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Pro-Russia gunmen seize offices in Ukraine
Thai PM rejects Oppn’s talks offer
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Pak army targets militant hideouts
8 Indians held with guns in Nepal
12 killed, 31 hurt in Qatar restaurant blast
Significant rights abuses by Indian police: US report UK, US spies ‘stored’ Yahoo webcam images
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Pro-Russia gunmen seize offices in Ukraine
Simferopol, February 27
The moves pose an immediate challenge to Ukraine's new authorities as they sought to set up an interim government for the country, whose population is divided in loyalties between Russia and the West. Some 150,000 Russian soldiers carried out military exercises and fighter jets patrolled the border. A respected Russian news organisation, meanwhile, reported that President Viktor Yanukovych, who was driven out of Kiev by a three-month protest movement, was staying in a Kremlin sanatorium just outside Moscow. "I have to ask Russia to ensure my personal safety from extremists," Yanukovych said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies today. Shortly after, the same three Russian news agencies quoted an unnamed Russian official saying that Yanukovych's request for protection "was satisfied on the territory of Russia." Oleksandr Turchynov, who stepped in as acting president after Yanukovych's flight, condemned the takeover of government buildings in Crimea as a "crime against the government of Ukraine." He warned that any move by Russian troops off of their base in Crimea "will be considered a military aggression." "Unidentified people with automatic weapons, explosives and grenades have taken over the governmental buildings and the Parliament building in the autonomous region of Crimea," he said. — AP
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Thai PM rejects Oppn’s talks offer
Bangkok, February 27 The charges relate to the controversial rice subsidy scheme that paid farmers above the market price and has run out of funds, adding to Yingluck's woes as farmers demand their money. The charges sparked speculation of her ouster if the anti-graft body delivers a ruling against her. The 46-year-old premier faces an impeachment vote in the upper house of the parliament and a possible five-year ban from politics if convicted. Meanwhile, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who since weeks has been refusing to hold any form of talks with the government, today offered to hold one-on-one talks with the caretaker premier on the condition that this is beamed live. — PTI
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Pak army targets militant hideouts
Peshawar, February 27
While announcing the country's maiden National Security Policy, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan yesterday said that every terror attack would be met with a military strike on the headquarters of the militants. He said the decision to hit the militant hideouts was consistent with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's statement that violence and dialogue cannot go side by side. The PML-N government and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were in peace dialogue with each other to end the decade-long violence that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives. But the government was forced to suspend the talks after the beheading of 23 Frontier Corps personnel who were in the custody of the Taliban since 2010. The military has launched a wave of aerial strikes, using both fighter jets and combat helicopters, in the lawless tribal areas killing at least 100 terrorists since last week. The Interior Minister has made it clear that stalled dialogue process will be resumed only after the end of terror activities from the other side. Army chief Genl Raheel Sharif had yesterday vowed to defeat "every threat" as per the aspirations of the people. He reiterated the resolve of armed forces and said in unequivocal terms that with the backing of the Nation, "we will accomplish our mission of defeating every threat to our motherland in accordance with the expectation of the people of Pakistan", a statement released by the military here said. — PTI
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8 Indians held with guns in Nepal
Kathmandu, February 27 Six Indian nationals were arrested in Biratnagar, an industrial town of eastern Nepal, and weapons were seized from them, police officials said. Those arrested men were from Bhagalpur district of Bihar. Five 7.65 mm weapons and a 9 mm pistol were seized from them. In a separate incident in Dhanusha district, Nabin Kumar Singh and Rita Singh from Sitamarhi in Bihar were arrested with some rounds of pistol ammunition, the
police said. — PTI |
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Democrats back Hillary for 2016 polls
Washington, February 27 Given a list of candidates to say "run", "not run", or no opinion, 53 per cent of Democrats said "yes" to seeing a bid from at least one other, besides Clinton. The potential candidates drawing the most interest after Clinton are Vice President Joe Biden, former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. By comparison only 29 per cent of all Democrats picked 66-year-old Clinton exclusively of the candidates listed, without giving an affirmative to anyone else. While Democrats appear overwhelmingly eager for a Clinton candidacy, the poll suggested that the Republican field, at least at this early stage, is far more muddled, with no potential candidate garnering majority enthusiasm for a presidential run. No major candidates in either party have yet declared their candidacy, but several have taken steps indicating that they are seriously considering a run. Male and female Democrats expressed similar levels of interest in Hillary Clinton. A potential Clinton candidacy also drew the strongest support among self-described independents, with 52 per cent saying they hoped she would run. The nationwide poll is based on telephone interviews conducted with 515 Democrats, 519 Republicans and 550 independents. Each has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus six percentage points. — PTI Overwhelming support
According to the New York Times CBS poll on Wednesday, a whopping 82 per cent of Democrats say they want Hillary Clinton to run for President and only 13 per cent
do not want to see the former secretary of state again |
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12 killed, 31 hurt in Qatar restaurant blast
Doha, February 27 The blast tore through the restaurant, which is attached to a mall in Doha and next to a petrol station, according to footage aired on Qatar Television. "It was a huge explosion," public security chief Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khleifi told a press conference, adding that the gas tank had caught on fire before it exploded. Footage showed paramedics carrying a covered body past rubble strewn some 50 metres (yards) from the building, whose roof had caved in. And pictures posted on Twitter showed several damaged cars. A witness said police had cordoned off the area, and firefighters were busy clear debris. In a May 2012 blaze at a kindergarten in a major Doha shopping mall, 19 people died, including 13 children. — AFP
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Significant rights abuses by Indian police: US report Washington, February 27 "The most significant human rights problems were police and security force abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture, and rape; widespread corruption at all levels of government, leading to denial of justice; and separatist, insurgent, and societal violence," said the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by Secretary of State John Kerry. Other human rights problems included disappearances, poor prison conditions that were frequently life threatening, arbitrary arrest and detention, and lengthy pretrial detention, the report said. It noted that the judiciary remained overburdened, and court backlogs led to lengthy delays or the denial of justice. Authorities continued to infringe on citizens' privacy rights, the report said adding that the law in some states restricts religious conversion, and there were reports of arrests but no reports of convictions under those laws and religion-based societal violence remained a problem, it said. Forced labour and bonded labour were widespread while child labour, including forced child labour, was also a serious problem, it added. In its report the State Department said that the government made some progress in cases that seek to hold police and security officials accountable for killings during the Gujarat riots
in 2002. — PTI
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UK, US spies ‘stored’ Yahoo webcam images london, February 27 GCHQ files leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden reportedly revealed how the Optic Nerve programme collected still images of webcam chats. In one six-month period in 2008, the British spy agency collected webcam imagery from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts around the world, the Guardian said. Yahoo, which was chosen because its webcam system was known to be used by GCHQ targets, expressed outrage at the reported surveillance. "We were not aware of nor would we condone this reported activity," a spokeswoman for the US technology firm told AFP in an email statement. "This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy that is completely unacceptable. — AFP
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26/11: Pakistani sleuths testify against LeT man New Jersey Sikhs meet officials over hate crimes China declares national day to mark victory over Japan Indian jailed for threatening to post nude pictures Five killed, 35 injured in China bus fire Car bomb kills 11 in Somalia Images of India from Scottish family’s album to be sold Indian-origin banker honoured by US museum
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Russia granted protection to the fugitive Ukrainian president, Russian media reported today, as dozens of heavily armed gunmen seized control of government buildings in Ukraine's Crimea region and raised the Russian flag.
