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Archives for February 2018

“When a woman can run a house, she can run the country too”: MEP’s Dr. Nowhera Shaikh

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All India Mahila Empowerment Party (MEP) held its campaign in Gulbarga, where the party’s founder Dr. Nowhera Shaikh said that when a woman can run a house, she can run the country too.

Addressing both the workers and the press, Dr. Nowhera Shaikh said that women have a lot of potential and patience, which are necessary skills required of a leader.

She said the party is contesting elections to create an impact in people’s lives, and promised interest-free loans for taxi drivers and farmers of the state, if they come to power.

Eastern Ghouta: Syrian government forces clash with rebels

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Smoke rose from the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on Tuesday, February 27 [Bassam Khabieh/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Syrian government forces have clashed with rebels on the outskirts of Eastern Ghouta, despite a Russian-sponsored truce that is now in its second day, a war monitor reported.

Since Wednesday morning, during a second attempt at implementing a ceasefire in the besieged enclave, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have been locked in “fierce” fighting with rebels who have been in control of the area since 2013, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The confrontation is part of a ground offensive launched by the government on Sunday. It has been fighting on multiple fronts in an attempt to penetrate the enclave.

The daily, five-hour “humanitarian pause” is meant to evacuate the injured out of the Damascus suburb and allow humanitarian convoys to deliver food and medicine to some 400,000 people trapped inside.

The first attempt to implement the truce on Tuesday was unsuccessful, as aerial bombardment and artillery fire killed at least four people and injured dozens more.

Residents of the enclave said government warplanes launched several attacks in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and stressed that the most intense attacks have been centres in three towns – including Douma, Misraba and Harasta – near the front lines.

“There have been no evacuations whatsoever – not medical, not humanitarian, nothing.”

“The regime has launched a psychological game – that’s all,” a resident said. “Bombardment has been ongoing since last night”.

Residents also say they cannot trust the same entity that has been assisting the government with bombarding them, and demanded a third, trusted party to implement the truce.

Russia blaming rebels
But Russia held rebels in the enclave responsible for not implementing the truce and blocking aid from being delivered to devastated civilians.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday “entrenched militants” needed to “act” now that Russia implemented “safe corridors”.

Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, he noted Moscow would continue to support Syrian forces in defeating the “terrorist threat”.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said the rebels in Eastern Ghouta denied the claims made by Lavrov.

“They [rebels] are denying this, saying they are not bombing the corridors and that people do not want to leave because they don’t have any security guarantees – there are no international monitors,” Khodr said.

“People are going to cross into government territory – what guarantee is there that they won’t be arrested, detained, or forced into conscription?” she added.

“What people want is a lasting ceasefire.”

Eastern Ghouta has been under continuous aerial bombardment since February 18, when Russian-backed Syrian warplanes stepped up their campaign against opposition fighters in the area.

More than 550 civilians have been killed, according to SOHR, making the latest offensive the most intense in Syria’s seven-year war.

CM Siddaramaiah slams Modi, says his words are worthless

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Koppal: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in Koppal on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Modi’s words are worthless and that he hasn’t come across a Prime Minister who speaks so lowly.

“Before getting to be the Prime Minister, he used to allude to himself as a chowkidar (guard). Where was this chowkidar (PM) when Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi fled the nation? They have fled with the assurance of Prime Minister Modi,” the Chief Minister charged because of the PM’s announcement that the Karnataka government is a ‘seedha rupaiya sarkar’. He ridiculed the PM for seating BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa “who has taken bribe with cheque”; alongside him, and blaming others for corruption.

Siddaramaiah asserted that the government isn’t obliged to show any records to BJP national president Amit Shah. By presenting the budget, we have presented the records to the general population, he said.

Rahul Gandhi had not assembled a conference of Mahadayi activists. Minister Vinay Kulkarni had guaranteed Mahadayi activists group of onlookers with Rahul Gandhi. Yet, the AICC president himself didn’t know about this. So Rahul left for the airplane terminal without meeting them,” Siddaramaiah responded to the queries.

In what manner can Yeddyurappa, who as Chief Minster, declined to forgo farmer’s credits and order a shoot-at-locate on agriculturists at Haveri, be agriculturist agreeable?

“At the point when agriculturists requested an advance waiver, Yeddyurappa had responded saying that the BJP did not have a cash note printing machine,” Siddaramaiah reviewed.

(Agencies)

Trudeau believes Indian officials “orchestrated” invitation of Khalistani separatist to his dinner

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Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who floated the theory that “rogue political factions” in the Indian establishment “orchestrated” the embarrassing invitation of a convicted Khalistani separatist to a formal dinner in India to make the Canadian government appear sympathetic to Sikh extremism, the media reported.

The Opposition hit Trudeau hard during question period on Tuesday — his first since his India trip — over how Jaspal Atwal was invited to the reception at the residence of Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel in India, the National Post reported.

Atwal was convicted of attempting to assassinate Indian Cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986 when he was visiting relatives in Canada. He was also charged — but not convicted — in the 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who later became British Columbia premier and a federal Liberal Cabinet minister.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister’s Office, a senior government official last week suggested that Atwal’s presence “was arranged by factions within the Indian government”.

According to the Canadian media, the official was identified as Trudeau’s National Security Adviser Daniel Jean and the opposition pressed Trudeau to say whether he agreed with Jean’s “conspiracy theory”.

Trudeau responded by saying: “When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it’s because they know it to be true.”

The opposition reasoned that Trudeau must, then, believe that “the Indian government helped sabotage his trip”. Trudeau did not stand up to contradict this interpretation.

Conservative MPs pressed Trudeau to provide evidence to back the assertion. “Before our Prime Minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation?” asked Tory MP Candice Bergen.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus asserted that Atwal — who had been photographed over the years posing with various Liberal MPs, ministers and leaders, including Trudeau himself — turned up on the trip because his presence was “useful” to local Liberals back in Canada.

And he accused Trudeau of using a senior civil servant to “spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad.”

Atwal was photographed with Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, and with Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi at a Mumbai event last week, before the Prime Minister’s office said an invitation to a subsequent dinner was flagged and rescinded.

Liberal British Columbia MP Randeep Sarai “took full responsibility” for putting Atwal’s name on a list of prospective invites provided to the High Commission, the Canadian Prime Minister said.

(IANS)

L-G, CS involved in conspiracy to destabilise Delhi government: AAP

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New Delhi: Over a week after Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash alleged an assault by two Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, the ruling party on Tuesday said the top bureaucrat along with the Lt Governor, Delhi Police and the IAS Association is “trying to destabilise” its government.

AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the Chief Secretary didn’t call up police after the meeting where the alleged assault took place but straightaway went to the L-G’s house to plan a conspiracy.

He demanded that call details of Lt Governor Anil Baijal and the Chief Secretary should be examined.

Claiming that a senior Delhi Police officer (North) has accepted in court that he attended that meeting at the L-G’s house, the AAP leader said: “No FIR, however, was registered in the night”.

“It was the next day around 1 p.m. that the FIR was registered, which was a tailormade police complaint by the Chief Secretary. We raised questions against it and a medico-legal report was prepared at 9 p.m.”

The Chief Secretary alleged that on February 19 night, he was beaten up by AAP legislators Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the CM’s residence, where the top bureaucrat had been called for an emergency meeting.

The party had earlier accepted that there was a heated argument with the Chief Secretary but denied physical assault.

“The incident is being used as an opportunity to destabilise the Delhi government,” said Bharadwaj.

He said clear evidence had emerged that the assault on AAP Minister Imran Hussain at Delhi Secretariat was result of a conspiracy hatched at the L-G’s house.

“The IAS Association was given the task of provoking and instigating other employees unions to assault Ministers and other functionaries.

“Videotape proofs clearly show that our Ministers were beaten up at the Secretariat but there is no evidence about the involvement of the Chief Minister or other Ministers in the Chief Secretary assault case,” he added.

Party leader Dilip Pandey said the IAS Association wakes up only when the central government “chooses to use it as its puppets”.

“They can’t stop working just like that.”

Last week, the IAS Association decided to boycott all meetings with Ministers in protest against the alleged attack on the Chief Secretary.

However, officers of the Delhi government made an exception for a Cabinet meeting related to the Budget on Tuesday.

(IANS)

Karti Chidambaram arrested by CBI for INX money laundering case

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, from Chennai airport in connection with the INX money laundering case.

He was taken into custody just after he landed from a flight from London.

Karti’s chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was recently arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16 and was later sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The ED had earlier claimed that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman, a qualified CA, had been assisting Karti to manage his “ill-gotten wealth” in India and abroad.

Also read: Karti Chidambaram’s CA sent to 14-day judicial custody in INX media case

Karti’s name had cropped up in the case which relates to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister during the previous UPA regime.

The ED had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of the approval made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without specific approval of FIPB, which included indirect foreign investment by some foreign investors, and generated Rs 305 crore foreign direct investment in INX Media Pvt Ltd against the approved foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore.

To wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action, INX Media entered into a criminal conspiracy with Karti, the ED has alleged. The FIPB unit of the finance ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of Income Tax Department, it had alleged.

(Agencies)

Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati passes away at 82

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Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt, died on Wednesday in Tamil Nadu’s Kanchipuram. He was 82.

The senior pontiff has been ailing in recent months. He had been admitted to the hospital most recently in January. He had been admitted to Chennai’s Sri Ramachandra Hospital after he collapsed at the math with shortness of breath and low blood pressure.

He had been named as successor to the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam by his predecessor, Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, widely known as the ‘Mahaswami’ of the math, in 1954. Jayendra Saraswati had become the head of the math in 1994 after the death of Chandrashekarendra Saraswati. During his time as the head pontiff, the math expanded its presence and role in charitable activities by setting up a number of hospitals and schools that continue to function today.

He will now be succeeded by Vijayendra Saraswati.

Jayendra Saraswati’s pontificate at the math has had its moments of controversy. He had led efforts to expand the reach of the math in the 1970s and 80s, by reaching out to economically weakers sections of society. He had also attempted to take part in negotiations for the peaceful settlement of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute in Ayodhya.

He had been acquitted in November 2013 in the case relating to the 2004 murder of A Sankararaman, manager of Kanchipuram’s Varadaraja Perumal Temple. His arrest in 2004 and the two months he spent in judicial custody had come as a jolt to many in Tamil Nadu.

(Agencies)

Sridevi cremated with state honours, procession among largest recorded in Mumbai

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Mumbai: Several lakhs turned up to join a long procession — among the largest in recent times — to mark the final journey of actress Sridevi which started near her residence to a crematorium in Vile Parle on Wednesday afternoon.

A tall, open truck, fully decorated with white flowers — her favourite colour — carried her body which was first draped in the national tricolour and then loaded in a glass casket, as cries of ‘Sridevi Amar Rahe’ rent the air among her fans.

Maharashtra government accorded full state honours for the funeral of Sridevi — who was conferred a Padma Shri in 2013, which included draping her body in the national tricolour, elaborate arrangements by the Mumbai Police and a gun salute before the cremation.

Inside the truck was Sridevi lying serene with full make-up, a large south Indian style vermillion and wearing a ceremonial gold and maroon coloured Kanjeevaram sari. A heavy, large necklace adorned her since she died a ‘suhaagan’ (still married), giving the appearance of a resplendent ‘devi’ (Goddess) in deep slumber.

Her grieving family members including husband Boney Kapoor, her step-son Arjun Kapoor and brothers-in-law Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor were among those who travelled in the truck with the body.

The truck slowly negotiated the approximately six km passing through some of the poshest areas of Andheri and Vile Parle suburbs, with a massive portrait of Sridevi visible from a distance.

Several lakhs of people including students, office-goers and others accompanied or waited on both side of the roads, looked on from buildings and bungalow terraces. Many climbed on signals and lamp posts for a last glimpse of their beloved heroine.

In terms of sheer numbers, Sridevi’s funeral is estimated to have attracted the highest number of mourners, ranking on par with the previous biggest funeral processions of the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi (July 1980: around a million mourners), and India’s first superstar Rajesh Khanna (July 2012: a little less than a million mourners).

The other big funerals of non-political personalities in Mumbai included those of Raj Kapoor (June 1988) and Vinod Khanna (April 2017).

The procession was led by several family members, close relatives, friends and even neighbours of the Green Acres society where the family lived in Lokhandwala Complex.

Among the prominent personalities who attended the funeral in Vile Parle were Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Randhir Kapoor and others who came to bid a final goodbye to Sridev

Sridevi’s daughters Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor performed the final rituals before the body was consigned to the flames with husband Boney standing nearby.

Earlier, since dawn, thousands of teary-eyed fans and admirers of the late actress, many carrying flowers, had queued up outside the Celebration Sports Club at Lokhandwala Complex for a final ‘darshan’ of their idol.

After the flower-bedecked body was brought to the club premises a steady stream of celebrities came in their vehicles and where whisked inside to pay their last respects.

Among the early callers seen were Rekha, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, Arbaaz Khan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu, Farah Khan, Nitin Mukesh, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vidya Balan, Sushmita Sen, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Leela Bhandsali, Jackie Shroff, Farhan Akhtar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, John Abraham, Ajay Devgn and Kajol, Anupam Kher and Sulabha Arya, among others.

In the past four days since her demise, the Kapoor household had witnessed a steady stream of visitors including Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Krishna Raj Kapoor.

Most of the visitors on Wednesday were sporting dark sunglasses to ward off the harsh early-summer glare, carrying flowers or small bouquets, embraced and consoled the bereaved family members, entering from the main entrance and leaving quickly from the other side as fans tried to catch a glimpse.

Sridevi’s body was flown to Mumbai from Dubai where she passed away following an accidental drowning in a bathtub in her hotel room around 11 pm on February 24, and from the airport was taken to the Kapoor residence in Green Acres.

Meanwhile, Green Acres housing society on Wednesday cancelled Holi celebrations as a mark of respect for Sridevi.

For the final journey, at the club and the crematorium, the Mumbai Police implemented elaborate security arrangements at various venues and arranged special traffic and crowd management measures.

(IANS)

Syria’s war: Eastern Ghouta ceasefire violations kill two

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The truce was supposed to establish ‘safe corridors’ to facilitate the civilian evacuation process [File: Bassam Khabieh/Reuters]

by Farah Najjar, Al Jazeera

At least two civilians have been killed less than two hours into a truce in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, activists said, as Syrian government forces launched fresh attacks in the rebel-held Damascus suburb.

Syrian warplanes launched several air strikes in Douma and Harasta on Tuesday, Mahmoud Adam, a spokesman for Syria’s Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, told Al Jazeera.

In Douma, one of Eastern Ghouta’s main towns, two people, including a woman, lost their lives and several others have been wounded, Adam said.

Alaa al-Ahmed, a local activist, told Al Jazeera that the attacks started at 9:30am (7:30 GMT) on Tuesday, 30 minutes after a Russia-backed ceasefire began.

The truce was meant to allow civilians to evacuate from the rebel-held enclave, which has been under continuous aerial bombardment since February 18.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had ordered the ceasefire from 9am to 2pm (7:00 to 12:00 GMT) on Tuesday, as air strikes and ground operations killed more than 550 civilians in the last eight days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

According to al-Ahmed, Russia did not provide a guarantee or a “trusted third party” to help evacuate the injured out of the area.

“How could people trust Russia – the same people bombing us – with assisting in the safe evacuation of the injured?” he said. “There is huge contradiction.”

The bombardment of the Damascus suburb, home to some 400,000 people, has been one of the most intense in Syria’s seven-year-old war.

“What happened this morning is a clear violation of the truce – which is merely propaganda,” al-Ahmed said.

The suburb’s humanitarian situation has been deteriorating, causing widespread international condemnation, with UN Secretary-General describing the enclave as “hell on earth”.

On Monday, a suspected chemical attack killed one child, according to Syria’s Civil Defence.

The reported chlorine gas attack injured at least 18 others when it hit Eastern Ghouta’s Al-Shifaniyah town close to the front lines, where rebels are fighting Syrian ground forces who have been trying to penetrate into the besieged enclave since Sunday.

Nour Othman, a local journalist based in Douma, told Al Jazeera warplanes also targeted the al-Marj area on Tuesday morning, a town near the outskirts of Douma.

“Tens of people have been injured,” he said.

And in the town of Misraba, at least seven people have been wounded as a result of surface-to-surface missiles, Othman added.

“The medical facilities are in a state of chaos – either because of the shelling or due to the high number of admitted injuries,” he explained.

No ‘safe corridors’
The truce was supposed to establish “safe corridors” to facilitate the evacuation process, but activists say there has been no attempt at doing so.

“To this moment, not a single person inside Eastern Ghouta has been evacuated,” Adam said, describing the truce as “dishonest”.

“Shelling is ongoing and there have been barrel bombs used in the outskirts of Douma,” he added.

Syrian state news agency, SANA, said rebels had fired several rockets in the path a corridor that was supposed to allow for the evacuation of civilians.

Syria’s Civil Defence team have started transferring people to medical facilities.

Similarly, Firas al-Abdullah, an activist in Eastern Ghouta, confirmed that at least three towns were hit on Tuesday after the ceasefire was set to take effect.

“No one left, no one entered – there has been nothing of this sort,” he said of the proposed evacuation plan.

Locals have also noted that several government warplanes are flying over villages on the outskirts of Douma.

On Saturday, an earlier attempt to implement a 30-day ceasefire in Syria failed, when a UN Security Council resolution was not upheld.

Eastern Ghouta has been under rebel control since 2013, after which President Bashar al-Assad’s government imposed a siege on the area in an attempt to drive out opposition fighters.

The blockade has caused a food and medicine shortage, has caused inflation rates to soar and aid convoys have not been able to deliver much of the desperately needed supplies.

M M Akbar is not the last victim

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by Madhyamam

Many are the questions raised by Kerala Police’s arrest of M M Akbar, head of Niche of Truth, the body to propagate Islam, a regular speaker on platforms of Mujahid organizations, and director of Peace International School.

The case against him is based on the allegation that the text books of Peace School create communal discord, and charges him under IPC 153(A). The others accused in the same case were arrested earlier and they came out on bail. Akbar who had been in Qatar for nearly a year, was arrested around Saturday midnight at Hyderabad where he was in transit between Melbourne and Doha, after being intercepted by airport immigration. Soon after this, Kerala Police brought him over to Kochi and produced him before Judicial Magistrate in Ernakulam where he was handed to police custody for five days.

The religious text book for Class II of Peace School had contained a question, “If your classmate decides to embrace Islam, what advice would you give him?” The case was registered following the conclusion of the District Educational Officer of Ernakulam that this question and the answers to it would spread religious hatred. The head of Burouj Realization of Mumbai, the publishers of the book, its content editor and designer were the other accused in the case. They were all arrested in December 2016 and put in jail for nearly a month, but later obtained bail from High Court. The school officials explain that once they found the disputed part of the lesson inappropriate, they had already given instruction that it should not be taught.

It cannot be said that the lesson that prompted registration of a case is one that overtly spreads religious hatred. The publishers clarify that this part was included as an activity to teach children that declaration of faith by truth (kalima shahaada in Arabic) is the first step to becoming a Muslim. Still, the publishers announced, since it was likely to be misconstrued they were withdrawing the book. In other words, Peace School cannot be said to be trying deliberately to inject enmity towards other religions, although it could be argued that under close scrutiny there was imprudence in teaching second level children a lesson that was likely to create misunderstanding. As for the school, the contention that they had already issued instructions not to teach that portion, need not be taken as such by everyone. All the same, the propaganda to the effect that Peace School was a centre producing hatred are malicious. It was the wide spread of such misinformation that pitted the school and its chief MM Akbar in the centre of controversy. And then his continued tour abroad following the case gave further ammunition to those who inflated the propaganda.

M M Akbar is not the first person to be charged with section 153 (A). Of late, this particular section has been imposed on half a dozen people including SNDP leader Vellappally Natesan, former DGP T P Senkumar and BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan. But none of them was arrested. The most recent one to be arrested under this section was Mujahid orator Shamsudheen Palath. And now, M M Akbar as well. From this, it could be easily understood that the government and the police have been adopting a bigoted stance on the matter. M M Akbar is only the latest victim of this discriminatory policy. The central government has been moving ahead with a goal of tracking down Muslim individuals and groups, demonizing them and entangling them in legal issues. It is a fact that Kerala government has been following the same approach in several matters. The girls who escaped from the controversial Ghar Wapsi centre in Tripunithura, Ernakulam had given their statements that lessons inciting hatred towards other religions were being taught there. Still, the police have been reluctant to charge section 153 (A) on the owners of the yoga centre. And as regards the Sangh Parivar influence on Kerala police, it is a matter raised as an issue even by those in the Left wing. M M Akbar’s arrest should be analysed in this perspective.

Akbar’s arrest is just one of the many instances of state terrorism aiming at Muslim community. And terrorism by state has been going forward on the pretext of fight against extremism. And often there were examples when the Mujahid movement went alongside the government position that those were necessary as part of countering extremism. And now a scholar from among them is becoming a victim of the same terrorism by discrimination. Thus the message from MM Akbar’s arrest is that collective efforts to take on governmental aggression brooks no delay.

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