IGIHE

Author: IGIHE

  • Turkey dismisses demand to close Qatar military base

    {Defence minister says Ankara has no plans to review ties with Qatar, after Arab states issue demands to end Gulf crisis.}

    Turkey has rejected a call from four Arab countries to shut down its military base in Qatar, saying the base was a guarantor of security in the Gulf and demands for its closure represented interference in its ties with Doha.

    Defence Minister Fikri Isik told Turkish broadcaster NTV that he had not yet seen a request for the closure of the base, but made clear his country had no plans to review a 2014 agreement with Qatar which led to it being set up.

    His reaction comes after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries boycotting Qatar over alleged support for “terrorism” reportedly issued a list of demands, including closing down the military installation.

    “If there is such a demand, it will mean interference in bilateral ties,” Isik said in an interview on Friday.

    Qatar welcomes Turkish troops, wraps up war game with US
    “The base in Qatar is both a Turkish base and one that will preserve the security of Qatar and the region.

    “It is an important military base and no country should be disturbed by it.”

    Five armoured vehicles and 23 military personnel arrived in Doha on Thursday in a deployment Turkey’s armed forces said was part of a military training and cooperation deal.

    Some 88 Turkish soldiers were already in Qatar, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.

    The newspaper said a joint exercise by Turkish and Qatari forces was expected following the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday which starts on Sunday and the number of Turkish soldiers sent to the Gulf state could eventually reach 1,000.

    The Turkish military base in Qatar is a first for Turkey in the Arab world.

    “Turkey’s miltary agreement with Qatar isn’t a new thing, but after the Gulf tensions erupted Turkey just fast tracked a draft bill in the parliament to deploy its troops to Doha and boost Qatar’s morale,” said Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul.

    “According to the agreement, almost 600 Turkish military personel will be training Qatar’s soldiers.”

    Turkey has been the foremost supporter of Qatar since the Gulf dispute began on June 5.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the isolation of Qatar as “inhumane and against Islamic values”.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Deadly Grenfell Tower blaze because of faulty fridge

    {UK police may consider manslaughter charges after finding tower cladding failed safety tests in blaze that killed 79.}

    A fire that engulfed a London tower block killing at least 79 people earlier this month started in a fridge-freezer, London police said while adding that cladding on the building failed all safety tests.

    Police said that 79 people were dead, or missing and assumed dead, after the blaze rapidly spread through the 24-storey Grenfell Tower, which was built in 1974, on June 14.

    Detective Superintendent Fiona McCormack said the Hotpoint model, FF175BP, was not subject to recall and that the manufacturer was doing further tests.

    “We now have expert evidence that the fire was not started deliberately,” McCormack said before adding the police were considering manslaughter charges given the high number of deaths.

    Police were also investigating companies involved in the building and refurbishment of the tower, and possible “health and safety and fire safety offences”, she said.

    Exterior cladding and tiles recovered from the building have failed fire safety tests, said McCormack.

    The cladding was installed on the council-owned building as part of a refurbishment completed last year.

    Whirlpool Corp, the world’s largest maker of home appliances, owns the Hotpoint brand in the Europe and Asia Pacific regions. In the United States, the brand now belongs to Haier, following the Chinese group’s purchase of General Electric Co’s appliance business.

    “We are working with the authorities to obtain access to the appliance so that we can assist with the ongoing investigations,” Whirpool said in a statement.

    “Words cannot express our sorrow at this terrible tragedy.”

    The blaze prompted a wider review of social housing which has identified at least 600 towers in England with similar cladding.

    McCormack repeated calls for anyone with information on who might have been in the tower to come forward.

    “What we haven’t got is a picture of how many people might have been in there. That’s the number I’m really worried about,” she said.

    Police fear the death toll may be higher because some residents may have been living in the tower illegally.

    “Our forensic search may not be complete until the end of the year,” she added.

    Prime Minister Theresa May stressed on Thursday that all victims, regardless of their immigration status, would be able to access whatever help they need.

    Demonstrators called for swift action, including May's resignation, following the tower blaze

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Police office targeted in deadly Quetta suicide blast

    {Suicide attack near provincial police chief’s office kills at least 12 people and wounds 14 others.}

    Islamabad, Pakistan – At least 12 people have been killed and 14 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near the provincial police chief’s office in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, police officials told Al Jazeera.

    The explosion on Friday morning targeted a police checkpost near a complex that is housing the Balochistan police chief’s office, local police officer Muhammad Akbar said.

    At least six police officers were among those killed, Ali Mardan, a senior police officer, told Al Jazeera.

    Initial reports indicated a vehicle approached the checkpost and explosives were set off when the driver of the vehicle was stopped by the police, provincial government spokesperson Anwar ul Haq Kakar told local television channel Geo News.

    “At 8:45am (03:45 GMT), there was an old car, a Toyota Corolla … that came here near the [police chief’s] office and it was stopped by the police personnel. That is when the blast took place,” he said.

    “There was no exchange of fire, but it’s possible that law-enforcement personnel may have fired into the air.”

    Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistan Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent out its spokesperson Asad Mansoor.

    Altaf Hussain, local police official, said: “Some of the wounded are still in critical condition. Most are police personnel, as well as a traffic warden.”

    “It was a suicide attack. They came to the intersection and then blew themselves up there,” said Hussain.

    Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said the IG’s office was the likely target of the attack.

    “The attack took place in the red zone, close to the IG’s office as well as the State Bank of Pakistan,” he said.

    “Authorities are saying the IG’s office could’ve been the target.”

    Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan province, has seen frequent attacks targeting government buildings and security forces, as well as civilians.

    In February, two bomb disposal squad members were killed and 11 others wounded in an explosion under Quetta’s Saryab bridge, local media reported.

    In August last year, at least 74 people were killed in a suicide attack on the city’s Civil Hospital, while another 60 were killed in an attack on a police academytwo months later.

    Past attacks in the province have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, ISIL, as well as by Baloch separatist fighters who are fighting for independence from Pakistan.

    The province has also seen a number of attacks carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Al Alami faction, an extremist group, with ties to ISIL, known for targeting Shia Muslims.

    Targeting CPEC

    The resource-rich province is central to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $56bn trade and infrastructure project that seeks to create a major trade route from southwestern China to the Arabian Sea through the Balochistan port of Gwadar.

    Security in Balochistan has been a major concern for CPEC, with separatists regularly attacking workers building road and other projects associated with the corridor.

    Earlier this month, two Chinese citizens were kidnapped and killed in the province.

    Pakistan has established a Special Security Division comprising 15,000 troops to secure the CPEC corridor and projects associated with it.

    The Pakistani government and military have repeatedly blamed neighbours India for fomenting instability in Balochistan, although officials have presented limited evidence to back this claim.

    On Thursday, Kulbhashan Yadav, an Indian national who has been convicted and sentenced to death by a military court for funding and planning attacks in Balochistan for the Indian spy agency RAW, submitted a confessionand mercy petition to Pakistan’s army chief, the Pakistani military said.

    Authorities said the explosives were detonated when the vehicle was stopped by the police

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • US: North Korea ‘tests rocket engine for ICBM’

    {US officials believe latest test could be for intercontinental ballistic missile as tensions soar on Korean peninsula.}

    North Korea has tested a rocket engine that the US believes could be part of its programme to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, US officials said.

    The test, believed to have taken place on Thursday, is the latest in a series of engine and missile trials this year and comes amid soaring tensions over Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons programme.

    US officials, speaking anonymously to news agencies, said the engine could potentially be fitted to an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

    North Korea’s state media, normally quick to publicise successful missile-related developments, did not carry any reports on the engine test.

    The US, South Korea and Japan are ramping up capabilities to defend against the threat from North Korea.

    On Friday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in inspected the test-launch of a mid-range missile that is being developed by its military.

    “I believe in dialogue, but dialogue is possible when it’s backed by strong defence and engagement policy is possible only when we have security ability that can overwhelm the North,” President Moon was quoted by his office as saying at the test site.

    Moon’s office did not disclose the details of the missile being tested, but South Korea has been working to develop ballistic missiles with a range of 800km, a voluntary cap under an agreement with the US.

    The US has also urged China, Pyongyang’s sole ally, to exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to help rein in its nuclear and missile programmes.

    Calling North Korea the “top security threat” to the US on Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said China has a “diplomatic responsibility to exert much greater economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime if they want to prevent further escalation in the region”.

    China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, told President Donald Trump in a meeting at the White House that Beijing was willing to “maintain communication and coordination” with the US in an effort to defuse tension on the Korean peninsula, according to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday.

    Last month, the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress that North Korea, if left unchecked, was on an “inevitable” path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the US mainland.

    The continental US is around 9,000km from North Korea. ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500km, but some are designed to travel 10,000km or farther.

    The test, is the latest in a series of engine and missile trials by North Korea this year

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Kulbhushan Jadhav asks for clemency, says Pakistan army

    {Pakistan army releases new video confession from Kulbhushan Jadhav who was sentenced to death on allegations of spying.}

    An Indian man sentenced to death on charges of spying in Pakistan has sought clemency from the country’s army chief after admitting charges of espionage against him, the Pakistani military has said.

    Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March last year, filed a mercy petition admitting “his involvement in espionage, terrorist and subversive activities” in Pakistan, the army said in a statement on Thursday.

    “Seeking forgiveness for his actions, he has requested the Chief of Army Staff to spare his life on compassionate grounds,” the statement added.

    Jadhav, a former Indian naval officer, was sentenced to death by a military tribunal in Pakistan earlier this year.

    India approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which ordered Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution.

    Pakistan’s government accepted the decision, saying it does not affect Jadhav’s current status as his execution was not imminent because of pending appeals.

    On Thursday, India dismissed Pakistani military’s statement as farcical and an attempt to influence the proceedings of the ICJ.

    “The details and circumstances of the alleged mercy petition by Mr Jadhav are not clear and even the fact of its existence is doubtful and shrouded as the proceedings against Mr Jadhav have been in opacity,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    It renewed a demand for consular access to Jadhav and the grant of visas to his family to meet him in prison.

    Pakistan also released a new confessional video statement from Jadhav on Thursday, in which he said he visited Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi twice for intelligence gathering on naval installations.

    In the video, he admits to working for India’s RAW agency and financing Baloch separatists to carry out attacks on Pakistani military targets.

    His visit to Pakistan “was to establish and meet the leadership of Baloch sub-nationals, the BLA or the BRA and establish and infiltrate around 30 to 40 RAW operatives along the Makran Coast for operations along with Baloch sub-nationals and miscreants or terrorists”, Jadhav said in the video.

    Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, has been battling a years-long separatist uprising that the army has repeatedly characterised as “terrorism”.

    Jadhav said Pakistan arrested him after he entered Balochistan, a statement that contradicts New Delhi’s claim that he was kidnapped from Iran last year.

    Ties between India and Pakistan remain difficult and on Thursday there was fresh fighting on the disputed border in Kashmir, at the heart of 70 years of animosity.

    The two countries have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britrish rule in 1947. Two of them have been over Kashmir.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Botswana’s former President Ketumile Masire dies aged 91

    {Botswana has declared three days of national mourning after the death of former President Sir Ketumile Masire, aged 91.}

    Sir Ketumile, who led the country from 1980 to 1998, is credited with being the architect of the country’s famed stability, reports the AFP news agency.

    He was also involved in peace initiatives across Africa, including ending Mozambique’s long civil war.

    Botswana is one of Africa’s richest and most stable countries.

    Sir Ketumile became president after the death of Botswana’s first post-independence leader Sir Seretse Khama in 1980.

    He had served as the country’s first minister of finance and vice-president before becoming president, the Botswana government states.

    Sir Ketumile stepped down in 1998 after overseeing a period of strong economic growth based on the effective management of the Botswana’s vast diamond wealth.

    He was also involved in backing South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement and other independence struggles in the region.

    As an elder statesman he was involved in mediation efforts across Africa, including Kenya, Lesotho, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Sir Ketumile Masire - the "architect" of Botswana's stability

    Source:BBC

  • Watched chimps change their hunting habits

    {Chimpanzees in Uganda may have changed their hunting strategy in response to being watched by scientists.}

    While studying the animals, researchers documented very different hunting habits of two closely neighbouring chimp “tribes”.

    “Sonso” chimps hunt in small groups for colobus monkeys, while those from the “Waibira” troop hunt solo and catch “whatever they can get their hands on”.

    The findings show how sensitive chimp society is to human presence.

    They are published in the journal PLoS One,

    Biologists who have followed and studied these animals for years think that work may have disturbed the group hunting that seems key to chasing and catching colobus monkeys.

    Lead researcher Dr Catherine Hobaiter, from the University of St Andrews, said the Waibira group’s behaviour might have changed to a more “opportunistic” strategy because those chimps were much less used to the presence of human scientists.

    Speaking to BBC News from Budongo Forest, in Uganda, where she studies both of these chimpanzee groups, Dr Hobaiter said Sonso and Waibira chimps “shared territorial borders”, so she would expect their food sources and prey to be the same.

    “The main thing that’s different about them right now is how used to having humans follow them around the forest they are,” Dr Hobaiter said.

    “For Sonso – most of the current generation of adults were born with us being there, so they’re really incredibly relaxed about our presence.

    “But [for] Waibira – some of the young ones have started to grow up and become very comfortable with us, but some of the adults would be 30-40 years old when we started, and five years of us following them round is a fraction of their lifetime.
    “It just takes time with chimpanzees.”

    At other sites where researchers had begun a similar habituation and close observation of wild chimp groups, Dr Hobaiter said, a similar “pattern” had emerged.

    “They hunt for lots of different species, then later they seem to switch and settle in to hunting colobus.”

    Key to this could be the natural tendency of chimpanzees’ groups to be territorial and wary of newcomers.

    “I think that makes it that much harder for them to accept our presence as being a part of their lives,” said Dr Hobaiter.

    {{Following our cousins}}

    “Long-term research with wild chimpanzees brings real conservation benefits, but we have to remember that our presence can affect their behaviour.”

    Dr Hobaiter said that – as well as conserving endangered primates and the forests they lived in – directly observing and recording chimpanzee behaviour was the best way to understand the origins of human language and social structure.

    “But we need to ask – should we be going in there [to follow the chimps]?
    “We can do amazing things with camera traps, remote microphones and drones – it’s getting much easier to get good quality data.

    “Part of our work is to understand what our impact is and to try to minimise it.”

    Source:BBC

  • First war memorial to Afro-Caribbean soldiers unveiled in London

    {Britain’s first memorial to the African and Caribbean soldiers of the First and Second World Wars has been unveiled in London.}

    An estimated two million Afro-Caribbean soldiers fought in both world wars.

    The sculpture, in Windrush Square, Brixton, is formed of two 6ft (1.8m) long obelisks, with a combined weight of just under five tonnes.

    Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said the “recognition today is long overdue”.

    He added: “I hope this memorial will remind us of the ongoing contribution of our African and Caribbean communities to our country and to the defence of our country.”

    Allan Willmott, who served in the Royal Navy in WWII, said he did not dream he would be around to see anything like this happen.

    “Nothing was done to make the contribution made by the African and West Indian service men known,” the 92-year-old said.

    Countries across the Caribbean and Africa were profoundly affected during the world wars, sending manpower, materials, and funds to aid the war effort.

    Over 165,000 troops from the African continent alone died during the conflicts.

    The memorial had been on display at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton in 2014.

    The memorial had been on display at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton in 2014.

    Source:BBC

  • Chagos legal status sent to international court by UN

    {A dispute between the UK and Mauritius over disputed island territory in the Indian Ocean is to be referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).}

    The UN General Assembly voted by 94 countries to 15 that The Hague should examine the legal status of the Chagos Islands.

    The former British colony used to be part of Mauritius but was detached in 1965 and is now home to a US airbase.

    The Foreign Office said it would be an “inappropriate” use of the ICJ.

    “This is a disappointing outcome,” a Foreign Office spokesman said: “Sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory is clearly a matter for the UK and Mauritius to resolve ourselves.

    “Taking this dispute to the International Court of Justice is an inappropriate use of the
    ICJ mechanism.”

    Mauritius, which gained independence from Britain in 1968, argues that the UK broke international law when it separated off the islands before granting Mauritius its independence.

    {{‘Embarrassing defeat’}}

    Diego Garcia, the largest of the group of islands, was leased to the US in 1966.

    Families were forced to leave the Chagos Islands in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for a US Air Force base on Diego Garcia, which is leased until 2036.

    The Foreign Office said it did not recognise Mauritius’s claim to sovereignty over the islands – but that it would return the islands when they were no longer needed for defence.

    “We have committed to cede them to Mauritius when the territory is no longer required for defence purposes,” the spokesman said.

    “At present it plays an important role in regional and global security, helping to keep the UK, US and other allies, including Mauritius, safe.”

    The government said it would “robustly defend” its position ahead of the ICJ’s decision, which would not be legally binding.

    Most EU countries abstained from the vote, which BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale described as an “embarrassing diplomatic defeat” for the UK.

    He said it signalled that Britain’s diplomatic clout had waned after the vote for Brexit.

    In 2015, the UK Supreme Court denied a legal challenge by former islanders to return to Chagos after being removed more than 40 years ago.

    The court rejected claims that islanders suffered a “significant injustice” by being forcibly removed from their homeland.

    Source:BBC

  • Magufuli ban on pregnant schoolgirls angers Tanzanians

    {Many Tanzanians have condemned President John Magufuli’s comments that schoolgirls who give birth should not be allowed to return to school.}

    An online petition has been set up to get the president to reverse his comments.
    Mr Magufuli warned schoolgirls at a rally on Monday that: “After getting pregnant, you are done.”

    A law passed in 2002 allows for expulsion of pregnant schoolgirls.

    The law says the girls can be expelled and excluded from school for “offences against morality” and “wedlock”.

    Mr Magufuli, who was speaking at a public rally in Chalinze town, about 100km west of the main city Dar es Salaam, said that young mothers would be distracted if they were allowed back in school: “After calculating some few mathematics, she’d be asking the teacher in the classroom: ‘Let me go out and breastfeed my crying baby.’”

    He said that men who impregnate the schoolgirls should be imprisoned for 30 years and “put the energy they used to impregnate the girl into farming while in jail”.

    The president also criticised rights organisations who have been pushing the government to reverse the expulsion law:
    “These NGOs should go out and open schools for parents. But they should not force the government [to take back the pupils].

    “I’m giving out free education for students who have really decided to go and study, and now you want me to educate the parents?”

    The BBC’s Sammy Awami in Tanzania reports that the crowd at the rally applauded the president’s comments.

    At least 8,000 Tanzanian girls drop out of school every year due to pregnancy, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

    {{‘Immoral’}}

    The online petition says that the president’s support for the expulsion law would end the education of many girls and “propagate more discrimination”.

    It instead calls for the girls to be protected from early pregnancies while in school.
    Tanzanians are also using the hashtag #ArudiShule (let her return) on Twitter to criticise the president’s comments and to highlight the plight of young women who get pregnant while in school.

    Two weeks ago, Tanzania’s Vice-President Samia Suluhu called for young mothers to be readmitted school, saying they should not be denied a right to education.

    Koitamet Olekina, executive director of the Maasai Education Discovery, a non-profit organisation that rescues girls from early marriages in Kenya, condemned Mr Magufuli’s comments:
    “If Magufuli is standing on the pedestal of morality, then in my opinion, it would be more immoral to deny the Tanzanian girl child an opportunity to rise from a fall and be a better person than to relegate them to almost second-citizenship status for reasons sometimes out of their control.”

    John Magufuli said that young mothers would be distracted in class

    Source:BBC