‘Radicalised Islamists’ Of Tablighi Jamaat Killed Amravati Man Over the Dishonour of Prophet Mohammad: NIA Chargesheet
New Age Islam News Bureau
20 December 2022
Representative image.
Credit: iStock Photo
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• Indonesian Call For Religious Reform Challenges
Muslim Autocracy
• Pakistan Enrols One Million Non-Muslim Voters In
Four Years
• UN Says Israel’s Expulsion Of French-Palestinian
Lawyer Is A ‘War Crime’
• Constructive Dialogue Between India & Pakistan
For The Betterment Of Their People: US Reiterates
India
• Pakistan issues 96 visas to Hindus for Shree Katas
Raj Temple visit
• DCW issues notice to Delhi Police after Muslim
teenager alleges forced marriage, domestic abuse
• Three Lashkar-e-Toiba ultras killed in Shopian
encounter
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Southeast Asia
• Indonesian priest’s social work earns Muslim award
• Malaysia’s PM Anwar cements leadership with early
confidence vote win
• New Quran Memorization Centre Opened in Malaysia’s
Sabah
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Pakistan
• Imran Khan Slams "Imported" Government For
Taliban Attack In Northwest Pak
• TTP inmates hold Pakistan security men hostage after
taking over police centre, 2 cops killed
• Bilawal Defends Remarks Against Modi, Says He Was
‘Referring To Historical Fact’
• Stalemate in talks continues as CTD centre in Bannu
remains under militants’ control
• IB sub-inspector martyred in Peshawar attack
• Two officials martyred as held terrorists seize
Bannu CTD building
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Europe
• Sweden Rejects Türkiye’s Request For Extradition Of
Accused Terrorist, Bulent Kenes, A Suspected Member Of The Fetullah Terrorist
Organization
• Germany urges Iran to show ‘political will’ to end
stalemate over nuclear probe
• UN Chief Urges Afghan Taliban To Stop Terrorist
Attacks Against Pakistan
• Danish government remains fixed on overturning EU minimum
wage directives
• Germany supports Türkiye-Greece dialogue, spokesman
says
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North America
• US accuses UN of yielding to Russian threats over
Iran drone inquiry
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Arab World
• Lebanon Elects Sunni Muftis For First Time In 40
Years
• Latest Islamic State attack highlights security
challenges facing Iraq
• Kurdish forces seize Islamic State militant in Syria
as part of joint raid with U.S.
• Children among 547 detained Syrians declared dead:
Rights group
• Body of Irish UNIFIL peacekeeper killed in Lebanon
arrives home
• UAE delegation in Scotland to explore trade and
renewable energy opportunities
• Israel launches fresh missile attack on Syrian
capital in new act of aggression
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South Asia
• TTP Inmates Seize Police Centre in Pakistan,
Demanding Safe Passage to Afghanistan
• Afghan survivors get new homes six months after
deadly earthquake
• AIJA Organizes Afghanistan Independent Media
Competition 2022
• Afghan MoD Engineers Repair 2 Military Aircraft
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Mideast
• Palestinian PM Urges UN Teams To Take Action Against
Rise In Israeli Killings Of Palestinians
• Terrifying future awaits Saudi Arabia, allies over
war on Yemen: Senior Ansarullah official
• UN reports highest number of fatalities in years in
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Iran says Jordan summit ‘good opportunity’ for
nuclear talks
• UN nuclear officials leave Iran after talks, result
unclear
• Four Iranian security personnel killed in southeast
Iran, IRNA says
• Israel’s Netanyahu accuses New York Times of ‘undermining’
incoming government
• Yemeni forces prepared to thwart US, Israeli plots
against national resources, islands: Top council
• Palestinian youth dies of injuries sustained in
Israeli attack in Jenin
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Africa
• Libya Court Sentences 17 Islamic State Members To
Death
• Libya Finds New Mass Grave South Of Tripoli
• Handover of a Libyan suspect opens a new chapter in
Lockerbie bombing horror story
• Sudan’s forces use tear gas, stun grenades to
disperse rally against post-coup deal
• Three Jordanian police officers killed in raid on
hideout of suspected killers of senior policeman
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/radicalised-islamists-tablighi-jamaat-prophet/d/128672
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‘Radicalised Islamists’ Of Tablighi Jamaat Killed
Amravati Man Over the Dishonour of Prophet Mohammad: NIA Chargesheet
Representative image.
Credit: iStock Photo
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Vidya
Dec 20, 2022
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the
Amravati killing, in its Chargesheet has claimed that the 11 accused were
‘radicalised Islamists’ of the Tablighi Jamaat. The Tablighi Jamaat is a
transnational Deobandi Islamic missionary movement that focuses on exhorting
Muslims to be more religiously observant.
54-year-old Amravati resident Umesh Kolhe, a
pharmacist from Amravati in Maharashtra, was brutally murdered on June 21 by
three assailants when he was returning from work, days after he had put up a
post on WhatsApp in support of then BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who had made
controversial comments on Prophet Mohammed.
The NIA chargesheet revealed that he was murdered by
'radicalised Islamists of Tablighi Jamaat' to avenge the alleged dishonour of
Prophet Mohammad.
The chargesheet was filed last week by NIA against 11
accused and it stated each of them were followers of Tablighi Jamaat, while
claiming that one of the alleged masterminds, Irfan Khan, 'was a strict follower'
of the Jamaat and its rules.
It said that Khan had become the president of an NGO,
Rahebar Helpline, started during the Covid-19 lockdown to provide ambulances
for needy and had become the organisation’s president with the help of the
Jamaat’s followers and supporters.
TERROR ACT WELL-PLANNED, SAYS CHARGESHEET
During various arguments made in court during various
stages of remand, it was argued that this was a simple case of murder. However,
the NIA chargesheet stated, “The act committed by the accused is not just a
simple murder but a terror act of a well-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by
religiously radicalised Muslim youth to strike a terror into the minds of the
people and section of people in Amravati and other states of India."
It added that the manner in which Kohle was murdered
“shall send shivers down the spine of general population of this peace-loving,
democratic country, who would never dare to speak up for what they think is
right or wrong."
The agency stated the brutality of murdering a father
in front of his son in a public space, “with proper planning and celebration
after doing the act with an intention to strike terror in a large section of
society, is a terrorist action, to say the least”.
“It was an act of terror, by a gang of radicalised men
who wanted to make an example out of the victim’s murder. It was done in a
manner that shall send shivers down the spine of the general population of this
peace-loving democratic country, who would never dare to speak up, for what they
think is right or wrong,” the chargesheet added.
The agency emphasised that the murder had caused riots
in different places, terrorised people into leaving their jobs, and made many
go into hiding and many to fear for their lives and security. Such terrorist
action has put to question India’s integrity and its perseverance, it claimed.
Source: India Today
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Indonesian Call For Religious Reform Challenges Muslim
Autocracy
Indonesian Muslims recite
the Quran in Masjid Istiqlal, Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo by Gunawan
Kartapranata, Wikipedia Commons.
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DEC 18, 2022
At first glance, Islamic scholars discussing the
religious legitimacy of the United Nations and the nation-state sounds
esoteric. It’s not. On the contrary, it’s potentially revolutionary.
Religious scholars, led by Nahdlatul Ulama, the
world’s largest and arguably most moderate Muslim civil society movement in the
world’s largest Muslim-majority country and democracy, hope that the
legitimization will counter notions of a caliphate and a transnational Islamic
state as an alternative world order as advocated by militants such as Al Qaeda
and the Islamic State.
If adopted, legitimization of the United Nations would
make the UN charter with its references to “fundamental human rights…the
dignity and worth of the human person, (and)…the equal rights of men and women”
legally binding for its Muslim signatories, according to religious law.
In doing so, the religious legitimization would take
substantial wind out of the sails of often whipped-up anti-Muslim sentiment
that questions Muslim attitudes and loyalty towards the state.
That sentiment was, for example, evident when an
anchor on India’s controversial Hindu nationalist, Hindi-language Z news
recently asked whether “Muslims who sing the national anthem become kafirs.”
The anchor was using the Arabic word for an infidel.
The effort to reform Islamic jurisprudence so that it
embraces the concept of the nation-state, and the United Nations, is part of a
sustained Nahdlatul Ulama effort to spark reform of Islamic jurisprudence and
inspire other faiths to take a critical look at their potentially problematic
tenants as a way of countering extremism and religiously inspired violence.
That’s where the revolutionary aspect kicks in.
Reform of Islamic jurisprudence challenges a key
pillar of autocratic strategies in the Muslim world designed to ensure the
survival of repressive regimes.
Muslim leaders, parroted by their Western counterparts,
have for more than two decades since 9/11 insisted that Islam and Islamic
jurisprudence need no reform. Instead, they assert that jihadis misrepresent
and misconstrue the faith.
In doing so, autocrats drown out criticism of their
brutal, repressive rule that brooks no dissent and potentially provokes
violence.
Casting jihadists as deviants rather than products of
problematic tenants of jurisprudence that justify violence stymies criticism of
the justification of autocracy as a necessary means to combat violence and
promote moderate Islam.
Even so, that may not be a popularly shared approach.
In a poll, 56 per cent of Saudis surveyed said the government was not “paying
attention to the opinions of ordinary citizens like me.”
Timed to coincide with the centennial of Nahdlatul
Ulama according to the Muslim Hijri calendar, the scholars will gather in
February in the Indonesian city of Surabaya under the auspices of the recently
constituted Religion Forum 20, a Group of 20 engagement tack, to discuss an
“Islamic jurisprudence for a global civilization.” The Group of 20 brings
together the world’s largest economies.
Nahdlatul Ulama’s concept note for the Surabaya
conference argues that “views that legitimize and encourage suspicion,
segregation, discrimination, and even hostility and conflict towards those who
bear the legal status of “infidels…are scattered throughout classical texts on
Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). These views…are still considered…credible…and
should…be practiced to the present day. Muslim groups involved in conflict –
including the use of violence and terror – defend their position by citing
references from these classical fiqh texts.”
The concept note was bolstered by a Nahdlatul Ulama
religious finding in 2019 that eliminated the category of the kafir or in
Islamic law.
Potentially, the concept note will put on the spot
some of the invited speakers, such as Muslim World League General Secretary
Muhammad al-Issa, Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies President
Abdallah bin Bayyah, Tabah Foundation head Habib al-Jufri, and Ahmad Al Tayyeb
the Grand Iman of Al Azhar, the Muslim world’s foremost seat of Islamic
learning.
These men represent autocratic regimes that insist
that Islamic jurisprudence needs no reform.
Mr. Al-Issa’s League is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman’s vehicle for propagating a socially liberal, politically repressive
interpretation of Islam that demands absolute obedience to the ruler.
Messrs. Bin Bayyah and Al-Jufri serve the same purpose
for United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed. Mr. Al-Tayyeb’s Al Azhar
is subservient to the government of Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and
supported by the two Gulf monarchies.
Religious legitimization of the United Nations and the
concept of a nation-state could have far-reaching consequences for the order of
the Muslim world that partially bases its religious justification on the
employment by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) of the language of
Islamic jurisprudence to empower states. The OIC groups the world’s 57
Muslim-majority countries.
By reforming the jurisprudence, Nahdlatul Ulama would,
in theory, introduce guardrails for the incorporation by OIC members of Islamic
law into domestic legal systems.
By and large, Muslim-majority states have used the OIC
framework to monopolize the right to interpret Islamic law and bend it to their
will, for example, in the justification of abuse of human rights or, in the
case of countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to demand absolute obedience
of the ruler.
The OIC and some of its members have also used the
organization’s religious framing and 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in
Islam to lobby the United Nations to classify blasphemy as a violation of human
rights and a form of hate speech.
Liberal critics charge that Nahdlatul Ulama’s silence
about a recently adopted new Indonesian criminal code has cast a shadow over
its credibility.
The law defines apostasy as leaving a religion or
belief and criminalizes anyone who attempts to persuade a person to be a
non-believer in a religion or belief. It also bans extramarital sex and curbs
freedom of expression by, for example, outlawing insulting the president, but
puts major limitations on who can file a complaint.
Nahadlatul Ulama’s acquiescence sparked questions on
how it squares that with its unconditional endorsement of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights – a significant differentiator in its rivalry with
state-sponsored autocratic versions of moderate Islam.
Privately, influential Nahdlatul Ulama sources defend
the socially restrictive aspects of the law but concede that freedom of
expression concerns are legitimate. The sources expect the law to be modified
in challenges likely to be filed with the Constitutional Court.
Even so, scholars Sana Jaffrey and Eve Warburton
warned that provisions of the law “threaten political dissent with prison
sentences and have the potential to muzzle public debate about the purview of
the state in citizens’ private and political lives.”
The criticism notwithstanding, Nahdlatul Ulama’s
effort to anchor the United Nations and the concept of the nation-state in
Islamic jurisprudence constitutes the most serious current challenge to
autocratic Muslim justification of repressive rule. In doing so, it could prove
to be revolutionary.
Source: Times Of Israel
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/indonesian-call-for-religious-reform-challenges-muslim-autocracy/
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Pakistan Enrols One Million Non-Muslim Voters In Four
Years
The number of voters
belonging to religious minorities has climbed to 3.63 million in 2018 from 2.77
million in 2013
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Iftikhar A. Khan
December 20, 2022
ISLAMABAD: The number of voters belonging to religious
minorities in the country has climbed to 4.43 million from 3.63 million in
2018. The number of voters from religious minorities was 2.77m in electoral
rolls for the 2013 general election.
The latest figures of minority voters were disclosed
by National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) Chairman Tariq Malik
during a consultative session with an interfaith delegation, led by Senator
Kamran Michael, which called on him here on Monday.
The Nadra chairman informed the delegation that the
authority had so far registered 4.43m people belonging to minority communities
including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and people belonging to other
religions.
Senator Gurdeep Singh, Senator Danesh Kumar, Senator
Anwar Lal Dean, Senator Krishna Bai, MNA Amir Naveed Jeeva and MPA Shakeel
Marcus Khokhar attended the consultative session.
The interfaith delegation briefed the Nadra chairman
of problems being faced by their communities in getting the legal identity in
the country.
Number jumped from 3.63m in 2018 to 4.43m this year,
Nadra chief tells interfaith team
Mr Tariq Malik informed members of the delegation that
rights of the people belonging to minority communities were as important as the
rights of any other citizen of Pakistan.
He said that religious minorities in Pakistan contributed
to the political and social stability, development and prosperity of the state
and they were considered significant components in maintaining peace and
stability in society.
“We are all equal citizens of this country and we all
have equal rights. Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan gives freedom to
all citizens to practice their religions and to run their own religious
institutions,” Mr Malik said.
He said that Nadra, being the custodian of identity of
citizens of the country, was fully aware of its responsibility and gave
priority to registration of people belong to minorities.
He said that Nadra was launching a special
registration campaign titled “Identity Empowerment” to speed up the process of
registration of minorities in the country.
The purpose of the consultative session and the
focused campaign was to create awareness among members of minority communities
to obtain identity as it enables them to exercise their social, economic and
political rights.
While launching the week-long campaign of minority
registration, Mr Malik said that after assuming the charge as the chairman of
the authority a year ago he immediately dismantled barriers hampering
registration of people from other religions and communities.
He said he had created the Inclusive Registration
Department in this regard so that no individual could be left behind. With
regard to registering unregistered people, the Nadra chairman announced that in
order to facilitate minority groups issuance of identity cards for the first
time would be free of cost.
He further announced that marriage could also be
registered without producing the Nikah Nama if the spouse provided biometric
attestation and divorce could also be registered with Nadra on the basis of an
affidavit to facilitate members of minority communities.
He said that Nadra had started a helpline to
facilitate people about Nadra policy and procedures and Nadra helpline would be
integrated with the helpline of ministry of human rights.
He also announced a special counter and preferential
treatment at Nadra registration centres to people belonging to different
religions.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1727242/pakistan-enrols-one-million-non-muslim-voters-in-four-years
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UN Says Israel’s Expulsion Of French-Palestinian Lawyer
Is A ‘War Crime’
French-Palestinian lawyer
Salah Hamouri (C) arrives at the Parisian airport of Roissy, after he was
expelled from Israel, on December 18, 2022. (AFP)
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19 December ,2022
Israel’s expulsion of French-Palestinian human rights
lawyer Salah Hamouri amounts to a “war crime,” the UN human rights office said
Monday.
Hamouri, 37, arrived in France on Sunday after having
been held without charge in Israel under a controversial practice that allows
suspects to be detained for renewable periods of up to six months.
“Deporting a protected person from occupied territory
is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, constituting a war crime,”
UN human rights spokesman Jeremy Laurence said in a statement.
Israel has accused Hamouri of being a member of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and of being a security
threat. Hamouri denies links to the PFLP.
In condemning his expulsion, Laurence said: “We are
deeply concerned by the chilling message this sends to those working on human
rights” in occupied east Jerusalem.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Constructive Dialogue Between India & Pakistan For The Betterment Of Their People: US Reiterates
India Pakistan ties PTI
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Dec 20, 2022
WASHINGTON: A constructive dialogue between India and
Pakistan is for the betterment of the people of the two countries, the United
States has said and reiterated that its relationships with either of them is
not zero-sum.
“We have a global strategic partnership with India. I
have also spoken about the deep partnership we have with Pakistan. These
relationships in our mind are not zero-sum. We do not view them in relation to
one another,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his
daily news conference on Monday.
Each of them is indispensable to the United States and
to the promotion and the pursuit of the shared goals that we have with India
and Pakistan, he said in response to a question.
“The fact that we have partnerships with both
countries leaves us not wanting to see a war of words between India and
Pakistan. We would like to see constructive dialogue between India and
Pakistan. We think that is for the betterment of the Pakistani and Indian
people. There is much work that we can do together bilaterally,” Price said.
“There are differences that, of course, need to be
addressed between India and Pakistan. The United States stands ready to assist
as a partner to both,” he asserted.
"The United States has a global strategic
partnership with India. These relationships stand on their own; it is not
zero-sum.
“We see the importance – the indispensability really –
of maintaining valuable partnerships with both our Indian and Pakistani
friends. Each of these relationships also happens to be multifaceted,” he said.
“So even as we deepen our global strategic partnership
with India, we also have a relationship in which we can be candid and frank
with one another. Where we have disagreements or concerns, we voice those just
as we would with our Pakistani friends as well,” Price said.
Responding to another question, Price said countries
the world over welcomed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian
President Vladimir Putin this summer that this is not the era of war.
“I think it is notable that the communique emanating
from the G20 also had very similar language – I think a testament to the fact
that this was language and this was a call that resonated in this country, in
South Asia, in Europe, and around the world. The United States certainly
welcomes it,” he said.
“It is also important because India has a relationship
with Russia that the United States does not have. For decades, I should say
Russia was prepared to be a partner to India in a way that the United States at
the time was not. Of course, that has changed in recent decades,” he observed.
“It is a bipartisan legacy of the last several
administrations, perhaps starting most notably with the administration of
President George W Bush that the United States is now a partner of, we hope
first resort for India. There is a lot of good that we can do together, not
only for our two countries, but around the world, and I think we will see a
good example of that in the coming year, when India hosts the G20,” he said.
“I know we will have an opportunity to travel to
India, to be in close touch with India in the context of the G20, and we will
be able to see what cooperation between our two countries and a broader set of
countries can provide,” Price added.
Source: Times Of India
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original story:
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India
Pakistan issues 96 visas to Hindus for Shree Katas Raj
Temple visit
Dec 20, 2022
NEW DELHI: Pakistan issued 96 visas to a group of
Indian Hindu pilgrims for their visit to the prominent and sacred Shree Katas
Raj Temples, also known as Qila Katas, in Chakwal district of Punjab from
December 20-25.
While India and Pakistan have not had any substantive
bilateral talks for the past seven years, they have not allowed it to come in
the way of efforts by both sides to facilitate religious tourism.
Source: Times Of India
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DCW issues notice to Delhi Police after Muslim
teenager alleges forced marriage, domestic abuse
Dec 20, 2022
The Delhi Commission for Women on Monday issued a
notice to the police after a 15-year-old Muslim girl alleged that she was
forcefully married off and subjected to domestic abuse by her husband and his
family.
“The complainant has submitted that she was married in
February 2022 at the age of 15 years in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh,” Delhi
Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal said. “She has stated that she
got pregnant and her in-laws tried to abort the foetus but were unsuccessful.”
The teenager also alleged that her husband beat her up
with electric wire and screw driver, according to the notice.
It said that the complainant was asked to leave her
matrimonial house by her husband following which she moved to Delhi to her
parental home.
The commission has sought information on the case from
Daryaganj Police Station by Thursday, including a copy of the first information
report registered in the matter, details of accused persons arrested.
The police have been also asked to shared a detailed
action taken report on the matter.
“The girl has been subjected to extreme brutality by
her husband and in-laws,” Maliwal told IANS. “I know that Muslim personal law
allows for marriage of girls above the age of 15 years. I however believe that
this is archaic, medieval and barbaric and the law of the land that is POCSO
[Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] should apply in such cases.”
According to the personal law, marriage of girls who
have attained puberty is considered legal.
However, in recent months, courts have held that
marriage between Muslims under personal law is not excluded from the provisions
of POCSO Act, making it liable for the husband for having sex with wife who is
a minor.
Source: Scroll
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Three Lashkar-e-Toiba ultras killed in Shopian
encounter
Dec 20, 2022
SRINAGAR: Three Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists were
killed in the exchange of firing with the security forces in Shopian district
of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, police said.
The search operation was launched by the forces at
Munjh Marg in Zainapora area of Shopian following information about the presence
of militants there. It later turned into an encounter, the police official
said.
ADGP of Kashmir was quoted as saying, "Among 3
neutralised local terrorists, 2 identified as Lateef Lone of Shopian - involved
in killing of a Kashmiri Pandit Purana Krishna Bhat - & Umer Nazir of
Anantnag involved in killing of Till Bahadur Thapa of Nepal." One AK 47
rifle and two pistols have also been recovered, the official added.
Source: Times Of India
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of the original story:
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Southeast Asia
Indonesian priest’s social work earns Muslim award
By Katharina R. Lestari
December 19, 2022
An independent body co-founded by a priest in
Indonesia’s predominantly Catholic East Nusa Tenggara province has received an
award from the Islamic cultural institute for its commitment to reducing
maternal mortality rates.
The Regional Health Advisory Body (BPKD), which was
initiated in 2008 by Divine Word Father Marcelinus Agot and several public
figures in West Manggarai district and officially established in 2013, received
this year’s Maarif Award on Dec. 17.
The award was in recognition of the organization’s
social work in helping to reduce maternal mortality rates through maternal care
houses built in the complex of community health centers, known as Puskesmas.
BPKD was among three recipients — two organizations
and one individual — that received the award named after the late Ahmad Syafi’i
Maarif, former head of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organization in
Indonesia, and the founder of the Maarif Institute for Culture and Humanity.
The institute has presented the award since 2007 to
both individuals and groups committed to fighting for humanity in grass-roots
communities.
Father Agot, who is also BPKD’s chairman, told UCA
News on Dec. 18 that it was a surprise “because we always work for humanity in
silence.”
“The award is a challenge for us: how we can move
forward and respect others more and save them without the primordial sentiment
against any religion. We must avoid this. Saving people regardless of their
religious background is what matters to us,” he said.
“Ahmad Syafi’i Maarif was an extraordinary public
figure. He was very tolerant and deeply respected diversity. So, the award
encourages us to continue to enliven the spirit in fighting for humanity.”
According to the 71-year-old priest, the social work
began 14 years ago when there was a high maternal mortality rate in the
province, which was around 20 a year due to many women choosing to give birth
with the help of shamans instead of midwives, as well as other causes like
bleeding, infection and high blood pressure.
“Everyone has the right to life. That is why we began
our fight for life, for the souls of mothers and newborns,” he said.
In collaboration with the local government’s health
service, his team went from one Puskesmas to another in the district to help
improve them and to supply medicines.
Also, he said a film about safe birth in the community
health centers was produced in collaboration with an Australian agency and
played in villages and the centers.
“The result was good enough. Less than 20 mothers and
newborns died within a year,” he said. “Yet, we did not stop. We launched a
movement in which a family collected at least 1,000 rupiah [10 cents] per month
to help poor pregnant mothers to give birth in Puskesmas. It was voluntary in
nature.”
The last move was building a maternal care house in
the Puskesmas complex after BPKD was officially formed nine years ago following
the district head’s decree, Father Agot said.
“The house is prepared for pregnant mothers,
particularly those from remote villages. They can stay free of charge in the
facility — with at least two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom
–about two days before giving birth. Thus, they can give birth in a Puskesmas
with help from a midwife,” he said, adding that there were less than 10 deaths
among mothers and newborns in the last five years in the district.
“Seventeen out of 22 Puskesmas in the district have
such a house. We hope we can build three more next year.”
Valentinus Hibur, head of Puskesmas Benteng in Komodo
sub-district, told UCA News that BPKD built a maternal care house in his
Puskesmas complex in 2018.
“At least 89 pregnant women had stayed there since,”
he said, adding that the house has two midwives working in two shifts.
“The house really helps those from remote villages.”
He said they were thankful to BPKD for its social work
and hoped that the body will continue helping the local government in reducing
maternal mortality rates.
Adrianus Ojo, secretary of the district’s health
service office, called the priest and other public figures who initiated BPKD
“role models.”
Source: UCA News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-priests-social-work-earns-muslim-award/99775
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Malaysia’s PM Anwar cements leadership with early
confidence vote win
NOR ARLENE TAN
December 19, 2022
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim
won a confidence vote in parliament on Monday, cementing his leadership of a
new unity government after an election last month produced no clear winner.
Anwar, capping his three-decade political journey,
became premier in late November, forming a unity government with several rival
political blocs following polls that resulted in an unprecedented hung
parliament.
He convened the first parliament session on Monday to
prove his majority after former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin questioned his
legitimacy and to remove doubts over his authority to govern and the stability
of his administration.
The confidence motion was passed through a simple
voice vote — where lawmakers voiced their support — following three hours of
intense debate in parliament.
Anwar’s confidence vote win was “no surprise,”
director of BowerGroupAsia Adib Zalkapli said, as it was “still the early days
of the unity government.”
Malaysia’s fourth prime minister since 2020, who came
to power after two previous administrations collapsed due to political turmoil,
appears to be starting his leadership with good democratic precedent.
“Anwar is setting a good precedent in strengthening
our parliamentary democracy. The government is accountable to parliament. No
future prime ministers can ignore or undermine the parliament,” Zalkapli told
Arab News.
Dr. James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the
University of Tasmania, described the move as important.
“The two previous governments have declared a
majority, but they never tested it on the floor of parliament,” Chin told Arab
News. “This is really an important precedent; it means in the future, there
won’t be any backdoor government and they will have to test their numbers on
the first seating of parliament.”
Malaysian political parties supporting Anwar signed a
cooperation pact last week ahead of the confidence vote, promising to ensure
stability. They had agreed to work together to spur the economy and maintain
good governance.
Dr. Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore
Institute of International Affairs, said the confidence vote will give Anwar
the time to resolve various issues facing the Southeast Asian nation, including
devastating floods on the country’s east coast and the rising cost of living.
Source: Arab News
Please click the following URL to read the full text
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2218661/world
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New Quran Memorization Centre Opened in Malaysia’s
Sabah
December 19, 2022
Addressing the ceremony, State Mufti, Datuk Bungsu
Aziz Jaafar said the participation of various quarters, including parents,
community and individuals in assisting the establishment of more tahfiz
(memorization) centers are welcome.
“More students will be able to read and memorise the
Quran and make the book holy as their guideline in life,” he said.
“I am honoured and excited because another tahfiz has
been successfully established here. We hope Ma’ahad Tahfiz becomes a place of
furthering our devotion,” added the mufti.
“To the parents around here and even further, we hope
they continue to provide moral and material support so that the existence of
Ma’ahad Tahfiz will be able to continue and be empowered”, he said after
officiating the Ma’ahad Tahfiz Ashabul Yamin building on Jalan Sungai Duyung,
Kg. Pangi.
Also present were Kunak District Office, Community
Development Leaders Unit (UPPM) District Education Department, Kunak Hospital,
and Pangi Village representatives.
Meanwhile, Chairman and founder of Ma’ahad Tahfiz
Ashabul Yamin, ustaz Junaidy Jeffrey Abdul Nasir said there are currently 80
students studying at center with nine teaching staff of which four are full
time.
“In addition to Al-Quran Studies, students here are
also exposed to Arabic and Fiqh education”, he said.
Source: IQNA
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https://iqna.ir/en/news/3481737/new-quran-memorization-center-opened-in-malaysia%E2%80%99s-sabah
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Pakistan
Imran Khan Slams "Imported" Government For
Taliban Attack In Northwest Pak
December 20, 2022
Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman
Imran Khan on Monday blamed the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz
Sharif for the terrorist attack in Bannu, reported Geo News.
He said the 'imported government' has failed to deal
with cross-border attacks by "security forces of a 'friendly' Afghan
government".
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Khan said:
"Apart from running our economy to the ground, this imported government
has failed to deal with the 50 per cent increase in terrorism in Pakistan with
incidents from Chaman to Swat to Lakki Marwat to Bannu."
A day earlier, four police personnel were martyred and
as many others wounded in an overnight terrorist attack on the Bargai Police
Station of Lakki Marwat area.
Terrorists launched an armed assault on the police
station from two sides. A fierce exchange of fire took place between the police
and the outlaws that left four policemen dead and as many injured, reported Geo
News.
The attackers escaped after the assault. Police have
launched a search operation in the area for the saboteurs.
"While our soldiers, police [and] local [people]
are giving daily sacrifices with their lives, the worst part is that this
increasing terrorist threat [and] attacks from across our Western border are
finding no space in the discourse of this government of a cabal of
crooks," the former prime minister wrote referring to the incident.
He went on to say that the Pakistan Democratic
Movement-led government is only interested in their NRO II and its
preservation, reported Geo News.
"Therefore, despite the economy tanking, they are
petrified of holding elections which is the only way to stabilise the economy
through political stabilisation," he said renewing his demand for fresh
elections.
Notably, the talks between Pakistani officials and the
leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are underway in Afghanistan,
confirmed Mohammad Ali Saif, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government, reported Geo News.
Pakistani authorities opened talks to try to resolve a
stand-off with the TTP, who were holding several security personnel hostage
after seizing control of a counter-terrorism facility in the country's
northwest, a day earlier.
"We are in negotiations with the central leaders
of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan," said Saif.
The spokesperson warned of strict action if the armed
men do not surrender.
The wave of terrorist attacks has risen across the
province in the last few months, the report said. At least 118 terrorist
incidents were reported in KP from mid-August till the last week of November,
according to official numbers.
At least 26 policemen, 12 personnel of other law
enforcement agencies and 17 civilians were killed in terror incidents across
the KP. Moreover, 18 policemen, 10 civilians, and 37 law enforcement agency
personnel suffered injuries in these attacks, reported Geo News.
Source: ND TV
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TTP inmates hold Pakistan security men hostage after
taking over police centre, 2 cops killed
Dec 20, 2022
ISLAMABAD: The situation remained deadlocked on Monday
in the remote garrison city of Bannu in northwestern Pakistan following the
overnight takeover of a police detention centre by terrorists of the proscribed
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) lodged there, who held police and army
officials hostage after snatching their weapons. The inmates are demanding a
safe passage to Afghanistan.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s spokesperson Barrister
Saif said the terrorists snatched weapons from the security personnel during
interrogation and then released more prisoners. He said they killed a security
official and injured two others when they opened fire to prevent police and
army officials from overpowering them. However, sources said two securitymen
were killed in the firing.
“They (terrorists) all have been surrounded,” Saif
said, adding the government has been talking to the terrorists to avoid
casualties.
Claiming responsibility of the takeover, TTP spokesman
Muhammad Khurasani said in a statement that its members had taken the staff and
security officials of the facility as hostage. He said the terrorists – in a
video statement from the detention center – had demanded safe passage, but
“mistakenly mentioned Afghanistan”.
“The group had asked the officials to shift the
prisoners to either South or North Waziristan,” the spokesman said, adding that
they had not received a positive response from the authorities yet.
Meanwhile, police and security agencies have cordoned
off the cantonment area — where the detention facility is located — and asked
residents to stay indoors. Internet and mobile phone services were also
suspended in the area.
In a video message, the hostage-takers threatened to
kill the officers if their demands were not met. One of the terrorists, who was
holding a security official at gunpoint, demanded a “safe passage” to
Afghanistan. Another, whose face was not visible, was heard saying eight to ten
security personnel were in their captivity.
He said 35 of his associates – whom he called fidayeen
– who were detained had managed to break free and demanded that Pakistan
ensured their departure to Afghanistan via air.
“We broke the jail and the securitymen are in our
captivity and they will be released safely if we are provided a safe exit,” he
said.
Source: Times Of India
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Bilawal defends remarks against Modi, says he was
‘referring to historical fact’
December 20, 2022
Foreign Minister Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari has defended his
recent remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that he was
referring to “a historical reality”.
At a news conference inside the UN last week, Bilawal
had described Modi as “the butcher of Gujarat,” adding that instead of being
punished for the 2002 massacre of over 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat, he was made
the prime minister.
He was responding to his Indian counterpart S.
Jaishankar’s remarks who, for two days in a row, had called Pakistan “the host
of Osama bin Laden” and the “perpetrator of terrorism.”
The Indian government had heavily criticised Bilawal’s
remarks while workers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had staged
protests in parts of the country, including outside the Pakistani High
Commission in New Delhi. Some workers had also burnt an effigy of Bilawal.
In an interview with Bloomberg published today, the
foreign minister said: “I was referring to a historical reality. The remarks I
used were not my own. I did not call […] I did not invent the term ‘Butcher of
Gujarat’ for Mr Modi. The Muslims in India following the Gujarat riots used
that term for Mr Modi.
“I believe I was referring to a historical fact, and
they believe that repeating history is a personal insult. If I was incorrect
[…] it’s been two days since my remark as a member of Mr Modi’s party has
announced a 20 million rupee bounty on my head,” he said.
“So, I don’t think the best way to disprove the fact
that Mr Modi is the ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ is to adopt such extreme steps,” he
said.
US on Pak-India war of words
Hours after Bilawal reached Washington for talks with
US officials, the US offered to assist India and Pakistan in resolving their
differences, reminding them that they were key global partners and that America
would like to continue ‘valuable partnerships’ with both.
State Department Spokesperson Ned Price addressed a
news briefing in which he responded to a question about last week’s war of
words between Bilawal and his Indian counterpart.
“We have a global strategic partnership with India. I
have just spoken to the depth of our partnership with Pakistan. The two
relationships stand on their own. It’s not a zero-sum relationship,” he said.
The US, he said, sees the importance of maintaining
these valuable partnerships with our Indian and our Pakistani friends, adding
that they had a relationship in which “we can be friends with both”.
Source: Dawn
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Stalemate in talks continues as CTD centre in Bannu
remains under militants’ control
Umer Farooq | Ghulam Mursalin Marwat
December 20, 2022
PESHAWAR/ LAKKI MARWAT: The standoff between the
security forces and banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants continued
on Monday as the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) centre in Bannu remained
under the militants’ control.
Late Sunday, the militants incarcerated in the CTD
centre took control of the building after they snatched weapons from their
investigators and took a number of law enforcers hostages. They had also fired
upon the security personnel, reportedly injuring a CTD man and a soldier. The
militants had demanded a safe passage to Afghanistan.
Despite the passage of 24 hours, there has been no
breakthrough in talks with the militants for the release of the hostages. An
official source said that the standoff continued and there was “no breakthrough
in negotiations” with the militants who had taken over the compound. “The top
priority is to free the hostages from the captivity of militants,” the source
added.
In order to neutralise the situation, sources said,
law enforcement agencies have decided to engage a cleric, Maulana Ahmadullah,
from the Domail area of the city.
The cleric will be asked to reason with the TTP
operatives who had taken CTD officials and other inmates as captives.
Meanwhile, the situation remained tense in the
district bordering North Waziristan. The cantonment area where the CTD compound
is located remained sealed, as police and security forces beefed up security,
asking the residents to remain indoors.
The compound had also been cordoned off. “The roads
leading to the cantonment area were also closed and policemen were deployed in
the area,” a resident said. Another resident said that the situation was tense
and fear persisted in the area. “The standoff and reports [videos of the
compound] circulating on social media has aggravated our concerns,” he said.
The official source said that police had increased
patrolling the area besides tightening checking of individuals and motorists on
pickets. Keeping in view the volatile law and order situation, security forces
also imposed a curfew on roads leading to North Waziristan and Bannu city.
Meanwhile, in view of the precarious situation in the city, the deputy
commissioner said all government and private educational institutions in Bannu
will remain closed on Tuesday (Dec 20).
TTP statement
The attack on the compound has been claimed by the TTP
as the banned outfit confirmed in a statement that its members had taken
several CTD and security personnel hostages. In a statement, the group’s
spokesperson said that in an earlier video statement, the hostage takers had
demanded a safe exit but they mistakenly mentioned Afghanistan since they were
not aware of ground realities. He said that the group talked to government authorities
overnight and asked them to shift the prisoners to North Waziristan or South
Waziristan but there was no positive response from their side.
The militants inside the seized CTD centre also
released several videos earlier in the day, asking the people of Bannu,
especially the ulema, to come forward and resolve the standoff between the
militants and the law enforcers through dialogue.
In a video clip, a detainee declared himself
‘innocent’ and said along with the Taliban militants and officials taken hostage
by the militants, several innocents were also present inside the compound.
In the video, he said that the elders and the ulema of
Bannu should intervene to avoid bloodshed and settle the standstill in a
peaceful manner. “The people and army are ours and the Taliban wanted to go
outside [the compound] to kill people, but we stopped them,” he added. In
another video clip, several armed militants could be seen roaming and taking
positions inside the compound. A militant, who was not visible in the video
clip, said that his “Mujahideen companions were ready”. In the video, he was
heard asking them not to damage vehicles or oppress anyone in the CTD centre.
In a video released from CTD Center in Bannu, one of
the individuals in the video has been identified as Commander Zarrar, who had
been under custody. Zarrar had merged his group with TTP and it was still
unclear what he was doing in the CTD centre even though he was in custody since
January 2022.
‘Warning to militants’
In Peshawar, KP CM’s aide Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif
said the government will not fulfil any demand put forth by the militants and
asked them to lay down arms, warning them of stern action in case of
non-compliance.
“There was no attack on the CTD Center from outside.
Some under-custody militants snatched weapons [from investigators] and took a
few police personnel hostages,” he said, claiming that the situation in Bannu
was under control.
The statement further said that the militants wanted
to gain the sympathy of general public by sharing videos on social media. “It
is better if these people laid down arms, otherwise strict action will be taken
against them,” the statement quoted the adviser as saying.
ANP, PTI statements
PTI Chairman Imran Khan, whose party is in power in
KP, accused the federal government of failing to rein in terrorism. “Apart from
running our economy to the ground, this imported government has failed to deal
with the 50% increase in terrorism in Pak with incidents from Chaman to Swat to
Lakki Marwat to Bannu.”
In a tweet, the former prime minister said, “They have
also failed to deal with attacks from the international Pak-Afghan border by
security forces of a ‘friendly’ Afghan government.”
“While our soldiers, police & local people are
giving daily sacrifices with their lives, the worst part is that this
increasing terrorist threat & attacks from across our Western border are
finding no space in the discourse of this government of a cabal of crooks,” he
added.
Meanwhile, Awami National Party (ANP) KP President
Aimal Wali Khan accused the PTI-led government of deliberately attempting to
weaken the police and CTD, terming it the reason why effective action could not
be taken against militants.
Source: Dawn
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1727301/bannu-stalemate-continues
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IB sub-inspector martyred in Peshawar attack
December 20, 2022
PESHAWAR: A Sub-Inspector of the Intelligence Bureau
(IB) was martyred in an attack occurred in the jurisdiction of Mathra police
station here on Monday.
According to the police, Shaukat Mehboob, an IB
Sub-Inspector, was on his way back home after buying essentials from the market
when unidentified men opened fire at him.
The officials said that the area had been cordoned off
and a search operation was launched to trace the attackers. They said that
empty shells were recovered from the crime scene. They said that the body was
shifted to hospital for autopsy.
Meanwhile, Lance Naik Sardar Khan of Frontier
Constable (FC), who was martyred in a militant attack at the Manikhel checkpost
in Bannu district, was laid to rest in his he ancestral graveyard in Battgram
area of Charsadda on Monday.
Source: Dawn
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1727293/ib-sub-inspector-martyred-in-peshawar-attack
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Two officials martyred as held terrorists seize Bannu
CTD building
December 19, 2022
BANNU: Two officials of the KP Counter-Terrorism
Department (CTD) were martyred and many more injured when terrorists, who had
been arrested previously and being interrogated at CTD police station inside
Cantonment, snatched an AK-47 from police and opened fire in Bannu district of
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday afternoon.
The police and rescuers informed that one of the
miscreants snatched rifle from police during interrogation and neutralised the
guards deployed at the building.
District Police Officer (DPO) Bannu Dr Iqbal also
confirmed that there was no attack from outside and one of the miscreants
snatched rifle from police during interrogation and neutralised the guards
deployed at the building.
He then freed all the suspects being held at the
building and who took control of the compound. They also made several policemen
hostage.
“They are in control of the building and we have
cordoned off the entire Bannu cantonment. They have been kept busy by means of
negotiations,” he added. “We have our own plan which cannot be shared at the
moment,” he said.
Militants released at least three videos in which they
could be seen armed with AK-47 rifles and medium machine guns. In one video
they showed a hostage and demanded the security forces to provide them with a
helicopter to reach Afghanistan safely and in return they would not harm their
hostages.
The affiliation of the terrorists could not be
ascertained immediately.
A spokesman for the TTP did not immediately confirm or
deny a link with the militants in the compound.
Meanwhile, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Special Assistant for
Information Barrister Saif has denied that CTD facility had been attacked in
Bannu, saying that some suspects attempted to snatch weapons from the security
forces.
He said that the situation was “completely under
control” and security forces have cordoned off the affected area.
Saif said that an operation was underway against the
miscreants which will be completed soon.
Source: Pakistan Today
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Europe
Sweden Rejects Türkiye’s Request For Extradition Of
Accused Terrorist, Bulent Kenes, A Suspected Member Of The Fetullah Terrorist
Organization
Atila Altuntas
19.12.2022
STOCKHOLM
Sweden’s top court on Monday rejected Türkiye’s
request for the extradition of a fugitive terrorist group suspect living on
Swedish soil.
In a statement, Sweden’s Supreme Court said that in
order to meet the extradition request, a suspect must have been sentenced to
one year or more in prison, but that the suspect in question, Bulent Kenes, did
not meet this requirement.
At a joint press conference last month with Swedish
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged
Sweden to deport Kenes back to Türkiye, stressing its importance.
Kenes, the former editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman
newspaper and a suspected member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO),
lives in Sweden.
In the defeated 2016 coup orchestrated by FETO and its
US-based leader Fetullah Gulen, 251 people were killed and 2,734 injured.
Türkiye, Finland, and Sweden signed a memorandum this
June on the Nordic countries' bids for NATO membership following four-way talks
in Madrid.
The memorandum conditions Finland and Sweden to take
steps on Türkiye's terrorism concerns, including the extradition of terror
suspects, and lifts an arms embargo on Ankara.
In return, Türkiye would allow the Nordic countries to
become NATO members.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Germany urges Iran to show ‘political will’ to end
stalemate over nuclear probe
Oliver Towfigh Nia
19.12.2022
BERLIN
Germany on Monday called on Iran to show “political
will” to resolve the standoff over a nuclear probe following the arrival of UN
nuclear watchdog delegation in Tehran as part of its inquiry into undeclared
uranium particles found in Iran.
“Iran must now come up with technically plausible
answers, which now requires the political will,” Franciska Obermeyer, deputy
spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, told journalists in Berlin.
“It is high time that the IAEA (International Atomic
Energy Agency) and Iran continue their dialogue on these questions,” she added.
Obermeyer, however, stressed that she could not
predict whether these talks would actually yield any results.
An IAEA technical team arrived in Tehran on Sunday
following an invitation by Iran, according to an IAEA spokeswoman.
The visit was aimed at “addressing the outstanding
safeguards issues previously reported,” she added.
The Vienna-based UN nuclear agency has for years been
calling on Iran to explain the presence of undeclared human-made uranium found
at three sites, requesting “access to locations and material” as well as the
collection of samples.
In the absence of progress, the IAEA said it could not
guarantee the authenticity and integrity of Iran’s nuclear program.
Tehran has repeatedly claimed traces of enriched
uranium found in Iran were brought into the country from abroad.
Meanwhile, Obermeyer stressed again that negotiations
between Iran and the six world powers – US, Russia, China, France, the UK, and
Germany – to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are not planned for now.
There are “currently no starting points” to resume
such talks, she added.
The US and its Western allies argue the talks were
“stalled” because Tehran was “making demands that have nothing to do with the
JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).”
Source: Anadolu Agency
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UN chief urges Afghan Taliban to stop terrorist
attacks against Pakistan
December 20, 2022
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres on Monday called on the Afghan Taliban to prevent terrorist
organizations from attacking Pakistan or any other neighbouring country from
Afghan territory, saying the UN was in discussions with the de facto
authorities in this regard.
“We consider that it is absolutely essential for the
Taliban not to allow any form of terrorist activity that might have an impact
in relation to Pakistan, as in relation to any other country of the region,”
the UN chief said in response to a question from a reporter about the
stepped-up cross-border terrorist attacks from the Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP)
against Pakistan that have resulted in many casualties.
“There are several clear things that we believe the
Taliban must deliver from the point of view of the interests of the
international community and from the point of view of the interest of
Afghanistan itself,” he said at his year-end press conference.
“One thing is that they must deliver in relation to
inclusion in the power structures in Afghanistan,” the secretary-general said,
emphasizing that all ethnic groups in Afghanistan should be represented.
“A second aspect is in relation to human rights and
particularly women and girls’ rights, the right of women to work, the rights of
girls to attend school at all levels without discrimination,” he said.
Source: Pakistan Today
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Danish government remains fixed on overturning EU
minimum wage directives
Ebad Ahmed
20.12.2022
COPANHAGEN
The new three-party Danish coalition vowed to continue
to challenge EU minimum wage directives in the bloc's court.
"In Denmark it is the labour market parties which
negotiate the terms of wages. On that basis, labour market parties are also
against the EU directive in minimum wages," says the agreement reached
last week between the constituent parties from both the left and right.
Denmark and Sweden oppose the EU minimum wage
directives as they come against the established labor models adopted in both
Scandinavian countries, where wages are decided by trade unions and employers
through a process of negotiations.
The directives aren't binding for either country as
the EU Commission has maintained that it was not mandatory for the Danish
government to incorporate the minimum wage into the country's law, commission
President Ursula von der Leyen said there would be "full respect for
national traditions and the autonomy of labour market partners." The
coalition government nonetheless remains set on getting the directives annulled
by the bloc's highest law forum.
In Denmark, trade unions and the left-wing Red Green
Alliance (Enhedslisten) party have strongly maintained that the country should
approach the EU court on the minimum wage directive.
Danish Employment Minister Peter Hummelgaard,
alongside Swedish representatives, led a joint call with nine EU countries
expressing their reservations over the minimum wage directives.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Germany supports Türkiye-Greece dialogue, spokesman
says
Ayhan Simsek
19.12.2022
BERLIN
Germany wants to facilitate dialogue between Türkiye
and Greece, the chancellor’s spokesman said on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, German
government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit confirmed that the senior officials of
the three countries had held a meeting in Brussels.
“Germany had conveyed messages earlier, asked whether
we could be helpful for such a meeting, and both the Greek prime minister and
the Turkish president responded very positively to this,” he said.
Hebestreit also said further meetings are expected,
but declined to give any details, stressing that the content of the discussions
was confidential.
The meeting in Brussels brought together Turkish
presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, German Chancellery Foreign and Security
Policy Adviser Jens Ploetner, and Greek Prime Ministry Diplomatic Office
Director Anna-Maria Boura, after weeks-long tensions between Ankara and Athens.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Athens in
October and called for closer dialogue between NATO allies Türkiye and Greece
to solve bilateral problems and de-escalate tensions in the Mediterranean.
He said good neighborly relations between Ankara and
Athens are vital not only for the two countries but also for Europe and NATO.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/germany-supports-turkiye-greece-dialogue-spokesman-says/2767618
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North America
US accuses UN of yielding to Russian threats over Iran
drone inquiry
20 December ,2022
The United States accused UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres of “apparently yielding to Russian threats” and not sending officials
to Ukraine to inspect drones used by Russia that Washington and others say were
supplied by Iran.
Russia has denied its forces used Iranian drones in
Ukraine and argues there is no mandate for UN officials to travel to Kyiv to
investigate the origin of the drones. Iran has acknowledged it had supplied
Moscow with drones, but said they were sent before Russia invaded its neighbor
in February.
Britain, France, Germany, the United States and
Ukraine say the supply of Iranian-made drones to Russia violates a 2015 UN
Security Council resolution enshrining the Iran nuclear deal. They want
Guterres to send officials to Kyiv to investigate.
“We regret that the UN has not moved to carry out a
normal investigation of this reported violation,” US Deputy UN Ambassador
Robert Wood told a Security Council meeting on Monday on the 2015 Iran nuclear
deal resolution.
“We are disappointed that the Secretariat, apparently
yielding to Russian threats, has not carried out the investigatory mandate this
council has given it,” Wood said.
In a report to the council earlier this month,
Guterres said UN officials were examining the available information and any
findings would be reported to the council in due course.
When asked on Monday about the pressure he faced,
Guterres told reporters the Western accusation that Iran had supplied Russia
with drones used in Ukraine was being looked at “in the broader picture of
everything we are doing in the context of the war to determine if and when we
should” send officials to Kyiv.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the
Security Council on Monday that UN officials “should not bow to pressure from
Western countries” and that “any results of this pseudo investigation ... are
null and void.”
Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said Iran
has not transferred to Russia any items prohibited by the Security Council. He
also said Iranian drones supplied to Russia before February were not banned by
the council and “have not been transferred for use in the ongoing conflict in
Ukraine.”
Source: Al Arabiya
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Arab World
Lebanon Elects Sunni Muftis For First Time In 40 Years
19 December, 2022
Elections were held in Lebanon for muftis - Islamic
experts qualified to give rulings on religious matters – for the first time in
40 years, according to reports.
A vote for the muftis, who will become dignitaries of
Lebanon’s highest Sunni religious body, occurred on Sunday in six regions
across the country, Lebanese outlet L’Orient Today reported.
The past four decades have seen the mufti of the
republic appoint regional muftis, however this year provided the "right…
conditions… for holding elections", Khaldoun Kawas, head of communications
of Dar al-Fatwa told L’Orient Today.
The elections, which were called for by the state’s
most senior Sunni Muslim cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, occurred
in Tripoli, Akkar, Zahle, Rashaya, Baalbeck-Hermel and Hasbaya-Marjayoun.
Not everyone is able to vote to select the muftis. The
General Directorate of Islamic Waqfs decides who is able to take part in the
vote.
Those able to vote include the incumbent Prime
Minister, former prime minister, members of the supreme Islamic council, Sunni
legal judges, the president of the waqfs, imams, and Sunni members of the
constitutional council, according to L’Orient.
Sunni 'first-class' civil servants, Sunni members of
municipal councils and Sunni personalities deemed part of the political and
religious elite are also able to have their say in the elections.
Sheikh Mohammad Tarek Imam was elected mufti of
Tripoli, Sheikh Zaid Mohammad Bakkar Zakaria was elected mufti of Akkar and
Sheikh Ali Ghazzaoui was elected mufti of Zahle, according to a statement by
Dar al-Fatwa.
Sheikh Wafic Hijazi was elected mufti of Rashaya,
Sheikh Ayman Rifai was elected mufti of Baalbeck-Hermel and Sheikh Hassan
Dalleh was elected mufti of Hasbaya-Marjayoun.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati assured there
was "no political interference" in the elections, as he cast his vote
in his home city Tripoli, the National News Agency reported.
Though the mufti elections were an apparent success,
Lebanon has had no such luck on the political front.
The country is still yet to elect a president as
Lebanese legislators have attempted and failed to agree on a new head of state
several times since Michel Aoun completed his term.
Source: The New Arab
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https://www.newarab.com/news/lebanon-votes-sunni-muftis-first-time-40-years
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Latest Islamic State attack highlights security
challenges facing Iraq
December 19, 2022
BAGHDAD — At least nine members of the Iraqi security
forces were killed and three others were wounded on Sunday in a bomb attack
targeting their convoy in the Kirkuk governorate of northern Iraq.
The Islamic State (IS) immediately claimed
responsibility via its Telegram account. The attack took place near Safra, a
village about 20 miles south of Kirkuk in the Kurdistan Region.
Immediately following the explosion, a clash broke out
between security forces and IS militants, leading to the killing of one IS
member
The area is located near the borders of the Salahuddin
and Diyala provinces, and the nature of the terrain — with desert plains and
mountains — provides a safe haven for the terrorist organization.
The area falls within the so-called “Death Triangle,”
a moniker it received in 2004 when members of al-Qaeda and later IS used the
area for preparing attacks in the surrounding areas and even in the capital,
Baghdad, in the past.
Although Iraq declared in 2017 that IS had been
officially defeated, its sleeper cells are still active in remote areas toward
the center of the country and stretching toward the west.
Last week, another IS attack in Salahuddin province
killed one member of the Popular Mobilization Units and left two others
wounded.
“After the painful blows delivered by our security
forces and intensified efforts to pursue the defeated terrorist elements [of
IS], these terrorist elements resorted to malicious methods by planting
explosive devices near villages inhabited by citizens and in which the security
services provide various services,” the media office of Iraq's security
services announced on Sunday.
Las week, the Iraqi security forces undertook dozens
of operations against IS elements and dens, leading to the arrest of 23 people
on terrorist accusations, the killing of 11 members of terrorist organizations
and the confiscation of various weapons.
Despite these extensive counterterrorism operations,
IS attacks continue to be a serious security challenges for the Iraqi
government in the area.
According to a readout of a call between Iraqi Prime
Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani and White House Coordinator for the Middle
East and North Africa Affairs Brett McGurk, the United States reiterated its
support for Iraq's stability. Both sides noted the “importance of continuing
efforts to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and supporting Iraq's regional
role in building bridges between the countries of the region."
Source: Al Monitor
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Kurdish forces seize Islamic State militant in Syria
as part of joint raid with U.S.
Dec 19, 2022
BEIRUT (AP) — A Kurdish-led group in Syria said Monday
that its fighters alongside U.S. forces have arrested a wanted militant with
the Islamic State group that continues to stage attacks in the region.
There are some 900 U.S. troops in Syria supporting
Kurdish-led forces in the fight against the militant group.
The Syrian Democratic Forces said its fighters led a
raid on the home of an unnamed IS leader on Dec. 16 in the western countryside
of Deir el-Zour. The group’s statement claimed the arrested man managed
militant cells in the region.
The SDF shared a photo purporting to show evidence
they confiscated during the raid, including two cell phones, a dozen SIM cards,
an internet router, a Syrian-issued identity document and a pistol with three
magazines.
The SDF added that this was the fifth such raid over
the past two weeks.
They have frequently targeted the militants mostly in
parts of northeastern Syria under Kurdish control. On Dec. 11, a U.S.
helicopter raid in eastern Syria killed two IS militants.
Syria has been mired in a bloody civil war since 2011
that has drawn in regional and global powers. Syrian President Bashar Assad has
mostly regained control of the country, but parts of its north remain under the
control of rebels, as well as Turkish and Syrian Kurdish forces.
Turkey strongly opposes the presence of the Syrian
Kurdish groups along its border that it blames for attacks within its
territory. A series of Turkish airstrikes in the area earlier this month
temporarily halted U.S.-Kurdish patrols and raised concerns that cross-border
tensions would hinder the fight against the Islamic State group.
Source: PBS
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Children among 547 detained Syrians declared dead:
Rights group
20 December ,2022
Ever since Yehya Hijazi and his two sons were detained
in 2012 by the Syrian government, their relatives had clung onto the hope they
were still alive and might be released one day.
But after a decade of silence from the authorities,
their hopes were shattered when the independent Syrian Network for Human Rights
(SNHR) monitoring group contacted the Hijazi family to tell them it had
obtained death certificates for all three.
“You’re hoping every second that you’ll catch another
glimpse of this person whom you love very much, that you’ll hear any news of
him,” Yehya’s brother Mohammad told Reuters by phone from northwestern Syria.
“Then you hear he’s dead.”
The SNHR said the documents confirming the death of
Yehya and his sons were among 547 detainee death certificates issued by the
authorities since 2017 that it had obtained from whistleblowers within
government departments.
The rights group said the documents provided answers
to the fates of hundreds of missing people. Activists hope they will eventually
be used in international proceedings against the government, which has been
accused by a UN commission of inquiry of crimes against humanity for its
detention policies.
The government did not respond to emailed questions
about the death certificates obtained by SNHR. Syrian officials have in the
past denied accusations of systemic torture and mass executions in jail.
Reuters reviewed 80 of the death certificates,
including the three for the Hijazi family, as well as those for a
three-year-old girl and her six-year-old sister.
A Syrian human rights lawyer, who declined to be named
due to the sensitivity of the matter, reviewed a sample of the documents. He
said the layout, language used and the elements of information included matched
other Syrian death certificates.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm that the
documents were authentic.
Mohammad Hijazi said the family had not requested
death certificates from the authorities as they lived in areas controlled by
the opposition. He added that acquaintances in government-held zones also
refused to ask civil registries about deaths, fearing they might be seen as
opposed to Damascus.
No cause of death
The war in Syria spiraled out of a 2011 uprising
against President Bashar al-Assad's rule and has killed over 350,000 people,
uprooted more than half the population and forced millions abroad as refugees.
Tens of thousands are estimated to have been held in
Syrian government detention centers, according to the UN commission. Detainees
are often held incommunicado, leaving their families wondering about their
whereabouts, or if they are even alive, the commission and families of
detainees have said.
International rights groups do not operate openly in
Syria and do not have access to detention centers. In August, the U.N.
secretary general’s office recommended establishing a mechanism to determine
the fate of missing Syrians, but it has yet to be set up.
The 547 certificates included those for 15 children
and 19 women, the SNHR said.
Some of the 80 certificates reviewed by Reuters listed
the place of death as military hospitals or military tribunals. Others were
vague about the place of death, with “Damascus” or a village on its outskirts.
Some were left blank.
The certificates reviewed by Reuters also had
significant gaps between the date of the death and when it was recorded in the
registry, with most showing a lag of several years and one showing a delay of
10 years.
None of the certificates reviewed by Reuters listed a
cause of death. The SNHR said that was the case for all 547.
The rights group said it had matched the names that
appeared on the death certificates against wider lists of people detained by
the Syrian authorities.
The group was able to reach the families of 23 of the
deceased. It said many had suspected their loved ones were dead, but only had
confirmation when they saw the death certificates.
Torture and ill treatment in Syrian government prisons
remains “systemic,” according to a 2022 report by the UN commission of inquiry
on Syria, which noted abuses in detention centers run by non-government
factions too.
It said the government was deliberately withholding
information from the families of loved ones and has described its detention
policies as amounting to crimes against humanity.
Wait continues
In 2018, Syrian authorities began updating civil
registries in bulk with the death certificates of people who had died in
detention but did not directly inform their relatives, the UN commission said.
The government did not respond to questions about why
it had not informed relatives of the deceased.
Relatives in government-held areas could find out if
their loved-ones had died by requesting their family records from the civil
registries. They were not granted access to bodies to bury them, or told where
the remains were, according to the commission and the SNHR.
Others have learned of deaths by recognizing their
relatives in leaked pictures taken by military photographers working in
prisons, the most prominent of whom was code-named Caesar.
In a 2015 interview, Assad dismissed the Caesar
photographs as allegations without evidence. Former war crimes prosecutors
described the images as clear proof of systematic torture and mass killings.
SNHR director Fadel Abdul Ghany said he hoped the
large batch of death certificates would provide some relief to those still
waiting to know the fate of their relatives.
But for Mohammad Hijazi, the wait continues.
While he now knows the fate of his brother Yehya, he
said 40 more relatives had been arrested by the government in central Syria and
the family had no news of them yet.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Body of Irish UNIFIL peacekeeper killed in Lebanon
arrives home
19 December ,2022
The body of an Irish United Nations peacekeeper killed
in Lebanon was on Monday returned to Ireland with full military honors.
Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others
were wounded on Wednesday after the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy
came under fire near the village of al-Aqbiya in the south of the country.
One of the wounded, Private Shane Kearney, remains in
a serious condition in hospital.
UNIFIL has demanded a “speedy” investigation into the
attack, the motives of which remain unclear.
UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel,
neighbors which remain technically at war. The force operates in the south near
the border, a stronghold of Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah security chief Wafic Safa has said the
killing was “unintentional.”
It is the first death of a UNIFIL member in a violent
incident in Lebanon since January 2015, when a Spanish peacekeeper was killed
by Israeli fire.
UNIFIL was set up in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of
Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in reprisal for a Palestinian attack.
Source: Al Arabiya
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UAE delegation in Scotland to explore trade and
renewable energy opportunities
19 December ,2022
A delegation of business leaders and investors from
the United Arab Emirates have embarked on an official visit to Scotland to
explore opportunities for renewable energy projects.
The delegation was led by the UAE’s Minister of State
for Foreign Trade, Dr Thani bin Ahmed al-Zeyoudi, and included the
Under-Secretary of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development Rashid Abdul
Karim al-Balooshi, and UAE Ambassador to the UK Mansour Abdullah Khalfan
Belhoul, the official Emirates News Agency WAM reported on Sunday.
Al-Zeyoudi held talks with Scotland’s Cabinet
Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson,
in Edinburgh during which the pair reviewed bilateral relations between their
nations and exchanged views on ways to better enhance cooperation.
The UAE trade minister also met with his Scottish
counterpart Ivan McKee for discussions on the growing trade and investment
relations between their two nations, particularly related to energy, food and
agricultural products, as well as opportunities to develop an array of key
sectors, including tourism.
The delegation also visited the Scottish Enterprise, a
non-departmental public body of the Scottish government which encourage
economic development investment and innovation in business.
They also held a meeting at Scottish Development
International, where the agency’s CEO Reuben Aitken showcased the potential for
hydrogen production in Scotland and its rapidly developing space sector, WAM
reported.
During this official visit, al-Zeyoudi held
roundtables with a range of senior government officials and private business
leaders to discuss renewable energy, infrastructure, trade and establishing
pioneering companies and projects.
Scotland and the UAE have enjoyed a strong and growing
economic relationship for many years, with significant trade and investment
flows between the two countries.
The UAE is one of Scotland’s key trading partners in
the Middle East and North Africa region, and Scottish companies export a range
of goods and services to the UAE in fields spanning from engineering, renewable
energy, education and food.
In turn, the UAE has long been a major investor in
Scotland, with a number of UAE-based firms investing in a variety of the
country’s sectors such as real estate and tourism.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Israel launches fresh missile attack on Syrian capital
in new act of aggression
19 December 2022
The Israeli regime has launched a new missile attack
on the Syrian capital, Damascus, in a new act of aggression against the Arab
country.
Syrian media quoted a military source as saying early
Tuesday that the attack took place about half an hour after the midnight with
bursts of Israeli missiles fired from the northeast of Lake Tiberias, also
known as the Sea of Galilee, in the occupied territories.
The military source added that the Israeli missile
strike targeted a number of positions in the vicinity of Damascus without causing
any loss of life.
“Our air defenses intercepted Israeli missiles and
shot down a number of them. The attack resulted in the injury of two soldiers,”
the source said.
Israel frequently carries out missile attacks on
targets in Syria, mostly using the airspace of Lebanon or the occupied
territories.
The regime launched a similar attack on the Syrian
capital in late October, during which most of its missiles were shot down by
the Syrian air defenses.
The regime frequently violates Syrian sovereignty by
targeting military positions inside the country, especially those of the
resistance movement Hezbollah, which has played a key role in helping the
Syrian army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists.
Israel mostly keeps quiet about its attacks on the Syrian
territories, which many view as a knee-jerk reaction to Syrian government’s
increasing success in confronting terrorism.
The Tel Aviv regime has been a main supporter of
terrorist groups that have battled the government of President Bashar al-Assad
since foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria in early 2011.
Syrian has repeatedly complained to the UN over
Israeli assaults, urging the Security Council to take action against Tel Aviv’s
crimes. The calls have, however, fallen on deaf ears.
In early November, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Expatriates Faisal Mekdad strongly condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes,
emphasizing that his country will definitely give a crushing response to such
acts of aggression at some point in the future.
Source: Press TV
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South Asia
TTP Inmates Seize Police Centre in Pakistan, Demanding
Safe Passage to Afghanistan
By Saqalain Eqbal
December 19, 2022
Detained Pakistani Taliban in a Counter Terrorism
Department facility in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa took control of the
compound and held security guards as hostages, demanding safe passage to Kabul.
Some Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) detainees
overpowered guards overnight at a counter-terrorism facility in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, seizing police firearms, capturing hostages, and
taking control of the facility, Associated Press reported citing Pakistani
officials.
The incident reportedly started late on Sunday,
December 18, and swiftly turned into a standoff in which one counterterrorism
officer was killed during the seizure at the detention facility, according to
later confirmation from Pakistani officials.
Reports surfacing in the media state that there may be
up to 10 hostages held by some 30 gun-wielding Pakistani Taliban involved in
the takeover. While the Pakistani Taliban is a distinct organization, they are
also allies with the authorities in Afghanistan, who overthrew the
internationally-backed government last year as US and NATO forces were
preparing to leave Afghanistan.
In exchange for the hostages’ lives, the TTP detainees
who overtook the police center reportedly demand safe passage to Kabul, the
Afghan capital.
According to the Pakistani authorities, the Pakistani
Taliban’s top leaders and commanders have long sought sanctuary in Afghanistan
and operate there from bases that carry out cross-border terrorist strikes.
Source: Khaama Press
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Afghan survivors get new homes six months after deadly
earthquake
Dec 20, 2022
BARMAL-Labourer Rasool Badshah has moved into a new
home six months after a deadly earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan, but
without his mother, who was killed by collapsing walls.
More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of
thousands made homeless after the 5.9-magnitude quake - the deadliest in
Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century -struck the impoverished province
of Paktika on June 22.
"When I reached here, my mother, brothers,
everyone was already buried," Badshah, 21, told AFP, explaining how he
rushed back to his village from Pakistan, where he was working.
Hundreds of earthquake-resilient concrete homes, many
built by local labourers with the support of the United Nations refugee agency,
have now been handed over to survivors who were until now living in makeshift
tent cities.
"We couldn't have built these houses, not even
our children or grandchildren (could have)... we could not afford it. We were
living in huts," Badshah said.
The UNHCR said the new homes are equipped with solar
panels, independent toilets and traditional heaters to help residents face
harsh winters.
Even before the earthquake, Afghanistan was in the
grip of a humanitarian disaster made worse by the Taliban takeover in August
2021.
International development funding on which the South
Asian country relied dried up after the takeover and assets held abroad were
frozen.
The remote east where the quake struck had been
neglected by authorities for years, said survivor Bara Khan.
"After the earthquake, people came and saw that
residents of the area were in trouble. We don't even have a clinic or a
school," Khan said.
"Everybody has grown up illiterate."
The UNHCR will start work to build two schools and a
clinic in the area, still strewn with rubble, after the winter.
Source: Times Of India
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AIJA Organizes Afghanistan Independent Media
Competition 2022
By Nizamuddin Rezahi
December 20, 2022
Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) with
the financial support of one of the elites of the Afghan media community abroad
organizes a competitive program in order to encourage the many journalist and
media worker in Afghanistan.
The professional achievement and activities of the
best “Journalists, photographers, and presenters” will be assessed based on
standardized journalism principles and a code of ethics.
Therefore, journalists and media workers falling into
one of the above categories can forward their work samples to info@aija.af. The
winners will receive cash awards of AFN 83,500, for first place, and 41,000,
for second and third places respectively. Also, Ordinary people can participate
in this program and vote for their favorite media workers.
Since the overthrow of the previous regime in August
2021, it is the first program of its kind to be organized in Afghanistan –
aimed at motivating journalists and media workers, who have been faced with
tons of problems in implementing their daily activities. The de facto regime of
Afghanistan has imposed tough restrictions, particularly, on private media and
news agencies, leading to a large number of media outlets closing their doors.
Lack of financial support is another key reason
Afghanistan’s mass media is collapsing. Journalists, presenters, photographers,
videographers, and other media personnel who worked for TV broadcasters and
news agencies are now either jobless or seeking shelter for their survival.
Some have even taken illegal routes to migrate to neighboring countries such as
Iran, Pakistan, or Turkey.
Source: Khaama Press
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https://www.khaama.com/aija-organizes-afghanistan-independent-media-competition-2022/
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Afghan MoD Engineers Repair 2 Military Aircraft
By Saqalain Eqbal
December 19, 2022
Two ex-Afghan Air Force aircraft, a combat helicopter,
and a multipurpose Combat Caravan were repaired and made available for service,
the Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced.
The Afghanistan Air Force’s engineering team repaired,
successfully tested, and prepared two additional aircraft for flight on Sunday,
December 18, according to an MoD release.
The MoD’s expanding air force now includes a large
restored Mil Mi-35 gunship helicopter and a multi-use Cessna-208 Caravan
utility plane.
There were allegedly 130 operational aircraft in the
Afghan Air Force prior to the country’s new leadership taking power in August
2021.
As coalition forces departed and the Afghan Armed
Forces disintegrated, many of them were airlifted to nearby countries to escape
the group’s lightning offensive.
The Islamist regime in Afghanistan demanded their
return as well as deliveries of other aircraft that had previously been
promised to the internationally supported Afghan government.
Tajikistan, which interned the majority of Afghani
aircraft and pilots, however, said it was not considering returning the
aircraft to the authorities in Afghanistan.
The current Afghan air force expanded as the authorities
in Afghanistan began pardoning former Afghan Air Force pilots and repairing
aircraft that had been inoperative.
Source: Khaama Press
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https://www.khaama.com/afghan-mod-engineers-repair-2-military-aircraft-68486/
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Mideast
Palestinian PM urges UN teams to take action against
rise in Israeli killings of Palestinians
19 December 2022
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has
called upon the United Nations teams in the Israeli-occupied territories to
closely monitor unfolding developments on the ground and adopt proper measures
in light of an upsurge in the number of Palestinians killed at the hands of
Israeli military forces and settlers.
“Given the extrajudicial executions on roads and
increasing number of terrorist attacks by Israeli troops and soldiers – the
latest of which was a car-ramming assault by an Israeli settler against two
brothers Mohammad and Muhannad Yousef Muteir near the city of Nablus, we call
on the United Nations teams operating in the occupied lands to deploy monitors
on the roads and in the areas where settlers might use to target Palestinians,”
Shtayyeh said at a weekly cabinet meeting held in the central West Bank city of
Ramallah on Monday.
“The UN has more than 400 vehicles and more than 1,000
staffers that can be trained as monitors to observe and document the actions of
Israeli soldiers and settlers,” he said.
Zakaria Fayala, a spokesperson for al-Quds
Governorate, told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that Mohammad and
Muhannad Yousef Muteir were on the side of the road near the Israeli checkpoint
of Za’tara on Saturday night, fixing a puncture in one of the tires of their
vehicle when an Israeli settler drove his car into them.
Mohammad died instantly while Muhannad was seriously
injured.
Mohammad’s body was taken to a hospital in the city of
Nablus, while Muhannad was rushed to an Israeli hospital for medical treatment,
where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Israeli forces have recently been conducting overnight
raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of
Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been
formed.
Since the start of 2022, Israeli troops have killed
more than 210 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, in the occupied
West Bank and East al-Quds as well as the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to the United Nations, the number of
Palestinians killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank this year is the
highest in 16 years.
Local and international rights groups have condemned
Israel’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against
Palestinians.
Shtayyeh also condemned Israel’s deportation of
Palestinian-French human rights lawyer Salah Hammouri after revoking his right
to live in his hometown of al-Quds.
Hammouri landed in Paris on Sunday morning. Wearing a
black track suit and black and white keffiyeh, or Palestinian headscarf, around
his neck, he was greeted by his wife and a group of supporters.
He lambasted the Israeli regime for “ethnic cleansing”
and said his deportation was meant “to show the generations that nobody can
resist Israel.” He vowed to fight the order.
“We condemn the deportation of al-Quds citizen Salah
Hammouri to France, after Israeli authorities arrested him administratively,
withdrew his residency papers, and deprived him of his natural right to reside
in his hometown,” Shtayyeh pointed out.
The senior Palestinian official also slammed remarks
by Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu in which he said he will
not give the Palestinians more than self-rule and that security will remain in
the hands of Israel.
“Netanyahu’s comments will impinge upon the right of
our nation to establish an independent state. The right has been achieved
through great sacrifices and endorsed by international resolutions. It cannot
be abdicated by a statement or a of an Israeli official,” Shtayyeh said.
Source: Press TV
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Terrifying future awaits Saudi Arabia, allies over war
on Yemen: Senior Ansarullah official
20 December 2022
A top-ranking Yemeni official has warned that
terrifying future and terrible fate await Saudi Arabia and its regional allies,
which have waged a devastating war and a brutal siege against Yemen.
Mohammad Ali al-Houthi wrote in a tweet on Monday
evening that the Yemeni nation will resolutely continue their steadfastness in
the face of the Saudi-led war coalition.
“Retaliatory strikes and attacks against enemy targets
will be much more stinging and hurtful than before,” said Houthi, who is a
member of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council.
“It would be a rather appropriate response from the
Yemeni nation to aggressors in case a Saudi Aramco facility was shut down for a
whole day to put out a massive blaze. Within the next few days, such a period
of time would not be sufficient at all to put out fires at the company’s
installations,” he said.
“The Yemeni nation is well aware of the fact that
deployment of aggressor forces on their country’s soil is the main cause of the
excruciating pains and suffering that people are going through. This has,
however, bolstered the resolve and determination of Yemenis against
aggressors,” Houthi added.
The senior Ansarullah official also praised Yemeni
army troops and fighters from the allied Popular Committees for their victories
in battles against Saudi-led coalition forces and their Takfiri mercenaries.
Earlier, the Yemeni Supreme Political Council stated
that the country’s armed forces are prepared to stand up to any plot by the US
and the Israeli regime that would be directed at Yemen’s resources, islands and
waterways.
“The Yemeni armed forces are prepared to confront the
avaricious plots of the United States and the Israeli regime against the
country’s resources, islands and waterways. They are ready to face any threat
against [Yemen’s] national sovereignty,” the council announced in a statement
on Monday, stressing the full combat preparedness of Yemeni soldiers and
fighters from the Popular Committees.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in
March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics
support from the US and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly
regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance
movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional
government in Yemen.
Source: Press TV
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UN reports highest number of fatalities in years in
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Betül Yürük
20.12.2022
The UN’s Middle East envoy said Monday that more than
150 Palestinians and over 20 Israelis have been killed in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far this year, marking the highest number of
fatalities in years.
''I am gravely concerned by the sharp increase in
violence against civilians on both sides, which exacerbates mistrust and
undermines a peaceful resolution to the conflict,'' Tor Wennesland told the UN
Security Council.
Wennesland called for an end to the violence and for
all perpetrators to be held accountable.
He also expressed concern over Israeli settlement
expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the world body says
constitutes a flagrant violation of UN resolutions and international law.
Some 4,800 housing units were advanced this year in
Area C of the West Bank, and the number of housing units advanced more than
tripled from the previous year – from 900 units in 2021 to 3,100 units in 2022,
he said.
He urged Israel to cease advancement of all settlement
activities as well as the demolition of Palestinian-owned properties.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Iran says Jordan summit ‘good opportunity’ for nuclear
talks
19 December ,2022
Iran's foreign minister said Monday that a summit to
take place this week in Jordan will be a “good opportunity” for negotiations
aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear accord.
On-off talks to revive the deal, formally known as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), started in April last year directly
between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, and indirectly
with the United States.
But the indirect talks between the Washington and
Tehran, mediated by the European Union, have stalled for several months with
Iran facing protests over the September 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a
22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin.
“Jordan is a good opportunity for us to complete these
discussions,” Iran's top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters in
Tehran.
His comments come a day before Jordan hosts the
“Baghdad II” conference on Tuesday, bringing together key Middle East and
international players -- including Iran and Saudi Arabia -- in a bid to defuse
regional tensions.
Amir-Abdollahian and EU foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell are both expected to attend.
“I hope that... we will see a change of approach and
the American side will behave realistically,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
“I say clearly to the Americans; that they must choose
between hypocrisy, and the request to reach an agreement and the United States'
return to the JCPOA,” he added.
Meanwhile, a UN nuclear watchdog team led by deputy
director-general Massimo Aparo left Iran on Monday, after a one-day visit aimed
at resolving a years-long impasse over an enquiry into undeclared uranium
particles found in the country, ISNA news agency reported.
The International Atomic Energy Agency team met with
Iranian officials including Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy
Organisation of Iran, ISNA said.
The IAEA has for years been calling on Iran to explain
the presence of undeclared man-made uranium found at three sites, requesting access
and the collection of samples.
The two parties discussed “future cooperation” among
other issues, ISNA said.
The 2015 agreement gave Iran sanctions relief in
exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not
develop a nuclear weapon -- something it has always denied wanting to do.
Source: Al Arabiya
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UN nuclear officials leave Iran after talks, result
unclear
19 December ,2022
UN nuclear watchdog officials left Iran on Monday
after talks with the head of its nuclear energy organization, the semi-official
ISNA news agency reported, without saying whether they addressed an impasse
over uranium traces at undeclared sites.
The issue has been an obstacle to progress in wider
talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, meant to curb its
disputed uranium enrichment program in return for lifting sanctions imposed by
Washington after exiting the pact in 2018.
Talks to restore the nuclear accord have been at a
stalemate since September. Western powers accuse the Islamic Republic of
raising unreasonable demands after all sides appeared to be nearing a deal.
The uphill climb to salvage the pact has grown steeper
this year. Iran has brutally cracked down on street protests, Western states
say Russia has used Iranian drones in its war in Ukraine, and Tehran has
accelerated its nuclear program, all of which raise the political price to
giving Iran sanctions relief.
Iran has acknowledged that it supplied Moscow with
drones but said they were sent before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a conference in Tehran, Kamal Kharrazi, a
senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the issue of
nuclear safeguards was the last one to resolve ahead of reviving the deal, the
semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
“Iran is ready to return to its JCPOA (nuclear deal)
obligations. Many problems have been resolved in the negotiations, now the only
issue is safeguards,” it quoted Kharrazi as saying.
“We hope that this matter will be resolved during the
visit of the (UN nuclear) agency’s delegation to Tehran,” he said.
The United States said in October that reviving deal
was “not our focus right now” as Iran had showed little interest, and that
Washington was concentrating on how to support Iranian protesters - a view
echoed by Germany in November.
ISNA said the delegation of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, led by the IAEA’s deputy director general for safeguards,
Massimo Aparo, held negotiations with Iranian teams and met Mohammad Eslami,
head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.
The two sides exchanged views on “future joint
cooperation and programs, in addition to safeguarding issues,” ISNA said.
Speaking last week, Eslami said he hoped the IAEA
visit could help resolve outstanding issues between the two sides.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Four Iranian security personnel killed in southeast
Iran, IRNA says
19 December ,2022
Four members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were
killed in the country’s southeast and the killers fled to neighboring Pakistan
after coming under fire, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.
IRNA gave no further details about the incident in the
Saravan area of Sistan-Baluchistan province, scene of some of the deadliest unrest
during Iran’s nationwide protests, and a region where security forces clash
often with drug smugglers.
Citing a Revolutionary Guards statement, IRNA said
three of the dead were members of the Basij, a militia affiliated with the
Revolutionary Guards that has been widely deployed during a state crackdown
against protesters.
“The perpetrators of attack ... fled to Pakistan after
receiving heavy fire,” IRNA reported, citing a statement issued by the Guards.
The impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan province is home
to the Baluchi minority, an ethnic group which follows Sunni Islam rather than
the Shia Islam of Iran’s clerical leaders and has long complained of
discrimination by the authorities.
The provincial capital, Zahedan, was scene of some of
the deadliest unrest during the wave of nationwide protests ignited by Mahsa
Amini’s death in morality police custody, when security forces killed at least
66 people in a crackdown on September 30, according to Amnesty International.
The unrest, in which demonstrators from all walks of
life have called for the fall of Iran’s ruling theocracy, has posed one of the
biggest challenges to the Shia-ruled Islamic Republic since its 1979
revolution.
A Baluchi militant group, Jaish al-Adl, has previously
mounted attacks on Iranian security forces in the area. Iranian authorities say
the group operates from safe havens in Pakistan.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Israel’s Netanyahu accuses New York Times of
‘undermining’ incoming government
Abdel Raouf Arnaout
19.12.2022
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu on
Monday accused The New York Times of calling for undermining his prospective
government.
“After burying the Holocaust for years on its back
pages and demonizing Israel for decades on its front pages, the New York Times
now shamefully calls for undermining Israel’s elected incoming government,”
Netanyahu tweeted.
“While the NYT continues to delegitimize the one true
democracy in the Middle East and America’s best ally in the region, I will
continue to ignore its ill-founded advice and instead focus on building a
stronger and more prosperous country, strengthening ties with America,
expanding peace with our neighbors, and securing the future of the one and only
Jewish state,” he added.
On Saturday, the US newspaper criticized Netanyahu’s
upcoming government in an editorial titled, “The ideal of democracy in a Jewish
State is in jeopardy.”
The newspaper particularly criticized far-right
politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is expected to be a minister of national
security, warning that his actions "risk provoking a new round of
Arab-Israeli violence."
Ben-Gvir holds far-right views on the Palestinians. He
has repeatedly joined Israeli settlers in storming the flashpoint Al-Aqsa
Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.
He had previously called for the displacement of
Palestinians and caused a wave of violence in East Jerusalem after setting up
an office in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.
Last month, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a
leaked audio that "the whole world is worried" about the far-right
views of Ben-Gvir.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Yemeni forces prepared to thwart US, Israeli plots
against national resources, islands: Top council
19 December 2022
The Yemeni Supreme Political Council says the
country’s Armed Forces are prepared to stand up to any bids by the US and the Israeli
regime that would be directed at Yemen's resources, islands and waterways.
“Yemeni Armed Forces are prepared to confront the
avaricious plots of the United States and the Israeli regime against the
country's resources, islands and waterways. They are ready to face up to any
threat against the national sovereignty,” the council announced in a statement
on Monday, stressing the full combat preparedness of Yemeni soldiers and
fighters from Popular Committees.
This came as a report said in September that a
delegation of Israeli military experts had apparently been stationed to the
Yemeni island of Socotra, more than six months after it was reported that the
United Arab Emirates was constructing a settlement on the strategic island to
accommodate dozens of Israeli soldiers, officers and military experts.
The Arabic-language Yemen Press Agency, citing
informed sources speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that an Israeli
military delegation along with a number of UAE intelligence officers have been
present on Socotra Island since a few days ago.
Home to some 60,000 people, Socotra overlooks the Bab
el-Mandeb Strait, a main shipping route that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf
of Aden and the Arabian Sea. It has a unique ecosystem.
Israel and the UAE are currently making all logistical
preparations to establish intelligence bases to collect information from across
the Gulf of Aden, including Bab el-Mandeb and south of Yemen, which is under
the control of forces backed by the UAE, the report said.
This is while the US is also making aggressive
attempts to wrest control over energy reserves and plunder natural resources in
conflict-plagued Yemen.
In the Monday statement, the council also said that it
will “adopt proper measures when the time is ripe, and will not allow the
Saudi-led coalition of aggression to get Yemen caught in an endless cycle of
chaos and uncertainty.”
“We once again reiterate that we are striving for an
honorable peace that would ensure Yemen’s sovereignty and independence, and
would safeguard its territorial integrity. We welcome any meaningful and viable
initiative in this regard,” the council added.
The Yemeni Supreme Political Council also underlined
the need that humanitarian issues must be separated from political and military
matters. “Progress in this regard will strongly indicate the success of any
future mediations, negotiations or contacts.”
Meanwhile, Yemeni Minister of Human Rights Ali
al-Dailami has strongly condemned the US and Britain over obstructing
prosecution of criminals involved in offenses against his nation.
He said in a statement that certain Western powers and
the UN Security Council are impeding efforts aimed at opening Yemen’s human
rights file, as they are the parties that trade in the blood of Yemenis.
“The Security Council and its mechanisms represent
part of the problems facing moves meant to expose the violations and crimes of
the Saudi-led coalition,” Dailami noted.
“More than 170 Arab and international organizations
have in separate statements called for holding the member states of the
Saudi-led coalition accountable for their crimes in Yemen,” the Yemeni minister
of human rights pointed out.
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in
March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics
support from the US and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly
regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance
movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional
government in Yemen.
Source: Press TV
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Palestinian youth dies of injuries sustained in
Israeli attack in Jenin
19 December 2022
A Palestinian shot and critically injured by Israeli
forces during a recent confrontation in the occupied West Bank has died of his
wounds.
The 23-year-old, identified as Tamer Nasharti from the
Jenin refugee camp, was pronounced dead at Ramallah hospital on Monday after a
few days, the Palestinian Information Center reported, citing the Palestinian
Health Ministry.
Resistance groups have condemned the killing.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed over the course
of 2022 in attacks by Israeli forces in and around Jenin. The city is a focal
point of Palestinian protests against the regime of Israel. In the occupied
West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel has killed nearly 200
Palestinians, including 43 children, in the same period. The United Nations
says the regime has killed the highest number of Palestinians in the West Bank
in 16 years.
Local and international rights groups have condemned
Israel’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against
Palestinians.
Israeli forces arrest 17 Palestinians, including
pregnant woman
Israeli forces also detained at least 17 Palestinians
in a large-scale arrest campaign in several areas across the West Bank and
al-Quds. The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said among those detained was
36-year-old Nihal Mohammad Ribee, who is in her fifth month of pregnancy. She
was forcibly taken from her home in the town of Yatta in southern West Bank.
Ribee’s husband and minor son were already being held behind Israeli bars.
Local activist Rateb al-Jabour told WAFA news agency
Israeli soldiers also abducted two high school students in Yatta, and a fourth
person was detained in the town of Dura, south of al-Khalil. Undercover Israeli
agents arrested three Palestinians in Bethlehem. Regime forces also detained a
former prisoner after forcing their way into the town of Burqin, west of Jenin.
Three young Palestinians were also beaten and detained during a violent raid
into their home in Sur Baher neighborhood of East al-Quds.
Source: Press TV
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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/12/19/694781/Jenin-Tamer-Nasharti
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Africa
Libya court sentences 17 Islamic State members to
death
Marita Kassis
December 19, 2022
A Libyan court sentenced 17 former Islamic State (IS)
members to death on Monday on charges of joining the group and killing 53
people.
The Tripoli-based top prosecutor issued a statement
saying that these 17 former members were convicted of the death of 53 people
and the destruction of public property while attacking “the state and social
peace," The Associated Press reported. The statement added that another 16
militants were given lesser sentences, two with life in prison.
Details about when the sentences will be carried out
are still unknown.
The North African nation has been divided between two
competing administrations for years, one based in the east and the other in the
west, each supported by different foreign powers. The division resulted from
the NATO-backed revolt that brought down Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The chaos
that ensued left a power vacuum that was filled by different groups and a
tangible power struggle.
The chaos helped IS seize various areas and establish
administrative pockets across the country but without gaining supremacy due to
the presence of armed militia forces scattered everywhere.
Source: Al Monitor
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https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/12/libya-court-sentences-17-islamic-state-members-death
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Libya finds new mass grave south of Tripoli
Walid Abdullah
19.12.2022
TRIPOLI, Libya
Libyan authorities exhumed two bodies from a new mass
grave south of the capital Tripoli on Monday.
In a statement, the General Authority for Research and
Identification of Missing Persons said the two unidentified bodies were found
in a grave in the town of Sog Al-Khamies, nearly 50 kilometers south of
Tripoli.
The town was under the control of Libyan warlord
Khalifa Haftar before he was defeated by Libyan government forces in June 2020,
and was consequently forced to retract to his stronghold in Benghazi city in
eastern Libya.
Discoveries of mass graves are common in war-torn
Libya, especially in Tarhuna city, a former stronghold for Haftar.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/libya-finds-new-mass-grave-south-of-tripoli/2767714
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Handover of a Libyan suspect opens a new chapter in
Lockerbie bombing horror story
JONATHAN GORNALL
December 19, 2022
LONDON: It happened more than three decades ago, but
the horror that was the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 lives on, for the families
of the slain, for the Scottish community torn apart when the flaming wreckage
crashed down in pieces on their town and for the first responders who arrived
to find hellish scenes none would ever forget.
For some, the arrest last week of a Libyan man charged
with having made the bomb that downed the jumbo jet over Lockerbie on Dec. 21,
1988, offers the prospect of long overdue justice for the 270 victims of the
disaster and their families.
For others, though, confidence in the judicial system
and the joint US-Scottish investigation that has led to the latest arrest was
shaken long ago by uncertainties that continue to hang over the trial and
conviction in May 2000 of another Libyan, Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi, who in 2001
was found guilty of carrying out the bombing.
The undisputed facts of the case, which will doubtless
be rehearsed again during the upcoming trial, are harrowing.
The Boeing 747, en route from London to New York City,
was just half an hour into its flight and cruising at 31,000 feet when the bomb
exploded shortly after 7 p.m., scattering aircraft parts, luggage and bodies
over a wide area. The investigators would be faced with a crime scene of 2,200
square kilometers.
On board the doomed aircraft were 259 passengers and
crew of 21 nationalities. The oldest victim was 82, the youngest a
two-month-old baby, found held tight in her dead mother’s arms.
The 190 Americans on the flight included a party of 35
students from Syracuse University, returning home for Christmas after an
overseas study tour.
Eleven more people died in their homes on the ground.
Among them were the Flannigans, mother and father Kathleen, 41, Thomas, 44, and
their daughter Joanne, aged 10.
Joanne’s body was eventually found in the deep crater
gouged out of the street where the family lived, but her parents’ remains were
never recovered.
Last week, 71-year-old Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir
Al-Marimi, an alleged former intelligence officer for the regime of Libyan
dictator Muammar Qaddafi, appeared in a US court accused of being the
bombmaker.
It is a stunning development in a case which, for many
relatives of the dead, has never been satisfactorily settled. Masud’s anticipated
trial represents an unexpected opportunity for the many remaining doubts
surrounding the Lockerbie disaster to be resolved once and for all.
Key among them is the suspicion, which has persisted
for three decades, that the Libyans were falsely accused of a crime that was
actually perpetrated by the Iranian regime.
Iran certainly had a motive. On July 3, 1988, five
months before the bombing, Iran Air flight 655, an Airbus A300 carrying Iranian
pilgrims bound for Makkah, had been shot down accidentally over the Strait of
Hormuz by a US guided-missile cruiser, the Vincennes.
All 290 people on board were killed, including 66
children and 16 members of one family, who had been traveling to Dubai for a
wedding.
In 1991, a subsequently declassified secret report
from within the US Defense Intelligence Agency made it clear that from the
outset Iran was the number-one suspect.
Ayatollah Mohtashemi, a former Iranian interior
minister, was “closely connected to the Al-Abas and Abu Nidal terrorist
groups,” it read.
He had “recently paid $10 million in cash and gold to
these two organizations to carry out terrorist activities and ... paid the same
amount to bomb Pam Am flight 103, in retaliation for the US shoot-down of the
Iranian Airbus.”
The evidence implicating Iran piled up. It emerged
that two months before the bombing, German police had raided a cell of the
terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command
and seized a bomb hidden in a Toshiba cassette player, just like the one that
would be used to blow up Pan Am flight 103.
Yet in November 1991 it was two Libyan intelligence
operatives, Abdel Baset Ali Al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, who were
charged with the murders. The case against them was circumstantial at best.
After years of negotiations with Qaddafi’s government,
the two men were eventually handed over to be tried in a specially convened
Scottish court in the Netherlands. Their trial began in May 2000, and on Jan.
31, 2001, Al-Megrahi was found guilty and Fhimah was acquitted.
The crown’s case was that an unaccompanied suitcase
containing the bomb had been carried on an Air Malta flight from Luqa Airport
in Malta to Frankfurt. There, it was transferred to a Pan Am aircraft to
London, where it was loaded onto flight 103.
Inside the suitcase, wrapped in clothing, was the
Toshiba cassette player containing the bomb.
A small part of a printed circuit board, believed to
be from the bomb timer, was found in the wreckage, along with a fragment of a
piece of clothing. This was traced to a store in Malta where the owner, Tony
Gauci, told police he remembered selling it to a Libyan man.
Gauci, who died in 2016, was the prosecution’s main
witness, but from the outset there were serious doubts about his evidence. He
was interviewed 23 times by Scottish police before he finally identified
Al-Megrahi — and only then after seeing the wanted man’s photograph in a
newspaper article naming him as a suspect.
In their judgment, even the three Scottish judges
conceded that “on the matter of identification of the … accused, there are
undoubtedly problems.”
Worse, in 2007 Scottish newspaper The Herald claimed
that the CIA had offered Gauci $2 million to give evidence in the case.
Another part of the prosecution’s case was that the
fingernail-sized fragment of circuit board found in the wreckage, believed to
have been part of the timer that triggered the bomb, matched a batch of timers
supplied to Libya by a Swiss company in 1985.
However, the company insisted the timer on the
aircraft had not been supplied to Libya, and in 2007 its CEO claimed that he
had been offered $4 million by the FBI to say that it had.
Many have denounced the trial as a sham, suggesting
that Qaddafi agreed to surrender Al-Megrahi and Fhimah, accept responsibility
for the attack and pay compensation to the families of the victims, only
because the US promised that the sanctions that had been imposed on Libya would
be eased.
After Al-Megrahi’s appeal against his conviction was
rejected in March 2002, one of the independent UN observers assigned to the
case as a condition of Libya’s cooperation condemned what he called the
“spectacular miscarriage of justice.”
Professor Hans Kochler said that he was “not convinced
at all that the sequence of events that led to this explosion of the plane over
Scotland was as described by the court. Everything that is presented is only
circumstantial evidence.”
It remains to be seen what evidence will be presented
in the upcoming trial of Masud.
Reports say that he was released only last year from
prison in Libya, having been jailed for a decade for his part in the government
of Qaddafi, who was overthrown in 2011.
Last week, Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah
said that his government had handed Masud over to the Americans.
“An arrest warrant was issued against him from
Interpol,” he said on Dec. 16. “It has become imperative for us to cooperate in
this file for the sake of Libya’s interest and stability.”
As Dbeibah put it, Libya “had to wipe the mark of
terrorism from the Libyan people’s forehead.”
From the very beginning, one of the strongest
advocates for the innocence of Al-Megrahi was Jim Swire, a British doctor whose
daughter Flora died in the bombing on the eve of her 24th birthday. Now 86,
Swire has spent the past three decades campaigning tirelessly to expose what he
believes was a miscarriage of justice.
Al-Megrahi, suffering from prostate cancer, was
released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2009. Shortly before his death
in Libya in 2012, he was visited in his sick bed by Swire, who in an interview
last year recalled Al-Megrahi’s last words to him: “I am going to a place where
I hope soon to see Flora. I will tell her that her father is my friend.”
Last week, Swire called for the trial of Masud not to
be held in the US or Scotland.
“There are so many loose ends that hang from this
dreadful case, largely emanating from America, that I think we should … seek a
court that is free of being beholden to any nation directly involved in the
atrocity itself,” he said.
Source: Arab News
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2218746/world
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Sudan’s forces use tear gas, stun grenades to disperse
rally against post-coup deal
19 December 2022
Sudanese security forces have clashed with protesters
in the capital Khartoum during a rally against a much-criticized deal
purportedly aimed at ending the crisis provoked by the 2021 military coup.
Violence broke out on Monday after Sudanese security
forces in the city used tear gas and stun grenades to scatter thousands of
protesters who had gathered in a public display of objection to the tentative
agreement signed by military and civilian leaders earlier in the month.
The deal, signed by the military leaders who staged
the coup last year and political parties on December 5, faces major challenges
such as limited public backing and the deferral of contentious issues,
including transitional justice and reform of the security forces.
Calling for civilian rule and chanting, "You will
not rule us with this deal," the protesters marched to within about 1.5
kilometers of the presidential palace, while police blocked their way with
armored trucks.
“The revolution will continue and will not stop. Our
basic demand is to live a decent life in this country, and we will not give up
our rights in any way, even if agreements were signed between politicians and
soldiers, this is not what the Sudanese people want,” said Al-Jamri, a protester
in the capital.
“We will not accept anything other than a civilian
government,” said Samira Hassan, another protester.
Similar rallies were reported in other cities, with
protesters waving Sudanese flags and carrying posters with the images of people
killed during anti-coup demonstrations since October 2021.
Ahead of the Monday protests, security forces had
closed roads leading to the defense ministry premises and shut several of the
bridges linking Khartoum with its adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri – the
scenes of similar demonstrations.
The protests coincided with the fourth anniversary of
the outbreak of months-long mass protests that toppled long-time ruler Omar
al-Bashir in April 2019.
Bashir's three-decade rule was followed by a short-lived
transition to civilian rule, upended in October last year, when army chief
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan led the coup. Sudan has plunged deeper into political
and economic turmoil ever since.
Since October 2021, more than 120 civilians have been
killed by security forces.
Source: Press TV
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Three Jordanian police officers killed in raid on
hideout of suspected killers of senior policeman
19 December 2022
Three members of Jordanian security force have been
killed as they raided a hideout of militants suspected of gunning down a
high-ranking police officer during protests in the southern city of Ma’an over
high fuel prices.
The Public Security Directorate said officers
surrounded the location of several suspects on Monday. One of the suspects
“fired heavy bullets from an automatic weapon,” and the officers returned fire.
The statement added that the suspect in the killing of
the deputy police chief of Ma'an province, Colonel Abdul Razzaq Dalabeh, who
died on Thursday from a gunshot wound in the head during protests in the town
of al-Husseiniya, was killed in the fire exchange.
The agency described the suspect, who has not been
identified, as “ascribing to Takfiri ideology.”
“The Public Security Directorate mourns the martyrdom
of three of its members... during the raid on the terror cell” which also
wounded five officers, it added.
Nine other suspects, four of whom are connected to
Dalabeh's killing, were arrested in the operation. Automatic firearms and a
large amount of ammunition were seized as well, the statement said.
On Saturday, Jordanian authorities said they had
arrested 44 people in connection with protests in several southern provinces
and cities of the kingdom.
More than a week ago, cab and truck drivers began
strike actions along with mostly peaceful demonstrations.
They were joined by bus drivers, and merchants who
closed their shops on Wednesday to protest higher fuel costs.
Clashes erupted last week when demonstrators blocked
roads with burning tires, and confronted security forces in some areas.
Source: Press TV
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