Islamic State Militants Kill 40 Tribesmen in Iraq
New Age Islam News Bureau
30
Oct 2014
Israeli soldiers walk in front of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa .
Arab World
• IS Militants Kill 40 Tribesmen in Iraq
• IS militants execute 30 Iraqi tribal fighters, soldiers
• IS kills 30 Assad men; Homs blast injures 37
• Calls to Restore Palestine’s Stolen History
• King Abdullah, Kuwait emir discuss regional upheavals
• Turkmen-Saudi ties at an ‘all-time high’
• Hero’s welcome for Syria-bound Kurdish fighters
• Iraqi refugees forced to live under ISIL
'• Alienating Sinai no answer to terrorism'
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Southeast Asia
• China Bans Religion in Xinjiang Schools
• Indonesian Minister Promises Bill to Protect Religious Minorities
• China Must Avoid Destabilizing Region, Indonesia Army Chief Says
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India
• RSS Body Seeks To Prove Indian Muslims Are Hindus
• Hyderabad techie, who ‘planned’ to join, IS, let off after counselling
• Yasin Malik arrested in Jammu & Kashmir after calling for boycott on polls
• Global terror ‘net’ trapping gullible Hyderabad professionals
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Europe
• Sweden Recognises Palestinian State: Foreign Minister
• Spain’s Palestine State Vote Gains Support
• Hooligans Anti-Salafists Rally Turns Violent
• United States Praises China's Growing Role in Afghanistan
• Belgian Muslims Decry Islamophobia
• French Far-Right Warns Of "Kebab Threat"
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Pakistan
• Eight soldiers, 21 suspected militants killed in Khyber operation
• Drone strike kills four suspected militants in North Waziristan
• Minister blames foreign hands as 4000kg explosives seized in Quetta
• Imran’s political future dark, says Fazl
• Pakistan’s parliament to be ‘first in the world to go green’
• BNP-M to launch protest movement for recovery of missing persons
• Kabul cold on counter-terror: Pakistan Army
• Pakistan elected to UN Economic & Social Council
• Punjab govt to buy chopper for counter-terror ops
• IHC issues notice seeking reply over appointment of Maryam Nawaz
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Mideast
• Israeli closure of al-Aqsa declaration of war: Abbas
• Turkish-Indonesian partnership sees brighter future
• West should weigh Iran fatwa on nukes: US bishops
• Tehran-Ankara ties to result in secure Mideast region: Rouhani
• US must stop arming anti-Syria terrorists: Iran deputy FM
• Iran parliament rejects minister in fresh blow to Rouhani
• Gaza civil servants receive pay in boost to Palestinian unity
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South Asia
• Eight soldiers, 21 militants killed in Bara fighting
• Bangladesh, US to work for stopping terror financing
• Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem verdict Sunday
• Death for death designer Moti ur Rahman Nizami
• Afghan war amputees find new life, pride in sports
• US for fair war trial in Bangladesh
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Africa
• Boko Haram seizes Mubi town in Adamawa
• S Sudan army repels attack on Bentiu: Defence min.
• Nidaa Tounes comes first in Tunisia polls
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North America
• Canada Muslims Concerned About Safety
• FBI Questioning Mosque Leaders
• US Muslims Prefer Democrats: CAIR Survey
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Australia
• Australia passes laws cracking down on foreign fighters
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Arab World
IS Militants Kill 40 Tribesmen In Iraq
Oct 30, 2014
BAGHDAD: Militants from the Islamic State (IS) group killed on Wednesday more than 40 members of a tribe that fought against them in Iraq’s Anbar province, sources said.
The men from the Albu Nimr tribe were killed in the Heet area, northwest of Baghdad, which was overrun by the militants earlier this month, a local leader and a doctor said.
A police colonel and a leader from the anti-jihadist Sahwa forces confirmed the killings.
Know more: ISIS will ‘soon’ pose threat to US, says general
Sources differed on the exact number of dead, with some saying as many as 48 were killed.
IS has overrun large areas of Anbar, and the killings are likely aimed at discouraging resistance from powerful local tribes, who will be key to any successful bid to retake the province.
Hundreds of Syrian tribesmen also killed, says rights monitoring group
Pro-government forces have suffered a string of setbacks in Anbar in recent weeks.
That has prompted warnings that the province, which stretches from the borders with Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad, could fall entirely.
Images said to show the aftermath of the public ‘execution’ were circulated on Twitter, but their authenticity could not be independently confirmed.
One picture shows a line of more than 30 men in civilian clothes lying in the middle of a street with streams of blood running over the dusty ground, as young men and children look on.
The victims are barefoot and many are blindfolded, their hands bound behind their backs.
IS did not immediately claim responsibility for the killings, but has ‘executed’ hundreds of people in areas of Iraq and Syria that it controls.
Human Rights Watch says there is evidence the group ‘executed’ between 560 and 770 men — mostly captured soldiers earlier in the year.
And IS killed hundreds of members of a Syrian tribe that fought against them, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
IS spearheaded an offensive that has overrun much of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland since June, sweeping security forces aside.
Iraqi security forces, Shia militias and some Sunni tribesmen are fighting to push IS back, but have made only limited local progress so far.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141162/is-militants-kill-40-tribesmen-in-iraq
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IS militants execute 30 Iraqi tribal fighters, soldiers
29 October 2014
BAGHDAD: Islamic State group militants lined up 30 men in western Iraq and shot them dead Wednesday, an official and residents said, the latest mass killing carried out by the group since its advance across the country.
The slayings, on a main street in the Al-Bakir district in the town of Hit, targeted Sunnis tribal fighters allied with the government and members of the security forces that the extremists captured when they overran the town, the official and the residents said.
The militants first paraded the men through town, shouting through loudspeakers that the captured men were apostates who fought against them, residents said. The extremists then lined up the men and shot them dead with assault rifles, residents said.
A photograph obtained by The Associated Press showed a line of the men’s bodies by a small pool of blood as onlookers walked by.
Anbar provincial council chairman Sabah Karhout said those killed were captured when the Islamic State group overran the town located about 140 kilometres (85 miles) west of Baghdad, earlier this month.
Karhout called the slayings “a crime against humanity” and demanded more international support for the Sunni tribes fighting the militants in Anbar.
Iraq is in its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops as Sunni militant groups led by the Al-Qaeda breakaway Islamic State group have seized a third of the country. In one lightning offensive over the summer, Iraq’s US-trained army and security forces melted away as the extremists advanced and captured key cities and towns in country’s north.
In Iraq and along with areas in eastern Syria, the militants have declared a self-styled caliphate and imposed their own harsh interpretation of Shariah law. They also have targeted the country’s religious minorities, including Christians and others, killing hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to leave their homes.
A US-led coalition is now targeting Islamic State extremists with airstrikes. US Central Command said the coalition launched six airstrikes in Iraq over Tuesday and Wednesday using jet fighters and drones, hitting targets near Fallujah and Sinjar.
In other violence Wednesday, police said a roadside bomb exploded near an army patrol in a town just south of Baghdad, killing three soldiers and wounding seven. A later bomb blast on a commercial street in Baghdad’s eastern district of Ur killed two people and wounded eight, police said.
Medical officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, while the residents of Hit requested their names not be used out of fears of reprisal.
http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/651906
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IS kills 30 Assad men; Homs blast injures 37
30 October 2014
DAMASCUS: At least 37 people, including children, were injured in a car bomb attack on a government-controlled neighborhood in the central Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday, state television reported.
“Terrorists detonated a car bomb in the center of Al-Zahraa neighborhood, causing deaths and injuries,” it said. It later said at least 37 people had been hurt, including children who were “in serious condition,” adding that the blast had caused major damage.
The majority of Al-Zahraa’s residents are Alawite, the same sect as President Bashar Assad.
The bombing is the latest in a series of attacks targeting government-controlled areas of Homs city.
Meanwhile, Islamic State group men attacked an oil and gas field in Syria, killing at least 30 pro-regime gunmen and security guards, a monitoring group said Wednesday.
“IS managed to control parts of the field,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said after Tuesday’s assault at Shaer, in Homs province.
An unknown number of militants were also killed, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Separately, US warplanes renewed airstrikes near the Syrian town of Kobani, as Iraqi peshmerga soldiers prepared to reinforce their fellow Kurds in the border area, the US military said on Wednesday.
US fighter jets and bombers on Tuesday and Wednesday carried out eight air raids near Kobani, targeting six vehicles, a building and several IS fighting positions over the past 24 hours, said the military’s Central Command, which oversees the air war in Iraq and Syria.
In Iraq, American unmanned drones and fighter jets conducted six bombing raids, including three near Sinjar in the north and three around Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Central Command said in a statement.
The latest air strikes came as heavily armed peshmerga forces were poised to cross the Turkish border into Kobani to help the local Kurdish militia that has held out against a relentless assault by IS militants for weeks.
Free Syrian Army rebels crossed from Turkey to Kobani earlier on Wednesday.
http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/news/652111
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Calls to Restore Palestine’s Stolen History
29 October 2014
CAIRO – Reviving calls to restore the stolen Palestinian history, Arab League chief has urged Arabs to regain thousands of Palestinian books and manuscripts,'stolen by Israel' over the past decades, since 1948.
“Arab countries face at this phase many serious challenges, some of which are clear through attempts to obliterate its Arab and Islamic history and heritage,” Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby was quoted by the Independent.
Elaraby’s remarks were made earlier this week during an Arab League event, "Palestine in Arabic Documents", which was attended by several Arab officials along with intellectuals and representatives of the International Council on Archives (ICA).
Calling for more efforts to retake the historical archives in Palestine and other Arab countries, Elaraby accused Israel of stealing about 80,000 Palestinian books and manuscripts since 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Elaraby described that the stealing of historical archives as attempts by the colonial powers to "obliterate Arab heritage".
"Some Arab countries, including Algeria, Libya and Iraq are working to regain their archives, which also contain its histories," Elaraby was quoted by Fars News Agency.
"The Arab League is working on this in cooperation with the ICA (International Council on Archives).”
Israel was created on May 15, 1948, on the rubbles of Palestine.
Later in the 1967 Middle East War, Israel occupied other Palestinian lands along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights.
Israel returned Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the 1979 Camp David peace accords.
Stolen History
Justifying the last century's theft of the Palestinian documents and manuscripts, Israeli librarians claimed they were saving a culture that otherwise might be lost.
"Following the War of Independence in 1948, rather than destroy all sign of ‘the other’, Israel preserved and has protected much of the documentation and manuscripts left behind by Arabs displaced in the fighting," a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy said.
"Would it were so that some of the other forces in the Middle East would behave in such fashion rather than destroying their own heritage as new ideas have taken power.
"Accusing Israel of doing something malicious as a result of Israel respecting and valuing life and culture is precisely the distortion that prevents many in the Arab world from reconciling with Israel and pursuing conflict resolution rather than conflict."
During the 1948 war officials from the Jewish National and University Library joined soldiers while invading Palestinian homes where they collected "as many books and manuscripts as possible".
Estimated by tens of thousands, Al-Jazeera put the number of books gathered from Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem), Haifa and Jaffa at more than 60,000.
As the exact number of the stolen documents still vague, Palestinians deem the decades-old theft as “a clear-cut act of cultural plunder, cultural disinheritance, which was an inseparable part of the Nakba”.
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/middle-east/479087-calls-to-restore-palestines-stolen-history.html
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King Abdullah, Kuwait emir discuss regional upheavals
30 October 2014
Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who wrapped up a brief visit to Riyadh, met with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and senior government officials soon after his arrival at the Riyadh airbase on Tuesday night.
Sheikh Sabah was welcomed on arrival by Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, Riyadh Gov. Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and other senior government officials.
The emir and King Abdullah discussed prospects of cooperation between the countries, in addition to the current events and developments in the region and the world at large.
The emir was accompanied by an official delegation, including First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.
On behalf of King Abdullah, Crown Prince Salman hosted a dinner at his ranch in Diraiya on Tuesday.
Prior to the banquet, the crown prince accompanied the Kuwaiti emir in a tour of Al-Ouja Palace, during which the prince looked at several photographs and historical antiquities of the late King Abdulaziz and the city of Riyadh. Prior to his arrival in the Kingdom, the emir expressed alarm over several countries in the region sliding into chaos due to acts of terrorism and war, adding that the situation required the people of Kuwait to stand together against mayhem and terrorism.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/652301
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Turkmen-Saudi ties at an ‘all-time high’
30 October 2014
Turkmenistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia are at an all-time high in the modern era, the country’s envoy said here on Tuesday.
Ambassador Nazarkuly Shakuliyev said current ties are based on centuries of contact between the people of the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia.
Speaking at celebrations of the country’s national day, which falls on Oct. 28, Shakuliyev wished Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, good health and long lives.
Full report at:
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/652276
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Hero’s welcome for Syria-bound Kurdish fighters
Oct 30, 2014
Iraqi Kurds receive a hero’s welcome in southeastern Turkey as they cross the country on their way to Syria, where they are to join their comrades fighting ISIL Takfiri terrorists.
Large crowds who had gathered in Sanliurfa, the capital of Turkey's Sanliurfa Province, chanted "long live Peshmerga" -- another name for the fighters -- as the soldiers walked through the city's streets.
There were similar scenes in the provincial town of Viransehir earlier on Wednesday.
The forces are expected to travel through the Mursitpinar border crossing into Kobani -- the Syrian town besieged by militants with the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.
Just hours before, a separate group of peshmerga troops landed at Sanliurfa airport, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Kobani.
ISIL launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September, killing more than 800 people. The militants have captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and control parts of the town. More than 200,000 people have fled across the border into Turkey.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384145/heros-welcome-for-syriabound-fighters/
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Iraqi refugees forced to live under ISIL
30 Oct 2014
Zakho, Iraq - The unfinished brick apartment buildings rise above a muddy square teeming with children and crowded with makeshift stalls selling chocolate bars and second-hand jackets.
Inside, between the concrete pillars, families have strung clothing lines and draped them with sheets to create the illusion of rooms. Each one holds an individual tragedy.
Murad Qassim and his family fled the village of Wardia near Sinjar on August 12 when ISIL surrounded the community. He left behind his father, who was 110.
"I couldn't carry him and I didn't have a car to take him so I had to leave him there," Qassim says. His father was beheaded when ISIL arrived, villagers told him.
Almost three months after ISIL took over large areas of the north of Iraq, tens of thousands of displaced, traumatised Iraqis like Qassim who fled to the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, are still living in construction sites.
Underfunded UN and aid agencies, along with a region and country grappling with a financial as well as security crisis, say they are struggling to keep people from freezing and going hungry as winter approaches.
"The expectation is that the international community can cover this to the full extent," says Barbara Manzi, head of the United Nation's humanitarian affairs office in Iraq. "We don't have the capacity. This is big. This is big for all of us."
Across Iraq, fighting has forced almost two million Iraqis to flee since the beginning of the year. Combined with more than a million displaced by the civil war, the country now has one of the largest populations of displaced citizens in the world.
With winter temperatures dipping below zero, the UN says at least 325,000 people are living without proper shelter.
Almost half are in the Kurdish region where entire towns relocated as ISIL rolled through Nineveh province on the de facto border with the Kurdish region. The Kurdish government has also taken in almost 250,000 Syrian refugees - with hundreds more arriving every day.
The UN says unless it gets more funding, it won't be able to provide even winter jackets for the more than 225,000 children. "This is a bad situation," says Khazal Hamda, whose family moved back to their village near Zumar, recaptured last week by Kurdish forces.
"We have no electricity, no heat and there's mud in the water - we have to boil it to drink it." Despite that, Hamda said moving back to a village was better than trying to survive in the city, where there are so many displaced people sleeping in schools. The school year has again been delayed.
Full report at:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/iraqi-refugees-forced-live-under-isil-20141030623250351.html
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'Alienating Sinai no answer to terrorism'
29 Oct 2014
Hundreds of Egyptians, who reside in northern Sinai along the eastern borders with the Gaza Strip, are being forced to abandon their homes which the army plans to demolish as it hunts down armed groups responsible for countless attacks, the latest of which killed 33 soldiers.
The attack, which is the worst in a cycle of violence that has largely targeted security forces for over a year, has earned pledges by the country's military to intensify its chase in the restive Sinai Peninsula. The campaign which kicked off last August, did not succeed in stamping out armed fighters.
With anger spreading among people in Sinai over the evacuation, and attacks continuing despite a months-long clampdown on the region's residents, questions are raised on how effective the military operations have been, and how useful a tighter grip will be to root out assailants.
Ismail Alexandrani, a researcher at the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative and an expert on Sinai, spoke to Al Jazeera about military groups based in the Sinai and the Egyptian authorities' achievements in their "war on terror".
Al Jazeera: Which armed groups are currently active in the Sinai Peninsula?
Ismail Alexandrani: Right now, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (ABAM), or Champions of Jerusalem, is the only active group in Sinai. The group was a Salafi jihadist organisation loyal to al-Qaeda but moved to embrace a takfiri doctrine (Muslims who accuse others of apostasy) after massacres were committed against Islamists in the July 2013 coup. There are now two branches of the group in dispute, one remains loyal to al-Qaeda and another loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
As for the 'Mujahideen Shura Council - the Environs of Jerusalem', it first came into existence in the peninsula in 2011, but has disappeared from Sinai since August 2013, and is believed to have withdrawn to Gaza, where they solely focus on Israeli targets.
There are also other ideologies in the Sinai Peninsula that can be more extreme than ABAM, but do not, ironically, use weapons against a community and state they claim are infidels. They deem themselves vulnerable and are not fit for jihad.
Therefore, ABAM now rules the scene in Sinai. Its fighters number less than 200, but the group is efficient in recruiting and mobilising new members from inside and outside Egypt.
Al Jazeera: How is the spike in attacks connected to regional developments and how much cooperation is there between Sinai-based militants and others in the region?
Alexandrani: It is important to note that 'local' and 'national boundaries' bear no importance to Salafi jihadists, and that, for them, matters and developments are looked at from the perspective of the umma, or the Muslim nation.
For them, borders are temporary piles of dust, and therefore, progress achieved by one group resonates across the region.
Full report at:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/sinai-no-answer-terrorism-2014102910333236197.html
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Southeast Asia
China Bans Religion in Xinjiang Schools
29 October 2014
CAIRO – Education officials in China's Muslim-majority province of Xinjiang have announced their plans to keep religious practices away from schools, justifying the decision as a trial to combat terrorism in the district.
"As the head of an educational institution, a principal is responsible for protecting their students from religious infiltration, and especially from extremist thoughts," Lu Huadong, an official working in Kashgar's education department, told Global Times, which is close to the Communist Party, on Wednesday, October 29.
“Signing their names on a banner and making such vows in front of the national flag are both ways for them to remember their duty,” he added.
Principals at more than 2,000 kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools in Kashgar, near China’s border with Pakistan, signed a pledge to “defend schools against the infiltration of religion”.
According to the Times, an official from Kashgar's education bureau, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they have been explaining the State's policy to students
Party members, teachers and underage students should not practice religion either at school or at home, he added.
Xinjiang has been autonomous since 1955 but continues to be the subject of massive security crackdowns by Chinese authorities.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/asia-pacific/479099-china-bans-religion-in-xinjiang-schools.html
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Indonesian Minister Promises Bill to Protect Religious Minorities
By Adelia Anjani Putri
Oct 30, 2014
Jakarta. The lone minister to survive the cut to President Joko Widodo’s cabinet from the previous administration has unveiled plans to draft a bill that would afford unprecedented protection to religious minority groups, continuing where he left off in his battle against rising religious intolerance.
“Over the next six months, we will work on this bill to protect all religious groups, including those outside the six main religions of Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism,” Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, the minister for religious affairs, said at a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.
“The bill will protect everyone’s religious right, especially the rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” he said. “First, the right to believe in whatever they choose to put their faith in. There should be a guarantee that everyone is free to choose their own religion or belief. Second, the independence for anyone to practice their belief.”
He added he hoped that “the bill can improve the quality of living in Indonesia.”
Lukman was inaugurated in June, in the twilight of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration, following the naming of the previous minister, Suryadharma Ali, as a graft suspect. In the short time since then he has shown a more conciliatory stance than his predecessors on engaging with minority religious groups, including Shiite and Ahmadi Muslims — with whom he held an unprecedented breaking of the fast during Ramadan in July.
Suryadharma, by contrast, was known for his hostility toward these groups, including a public call for the Ahmadis to recant their “heretical” beliefs.
Lukman said the new bill would target the closures and attacks on churches and Shiite and Ahmadiyah mosques, one of the most egregious symptoms of the quasi-institutional discrimination of religious minorities stemming from the near-impossible administrative requirements laid out in a 2006 joint decree from the Religious Affairs Ministry and Home Affairs Ministry for congregations of any faith seeking a permit to build a house of worship.
“The bill will have many implications, including in terms of the permit to build places of worship,” the minister said. “There should be a clearer and stronger regulation for this issue. Of course we need suggestions from the public so we can accommodate their needs and interests.”
Full report at:
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/minister-promises-bill-protect-religious-minorities/
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China Must Avoid Destabilizing Region, Indonesia Army Chief Says
By Andrea
Oct 30, 2014
China must not use its “great force” to create regional instability, Indonesian military chief Gen. Moeldoko said, as his nation seeks to avoid being drawn into China’s territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
“China is a great economic superpower, however we don’t want this great force to create instability in the region,” Moeldoko said in a speech in Singapore on Wednesday. “Just a small disturbance within this maritime zone will give a big impact” and create turbulence in the region.
Newly inaugurated Indonesian President Joko Widodo faces a China that’s pushing its claims in the South China Sea with an aggressiveness unprecedented since Indonesia’s independence. For Jokowi, as he is known, ties with President Xi Jinping loom as one of his biggest foreign-policy challenges.
Jokowi has said he wants to stop smuggling of Indonesia’s natural resources, including fish.
The president wants a network of drones to help monitor and stop misuse of resources across an archipelago of 17,000 islands that would stretch from New York to Alaska. “Drones are not only for the military but also for the economy, like for illegal logging,” Jokowi said in an interview on July 21, in the period between his his election and his inauguration last week.
“We have to protect the sea from piracy and also those who would encroach on our natural resources,” Moeldoko said. Indonesia’s defense forces has “hundreds of ships” to secure the country’s maritime lanes within its borders, he said.
Nine-dash map
Xi told Jokowi last week that China wants to strengthen its strategic partnership with Indonesia. In his first phone conversation with Jokowi, Xi said the two countries are “good neighbors and good friends,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Oct. 24.
In passports issued in 2012, China’s nine-dash line map — the area it claims in the South China Sea that overlaps with claims from countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines — encroaches on the exclusive economic zone that Indonesia derives from the Natuna Islands, an area rich in natural gas.
Full report at:
http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/china-must-avoid-destabilizing-region-indonesia-army-chief-says/
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India
RSS Body Seeks To Prove Indian Muslims Are Hindus
Rashpal Singh
October 28, 2014
An RSS-backed organisation of genealogists is undertaking an ambitious academic exercise to prove that most Muslims in India are converts from Hinduism, a move that has met with robust scepticism from some social scientists and Islamic scholars.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vanshawali Sanrakshan evum Samvardhan Sansthan (ABVSSS) says it will use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis and other genealogical documents to prove its theory which, in turn, can help bridge social divides.
Genealogy is the study of families and tracing of ancestries to prove kinship and pedigrees and is considered by many as an inexact science. In India, genealogical records are legally tenable.
The effort was agreed upon at a one-day national conference of genealogists held in the city on Monday. It is being patronised by Ram Prasad, the founder of ABVSSS, who says all Muslims and Christians in India are converts.
“Ask any one of them about their lineage and their ancestors would be Hindu at some point of time,” he said.
“I interacted with a number of Meo Muslims and they accepted facts about their conversion. And it was on the basis of their Vanshawalis (genealogical records).”
If the ancestral roots of Indian Muslims and Christians were dug deeper, claims Prasad, their exact origin and lineage could be found in some Hindu caste or community.
But many believe such efforts are part of a wider ideological shift being pushed by Hindutva groups seeking to rewrite Indian history and social narratives.
One such sceptic of Prasad’s genealogical proposal is Rajiv Gupta, ex-head of sociology department at University of Rajasthan who believes the information could be misused by “right wing forces” to create division.
“It is an important danger. It can be used to rewrite history which may disturb (the) secular and social fabric of the country,” cautioned Gupta, while maintaining that gaining unbiased ancestral knowledge is good.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/rss-body-seeks-to-prove-indian-muslims-are-hindus/article1-1279861.aspx
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Hyderabad techie, who ‘planned’ to join, IS, let off after counselling
Oct 30, 2014
HYDERABAD: Former Google India employee Munawad Salman was reportedly on the police radar for a long time. In fact, his internet browsing habits were being monitored ever since some city-based engineering students made a vain bid to join Islamic State (ISIS) in August last, Hyderabad police commissioner M Mahendar Reddy has said.
nabbed and was being questioned to gather more details about his plan to join the ranks of ISIS.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the Hyderabad police chief said Salman was bound over under section 108 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) after his internet browsing activities were found 'highly suspicious'. He was counselled and let off. "Salman was produced before a revenue divisional officer (RDO) and told to give an undertaking on good behaviour. He was on police radar for a long time,'' the commissioner said.
To a query whether the outlawed Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was regrouping in Hyderabad, the commissioner flatly denied it.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hyderabad-techie-who-planned-to-join-IS-let-off-after-counselling/articleshow/44978206.cms
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Yasin Malik arrested in Jammu & Kashmir after calling for boycott on polls
Oct 30, 2014
Srinagar: Separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik, who has called for a boycott of the coming Jammu and Kashmir elections, was on Thursday taken into preventive custody in Srinagar.
This was done to maintain law and order in the city, a police officer said.
Malik, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), told IANS that police reached his uptown Abi Guzar office in the morning and seized him.
He said some other JKLF leaders were also arrested.
Full report at:
http://www.firstpost.com/india/yasin-malik-arrested-in-jammukashmir-after-calling-for-boycott-on-polls-1779929.html
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Global Terror ‘Net’ Trapping Gullible Hyderabad Professionals
Srinath Vudali
Oct 30, 2014
HYDERABAD: City professionals seem to be much in demand not only by multinational companies (MNCs), but also by global terror outfits like ISIS. Online recruiters are luring professionals to join the ISIS ranks, but after crossing the Indian shores the gullible men are realising that it is a sham and their handlers are actually a breakaway faction of Indian Mujahideen (IM) working for al-Qaida, sources said.
The breakaway group of IM, led by one Sultan and others, is reportedly carrying out online recruitment through Al Isabha website, and cheating professionals attracted by the Caliphate concept. "The ISIS is flush with funds and professional manpower, but it is the al-Qaida which is in need of talent to deal with software applications," the sources said. It is learnt that former Google India employee Munawad Salman, who was nabbed in Hyderabad, was lured by Al Isabha, promising to enlist him in ISIS.
Dilsukhnagar twin blasts prime accused Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal reportedly developed differences with other IM members, who are taking shelter either in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. The breakaway faction joined hands with al-Qaida and started recruitment in India for the outfit. "It is through Sultan, al-Qaida members like Zahid Hindi are drafting Indians into the terror network.
Saidabad resident Moutasim Billah allegedly advised two recently arrested SIMI activists__Sha Mudassir and Shoaib__from Maharashtra to join al-Qaida and not ISIS,'' the sources in security agencies told TOI.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Global-terror-net-trapping-gullible-Hyderabad-professionals/articleshow/44978221.cms
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Europe
Sweden recognises Palestinian state: foreign minister
Oct 30, 2014
STOCKHOLM: Sweden on Thursday officially recognised the state of Palestine, Stockholm's foreign minister said, less than a month after the government announced its intention to take the controversial move.
“Today the government takes the decision to recognise the state of Palestine,” Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement published in the Dagens Nyheter daily. “It is an important step that confirms the Palestinian's right to self-determination.“
With its reputation as an honest broker in international affairs and with an influential voice in EU foreign policy, the recognition may well make other countries sit up and pay attention at a time when the Palestinians are threatening unilateral moves towards statehood.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141346/sweden-recognises-palestinian-state-foreign-minister
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Spain’s Palestine State Vote Gains Support
27 October 2014
CAIRO – Hundreds of Israeli leftists have announced their support to Spain's parliament plans to hold a vote on recognizing Palestine as a state, adding more pressure on the Israeli occupation.
“Israel should recognize the state of Palestine … based on the June 4 1967 borders,” a group of a left-wing Israelis wrote in an online petition cited by Haaretz.
Signed by more than 300 Israeli professors, academics, actors, artists and other left-leaning figures, the petition followed the Spanish parliament’s announcement of holding a vote on recognizing Palestine as an independent state.
Last week, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, the second largest party in Spain’s congress, revealed plans to submit a draft motion calling for the recognition of Palestine on October 30.
The date commemorates the 23rd anniversary of the Madrid talks which preceded the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
After the motion’s submission, the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo said that such a move “must be the result of negotiations between the parties,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
Almost two weeks ago, a draft motion by a regional left-wing group from Galicia in northwestern Spain, urging the government to halt all arms trade with Israel, has been rejected.
While Palestine is not recognized as an official member state at the United Nations and other global bodies, it was upgraded to a “non-member observer state” in 2012, despite strong Israeli, American and British opposition.
Israel was created on May 15, 1948, on the rubbles of Palestine.
Later in the 1967 Middle East War, Israel occupied other Palestinian lands along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Syria's Golan Heights.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/479011-spains-palestine-state-vote-gains-support.html
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Hooligans Anti-Salafists Rally Turns Violent
27 October 2014
CAIRO – A far-right rally in German western city of Cologne has turned violent after new-Nazis and hooligans attacked police forces cordoning the protest which left thirteen police officers injured and many arrested.
“The law will be on hand in full force, but with appropriate restraint,” Rainer Wendt, chair of the German Police Union, told Deutsche Welle.
Wendt said that acts of violence and the shouting of radical right-wing slogans would not be tolerated, adding that officers would have a low threshold when it came to intervening.
Thirteen officers and one protester were injured in the clashes that erupted in Sunday’s demonstration in Cologne organized by the “Hooligans against Salafists" group also known as Ho.Ge.Sa.
The HoGeSa, which has neo-Nazi elements among is members, is also being closely monitored by the authorities.
Though it was intended to be a peaceful protest against extremist violence, the protest drew soccer hooligans loyal to teams in western Germany.
"We are Germany!" The first speaker shouted out to the crowd. "I am you (points at one demonstrator). And you (at another). And you (a third). And who are we against?" The speaker's answer, "Salafists," was repeated three times with increasing urgency.
It wasn't clear what triggered the outburst at the front of the march, but soon beer bottles could be seen flying and hundreds of riot police rushed to reach the scene.
"At the moment we're using pepper spray, batons and water cannons to try and get the situation under control," a police spokesman told German news agency DPA.
At least 10 officers were injured in the violence.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/479003-hooligans-anti-salafists-rally-turns-violent.html
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United States praises China's growing role in Afghanistan
Oct 30, 2014
BEIJING: The United States welcomed China's growing role in trying to ensure Afghanistan's stability on Thursday, saying a Beijing conference of foreign ministers on Afghan reconstruction this week shows its commitment to the region as Western troops pull out.
The comments, made by a senior State Department official, are rare US praise for Beijing, which this week hosts Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on his first visit abroad since assuming office in September.
Washington and Beijing, which have typically contentious relations on geopolitical issues from Iran to the South China Sea, have both said they see Afghanistan as a point where their security interests converge.
On Tuesday, China pledged to give Afghanistan $327 million in aid through 2017, more than the $250 million contribution it has so far offered since the fall of the hardline Islamist Taliban regime in 2001.
“China's view of engaging in Afghanistan over the course of these past few years has really changed significantly, and in our view, in a very positive direction,” the official told reporters during a telephone briefing.
On Friday, foreign ministers from Asian and Central Asian countries will gather in Beijing for a fourth round “Istanbul Process” conference on Afghanistan, which China hopes will help boost development and security there. White House counsellor John Podesta will attend the meeting.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141337/united-states-praises-chinas-growing-role-in-afghanistan
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Belgian Muslims Decry Islamophobia
29 October 2014
BRUSSELS – Living for decades in Belgium, a growing number of Muslim women have been complaining about being excluded from the society because of their veil, blaming recent anti-niqab law for adding to their turmoil..
“I’m looking for a job … and here in Belgium there is a new law we cannot work with our veil,” Hind, a 31-year-old Moroccan woman living in Brussels, told Anadolu Agency.
“We have to take it off to work,” Hind, who did not want to reveal her last name, added.
Women in Belgium risk a maximum fine of 150 euros if they wear a full face veil in public. Belgium and France both banned the wearing of full veils in public last year.
Belgium banned the wearing of face-veil in public places in 2011.
In 2012, the Belgian Constitutional Court rejected appeals and ruled that the niqab, or face-veil, ban did not violate human rights.
As a result on the new law, if any woman failed to comply with the law, she will be punished with a penalty of 137.50 euros ($195) and up to seven days behind bars in jail as a punishment.
For many Muslim women, the restrictions on niqab and even hijab resulted in excluding them from the Belgian society.
“When you graduate from any studies and you want any job, they ask you to not wear it,” Esma, a 31-year-old Moroccan doctor who wears a traditional hijab, said.
“It’s not allowed in many activities to wear the headscarf,” she said.
Belgian Muslims are estimated at 450,000 – out of a 10-million-population – about half of them are from Moroccan origin, while 120,000 are from Turkish origin.
Yet, a very small portion estimated to 200 to 300 of the country’s hundreds of thousands of Muslims wear the face veil in public.
While hijab is an obligatory code of dress for Muslim women, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that a woman is not obliged to wear the face veil.
Scholars believe it is up to women to decide whether to take on the niqab or burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.
Islamophobia
The recent Muslim concerns were expressed during a Sunday rally protesting the mysterious death of a Muslim in his prison cell.
Youssef Tahriki, a 42-year-old father of eight was arrested Sept. 14 after an alleged family argument.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/479093-belgian-muslims-decry-islamophobia.html
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French Far-Right Warns Of "Kebab Threat"
28 October 2014
BLOIS, France – French far-right National Front party has launched a new campaign against the growing appetite for kebab, seeing it as a sign of cultural “Islamisation” of the country whose food is used as a metaphor for identity.
"The kebab is a bit of a reflection of all the problems with immigration and integration in France," Thibaut Le Pellec, founder of KebabFrites.com, a website that ranks kebab houses across the country and seeks to raise the reputation of the "kebabistes", told Reuters on Tuesday, October 28.
Introduced by Turkish immigrants to Paris in the 1990s, the doner kebab quickly appealed to France's North African population.
The dish adapted to the French palate, served in crusty bread, with the addition of a creamy white sauce and side of fries.
After more than two decades, some 300 million kebabs at about 6 euros each are eaten in 10,200 outlets in France each year, putting the 1.5 billion euro ($1.9 billion) industry just behind burgers and pizza, according to Gira Conseil, a market research company.
The popular food can be found everywhere, in cities and towns, in supermarket freezers and drive-throughs.
One brand of potato chips is even kebab-flavored, and advertised by Yohan Cabaye, a white footballer who plays for France and Paris Saint-Germain.
Last month, four kebab houses opened in Blois, bringing the total to over a dozen in the pretty Loire valley town where tourists come to see the castle.
The far-right National Front party railed: "The historical centre of Blois, the jewel of French history, is turning into an Oriental city".
Campaigning for local elections last March, National Front candidates across the country criticized the rise of kebab shops, with one coining the phrase that France was undergoing a "kebabisation".
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/479047-french-far-right-warn-of-kebab-threat.html
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Pakistan
Eight soldiers, 21 suspected militants killed in Khyber operation
By Zahir Shah Sherazi
Oct 30, 2014
PESHAWAR: At least 21 suspected terrorists were killed while several others injured during a major clearance operation in Spin Qamar area of Khyber Agency, Pakistan military claimed on Wednesday.
“Eight soldiers embraced Shahadat (martyrdom) during fierce fighting and exchange of fire with terrorists,” said a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
This is second phase of Khyber operation named as Khyber-II.
In a separate incident, two members of a peace committee have been injured in Gomal Zam area. One of them is stated to be in critical condition.
The information, however, could not be verified independently as access for journalists is restricted in the area.
Earlier in the day, DG ISPR Maj Gen Asim Bajwa told reporters that more than 1,100 terrorists were killed during Zarb-i-Azb and 44 others during Khyber-I operation. However, he once again declined to give a timeframe for the end of the operations underway in North Waziristan and Khyber, saying these would continue in the two tribal regions until the areas were cleared.
Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif visited Peshawar and participated in the funeral prayers of eight slain security personnel who had lost their lives in a clash with militants in Khyber Agency's Bara Tehsil.
The army chief also visited the Combined Military Hospital Peshawar and inquired after the injured soldiers, who had been injured in the line of duty.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141159/eight-soldiers-21-suspected-militants-killed-in-khyber-operation
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Drone Strike Kills Four Suspected Militants In North Waziristan
By Zahir Shah Sherazi
Oct 30, 2014
PESHAWAR: At least four suspected militants, including a foreign militant of Arab origin, were killed in a US drone strike in the Birmal Tehsil of South Waziristan on Thursday.
According to sources, the drone fired two missiles at a compound in Birmal, destroying it completely.
At least four suspected militants were killed and several others were reportedly injured. The sources also claimed that an Arab national identified by the name of Adil has been killed in the strike.
These details could not be independently verified as the media's access to the troubled region is restricted.
South Waziristan is among Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border which are rife with insurgents and are alleged to be strongholds of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, among others.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141332/drone-strike-kills-four-suspected-militants-in-north-waziristan
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Minister blames foreign hands as 4000kg explosives seized in Quetta
By Syed Ali Shah
Oct 30, 2014
QUETTA: Frontier Corps claimed to have foiled a major bid of terrorism by seizing 4000 kilogrammes of explosives, suicide jackets, rockets and other weapons from different parts of Balochistan.
Brigadier Tahir Mehmood, the Deputy Inspector General FC, while addressing a press conference on Thursday said that raids were conducted in the Gulistan area of district Qilla Abdullah, which borders with neighbouring Afghanistan and recovered a huge quantity of arms and ammunition. Home Minister Balochistan Sarafaraz Bugti was also present during the press conference.
Mehmood stated that one accused, identified as an Afghan national was also arrested during the operation. He also said that 31 sub machine guns, 101 missiles and other weapons were also recovered from Gulistan.
Mehmood further added that explosives and weapons were being brought to Quetta and other parts of Balochistan to carry out subversive activities on the eve of Muharram.
Also read: Balochistan: Security forces foil major terror plot ahead of Muharram
RAW and NDS creating unrest in the province: Minister
Balochistan’s Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti during the press conference accused Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghan intelligence agency National Directorate of Security (NDS) for creating unrest in the province, which has been plagued by terrorism for over a decade.
"They are creating unrest in Balochistan to achieve their nefarious designs," Bugti said. To another question, the Home Minister said government, law enforcement agencies along with people of Balochistan were determined to fight back the elements creating law and order problem here.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141345/minister-blames-foreign-hands-as-4000kg-explosives-seized-in-quetta
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Pakistan’s parliament to be ‘first in the world to go green’
By Irfan Haider
Oct 30, 2014
ISLAMABAD: In six months, the parliament will hold the distinction of being the first parliament in the world to go green.
This was announced by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, at a signing ceremony of Letter of Exchange between Pakistan and China for the installation of Solar Power Generation System (SPGS) at the Parliament House on Wednesday.
Adviser to Finance Division Rana Asad Ameen told Dawn that the Chinese government had provided a grant through the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) to set up the SPGS system as an alternative source of energy to meet electricity needs of the Parliament House.
“The Chinese government will install 1.1 MW SPGS at the Parliament House while the current requirement of the parliament is 1.8 MW,” Ameen said.
The adviser said the project will be completed in the next six months.
He said solar panels will be installed on the roof of the parliament.
An official of the Ministry of Water and Power told Dawn that feasibility was carried out through the EAD last year, regarding the installation of the SPGS.
The official said the Chinese government will bear the initial cost of the SPGS under the grant, while batteries will be replaced after three years.
He said the initiative will be environmentally friendly and there will be no fuel expenses.
The Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Energy Dr Musadiq Malik told Dawn that the SPGS at the Parliament House will set an example for hospitals, schools, banks and other institutions.
“Hospitals and other institutions use generators in the absence of electricity which costs Rs40 per unit but if we replace generators with SPGS, the price of one unit will be Rs15. This is why it is a good alternative for consumers,” Malik said.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141273/pakistans-parliament-to-be-first-in-the-world-to-go-green
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BNP-M to launch protest movement for recovery of missing persons
By Syed Ali Shah
Oct 30, 2014
QUETTA: The Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) on Wednesday announced a series of protest demonstrations to press authorities for the recovery of missing Baloch political workers.
Addressing a press conference, Chairman of the organising committee of the BNP-M, Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, said the movement would be launched from November 2nd to 10th across the province.
He asserted that BNP-M leader Laal Jan was arrested along with two colleagues without any justification.
Jamaldini stated that Baloch political workers were still being picked up and that mutilated bodies were being found across the province.
"We will effectively agitate against the government for its failure to recover our political workers," Jamaldini said.
He dispelled the impression that the law and order situation was improving in the province, rather he asserted that it has deteriorated.
The BNP-M leader said that the present government has failed to address the grievances of the people of Balochistan.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141157/bnp-m-to-launch-protest-movement-for-recovery-of-missing-persons
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Kabul cold on counter-terror: Pakistan Army
October 30, 2014
SAID ALAM KHAN
PESHAWAR - The Pakistan Army yesterday voiced its concern over the continuous use of Afghan soil by militants waging war against Islamabad, terming cooperation from Kabul less than what was required and expected of it.
Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa said on Wednesday that operations Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber-I are successfully underway in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) and parts of Khyber Agency respectively.
Over 1,100 terrorists have been killed in NWA while 44 terrorists were eliminated and 100 surrendered to security forces in parts of Khyber Agency respectively, he said in a media briefing.
Maj-Gen Bajwa said that Pakistan would not allow anyone to use its soil for terrorist activities. But, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan leadership including Mullah Fazlullah was still operating from Kunar province of Afghanistan and “we have conveyed our concerns” to Afghan government.
The ISPR DG said the Pakistan government sought cooperation of Afghan government in countering terrorism. “However, we are not receiving as much support as we required from the Afghan government.”
Asked about Afghan SIMs usage and roaming facility, he said this problem also has been communicated to the Afghan government, adding unless this matter was solved by the Afghan authorities it would continue to pose terrorism threat.
Gen Bajwa said a security plan for Muharram has been chalked out and 134 companies would be deployed in different sensitive and most sensitive areas during the holy month in the country in aid of the civil administration.
To a question about frequent unprovoked violations by Indian forces on the LoC and the Working Boundary, Gen Bajwa said it could not divide their attention from the western border, adding that India will be getting a befitting reply if it continued to resort to unprovoked firing at the border.
Asked about the talks of a jirga with Sajna group, Bajwa said he has no knowledge about the said jirga at official level. When asked about the Swat situation, he said: “We have taken the reports of incidents of target killing in Swat very seriously and action would be taken against the responsible.”
To a question about firing incidents on airplanes around the Peshawar airport, the ISPR chief said certain gangs have been nabbed in that regard and they were being investigated. Gen Bajwa said 2,500 intelligence-based operations were continuing against the suspects all over the country.
Full report at:
http://nation.com.pk/national/30-Oct-2014/kabul-cold-on-counter-terror
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Pakistan elected to UN Economic & Social Council
October 30, 2014
UNITED NATIONS - Pakistan was elected on Wednesday to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the economic arm of the United Nations, with Ambassador Masood Khan stating it reflected the prestige Pakistan enjoys in the international community.
In the balloting in the 193-member General Assembly, Pakistan received 181 votes, and its three-year term on ECOSOC will begin on January 1, 2015. Pakistan was contesting one of three Asian seats, which were unchallenged.
The contenders for two other seats — India (183) and Japan (181) — were also elected.
A two-third majority — 124 votes — is required for election.
“The strong vote by the General Assembly is a validation of the international community’s confidence in Pakistan’s ability and contribution to the United Nations social and economic agenda,” the Pakistani envoy said.
Full report at:
http://nation.com.pk/international/30-Oct-2014/pakistan-elected-to-un-economic-social-council
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Punjab govt to buy chopper for counter-terror ops
October 30, 2014
JAVED IQBAL
LAHORE - The Punjab government has approved a summary to purchase a helicopter for the Counter Terrorism Department to ensure prompt response to any untoward incident.
The Punjab government has a Russian-manufactured Mi-17, an aircraft with large metal blades on top, being used by the chief minister, governor and other VIPs. The same was used for rescue purposes during the Awaran earthquake last year and recent floods.
A summary in this regard had been moved by the organisation concerned to the Home Department that forwarded it duly to the chief minister office for approval. After the nod of the CM, the finance department will release the funds for purchasing the chopper, the sources in the CM office said.
The summary sought that either a new or a used copter be allowed, but the CM approved a second-hand copter to be purchased, and the finance department would release the amount soon. The provincial police would float a tender in this regard. A Punjab government officer said that pilot officers for the machine would also be recruited soon by advertising vacancies in the national dailies.
The market price of new flying machine is Rs1.30 billion while that of the second-hand is Rs570 million. Mi-2 chopper have been successfully used by the law enforcing agencies in Poland and other countries.
Police Reforms Committee had decided to purchase new or used helicopters for the special force being established for the purpose of countering terrorism in the country. The Mi-2 will be the first one for this purpose.
With the purchase of a copter for the CTD, the officer claimed the force will be empowered more to overcome terrorism in Punjab.
Full report at:
http://nation.com.pk/lahore/30-Oct-2014/punjab-govt-to-buy-chopper-for-counter-terror-ops
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IHC issues notice seeking reply over appointment of Maryam Nawaz
October 30, 2014
ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued notice to the secretary cabinet and sought reply within two weeks on a plea, seeking nullification of the appointment of Maryam Nawaz, as chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Scheme.
The court also appointed Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, Senator Rafique Rajuwana and senior lawyer Hamid Khan as amicus curiae in the case. The single member bench of IHC comprising Justice Athar Minallah resumed hearing of a plea filed by petitioner Ashiq Bhatti, through his counsel Yasir Chaudhry. During the course of hearing, counsel for the petitioner apprised the bench that Cabinet Division has issued the notification for appointing Maryam Nawaz on November 22, 2013, but the notification was not made public.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/30-Oct-2014/ihc-issues-notice-seeking-reply-over-appointment-of-maryam
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Mideast
Israeli closure of al-Aqsa declaration of war: Abbas
Oct 30, 2014
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has warned that a decision by the Israeli regime to block the access of all visitors to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound amounts to a “declaration of war.”
“This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation,” Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted him as saying on Thursday.
He also added that the closure of the holy site would fuel “more tension and instability” in the occupied lands.
Rudeina added that Palestinians hold the Israeli regime “responsible for this dangerous escalation in Jerusalem (al-Quds) that has reached its peak through the closure of the al-Aqsa mosque this morning.”
“The state of Palestine will take all legal measures to hold Israel accountable and to stop these ongoing attacks,” he said.
Israeli forces have denied all Palestinians entry into the al-Aqsa Mosque over the death of an Israeli right-wing activist.
Israeli forces also raided the East al-Quds (Jerusalem) neighborhood of Abu Tor and shot dead a former Palestinian prisoner in his house in al-Quds.
Moataz Hejazi, 32, was seriously injured when Israeli forces stormed his home in the Abu Tor neighborhood and opened fire on him. He succumbed to injuries after being left on the scene for more than half an hour.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384161/closure-of-alaqsa-declaration-of-war/
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Turkish-Indonesian partnership sees brighter future
October 29 2014
Turkey’s Ambassador to Indonesia, Zekeriya Akcam, said that the bilateral partnership between Indonesia and Turkey had developed very well in various sectors, ranging from education, culture, trade, investment and tourism.
Therefore, he said he hoped that such a flourishing partnership could be maintained and strengthened for the betterment of the two Muslim-majority countries.
"This year we have awarded more than 400 Indonesian students to study in Turkey. We hope that our positive partnership will continue to grow," Akcam said on Wednesday evening when delivering opening remarks during the celebration of the 91st anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta.
The celebration was attended by two newly-inaugurated ministers of the Cabinet, namely Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. Former Indonesian foreign minister Alwi Shihab also attended the event.
Full report at:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/29/turkish-indonesian-partnership-sees-brighter-future.html
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West should weigh Iran fatwa on nukes: US bishops
Oct 30, 2014
US Catholic bishops have called on Western countries involved in the nuclear negotiations with Iran to take into account the power of fatwa (edict) issued by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.
Earlier in April, a six-strong delegation from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) travelled to the central Iranian holy city of Qom to meet with top Shia clerics in an effort to narrow differences between Tehran and the West over the country’s nuclear energy program.
“Iran is a very, very religious culture. It is also a very modern culture. And it is not all like the caricature of the fanatic religion that we see depicted too often ... and the fatwa needs to be looked at in that light,” said Stephen Colecchi, a leading USCCB official.
On February 22, 2012, Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Republic considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons “a grave sin” from every logical, religious and theoretical standpoint.
The bishop said that the US was not considering Iran’s religious objections to weapons of mass destruction in the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the six world powers -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany.
The fatwa does have some “relevance” in the ongoing nuclear talks, he said, adding that it was “pervasively taught and defended in Iran.”
“I would argue that we ignore the influence of religion as a motivator and validator at our own peril,” said the bishop.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384147/west-should-weigh-fatwa-on-nukes/
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Tehran-Ankara ties to result in secure Mideast region: Rouhani
Oct 30, 2014
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the promotion of relations between Tehran and Ankara will help establish security in the Middle East region.
“I’m confident that through joint efforts by the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey, friendly relations between the two countries will further expand at bilateral and international levels and in line with the mutual interests of both nations," President Rouhani said in a message to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“This will lay the groundwork for the establishment of lasting peace and security in the region and in the world,” added Rouhani in his message where he also congratulated the Turkish president, government and people on Turkey’s Republic Day.
Turkey was officially declared a republic on October 29, 1923, which is celebrated as the Republic Day of Turkey.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384142/iranturkey-ties-to-foster-me-security/
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US must stop arming anti-Syria terrorists: Iran deputy FM
Oct 30, 2014
A senior Iranian diplomat has censured the United States for supporting the Takfiri groups operating against the Syrian government, saying Washington should “reconsider” such policies.
In a Wednesday meeting with UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson in Tehran, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian criticized US-led airstrikes purportedly targeting ISIL positions in Syria as well as Washington’s double standards in dealing with terrorism.
The US is making a strategic mistake by arming anti-Syria Takfiri groups, said Amir-Abdollahian, adding that Washington “should reconsider this policy.”
The Iranian official further reaffirmed Tehran’s support for Syria’s sovereignty and the right of its people to decide their political future on their own.
Eliasson, in turn, described extremism as the major problem in the Middle East, calling for collective efforts to counter terror threats in the troubled region.
The senior UN official also called for a halt in the flow of weapons and funds to the Takfiri militants wreaking havoc in Syria.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384121/us-must-stop-backing-syria-takfiris/
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Iran parliament rejects minister in fresh blow to Rouhani
October 30, 2014
TEHRAN - The Iranian parliament on Wednesday rejected the government’s choice for science minister, two months after his predecessor was sacked, in a fresh setback for moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Mahmoud Nili-Ahmadabadi, the pick for minister of science, research and technology, lost a vote of confidence by a margin of 79 to 160 in the conservative-dominated parliament following a debate of almost three hours.
Judged too close to reformists, lawmakers questioned Nili-Ahmadabadi over his stand on the mass protests which broke out after the June 2009 re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“None of my colleagues nor I have crossed the red lines set” by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he said.
“You will not find a single case of our having overstepped these limits,” he said, questioned over a letter sent to Khamenei and signed by academics including himself to condemn attacks on student protesters inside university campuses.
Full report at:
http://nation.com.pk/international/30-Oct-2014/iran-parliament-rejects-minister-in-fresh-blow-to-rouhani
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Gaza civil servants receive pay in boost to Palestinian unity
October 30, 2014
GAZA - Some 24,000 civil servants hired by the Hamas, many of whom have not received a full salary in almost a year, finally got some pay on Wednesday from the new Palestinian unity government based in the West Bank.
The funds were supplied by the gas-rich kingdom of Qatar, which is an ally of Hamas.
But the fact the cash was delivered by the West Bank administration gave a boost to hopes that the unity pact between Palestinian rivals might bear fruit.
Hamas fighters seized control of Gaza in 2007 from forces loyal to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas. Mutual distrust has festered ever since, marring hopes of building an independent state combining the various Palestinian territories.
However, the two sides finally signed a reconciliation pact in June and, after negotiations involving the United Nations, vehicles carrying cash for the salaries travelled from the West Bank via Israel and into the nearby, isolated Gaza Strip.
Thousands of employees crowded at the gates of Gaza post offices from the early hours of the morning to collect individual payments of $1,200 - a rare boon after a devastating war with Israel which battered the enclave in July and August.
“This money is going to pay my debts. I have to pay for the delayed rent payment, electricity, water bills, the supermarket and the butcher,” said health employee Mahmoud Al-Serhy.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has described it as a “humanitarian payment” and the money in no way made up for the months of constant shortfalls or zero salaries. There are no immediate plans for it to recur next month, or anytime soon.
Additionally, some 13,000 employees of the Gaza security establishment loyal to Hamas and a further 3,000 civil servants, were excluded from the payment.
Hamas refuses to relinquish its arms against Israel and is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the West. When it seized Gaza it set up its own civil service while the PA’s 70,000-strong work force continued to draw salaries from the West Bank, despite the fact that most of them were no longer working.
Full report at:
http://nation.com.pk/international/30-Oct-2014/gaza-civil-servants-receive-pay-in-boost-to-palestinian-unity
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South Asia
Eight soldiers, 21 militants killed in Bara fighting
October 30, 2014
PESHAWAR - Eight soldiers were killed in a clash with militants in restive northwest, officials said Wednesday, as security forces carried out a clearance operation.
“Eight soldiers embraced shahadat (martyrdom) during fierce fighting and exchange of fire with terrorists,” a local security official based in Peshawar told AFP. He said that 21 militants were also killed.
This is second phase of Khyber operation named as Khyber-2.
The incident occurred in the Spin Qamar neighbourhood, near the Bara area of Khyber tribal district, as security forces carried out an operation to clear suspected militants.
Another security official also confirmed the incident.
In retaliation. 21 militants were killed and eight others sustained injuries when fighter jets pounded their hideouts in Aka Khel, a far-flung area of Tirah Valley, officials said.
The sources said Pakistani warplanes targeted hideouts of the militants and inflicted heavy losses on them. Eight militants got wounded in the airstrikes, the sources said. Four of their strongholds were also destroyed in the action, they added.
It is to be mentioned here that on October 16, the forces had launched a cleanup operation, Khyber One, against anti-social elements in Bara to eliminate insurgency.
Namaz-e-Janaza of eight martyred soldiers who embraced shahdat during a major clearance operation in Spinqamar area of Khyber Agency was offered late Wednesday night at Peshawar Garrison.
Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and other senior military officials attended their Namaz-e-Janaza.
Full report at:
http://nation.com.pk/national/30-Oct-2014/eight-soldiers-21-militants-killed-in-bara-fighting
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Bangladesh, US to work for stopping terror financing
October 30, 2014
Bangladesh and the United States have agreed to continue cooperation in countering terrorist financing and violent extremism.
As part of the globally recognised Financial Action Task Force (FATF) framework, in December, the US Embassy in Dhaka and the State Department will host a South Asia regional workshop in collaboration with the Bangladesh government to focus on best practices to counter violent extremism and terrorist financing.
Both the countries recognised the threat of terrorism in the world, and acknowledging the effectiveness of counterterrorism and anti-money laundering acts in Bangladesh, the State Departmkent quotes a Joint statement of the third US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue held on October 28-29 in Washington DC.
The US and Bangladesh delegations were led respectively by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque.
The two leaders highlighted the robust and growing bilateral ties between Bangladesh and the United States and affirmed that the relationship is based on shared values and common goals of the two countries and their peoples.
They recognised that the Partnership Dialogue, established in 2012, presents an opportunity for the two moderate and pluralistic nations to engage in fruitful discussions towards a broader and deeper relationship.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/bangladesh-us-to-work-for-stopping-terror-financing-48081
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Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem verdict Sunday
October 30, 2014
A tribunal in Dhaka today fixed Sunday for delivering the judgement in the war crimes case against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mir Quasem Ali.
Quasem, the alleged chief of Chittagong Al-Badr, an auxiliary force of Pakistani army, faces 14 charges, including murders, committed in Chittagong city between November and December 16, 1971.
If convicted, Quasem, who is considered as one of the top financiers of Jamaat, may face the death penalty.
On May 4, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 concluded the hearing of closing arguments in the case against Mir Quasem and kept the case waiting for verdict delivery.
According to the prosecution, Quasem, president of Jamaat's then student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha's Chittagong city unit, colluded with the Pakistani army, Jamaat, and other anti-liberation forces and formed Al-Badr force there in 1971.
As the Al-Badr commander, Quasem had led the setting up of several Al-Badr camps in Chittagong for torturing and killing pro-liberation people, the prosecution said.
Quasem also had links with the Pakistan army and had direct involvement in crimes like abductions, torture, and murder in 1971, the prosecution claimed.
They produced 24 witnesses, mostly victims, and documents to prove the charges. They, however, could not produce any witness in support of two charges.
Quasem's defence said their client was indeed involved in Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971 but he had nothing to do with Al-Badr or any torture camp.
Quasem, son of Mir Tayeb Ali and Rabeya Begum, was born in Munsidangi Sutalori of Manikganj on December 31, 1952. He got involved in Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1967 when he studied in Chittagong Collegiate School.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/war-trial-mir-quasem-verdict-sunday-48077
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Death for death designer Moti ur Rahman Nizami
October 30, 2014
He did whatever he could to stop the nation's birth. He led a ruthless militia to massacre unarmed civilians during the 1971 Liberation War.
Moti ur Rahman Nizami didn't stop there. Towards the end of the war, he, aided by the Pakistan army, unleashed his force, Al-Badr Bahini, to wipe out the brightest sons and daughters of the soil to cripple the soon-to-be independent Bangladesh.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer, now 71, never repented for the cold-blooded savagery. Instead of being punished for the heinous crimes, he was rehabilitated after 1975. Nizami gained immense political clout and went on to become a minister during the BNP-led government's tenure from 2001 to 2006.
Forty-three years later, justice caught up with him as a special tribunal yesterday sentenced him to hang for the crimes. The tribunal found him to have exercised superior responsibility over his subordinates.
“No punishment other than death will be equal to the horrendous crimes for which the accused has been found guilty beyond reasonable doubt," Justice M Enayetur Rahim, chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-1, said in the judgment.
“It is well-proved that the accused being the chief of Islami Chhatra Sangha and Al-Badr Bahini whole-heartedly resisted the War of Liberation and also actively participated in the crimes against humanity in 1971.
"Justice is to make it sure that the perpetrators have to pay for what they have done. Considering the extreme gravity of offences committed, it is indeed indispensable to deliver justice to the relatives of brutally murdered intellectuals, professionals and unarmed civilians,” said the judge.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/death-for-death-designer-48062
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Afghan war amputees find new life, pride in sports
Oct 30, 2014
KABUL: From her wheelchair, Maryam Samimi punched the air as the referee's whistle signalled her basketball team's win in an Afghan national tournament, a moment of joy in a country often unkind to those missing limbs.
Many amputees in Afghanistan languish without access to care and become depressed and isolated, and with mines and unexploded ordinance still scattered across this country ravaged by decades of nonstop war, more will be maimed or lose limbs from explosions.
However, an International Committee of the Red Cross program offering sports to amputees has seen hundreds sign up to play wheelchair basketball.
“From my experience, I know that when you lose a part of your body, big or small, for the first month you don't want to be alive any more. You don't want to see the future, everything stops,” said Shukrullah Zeerak, a supervising physiotherapist at an ICRC center who lost his right leg below the knee in a mine blast in 1995. “But slowly you adapt, you survive. “
Afghanistan is often described as one big minefield, with experts estimating that 10 million mines — mostly from the former Soviet Union but also from the United States, Britain, Belgium and Italy — have been dropped or laid across the country. The explosives, including those planted by the Taliban, continue to kill and maim.
Some 40,500 amputees have registered with the ICRC's Orthopedic Project in Afghanistan since 1988. Of that figure, 67 per cent are victims of mines and 76 per cent are civilians, statistics of war that has lasted more than 30 years and which, even as most of the US-led foreign combat forces are withdrawing, shows no sign of ending. The true number of amputees living in Afghanistan is likely even higher.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141341/afghan-war-amputees-find-new-life-pride-in-sports
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US for fair war trial in Bangladesh
October 30, 2014
The United States has reiterated its support for trials to bringing to justice those who committed atrocities in the 1971 Liberation War but reminded that the trials should be fair and transparent maintaining the international standards.
“We understand the importance of this process in closing a painful chapter in Bangladesh’s… Bangladeshi history,” said Jen Psaki, Spokesperson of the US Department of Sate.
She made the remark when a questioner at the regular briefing in Washington on Wednesday wanted to know whether the US believes that the trial was fair and transparent as the top Jamaat leader and war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami was awarded death penalty.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/us-for-fair-war-trial-in-bangladesh-48096
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Africa
Boko Haram seizes Mubi town in Adamawa
Oct 30, 2014
Takfiri Boko Haram militants have reportedly captured the second largest city in Nigeria's northeast Adamawa State, amid fierce clashes between Nigerian troops and the militants.
Mubi, which is one of the commercial hubs of the state, fell into the hands of the Boko Haram group on Wednesday, when several people were killed and many others forced to flee their homes.
Residents, who fled to neighboring areas, said that militants first overran the northeastern town of Uba in Borno state before moving to try to seize Mubi, using firepower including rocket-propelled grenades.
“They (the militants) killed several people, especially around the market, where traders had gone for commercial activities,” said the Kukawa local government chairman Modu Musa.
“There is virtually not a single resident left in Mubi. Everybody has left to save their lives,” said local resident Habu Saidu.
Boko Haram Takfiri militants also burnt down Mubi police station as well as other command centers and freed prisoners after attacking a prison yard in the town.
The attack comes two days after suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed several people in the town of Kukawa, located some 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Borno’s capital, Maiduguri.
Analysts say the latest clashes are another blow to the fragile truce between the government and the Boko Haram militants.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384155/boko-haram-captures-nigerian-town/
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S Sudan army repels attack on Bentiu: Defense min.
Oct 30, 2014
South Sudanese forces have repelled an attack by rebels against the key northern oil hub town of Bentiu, the country’s defense minister says.
Kuol Manyang said on Thursday that fierce fighting over the control of the city has left many casualties, adding that the town remains under the army control.
“We have a lot of wounded people we are trying to evacuate from Bentiu,” Manyang said. “Bentiu is under control, there is calm now.”
The rebel attack came after skirmishes outside the town earlier this week.
Bentiu has changed hands several times since the country's internal conflict broke out in December 2013. However, it has been in the hands of the government since May.
The 2013 fighting erupted between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and defectors led by his former deputy Riek Machar around the capital Juba.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384167/s-sudan-army-repels-attack-on-bentiu/
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Nidaa Tounes comes first in Tunisia polls
Oct 30, 2014
Tunisia’s Nidaa Tounes Party has won parliamentary elections held to appoint Tunisia’s first five-year legislature since the 2011 ouster of former dictator Zine el-Abidine Bin Ali.
The election commission announced the results of the Sunday polls in the early hours of the morning on Thursday.
Trailed by the ruling al-Nahda party, Nidaa Tounes secured 85 of the 217 seats in the parliament, giving it the right to name a prime minister and lead a coalition government.
Under Tunisia's electoral system, the party that wins without an outright majority is given a mandate to form a coalition government.
Al-Nahda won 69 seats - or nearly 32 percent - of the new parliament, representing a loss of some 23 seats.
The Free Patriotic Union of Slim Rihai, a millionaire football club owner and political neophyte, came third with 16 seats.
Full report at:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/30/384137/nidaa-tounes-comes-1st-in-tunisia-polls/
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North America
Canada Muslims Concerned About Safety
29 October 2014
HALIFAX – Leaders of Canadian Muslim community in Halifax city, in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia, have released a statement to condemn all terrorist attacks, warning Muslims to be vigilant about their safety after the latest attacks.
"On behalf of Canadian Muslims in Nova Scotia, our mosques in Halifax and its surroundings, we will address the Muslim community members to stand shoulder to shoulder with their Canadian colleagues and give assurances that we are united today more than ever and should not be intimidated or scared by the actions of a few criminals," said the statement released by eight Muslim leaders in Nova Scotia and cited by CBC News on Tuesday, October 28.
"We also advise to our fellow Canadian Muslims to be vigilant for their safety."
Last week, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau stormed the Parliament building purportedly in the name of Islam after killing soldier Nathan Cirillo, 24, at the War Memorial.
The events followed the incident in which Martin Couture-Rouleau, who had reverted to Islam last year and took the name Ahmad Rouleau, rammed his car into two Canadian Forces members.
The statement, released yesterday, condemned all terrorist attacks, going on to ask for strengthening efforts to protect Muslim institutions from vandalism or attacks by others.
Expecting reprisal attacks against the community, Adam Esse, the imam at the Nova Scotia Islamic Community Centre, said security is at the top of his mind these days.
Among security measures taken, the imam said cameras have been ordered for the Bedford property. Until they're installed, he intends to make sure all the windows and doors are locked.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/americas/479085-canada-muslims-concerned-about-safety.html
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FBI Questioning Mosque Leaders
28 October 2014
WASHINGTON – Worried about the increasing reports of FBI pressures on mosque imams nationwide to inform on members of their congregations, a leading US Muslim advocacy group has urged imams to seek legal assistance from an attorney, whenever they are approached by officers..
“American Muslim leaders and institutions should maintain positive relations with local and federal law enforcement authorities, but those relations must be built on respect for constitutionally-protected civil rights,” Jenifer Wicks, Civil rights Litigation Director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was quoted by Defending Dissent earlier this week.
“Consulting with an attorney is the best way to protect your rights.”
CAIR, the USA's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said it has received reports from around the nation of mosque officials being asked to meet with FBI agents and then being pressed to inform on members of their congregations.
In an advisory to Muslim community leaders, CAIR recommended that before any meeting with the FBI or any law enforcement agency, US Muslim leaders should seek the advice of an attorney and have that attorney present at any meeting.
Wicks urged community leaders to ask for business cards from those individuals from the FBI and immediately consult with an attorney before any questioning takes place.
CAIR’s “Know Your Rights and Responsibilities” pocket guide tells American Muslims to report any actual knowledge of criminal activity without being asked by law enforcement authorities.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/americas/479053-fbi-questioning-mosque-leaders.html
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US Muslims Prefer Democrats: CAIR Survey
27 October 2014
CAIRO – A new survey has found that US Muslims are becoming more engaged with politics, with about two-thirds of the religious minority planning to vote in the coming November elections and half of them are Democratic Party supporters against Republicans. “We’ve seen a general trend of Muslims slowly shifting toward the Democratic Party post-2000 and the election of [George W.] Bush,” Robert McCaw, government affairs manager of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Washington Post.
“There has always been Muslim support for Republicans — that 15 percent is pretty constant. What we also see, though, is 23 percent declined to answer or are unaffiliated. Their votes are up for grabs.”
Carried out by CAIR, the survey tested the opinion of 1,500 Muslim registered voters.
Out those voters, 69 percent plan to cast ballots in the Nov. 4 midterm elections and 16 percent do not plan to vote. Fourteen percent declined to answer.
Announced last Wednesday, the survey was conducted only in the five states with the largest Muslim populations: California, New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas.
CAIR also polled Muslims living in Virginia, a “future toss-up state,” Mr. McCaw said.
McCaw said CAIR has been conducting pre-election surveys for presidential races in an effort “to trace Muslim voting behavior to a greater degree and draw more attention to Muslim voters who are well positioned in swing and battleground states.”
Similar to the 2012 results, the top issues for voters are the economy, health care and civil liberties.
For the first time, the survey added in the issue of Islamophobia “to see how the community responded to that,” Mr. McCaw said. “With recent headlines and fears, it ranked higher than [civil rights] in past years.”
Nationally, 15 percent of Muslim voters said Islamophobia is the most important issue for them.
Full report at:
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/americas/479007-us-muslims-prefer-democrats.html
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Australia
Australia passes laws cracking down on foreign fighters
Oct 30, 2014
SYDNEY: Australia passed laws on Thursday aimed at preventing young people from becoming radicalised and going to fight in overseas conflicts such as those in Iraq and Syria, where scores of Australians have joined militant groups.
Last month, the United Nations demanded that all states make it a serious criminal offence for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with militant groups, or to recruit and fund others to do so, in a move sparked by the rise of Islamic State.
Security analysts have put the number of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, travelling from scores of countries around the world, in the thousands.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told parliament at least 70 Australians were fighting in Iraq and Syria backed by about 100 Australia-based “facilitators”.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141335/australia-passes-laws-cracking-down-on-foreign-fighters
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/islamic-state-militants-kill-40/d/99790