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Showing posts from August 14, 2016

Arab Coalition Airstrikes Kill Civilians in Yemen, While UN Looks Away

A Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) — supported hospital in Yemen was hit by an airstrike on Monday leaving 14 people dead. This is the fourth time since January that the hospital in Yemen has been hit by the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia. SPUTNIK  — MSF, repeatedly shared the coordinates of a hospital in Yemen with all parties in the conflict in the country prior to the medical facility being hit by a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on Monday, the organization said on its official Twitter account. In an interview with Sputnik, MSF representative in Yemen Hassan Boucenine said that the coalition members should launch an official probe into Monday’s incident. “The bombings are unbelievably intensive. People are scared, they no longer have access to medical help. The country’s healthcare system is bankrupt with no money left to run the hospitals. And now this one has closed too, which means that people are no longer be able to receive free medical

Be our voice, help our struggle: A Baloch activist's Raksha Bandhanmessage to PM Modi

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A passing reference to the plight of Balochistan's people in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address has rattled India's neighbour and garnered a sea of responses from within and outside the two countries. A Pakistani national and Baloch activist, Karima Baloch has sent the Prime Minister a Raksha Bandhan message, urging "Brother Modi" to be the "voice of the Baloch people". "On the day of Raksha Bandhan, sisters from Balochistan will consider you a brother," she said. Karima, who according to her video is the president of the Baloch Student's Association has tweeted out a video appeal to the Indian Prime Minister, urging Modi to raise the plight of the Baloch people at international forums. Karima, called Modi "brother" in her Raksha Bandhan message and sought help from India to help bring the excesses committed by the Pakistani Army in world view. Addressing Modi, she said, "Many of your Balochi s

Russia tells the United Nations it will support a 48-hour ceasefire inthe Syrian city of Aleppo next week allow medical evacuations and aiddeliveries

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Russia will support ceasefire in Aleppo to allow humanitarian help to the besieged city next week Commitment was reported the same day it released video of Russian bombers dropping loads over Syria Ministry of Defense footage shows long-range and tactical bombers taking off from Iranian bases Ceasefire pledge comes as Syrian airforce bombs northern Kurdish area of Hasaka  Russia has said it will support a 48-hour ceasefire in the Syrian city of Aleppo on the same day it released a video of warplanes dropping bombs over the country. The country's Ministry of Defence said the Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and Su-34 tactical bombers were targeting ISIS in the Deir Azour region of the country - which borders Iraq in the south east. Fighting has intensified in Aleppo in the last weeks as the Russian-backed Syrian army besieged the city and cut off Castello Road - the main supply route into the rebel held area Russia has said it will support a 48-hour ceasefire in the S

Will UK oust Saudi from UN rights panel?

PressTV- Pressure is mounting on British Prime Minister Theresa May to vote against Saudi Arabia’s retention of the United Nations human rights council chair after a year which saw the country's government viciously bomb Yemen, commit vast numbers of beheadings, a mass execution and detain activists. Critics of the Saudi regime in Britain will make their demand on the UK government during the World Humanitarian Day, which is on Friday, 19 August. The call comes ahead of the crucial UN vote to elect the chair the UNHRC, which Saudi Arabia has controversially held since this time last year. The UK has so far refused to rule out re-electing Saudi Arabia to chair the UNHRC, despite the repeated and well publicised atrocities of Riyadh. Saudi’s appointment as head of the UNHRC means it has influence over international human rights standards and reports on violations. Politicians and campaigners say the vote on 13 September is an opportunity for May’s new government to show

German conservatives call for partial face veil ban

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have agreed that Muslim women should be banned from wearing the face veil in schools and universities and while driving, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Friday. The move follows an influx in 2015 of more than 1 million mainly Muslim refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and rising public concern after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager. Regional interior ministers belonging to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Christian Social Union (CSU) allies will later present a declaration on tougher security measures, including more police and greater surveillance in public areas. Among the more controversial proposals is a call for a partial ban on the burqa and niqab garments, saying they show a lack of integration, suggest women are inferior and could pose security risks. "We unanimously reject the burqa, it does not fit with our liberal-minded society,"

US monitoring ISIS activities in Afghanistan: State Dept

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India TV News Desk   Washington   18 Aug 2016, 18:49:44  Source: PTI The US State Department has said that Washington is monitoring the activities of  ISIS and its affiliated group in Afghanistan.    "We are always looking at ISIS ability to find safe haven and then expand to work with, these affiliate groups, factions of groups such as the Taliban that they might be able to exploit. We are monitoring it very closely," State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said. "We're in close contact and coordination with the Afghan security forces in that regard, and we're going to continue. If we see opportunities to take out key leadership, we're going to strike," he added. Toner further said that U.S. is encouraging the efforts by its  security forces in countering the insurgent groups. "Any time you've got various splinter groups emerging, that does make those efforts more complex, but that remains our overarching goal and what we v

Paris terror strikes were ‘optimised Mumbai-style attacks’: UN report

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India TV News Desk   United Nations 19 Aug 2016, 13:49:48  Islamic State terrorists had “studied” the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and similar “active shooter scenarios” to maximise confusion and casualties before hitting multiple locations in Paris in November, UN member- states have said. The 18th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted to the UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIS, Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee said the modus operandi that IS operatives demonstrated while conducting multiple, nearly simultaneous attacks, such as in Paris and Brussels, presents particular problems in terms of security response. “Member-States explained that that was a deliberate tactic in order to make it more difficult to mount coordinated and targeted responses to the most dangerous continuing threats,” the report said. They said the November 13, 2015 terror attacks targeting a sports stadium, restaurants and a concert hall in Paris were fashioned on the 26/11

Support Dalai Lama for return to Tibet: Lawmakers to Barack Obama

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India TV News Desk   New Delhi   19 Aug 2016, 13:55:03  A group of 72 American lawmakers have asked US President Barack Obama to publicly support the right of the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet and call for an immediate and unconditional release of all Tibetan political prisoners languishing in China. "We write to ask that you redouble efforts in support of the Tibetan people during your remaining months in office. We believe it is critically important to move beyond words to actions," the lawmakers said in a letter to Obama. "The Tibetan people view the US as their friend. It is time to honour that friendship with new, creative strategies to encourage meaningful dialogue, protect Tibetan rights, and preserve their unique cultural, religious and linguistic identity," the three-page letter, dated August 17, said. The letter, organised by Congressman Jim McGovern, urged Obama to invite the Dalai Lama to every event, on every occasion, where his knowledge and decades of

Hezbollah urges fight on Israel in Shebaa Farms

PressTV- The Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah has warned against the ongoing construction of a road by Israel in Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory. The regime is building the two-kilometer-long road in the Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon, which it occupied alongside vast expanses of other Arab territories in 1967. “It’s another crime to add to the long list of enemy crimes against Lebanon,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the construction work. The work “exposes the limitless Zionist greed for Lebanese land and wealth,” the Lebanese resistance movement further said in its statement. The movement also called on the Lebanese government to “conduct its normal role in defending Lebanon’s sovereignty and take the necessary measures to confront” the Israeli move. Israel has launched two wars on Lebanon — one in 2000 and another 2006. About 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, lost their lives during the 33-day war in the summer of 2006.

Excluded ethnic militias say they’re ready to join peace talks

The Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang Nationalities Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) have welcomed the Burmese government’s announcement that it is  amenable to the suggestion of inviting them to the upcoming peace conference, commonly referred to as the 21 st Century Panglong Conference”, or 21CPC. In a joint-statement on 18 August, the three ethnic armed groups said they were delighted to learn that the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee had confirmed that all ethnic militias – whether signatories to the  Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement  or not – would be welcomed at the peace talks, which are set to begin in Naypyidaw on 31 August. TNLA  Secretary Tar Bone Kyaw said the group is ready to join the negotiations. “We would like to announce that we are ready to attend the 21 st Century Panglong Conference and join discussions with our fellow participants to resolve our country’s political issues, and also to end the conflict in the Ta’ang region,” he

MSF leaving Yemen after Saudi airstrikes on hospitals

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Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has announced that it is evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen, saying it cannot get assurances that its hospitals will not be bombed again by Saudi warplanes.  The decision was “never taken lightly,” said the Paris-based relief agency in a statement on Thursday, condemning the Saudi “indiscriminate bombings and unreliable reassurances”. “Given the intensity of the current offensive and our loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent such fatal attacks, MSF considers the hospitals in Sa'ada and Hajjah governorates unsafe for both patients and staff,” it added. The MSF decision to pull its staff out of the war-torn country was made following a number of deadly Saudi airstrikes on MSF-run hospitals, the most recent of which was carried out on Monday on Abs Hospital in Hajjah province. The airstrike killed at least 19 hospital staff and patients and wounded 24 others. In a report released on May, the interna

Erdogan accuses Gulen of aiding PKK attacks in Turkey

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the supporters of US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen of aiding Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in conducting new attacks in southeastern Turkey.  “You don't have to be fortune teller to see that the Gulen movement is behind the latest PKK attacks in terms of sharing information and intelligence,” Erdogan said on Thursday.  Erdogan’s comments came hours after a PKK roadside bombing targeting a military vehicle near Gayda village in the Hizan district of Bitlis province killed five soldiers and wounded six others. Another soldier was killed in clashes with militants in the rural areas of Nazar village in the same area. Hours earlier, six people lost their lives and more than 250 others sustained injuries in two separate car bomb blasts hitting police stations in the city of Elazig in Eastern Anatolia and in another town in the province of Van. Turkish rescue workers and police inspect the blast scene

How Kashmiri businessmen overinvoiced goods to fund the unrest: Terror funds

New Delhi, Aug 18: The National Investigation Agency ( NIA ) which is now probing the inflow of funds into  Jammu and Kashmir  allegedly to fuel the unrest, is looking at the role played by some businessmen from the state doing business in  Saudi Arabia . While there have been some routine channels such as hawala that used to pump in the funds, the NIA has also learnt that some of the Kashmiri businessmen could have sent in money by over invoicing goods. The NIA is preparing a list of the businessmen from Kashmir doing business in the Gulf. It has been learnt that some of the goods have been over invoiced. The businessmen are alleged to have transferred money to some accounts in Kashmir and in order to cover the same up, they have over invoiced the goods, NIA officials have learnt. Inflow into banks The NIA learnt about this new trick by the businessmen when they found a huge amount of cash deposited into at least 10 accounts in the state. NIA suspects that a sum of nearly Rs 30 crore

Image of Aleppo boy shocks world; Russia offers cease-fires

BEIRUT (AP) — The Russian military said Thursday it was ready to back a U.N. call for weekly cease-fires for Syria's contested city of Aleppo, as haunting footage of a young boy's rescue from the aftermath of an airstrike shook global media. The image of the stunned and weary-looking boy, sitting in an ambulance caked with dust and with blood on his face, captured the horror that has beset the war-torn northern city as photographs of the child were widely shared on social media. An hour after his rescue, the badly damaged building the boy was in completely collapsed. A doctor in Aleppo identified the child as 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh. He was brought to the hospital, known as "M10," on Wednesday night, following an airstrike by Russian or government warplanes on the rebel-held neighborhood of Qaterji, said Dr. Osama Abu al-Ezz. The boy suffered head wounds but no brain injury, and was later discharged. Rescue workers and journalists arrived shortly after the strike an

Ex-engineering student emerges as Wani’s successor in Hizbul video

A former engineering student has emerged as the successor of slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, asking the people of Kashmir to continue the agitation till the region achieves its goal of “azadi”. An 8-minute video message by Zakir Rashid Bhat is being seen as confirmation of his elevation to the post once held by Wani, whose killing on July 8 sparked violent street protests in the Valley. “We all know how the martyrdom of our three brothers (Wani and two other militants) has brought movement to a new point. Now we need to support this struggle and take it to its logical conclusion,” Bhat said in Urdu in the video, mailed to local media houses on Tuesday and widely circulated through mobile messaging service WhatsApp. Read: From Ashfaq Majid Wani to Burhan Wani: Are protests in Kashmir a redux of 1990? The Hizb had earlier named one Mehmood Ghaznavi as Wani’s successor but many believe it to be an alias of Bhat. Bhat, said to be around 22 years, was a student of civil engin