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Kurds issue new call to arms against Islamic State in Syria
Fiji's military strongman proclaims victory in poll
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Bomb kills 3 cops near Egypt’s foreign ministry
Scots ‘tricked’ out of independence
special to the tribune John F Kerry, US Secretary of State
Rajapaksa suffers blow in provincial elections
Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan President
British Empire loses trial in UK Supreme Court!
World leaders to gather at UN in the shadow of IS, Ebola
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Kurds issue new call to arms against Islamic State in Syria
Suruc (Turkey), September 21 About 70,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since Friday as Islamic State fighters seized dozens of villages close to the border and advanced on the frontier town of Ayn al-Arab, known as Kobani in Kurdish. Carol Batchelor, the United Nations refugee agency's (UNHCR) representative in Turkey, said the real figure may be more than 100,000 as Turkey faces one of the biggest influxes of refugees from Syria since the war there began more than three years ago. "I don't think in the last three and a half years we have seen 100,000 cross in two days. So this is a bit of a measure of how this situation is unfolding and the very deep fear people have about the circumstances inside Syria, and for that matter Iraq." A Kurdish commander on the ground said Islamic State had advanced to within 15 km of Kobani, whose strategic location has been blocking the radical Sunni Muslim militants from consolidating their gains across northern Syria. A Kurdish politician from Turkey who visited Kobani on Saturday said locals had told him Islamic State fighters were beheading people as they went from village to village. "Rather than a war this is a genocide operation ... They are going into the villages and cutting the heads of one or two people and showing them to the villagers," Ibrahim Binici, a deputy for Turkey's pro-Kurdish HDP, told Reuters. "It is truly a shameful situation for humanity," he said, calling for international intervention. Five of his fellow MPs planned a hunger strike outside U.N. offices in Geneva to press for action, he said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's civil war, said clashes overnight killed 10 insurgents, bringing the number of Islamic State fighters killed to at least 39. At least 27 Kurdish fighters have died. Islamic State has seized at least 64 villages around Kobani since Tuesday, using heavy arms and thousands of fighters. It executed at least 11 civilians on Saturday, including at least two boys, the Observatory said. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a rebel group which has spent three decades fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, renewed a call for the youth of Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast to rise up and rush to save Kobani. "Supporting this heroic resistance is not just a debt of honour of the Kurds but all Middle East people. Just giving support is not enough, the criterion must be taking part in the resistance," it said in a statement on its website. — Reuters ‘New terror group poses more threat to US, Europe’
Alan Henning's wife pleads with ISIS to release him
The wife of a British taxi driver, Alan Henning, who has been held hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has reportedly pleaded the militant group to "see it in their hearts" and release him. In a statement released through the Foreign Office, Alan's wife, Barbara, said he left his job as a taxi driver to drive a convoy all the way to Syria with his Muslim colleagues. She added that he was taken hostage by the ISIS last December while he was driving "an ambulance full of food and water" to be delivered to those in need, reported the BBC.
70,000 Syrian refugees cross into Turkey in last 24 hours
A report has revealed that officials said about 70,000 refugees, mostly Syrian Kurds, have crossed into Turkey in the last 24 hours following advances by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Syria. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus confirmed on Saturday that the number of Syrian refugees who have entered Turkey has exceeded 60,000, reported the BBC. Turkey, which shares its border with Iraq and Syria, opened its frontier to the Syrians fleeing the Kurdish town of Kobane on Friday. |
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Fiji's military strongman proclaims victory in poll
Suva, September 21 Following the first democratic election in eight years, he pledged to govern "for the well-being of all Fijians", saying the country had "embraced a new future" after a series of coups sparked by ethnic tensions that rocked the islands. Although the final count from Wednesday's election has not been released, provisional results showed Bainimarama's Fiji First Party heading towards a clear victory. "My fellow Fijians, as you know Fiji First has won the general elections and I will lead the new government to serve the nation," he told thousands of cheering supporters gathered in a sports stadium. "I give you my absolute promise that we will govern for the well-being of all Fijians," Bainimarama said. The 60-year-old Bainimarama seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006 saying he needed to end widespread corruption and root out entrenched discrimination against ethnic Indians, who make up about 40% of the 900,000 population. — AFP |
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Bomb kills 3 cops near Egypt’s foreign ministry
Cairo, September 21 The blast, the worst attack in Cairo for months, killed two police lieutenant colonels and a recruit, according to the foreign ministry. Ajnad Misr, the Islamist militant group that carried out the last significant attack in Cairo, claimed responsibility for the blast in a statement posted on their official Twitter account. "This new operation shows we can penetrate and reach the vicinity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs...to destroy the officers of the criminal security agencies and make them taste some of what they have made Muslims taste," it said. "Operations of retribution and revenge by this blessed group will not stop," said the group, whose name means Soldiers of Egypt. One of the police officers killed in Sunday's blast, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Mahmoud Abu Sareeaa, was a critical witness in a trial of Morsi related to a 2011 mass prison break, court and security sources told Reuters. It was not clear if he was targeted or just happened to be at the site of the explosion. — Reuters
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Scots ‘tricked’ out of independence
Manchester, September 21
Salmond, who is stepping down as leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) after failing to persuade Scots to leave the United Kingdom, accused Britain's three main political parties of winning last Thursday's referendum by 55-45 percent by making a false promise of new powers. "I think the vow was something cooked up in desperation for the last few days of the campaign and I think everyone in Scotland now realises that," said Salmond, referring to a pledge by Prime Minister David Cameron and other leaders before the vote to rapidly expand Scottish autonomy in the event of a "No". "It is the people who were persuaded to vote no who were misled, who were gulled, who were tricked effectively," Salmond told BBC TV, saying he thought the last-minute promise had swayed the referendum's outcome. If Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum pledged by Cameron in 2017, Salmond suggested that independence-minded Scots might push for another breakaway vote. All three main parties are united in wanting to transfer new powers, over tax, spending and welfare, to Scotland. But with eight months before a national election, Cameron's Conservatives have become embroiled in a rancorous row with the opposition Labour party about when and how that might happen. The dispute overshadowed the start of Labour's annual conference in Manchester, the last before next year's national election, where leader Ed Miliband is hoping to shift the political debate onto his vision for a society where wealth and opportunity is shared more equally. Instead, Miliband was forced to clarify his position on more powers for Scotland and found himself engaged in what many voters are likely to perceive as a grubby party political spat. Cameron, under pressure from some of his own lawmakers who represent English constituencies and whose own electoral hopes are threatened by the UK Independence Party (UKIP), last Friday suddenly linked new powers for Scotland to agreeing new constitutional arrangements for the rest of Britain, including England, at the same time. — Reuters
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US praises Afghan unity deal
Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington The US Administration has praised the decision of Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, both political rivals, to agree to the formation of a national unity government in Afghanistan. The two signed a deal in Kabul on Sunday under which Ghani becomes President, while Abdullah will nominate a CEO who will have powers similar to a prime minister. The deal follows months of political wrangling after both candidates alleged election fraud in the vote held in April and June. US Secretary of State John F Kerry praised the signing of the deal as a “moment of extraordinary statesmanship.” “These two men have put people of Afghanistan first, and they have ensured that the first peaceful democratic transition in the history of their country begins with the national unity,” he said. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said signing of the agreement “helps bring closure to Afghanistan’s political crisis, and restores confidence in the way forward.” He said the US supports this agreement and stands ready to work with the next administration in Kabul to ensure its success. US Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham and the United Nations chief in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, worked hard behind the scenes to get Ghani and Abdullah to agree to a deal that would avoid a political crisis in the country where the Taliban have made a steady comeback. Earnest said the agreement marked an important opportunity for unity and increased stability in Afghanistan. “Respect for the democratic process is the only viable path for Afghanistan to continue its progress toward a secure and stable future, and ensure the continued support of the US and the international community,” he said. Afghanistan’s current President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a bilateral security agreement he negotiated with the US. Both Ghani and Abdullah have said they would sign such an agreement. The agreement allows US and NATO troops to remain in Afghanistan as advisers and counterterrorism specialists after all combat forces withdraw. Obama has decided to leave nearly 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan after 2014.
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Rajapaksa suffers blow in provincial elections
Colombo, September 21 The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of Rajapaksa retained the Uva or the south-eastern provincial council by securing 19 out of 34 seats that went to the polls yesterday, but his party's popularity dropped by an unprecedented 22.98 percentage points. The vote percentage of the main opposition United National Party's (UNP) almost doubled, with the party winning 13 seats. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said his party is ready to face a national election in January next year or even earlier. "It is the ruling party which published that a Presidential election would be held in January next year and we urge them to hold the election in January or even before," Attanayake was quoted as saying by the Dailymirror. He said the UNP was ready to face any national election be it a Presidential or a Parliamentary elections. — PTI |
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British Empire loses trial in UK Supreme Court!
London, Septembr 21 The Indo-British Heritage Trust organised the debate as the inaugural event to mark the 400th anniversary of formal relations between India and Britain back in 1614. The motion before the house was, “The Indian sub-continent benefited more than it lost from the experience of British Colonialism”. The team against the motion, eloquently led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and including fellow authors William Dalrymple and Nick Robins, clinched a decisive victory. “No wonder the sun never set on the British Empire, even God couldn't trust the English in the dark,” said Tharoor as part of his arguments which focused on the economic ruin of India at the hands of the East India Company. “The might of Britain was built in the 18th and 19th centuries on the ruination of India ," he said. Dalrymple, author of “White Mughals’ and “The Last Mughal”, echoed the sentiment from the perspective of a prospering Mughal Empire which “haemorrhaged” under the British. “It is impossible even to consider the motion seriously without noting how far behind the West was for 90% of our history...the British went to India to get a bit of action in the Mughal Empire which was then richer than anything London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Milan put together...Britain, with its mastery of cannon and artillery, drained India and the money came to Europe," he said. — PTI
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World leaders to gather at UN in the shadow of IS, Ebola
United Nations, September 21 There is little hope the 193-nation UN General Assembly will achieve much in the annual five-day marathon of speeches. But on the sidelines, US officials plan to lobby allies for pledges of concrete military assistance to help defeat Islamic State, whose hardline Sunni Islamist fighters have taken over swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said more than 140 heads of state or government will attend the assembly's annual "general debate", which begins on Wednesday and ends September 30. He noted an unusually large number of serious conflicts: in the Middle East, Africa and Ukraine. "The world is facing multiple crises," Ban told reporters. "All have featured atrocious attacks on civilians, including children," he said. "All have dangerous sectarian, ethnic or tribal dimensions. And many have seen sharp divisions within the international community itself over the response." UN officials and delegates say the top issue for Western and Arab leaders is the rampage of Islamic State militants, who are blamed for a wave of sectarian violence, beheadings and massacres of civilians. "Together, we will address the horrendous violence in Syria and Iraq, where conflict and governance failures have provided a breeding ground for extremist groups," Ban said. US President Barack Obama is expected to use the UN podium on Wednesday to call for more countries to join his coalition of more than 40 nations to prevent IS from expanding its territory. The United States has been bombing IS targets in Iraq for the past month but has yet to bomb Syria. In addition to speeches by Obama, Rouhani and other high-profile leaders, other important attendees making their UN General Assembly debut this week include Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Indian PM Narendra Modi. On Wednesday, Obama will chair a rare summit meeting of the UN Security Council on the problem of foreign fighters. He last chaired a council summit in 2009 on eradicating nuclear weapons. At Wednesday's meeting, the council plans to adopt a resolution demanding countries "prevent and suppress" recruitment and travel of foreign fighters to join extremist militant groups like IS by ensuring it is a serious criminal offence under domestic laws. Foreign fighters in IS are believed to be the group's cruelest. UN member states will also tackle the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Obama and other leaders will also attend a high-level meeting on the exponentially worsening hemorrhagic fever outbreak that has devastated Liberia, Sierra Leone and other countries in the region. The meeting comes just after the Security Council declared Ebola a "threat to international peace and security". — Reuters Tackling a host of crises
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Pak ‘developing’ sea-based, short-range N-weapons Imran’s Karachi protest rally attracts thousands Egypt to host post-Gaza war talks this week HK students to boycott classes in democracy battle |
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Kurdish militants in Turkey have issued a new call to arms to defend a border town in northern Syria from advancing Islamic State
fighters.
Suva, September 21
A bomb blast beside Egypt's foreign ministry killed three policemen on Sunday, including a key witness in a trial of deposed President Mohamed
Morsi. The blast, the worst attack in Cairo for months, killed two police lieutenant colonels and a recruit, according to the foreign
ministry.
The US Administration has praised the decision of Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, both political rivals, to agree to the formation of a national unity government in Afghanistan.
The two signed a deal in Kabul on Sunday under which Ghani becomes President, while Abdullah will nominate a CEO who will have powers similar to a prime minister.
Colombo, September 21
World leaders gather in New York this week to tackle a host of crises: the violence Islamic State militants are wreaking in Iraq and Syria, the exponential spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa and deadlocked negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.
