Page 113 - Politics
Australian Islamic State orphans rescued from Syria camp
Eight orphans of Australian Islamic State fighters have been spirited out of a camp in Syria, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Monday, in an apparent U-turn. The children and grandchildren of two notorious jihadis are now in the care of Australian officials, he said in a statement. The children are believed to be aged between two and 17 and were living in a camp in northern Syria -- making consular access all but impossible. Morrison previously indicated his government would only help citizens if they approached an embassy or consulate but appeared to have had a change of heart. "The fact that parents put their children into harm's way by taking them into a war zone was a despicable act," Morrison said in a statement. "However, children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents." The group includes three surviving children and two grandchildren of Sydney-born Khaled Sharrouf -- who came to prominence after posting a photo of one of his sons holding the head of a Syrian
Former Afghan PM praises Pak's role in peace process
Afghanistan's former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on Sunday lauded Pakistan's role in the Afghan peace process, during a visit to the country for a conference."Pakistan is a very important country and Islamabad could play a key role in bringing peace in Afghanistan and now they are doing it," the former Prime Minister told Anadolu Agency in Bhurban.He also appreciated Pakistan's role in "bringing Taliban to the negotiating table," the Turkish state-run news agency reported."I praised Pakistan's sincere efforts and I am sure they will continue its help to bring peace in our country," Hekmatyar said.The 71-year-old leader was received by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi upon his arrival to the country on Saturday. 57 other Afghan leaders accompanied Hekmatyar during his visit for a peace conference."We welcome every country and individual who is taking any step for peace in Afghanistan. War always ends with peace and now the war in our country will also end with ...
Rajasthan govt to introduce bill to protect depositors
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's government is set to introduce a bill to protect depositors and to put a check on cheating by chit-fund companies, an official statement read.The issue of financial scams, including cheating by chit-fund companies, was raised by civil society members during a pre-Budget meeting with Gehlot."The protection of depositors bill would be introduced in the Assembly soon, which will protect the interest of the investors. Our government has been serious in preventing such scams," the Chief Minister said.He underlined the importance of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society in implementing government schemes and programmes at the grass-roots level.Gehlot also spoke about silicosis, a lung-related disease caused by the inhalation of dust containing silica in mining areas, which has taken a severe toll on the health of mine workers in the state."The government is serious about the issue of silicosis in mining areas. We would surely make efforts to ..
Former Democratic Congressman joins US Presidential race
Increasing the pool of Democrats vying to run in the 2020 Presidential elections, former US Representative and retired Naval officer Joe Sestak declared his candidacy for the post on Sunday."What Americans most want today is someone who is accountable to them, above self, above party, above any special interest...a President who has the depth of global experience to restore America's leadership in the world to protect our American Dream at home...and one who is trusted to restructure policies where too many see only the growth of inequity not of the economy," Sestak said in a post on his campaign page."I want to be that President who serves the American people the way they deserve to be served," he added.This takes the final count of Democrats who are going to tough it out at the primaries to around 24, according to CNN. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had emerged as the Democratic candidate for the 2016 elections after the primaries, only to lose to former business magnate .
In Mideast, Pompeo seeks a global coalition against Iran
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he wants to build a global coalition against Iran during urgent consultations in the Middle East, following a week of crisis that saw the United States pull back from the brink of a military strike on Iran. Pompeo spoke as he left Washington for Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Sunni Arab allies that are alarmed by Shiite Iran's increasing assertiveness and are working to its influence in the region. His stops in Jeddah and Abu Dhabi were hastily arranged late last week as additions to a trip to India from where he will join President Donald Trump in Japan and South Korea. But they were not announced until immediately before his departure in a sign of fast-moving and unpredictable developments. "We'll be talking with them about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned, and how we can build out a global coalition, a coalition not only throughout the Gulf states, but in Asia and in Europe, that understands this .
Pompeo heads to Saudi, UAE to discuss escalating tensions with Iran
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo left for Saudi Arabia and the UAE on Sunday to hold talks regarding the escalating tensions with Iran, especially after Tehran downed a US military drone in the Gulf of Oman recently.He reiterated the United States' offer to hold talks with the Middle Eastern nation with "no preconditions," according to Al Arabiya."We're prepared to negotiate with no preconditions. They know precisely where to find us. I am confident that at the very moment they are ready to engage with us, we will be able to begin these conversations," the official told reporters before boarding his plane.The already strained US-Iran relationship has further deteriorated after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Thursday downed an "intruding American spy drone" -- RQ-4 Global Hawk -- after it violated Iranian airspace over the southern coastal province of Hormozgan.Washington has labelled it as an "unprovoked attack," claiming that the drone was flying over ...
Mauritania ruling party's Ghazouani declared presidential vote winner
Mauritania's ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has won the presidential election with 52 percent of the vote, the electoral commission announced Sunday, with opposition candidates crying foul. Ghazouani obtained 52.01 percent of votes cast in Saturday's presidential poll, easily beating main opposition opponents Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid (18.58 percent) and Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar (17.87 per cent), according to the official figures. Boubacar, addressing a news conference along with three other candidates, charged that "multiple irregularities... eliminated any credibility" of the election in the West African desert nation. "We reject the results of the election and we consider that they in no way express the will of the Mauritanian people," he said, vowing that the opposition would use "every legal means" to challenge them. The CENI electoral commission said that voter turnout was 62.66 per cent. With a clear majority of the votes, the 62-year-old Ghazouani, former ...
Mauritania ruling party's Ghazouani declared presidential vote winner
Mauritania's ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has won the presidential election with 52 percent of the vote, the electoral commission announced Sunday, with opposition candidates crying foul. Ghazouani obtained 52.01 percent of votes cast in Saturday's presidential poll, easily beating main opposition opponents Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid (18.58 percent) and Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar (17.87 per cent), according to the official figures. Boubacar, addressing a news conference along with three other candidates, charged that "multiple irregularities... eliminated any credibility" of the election in the West African desert nation. "We reject the results of the election and we consider that they in no way express the will of the Mauritanian people," he said, vowing that the opposition would use "every legal means" to challenge them. The CENI electoral commission said that voter turnout was 62.66 per cent. With a clear majority of the votes, the 62-year-old Ghazouani, former ...
Mauritania ruling party's Ghazouani declared presidential vote winner
Mauritania's ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has won the presidential election with 52 percent of the vote, the electoral commission announced Sunday, with opposition candidates crying foul. Ghazouani obtained 52.01 percent of votes cast in Saturday's presidential poll, easily beating main opposition opponents Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid (18.58 percent) and Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar (17.87 per cent), according to the official figures. Boubacar, addressing a news conference along with three other candidates, charged that "multiple irregularities... eliminated any credibility" of the election in the West African desert nation. "We reject the results of the election and we consider that they in no way express the will of the Mauritanian people," he said, vowing that the opposition would use "every legal means" to challenge them. The CENI electoral commission said that voter turnout was 62.66 per cent. With a clear majority of the votes, the 62-year-old Ghazouani, former ...
Mauritania ruling party's Ghazouani declared presidential vote winner
Mauritania's ruling party candidate Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has won the presidential election with 52 percent of the vote, the electoral commission announced Sunday, with opposition candidates crying foul. Ghazouani obtained 52.01 percent of votes cast in Saturday's presidential poll, easily beating main opposition opponents Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid (18.58 percent) and Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar (17.87 per cent), according to the official figures. Boubacar, addressing a news conference along with three other candidates, charged that "multiple irregularities... eliminated any credibility" of the election in the West African desert nation. "We reject the results of the election and we consider that they in no way express the will of the Mauritanian people," he said, vowing that the opposition would use "every legal means" to challenge them. The CENI electoral commission said that voter turnout was 62.66 per cent. With a clear majority of the votes, the 62-year-old Ghazouani, former ...
Istanbul mayoral re-run: Erdogan congratulates Opposition candidate for projected win
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated the Opposition party's mayoral candidate for his projected win at the local elections' re-run here on Sunday.Ekrem Imamoglu, the Republican People's Party's (CHP) candidate, won the mayoral elections, beating Binali Yildirim from the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, as per unofficial results, reports Anadolu Agency."I wish that the results of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality renewal election will be beneficial for our Istanbul. National will has manifested once again today. I congratulate Ekrem Imamoglu, who won the election according to unofficial results," Erdogan tweeted on Sunday night.The two candidates had previously contested against each other in a mayoral vote on March 31 which was annulled by Turkey's top election body.With 99.37 per cent of the ballot boxes opened, Imamoglu has secured 54.03 per cent of the votes, while Yildirim trails behind with 45.04 per cent of the votes."10,560,963 voters cast their ..
Netanyahu ready to 'consider' long-awaited US peace plan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he is ready to "consider" a US plan to resolve his country's long-running conflict with the Palestinians. "We will consider the American proposal in a fair and open way," he said as he hosted US national security adviser John Bolton. The Palestinian leadership has already rejected the plan, citing US "bias" after the White House recognised bitterly divided Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "I don't understand how the Palestinians rejected the plan even before knowing what it contained," said Netanyahu. "That's not how you move forward." He was talking during a visit to the Jordan valley, Israeli-occupied territory he has pledged never to give up in a peace deal. "To those who say that to obtain peace, Israel must leave the Jordan Valley, I say: it will not bring peace -- it will bring war and terror," he said. "Israel's presence here must continue for Israel's security and the security of all." Bolton was being hosted by the Israeli ..
Yemen rebel attack on Saudi airport kills 1, wounds 7: coalition
A Yemeni rebel attack on a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia killed a Syrian national and wounded seven civilians Sunday, a Riyadh-led coalition said, the latest in a series of strikes on the site. "A terrorist attack by the Iranian-backed Huthi militia took place at Abha international airport, through which thousands of civilian passengers... pass daily," the military coalition said. "A Syrian national died and seven civilians were wounded," it added, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The coalition did not provide details on how the airport was attacked, but Iran-aligned Huthi rebels have repeatedly struck the civilian facility this month with drones and missiles. Earlier on Sunday, the rebels' Al-Masirah TV said they had targeted Abha and Jizan airports in the south of the kingdom with drones. Abha airport authorities said on Twitter that air traffic had resumed and was functioning normally, without offering further details. On June 12, a rebel ...
10 injured after blast rocks military hospital in Rawalpindi, claim Twitterati
At least 10 people were allegedly injured after a "huge" blast rocked a military hospital here on Sunday, according to Pakistani Twitter users.A human rights worker from Quetta, Ahsan Ullah MiaKhail, has alleged that the army has barred the media from covering the incident.He also claimed that UN-blacklisted terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar was admitted at the hospital where the blast occurred."Huge #blast at Military Hospital in #Rawalpindi, #Pakistan. 10 injured shifted to emergency. Jaish-E-Mohammad Chief Maulana Masood Azahar is admitted here.Completely Media blackout by Army. Media asked Strictly not to cover this story," MiaKhail tweeted.While the reason behind the "blast" is not known, another Twitter user has alleged that it is an "attack".Another user of the microblogging site shared a video of smoke billowing out of the building.An official statement and verification of the incident is awaited.
Ethiopia says military chief killed, regional coup failed
Ethiopia's military chief was shot to death by his bodyguard amid a failed coup attempt against a regional government north of the capital, Addis Ababa, the prime minister said Sunday. The abortive coup Saturday in the Amhara region was led by a high-ranking military officer and others in the armed forces, said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who addressed the nation on state TV at 2 a.m. while wearing fatigues. The soldiers attacked a building where a meeting of regional officials was taking place, said Nigussu Tilahun, a spokesman for the prime minister. The regional governor and an adviser were killed, while the attorney general was wounded, he said. Not long after afterward, army chief Gen. Seare Mekonnen who assassinated at his home in Addis Ababa, and a retired army general visiting him was also killed, the spokesman said. "There is a link between the two attacks," Nigussu said without elaborating. The attack in Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara, was led by a renegade brigadier who ...
Istanbul mayor says win marks 'new beginning' for Turkey
The winner of Istanbul's mayoral election re-run, Ekrem Imamoglu, said Sunday that the victory marked a "new beginning" for Turkey and offered to work closely with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "It was not a single group or party, but the whole of Istanbul and Turkey that won this election," Imamoglu said in his victory speech. With almost 99 percent of votes counted, he had 54 percent of the vote against the ruling AKP party's Binali Yildirim on 45.1 percent. His lead of more than 775,000 votes marked a huge increase on his victory in March, when he won by just 13,000. That win was annulled by election authorities after Erdogan's AKP party claimed there was corruption in the counting. "Mr President, I am ready to work in harmony with you. I convey from here my request to meet with you in the shortest time possible," Imamoglu said. "I will work diligently without discriminating against anyone," he added, before concluding with his campaign slogan: "Everything will be fine.
Iran crisis could 'spin out of control': ex-US military aide
A former top US military advisor warned Sunday that tensions with Iran "could spin out of control" after President Donald Trump's last-minute cancelation of air strikes on the Islamic republic. Washington and Tehran have traded accusations since Iran shot down a US spy drone last week, prompting a plan for retaliatory strikes that was shelved when Trump decided the resulting mass casualties would not be "proportionate." "My biggest concern is the president is running out of room, running out of options and while rhetoric goes back and forth on how close we came to hitting Iran just the other day, that this thing could spin out of control," former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen told ABC's "This Week." "The last thing in the world we need right now is a war with Iran." Trump has labeled Iran a danger and in May last year pulled the US out of an international accord on rewarding the country for allowing verification of its nuclear industry. Trump has repeatedly sought to ...
Can discuss on any issue during assembly session: Patnaik
Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik Sunday said his party is ready for discussion on any issue in a constructive manner, during the first session of the 16th assembly beginning on June 25. "We are open to discussion on all matters relating to Odisha during the ensuing assembly session," Patnaik told reporters, after a meeting of the BJD legislature party here to chalk out strategies for the upcomming session. All the promises made to the people of the state by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in its manifesto for the recent elections will be followed up, the chief minister said. The state government will present the annual budget for the 2019-20 fiscal on June 28, assembly sources said. The session will also see the BJP taking the role of the state's main opposition party for the first time in the House. Congress had been the main opposition in the assembly ever since BJD came to power in Odisha in 2000.
BJP president Amit Shah to announce name of legislature party
With only two days left for the first session of 16th Odisha Assembly to begin, the newly elected BJP MLAs Sunday authorised party president Amit Shah to announce the name of the legislature party leader. The decision was taken at a meeting attended among others by central observer Saroj Pandey and Union Petroleum and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the election of BJP's legislative party leader. The BJP Legislature Party leader will eventually be the Leader of Opposition in the assembly as the saffron party had emerged as the second largest party with 23 members after 111 legislators of the ruling BJD. BJP Odisha unit president and newly elected Lok Sabha member Basant Panda told reporters after the meeting that the leader of the legislature party has been chosen and the party president will announce the name. He said the MLAs presented their views and adopted a resolution authorising the party's national president to announce the name of the leader. BJP's ...
Palestinian president Abbas says certain Bahrain conference will fail
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Sunday he was confident a peace conference this week in Bahrain would fail. "We are certain that the workshop in Manama will not be successful," Abbas, who is boycotting the US-led conference focussed on the Palestinian economy, told journalists. The US government unveiled Saturday the economic part of its peace plan that it will present in Bahrain on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the aim of raising more than $50 billion for the Palestinians and creating one million jobs within a decade. Abbas's government had already rejected the proposal, saying the dispute with Israel is political and accusing the US of seeking to buy Palestinian support. "We will not be slaves or servants for Greenblatt, Kushner and Friedman," Abbas told journalists at his presidential office in Ramallah, referring to US President Donald Trump's negotiating team, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner. "We need the economic (support), the money and the assistance, but before ..