A gun battle erupted late Monday during a large-scale Israeli arrest
raid in the northern city of Jenin, reportedly to arrest a senior
Islamic Jihad official, security sources and locals said.
Palestinian security officials said over 40 Israeli military vehicles
raided Jenin and the refugee camp in the city, leading to violent
clashes with youths.
The target of the arrest was reportedly Bassem al-Saadi, a senior Islamic Jihad official.
Israeli forces also surrounded a house belonging to the Abu al-Hija
family, affiliated with Hamas, and clashes ensued with armed gunmen.
Majdi al-Hija, his brother Alaa, his son, and other family members
were detained, with Israeli forces using explosive devices to destroy
the gate to the home.
Five Palestinians were injured by tear gas during the operation and taken to hospital for treatment.
Initial reports about Palestinian deaths during the gunfight have not been confirmed, the mayor of Jenin said.
Israeli media reported that soldiers came under heavy fire during the
arrest raid, with an Israeli soldier moderately to severely injured in
the gun battle.
Large backup forces were reported in the area, including an Israeli army helicopter, to evacuate the injured soldier.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said she could only confirm “ongoing activity” in Jenin, without providing any further details.
Christian Attacked by Muslims on Temple Mount
A Christian tourist from France was assaulted by Muslims atop
Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Tuesday after waving an Israeli flag at
Judaism’s holiest site.
Video footage of the incident showed the Christian man being mobbed
by at least four assailants who beat him about the head with stones. His
life was likely saved by Israeli police forcibly intervening and
escorting the bloodied tourist from site.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and reported to be in stable
condition. He now faces charges for disrupting public order. Jews and
Christians are forbidden to express their faith in any way, shape or
form while visiting the Temple Mount for fear of violent Muslim
backlash, just as happened on Tuesday.
Four assailants, including a member of the Islamic Trust that
oversees the Temple Mount, were arrested for taking part in the attack
on a Christian visitor.
A day later, local Muslim and Arab Christian leaders signed a
document asserting that the Jews had no religious or historical
connection to the Temple Mount, and therefore should not be permitted to
visit the holy site.
The Temple Mount is “purely and exclusively sacred to Muslims,”
declared former Jerusalem mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sabri at a press
conference presenting the “Blessed Aksa Mosque Document.”
Many local Arab Christian leaders have gone along with and even
supported such claims by their Muslim counterparts, despite the fact
that the New Testament is full of descriptions of the Temple Mount as a
site most holy to the Jewish people, including Yeshua (Jesus) himself
(John 2:15–16).
Blog: The rocky road of integration of Ethiopian Jews
The Jewish New Year is around the corner! Rosh HaShana, the Jewish
New Year, begins on September 14. Twice a year Israel Today distributes
food parcels to needy new immigrants in absorption centers. In spring at
Passover and once again at Rosh HaShana. Stand with us to aid socially disadvantaged families and children!
The life of the majority of the Ethiopian Jews is characterized by
social and economic challenges. This holds true for both, the new
Ethiopian immigrants arriving nowadays and Ethiopians who immigrated
decades ago and for their children as well.
The biggest waves of immigration were back in the 1980s and 1990s
which peaked during operation “Solomon” (1991). Still, the ongoing
economic hardship can be seen in the fact that about half of the 125,000
Ethiopian Israelis live under the poverty line. One reason for is that
once they arrived in Israel they didn’t have any family to support them
and were therefore, economically and financially left on their own.
In addition to economic challenges, they faced cultural differences,
language barriers and a lot of those that arrived in Israel were
elderly. Due to the fact that most of the older Ethiopians were never
eligible for military service after they immigrated, some of them fail
to understand the hardships and challenges their children endure while
serving or preparing for service in the IDF. The second generation
therefore can’t rely on the experiences or understanding of their
parents.
Israeli society often expects that the Ethiopian-Jewish community
become "Israeli" as soon as possible after their immigration by adopting
an Israeli lifestyle and habits. But like all immigrant communities,
this community has its own ancient and unique cultural characteristics.
Moshe Selomon, a social entrepreneur with Ethiopian roots told the news
agency Tazpit that this is one of the reasons why integration attempts
often failed in the past. “The authorities tried to integrate us by
erasing our special characteristics and heritage.” Such an expectation
can be unrealistic and painful to immigrants. “I strongly believe each
group in Israeli society contributes its flavor. Therefore, Israeli
society should embrace diversity, in order to create a better, more
inclusive atmosphere, where there is a place for all the groups that
compose Israeli society,” Selomon continued.
To embolden the Jewish-Ethiopian identity and their self-esteem,
Selomon brings back successful Israelis of Ethiopian origin to their old
neighborhoods, so that they can talk with the children living there and
serve as role models. “The Ethiopian community possesses great power,”
he explained. “It’s the same power that enabled us to walk for thousands
of kilometers in order to immigrate to Israel. This power needs to be
harnessed to the benefit of the Ethiopian community and Israeli
society.”
This is a blog post from "Bundle of Love - Immigrants" from our
"Support Israel" section. We appreciate every donation. In order to help
the Land of Israel and her immigrants see "Support Israel".
Orthodox Jews More Like Christians Than Other Jews?
Orthodox Jews are like evangelical Christians. They believe in God,
vote, worship, act and raise their children more like evangelicals than
like any other Jews. That is the revelation of a new Pew Research study
on the attitudes of Orthodox Jews in America. Here are some of the
surprising conclusions. On Israel
The survey finds that almost nine out of every ten Orthodox Jews
(84%) believe that Israel was given by God to the Jewish people. That is
more than twice the number of other American Jews (35%) who hold this
view. Among evangelicals 82% say they believe that the land of Israel
was given to the Jewish people by God.
Orthodox Jewish attitudes towards the Israeli/Palestinian peace
process are much closer to evangelical Christian views than to other
Jews. Most Orthodox Jews do not believe that Israel can coexist
peacefully alongside an independent Palestinian state. Orthodox Jews are
less than half as likely as other Jews to support a state for the
Palestinians.
Like many evangelicals, most Orthodox Jews support building Jewish
settlement in the West Bank. Non-Orthodox Jews were much more likely
than Orthodox Jews to say that building Jewish settlements in the West
Bank hurts Israel’s security (47% vs. 16%).
Modern Orthodox Jews have a very strong attachment to Israel. Almost
all of them say that they are very emotionally attached to Israel and
that caring about Israel is essential to being Jewish (79%). They are
also convinced that the U.S. is not supportive enough of Israel (64%). On Politics
Similar patterns can be seen in Orthodox Jewish political views.
Orthodox Jews and Christian evangelicals support the Republican Party
(57% and 66%) compared to a mere 18% of non-Orthodox Jews who back
Republicans. In the U.S. non-orthodox Jews lean heavily toward the
Democratic Party.
Like evangelicals, Orthodox Jews tend to identify as Republicans
because they hold conservative values on social issues such as
homosexuality. Orthodox Jews are far more likely than other Jews to say
that homosexuality should be discouraged in society (70% compared to
38%). On Faith
Asked about the importance of faith in their lives, the large
majority of Orthodox Jews (83%) and evangelicals (86%) say that religion
is very important to them. Only one in every five of other Jews asked
(20%) say that faith or religion have meaning for them. Orthodox Jews
and evangelical Christians frequently attend religious services (74% and
75%, respectively). Only 12% of non-Orthodox Jews go to synagogue at
least once a month. Most modern Jews never go to synagogue at all.
The report shows that 93% of Christian evangelicals and 89% of
Orthodox Jews believe in God with absolute certainty. Only 34% of all
other Jews share this belief. What does it mean?
The Orthodox Jewish community is growing far more rapidly than other,
non-Orthodox Jewish populations. 98% of all Orthodox Jews will marry a
Jewish spouse, while more than half of all other Jews will intermarry.
Orthodox Jews will raise on average more than five-times as many
children in their lifetime compared to all other Jews.
As the populations of Orthodox Jews continues to grow at a rapid
pace, and the numbers of all other Jews shrink, there will eventually
come about a shift in the characteristics and practice of Jewish life in
areas of faith, social values and political views.
The similarities between the Orthodox Jewish and evangelical
communities have been a source of inspiration to many pro-Israel
Christian groups who are working together with the Orthodox primarily on
issues concerning Israel. A number of evangelical pro-Israel groups are
mobilizing support for Israel politically and financially while putting
emphasis on the message of the Bible while strengthening moral and
godly values in society.
COMMENTARY: Was Jesus a Christian?
I once heard a Jewish believer make this sobering statement: “Jews
don’t need a Christian Christ. Christians need a Jewish Jesus.” Hmmm, I
thought, he has a point.
Many Christians are shocked to learn that Jesus, the one they
consider the founder of Christianity, was born a Jew, died a Jew, arose a
Jew, is seated in Heaven a Jew and will return as a Jew on steroids –
“the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David” (Rev.
5:5). But their eyes really start to cross when they learn Jesus would
have never thought himself a Christian. Or called himself one.
The term "Christian" did not come into existence until decades later
when unbelievers in Antioch started calling his followers that name
(Acts 11:26). And as many historians believe, it was not a compliment.
But a mockery.
But what’s truly rattling the stained-glass windows of Christendom
these days is the discovery by more and more believers that Yeshua never
started, much less converted to, the religion of Christianity. That he
came, not to start a new religion, but to fulfill the types and shadows
of the only religion God has ever given His people. Or ever will.
Namely, the Mosaic Law. And Yeshua’s arrival signaled that even that
divine religion had fulfilled its purpose. “Therefore the Law has become
our tutor to lead us to Messiah, so that we may be justified by faith.
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor” (Gal.
3:24,25).
Christianity did not begin to organize into a religion until almost a
hundred years after Yeshua’s ascension. It reached full religious
status under Constantine, who after severing the faith from its Jewish
roots, made it the chief religion of the Roman Empire. And himself, as
pontifex maximus, its chief priest. In the process, the simple gospel
message that we could now come boldly into God’s presence through faith
in Yeshua was nullified. It was replaced by a glitzy, full-blown,
ecclesiastical approach to God through a robed priesthood unsanctioned
by Scripture. A religion given theological support by a handful of
influential writers, rightly called “the Fathers of the Church.”
These Church scribes, unlike the Jewish writers of the NT who grew up
with the Scriptures, had little knowledge of, or interest in, God’s
promises to Israel. Converted from pagan backgrounds, they preferred the
“wisdom” of the Greek philosophers, especially Plato. And their
leavened teachings soon pushed God’s ecclesia off the bedrock of
Scripture onto the shifting sand of man’s thoughts.
And that’s where we’ve been ever since – even after the Reformation!
In retrospect, have we been any less blind to the gospel than the Jews
in thinking Yeshua gave us a new religion called Christianity to
practice?
But today is a new day. And God’s Spirit beckons. “Come, let us
return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has
wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He
will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him” (Hosea
6:1,2).
Where is the Christian world?
The photo to the left is of a young Christian girl whose family fled
Syria ahead of invading jihadist hordes and today lives as beggars on
the streets of northern Turkey. She is just one of a great many in a
similar situation, and they are the lucky ones. Countless other
Christians have been brutalized and massacred in the Middle East in
recent years.
The photo was shared on Facebook by the Israeli Christian Lobby, a
group of Arabic-speaking Christians that both lobbies for Christian
issues in Israel and publicizes the fact that the Jewish state is the
one safe place for Christians in this volatile region.
Considering the deafening silence of the Christian West in regards to
Syrian and Iraqi Christians like this little girl, the Israeli
Christian Lobby appealed to “our Jewish brothers to request that the
government of Israel open its borders to these Christian refugees.”
While Israel is ill-equipped to handle a flood of refugees, the
response from average Israelis, at least on Facebook, was overwhelmingly
positive.
“We must give them shelter in Israel,” wrote one Jewish commenter. “Bring them to the Land [of Israel]!!!” insisted another.
“Who better than our people knows this [suffering]?” noted one
Israeli Jewess. “She should seek refuge in Israel,” recommended a
respondent.
Others were outraged at the plight of these Christians and the lack of response by the global Christian leadership.
“The Pope is mute and deaf,” concluded one Israeli, while another
pointed out that Christian leaders like the Pope “only pay attention
when Jews and Israel are involved.”
Israeli President: It's Our Right to Settle This Land
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin last week stated unequivocally that
it is the right of Jews and the Jewish state to settle the biblical Land
of Israel.
“I love the land of Israel with all my heart. I have never and will
never give up on this land. For me, our right to this land is not a
matter of political debate,” Rivlin said in a meeting with Jewish
settler leaders.
Rivlin suggested that Israel more firmly cling to this right,
debatable as its implementation may be, in national discourse and the
peace process.
“We must not give anyone the sense that we are in any doubt about our
right to our land,” the president said. “For me, the settlement of the
land of Israel is an expression of that right, our historical right, our
national right.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in the Israeli
government have long demanded that recognition of the Jews’ religious
and historical connection and claims to this land be a starting point of
peace negotiations with the Arabs.
But Rivlin was also adamant that acting on the right to settle the
Land of Israel must be accompanied by compassion for and care of the
non-Jewish population.
“Our sovereignty in this land means responsibility for all those who
live here, and obliges all of us to uphold the strictest of moral codes,
which is inherent in each and every one of us,” concluded Rivlin.
Deir Yassin Massacre Myth Resurfaced
A stone thrown into a puddle will cause all sorts of light debris
buried in the mud to surface. Jeremy Corbyn's quest to become the next
Labour Party leader has created a similar effect in the puddle of
British politics, allowing rotten debris like Holocaust denier Paul
Eisen to surface.
It turns out that in 2013, Corbyn attended Eisner's annual
anti-Israel event titled "Deir Yassin Remembered." Having surfaced from
the sludge, it now needs to be addressed.
But before directly addressing this, I want to draw attention to an article by STV (Scottish Television) journalist Stephen Daisley, who did an outstanding job exposing the danger inherent in the popularity of Corbyn.
Corbyn, Daisly correctly reasoned, is "just a symptom and a symbol"
of the anti-Zionist phenomenon that "has removed much of the need for
classical anti-Semitism by recycling the old superstitions as a
political critique of the State of Israel."
It is in the midst of such a phenomenon that people like Eisen can
appear as compassionate humanists rather than what they really are.
Otherwise, as Daisley had rightly asked, "why is Deir Yassin remembered,
but not Safed or Hebron or the Hadassah convoy?"
Yet, even this comparison is misleading because Daisley, like most
people, is still under the impression that there was a massacre of
Palestinians by Israelis at Deir Yassin.
In the Palestinian annals, Deir Yassin - a small village west of
Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Jewish militias Etzel and Lehi on
April 9, 1948 - has become the symbol for the "Nakba," the
"catastrophic" military defeat that in its wake spawned the Palestinian
refugee problem. The fate of Deir Yassin has become their remembrance
day, held on May 15, and it is of paramount importance to them.
At the risk of being liked to "Holocaust deniers,"
I find it necessary to highlight the work of military historian Uri
Milstein, who spent 30 years investigating this affair that took place
during Israel's War of Independence.
In his book The Birth of a Palestinian Nation (2012),
Milstein's scathing criticism is directed not toward Palestinians, but
rather toward Jews who, out of narrow political interests and internal
rivalry, have perpetuated the massacre myth.
The battle of Deir Yassin itself came as a result of intelligence
that Arab soldiers had infiltrated this otherwise peaceful village in
order to block the road to Jerusalem. This led the two right-wing
militias, Etzel and Lehi, to propose to the more left-wing Haganah
(which later became the IDF) a joint operation against the village as
part of a larger operation aimed at clearing the only road from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem.
As everybody well understood, the fate of Jerusalem depended who controlled that road.
The plan was accepted by all factions, which is why several Haganah
men armed with machine guns were placed on Mount Herzl facing the
village to provide cover for the Etzel and Lehi assault troops.
During the battle, some 40 Jewish soldiers were wounded and six were
killed. There were also 110 dead Palestinians, including women and
children. Dreadful as the outcome was, civilians were killed during the
heat of battle, and not after it.
In his book, Milstein willingly accepts Palestinian anthropologist
Sharif Kanaana's definition of massacre, which is "intentional killing
of captives – civilians, military men and soldiers – after they have
surrendered…"
Kanaana, who also studied the Deir Yassin affair, seemed to concur
with Milstein in that that the label "massacre" in regards to the battle
of Deir Yassin was a "lie that originated in disputes between the
Haganah on one hand and Etzel and Lehi on the other." The Palestinians
for their part exploited the myth to their own advantage.
This is not to say that Israel's conduct in times of war is flawless.
The War of Independence was ruthless, and both sides did whatever they
could to gain the upper hand.
From this perspective, however, "Deir Yassin Remembered" as
enthusiastically endorsed by Corbyn seems like a myth dredged up from
the mud for the benefit of malevolent forces interested not in peace and
justice, but in the vilification and destruction of the Jewish nation.
Satellite analysis confirms the destruction of the main temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, the United Nations says.
Obama renames North America's tallest mountain as 'Denali'
President Barack Obama will change the name of North America's
tallest mountain peak from Mount McKinley to Denali. The White House
bestowed the traditional Alaska Native name on the eve of a historic
presidential visit to Alaska.
By renaming the peak Denali, an Athabascan word meaning "the high
one," Obama is wading into a sensitive and decades-old conflict between
residents of Alaska and Ohio.
Alaskans have informally called the 20,320-foot (6,194-meter)
mountain Denali for years, but the federal government recognizes its
name evoking the 25th president, William McKinley, who was born in Ohio
and assassinated early in his second term.
"With our own sense of reverence for this place, we are officially
renaming the mountain Denali in recognition of the traditions of Alaska
Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska," said Interior
Secretary Sally Jewell.
The announcement came as Obama prepared to depart early Monday on a
three-day visit to Alaska, becoming the first sitting president to
travel north of the Arctic Circle. As part of his visit, Obama is
attempting to show solidarity with Alaska Natives, and planned to hold a
round-table session with a group of Alaska Natives just after arriving
Monday in Anchorage.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who had pushed legislation for years to change
the name, said Alaskans were "honored" to recognize the mountain as
Denali - a change in tone for the Alaska Republican, who had spoken out
against Obama's energy policies in anticipation of his visit to her
state.
"I'd like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this
significant change to show honor, respect, and gratitude to the
Athabascan people of Alaska," Murkowski said in a statement.
Prior efforts by Alaska's leaders to change the name date back to
1975, but have been stymied by members of Ohio's congressional
delegation. It was unclear whether Ohio leaders or other opponents of
the change would mount an effort to block the resignation.
It was unclear whether Ohio leaders or others would mount an effort
to block the change. There was no immediate response to inquiries
seeking comment from House Speaker John Boehner and other Ohio
lawmakers.
The White House cited Jewell's authority to change the name, and the
Interior Department said Jewell planned to issue a secretarial order
officially changing it to Denali.
The peak got its officially recognized name in 1896, when a
prospector was exploring mountains in central Alaska, the White House
said. Upon hearing the news that McKinley, a Republican, had received
his party's nomination to be president, the prospector named it after
him and the name was formally recognized.
The White House noted that McKinley never visited Alaska, and said
the site is significant culturally to Alaska natives and central to the
Athabascan creation story.
First ever MPhil degree in Hindi awarded in Pakistan
For the first time in Pakistan's history, a university has awarded an
MPhil degree in Hindi. Military-run National University of Modern
Languages (NUML) here has become the first Pakistani university to award
the degree.
NUML student Shahin Zafar is the first student from a Pakistani
university to receive an MPhil degree in Hindi. Her thesis, titled
'Swatantryottra Hindi Upanyason Mein NasriChittran (1947-2000)' was
supervised by Professor Iftikhar Husain Arif and endorsed by the Higher
Education Commission, Dawn News reported.
A university spokesperson was quoted as saying that due to dearth of
Hindi experts in Pakistan, Zafar's thesis was evaluated by two experts
from India's Aligarh Muslim University.
Malaysia government reclaims capital streets, PM asserts command
Malaysia's government, with Prime Minister Najib Razak presiding,
reclaimed the streets of the capital Monday after massive weekend
protests demanding the premier's ouster, staging its own show of force
with National Day celebrations attended by thousands.
Masses of flag-waving spectators cheered a colourful parade of
soldiers, police and civil servants through the city centre,
symbolically underlining the government's clout despite pressure for
change.
Organisers of the peaceful weekend demonstrations said more than
200,000 people came out to demand the embattled Najib's removal over a
financial scandal.
"Well, we gave it our best shot and now it's their turn again," said
Simon Tam, a lawyer who attended the demonstrations on both days.
"Getting Najib to step down is not easy, and maybe there is not much hope at all. But can we stand by and say nothing?"
Najib has been under pressure since the Wall Street Journal last
month published Malaysian documents showing nearly $700 million had been
deposited into his personal bank accounts, beginning in 2013.
His cabinet ministers now admit the transfers happened, describing
them as "political donations" from unidentified Middle Eastern sources
but refusing to explain further.
Influential ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad, who calls Najib corrupt and a
poor leader and has pressed for his ouster for more than a year, caused
a stir by attending the rally on Sunday.
The 90-year-old, who squelched civil disobedience during his
1981-2003 rule, evoked the 1986 Philippine "people power" revolt in
calling for Najib to be toppled.
"If the government ignores the law, we have to demonstrate. If you
look at (former president Ferdinand) Marcos, when he was ruling the
Philippines they had to overthrow him through demonstrations," he said.
But the chances of a "people power" revolt in Malaysia are remote.
Najib can 'rest easy'
Najib
retains firm control of the powerful ruling party, the United Malays
National Organisation (UMNO), and its coalition government enjoys solid
support among the Muslim ethnic Malays who make up more than 60 percent
of the population.
"Najib can rest easy because the only way anyone could remove him is
through parliament or the ruling party," said Ibrahim Suffian, head of
leading Malaysian polling firm Merdeka Centre.
Najib has already faced months of allegations that hundreds of
millions of dollars disappeared from deals involving a state-owned
company, and Mahathir, who remains active in UMNO, accused the premier
of using them as party bribes to secure political support.
But Najib, who firmly denies any wrongdoing, on Sunday refused to step down, calling the protesters "shallow-minded".
The prime minister recently strengthened his position by purging
critics in his cabinet and appears to have stalled investigations into
the scandal through other personnel moves.
UMNO has controlled multi-racial Malaysia through coalition
governments since independence in 1957, but support is sliding over
persistent corruption, civil liberties curbs and controversial policies
favouring Malays.
Najib had vowed earlier to end corruption, expand freedoms and reform
the pro-Malay policies, but abandoned those initiatives under pressure
from UMNO conservatives after a 2013 election setback.
Participants in Monday's rally in Kuala Lumpur were overwhelmingly
from the ethnic Chinese who make up about a quarter of the population,
suggesting the demonstrations had limited Malay support.
A Merdeka Centre survey released Friday showed 81 percent of Chinese supported the rally, while just 23 percent of Malays did.
Government Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan trumpeted the government's grip on the Malay grassroots in deriding the demonstrations.
"When will these people realise that the real battle is at (the)
grassroots, which is (the ruling coalition's) forte?" he said in a tweet
Sunday.
UMNO's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition also holds a
near-impregnable electoral advantage thanks to decades of gerrymandering
that has awarded more parliamentary seats to its rural Malay
strongholds, say critics.
The Electoral Integrity Project, a study of 127 countries by Harvard
University and the University of Sydney, said this year Malaysia ranked
114th for election fairness and had the worst electoral laws and
district boundaries of the nations surveyed.
Samosa vendor's son Shah Faisal tops Class 12 exam in Pak
Shah Faisal, son of a samosa vendor in Pakistan, has secured the top
position in Class 12 examination, a media report said on Monday. Faisal,
like his father, sells samosas -- a fried snack with a savoury filling.
His hard work and love for education turned him into a brilliant
student, The News International reported. Shah Faisal has got himself
enrolled for System Engineering program in the Peshawar University but
lack of funds remains a barrier for him.
After returning from college, Shah Faisal sells samosas with his
father. Shah Faisal has appealed to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial
government to get him a scholarship in the Peshawar University.
Sartaj Aziz says no dialogue with India unless all issues on agenda
Pakistan will not resume dialogue with India unless all bilateral
issues are on the agenda, Prime Minister's adviser on national security
and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said.
The meeting between DG Rangers and DG Border Security Force is
scheduled for next week despite tensions on the Line of Control and
Working Boundary, he added.
In an interview to a private TV channel, Aziz said national security
advisor-level talks between the two countries could not be held in New
Delhi last week due to the "Indian pre-conditions".
Aziz' comments came in the backdrop of heightened tensions along the border and LoC.
Pakistan last week had called off the scheduled NSA-level talks at
the last minute over India's refusal to allow Islamabad to have
consultations with Kashmiri separatists.
India was also upset over Pakistan including Kashmir as part of the
agenda for the NSA talks that was mainly scheduled to discuss terror.
The first-ever NSA-level talks was agreed upon in July in Ufa during a
meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan.
Fire in overcrowded Venezuelan prison leaves 17 dead, 11 injured
17 people were killed and 11 injured when a fire ripped through an overcrowded prison, according to authorities in Venezuela.
The chief prosecutor's office said in a statement that the cause of
Monday's blaze at the prison known as Tocuyito is still being invested.
Venezuela's prison population has doubled since 2008. The nonprofit
Venezuelan prison observatory said the facility near the city of
Valencia where the blaze took place was built for 900 inmates but houses
three times that amount.
Among the dead were both inmates and visitors, according to the prison observatory.
The prisons ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In November, at least 35 prisoners died during what authorities
described as a mass overdose triggered by a riot at a separate facility.
Islamic State burns four Iraqi Shiite fighters alive in new video
The Islamic State group suspended four Iraqi Shiite fighters with
chains and burned them alive, according to footage posted online, the
latest gruesome execution video from the extremist group.
The victims -- identified as fighters in the pro-government Popular
Mobilisation forces from southern Iraq -- were suspended from a
swingset-like metal structure by chains attached to their hands and
feet, then set on fire.
IS, which overran large parts of Iraq last year and still controls
much of the country's west, said the murders were in revenge for the
alleged burning of four men by pro-government forces.
"Now retribution has come, for today, we will attack them as they
attacked us, and punish them as they punished us," a masked militant
says in the video.
The video was not dated and did not give a specific location for
where the killings took place, but it did carry a tag indicating that it
was produced by the IS media unit responsible for Iraq's Anbar
province.
The video included a clip said to show a Sunni man suspended over a
fire while still alive as pro-government forces look on, and another of
famous Shiite fighter Abu Azrael ("Father of the Angel of Death")
slicing a piece of flesh off a burned corpse with a sword.
IS has carried out a slew of atrocities in territory it controls in
Iraq and Syria, such as mass executions and a campaign of killings,
kidnapping and rape targeting minorities.
It has recorded many killings -- including beheadings, shootings, drownings and burnings -- in videos posted online.
Baghdad's forces regained significant ground from the jihadists in
two provinces north of the capital with support from a US-led coalition
and Iran, but much of western Iraq remains outside government control.
Israeli veterans recall horrors of country’s victory in six-day war
Israeli soldiers had already searched the Palestinian families
trudging away from their homes, cleared them of their weapons, and sent
them on their way. Then a second group of soldiers pulled up in a car,
separated out the men, took them to one side and shot them.
When horrified observers asked their commander, “How could this be?”,
he shrugged off the massacre. “When you chop wood, chips fly,” he told
his men.
The casual murder of 15 civilian men, yards away from their mothers,
wives and daughters, is just one of the alleged war crimes detailed by
Israeli veterans of the six-day war of 1967 in Censored Voices, a challenging exploration of a conflict at the heart of Israel’s identity.
“They are not only voices of our past; they are the voices of our
present and our future. This war is affecting us every single day since
then,” said director Mor Loushy, in her first interview with British
media about her controversial film.
The first-person testimony of the horrors of all war – and the
mistakes and brutality of this conflict in particular – was narrated by
reservists just days after they returned from the fighting, but the
account was then locked away for nearly half a century. Loushy was
transfixed by the gap between their accounts and the history of the war
in Israeli collective memory. “We didn’t have the other voice that knew
from the beginning that this war was going to lead us to a terrible
place,” she said.
Watch the trailer for Censored Voices.
Even after 48 years, the men’s stories are still explosive, with “a
power that can shatter truths at the very heart of the state of Israel”,
according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
The descriptions of brutality are shocking, as is the clarity with
which many of the men, in a moment of national triumph, saw how their
victory had laid the seeds of future violence and misery for the
conquerors as well as for the vanquished.
“Are we doomed to bomb villages every decade for defensive
purposes?” one wonders. “Are we doomed to live in the pauses between
wars?”
The film opens with the terror that hung over Israel
in the run-up to war and traces the jubilation of the soldiers as they
race to victory, and then their growing confusion as a simple war for
survival shifts into a darker conflict. “I was convinced the war was
just because it was over our existence,” one veteran says as he picks
through his memories. “But it became something that it wasn’t in the
beginning.
On 5 June 1967 the country feared annihilation as Arab nations massed
their armies near its borders. By June 10, Israel had all but destroyed
the Egyptian and Syrian air forces, controlled all of Jerusalem, the
West Bank, Gaza and Sinai, and was overwhelmed with euphoria.
Israeli writer and six-day war veteran Amos Oz listens to a tape of his
earlier self in the documentary Censored Voices. Photograph: PR
However, there was a current of darkness swirling beneath the
jubilation. Writer Amos Oz decided to try to capture it. “People did not
come back happy from this war. There’s a sense of sadness that the
newspapers don’t address,” a young Oz says at the beginning of the
recordings, explaining what the project is trying to achieve. “We may
not do the best service to what’s called ‘national morale’, but we’ll do
a small service to the truth.”
Setting off for kibbutzes across the country, he sought out fellow
veterans and asked them to share their memories. He found young men
haunted by memories of dead friends and slaughtered enemies, and
traumatised by their role in the forcible eviction of Palestinian
families. On tapes in quiet rooms, veiled in the semi-anonymity of audio
recordings, they poured out the stories of horror and tragedy.
One recalls: “My friends, friends I went to school with, who I know
as good people, these same people, one of them sees a wounded enemy, so
he doesn’t go to help him but draws his Uzi to finish him off. And an
Arab runs in the desert, so he lifts his Uzi and fires, for no reason,
out of murder.”
“I had a feeling I was evil,” another veteran says of forcing an old man from his home. “Nothing can make that feeling go away.”
Some of those stories were collected in a book, The Seventh Day,
published soon after the war. Loushy stumbled over it while studying
for a history degree and decided the story needed a bigger audience.
“You can’t imagine how many films there are telling the heroic story of
the six-day war,” says Loushy, who spent years tracking down the tapes,
the veterans and rare footage from around the world to illustrate the
story they told. “It’s important that younger generations have this film
on the shelf.”
Some of the soldiers, who at the time were a little more than two
decades away from the horrors of the Holocaust, describe being painfully
torn between the pressing need to fight for their own survival and the
cost to others. “I could see myself in those kids who were carried in
their parents’ arms, when my father carried me,” one says. “Perhaps
that’s the tragedy, that I identified with the other side. With our
enemies.”
Director/writer of Censored Voices, Mor Loushy. Photograph: Victoria Will/Invision/AP
Beyond the terror of the murders and abuse there is another horror,
the clarity with which the men who fought the war saw what occupation of
the lands they conquered would bring. They saw not the security the
country longed for but cycles of conflict and bitterness.
“I don’t believe this is the last time we’ll have to wear uniforms,”
one says. “I always have a feeling that the next round will be much
crueller because we have become a conquering army. This is actual
occupation.”
Loushy, who spent years working on the film, found these warnings,
and the way they were buried, among the most important and tragic parts
of the veterans’ story. “They knew that if we kept those territories it
would be the end of the state that they dreamt of, that it will destroy
us. And I think they were right. Because they were on those territories,
they fought on the battlefield, they saw in those short six days what
it is like to occupy a civilian society, and they understood the deep
meaning of it. This is the tragedy of it – they saw it, they spoke about
it. But Israel just fell in love with the territories.”
Egypt announces parliamentary election will start in October
Egypt will hold a long-awaited parliamentary election in two phases starting on 18-19 October, the election commission has said.
The first phase of voting had been due to begin in March but the
election was delayed after a court ruled part of an election law was
unconstitutional. The second phase will take place on 22-23 November,
the election commission told a news conference.
Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012 when a court
dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, reversing a major
accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the military chief who became president, toppled Egypt’s first freely elected president, Islamist Mohamed Morsi, in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
The army then announced a roadmap to democracy in Egypt, the most
populous Arab state and a close ally of western powers. That
announcement was followed by the toughest crackdown on Islamists in
Egypt’s history. Security forces killed hundreds at street protests and
thousands were arrested.
Temple of Bel still standing, says Syria's antiquities chief
Residents in the historic city of Palmyra reported a massive
explosion in its ancient ruins but the temple of Bel, one of Syria’s
most prized treasures, remains standing, the country’s antiquities chief
told the Guardian.
“The temple structure is on a raised terrace that can be seen from
afar, and our information is that the temple is still there,” said
Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s director of antiquities, in a telephone
interview from Damascus.
Earlier this month, Islamic State destroyed the temple of Baal
Shamin, a second-century structure dedicated to the ancient sky god. The
group also beheaded Khaled al-Asaad, 82, the elderly keeper of antiquities in Palmyra.
The city is one of the best preserved sites of antiquity and a Silk
Road hub that was conquered by Isis in May, after the militant group
routed forces loyal to the regime of president Bashar al-Assad.
Abdulkarim said the extent of damage in the compound could not be
assessed until images of it were released by Isis, which holds the town.
“This is something different from Baal Shamin,” Abdulkarim said.
The Isis brand of puritanical Islam sees the preservation of such
artefacts of ancient culture as a form of idolatry, and has destroyed
numerous antiquities and sites in Iraq and Syria.
The temple of Bel is one of the most important sites in antiquity,
and a crucial landmark of Palmyra. It was once the centre of religious
life in the city, and combines elements of classical Greco-Roman and
Middle Eastern architecture.
“This temple is the most important one in Syria because of its size,
its level of preservation, its architecture and inscriptions,” said
Abdulkarim. “It represents along with the temple of Baalbek [in Lebanon]
two of the greatest structures of antiquity in the near east.”
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He
said that if Isis had intended to destroy the building, the group could
have done so with explosives close to it, given the age of the temple.
The temple complex is surrounded by walls and includes a dining hall
that was also used as a guest house. The temple itself includes an
ancient cella (inner chamber) with two inner sanctums, dedicated to the
Palmyrians’ supreme deity, Bel, and the sun and moon gods. It was
converted into a church and later into a mosque that was in use until
1930.
While the temple appears to be intact from a distance, the extent of
the damage as a result of the latest explosion is unknown, and will
likely only be confirmed if and when Isis releases images documenting
its actions. The group has revelled in its destruction of antiquities,
releasing high-resolution imagery and videos of the damage.
Earlier on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
monitoring group with wide contacts inside Syria, said the temple of Bel
had been damaged. The Associated Press, citing a city resident, said a blast on Sunday afternoon had severely damaged the temple.
Obama: criticising Jews over Iran deal is like saying 'you're not black enough'
Barack Obama
has said that people criticising Jews who support the Iran nuclear deal
are like African Americans who dismiss others as “not black enough”.
Obama, in an interview with the Jewish newspaper Forward, was asked
whether it hurt him personally when people say he’s antisemitic.
“Oh of course,” Obama said. “And there’s not a smidgeon of evidence
for it, other than the fact that there have been times when I’ve
disagreed with a particular Israeli government’s position on a
particular issue.”
The president said he was “probably more offended when I hear members
of my administration who themselves are Jewish being attacked”.
“You saw this historically sometimes in the African American
community, where there’s a difference on policy and somebody starts
talking about ‘Well, you’re not black enough’ or ‘You’re selling out.’
“And that, I think, is always a dangerous place to go.”
Obama didn’t mention any specific critics or targets by name.
Asked to whom the president was referring, the White House press
secretary Josh Earnest mentioned the former Arkansas governor Mike
Huckabee’s charge that the nuclear deal was like “marching the Israelis
to the door of the oven”, a reference to the Holocaust. Earnest added:
“It’s certainly not the only example of the kind of political rhetoric
that certainly the president and others find objectionable.”
Obama’s treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, who is Jewish, was heckled
recently at a Jewish-themed conference in New York when he defended the nuclear deal and spoke of the administration’s support for Israel.
Obama, in the Forward interview,
said that while those who cared about Israel had an obligation to be
honest about their views, “you don’t win the debate by suggesting that
the other person has bad motives. That’s, I think, not just consistent
with fair play; I think it’s consistent with the best of the Jewish
tradition.”
John Kerry, the secretary of state and chief US diplomat in the negotiations with Iran, is due to make a speech in Philadelphia on Wednesday on the importance of the agreement to US national security.
On a lighter note Obama was asked about his bagel of choice. He
described himself as “always a big poppy seed guy.” As for toppings, he
added: “Lox and capers OK, but generally just your basic schmear,”
referring to a smear of cream cheese.
The interview was conducted on Friday and released on Monday.
Afghan Taliban offer leader's biography amid power struggle
The Afghan Taliban have published a biography of their
new leader as hundreds of insurgents meet to resolve a dispute over his
appointment following the death of figurehead Mullah Mohammad Omar.
The
detailed biography, emailed on Monday to journalists in five languages,
offers the story of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who now leads the Taliban in
its fight against the Afghan government.
Mansoor
was named as the Taliban’s leader last month after the Afghan government
revealed that Mullah Omar died in 2013. But family of Mullah Omar
objected, saying the vote to elect Mansoor was not representative of the
group, sparking an internal power struggle.
Video of Israeli soldier tackling kids goes viral
JERUSALEM:
A video showing an Israeli soldier scuffling with Palestinian women and
youth at a West Bank protest has been viewed more than 2 million times
on Facebook, shining a light on Israeli military policies in the
territory.
In the edited video, the masked soldier is seen
holding a 12-year-old boy, his arm in a cast, in a chokehold in an
attempt to arrest him.
The soldier is swarmed by the boy's
female relatives who pull at his skin and uniform and slap him. The
boy's sister, a 15-year-old sporting a blonde braid, is seen biting the
soldier's hand. Bystanders yell, "He is a little boy. His arm is
broken." The video sparked accusations from critics that Israel is too
heavy-handed in its confrontations with Palestinian protesters,
especially minors. In Israel, the video was seen as capturing the
antagonism soldiers regularly face from stone-throwing Palestinian
protestersand raised concerns for the soldiers' safety.
200 residents of Iraqi town held by IS group
Trouble in Rutbah, in Anbar province near the Jordanian border,
started on Saturday when IS militants killed a local resident for
killing a member of the group.
The mayor of a remote, Islamic State-held town in
western Iraq said on Monday that some 200 residents have been detained
by the group at an unknown location following clashes there.
Trouble
in Rutbah, in Anbar province near the Jordanian border, started on
Saturday when IS militants killed a local resident for killing a member
of the group as part of a long-running clan blood feud. Hundreds of
residents demonstrated later that day to protest the killing and clashes
broke out when the militants attempted to disperse the protesters.
A
provincial Anbar official said that some 70 residents were detained by
the militants and more than 100 more were tied to streetlight poles for
about 24 hours as a punishment.
Fears of mass killing
Rutbah’s
mayor, Imad al-Rishawy, said that around 200 residents were still held
by the IS group at an unknown location and that the town is gripped by
fears that they might be killed.
Demonstrating
against the IS group in areas under its control had been rare since the
group seized much of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014.
The group has zero tolerance for non-compliance with its radical
interpretation of Islam or cooperation with authorities in Baghdad,
routinely handing down severe punishments like beheadings, burning
offenders to death or, in less serious cases, flogging or placing
offenders in cages placed at public squares.
Four killed
In
Baghdad on Monday, roadside bombs south and west of the Iraqi capital
killed four people, including two policemen, and injured 12, according
to police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Yemen children's hospital faces closure due to shortages: NGO
SANAA:
A major hospital in Yemen's rebel-held capital is on the verge of
shutting down due to a supply shortage caused by a pro-government
coalition blockade, Save the Children has warned.
"Critical
fuel shortages and a lack of medical supplies could force the Al-Sabeen
Hospital to shut its doors within 48 hours," the humanitarian
organisation said late Sunday.
The hospital supported by Save
the Children is the main facility for children and pregnant women in the
area, and serves an estimated three million people, the organisation
said in a statement.
The Saudi-led coalition, which mounted an
air campaign against Iran-backed rebels late March in support of exiled
President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, has imposed a blockade on areas
controlled by insurgents.
The hospital was reliant on the Red Sea port of Hodeida for 90 percent of its imports, Save the Children said.
"The hospital has entirely run out of IV fluid, anaesthetic, blood
transfusion tests, Valium to treat seizures and ready-prepared
therapeutic food for severely malnourished children," the statement said
citing the hospital's deputy manager Halel al-Bahri.
Fuel that the hospital acquired from the black market was enough to run power generators for two more days, he said.
Across Yemen, 15.2 million people are lacking access to basic
healthcare, an increase of 40 percent since March, the organisation
warned.
More than half a million children are expected to
suffer severe acute malnutrition this year, and there has been a 150
percent increase in hospital admissions for malnutrition since March, it
said.
"It is crucial that enough medicines, supplies and fuel
are able to get in to the country, otherwise the number of children
dying from treatable illnesses is only going to get bigger," said Edward
Santiago, Save the Children's Yemen director.
Alleged mention of Facebook in prayer sparks outcry in Egypt
Egyptians in a Nile Delta province are outraged after a
cleric allegedly changed a line in the traditional Islamic call to dawn
prayers to mention Facebook.
Instead of saying
“prayer is better than sleep” twice, as he was supposed to, Shiekh
Mahmoud Maghazi of Beheira province allegedly said, “Prayer is better
than Facebook.” The issue drew nationwide attention when he defended
himself against shouted accusations on one of Egypt’s most-watched
television talk shows, called 10 PM, on Sunday.
The
country’s Religious Endowments Ministry suspended Maghazi after locals
complained last week, prompting him to launch a hunger strike and deny
that he made the reference.
With over a quarter of
the population plagued by illiteracy, Egypt’s talk show hosts play a
major role in leading public opinion.
ISIS claims start of new currency by minting of coins
WASHINGTON:
The Islamic State militant group has claimed to have started its own
currency by minting coins and described the move as a "second blow" to
the US after 9/11, according to a newly released video.
In the
documentary-style video, the radical group presented its new currency,
claiming to have started minting and circulating its own gold coins.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), in the video, described the
step as a "second blow to the United States and its capitalist
financial system of enslavement", after the 9/11 attacks, according to
SITE intelligence group.
In the video entitled "The Rise of the
Khilafah and the Return of the Gold Dinar" released on Saturday, the
ISIS shows the smelting of gold, silver and copper coins.
The new ISIS currency comes in several denominations of gold, silver and copper, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The coins are imprinted with Islamic symbols and "are completely void
of human and animal images in accordance with Shariah law," according to
the narrator in the propaganda video.
The reverse side of one
coin shows seven wheat stalks, "representing the blessing of spending in
the path of Allah," says the narrator.
The video, narrated in
English with Arabic subtitles, begins with an extensive analysis on "the
capitalist financial system of enslavement, underpinned by a piece of
paper called the Federal Reserve dollar note," and the corruption that
allowed for the American destruction of the monetary system.
Last year in November, ISIS had announced its plans to mint its own currency in gold, silver and copper.
It had stated back then that the aim of the currency was to stay away from the "tyrant's financial system".
ISIS is considered to be one of the richest terror groups in history.
Theft, oil smuggling, extortion and human trafficking are considered
some of the sources of income for the extremist group that has taken
over large territories in Syria and Iraq.
US officials say that ISIS has become a self-sustaining financial force, as the group earns more than three million USD a day.
Crack down on terror havens, U.S. tells Pak.
National Security Advisor calls attacks in Afghanistan ‘unacceptable’.
In a blunt message, the U.S. has asked Pakistan to intensify efforts to
counter terrorist sanctuaries inside its borders and take concrete steps
against the dreaded Haqqani network responsible for major attacks on
American installations in Afghanistan.
The tough message was conveyed by U.S. National Security Advisor Susan
Rice to the top Pakistani leadership including Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif during her day-long visit to
the country on Sunday.
Rice during her meetings, “urged Pakistan to intensify its efforts to
counter terrorist sanctuaries inside its borders in order to promote
regional peace and stability,” said Ned Price, Spokesman of the National
Security Council of the White House.
She also urged Pakistan to improve ties with Kabul. Rice told top
civilian and military leaders that attacks in Afghanistan by
Pakistan-based militants were “absolutely unacceptable.”
ISIS blows up ‘one of greatest sites’ of ancient world in Syria
The 2,000-year-old temple was part of the remains of the ancient
caravan city of Palmyra in central Syria, seized by ISIS in May.
The news of the latest destruction at Palmyra came just days after ISIS
released propaganda images purportedly showing militants blowing up
another Palmyra temple, the 2,000-year-old Baalshamin dedicated to the
Phoenician god of storms and fertilizing rains.
The UN cultural
agency Unesco, which has designated Palmyra as a world heritage site,
called the destruction of the Baalshamin temple a war crime.
‘Indira Gandhi planned strike on Pak. nuclear sites’
Such a consideration by the then Indian Prime Minister was being
made when the U.S. was in an advanced stage of providing its fighter
jets F-16 to Pakistan.
Returning to power in 1980, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had
considered a military strike on Pakistan’s nuclear installations to
prevent it from acquiring weapons capabilities, a declassified Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) document has claimed.
Such a consideration by the then Indian Prime Minister was being made
when the U.S. was in an advanced stage of providing its fighter jets
F-16 to Pakistan, says the September 8, 1981, document titled ‘India’s
Reaction to Nuclear Developments in Pakistan’, which was prepared by the
CIA.
A redacted version of the 12-page document was posted on the CIA website
in June this year, according to which the then Indian government led by
Gandhi in 1981 was concerned about the progress made by Pakistan on its
nuclear weapons programme and Ms. Gandhi believed that Islamabad was
steps away from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The U.S. had the same
assessment.
‘Crack down on terror’
In a blunt message, the U.S. has asked Pakistan to intensify efforts to
counter terrorist havens and take steps against the Haqqani network
responsible for attacks on American installations in Afghanistan.
The message was conveyed by U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
Satellite images confirm destruction of famed temple in Syria's Palmyra: UN
GENEVA:
Satellite images confirm the destruction of another famed temple in
Syria's Palmyra, the United Nations said late Monday. "We can
confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as
a row of columns in its immediate vicinity," the UN training and
research agency UNITAR said, providing satellite images from before and
after a powerful blast in the ruins of the ancient city earlier Monday.
Keeping Mullah Omar's death secret a military decision: Taliban
Key Taliban members decided to keep the death of their leader a secret
for more than two years because the war in Afghanistan was entering a
critical phase and most foreign troops were preparing to withdraw at the
time, the group said on Monday.
News of Mullah Omar's death leaked last month amid confusion over where
and when the one-eyed militant leader died, but on Monday the Taliban
for the first time revealed April 23, 2013 as the date of his death.
The announcement came in a document of nearly 5,000 words published on
the Taliban's official website as an "introduction" to his successor,
Mullah Mansour, a longtime deputy of the dead leader. His selection has
been contested by senior members of the group.
The Taliban, who have not previously detailed the reason for the
decision to keep Omar's death a secret, did not say who was party to the
agreement.
"One of the main reasons was the fact that 2013 was considered the final
year of power testing between the mujahidin and foreign invaders," the
Taliban said in the document.
The Islamist insurgent group was ousted by a U.S.-led military coalition
in 2001, and is waging an increasingly violent war against
Afghanistan's foreign-backed government.
"It was for these jihadi considerations that this depressing news was
concealed in an extraordinary way up until July 30, 2015," the Taliban
added.
Most NATO troops withdrew in 2014 and the remaining contingent is involved mostly in training efforts.
The U.S. military has scaled back its involvement in combat to limited
airstrikes and a separate counter-terror mission involving several
thousand troops.
The statement on the website, controlled by Mansour's supporters, played
down the prospect of a serious rift within the Taliban leadership,
saying religious scholars and hundreds of thousands of "ordinary people"
backed his appointment.
It gave details of Mansour's life, from his birth in Kandahar in 1968 to
his early studies, which were interrupted by the Soviet invasion in
1979.
The statement presented him as a capable military leader, twice wounded
in combat, who helped rebuild the Afghan air force when the Taliban were
in power.
It also described him as an attentive listener, who dresses neatly and avoids extravagance.
Violent protests rock Kiev
Grenade explodes killing one officer; more than 100 injured.
A grenade exploded outside Ukraine’s parliament during a nationalist
protest against a vote to give greater powers to separatist regions in
the east, killing one police officer and injuring more than 100, the
interior ministry said.
The clashes marked the worst outburst of violence in the capital since the government took power in February 2014.
The decentralisation of power was a condition of a truce signed in Minsk
in February aimed at ending the fighting between Ukrainian government
troops and Russia-backed separatists that has left more than 6,800 dead
since April 2014. But some Ukrainians oppose changing the constitution,
saying that it would threaten the country’s sovereignty and
independence.
In a televised address, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the
bill, which was adopted on Monday as “a difficult but a logical step
toward peace,” and insisted that it wouldn’t give any autonomy to the
rebels.
The officer who was killed in the clashes on Monday was a 25-year-old
conscript, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters. He said that
of 122 people hospitalised, most were officers, but the number also
included Ukrainian journalists and two French reporters.
No injuries were immediately reported among several hundred protesters
including 100 die-hard activists, most of whom were members of Svoboda, a
nationalist party that holds only a handful of seats in parliament. The
protesters were carrying sticks and truncheons. Some of them were
masked.
Avakov said that about 30 people have been detained, including the
person who threw the grenade. Avakov identified the grenade thrower as a
Svoboda member who fought in the east in one of the volunteer
battalions which are loosely controlled by the government.
Poroshenko described the clashes outside the parliament as an attack on
him and pledged to prosecute “all political leaders” who were behind the
clashes.
“There’s no other way to describe what occurred outside the Rada other
than a stab in the back,” he said of the clashes outside parliament.
Poroshenko said the vote confirmed Ukraine’s “position as a trusted
partner which fulfills its international obligations” and the country
would have risked losing the support of the West and being left “alone
with the aggressor.”
A total of 265 deputies in the 450-seat parliament gave preliminary
approval Monday to the changes proposed by President Poroshenko. Three
parties that are part of the majority coalition in parliament, however,
opposed the constitutional changes.
“This is not a road to peace and not a road to decentralization,” said
the leader of one of those parties, former Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko. “This is the diametrically opposite process, which will lead
to the loss of new territories.”
Parliamentary speaker Vladimir Groisman denied that the changes would
lead to the loss of the Donetsk region, where there have been clashes
with separatists.
With the decentralisation bill, Poroshenko found himself in a tight
spot. While Ukrainian nationalists fear that the bill would incite
separatism, Russia-backed rebels in the east and Moscow say the bill
doesn’t give regions enough powers and is short of the pledges Kiev made
in Minsk.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in a live address on television,
called for life imprisonment for the person who threw the grenade and
said the right-wing protesters were “worse” than the separatist rebels
because they are destroying the country from within “under the guise of
patriotism.”
“The cynicism of this crime lies in the fact that while the Russian
federation and its bandits are trying and failing to destroy the
Ukrainian state on the eastern front, the so-called pro-Ukrainian
political forces are trying to open another front in the country’s
midst.”
A final vote on the constitutional changes will be held during
parliament’s fall session, which begins on Tuesday. No specific date has
yet been set.
Avakov blamed the clashes on the Svoboda party, which polled under 5
percent in last year’s parliamentary election, and its leader, Oleg
Tyahnybok, who stood side by side with Avakov during the anti-government
protests which toppled then-president Viktor Yanukovych in February
2014.
“No political differences can justify what you did outside the Rada today,” Avakov said, referring to the parliament.
Svoboda blamed the government, saying that it “provoked Ukrainians to
protest” by presenting a bill which is tantamount to “capitulation to
the Kremlin.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in comments to Russian news agencies,
voiced Moscow’s concern about the clashes in Kiev, but wouldn’t comment
on the bill.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called the
clashes “worrying” and said the vote “will facilitate the implementation
of the Minsk Agreements.”
In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s open to holding a
new summit with the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France on the
settlement in eastern Ukraine.
Sunday, 30 August 2015
K Kumar is now Czech Republic Ambassador
Krishna Kumar has been appointed as the next India’s Ambassador to Czech Republic, Bureaucracy Today has learnt.
Presently he is India’s Ambassador to Morocco. Kumar is a 1984-bacth IFS officer.
India is only external threat: Pak military
Pakistan military has told a parliamentary committee that India is the
only external threat to the country and the situation with regard to
ties was volatile in the wake of the suspended Indo-Pak dialogue.
The Senate defence committee led by Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed
yesterday visited military's Joint Staff Headquarters in Rawalpindi,
where it was briefed by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee
General Rashad Mahmood and his team.
The military officials shared the perceived threat with members of the
Senate that India had over the last couple of years purchased weapons
worth USD 100 billion, 80 per cent of which were Pakistan-specific, the
Dawn reported.
The Indian army's 'shopping spree', it was said, was continuing and over
the next five years it would be buying weapons worth another USD 100
billion.
India, which is the world's second largest arms importer, has more than
doubled its military spending over the last decade. Delhi's defence
budget for this year was USD 40.07 billion, the paper said.
This requires a continuous evaluation of the situation and upgradation of the response mechanism, the members were told.
The committee was also informed that the situation was volatile in view
of the suspended dialogue between India and Pakistan and the absence of
any conflict resolution mechanism.
They were also informed on how the Joint Staff Headquarters worked as a
higher defence organisation and Strategic Plans Division, which is the
custodian of the nuclear programme.
Talking about the non-traditional security challenges, the military
officials said threats in cyberspace were posing a major challenge and
urged the government to establish an Inter-Services Cyber Command to
combat cyber-attacks and cyber-warfare.
Greece's new PM names caretaker cabinet
Greece's new prime minister, a top judge who is the country's first
female premier, named the members of her caretaker government today as
the country heads to early elections next month, the third time Greeks
will go to the polls this year.
The appointments come a day after Supreme Court head Vassiliki Thanou was sworn into office.
The 65-year-old was appointed after outgoing prime minister Alexis
Tsipras resigned last week, barely seven months into his four-year
mandate, following a rebellion by members of his radical-left Syriza
party who objected to his agreement with the conditions of Greece's
third international bailout.
The finance ministry post went to Giorgos Houliarakis, an academic who
had been on Greece's negotiating team during talks with creditors.
Popular Greek pop singer Alkistis Protopsalti was named tourism
minister. The new cabinet was to be sworn in later today.
Elections are widely expected to be set for September 20.
Tsipras has said he needs a stronger mandate to implement the tough
austerity measures accompanying the three-year, 86 billion euro bailout,
but an opinion poll published in the left-leaning Efimerida ton
Syntakton newspaper today found small support for his move.
Sixty-four per cent said Tsipras' decision to call the snap poll was
wrong, compared to 24 per cent who considered it correct. The remainder
took no position or did not reply.
Sixty-eight per cent said they believe the country should remain within
the euro even if it means further austerity measures and sacrifices.
Asked whether the government got the best deal it could for the third
bailout, 48 per cent said yes and 45 per cent disagreed.
The poll showed Syriza supported by 23 per cent, compared to 26 per cent in an early July survey by the same company.
The conservative New Democracy party stood at about 20 per cent compared to 15 per cent in July.
The small nationalist Independent Greeks, Syriza's partner in the
seven-month coalition government, were backed by 2 per cent, below the 3
per cent threshold for to enter Parliament.
Tsipras has ruled out forming a coalition with any of the center-right
or center-left parties if he fails to win a majority to govern outright,
meaning he would be unable to form a government unless a party that
didn't make it into parliament last time manages to win above 3 per
cent.
Follow India's role in Afghan:US to China
Lauding India's constructive role in Afghanistan, the US has asked China
to follow the Indian model of engagement and developmental efforts in
the war-torn country.
"India has played a constructive role over the last several years inside
Afghanistan, and we would look to other nations like China to do the
same," State Department Spokesperson John Kirby told reporters
yesterday.
India has so far given financial assistance worth over USD 2 billion to
Afghanistan and has been involved in massive developmental efforts in
this war-torn country.
"We want Afghanistan to be a good neighbour in the region. And they have
many neighbours, and China and India are some of them," he said in
response to a question.
"I think everybody in the international community could benefit from an
Afghanistan that is secure and stable and prosperous. Our message to the
other partners is the same as it's always been, which is we want to
make sure that we're all pulling on the same oars here to get
Afghanistan to that better future," Kirby said.
He said that the US wants a secure and stable Afghnistan.
"What we want to see and what we've been working toward for going on 15
years now, or close to it, is an Afghanistan that is secure and stable, a
good neighbour in the region, and prosperous. And that remains the
goal," he said.
Kirby said the way this gets done is by healthy, strong institutions
inside Afghanistan to include security forces, which is of course the
focus of the Resolute Support mission.
"Right now help Afghan National Security Forces continue their leadership of the security mission inside Afghanistan," he said.
"Nobody's under any illusion of how difficult that's going to be.
President (Ashraf) Ghani, back to institution building, has been working
very hard at this to try to strengthen Afghan institutions from just
such an end, and we are contributing to the NATO mission that's designed
to help Afghan National Security Forces continue to advance," he said.
"I am not minimising at all our condemnation of the continued attacks
that we've been seeing, certainly in the last week or so. You ought to
be mindful that just this week, you know, Resolute Support two, resolute
service members two more were killed. Two more," he said.
‘Runaway cork’ forces emergency landing
The EasyJet plane made the emergency landing when the champagne cork
smashed ceiling panels after a stewardess opened the bottle for a
customer.
High spirits of passengers on board a Turkey-bound plane from London
soon ran out of fizz when the aircraft had to make an emergency landing
in Italy after being damaged by a popping champagne cork.
The EasyJet plane made the emergency landing when the champagne cork
smashed ceiling panels after a stewardess opened the bottle for a
customer. It caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling.
The plane was halfway through a four-hour flight from London Gatwick to
Dalaman, Turkey. The pilot was forced to make the emergency landing in
Italy for repairs.
“It wasn’t very funny at the time but I can see the lighter side now,” a passenger was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
“All that hassle, delay and money wasted by EasyJet — all over a
champagne cork! No one on the flight could believe it and people I have
spoken to have found it hilarious,” the passenger said.
The flight, which took off at 4-20 p.m. on August 7, was diverted via Milan so the masks could be reset.
“EeasyJet can confirm that flight EZY8845 from London Gatwick to Dalaman
on August 7 diverted to Milan Malpensa as a precautionary measure due
to a technical issue with the cabin crew oxygen masks,” an easyJet
spokesman said.
In line with safety procedures the captain took the correct decision to
divert so that the cabin crew oxygen masks could be reset.
The flight continued to Dalaman 1 hour and 7 minutes later once this had happened.
