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Showing posts from December 13, 2020

CAR says ex-president attempting ‘coup’ as rebels form coalition

Leaders of three main armed rebel groups occupying large areas of the Central African Republic announced a coalition ahead of next week’s elections, while the government accused former president Francois Bozize of an “attempted coup” The move to form a coalition, announced on Saturday, could further increase tensions already on the rise in the troubled country ahead of a presidential and legislative vote on December 27, where the opposition fears massive electoral fraud. The armed groups decided “to combine all of our movements into a single entity, called the Coalition of Patriots for Change or CPC, under a unified command”, they wrote in the statement. The CPC invited “all other armed groups to join”. They also urged its members to “scrupulously respect the integrity of the civilian population” and to allow vehicles belonging to the United Nations and to humanitarian groups to circulate freely. Meanwhile the government said Saturday that Bozize was currently ne

US government hack: Espionage or act of war? What do we know about it?

The suspected Russian hack of US government agencies has led to heated rhetoric from lawmakers, with US Senator Dick Durbin calling it “virtually a declaration of war” and US Senator Marco Rubio saying that “America must retaliate, and not just with sanctions.” But cybersecurity and legal experts said the hack would not be considered an act of war under international law and will likely go down in history as an act of espionage. Here’s why. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE HACK? The hack, first reported by Reuters, hijacked software made by Texas-based SolarWinds Corp. By inserting malicious code into updates pushed to SolarWinds customers, the hackers were for months able to explore the computer networks of private companies, think tanks, and government agencies. Sources familiar with the US investigation said the hack was likely carried out by Russia’s foreign intelligence service. Moscow has denied involvement. The magnitude of the hack is still unclear, but ha

U.S. to blacklist dozens of Chinese firms including SMIC, sources say

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    In total, the United States is expected to add around 80 additional companies and affiliates to the so-called entity list, nearly all of them Chinese. The United States is set to add dozens of Chinese companies, including the country’s top chipmaker SMIC, to a trade blacklist on Friday, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The move, which has not previously been reported, is seen as the latest in President Donald Trump’s effort to cement his tough-on-China legacy. It comes just weeks before Democratic President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office on January 20. In total, the United States is expected to add around 80 additional companies and affiliates to the so-called entity list, nearly all of them Chinese. The designations by the Commerce Department are expected to name some Chinese companies that Washington says have ties to the Chinese military, including some helping it

Over 480 Afghan civilians dead over past three months from Taliban attacks

The Taliban’s continued suicide attacks and bomb blasts over the past three months have resulted in the deaths of more than 480 civilians, Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, said on Saturday. “Over the past three months, the Taliban have killed 487 of our civilians and injured 1,049 others through 35 suicide attacks and 507 bomb blasts,” Arian said in a statement. The ministry spokesman accused the Taliban of committing war crimes by attacking civilians. “The killing of civilians is a war crime and can never be justified,” Arian added. At least 15 civilians were killed and 20 others were injured following a bomb blast in the eastern Afghan province of Ghazni on Friday. Less than two months earlier, at least 24 people died in a suicide bombing outside an education center in the country’s capital, Kabul. The continued violence in Afghanistan is taking place as both the government and the Taliban hold peace negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha. The ta

Extradition Case of 26/11 Accused Tahawwur Rana to Continue Till April 22

The case of extradition of Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, a key accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, to India will continue till April 22, a federal US judge has determined. Rana, 59, has been declared a fugitive by India, where he is facing multiple criminal charges for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed. He was rearrested on June 10 in Los Angeles on an extradition request by India. The Extradition Hearing in this case is continued to April 22, 2021, at 1:30 p.m, Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian, the US District Court of Los Angeles, said in his order dated December 17. Rana is a childhood friend of David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American LeT terrorist who was involved in plotting the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. Headley, 60, was made an approver in the case, and is currently serving a 35-year prison term in the US for his role in the attack. Judge Choolji

Explainer: Russia’s potent cyber and information warfare capabilities

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that Russia was responsible for a cyber attack that embedded malicious code inside US government software systems and those of other governments and companies across the world. The Kremlin has always denied Moscow’s involvement in cyber attacks against the West. It has said that Russia had nothing to do with this latest assault. Here is some information about Russia’s possible motives for such an attack, and details about Russian cyber offensive and information warfare capabilities. Possible Russian motive The Kremlin has said many times it wants to improve ties with the United States, which are at a post-Cold War low and strained by issues from Ukraine to Syria. But it also openly views the United States as Russia’s main geopolitical adversary and as a threat to its national security. President Vladimir Putin has accused Washington of starting a new arms race and NATO of moving military infrastructure closer to Russia’s bo

France charges four for attack on former Charlie Hebdo offices

Four male suspects, aged 17 to 21, were in contact with the main suspect of a cleaver attack in Paris that left two people wounded. French authorities have charged and detained four Pakistanis suspected of links to a meat cleaver attack by a compatriot outside the former offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly that wounded two people, the national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said Friday. The four male suspects, aged 17 to 21, were in contact with the attacker, said a source familiar with the case. They are suspected of being aware of the attacker’s plot and inciting him to carry it out, according to another judicial source close to the investigation. Three of them were charged on Friday with taking part in a terrorist conspiracy and placed in pretrial detention. The fourth had already been charged on Wednesday. Two were arrested in the southwest Gironde department, a third in the northern port city of Caen and the last in the Paris region. “The

Rockets hit US base in Afghanistan, no casualties reported

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Five rockets were fired at a major U.S. base in Afghanistan on Saturday, but there were no casualties, NATO and provincial officials said. The rockets hit Bagram Airfield, said Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the governor in northern Parwan province. Shahkar said that 12 rockets were placed in a vehicle and five of them were fired while police were able to defuse seven others. She couldn’t provide other details on any possible casualties or damage within the U.S. base. She said there are no casualties among civilians in the area. A NATO official confirmed the attack and said initial reports indicated that the airfield was not damaged. No one has immediately claimed responsibility. In April, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for five rocket attacks on the base. There were no casualties. The IS also has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the capital of Kabul in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50

Pakistan’s blasphemy law is used to target the Christian community with impunity

Pakistan’s most humiliating moment is reached every time someone is accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Proof is not needed; the court is just too scared to let the accused go, as happened in the case of Junaid Hafeez, a “visiting” faculty member at the English department of Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, who was sentenced to death by a court in Multan in 2019 after being arrested in 2013. He was a Fulbright scholar with a Master’s from Jackson State University. It is easy to convict people for blasphemy because the law says an insult to the Prophet PBUH can take place even by innuendo. Then, there are the clerics who can scare any judge if they think he is getting soft because of lack of evidence. One such “blasphemy” priest, Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, died a natural death recently after getting many innocent people in trouble over “rumours” of blasphemy. His fiery sermons caused police-guard Mumtaz Qadri to pump 27 bullets into Governor of Punjab Sa

US Accuses China of 'Obstructing' WHO Probe on Covid, 'Peddling' Questionable Vaccines

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Urging the international community to demand transparency from China about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the US has accused Beijing of "obstructing" a WHO probe into the origin of the deadly virus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and "peddling" questionable vaccines one year after the disease broke out. The US leads the world with over 17,442,100 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 313,000 deaths. "Even today, nearly a year after the world first learned of the outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party is still spreading disinformation regarding the virus and obstructing a World Health Organisation (WHO) investigation into its origin and spread," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday. It is also peddling vaccines that lack essential data on safety and efficacy, due to a fundamental disregard for transparency and accountability regarding results from clinical trials. Both actions put Chinese citizens, and the

Truth as a path to reconciliation in Spain and Colombia

In 2002, Eduardo Madina was the victim of an attack by the terrorist group ETA. A bomb hidden underneath his car resulted in long-term physical damage including the amputation of his left leg. Since then, the former deputy of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE) has been one of the most outspoken voices for reconciliation. His commitment to truth as a path to peace now resonates more strongly than ever in an increasingly polarised world where concepts such as memory and forgiveness divide societies. “I have always defended the need for coexistence, I believe in the reintegration of those who committed the crimes,” Madina tells Equal Times almost two decades after the attack, which is now only a marginal political issue. His position, he explains, is personal: “Everyone has the right to express themselves freely. One thing that has always been true of victims is that we are a diverse group. Trying to homogenise our opinions would be a serious mistake.” Two

Spotlight on Global Jihad (December 16-10, 2020) - The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

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Main events of the past week Routine attacks continued in ISIS’s various provinces in Syria, Iraq and throughout Africa and Asia. Noteworthy examples: Syria: Clashes continue between ISIS and the Syrian army and forces supporting it in the desert region in eastern Syria. Russian and Syrian fighter jets reportedly provided air support to Syrian forces. ISIS’s intensive activity in the Euphrates Valley continued, in the form of activating IEDs, shooting at vehicles, targeted killings, and attacking military positions). Iraq: ISIS’s intensive activity in northern and western Iraq continued, in the form of sniper fire, mortar shell fire, and attacking positions and compounds of the Iraqi security forces. Worth noting are the burning of two oil wells in the Kirkuk Province and the bombing of high-voltage lines and pylons supplying electricity to the city of Al-Qaim, as part of what ISIS calls the “ ongoing economic war ” against the Iraqi government. The Sinai Peninsula: ISIS’s ac