. Ten Abu Sayyaf militants were killed in a two-hour clash on Friday after the army pounded their jungle lair on Jolo island with artillery and helicopter gunships, said Colonel Alan Arrojado, who is leading the assault. Another 14 rebels and two troops had been killed since the fighting erupted on Tuesday, he said. Battles were raging in the mountainous and thickly forested villages of Patikul town, an area controlled by Abu Sayyaf, a group of a few hundred gunmen with links to the Al-Qaeda network. The militants were reportedly moving with three Malaysian Jemaah Islamiyah members who were providing them with bomb-making training, military spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla told AFP. “This (assault) will not stop until we put an end to the Abu Sayyaf,” Padilla said. The Malaysians have been “monitor

Hindus dismayed after 2nd temple vandalism in 2 weeks in Seattle metropolitan area

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2nd temple vandalism in 2 weeks in Seattle metropolitan area Hindus nationwide are highly concerned after reports of various broken windows and scrawling of word “FEAR” at Kent Hindu Temple wall in Washington State late February 26 night. This was second such incident in recent days in Seattle metropolitan area after scrawling of “GET OUT” on Bothell Hindu Temple was discovered on February 15. In addition, a Hindu grandfather was roughed-up by police in Madison (Alabama) on February six resulting in partial paralysis. These two vandalized temples are about 34 miles apart from each other in Seattle metropolitan area of Washington State. Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that it was shocking for the hard-working, harmonious and peaceful US Hindu community numbering about three million; who had made lot of contributions to the nation and society; to receive such signals of hatred and anger. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged adminis

Assad decries 'isolation' in face of extremism: French lawmaker

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View Photo AFP/SANA/AFP/File - Picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on February 25, 2015 shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (C-L) meeting with French socialist senator, Jean-Pierre Vial (C-R Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad no longer wants to "remain isolated in the face of the terrorist threat", one of the French lawmakers who met him in Damascus on a much-decried private trip said Friday. Senator Francois Zocchetto was one of several lawmakers who travelled to the Syrian capital and met with high-ranking officials including Assad on Wednesday. The visit drew an angry response from the French government, which cut diplomatic ties with Damascus in 2012. "Bashar al-Assad is reserved, he does not easily confide in people," Zocchetto told Radio Classique. "He said he expected to no longer remain isolated in the face of the terrorist threat." The trip was feted by Syrian media as reflecting rising sentiment within Western co

Minor boy injured in crude bomb blast : Dhaka

A 12-year-old boy has been injured in a crude bomb blast in capital's Kadamtoli area. The boy, Dolon, has been admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Saturday afternoon. Dolon's father Rabiul said his son was playing in a field near Baitul Nur Jame Mosque when the hand bomb blasted around 3:30pm. He said Dolon received injuries in his face, neck and hands. DMCH police outpost In-charge Mozammel Haque said a minor boy was admitted at the hospital with serious injuries from crude bomb blast. Source:  http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/feb/28/minor-boy-injured-crude-bomb-blast

Training of Syrian rebels in Turkey in 4-6 weeks: US

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The US military said Friday the training of moderate Syrian rebels will likely begin within four to six weeks in Turkey after the two NATO allies clinched an agreement last week. Potential recruits still needed to be vetted for the training sessions, which will take place in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as Turkey, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference. About 1,500 Syrian rebels had been identified to take part and of those 100 had been screened and approved, Kirby said. +1 A rebel fighter stands on a tank near the frontline in the village of Ratyan in the countryside north of the Syrian city of Aleppo on February 19, 2015 ©Zein Al-Rifai (AFP/File) "I won't put a date certain on when the training will begin, but our assessment is that we could be ready sometime within the next four to six weeks to begin actual training," Kirby said. There will be roughly 200 to 300 people in each course as part of a plan to train about

US spy chief James Clapper highlights cyber threats

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Cyber attacks from groups like Anonymous pose a greater threat than terrorism, Congress was told US intelligence agencies have placed cyber attacks from foreign governments and criminals at the top of their list of threats to the country. Online assaults would increasingly undermine US economic competitiveness and national security, said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. A report issued by his office said Russia's military was setting up a cyber command to carry out attacks. The report also describes China, Iran and North Korea as leading threats. In testimony to a congressional committee on Thursday, Mr Clapper said he no longer believed the US faced "cyber Armageddon". The idea that major infrastructure such as financial networks or power grids could be disabled by hackers now looked less probable, he said. However he warned: "We foresee an ongoing series of low-to-moderate level cyber attacks from a variety of sources over time, w

Tim Cook says terrorism should not scare people into giving up their privacy

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In the second half of  The Telegraph’s interview  with Tim Cook, Apple CEO Tim Cook has reaffirmed his position on privacy. Cook says that whilst currently consumers do not understand the ramifications of sharing their data with third-parties, “one day they will”. Moreover, Cook openly objects to governments that say data sharing is required to combat crime and terrorism. There has been pressure for tech companies to offer back-doors into encryption mechanisms, but a clear implication of this interview is that Apple will strongly oppose this view. Cook describes privacy as a ‘basic human right’. Cook disagrees fundamentally. “None of us should accept that the government or a company or anybody should have access to all of our private information. This is a basic human right. We all have a right to privacy. We shouldn’t give it up. We shouldn’t give in to scare-mongering or to people who fundamentally don’t understand the details.” Although Cook believes that terrorism is bad (“these pe

IS needs women and is using love as a recruitment tool

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From left: Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum know a girl who went to Syria in December In a few months' time, perhaps even weeks, you might remember the story, but will you remember the names? Kadiza Sultana, 16; Shamima Begum, also 16; and Amira Abase, 15. All three London schoolgirls said they were going out for the day and now it is thought they have left the UK, gone to Turkey and  slipped across the border  to join Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.  Their names are important to me, because they focus my mind on them as individuals, as young girls, with a promising future ahead of them, with friends, siblings and parents. Yet, inevitably, we are in thrall to the bigger narrative: a troubling and growing sisterhood is being cultivated - it appears an estimated 200 to 300 European Muslim girls have made the same journey as Kadiza, Shamima and Amira. Why? What for? The term jihadi bride is particularly egregious, but there is some truth to it. Onc

How Muslim Azerbaijan had satire years before Charlie Hebdo

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In this cartoon, the magazine depicts a prison with windows and a house of Muslim women with none More than 100 years before militant Islamist gunmen murdered journalists at France's satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, another magazine very similar in style was playing an important role among the Muslim populations of both the Russian and Persian empires. Azerbaijani weekly magazine Molla Nasreddin was revolutionary for its time, bravely ridiculing clerics and criticising the political elite as well as the Russian Tsar and the Shah of Persia. Founded in 1906, it pulled no punches in tackling geopolitical events and also promoted women's rights and Westernisation. The editor-in-chief of the magazine was Jalil Mammadguluzadeh (known as Mirza Jalil), a famous Azerbaijani writer, who was also a well-known novelist. In his book, The Dead, the main protagonist is a drunken atheist, treated as a madman for telling the truth about his backward society, where girls as young as nine are fo

Russia opposition politician Boris Nemtsov shot dead

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Mr Nemtsov was shot on a bridge within sight of St Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin A leading Russian opposition politician, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead in Moscow, Russian officials say. An unidentified attacker in a car shot Mr Nemtsov four times in the back as he crossed a bridge in view of the Kremlin, police say. He died hours after appealing for support for a march on Sunday in Moscow against the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the murder, the Kremlin says. President Putin has assumed "personal control" of the investigation into the killing, said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Investigators said the murder could have been "a provocation aimed at destabilising the country". The investigative committee said in a statement that several motives for the killing were being considered including "Islamic extremism". US President Barack Obama  condemned  the "brutal murder" and call

Bombings kill 19 people in Iraq

12:54 P.M. Bombings kill 19 people in Iraq A series of car bombs on Saturday ripped through a crowded marketplace and a Shiite militia's checkpoint, killing a total of 19 people in separate attacks north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, officials said, as the country's prime minister vowed to punish those who smashed ancient artifacts in a northern city. Police said the first attack took place Saturday morning when a car bomb exploded near a busy market in the town of Balad Ruz. Minutes later, a second car bomb went off, targeting people who gathered to inspect the site of the first blast. Balad Ruz is 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Police and hospital officials said 11 people were killed and 50 wounded. Later on, a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Shiite militiamen who are fighting Islamic State militants near the city of Samarra, killing eight Shite fighters and wounding 15 others. Samarra and the surrounding areas have bee

Assad or no Assad, West asks, as IS rises and conflict rages

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Paris (AFP) - Faced with a seemingly unending bloody conflict in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State group, is President Bashar al-Assad the lesser of the country's evils and should the West re-engage with him? While world powers such as the United States, France and Britain refuse to have anything to do with a leader the French prime minister described as a "butcher", the question is increasingly being raised within these countries. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, echoed this feeling this month when he said Assad was "part of the solution" to end a conflict that has killed more than 210,000 people, displaced nearly half the country's population and spilled over into neighbouring nations. And this week, a private trip to Damascus by French lawmakers who met Assad for talks drew an angry response from the French government which cut diplomatic ties with Syria in 2012 -- but was feted by media in the conflict-torn country. "The Assad regim