Page 644 - War Conflict
21 dead in NE Nigeria Boko Haram attacks
Suspected Boko Haram militants killed 21 people in separate attacks in a remote northeastern region of Nigeria, security officials and a witness have told AFP. The jihadists shot dead 18 forest workers who had been collecting firewood in Borno state, close to the town of Gamboru, on the border with Cameroon on Sunday, according to a member of a local anti-militant militia in the area. "The bodies were scattered over several hundred metres, and they were mostly shot in the head or the back," another militiaman told AFP yesterday. Also on Sunday, a vehicle carrying civilians travelling in a nearby army convoy hit a mine planted by the insurgents, killing three people near the village of Wumbi, a militia member said. "Three people including the driver were killed and 11 passengers were wounded," he said. A local resident confirmed the toll, adding that the victims were buried on Sunday. The Boko Haram insurgency which broke out in 2009, has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced ...
Nepalese peacekeepers accused of child rape in South Sudan
UN peacekeepers from Nepal are facing allegations of child rape in South Sudan, the UN spokesman said today, describing the case as "especially heinous". The United Nations has asked Nepal to send investigators to work with its own office of internal oversight on the case and is awaiting a response by Wednesday. "Any act of sexual abuse is horrendous," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "One involving a child is especially heinous." The allegations were received this month and involve Nepalese troops serving in the UN mission in South Sudan. No details were released on the number of troops involved or the victims. The United Nations has deployed 14,800 troops and police in South Sudan, with a mandate to protect civilians caught up in a brutal war between President Salva Kiir's forces and rebels. In February, 46 UN peacekeepers from Ghana were recalled from their base in northwestern South Sudan after the mission received allegations of sexual exploitation of women. UN ...
Six Maoists killed in fresh Maharashtra gun-battle
At least six Maoists were gunned down in a fresh gunfight in Gadchiroli district, barely 24 hours after Sunday's encounter which left 16 rebels dead, official sources said.
Yemen rebels accuse Saudi-led coalition of killing political head
Yemen's Huthi rebels today accused the Saudi-led coalition of killing their political leader, Saleh al-Sammad, in an air strike last week. Sammad, head of the Huthis' supreme political council, was "martyred" in the eastern province of Hodeida on Thursday, the Iran-allied rebels said in a statement published via their Saba news agency. His death comes as a major blow to the Shiite rebels who since March 2015 have been fighting pro-government forces backed by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. "This crime won't go unanswered," warned the Huthis' overall leader, Abdul Malek al-Huthi. The news came hours after officials in Yemen said dozens of people were killed and wounded in an air raid on a wedding party in the country on Sunday, in another attack the Huthis blamed on the coalition. Medical sources and local officials put the number of dead between 22 and 33, with at least 40 to 50 wounded, while the exact circumstances of the raid remained unclear. Doctors Without Borders ...
At least 4 Naxals killed in encounter in Gadchiroli
A day after eliminating 16 Naxals in Karnasur jungle, the police in Gadchiroli district of eastern Maharashtra killed at least four rebels in a fresh encounter this evening, a top official said. The gun-battle took place in Rajaram Khandla jungle in Jimalgatta area of the district, said Inspector General of Police (Anti-Naxal Operations) Sharad Shelar. The elite C-60 commandos of district police were involved in the operation, said another senior police official. Shelar told PTI that the exact number of slain Naxals was being confirmed, but at least four rebels have been eliminated. Shelar also said that police expected to retrieve bodies of many more Naxals from the site of yesterday's encounter, as the combing operation had been made difficult by the heavy rains in the area. As of now, police have found 16 bodies, and identified 11 of them. The encounter took place between the Naxals and a team of police commandos and the CRPF in Kasansur forest in Bhamragad yesterday ...
AFSPA removed from Assam, Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been removed from Assam, Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, the Centre said on Monday.The decision to remove AFSPA has been taken due to significant improvement of security situation in the two states.Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said, "The revocation of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act by Home Ministry from Assam, Meghalaya and most areas of Arunachal Pradesh is due to significant improvement of security scenario in North-East India in last 4 years."In Arunachal Pradesh, the AFSPA will remain enforced under eight police station limits -- from 16 areas earlier- near the border with Assam, and in three districts -- Tirap, Changlang and Longding - near the border with Myanmar.The AFSPA has been in force in Nagaland, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir for several decades, and since the early 1990s in Assam.The AFSPA grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in 'disturbed areas.According to The Disturbed ...
President presents gallantry awards to valiant soldiers
President Ram Nath Kovind today presented the Kirti Chakra posthumously to CRPF Commandant Pramod Kumar and Army havildar Giris Gurung, who laid down their lives in the line of duty. Kumar, from the 49 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force, succumbed to the injuries he received while fighting militants in Srinagar in August 2016. Gurung, from the 4th Battalion of the Gorkha Rifles, also succumbed to his injuries while fighting terrorists in Kupwada district of Jammu and Kashmir. During the defence investiture ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the president also presented the Shaurya Chakra posthumously to Major Kunal Gosavi of the Regiment of Artillery, and Lance Naik Raghubeer Singh of the Mahar Regiment, who made the supreme sacrifice in separate operations in November 2016 and February 2017, respectively. Kovind presented the Kirti Chakra to Major Preetam Singh Kunwar of the Garhwal Rifles also. Shaurya Chakra were presented to Lance Naik Kashmir Singh, Subedar Shabir ...
UAE donates $70 million to support Palestinians
Abu Dhabi, April 23 (IANS/WAM) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has donated AED 258 million ($70 million) to support the Palestinian people on the directives of President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
BSF hands over two Pakistani nationals to Pak Rangers
The Border Security Force (BSF) today handed over two Pakistani nationals, who had inadvertently crossed over into the Indian territory on Saturday, to Pakistan Rangers, an official said. The BSF official said that on Saturday, at about 1:45 pm, troops deputed at Border Out Post ( BOP), Rana, belonging to 2nd battalion in Abohar Sector apprehended two Pakistani nationals identified as Mohammad Waqas (23), resident of Village Kanganpur in Kasur district and Faizan (19 ), resident of Village Nishtar of Lahore district, who had accidentally crossed international boundary. Pakistan Rangers were contacted today and the two were handed over, an official said.
Shepherd injured in IED explosion near LoC
A sheepherd was injured in an IED explosion near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Monday, police said.
'I was wrong': Armenia PM quits after mass protests
Armenia's Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian resigned today after mass protests against his election, seen as a blatant power grab by the opposition. "I am leaving the post of the country's leader," Sarkisian was quoted as saying in a statement by his press service, just days after he took office. "Nikol Pashinyan was right," he said referring to the leader of the protests. "I was wrong." After serving for a decade as president, Sarkisian was last week elected prime minister by lawmakers in a move the opposition said was designed to extend his rule under a new parliamentary system of government. Constitutional amendments approved in 2015 transferred power from the presidency to the premiership. Sarkisian, a shrewd former military officer, was first elected president of the impoverished, Moscow-allied country in 2008. After the 2008 vote, 10 people died in clashes between police and supporters of the defeated opposition candidate. He was re-elected in 2013, with his second and final term .
Surrendered militants in NE to get enhanced grant of Rs 4 lakh, monthly Rs 6k
Surrendered militants in the north-east will get an immediate grant of Rs 4 lakh each against Rs 1 lakh earlier, and a monthly stipend of Rs 6,000 besides other benefits, officials said today. The surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy for the north-east was implemented in 1998 to wean misguided youth and hardcore militants away from the fold of militancy. This policy was comprehensively revised beginning April 1 to attract more youths into the mainstream away from militancy, as enumerated below, a Home Ministry official said. "Under the revised norms, a surrendered militant will get an immediate grant of Rs 4 lakh as against Rs 1 lakh earlier. Monthly stipend has been raised from Rs 3,500 to Rs 6,000 for three years," the official said. Incentives for weapons/ammunition have been increased ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 lakh, provisions for vocational training for self-employment will be provided to all surrendered militants, funds for construction of rehabilitation camps will be ...
Three brothers beheaded in Afghanistan, IS blamed: officials
Three brothers have been beheaded in restive eastern Afghanistan, officials said today, blaming the gruesome executions on Islamic State group fighters. The men aged 19, 24 and 27 were taken from their home and killed by IS on last night in Chaparhar district in Nangarhar province, provincial governor spokesman Ataullah Khogyani told AFP. Nangarhar borders Pakistan and is a stronghold for IS militants. Two of the brothers recently graduated from medical school and the third was still at university, Khogyani said, adding the boys' father was also killed by IS last year. "Their bodies were found in Chaparhar district where they lived," said the spokesman. Provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal confirmed the brutal murders and said an investigation had been launched. "They were taken out of their house by armed men and their beheaded bodies were found by villagers near their house," Mashreqiwal told AFP. IS first emerged in Afghanistan in 2014 as NATO combat troops ...
No militarisation of Sri Lanka's Hambantota port - China
China today dismissed as "baseless" the reports that it will militarise Sri Lanka's southern port of Hambantota, saying the facility was part of Beijing's "pragmatic cooperation" with Colombo for economic development. Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Cheng Xueyuan recently met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during which he reaffirmed that China firmly upholds and supports economic globalisation and attaches great importance to its relations with Sri Lanka, according a release issued by the Chinese Embassy here. "Responding to recent baseless suspicion on so-called Chinese militarisation at Hambantota Port, the Ambassador pointed out that there is no any military purpose for China to conduct conduct friendly and pragmatic cooperation with Sri Lanka," the release said. According to analysts here, the comments appear to allay the concerns raised by India over Chinese plans in neighbouring Sri Lanka on the broader Indian Ocean context. "China never interferes in Sri Lanka's internal ..
Saudi-led airstrike at Yemen wedding killed at least 20
An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, killing at least 20 people, health officials said today, as harrowing images emerged on social media of the bombing the previous day. Khaled al-Nadhri, the top health official in the northern province of Hajja, told The Associated Press that most of the dead were women and children who were gathered in one of the tents set up for the wedding party in the district of Bani Qayis. He says the bride was also among the dead. Hospital chief Mohammed al-Sawmali said the groom and 45 of the wounded were brought to the local al-Jomhouri hospital. Footage that emerged from the scene of the airstrike shows scattered body parts and a young boy in a green shirt hugging a man's lifeless body, screaming and crying. Health ministry spokesman Abdel-Hakim al-Kahlan said ambulances were initially unable to reach the site of the bombing for fear of subsequent airstrikes as the jets continued to fly overhead after the initial ..
Exhumation of Spain's civil war victims begins
Experts on Monday began the exhumation of four people who were killed in the Spanish Civil War and buried alongside thousands of other war dead in mass graves incorporated into a mausoleum that was built by former dictator Francisco Franco.
AFSPA removed from Meghalaya completely, partly in Arunachal
The AFSPA has been removed completely from Meghalaya and its area of operation in Arunachal Pradesh has been restricted to three police stations bordering Assam and three districts neighbouring Myanmar, officials said today. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act,which empowers security forces to conduct operations, arrest anyone anywhere without prior notice, has been removed from all areas of Meghalaya from March 31. The decision has been taken due to a significant improvement of security situation in the state,a Home Ministry official said. In Arunachal Pradesh, areas under the controversial act have been reduced from 16 police stations areas bordering Assam to eight police stations besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts, the official said. There have been demands from various organisations in the north-east as well as in Jammu and Kashmir for repealing the act, which, they say, gives sweeping powers to the security forces to act against civilians. The AFSPA has been in ...
AFSPA removed from Meghalaya, restricted in Arunachal
The Union Home Ministry has removed Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) from Meghalaya and reduced it to eight police stations in Arunachal Pradesh, an official said on Monday.
Threat of nuclear weapons use growing, UN warns
A top UN official today denounced growing rhetoric claiming that nuclear arms are necessary and warned that the risk of such weapons being used was on the rise. "The threat of the use, intentional or otherwise, of nuclear weapons is growing," the UN's top representative for disarmament affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, told a preliminary review meeting of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT, which was introduced at the height of the Cold War a half century ago, seeks to prevent the spread of atomic weapons but also puts the onus on nuclear states to reduce their stockpiles. But speaking at the opening of the Geneva meeting, Nakamitsu warned that "the world today faces similar challenges to the context that gave birth to the NPT." The preparatory committee in advance of the 2020 NPT review conference comes after North Korea, which pulled out of the treaty 15 years ago, declared a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests and said it would dismantle its nuclear test ...
Palestinian dies of wounds, bringing Gaza toll to 40: medics
Two Palestinians wounded in clashes with Israel were pronounced dead Monday, a Gaza official said, bringing the toll from Israeli fire since March 30 to 40. A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled territory's health ministry named the latest fatalities as Tahrir Wahada, 18, and Abdullah Shamali, 20. Wahada was shot in the head in a clash east of Khan Yunis on April 6, and Shamali died of "bullet wounds to his belly" sustained on Friday, according to the spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra. Most of the 40 Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of "March of Return" protests on March 30 were shot by snipers on the border, while a few others were killed by Israeli artillery or air strikes. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the coastal enclave, wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean, have gathered at the border on consecutive Fridays to call for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel. Some protestors have launched stones or burning ...