Tag: InternationalNews

{Muslims among those raising funds as solidarity soars, but fears simmer over planned ‘anti-Sharia’ march after attack.}

Muslims in Portland thanked the community for its support as they raised money for the victims of a deadly attack on a train by an Islamophobic white supremacist.

On Friday, Jeremy Joseph Christian – a 35-year-old who was known to authorities – fatally slit the throats of 53-year-old Ricky John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, after they stepped in to defend two girls Christian was bullying.

One of the girls is Muslim and was wearing the hijab.

A third victim, 21-year-old Micah David-Cole Fletcher, was also stabbed in the attack.

Fletcher – who in 2013 performed a poem condemning Islamophobia – is in serious condition in hospital, but expected to survive.

“I am very thankful as a Muslim, I am very thankful as a Portlander … that we stand together here as one,” Muhammad Najieb, an imam at the Muslim Community Centre, told the AP news agency.

The two young women “could have been the victims, but three heroes jumped in and supported them”, he said.

Destinee Mangum, one of the girls Christian was abusing, told Fox 12 Oregon KPTV: “I just want to say thank you to the people that put their life on the line for me. They lost their lives because of me and my friend, and the way we looked.”

Crying as her voice shook, she added: “I appreciate them. Without them, we probably would be dead right now.”

A fundraising page launched by Najieb’s group for the families of the victims, including the two young women, had raised $50,000 in its first hours.

In total, various pages have raised almost one million dollars for the victims and their families.

By the time of publishing on Monday, Muslims Unite for Portland Heroes had raised $326,593; Tri Met Hero Recovery (for the surviving victim) gathered $133,635; Girls who survived Portland’s MAX attack raised $13,084 and Tri Met Heroes received $365,056.

{{Anti-Muslim march to go ahead}}

On April 29, local reporter Mike Bivins filmed Christian at a march by the far right.

In the footage, Christian was draped in an American Revolutionary War flag and could be seen performing a Nazi salute and heard shouting “Die Muslims. Die fake Christians. Die Jews”, as police watched on.

Joey Gibson, who organised that rally, is behind another march planned for June 4.

While there was solidarity in the Oregon city, there were concerns of more unrest ahead of Gibson’s “Portland march against Sharia”.

Similar rallies, held under the guise of free speech, are widely believed to be fascist in nature.

“We gotta come together on June 4,” said organiser Joey Gibson, in a video posted to his Facebook page. “We need to stand up for what we believe in.”

Gibson distanced himself from Christian in the clip, but urged his followers to pray for the suspect.

{{Extremist ideology}}

Police said they will examine what appears to be the extremist ideology of Christian, whose social media postings indicate an affinity for Nazis and political violence.

The attack occurred on a light-rail train on the first day of Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims.

Christian was being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a weapon.

He was arrested a short time after the attack when he was confronted by other men, and will face court on Tuesday.

The FBI said it is too early to say whether the slayings qualify as a federal hate crime. However, Christian faces intimidation charges, the state equivalent of a hate crime.

Court records show Christian served prison time for first-degree robbery and second-degree kidnapping after a crime committed 15 years ago, when he was 20, and theft and weapons charges were dismissed in 2010.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Short-range ballistic Scud missile landed in the Sea of Japan and was the third successful test in as many weeks.}

North Korea has test-fired a missile into Japanese waters, the latest in a series of launches that have ratcheted up tensions over its nuclear weapons programme.

It was North Korea’s third ballistic missile test in as many weeks and the 12th this year – carried out in fresh defiance of UN sanctions warnings and US threats of possible military action.

US military monitors said the short-range missile flew for six minutes, while Japan said it fell into the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) – waters extending 370km from its coast.

The launch comes despite tough talk from US President Donald Trump, who promised last week at the G7 summit that the “big problem” of North Korea “will be solved”.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe swiftly condemned the test and vowed concerted action along with its US ally.

“We will never tolerate North Korea’s continued provocations that ignore repeated warnings by the international community,” Abe told reporters.

“As agreed during the G7 summit, the North Korean problem is the international community’s top priority. In order to deter North Korea, we will take concrete action with the United States.”

Monday’s test,a short-range Scud, marks the second time this year that a North Korean missile fell provocatively close to its neighbour Japan.

It flew about 450 kilometres before landing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) between the Korean peninsula and Japan, the US Pacific Command said.

{{Conflict ‘catastrophic’}}

North Korea has been stepping up efforts towards its ultimate goal – developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead to the continental US.

The isolated but nuclear-armed North Korea has test-fired a missile almost every week for the past three weeks.

Michael Penn, president of the Tokyo-based Shingetsu news agency, said the latest test was part of a North Korean effort to strengthen its military against any possible threats from the US.

“The missile technology tests themselves do seem to be the priority of the North Korean regime, to get their technology as strong as possible, as quickly as possible, because they feel this is their best way forward – to show their own ability to defend themselves against a Trump administration they cannot predict,” Penn told Al Jazeera.

James Mattis, the US secretary of defence, in an interview that aired on Sunday before the launch, said the US favoured diplomacy over war with North Korea, which he said would be “catastrophic”.

“The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, which is the capital of South Korea,” he told CBS News.

“This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan, to South Korea. And in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well.

“But the bottom line is, it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat, if we’re not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means.”

Mattis declined to say what kind of action from Pyongyang would constitute a “red line” for Washington, saying the administration needs “political manoeuvre room”.

{{‘Direct challenge’}}

South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-In, ordered a meeting of the national security council to assess the launch, which came a day after North Korea said its leader Kim Jong-un had overseen a test of a new anti-aircraft weapons system.

South Korea condemned the test as a “grave threat” and a challenge to the new leader who advocates dialogue with North Korea in a break from his conservative predecessors.

“That the North repeated such provocations after the inauguration of our new leadership… is a direct challenge to our demand for peace and denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” the foreign ministry said.

The missile launches, and Pyongyang’s threat to stage its sixth nuclear test, have prompted calls for tougher UN sanctions and a warning from Trump that military intervention was an option under consideration.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Laptop ban on all flights into and out of US could be part of a new security measure, Homeland Security Secretary says.}

The United States might ban laptops from aircraft cabins on all flights into and out of the country as part of a ramped-up effort to protect against potential security threats, US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Sunday.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Kelly said America planned to “raise the bar” on airline security, including tightening screening of carry-on items.

“That’s the thing that they are obsessed with, the terrorists, the idea of knocking down an airplane in flight, particularly if it’s a US carrier, particularly if it’s full of US people.”

Washington imposed restrictions, in March, on large electronic devices in aircraft cabins on flights from 10 airports.

Kelly said the move would be part of a broader airline security effort to combat what he called “a real sophisticated threat.” He said no decision had been made as to the timing of any ban.

“We are still following the intelligence,” he said, “and are in the process of defining this, but we’re going to raise the bar generally speaking for aviation much higher than it is now.”

Airlines are concerned that a broad ban on laptops may erode customer demand. But none wants an incident aboard one of its airplanes.

“Whatever comes out, we’ll have to comply with,” Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines, told the company’s annual meeting last week.

Airlines were blindsided in January when President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning entry for 90 days to citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, sending airlines scrambling to determine who could board and who could not. The order was later blocked in the courts.

In the case of laptops, the administration is keeping the industry in the loop. Delta Air Lines said in a statement it “continues to be in close contact with the US Department of Homeland Security,” while Munoz applauded the administration for giving the company a “heads up.”

“We’ve had constant updates on the subject,” he said. “We know more than most. And again, if there’s a credible threat out there, we need to make sure we take the appropriate measures.”

Among the enhanced security measures will likely be tighter screening of carry-on items to allow Transport Security Administration agents to discern problematic items in tightly stuffed bags.

Kelly said that in order to avoid paying fees for checking bags, people were stuffing them to the point where it was difficult to see through the clutter.

“The more stuff is in there, the less the TSA professionals that are looking at what’s in those bags through the monitors can tell what’s in them.”

The TSA has begun testing certain new procedures at a limited number of airports, requiring people to remove additional items from carry-on bags for separate screenings.

Asked whether the government would expand such measures nationwide, Kelly said: “We might, and likely will.”

Source:Al Jazeera

{As election campaigning restarts following Manchester attack, UK opposition leader addresses root causes of ‘terror’.}

Britain’s foreign policy and intervention in wars abroad had fuelled the threat of “terrorism” at home, the leader of the UK’s main opposition party said on Friday, as a political truce after a Manchester suicide attack came to an end.

Less than two weeks before a general election, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also vowed to reverse Prime Minister Theresa May’s police cuts and give the security services more resources if they needed them, saying Britain could not “be protected on the cheap”.

Although Corbyn said he did not want “to make a narrow party political point”, opponents accused him of exploiting Monday’s bombing by Salman Abedi, a Briton born to Libyan parents, who killed 22 people, including children, at the Manchester Arena after a concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

“No government can prevent every terrorist attack. But the responsibility of government is to minimise that chance, to ensure the police have the resources they need, that our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country,” Corbyn said in a speech in the capital, London.

“Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services pointed out the connections between wars that we’ve been involved in or supported … in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home.”

{{Corbyn edges higher in polls}}

May’s Conservatives are leading in the opinion polls before the June 8 election and were widely expected to cruise to a landslide win when she called the vote in April.

But one survey on Thursday suggested their lead had been cut to just five points after she was forced to backtrack on a plan to force elderly people to pay more for their social care.

Corbyn, a socialist and veteran anti-war campaigner, said foreign policy was not solely to blame for “terrorism” but he would shy away from the interventionist approach that has seen the UK join military action in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan in recent years.

“We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is not working,” he said, vowing only to deploy troops when there is a clear need and a plan to secure a lasting peace.

His stance puts him not just at odds with May, who says he would put Britain’s security at risk if he won power, but also many in his own party, including former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair who led Britain into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think his timing is incredibly disappointing and crass given there is a live police operation,” Security Minister Ben Wallace told BBC radio. “I don’t think the substance of what he says is correct at all.”

Corbyn, who has already pledged 10,000 extra officers, also promised to reverse police cost-saving measures, many brought in by May in her former role as interior minister. Britain now has fewer officers than in 2001.

Amber Rudd, the interior minister, rejected suggestions cuts had hindered the authorities’ ability to prevent Monday’s attack.

“We must not imply that this terrorist activity wouldn’t have taken place if there had been more policing,” she said.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Member states of military alliance are set to officially join a US-led coalition fighting ISIL, diplomatic sources say.}

NATO member states are expected to formally join a US-led coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group in Syria and Iraq, according to several diplomatic sources.

The decision by the North Atlantic Council, the highest decision-making body within NATO, is expected to be officially announced at a meeting of the alliance’s leaders on Thursday.

“The NATO (member state) ambassadors decided this evening an action plan on terrorism for the summit. It includes the accession of NATO to the global coalition against IS,” one diplomat told the AFP news agency on Wednesday, using a different name for ISIL.

The decision is mainly political because all 28 NATO member states are already individually part of the coalition, with some only taking part in support roles.

It comes on the back of pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has urged NATO members to do more in the fight against ISIL.

Diplomats said France and Germany will agree to the US plan, but insist the move is purely symbolic.

“NATO as an institution will join the coalition,” one senior diplomat involved in the discussions told the Reuters news agency. “The question is whether this just a symbolic gesture to the United States. France and Germany believe it is.”

The move will specifically involve an expansion of flights by NATO’s AWACS surveillance aircraft currently supporting anti-ISIL operations in Syria and Iraq.

“This means that the AWACS will not just do airspace surveillance but airspace management,” the diplomat said, asking not to be identified.

“They are going to coordinate the flights and direct airplanes over Syria and Iraq but only for flights which are not related to bombings.”

Earlier on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he expected NATO to join despite reservations by some members states which are fearful of getting dragged into another conflict.

Tillerson said that NATO’s joining “would be a really important step” but that “there are a couple of countries that are still thinking it over.”

“I have had meetings actually with one of those. I think they’re going to support NATO joining and becoming a member of the ISIS fight,” he told reporters travelling with Trump.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said earlier that “many allies would like to see NATO as a full member of the coalition … because it sends a strong message of unity”.

He added that in light of Monday’s attack in Manchester, “it is important to send this message of unity against terrorism”.

Stoltenberg has previously stressed that there has been “no discussion at all of engaging NATO in a combat role” if it officially joins the coalition.

He also noted that besides sending a political signal of unity against terrorism, NATO’s formal entry into the coalition would help allies improve coordination and provide better information flows.

At the Brussels meeting on Thursday, Trump is also expected to urge NATO members to increase defence spending to the target of two percent of a country’s annual gross domestic product, as they agreed in 2014.

In return, the allies hope the US president will unequivocally state his support for NATO’s mutual defence pledge, known as Article 5.

The alliance is also due to discuss whether to increase the number of soldiers in Afghanistan as Trump mulls over adding at least 3,000 troops in hopes of putting pressure on the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

Many in Kabul, however, fear a troop increase will not help, and have instead urged more training and equipment.

Source:Al Jazeera

{MPs deny involvement, but aviation bosses open probe after Bamiyan-bound plane is forcefully diverted back to Kabul.}

Afghan aviation authorities have filed an official complaint against two members of parliament after a Bamiyan-bound flight they missed was forced to return to the capital when men on the ground prevented the plane from landing.

Kam Air flight RQ-814 took off from Kabul on Tuesday with 30 passengers on board – but without Bamiyan MPs Ghulam Hussain Naseri and Abdul Rahman Shaheedani, who were booked on the 8am flight.

According to local media reports, Shaheedani’s son, a police officer at the Bamiyan airport, had a role in disrupting the flight’s landing by converging with other officers on the runway and forcing the plane to fly back to Kabul.

After the aircraft returned to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, the two politicians were able to board the flight. Footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows Shaheedani inside the plane, just before its second departure, saying: “Everyone will now know who I am and what my power is.”

Mahmoud Shah Habibi, head of the Afghanistan Civil Aviation Authority, called the incident “a complete breach of security” that violated Afghan and international aviation law.

“We have filed an official complaint against the MPs and an investigation is under way,” he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

“Whatever happened there, Kam Air should not had come under pressure and contacted the relevant people.”

Local media organisation, Tolonews, reported on Wednesday that at least five senior security officials were arrested over the illegal diversion of the flight. Shaheedani’s son was among those arrested.

The provincial government said in a statement that the commander of Bamiyan airport’s border police, six border police officers and the regional security chief were being questioned in connection to the incident.

Shaheedani, however, denied any involvement in disrupting the landing in Bamiyan.

“I did not play any role in this. The flight was diverted by my supporters in Bamiyan, I did not ask them to do this,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I received a call after missing my flight that the flight was diverted back and I was now able to get on the plane, so I arrived at the airport without any knowledge of the incident until I was told by the airport staff about what happened.”

{{‘Extreme pressure’}}

Captail Samad Osman Samadi, chief executive of Kam Air, described the incident as “very unusual”.

“This has not happened before,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We were under extreme pressure and worried for our passengers’ security and had no option but to divert the flight back to Kabul. They had blocked the runway and we could not land.”

As the flight returned back to Kabul, passengers had to disembark, causing delays and inconvenience.

Samadi explained the plane was re-fuelled before taking off to Bamiyan again.

“After the MPs got on board in Kabul, the runway in Bamiyan was clear and we landed without any interruption.”

A number of MPs in the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) on Wednesday condemned the act and called for a full investigation.

Kam Air opened as Afghanistan’s only private airline in November 2003. It flies leased aircraft between Kabul, Dubai and Istanbul and operates several domestic routes.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Under martial law, Philippine security forces bomb ISIL-linked fighters hiding in besieged southern city.}

The Philippine army on Thursday launched air raids against ISIL-linked fighters who are hiding in a southern city they attacked earlier this week, sending thousands of people fleeing and prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law in the region.

The “surgical air strikes” were aimed to flush out up to 40 fighters believed to be hiding in Marawi City, on the southern island of Mindanao, according to military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-ar Herrera.

Most of Marawi’s 200,000 residents had fled the city, which is about 800 kilometres south of the capital, Manila, but Herrera said those who remained had been warned to get out of the areas where there was bombing and fighting.

“We have identified targets that we need to clear,” he said. “We need to neutralise the remnants of the local terrorist groups.”

The violence erupted on Tuesday after the army raided the hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf group, which has pledged allegiance to ISIL (also known as ISIS). Abu Sayyaf fighters called for reinforcements from an allied group, the Maute, and dozens of gunmen managed to enter Marawi City and sweep through its streets.

The fighters reportedly burned a Catholic church, the city jail, and two schools, as well as occupied the main streets and two bridges leading to Marawi City.

Religious leaders have also accused the rebels of taking a Catholic priest and his worshippers hostage and using them as human shields.

At least 21 people are believed to have died in three days of fighting.

On Thursday, Duterte submitted to Congress the proclamation of martial law for review as required by the constitution. The House of Representatives and the Senate were scheduled to convene on Monday to assess the declaration.

Majul Gandamra, the mayor of Marawi City, said many establishments were closed, making it difficult for those who are still in the municipality to purchase supplies.

“It’s getting difficult for people to get their basic needs, like water and food,” Gandamra told a Manila radio station.

“Our top priority is to give food, water and temporary shelter to residents,” he added. “We are looking for an evacuation centre where there is no presence of the ISIL-related militants.”

Soldiers, supported by tanks, moved through streets and houses as they scoured three villages in the area where the gunmen were reported to be moving around.

Checkpoints were established at entry and exit points of Marawi City, while helicopters hovered over the city and more soldiers arrived in trucks to secure the municipality.

The military has placed units in different parts of Mindanao under high alert, including the city of Davao, Duterte’s home town, where local authorities fear the fighters could attempt to stage retaliatory attacks.

Source:Al Jazeera

{DIA chief says if left unchecked, it’s only a matter of time before Pyongyang can strike the US with a nuclear missile.}

{North Korea – if left unchecked – is on an “inevitable” path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States, a senior US defence official says.}

The remarks by Defence Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant-General Vincent Stewart at a Senate hearing on Tuesday are the latest indication of mounting US concern over Pyongyang’s advancing missile and nuclear weapons programmes, which the North says are needed for self-defence.

US lawmakers pressed Stewart and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to estimate how far away North Korea was from obtaining an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could reach the United States.

They repeatedly declined to offer an estimate, saying doing so would reveal US knowledge about North Korea’s capabilities, but Stewart warned the panel the risk was growing.

“If left on its current trajectory the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland,” Stewart said.

“While nearly impossible to predict when this capability will be operational, the North Korean regime is committed and is on a pathway where this capability is inevitable.”

Trump fears ‘major conflict’ with North Korea
The UN Security Council was to meet on Tuesday behind closed doors to discuss Sunday’s test of a solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missile, which defies Security Council resolutions and sanctions. The meeting was called at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea.

John Schilling, a missile expert contributing to Washington’s 38 North think-tank, estimated it would take until at least 2020 for North Korea to be able to develop an ICBM capable of reaching the US mainland and until 2025 for one powered by solid fuel.

But Coats acknowledged gaps in US intelligence about North Korea and the thinking of its leader Kim Jong-un.

He cited technological factors complicating US intelligence gathering, including gaps in surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), which rely on assets such as spy satellites and drone aircraft.

“We do not have constant, consistent ISR capabilities and so there are gaps, and the North Koreans know about these,” Coats said.

Washington has been trying to persuade China to agree to new sanctions on North Korea, which has conducted dozens of missile firings and tested two nuclear bombs since the start of last year.

Last month, US President Donald Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “madman with nuclear weapons” during a telephone call with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, according to a transcript of a April 29 conversation released by US media on Tuesday.

“We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that. We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20. But we don’t want to use it,” Trump said, citing “two nuclear submarines” the Pentagon sent to the area.

Transcribed by the Philippine government, the conversation was released by The Washington Post and The Intercept.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was “stable or not stable”. The Philippine leader responded their North Korean counterpart’s “mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment”.

Kim has a “dangerous toy in his hands that could create so much agony and suffering for all mankind”, Duterte added.

But Trump appeared reassured that North Korea’s recent missile tests had failed, saying “all his rockets are crashing. That’s the good news”.

Turning to China and its ability to counter the nuclear threat, Trump pressed Duterte to call Chinese President Xi Jinping to exert pressure.

“I hope China solves the problem. They really have the means because a great degree of their stuff come through China,” Trump said. “But if China doesn’t do it, we will do it.”

Duterte agreed. However, he cautioned: “The other option is a nuclear blast, which is not good for everybody.”

Source:Al Jazeera