The US military on Tuesday said its special forces conducted an airstrike in the vicinity of Harardhere town in Mudug region of central Somalia on October 12, killing 60 Al Shabab militants.

The US Africa Command (Africom) which oversees American troops on the African continent said this airstrike was the largest airstrike against the militants since November 21, 2017, when American forces killed about 100 terrorists in an airstrike against the insurgents’ camp, Xinhua reported.

“We currently assess this airstrike killed approximately 60 terrorists. We also currently assess this airstrike did not injure or kill any civilians,” Africom said in a statement.

Africom has vowed to work with its partners to transfer the responsibility for lasting security from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to the Somali government and its member states.

“Alongside our Somali and international partners, we are committed to preventing al-Shabab from taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia,” the statement said.

“In particular, the group uses portions of southern and central Somalia to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, extort the local populace to fund its operations, and shelter radical terrorists.” it said.

Ians

An Afghan election candidate has been killed in Helmand province in an attack claimed by Taliban, officials said.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was preparing to contest Saturday’s parliamentary polls was killed in his office in the Lashkar Gah city, a senior government official told Reuters news agency.

Seven people were injured in the blast.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack hours after they released a statement warning teachers and students not to participate in the parliamentary elections due on October 20, and not to allow schools to be used as polling centres.

Dozens of Afghan police were killed or wounded in heavy fighting in northern and central provinces overnight on Tuesday, just days before parliamentary elections which the Taliban have promised to disrupt.

The Taliban armed group has called for the boycott of the elections.

“People who are trying to help in holding this process successfully by providing security should be targeted and no stone should be left unturned for the prevention and failure [of the election],” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid earlier said in the statement.

Helmand, bordering Pakistan, has long been one of the strongholds of the Taliban group, which has been waging an armed rebellion since they were removed from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001.

Aljazeera

Pakistan’s anti-corruption body was on Tuesday granted a 14-day extension in the remand of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) President Shehbaz Sharif in a multi-billion rupee housing scam case.

The former Punjab Chief Minister, who has been in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody since October 6, was presented in the accountability court in Lahore amid tight security as his 10-day remand in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case ended.

He will now be in NAB’s remand till October 30, Dawn online reported.

The anti-graft body said Sharif was involved in corruption in the housing scheme during his tenure as the Chief Minister from 2013 to May 2018. It said that he had “misused his powers” and granted contracts to unqualified companies of his friends, causing “losses of millions of rupees to the national exchequer”.

Sharif was arrested earlier this month inside the anti-graft watchdog’s Lahore office where he was summoned to record his statement in connection with the Punjab Saaf Pani Company case.

He denies the graft allegations, describing these as “false and baseless”.

During the Tuesday hearing, the leader said that he had not misused his seat or done any corrupt practice. “This is a false accusation, I have saved the country’s money and put it in the national exchequer.”

“I was called for Saaf Pani and arrested for Ashiana,” he told the court.

Later, talking to Geo News outside the accountability court, Sharif said: “They could not prove a penny’s worth corruption against me. I call NAB officers myself to question me.”

The bureau was also investigating Shehbaz Sharif in the clean water project scam, Paragon Housing Society scandal and Punjab Power Company corruption cases.

IANS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday threatened to inflict “very strong blows” on Hamas after fresh violence along the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip from Israel.

Israeli forces killed seven protesters along the fence on Friday during the ongoing weekly Great March of Return protests, which began in March.

Though largely peaceful, some protesters have employed tactics such as flying incendiary balloons and kites that float over Israel’s separation fence and set fire to agricultural land on the Israeli side.

“We are very close to another type of action which would include very strong blows. If Hamas is intelligent, it will cease fire and violence now,” Netanyahu said during a weekly cabinet meeting.

Israel announced it would suspend all fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip, after fresh protests along the fence that saw seven Palestinians killed by Israeli troops.

Gaza, which already suffers from chronic power outages, relies on fuel shipments from Israel to power its electricity-generating plant. Just last week, a deal had been reached with Israel for the passage of Qatari-funded fuel to Gaza to increase electricity supplies.

The majority of people in Gaza are originally from parts of present-day Israel.
A UN-brokered deal had seen Qatar pledge to pay $60m for fuel to be brought into Gaza over six months.

On Saturday, Israel’s Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman said fuel deliveries would only resume if there was a “total cessation of violence, the launching of incendiary balloons (from Gaza towards Israel) and the use of burning tyres against Israeli towns” near the enclave.

For their part, Palestinian protesters have faced Israeli tear gas and sniper fire during the mass protests.

At least 205 Palestinians and one Israeli have been killed since protests began on March 30.

The protesters are demanding to be allowed to return to their villages and homes from which their families were removed to make way for present-day Israel.

Aljazeera

The US has asked Saudi Arabia to support a “thorough” and “transparent” probe into the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after Turkey pressured the Saudi government to clarify his whereabouts.

“We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Khashoggi’s disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Monday.

Pompeo added that “State Department senior officials have spoken with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels about this matter”.

He also expressed his concern about the contradictory reports on the safety and whereabouts of Khashoggi.

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump also voiced his worries.
“I am concerned about it,” he said on returning to Washington DC after a visit to Florida.

“I don’t like hearing about it, and hopefully that will sort itself out. Right now, nobody knows anything about it, but there’s some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it.”

The veteran journalist distanced himself from the Saudi monarchy in 2017 and went into exile in the US, where he began writing op-eds for the Washington Post criticising his country´s royal institutions.

According to a US official briefed by Turkish counterparts, Khashoggi was murdered by a 15-member Saudi team dispatched to kill him. His body was likely dismembered, removed in boxes and flown out of the country, the Washington Post reported.

The grisly claims sent a jolt through the US capital, which is traditionally friendly territory for Riyadh. Khashoggi, 59, had recently moved to the US in self-imposed exile.

If his killing is confirmed, it could prompt a decisive change in how the Washington deals with Riyadh. Leading Republican and Democratic lawmakers issued notes of alarm over the reports of Khashoggi’s death and threatened repercussions if they are true, the Post said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded on Monday the authorities of Saudi Arabia prove the journalist left the consulate alive with images from the security cameras.

The Turkish government also asked for permission to search the premises of the consulate.

The Turkish authorities have not ruled on the possibility that Khashoggi has been killed, as reported by his friends and colleagues.

IANS

A Pakistani court has withdrawn arrest warrants issued against a prominent journalist and ordered that travel restrictions on him be removed, as hearings in a treason case against him and two former prime ministers continue.

On Monday, a three-member bench of the Lahore High Court adjourned proceedings in the case against former Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as well as journalist Cyril Almeida.

Sharif is accused of committing “treason” for implying that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services allowed attackers involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 people, to operate with impunity.

“Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can’t we complete the trial?” Sharif said in the interview with Almeida published in Dawn newspaper in May.

Sharif was dismissed as prime minister on corruption charges last year, and subsequently jailed after being convicted by an anti-corruption court. Last month, Sharif, his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were released on bail in that case as their appeals continue to be heard.

Almeida was named in the petition as having allegedly abetted Sharif. Former PM Abbasi, who succeeded Sharif, is accused of having leaked national security secrets to Sharif.

‘A worrying precedent’
Last month, the court ordered Sharif to appear before it for the hearing, issued arrest warrants for Almeida and placed international travel restrictions on him.

On Monday, the court appeared to take a more lenient view, as Almeida appeared before the bench personally.

“The [restrictions] were only to ensure that he was present,” judge Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi told a packed courtroom, where Abbasi and Sharif were also present.

A look at Nawaz Sharif’s political career
The court ordered the government to provide a formal reply on whether or not it was prepared to move ahead with placing treason charges against the former prime ministers.

Under Pakistani law, the court cannot indict the three accused on treason charges unless the federal government has filed those charges.

“You are not being fair,” said judge Masood Jehangir, accusing the government of dawdling over framing a course of action. It ordered the attorney general to appear at the next hearing to be held on October 22.

The hearing on Monday failed to adjudicate on the maintainability of the petition.

Rights groups have criticised the court for holding hearings in the case, and particularly for summoning Almeida.

After the last hearing, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the case was setting a worrying precedent for press freedom in the country.

“The ease with which Mr Almeida’s interview with the former Prime Minister was perceived as an attempt to allegedly defame state institutions, and the pace at which this has spiraled into charges of treason, only serve to further choke press freedom in Pakistan,” HRCP said in a statement.

On Monday, former PM Abbasi said the case against the three accused was baseless.

“There is no case,” he told media in the courtroom, minutes before the hearing got underway. “This is an entirely frivolous petition.”

Aljazeera

Geneva The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Monday said the planet will reach the crucial threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2030, precipitating the risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people.

In a report, the IPCC said that governments around the world must take “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” to avoid disastrous levels of global warming, CNN reported.

The date, which falls well within the lifetime of many people alive today, is based on current levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

The planet is already two-thirds of the way there, with global temperatures having warmed about 1 degree Celsius. Avoiding going even higher will require significant action in the next few years, the report said.

Global net emissions of carbon dioxide would need to fall by 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach “net zero” around 2050 in order to keep the warming around 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Lowering emissions to this degree, while technically possible, would require widespread changes in energy, industry, buildings, transportation and cities, according to the report.

“One of the key messages that comes out very strongly from this report is that we are already seeing the consequences of 1 degree Celsius of global warming through more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, among other changes,” said Panmao Zhai, co-chair of IPCC Working Group I.

Coral reefs will also be drastically effected, with between 70 and 90 per cent expected to die off, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Countries in the southern hemisphere will be among the worse off, the report said, adding “projected to experience the largest impacts on economic growth due to climate change should global warming increase”.

“Every extra bit of warming matters, especially since warming of 1.5 degrees C or higher increases the risk associated with long-lasting or irreversible changes, such as the loss of some eco-systems,” CNN quoted Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II, as saying.

Monday’s report is three years in the making and is a direct result of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

In the Paris accord, 197 countries agreed to the goal of holding global temperatures “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

More than 90 authors from 40 countries were involved in leading the report, helped by 133 contributing authors.

(IANS)

US Vice President Mike Pence has called on Google to end its censored Chinese Search engine the “Dragonfly” project.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Pence in a speech on Thursday said American companies must reconsider turning over intellectual property as they expand in China.

Google’s modified search engine — codenamed “Dragonfly” — would “strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers,” Pence said.

The news about Google’s plan to build a censored search engine in China broke in August when The Intercept reported that the search platform would blacklist “sensitive queries” about topics including politics, free speech, democracy, human rights and peaceful protest, triggering internal protests among some Google employees.

Two weeks after that report, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the company’s employees that the China plan was in its “early stages” and “exploratory”.

Google operated its services in China until 2010.

Pichai is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in November to allay concerns over privacy issues and the tech giant’s entry into the Chinese market.

He confirmed the November schedule during a private meeting with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill in September.

“We remain committed to continuing an active dialogue with members from both sides of the aisle, working proactively with Congress on a variety of issues, explaining how our products help millions of American consumers and businesses, and answering questions as they arise,” Pichai had then said in a statement.

IANS

Islamabad is seeking an American role in facilitating talks between India and Pakistan because the two neighbouring countries are not engaging bilaterally, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said, warning that absence of such facilitation could lead to escalation of tension.

But the latest Pakistani request in this regard has again been rejected by the US, the top Pakistani diplomat told a Washington audience on Wednesday, a day after he had meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, during which he raised the issue only to be pushed back by the Trump administration.

“When we asked the US, to play a facilitating role…Why do we ask? Simply because we are not engaging bilaterally. And that bilateral disengagement is…a distraction. We want to focus, we want to move on the western side of the border, which we are not being able to because we have to watch our back from eastern side (towards India). That is not a healthy situation to be in,” Qureshi said in response to a question at the US Institute of Peace, a US Congress-funded top American think-tank.

“Now can you (United States) facilitate? The answer from them is no. They wanted (it done) bilaterally. But there is no bilateral movement,” Qureshi said. He went on to warn that this could lead to an escalation of tension between the two countries.

“If that lack of facilitation leads to escalation and some of the statements that have come out of late have not been very helpful,” the Pakistani foreign minister said in an apparent reference to the remarks by Indian leaders; “the so-called surgical strikes and stuff like that doesn’t make sense. It does not, that’s politics.. there are elections around the corner,” he claimed in response to a question.

Imran Khan’s new government in Pakistan, he claimed, is not shy of engaging.

Referring to the cancelling of his meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New York, he alleged that India backed off. However, he quickly evaded India’s reasons for this – glorification of terrorists by issuing postal stamps and brutal killing of India’s security personnel by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

“If the Indians have a better option, share it with us. If disengagement, if not talking to each other will resolve and stabilise the region, fine. If that’s their analysis fine,” a hassled Qureshi said.

Qureshi who left for Pakistan after his meetings with Trump administration officials said it is unfortunate that the two countries are not engaging. “It’s unfortunate. That’s the way it is. Now. What does this government want? We want normalisation. We want co-existence. You’ve got to recognise the reality. Pakistan is a reality. So is India. We have issues. How do we resolve them?” he asked.

After coming to power, the first speech made by the Prime Minister Khan was “that every step you (India) take towards peace, we will take two. And he meant it. It wasn’t just because it sounded good. It wasn’t to please anyone. He is too blunt a person to please people. He can be very straight and he can be very blunt. But he said that because he feels that way,” Qureshi claimed.

India has highlighted how Pakistan created the conditions for cancellation of the meeting in New York – due to Pakistan issuing postage stamps glorifying terrorists and the brutal killing of three of its security personnel by Pakistan-backed terrorists.

The Pakistan foreign minister did not mention that in his answer and only said that the stalled dialogue process is not good for the two countries and the region.

Responding to a question on India’s stand that talks and terrorism cannot go together, a view which is shared by Washington too, Qureshi referred to a statement by Imran Khan while he was an opposition leader and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi that “there would always be spoilers.”

“There will always be spoilers. There will always be elements that will scuttle the process of peace. But when they do that, let us re-engage to fight them. They will push us back. But we have to see what is in our interest, what is in the regional interest. What’s in Pakistan’s interest,” Qureshi said quoting what Imran Khan had told Prime Minister Modi.

IANS