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Indian doctor accused of crimes, becomes president of World Medical Association

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ketan-desai

New Delhi: The World Medical Association (WMA), the top medical-ethics body, on Friday installed an Indian doctor facing corruption charges as its president, despite controversy surrounding his appointment while legal cases are pending.

A statement released by the WMA said Dr. Ketan Desai delivered his inaugural speech as president on Friday at the association’s annual assembly in Taiwan. He will serve in the position for 2016/17.

After he was first selected in 2009 as a future president of the WMA, Desai faced conspiracy and corruption allegations. Desai has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the pending cases. He did not respond to questions from Reuters sent via email.

When Reuters asked the WMA this week for an update on Desai’s legal situation, spokesman Nigel Duncan said the association had nothing more to say.

“I don’t think there’s anything we want to add to what we have already said,” Duncan said. He did not answer questions about Desai’s legal cases or what the ethics body had been told about them in recent months.

In one case filed in New Delhi in 2010, Desai faces charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy for allegedly being involved in a conspiracy to obtain a bribe of 20 million rupees ($450,000 at the time) from a medical college. In return, investigators allege Desai helped the school get permission from the Medical Council to add more students. When contacted last year, the college, which is not a defendant in the case, declined to comment.

Desai was arrested in the Delhi case and jailed in 2010 pending a possible trial. He was later released on bail. That year his inauguration as the WMA president was suspended. In 2013, the WMA decided to lift the suspension after receiving assurances from the Indian Medical Association, which Desai once headed.

The Indian Medical Association did not respond to queries from Reuters this week.

A Reuters investigation published in July last year showed that the Indian Medical Association had incorrectly told the WMA that charges against Desai had been withdrawn. Representatives of major doctors organizations accepted the information as fact. The Indian Medical Association said last year that it never misled the WMA. (reut.rs/1LZx8BM)

The WMA had said it took questions raised in the Reuters article “very seriously” and would look into them. Later, in October 2015, the WMA upheld its decision to appoint Desai as president, without giving reasons.

A source at India’s Central Bureau of Investigation said this week that the New Delhi case was still active though it was on hold due to a pending appeal in the Supreme Court. The source said Desai still needs to appear before the district court judge during hearings.

A court document dated Aug. 3 shows Desai, a urologist by training, submitted an application to seek an exemption from a personal appearance in court that day due to an illness. The next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4.

Proceedings in a separate case, alleging Desai was involved in a conspiracy to have the Medical Council of India allow a private medical school to add more students, were put on hold last year by a district court in northern Uttar Pradesh state until investigators obtain government permission to prosecute. Desai’s counsel in the case, Purnendu Chakravarti, said this week there was no change in the status of the case.

An overburdened and under-resourced Indian judiciary system means court cases can drag on for years in the country.

Based in France, the WMA sets ethical standards for physicians worldwide and represents millions of doctors. Known for its pioneering work in ethics, its members include the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association.

(Reuters)

UN blames Syria forces for third chemical attack

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UN investigators say Syrian forces were behind a chemical weapons attack on civilians in Idlib province in March 2015.

People inspect damaged buildings targeted by air strikes in Deir al-Asafir district, in the Damascus suburbs [Mohammed Badra/EPA]

People inspect damaged buildings targeted by air strikes in Deir al-Asafir district, in the Damascus suburbs [Mohammed Badra/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

An international inquiry has blamed Syrian government forces for a third chemical weapons attack, according to a confidential report to the United Nations Security Council.

The report, prepared by a joined committee set up by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and seen by Reuters news agency, was presented to the security council on Friday.

The UN experts behind the report said Syrian forces were responsible for a toxic gas attack in the village of Qmenas in Idlib province on March 16, 2015. The committee was unable to determine who was behind two other gas attacks – against Binnish in Idlib province in March 2015 and Kafr Zita in Hama province in April 2014.

“A joint investigative mechanism was set up by the international chemical weapons watchdog and the UN to investigate reports of chemical attacks in Syria,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said.

“Now in its fourth and final report it says it found a third chemical attack carried out by the Syrian army.”

The UN-led joint investigative mechanism (JIM) reported in late August that Syrian government forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters had used mustard gas on the battlefield.

Of the nine total alleged chemical attacks it is considering in its ongoing probe, the JIM has now attributed three to the Syrian government and one to ISIL.

In its fourth report, investigators concluded that there is now “sufficient information” that attack on Qmenas, near Idlib city, “was caused by a Syrian Arab Armed Forces helicopter dropping a device from a high altitude, which hit the ground and released the toxic substance that affected the population”.

Investigators say the substance may have been chlorine gas, based on the symptoms the victims displayed.

In Kafr Zita, however, the JIM could not confirm that the Syrian army had used barrel bombs to dump toxic substances because “the remnants of the device allegedly used had been removed”, the report said.

Investigators also said that a “canister with traces of chlorine” was found in Binnish, though the container could not be “linked to any of several incident locations identified”.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons adviser to NGOs working in Syria and Iraq, welcomed the findings but said the report should had been made released earlier.

“The fact that it took 18 months for these results to be published is the real issue, and I think the UN need to look at that because having that amount of time before taking action is just not realistic in the current day,” he told Al Jazeera.

Calls for sanctions

Chlorine’s use as a weapon is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in the resulting body fluids.

The inquiry’s mandate was extended until October 31 to finish the probe.

“Now this report will go to the security council which will discuss it in a close session in the coming week and certainly there is going to be a very heated discussion,” Hanna said.

“After JIM’s previous report the US and Russia agreed that they would agree between themselves what action to take next.

“But other members of the council, in particular Britain and France, will likely now be pushing for far more drastic measures to be taken by the security council and certainly there will be intense debate about what the security council is going to do next,” our correspondent said.

Governments in Paris, London and Washington have already called for sanctions against perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria, including against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

But the Syrian government has been shielded by its ally Russia, which has questioned the JIM findings and said the evidence is not conclusive enough to warrant sanctions.

“To drop these weapons on civilians is absolutely deplorable and reprehensible,” de Bretton-Gordon, the chemical weapons adviser, told Al Jazeera.

“I think the UN should seriously consider a no-fly zone for Syrian helicopters to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Syria agreed to get rid of its chemical stockpile and refrain from making any use of toxic substances in warfare when it joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, under pressure from Russia.

The Syrian government has also been accused of using chemical weapons in rebel-held areas in Syria in 2016 and investigations one these occasions are still on going.

Meanwhile, security concerns forced the UN to delay planned evacuations from Syria’s Aleppo, the world body said, as Russia extended a truce that was largely holding into a third day on Saturday.

Moscow said it was extending the unilateral “humanitarian pause” in the Syrian government’s Russian-backed assault on opposition-held east Aleppo until 16:00 GMT.

But there was no sign that civilians or rebels were heeding calls to leave, with Damascus and Moscow accusing opposition fighters of preventing evacuations.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an end to air strikes on Aleppo’s residential areas.

Speaking at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, she described the situation in Aleppo as “barbaric”.

On the same day in Geneva, the UN rights council called for a special investigation into the violence in Aleppo in a resolution fiercely critical of Syria’s government.

East Aleppo, which the rebels captured in 2012, has been under siege by the army since mid-July and has faced devastating bombardment by the government and Russia since the September 22 launch of an offensive to retake the whole city.

Nearly 500 people have been killed, more than a quarter of them children, since the assault began. More than 2,000 civilians have been wounded.

The scale of the casualties has prompted international outrage, with Washington saying the bombardment amounted to a possible war crime.

Russia announced a halt to its air strikes from Tuesday and the unilateral ceasefire from Thursday.

The Syrian army says it has opened eight corridors across the front line for the more than 250,000 civilians in rebel-held areas to leave, but so far almost none have taken up the offer.

“There has been no movement in the corridors in the eastern district. For the moment, we haven’t seen any movement of residents or fighters,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Hackers cripple US internet in wide-scale cyber attack

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WikiLeaks implied its supporters may be behind the attack and asked them to “stop taking down the US internet”.

The disruptions come at a time of unprecedented fears about the cyber threat in the US [Beck Diefenbach/Reuters]

The disruptions come at a time of unprecedented fears about the cyber threat in the US [Beck Diefenbach/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Several of the world’s best-known websites were inaccessible across parts of the United States on Friday after hackers unleashed a series of attacks on a company that acts as a switchboard for the internet.

The attacks affected access to Twitter, Paypal, Spotify and other customers of the infrastructure company in New Hampshire called Dyn, which processes large volumes of internet traffic.

“The attacks came in waves,” Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds, reporting from Los Angeles, said. “First targeting the East Coast of the United States, spreading then to the other parts of the country and even to Western Europe.”

“The websites that were disrupted were some of the top names in the internet: CNN and the New York Times, AirBnB, Reddit, HBO … a whole variety of sites were attacked.”

“Dyn is kind of a middle man that directs users to different websites and routes traffic from server to server in a complex way,” said Reynolds.

The attackers used hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices that had previously been infected with a malicious code that allowed them to cause outages.

“This type of attack is known as a distributed denial of service attack [DDoS],” explained our correspondent. “They used affected computers to fire requests at the servers of Dyn simultaneously and essentially overwhelm it.”

“The complexity of the attacks is what’s making it very challenging for us,” Dyn’s chief strategy officer, Kyle York, told Reuters news agency.

York said that at least some of the malicious traffic was coming from connected devices, including webcams and digital video recorders, that had been infected with control software named Mirai.

Security researchers have previously raised concerns that such connected devices, sometimes referred to as the Internet of Things, lack proper security.

The Mirai code was dumped on the internet about a month ago, and criminal groups are now charging to employ it in cyber attacks, said Allison Nixon, director of security research at Flashpoint, which was helping Dyn analyse the attack.

The Department of Homeland Security last week issued a warning about attacks from the Internet of Things, following the release of the code for Mirai.

‘Attacks continue’

On Friday, Dyn said in a statement that it had resolved one morning attack, which disrupted operations for about two hours, but disclosed a second a few hours later that was causing further disruptions. By Friday evening, it was fighting a third.

“The company fought back and was able to get things under control again,” our correspondent said. “But there were additional waves of attack. So this seems to be an ongoing situation.”

Attacking a large domain name service provider like Dyn can create massive disruptions because such firms are responsible for forwarding large volumes of internet traffic.

The disruptions come at a time of unprecedented fears about cyber threats in the US, where hackers have breached political organisations and election agencies.

The US government has formally accused Russia of conducting cyber attacks against US political organisations during the campaign for the November 8 presidential election, including hacking of  Democratic Party emails.

The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI said they were investigating the attack on Dyn.

“We still don’t know who is responsible for this attack,” Reynolds said. “But it certainly seems to be an attack that took coordination and possibly a lot of resources. So this is not some teenaged kid in a basement somewhere hacking for fun.

“The purpose behind their attack is also very vague since nothing was stolen. It was just disruptive, so some people are theorising that someone is trying to figure out how to shut down the internet.”

WikiLeaks, a whistle blowing organisation that has been publishing hacked emails that allegedly belong to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, implied in a tweet that its supporters may be behind the attack and asked them to “stop taking down the US internet”.

 

WikiLeaks has recently said that founder Julian Assange’s internet access has been cut by an unidentified state actor.

Ecuador’s government later admitted that it had partly restricted internet access for Assange, who has lived in the South American country’s UK embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden since mid-2012.

WikiLeaks’ decision to publish documents affecting the US election was entirely its own responsibility, and the country did not want to meddle in election processes or favour any candidate, Ecuador said.

India wary of confident New Zealand in third ODI

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(AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

(AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

Mohali: After a batting collapse in the second One-Day International, India would like to make the full use of the batsman-friendly Mohali pitch when they take on a reinvigorated New Zealand side in the third One-Day International (ODI) cricket match here on Sunday.

After the bruising Indian batsman received at Ferozeshah Kotla in Delhi and many big names failed, it is probably not an ideal situation for Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as they failed to chase down a 243-run target.

Usually the top order tends to finish games off but at Kotla they left the job to Dhoni and a set of batsmen not accustomed to finishing an innings. India’s batting mainstay Virat Kohli, who failed to live up to his reputation in the last game will be expected to showcase his masterclass at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium.

So to make sure India do not suffer anymore unexpected setbacks, batsmen have to show some maturity to take the team out of a tricky situation. On the other hand, New Zealand exploited that weakness and pulled off a six-run stunning victory to level the five-match series at 1-1. It was their first win in the ongoing tour and they will be confident going in to the third ODI. Whoever wins the match will take the lead in the five-match series and that will be enough motivation for both the teams.

Skipper Kane Williamson led from the front and played a crucial role in the revival as well. He came to the crease in the first over and did not budge until the 43rd. By that time he had 118 runs off 128 balls.

But apart from him, no other batsmen stepped up to the occasion, so to continue their slight winning momentum they have gained with their first win of the tour players like Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner have to return to form.

Squads: India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicket-keeper), Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh.

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Tom Latham, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Jimmy Neesham, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Anton Devcich, Doug Bracewell, Matt Henry, BJ Watling.

(IANS)

Rs 2.4 cr cash found in car on Karnataka secretariat premises

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vidhana soudha

Bengaluru: Unaccounted cash of about Rs 2.4 crore stashed in a box in a persons car was found on the premises of Vidhana Soudha — the state secretariat– here, police said on Friday.

The cash was unearthed by the Vidhana Soudha security officials during a routine security check this afternoon, a Cubbon Park police station official said.

The owner of the car, Siddharth, was being questioned, the official said.

“Right now we are not in a position to say anything on this count. We have brought Siddharth to the Cubbon Park police station and we are interrogating him,” the official added.

To a question whether the unaccountable money was meant to be handed over to a minister as was being speculated, the police official said, “We are also looking into it… the interrogation is on.”

(Agencies0

MNS imposes Rs five crore fine on films with Pak actors

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javed-miandad-bal-thackeray

Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has imposed a fine of Rs five crore on films with Pakistan actors, say media reports.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray made the announcement on Saturday after meeting Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and as a condition for allowing films with Pak actors to release in India.

The meeting was also attended by Bollywood personalities such as Karan Kohar, Mukesh Bhatt, Sidharth Roy Kapur, Sajid Nadiadwala and Vijay Singh. Thackeray said the money would go to the Army welfare fund.

He, however, added that producers would have to give it to him in writing that they would not cast Pak actors in future.

Karan Johar’s ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’, which features Fawad Khan, has run into opposition from MNS.

(Agencies)

Karnataka HC summons Vijay Mallya to appear on Nov 24

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Vijay Mallya

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court, on Thursday, summoned beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya to appear before it on November 24 for allegedly violating an undertaking given by him and his companies, not to transfer their equity shares in United Breweries to Diageo Plc.

A division bench comprising justices Jayant Patel and Aravind Kumar gave the direction on petitions by a consortium of banks. The banks have accused Mallya of violating the undertaking given by him and his companies, including Kingfisher Airlines, not to transfer their equity shares in United Breweries Holdings Limited (UBHL) after Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) had restrained Standard Chartered Bank, with which the shares had been pledged, from handing over the same to Diageo Plc. The DRT, in its order last year, had restrained Standard Chartered Bank from transferring to Diageo Plc or anyone else, the equity shares of United Breweries Holding Limited (UBHL) pledged by Mallya and his son Siddharth with the bank. In their pleas, the banks alleged that despite the earlier order by DRT, Standard Chartered Bank was in the process of transferring to Diageo Plc the equity shares.

Diageo Plc, the world’s largest spirits maker, which acquired control of United Spirits (USL) in 2012, had issued a guarantee to Standard Chartered Bank for a $135 million (around Rs 877 crore) loan to Watson Limited, a firm affiliated to Mallya, to release certain UBHL shares that were to be acquired as part of the deal. The company, in a statement earlier, had said the risk had arisen due to default by Watson in May and DRT preventing sale or any other transfer of such UBHL shares in June as part of the enforcement process pending further orders following the petition by bankers.

The banks had also said that the very pledging of the shares by Mallya was illegal. Mallya, whose now-defunct group company Kingfisher Airlines owes over Rs 9,000 crore to 17 banks, had left the country on March 2 and is in the UK. He has been declared a proclaimed offender by a special PMLA court in Mumbai on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with its money laundering probe against him in the alleged bank loan default case.

(Agencies)

New Zealand edge past India by six runs in second ODI

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New Zealand's Trent Boult, right, celebrates the dismissal of India's Rohit Sharma, left, during their second one-day international cricket match in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

New Zealand’s Trent Boult, right, celebrates the dismissal of India’s Rohit Sharma, left, during their second one-day international cricket match in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

New Delhi: New Zealand bounced back in style to beat India by six runs in the second One-Day International (ODI) and level the five-match series 1-1 at the Ferozeshah Kotla here on Thursday.

Chasing a modest 243, a complacent India were off to a poor start with wickets tumbling at regular intervals as the New Zealand bowlers used the evening dew to their advantage.

Maharashtra batsman Kedar Jadhav (41), skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (39) and Ajinkya Rahane (28) offered some resistance but that was not enough to take the hosts over the line.

Dhoni’s ploy of playing the waiting game on a slow and low Kotla track backfired against an inspired Kiwi bowling aided by some agile fielding.

The opening pair of Rohit Sharma (15) and Rahane put on 21 runs before pacer Trent Boult dismissed Rohit off an outside edge which was caught behind by keeper Luke Ronchi.

After the dismissal, Rohit immediately clutched his bicep, writhing in pain, as the physio came out to take a look at him. His 27-ball innings was laced with a four and a six.

Rohit’s departure brought in local boy Virat Kohli (9) — a moment which the capacity crowd at Kotla waited for all day — amidst thunderous applause.

But the celebrations soon dampened as the Test skipper was strangled down his legs by left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner inducing a thin edge which Ronchi successfully grabbed.

Rahane was then joined by rookie Manish Pandey (19) and the right-handed duo put on 32 runs for the third wicket before the Mumbaikar fell prey to a controversial decision leaving India reeling at 72/3. Rahane’s 49-ball effort composed of three boundaries.

Pandey soon made his way back to the pavilion, scoring a 25-ball 19 laced with a six after an outstanding run out by Santner.

Struggling at a precarious 73/4, Dhoni and Jadhav walked into the middle and the duo put on 66 for the fifth wicket with the Maharashtra keeper-bat outscoring his skipper.

Jadhav, who managed to take a wicket with his part-time off-spin earlier in the day, looked in great rhythm with the willow. He scored a 37-ball 41 with two fours and as many sixes before pacer Matt Henry sent him back.

Dhoni was then joined by left-arm spinner Axar Patel (17), and the duo forged a 33-run stand for the sixth wicket before the Ranchi stumper was brilliantly caught by Tim Southee off his own bowling.

With the match running away from India’s grasps, all-rounder Hardik Pandya raised the hopes with a brilliant 32-ball 36 and more importantly a 49-ball stand with Umesh Yadav (18 not out) for the ninth wicket.

Pandya, however, in his attempt to accelerate was dismissed in the penultimate over by Boult, leaving the hosts fall short of the target by six runs.

For the Kiwis, Southee was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets while Boult and Martin Guptill took two wickets each. Santner and Henry also took a wicket each.

Earlier, riding on skipper Kane Williamson’s eighth career century, New Zealand put up an improved batting performance before losing the track to post 242/9.Williamson (118) helped the visitors recover from yet another disappointing start after being sent in to bat.

But just when it looked like New Zealand were heading for a decent total, Indian bowlers pulled the plugs by taking six wickets within a span of 38 runs to restrict the visitors below the 250-run mark on a slow Kotla track.

Seasoned leg-spinner Mishra and young medium pacer Bumrah took three wickets apiece to break the backbone of the Kiwi batting even as Yadav, Axar Patel and Jadhav chipped in with one wicket each.

The 26-year-old Williamson, who came in after opener Guptill was clean bowled off the second ball of the match by pacer Yadav, was involved in all the three decent partnerships which took the Black Caps to some sort of respectability.

Playing his 95th match, the right-hander first put on 120 runs with opener Tom Latham (46) for the second wicket before adding 38 and 46 runs respectively for the second and third wickets with Ross Taylor (21) and Corey Anderson (21).

In his attempt to avoid another batting collapse, Williamson started cautiously picking the odd singles before changing gears once Dhoni employed his spinners.

Williamson, who was dropped twice on 46 and 59, took full advantage of the lives as he went on to bring up his century off 109 balls, with 13 fours and a six. His second- wicket stand with Latham turned out to be the cornerstone of their batting effort.

It was once again part-timer Jadhav, who gave India the vital breakthrough by removing Latham, and help the home side make inroads into the Kiwi batting line-up.

The southpaw’s run-a-ball 46 comprised six fours and a six.

Taylor, who joined Williamson at the fall of Latham was visibly out of touch, scoring a 42-ball 21, but more importantly stood firm with his skipper for a 38-run stand.

Taylor’s stay at the crease was cut short by Mishra, who deceived him with a faster ball only to be caught at deep midwicket by Rohit.

The former Kiwi skipper’s dismissal brought in all-rounder Anderson, who added 46 vital runs with Williamson to take the team over the 200-run mark. He soon fell prey to the leggie after scoring 21 off 32 balls, which included two boundaries.

Adding insult to the injury, Mishra then bowled a shorter delivery to pack off Williamson, who was caught by Ajinkya Rahane at the long-on boundary. Williamson’s 128-run innings was laced with 14 boundaries and a massive six.

Struggling at 213/5 and with almost seven overs to go, Indian bowlers took full advantage of the situation to pack the next four batsman within a span of 29 runs.

Luke Ronchi (6), Anton Devcich (7), Tim Southee (0) and Matt Henry (6) looked to be in a competition to get back to the pavilion as Bumrah piled on the misery taking three wickets with his brilliant yorkers alongside Patel’s miserly efforts to restrict them to 242/9.

With the five match series levelled at 1-1, India will now take on the Kiwis in the third match on October 23 at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium in Mohali.

(IANS)

UN rights chief denounces Aleppo raids as ‘war crimes’

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UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein says the situation in Syria’s Aleppo should be referred to the ICC.

Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein called for major powers to put aside their differences regarding Aleppo [Denis Balibouse/Reuters]

Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein called for major powers to put aside their differences regarding Aleppo [Denis Balibouse/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The siege and bombing of eastern Aleppo in Syria constitute “crimes of historic proportions” that have caused heavy civilian casualties amounting to “war crimes”, according to the top United Nations human rights official.

Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein’s comments on Friday came during a special session of the UN human rights council called by Britain to set up a special inquiry into violations, especially in Aleppo’s rebel-held east where an estimated 275,000 civilians are besieged by a Syrian government offensive backed by Russia.

In a video speech, Zeid said Aleppo is a “slaughterhouse” and called for major powers to put aside their differences and refer the situation in Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Armed opposition groups continue to fire mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, but indiscriminate air strikes across the eastern part of the city by government forces and their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties,” Zeid told the session.

The “collective failure of the international community to protect civilians and halt this bloodshed should haunt every one of us”, he added.

Once Syria’s largest city, Aleppo has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded in Syrian and Russian air strikes since the collapse of the latest ceasefire and the announcement by President Bashar al-Assad’s government last month of a major ground offensive to retake the city.

Another 82 people have died in rebel fire on government-held neighbourhoods in the west, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN commission of inquiry on Syria, also addressed the special session and said that the panel would continue to document war crimes in the northern city.

Pinheiro also appealed to the government to provide information on violations.

While rights council resolutions are non-binding, Russia is expected to push back against any draft strongly condemning Assad’s government.

The session, also supported by France, Germany and the United States, as well as Turkey, is aiming to adopt a resolution later on Friday.

Earlier this week, the European Union strongly condemned Russia and the Syrian government for causing “untold suffering” and suggested their actions in the city may amount to “war crimes”.

“The deliberate targeting of hospitals, medical personnel, schools and essential infrastructure, as well as the use of barrel bombs, cluster bombs, and chemical weapons, constitute a catastrophic escalation of the conflict … and may amount to war crimes,” European Union foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

On Monday, France announced that it would ask the ICC to investigate possible war crimescommitted in Aleppo.

“France is committed as never before to saving the population of Aleppo,” Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, told radio on Monday.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also gave his backing to French calls for an ICC investigation into alleged war crimes in the city.

The Syrian military said on Thursday that a unilateral ceasefire backed by Russia had come into force to allow people to leave besieged eastern Aleppo, but rebels rejected the move saying they are preparing a counter-offensive to break the blockade.

Al-Mayadeen TV aired live footage on Friday from Aleppo’s Castello Road showing bulldozers clearing the area, as well as buses and ambulances parked on the roadside to take evacuees.

But residents in the besieged area said there were no guarantees that evacuees will not be arrested by government forces.

Rebels said the goal of Moscow and Assad is to empty opposition-held areas of civilians so they can take over the whole city.

Later on Friday, the UN said medical evacuations from eastern Aleppo had not begun on Friday as it had hoped, as a lack of security guarantees and “facilitation” prevent aid workers taking advantage of the pause in the bombing announced by Russia.

‘Nivdung’ is an experimental albeit a topical film based on the farmer’s suicide

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nivdung

Banner: Meena Shamim Films
Producer & Director: Munnawar Shamim Bhagat
Star Cast: Bhushan Pradhan, Sanskruti Balgude, Prajakta Dighe & Shekhar Phadke
Music: Rafique Shaikh
Debutant director Munnawar Shamim Bhagat, who has also produced Nivdung, has made an experimental albeit a topical film based on the farmer’s suicide.

Keshav (Bhushan Pradhan) is a struggling musician who fails to make any mark. So much so that even his live – in girl friend ditches & deserts him for another beau. Keshav now wanders aimlessly and even decides to commit suicide. He lands up in a village where he is given shelter by an old woman who lives with her young daughter (Sanskuti Balgude). They both fall in an unexplained bond of silent love. Pressurized by a the Village Money lender, the trio of them take to farming on a barren land. But still Keshav tries to commit suicide many times till a ray of hope arrives with a full on Monsoon.

Debutant director Munnawar Shamim Bhagat has made a sensitive film on the evergreen topic of farmers committing suicide in villages. His directorial treatment succeeds in driving home the right message. But still he could not resist the temptation of placing a lavni song in such an emotional narrative.

Performance wise both Bhushan Pradhan & Sanskruti Balgude steal the limelight with their restrained act. But they sometimes appear to be uncomrtable in certain scenes. Veteran actress Prajakta Dighe is good but Shekhar Phadke is a total misfit in the role of a villainous Money lender.

All said and done Nivdung is more of a single theatre film for the interiors than that of a Multiplex Cinema of metrpolitan cities. Moreover Nivdung may garner a lot of critical acclaim and awards galore in the Global Film Festival circuit.

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