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Showing posts from January 12, 2020

Left wing extremism: Army condemns NPA landmine attack in Surigao Norte

BUTUAN CITY – The Army’s 30th Infantry Battalion (30IB) has condemned the landmine attack by communist rebels on the Ladragon-Sapa Road in Claver town, Surigao del Norte, on Friday night. 1st Lt. Wilfredo F. Quilang, 30IB civil-military operations officer, said Saturday the latest landmine attack by the New People’s Army (NPA) in Surigao del Norte "posed a great danger to the lives and properties of the people in the area". Quilang said a soldier, who was hurt during the attack, has been released from the hospital at around 6 a.m. on Saturday. He said it was treacherous for the NPA to attack while the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its political arm, the National Democratic Front (NDF), are asking the government to resume the stalled peace talks. "While their leaders want to sit in negotiating table for peace talks, their armed wing, the NPA, is brazenly conducting harassments and attacks to civilians and government forces

South Sudan accuses rebel groups of recruiting child soldiers

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Christine Ingabire  is a Rwandan teenager born 19 years ago, in Katoyi, one of the four districts of Masisi territory, in DR Congo’s North Kivu Province. The shy teen is one among the numerous child soldiers forcefully conscripted by anti-Rwanda militia groups in eastern DR Congo, where the latter have wreaked havoc for years. Three years ago, militia scouts in her community rounded up all the youth – the majority being girls – and led them to a militia’s training base. Asked how many were taken with her, Ingabire looked up, paused a bit, and said: “We were so many.” “We had two groups of new recruits. In my group, we were 104. All girls! There were only about 20 boys.” A group of demobilised combatants during a tailoring training session at the Mutobo Demobilisation and Reintegration Centre in Musanze District. It was in late 2017, she said, recalling that soon after their two and a half months of military drills, the young fighters were sent home for a short break and

Syro-Malabar Church says ‘love jihad’ a threat in Kerala, govt says it doesn’t exist

  The church expressed concern over the rising number of 'love jihad' cases and called it an agenda of the Islamic State to threaten religious harmony of Kerala. Bengaluru:  Kerala’s Syro-Malabar Church has alleged that nearly 12 Christian women have been converted to Islam through ‘love  jihad ’ in the last three years and taken to Syria where some of them might even have been killed. The church issued a statement Wednesday, expressing concern over the “rising number of love  jihad ” cases in the state and called it a part of a larger agenda of the Islamic State (IS) to “threaten the religious and social harmony of Kerala” ‘Love  jihad ’ is a term coined by Hindu fundamentalist groups, referring to an alleged campaign by Muslim men to convert Hindu girls in the guise of love.  Father Antony Thalachelloor, a member of the church’s media commission, told the Print: “The Islamic State has been luring Christian women as part of their international agenda of hunting down Jewish and

Yemeni snipers kill nearly dozen Saudi mercenaries in Hajjah

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Nearly a dozen Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi have been killed or injured when Yemeni army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Committees launched separate attacks in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah. A Yemeni military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni forces and their allies shot ten Saudi mercenaries in various areas in the Harad and Hayran districts of the province on Saturday. Separately, Yemeni soldiers and Popular Committees fighters targeted the positions of Saudi mercenaries in the Qaniyah district of the southwestern Yemeni province of al-Bayda’, inflicting heavy losses on them. Saudi attacks kill child in Yemen’s north At least one child is killed and another wounded in attacks by Saudi-led forces in Yemen’s northern province of Sa’ada. Elsewhere in the Qa'atabah district of Yemen’s southwestern province of Dhale, several Saudi-

China Targets Foreign Nationals of Uighur Origin

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WASHINGTON - Chinese authorities are continuing to detain foreign nationals of Uighur descent, which experts charge is part of an effort by Beijing to prevent any outside access to Xinjiang province.  VOA interviewed several ethnic Uighurs of different nationalities who said they or their family members faced detention upon arriving in China. The detained foreign citizens were allegedly jailed, put under house arrest or even sent to the so-called reeducation camps, while some others were repatriated to their home countries. Hankiz Kurban, a Turkish citizen from Istanbul, told VOA that her parents, Yahya Kurban, 54, and Amina Kurban, 51, both Turkish citizens originating from the region of Xingjian, have been detained since Sept.11, 2017, when they were on a trip to operate a clothing business in Urumchi, the capital city of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.   “ I received my mother’s voice message asking me, in a trembling voice, to contact the Turkish embassy in Beijing and do

Why Spain's handling of Catalonia is NOT a way to 'beat' Scottish independence as Labour's Lisa Nandy suggests

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By  Jonathan Arnott , a former independent Member of the European Parliament Labour leadership contender Lisa Nandy has lit a match under the Catalan independence issue, angering Catalans and Scots alike. It’s business as usual for Britain’s chaotic Labour Party. If there’s one thing that Labour’s leadership contest isn’t short of, it’s farce.  Corbynista Rebecca Long-Bailey isn’t being attacked for her off-the-wall economics, but because a section of the Labour membership don’t want a Catholic as leader. If  accusations  of anti-Semitism and  offending  Hindus weren’t enough, they would seek to take on Christians too. Not the best look to win votes.  The knighted, Oxford-educated, posh, Remain-backing Keir Starmer somehow seeks to win back Northern working-class Leave voters. He’s likely to win: Labour’s ‘progressive’ brand of politics doesn’t extend to their own membership. Every time a man has stood against a woman in any Labour leadership election in history, t

FBI arrests three more members of 'The Base'

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Image copyright Police handout Image caption From left: Jacob Kaderli, Michael Helterbrand and Luke Austin Lane Three more alleged members of a US neo-Nazi hate group have been arrested in Georgia, authorities say, in what appears to be a national operation. The arrests came on the same day that three suspected members of the same group were detained in Maryland and Delaware. All six men are reported members of white supremacist group The Base. One of the three was a Canadian army reservist who had been missing for several months after fleeing Canada. Patrik Matthews is believed to have illegally crossed into the US after his alleged affiliations with The Base were dis

Erdogan harassing pro-Kurdish party members to gain Turkish nationalists' votes: Exiled professor

Virginia [USA], Jan 17 (ANI): The major gains made by pro-Kurdish left-wing People's Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2014 presidential polls and 2015 general election of Turkey made President Recep Tayyip Erdogan use his power by punishing his Kurdish opponents through the judicial route to secure the votes of the Turkish nationalists, a professor said. In an e-mail interview with ANI, Emrullah Uslu, an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia state of US, explained how Erdogan has been making all-out efforts to crush secession movements aimed at creating a separate homeland for the Kurds -- Kurdistan. He also divulged how Kurdish voters voted for HDP and not Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the elections despite the Turkish strongman initiating a peace process in 2012 in a bid to end the Kurdish-Turkish conflict which has been ongoing for over four decades. "Back in 2012, Er

Philippines Army vows to ‘shield’ Caraga youths from NPA recruitment

BUENAVISTA, Agusan del Norte  -- An Army official has vowed to help strengthen youth groups in the Caraga Region to keep them away from the influence of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). In a gathering of around 30 youth leaders from different barangays here on Sunday (January 12), Lt. Col. Francisco L. Molina Jr. of the Army's 23rd Infantry Battalion urged the members of the Propelling Our Inherited Nation Through our Youth (POINTY), Inc. to unite and win more youths in the region "to protect them from recruitment of the NPA." “Our aim is to insulate the youth from the influence of the CPP-NPA,” Molina said, as he also pledged support to the programs and projects of POINTY, Inc., a non-profit youth organization. Molina also shared the various schemes that the CPP-NPA utilizes to lure young people into joining the communist rebel movement. The gathering of youth leaders on Sunday was also in time with the electi