The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Nigeria’s Boko Haram threatens to sell schoolgirls
Abuja, May 5
The Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility on Monday for the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria last month and threatened to "sell them in the market", the French news agency AFP reported, citing a video.

A video obtained by AFP shows the leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, delivering a speech. AFP

Adams urges calm after release
Belfest, May 5
Northern Ireland police released Gerry Adams from custody on Sunday and the Sinn Fein leader sought to calm fears that his four-day detention could destabilise the British province by pledging his support to the peace process. The police arrested Adams on Wednesday over the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, a killing he repeated that he was "innocent of any part" in.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (C) speak to the media in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Sunday. AP/PTI

Hindu households, temple attacked in Bangladesh
Dhaka, May 5
A mob of nearly 3,000 attacked Hindu households and a temple in eastern Bangladesh after two youths from the community allegedly insulted Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. The police today arrested 17 persons, including the principal of Bagmara Madrasa, for the attack on the temple and over two dozen households at Homna in Comilla district, about 100 km south east of Dhaka, last week.

Celebrities boycott hotels owned by Brunei sultan
Kuala Lumpur, May 5
Celebrities, including Virgin group founder Richard Branson, have vowed to boycott a hotel chain linked to Brunei's sultan after he introduced a controversial Islamic penal code in his country.

Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (pic) announced on April 30 that he would push ahead with the sharia law that will eventually include tough penalties such as death by stoning.

Cargo ship sinks, 11 missing near Hong Kong
Hong Kong, May 5
Authorities launched an air and sea rescue operation today to find 11 crew members from a Chinese cargo ship after it collided with another vessel and sank just outside Hong Kong's teeming waters. Four helicopters and more than 20 ships from China and Hong Kong were deploying to the waters near Po Toi, an island lying at the edge of Hong Kong's territory where the ship sank in the early hours of the morning, officials said. "Two cargo ships collided and one of them sank," a police spokeswoman said.
Aerial footage of the scene shown on Hong Kong television showed an oil slick on the surface of the sea where the ship is believed to have gone down. — AFP

Indian-origin youths brutally attacked in UK
London, May 5
A 23-year-old Indian-origin accountant and his friend were brutally assaulted with baseball bats and tyre irons after ambushing the family outside a popular Indian restaurant in Britain. Preet Panesar suffered a shattered eye-socket after being bludgeoned by a gang of seven men on the car park of the restaurant in Birmingham. His friend, Jagdeep Sira, was also rushed to Edgbaston's Queen Elizabeth Hospital after his kneecaps were smashed. Panesar's elder brother, 29-year-old Hardep managed to escape, leading his wife Shelly and Jagdeep's sister, Jaspreet, to safety. Police say officers are currently trawling through CCTV from cameras in the area on Wednesday night as they try to track down the culprits. — PTI

	Ukraine special forces suffer casualties in Slaviansk clash Pro-Moscow groups see Kiev promoting ‘fascist’ groups Slaviansk, May 5 Four Ukrainian paramilitary police were killed in fighting on Monday with pro-Russian separatists near the rebel stronghold of Slaviansk, the Interior Ministry said, in renewed violence Kiev is struggling to stop across the east. The sound of an air siren could be heard in the centre of Slaviansk and a church bell rang in the main square. Gunfire seemed to be coming closer to the centre of the town. Rebel fighters ambushed Ukrainian forces early on Monday, triggering heavy fighting on the outskirts of the city of 118,000, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said. A Reuters correspondent said rebels with at least two separatist armoured personnel carriers fled the area, where almost continuous gunfire had been heard since morning. "In the morning, a squad in the anti-terrorist operation was hit by an ambush by terrorist groups. They are using heavy weapons," Avakov said in a statement from near Slaviansk. Kiev authorities describe pro-Russian separatists, who have seized control of a string of towns across the east of the country, as "terrorists". The rebels for their part say they are defending Russian-speaking areas of the east against Ukrainian "fascists" trying to root out Russian influence in the country. Cars ferried the wounded from the sites of the clashes. There were fatalities on the side of the separatists though no figures were available. One civilian woman was hit in the head by a bullet, her sister told Reuters at the hospital. Her husband sat next to his sister and wept. The uprisings began when President Viktor Yanukovich, a supporter of closer ties with Moscow, was toppled by demonstrations led by pro-Western figures in February. — Reuters European peace at risk, warns Russia Moscow: Russia warned on Monday that failure to halt the escalating unrest in Ukraine would threaten peace across Europe, and accused Ukrainian ultra-nationalists of rights violations on a mass scale. "Joint efforts by the Ukrainian people and the international community should as soon as possible put an end to racism, xenophobia, ethnic intolerance, (and) the glorification of the Nazis and their Bandera accomplices," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a report. Ukrainian, German leaders discuss Kiev crisis Kiev: Ukrainian acting President Alexandr Turchynov discussed the ongoing crisis in his country with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a telephonic conversation on Monday, the presidential press service said in a statement. During the phone talk, the two leaders raised the issue of Ukraine's ‘anti-terror’ operation in the eastern regions aimed at dislodging pro-Russian activists who have seized a number of government buildings there, Xinhua reported.
	Nigeria’s Boko Haram threatens to sell schoolgirls Abuja, May 5 The Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility on Monday for the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria last month and threatened to "sell them in the market", the French news agency AFP reported, citing a video. Boko Haram on April 14 stormed an all-girl secondary school in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, then packed the teenagers, who had been taking exams, onto trucks and disappeared into a remote area along the border with Cameroon. The brazenness and sheer brutality of the school attack shocked Nigerians, who have been growing accustomed to hearing about atrocities in an increasingly bloody five-year-old Islamist insurgency in the north. "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in the video, according to AFP, which is normally the first media outlet to get hold of Shekau's videos. It did not immediately give further details. Boko Haram, now seen as the main security threat to Africa's leading energy producer, is growing bolder and extending its reach. The kidnapping occurred on the same day as a bomb blast, also blamed on Boko Haram, that killed 75 people on the edge of Abuja and marked the first attack on the capital in two years. The militants, who say they are fighting to reinstate a mediaeval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, repeated that bomb attack more than two weeks later in almost exactly the same spot, killing 19 people and wounding 34 in the suburb of Nyanya. — Reuters
	Adams urges calm after release Sinn Fein leader determined to keep peace, supports police Belfest, May 5 Northern Ireland police released Gerry Adams from custody on Sunday and the Sinn Fein leader sought to calm fears that his four-day detention could destabilise the British province by pledging his support to the peace process. The police arrested Adams on Wednesday over the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, a killing he repeated that he was "innocent of any part" in. His detention had raised tensions among Northern Ireland's power-sharing government and its fragile peace. After Sinn Fein pointed the finger at "dark forces" in the police service and their Protestant partners in government accused it of a "thuggish attempt" at blackmail, a calm Adams toned down the rhetoric and said he supported the police. "My resolve remains as strong as ever, that is to build the peace, not to let this put us off. It's our future. The past is the past," Adams told a news conference attended by about 150 cheering supporters in a hotel in west Belfast. "The old guard which is against change, whether it is in the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) leadership, within elements of Unionism or the far fringes of self-proclaimed, pseudo-republicans, they can't win." "I'm an Irish republican. I want to live in a peaceful Ireland. I've never dissociated myself from the IRA and I never will, but I am glad that I and others have created a peaceful and democratic way forward for everyone. The IRA is gone, finished." Adams' arrest over the killing of McConville was among the most significant in Northern Ireland since a 1998 peace deal ended decades of tit-for-tat killings by Irish Catholic nationalists and mostly Protestant pro-British loyalists. In the predominantly Protestant Sandy Row area of Belfast, the police said they had to deal with some disorder when a number of petrol bombs and stones were thrown. Nobody was believed to have been injured, a police spokeswoman said. — Reuters
	Hindu households, temple attacked in Bangladesh Dhaka, May 5 A mob of nearly 3,000 attacked Hindu households and a temple in eastern Bangladesh after two youths from the community allegedly insulted Prophet Muhammad on Facebook. The police today arrested 17 persons, including the principal of Bagmara Madrasa, for the attack on the temple and over two dozen households at Homna in Comilla district, about 100 km south east of Dhaka, last week. “We so far arrested 17 persons and some of them made confessional statements regarding the attack. A manhunt is underway to arrest the rest of the culprits,” police chief of Homna Aslam Shikdar said on phone. He said suspected mastermind of the attack Nazrul Islam is still on the run. The local police chief said steps were underway to put the accused on trial on charges of attacking the Hindu households and the temple under a planned manner. A makeshift police camp was setup at the village where the incident took place on April 26 following rumours that two Hindu youths had allegedly insulted the prophet in a Facebook post. Earlier reports said culprits mobilised attackers mostly belonging to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and several other ultra right groups who ransacked the temple and the nearby households and looted some valuables. “The attack continued for some 20 minutes but during the time, the culprits preferred not to injure anyone...our initial investigation found it was a pre-planned attack as they used loudspeakers and distributed leaflets to mobiles the attack,” Shikdar said. People at the neighbourhood said nearly 3,000 attackers, mostly from outside the locality, staged the attack as the village elders were set to hold a meeting to resolve the issue of the alleged defamation of the prophet. Shikdar said police immediately rushed to the scene but reached the remote village only when the attackers had fled. — PTI The ‘trigger’ The incident took place on April 26 following rumours that two Hindu youths had allegedly insulted the prophet in a Facebook post The culprits mobilised attackers mostly belonging to fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and several other ultra-right groups who ransacked the temple and the nearby households and looted some valuables
	Celebrities boycott hotels owned by Brunei sultan Kuala Lumpur, May 5 Celebrities, including Virgin group founder Richard Branson, have vowed to boycott a hotel chain linked to Brunei's sultan after he introduced a controversial Islamic penal code in his country. Brunei's all-powerful Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announced last Wednesday that he would push ahead with the sharia law that will eventually include tough penalties such as death by stoning. Branson said on the weekend that Virgin employees would not stay at the Dorchester Collection luxury hotel chain, which includes The Dorchester in London and the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. "No @Virgin employee, nor our family, will stay at Dorchester Hotels until the Sultan abides by basic human rights," the British billionaire posted on Twitter. Others who have called for a boycott include comedian Stephen Fry, TV host Sharon Osbourne and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. The US group Feminist Majority Foundation said it had also pulled its annual Global Women's Rights Awards, co-chaired by Jay and Mavis Leno, from the Beverly Hills Hotel in protest. The Dorchester Collection is reportedly owned by the Brunei Investment Agency, a sovereign wealth fund under the oil-rich sultanate's Ministry of Finance. Brunei government officials could not immediately be reached for comment today. The sultan's move has sparked rare domestic criticism of the ruler on the Muslim-majority country's active social media, and international condemnation including from the UN's human rights office. — AFP