NEWS
DIGEST, MID-DAY
18 April 2018:01 Shaban 1439:Vol:10, No:01
INDIA
Aadhaar data leak can impact election outcome,
says Supreme Court
New Delhi: A leak of Aadhaar data can impact
the outcome of an election, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday, voicing its
concerns amid the raging controversy over the illegal use of Facebook data in
the US elections. A five-judge constitution bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra,
hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and the enabling 2016 law,
referred to the Cambridge Analytica controversy and said these are not
“imaginary apprehensions” and, in the absence of robust data protection law,
the issue of misuse of information becomes relevant.‘‘The real apprehension is
that elections are swayed using data analytics. These problems are symptomatic
of the world we live in,” the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, AM
Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said.”Please do not bring
Cambridge Analytica into this. UIDAI simply does not have the learning
algorithms like Facebook or Google to analyse details of users,” senior
advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for UIDAI and the Gujarat government,
said.The bench, which posed several searching questions, asked the lawyer why
the authorities were allowing private entities to use the Aadhaar platform for
various purposes and referred to the legal provision to this
effect.freepressjournal
SC red flags threat of Aadhaar data misuse,
asks searching questions
Ahead of Cabinet reshuffle: In J-K, all BJP
ministers quit
Jammu:Paving the way for a Cabinet reshuffle
in Jammu and Kashmir, all BJP ministers in the PDP-BJP government, barring
Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, have resigned.On Tuesday evening, one of
the former ministers said on condition of anonymity that there is no question
of pulling out of Mehbooba Mufti-led govt.Although there was no official word
from the party, sources said the resignations were submitted to the party’s
state present, Sat Sharma, on Saturday, when BJP national general secretary Ram
Madhav had visited Jammu for consultations with senior party leaders and
legislators before deciding on the resignation of then ministers Chander
Parkash Ganga and Choudhary Lal Singh over their purported stand in the Kathua
gangrape and murder probe.Announcing the party’s decision to forward
resignations of Ganga and Lal Singh to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Madhav
had said that there is no threat to the coalition.BJP has six Cabinet-rank
ministers and three ministers of state in 22-member council of ministers led by
Mehbooba. Sajad Gani Lone of People’s Conference is also in the cabinet from
BJP quota.According to sources, BJP top leadership was unhappy with the
performance of a few ministers, and asked all ministers from the party to
submit their resignations to pave way for a portfolio reshuffle. indianexpress
Kathua rape case fallout: BJP asks all
ministers in J&K assembly to quit
for fresh faces
Leaders from India’s Top Religions Demand
Death Sentence for Rapists
New Delhi: Leaders from all major religions in
India came together on Tuesday to strongly condemn the Kathua rape-murder of a
girl child and Unnao rape of a teenage girl and murder of her father. While
expressing deep concern on the rise in incidents of rape in the country, the
religious leaders demanded highest punishment for rapists.“We condemn the
gruesome rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl from Jammu and Kashmir. We also
express our outrage at the alleged rape of the girl from Unnao, Uttar Pradesh
at the hands of an MLA from the ruling party. The custodial death of the Unnao
rape victim’s father is a very serious crime and needs to be investigated
properly. Both the crimes have stirred the soul of the nation and we stand in
solidarity with the protests,” said the religious leaders in a joint
declaration they released at a press conference in New Delhi. The press
conference was called by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.The religious leaders demanded
death sentence for rapists.“We feel that sanctity of life is paramount and
those guilty of violating this sanctity must be awarded the highest punishment
through the due process of law,"read the declaration.According to Rising
Kashmir report, in his presidential remarks, JIH Vice President, Maulana Nusrat
Ali said it is a matter of grave concern that parents have become apprehensive
about the safety and security of their daughters. He slammed the law
enforcement agencies for failing in their duties to protect women in the
country.Justice should not be delayed and fast track courts should be formed,
he said and warned that the moral depravity is setting in society needs to be
curtailed by imposing controls on those trying to spread vulgarity and
indecency through various means.He suggested that religion can be used for
character building and the state can take the help of religious leadership to
promote the message of ethics and morality. Giani Ranjit SinghHead Priest
Gurudwara Bangla Sahib,Father M.D Thomas, Swami Saumiyanand, Maulana Jinan
Asghar Secretary Majlis-e-Ulema,Delhi, Sister Manju of Brahma Kumaris and Vivek
Muni, and others spoke on the occasion.caravandaily,Rising Kashmir
Religion can be used to tide moral decay:
Faith leaders
Justice rally in New York protesting Kathua,
Unnao & Surat rapes
New York: Several women's rights and advocacy
groups, civil society and inter-faith organisations have joined hands to hold a
rally here protesting against the rapes of young girls in Kathua, Unnao and
Surat towns, expressing outrage at the horrific incidents and demanding swift
justice.The 'United For Justice Rally: Against the Rapes in India' was
organised by Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus along with over 20
advocacy and civil rights groups, including Sakhi for South Asian Women, Women
for Afghan Women, Turning Point for Women and Families, South Asian American
Womens Alliance, Women's Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality, Shri
Shakti Mariamma Temple, Shri Lakshmi Narayan Mandir, Shaanti Bhavan Mandir and
Iskcon Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Brooklyn.PTI
Unnao rape victim’s uncle says MLA’s aides filed
5 cases to intimidate him
Lucknow:The uncle of the teenaged girl,
allegedly raped by Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao, has said he
was slapped with fives criminal cases in less than a month last year by the
aides of the BJP MLA “hell-bent”on
destroying his family for taking him on.“All the cases were registered at
Unnao’s Makhi police station on different dates but according to the
complainants, I committed all the offences on October 21. On that day, I was
present in the village for less than three hours,” he said on Tuesday.The uncle
said Arun Singh, Vinod Mishra, Rajkumar Singh, Santosh Mishra and Shashi Singh,
the woman who allegedly took his niece to Sengar’s house on the day of the
crime in June last year, registered the cases against him. They also include
three people, who have been arrested on charges of murdering the girl’s
father.HT
Manmohan on Kathua, Unnao rape cases: ‘PM Modi
should follow own advice to me, speak more often’
New Delhi:Hitting out at Prime Minister
Narendra Modi for his long silence over the rape and murder of an
eight-year-old girl in Kathua and the alleged rape of a teenager by a BJP MLA
in Unnao, former prime minister Manmohan Singh
said that Modi “should follow his own advice to me” and “speak more
often”.In an exclusive interview, Singh said he was glad that Modi finally
broke his silence last Friday at an event in Delhi commemorating the birth
anniversary of BR Ambedkar, when he said the “daughters of India” will get
justice and the guilty won’t be spared.Asked about the manner in which the BJP
would taunt him, calling him ‘Maun-Mohan Singh’ when he chose silence over
speech on several matters during the last months of his government, the former
PM said he “had lived with comments like these his whole life”.indianexpress
'She Is a Woman, How Intelligent Can She Be?'
Kathua Defence Lawyer on Woman Investigator
New Delhi: The defence counsel in Kathua rape
case has raised further questions on the Jammu and Kashmir Police's probe into
the brutal rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl, saying the investigation was
led by a woman officer and that it was beyond her "intelligence" to
work on this case.Jammu-based advocate, Ankur Sharma who is appearing for 5 out
of the 8 accused in the case, told News18 that since she is a "woman and a
new officer, she was misguided by someone".This comes after several
reports talked of the hurdles faced by Shwetambri Sharma, the lone woman
officer in SIT of the Crime Branch.On Tuesday, Sharma took to a new low and
said, "What is Shwetambri, she is a girl, how intelligent can she be? She is
a new officer and by showing her a few circumstantial evidences, some people
made her believe that the crime has been committed in this
fashion."News18news18
BJP Minister Lal Singh Repeats Kathua March in
Jammu For Release of Rape Accused
Srinagar: Amid simmering tensions in Jammu
region, BJP Minister, Lal Singh, who was forced to resign last week for
rallying in support of the accused in rape-and-murder of Kathua girl, today
took out a march in the Hindu majority region to demand CBI probe into the
case.Witnesses and reports said hundreds of Singh’s supporters assembled at
Satwari Chowk in Jammu city today afternoon to start a march towards Kootah
village in Kathua where the tragedy unfolded. Some of the supporters wore
saffron colored robes while chanting slogans to demand release of the
accused.thecitizen
Frequent tweeter PM Modi loses voice when it
comes to rape of minority women: New York Times editorial
New York: Sharply criticising Prime Minister
Narendra's silence over rape cases in India, the New York Times in an editorial
on Tuesday said such and other violent incidents were part of "an
organized and systematic campaign by nationalist forces" to terrorise
women, Muslims and Dalits in the country.The editorial titled "Silence as
Women Are Attacked" appeared on in the New York edition of the daily,
reminding how Modi tweets "frequently and considers himself a talented
orator". "Yet he loses his voice when it comes to speaking out about
the dangers faced by women and minorities who are frequent targets of the
nationalist and communal forces that are part of the base of his BJP,"
said the Times.ians
Dalit, women’s groups plan protests during PM
Modi’s visit to Britain
New Delhi:Dalit and women’s rights groups from
among the Indian diaspora have planned protests during Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s visit to Britain.While Modi plans to meet his British counterpart Theresa
May in London on Wednesday before heading to the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting, the protesters plan to converge outside at 10 Downing
Street. The two sets of groups, joined by students’ groups, state that the
protests will be against the recent attacks on the rights of Dalits, women and
minorities in India.“The protests represent the anger of a lot of Indians
living in Britain who are unhappy about the way Narendra Modi has turned Indian
into a ‘republic of fear’, with these horrific incidents of rapes, mob-lynching
of Muslims, and attacks on Dalits,” said Kalpana Wilson from the South Asia
Solidarity Group, who teaches at the Birbeck, University of
London.indianexpress
ATM cash crunch: Shortage to continue for 5-7
days; top 10 developments
New Delhi;A cash crunch at ATMs has hit a
dozen states, including UP, MP, poll-bound Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Punjab. With ATMs drying
up, the central government and the RBI stepped in to address the currency
shortage, even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley attributed the cash shortage to
an unusual spurt in demand during the past 3 months and described it as
"temporary", adding that the ATM cash crunch was being "tackled
quickly" and that there was "more than adequate" currency in
circulation.To fix the ATM cash crunch, the government said that the printing
of Rs 500 denomination notes, about 5 billion of which are printed per day,
would be increased by five times. Notes worth Rs 70,000-75,000 crore would be
printed in a month.With the RBI and banks blaming cash management companies for
ATMs running dry, ATM industry representatives said that it was the banks that
were unable to meet the demand for cash. They said banks had not been able to
meet their indent, the daily calculation of cash required, for the past four-5
days.business-standard
Government attempts damage control as ATMs run
dry
Law Commission backs simultaneous polls, seeks
views
New Delhi:Pressing for a Constitutional
amendment to conduct simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state
assemblies, the Law Commission Tuesday decided to seek the opinion of all
stakeholders, including political parties, on the issue.The move comes two
months after President Ram Nath Kovind endorsed PM Narendra Modi’s call to hold
simultaneous elections. Commission’s “Draft working paper — Simultaneous
Elections — Constitution and Legal Perspectives”, which has been sent to the
Union Law Ministry, states: “Simultaneous elections may be restored in the
nation by amending the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act 1951
and Rules of Procedure of Lok Sabha and those of the State Legislative
Assemblies.”As a “possible recommendation”, the Commission, chaired by Justice
Balbir Singh Chauhan, has also stated that a definition of “simultaneous
elections” may be added to Section 2 of the 1951 Act.indianexpress
BRD Hospital Tragedy: Dr Kafeel Khan Not Well
but Jail Admin not Listening, Says Wife
Lucknow: Dr Kafeel Khan, often hailed as the
"hero" of BRD Medical College tragedy in Uttar Pradesh last year that
killed over 60 children dead, is languishing at the Gorakhpur prison and his
health is deteriorating, said his wife. He has been booked over charges of
“attempt to murder". In a statement given to a news agency, wife of Dr
Khan said, "My husband's health is deteriorating. Doctors have said that
the case must be referred to Lucknow, but it the jail administration is not
executing the orders. I fear for my husband’s life.'news18
In Collapsed Mecca Masjid Case, Main
Prosecutor Has ABVP Connection
New Delhi:
5 men accused in the 2007 terror attack at Hyderabad's iconic Mecca
Masjid were acquitted on Monday for lack of evidence. N Harinath, the
prosecutor in charge of establishing their guilt, had little experience in
criminal law, according to Telangana lawyers, before he took on the high profile
case.N Harinath and his client, NIA, failed to prove the charges against the
accused men or produce any solid evidence, said the judge who pronounced them
"not guilty" yesterday.Harinath, speaking to NDTV, insisted that he
was qualified to fight the case; he had been a lawyer for the economic offences
wing of the Enforcement Directorate in the past and appeared for CBI in bank
fraud cases, attempt to murder and abetment to suicide cases.But knowledge of a
murder trial is a must, especially in a terror investigation like the Mecca
Masjid attack, said other special prosecutors Ujjwal Nikam and Amrendra
Sharan.ndtv
Mecca Masjid blast: NIA prosecutor has ABVP
link
Peace remains elusive in Kashmir as Valley
remains on edge
April 1 this year was not an ordinary Sunday.
That day, 17 local Kashmiri men died. Of them, 13 were armed local militants
and four were civilians — killed when they rushed to the encounter sites to
protest against military action.The bloody Sunday was a reminder of the
festering insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir; of the fact that the locals are once
again leaving the comfort of their classrooms and disappearing into the
mountains to train as militants in makeshift camps.It was also a reminder that
Kashmiris — women included — are rushing to encounter sites despite the danger
of being killed in crossfire. HT
Tamil Nadu: Teacher ‘asks students to perform
sexual favours for official’, held
Chennai:A teacher of a college affiliated to
Madurai Kamaraj University was arrested Monday for allegedly asking students to
perform sexual favours for a senior university official. Audio clip of a
conversation in which the teacher is allegedly asking a student to perform
sexual favours for a senior official has references to Governor Banwarilal
Purohit, leading CPM to demand that the Centre recall the Governor for an
independent probe.After CPM raised the issue, Purohit, who is also the
chancellor of the university, issued a statement, stating that an inquiry
commission has been appointed to probe the matter. University suspended Nirmala
Devi, Assistant Professor at Devanga Arts College in Virudhunagar.indianexpress
India had internet and satellites during
Mahabharata, claims Tripura CM Biplab Deb
New
Delhi:In a bizarre statement, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb has said that
the internet was invented lakhs of years ago and that the technology and
satellites were present during the period of Mahabharata. Addressing a regional
workshop on PDS, the CM said, “Not US and other western countries, but the
internet was invented by India lakhs of years ago.”“Many may decline the fact,
but if the internet was not there, how Sanjay, could see the war in Kurukshetra
and describe it to Dhritarashtra? It means internet was there, the satellites
and that technology was there in this country at that time,” Deb was quoted as
saying by Tripura Infoway.indianexpress
Uttar Pradesh ministers wrongly tweet Gurupurab
wishes and later blames Wikipedia for the goof-up
:Uttar Pradesh government faced some
embarassment on social media when some its ministers tweeted greetings on the
birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, roughly seven months before it actually is.
Those who sent out these greetings included Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad
Maurya, state BJP spokesperson and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh,
Minister of Medical Education Ashutosh Tandon and Law minister Brajesh
Pathak.The birth anniversary of Guru Nanak is celebrated as Gurpurab on Kartik
Purnima, the full-moon day in the Kartik month of the Hindu calendar.
Apparently, this year Gurpurab will fall on Nov.23.indianexpress
26% Increase in Rape Cases in Yogi’s Rule
There has been a 33% increase in crimes
against women under Yogi govt in UP, according to reports quoting a reply given
by the state govt. in the Legislative Assembly. Rape cases have increased by
26%, ‘assault with intention to outrage modesty’ have increased by 40% while
harassment cases have shot up by a staggering 99%, reply said.Newsclick
Who Will Return Our Precious Years, Ask
Wrongfully Incarcerated
“While I am happy that I am finally proved
innocent and out of jail, life seemed empty. Where to go, what to do and what
not,” says Nisaruddin Ahmed with a deep sense of loss. Nisaruddin stepped out
of Jaipur jail in May, this year after being wrongfully convicted for 23 years.
“To be honest, back then I didn’t know what to do with my life,” says he,
adding, “had my brother not come to receive me, I might have turned back to
jail – that was the only place familiar to me after all those years.”Nisaruddin
was picked up from his hometown Gulbarga (Karnataka) at the age of 19 on
January 15, 1994, by Andhra Pradesh police while on his way to college. He was
due to appear in his pharmacy diploma examination barely 15 days later. But for
over a month his whereabouts were not known. He was kept in illegal custody and
subjected to the worst forms of torture and custodial violence. Later, towards
the end of February that year, the police produced him in court claiming he was
responsible for the bomb blasts in Hyderabad in 1993. According to the police,
the attacks were carried out on the instructions of Pakistan’s ISI to avenge
the demolition of Babri Masjid. The only evidence against him was a
confessional statement which he never made.
Nisaruddin, and 8 of the ten accused were acquitted thirteen years after
they were arrested. Among those acquitted by a local court in Hyderabad was
Nisaruddin’s elder brother Zaheeruddin Ahmed. Zaheeruddin worked as a civil
engineer in Bombay when he was also arraigned in train blasts.thewire
Lump it, wait until CJI retires: Fali Nariman
advice on row in SC
New Delhi: There is complete breakdown in
confidence between CJI of the Supreme Court and his fellow judges, giving rise
to lack of accommodation between them but the fact remains that the CJIis the
master of the roster and that cannot be changed, senior jurist Fali Nariman has
said.“This has never happened before in all the 67 years I have practised as an
advocate. Levels of tolerance have gone down. Lawyers, judges, everybody. The
spirit of collegiality which is essential in a Bench as well as in a court has
broken down. Upto now, judges by and large followed it. Since I came to Delhi
in 1972, I have seen 32 Chief Justices, but I have never seen this before,”
Nariman said in his first remarks in several months after recovering from a
surgery.But Nariman also held out a dire warning. If the current squabble in
the Supreme Court was not soon settled, “we could be witnessing almost the end”
of the epoch that gave the 1973 Keshavananda Bharti judgement, which had ruled
7-6 that the “basic structure” of the Constitution could not be tampered with
by any government, no matter its intention.Indian Express
Khwaja Yunus custodial death: Maharashtra
removes prosecutor who wanted 4 cops to stand trial
Mumbai:In the alleged custodial death case of
Khwaja Yunus in 2003, the Maharashtra government has removed the special public
prosecutor, who had moved a plea in the trial court seeking to make 4 more
policemen stand trial. The government had earlier refused to sanction
prosecution of these officers. The new prosecutor representing the government
in the court on Tuesday sought disposal of the plea made by then special public
prosecutor Dhiraj Mirajkar, citing that the issue is being heard by the Supreme
Court. During the previous hearing on March 22, the state government had
intervened, seeking to file a reply to the application made by
Mirajkar.indianexpress
Ode massacre:Gujarat HC reserves verdict on
appeal pleas
Ahmedabad:A division bench of Gujarat High
Court on Tuesday concluded the hearing on a set of appeal petitions in 2002 Ode
massacre case and reserved its verdict. A special trial court in 2012 had held
23 accused guilty and out of them 18 were convicted for life imprisonment while
the remaining five had been sentenced for seven years. The division bench, led
by Justice Akil Kureshi, concluded the hearing and reserved the
judgment.indianexpress
Union Law Ministry readies ordinance on SC/ST
Act
New Delhi;The law ministry is preparing a
draft ordinance to overturn a Supreme Court verdict placing safeguards on
arrest of those accused of committing atrocities on SCs and STs, sources in the
government on Tuesday said. The draft is being prepared in case the government
decides to bring one to overturn the Supreme Court order. The sources said no
decision has been taken so far to bring the ordinance before the union cabinet
and much would depend on the way the hearing on a review petition filed by the
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the apex court progresses.PTI
Bhima-Koregaon: Maharashtra police raids Dalit
activists who supported protest
Mumbai: Maharashtra Police carried out
multi-city raids on Tuesday against prominent Dalit activists and supporters in
a fallout of the Jan. 1 caste riots in Koregaon-Bhima, official sources said
here.The raids which started at around 5 a.m., and were carried out by several
teams of the Pune police in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, in the homes and offices
of various Dalit activists.Besides, the police also zeroed in on those involved
or connected with the Elgaar Conference of Dec.31, 2017 held in Pune, which was
addressed by Gujarat Dalit leader and MLA Jignesh Mewani and JNU leader Umar
Khalid, Chhattisgarh activist Soni Sori and Bhim Army president Vinay Ratan
Singh. Pune police also raided and searched the home of prominent lawyer
Surendra Gadling in Nagpur. He was representing several alleged Maoists in
different courts.IANS
AAP leader Ashish Khetan resigns from DDC
New Delhi:AAP leader and Vice Chairman of the
Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) Ashish Khetan has resigned from the post,
saying he now wanted to practise law.Khetan, a journalist-turned-politician and
a trusted aide of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was appointed the
vice-chairman of the DDC, an advisory body of the AAP government, three years
ago. The DDC is headed by Kejriwal.“I have resigned as VC, DDC, with effect
from April 16. During the past three years I had a unique opportunity to shape
public policy & bring about reform and change in governance. I am grateful
to Arvind Kejriwal, the Hon’ble CM, for giving me this wonderful opportunity,”
Khetan wrote on Twitter.PTI
Declaring Taj waqf property will lead to flood
of claims:ASI
New Delhi:The Supreme Court has said that the
Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board order declaring the Taj Mahal a Waqf property
had created a problem, while the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) contended
that allowing the same would open the floodgates of people claiming ownership
of historic properties.Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the
board, told a three-judge bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra that the board’s
claim was based on material evidence, but the ASI opposed this.indianexpress
Waseem Rizvi moves SC against ‘unislamic’
flags hoisting at buildings, religious places
The Shia Waqf Board head Syed Waseem Rizvi has
moved the Supreme Court seeking a ban on hoisting of green flags with crescent
and star at buildings and religious places, terming it “un-Islamic” and
resembling the flags of a Pakistani political party. Waseem Rizvi, the chairman
of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Board of Waqfs, claimed in his plea that during
his visit to Mumbai and other places in the country, he saw flags on several
buildings and religious structures, which were allegedly a cause of tension
between Hindu and Muslim communities.PTI
TN Governor Banwarilal Purohit Kicks Up Storm
With Pat on Journalist's Cheek After Press Meet on 'Sex for Degrees' Scandal
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal
Purohit courted controversy on Tuesday when he diplomatically patted a woman
journalist, apparently to parry a question, with DMK terming the incident as
"unbecoming" of a person holding a Constitutional post.The incident
took place when the 78-year-old Governor was about to leave the venue of the
crowded press conference at the Raj Bhavan, which was all set to
conclude.news18
Rs 2,654 crore bank fraud: Vadodara
businessman, sons held in Udaipur
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/bank-fraud-vadodara-businessman-sons-held-in-udaipur-5141716/
New Delhi:Vadodara-based businessman Suresh N
Bhatnagar and his two sons — Amit and Sumit Bhatnagar — who have been evading
arrest for more than a week after they were booked for allegedly defrauding a
consortium of 11 banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore, were arrested from a
hotel in Udaipur on Tuesday night in a joint operation of Gujarat
Anti-Terrorism Squad and CBI.indianexpress
WORLD
Saudi in talks with US over troop deployment
in Syria
Saudi Arabia is holding talks with the United
States about sending troops into Syria as part of a wider international
coalition, the kingdom's foreign minister has said.In his comments on Tuesday,
Adel al-Jubeir said the deployment offer was "not new", adding that
Riyadh had previously proposed the idea to former US President Barack
Obama."We are in discussion with the US, and have been since the beginning
of the Syrian crisis about sending forces into Syria," al-Jubeir told
reporters in Riyadh during a press conference alongside Antonio Guterres, UN
chief."We made a proposal to the [previous] Obama administration that if
the US were to send forces … then Saudi Arabia would consider along with other
countries sending forces as part of this contingent."The news came a day
after the Wall Street Journal reported US President Donald Trump was looking to
assemble an Arab force that would include Saudi Arabia and the UAE to replace
US military presence in Syria.The force, which Trump's new National Security
Adviser John Bolton hopes will include Egypt, would be in charge of stabilising
the northeastern part of Syria, according to the report.aljazeera
US, Syria give conflicting accounts on global
chemical weapons experts
US and Syria appeared to offer conflicting
accounts on Tuesday of whether global chemical weapons inspectors had reached
the Syrian town of Douma where a suspected poison gas attack took place and
sparked a US.-led retaliatory strike.Syrian state television reported that the
experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had
entered Douma. Western countries say scores of civilians sheltering from bombs were
gassed to death there on 7 April.State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert
said on Tuesday said she was aware of reports from Syria that inspectors from
the OPCW had been able to see the town but “our understanding is that the team
has not entered Douma.” A diplomatic source in The Hague said the experts did
not enter Douma.France said it was very likely that evidence of the poison gas
attack was disappearing before the inspectors could reach the town. Syria and
its ally Russia deny that any chemical attack took place.middleeastmonitor
CIA chief Pompeo held secret meeting with Kim
Jong-un: reports
CIA Director Mike Pompeo held a secret meeting
with Kim Jong-un in North Korea earlier this month in what is believed to be
the highest level meeting between the two countries in nearly two decades, US
media reported.Pompeo reportedly made the trip during the weekend of April 1,
shortly after being named US President Donald Trump's pick to replace Rex
Tillerson as secretary of state.According to the Washington Post, which cited
two individuals with knowledge of the trip, Pompeo and Kim discussed the
planned summit between US and North Korea leaders.Earlier on Tuesday, Trump had
said that the US was engaged in direct talks at "extremely high
levels" with Pyongyang.White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders clarified
Trump's comments, saying "the president said the administration has had
talks at the highest levels and and added that they were not with him
directly".aljazeera
Canada group slammed after firing staff
decrying Israel killings
A Canadian press-freedom group has come under
fire after the sacking of one of its employees who published a statement
condemning the "extrajudicial killings" of Palestinian demonstrators
by Israeli forces in Gaza.At least 17 Palestinians were killed by Israeli live
fire and more than 1,000 others were wounded, as thousands rallied to mark the
42nd anniversary of Land Day on March 30. Among those injured were at least 10
journalists.On April 2, Kevin Metcalf, communications coordinator for the
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), wrote a statement on behalf of
the group urging the government of Canada to condemn the "IDF's [Israeli
Defence Forces] brutality".Failure to do so, he wrote, "will
undermine Canada's moral authority when condemning similar acts by any other
nation-state. Targeted attacks against demonstrators and journalists must be
condemned wherever they occur".aljazeera
UAE launches global Minorities forum to
protect Muslim minorities
Abu Dhabi: UAE has announced the launch of a
global committee that will serve as an "incubator" and as a voice for
the millions of Muslim minorities around the world who face
discrimination.International Muslim Minorities Congress (IMMC), based in Abu
Dhabi, will work as an institution that allows leaders from the Middle East and
from the West to set up laws and regulations that will help defend the rights
of Muslim minorities.Organised under the patronage of Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak
Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance, the UAE is also set to hold the very first
conference on May 8-9, which will focus on challenging issues that minorities
are currently facing around the world today."This organisation will help
bridge the gap between Muslim minorities and the governments," Dr Ali
Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the supreme committee of the IMMC, told Khaleej
Times.Khaleej Times
Yemen’s Houthis release 18 Al-Qaeda fighters
Some 18 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP) officials have been released by Houthi fighters in a deal struck between
the two armed groups, Aden Tomorrow reported today. The AQAP fighters were
released in a deal which would see them assist with an uptick of fighting in
Al-Bayda governorate, southern Yemen, between the Houthis, AQAP and the
Saudi-led coalition.However, a statement published via AQAP’s open source
network on Saturday claimed the 18 prisoners in Al-Bayda “attacked” prison
guards and escaped without any mention of Houthi involvement.middleeastmonitor
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We will stand by every community, we will
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Anwarulhaq (Released at: 12:35 PM)
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