Page 399 - War Conflict
Community fears grow as DR Congo Ebola death toll climbs
Humanitarian workers are struggling to calm community fears in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 125 people have died of Ebola, and cases of the virus are spreading fast. The World Health Organization said Friday that 200 cases of the deadly virus have been registered in the outbreak first detected on August 1, with 165 of them laboratory confirmed and 35 considered probable. The UN agency voiced concern over the swelling number of cases in recent weeks, especially in the town of Beni, near the Ugandan border. "Insecurity that has increased in the city is one of the reasons why we are seeing these new cases coming up," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva. The latest outbreak - the 10th in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976 - emerged in the highly-restive northeastern region of North Kivu, which is home to a clutch of armed groups. The authorities in Beni have announced measures to protect health workers after a number of ...
South Africa's apartheid-era Foreign Minister Pik Botha dies
Pik Botha, the last Foreign Minister of South Africas apartheid era who spent the bulk of his career defending the country's system of racial segregation, died on Friday at the age of 86.
Bank cashier shot dead, Rs 2 lakh looted in Delhi
The cashier of a bank was shot dead and three were injured after some unidentified people entered the bank in Dwarka on Friday and fled with Rs 2 lakh, police said. Police were informed about a firing of a Corporation bank branch in Khaira Village at 3.45 pm, they said. Four people entered the bank for committing loot and fired on the cashier Santosh Kumar. He was taken to hospital where he was declared brought dead, police said. The accused fled on motorcycles, they said, adding further investigation was underway.
Sacrilege incidents: AAP's Phoolka resigns as MLA in Punjab
Aam Aadmi Party MLA H S Phoolka Friday resigned as a legislator from the Punjab Assembly, expressing unhappiness over the state government's alleged "failure" to initiate action against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and retired DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in sacrilege incidents. "I have sent my resignation as legislator of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to the Speaker through e-mail," the Dakha MLA told PTI over phone. However, Speaker Rana K P Singh is yet to take a call on the resignation, Assembly officials said. If his resignation was to be accepted, AAP's strength in the Vidhan Sabha will drop to 19 MLAs, eight of whom have formed a rebel group led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira. Phoolka, who is fighting 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases in courts at New Delhi, had been asking the state government to initiate action against Badal and Saini in connection with police firing on people protesting at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan against sacrilege incidents. On three occasions, he had said he would resign
Friday prayers disallowed at Srinagar's Jamia Masjid
Authorities on Friday disallowed congregational prayers at the historic Jamia Masjid here as clashes rocked Shopian and Kupwara towns in the valley, police said.
Police seize 431 cartons of foreign liquor worth Rs 30 lakh
Police on Friday seized 431 cartons of Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 30 lakh and arrested one person in this connection in Bihar's Vaishali district. Acting on a tip off, a police team raided Paswan chowk under the jurisdiction of Industrial police station area and seized 431 cartons of foreign liquor worth Rs 30 lakh, Industrial police station SHO Abhay Kumar said. The truck has been seized and its driver arrested, the SHO said adding that the truck used in carrying the illegal liquor trade bore the registration number of Haryana. Sale and consumption of liquor has been completely banned in Bihar by the Nitish Kumar government since April 1, 2016.
Moon urges US move towards formally ending Korean War
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called Friday on the United States to move towards the nuclear-armed North's demands for a declaration the Korean War is over, as the allies pursue increasingly different approaches towards Pyongyang. Washington has shied away from a formal announcement that the 1950-53 conflict, when hostilities ceased with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, has ended, saying that the North must first take more steps towards giving up its atomic arsenal. For its part Pyongyang - which long insisted it needed nuclear weapons to defend itself against a possible US invasion - has pledged only to work towards denuclearisation "of the Korean peninsula", demanding simultaneous moves by Washington in return, with a peace declaration its first priority. "The North has stopped all nuclear and missile tests, dismantled its only nuclear test site and is now dismantling its missile engine test facilities, and is promising to take steps toward dismantling its Yongbyon ...
Rs 35 lakh looted from two ATMs in Kerala
Burglars struck at two automated teller machines in Thrissur and Ernakulam districts of Kerala making away with Rs 35 lakh in the early hours Friday, police said. Police suspect the involvement of a single gang. In the first incident, the ATM of a nationalised bank at Irumbanam in Thrippunithura in Ernakulam district was looted. The gang used a gas-cutter to break open the ATM and decamped with Rs 25 lakh, police said. The incident is suspected to have occurred before 3.30 am. The burglars then targeted an ATM of a private bank at Koratty in Thrissur district, using a similar method to loot Rs ten lakh. They fled after pulling down the shutter of the ATM kiosk at around 4.30 am, police said. Police said CCTV footage reveal that a gang member had sprayed paint at the cameras in the kiosks before committing the crime.
Sympathisers of terrorists doing no good to nation: BJP
BJP state general secretary Yudhvir Sethi Friday said those sympathising with terrorists are doing no good to the nation, as he lauded security forces for eliminating two ultras including top Hizbul commander and former PhD student Manan Wani in north Kashmir's frontier district of Kupwara. He also termed as "misleading and against the very spirit of Kashmiriyat" former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti's remarks that Wani's death was "entirely our loss as we are losing young educated boys everyday". Sethi said giving statements "glorifying" militants and describing their killing as a loss are nothing but akin to fanning militancy. "The sympathisers of such people (terrorists) are doing no good to the nation. Security forces have done a commendable job by eliminating terrorists." Instead of "glorifying" such militants, Mehbooba should ask youths not to get misled by Pakistan only to be killed by the security forces, he said. Sethi also dismissed her suggestion that all the political ...
Lt Gen Paramjit Singh involved in surgical strike planning takes over as XVI Corps GOC
Lt Gen Paramjit Singh, an officer involved in the planning of the 2016 surgical strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Friday took over as the general officer commanding of the Army's Nagrota-based XVI Corps. Lt Gen Singh, who has commanded an elite parachute regiment and has vast experience of high-altitude warfare, took over the command of the strategic corps from Lt Gen Saranjeet Singh at a function here, an Army official said. The 57-year-old officer, who was commissioned into the Indian Army on 12 June, 1982, is taking over as corps commander when tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir are high, amid efforts by terrorist handlers in PoK to push more militants into the state, he said. Paramjit Singh, a part of the elite Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) and who has commanded a special forces battalion, was part of the planning of the surgical strikes after the attack on an Army brigade in Uri in 2016, the official ...
2 ITBP men honoured with Kirti Chakra posthumously
Two Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) constables have been conferred with the Kirti Chakra posthumously for thwarting a suicide attack at the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2008, Home Ministry officials said. Constable Ajay Singh Pathania, who hailed from Pathankot in Punjab, and Constable Roop Singh of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh laid down their lives while preventing an explosive-laden vehicle from entering the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008. "Pathania and Singh displayed extreme courage and valour, dedication and devotion to duty, motivation and determination, averted a major disaster inside the Indian Embassy at Kabul and gave the supreme sacrifice protecting the honour and sovereignty of the nation for which they were honoured with Kirti Chakra posthumously," a Home Ministry official said. On the fateful day, Singh was manning the barrier of the embassy's main gate while Pathania was on sentry duty. The official said a Land Rover vehicle carrying the defence ...
S.Africa's apartheid-era foreign minister Pik Botha dies, aged 86
Former South African foreign minister Roelof "Pik" Botha, whose long career in government straddled both the apartheid era and the presidency of Nelson Mandela, has died aged 86, local media reported Friday. Botha served as foreign minister for 17 years until the end of apartheid in 1994, and then joined Mandela's cabinet after the end of white-minority rule and the country's first non-racial election in 1994. "As you know, originally we were enemies," Botha told the BBC in 2013. "From our point of view, (Mandela) led an organisation which we regarded as a terrorist organisation and they saw themselves as freedom fighters. "Of course all that had to change. It is not always that simple and easy to change mental attitudes, mindsets but eventually it did change. He played the role of a saviour." Botha was described by some as a "good man working for a bad government" despite years defending the apartheid system. He had several clashes with the hardline government of president P.W. ...
Afghan official: Taliban attacks kill 8 in country's north
An Afghan official says attacks by the Taliban in the country's north have killed eight people four soldiers and four civilians. Military spokesman Hanif Rezaie says the troops died in Kunduz province when the Taliban attacked a military outpost in the district of Archi on Friday morning. He says six were wounded in the assault. Rezaie says the civilians were killed on Thursday, when a car bomb targeting an election campaign headquarters in Faryab province exploded prematurely. He says several Taliban fighters died in both incidents. Afghanistan is holding parliamentary elections on Oct. 20. The campaign has already been marred by violence. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber struck the home of an election candidate in the city of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province, killing the candidate and seven others.
Separatist-called shutdown over Ph.D scholar killing hits valley
Life across the Kashmir Valley was affected by a separatist-called shutdown on Friday protesting the killing of a Ph.D scholar-turned-militant commander in a gunfight in Kupwara district.
Pentagon grounds global fleet of F-35s after crash
The Pentagon on Thursday grounded the global fleet of F-35 stealth fighters to conduct engine inspections, following the first ever crash of the costliest plane in history. A Marine Corps F-35B was completely destroyed in a crash during training in South Carolina on September 28. According to Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the F-35 program, the US and its international partners temporarily suspended F-35 flight operations for a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft. "The action to perform the inspection is driven from initial data from the ongoing investigation of the F-35B that crashed in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina," DellaVedova said in a statement. He added that suspect fuel tubes would be removed and replaced. If good tubes are already installed, then those planes will be returned to operational status. Inspections were expected to be completed within 24 to 48 hours. According to Pentagon figures, 320 F-35s have been delivered .
BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal remanded to 7-day police custody in espionage case
A court here Thursday sent BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agrawal, who is accused of passing off sensitive information to the ISI, to police remand for seven days. Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Himanshu Dayal Srivastava passed the order on an application moved by Inspector Pankaj Awasthi of the the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police. The custody remand period would begin on Thursday at 9 pm. Agrawal was arrested Monday in a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh Police and their Maharashtrian counterpart at BrahMos' Wardha Road facility in Nagpur for allegedly leaking "technical information" to Pakistan. He was flown to Lucknow From Nagpur. The ATS Thursday sought his custody from the court for the purpose of interrogation. Agarwal's lawyer opposed the remand, pleading that he was a young scientist who is being implicated as part of a "conspiracy". The court said secret and prohibited information was found from Agarwal's laptop. It also took note of his ...
Raymond sets up tailoring hub to make customised uniforms for army personnel
Undertaking a yet another pioneering initiative, Raymond on Thursday entered into an agreement with the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) and has set up a Best in Class Tailoring hub at Delhi Cantonment for making customised uniform for army personnel.
Church bombings: Egypt's military court sentences 17 to death
An Egyptian military court on Thursday sentenced 17 Islamists to death over accusations of bombing three churches in the country which claimed 82 lives, state news agency MENA reported.
Blast kills 3 soldiers in central Mali
Three Malian soldiers were killed in a restive central region overnight when their vehicle hit a landmine, sources said Thursday. The blast happened on the road between Djoungani and Koro, near the frontier with Burkina Faso, a Malian military source said. "There were three fatalities and four other soldiers were wounded," the source said, adding that reinforcements had been sent to the area. A local official confirmed the toll and described the blast as "the work of terrorists," a term typically used to refer to Islamist militants. Mali has been plagued by violence since 2012, when Tuareg separatists staged an uprising in the north, which was then exploited by jihadists to take over key cities in the region. The militants were largely driven out in a French-led military operation in 2013. But despite a 2015 peace agreement between the government, pro-government groups and former rebels, large stretches of Mali remain out of control. In a report in September, the UN said it had ...
Egypt condemns 17 to death for IS church attacks
An Egyptian military court on Thursday sentenced 17 people to death over a series of suicide bombings of churches claimed by the Islamic State group that left dozens dead. Another 19 people were handed life prison terms and 10 were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years, judicial and security officials said. Seventy-four people were killed in the attacks in 2016 and 2017 in Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta targeting Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population. Christian sites of worship across Egypt have been repeatedly targeted in attacks claimed by IS, prompting the authorities to impose a state of emergency. A suicide attack on December 11, 2016 on the Saint Peter and Saint Paul church killed 29 in the heart of Cairo The following April, 45 people were killed as Christians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria. Since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in ...