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Showing posts from January 31, 2016

Somalia's al Shabaab takes control of southern port town

MOGADISHU  (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab militants took control of the southern port town of Marka on Friday hours after African Union troops and the Somalia National Army left, the rebels and witnesses said. "We now control Marka police station and the entire town. AMISOM left the town early this morning," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters on Friday. Residents said the militant Islamist group raised its flags inside the town, which is situated 100 kilometers (60 miles)southwest of Mogadishu, and started to preach to residents using loudspeakers. Local police officer Hussein Elmi said they had moved out of the town to the outskirts without giving a reason for the move. Kenyan troops, part of an African Union (AU) force in Somalia (AMISOM), took heavy losses when al Shabaab launched a dawn raid on their camp near the Kenyan border on Jan. 15, prompting the Kenyan and Somali forces to abandon some posit

Top UN Human Rights Official Arrives in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: The top U.N. human rights official arrived Saturday in Sri Lanka on a four-day visit aimed at reviewing the measures taken by the island-nation to investigate alleged atrocities committed during the long civil war that left tens of thousands dead. The visit by Zeid Raad al-Hussein follows last year's resolution at the U.N. human rights body that required foreign judges to assist Sri Lanka in the investigation. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009, after the government forces crushed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.  Both sides were accused of committing grave human rights abuses such as killing civilians and recruiting child soldiers. Since the end of the war, Sri Lanka has been facing heavy criticism for failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes by its forces. Victims' families have been futile in their attempts to seek justice. According to U.N. estimates, at least 80,000 people were killed, and possibly many more, including up to 40,000 civi

Islamophobia driving American Muslims to polling booths in 2016

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A survey says a large number of Muslims consider rising Islamophobia as most important issue in the upcoming elections. PHOTO: REUTERS The rise of Islamophobic sentiments in the United States is forcing Muslim Americans, who have so far been a fairly splintered group, to vote for their shared religious identity instead of ethnicity. According to a recent  survey  conducted by the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), 73% of Muslim voters in the US say they will go to the primary elections and that 67% will vote for Democratic Party candidates. CAIR National   @CAIRNational # CAIR  Releases Results of Muslim Voter Survey Ahead of Primary Elections 73 percent of Muslim voters say they...  http:// fb.me/6ZH3M8c2g   6:39 PM - 1 Feb 2016 Not surprisingly, the survey report showed that the most US Muslim voters considered the growing Islamophobia as the most important issue for them which had been pr

Top Cyber-Crime Ring Disrupted As Authorities Raid Moscow Offices: Sources

WASHINGTON:   Russian authorities in November raided offices associated with a Moscow film distribution and production company as part of a crackdown on one of the world's most notorious financial hacking operations, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. Cyber security experts said a password-stealing software program known as Dyre, believed to be responsible for at least tens of millions of dollars in losses at financial institutions including Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co - has not been deployed since the time of the raid. Experts familiar with the situation said the case represents Russia's biggest effort to date to crack down on cyber-crime. A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry's cybercrime unit said his department was not involved in the case. The FSB, Russia's main intelligence service, said it had no immediate comment. Nikolay Volchkov, the chief executive of the film company named 25th Floor, said he could not

Video lands Lal Masjid cleric in hot water

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Aabpara SHO issued notice on application seeking registration of FIR against Aziz . ISLAMABAD:  A district court issued a notice to the capital police on an application seeking registration of a case against firebrand Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz for allegedly spreading hate against Pakistan’s security forces on sectarian basis through the social media. Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Asif Mehmood issued the Aabpara SHO a notice to appear in the next hearing, which is scheduled for February 11. Petitioner Khurram Zaki, through his counsel, filed a petition under section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code for the registration of an FIR against Aziz, while listing the Aabpara SHO as a respondent. The petitioner contends that Aziz had shared a video — through the Jamia Hafsa Facebook page — wherein he “levelled baseless and hateful allegations on Pakistan’s Superior Intelligence Agency, the ISI.” He added that Aziz intentionally tried to spread hate against Pakist

Parents of 'Jihadi Jack' Letts claim he has mental health condition and is not fighting for a terrorist group in Syria

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hn Letts and Sally Lane told how they were arrested by counter-terror police after trying to send their son money The parents of Jack Letts, the young British man dubbed "Jihadi Jack" after travelling to Syria, have said he is mentally ill. The 20-year-old has denied fighting for Isis but told The Independent he supports Sharia law and left the UK to "take down the Syrian government" and leave dar al kufr - the "land of disbelievers". His mother and father, from Oxford, have continually denied he is an extremist and insist he is carrying out humanitarian work. In an interview with Channel 4 News, they revealed Jack suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and said they fear he "won't get out alive". Fighting back tears, his mother Sally Lane said: "I'd like him to come home." A photo of 20-year-old Jack Letts, who has been dubbed 'Jihadi Jack'. His family insists he went to Syria to help refugees. (Photo courtes

How Saudis sending ground forces into Syria will affect the civil war

The sending of ground forces by Saudi Arabia into Syria will have immense ramifications for the country's civil war and the wider region. The question, however, is whether it will actually take place. The Saudi announcement comes at a time when prospects for peace have faded with the collapse of the Geneva talks and the conflict has intensified with regime forces attempting to encircle Aleppo backed by heavy Russian air strikes. The already sour relationship between Russia and Turkey, backers respectively of the Syrian regime and rebels, has also worsened. Ankara accuses Moscow of being complicit in trying to impose a "starvation siege" on Aleppo while the Russians claim the Turks are planning to invade Syria. Any Saudi troops going into Syria will find themselves at the centre of a highly combustible situation. Although the ostensible reason for their presence would be to fight ISIS, they may find themselves clashing with Iranian 'volunteers' and Lebanese Hezbol

Pakistan Wants As Many Taliban Groups As Possible To Join Talks

ISLAMABAD:   Pakistan said as many Taliban groups as possible must be persuaded to join any upcoming peace discussions with the Afghan government, as a third round of four-country talks aimed at reviving negotiations with the insurgent group began today. Delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States convened in the Pakistani capital Islamabad over the weekend even as the insurgents wage an unprecedented winter campaign of violence across Afghanistan. Pakistan's adviser for foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said a joint effort would help persuade the Taliban to join the process and lead to a "significant" reduction in violence. "We believe our collective efforts at this stage, including through supportive CBMs (Confidence Building Measures), have to be aimed at persuading the maximum number of Taliban groups to join the peace talks," Aziz said during his opening statement at the third-round of talks today. "In our view, a clear, well-define

28 IS Fighters Killed in Afghanistan

KABUL: At least 28 militants loyal to the Islamic State (IS) terror group were killed and 10 others injured when a pilot-less plane pounded their hideouts in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday. The air strikes targeted IS fighters in Achin and Kot districts on Friday night, Xinhua quoted an official statement as saying. Two cars of IS fighters were also destroyed during the strikes, the statement added. The statement also said two civilians, including a woman, had also sustained injuries during the air raid. IS fighters active in parts of Nangarhar province are yet to make any comment about the incident. Source:  http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/28-IS-Fighters-Killed-in-Afghanistan/2016/02/06/article3264336.ece

Political reconciliation most viable option for long term peace in Afghanistan: Sartaj

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, on Saturday asserted that political reconciliation is the most viable option for promoting long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan, for which participating countries must exert all efforts to keep the peace process on track. Aziz presided over the third meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) established in December last year as part of a renewed push for reviving the peace process in Afghanistan. Quadrilateral meeting: Third round to open in Islamabad today “The people of Afghanistan have been suffering from an unending cycle of violence for decades. They need lasting peace and stability,” Aziz said. “A clear and well defined road-map for peace talks between the government of Afghanistan and Taliban is of crucial importance. It should identify and stipulate various stages of the process while measuring the progress made at each stage,” he added. Senior officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China a

Twitter blocks 125,000 accounts in 'terrorist content' crackdown

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WASHINGTON:  Twitter said Friday it suspended more than 125,000 accounts, most of them linked to the Islamic State group, as part of increased efforts to eradicate “terrorist content” on the popular messaging platform. The accounts frozen since mid-2015 were targeted “for threatening or promoting terrorist acts,” said Twitter, which is under pressure from governments to act but is also keen not to be seen as effectively censoring free speech. Saudi gets 10 years for Twitter ‘terrorism’ support “Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups,” Twitter said on its policy blog. “We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service.” The announcement comes after the United States and other governments urged social networks to take more aggressive steps to root out activity aimed at recruiting and planning vio