Tag: InternationalNews

{Arab countries’ decisions led by Saudi Arabia are founded on ‘baseless’ allegations, Qatar foreign ministry says.}

Qatar said there is “no legitimate justification” for several nations cutting diplomatic ties after Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, Yemen and the Maldives announced they would suspend relations with the Gulf state.

The Saudi kingdom made the announcement via its state-run Saudi Press Agency early on Monday, saying it was taking action for what it called the protection of national security.

The news agency released a statement in which it accused Qatar of “harbouring a multitude of terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to create instability in the region”.

Reacting to the fallout, Qatar explained that the decision was in “violation of its sovereignty,” vowing to its citizens and the hundreds of thousands of residents that the measures would not affect them.

“The measures are unjustified and are based on claims and allegations that have no basis in fact,” the statement said, adding that the decisions would “not affect the normal lives of citizens and residents”.

“The aim is clear, and it is to impose guardianship on the state. This by itself is a violation of its (Qatar’s) sovereignty as a state,” it added.

Qatar’s foreign ministry made the statement hours after the Saudi announcement, but before Yemen’s internationally backed government, which no longer holds its capital and large portions of the country.

Libya’s out of mandate Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni later joined the Arab nations in saying they too would cut ties.

As part of the measures, Saudi Arabia said it would pull Qatari support from the Yemen war.

Airspace and sea traffic would also be affected, with major Saudi and UAE-based airlines announcing they would stop flying to the Qatari capital, Doha.

Etihad Airways, the UAE’s national carrier, said it would suspend flights to and from Qatar starting Tuesday. Emirates, a Dubai-based airline, and FlyDubai, the emirate’s budget airline, quickly followed suit.

It was unclear how other airlines would react.

Saudi Arabia had called on “brotherly” countries to join its measures against Qatar.

The UAE said in a statement it was cutting off all ties with Qatar. It also ordered Qatari citizens to leave the country within 14 days and banned its citizens from travelling to Qatar.

Later on Monday, the Qatari embassy in Abu Dhabi asked citizens to leave the UAE within 14 days.

“Qatari citizens must leave the UAE within 14 days, in accordance with the statement issued by the concerned Emirati parties,” the embassy said in a tweet, adding that those who cannot travel directly to Doha should go through Kuwait or Oman.

Bahrain’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it would withdraw its diplomatic mission from Doha within 48 hours and that all Qatari diplomats should leave Bahrain within the same period.

Egypt also announced the closure of its airspace and seaports for all Qatari transportation “to protect its national security”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Later on Monday, the Maldives said in a statement that it took the decision to sever diplomatic ties “because of its firm opposition to activities that encourage terrorism and extremism”.

{{Economic fallout}}

The announcements roiled financial markets, with the price of oil surging and Qatari stocks and shares falling.

“This is the most serious political crisis in the region in years,” said Hashem Ahelbarra, Al Jazeera’s senior Middle East correspondent. “There are two aspects here, political and economic, to put more pressure on Qatar.

“The official statement here in Qatar is basically that they view [the fallout] as part of coordinated effort to further undermine Qatar.

“It will ultimately have to be solved at the diplomatic level.”

{{US, Iran, Turkey react}}

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave a statement on Monday while on state visit in Australia, urging the Gulf states to stay united.

“We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences,” he said in Sydney.

“If there’s any role that we can play in terms of helping them address those, we think it is important that the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) remain united.”

Tillerson said despite the impasse, he did not expect it to have “any significant impact, if any impact at all, on the unified fight against terrorism in the region or globally”.

“All of those parties you mentioned have been quite unified in the fight against terrorism and the fight against Daesh, ISIS, and have expressed that most recently in the summit in Riyadh,” he added, using alternative names for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, also called for dialogue to resolve the dispute.

“We see the stability in the Gulf region as our own unity and solidarity,” Cavusoglu told reporters.

“Countries may of course have some issues, but dialogue must continue under every circumstance for problems to be resolved peacefully. We are saddened by the current picture and will give any support for its normalisation”.

A senior Iranian official said the measures by the Arab nations would not help end the crisis in the Middle East.

“The era of cutting diplomatic ties and closing borders … is not a way to resolve crisis … As I said before, aggression and occupation will have no result but instability,” Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted, referring to the coalition’s involvement in Yemen.

{{Hacking scandal}}

The dispute between Qatar and the Gulf’s Arab countries escalated after a recent hack of Qatar’s state-run news agency. It has spiralled since.

Following the hacking on Tuesday, comments falsely attributed to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, were broadcast in Qatar.

Qatar’s government categorically denied that the comments, in which the country’s leader expressed support for Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel – while suggesting that US President Donald Trump may not last in power, were ever made.

“There are international laws governing such crimes, especially the cyberattack. [The hackers] will be prosecuted according to the law,” Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday.

UAE-based Sky News Arabia and Al Arabiya kept running the discredited story, despite the Qatari denials.

Source:Al Jazeera

{After two deadly attacks in two weeks, Labour leader attacks Conservative prime minister over record on security.}

Just days before Britain’s general election, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to resign for cutting the number of police officers during her time as home secretary.

Speaking to ITV News on Monday, the leader of the Labour Party said May was directly responsible for reducing the number of police officers by about 20,000 between 2010 and 2016 before becoming prime minister.

“There’s been calls made by very responsible people on this, who are very worried that she was at the Home Office for all this time, presided over these cuts in police numbers, and now saying that we have a problem,” said Corbyn, who is pledging to recruit an extra 10,000 new officers.

“Yes we do have a problem, we should have never cut the police numbers,” he added.

Britons will cast ballots on Thursday, with opinion polls showing May’s ruling Conservatives ahead of Labour between one and 10 percentage points.

{{‘Crying wolf’}}

Corbyn’s comments come in the wake of two attacks during the campaigning period in the northern city of Manchester and in the capital, London, which have left 29 people dead and scores wounded.

In the aftermath of the Manchester attack, the army was deployed to the streets due to a shortage of armed police.

Several opposition politicians and former police officials have previously criticised May for presiding over the cuts to the number of police officers

Responding to criticism in 2015, May said police officials were “crying wolf”.

“Today you’ve said neighbourhood police officers are an endangered species,” she told a meeting of the police federation, which represents officers.

“I have to tell you that this kind of scaremongering does nobody any good,” May added.

The Conservatives have hit back at Corbyn over his record of blocking anti-terrorism legislation as a Labour MP, some of which May herself also voted against.

“I am shocked that (Corbyn) boasted that he had opposed every piece of anti-terror legislation in his 30 years in office,” said current Home Secretary Amber Rudd, during a leaders’ debate, in which she stood in for May.

The attacks in Manchester and London have pushed security higher up the agenda than they were when the campaign for the election started.

In a speech after the Manchester bombing, Corbyn blamed British foreign intervention in Iraq and Libya for creating the conditions for organisations like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group to thrive.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Major airlines have suspended travel to and from Qatar amid diplomatic row – here are the details.}

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar and closed their airspace and seaports to Qatari vessels and planes.

The diplomatic rift has wreaked havoc with airlines in the region, with major long-haul carriers such as Doha-based Qatar Airways and Dubai’s Emirates suspending flights, leaving many passengers stranded at airports in the Gulf.

Several people have expressed concern on social media over disrupted travel, with images posted of travellers stranded at airports.

Twitter user @FahadBuwazir posted a photograph which he said showed Qatari citizens stuck at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport.

Here is how travel will be affected:

Qatar Airways, on its website, said it has stopped flights to Saudi Arabia, starting at noon on Monday.

A spokeswoman said it was unclear if the suspension would be extended.

Qatar Airways flies to nine cities in Saudi Arabia.

Qatar’s flag carrier has not yet said if there would be changes to flights to cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Cairo.

Dubai’s Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways are suspending all flights to and from Doha, starting Tuesday morning.

Emirates, in a statement on its website, said its flights to and from Doha on Monday will operate as normal.

Its last flight from Dubai to Doha will depart as EK847 at 02:30am on Tuesday. The last flight from Doha to Dubai will depart as EK848 at 3:50am on Tuesday.

Etihad Airways’ last flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha will depart as EY391 at 9:35pm, while the last flight from Doha to Abu Dhabi will depart as EY398 at 10:50pm on Monday, the airline said in a statement.

Both airlines are offering full refunds on unused tickets and free rebooking to alternate cities to customers booked on flights to and from Doha.

The carriers operate four daily return flights to Doha.

FlyDubai, a Dubai-based budget carrier, said it is cancelling its flights to Qatar from Tuesday.

Air Arabia, a Sharjah-based carrier, said its last outbound flight from Sharjah to Doha will depart at 6:30pm on Monday, while the last inbound flight from Doha to Sharjah will depart at 7:25pm local time.

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), in a Twitter post, said it has cancelled all flights to Qatar from Monday morning onwards.

Gulf Air, Bahrain’s national carrier, said its daily service between Manama and Doha will be suspended until further notice. Its last flight from Bahrain to Doha, GF530, will depart at 8:55pm and its final flight from Doha to Bahrain, GF531, will depart at 10:40pm local time on Monday.

Egypt’s flag carrier, Egypt Air, has delayed its flights to and from Doha on Monday and is yet to announce a decision on whether it will resume or cancel its service between the two countries.

At the time of publishing, it was not clear whether airlines of the Maldives, which also joined the measures against Qatar, planned to suspend flights.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Foreign ministry releases edited version of White House video that said Paris climate deal was bad for American jobs.}

A day after Donald Trump decided to pull the United States out of the Paris climate deal, the French government has cheekily hit back by releasing a pointed fact-check of the US president’s claims about the landmark agreement.

France’s finance ministry posted a tweet with an embedded link to a video that amounted to a wry but very public rebuttal of Trump’s assertions.

On Thursday, the White House had tweeted, “The Paris Accord is a bad deal for Americans,” and linked to a video which said the agreement “undermines” US competitiveness and jobs, was “badly negotiated” by former president Barack Obama and “accomplishes little.”

In its surprise response on Friday, France’s foreign ministry tweeted, “We’ve seen the @WhiteHouse video about the #ParisAccord. We disagree – so we’ve changed it.”

Its own edited video uses the same format – background, font, images and music – as the White House but includes what French officials believe are the facts to debunk the White House claims.

In the new video, statements such as “The Paris Accord is a bad deal for America” are changed to “Leaving the Paris Accord is a bad deal for America – and the world.”

The video also refers to major companies such as ExxonMobil and Microsoft which “disagree” that the accord will “undermine” US jobs. It also quotes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions.

The tweet includes a now-popular hashtag “Make Our Planet Great Again” – a cheeky adaptation of the nationalist slogan used by Trump on his election campaign trail, “Make America Great Again”.

The video is also notable for being in English. France is famous for championing the use of the French language, and its leaders are always under pressure to speak only in French, even if they are fluent in English, when they are in the public arena.

But newly-elected president Emmanuel Macron has made a point of speaking in English, apparently seeking to make direct contact with a wider audience.

On Thursday, he released a video in English as well as French in which he criticised Trump for pulling out of the Paris accord and coined the “Make Our Planet Great Again” slogan.

He also invited American scientists, businesspeople and citizens who are frustrated by the White House’s stance to “come and work here with us” on finding a solution to the climate crisis.

“They will find in France a second homeland,” Macron said.

Macron, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, also released a statement saying that the agreement cannot be renegotiated, as Trump had demanded.

The three leaders said they took note “with regret” the US decision, but added that they regard the accord as “a cornerstone in the cooperation between our countries, for effectively and timely tackling climate change”.

The accord is “irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated”, they said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{US military reports 484 civilian deaths by US-led coalition strikes, but outside monitors put the number much higher.}

The US military said that coalition attacks on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq have killed more than 480 civilians since mid-2014 – a tally that is far below those of outside monitors.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Friday that it added an additional 132 civilians deaths to its April report, a sharp increase from 352 it previously reported in late April.

However, that total, which only includes civilian deaths through April, was still far short of what non-governmental organisations and monitors have estimated.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Syria and Iraq, estimated more than 3,800 non-combatants have been killed since the US-led coalition’s operations began in August 2014.

{{Mosul offensive}}

CENTCOM’s estimate includes 105 civilians killed in a US-led air raid in March against a building in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the single deadliest incident for civilians arising from a coalition strike since anti-ISIL operations began in Iraq and Syria nearly three years ago.

Separately, Al Jazeera’s sources recently said more than 120 civilians were killed in less than a week as Iraqi forces – backed by coalition air power – move to take the remaining pockets of territory held by ISIL in Mosul.

In a statement emailed to Al Jazeera earlier on Friday by the Operation Inherent Resolve press office, the coalition said it “is aware of allegations of civilian casualties”.

It added that the “coalition and Iraqi security forces are making every attempt to safeguard civilians as they liberate the city from ISIS terrorists who are using snipers to target civilians trying to flee the city … The coalition takes all allegations of civilian casualties serious and will assess the allegations”.

The battle to recapture the last stronghold of ISIL in Iraq has now entered its eighth month.

Iraqi government forces, backed by US advisers, artillery and air support, have cleared the east and most of western Mosul and are now focused on controlling the Old City with Iraqi civilians paying a heavy price.

“We moved out and got frightened by heavy air strikes,” one civilian who escaped the fighting in western Mosul told Al Jazeera. “We fled after our house was destroyed by mortar shelling.”

The close-quarter fighting has intensified with reports that ISIL fighters have gathered at the historic al-Nuri Mosque – a centuries-old structure famous for its leaning minaret – to make a last stand as Iraqi forces encircle the armed group in its de facto capital after capturing the city in 2014.

Nearly 200,000 civilians are caught in an area of about eight-square kilometres.

Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Erbil, just east of Mosul, said observers are pushing the Iraqi military and the US-led coalition to take care of civilians, despite the intensity of combat against ISIL.

“Saving people is proving to be easier said than done,” Javaid said. “Aid workers and rights groups have been repeating their concerns that in the process to push ISIL out, Iraqi forces must make sure that civilians are not caught in the crossfire.”

{{Raqqa offensive}}

Meanwhile in Syria, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that in the month from April 23 to May 23, 225 civilians, including dozens of children, were killed, the heaviest monthly toll since 2014.

Last week, the Observatory said at least 13 people were killed in suspected US-led coalition air raids on the ISIL-held city of Raqqa and suspected rocket attacks by a Kurdish group fighting ISIL.

The SDF, which includes the powerful Kurdish YPG armed group, said in May it plans to launch the final assault on Raqqa in early summer.

It has been encircling the city, ISIL’s de facto capital in Syria, since November.

The US began sending the YPG weapons last week. In May, SDF fighters captured Tabqa, a previously ISIL-held town some 50km west of Raqqa, and a strategic dam nearby.

The UN said in a report that on May 14, at least 23 farm workers, including 17 women, were reportedly killed when air raids hit al-Akershi village in a rural area of eastern Raqqa province.

Other air raids on two residential areas of the ISIL-controlled city of Abo Kamal in eastern Deir Az Zor province the following day, May 15, reportedly killed at least 59 civilians, including 16 children and 12 women, and wounded 70 others.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said in a statement last week that the “rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by air strikes in Deir Az Zor and Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks,”

He added that “just because ISIL holds an area does not mean less care can be taken. Civilians should always be protected, whether they are in areas controlled by ISIL or by any other party.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{President’s pledge follows criticism from within government that move to create constituent assembly was not democratic.}

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has pledged to hold a referendum on a new constitution he is proposing, in response to two months of violent anti-government protests.

The move on Thursday came after the plan to create a new grassroots super-body. known as a constituent assembly, to rewrite the national charter was criticised not just by opponents, but also some within government as anti-democratic.

Luisa Ortega, the chief state prosecutor, had said creating the assembly, without a plebiscite as happened in 1999 when Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez rewrote the constitution, threatened to “eliminate” democracy in Venezuela.

Ortega, the highest-ranking public official to openly defy Maduro in the crisis, has been a traditional ally of the leadership of the ruling Socialist Party, but her criticism of Maduro over the past two months of violent unrest have raised the prospect of divisions in the government camp.

Maduro says the constituent assembly is needed to bring peace to Venezuela, but opponents view it as a cynical tactic to buy time and create a biased body that could perpetuate his party’s rule.

“I shall propose it explicitly: the new constitution will go to a consultative referendum so it is the people who say whether they are in agreement or not with the new, strengthened constitution,” Maduro said on state TV on Thursday.

There was no immediate reaction from Venezuela’s opposition, which now has majority support following a drop in the popularity of the Socialist Party amid a deepening economic crisis.

Maduro’s rivals are likely to try to turn any referendum into a vote on the president himself. They have been calling to move forward the next presidential election, scheduled for late 2018.

The government has said elections for the new assembly will be held in late July, though opposition leaders have said the process is skewed to ensure a pro-Maduro majority.

There was no word on when the plebiscite would be held.

{{Judge killed amid political unrest}}

Earlier, authorities announced that gunmen had killed a judge involved in the sentencing of Venezuela’s best-known jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, in the latest fatality during weeks of unrest that has left at least 61 people dead.

The judge, 37-year-old Nelson Moncada, was shot and stripped of his belongings as he tried to get away from a street barricade on Wednesday night in Caracas’ El Paraiso district, the scene of regular clashes, the prosecutor’s office said.

This week has seen widespread violence around the Venezuelan capital, with security forces repeatedly breaking up marches by opposition supporters towards government offices downtown, and skirmishes continuing into the night.

Protesters frequently block roads with rubbish and burning tires, sometimes asking passers-by for contributions towards a self-styled “Resistance” movement against Maduro.

The government said Moncada was one of the judges who ratified Lopez’s 14-year jail sentence, and suggested that might have motivated his killing.

“We cannot exclude the possibility this was done by hitmen hired by right-wing terrorists to keep creating and spreading terror,” Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said, referring to Venezuela’s opposition.

Victims from two months of unrest have included supporters on both sides, bystanders and members of the security forces.

The opposition is demanding elections to remove Maduro from power. They blame him for an economic crisis that has caused shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies.

Maduro accuses protesters of seeking a violent coup and says he is the victim of a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Activists decry move to relocate hundreds of people outside Greek capital, as evacuation operation gets under way.}

Greek riot police have begun evacuating hundreds of refugees from a makeshift shelter set up inside the abandoned buildings of Athens’ old airport.

A heavy police presence blocked off all access to the Elliniko airport site in the early hours of Friday, denying entry to journalists, as men, women and children collected their belongings and began boarding buses to camps elsewhere in Greece.

Police had previously said up to 500 people, mainly families, would go to a camp outside the town of Thebes, about 70km northwest of Athens.

The remainder of mainly single people, estimated at more than 150, would be taken to Athens’ aliens department for identity verification, before being moved to facilities outside of the capital.

Activists gathered outside the old airport to protest against the police operation, and decried the transfer of single people to the department on Petrou Ralli Street as “nothing else than a deportation procedure”.

“Police went in violently and occupied the spaces in order to move the refugees to areas they do not want,” Petros Konstantinou said, a left-wing Athens city councillor and coordinator for United Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat, told Al Jazeera from outside Elliniko.

“Police arrested the camp’s leaders, including Masoud Qahar, under the pretence of identity verification,” he added.

Qahar, a former logistical officer with NATO who fled Afghanistan after he says he received death threats from the Taliban, has helped organise protests for better living conditions in Greece’s refugee camps.

A spokesman for Greek police told Al Jazeera that he could not comment on the issue as the operation was still under way.

Human rights groups criticised conditions at Elliniko, which had been home to around 2,000 mostly Afghans, as deplorable and unfit for humans. Hundreds slept crammed in tents in the old arrivals terminal last summer in scorching temperatures with little food.

Over the past 10 days, Elliniko’s residents were asked to willingly relocate to official camps, mostly outside Athens. Non-governmental organisations operating at the camp also left the site.

Greek officials reportedly said that 90 percent of refugees at Elliniko said they would relocate voluntarily, while the rest objected to being transferred.

But Konstantinou said that about 150 people staying at the arrivals terminal were against their transfer outside the capital.

“We spoke to them on Thursday night, and all of them said they did not want to move outside Athens. They want to be relocated to apartments in the city and better access to food services,” he said.

Activists close to refugees told Al Jazeera that the refusal of many long-term residents of Elliniko stemmed from the uncertainty over the conditions they would face at the new camps. The move could also limit much-needed access to legal and psychological support, they said.

“This is a serious and complex issue, as most of these people are very vulnerable and in need of specific help – from lawyers and counselling to psychologists and medicines,” a Greek volunteer worker, who is in daily contact with refugees, said.

Others, mostly Afghans not eligible for a European relocation programme to other member states, feared that moving farther from Athens would make it harder to leave Greece.

“The refugees have the right to live in humane conditions and not be transferred to another ‘ghetto’ camp like the one in Thebes or elsewhere,” Maria Bikaki, of the SYPROME solidarity group, told Al Jazeera.

“These are remote, isolated camps and completely unsuitable for vulnerable people and families – there is even a newborn child among those who are transferred,” she added.

According to SYPROME, the fenced camp outside Thebes is located next to a power plant and 12km from the nearest hospital, with only one coach service running throughout the day. Refugees there will live in containers – both during summer and winter – that can host up to eight people.

The refugees were first taken to Elliniko in November 2015 when police began transferring large numbers from the Greece-Macedonia border.

The government had long promised to empty the site, which it has agreed to lease to private investors under its bailout programme, but struggled to convince the refugees to move to other camps in the mainland.

More than 62,000 migrants and refugees heading to northern Europe have been stranded in Greece since countries in the Balkans shut their borders to those seeking passage in March last year.

Konstantinou, the Athens councillor, accused the Greek government and European authorities of “toughening their stance” against refugees and succumbing to pressure from an emerging “far-right sentiment across Europe”.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Police fire into the air as stone-throwing protesters demand better security in wake of huge blast that killed dozens.}

A rally in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, has turned deadly after security forces fired into the air to disperse protesters calling for the government’s resignation in the wake of a massive bombing earlier this week.

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied on Friday near the site of Wednesday’s blast, which killed more than 90 people and wounded 460, accusing President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah of failing to protect them.

Police in riot gear fired warning shots and used water cannons and tear gas to block the protesters, many of whom were throwing stones, from gaining access to the road leading to the presidential palace.

Waheed Majrooh, spokesman for the health ministry, told the AFP news agency that four people were killed and eight wounded in the clashes.

Local media put the death toll at seven, citing hospital officials.

Shopkeeper Mohammad Anwar said four members of his family were killed in the bombing and he wanted a change of leadership.

“We are calling on President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani to resign,” he told AP

Protester Amir Arya said a number of his friends were wounded by police as they tried to block the protesters from advancing.

“Some of them were beaten by police with sticks and some others detained,” he said. “This act of police and government proves that peaceful demonstration would not be useful anymore.”

Others called for reform of the political system, the resignation of security officials and the execution of jailed fighters of armed groups.

{{‘War of words’}}

Wednesday’s attack in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter was the worst to hit the city in recent years.

Most of the casualties were civilians, including women and children, but the dead also included Afghan security guards.

Kabul’s acting mayor said the explosion damaged property as far as 4km away from the blast site and that scores of people were waiting in hospitals to learn the status of wounded family and friends.

Afghan intelligence officials blamed the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network and Pakistan for Wednesday’s truck bombing in Kabul’s diplomatic quarter.

Pakistani officials rejected the accusations and Taliban officials said they had no hand in the blast.

Ghani is expected to approve the execution of 11 Taliban and Haqqani prisoners, a government source told the AFP news agency, in apparent retaliation for the assault.

Before the attack, at least 715 civilians had been killed in the first three months of the year after nearly 3,500 in 2016, the deadliest year on record for Afghan civilians.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Hospital official says Palestinian, 15, ‘died from her wounds’ after being shot following an alleged stabbing attempt.}

A Palestinian teenage girl who was shot by Israeli forces on Thursday after an alleged stabbing attack outside a Jewish-only settlement in the occupied West Bank has died, a hospital official said on Friday.

A spokesperson for the Hadera-based Hillel Yaffe medical centre, where 15-year-old Nouf Iqab Abd el-Jabber Enfeat was being treated, told Al Jazeera that the teen “was critically injured when she came in and she died from her wounds this morning”.

The incident took place at the entrance of the Meto Dovan settlement in the northern occupied West Bank. A soldier was “lightly injured”, an Israeli army spokesperson told Al Jazeera by phone.

Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP), a human rights group, told Al Jazeera it had opened an investigation into Enfeat’s case, adding that at least nine Palestinian children, including Enfeat, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in 2017.

Earlier this week, Israeli forces opened fire and injured 16-year-old Khaled Ghamri during a protest on the border of southern Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to Arabic-language news outlets.

Ghamri, who was struck in the stomach, is currently hospitalised and in critical condition, according to DCIP.

A day before US President Donald Trump met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli forces shot dead 15-year-old Raed Ahmad Rdaydeh during an alleged stabbing attempt at a checkpoint near Bethlehem.

DCIP said 2016 was the deadliest year in a decade for Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.

The organisation documented the killing of at least 32 Palestinian children by Israeli forces and settlement guards. Israel says that at least 24 of those took place during attacks or attempted attacks, but DCIP says its investigations cast doubt on those claims.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements, which are considered illegal under international law, in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Source:Al Jazeera

{President Donald Trump has declared that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris accord and try to negotiate a new global deal on climate change.}

“I promised I would exit or renegotiate any deal which fails to serve America’s interests,” the president declared in an address in the White House Rose Garden watched anxiously by leaders around the world.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” he said.

“As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country,” Trump said.

The US president complained that the accord signed under his predecessor President Barack Obama gives other countries an unfair advantage over US industry and destroys American jobs.

{{Leading polluters }}

“I cannot, in good conscience, support a deal that punishes the United States — the world’s leader in environmental protection — while imposing no meaningful obligations on the world’s leading polluters,” Trump said, before singling out China and India.

“This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States,” he claimed.

“So we’re getting out but we’ll start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. And if we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s fine,” he said.

Trump’s decision sparked an instant wave of indignation both at home and abroad, with Obama saying the move meant the US was “joining a handful of nations that reject the future.”

Germany said the US was “harming” the entire planet, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called the decision “seriously wrong.”

And after his city was cited, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto laid into Trump, tweeting: “As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future.”

“Fact: Hillary Clinton received 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh,” Peduto added.

Source:AFP