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Showing posts from July 5, 2020

Hong Kong opposition kicks off primary elections under shadow of security law

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong’s opposition camp set up polling booths across the Chinese-ruled city on Saturday for primary elections aimed at selecting democracy candidates who stand the best chance of success in Legislative Council elections in September. FILE PHOTO: A Star Ferry boat crosses Victoria Harbour in front of a skyline of buildings during sunset, as a meeting on national security legislation takes place in Hong Kong, China June 29, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu The primaries come less than two weeks after Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation on the Asian financial hub, stoking concerns that wide-ranging freedoms not seen in mainland China will be crushed. The law punishes what China describes broadly as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with up to life in prison and allows mainland security agents to operate officially in Hong Kong for the first time. On the eve of the primaries, police searched the office of

Money-laundering drug cartels are driving deforestation in Guatemala

Drug traffickers in Central America have been known to practise “narco-ranching”, in which they launder cash by buying land and cattle, then selling the meat in Mexico for money that can’t be traced to drug activity. A new analysis suggests this method may be responsible for up to 87 per cent of deforestation in a nature reserve in Guatemala – and the situation may be similar in protected forests along the drug transport corridor countries … Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2247431-money-laundering-drug-cartels-are-driving-deforestation-in-guatemala/

Attend the UK National Srebrenica Memorial Day (Online) to “Learn the Consequences of Hatred” and “Rectify the Past” - Sarajevo Times

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Arnesa Buljusmic-Kustura of Remembering Srebrenica says tuning into the UK National Srebrenica Memorial Day Commemoration this Saturday is a chance for people across the globe who “looked away” during the genocide to pay respect to the victims and survivors. UK charity Remembering Srebrenica will be broadcasting the UK National Srebrenica Memorial Day Commemoration online via their social media accounts of Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook on Saturday, July 11 at 7pm (British Summer Time) in remembrance of the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre. During the online Memorial Day event, genocide survivors including Munira Subašić, Suhra Sinanovic, Selma Jahic and Mevlida Lazibi will share their personal experiences. “Please, tune in and honor them by hearing their powerful stories,” Remembering Srebrenica wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday. The event compère Arnesa Buljusmic-Kustura, who is also Operations Manager of Remembering Srebrenica, spoke to the Sarajevo Tim

Explained: Why Hagia Sophia’s return as mosque puts Turkey’s secular credentials on a prayer

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A view of the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, an UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Istanbul’s main tourist attractions in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Friday, July 10, 2020. On Friday, Turkey’s highest court allowed for the conversion of the nearly 1,500 year-old Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque . The centuries-old structure, listed as a Unesco World Heritage site, was originally a cathedral in the Byzantine empire before it was turned into a mosque in 1453, when Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmet II’s Ottoman forces. In the 1930s, however, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, shut down the mosque and turned it into a museum in an attempt to make the country more secular. Turkey’s Council of State had declared in its ruling that the conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into the museum by the country’s founder was illegal. An hour after the court’s v

Five killed in attack on South African church, hostages freed

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Five people were killed in an attack on a church west of Johannesburg in the early hours of Saturday, South African police said, with some of the attackers taking hostages who were later freed. Police arrested around 40 people and seized 40 firearms, including rifles, shotguns and handguns, related to the attack on the International Pentecost Holiness Church in Zuurbekom, police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo told the eNCA television station. Police earlier posted pictures of some of the confiscated weapons on Twitter, saying they were dealing with a “hostage situation and shooting”. One potential motive for the attack is a power struggle at the church between rival factions, local media reported. “(E)verything was in complete disarray, so we have arrested all those that we reasonably believe are suspects, we are busy interviewing and interrogating them to establish exactly what the motive was,” Naidoo told eNCA. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-

Intel warning on terrorists ‘action’ with Pak help in J-K, security forces on alert :Report

Security forces at India-Pakistan border have been put on high alert after an intelligence input revealed that terrorists are trying to sneak into Jammu and Kashmir to carry out ‘action’. According to the input, “There is likely presence of armed terrorists in Bhimber Gali and Naushera sectors with an intention to infiltrate to carry out BAT (Border Action Team) action.” Sources in intelligence agencies have told ANI that input has been shared with forces and Border Security Force (BSF) to keep a close watch on activities in these areas. Forces suspect that the BAT of Pakistan Army is facilitating terrorists to carry out action soon. There have been movements of terrorists towards the Indian side. Pakistan’s BAT consists of its army commandos and terrorists belonging to various terror outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba etc. BAT has started targeting civilians as well. In January, the group killed a civilian identified as Mohammad Aslam whose h

Dubai 'haven for trade-based money laundering': Report

ANKARA   A global financial center Dubai is a "haven for trade-based money laundering" with its nearly 30 free trade zones, a recent report published by a US-based think tank claimed. "Dubai's prosperity is a steady stream of illicit proceeds borne from corruption and crime," said Carnegie Endowment's report on the Arabic country's role in facilitating corruption and global illicit financial flows. It accused both Emirati leaders and the international community of continuing "to turn a blind eye to the problematic behaviors, administrative loopholes, and weak enforcement practices that make Dubai a globally attractive destination for dirty money." "Corrupt and criminal actors from around the world operate through or from Dubai. Afghan warlords, Russian mobsters, Nigerian kleptocrats, European money launderers, Iranian sanctions-busters, and East African gold smugglers, all find Dubai a conducive place to operate," it warn

Indians, Tibetans and Taiwanese hold protest against China at Times Square - Phayul

DHARAMSHALA, July 5: Indian Americans, Tibetans and members of the Taiwanese community held a protest against China at Times Square, New York on Friday. Their statement sought “diplomatic isolation and economic boycott of the CCP” and urged PM Modi, President Trump, and PM Shinzo Abe to lead a global coalition against China. Jagdish Sewhani, President of the American Indian Public Affairs Committee, said that as the international community battled with COVID-19, China chose to show its true intentions by displaying aggression against its neighbours including India. “I say it rogue, because the way China is treating people in Hong Kong, repression against the peace-loving people of Tibet. And now it is doing the same against the Muslims / Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China. Its entire population is under constant surveillance, and now it wants to convert the entire world into a surveillance state,” remarked the president. Dorjee Tseten, MP of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, condemned

Persecuted Pakistani Hindus demand justice, protest at UN council against fundamentalists, Imran Khan government

GENEVA: Highlighting the plight of Hindus in Pakistan, a group of protesters on Friday (local time) gathered at UN Headquarters in Geneva during the 44th session of UN Human Rights Council to protest against the persecution faced by them at the hands of the Islamic fundamentalists supported by Imran Khan government. "Hindus in Pakistan are systematically marginalised, persecuted and discriminated which led to an increased level of violence notably religiously motivated kidnapping, assault, sexual crimes and murder. Hate messages against Hindus, who form a minuscule minority in Pakistan, are routinely expressed by Pakistan lawmakers and politicians," said the protesters. Moreover, the hard-line radical Islamists in Pakistan oppose the construction of the Hindu temple claiming that it is contrary to the idea of the Islamic nation. Recently, one Hindu temple in Sindh was brutally attacked by an Islamist mob. "These attacks are often orchestrated by Islamist

EU sues Austria, Belgium, Netherlands over anti-money laundering rules

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Thursday it was suing Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands because the three countries had not fully integrated EU rules on anti-money laundering into their national laws. The 27-nation bloc’s executive cited a lack of action on EU law related to fundamental aspects of the anti-money laundering framework “such as betting and gambling legislation (Austria), mechanisms under which the Financial Intelligence Units exchange documents and information (Belgium), and the information to be provided on the beneficial ownership of corporate and other legal entities (Netherlands)”. In a statement, the Commission said it had filed its suit at the European Court of Justice, which has ultimate jurisdiction in member states, asking it to approve financial sanctions against the three countries. The Dutch finance ministry said all legislation required by the European Commission had been accepted by the country’s Senate on June 23 and wo

Why Brexit could make it harder to fight money laundering

The prime minister says the United Kingdom will not extend the Brexit transition period. The UK is  leaving transition  on 31 December 2020, with or without a deal. London lawyers have questioned whether intelligence sharing has become a political bargaining chip in ongoing negotiations. The  City of London is asking whether Brexit risks making the UK’s money laundering fight harder. If we don’t share information with our neighbours, it will be more difficult to detect and prosecute financial crime. Intelligence sharing by law enforcement across borders is just one aspect of the immediate choice facing the UK in tackling financial crime. More fundamentally, the UK must now decide whether to follow the US approach to financial sanctions, stick with the European Union’s priorities, or go it alone. The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 is the vehicle which the UK must use to plot its future course in sanctions and anti-money laundering. Without the anti-money la

Bosnia and Herzegovina is no longer on EU's List for Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing - Sarajevo Times

Bosnia and Herzegovina is not officially on the European Union’s list of high-risk third countries that have strategic deficiencies in the regime of preventing money laundering and combating terrorist financing, which pose a significant threat to the Union’s financial system. Commission Delegated Regulation of May 7th this year entered into force, which is more in line with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list. The European Commission recognized the progress and measures taken in this area that Bosnia and Herzegovina has made in the past period, and concluded that at this stage, according to available information, Bosnia and Herzegovina has no strategic deficiencies in the regime of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. The Commission will continue to monitor the effective implementation of such measures. Source: http://www.sarajevotimes.com/164853-2/

Luton man jailed for life for plotting terrorist attack on London Pride parade

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Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, 29, of Luton, must serve a minimum of 25 years following his sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday (Thursday. His sister, 25-year-old Sneha Chowdhury, also of Luton, who kept her brother’s plans secret, will be sentenced on a date yet to be set. The pair were convicted in February following a six-and-a-half-month counter terrorism investigation. Mohiussannath Chowdhury Chowdhury had previously been acquitted of a sword attack on police outside Buckingham Palace in 2017. During the trial, it was heard how Mohiussunnath Chowdhury confided his plans to undercover officers he thought were his friends, but who were in deployed as part of a Met counter terrorism investigation into his activities. He was also recorded at home telling his sister that he was “doing another attack” and asked her for help to practice stabbing people – which Sneha Chowdhury did not report to police. Counter terrorism detectives identified that soon after being released fr

Survivors recount Bosnia's Srebrenica genocide, 25 years on

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At 4:15pm on July 11, 1995, Bosnia's Srebrenica - a United Nations-protected safe zone where about 50,000 Bosniaks had sought refuge - fell to advancing Serb forces, who claimed the town for a Greater Serbia. "Here we are ... in Serb Srebrenica. On the eve of yet another Serb holiday, we give this town to the Serb people as a gift," Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic said at the time in front of the TV cameras. "Finally, after the rebellion against the dahis, the time has come to take revenge on the Turks in this region," he said, using the term "dahis" to refer to renegade janissary officers who ruled Serbia during the Ottoman Empire. By Turks he meant Muslims and in the ensuing days, Bosnian Serb forces along with a Serbian paramilitary unit killed more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in a massacre that constituted a genocide, according to the UN judges. The Serb forces used bulldozers to throw the bodies in numerous mass graves

Racism & The battle of the statues: rewriting world history

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The statues that were erected to claim the public spaces around them for white people only are finally coming down. Protesters and police gather around the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square during the Black Lives Matter protest rally in London, Sunday, June 7, 2020 [AP Photo/Frank Augstein] Towards the end of Mozart's signature opera, Don Giovanni, the eponymous character meets his squire Leporello in a graveyard, next to a statue of "Il Commendatore". In the very first act of the opera, Don Giovanni had killed Il Commendatore after attempting to rape his daughter, Donna Anna. At the graveyard, as Don Giovanni was teasing Leporello, the towering statue begins to speak, and warns the libertine seducer that he will soon pay for his sins. In a moment of frivolity and overconfidence, Don Giovanni invites the statue to dinner, and the statue accepts. In the final scene of the opera, the statue arrives at Don Giov

Retired NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik warns public Black Lives Matter fundraising is ran by a terrorist -

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SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – As the protest for social justice continue across the United States, some are critical of the true intentions of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. To many, the protests seem to have turned into a extremely radical political movement rather than a movement for social justice police brutality. The group has grown immensely in popularity and strength since the unfortunate death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protests have not stopped, but critics of the movements believe many, if not most, of the people supporting “Black Lives Matter” don’t embrace the true political intentions of the movement. The “Black Lives Matter” movement is partnered with the nonprofit group, Thousand Currents . This is important because the Vice Chair of the Thousand Currents nonprofit, is Susan Rosenberg. Susan Rosenberg is a convicted terrorist. In 1985, Rosenberg was convicted for possessing hundreds of pounds of explosives. She and her organizations involved in multiple ro

Pro-democracy activists' books removed from Hong Kong libraries

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Books by prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy figures have become unavailable in the Chinese-ruled city's public libraries as they are being reviewed to see whether they violate a new national security law, a government department said on Sunday. The sweeping legislation, which came into force on Tuesday night at the same time its contents were published, punishes crimes related to secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with punishments of up to life in prison. Hong Kong public libraries "will review whether certain books violate the stipulations of the National Security Law," the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which runs the libraries, said in a statement. "While legal advice will be sought in the process of the review, the books will not be available for borrowing and reference in libraries." A search for books by young activist Joshua Wong or pro-democracy politician Tanya Chan on the public librari

Is China trying to revive a terrorist group in PoK?

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Duplicitous dragon could be dodgy again China, for a decade, blocked the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under the United Nations sanctions regime. Azhar is the mastermind of several attacks against India. China’s support to Pakistani terrorists was seen as a way for Beijing to keep its hold on its all-weather ally Pakistan. And now, reports say that China is trying to revive a terror group in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). According to sources, Chinese officials recently met terrorists from Al Badr in PoK. Al Badr is a defunct terror group which China could bring back to life. Al Badr was born out of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in 1998 after the ISI encouraged terrorists to operate independently. Al Badr had set two objectives for itself – to strengthen the “Kashmir freedom struggle” and “liberate” Jammu and Kashmir from India and merge it with Pakistan. The group has a history of perpetrating

Hypocracy, China’s Two Yardsticks - Northlines

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After Doklam, how China is opening a new front on the Himalayan border R C Ganjoo China’s Machiavellian policy for Muslims is neither keeping them close nor distant from them. China’s influence in Pakistan is limited but significant, and in Afghanistan, it is very modest.   China is seriously concerned about Pakistan’s, instability and the inability to control extremists. Beijing is worried, that in near future Islamic radicals, having foreign support may give a further flip to separatist forces in Xinjiang. Chinese leaders do recognize that the country’s westernmost regions are poorly defended and vulnerable to internal dissent and external threats. The success of Afghans against the former Soviet Union has certainly encouraged   Uyghurs, the Islamist groups in Xinjiang. Xinjiang having a population of 2.18 crores is spread over 1.6 million km  (  in size to Iran), one-sixth of China . Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and

‘Fake News’, Says Kazakhstan After China Warns Of 'Unknown Pneumonia' Deadlier Than Covid-19

China has warned its citizens living in Kazakhstan of a local "unknown pneumonia" which, it said, has a "much higher" fatality rate than the Covid-19 disease, prompting the Central Asian country to dismiss it as "fake news." The "unknown pneumonia in Kazakhstan caused 1,772 deaths in the first six months of the year, including 628 people in June alone", the Chinese embassy in the central Asian country said in a statement on its WeChat platform on Thursday, adding that the fatalities also included Chinese citizens. However, Kazakhstan has dismissed as "fake news" the warning put out by the Chinese embassy. “The fatality rate of the disease is much higher than COVID-19," state-run Global Times quoted the embassy's statement on Friday. Many organisations including Kazakhstan's health department are studying the "virus of this pneumonia", the embassy said. There has not been any indic