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China’s giant Mao Zedong statue ‘demolished’

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Chinese media reports say 37-metre-high statue in Henan province was removed due to lack of government approval.

Construction was reportedly funded by local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour [File: Reuters]

Construction was reportedly funded by local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour [File: Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A giant gold-painted statue of Communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong has reportedly been demolished because it lacked government approval, just days after images of it were widely shared on social media.

Images of the statue of a seated Mao towering about 37 metres over empty fields in the central province of Henan made worldwide headlines this week.

But the $460,000 structure has been destroyed, the People’s Net news portal cited local officials as saying on Friday, adding that the reason was “unclear”.

The website is linked to the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

It cited reports from unspecified media as saying the likeness of the man who ruled China with an iron grip for nearly three decades until his death in 1976 “was not registered or approved” by the local government.

Pictures circulating online – which could not be immediately verified by the AFP news agency – showed a gaping hole in the rear of Mao’s massive golden torso, and his head shrouded in black.


Construction was reportedly funded by several local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour, the HMR.cn portal said this week.

Despite being blamed for millions of deaths, Mao is still widely revered in China and credited with uniting the country.

Meanwhile, the Communist leadership tightly controls public discussion of history and seeks to use his legacy to shore up its support.

China’s current President Xi Jinping has praised Mao as a “great figure” and revived some of his rhetoric and centralisation of power, while following the party’s 1980s conclusion that he also made “mistakes”.

Some internet users criticised the statue, pointing out its location in Henan, the centre of a famine in the late 1950s resulting from Mao’s economic policies estimated to have killed as many as 40 million people.

“Have you forgotten about the Great Famine, building that?” asked one poster on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Others questioned the statue’s resemblance to the “Great Helmsman”, who also launched the decade-long Cultural Revolution that saw violence and destruction nationwide.

Mexico recaptures fugitive drug kingpin El Chapo

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Sinaloa cartel boss, who had escaped from maximum-security prison six months ago, caught after shootout in home state.

Joaquin Guzman

by Al Jazeera

Mexican police have recaptured Joaquin Guzman six months after the fugitive drug kingpin’s escape from prison.

Guzman, the head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, was Mexico’s most-wanted fugitive. He had escaped from a maximum security prison six months ago.

“Mission accomplished, we have him,” Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico’s president, announced via Twitter on Friday.

Guzman, also known as El Chapo, was caught after a shootout with security forces in Los Mochis, in his home state of Sinaloa, according to a federal official.

The official said Guzman was taken alive and was not wounded. Five people were killed and one Mexican marine injured in the clash at a house.

The Mexican navy said marines seized two armoured vehicles, eight rifles, a handgun, and a grenade launcher in the raid that recaptured the fugitive.

“A few weeks ago there was a close call in his home state of Sinaloa, this morning not so lucky,” Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Ahuisculco in Mexico, said.

“The Mexican government is saying that this morning military responded to a building in Sinaloa after someone compliant that armed men were holding up inside a building.”

In a statement, the US Drug Enforcement Agency said: “The capture of Joaquin ‘Chapo’ Guzman-Loera is a victory for the rule of law and the Mexican people and government.

“It is further evidence of our two countries’ resolve to ensure justice is served for families who have been plagued by Guzman-Loera’s ruthless acts of violence.”

His prison escape in July was the second for Guzman in 15 years – and a major embarrassment for Pena Nieto.

Escape stories

Guzman was first captured in 1993 in Guatemala, but he escaped from a prison in western Mexico in 2001 by hiding in a laundry cart.

In July 2015, he fled a maximum-security prison near Mexico City just 17 months after authorities captured him following a 13-year manhunt.

He escaped through a 1.5km tunnel with a redesigned motorcycle on special tracks, emerging in a house outside the prison.

Nieto had refused to hand Guzman over to the US, but Mexican authorities are now likely to extradite him there.

7.5 lakh Muslims, Christians re-converted in last 10 years: Pravin Togadia

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Pravin Togadia

Surat: Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia on Friday claimed that his organisation had re-converted more than five lakh Christians and 2.5 lakh Muslims to Hinduism in the last ten years. Speaking at a function here today, Togadia also called for a mass drive to continue this “Ghar Wapsi” to save the Hinduism in India.

“Within last ten years, we did Ghar Wapsi of more than five lakh Christians and 2.5 lakh Muslims. Our rate of Ghar Wapsi used to be around 15,000 each year. But last year, we have crossed the mark of 40,000, which is excluding the figures of RSS,” said Togadia, the international working president of VHP. “If Hindus need to be in majority in India and to save our religion, we have to engage in many more Ghar Wapsi drives to bring crores of others into our religion,” said Togadia, who was here to take part in VHP’s fund raising event. During his brief interaction with media afterwards, the right-wing leader also demanded that all the Hindus of Pakistan should be given Indian citizenship. He also reiterated that Ram temple will definitely be constructed in Ayodhya.

“Ram temple will be built in Ayodhya, and there is no doubt about it. To build it, the Parliament must bring a law,” he said.

(Agencies)

Over 10k acres of lake area encroached in Bengaluru

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Bangalore-lakes

Bengaluru: Notices are being sent to encroachers of 10,472 acres of lake area in Bengaluru Urban and Rural areas, Chairman of the House Committee of Karnataka Legislative Assembly, K B Koliwad said on Friday.

“We have complete information about who has encroached where. We will put this information in the gazette. We have initiated the process to issue notice to them,” Koliwad told reporters here.

He said following the process of natural justice “we are issuing them a notice asking them why they should not be evicted from the encroached land. We have already issued the orders to issue notices to about 11,000 odd private and also government encroachers.”

Koliwad also said committees had been constituted at taluk level headed by the Tehsildar and at sub divisional level headed by Assistant Commissioner for issuing notices.

Notice model has also been sent out these authorities for further perusal and action, he added.

A legislature committee, led by Congress MLA Koliwad, was constituted in October 2014 to look into all encroachments in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts and recommend suitable action or regularisation.

“According to the survey in Bengaluru city and rural limits there are a total of 1,545 lakes; …in Bengaluru city there are 835 lakes whose area is 27,604 acres out of which 4,277 acres have been encroached….” Koliwad said.

He said in Bengaluru rural there are 710 lakes covering a total area of 29,972 acres.

“In total both Bengaluru city and rural have lake area of 57,576 acres, out of which 4,227 acres have been encroached in city and 6,195 acres in rural area.So a total of 10,472 acres of lake land have been encroached,” he added.

About 200 surveyors were deputed from the revenue department to survey the lakes on the request of the committee.

Stating that government encroachment of lake area amounts to 3,257 acres, Koliwad said in the city, lakes had been encroached at 924 places covering an area of 2254 acres and in rural areas at 319 places covering an area of about 1,000 acres.

(Agencies)

PM Modi visits Pathankot air base

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Narendra_Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today visited the strategic Pathankot Air Force base for a first-hand assessment of the situation in the aftermath of the terror attack last Saturday.

 

Security forces had yesterday declared the sprawling Air Force station fully sanitised after a massive combing operation spanning over three days.

“The combing operation at the Air Force station is over,” a senior IAF official said, adding the entire area has been sanitised.

Six terrorists, believed to owe allegiance to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed were gunned down by the security forces after a four-day gun battle. Seven Indian security personnel also lost their lives.

The operation to ensure that no terrorist was hiding was carried out jointly by Army, NSG and IAF’s Garud commandos.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had also visited the base on January five.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had called up Modi and promised action against the perpetrators of the brazen attack.

During his visit, the Prime Minister is also likely to undertake an aerial survey of the Indo-Pak border areas, official sources said.

Elaborate security arrangements are in place in Pathankot for Modi’s visit and media has been stationed near the entrance of the air base.

During his visit to the strategic facility on January 5, Parrikar had admitted to “some gaps” that led to the attack.

The perpetrators were believed to have infiltrated the Indian territory from a spot near Bamiyal village in Pathankot located close to the international border.

(Agencies)

Yogi Adityanath’s ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ accused of abducting, raping teenage Muslim girls

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Yogi Adityanath

New Delhi: In a shocking revelation, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), an umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, has said that BJP MP Yogi Adityanath’s Hindu Yuva Vahini is involved in kidnapping, raping and forcing the teenage Muslims girls to live with Hindu men.

 

“A team of the AIMMM found that reports of kidnappings of Muslim girls, sometimes as young as 12 years, are true. Many of such girls have vanished, some are known to be living with their Hindu “husbands” while some have succeeded to run away and return to their families”, the NGO said after visiting the Kushi Nagar district in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

“The delegation found that young girls are kidnapped or lured away from their villages. They are taken to Gorakhpur and other places where they are raped, subjected to shuddhi (purification) and then forced to marry Hindu boys”, it added.

Adityanath’s Hindu Yuva Vahini and allied militias play a pivotal role in this criminal activity which is made more sinister since all girls are under-age.

The AIMMM delegation toured various areas of the district met a number of victims, talked to community leaders.

Fact-finding report on disturbing conditions in Kushinagar district also includes that Kushinagar district police and local administration are preventing the Muslims places to repair work on extend existing mosques or build new mosques on private land throughout the district. The village has 25 Muslim houses and 750 Hindus houses.

The team of delegation also visited some villages where one-sided riots are engineered since 2013 to grab Muslim land or on minor issues with a view to teach Muslims a lesson.

AIMMM has asked the state government to take strict notice on these atrocities against Muslims.

(Agencies)

Terror link: No evidence against Moulana Anzar Shah Qasmi, says Bengaluru police chief

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Maulana Anzar Shah

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have admitted that they do not have any evidence against Moulana Anzar Shah Qasmi, a cleric, who was picked up by the Delhi police on Wednesday for alleged ‘terror links’ and ‘hate speeches’.

 

However, the city police had been keeping an eye on him for past several months, according to Police Commissioner N.S. Megharik.

“He was under watch for his hate speeches but the police were not aware of his terror links. We do not even have any evidence that he was involved in terrorism,” the top cop clarified. He also justified the decision of Delhi police to arrest him based on the evidence gathered by Delhi police.

A senior official said that the jurisdictional Kumaraswamy Layout police used to monitor him and prepared a dossier about his activities.

“The police had even met members of the mosque committee and sought details about him. But before the dossier was submitted, the Delhi Police picked him up since they had concrete evidence about his terror links,” the officer said.

Qasmi, who hails from Shivajinagar in Bengaluru, had had studied in Deoband in Uttar Pradesh for two years before starting his career. He served as imam and khatib in various mosques.

He is married and has two sons and a daughter. One son is married and the other is studying in a madrasa. Qasmi lived in Hegde Nagar on Tannery Road before moving to a house he built in Ilyas Nagar recently.

Nayaz Pasha, the head of Makkah Masjid in Banashankari, where Qasmi was a preacher, said that the mosque committee had strictly instructed him to deliver sermons based only on the Qur’an and not to target other religions. Some women had objected to his views about the fairer sex and lodged a complaint at the Tilak Nagar police station.

He would often tour Chennai, Mysuru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Jharkhand and other parts of the country to make speeches.

(Agencies)

Moulana Anzar Shah Qasmi arrested by police, allege terror links

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Maulana Anzar Shah

Bengaluru: A 50-year-old Muslim cleric from Bengaluru, who was picked up from a team of the Delhi Police Special Cell for unknown reasons, is now reportedly facing terror charges.

Moulana Anzar Shah Qasmi (50) a resident of Ilyas Nagar in Banashankari 2nd Stage in Bengaluru South was reportedly arrested on charges of making hate speeches and having links with a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, according to a few media reports.

Qasmi was at the house of one of his students in Ilyas Nagar at 9.30 pm on Wednesday for dinner when he was called out by some men. They claimed to be from the ATS and wanted to ask him a few questions. Qasmi  informed his student Mohammed Asif that he would return in some time, but was not to be seen.

Residents set out on a search of the moulvi. On not finding him, they filed a missing complaint with the K.S. Layout police on Thursday morning. A local autorickshaw driver Jabbar is also missing.

Qasmi was preacher in Makkah mosque in Banashankari for the past four years. He had shifted to Ilyas Nagar a month ago.

“We do not know why he was taken or whether they were really policemen,” Mr. Asif told media persons, adding that the moulvi was popular in the area.

The mosque committee is contemplating legal action to trace the moulvi, he said.

Meanwhile, a senior police officer confirmed that the 50-year-old moulvi had been picked up by Delhi police, but refused to elaborate on the charges under which he had been detained.

(Agencies)

 

Bushfire causes havoc in Western Australia town

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Almost 100 homes destroyed and three people missing in Yarloop in summer wildfires possibly linked to hot, dry weather.

Scientists have warned that climate change could increase the length and intensity of the summer fire season [Reuters]

Scientists have warned that climate change could increase the length and intensity of the summer fire season [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

A major bushfire in Western Australia has destroyed nearly 100 homes and left three people unaccounted for, emergency officials say.

The fire, which had already razed 53,000 hectares of land this week, struck Yarloop, a small rural town south of Perth, on Thursday night.

“I believe we’ve had what I would suggest are catastrophic losses within Yarloop,” Wayne Gregson, Western Australian fire and emergency services commissioner, said on Friday.

Local media reported that 95 homes were destroyed, together with the post office, shops and the fire station, in the town which has a population of only 545.

“It just got out of control … after that it just ripped through, it was quite scary,” Jesse Puccio, a volunteer firefighter, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“It’s like when you see in the war when the napalm bombers go through.”

Aerial footage showed houses reduced to just their brick fireplaces, leaving only blackened ground and the burned-out shells of vehicles.

Ron Sackville, a Yarloop resident, told 6PR radio there was “very little” left.

“I look around 360 degrees and everything is burned to a cinder. The fire was horrendous,” he said.

Another resident described the overnight emergency – initially triggered by a lightning strike – as like the town being hit by “fireballs”.

“It’s devastating,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  “The hall is gone. I believe the pub’s gone. The workshops are gone. The old hospital is gone. I think the church is gone.”

The bushfire in Western Australian is the latest in a series of fires that have razed parts of the country amid sustained hot and dry weather.

Four people were killed in a series of bushfires sparked by lightning in Western Australia last November. More than 100 homes were destroyed in fires on Christmas Day in Victoria, while two people were killed in South Australia.

Wildfires are an annual summer event in Australia but rising temperatures have prompted some scientists to warn that climate change could increase the length and intensity of the summer fire season.

Australia experienced its fifth hottest year on record in 2015, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, which has been keeping statistics since 1910.

Mirza-Hingis Win 25th doubles match in a row

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AP

AP

Brisbane: World No.1 women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won their 25th match in a row, beating Andreja Klepac and Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 7-5, at the Brisbane International on Friday.

The top seeds at the Premier-level tournament faced some resistance from the No.4 seeds, who jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and, after dropping the first set, were a game away from winning the second set up 5-4.

But the Indo-Swiss pair did all the right things at all the right times and closed out the match smartly.

“I think we’re off to a great start in the new season,” Hingis said after the match.

“We never really felt like we finished in 2015 – I played the Indian league and Sania played IPTL, so we still kind of kept our routine. We’re really happy to have the possibility to be in another final, and win another title.”

Hingis and Mirza’s 25-match winning streak, which has brought them five titles in a row at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, is the longest winning streak since Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci’s 25 in a row in 2012.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost, but it’s never easy to start a new season, especially when you’re coming off such a great season. Everyone’s gunning for us – we’re the hunted,” Mirza commented.

“We’re just taking it one match at a time, staying positive, and picking up from where we left off.”

The doubles team of Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva rattled off 28 victories in a row way back to the 1994 season.

Mirza-Hingis won nine titles together last year including the Wimbledon and the US Open and ended the season as the top ranked team in the world.

(IANS)

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