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NEW DELHI: India demanded answers from WhatsApp over a snooping scandal Thursday after coming under fire from critics who accused authorities of using malware installed on the Facebook-owned messaging service to spy on citizens.WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in the United States against Israeli technology firm NSO Group, accusing it of using the hugely popular instant messaging platform to conduct cyberespionage on nearly 1,400 journalists, diplomats, dissidents and human right activists worldwide. The Israeli firm has denied journalists and activists were targeted and said that it only licenses its software to governments for “fighting crime and terror”. Nearly two dozen activists, lawyers and journalists were targeted in India — WhatsApp´s biggest market with some 400 million active users — according to Indian media reports. The Indian Express reported WhatsApp confirmed a number of Indian users had been targeted by the Pegasus spyware, which installed itself on their devices and relay...

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SEOUL: North Korea has carried out a "successful" new test of its "super-large multiple rocket launcher" system, state media said Friday -- the latest in a series of provocations by Pyongyang.South Korea´s military said Thursday that the North had launched two short-range projectiles from South Pyongan province. They each flew approximately 370 kilometres (230 miles).It was the latest in a series of launches by the North but the first since October 2, when it fired a sea-launched missile.If confirmed, a submarine-based missile capability would change the military balance on the Korean peninsula.Thursday´s test was conducted to "verify the security of launchers´ continuous fire system," the state Korean Central News Agency reported from Pyongyang.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who had personally supervised previous tests of the "super-large" system, "expressed satisfaction... and sent congratulations" to the team involved, KCNA said.Nu...

BAGHDAD: Iraqi President Barham Saleh vowed on Thursday to hold early parliamentary elections once a new law is passed and said the country’s embattled premier would resign if an alternative was found.Saleh’s televised address was responding to a month of protests in Baghdad and across the country’s south demanding profound reforms and an overhaul of the political system."I will agree on early elections based on a new electoral law and new electoral commission," Saleh said, adding that the draft would be submitted to parliament next week.He said Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi was ready to step down but there was so far no one to take his place. "The prime minister expressed his willingness to submit his resignation, asking the political parties to reach an agreement on an acceptable alternative," Saleh added.Such a consensus would "prevent a constitutional vacuum," he said. According to Iraq’s 2005 constitution, the prime minister can be put to a vote of ...

KABUL: CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary groups operating with impunity are summarily executing civilians during botched nighttime raids and are responsible for the disappearances of suspects, a rights group said on Thursday.The secretive militias, whose support from America’s Central Intelligence Agency continues a tradition stemming from the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s, have long hunted the Taliban and are seen as an important tool as the war against the insurgents intensifies. But their rough tactics have long sparked controversy across Afghanistan.In a report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 14 cases from late 2017 to mid-2019 in which it said CIA-backed "strike groups" committed serious abuses during night raids, such as one in the southeastern province of Paktia in which a paramilitary unit killed 11 men, including eight who were home for the Eid holidays.The CIA disputed the HRW report, saying many of the claims against Afghan militias were "likely false or ex...

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: Israel has approved the construction of 2,342 settler homes in the occupied West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said on Thursday.It said the decision was taken on October 10 and that 59 percent of the new homes will be erected in "settlements that Israel likely may evacuate under a peace agreement" with the Palestinians.According to Peace Now, which closely monitors Israeli settlement building, plans for 8,337 housing units in the settlements have been approved since the beginning of the year."This brings the average number of housing units approved in the three years since President Trump was elected, to 6,899 housing units, almost twice the average in the three years preceding them," said the NGO.All settlements are considered illegal under international law and are built on land that the Palestinians see as part of their future state, but Israel distinguishes between those it has approved and those it has not.Peace Now said that settlement ...

WASHINGTON: Twitter will stop accepting political advertising globally on its platform, the company said, responding to growing concerns over misinformation from politicians on social media.Chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted that while internet advertising "is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions."But Social media behemoth Facebook looks unlikely to follow Twitter’s lead, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg holding to his line that he would let political figures speak freely, and count on voters to judge truthfulness."In a democracy, I don’t think it’s right for private companies to censor politicians or the news," Zuckerberg said in an earnings call with analysts, the transcript of which he posted on Facebook.Dorsey said Twitter’s new policy, details of which will be unveiled next month and enforced from November 22, would ban...

SAINT PETERSBURG: Declassified KGB documents on display in Russia describe future President Vladimir Putin as a "conscientious and disciplined" spy at the start of his career."Comrade Putin... is constantly raising his ideological, political and professional level," said the one-page document released to Russian media, written while the intelligence agent turned politician was in his 20s.Now 67, Putin worked for the secret service from the mid-1970s and was posted in Dresden, then East Germany, from 1985 to 1990, as Soviet power was crumbling. In the Kremlin he has surrounded himself with many former employees of the secret service and the FSB, the successor to the KGB, remains a powerful agency.The KGB profile is part of an exhibition at the Central Archive of Historical and Political Documents in Russia’s second city of Saint Petersburg, featuring other declassified files. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/36jj8AB

BRUSSELS: Belgian authorities have been ordered to repatriate a woman who joined the Islamic State group and her two children from the camp in Syria where she is being held, a lawyer for her family said on Thursday.The Belgian government has 75 days to bring back the 23-year-old Belgian woman and her children from the Al-Roj camp controlled by Kurdish fighters under the order issued by a Brussels court, the lawyer, Nicolas Cohen, told AFP, confirming a report on Belgian state television.The ruling lays bare a debate in Europe over the fate of European citizens who left to join IS and who are now being held in camps in Syria and Iraq following the defeat of the jihadists’ so-called "caliphate".The Kurdish fighters controlling the camps, and the United States, have urged the European countries to take back their citizens to face justice. But governments are loath to do so, wary of being able to gather sufficient evidence for successful prosecutions and afraid of having to relea...

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s highest court on Thursday upheld a death sentence against a top Islamist leader for war crimes in a move that lawyers said meant he would almost certainly be executed in the coming months.A.T.M. Azharul Islam, a stalwart of fundamentalist opposition party Jamaat-e-Islami, was sentenced to death in 2014 for rape, murder and genocide during the country’s 1971 independence war.He would become the sixth Islamist leader to be hanged for their role in the war, which saw Bangladesh break away from Pakistan after a nine-month conflict. The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain rejected an appeal by the 67-year-old in a majority verdict, defence lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain told reporters."We will file a review petition against the verdict," he said, adding Islam was an 18-year-old student during the war and did not have a leading role helping the Pakistani military. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2q9myFh

RALEIGH, United States: The scourge of gun violence in the United States is no secret: some 36,000 Americans are killed every year on average, or about 100 a day, in homicides, suicides, police-involved shootings and accidents.Hundreds more are shot and wounded daily in the most-heavily armed country in the world. Those victims -- of mass shootings, or just everyday arguments that go awry -- live on with their wounds.The following are profiles of three Americans whose lives were changed forever when they ended up on the wrong end of a gun barrel: Kacey Ruegsegger was sitting in the library at Columbine High School when she heard a series of pops from outside.She turned to see what was going on, but it stopped just as suddenly as it had started, and she went back to reading her magazine. Her fellow students didn’t pay much attention to the noise either. It was April, 20 1999: Kacey’s favorite band NSYNC was riding high in the charts, an animated dancing baby was taking the dial-up era i...

DHAKA: Around 400 Rohingya refugees have voluntarily returned to Myanmar from Bangladesh, Myanmar’s embassy there said on Thursday, but with previous repatriation attempts having failed Dhaka was yet verify the claim.Bangladesh is home to nearly a million Rohingya including 740,000 who fled a military crackdown in Rakhine state in August 2017 that the UN has called ethnic cleansing.Myanmar’s embassy posted photos on Facebook that purported to show "46 more voluntary returnees" being "warmly received" in Myanmar, taking the total number going back to 397 in an unspecified timeframe.There was no immediate comment on the embassy statement from the Bangladeshi refugee commissioner and Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said Dhaka would verify the claims. But in a statement on Wednesday, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said the return of a "handful" of refugees did "not testify (to) any improvement of the ground reality in Rakhine".Rohingya leaders have ...

ATHENS The situation for migrants in camps on Greek islands is "explosive" and "on the edge of catastrophe", the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday.Greece has once again become the main point of entry for people seeking asylum in Europe and it is struggling to accommodate them despite the availability of EU funds."The situation of migrants, including asylum seekers, in the Greek Aegean islands has dramatically worsened over the past 12 months," Dunja Mijatovic told reporters at the end of a five-day visit."Urgent measures are needed to address the desperate conditions in which thousands of human beings are living. What we see in practice is telling me that human rights are not respected. This is an unacceptable situation," she said.With parliament scheduled to approve a tougher new migration law later on Thursday, the government has said it has some 75,000 asylum requests to process. Mijatovic said there are an estima...

TEHRAN: Iran said on Thursday it hopes the UN nuclear watchdog will act "neutrally" under its new head and vowed to maintain cooperation with its inspectors monitoring a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.Argentina’s Rafael Grossi took the helm of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday following the death of his predecessor, Yukiya Amano of Japan, in July. The UN agency is tasked with monitoring Tehran’s nuclear activities to assess its compliance with the 2015 agreement with major powers, which has been severely undermined by Washington’s abandonment of it in May last year.Iran hopes that during Grossi’s tenure, the IAEA "can neutrally and professionally undertake its international responsibilities and sensitive missions," foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement. "Iran is ready to maintain and expand interaction and cooperation with the agency with goodwill and mutual respect," he added. Tensions with the United States have escalat...

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: An Israeli military court has sentenced a soldier to one month in jail over the killing of a Palestinian teenager after he opened fire without authorisation, the army said late on Wednesday.The unnamed soldier was convicted on Monday for "acting without authorisation in a manner endangering to life and well-being", it said in a statement. Othman Rami Halles, 15, was shot dead during protests on the Israel-Gaza border on July 13, 2018, the Palestinian health ministry said at the time.The army said a probe had found that "the soldier fired at a Palestinian rioter who was climbing on the security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip". from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2C2qb2q

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SEOUL: A new bribery trial opened on Wednesday for the former confidante of ousted South Korean president Park Geun-hye in connection with the sprawling scandal that brought down her friend, media reported.Choi Soon-sil -- who became close to Park through her father, a shadowy religious figure -- received a 20-year prison term last year for using her presidential connections to force companies including Samsung to donate to foundations she controlled, among other charges.But the Supreme Court in August sent both their cases, along with several others, back to the Seoul High Court for retrials, saying there had been errors in the judgements.In her first court appearance in court in 14 months, Choi, 63, denied the accusations, claiming she did not play an influential role in the Park government but only "helped" her longtime friend while "living an ordinary life". "I can vow to the heavens I didn’t know any of the companies," she was quoted as saying by the ...

BEIJING: From budgeting for rural weddings to dressing appropriately and avoiding online porn, China’s Communist Party has issued new guidelines to improve the “moral quality” of its citizens.Officials have released several sets of guidelines this week alongside a secretive conclave of high-ranking officials in Beijing which discusses the country’s future direction. On Sunday the government published its “Outline for the Implementation of Citizen Moral Construction in the New Era” -- which advises readers how to use the internet, raise children, celebrate public holidays and behave while travelling abroad.The guidelines from the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress calls for building “Chinese spirit, Chinese values, and Chinese power”. The texts urge citizens to avoid pornography and vulgarity online, and follow correct etiquette when raising the flag or singing the national anthem.Public institutions like libraries and youth centres must carry out “targeted mor...

ANKARA: Turkish-Russian joint patrols will start in Syria on Friday, Turkey´s president said Wednesday, after the Kremlin said Syrian Kurdish fighters had withdrawn under a deal between Ankara and Moscow."We will start the joint work on the ground on Friday, namely we are starting the joint patrols," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament in a televised speech.Under the agreement hammered out in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi last week after Turkey´s cross-border offensive into Syria, Kurdish militia forces were given a 150-hour deadline, which expired at 1500 GMT Tuesday.Under the Sochi deal, Turkish and Russian joint patrols were meant to begin after the deadline expired. Erdogan said Russian authorities informed Ankara that some 34,000 members of the "terror group" have withdrawn -- together with 3,260 pieces of heavy weaponry -- from a zone running 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Turkish-Syrian border."The data we have points to the fact th...

RABAT: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco Hamid Asghar Khan has said that promotion of trade, investment and commercial relations between Pakistan and Morocco would be at the centre of the Mission's socio-cultural and public diplomacy outreach efforts.The two countries have a shared history, religion and deep political ties based on mutual respect and commonality of views. Hamid Asghar Khan said this while receiving Mirza Ishtiaq Baig, the Honorary Counsel General of Morocco in Karachi and Chairman of Pakistan Morocco Business Council at Rabat.Baig had called on the ambassador to discuss the forthcoming visit of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) delegation to Morocco.Baig announced that a delegation of 20 leading businessmen would be visiting Morocco in December to hold discussions on increasing business ties and to explore opportunities of investments in each other’s countries.The delegation’s visit will coincide with a Biryani Festival ...

RIO DE JANEIRO: A shoot-out in the northern Brazilian city of Manaus between police and suspected drug traffickers left 17 people dead, local authorities announced Wednesday."The individuals exchanged fire with the police, 17 were hit by bullets and transported to hospital, where they were confirmed dead," the state security secretariat said of the incident late Tuesday.The aim of the police operation had been "to intercept a group of drug traffickers from a criminal faction that was preparing to murder rivals to take control of drug selling positions" in a city neighbourhood. Police seized 17 weapons.Various groups are fighting for control of the drug trafficking business in the north of Brazil, a strategic area for the transport of cocaine from neighboring countries such as Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The war between rival criminal gangs has blown up many times in recent years into gruesome prison massacres. At the end of July, 57 inmates were killed during a riot...

WASHINGTON: The United States and six other countries imposed sanctions on Wednesday on 25 corporations, banks and people linked to Iran’s support for militant networks including Hezbollah, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.The targets were announced by the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) nations - which also include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was on a Middle East trip to finalise details of an economic development plan for the Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. All 25 targets were previously sanctioned by the United States. “The TFTC’s action coincides with my trip to the Middle East, where I am meeting with my counterparts across the region to bolster the fight against terrorist financing,” Mnuchin said in the Treasury statement.In Jerusalem on Monday, Mnuchin said the United States would increase economic pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, making the pledge d...

PARIS: Coastal areas currently home to 300 million people will be vulnerable by 2050 to flooding made worse by climate change, no matter how aggressively humanity curbs carbon emissions, scientists said Tuesday.By mid-century and beyond, however, choices made today will determine whether Earth’s coastlines remain recognisable to future generations, they reported in the journal Nature Communications. Destructive storm surges fuelled by increasingly powerful cyclones and rising seas will hit Asia hardest, according to the study. More than two-thirds of the populations at risk are in China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.Using a form of artificial intelligence known as neural networks, the new research corrects ground elevation data that has up to now vastly underestimated the extent to which coastal zones are subject to flooding during high tide or major storms. “Sea-level projections have not changed,” co-author Ben Strauss, chief scientist and CEO of Climate Central...

OSLO: The CEO of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, stepped down on Wednesday, as the fund reported a return on investment of $25.6 billion for the third quarter.Yngve Slyngstad announced he would leave the position as head of the world largest sovereign wealth fund, after nearly 12 years at the helm, during a press briefing held in conjunction with fund’s release of its third quarter financial report.The announced came after the fund reached a market value of over 10 trillion Norwegian kroner (about $1.1 trillion or 975 billion euro) last Friday. “It is an important milestone that the fund’s market value passed 10 trillion kroner 25 October... We have delivered good returns for the best of our nation,” Yngve Slyngstad said in a statement. A successor was not named and the fund’s executive board said it would “now start searching for a new CEO. The fund — which manages the country’s oil revenues in order to finance Norway’s generous welfare state when its oil and gas ...

LONDON: Facebook said on Wednesday it had suspended three networks of Russian accounts that attempted to interfere in the domestic politics of eight African countries, and were tied to a Russian businessman accused of meddling in past U.S. elections. The campaigns targeted people in Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya, Facebook said. They used almost 200 fake and compromised accounts to reach more than 1 million followers in the eight African countries. All the networks were connected to “entities associated with Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin”, Facebook said. Prigozhin has previously denied wrongdoing. His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest Facebook accusations involving African countries. Prigozhin has been indicted by U.S. special prosecutor Robert Mueller as a principal figure behind an alleged Russian “troll farm” accused of trying to sway elections...

AMMAN: Jordan announced on Tuesday that it had recalled its ambassador in Israel over the country’s refusal to free two detained Jordanians, including a woman held since August. According to Amman, Hiba al-Labdi, 24, and Abdelrahman Merhi, 28, were arrested at a crossing between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel has not given reasons for their detention. Since their arrests, Jordanian authorities have repeatedly called for their release, a demand Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi repeated on Tuesday. “In view of Israel’s refusal to respond to our persistent requests to release Jordanian nationals Hiba al-Labdi and Abdelrahman Merhi and the continuation of their illegal and inhumane detention, we have recalled our ambassador in Tel Aviv for consultations,” Safadi said in a statement. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2WsWRvk

LUANDA: Angola´s parliament has suspended a daughter of former leader and president Jose Eduardo dos Santos for “unjust enrichment” as his successor seeks to crack down on nepotism past and present. Dos Santos appointed several family members to key economic and political positions during his 38-year rule, which ended after he stepped down in September 2017. Welwitschia dos Santos, nicknamed “Tchize”, was elected to parliament in 2008 and joined the central committee of the ruling Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in 2016. The National Assembly late on Tuesday voted to suspend Welwitschia — one of the ex-president´s six children — from parliament, saying her absenteeism from the body amounted to “unjust enrichment”. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2q8HTyw

WASHINGTON: Elections are often described as a horse race but when Donald Trump seeks his second term in 12 months, it’s going to look more like a monster car demolition derby. One of the most divisive presidents in US history, fighting impeachment in a Congress paralyzed by partisanship, will go before an electorate split down the middle on November 3, 2020. Democrats remain a long way from choosing Trump’s opponent. The field of record size and diversity includes two African Americans, half a dozen women, an openly gay man and two top candidates seeking to move the United States dramatically to the left. But one thing unites them: desire to humiliate former real estate tycoon Trump into becoming only the fourth one-term president since World War II.One lead Democratic contender, centrist former vice president Joe Biden, says a “battle for the soul of America” is underway. To which Trump says: Democrats want to “destroy our country. And with US intelligence warning that Russia seeks t...

LONDON: Britain’s political leaders tested their election pitches on Wednesday after parliament backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bid for a pre-Christmas poll aimed at breaking the lengthy Brexit deadlock. Lawmakers late Tuesday put aside their disputes and overwhelmingly supported Johnson’s call for a snap general election on December 12. The decision came two days before Britain was due to leave the European Union after 46 years and a few hours after Brussels granted London more time to secure parliamentary backing. Parliament now has up to January 31 to lend their support to Johnson’s divorce deal so that Britain can move past its biggest political crises since World War II. But European Council chief Donald Tusk has warned the bloc’s other 27 members may not grant Britain more time — similar words to those issued before the last extension in April. Party leaders wasted no time in rolling out their messages even before the launch of their parties’ official manifestos. Johnson im...

WASHINGTON: An informant who provided crucial details on the movements of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State leader killed in a US commando raid, is likely to scoop up some or all of a $25 million reward, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.The Post said the informant was a well-placed Islamic State operative who facilitated al-Baghdadi´s movements around Syria and helped oversee the construction of his Syrian hideout. US special operations commandos struck the hideout overnight Saturday, swooping in on helicopters and chasing the IS founder into a tunnel where he detonated a suicide vest, according to the US account of the raid. The Post said the informant was at the scene as the raid unfolded, and was exfiltrated two days later with his family. The man, who was not identified, was likely to receive some or all of the $25 million reward the US had put on al-Baghdadi´s head, it said. Besides al-Baghdadi´s movements, the informant knew the room-by-room layout of al-Baghdadi´s fi...

JERUSALEM: Israeli diplomats began an open-ended strike on Wednesday, closing more than 100 embassies and consulates around the world in a protest over working conditions. The stoppage follows a long-running dispute between diplomatic staff and the finance ministry, which the envoys say has unilaterally changed its rules on reimbursing expenses for entertaining official guests.“We are forced to close the Israeli representations in the world as of today (October 30),” the foreign ministry staff union said in a statement. “No services will be provided to the public and admission to delegations will not be allowed. Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Emmanuel Nachshon, said the row was over a treasury demand that receipts be provided with expense claims for home entertaining. “Our embassy is closed like the rest of the Israeli embassies in the world,” he told Israeli public radio. “When you host somebody in your home, when you hold a dinner or other activity, it’s not always possible to provi...

SAN FRANCISCO: WhatsApp on Tuesday sued Israeli technology firm NSO Group, accusing it of using the Facebook-owned messaging service to conduct cyberespionage on journalists, human rights activists and others.The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO Group tried to infect approximately 1,400 “target devices” with malicious software to steal valuable information from those using the messaging app. WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said the lawsuit was filed after an investigation showed the Israeli firm’s role the cyberattack, despite its denials. “NSO Group claims they responsibly serve governments, but we found more than 100 human rights defenders and journalists targeted in an attack last May. This abuse must be stopped,” Cathcart said on Twitter. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/3234REu

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NEW DELHI: The body of a two-year old boy trapped 26-metres (85-feet) down a well in southern India for more than three days was recovered on Tuesday, authorities said. Sujith Wilson was the second toddler in four months to grab nationwide attention after falling into the 30-centimetre (one-foot) diameter pipe while playing near his home in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu state on Friday. “The body was retrieved using special equipment and he was in a decomposed state,” district official S. Sivarasu told journalists. He added that a post-mortem examination would be carried out to determine the cause of death. A thermal camera had been used to monitor the child´s temperature while oxygen was supplied through a pipe. Rescuers said the toddler was unconscious but breathing until Sunday morning, but they had been unable to check his condition since then as he had slipped further down. Workers used an oil drill to dig a hole parallel to the well, but the rig broke down around 10 metr...

WASHINGTON: The military dog slightly wounded in the US raid which resulted in the death of jihadist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is recovering and back on duty, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday. General Mark Milley said the dog had performed a “tremendous service” during the special forces weekend assault in Syria that led to the death of the leader of the Islamic State group. Announcing Baghdadi´s death, President Donald Trump said Sunday that the “beautiful” and “talented” dog had pursued the IS leader into a dark tunnel where he blew himself up with a suicide vest, killing himself and three children and wounding the dog. Trump tweeted a picture of the dog on Monday, saying it did a “GREAT JOB.” from The News International - World https://ift.tt/2BQBNpc

LONDON: Britain looked set Tuesday for a pre-Christmas election after the main opposition Labour party backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson´s push for an early vote to try to overcome the lengthening political deadlock caused by Brexit.Conservative leader Johnson — overseeing a minority government — is trying to lead Britain out of the deep crisis engulfing its EU departure that was meant to take place this Thursday.But unable to get parliamentary support for his divorce deal with Brussels, he was forced to abandon his “do-or-die” pledge to leave the bloc on schedule and has begrudgingly accepted another extension until the end of January.Britain´s inability to break its half-century bond with the EU has halted costly “no-deal” exit preparations and reportedly seen freshly minted 50-pence commemorative Brexit coins melted down.General elections have been held twice in the last four years — in 2015 and 2017. The next is not scheduled to happen until 2022.But Johnson has been trying to se...

WASHINGTON: A new witness in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump rocked the White House Tuesday with testimony that he personally witnessed officials pressuring Ukraine to help Trump politically.National Security Council Ukraine expert Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was to tell the House inquiry that he twice reported concerns about improper White House efforts to get Kiev to open investigations designed to help Trump politically.In explosive prepared testimony, Vindman said he personally listened to Trump pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call.His testimony, released late Monday, offers some of the strongest evidence yet for accusations that Trump abused his presidential powers and broke election laws to gain Kiev´s support for his re-election effort next year.The first White House official to appear before the inquiry, the decorated Iraq war veteran arrived on Capital Hill Tuesday morning in full military dress uniform, as Trum...

KABUL: Afghanistan´s ruling elite and international power brokers must listen to the fast-growing youth population — including junior Taliban members — if the war is ever to end, the country´s new youth delegate to the United Nations says.In a nation at war for 40 years and where two-thirds of the population is aged 24 or under, twenty-year-old Aisha Khurram says the younger generation´s concerns have been shunted aside even as they inherit the conflict.“For decades and even centuries, our fears and future have always been decided by the warring parties, irrespective of our perspective, irrespective of our opinions and our part in the process,” Khurram told AFP in the UN´s Kabul compound.The international relations student at Kabul University was picked from 100 candidates for her high-profile role in early October, at the end of a tough selection process.For Khurram, reaching out to all young Afghans — including those joining the ranks of the Taliban insurgency — is critical.“Before t...

BEIRUT: At least six Syrian regime fighters were killed as heavy clashes broke out Tuesday between the army and Turkish forces for the first time since Ankara attacked northeastern Syria three weeks ago, a war monitor said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said artillery and machine-gun fire was exchanged near Assadiya, south of the border town of Ras al-Ain.“Heavy fighting erupted for the first time between the Syrian and Turkish armies,” the Britain-based monitoring group said.The Turkish military and its Syrian proxies attacked Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria on October 9 with the aim of creating a roughly 30-kilometre (20-mile) deep buffer zone.“Turkish artillery fire killed five regime forces in battles on the edge of the village of Assadiya,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory, told AFP.He added that the pro-Ankara fighters being used by Turkey as the main ground force for the invasion executed a government soldier they had captured.Kurdish forces earlier t...

KUWAIT CITY: A damaging 30-month-old dispute between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours “is no longer acceptable” and must be resolved, Kuwait´s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said Tuesday.Addressing the opening session of parliament´s new term, Sheikh Sabah said the Saudi-led boycott has greatly weakened the unity of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in which Qatar and its foes are members.Gulf Cooperation Council members Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in addition to Egypt, imposed a sea, land and air boycott of Qatar in June 2017 accusing it of ties to radical groups. Doha has repeatedly denied the allegations.“It is no longer acceptable or bearable for the dispute that erupted between our Gulf Cooperation Council brethren to continue,” Sheikh Sabah, 90, told parliament in his first publicappearance since travelling abroad for medical treatment in early September.Sheikh Sabah, who has been acting as a mediator to resolve the dispute, said the “row has wea...

BAYONNE: French police were investigating Tuesday the motives of an 84-year-old man with links to France´s main far-right party who attacked a mosque and shot two men in their 70s, seriously wounding both.The attack in Bayonne on Monday afternoon, in a neighbourhood described by its residents as peaceful, shocked Muslims and the community at large, prompting firm condemnation from the government as well as from far-right leader Marine Le Pen.It struck just hours after President Emmanuel Macron had urged Muslims to step up the fight against what he called Islamic “separatism” in secular France.The victims, aged 74 and 78, one of whom was hit in the neck and the other in the chest, were in a stable condition in hospital Tuesday, local authorities said.The shooter, identified as Claude Sinke, had stood as a candidate for Le Pen´s National Rally in 2015 regional elections, but the party has since distanced itself from him. Neighbours described Sinke as a difficult man.Mike Bresson, deputy ...

LOS ANGELES: With two young daughters, Mery Montenegro is preparing to add Disney+ to her list of streaming subscriptions, which already includes Netflix, Hulu and Amazon — and, when combined with her cable TV bill, costs her almost $1,500 per year.Her eldest Victoria, 6, asks every day when the new platform will launch, with its impressive catalogue of films and series from all of Disney´s studios.The answer is November 12: Mery, who works at an advertising agency in Washington, knows the date well. It´s the day she´ll start paying $6.99 more per month.Disney+, HBO Max (AT&T), Peacock (Comcast), Apple TV+ and the new short video platform Quibi are all players in a streaming war that will only grow worse at a time when more Americans prefer streaming to cable.“It´s going to have a huge impact on people´s budgets,” said Tom Nunan, an Oscar-winning film producer and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Theater, Film and Television.“I don´t think tha...

WASHINGTON: Washington's sanctions against Tehran have drastically constrained its ability to pay for humanitarian imports and are threatening the health rights of Iranians, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year and reimposed punishing sanctions as part of a stated campaign of "maximum pressure" against the Islamic republic.Officially, the punitive measures make exceptions for food, medicine and other humanitarian goods, but most companies are unwilling to do any trade with Iran for fear of repercussions in the world´s largest economy.Trump "administration officials claim they stand with the Iranian people, but the overbroad and burdensome US sanctions regime is harming Iranian's right to health, including access to live-saving medicines", said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW."The comprehensive web of US sanctions has led banks and companies to pull back ...

PARIS: Coastal areas currently home to 300 million people will be vulnerable by 2050 to flooding made worse by climate change, no matter how aggressively humanity curbs carbon emissions, scientists said on Tuesday.By mid-century and beyond, however, choices made today will determine whether Earth´s coastlines remain recognisable to future generations, they reported in the journal Nature Communications. Destructive storm surges fuelled by increasingly powerful cyclones and rising seas will hit Asia hardest, according to the study.More than two-thirds of the populations at risk are in China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Using a form of artificial intelligence known as neural networks, the new research corrects ground elevation data that has up to now vastly underestimated the extent to which coastal zones are subject to flooding during high tide or major storms."Sea-level projections have not changed," co-author Ben Strauss, chief scientist and CEO of Cli...

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia drew top finance moguls and political leaders to its Davos-style investment summit Tuesday, in stark contrast to last year when outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder sparked a mass boycott. Organisers say 300 speakers from over 30 countries, including American officials and heads of global banks and sovereign wealth funds, are attending the three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII), nicknamed "Davos in the desert".A strong turnout at the event, aimed at projecting the insular kingdom as a dynamic investment destination, would help repair de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's global image that was tainted by journalist Khashoggi's gruesome killing last October."I have been coming to Saudi Arabia for 20 years but what I have been seeing particularly in the past two or three years is (economic) transformation," Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani told the conference, lauding the kingdom´s leaders."As a businessman and...

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's top court on Tuesday effectively blocked a plan by the president to bring back hangings for the first time since 1976 before he leaves office next month.Maithripala Sirisena said in June that he had signed death warrants for four drug offenders -- mirroring the Philippines' no-holds-barred anti-narcotics drive -- alarming rights groups and the international community. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court extended on Tuesday a stay order until the hearing of 15 petitions filed against Sirisena's bid."The bench extended the stay order till December 9," a lawyer representing civil society groups, who call hanging a "cruel and degrading", said after a brief hearing. Sirisena is not seeking re-election and must leave office as soon as a winner is declared after the November 16 election, more than three weeks before the court resumes hearings.There has been a moratorium on capital punishment in the Indian Ocean island nation since 1976...

NEW DELHI: The body of a two-year old boy trapped 26-metres down a well in southern India for more than three days was recovered on Tuesday, authorities said. Sujith Wilson was the second toddler in four months to grab nationwide attention after falling into the 30-centimetre (one-foot) diameter pipe while playing near his home in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu state on Friday. "The body was retrieved using special equipment and he was in a decomposed state," district official S. Sivarasu told journalists.He added that a post-mortem examination would be carried out to determine the cause of death. A thermal camera had been used to monitor the child's temperature while oxygen was supplied through a pipe.Rescuers said the toddler was unconscious but breathing until Sunday morning, but they had been unable to check his condition since then as he had slipped further down. Workers used an oil drill to dig a hole parallel to the well, but the rig broke down around 10 me...

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BAGHDAD: The Iraqi army on Monday announced it would impose an overnight curfew in the capital as students and schoolchildren joined spreading protests to demand an overhaul of the government.Swathes of Iraq have been engulfed by demonstrations over unemployment and corruption this month that have evolved into demands for regime change. The rallies have gathered despite temporary curfews, threats of arrest and violence that has left nearly 240 people dead, including five protesters in Baghdad on Monday.The military said cars and foot traffic would be barred in the capital for six hours starting at midnight. The move sparked concern security forces want to clear out main gathering places like the capital’s Tahrir Square, occupied by demonstrators for four consecutive nights.Security forces there have relied heavily on tear gas to keep protesters from storming the Green Zone, which hosts government offices and foreign offices. But protesters had otherwise been allowed to set up tents in ...

GENEVA: The UN voiced hope on Monday that a meeting this week of a committee tasked with amending Syria’s constitution can open the door to a broader political process for the war-ravaged country."I do believe that the Constitutional Committee’s launch should be a sign of hope for the long-suffering Syrian people," UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters in Geneva ahead of the committee’s first meeting on Wednesday.The UN last month announced the long-awaited formation of the committee to include 150 members, split evenly between Syria’s government, the opposition and Syrian civil society. Pedersen pointed out that the establishment of the committee "marks the first political agreement between the government of Syria and the opposition."The UN envoy, who is due to meet with the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran on Tuesday, before the Constitutional Committee launch, also said he enjoyed the "full support and backing on this from a united inter...

LOS ANGELES: A wildfire broke out on Monday near the renowned Getty Center in Los Angeles, forcing widespread evacuations as the flames destroyed several homes in hillside communities.The so-called Getty Fire broke out overnight near a major freeway and quickly spread south and west, scorching 500 acres (202 hectares) and sending people fleeing in the dark. Among those forced to leave their home was Los Angeles Lakers basketball star LeBron James who tweeted that he and his family had evacuated his home in the upscale neighborhood of Brentwood during the night."Man these LA fires aren’t no joke," he said. "Had to emergency evacuate my house and I’ve been driving around with my family trying to get rooms. No luck so far!" He later tweeted that he had found a place to accommodate the family. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/32WJlma

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LOS ANGELES: Disney´s dark fairy tale "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" edged out "Joker" in a fierce battle of the supervillains this weekend, taking $19.4 million in North American theaters, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Monday.The film, a sequel to the 2014 live-action hit, stars Angelina Jolie as the evil sorceress of "Sleeping Beauty" fame. This time around, Michelle Pfeiffer joins the cast as a scheming Queen Ingrith.For a second consecutive weekend it held off Warner Bros.´ scarefest "Joker," starring Joaquin Phoenix, which managed $19.2 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period to finish a narrow second."Joker" had appeared to hold a slender lead in early box office estimates.The film, with Phoenix incarnating Batman´s notorious nemesis, has now taken approximately $850 million globally, becoming the most successful R-rated movie in history, according to Variety.With Halloween only days away, scary movies did well overall...

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VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis urged dialogue in Lebanon on Sunday after days of sweeping protests against the political class, urging the country to respect "dignity and freedom".Tension has mounted in recent days between security forces and protesters, who are blocking roads and bringing Lebanon to a standstill to press their demands for a complete overhaul of the political system."I would like to address a special thought to the dear Lebanese people, in particular to the young who... have made their cries heard in the face of the social and economic challenges and problems of the country," Pope Francis said. "I urge everyone to seek the right solutions in the way of dialogue," he said after the Angelus prayer in Saint Peter’s Square.He said he hoped that "with the support of the international community, that country may continue to be a space for peaceful coexistence and respect for the dignity and freedom of every person, to benefit of the entire Midd...

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday hailed the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as "an important moment" but said the fight against his group "is not yet over"."The death of Baghdadi is an important moment in our fight against terror but the battle against the evil of Daesh is not yet over," he wrote on Twitter. "We will work with our coalition partners to bring an end to the murderous, barbaric activities of Daesh once and for all."Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Islamic State group’s leaders "have twisted Islam to groom thousands of people into joining their evil cause". "I welcome the action that has been taken. The world will not miss Al-Baghdadi," he tweeted. from The News International - World https://ift.tt/3488cUu