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Palestinians to become ICC member from April 1, UN confirms

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters / Enrique Castro-Mendivil)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters / Enrique Castro-Mendivil)

by RT

Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1, announced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday. The Palestinians will be able to sue Israel for war crimes, a move the Israeli administration has consistently opposed for decades.

The UN treaty website says that due to the court’s procedures “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015.”

Along with the ICC application, the UN chief approved other sets of documents, enabling Palestine to join 16 international agreements, conventions and treaties.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the ICC application documents on the last day of 2014, following the UN Security Council’s resolution on December 30, which rejected Palestine’s official bid for statehood, a document vetoed by the US in support of Israel.

The Palestinian delegation submitted its ICC application on January 2.

Israel’s immediate reaction was negative.

“We will not let Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, AFP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the ruling rightwing Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu (AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

The Israeli administration immediately applied financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority, freezing the transfer of half a billion shekels (over $127 million) in monthly tax revenues it collected on behalf of the Palestinians.

The US joined the financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority on Monday, when the Obama administration announced a review of America’s annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians. As AP pointed out, once the Palestinian Authority apply any case against Israel to the International Criminal Court, US financial help to Palestine will cease immediately under American law.

Joining the ICC will give the Palestinian Authority new and powerful leverage to make Israel more compliant regarding withdrawal from the occupied territories.

International Criminal Court’s building (ICC) in The Hague (AFP Photo / Vincent Jannink)

In anticipation of the ICC bid last week, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour announced the Palestinians will prosecute Israel for crimes committed during the war in Gaza last summer. According to Mansour, Palestinians will also sue Israel for constructing settlements on the occupied Palestinian territory.

In late 2014, the Palestine stepped up its efforts to gain international recognition as a sovereign state. It came following the failure of the latest round of US-brokered peace talks with Israel, which was initiated after the bloody 50-day armed conflict in Gaza that left some 2,120 Palestinians and 68 Israelis dead.

Unlike before, this time around the aspirations of the Palestinians have found much wider international support, as many countries have openly spoken in favor of creating a sovereign Palestinian state.

Thousands of Rohingya refugees evicted in Bangladesh

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Groups cleared from informal settlements without warning or assistance in order to make way for tourism

Unregistered Rohingya refugees in the Shamlapur informal settlement in Cox’s Bazar district in June of last year. Photo: Will Baxter

Unregistered Rohingya refugees in the Shamlapur informal settlement in Cox’s Bazar district in June of last year. Photo: Will Baxter

by Rock Ronald Rozario & Stephan Uttom, UCA News

Dhaka: Authorities in Bangladesh’s southeastern Cox’s Bazar district forced out thousands of undocumented Rohingya refugees from their makeshift refugee camps on Wednesday, leaving them homeless.

Rohingya Muslims living in about 2,500 homes were driven out of the pine forests of Shamlapur, a fishing village about 50 kilometers from Cox’s Bazar town. Officials estimated no more than 7,000 were evicted, but Prothom Alo, the country’s most popular Bengali daily reported the figure to be 35,000.

The refugees had lived in the area since the 1990s, occupying dilapidated houses and relying on fishing for their livelihood. All had fled sectarian violence in their native Rakhine state, in Myanmar just across the border.

Officials said the eviction is a part of a policy to reclaim the area from illegal encroachers along Marine Drive Road that runs through the country’s most popular tourist destination.

“We have followed instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office to clear government land close to Marine Drive Road. We have received many complaints that Rohingyas have been involved in various criminal activities in the area,” said magistrate Jahid Iqbal, assistant commissioner of land in Teknaf sub-district who led the eviction assisted by police and border guards.

“We didn’t force them out of their settlements. We asked them to move out and they left their places,” he said.

Iqbal said the evicted refugees won’t be sent across the border and that he was waiting for further instructions from higher authorities as to what aid would be provided to them.

“We have written to the government for a rehabilitation package and aid. We will have its response soon,” he added.

The evicted Rohingyas meanwhile disputed Iqbals claim that they were not forced out, saying their homes were torn down by authorities.

“At around 10am police came and told us to leave our home, but we didn’t move because we had nowhere to go. Then they smashed our home and now we are living rough,” said Hasina Begum, 45, a widowed mother of three.

“We have no roof over our heads. My children are hungry and I have nothing to feed them,” she added.

Though Rohingyas have lived in Myanmar for generations, the government considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has resisted offering them citizenship. Those who have fled across the border to escape persecution are equally unwelcome in Bangladesh.

Since 1978, thousands have fled, many to the Cox’s Bazar district where around 30,000 Rohingyas reside in two official camps, relying on government and NGO aid for survival. As many as 300,000 reside in unofficial makeshift camps, where they face strict restrictions on movements and are frequently exploited for cheap labor.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in November said the government was planning to relocate Rohingya refugees to a “better place” from their camps in Cox’s Bazar district. Details as to where that “better place” is have yet to be released.

Election to be quashed if crimnal record not disclosed: SC

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Supreme Court India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday ruled that suppression or non-disclosure of information about serious crimes by a candidate at the time of filing nomination interferes with the voters’ right to make an informed choice and the election of such a candidate is liable to be set aside.

When there is non-disclosure of the offences pertaining to heinous or serious offence or offences relating to corruption or moral turpitude at the time of filing of nomination paper, it creates an impediment in the free exercise of electoral right by a voter, said a bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C. Pant.

“As a candidate has the special knowledge of the pending cases against him where cognizance has been taken or charges have been framed and there is non-disclosure on his part, it would amount to undue influence. Therefore, election is to be declared null and void by the Election Tribunal under Section 100(1)(b) of the 1951 Act,” the court said.

“Concealment or suppression of this nature deprives the voters to make an informed and advised choice as a consequence of which it would come within the compartment of direct or indirect interference or attempt to interfere with the free exercise of the right to vote by the electorate, on the part of the candidate,” Justice Misra said pronouncing the judgment.

Making it clear that disclosure of criminal antecedents by a candidate was a statutory obligation, the court said: “Disclosure of criminal antecedents of a candidate, especially, pertaining to heinous or serious offence or offences relating to corruption or moral turpitude at the time of filing of nomination paper as mandated by law is a categorical imperative.”

“The question whether it materially affects the election or not would not arise in a case of this nature,” said the court as it dismissed an appeal by Krishnamurthy who was elected as the president of Thekampatti panchayat in Mettupalayam taluka of Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore Oct 13, 2006. Krishnamurthy involved in eight cases relating to embezzlement.

The validity of Krishnamurthy’s election was challenged on the ground that he had filed a false declaration suppressing the details of criminal cases pending trial against him and, therefore, his nomination deserved to be rejected by the returning officer.

The Election Tribunal after examining all the material set aside his election holding that Krishnamurthy’s nomination papers should have been rejected and he could not have contested. It also ordered re-election for the post of the president of Thekampatti panchayat.

Hearing Krishnamurthy’s appeal, the Madras High Court agreed with the ultimate conclusion of the tribunal but for a different reason.

The apex court, while dismissing the appeal by Krishnamurthy, said: “Ex consequenti, the appeal, being sans substance, stands dismissed with costs, which is assessed at Rs.50,000.”

(IANS)

Rajnath promises to examine visa denial to Vatican officials

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Rajnath Singh

New Delhi: Under attack for denial of visa to two Vatican officials, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today promised to examine the issue and take necessary action.

This was conveyed by Singh to a delegation of Christian leaders who called on him at his North Block office here.

“The Home Minister told the delegation that he would ask the concerned officials to give a report as to why the visa was denied to the Vatician officials,” a Home Ministry official said.

The two Vatican officials, who were to address the 27th national assembly of the ongoing Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) in Bengaluru, have been denied visas.

The decision to issue or deny visa is taken taken by the Foreigners’ Division of the Home Ministry. So far, there is no official communication from the Home Ministry as to why the visa was denied to them.

CCBI deputy secretary general Stephen Alathara claimed that the duo had applied for visas in December 2014 and were awaiting response from the Indian government.

However, on the travel day they were informed that their visa applications had been rejected due to technical reasons.

Vatican officials were to arrive in Bengaluru on Tuesday for the conference between February 3 and 9. It is being attended by 140 bishops from different parts of the country.

Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, and Archbishop Protase Rugambwa, president of the Pontifical Mission Societies and Adjunct Secretary to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, were key speakers at the conference on the ‘Liturgy and Life’ session. The CCBI now plans to hold the session through video conferencing.

(PTI)

Bengaluru sub-inspector suspended for permitting Owaisi public function

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Asaduddin Owaisi Bhatkal

Bengaluru: A sub-inspector has been suspended by the Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate for permitting All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi to hold a public function in Shivaji Nagar, here on February 8.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is organising its Virat Hindu Samavesha on the same day.

As per procedure, permission for such public meetings should be given by an officer of the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police or above. Moreover, the sub-inspector had not informed higher-ups about the program, which shows negligence on his part, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Satish Kumar.

The sub-inspector attached to Commercial Street police station had given permission based on a request by the local unit of MIM. A senior police officer cancelled the permission and asked the MIM to select another date before drawing attention of senior officers.

AIMIM withdraws plea

Meanwhile, AIMIM on Thursday withdrew its petition questioning cancellation of permission to hold a public meeting in Shivaji Nagar on February 8.

The petition was withdrawn after the State pointed out that an application in terms of licensing order 2005, related to controlling of public places, was required to be filed for organising a public event. The court has given AIMIM the liberty to make an application to the competent authority as per law to organise a meeting on a different date.

(Agencies)

CM Siddaramaiah turns down CM Ibrahim’s lottery proposal, says govt has sufficient money

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Photo: IE

Photo: IE

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the Legislative Council on Thursday that the State government will not re-introduce lottery in Karnataka.

The announcement came following criticism from his own party leaders that it will not be wise to bring back lottery which was earlier banned due to its ill effects on the lower middle-class and the poor people of the State.

Janata Dal(S) member Basavaraj Horatti drew the chief minister’s attention on State Planning Board Deputy Chairman C M Ibrahim’s recommendation for re-introducing lottery.

Horatti also said it was not a good move and also reminded the chief minister that it was he who had banned lottery in the State when he was the deputy chief minister in the Dharam Singh government.

Siddaramaiah said: “I read in the newspapers about the recommendation of the Board. But so far there is no proposal before the government regarding re-introducing lottery scheme in the State.”

Siddaramaiah mentioned that Ibrahim frequently visits Kerala and learnt about some kind of lottery where the money generated is utilised for healthcare.

“There is no need to rely on lottery for healthcare scheme. The government is in a position to sanction funds,” Siddaramaiah added. Leader of the Opposition in the Council K S Eshwarappa said the proposal is aimed at generating Rs 500 crore to provide healthcare and suggested that the government should allocate the amount for the scheme.

(Agencies)

Religious intolerance in India would have shocked Gandhi: Obama

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Photo: PTI

Photo: PTI

Washington: US President Barack Obama on Thursday said the “acts of intolerance” experienced by religious faiths of all types in India in the past few years would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi.

The comments by Obama came a day after the White House refuted suggestions that the US President’s public speech in New Delhi in which he touched upon religious tolerance was a “parting shot” aimed at the ruling BJP.

“Michelle and I returned from India – an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity – but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs – acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation,” Obama said in his remarks at the high-profile National Prayer Breakfast.

The US President, who has just returned from India, was referring to violence against followers of various religions in India in the past few years. He, however, did not name any particular religion and said the violence is not unique to one group or one religion.

“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.

“In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow (racial segregation state and local laws) all too often was justified in the name of Christ,” he said, addressing the gathering of over 3,000 US and international leaders.

“There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. In today’s world, when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance.”But God compels us to try. “And in this mission, I believe there are a few principles that can guide us, particularly those of us who profess to believe,” he said.

In a US-style Town Hall address in New Delhi on January 27, the last day of his India trip, Obama had made a strong pitch for religious tolerance, cautioning that India will succeed so long as it was not “splintered along the lines of religious faith”.

The White House yesterday strongly refuted allegations that Obama’s remarks on religious tolerance was aimed at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying the speech in its entirety was about the “core democratic values and principles” of both the US and India.

(PTI)

Former police officer D G Vanzara gets bail in Ishrat Jahan case

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Photo: Hindustan Times

Photo: Hindustan Times

Ahmedabad/NDTV: One of Gujarat’s most controversial police officers, DG Vanzara, is likely to walk out of jail soon after he was granted bail today in the 2004 killing of college student Ishrat Jahan. But a court in Ahmedabad said he can’t enter Gujarat.

Eight police officers were charge-sheeted in the case. Four were granted bail earlier and today, two more got it – Mr Vanzara and another police officer, PP Pande.

Mr Vanzara was granted bail in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter killing case of 2005 in September.

He has been in a jail in Ahmedabad for eight years for cases that earned him the nickname of “encounter specialist”. He retired last year. He was arrested in March 2007, when he was a Deputy Inspector General of Police, for the Sohrabuddin killing.

Sohrabuddin, a petty criminal, his wife Kauser Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati were traveling on a bus from Andhra Pradesh in 2005 when they were kidnapped by the Gujarat police. Sohrabuddin and his wife were killed a few days later. Tulsiram, a key witness to their abduction, was shot dead a year later; the police claimed that he was trying to escape.

Mr Vanzara was also made an accused in the killing of Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old, and three men in 2004. All four were shot dead by police officers who claimed that they were involved in a plot to kill Narendra Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time.

In 2013, Mr Vanzara quit the force and shot off a vitriolic letter in which he accused Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, a former Home Minister of Gujarat, of making him and other police officers scapegoats for following their orders.

In December, a court in Mumbai accepted Amit Shah’s discharge petition and said he will not face charges in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing.

Iran says missile program is “not negotiable”

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iran

Iranian officials denied any negotiation is taking place with P5+1 group over its missile plan and stressed that the program is “not negotiable.”

On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri said that the country “will never” accept to negotiate over its missile program and “defensive capabilities” with any world power, Fars news agency reported.

A day earlier, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi stressed that “Iran’s missile program has totally defensive nature and is not negotiable,” the Tehran Timesreported.

Iranian officials’ comments came after US Department of State spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Monday that Iran’s missile program was part of the P5+1 group — United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China — nuclear talks with Iran.

Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani berated the world’s nuclear powers on Wednesday, saying atomic weapons had not kept them safe and reiterating that his country was not seeking the bomb.

Rouhani avoided explicit mention of ongoing nuclear talks between the West and Iran but accused atomic-armed states of hypocrisy.

“They tell us ‘we don’t want Iran to make atomic bombs,’ you who have made atomic bombs,” Rouhani said in Isfahan, 400 kilometers south of the capital Tehran.

He then took aim at Israel, thought to be the only nuclear power in the region although it has never publicly acknowledged it, dubbing the Zionist state a “criminal.”

“Have you managed to bring about security for yourselves with atomic bombs? Have you managed to create security for the usurper Israel?” Rouhani said.

“We don’t need an atomic bomb. We have a great, self-sacrificing and unified nation,” he stressed, referring to Monday’s launch of an observation satellite into space by Iran.

“Despite pressures and sanctions, this nation sent a new satellite into space,” Rouhani added.

Iran is in negotiations with the P5+1 powers aimed at a deal to resolve a long-running dispute over its nuclear program.

Iran denies ever seeking atomic weapons but western powers are unconvinced Tehran’s activities have been solely aimed at peaceful energy production.

Under an interim deal, Iran’s stock of fissile material has been diluted from 20 percent enriched uranium to five percent in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

(AFP, Al-Akhbar)

Sahara chief Subrata Roy's get-out-of-jail deal mired in mystery

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A file photo of Sahara chief Subrata Roy

A file photo of Sahara chief Subrata Roy

New York/Mumbai: Subrata Roy, the boss of the Sahara conglomerate, who has been in a Delhi prison on contempt-of-court charges since March last year needs to post $1.6 billion (Rs 10,000 crore) in bail to get out. To help raise the money, Sahara is in talks to refinance its overseas hotels, including New York’s Plaza.

The only problem: It’s unclear if the man who’s orchestrating the deal, a 34-year-old former broker named Saransh Sharma, has the money to pull it off.

Sahara’s head of corporate finance, Sandeep Wadhwa, said Sahara’s lawyers had verified with Bank of America that Mr Sharma has deposited just over $1 billion (Rs 6,250 crore) in an account at the bank that is “earmarked for the said transaction.”

That account, however, doesn’t appear to exist. A manager at the bank told Reuters that he didn’t write a crucial document attributed to him: an email, sent in his name to Sahara, which purported to verify the account’s existence. After Reuters asked the bank to look into the account, spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens issued a statement saying: “Bank of America isn’t involved in the transaction.”

What’s more, Mr Sharma, who lives in San Jose, California, has admitted to stealing a database from a former employer. There are also two pending lawsuits against him, alleging he forged a letter and produced fake documents to obtain a loan.

Bank of America’s assertion that it has nothing to do with the deal, as well as details about Mr Sharma’s past, could throw a wrench into Sahara’s efforts to free Mr Roy, who is at Tihar jail, the largest in India, on contempt charges for failing to comply with a court order to repay investors in a bond scheme later ruled to be illegal.

The bail amount, the largest ever in India, reflects the cost of the illegal scheme, estimated by Indian regulators to be as much as $7 billion or Rs 43,750 crore.

Mr Sharma told Reuters he is backed by a group of U.S. and U.K. investors for the refinancing and that the funds in the account have come from them. Both he and Sahara declined to identify the investors.

Sahara’s businesses range from financial services to media, retail and real estate. The company used to sponsor the Indian cricket team, which helped to make it a household name in the country. During his heyday, Mr Roy, 66, socialized with presidents and film stars.

Sahara’s troubles started in 2011 when it was found by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the market regulator, to have illegally sold billions of dollars of bonds to investors. After a legal battle that reached the Supreme Court, Sahara was ordered to refund investors the money.

The Supreme Court threw Mr Roy in jail last March after he failed to appear at a contempt hearing related to the dispute with the regulator. Sahara has said that it has repaid most investors, a claim SEBI has disputed.

Since Mr Roy’s imprisonment, Sahara has been trying to raise cash. It has been reporting its progress to the court and regulators, and needs approvals from them to do these transactions. ($1 = Rs 62.50)

(Reuters)

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