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Showing posts from February 9, 2020

UN and other international organisations accused of complicity in jailing of PKK leader

INTERNATIONAL organisations including the UN were accused of complicity in the “conspiracy” that led to the detention and jailing of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan 21 years ago today. Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP for Agri, Abdulla Koc, made the remarks in a panel discussion in the city on the issue of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder’s continued detention and isolation. He branded the treatment of Mr Ocalan — who has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali island since 1999 — a “crime against humanity” and a breach of the Turkish constitution. Mr Koc hit out at international bodies including the UN and the International Court of Human Rights for their silence on the conditions Mr Ocalan is being held under. This, he said, “makes it clear that the February 15 conspiracy is international.” The operation that led to Mr Ocalan’s arrest reads like a spy thriller, seeing him travel to a number of countries seeking sanctuary a

‘It’d be certain death’: After surviving years of war, Syrian Kurds now flee to Iraq fearing Assad’s draft

Families with boys of conscription age are sending their children to Iraq, hoping to spare them from fighting in Syria’s bloody war, Bel Trew reports T he parents of the Kurdish-Syrian teenager had survived years of war but began to panic when they heard rumours military conscription teams were coming to town. So, they paid a smuggler $200 and sent their oldest son, Mohamed, who was about to turn 18, from the border town of Kobani 350km east to northern Iraq. For most of the nine-year civil war, being drafted into the army of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had not been a concern for the inhabitants of the Kurdish-controlled n

Coronavirus LIVE updates: 1,500 killed; Zydus Cadila launches prog to develop vaccine; first casualty outside Asia

China’s National Health Commission reported an additional 143 deaths nationwide, as well as 2,641 new confirmed cases as of February 14 China confident epidemic will soon be over, says Deputy foreign minister The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China rose to 1,523 as of the end of Friday, after 143 people died over the course of the day, the country's National Health Commission said on Saturday morning. The number of new deaths in central Hubei province, at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak , rose by 139 as of Friday. Most of the new deaths were in Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, with 107 new deaths. A total of 1,123 people in Wuhan have now died from the coronavirus. There were 2,641 new confirmed infections across mainland China, bringing the national total to 66,492. A number of trade fairs and industry conferences in China and overseas have been postponed due

8 shot dead in Mexico’s Michoacan as president visits state

Authorities said the shooting deaths happened in Huetamo, roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Jiquilpan, where the president celebrated the guard’s new deployment on Valentine’s Day. The bodies of eight slain men were found in southern Michoacan state on Friday — the same day President Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited the state to celebrate the opening of another National Guard installation there. Authorities said the shooting deaths happened in Huetamo, roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Jiquilpan, where the president celebrated the guard’s new deployment on Valentine’s Day. The men had all been shot high-powered weapons, official said. A stolen SUV was also found at the scene. No further details were released by investigators. Mexico is experiencing record-levels of homicides since López Obrador took office December 1, 2018, after campaigning on a “hugs not bullets” platform that rejected prior government efforts to stem violence.

S.Sudan president offers key compromise for peace

Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar are under increasing pressure to resolve their differences by February 22 and form a unity government as part of a peace agreement. South Sudan’s president said on Saturday he would return to a system of 10 states, a key opposition demand, paving the way for a unity government and an end to the country’s civil war. “The compromise we have just made is in the interest of peace...I expect the opposition to reciprocate,” Salva Kiir said, after a meeting of top government and military officials in the capital Juba. Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar are under increasing pressure to resolve their differences by February 22 and form a unity government as part of a peace agreement. The pair have already missed two previous deadlines to enshrine peace to end a six-year conflict that has left at least 380,000 people dead and millions in dire poverty. The number of states is contentious because the borders will determine the divisions of power in

US official reveals details of Taliban deal

The US military, which has between 12,000 and 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, will monitor the reduction in violence to ensure the Taliban upholds its commitments, the official said at the Munich Security Conference. A US-Taliban deal for a seven-day reduction of violence in Afghanistan will apply across the country, a senior American official said Friday, unveiling details of the agreement Washington hopes will lead to a full peace accord. The weeklong period has not yet begun but will do so “really soon”, the official said, contradicting a Taliban suggestion it would start on Friday. The partial truce came after more than a year of gruelling talks between US officials and the jihadists as they seek an end to what has become the US’s longest war. “The reduction of violence agreement is very specific. And... it’s nationwide and it includes the Afghans,” the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The US military, which has between 12,000 and 13,0

Turkey Continues Military Buildup in Syria, Seeking Diplomatic Solution From Moscow

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ISTANBUL - Turkey is deploying tanks and armor in Syria’s Idlib province as Damascus continues its offensive against the last rebel enclave. But in an apparent gesture to Moscow, Ankara is pledging to crack down on radical elements in Idlib, along with calls for “a lasting cease-fire.” Damascus’s forces are claiming they are advancing against the rebels’ last stronghold. But in a sign of the intensifying fighting, rebels claimed to have to shot down a Syrian government military helicopter Friday, the second this week. A screen grab taken from a video published by jihadists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham allegedly shows a Syrian military helicopter being downed, Feb. 12, 2020, in Syria's war-torn province of Idlib. Ankara reportedly is stepping up its arming of rebels with sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, along with deploying hundreds of armored vehicles and tanks. The esca

NIA arrests Pulwama cross-LoC traders’ body chief

SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested the president of cross-LOC Traders’ Association, Tanveer Ahmad Wani , in New Delhi after disclosures by arrested DSP, Davinder Singh. Tanveer is the sixth person to be arrested in the case after Davinder Singh was arrested last month on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway while escorting two Hizb terrorists. The NIA also questioned Abdul Rashid Sheikh , former MLA (independent) from Langate, over terror funding. The NIA had raided the residences Tanveer Wani and another trader, Ghulam Ahmad Wani , in Pulwama district in July 2019, but let off both after questioning.  Tanveer is alleged to have funded Naveed Babu, operational commander of Hizbul Mujahideen , who was arrested along with Davinder Singh and three others in the DSP’s car on January 11, on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway near Qazigund. Tanveer is believed to be involved in hawala transactions under the garb of cross-LOC trade and NIA suspects he was fund

Displacements From Syria’s Idlib Hit Record Levels

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UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations said Friday that more than 140,000 civilians have been displaced from northwestern Syria in just the last three days.   An escalation in fighting across Idlib and Aleppo has pushed more than 830,000 people to flee their homes since early December, causing what the U.N. has said is the biggest humanitarian catastrophe since the conflict started in 2011. Some 3 million people live in the province. “Women and children are among those that are suffering the most — they make up about 81% of the recently displaced people,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “Temperatures across northwest Syria have been below freezing for several days, leaving families exposed to increasingly harsh conditions.”   Many of the displaced are moving north toward already overcrowded camps near the Syria-Turkey border.   They are fleeing an escalation in fighting between the Syrian military, which is

Nigeria: Shekau Gives Condition for Chibok Girls' Release

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Photo Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Boko Haram sect, has given a condition under which the remaining Chibok schoolgirls in captivity will be released. More than 100 of the 276 girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, in 2014, have remained in Boko Haram custody. In a video, the Boko Haram leader released 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari visited Borno, Shekau said the schoolgirls would be set free if the federal government let go of the sect members currently in detention. He also asked Buhari not to return to Borno, saying the sect is fully on ground in the north-east. Shekau said the insurgents would attack the president if he returns to Borno. Boko Haram had launched an attack hours after Buhari paid a condolence visit to the state over the killing of 30 persons in Auno, a community near Maiduguri, on Sunday. Read the  original article  on  Daily Trust . Source:  https://allafrica.com/stories/202002140021.html

Syrian rebels shoot down second government helicopter in a week

Syrian rebels shot down a government helicopter on Friday, the second in a week, as thousands continue to be displaced in the country's northern Idlib province under bombardment from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad. Footage posted online by pro-opposition groups and activists appeared to show the government helicopter falling from the sky and turning into a ball of fire. Turkey to hit aircraft targeting civilians in Idlib, Erdogan warns Read More » Activists confirmed to Middle East Eye that the helicopter was shot down in the western Aleppo countryside, where fighting continues to take place between rebels and government forces. Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported that the helicopter came under fire near the town of Qubtan al-Jabal as it approached Syrian rebel positions after taking off in Aleppo. Rami al-Sayyad, an activist working on the outskirts of Aleppo, also confirmed that the helicopter was struck near Qubtan al-Jabal. "The plane dropped

Israeli attack on Damascus airport kills seven fighters: Report

But Syrian state media says its air defences intercepted missiles over the capital before they hit their targets Israeli strikes on Damascus airport late on Thursday killed seven fighters, a UK-based activist group said on Friday, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Iran's military presence in Syria. Syrian state media said only that its air defences intercepted missiles over the capital overnight while Israel did not immediately comment on the strikes. "The hostile missiles came from the occupied Golan [Heights] … and they were downed before they reached their targets," an army statement said. Israel routinely fires missiles at what it says are Iranian targets in Syria, where elite Iranian forces and allied militia play a key role. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strikes launched late on Thursday hit military targets in the area of the international airport. Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Observatory, said the dead were

French people smuggler jailed after being caught at Portsmouth International Port with three Iraqi Kurds in a caravan

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A MAN who was caught smuggling three Kurdish Iraqis into Portsmouth port in a caravan has been jailed for 14 months. French national Jean Dufour, 31, borrowed his parents’ silver Citroen C4 and hired a caravan after being offered 8,000 Euros by a Kurdish refugee in France to transport the men into Britain. But he was caught as soon as he arrived in Portsmouth on January 13 at 7pm by Border Force officers who found the men in squalid conditions. Dufour, whose parents wept at Portsmouth Crown Court as he was jailed, immediately confessed to people smuggling - and even said had been prepared to do it again. Jean Dufour, 31, from France, was jailed at Portsmouth Crown Court for 14 months after smuggling three Iraqi Kurds into Portsmouth from France. Picture: Home Office The defendant had accepted the cash offer while a cash-strapped apprentice at Michelin but when he won a full contract still carried on with the agreement through a sense of ‘obligation,’ his barr

Fighting Disrupts Food Distribution for Thousands in Syria

GENEVA - Fighting in Idlib on Tuesday prevented U.N. trucks carrying food and other relief from crossing the Turkish border into Syria's embattled northwest region. The World Food Program reports the conflict caused a 24-hour break in the distribution of vital supplies. Syria and its Russian ally's military operation to regain control of Idlib from rebel groups has displaced more than 800,000 people since December, 80 percent of them women and children, according to the U.N.   WFP spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said heavy bombardment and armed clashes by the rival forces continue to cause more people to flee. She says thousands of families are traveling in sub-freezing temperatures in search of safety in overcrowded camps. "Many families were forced to flee on foot in the middle of winter, with temperatures at night reaching minus 10 degrees," she said. "Over the past nine years of conflict, people across northwest Syria have already been displ

Foreign Fighters: ‘One of the Most Serious Dimensions’ in Global Counterterrorism Struggle

Over the past few years, ISIL and Al-Qaida terrorist fighters have posed an “unprecedented threat to international peace and security”, the UN counter-terrorism chief said on Wednesday in Vienna, at the close of a joint UN- Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) regional conference on addressing challenges posed by terrorists who have gone to fight overseas. Under-Secretary-General of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, Vladimir Voronkov, recalled that last week he presented to the Security Council the Secretary-General’s report on the continuing threat posed by ISIL. “ISIL is resurgent as a covert network in Iraq and Syria”, he said. “Thousands of foreign terrorist fighters remain at large, posing a threat to Iraq, Syria, and the countries they might return or relocate to”. Mr. Voronkov stressed that all sessions of the conference underlined the need to further strengthen international, regional and bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation – with

Singapore Convicts, Jails 2 Indonesian Maids Over Terrorism-Financing Charges

A Singapore court convicted and sentenced two Indonesian maids to prison terms Wednesday for sending money to supporters of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, an official from Indonesia’s embassy and Singaporean media said. Defendants Turmini, 31, and Retno Hernayati, 37, pleaded guilty at the Singapore District Court to terrorism-financing charges in separate cases, an embassy spokeswoman confirmed. “They both pleaded guilty. The next step is being discussed with their lawyers,” Ratna Lestari Harjana, an official with the embassy, which provided the defendants with consular assistance in their cases, told BenarNews. Turmini, who goes by one name, was sentenced to three years and nine months for transferring 1,217 Singapore dollars (U.S. $878) to a man named Edi Siswanto, the Straits Times newspaper reported. Retno received an 18-month sentence for sending 140 Singapore dollars (U.S. $101) to her fiancé, Fikri Zulfikar, the paper said. She raised the money thr

Team Jammu for task force against narco-terrorism

Appreciating the government’s proposal for the establishment of anti-narcotics task force in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, volunteers of Team Jammu headed by its chairman, Zorawar Singh Jamwal today met Farooq Khan, Adviser to the Lieutenant-Governor, and asserted for the time-bound formation of a full-fledged task force to crush narco-terrorism, which is targeting the younger generation at an alarming rate. ‘Drug mafia had not spared even villages’ While presenting a detailed account on drug menace to Adviser to Lt-Governor Farooq Khan, Team Jammu chairman Zorawar Singh Jamwal said the alarming situation could be gauged from the fact that not only big cities and towns in the UT, but even small villages were not left untouched by the drugs mafia, which had spread its network throughout the UT. While presenting a detailed account on drug menace to Farooq Khan, Zorawar Singh Jamwal said drug addiction was increasing at an alarming rate in Jammu and Kashmir and had beco

Killer coronavirus is 'the worst enemy you can ever imagine' and may pose a greater global threat than terrorism, World Health Organisation warns

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WHO's director general warned coronavirus vaccine was still year and half away   Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said outbreak greater risk to humanity than terrorism The epidemic has so far killed more than 1,000 people and infected over 43,000  The deadly  coronavirus  outbreak is the 'worst enemy you can ever imagine' and more of a threat to humanity than terrorism, the World Health Organisation warns. China  hopes the killer virus, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives and struck down over 44,500 people, will be curbed by April. But WHO's director general, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, said it could rumble on for more than a year and warned a vaccine could take at least 18 months to develop. He added: 'To be honest, a virus is more powerful in creating political, social and economic upheaval than any terrorist attack. It's the worst enemy you can imagine.'     TOP ARTICLES 1/5 READ MORE COVID-19: World Health Organization finally names deadly