web analytics

ARY NEWS

AFP

  • Bangladesh charges five Islamists over blogger murder

    Police brought the charges — the first in any of the four murders this year — in a Dhaka magistrates court, which will now decide whether to open a trial or order further investigations.

    “We’ve submitted a charge sheet against five people for the murder of blogger Washiqur Rahman. The five were charged with murder,” Dhaka police spokesman Muntashirul Islam told AFP.

    “They include an organiser of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and four others who are its supporters,” he said, referring to a banned local Islamist militant group which police have blamed in all four murders.

    Washiqur Rahman, 27, an atheist blogger who wrote under a pen name on Facebook against religious fundamentalism — especially Islam and Islamist radicals — was killed near his home in Dhaka in March.

    Two of the suspects, students of a madrassa, were tackled by local transgenders — known as hijras in the sub-continent — as they tried to flee the scene. They held them until police made arrests.

    Rahman’s death came just weeks after a Bangladesh-born American atheist blogger was murdered in the Bangladeshi capital by machete-wielding attackers.

    “The organiser of ABT, Hasibur Rahman, also known as Abdullah, recruited the other four and trained them for nearly three months for the specific purpose of murdering Washiqur,” said additional deputy police commissioner Saiful Islam.

    “They rented a room in Dhaka’s Jatrabari neighbourhood for this purpose and carried out reconnaissance on Rahman for two days before the murder,” he said, adding three of the alleged killers were arrested by police, while Abdullah had absconded and the fifth was still at large.

    The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has come under fire for not doing enough to protect atheist and rationalist writers.

    In August police arrested seven suspected Islamists including a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin for the murder of two other atheist bloggers.

  • India press for Sri Lanka series win

    The hosts, set a tough victory target of 386, moved from their overnight score of 67-3 to 134-5 in their second innings by lunch on the final day at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

    Skipper Angelo Mathews kept Sri Lanka’s hopes alive of forcing a draw with an unbeaten 56. Kusal Perera was the other batsman at the crease on 12, with Sri Lanka needing 252 more runs to win.

    Sri Lanka added seven runs to their overnight score when they lost opener Kaushal Silva for 27, caught at mid-wicket by Cheteshwar Pujara attempting to hook Umesh Yadav.

    Left-hander Lahiru Thirimanne made 12 when an alert Lokesh Rahul at silly point pounced on the ball and held it on second attempt as a delivery from Ravichandran Ashwin found an outside edge.

    Mathews settled in to strike seven boundaries and remained the main hurdle in India’s bid to win their first Test series in Sri Lanka since 1993.

    Sri Lanka won the opening Test in Galle by 63 runs, but India drew level with a 278-run win in the second match at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo.

  • Turkish court arrests British journalists on ‘Islamic State terror’ charges

    The two British reporters and their Iraqi translator have been charged with “engaging in terror activity” on behalf of the Islamic State extremist group, the court in Diyarbakir said.

    A fourth suspect, their driver, was allowed to go free, an AFP correspondent reported from the court.

    They have now been taken to a jail in Diyarbakir ahead of an eventual trial. There were no further details over the evidence of their alleged links to IS jihadists.

    The reporters were detained last week covering unrest in southeast Turkey which has raged as the government presses a military offensive against Kurdish rebels.

    They had earlier been questioned by prosecutors who ruled to take the case to court.

    The four men, including the driver, had been held in police custody since their detention last week.

    Reports said that they were arrested after police acted on a tipoff and confiscated the footage shot during their reporting. All have denied the accusations in the presence of their lawyers.

    Vice News, an Internet-based channel which produces in-depth video reports, named the two British journalists in a statement as Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury.

    It also said that while sources initially said they were detained for filming without government accreditation, they had then been “accused of supporting the so-called Islamic State (IS).”

    A Vice News spokesperson said the journalists will “face unsubstantiated charges of terrorism”.

    The team had been visiting the region as the government wages a relentless campaign against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, with several local Kurdish officials arrested and accused of supporting declarations of self rule.

    Amnesty International has called for the release of the journalists, calling the accusations against them “outrageous and bizarre”.

    “This is yet another example of the Turkish authorities suppressing the reporting of stories that are embarrassing to them,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s Turkey Researcher.

    “They should release the journalists immediately,” he added.

    There has been growing concern about deteriorating press freedoms on Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in particular over the numbers of journalists facing legal proceedings on accusations of insulting top officials.

    “Authorities ought to protect —- not gag —- journalists on the job,” said Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

  • Pakistan insists Haqqani network almost wiped out

    The United States holds the Taliban-affiliated group responsible for some of the deadliest strikes of the insurgency, including the 2009 Camp Chapman bombing, which killed seven CIA agents.

    According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, US national security adviser Susan Rice told Pakistani leaders during a visit to Islamabad Sunday that attacks in Afghanistan by forces based in Pakistan were “absolutely unacceptable”.

    Future payments of hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid to Pakistan are also contingent on Islamabad taking effective action against the group.

    But at a press conference with visiting German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s advisor to the prime minister on foreign affairs, said most of the Haqqani network’s base had been destroyed by an army operation that began in the North Waziristan tribal district last year.

    “The infrastructure of Haqqani network in North Waziristan, which includes IED factories and a number of other capacities including communications, has been disrupted,” Aziz said.

    “So what is left here may be very limited compared to the capacity they still have in Afghanistan,” he added.

    “Our assessment is that their capacity in Afghanistan is much bigger, probably 80 to 90 percent compared to what is here and it is also being cleaned out as a part of our operations.”

    Steinmeier said he agreed with the assessment provided by his Pakistani counterpart and noted the sacrifices by Pakistani security forces in the fight against militants.

    “We have also seen that Pakistani security forces have paid a heavy toll in the military action. I do believe the assessment of Pakistan that the Haqqani network has been disrupted,” he said.

    Aziz’s comments come at a time of tense relations between Kabul and Islamabad, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently accusing Pakistan of sending “messages of war” following a spate of attacks on the capital city.

    Islamabad responded by summoning Afghanistan’s ambassador over what it called a “smear campaign”.

    The Haqqani network was set up in the 1970s as an Islamist force to oppose the Marxist regime in Kabul and its Soviet backers, and fought in the Afghan civil war.

    The Haqqanis are seen as close to hardline elements in Pakistani military intelligence and the group’s leader Sirajuddin Haqqani was last month named as one of two deputy leaders of the Afghan Taliban.

    Sirajuddin has long been one of Washington’s most important targets, and was joined last week by his brother Abdul Aziz Haqqani on the blacklist of “specially designated global terrorists”.

  • India need seven wickets to clinch test series against Sri Lanka

    Resuming on a precarious 21-3 in the bowler-dominated weather-hit contest, the visitors needed a string of cameos from their middle and lower-order batsmen to score 274 in their second innings.

    In their first test since batting great Kumar Sangakkara retired, Sri Lanka lost opener Upul Tharanga in the first over and were reeling at 67-3 at the close.

    Opener Kaushal Silva (24) and skipper Angelo Mathews (22) were at the crease with the hosts still needing 319 runs for an improbable victory.

    Having taken a 111-run first-innings lead, India consolidated their position in the first two sessions at the Sinhalese Sports Club to virtually bat Sri Lanka out of the contest.

    Dhammika Prasad bowled with characteristic hostility but Nuwan Pradeep drew first blood, dismissing India captain Virat Kohli (21) who again succumbed to his penchant for pushing at deliveries outside the off-stump.

    Rohit Sharma (50) looked more convincing, hitting Pradeep for back-to-back boundaries and bringing up his fourth test fifty before pulling a short Prasad delivery to fine leg.

    Stuart Binny (49) came up with a more eventful knock — playing some risky shots, surviving a stumping opportunity, being hit on the helmet by Prasad and eventually falling agonisingly short of his second test fifty.

    Debutant Naman Ojha (35) and Amit Mishra (39) frustrated Sri Lanka while Ravichandran Ashwin (58) registered his fifth test fifty before being the last man out.

    Sri Lanka wobbled early in their chase with Ishant Sharma dismissing Tharanga before Umesh Yadav sent back Dimuth Karunaratne — both caught by wicketkeeper Naman Ojha for nought.

    Ishant, who had an animated altercation with Prasad earlier in the day, also dismissed Dinesh Chandimal before giving the batsman a send-off, an act that earned him a 65 percent match fee fine in the first test.

  • Director of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream dies at 76

    Craven had been suffering from brain cancer and passed away at his home in Los Angeles.

    “It is with deep sadness we inform you that Wes Craven passed,” a family statement read. “Craven was surrounded by love, in the presence of his family.”

    Craven directed 1984’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” whose terrifying scarred villain Freddy Krueger left a defining imprint on the horror genre of that decade and was reprised in a string of sequels and a 2010 remake.

    Poster of 1984 movie “A Nightmare on Elm Street”

    Krueger, who wore a scruffy fedora and had a glove with razor blades attached to the fingers, would visit his victims in their dreams and slash them to death. The first film in the franchise included a character played by a then-unknown Johnny Depp.

    “He made nightmares seem real, the things that scare you in your subconscious can harm you, get to you,” said Richard Potter, a movie writer and producer who worked with Craven on the “Scream” franchise.

    Craven’s eye for young talent also saw him cast Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis in their first major roles, in the 1981 horror flick “Deadly Blessing” and a 1985 episode of “The Twilight Zone” respectively.

    Craven, who was known also for his writing and television work, directed several episodes of “The Twilight Zone” revival in the 1980s.

    During the 1990s he made three films in the hugely popular “Scream” series, with a fourth in 2011.

    Poster of Scream movie

    Tributes pour in

    Robert Englund, who played the infamous Krueger, said Hollywood had “lost a rare species in Wes Craven. The true Gentleman.”

    “RIP Wes Craven, my director, my friend. A brilliant, kind, gentle and very funny man. A sad day on Elm St and everywhere. I’ll miss him,” he tweeted.

    The first “Scream” movie featured Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Drew Barrymore, and told the story of a US high school targeted by a cloaked killer called Ghostface, who wears a ghoulish mask based on “The Scream” painting by Edvard Munch. “Today the world lost a great man, my friend and mentor, Wes Craven. My heart goes out to his family,” Cox tweeted.

    Legendary producer Bob Weinstein said he was “heartbroken” at the news of Craven’s death.

    “He was a consummate filmmaker and his body of work will live on forever,” Weinstein said in a statement to Variety magazine.

    Other tributes poured in.

    “My friend Wes has left us too soon,” said horror director John Carpenter, whose films include such classics as “The Thing” and an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Christine.”

    “He was truly an Old School director,” Carpenter said in a posting on Facebook.

    Potter praised Craven’s cinematic smarts and his ability to build characters.

    “He was such a genuinely nice guy,” Potter said. “You felt like you were talking to your favorite professor.”

    Ohio native Craven, who once taught English, had a graduate degree in philosophy and writing.

    “Thank you for being the kindest man, the gentlest man, and one of the smartest men I’ve known. Please say there’s a plot twist,” tweeted actress Rose McGowan, a “Scream” veteran.

    Craven is survived by his wife Iya Labunka, two children from a previous marriage, a stepdaughter and three grandchildren.

  • Afghan Taliban admit covering up Mullah Omar’s death

    The group had continued as recently as July to release official statements in the name of Omar, who had not been seen in public since the Taliban were toppled from power in Kabul in 2001.

    They confirmed on July 30 that he had died but did not say when, deepening internal divisions as many insurgents accused the leadership of covering up his death for two years.

    A Taliban statement Monday admitted for the first time that he died on April 23, 2013. The detail was buried in a biography of new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, Omar’s longtime deputy.

    “Several key members of the supreme leading council of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) and authentic religious scholars together decided on concealing the tragic news of passing away of (Omar)… and keep this secret limited to the very few colleagues who were already informed of this incorrigible loss,” the biography said.

    “One of the main reasons behind this decision was… that 2013 was considered the final year of power testing between the mujahidin and foreign invaders who… had announced that at the end of 2014, all military operations by foreign troops would be concluded.”

    NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan last December and pulled out the bulk of its troops although a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

    Confirmation of Omar’s death and Mansour’s contentious ascension triggered a power struggle within the Taliban at a time when the rival Islamic State group is making gradual inroads into Afghanistan.

    Some top leaders including Omar’s son and brother have refused to pledge allegiance to new leader Mansour, saying the process to select him was rushed and biased.

    The Taliban have suffered a string of defections to IS. The power struggle, observers say, could be a very effective recruitment tool for IS, potentially helping it attract more Taliban turncoats. – AFP

  • Ban on spot-fixing trio ends tomorrow — A chronology

     

    August 28, 2010

    — British tabloid News of the World reveals three Pakistani players and their agent Mazhar Majeed are under  spot-fixing investigation for arranging no balls to be bowled to order in the Lord’s Test against England, revelations which shock the cricket world

    September 2 

    — The International Cricket Council (ICC) provisionally suspends the three players for violating its code of conduct

     

    October 31 

    — The ICC rejects appeals by the players against their suspension

    February 5, 2011 

    — An ICC tribunal led by Michael Beloff bans Butt from all cricket for 10 years with five years conditionally suspended, Asif for seven years with two years conditionally suspended and Amir for five years

     

     

    November 1 

    — Southwark Crown Court in London finds Butt and Asif guilty of “conspiracy to cheat” and “conspiracy to accept corrupt payments”. Butt is sentenced to 30 months imprisonment and Asif one year. Amir, who pleaded guilty before the trial was sent to a youth offenders’ institution for six months. Their agent Majeed was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison

    April 14, 2013 

    — Asif confesses to spot-fixing, apologises

     

    April 17 

    — Butt and Asif lose appeal against bans in the Court of Arbitration for Sports

     

    Jan 29, 2015 

    — ICC amends its code of conduct and allows Amir to resume playing in domestic cricket

     

    June 18, 2015 

    — Butt finally accepts his guilt, apologises for his acts

     

    August 19, 2015 

    — ICC lifts sanctions against Butt, Asif and Amir. It is announced that Butt and Asif will be free to resume their cricket careers on September 2

     

    September 2

    Butt and Asif free to resume playing at club level

  • ‘Largest ever’ Med gas field found off Egypt

    The discovery, confirmed by Egypt’s oil ministry, could hold a potential 30 trillion cubic feet (850 billion cubic metres) of gas in an area of about 100 square kilometres (40 square miles), Eni said in a statement.

    The so-called Zohr project is “the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea,” it said, adding the find would meet Egypt’s own natural gas demands for decades.

    The “supergiant” field — potentially one of the world’s largest natural gas finds — is located at a depth of 4,757 feet (1,450 metres) in the Shorouk Block, Eni said.

    The firm said it would “immediately appraise the field with the aim of accelerating a fast track development of the discovery”, giving a timeframe of four years.

    It added Eni’s CEO, Claudio Descalzi, has visited Cairo and discussed the discovery with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab.

    “This historic discovery will be able to transform the energy scenario of Egypt,” Descalzi said in the statement.

    Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in a message to Descalzi, congratulated the oil company for the “extraordinary” discovery.

    “A find of this size should be enough to cover a lot of Egypt’s energy gap,” Robin Mills, a Dubai-based analyst at Manaar Energy Consulting, told Bloomberg News.

    “They’ll likely have to meet domestic needs first, before any export plans are discussed. This will also put a damper on Israeli plans to export gas to Egypt,” he added.

    Egypt, the largest country of the Arab world, is of strategic and economic interest to Italy. In the past Italy invested heavily in neighbouring Libya, but for the past four years Libya has been mired in chaos and violence.

    In recent years the western Mediterranean has seen seen a jump in gas exploration. In 2010, a major natural gas fields was found off Israel.

    In March, British energy giant BP unveiled plans to invest $12 billion (10.7 billion euros) in Egyptian offshore gas fields with Russian partner DEA, despite the slump in world oil prices.

    It said the investment in the West Nile Delta fields aims to develop five trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates, with output expected to begin in 2017.

  • EU ministers to meet September 14 for urgent migrant talks

    “The situation of migration phenomena outside and inside the European Union has recently taken unprecedented proportions,” said the statement from Luxembourg, which holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency.

    “In order to assess the situation on the ground, the political actions underway and to discuss the next steps in order to strengthen the European response, the Luxembourg Minister for Immigration and Asylum Jean Asselborn decided to convene an extraordinary JHA (justice and home affairs) Council,” said the statement.

    The call for a meeting of the EU’s 28 member states follows a joint call for the talks by Germany, France and Britain earlier in the day.

    Germany’s Thomas de Maiziere, Britain’s Theresa May and France’s Bernard Cazeneuve held talks Saturday on the issue, on the sidelines of a meeting in Paris on transport security.

    The trio “underlined the necessity to take immediate action to deal with the challenge from the migrant influx”.

    They also called for reception centres to be set up urgently in Italy and Greece in order to register new arrivals, and for a common EU list of “safe countries of origin” to be established.

    Berlin, which is expecting to receive 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, has been pushing for such a list, arguing that it would free up resources to help those fleeing war and persecution.

    The number of migrants reaching the EU’s borders reached nearly 340,000 during the first seven months of the year, up from 123,500 during the same period in 2014, according to the bloc’s border agency Frontex.