Archives for November 2014

Russia to lose $40bn due to Western sanctions: Russian Finance Minister

November 25, 2014 by Nasheman

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says Moscow will be losing around USD 40 billion (32 billion euros) per annum due to the Western sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine.

“We are losing around $40 billion per year due to geopolitical sanctions,” Anton Siluanov said on Monday.

The Russian minister also said that his country is “losing some $90 to $100 billion per year due to oil prices falling 30 percent.”

On Sunday, Russian President Valdimir Putin criticized the United States and the European Union (EU) for imposing sanctions against Russia and certain people close to him, calling the move a “systemic mistake.”

“The Americans made a systemic mistake by believing that I have personal business interests because of ties to people they put on their sanctions list,” Putin said.

Also on Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of seeking a “regime change” in Russia through its sanctions against Moscow.

The United States and the European Union (EU) have imposed a series of sanctions against Russian figures in recent months as they accuse Moscow of destabilizing Ukraine. Moscow, however, rejects the accusation, saying it is concerned about Kiev’s violent attacks on the Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine.

YH/HJL/HRE

Will push India, Pakistan to hold talks: Nepal foreign minister

November 25, 2014 by Nasheman

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during a meeting in New Delhi. Photo: The Hindu

Kathmandu: Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey said Monday that Nepal will push India and Pakistan to hold talks on the sidelines of the SAARC summit.

To end the deadlock between India and Pakistan, “we are trying to crack the nut”, he said in a television interview without divulging much details.

Though official talks between India and Pakistan are still uncertain, Nepal is likely to push the two regional leaders to one table during the retreat organised at Dhulikhel, a popular hill station near Kathmandu.

“SAARC has one very unique practice since its inception. The retreat among the heads of the state and government during the summit provides a platform to hold multilateral and bilateral talks. The talks are going to be held in a very free and frank manner to end mutual suspicion,” Pandey said during a regular press briefing Friday, hinting at the possible talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif.

SAARC needs to run like a rabbit, not a tortoise, said Pandey, as “we need harmony” among the member states.

“For that, we are trying to organise bilateral talks between India and Pakistan during the summit so that it can set an example.”

Apart from visiting heads of the state and government, foreign ministers, and foreign secretaries will also be the part of retreat. The delegates will spend over two hours in the resort famous for the scenic Himalayas.

Pandey said during his meetings with the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers, while extending invitations to attend the SAARC summit, he had already proposed such talks to them.

“I found both of them were positive in this respect. On that basis, we are making up our mind to bring them to the table,” he said.

(IANS)

As hundreds are detained, Kashmir set to vote tomorrow

November 25, 2014 by Nasheman

Over a million voters registered with the Election Commission of India in 15 assembly segments of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions are expected to exercise their franchise on Tuesday.

Srinagar: The first phase of voting for the state assembly elections is set to be held on Tuesday in Kashmir where the ruling party is facing a rout by the opposition.

Over a million voters registered with the Election Commission of India in 15 assembly segments of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions are expected to exercise their franchise on Tuesday for deciding the fate of the ruling party which has been marred by charges of corruption, misgovernance and rights abuses.

“12 sitting MLAs, including seven ministers, are among 123 candidates trying their luck in 15 constituencies that will go to polls on Tuesday,” PTI news agency reported.

“More than 200 battalions of central forces have been deployed in 15 constituencies to ensure there is no violence on the day of elections,” a senior Jammu Kashmir Police officer who didn’t wish to be named.

Authorities have also launched a crackdown against anti-election protesters and Hurriyat leaders to ensure incident-free polls with over 300 detentions made every week, as per as a report in Indian Express.

Capitalizing on the anti-incumbency wave against chief minister Omar Abdullah’s National Conference and buoyed by the victory in the recent Lok Sabha elections – the party won three out of six seats in the region, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is hoping to form the next government which will be a historic first in the Muslim majority state.

The party has reportedly set up its base in a hotel in Srinagar where a team of BJP strategists are working closely to increase their party’s membership in the Kashmir Valley under “Mission 44+”, but many political analysts and journalists say it is going to be a “tough road” ahead for the party.

The PDP which won three Lok Sabha seats in the recent parliamentary elections in Kashmir Valley was emerging as a strong contender to form the next government but the September 7 floods and some controversial inducts into the party took away the sheen from its poll prospects.

“We will form the next government in the state,” a PDP spokesperson said.

Officials say there has been less violence ahead of elections in the region as compared to previous elections which may encourage people who have traditionally stayed away from polling booths to come out and vote.

“The situation has been peaceful and we are hoping that calm prevails till the end of polling day,” Shah Faisal, the district administrator of Bandipora which is going to polls on Tuesday, said.

He said 74 battalions of central forces have been deployed in Bandipora where 24 candidates are in the fray with 13 from Bandipora, 7 from Sumbal and 4 from Gurez.

The Hurriyat leaders including pro-Pakistan Syed Ali Geelani and pro-independence Yasin Malik have called for a general strike on Tuesday in protest against the election.

Nearly 1800 polling stations have been set up in the region and the polling will begin at 8 am.

One sparrow does not herald a spring: PUDR

November 25, 2014 by Nasheman

Victims: Aasha Begam, mother of Shezad Ahmad with picture of her son. Next her Jabeena, wife of Shezad and his five year old son Shahid. Shezad was killed in the Machil Fake Encounter. Photo: Javed Dar

by D. Manjit and Asish Gupta

A rare instance of army convicting its own personnel for war crimes does not mean end of legal immunity enjoyed by the armed forces in what officialdom calls the “disturbed area”. That the government denies presence of armed conflict is of course in marked contrast to the reality on the ground where armed forces enjoy war-time legal immunity. Peoples Union for Democratic Rights has been arguing that the issue of justice in armed conflict areas in India is whether criminal court will exercise jurisdiction or security forces own court, over armed forces personnel for alleged crimes against civilians. Civilians have, in any case, no locus standi in armed forces court. Since the Supreme Court through its judgment on Pathribal case (2012) overturned every single tenet of the Constitution meant to protect the citizen against the abuse of power: it decided against the right to life; against fairness; against the right to equality before law; against the right to Constitutional remedies. It was therefore only another step in that direction that it overturned the foremost principle of law by empowering the accused agency to investigate, prosecute and judge its own crimes.

So given that the aggrieved find doors of criminal court closed to them and having no locus standi before armed forces court, thousands of cases of massacres, rapes, fake encounters, enforced disappearances, torture etc evade justice, perpetrators roam free and aggrieved nurse their wounds. To then project a single case of conviction by GCM as heralding whittling down of impunity is to rub salt in people’s wounds.

Seen in this light the conviction by the General Court Martial headed by Brigadier Deepak Mehra of five army personnel, including two officers, for April 29-30, 2010 fake encounter by luring and then killing three civilians to secure unit citation and cash reward, is a rarity not the rule. Machil killings acted as a catalyst for the 2010 agitation in Kashmir valley in which 126 persons were killed by the Indian security forces. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has publicly credited former Home Minister P Chidambaram and Lt General KT Parnaik who then headed the Northern Command for ensuring that in the Machil case justice was done.

The announcement of the conviction in Machil case is an exception which was used to mute criticism which arose because of the Budgam incident where trigger happy army personnel fired 126 rounds of bullets on five youths, killing two and injuring three others. There were 45 bullets wounds on the two who died. Demand for repeal of AFSPA and ending legal immunity for forces rose as assembly elections were announced and campaigning began. It was politically embarrassing. Now the GCM had convicted the five army personnel implicated in Machil killing two months back. But the process was not complete. Neither army’s confirming authority, in this case GOC-in-C of Northern Command, had confirmed the sentence, nor closure report filed with the Chief Judicial Magistrate as required.

Our apprehension that this was a PR exercise gain ground because in January army’s GCM had summarily acquitted a retired Major General, two Colonels, a Lt Colonel and a Subedar, belonging to 7 Rashtriya Rifles in the Pathribal case (2000), where CBI had investigated, gathered evidence and filed the charge-sheet. Recently, when Kunan Poshpora (1991) matter came up before the J&K High Court’s Srinagar bench the army, state and the Union government were one in opposing the re-opening of investigation into the notorious gangrape case carried out by personnel from army’s Rajputana Rifles. Thus 23 years after the commission of the mass rape and torture, and 18 months after the Kupwara court order for further investigations, the Indian State continues to deny criminality, and instead defames the victims.

PUDR is convinced that what victims of armed forces violence need are not empty gestures and platitudes but substantive and comprehensive change which brings to an end legal immunity enjoyed by armed forces personnel in “disturbed” areas.

D. Manjit and Asish Gupta are Secretaries of Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR).

‘A Brief History of Graphics’, A Five-Part Video Series Examining the History of Graphics in Video Games

November 24, 2014 by Nasheman

“A Brief History of Graphics” is a five-part video series by Stuart Brown of XboxAhoy that examines the history of graphics in video games from pixels to polygons and beyond.

Pixel Pioneers: A Brief History of Graphics, Part One

Sprite Supreme: A Brief History of Graphics, Part Two

Polygon Realm: A Brief History of Graphics, Part Three

Voodoo Bloom: A Brief History of Graphics, Part Four

Future Crisis: A Brief History of Graphics, Part Five

via Digg

BJP leader Srikant Bharti shot dead in Bihar, violent protests follow

November 24, 2014 by Nasheman

Representational Image

Patna: A senior state BJP leader, Srikant Bharti was shot dead in Bihar’s Siwan district, triggering violent protests Monday by his supporters, police said.

Bharti was killed by unidentified men late Sunday night when he was returning from a marriage party.

“Hundreds of supporters of the murdered leader, mostly BJP local leaders and workers, blocked roads and burnt tyres. They also raised slogans against the state government,” a district police official said.

Tension prevailed in the area but the situation was brought under control as additional security forces were deployed, police officials said.

Bharti was a confidant of BJP MP from Siwan Om Prakash Yadav.

He contested the 2010 state assembly polls but lost.

Bharti’s family members and supporters considered his murder as a political killing planned by rivals.

(IANS)

Rights groups urge Gulf states to protect migrant workers from abuse

November 24, 2014 by Nasheman

A construction worker on site at the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates. Migrant workers are extremely vulnerable to abuse in the Gulf States, say rights groups.

by Al-Akhbar

International rights and labor groups called Sunday for urgent action to protect migrant workers from abuse in Gulf countries.

Ahead of a meeting this week of Gulf and Asian labor ministers, 90 groups issued a statement saying millions of Asian and African workers are facing abuses including unpaid wages, confiscation of passports, physical violence and forced labor.

“Whether it’s the scale of abuse of domestic workers hidden from public view or the shocking death toll among construction workers, the plight of migrants in the Gulf demands urgent and profound reform,” said Rothna Begum, Middle East women’s rights researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Asian countries are meeting on November 26-27 for the third round of the so-called Abu Dhabi Dialogue on labor migration.

About 23 million foreigners, including at least 2.4 million domestic servants, live in the six-nation GCC that brings together Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

GCC countries have come under fire for the kafala system of sponsorship for migrant workers, which is used to varying extents across the Gulf.

It restricts most workers from moving to a new job before their contracts end unless they obtain their employer’s consent, trapping many workers in abusive situations, the statement said.

It called for comprehensive laws to protect migrant laborers and reforming the kafala system to allow workers to change employers without permission from their sponsors.

HRW was one of the signatories of the statement along with other groups including Amnesty International, the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Domestic Workers Federation.

On Tuesday, Amnesty accused the UAE, which is hosting a Formula One race this weekend, of repression it said is the “ugly reality” behind the glitz and glamor of the event.

In a report titled “There is no freedom here: silencing dissent in the UAE,” the human rights watchdog speaks of a “climate of fear” and the “extreme lengths” the authorities go to in order to stamp out opposition or calls for reform.

“Millions of spectators from across the world are expected to tune in to watch the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix this weekend – yet most of them will have little clue about the ugly reality of life for activists in the UAE,” said Amnesty’s deputy director for the region, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

“Beneath the facade of glitz and glamor, a far more sinister side to the UAE has emerged showing the UAE as a deeply repressive state where activists critical of the government can be tossed in jail merely for posting a tweet,” she said.

Amnesty’s UAE report came a day after a report by Australian-based human rights group The Walk Free Foundation ranked Qatar in fourth place in a global ranking of countries where slavery is most prevalent.

The tiny Gulf state has come under scrutiny by rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers, most from Asia, who come to toil on construction sites, oil projects, or work as domestic help.

Early November, Amnesty International published a report titled, “No extra time: How Qatar is still failing on workers’ rights ahead of the World Cup.”

It said that “Qatar is still failing on workers’ rights ahead of the World Cup” and “has made only minimal progress on a number of plans it announced in May 2014” to tackle the reported exploitations.

The report highlighted the situation of migrant workers in the Gulf state, namely “delays in payments of migrants’ wages, harsh and dangerous working conditions, poor living conditions and shocking details of forced labor.”

The oil-rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, have long cracked down on dissent and calls for democratic reform, drawing criticism from human rights groups.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Settlers torch Palestinian home as HRW slams Israel's demolition policy

November 24, 2014 by Nasheman

A relative of Abdulrahman Shaludi displays his portrait inside his family home after it was demolished by Israeli Occupation Forces in annexed East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood on November 19, 2014. AFP / Ahmad Gharabli

by Al-Akhbar

Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian home northeast of Ramallah early Sunday, an official told Ma’an news agency, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) slams Israel’s demolition policy as “collective punishment.”

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that a group of extremist settlers raided the village of Khirbet Abu Falah and torched the home of Abdul Karim Hussein Hamayil.

The settlers threw a fire bomb into the house through a window before fleeing the scene, Daghlas said, adding that Hamayil’s widow and her three daughters were inside the house at the time.

The settlers also spray-painted “death to Arabs” and “vengeance” on the house.

Daghlas added that the settlers first attacked the house with tear gas and stun grenades before attempting to break in, without providing further details.

Also in Ramallah, a group of settlers attempted Friday to burn down a house in the village of al-Mughayyir, but Palestinians were able to prevent them.

The arsons come about a week after a group of settlers attacked the village and torched a mosque as well as 12 copies of the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, in an incident that sparked widespread Palestinian fury.

In mid-October, settlers torched a mosque in the village of Aqraba in the Nablus district and vandalized the interior with racist slogans.

According to Palestinian Religious Endowments Minister Yousef Adeis, in October alone Israeli settlers carried out 110 separate attacks on religious sites across the Palestinian territories.

Hate crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, referred to as “price tag” attacks, are systematic and Israeli authorities rarely intervene in the violent attacks or prosecute the perpetrators.

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there were at least 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2013.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) monthly report stated that one Palestinian child was killed and six others Palestinians injured, four of them children, after being deliberately hit by Israeli settler vehicles in October.

Unrest has gripped annexed Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on an almost daily basis for the past four months, flaring up after a group of Zionist settlers kidnapped and killed 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir because of his ethnicity.

Israeli authorities have also allowed Zionist settlers to take over homes in Palestinian neighborhoods both in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and announced plans to build thousands of settlements strictly for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem while ignoring Palestinian residents.

Last month, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah slammed Israel for failing to hold Zionist settlers accountable for a recent wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli government has never brought settlers to account for the terrorism and intimidation they commit [against Palestinians],” Hamdallah said.

More than 600,000 Israeli settlers, soaring from 189,000 in 1989, live in settlements across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

HRW: Israel’s demolition of houses is a “war crime”

While Israeli settlers burn down Palestinian properties, Israeli forces demolish thousands of Palestinian houses and livelihood structures.

HRW called on Israel Saturday to stop razing the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis, saying the practice can constitute a “war crime.”

“Israel should impose an immediate moratorium on its policy of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks on Israelis,” the New York-based group said, as the fate of three houses slated for demolition awaits a court ruling.

“The policy, which Israeli officials claim is a deterrent, deliberately and unlawfully punishes people not accused of any wrongdoing. When carried out in occupied territory, including East Jerusalem, it amounts to collective punishment, a war crime.”

The East Jerusalem families of Mutaz Hijazi, Ibrahim al-Akkari, and of cousins Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal, killed by police after two separate attacks, have been served demolition orders on their homes but have appealed.

Al-Akkari, 47, was shot dead by Israeli forces after he ran over a group of Israeli settlers in occupied East Jerusalem on November 5, killing one and injuring 13.

Hijazi was accused of shooting and critically wounding a far-right Zionist rabbi on October 29. Police shot him dead during a raid on his home in Abu Tur the following morning.

The Abu Jamal cousins, from Jabal al-Mukabbir, were shot dead Tuesday after they attacked a synagogue with meat cleavers and a pistol, killing four Zionist rabbis and an Israeli policeman.

Mohammed Mahmoud, the lawyer of the Hijazi and Abu Jamal families, said in a statement that an Israeli military court would hear their petition on Sunday morning.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces razed the East Jerusalem home of a Palestinian who killed two Israelis after running them over with his car last month.

Home demolitions have long been used as a deterrent punishment in the occupied West Bank, but this is the first time they have been adopted as a matter of policy in occupied East Jerusalem.

The practice has been condemned by human rights watchdogs and the international community as collective punishment that targets the families of perpetrators rather than the assailants themselves.

Last Sunday, Israeli rights group B’Tselem said that punitive house demolitions are “fundamentally wrong” and contravene “basic moral standards by punishing people for the misdeeds of others.”

The PLO said that Israeli forces demolished at least 32 Palestinian structures, including houses, barracks, shops and stores in Jerusalem and the West Bank during the month of October.

They also gave demolition notices for five water wells and a barrack near Hebron, as well as eviction notices to 27 houses.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in 2013, Israel demolished more than 500 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

Moreover, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions estimates that Israeli authorities have demolished about 27,000 Palestinian structures in the West Bank since 1967.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous “Balfour Declaration,” called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

(Ma’an, AFP, Al-Akhbar)

U.S.-led strikes have killed 910 people in Syria: monitor

November 24, 2014 by Nasheman

Thick black smoke rises over an eastern Kobani neighborhood following an air strike on November 8, 2014. CREDIT: REUTERS/YANNIS BEHRAKIS

by Reuters

Beirut: Air strikes by U.S.-led forces in Syria have killed 910 people, including 52 civilians, since the start of the campaign against Islamic State and other fighters two months ago, a group monitoring the conflict said on Saturday.

The majority of the deaths, 785, were Islamic State fighters according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Islamic State, a hard-line offshoot of al Qaeda, has seized land in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where it has also been targeted by U.S.-led strikes since July.

Eight of the civilians killed were children and five were women, the Observatory said. The United States has said it takes reports of civilian casualties seriously and says it has a process to investigate any reports of such deaths.

The Observatory, which gathers its information from a network of contacts on the ground, said 72 members of al Qaeda’s Syria wing Nusra Front were also killed in the air strikes, which started on Sept. 23.

The United States has said it has targeted the “Khorasan Group” in Syria, which it describes as a grouping of al Qaeda veterans under the protection of Nusra Front. Most analysts and activists do not differentiate between the groups in this way.

According to the United Nations, around 200,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, which is in its fourth year.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; editing by Susan Thomas)

Plague outbreak kills 40 in Madagascar

November 24, 2014 by Nasheman

WHO warns of deadly disease spreading in densely populated capital city with weak healthcare system.

Plague, a bacterial disease, is mainly spread from one rodent to another by fleas [Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

An outbreak of plague has killed 40 people out of 119 confirmed cases in Madagascar since late August and there is a risk of the disease spreading rapidly in the capital, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

So far two cases and one death have been recorded in the capital Antananarivo but those figures could climb quickly due to “the city’s high population density and the weakness of the healthcare system”, the WHO warned on Friday.

“The situation is further complicated by the high level of resistance to deltamethrin (an insecticide used to control fleas) that has been observed in the country,” it added.

Plague, a bacterial disease, is mainly spread from one rodent to another by fleas. Humans bitten by an infected flea usually develop a bubonic form of plague, which swells the lymph node and can be treated with antibiotics, the WHO said.

If the bacteria reaches the lungs, the patient develops pneumonia (pneumonic plague), which is transmissible from person to person through infected droplets spread by coughing.

It is “one of the most deadly infectious diseases” and can kill people within 24 hours. Two percent of the cases reported in Madagascar so far have been pneumonic, it added.

The first known case of the plague was a man from Soamahatamana village in the district of Tsiroanomandidy, identified on August 31. He died on September 3 and authorities notified the WHO of the outbreak on November 4, the agency said.

The WHO said it did not recommend any trade or travel restrictions based on the information available about the outbreak.

The last previously known outbreak of plague was in Peru in August 2010, according to the WHO.

(Reuters)

Russia to lose $40bn due to Western sanctions: Russian Finance Minister

Will push India, Pakistan to hold talks: Nepal foreign minister

As hundreds are detained, Kashmir set to vote tomorrow

One sparrow does not herald a spring: PUDR

‘A Brief History of Graphics’, A Five-Part Video Series Examining the History of Graphics in Video Games

BJP leader Srikant Bharti shot dead in Bihar, violent protests follow

Rights groups urge Gulf states to protect migrant workers from abuse

Settlers torch Palestinian home as HRW slams Israel's demolition policy

U.S.-led strikes have killed 910 people in Syria: monitor

Plague outbreak kills 40 in Madagascar

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives