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Syria: 40,000 displaced as fighting rages near Hama

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Heavy clashes between rebels and government forces in past week have displaced thousands, mostly women and children.

[Reuters]

[Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Nearly 40,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced over the past week by fighting northwest of Syria’s Hama city, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Since the rebel offensive began in the area a week ago, people have fled south and west to Hama city and neighbouring districts in Homs, Latakia and Tartous, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

“Some internally displaced people are at risk of further displacement as the front lines continue to shift,” it said.

Rebels led by the hardline Tahrir al-Sham alliance – formed by a group that once fought as al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria – launched attacks on March 21 with the aim of retaking areas captured by government forces in 2016 and pushed into Hama city.

At least 10 rebel groups battling as part of the Free Syrian Army are also engaged in heavy fighting in northern Hama.

The Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, once the strongest in Syria’s north, announced on Tuesday that it too had begun an offensive in Hama.

Ahrar al-Sham military spokesman Omar Khittab announced in a video posted to YouTube the beginning of a new stage of fighting “against this criminal regime and against its sectarian militias”.

Ahrar al-Sham appears to have entered the fight in Hama as part of a separate operation because of recent clashes between it and Tahrir al-Sham in Syria’s north.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Syrian government forces with Russian air support had “eliminated” more than 2,100 rebel fighters over the past four days, the state-run TASS news agency reported.

Colonel-General Sergey Rudskoy told the press that Tahrir al-Sham had deployed 10,000 fighters to Hama.

The numbers provided by the Russian Defence Ministry could not be independently verified by Al Jazeera.

The Syrian army announced on Monday that it had retaken several villages initially captured by rebels at the beginning of the offensive.

Four held with banned notes of Rs 3.98 cr face value in Bengaluru

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2000 note

Bengaluru: Four men were arrested here with demonetised notes of the face value of Rs 3.98 crore, the Bengaluru police said on Tuesday.

“The accused, Nanjunda, 46, Ambrose, 46, and Arif Pasha, 34, from Bengaluru and Felix, 35, from Kerala, were arrested and the old currency notes have been seized from them,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) S. Ravi told reporters here.

The four persons were arrested under Section 7 of the Specified Bank Notes (Cessation of Liabilities) Act, 2017, which entails six-month imprisonment.

“On tip-off, the City Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested the four men and seized a car parked in front of a lodge in southern suburb. The accused had kept the banned notes in the car to exchange for new notes,” Ravi said.

On March 23, two men were arrested here with demonetised notes of the face value of Rs 1.28 crore which they were attempting to exchange for new notes.

(Agencies)

Foul-mouthed Messi banned for four Argentina games

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Messi

Zurich: Barcelona star Lionel Messi was suspended for four Argentina matches by FIFA on Tuesday for swearing at an assistant referee.

Messi was found guilty of “having directed insulting words at an assistant referee” in the World Cup qualifier against Chile last Thursday which Argentina won 1-0 thanks to a penalty from the Barcelona hitman.

Messi will miss Argentina’s next South American qualifying game against Bolivia, scheduled for later Tuesday, with the remainder of the suspension served over his country’s subsequent World Cup qualifiers.

He was also fined 10,000 Swiss francs (9,350 euros, 10,170), FIFA saying: “This decision is in line with the FIFA Disciplinary Committee’s previous rulings in similar cases.”

Argentina’s victory over Chile left them in third place overall in the 10-team South American qualifying competition for the World Cup with 22 points from 13 games.

The top four finishers qualify automatically for next year’s finals in Russia.

(PTI)

Interpol shuts door on ED for Red corner notice against Lalit Modi

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Lalit Modi

New Delhi: The Interpol has virtually dealt a death blow to India’s chances of getting a Red Corner Notice issued against former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi in a money laundering probe in the T-20 cricket tournament.

The global police body, officials said, has apparently ruled in favour of Modi who had contested the issuance of such a warrant against him by the Interpol, on the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The ED had first made the request in 2015 to the Interpol.

Modi also tweeted from his official handle a certificate endorsing such a stand by the Interpol which stated that he is not “subject to an Interpol Red Notice or diffusion and is not known in Interpol’s database.”

The cricket administrator, who is said to be in the UK, has maintained that he has not done any wrong in any of the Indian Premier League (IPL) deals.

Meanwhile, official sources said the ED will go through the order issued by the Commission for the Control of Files (CCF) of the Interpol in this regard and take up the matter with the government and the CBI which is the nodal body for Interpol affairs in India.

It is understood that the ED will ask the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the CBI to take up with Interpol past cases where India and other countries have got the RCN issued against their wanted people or criminal by just providing required legal documents.

Sources in the agency called the development to be “fishy” and added that while it will be taken up before authorities, the ED will pursue other legal avenues like getting an extradition request executed against Modi.

The ED had registered a money laundering case against Modi and others based on a Chennai police complaint in 2012 on charges of alleged cheating of BCCI-IPL in granting overseas telecast rights of the T-20 cricket tournament in 2009.

The Interpol has been delaying the ED’s request for a global warrant against him since it was first requested in 2015 and its latest order has reportedly relied on the fact that there is “insufficient judicial data” against him.

Officials said the ED had submitted records of the FIR, statements of other accused and other details to the Interpol multiple times in order to underline the importance of getting an RCN against Modi but to no avail.

They said the agency was surprised to find that non-availability of a charge sheet in the case has been cited as a reason for not notifying the RCN against Modi, a ground that rarely has a precedent in Interpol operations when it comes to issuing RCNs.

An RCN is notified “to seek the location of a wanted person and his/her detention, arrest or restriction of movement for the purpose of extradition, surrender or similar lawful action.”

The ED had also written to the Chennai police a number of times to get the investigation in their FIR expedited but officials confirmed there has been no headway.

The Chennai police FIR was filed in 2010 acting on a complaint by former BCCI chief N Srinivasan against Modi and half-a-dozen others.

The ED subsequently invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) along with sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC to probe if BCCI-IPL and the exchequer had been cheated in the award of telecast rights for the T-20 tournament in 2009.

(PTI)

Dhoni’s Aadhar details shared on Twitter, deleted after his wife points out

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AFP

AFP

New Delhi: An agency which helps Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) enroll citizens for Aadhar has over enthusiastic shared the personal details of ace cricket M S Dhoni on social media.

Union Law and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was informed about the breach by Dhoni’s wife Sakshi on Twitter, was prompt to promise action.

The agency’s Common Services Center (CSC) has posted a tweet yesterday through its handle @CSCegov saying “Ace cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his family get their Aadhaar updated at VLE Mariya Farooqui’s CSE at Ranchi, Jharkhand”.

Prasad was tagged in the tweet. It included a photograph of the cricketer with a CSC representative and another of his personal details on what appeared to be the Aadhaar website.

The tweet with the details was later deleted.

“Is there any privacy left? Information of Adhaar card, including application, is made public property,” Sakshi tweeted.

Prasad, while thanking Sakshi for brining up the issue to his notice, said, “sharing personal information is illegal. Serious action will be taken against this”.

(PTI)

RSS man who announced bounty on Kerala CM’s head arrested

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Kundan Chandrawat

Ujjain: RSS activist Kundan Chandrawat, who stirred a hornets nest by announcing a bounty of Rs 1 crore for beheading Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, has been arrested, police said.

Chandrawat was arrested on Sunday and later produced before the chief judicial magistrates court which sent him to judicial custody for a fortnight, they said.

In a video that went viral on social media early this month, Chandrawat was purportedly seen announcing a bounty of Rs 1 crore for beheading Vijayan, whom he held responsible for the killing of RSS workers in the southern state.

He later retracted his statement which drew widespread condemnation from various quarters, including the Sangh, and expressed regret.

The RSS had distanced itself from its functionarys remark and promptly removed him from the post of Sah Prachar Pramukh (joint publicity chief) of Ujjain district.

“We yesterday arrested Kundan Chandrawat over his alleged statement. He was produced before the chief judicial magistrates court which remanded him in judicial custody,” Superintendent of Police Manohar Verma told PTI.

On March 2, Madhav Nagar police had registered an FIR against Chandrawat under IPC section 505(1)(B) (whoever makes any statement with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquillity).

(PTI)

Anti-apartheid icon Ahmed Kathrada dies

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Kathrada, beloved by millions of South Africans, spent 26 years in jail, many of them alongside Nelson Mandela.

Ahmed Kathrada

by Al Jazeera

Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who spent 26 years in jail – many of them alongside Nelson Mandela – for acts of sabotage against South Africa’s white minority government, died in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning at the age of 87.

He had been admitted to hospital with blood clotting in his brain earlier this month.

Kathrada was born on August 21, 1929, to Indian immigrant parents in a small town in northwestern South Africa .

He was among those tried and jailed alongside Mandela in the Rivonia trial in 1964, which drew worldwide attention and highlighted the brutal legal system under the apartheid regime.

Kathrada was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 and spent 26 years and three months in prison, 18 of which were on Robben Island.

After the end of apartheid, he served from 1994 and 1999 as parliamentary counsellor to President Mandela in the first African National Congress (ANC) government.

Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Johannesburg, said that it was a sad day in South Africa – where Kathrada was affectionately known as “Uncle Kathy” – as tributes poured in about his widely perceived kindness, humility, and honesty.

He had been a major part of many South African’s memories over decades of anti-apartheid struggle, Page said.

“I think his passing is sort of signalling to South Africans, yet again, the ending of an era, of these great giants of apartheid [resistance] as they pass on,” she added.

Kathrada gave an emotional speech at Mandela’s funeral, in which he said he had lost a brother.

Kathrada was, until recently, still active in public life. He formed his own foundation and advocated strongly for human rights causes such as youth development, anti-racism, and freedom of speech.

Last year, he joined a movement of veteran figures who were critical of the governing ANC and its current crop of leaders – particularly President Jacob Zuma , who has been mired in mounting allegations of corruption . Kathrada penned an open letter to the president and called on him to step down.

“Right to the very end he kept himself relevant, he was a newsmaker, he was honest and true to his values and his beliefs,” Page said. “And that’s why so many millions of South Africans will be very sad at his passing today.”

“This is a great loss to the ANC, the broader liberation movement and South Africa as a whole,” Neeshan Balton, head of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, said in a statement.

“‘Kathy’ was an inspiration to millions in different parts of the world.”

Kathrada’s activism against the white-minority apartheid regime started at the age of 17, when he was one of 2,000 “passive resisters” arrested in 1946 for defying a law that discriminated against Indian South Africans.

In July 1963, the police swooped on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a Johannesburg suburb where Kathrada and other senior activists had been meeting in secret.

At the famous Rivonia trial, eight of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour on Robben Island.

His fellow prisoners included Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Denis Goldberg.

India beat Australia to win Test series

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india_reuters

Dharamsala: India defeated Australia by eight wickets in the fourth and final Test at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium here on Tuesday to clinch the four-match series 2-1 and regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Lokesh Rahul hit a half-century and guided the hosts to victory in the first-ever Test at this picturesque ground along with stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane after the early departure of Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Rahul remained undefeated on 51 while Rahane was not out on 38.

Fittingly, it was Rahul who hit the winning runs, guiding a delivery from left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe to the on-side.

Needing 106 runs for the win, the Indians reached the target around 90 minutes and 17.5 overs into the first session of the fourth day.

Fast bowler Pat Cummins claimed Vijay’s wicket while Pujara was run out thanks to an excellent piece of fielding by Glenn Maxwell.

India’s left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja was declared the man of the match as well as the man of the series. Jadeja clinched 25 wickets and scored two half-centuries over the four Tests against the team from Down Under.

India captain Virat Kohli, who had to miss the fourth Test due to a shoulder injury, praised his teammates for their performance throughout the series. He also commended Rahane’s leadership in the final Test.

“Unbelievable. This is our best series win so far. I thought England was intense, but the way Australia gave us a fight it was amazing on their part. But our guys kept bouncing back. Shows the character and maturity,” Kohli said after the match.

“Ajinkya led the team really well. The changes we made in our fitness regime have paid off. Guys have been able to sustain the performance throughout the season. In the past we have had sessions where we have given away the game easily. Not this season. Been a team season.

“Not one or two individuals who have stood out. Unbelievable, the kind of fitness and desire the fast bowlers have shown, it has been game-changing,” Kohli added.

Tuesday’s victory also enabled the Indian team to retain the top spot in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings.

The hosts had entered the series against Australia needing to win at least one Test to retain the pole position in the Test rankings which they had reclaimed following the Indore Test against New Zealand in October last year.

“Really enjoyed it. Credit to all the boys. Not only this series, but to whoever has played this season. Really happy as a captain,” Rahane said.

“I thought our bowlers, batsmen and fielders, they all did well.”

India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also received the Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2016 as well as the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2016.

The hosts resumed at the overnight score of 19/0 and Vijay survived a scare in the very first over of the day when Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood came up with a couple of lbw appeals off consecutive balls.

The Indians got their first runs of the day in the next over when an O’Keefe delivery to Rahul turned sharply, evaded the bat and outfoxed Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade before reaching the boundary.

Rahul was in excellent form, taking the battle to the Australian bowlers although Vijay continued to struggle at the other end.

Rahul got a lucky boundary when he tried to go after a Hazlewood delivery outside the line of his off-stump but only managed to offer an outside edge. The ball however, went between the slips and the gully to give Rahul his first boundary of the day.

The Karnataka batsman however, calmed the nerves with two boundaries off O’Keefe in the next over. He produced another superb shot off the backfoot to hit Hazlewood to the midwicket boundary a couple of overs later.

The visitors hit back by taking two wickets in the next over.

Cummins, who replaced O’Keefe in the attack, dismissed Vijay with the first ball of the over when the Tamil Nadu right-hander went after a delivery which was slightly outside the off-stump only to offer an easy edge to Wade.

Pujara came in and played just five balls before some poor running between the wickets and an excellent direct hit from Maxwell from point which knocked out the middle stump forced him to return to the pavilion.

But that was the only bit of success the Australians would manage to celebrate as Rahul and Rahane batted aggressively to guide India to victory.

(IANS)

Congress alleges Rs 20,000 cr scam in procurement of LED bulbs

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LED bulbs

New Delhi: The Congress today alleged a Rs 20,000 crore nationwide scam in the procurement of LED bulbs for government use by a state-owned company and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into it. Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs of Power Ministry, is making purchases of LED bulbs in violation of Supreme Court and Vigilance Commission guidelines.

He said ever since the NDA government came to power there is no transparency in procurements made by the company that does not manufacture any LED bulbs and alleged that it is making procurements of “substandard” LED bulbs from China and Taiwan in violation of laid norms. “There should be an independent inquiry and it should be monitored by the Supreme Court, as according to our estimates there is a corruption to the tune of Rs 20,000 crores, the way the quality is compromised,” Gohil told reporters.

He said he has earlier raised the issue in Gujarat Assembly but the minister there was unable to answer the allegations raised. The Congress leader said he procured through RTI power bills of Nausari municipality which revealed that there was no reduction in them ever since LED bulbs replaced old bulbs. In fact, there was an increase over a period of few months that indicated substandard quality of bulbs procured, he said.

“This is a national issue and we would like an independent probe into it,” he said. “I would like Mr Piyush Goyal under whose ministry this company belongs to tweet and say why the guidelines have not been followed and certification not done. Why was importance not given to ‘Make in India’ and why were bulbs procured from China and Taiwan and why no audit was done on procurements,” he said. Another Congress spokesperson Rajeev Gowda said “we will go to the people and we will raise the issue in Parliament also”.

Gowda said the scale of this fraud is enormous and “it is incumbent upon us to raise the issue in Parliament”. “We will raise this as an issue of national importance in Parliament,” he said. Gohil said the “BJP government at the Centre yet again finds itself indulging in massive irregularities and corruption at a lightning speed. Even before the nation blinks its eye to see through the reality, the Central Government is using dubious and highly questionable practices for procurement and distribution of the ‘Ujala’ LED bulbs”.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who claims that his government has distributed more than 21 crore LED bulbs, does not tell the people of India that this process itself “is making a joke of their much publicised claims of ‘Make in India’. Crores of these LED bulbs, LED streetlights, LED pumps and LED fans are infact ‘Made in China’ or ‘Made in Taiwan'”.

“In this context we would like to ask Power Minister Piyush Goyal and the government that under whose direction this entire fraudulent exercise was being done? Is it being done with the knowledge of the Power Minister? If the minister did not know, will he order a time-bound impartial inquiry in the same?” he said. “The Congress party demands an impartial inquiry under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge for the same,” Gohil said.

(PTI)

Shiv Sena proposes RSS chief’s name for next President of India

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Mohan Bhagwat

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday urged the Modi government to consider RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for the post of Indian President.

In a surprise statement, Sena MP and Saamana Executive Editor Sanjay Raut said the National Democratic Alliance – of which Sena is a member – and the BJP in particular should think of the RSS Sarsanghchalak if it wanted to fulfil its dream of achieving a “Hindu Rashtra”.

“This has been discussed in our party. Even Sena President Uddhav Thackeray is of the opinion that for making India a `Hindu Rashtra`, Bhagwat should be made the President,” Raut told mediapersons.

He said a staunch Hindu nationalist like Modi was the Prime Minister and another Hindutva proponent, Yogi Adityanath, had become Chief Minister of India`s most populous state Uttar Pradesh.

“He (Bhagwat) is a strong leader, staunch nationalist, has a deep knowledge of the Constituition. So if the BJP wants to make India a `Hindu Rashtra`, his name must be considered. He is the most suitable candidate,” Raut said.

Born in Chandrapur in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, Bhagwat, 66, has headed the RSS since March 2009.

The presidential election is due in July.

(Agencies)

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