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Showing posts from March 5, 2017

Far-Right and neo-Nazi terror arrests double

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T error arrests of suspected Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis more than doubled last year amid fears of a growing threat of political violence from far-Right groups, new Home Office figures show. A total of 35 people were arrested on suspicion of "domestic" terrorism in 2016, which security sources said was dominated by threats from the far-Right. The arrests followed only 15 for domestic terrorism the previous year and come after a warning from the  Government’s terrorism watchdog that far-Right extremists now account for one-in-four of those reported to counter-radicalisation schemes. F igures also showed that one-in-three terrorism arrest suspects is now white, up from a quarter in 2015. The increase in domestic terrorism came as arrests for international terrorism including threats like Islamic State and al Qaeda fell slightly and arrests for Northern Ireland-related terrorism remained largely unchanged. A neo-Nazi group called  National Action in December

Europe’s Next Far-Right Test

He’s the crest of a wave. Populist Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party has a chance to win Wednesday’s Dutch elections. But campaigning isn’t easy with round-the-clock police surveillance instituted two years after fellow Dutch anti-Islam politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated in 2002. Still, the Freedom Party’s polling even to secure the most parliamentary seats, and many see the potential win as a harbinger for populist upsets in this year’s French and German elections — even if other parties are united in refusing to join a Wilders-led governing coalition. Source:  http://www.ozy.com/presidential-daily-brief/pdb-76192/top-geert-76195

Sharif asks clerics to counter terror using mosque's pulpit

LAHORE: Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday appealed to clerics to use the mosque's pulpit to spread the message of peace and counter the extremist mindset. Sharif made the remarks while addressing a seminar here at Jamia Naeemia, a leading seminary of majority Sunni school of thought, on the eighth death anniversary its founder Maulana Sarfaraz Hussain Naeemi, who was killed by militants. Sharif said the religious scholars should promote true teachings of Islam. He said the religious scholars should stand up against those who are sowing seeds of discord and disunity. Talking about the role of clerics in spreading the message of peace, he said the "ulema have the mosque's pulpit as their forum, from where they can be heard all over Pakistan". "It is still the most effective way of reaching out to the people of the country. You can spread the message of unity from here and shut the doors of terrorism in the country," Sharif said.

Saudi-led coalition air strike kills 22 in Yemen: official

HODEIDAH, March 11 (Reuters) - At least 22 civilians were killed on Friday and dozens wounded when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a market in western  Yemen  causing a fire to break out, a local official said. Missiles launched by fighter jets of the Arab alliance hit a market selling the mild narcotic leaf qat, which is popular among Yemenis, near the  Red Sea  fishing town of  Khoukha . Rescue workers on Friday night were battling a blaze in the market caused by the attack and pulling bodies out of the rubble some of which were burnt beyond recognition, according to  Hashim Azazi , deputy governor of Hodeidah province. "All of those killed were civilians, none were holding weapons," said  Azazi . A coalition spokesperson was not immediately available to comment. Khoukha and the nearby city of Hodeidah are controlled by Iran-allied Houthi fighters who in 2014 overran Yemen's capital  Sanaa  and forced the Saudi-backed government of President  Abd-Rab

Assad says yet to see real steps on Islamic State by Trump, US forces 'invaders'

BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he had yet to see "anything concrete" from U.S. President Donald Trump over his vow to defeat Islamic State and called U.S. forces in Syria "invaders" because they were there without government permission. Assad, in an interview with Chinese TV station Phoenix, said "in theory" he still saw scope for cooperation with Trump though practically nothing had happened in this regard. Assad said Trump's campaign pledge to prioritise the defeat of Islamic State had been "a promising approach" but added: "We haven't seen anything concrete yet regarding this rhetoric." Assad dismissed the U.S.-backed military campaign against Islamic State in Syria as "only a few raids" he said had been conducted locally. "We have hopes that this administration ... is going to implement what we have heard," he added. Asked about a deployment of U.S. forces near the northern city o

Turkish president Erdogan calls Netherlands 'Nazi remnants, fascists'

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan branded the Netherlands "Nazi remnants, fascists" on Saturday after the Dutch government withdrew permission for his Foreign Minister to land there. Rotterdam city authorities had on Friday withdrawn permission for him to attend a meeting to rally support for President Tayyip Erdogan's plans for extended powers, to be put to a referendum next month. Several other Euroepan cities have banned such meetings to be attended by Turkish officials.  Source:  http://m.todayonline.com/world/turkish-president-erdogan-calls-netherlands-nazi-remnants-fascists

ISIS encouraged militants to ‘eat’ non-Muslims during ‘time of jihad’

London : New materials found from liberated ISIS territories have revealed that the group urged young fighters to eat the flesh of their enemies and those whom it considered non-Muslims if the supplies were low. According to a report in the  Daily Mail , the new information was revealed after a manual detailing the same was found in one of the training schools of the group. The material was found by the London based Quilliam Foundation, and detailed that if there were no food supplies available during ‘time of jihad’, the ISIS militants could to kill non-Muslims or Muslims who do not believe their version of radical Islam. The handbook also details on which parts of the body was to be cooked and how to prepare it. The claims comes in the wake of reports that said that a mother was forced to eat her son’s remains by the ISIS, who gave it to her on the pretext of was rice and meat. Source  http://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/europe/280217/isis-encouraged-militants

Islamic State mortars, snipers take toll on Iraqi forces in Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq - At a field clinic near the front line in Mosul, an Iraqi Federal Police officer lay in discomfort on a stretcher, a drip in his arm and bandage plastered over his chest from where shrapnel from a mortar shell had pierced his sternum. The blast which wounded the 23-year-old, Jaafar Kareem, and two comrades, was in an area where rapid advances against Islamic State earlier in the week have slowed as the militants aim mortar and sniper fire at Iraqi troops. At least 10 shells had landed there that morning, before hitting their target, Kareem said. "There have been a lot of our guys wounded today in the same area," he said, turning his head gingerly to watch an officer on the next stretcher being treated for a leg injury. The makeshift clinic, an abandoned house manned by American volunteers and Iraqi military medics, was on Thursday regularly treating members of Iraq's security forces rushed back from the front line in ambulances or armored vehicles.

Syria attack: Twin bombings kill 44 in Damascus Old City

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Damascus:  Twin bombs killed 44 people in the Old City of Damascus on Saturday, a monitoring group said, in one of the bloodiest attacks in the heart of the Syrian capital. A roadside bomb detonated as a bus passed and a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Bab al-Saghir area, which houses several Shiite mausoleums that draw pilgrims from around the world, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Damaged buildings in the rebel held besieged Douma neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria. Reuters Several Shiite pilgrims were among the dead. "There are also dozens of people wounded, some of them in a serious condition," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told  AFP . The director general of the capital's Al-Mujtahed hospital told  AFP earlier there were at least 28 people dead and 45 wounded. The  SANA  state news agency reported that "two bombs planted by terrorists exploded near the Bab al-Saghir cemetery in Bab Musalla, causing dead and wounded." Shiite shrines a

9 CRPF personnel killed in Naxal attack in Chhattishgarh

At least nine Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have been killed and few injured in a Naxal attack in Sukma district of Chhattishgarh on Sautday morning.  The officials said that Naxals looted 10 weapons and radio sets of the deceased CRPF jawans before running away. Source  http://www.livemint.com/Politics/39QDM5YRSfBTsZvJrt0HZK/9-CRPF-personnel-killed-in-Naxal-attack-in-Chhattishgarh.html

Is It the End of the Road for Maoists?

by   Rahul Pandita 10 March 2017 On THE NIGHT OF February 4th, two armed Maoist guerrillas abducted Suriyam Buccha from Merwahi village in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district. The village is situated in a dense forest, about 18 km from Dornapal town. In the absence of a road, one can only reach there by foot or on a motorcycle. By the time Buccha’s wife and two children followed them to the forest, his abductors had killed him by cutting his chest open with sharp-edged weapons. As his wailing family looked on, the Maoists put an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) under his body. It was meant as a trap for police personnel who would come later to retrieve his body. But after much pleading by his family, the guerrillas relented and removed the bomb before disappearing deeper into the forest. The presence of security forces has rattled Maoists to such an extent that they are now targetting areas where they once held pockets of sympathy We lost everything in these twel

Lucknow encounter: Is ISIS spreading shadow of terror in India?

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Lucknow encounter: Is ISIS spreading shadow of terror in India? Last December, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said he was confident that the Islamic State would not be able to spread its roots in India. But investigations into the recent Lucknow encounter have thrown up troubling details. On Tuesday, a suspected ISIS terrorist Saifullah, was gunned down in an encounter in Lucknow. This is the first such incident in Uttar Pradesh, after reports of ISIS recruits from Maharashtra, Kerala and Hyderabad. It has prompted questions about how strong is the ISIS threat in the country. In 2015, a  USA Today article  had reported that preparations for an ISIS attack in India were underway and this attack would provoke “an apocalyptic confrontation with America”. From information on the laptop of two youth picked up after the blast on the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger, the UP anti-terror squad found that ISIS was planning to carry out serial blasts at Kanpur's Dewa Shareef. This was reportedly bein

‘Putin won’t win!’ EU leader says far-right parties will FAIL despite ‘Kremlin’s backing'

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POPULIST leaders Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders are set to lose upcoming elections in France and the Netherlands because nationalism is already “in decline”, the leader of Austria said today.       Christian Kern said far-right parties will not win power in Europe no matter how “high ranked and wealthy” their sponsors are in a swipe at alleged meddling by Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Speaking as he arrived for a summit of the 27 EU leaders this morning, at which Brexit will be the dominating issue, the Austrian leader predicted Brexit will be the last major shockwave to hit the bloc.  EbS Christian Kern predicted populists will not win in this year's European elections Vienna itself was recently rocked by the rapid rise of populist politics on the continent, with a far-right candidate coming within a whisker of being elected as the country’s president. Norbert Hofer was eventually defeated comfortably by the Green Party candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, but only after a re-

Far-Right and neo-Nazi terror arrests double 

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T error arrests of suspected Right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis more than doubled last year amid fears of a growing threat of political violence from far-Right groups, new Home Office figures show. A total of 35 people were arrested on suspicion of "domestic" terrorism in 2016, which security sources said was dominated by threats from the far-Right. The arrests followed only 15 for domestic terrorism the previous year and come after a warning from the Government’s terrorism watchdog that far-Right extremists now account for one-in-four of those reported to counter-radicalisation schemes.   Paid content Now get an Amazon Voucher Worth Rs 1000 & Avail Maximum benefits on your Credit Card www.bankyatra.com By cycle and by kayak, conquering India's west coast from Kutch to Kanyakumari. Sonata SF Recommended by Watch | Rudd: National Action is a vile group with no place in Britain 01:23

The Dutch far right’s election donors are almost exclusively American

While Europe has been busy fretting about Russian meddling in its politics, a few Americans have been quietly doing their part to boost the continent’s far right. Wealthy American conservatives have poured large sums into the electoral campaign of far-right leader Geert Wilders of the Netherlands’ Dutch Freedom Party, in support of his anti-Islam, anti-EU views. Three American donors gave €141,668 ($150,430) to Dutch political parties between 2015 and 2017, according to campaign finance documents released this week by the Dutch interior ministry. Two of these donors funded the far-right Dutch Freedom Party. Americans rarely give money to Dutch political parties, and the sums wouldn’t amount to much in a US election. But as Dutch parliamentary elections approach on March 15, there is concern about the impact of foreign donations in a system heavily reliant on public funding. The report showed that the PVV had three donors registered since 2015. The largest donor by far was

Bill to name 'untrustworthy ally' Pakistan state sponsor of terrorism introduced in US Congress

NEW DELHI: An influential US Congressman yesterday introduced a strongly worded bill in Congress to declare "untrustworthy ally" Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. "Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the United States for years,"said Congressman Ted Poe , who is Chair of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism. "From harboring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the War on Terror + . And it's not America's. It is time we stop paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a State Sponsor of Terrorism," Poe said while introducing the bill, the Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Act of 2015, in Congress yesterday. The bill requires the US President to issue a report within 90 days, answering whether Pakistan has provided support for international ter