Page 778 - War Conflict
Cut off by Israeli wall,Palestinian family declares 'republic'
The logic of an Israeli wall north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank appears clear -- on one side Palestinians, on the other the Israeli settlement of Beit El. But look carefully and you will see a small gap in part of it leading into a courtyard where the Palestinian Jumaa family live. The newly-built part of the wall which stretches along the road next to the settlement has left the 25 members of the extended family on the opposite side to the rest of the Palestinian town of El-Bireh. They are, they say, partially cut off from the outside world, sometimes having to cross through an Israeli checkpoint just to buy milk and bread. "The wall separated us from the people and from Palestinians. I feel I am inside the settlement, even though I am Palestinian," said Hossam Jumaa, 54 and a father of eight. "Now we live alone." At the house, the children of the three families play in the shadow of the six-metre (20-foot) wall, while their vegetable plots run towards the ...
Afghan President refuses to speak to Pak counterpart
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani refused to take a phone call from his Pakistani counterpart Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in connection to the recent terrorist attacks in Kabul.Tolo News quoted an Afghan presidential palace source as saying that Abbasi had called Ghani on Tuesday night to express his condolences.Ghani reportedly sent a delegation of senior officials to Pakistan to deliver evidence relating to the recent attacks, the source said, adding that this evidence would be shared with the Pakistan Army.Recent terror attacks in Afghanistan have claimed the lives of around 150 people and injured hundreds of others.On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would not hold talks with Taliban as they were killing innocents in Afghanistan."They are killing people; innocents are being killed left and right. Bombing in middle of children, in the middle of families, bombing all over Afghanistan. So we don't want any talks with the Taliban," President Trump said at a lunch with UN .
China, Russia challenging American values: Trump
President Donald Trump today said that "rivals" like China and Russia are challenging America's interests, economy and values. "As we rebuild America's strength and confidence at home, we are also restoring our strength and standing abroad. Around the world, we face rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy, and our values," Trump said in his maiden State of the Union Address. "In confronting these dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unmatched power is the surest means of our defence," he said and asked the Congress to end the dangerous defence sequester and fully fund the military. "As part of our defence, we must modernise and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression, he said. "Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will .
Afghanistan policy condition-based: US Diplomat
US Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan has said the US policy for Afghanistan is condition-based and not time-based.
Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli gunfire
A Palestinian teenager was killed on Tuesday by Israeli troops during clashes in West Bank, officials said.
London attack accused hoped to kill Corbyn
A man accused of deliberately driving a van into a group of London Muslims has told his trial that he wanted to kill the British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn. Darren Osborne said yesterday killing the leftist Labour leader would have been "one less terrorist off our streets", while killing Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan as well "would have been like winning the lottery". Osborne is accused of murdering 51-year-old Makram Ali and trying to kill others in the Finsbury Park area of north London on June 19 last year, after growing angry at recent terror attacks and child sexual exploitation scandals involving gangs of mainly Muslim men, the trial has heard. Osborne, 48, from the Welsh capital Cardiff, denies the charges. He is accused of deliberately driving a van at a group of Muslims who had been attending Ramadan prayers at local mosques. Taking the stand at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London, Osborne claimed he had plotted with two men called Terry Jones and ...
Colombia rebels call for new ceasefire, renewed peace talks
Colombia's last rebel group, the ELN, today called for a new ceasefire and the resumption of frozen peace talks with the government as the prospect of open conflict flared anew following a string of deadly attacks. The ELN, or National Liberation Army, said it "hopes" the government will attend peace negotiations that had been set for tomorrow in Ecuador's capital Quito. It offered "to agree to a new and better bilateral ceasefire," it said in a statement read in Quito by its chief negotiator, Pablo Beltran. President Juan Manuel Santos yesterday declared the suspension of the peace talks after three bomb attacks on police stations in Colombia killed seven officers and wounded dozens. He also ordered his security forces to act with "maximum determination" against the rebel group. The developments threatened to re-ignite an armed conflict that had been on the path to peaceful resolution following a historic November 2016 peace deal with Colombia's biggest insurgent group,
2 youths run over by speeding truck in UP
Two youths died and another was critically injured after they were run over by a speeding truck near Abairani village here today, police said. According to police, Pawan (18), Sankat (18) and Durgesh were jogging this morning when the vehicle hit them. Pawan and Sankat died on the spot, while Durgesh is being treated at a hospital, they said. The trio was preparing for the police tests, police said, adding they were on their way back home after training when the accident took place.
Syria fighting displaces 270,000 in winter: UN
More than 270,000 Syrians have fled fighting in the northwest provinces of Idlib and Hama between government forces and rebels since mid-December, a senior UN aid official said today. Camps for the displaced are overstretched, forcing many to seek shelter in some 160 makeshift settlements in Idlib, assistant-secretary general for humanitarian affairs Ursula Mueller told the Security Council. "During these cold and wet winter months, many families have nothing else than improvised tents which they share with others," she said. With Russian military backing, Syrian troops launched an offensive in late 2017 against jihadists and allied groups in Idlib, the last province still fully outside the government's control in the nearly seven-year war. "Airstrikes and fighting in southern Idlib and northern Hama have resulted in over 270,000 displacements since December 15," said Mueller. At least 16 hospitals and clinics were attacked in Idlib last month alone, she added. Further ..
Top US diplomat visits Kabul, reaffirms support to Afghanistan
A top American diplomat today visited Kabul to reaffirm the Trump administration's strong support to Afghanistan after a series of horrific terrorist attacks in the war-torn country, according to an official statement. On January 20, Taliban men armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide vests attacked the landmark Intercontinental Hotel and killed around 25 people, going from room to room searching for foreigners during the more than 12-hour ordeal. The hotel attack was followed by a Taliban-claimed ambulance bombing on January 27 in the Afghan capital that claimed over 100 lives. Deputy Secretary of State John J Sullivan's visit to Kabul underscores the US' commitment to working with the government and the Afghan people to bring peace, security, and sustained economic growth to Afghanistan and the region, the official statement said. "Sullivan held meetings in Kabul to reaffirm the United States' support for Afghanistan at this difficult time, and discuss joint efforts to ...
Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian in West Bank: ministry
Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager today in the occupied West Bank in a village north of Ramallah, the Palestinian health ministry said. It said the 16-year-old was hit in the head during clashes with soldiers, and named him as Laith Abu Naim. The ministry said he was shot in the village of Mugheer. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military confirmed that "violent riots are taking place in this area and burning tyres and stones were thrown at the soldiers". She said she was unable to confirm that any Palestinians had been hit by gunfire. Nineteen Palestinians have been killed since US President Donald Trump's controversial declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6, most of them in clashes with Israeli forces. One Israeli, a settler in the West Bank, has also been killed since then.
700 kg ganja seized, 7 held
The Special Task Force (STF) and local police today seized 700 kg of ganja worth Rs 50 lakh from a truck and arrested seven persons here in Bihar's Katihar district. Acting on a tip off, personnel of the STF and local police searched vehicles in Hajipur locality under Sahayak police station of the town and seized the contraband from a truck, Superintendent of Police Sidharth Mohan Jain said. The packets of ganja were hidden behind the driver's seat, the SP said adding that police have also seized the truck, and Rs 36,000 in cash. The drug was being transported to Vaishali district of Bihar from Tripura's capital Agartala via Katihar, he said. Of the seven arrested persons, four hailed from Vaishali district and three from Tripura.
NATO's Afghan mission backtracks after classifying Taliban
The US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan admitted today it had mistakenly classified data on the Taliban that had been public, citing "a human error in labeling," and said it would no longer withhold the information. The acknowledgment came after the US government's office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published a report saying the US military had barred it from disclosing how much of Afghanistan is under Taliban control. Such a restriction would have represented a significant break from past accountability amid mounting security woes in the war-torn nation. But after the report came out, Navy Captain Tom Gresback, a spokesman for NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said the intent was not to withhold or classify information which was available in prior reports. "A human error in labeling occurred," Gresback said in a statement. "The classification system, because it incorporates both a NATO and US nomenclature, can be
ISI behind Kabul terrorist attacks: Afghan Ambassador
Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mahmoud Saikal on Monday accused Pakistan's premier intelligence network, ISI of training one of the Kabul attackers on Tuesday."Abdul Qahar, the father of one of the terrorists involved in last week's attack on Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, concedes his son was trained in Balochistan province by the ISI," Saikal wrote on Twitter.The Taliban claimed responsibilities for the attack. Pakistan had denied its involvement. A mid-level diplomat at the Afghan embassy in the US alleged the attack was planned by Pakistan."A clear proof that the attack on the hotel was planned in a madrasa on Pakistan's soil. Abdul Qahar, the father of one of the suicide attackers, is an eyewitness of the story," wrote Majeed Qarar, the cultural attache at the embassy of Afghanistan on the micro-blogging site."The night vision goggles found with Taliban attackers in Maiwand's Afghan National Army (ANA) base were military grade goggles (Not sold to the
Customers & bank employees foil loot bid by armed miscreants
Customers and bank employees today foiled a loot bid by six armed miscreants who barged into a bank here, police said. The incident happened at UCO Bank's Muzaffara bazar branch and the robbers injured two employees of the bank while retreating, the police said. Begusarai Sadar Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mithilesh Kumar said around half a dozen armed miscreants barged into Muzaffara bazar branch of UCO Bank under the jurisdiction of Veerpur police station area today afternoon and tried to loot cash from the branch. Customers and bank employees raised an alarm, put up a resistance and stopped the miscreants from looting the bank, the DSP said. The miscreants shot at bank's deputy manager Vijay Kumar Singh and injured another employee of the bank Sujeet Kumar by hitting him with the butt of a pistol after they failed to loot the bank, the DSP said, adding, the miscreants also damaged the hard disk of the CCTV cameras installed so that they could not be ...
Stepped up violence alternately claimed by IS and Taliban
Analysts say the Islamic State group and the Taliban are competing to take credit for a horrific spike in violence in Afghanistan over the last month. They say both insurgent groups are growing in strength as security forces wither under their relentless attacks and a feuding government struggles to win over citizens. Still, the two insurgent groups embrace different agendas and are at war with each other as well as the Afghan government. Recent large-scale attacks, which have included both suicide bombings and small weapons fire, have left nearly 200 people dead and hundreds more wounded. Afghan Security Forces seem powerless against the onslaught.
India, Lanka need to discuss fisheries issue: Envoy
Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to India Chitranganee Wagiswara on Tuesday advised the governments of India and Sri Lanka discuss the fisheries issues.Wagiswara's statement comes days after Colombo said the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Amendment) Bill would be detrimental to the traditional fishing rights of Indians."Fisheries issue is something for which we need to talk to each other. We have to speak to each other and have fisheries talks. Our fisheries ministers visit each other and a joint working group is discussing how to sort this issue," the Sri Lankan envoy told ANI.Meanwhile, Managing Director, Sri Lanka Tourism promotion bureau, Sutheash Balasubramanian told ANI "Fisheries issues are different we need to talk each other. Fishermen from Tamil Nadu area coming for fishing in our territory naturally our fishermen are issue over it and their livelihood as well.""Solution is to talk to each other to see how we can sort out the issue and hope we do it soon," he added.On Jan 26,
Anil Chauhan appointed as new DGMO
Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday took over as the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO).An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Lieutenant General Chauhan has succeeded AK Bhatt.Lieutenant General Chauhan was commissioned into the 11th Gorkha Rifles in 1981.He had served as the United Nations military observer in Angola and also in various capacities at Army headquarters.He has held several command, staff and instructional appointments during his career and has experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast India.
Taliban threatens more violence after US rejects talks
The Taliban on Tuesday threatened the US with more violence and bloodshed after Washington ruled out peace talks with the rebels for unleashing a wave of carnage on Afghanistan.
Landmine blast kills 8 family members in Pakistan
A landmine explosion today ripped through a car killing at least eight members of a family, including two minor girls, near northwest Pakistan's restive tribal Kurram agency bordering Afghanistan, officials said. The family was travelling from Muqbal area near the border to attend a funeral when their vehicle hit the landmine killing three women, two minor girls and three men on the spot. The car was completely destroyed in the blast, hospital sources were quoted as saying by the Express Tribune. One person was also injured in the blast. The injured was shifted to a District Hospital in Parachinar for medical assistance. The security officials have cordoned off the area and started search operation. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Kurram is one of the seven districts along the Afghan border in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which have long been home to local and foreign Islamist militants. Islamic militants operate in the ...