JOHANNESBURG: Khalila Camacho Ali, former wife of legendary world boxing champion Muhammad Ali, has advised Muslim women to follow the principles laid down in Islam for how they should live and work, and not what she called ‘Hislam’ which is a prejudiced point of view.

Ali gave an account of how she had been instrumental, at the age of 10, to get the ambitious aspirant world champion Cassius Clay to change his name, eventually marrying him some years later.

She also outlined her role in convincing him to become a conscientious objector and refuse to do military service for America in its lengthy war against Vietnam.

Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title in 1967 for refusing to be conscripted into the US Army.

He was convicted of draft evasion, with the sentence comprising a five-year jail term, a USD-10,000 fine and a three-year ban on professional boxing.

The conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court three years later.

“I told him to say: ‘Hell No! I don’t want to go!’ about being drafted into the Vietnam War and he did it live on TV for the whole world to see, word for word,” Ali said.

She divorced Ali later because of his indiscretions, but said she had forgiven him now and had found her peace, as will be reflected in her book that will be launched next month.

“There were a lot of things I had to go through to heal and to forgive, so now my healing is over and I’m ready to share my story,” Ali said, adding that it was important to do this for women and girls, whether they were of Muslim origin or not.

She explained how she had first met Ali when she was just ten years old at the school she was at.

“This man got onto the podium. He was about 18 years old and his name was Cassius Marcellus Clay.

He said: ‘I’m going to be the heavyweight champion of the world before I’m 21, so get your autograph now because I’m going to be famous.’  

Ali detailed how she had made fun of his names and tore up the piece of paper that he gave her with his name on it, telling him to come back when he had a decent Muslim name.

Enamoured by her feistiness, Ali persisted in meeting her again over the years and eventually proposing to her when she was 16, when he also decided to adopt the Muslim faith and change his name.

They got married in 1967, and parted ways after an acrimonious divorce battle a decade later.

A karate expert herself, Ali suggested that the legendary martial arts champion and actor Bruce Lee might have become Muslim if he had not met with an untimely death at the age of 32 in 1973 at the height of his career.

“Bruce Lee was a very important guy. He was a wonderful man and he is so missed. If he had not passed away so soon… he was very interested in Islam at the time. He loved what I said about Islam,” Ali said.

Cairo (AP): Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation Sunday amid a political deadlock and widespread pro-democracy protests following a military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democratic rule.

Hamdok, a former UN official seen as the civilian face of Sudan’s transitional government, had been reinstated as prime minister in November as part of an agreement with the military following the October coup. In that time he had failed to name a Cabinet and his resignation throws Sudan into political uncertainty amid uphill security and economic challenges.

In a televised national address Sunday, Hamdok called for a dialogue to agree on a national charter and to draw a roadmap to complete the transition to democracy in accordance with the 2019 constitutional document governing the transitional period.

I decided to return the responsibility and declare my resignation as prime minister,” he said, adding that his stepping down would allow a chance for another person to lead the nation and complete its transition to a civilian, democratic country. He did not name a successor.

The prime minister said his efforts to bridge the widening gap and settle disputes among the political forces have failed.

He warned that the ongoing political stalemate since the military takeover could become a full-blown crisis and damage the country’s already battered economy.

I tried as much as I possibly could to prevent our country from sliding into a disaster. Now, our nation is going through a dangerous turning point that could threaten its survival unless it is urgently rectified, he said.

Hamdok’s resignation comes amid a heavy security crackdown on protesters denouncing not only the takeover but the subsequent deal that reinstated him and sidelined the pro-democracy movement. He was returned to office in November amid international pressure in a deal that calls for an independent technocratic Cabinet under military oversight led by him.

I have had the honor of serving my country people for more than two years. And during his period I have sometimes done well, and I have sometimes failed, Hamdok said.

The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, an umbrella group of Sudanese political parties and pro-democracy organizations, has rejected the November deal and sa remains committed to ending military rule. The alliance accused Hamdok of allowing the military to dominate the government, and continued to organize anti-coup street protests which were met with heavy crackdown.

Over the past two weeks, there was increasing speculation that he would step down. National and international efforts have failed to convince him to stay in office.

The US State Department urged on Twitter Sudan’s leaders to set aside differences, find consensus, and ensure continued civilian rule following Hamdok’s resignation.

It also called for the appointment of the next premier and Cabinet to in line with the (2019) constitutional declaration to meet the people’s goals of freedom, peace, and justice.

Hours before Hamdok’s resignation speech, Sudanese security forces violently dispersed pro-democracy protesters, killing at least three people, according the the Sudan Doctors Committee, which is part of the pro-democracy movement. The group said dozens of protesters were injured.

The protests came despite tightened security and blocked bridges and roads in Khartoum and Omdurman. Internet connections were also disrupted ahead of the protests, according to advocacy group NetBlocs. Authorities have used such tactics repeatedly since the October 25 coup.

Sunday’s fatalities have brought the death toll among protesters since the coup to at least 57, according to the medical group. Hundreds have also been wounded.

HONG KONG: For Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, 2021 has been a year in which the city’s authorities and the central government in Beijing stamped out nearly everything it had stood for.

The crackdown, which took root 18 months ago with the enactment of the National Security Law, played out this year as the world’s two major powers, the United States and China, battled over democracy and good governance.

The Biden administration has been sharply critical of China’s moves in Hong Kong as it tries to support democracy globally and deepen ties with other democracies in the face of China’s rise. China, ruled by the Communist Party, has pointed out flaws in American democracy and argued that its own system has delivered both stability and a better response to COVID-19 compared to what it describes as chaos in the United States.

Hong Kong, a former British colony that was seen as a bastion of freedom after its return to China in 1997, has gone through an overhaul of its political system and a crackdown on political dissent as Beijing and Hong Kong authorities sought to suppress anti-government sentiment that led to months of political strife in 2019.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong police raided the office of online pro-democracy news outlet Stand News and arrested six people — two current and former editors and four former board members including popular singer Denise Ho — for alleged sedition under a colonial-era crime ordinance.

The outlet announced Wednesday afternoon that it would halt operations following the raid.

Stand News is the second media outlet in Hong Kong to cease operations after being targeted by authorities, following the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper which shut down earlier this year after authorities raided its offices for a second time and froze millions in assets.

A string of arrests of activists and election law amendments this year have all but quashed the pro-democracy movement in the city.

More than 100 pro-democracy figures and others have been arrested under the National Security Law, which penalizes actions seen as separatist or subverting the Hong Kong or Chinese governments.

That includes 47 people charged with subversion under the new law in February over their roles in an unofficial primary election held in 2020 to determine the best candidates to field in planned legislative elections.

Authorities accused the activists of subversion, saying they planned to win a majority and use it to paralyze the government and eventually force Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to step down.

The government postponed the 2020 elections, citing public health risks from COVID-19. Then, the central government in Beijing announced new election laws earlier this year that reduced the proportion of directly elected seats to less than a quarter and required all candidates to be loyal to Beijing.

The results were predictable: Earlier this month, pro-Beijing lawmakers won a landslide victory in the postponed polls. The city’s largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, fielded no candidates for the first time since Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China.

Several pro-democracy trade unions and organizations have also been dissolved this year. The city’s largest teachers’ union disbanded in August due to the political climate, followed later by the city’s largest independent trade union, reducing the space for civil society groups.

The Civil Human Rights Front, a pro-democracy group that organized some of the biggest protests in 2019, also disbanded following a police investigation under the National Security law.

Other pro-democracy activists have also been arrested for involvement in unauthorized protests and the annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil — held to commemorate China’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 — which has been banned for two consecutive years. Currently, most of the city’s pro-democracy activists are behind bars or have fled abroad.

As the year drew to a close, several artworks were removed that commemorated the Tiananmen massacre.

Two days before Christmas, the University of Hong Kong, citing legal risks, ordered the removal of the 8-meter (26-foot) -tall Pillar of Shame monument, which depicts a pile of torn and twisted bodies of Tiananmen victims. Several other universities followed suit, removing pro-democracy and Tiananmen commemoration statues.

China’s Communist Party has long sought to erase Tiananmen from the public consciousness in the mainland, forbidding any commemorative events. Now it seems determined to do the same in Hong Kong in the name of restoring stability to the city.

LAHORE: Authorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday said they have detained 85 main suspects after determining their role in the brutal lynching of a Sri Lankan national in Sialkot city earlier this month.

“Currently 85 main suspects whose role has been identified through video footages and investigation in the brutal lynching of Priyantha Kumara are detained on physical remand,” an official of the Punjab police told PTI on Wednesday.

The official said over 100 other suspects were also included in the investigation but no evidence of their involvement in the case was detected, thus they were not named in the FIR and some of them who were detained were released.

“We want to present a strong case against prime suspects in the court and investigation teams are working hard on it,” he said, adding the police will submit the investigation report against the 85 detained suspects in the anti-terrorism court likely at the end of next month.

On Tuesday, the Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti directed Sialkot District Police Officer (DPO) Omar Saeed Malik to complete investigation of the suspects and submit the report to the court at the earliest so that the trial in the case could begin.

DPO Malik gave a detailed briefing to the chief justice on the progress made so far in the lynching case of the Sri Lankan citizen.

The Sialkot District Bar Association has already announced not to represent the suspects.

“No lawyer will pursue the case on behalf of the suspects,” the bar said in a statement.

The business community has collected USD 100,000 for the family of Kumara.

The factory management has also decided to send the monthly salary of the deceased to his family.

The federal or the provincial government has yet to announce any compensation package for the victim’s family so far.

Kumara was working as general manager in the Rajko industries (dealing in garments – sportswear) in Sialkot district for over seven years.

The incident sparked outrage across Pakistan with all sections of society condemning it and calling for the culprits to be punished.

Pakistan’s Senate on Friday passed an unanimous resolution condemning the lynching.

The Sri Lankan Parliament, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have condemned the brutal killing and expressed hope that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government would bring the guilty to justice.

London: A video has surfaced on social media in which a fully masked man with a crossbow, identifying himself as an Indian Sikh, is seen declaring to “assassinate” Queen Elizabeth II to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, prompting Scotland Yard to launch a probe, days after an intruder armed with a crossbow was arrested at the monarch’s Windsor Castle.

The video, shared on Snapshot, is that of a fully masked man who identifies himself as Indian Sikh Jaswant Singh Chail and declares that he wants to “assassinate” the monarch in revenge for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, according to The Sun newspaper which obtained the video.

Meanwhile, the 19-year-old intruder, who has not yet been named by the Metropolitan Police, is now being held over mental health issues.

Scotland Yard officers were investigating the video reportedly linked to the intruder armed with a crossbow arrested at Windsor Castle on Christmas Day.

The Metropolitan Police said that the arrested suspect has been sectioned under the UK’s Mental Health Act after a mental health assessment and remains in the care of medical professionals .

I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’ve done and what I will do. I will attempt to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Family, the masked man is seen saying in the video.

This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It is also revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated and discriminated on because of their race. I’m an Indian Sikh, a Sikh. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail, my name is Darth Jones, he says.

The massacre took place at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar during the Baisakhi festival in April 1919 when the British Indian Army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer opened fire at a crowd staging a pro-independence demonstration, leaving scores dead.

In the video clip posted on The Sun website, the ‘Star Wars’ film-like masked figure holds a shiny black weapon and speaks in a distorted voice.

It was reportedly sent to followers of the man’s Snapchat account 24 minutes before armed security officers arrested him near the 95-year-old Queen’s private apartments.

In a message sent on Snapchat alongside the video, the teenager wrote: I’m sorry to all of those who I have wronged or lied to. If you have received this then my death is near. Please share this with whoever and if possible, get it to the news if they’re interested.

Police are also carrying out searches at a housing estate in Southampton, where the suspect reportedly lived with his family.

A 19-year-old man from Southampton was arrested on suspicion of breach or trespass of a protected site and possession of an offensive weapon, Met Police said in a statement.

Following a search of the man, a crossbow was recovered. The man was taken into custody and has undergone a mental health assessment he has since been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and remains in the care of medical professionals.

Enquiries into the full circumstances of this incident are being progressed by Metropolitan Police Specialist Operations, the statement added.

The police spokesman declined to comment on the identity of the person in the video.

Buckingham Palace has also declined to comment, the BBC reported.

Prince Charles and wife Camilla are spending Christmas with the monarch at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, south-east England, after she took the decision to call off her traditional Christmas at Sandringham estate in Norfolk amidst a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Officers from Thames Valley and the Metropolitan Police said they responded to the breach on Saturday morning and arrested the man from Southampton.

WASHINGTON: With Omicron cases on the rise, New York health officials have reported an increase in hospitalized children, as the White House promised Sunday to quickly resolve the United States’ COVID-19 test shortage.

The New York State Department of Health warned “of an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with COVID-19”, in a statement on Friday. “In New York City, it identified four-fold increases in COVID-19 hospital admissions for children 18 and under beginning the week of December 5 through the current week,” it said.

The department added that approximately half of the admissions are younger than five, an age group that is vaccine ineligible. The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States is on the rise, with an average of nearly 190,000 new infections daily over the past seven days, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The arrival of the new Omicron variant, compounded by holiday celebrations that typically include travel and family reunions, have caused a rush on tests in the United States, where it is difficult to get one in many locations.

Top US pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci on Sunday acknowledged a COVID “testing problem” and vowed to make more tests available to Americans next month. “One of the problems is that that’s not going to be totally available to everyone until we get to January and there are still some issues now of people having trouble getting tested,” Fauci told ABC News.

“But we’re addressing the testing problem,” he added, saying it should be corrected “very soon.”

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a raft of new measures as the United States battles its latest COVID surge, including shipping half a billion free home tests in the wake of the Christmastime testing crunch.

However, the White House, whose strategy has for weeks been mainly focused on vaccinations, has faced strong criticism over the fact that many tests won’t be available until January.

‘Extraordinarily contagious’

Fauci on Sunday emphasized that the administration was ramping up to tackle the spike and stressed that Omicron was “extraordinarily contagious.” 

Apart from overwhelming hospitals and COVID testing sites, the Covid variant has forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the United States, as crews called in sick or had to quarantine after exposure to the virus. 

Recent studies in South Africa and Britain indicate that Omicron was less likely to lead to hospitalization than the previous strains of the virus and that the duration of hospital stays and oxygen needs for patients were lower, Fauci noted.

But he also warned that Omicron’s apparent lower severity is likely to be neutralized by how fast it is spreading. “The issue that we don’t want to get complacent about… is that when you have such a high volume of new infections, it might override a real diminution in severity,” Fauci said.

Port-Au-Princ (Haiti): A truck carrying gasoline exploded in northern Haiti, killing more than 40 people and injuring dozens of others, officials and news reports said Tuesday.

The blast occurred late Monday in the city of Cap-Haitien, Prime Minister Ariel Henry said, adding that he was devastated.

No further details were immediately available. Police didn’t immediately return calls requesting information.

Le Nouvelliste newspaper reported that dozens have been hospitalized with injuries and that hospitals were seeking supplies.

We are overwhelmed, a person identified as Dr. Calhil Turenne told the paper.

Dave Larose, a civil engineer who works in Cap-Haitien, told The Associated Press that he was driving when he saw ambulances and a crowd of people gathered along a road around 1 a.m.

He said he observed how some people were using buckets to scoop up gasoline from the truck and the street to take back to their house. The explosion occurred as Haiti struggles with a severe shortage of fuel and spiraling gas prices.

It’s terrible what our country has to go through Larose said.

Former Prime Minister Claude Joseph also mourned the victims, tweeting, I share the pain and sorrow of all the people.”

Colombo: In an unusual move, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has prorogued Parliament for one week and left for Singapore on an unscheduled visit.

There was no immediate comment from the government on Rajapaksa’s decision to suspend Parliament for a week.

Parliament, which ended its sessions on Friday, was originally set to convene on January 11. It will now convene on January 18.

President Rajapaksa, through an extraordinary gazette notification dated December 12, suspended the assembly.

I do by this proclamation prorogue Parliament with effect from midnight of the Twelfth day of December, Two Thousand and Twenty One and hereby fix the Eighteenth day of January Two Thousand and Twenty Two at 10 am for the commencement of the next session and summon parliament to meet .. the gazette notification read.

Hours after proroguing Parliament, Gotabaya, 72, left for Singapore on an unscheduled visit.

Presidential officials said that he was on a private visit, believed to be for medical purposes.

Two key issues billed for discussions during Monday’s Cabinet meeting would not be taken up, energy minister Udaya Gammanpila told reporters.

The weekly Cabinet meeting was to discuss the possibility of Sri Lanka going for a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in view of the severe foreign currency crisis.

Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves have slipped to the lower level to suffice only a month’s imports.

The Cabinet was also scheduled to discuss a controversial power deal with a US power company for which the government allies had expressed vehement opposition.

The president’s action means all standing committees in Parliament would have to be reconstituted and reconvened.

Two oversight committees on public enterprises and public accounts have been pointing to many irregularities in running state institutions.

The assembly session dates and timings are set by political party leaders represented in Parliament in concurrence with the House Speaker.

However, the President has the power to prorogue Parliament under Article 70 of the Constitution.

During the prorogation, the Speaker continues to function and the members retain their membership even though they do not attend meetings of Parliament, according to the Colombo Gazette newspaper.

Berlin: Australia on Sunday became the latest country to detect the omicron variant of the coronavirus in travelers who arrived from southern Africa, while Israel decided to bar entry to foreign nationals the toughest of a growing raft of curbs imposed by nations around the world as they scramble to slow its spread.

Confirmed or suspected cases of the new variant have already emerged in several European countries, in Israel and in Hong Kong, just days after it was identified by researchers in South Africa.

The act first, ask questions later approach reflected growing alarm about the emergence of a potentially more contagious variant nearly two years into a pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people, upended lives and disrupted economies across the globe.

While much remains to be learned about the new variant, researchers are concerned that it may be more resistant to the protection provided by vaccines and could mean that the pandemic lasts for longer than anticipated.

Israel moved to ban entry by foreigners and mandate quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad.

Restrictions on the country’s borders is not an easy step, but it’s a temporary and necessary step, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Dr. Ran Balicer, head of the government’s advisory panel on COVID-19, told Israel’s Kan public radio that the new measures were necessary for the fog of war surrounding the new variant, saying it was better to act early and strictly to prevent its spread.

Many countries have restricted or banned travel from various southern African countries among the latest New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Saudi Arabia. Places that already had imposed restrictions include Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Iran, and the U.S. This goes against the advice of the World Health Organization, which has warned against any overreaction before the variant is thoroughly studied.

Authorities in Australia said two overseas travelers who arrived in Sydney from Africa became the first in the country to test positive for the omicron variant. Arrivals from nine African countries are now required to quarantine in a hotel upon arrival.

The United States’ top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he would not be surprised if the omicron variant was already in the U.S., too.

We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility … it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over, Fauci said on NBC television.

In Europe, much of which already has been struggling with a sharp increase in cases over recent weeks, officials also were on their guard.

The U.K. on Saturday tightened up rules on mask-wearing and on testing of international arrivals after finding two omicron cases. Spain announced it won’t admit unvaccinated British visitors starting Dec. 1. They are currently allowed to enter with a negative coronavirus test.

Italy was going through lists of airline passengers who arrived in the past two weeks after a business traveler who returned from Mozambique and landed in Rome on Nov. 11 tested positive for omicron.

The phase of searching for the new variant has started. Controls at airports, ports and train stations have been reinforced,” said the Lazio region’s top health official, Alessio D’Amato. The region that includes Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci international airport also is sending random virus test samples to the Spallanzani infectious disease hospital in Rome to be analyzed for the new variant.

In France, Health Minister Olivier Veran said that while no cases have yet been confirmed in France, it’s a question of hours, given that omicron infections have been reported in multiple neighboring countries. It is probable that there currently are cases in circulation, he said on a visit to a Paris vaccination center.

While it is not clear yet how existing vaccines work against the omicron variant, Veran said the French government isn’t changing its strategy to fight the latest surge of infections driven by the delta variant, which centers on increasing vaccinations and boosters.

David Hui, a respiratory medicine expert and government adviser on the pandemic in Hong Kong, said that even though it is not clear if current coronavirus vaccines are effective against the new variant, the city’s vaccination rate should be increased and booster doses should be implemented as soon as possible.

He said that the two people who tested positive for the omicron variant had received the BioNTech-Pfizer shot and exhibited very mild symptoms, such as a sore throat.

Vaccines should work but there would be some reduction in effectiveness, he said.