Tag: InternationalNews

{ISIL-linked group executes Filipino fisherman abducted last year as army pursues all-out-war in country’s southwest.}

The Philippine army says Abu Sayyaf fighters have beheaded one of four Filipino fishermen they took captive in December.

Brigadier-General Cirilito Sobejana, military commander on the southern island of Jolo island, said on Sunday the boat’s captain had been executed in the jungle near the town of Patikul on Thursday but that his remains had yet to be recovered.

Noel Besconde was abducted along with three crewmen by the Abu Sayyaf group, which has ties to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, in December while on board a fishing vessel in the Celebes Sea.

Abu Sayyaf is a small group known for beheadings, kidnappings, bombings and extortion in the south of the mainly Catholic country.

Sobejana said it was possible the abductors beheaded Besconde because he was sick and had become a liability

“The reason why he was beheaded is that he was delaying their movement,” Sobejana said. “They [Abu Sayyaf fighters] are highly mobile and we are pursuing them.”

Troops have not yet found Besconde’s body, but Sobejana said the military received a video of the beheading.

Sobejana said the group had demanded about $60,500 as ransom for Besconde’s release but the government maintains its policy of refusing to pay ransom.

The Philippine army has declared all-out war againt Abu Sayyaf on the islands of Jolo and Basilan, but is constrained by the group’s presence among large civilian communities.

{{Rooted in separatism}}

Abu Sayyaf has its roots in separatism, but its activities are mostly banditry and piracy. It has invested the profits of its business in modern weapons and fast boats.

Sobejana said the Abu Sayyaf is still holding Besconde’s crew, along with more than a dozen foreign nationals in Jolo, which is the primary island of the province of Sulu.

The group last year beheaded Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. An elderly German, Jurgen Kantner, suffered the same fate in February when a $600,000 ransom demand was not paid.

The army said on Wednesday that an Abu Sayyaf leader who was directly involved in the kidnapping and execution of the Ridsdel and Hall was among those was killed by Philippine troops during clashes last weekend on a resort island.

Source:Al Jazeera

{McMaster discusses joint efforts to combat “terrorist groups”, just days after US use of GBU-43 bomb in country’s east.}

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser has met Afghan officials in Kabul, just days after the US dropped the “mother of all bombs” on suspected ISIL fighters in the country’s east.

General HR McMaster, the first high-level US official to visit the country since Trump took office, held meetings on Sunday with President Ashraf Ghani; Hanif Atmar, national security adviser; and other high-level Afghan officials to discuss “joint efforts to counter terrorist groups”, according to a statement released by the US embassy.

For its part, the Afghan presidential palace said via Twitter that the two sides discussed “bilateral ties, security, counter-terrorism and development”.

Speaking to ABC News from Afghanistan, McMaster said the Trump administration is weighing diplomatic, military and economic responses to the Taliban and ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, in Afghanistan.

“Our enemy sensed that and they have redoubled their efforts and it’s time for us, alongside our Afghan partners, to respond,” said McMaster.

The visit comes just days after the US dropped the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, one of the largest conventional weapons ever used in combat nicknamed the “mother of all bombs”, during an operation against ISIL, also known as ISIS, in the Achin district of Nangarhar province.

While military officials say the strike was based solely on tactical needs, it has led to speculation that Trump’s defence advisers are planning to escalate the war against armed anti-government groups in Afghanistan.

In a sharp warning to the US administration, Hamid Karzai, the former Afghan president, has called the bombing an “inhuman act, a brutal act against an innocent country”.

“A bomb of that magnitude has consequences for the environment, for our lives, for our plants, for our water, for our soil – this is poison,” he told Al Jazeera.

The GBU-43 is estimated to have killed nearly 100 fighters and no civilians, according to Afghan officials, although this has not been independently verified.

General John Nicholson, the US forces commander in Afghanistan, has requested thousands of additional troops to “break the stalemate,” between the Afghan forces and the Taliban, on top of the estimated 8,000 US troops already stationed in country.

{{Anti-corruption efforts}}

Trump, who took office on January 20, had asked US officials, including some in the treasury and commerce departments, to work together to integrate the various political, diplomatic, military and economic responses available, McMaster said.

“We’ll give [President Trump] those options. And we’ll be prepared to execute whatever decision he makes,” he said.

McMaster praised anti-corruption efforts and assured Ghani that the US would continue to support and cooperate with Afghanistan on a number of issues.

Ghani told McMaster that “terrorism is a serious issue for the security of the world and the region” and if serious steps are not taken it would affect “generations” of people, according to the palace.

Illicit drugs and corruption also top the list of threats to Afghanistan’s security, Ghani told the visiting officials.

The Afghan government refers to both the Taliban and ISIL as “terrorists”.

Afghan forces have struggled to contain Taliban fighters since most international troops were withdrawn in 2014, leaving them to fight largely alone.

At the peak in 2011, the US had more than 100,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Source:Al Jazeera

{‘Yes’ campaign secures narrow win in referendum to amend Turkey’s constitution and give more power to the presidency.}

Istanbul, Turkey – Turkey’s leaders claimed victory for the “Yes” campaign in the referendum to amend the country’s constitution and grant the presidential office new executive powers.

The changes voted for on Sunday transform Turkey’s governance from a parliamentary system to an executive presidency, significantly expanding the powers of the top office.

“I pray the outcome will bring auspiciousness to our country,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a news conference in Istanbul.

“The president will serve the country bearing in mind one nation, one flag, one state… The referendum is over and the debate prior to that is over.”

As of 20:00GMT on Sunday, the “Yes” campaign was leading with 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent with 99 percent of votes counted.

The changes were backed by the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party), founded by Erdogan, and the leadership of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), whose parliamentary support was vital to take the amendments to a public vote.

“We are all brothers and sisters in a single body standing against traitors,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, speaking at the AK Party’s headquarters to cheering supporters.

“Thank you Turkey, thank you my holy nation… the nation said the last word and said ‘Yes’.”

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) and other critics argue the amendments give too much power to one individual, undermining the separation of powers in the government.

The opposition demanded a recount citing voting irregularities.

The constitutional changes will only enter into force after the presidential and parliamentary elections set for 2019. Erdogan will have to be elected then to claim the powers this referendum brings.

This result gives the president new powers to assign ministers, high-level state officials, and vice-presidents, as well as half the members in the country’s highest judicial body.

It will also allow the president to dissolve parliament, and issue executive decrees and state of emergencies.

Erdogan said Turkey’s political system had created too many short-lived governments, leading to instability and economic malaise.

During the past few years, deadly bomb attacks claimed by or blamed on Kurdish armed groups and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have killed hundreds of security forces and civilians.

How will Turkey change if it votes ‘Yes’ on April 16?

Security concerns were further emphasised when some members of the Turkish army tried to topple the government last July in a failed coup.

Turkey’s presidency traditionally was neutral and largely ceremonial.

However, Erdogan has effectively transformed the office to a more politically active one after he became Turkey’s first president to be elected by popular vote in 2014 after previous constitutional changes passed in a similar referendum in 2010.

Erdogan’s AK Party launched a massive campaign to convince Turks to vote for the constitutional changes, inside and outside of the country.

The party has ruled Turkey for 15 years after taking over the nation of 75 million people during a political crisis and economic downturn in 2002.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Two million Palestinians in the besieged territory now down to a few hours of electricity a day as tensions rise.}

The Gaza Strip’s only functioning power plant has shut down after running out of fuel, leaving two million people in the Hamas-governed Palestinian territory with only six hours of electricity a day.

Samir Metir, head of Gaza’s electricity provider, told AFP news agency that all the plant’s fuel, purchased with funding from Qatar and Turkey, had been used up.

He said it was not clear when the territory would receive another shipment, owing to a “dispute” between the electricity authority in Gaza and Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.

Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 from Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

A mooted power-sharing agreement between the two factions in Gaza has failed to materialise, and residents have been subjected to a decade-long Israeli blockade, strangling the local economy and severely limiting supplies.

Metir said the power plant cannot afford to pay the enormous fuel taxes imposed by the PA.

“Today we had about six hours of electricity at my house. Now it’s off for the next 12 hours,” Ezz Zanoun, a photographer in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

“Tomorrow it might be worse. We’re expecting about four hours [of electricity] – and from there the real problems start.”

Protests broke out in January over the power shortages, which the Gaza health ministry said could have “dangerous consequences” for patients in hospitals.

The crisis was resolved by tax-free donations from Qatar and Turkey, which ran out last week. But now the PA is no longer willing to waive the fuel for Gaza.

Fuel supply for Gaza’s two million inhabitants has been a long-running source of dispute, with most homes in the territory receiving two eight-hour periods of electricity a day even when the power plant is operating normally.

As things stand, residents can expect two six-hour periods of electricity, Metir said, “including electricity bought from Israel and Egypt”.

Zanoun told Al Jazeera that due to shifting schedules, households are often relegated to only one six-hour period a day.

At least 65 percent of residents in Gaza live in poverty, 72 percent are food-insecure, and 80 percent have grown dependent on international aid, according to a recent report published by the EU-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

Unemployment in the territory hit an unprecedented 43 percent in the last quarter of 2016.

A Fatah-led delegation is expected to travel to Gaza later this month to discuss reunification efforts with Hamas.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Pre-monsoon temperatures continue to rise, prompting health concerns.}

It may happen almost every year at around this time, but a developing heatwave in South Asia is raising concerns about the potential health hazard posed by extreme temperatures.

In the last few days temperatures across many parts of India and Pakistan have been hovering around the 40 degree Celsius mark.

This, in itself, is not unusual. Temperatures of 40C occur in many parts of the region ahead of the monsoon rains, which usually do not reach northern parts until July.

What is of concern this year is that some of the hottest weather of the pre-monsoon period will likely coincide with the start of Ramadan. This will begin on May 26 and continue until June 24. During this time many Muslims refrain from eating and drinking between dawn and dusk.

During the latter part of Ramadan, and well before the cooling effect of monsoon rain arrives, there will be almost 14 hours between sunrise and sunset.

Strict observers of Ramadan will be placing their bodies under considerable stress if they abstain from hydrating themselves for the whole 14 hours.

Before Ramadan in 2015, a severe heatwave claimed the lives of 2,500 people in India. Then just one month later temperatures as high as 49C over a three day period claimed 2,000 lives in southern Pakistan.

The hot weather during 2016 claimed the lives of 700 people according to the Indian Meteorology Department.

There are often other contributory factors in the death tolls of heatwaves. Pakistan’s infrastructure is such that electricity supplies are often under severe strain during hot weather. The failure of these supplies means than people are left without fans, refrigerators and air conditioning units.

Rapid urbanisation and anthropogenic climate change are other factors which are likely to make heatwaves a growing and more frequent threat.

The current spell of hot weather is expected to continue for the best part of a week. It is likely to turn cooler, by around 3 to 4C, from Friday, with the chance of showers.

Source:Al Jazeera

{State television says 20 people still missing after flash floods triggered by heavy rains in Ajabshir and Azarshahr.}

At least 17 people have been killed and 20 missing in Iran’s northwest after torrential rains triggered severe flooding, according to state media.

Iran’s state television on Saturday showed images of flooded houses and cars carried away by the surging water.

“Rescue teams have found 17 dead bodies after flash floods triggered by heavy rains in the cities of Ajabshir and Azarshahr,” Khalil Saei, director general of crisis management in East Azarbaijan province, was quoted as saying.

Saei added that Red Crescent workers, air ambulances, police and army forces have been deployed to provide aid.

In September, at least 10 people were killed in flash flooding in Tehran and Hormozgan provinces.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Local newspaper receive claim of responsibility for the attack on Borussia Dortmund team implicating the far-right.}

German investigators have “significant doubts” that the attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus on Tuesday was the work of “Islamists”.

Three identical letters printed in German found near the scene of Tuesday’s attack in Dortmund had stated it was carried out “in the name of Allah”, broadcaster ARD reported, citing other media.

The letters referred to the use of Tornado reconnaissance planes in Syria, which Germany has deployed as part of the military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

But a report commissioned by investigators said the letters had likely been written to trick people into thinking there was an ISIL motive, ARD added.

READ MORE: Marc Bartra injured in Borussia Dortmund bus blasts

“That’s accurate,” Frauke Koehler, a spokeswoman for the federal public prosecutor’s office, said when asked to comment on the ARD report.

Asked why there were doubts over the letters, she said she could not give any more information as the investigation was ongoing.

Another letter

German newspaper Tagesspiegel said on its website later on Friday it had received an anonymous far-right email claiming responsibility for Tuesday’s attack. It said the email referred to Adolf Hitler, railed against multiculturalism and suggested another attack might occur on April 22.

Koehler said prosecutors had received a copy of the letter but she could not comment further.

The Borussia Dortmund team bus was heading to their stadium for a Champions League match against AS Monaco on Tuesday when three explosions occurred, injuring Spanish defender Marc Bartra.

Experts have been expressing scepticism for days about the origins of the letters claiming responsibility. Security sources have said investigators are looking at whether left or right-wing extremists may have carried out the attack.

A day after the attack, the interior minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia described the letters as “unusual”.

Source:Al Jazeera

{Files released by ‘Shadow Brokers’ also suggest the NSA exploited weaknesses in Microsoft Windows products.}

Files released by the mysterious hacker “Shadow Brokers” on Friday suggested the US National Security Agency (NSA) had penetrated the SWIFT banking network and monitored a number of Middle East banks.

The files, according to computer security analysts, also showed the NSA had found and exploited numerous vulnerabilities in a range of Microsoft Windows products widely used on computers around the world.

“The tools and exploits released today have been specifically designed to target earlier versions of Windows operating system,” said security specialist Pierluigi Paganini on the Security Affairs website.

They “suggest the NSA was targeting the SWIFT banking system of several banks around the world”.

The SWIFT system is used by banks to transfer trillions of dollars each day.

The files appear to indicate that the NSA had infiltrated two of SWIFT’s service bureaus, including EastNets, which provides technology services in the Middle East for the Belgium-based SWIFT and for individual financial institutions.

Via that entry point the agency appears to have monitored transactions involving several banks and financial institutions in Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Qatar.

SWIFT said in a statement that the allegations involve only its service bureaus and not its own network.

“There is no impact on SWIFT’s infrastructure or data, however we understand that communications between these service bureaus and their customers may previously have been accessed by unauthorised third parties.”

“We have no evidence to suggest that there has ever been any unauthorised access to our network or messaging services.”

In a statement on its website EastNets rejected the allegations.

“The reports of an alleged hacker-compromised EastNets Service Bureau network is totally false and unfounded,” it said.

“We can confirm that no EastNets customer data has been compromised in any way.”

Analysts say many of the exploits revealed appear to be three years old or more, but have some unknown vulnerabilities that could still be used by other hackers.

“Eastnets’ claim is impossible to believe,” said Kevin Beaumont, who was one of several experts who spent Friday combing through the documents and trying out the code.

He told the Associated Press news agency that he had found password dumps, an Excel spreadsheet outlining the internal architecture of the company’s server, and one file that was “just a massive log of hacking on their organisation”.

Beaumont said there was bad news in the release for Microsoft as well. He said the malicious code published on Friday appeared to exploit previously undiscovered weaknesses in older versions of its Windows operating system – the mark of a sophisticated actor and a potential worry for many of Windows’ hundreds of millions of users.

The opinion was seconded by Matthew Hickey of UK-based cybersecurity company Hacker House.

“It’s an absolute disaster,” Hickey said in an email to AP. “I have been able to hack pretty much every Windows version here in my lab using this leak.”

Microsoft said in a statement that it is reviewing the leak and “will take the necessary actions to protect our customers”. It declined to elaborate.

The NSA has previously shown interest in targeting SWIFT, according to documents leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

No one has yet discovered the identity of Shadow Brokers, or of the hackers that gained access to the NSA materials.

Shadow Brokers first surfaced last year offering for sale a suite of hacking tools from the NSA. There were no takers at the price – stated of tens of millions of dollars – and since then the hacker or hackers have leaked bits of the trove for free.

Source:Al Jazeera

{North Korea issues nuclear warning to US as it unveils what appear to be new long-range and submarine-based missiles.}

North Korea on Saturday displayed what appeared to be new long-range and submarine-based missiles at a massive military parade celebrating the 105th birth anniversary of the nation’s founding president, Kim Il-sung.

The parade, attended by leader Kim Jong-un, saw thousands of soldiers marching through the capital, Pyongyang.

Weapons analysts said they believed some of the missiles on display were new types of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), enclosed in canister launchers mounted on the back of trucks.

North Korea’s Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) were also on parade. It was the first time North Korea had shown the missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000km, at a military parade.

With the US navy deployed near the Korean Peninsula, a top North Korean official issued a nuclear warning against the United States during the ceremony.

Choe Ryong Hae – widely seen by analysts as North Korea’s second most important official – said US President Donald Trump was guilty of “creating a war situation” by dispatching US forces to the region.

“We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack,” said Choe.

State television showed Kim, wearing a black suit and white shirt, stepping out of a black limousine and saluting his honour guard before walking down a red carpet.

He then walked up to a podium and clapped with senior government officials to address the thousands of soldiers and a massive crowd taking part in the parade.

The display suggested that Pyongyang was working towards a “new concept” of ICBM, Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the US-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, told the Reuters news agency.

“However, North Korea has a habit of showing off new concepts in parades before they ever test or launch them,” Hanham said. “It is still early days for these missile designs”.

Joshua Pollack, editor of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Review, told Reuters that the display indicates North Korea is progressing with its plan to base missiles on submarines, which are hard to detect.

“It suggests a commitment to this programme,” said Pollack. “Multiple SLBMs seems like a declaration of intent to advance the programme”.

Al Jazeera’s Craig Leeson, reporting from Seoul, in the South, said Kim Il-sung’s birthday, also known as the Day of the Sun, is a day for celebration in North Korea, but also a day for analysts to observe the military parade.

“What we’ve seen already is that it’s a very large parade. We had expected it would possibly be the largest that they’ve held,” our correspondent said.

He said analysts are noting who is standing beside Kim Jong-un – on his right, the country’s second-highest ranking official, who heads the military, and on his left, the country’s premier.

“What analysts believe is that this is sending a message that Kim Jong-un maintains his dual track policy,” Leeson said.

“That is the military deterrent and developing that military deterrent. And on his left, the economic policy, bringing North Korea into the modern world. That includes the business world, engaging China, its biggest trading partner, and maintaining its strength on the peninsula.”

{{‘Military hysteria’}}

In his annual New Year’s address, Kim said that the country’s preparations for an inter-continental ballistic missile launch have “reached the final stage”. Analysts say commercial satellite images from recent weeks indicate increased activity around North Korea’s nuclear test site.

North Korea warned the US to end its “military hysteria” earlier on Saturday or face retaliation as a US aircraft carrier group steamed towards the region.

“All the brigandish provocative moves of the US in the political, economic and military fields pursuant to its hostile policy toward the DPRK will thoroughly be foiled through the toughest counteraction of the army and people of the DPRK,” North Korea’s KCNA news agency said, citing a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army.

DPRK stands for the official name of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Our toughest counteraction against the US and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive.”

It said the Trump administration’s “serious military hysteria” has reached a “dangerous phase which can no longer be overlooked”.

The US has warned that a policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea is over.

US Vice President Mike Pence travels to South Korea on Sunday on a long-planned 10-day trip to Asia.

China, North Korea’s sole major ally and neighbour, which nevertheless opposes its weapons programme, on Friday again called for talks to defuse the crisis.

“We call on all parties to refrain from provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing.

North Korea, still technically at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce but not a treaty, has on occasion conducted missile or nuclear tests to coincide with big political events and often threatens the United States, South Korea and Japan.

Source:Al Jazeera

{More than 1,100 soldiers to be stationed in Orzysz, about 57km south of Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad.}

Poland on Thursday welcomed the first US troops in a multinational force being posted across the Baltic region to counter potential threats from Russia.

More than 1,100 soldiers – 900 US troops as well as 150 British and 120 Romanians – are to be deployed in Orzysz, about 57km south of Russia’s Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, where Moscow has stationed nuclear-capable missiles and an S-400 air missile defense system.

Three other formations are due to become operational by June across the region.

“Deploying of these troops to Poland is a clear demonstration of NATO’s unity and resolve and sends a clear message to any potential aggressor,” NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, said at a welcoming ceremony for the first arrivals at Orzysz, 220km northeast of the capital Warsaw.

Poland, alarmed by Russia’s assertiveness on NATO’s eastern flank, has lobbied hard for the stationing of NATO troops on its soil, especially since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Polish President Andrzej Duda called the deployment a historic moment “awaited for by generations”.

Russia vowed to take retaliatory measures in May 2016 if NATO deployed more battalions in Poland and the Baltic states, adding it would reinforce its western and southern flanks with new divisions.

Moscow has reacted angrily to the alliance’s military presence in countries that were once part of the Soviet Union and to exercises close to its borders.

Russia said it would install S-400 surface-to-air missiles and nuclear-capable Iskander systems in the exclave of Kaliningrad, in retaliation for the NATO deployment of its so-called “defence shield” in Eastern Europe.

Source:Al Jazeera