Putin: Insulting Prophet Muhammad is not freedom of expression: Russian President
(24-12-2021) During his annual press conference, Putin expressed the importance of artistic freedom without hindrance to religious freedom. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said insulting Prophet Muhammad does not count as freedom of expression.
Insults to the prophet are a “violation of religious freedom and the violation of the sacred feelings of people who profess Islam,”, Putin said on Thursday during his annual news conference, Russian News Agency TASS reported.
Putin also criticised posting photos of Nazis on websites such as the one titled the Immortal Regiment dedicated to Russians that died in World War Two.
Putin said these acts give rise to extremist reprisals, citing as an example the attack on the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris after its publication of cartoons of the prophet.
While praising artistic freedom in general, Putin said it has its limits and it should not infringe on other freedoms.
Russia has evolved as a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state, so Russians, he said, are used to respecting each other’s traditions.
In some other countries, this respect comes in short supply, Putin said. (Source: TRT World)
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Iran allows IAEA to reinstall cameras at Karaj nuclear facility
By Maziar Motamedi | (15 Dec 2021)
Tehran, Iran: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it has been given access once again by Iran to a centrifuge parts manufacturing facility in Karaj to replace cameras that were damaged or destroyed when the site was targeted by a sabotage attack in June this year.
Iran said it “voluntarily” agreed to grant access to the global nuclear watchdog in an effort to prevent misunderstandings, according to a report by Nournews, an outlet close to Iran’s security forces.
The report added that security and judicial investigations into the attack, which was blamed on Israel, were concluded and that the IAEA recently agreed to Iran’s request and condemned the attack.
As per a law passed by the hardline Iranian parliament, the IAEA will not have access to the recordings from the cameras which will be installed “after technical reviews by Iranian experts”.
“The agreement with Iran on replacing surveillance cameras at the Karaj facility is an important development for the IAEA’s verification and monitoring activities in Iran. It will enable us to resume necessary continuity of knowledge at this facility,” IAEA Director General Grossi said in a statement.
“I sincerely hope that we can continue our constructive discussions to also address and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues in Iran.”
Since February 2021, Iran has stopped the voluntary implementation of the Addition Protocol, a document that provided the IAEA with extended monitoring capabilities as part of the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The cameras have not stopped recording, but Iran has said it will hand over the recordings only when the United States which unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018 lifts sanctions imposed on Tehran.
The reinstallation of cameras and “other related technical activities” will take place before the end of the year, the agency added in the statement. Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told a gathering of Iranian diplomats in the capital Tehran that Iran and the IAEA reached a “good agreement” on Tuesday night, adding that it was reached by a delegation from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in Vienna.
He also renewed his criticism of the agency by saying the IAEA engages in political rhetoric that goes beyond its technical mandate.
In Vienna, meanwhile, Iran presented two documents that contain its proposals on the lifting of sanctions and bringing its nuclear programme back into full compliance with the nuclear deal.
The Western signatories of the deal have not welcomed the texts, saying they erase some of the progress achieved during six rounds of talks that ended in June, and on some occasions go beyond the original nuclear deal, claims that Iran rejects.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA)
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Iran fires ballistic missiles during drills in warning to Israel
Iran says war games in Gulf were warning to Israel
ran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has fired 16 surface-to-surface ballistic missiles at the close of five days of military drills that generals said were a warning to archenemy Israel.
The official IRNA news agency on Friday 24 December, reported that the names of the missiles fired during the military exercise across the country’s south were Emad, Ghadr, Sejjil, Zalzal, Dezful and Zolfaghar and that their ranges vary between 350km and 2,000km (220-1,250 miles).
It said the missiles successfully hit one target at the same time as 10 drones simultaneously hit their targets. State TV showed missiles lunching in the desert.
“These exercises were designed to respond to threats made in recent days by the Zionist regime,” Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri told the state television.
“Sixteen missiles aimed and annihilated the chosen target. In this exercise, part of the hundreds of Iranian missiles capable of destroying a country that dared to attack Iran were deployed,” he added. The military drills dubbed Payambar-e-Azam, or “Great Prophet”, began on Monday in Bushehr, Hormozgan and Khuzestan provinces, each of which touch the Gulf.
“The military exercise … is a serious warning to Zionist regime officials,” said IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami. “Make the slightest mistake, we will cut off their hand.”
The drills come after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday 22 December, amid Israel’s opposition to efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Bennett has accused Iran of “nuclear blackmail” and charged that revenue it gained from sanctions relief would be used to acquire weapons to harm Israelis.
Israeli leaders have also hinted at striking Iran.
Iran says it only wants to develop a civil nuclear programme, but Western powers say its stocks of enriched uranium could be used to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran has since started enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity a short technical step from the 90 percent needed to mak (SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES)
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Indian Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat’s Helicopter Crashes
Gen Rawat Was On “Very Safe” Air Force Chopper, Crash Stuns Experts
(December 08, 2021) New Delhi: The Mi-17V-5 helicopters are extremely reliable and are the workhorses of the Air Force, several former army officers told NDTV as a chopper with Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat, his wife and several staff members on board crashed in Tamil Nadu. General Rawat and his wife were among the 13 people who died in the crash, which took place in Coonoor, a spot between Coimbatore and Sulur.
The crash has perplexed the experts, who said the flight from Sulur to Wellington did not involve complications.
The Mi-17V-5 is the latest twin-engine iteration of the Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopter and is used regularly for high-altitude operations. One of the most advanced military transports that can be used in any topography and weather, it is one of the most powerful choppers used by Indian defence forces.
Most experts NDTV spoke to described it as a “very reliable, safe, stable, and large” helicopter that is also used to ferry VIPs, including the President and the Prime Minister.
According to information available on the website of Rosoboronexport — the Russian arms supplier — the chopper is designed to “carry personnel, cargo and equipment inside the cargo cabin or on an external sling, drop tactical air assault forces and reconnaissance and sabotage groups, destroy ground targets and carry the wounded”.
“Its armament system includes unguided rockets (up to 80 S-8 80mm unguided aerial rockets), cannons (suspended pods with 23mm cannons and 250 rounds each) and small arms,” the website says.
Gen Rawat was India’s first chief of defence staff, a position that was established in 2019.
Who Was On Board
Gen Bipin Rawat, Madhulika Rawat, Brig LS Lidder, SM,VSM, Lt Col Harjinder Singh, NK Gursewak Singh, NK Jitendra Kumar, Vivek Kumar, B Sai Teja, Hav Satpal. Five crew members were also there in the chopper.
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Indian farmers return after year-long protest
(12-12-2021) Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month repealed agricultural reforms that farmers claimed would let private companies control the country’s agriculture sector. Thousands of Indian farmers have headed home following a year-long protest against the government’s agriculture policies. Hundreds of farmers danced and celebrated the victory early Saturday as they began removing roadblocks and dismantling thousands of makeshift homes along major highways in the outskirts of Delhi.
They lit firecrackers, hugged each other and distributed sweets as blaring loudspeakers played patriotic and revolutionary songs dedicated to the agitation.
At Singhu, one of the protest sites, long queues of lorries and tractors packed the highway heading north into their home states of Haryana and Punjab.
“We were determined to protest as long as it had taken. But all of us are happy that the government accepted our demands and we are going back to our homes,” Sativinder Singh, one of the Singhu protesters, told AFP.
“It is a big day for the farmers as we can peacefully go back to our homes,” he said.
In a rare retreat last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced and pushed through parliament the repeal of three contentious laws that farmers claimed would let private companies control the country’s agriculture sector.
Farmers in India have political heft due to their sheer numbers tens of thousands had camped out since November 2020 to protest against the laws in the biggest challenge to the Modi government since it came to power in 2014.
Year-long protests
The three agricultural laws passed in September 2020 aimed to deregulate farm produce markets from state control and allow private companies to enter the sector — on which two-thirds of India’s more than 1.3 billion population rely for a living. The government said the laws were a necessary reform but farmers opposed the move, saying it would leave them at the mercy of big corporations. (Source: TRT World and agencies News)
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Do more to resolve Rohingya crisis: UN envoy in Bangladesh
(20 Dec 2021) A special rapporteur of the United Nations says the international community should build a better partnership with Bangladesh and cut off the Myanmar military leadership in dealing with the Rohingya refugee crisis.
“Bangladesh cannot and should not bear this responsibility alone,” Tom Andrews, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, told a news conference in Dhaka on Sunday.
“The cause of this crisis and the ultimate resolution of this crisis is not here in Bangladesh, but in Myanmar.”
The Rohingya are an ethnic group, more than 700,000 of whom fled persecution and violence in neighbouring Myanmar in August 2017. Since then, Bangladesh has been sheltering nearly a million refugees in crowded camps near its coast.
Bangladeshi officials say the crowded nation of more than 160 million people is overburdened because of the refugee crisis.
Andrews met with Rohingya refugees, officials of the international aid agencies and Bangladesh officials to review the refugee crisis in the country.
“I will do everything in my capacity to push for a stronger, more coordinated international response to this crisis, including the imposition of pressure on the Myanmar military and for concrete measures to hold the military junta fully accountable for this crisis,” he said.
He said the international community, if necessary, should block sources of revenue Myanmar’s military is receiving. A UN-sponsored investigation in 2018 recommended the prosecution of Myanmar’s top military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the violence against the Rohingya.
During his mission, the UN envoy also met with refugees relocated to Bhasan Char, a flood-prone island some 60km (37 miles) away from the mainland.
In October this year, the UN and Bangladesh’s government signed an agreement to work together to help relocate Rohingya refugees to the remote island. More than 19,000 Rohingya have already been moved to the island from the cramped camps.
“Nearly every Rohingya person I spoke with on this mission, whether in the Kutupalong camps or on Bhasan Char, wants to return home as soon as they can do so voluntarily, safely, sustainably, and with dignity. They want to go back home,” Andrews said.
He, however, said the relentless assault by the Myanmar military government against its own people as well as systematic clearance in the country’s Rakhine State continued till today.
“This means that the conditions for the safe and sustainable, dignified return of Rohingya to their homeland currently do not exist. It’ll take considerable time and significant efforts to create such conditions in Myanmar,” he said.(SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES)
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Bangladesh authorities demolish scores of Rohingya shops
(11-12-2021) About 1,000 shops belonging to Rohingya refugees have been bulldozed in several camps in Cox’s Bazar area in just two days. Bangladesh authorities have demolished about 1,000 shops belonging to Rohingya in camps, with a rights’ worker saying the move would have a “huge impact” on refugees’ livelihoods.
Bangladeshi camp officials armed with excavators, hammers and shovels bulldozed the shops in several camps in the Cox’s Bazar area on Thursday and Friday, leaving shell-shocked Rohingya shop-owners scrambling to salvage their goods. Deputy Refugee Commissioner Shamsud Douza said authorities were demolishing “illegal” shops in all camps.
“We have evicted about a thousand illegal shops. We are evicting illegal shops to build shelters for Rohingya,” he told AFP news agency.
Hundreds of Rohingya gathered at the eviction sites as excavators tore through the bamboo and steel structures.
Some broke down in tears, while others panicked.
‘Only means of livelihood’
“They broke down my shop. That was my only means of livelihood. With its income, I could support a family of seven,” said Al Amin, 30.
“Thousands of Rohingyas have been hit by this shop demolition drive,” he told AFP.
“I don’t know what to do now. What can I say? The Myanmar army has destroyed our fortunes. Now we lost our fortune once again.”
“My family has to be fed,” said cosmetics trader Abdur Rashid, 24.(Source: TRTWorld and Agencies)
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US issues ‘broad authorizations’ to enable aid to Afghanistan
(22 Dec 2021) The Biden administration issued what it called “broad authorizations” to ensure that the United Nations, American government agencies and aid groups can provide humanitarian relief to Afghanistan without running foul of sanctions against the Taliban.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released three licences on Wednesday 22 December, allowing US government officials and international agencies, including the UN, to conduct “official business” with the Taliban and Haqqani Network. It also authorised NGOs to deal with the two US-blacklisted Afghan groups on activities involving humanitarian projects.
The US move came as Afghanistan faced an economic meltdown since the Taliban seized control of the country in August. The crisis has left nearly 23 million people facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said the US is “committed to supporting” Afghans amid the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country.
“Treasury has provided broad authorizations that ensure NGOs, international organizations, and the US government can continue to provide relief to those in need,” Adeyemo said in a statement.
The country had long been dependent on foreign aid and most of its foreign assets were frozen after the Taliban takeover. The humanitarian crises have been made worse by the continuing surge of COVID-19 with the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Earlier, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
The resolution said “payment of funds, other financial assets or economic resources, and the provision of goods and services necessary to ensure the timely delivery of such assistance or to support such activities are permitted.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki welcomed the UN resolution, noting that it was drafted by the United States.
“The resolution also requests periodic updates by the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator to ensure assistance is reaching the intended beneficiaries,” she said.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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Australia, South Korea sign $717m defence deal
(Monday,13 Dec 2021) Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have signed a $717m defence deal. Worth about 1 billion Australian dollars, the contract was signed during a four-day visit by Moon to Canberra. The South Korean president is the first foreign leader to visit Australia since the pandemic began. The new defence deal will see South Korean defence company Hanwha provide the Australian army with artillery weapons, supply vehicles and radars.
It is the largest defence contract struck between Australia and an Asian nation, and comes at a time of heightened tensions between Australia and China.
Australia recently announced a deal to build nuclear-powered submarines in a partnership, dubbed AUKUS, with the United States and the United Kingdom a move that China has strongly condemned. Morrison said the new defence contract would create about 300 jobs in Australia, where a division of Hanwha operates.
“The contract that we have signed today, I think, speaks volumes about what we believe are the capabilities of the Korean defence industry,” he said.
“It’s an important further chapter in the defence industry story for Australia as we continue to build our sovereign capability and Korea is an important partner in that journey both in our security arrangements, but also in the building of our sovereign capability in defence manufacturing.”
Moon said South Korea had similar values to Australia when it came to its geopolitical outlook and said his Canberra visit “is very important for the national interest of Korea and to promote peace and prosperity in the region”.
But he also said that South Korea’s relationship with China was important, particularly when it came to pursuing peace with North Korea.
Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said his government was committed to keeping the region safe, and the new contract would help modernise the Australian army.
During their talks, Morrison and Moon agreed to upgrade the formal ties between their nations to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”. (SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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US deploys F-15 fighters closer to Russian borders
(15 Dec, 2021) Washington has sent fighter jets to Romania to patrol the skies near Russia’s borders as part of a NATO mission designed to deter Moscow in the Black Sea region and around Ukraine.
F-15E Strike Eagles from the 336th Fighter Squadron landed at the Campia Turzii airfield in central Romania. They will patrol the skies, taking off from an air base near the country’s Black Sea coast along with Romanian warplanes and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons, NATO said. The arrival of American planes contributes to the Western military bloc’s “deterrence in the region,” Brigadier General Joel Carey, the Allied Air Command deputy chief of staff operations, said. “The ability to rapidly deploy Allied air assets in support of NATO is vital to our readiness and demonstrates the force’s agility.”
In 2014, NATO boosted surveillance flights and air patrols near Russia’s western borders, as part of what the bloc calls ‘enhanced air policing’.
Tensions between Russia and NATO have been running high in recent weeks, as Western officials and media claim that Moscow is amassing troops and military hardware with the possible intent to invade Ukraine. During a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “any further aggression against Ukraine will have severe consequences.”
Russia has repeatedly denied claims it is planning to attack its neighbor. President Vladimir Putin said Moscow seeks assurances that NATO will not move its military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders.
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US-led combat mission in Iraq ends, shifting to advisory role
The United States will continue to provide assistance, advice and training to Iraqi forces, Iraqi and US officials say.
United States-led forces have ended their combat mission in Iraq, senior US and Iraqi officials said, as the coalition transitions to an advisory role assisting Iraqi forces.
Qassim al-Araji, Iraq’s national security adviser, said that a final round of technical talks to formally end the US-led combat mission, which was tasked with rooting out ISIL (ISIS) in the country, had concluded.
“We are officially announcing the end of the coalition forces’ combat mission,” al-Araji wrote on Twitter, adding that the coalition would continue providing assistance, advice and training to Iraqi forces.
Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga Brigadier General Hazhar Ismail, who attended the meeting in Baghdad, also told reporters the US-led coalition said it was ready to end the mission sooner than the previous deadline. “They said we are ready starting from today,” he said.
Thousands rally in Baghdad against US military presence
The announcement reaffirms a July decision by the administration of US President Joe Biden to end the coalition’s combat mission in Iraq by December 31.
There are about 2,500 US soldiers and another 1,000 coalition troopers currently based in Iraq. It is unclear how many will remain in the next phase of assistance to Iraqi forces.
“Many brave men and women gave their lives to ensure Daesh never returns, and as we complete our combat role, we will remain here to advise, assist and enable [Iraqi security forces], at the invitation of Republic of Iraq,” said coalition commander Major General John Brennan, referring to ISIL (ISIS) by its Arabic acronym.
But the war against the group is not over, Brennan added. “Daesh is down, but not out.”
The formal end of the combat mission is unlikely to change the facts on the ground; the coalition stopped engaging in combat missions early in 2020, and since then, the main US focus has been assisting Iraqi forces.
Iraqi Staff Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al-Shammari, deputy commander of the Joint Operations Command for Iraq, said Iraqi forces were ready to take up the fight against ISIL. “Our soldiers have demonstrated their ability to maintain the defeat of Daesh, and we look toward the future with hope, providing stability, security, and prosperity for the men and women of Iraq,” he said.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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NYT investigation reveals ‘hundreds’ of civilian deaths uncounted in US strikes
(19 Dec, 2021 ) An investigation by the New York Times has found that the Pentagon severely downplayed the civilian death toll from its “precision” strikes in Syria and Iraq, while failing to investigate reports of potential civilian casualties.
The New York Times investigation, the first part of which was released on Monday, draws on over 1,311 casualty assessment reports that were previously kept under wraps by the Pentagon. Having reviewed the files and visited “nearly 100 casualties sites” in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, the Times reported that the US military often dismissed reports of civilian casualties as non-credible, despite failing to visit the sites or speak to the witnesses.
The Times revealed that in 216 instances in which the Pentagon found reports of civilian casualties credible, its investigators visited the actual site of the bombing in only one case. None of the investigations resulted in any penalties for those responsible for the strikes, and only one “possible violation” in mapping out a strike was identified by the Pentagon.
The Times investigation also revealed that trigger-happy US troops tended to rely on “incorrect or incomplete” intelligence to hit terrorist targets, sometimes killing dozens of civilians instead. Confirmation bias was said to play a role in troops interpreting scant intelligence in a way that affirms their “pre-existing beliefs” about the targets.
For instance, during a strike in Iraq in 2015, US forces killed a child after identifying him as “an unknown heavy object” who was being “dragged” to a supposed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) position by an alleged militant.
Sloppy targeting practices resulted in around 120 Syrian villagers dying in a US strike on July 19, 2016, according to the investigation.
At the time of the strike, the Pentagon apparently thought that 85 militants were killed in the bombing instead, even though it took place “far from the front line.” In another botched strike, a warplane killed an entire family escaping West Mosul in 2017, mistaking the civilian vehicle with two children for a car bomb.
Even in instances in which the US acknowledged civilian casualties, it was not in a hurry to pay compensation to the victims, with the Times reporting that “fewer than a dozen condolence payments were made.”
The Times points out that the multiple lapses in the US air campaign cannot be discounted as “outliers,” but rather represent a common trend in “a sharp contrast to the American government’s image of war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs.”
“Since 2014, the American air war has been plagued by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and imprecise targeting and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children.”
While the Pentagon claims that a total of 1,417 civilians died as result of the US bombing campaigns in Syria and Iraq, and 188 civilians were killed since 2018 in Afghanistan, the Times estimates the civilian death toll to be significantly higher.(Source:RT NEWS)
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North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile: Japan, South Korea
(5 Jan 2022) North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile off its east coast on Wednesday 5th Jan. 2022, authorities in Japan and South Korea said, in the nuclear-armed country’s first show of force this year.
Japan’s coast guard, which first reported the launch, said the projectile could be a ballistic missile but did not provide further details.
“Since last year, North Korea has repeatedly launched missiles, which is very regrettable,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.
Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi told reporters the suspected missile had flown for about about 500 kilometres (310.7 miles) and landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the missile was launched eastwards at about 8:10am (23:10 GMT) from a land-based platform, according to the Yonhap news agency.
“For additional information, the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis,” the Yonhap news agency reported JCS saying in a text message that was sent to journalists.
The test comes days after the conclusion of a key party meeting in North Korea that focused mainly on the pandemic-hit economy, although leader Kim Jong Un promised to continue to bolster the country’s defence but did not specifically mention weaponry.
Pyongyang carried out a series of missile launches last year, and in October said it tested a “new type” of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). It was the first test of an SLBM since 2019.
The country is banned from carrying out ballistic missile tests under United Nations sanctions.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA, REUTERS)
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Nicaragua cuts ties with Taiwan, switches side to China
(10-12-2021) Managua says “there is only one China existing in the world,” in a recognition of the “One China” policy and reducing Taipei’s dwindling pool of international allies.
Nicaragua has broken diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognised “there is only one China,” boosting Beijing in a part of the world long considered the United States’ backyard and increasing Taipei’s isolation.
“The government of the Republic of Nicaragua declares that it recognises there is only one China existing in the world,” Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada said on Thursday in a statement.
“The People’s Republic of China is the only legitimate government that represents all of China and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” the statement added.
“The government of the Republic of Nicaragua ceases to have any contact or official relationship [with Taiwan],” it added, in a decision that leaves just 14 nations recognising Taipei.
Taiwan expresses ‘pain and regret’
Taiwan Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed “pain and regret” at the ending of diplomatic ties with Nicaragua.
Taipei said it has always been a loyal and reliable friend of Managua and Nicaragua’s president has disregarded the friendship between the people of the two nations.
Beijing has spent decades successfully encouraging Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to switch sides, including three others in Latin America in recent years Panama, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic.
China hails Nicaragua’s decision
China’s Foreign Ministry, after meetings with Nicaragua’s finance minister and two of President Ortega’s sons in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, said the country had made the right decision.
“This is the correct choice that conforms to the general trend and people’s aspirations,” it said.
But the United States said that Nicaragua’s decision “does not reflect the will of the Nicaraguan people” because its government was not freely elected.
“We encourage all countries that value democratic institutions, transparency, the rule of law, and promoting economic prosperity for their citizens to expand engagement with Taiwan,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.Source: TRTWorld and agencies
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Despite Uproar Over Floyd’s Death, the Number of Fatal Encounters With Police Hasn’t Changed
George Floyd’s murder set in motion shock waves that touched almost every aspect of American society. But on the core issues of police violence and accountability, very little is different.
By Tim Arango and Giulia Heyward
(Dec. 24, 2021) For the second time this year, a jury in Minneapolis has ruled against a former police officer for killing a Black man. Like the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the verdict against Kimberly Potter on two counts of manslaughter for the shooting death of Daunte Wright during a traffic stop represented an unusual decision to send a police officer to prison.
And yet, despite the two high-profile convictions in Minneapolis, a review of the data a year and a half after America’s summer of protest shows that accountability for officers who kill remains elusive and that the sheer numbers of people killed in encounters with police have remained steady at an alarming level. The murder of Mr. Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner drew millions to the streets in protest and set off a national reassessment on race that touched almost every aspect of American life, from corporate boardrooms to sports nicknames. But on the core issues that set off the social unrest in the first place police violence and accountability very little has changed.
Since Mr. Floyd’s death in May of last year, 1,646 people have been killed by the police, or about three people per day on average, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit that tracks people killed by the police. Although murder or manslaughter charges against officers have increased this year, criminal charges, much less convictions, remain exceptionally rare.
That underscores both the benefit of the doubt usually accorded law officers who are often making life-or-death decisions in a split second and the way the law and the power of police unions often protect officers, say activists and legal experts.
The convictions of both Mr. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis officer who was captured on an excruciating bystander video pinning Mr. Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes as he gasped for air, and Ms. Potter strike some experts as tantalizing glimpses of a legal system in flux. Ms. Potter’s case, in particular, reflected the kind of split-second decision she mistakenly used her gun instead of her Taser after Mr. Wright tried to flee an arrest that jurors usually excuse even when something goes horribly wrong.
Chris Uggen, a sociology and law professor at the University of Minnesota, said that even though the number of people killed by police remained prevalent, high-profile cases could still send a message to the police. “The probability of punishment is not zero,” he said. “So it moves the needle to some degree, and it can certainly affect the behaviors of police officers.”
But many experts are reluctant to read too much into a few isolated cases carried out in the glare of media scrutiny.(Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting. (source: NYT)
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US tornadoes: At least 70 people killed in ‘one of largest tornado outbreaks in US history’
Samuel Osborne | 12 December 2021
Kentucky’s Governor Andy Beshear said it was “the deadliest tornado system to ever run through Kentucky”.
He said: “Earlier this morning at about 5am we were pretty sure that we would lose over 50 Kentuckians. I am now certain that that number is north of 70, it may in fact end up exceeding 100 before the day is done.”
Mr Beshear said four tornadoes had torn through the state, with the primary tornado travelling more than 227 miles (365km) across the state.
He said the community of Mayfield had been devastated, with a roof collapse at a candle factory resulting in “mass casualties”.
Almost 60,000 people had been left without power, he added.
“It’s been one of the toughest nights in Kentucky’s history,” he said.
Debris from destroyed buildings and shredded trees covered the ground in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 in western Kentucky. Twisted metal sheeting, downed power lines and wrecked vehicles lined the streets. Windows and roofs were blown off the buildings that were still standing.(Source: Sky News)
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Typhoon Rai aftermath in the Philippines Death toll surpasses 200
(19 Dec 2021)The death toll in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Rai has risen to 208 after the storm carved a trail of destruction in central and southern provinces. At least 52 people were still missing, according to police data, as relief efforts continued following one of the deadliest typhoons to have struck the Southeast Asian country.
Many of those who died were hit by falling trees or walls, drowned in floods or were buried in landslides. A 57-year-old man was found dead hanging from a tree branch and a woman was blown away by the wind and died in Negros Occidental province, police said.
At least 14 villagers died and more than 100 others were injured by flying tin roofs, debris and glass shards and were treated in makeshift surgery rooms in damaged hospitals in Dinagat, Bag-ao said. Many more would have died if thousands of residents had not been evacuated from high-risk villages as the typhoon approached.
More than 700,000 people were lashed by the typhoon in central island provinces, including more than 400,000 who had to be moved to emergency shelters. Thousands of residents were rescued from flooded villages, including in Loboc town in hard-hit Bohol province, where residents were trapped on roofs and trees to escape from rising floodwaters.
Coastguard ships ferried 29 American, British, Canadian, Swiss, Russian, Chinese and other tourists who were stranded on Siargao Island, a popular surfing destination devastated by the typhoon, officials said.
About 20 storms and typhoons annually batter the Philippines, which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. The Southeast Asian archipelago also lies along the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire” region, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.(Source:Al Jazeera)
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‘Horrible’: Dozens killed in Haiti fuel tanker explosion
(14 Dec 2021) At least 60 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a truck carrying fuel exploded in the northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien, a local official said, as authorities are calling for additional supplies and staff to help treat the victims. The explosion occurred late on Monday 13 December 2021, in Haiti’s second-largest city, on the country’s northern coast, where survivors rushed outside and yelled as they observed how the fire consumed part of their neighbourhood.
“We have now counted 60 deaths,” Deputy May or Patrick Almonor said, adding that authorities were still searching for victims amid the charred debris.
According to Almonor, it appeared the truck driver lost control as it swerved to avoid a motorcycle taxi and the tanker flipped over. He said fuel spilled onto the road and pedestrians rushed to collect it.
More than 100 people were reported injured in the explosion that also burned about 20 homes near the site, Almonor said, adding that the number of deaths is expected to keep rising because people who died in their homes have not yet been counted. (SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES)
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Taiwan air force stages drill to intercept Chinese planes amid tensions
By Fabian Hamacher and Ann Wang
CHIAYI, Taiwan, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Taiwan air force jets screamed into the sky on Wednesday in a drill simulating a war scenario, showing its combat readiness amid heightened military tensions with China, which claims the island as its own.
Before takeoff, flight crews at a base in the southern city of Chiayi – home to U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets that are frequently scrambled to intercept Chinese warplanes – rushed to ready aircraft as an alarm sounded.
The exercises were part of a three-day drill to show Taiwan’s battle readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of this month.
Tensions across the sensitive Taiwan Strait have been rising in the past few years, with Taiwan complaining of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratic island.
Chinese military aircraft frequently fly into the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone (ADIZ), airspace around the island that Taiwan monitors and patrols.
“With the very high frequency of Communist planes entering our ADIZ, pilots from our wing are very experienced and have dealt with almost all types of their aircraft,” Major Yen Hsiang-sheng told reporters, recalling a mission in which he was dispatched to intercept Chinese J-16 fighters late last year.
China has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Taiwan has termed China’s activities as “grey zone” warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan’s forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test its responses.
In a new year message for China last week, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said military conflict is not the answer. Beijing responded with a stern warning that if Taiwan crossed any red line it would lead to “profound catastrophe”.(Source: Reuters)
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Moscow reveals preparations for possible conflict
22 Dec, 2021 | By Layla Guest
Russia does not want an armed conflict with Ukraine, but will continue to take steps to defend itself, Moscow’s top diplomat has said, as Kiev claims Moscow could order an offensive against its neighbor.
Speaking on Wednesday in an exclusive interview with RT, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia “would not want to choose the path of confrontation,” referring to tensions with Kiev.
He warned “hot heads” in Ukraine against military confrontation and said that Russia will respond to any provocations.However, the diplomat said that “the choice is up to our partners.”
According to him, “the fact that the US authorities have been quite expeditious with regards to organizing future contacts, I believe it is a positive sign, regardless of the substantial work ahead.”
Lavrov added that Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said Russia “has all the capabilities in place to ensure a full military and technical response to any kind of provocations that might unfold around us.”
The top diplomat’s remarks come amid heightening tensions in the east of Ukraine, with a number of Western officials and news outlets alleging that Russian forces are building up near the demarcation line as a possible precursor to launching a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
The Kremlin has consistently rejected the allegations, arguing that they are groundless and only illustrate a “hysteria” whipped up in the press.
Moscow has instead accused the West of encouraging Kiev’s officials to engage in anti-Russian provocations. Earlier this month, Lavrov said that its authorities are “becoming more and more insolent… with its aggressiveness towards the Minsk agreements, towards Russia, and in its attempts to provoke the West into supporting its militant aspirations.”
The Minsk Protocol is a ceasefire pact, signed in 2014 in an effort to end the war in Donbass. The conflict in the country’s east broke out following the events of the 2014 Maidan, when the elected government was overthrown following violent street protests, with the self-declared Lugansk and Donetsk republics declaring their autonomy from Kiev.
Neither Russia or Ukraine nor any other UN member-state recognizes them as sovereign nations.The Kremlin has insisted that it is not a party to the conflict, however, and has said the onus is on Kiev to strike a deal with the leaders of the two breakaway regions on the Russian border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, has refused to hold talks, insisting that the separatists are Russian-backed, and has called for talks with Vladimir Putin. (Source: RT NEWS)
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NASA launches world’s most powerful telescope view first stars
(25 Dec 2021) The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope has rocketed away on a high-stakes quest to behold light from the first stars and galaxies and scour the universe for hints of life.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope soared from French Guiana on South America’s northeastern coast, riding a European Ariane rocket into the morning sky.
The $9bn observatory hurtled towards its destination 1.6 million kilometres (1 million miles) away or more than four times beyond the moon. It will take a month to get there and another five months before its infrared eyes are ready to start scanning the cosmos.
First, the telescope’s enormous mirror and sunshield need to unfurl; they were folded origami-style to fit into the rocket’s nose cone. Otherwise, the observatory will not be able to peer back in time 13.7 billion years as anticipated, within a mere 100 million years of the universe-forming Big Bang.
“It’s going to give us a better understanding of our universe and our place in it: who we are, what we are, the search that’s eternal,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said earlier this week.
But he cautioned: “When you want a big reward, you have to usually take a big risk.”
Reporting from Kourou, French Guiana, Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo said the historic mission which has “revolutionised astronomy” is “going to allow scientists to peer back in time to the early stages of our universe”.
“Scientists are also going to be able to examine the atmospheres of planets and determine whether or not planets could not only be habitable and suitable for humans to possibly one day colonise, but to determine whether or not those conditions are optimal for life,” he said.
The telescope’s showpiece: a gold-plated mirror more than 6.5 metres (21 feet) across.