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US begins withdrawing troops from Syria, claims victory over IS

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[Nasheman news] Washington The Donald Trump-led US administration announced that it has started returning US troops home from Syria after claiming a victory in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) without revealing any detailed timetable.

“We have started returning US home as we transition to the next phase of this campaign,” said White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders in a statement on Wednesday, claiming that America has “defeated the territorial caliphate”. 

Pentagon later echoed the White House claim, saying that the US military has already begun the process of bringing the US forces back while emphasizing the continuity of the campaign, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The Coalition has liberated the IS-held territory, but the campaign against IS is not over,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a tweet. 

All US State Department personnel are being evacuated from Syria within 24 hours, informed sources said. 

An official also revealed that the time-frame for the troops withdrawal from the war-torn Arab country is expected to be between 60 and 100 days.

However, a senior Trump administration official, during a background briefing held on Wednesday afternoon, did not directly answer reporters’ questions on how the administration intends to withdraw the troops or whether there will a deadline for that.

Sanders’ statement came about one hour after US President Donald Trump hinted in a tweet about imminent US troop withdrawal from Syria. 

“We have defeated the IS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning. 

Earlier on Wednesday, the US media cited anonymous officials as saying that the US is planning a “rapid” and “full” withdrawal of troops from Syria. 

Currently, there are more than 2,000 US soldiers deployed in Syria. 

Trump has long voiced his desire to bring the US troops back home when possible, while senior administration officials including Defence Secretary James Mattis have advocated for a longer-term military deployment in Syria to secure a victory against the IS. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s claim about victory against the IS has been questioned.

“I strongly disagree. It has morphed into other forms of extremism and the threat is very much alive,” tweeted British Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood, following Trump’s claim on the social media. 

Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham warned “devastating consequences” for US troops quitting Syria.

“An American withdrawal at this time would be a big win for IS, Iran, Bashar al Assad of Syria, and Russia,” the lawmaker from the state of South Carolina said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kerala actor abduction case: HC dismisses Dileep’s plea seeking CBI probe

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Kochi, The Kerala High Court here on Wednesday dismissed a plea by the eighth accused in the infamous actress abduction case, actor Dileep, for a CBI probe into the case.

In his petition, Dileep pleaded that he has been framed in the case by the police relying only on the statement of the prime accused, Pulsar Suni.

Meanwhile, the prosecution put up their defense by stating that an accused in a case has no right to decide on what sort of probe should take place and, moreover, this is nothing but a ploy to delay the trial in the case.

The police probe team has already filed the detailed charge sheet in the case and the court on March 14 summoned all the accused. 

Dileep was arrested after two rounds of questioning on July 10, 2017, for his alleged role in the conspiracy behind the abduction of the young actress.

Dileep’s former wife Manju Warrier is one of the witnesses in the case.

After being in jail for 85 days, Dileep secured bail.

The actress was allegedly abducted on February 17 last year while she was on her way to Kochi from Thrissur.

Pulsar Suni, the prime accused, drove her around for two hours before she was dropped near the home of director-actor Lal, who later called the police.

Former civil servants attack Yogi, Modi over Bulandshahr mob violence

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New Delhi, A group of former bureaucrats and diplomats have come down heavily on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the Bulandshahr mob violence which they said showed “perverted” fundamental principles of governance and constitutional ethics of the BJP government in the state and slammed the “stony silence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

“The mob violence in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh on Dec 3, 2018, instigated and engineered with malicious intent, led to the cold-blooded murder of a police officer brave enough to step forward single-handedly to pacify the mob, marks the most dangerous turn yet in the direction taken by the politics of hate in recent times.

“It shows that in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, fundamental principles of governance, of constitutional ethics and of humane social conduct stand perverted. The Chief Minister of the state acts as high priest of the agenda of bigotry and majoritarian supremacy — an agenda which now seems to take precedence over everything else,” they said in an open letter. 

The 83 signatories to the letter — including former Foreign Secretaries Shiv Shankar Menon (who was also National Security Adviser), Shayam Saran and Sujata Singh, former Ambassador and DGP Julio Ribeiro, former Special Secretary Vappala Balakrishnan, former Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, Harsh Mander and Jawahar Sircar — said in the letter that it was a measure of rapid erosion of constitutional values that they as a group had felt a compelling need to speak out about as many as nine times in the last 18 months. 

“The pace of erosion has been frightening and with each slip, we seem to sink further into a lawless abyss,” they said. 

The Bulandshahr episode, which followed a succession of events aimed at isolating and intimidating Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh, showed that under Yogi Adityanath, hooliganism and thuggery have been mainstreamed into governance, not just to intimidate minorities but to teach a lesson to anyone, including police personnel and others in the administration, who dared to be even-handed in their approach to minority communities. 

They said there was no doubt that there was nothing spontaneous about the violence that led to the killing of Inspector Subodh Kumar Singh, nor was there any doubt as to who the political elements were that aided and abetted the violence. 

“This was a deliberate attempt to display majoritarian muscle and send a message to Muslim communities living in the region that they have to live in fear, accept their subordinate status and conform to the cultural diktats of the majority community.”

The Chief Minister refused to acknowledge the gravity of the incident and its communal intent, condemn the perpetrators of violence or direct the police to take action against them, and instead asked them to focus attention on those responsible for illegal cow slaughter, the former bureaucrats said.

“The police authorities draw an equivalence between the killing of a police officer and the illegal slaughter of cows and claim that unless both crimes are investigated together, it will not be possible to come to any conclusions about the violence of the mob and murder of a colleague,” they said. 

Turning their attention to Modi, the former civil servants said: “Our Prime Minister, who is so voluble in his election campaigns and who never tires of telling us how the Constitution of India is the only holy book he worships, maintains a stony silence even as he sees a Chief Minister handpicked by him treat the same Constitution with sheer contempt. 

“It is evident that for the Sangh Parivar, constitutional morality is of no value, and is necessarily subordinate to the ideals of majoritarian supremacy.”

They asserted that never before in recent history had the politics of hate, division and exclusion been so dominant and the poisonous ideology, which had penetrated deep into the body politic.

“This is a crucial moment and we can’t take it lying down anymore. We call upon all citizens to unite in a crusade against the politics of hate and division — a politics which aims to destroy the fundamental principles on which our republic is founded.” 

They urged the citizens to demand the resignation of Yogi Adityanath for his failure to abide by the Constitution to which he has sworn his allegiance and to remind the Chief Secretary, DGP, Home Secretary and all other members of high civil services concern of their constitutional duty to fearlessly implement the rule of law rather than to perverse diktats of their political masters.

They also urged the Allahabad High Court to take suo motu cognisance of the Bulandshahr incident and order a judicial inquiry supervised by them to uncover the true facts, expose the political collusion, fix responsibility and recommend action. 

nubia brings gaming smartphone to India

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New Delhi, Chinese handset manufacturer nubia on Wednesday launched a gaming smartphone Red Magic in India for Rs 29,999.

The smartphone would be available on Amazon.in from December 20, the company said in a statement.

The 5.99-inches full-HD smartphone is packed with an optimised Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset with 8GB RAM and dual-lane 128GB Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.1 storage.

“The launch of Red Magic has especially been crafted for the rising gaming community in India and will be a benchmark in its segment,” said Dheeraj Kukreja, Director, nubia India.

The device runs Android 8.1 Oreo and houses 3800mAh battery.

“We truly believe that with some of the unparalleled features like RGB strip, GameBoost Mode, Cooling Fans, 3800mAh battery that we have packed in this revolutionary device, the experience will be power packed in every way,” Kukreja added.

The smartphone sports a 24MP rear camera and a 8MP selfie shooter.

British Airways to resume flights to Pakistan after a decade

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UK airline cites improving security situation, a decade after it suspended flights following an attack in Islamabad.by Asad Hashim4 hours ago

British Airways to resume flights to Pakistan after a decade

Islamabad, Pakistan – The United Kingdom‘s flag carrier, British Airways, will resume direct flights to Pakistan in June, a decade after suspending services to the South Asian nation over security concerns, the airline has announced.

The service will resume with three flights each week between the two countries’ capitals, London and Islamabad, British Airways head of sales for the Asia Pacific and the Middle East Robert Williams told a news conference in Islamabad on Tuesday.

“It’s exciting to be flying between Islamabad and Heathrow from next year, which we believe will be particularly popular with the British Pakistani community who want to visit, or be visited by, their relatives,” Williams said.

The UK is home to an estimated 1.17 million people of Pakistani origin, according to the British Office for National Statistics, making it one of the largest diaspora hosts for the South Asian country.

The Pakistani government has lauded the decision as an indicator of improving security and economic investment opportunities in the country.

“Pakistan is once again getting connected with the world,” said Syed Zulfikar Bukhari, the Pakistani prime minister’s special assistant on overseas Pakistanis and human resource development. Bukhari is himself a dual national of the UK and Pakistan.

“Delighted to learn British Airways will be resuming flights to Pakistan,” tweeted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi following the announcement.

“This decision is an acknowledgement of Pakistan’s continued efforts for peace & elimination of terrorism.”

The British Airways flights will resume from June 2, 2019, it said in a statement.

Direct flights

British Airways is the first major European airline to resume direct flights to Pakistan since services were suspended due to security concerns in the mid-2000s. The airline had suspended services after a deadly truck bombing at Islamabad’s Marriot hotel in 2008 killed more than 50 people.

In the interim, Gulf-based airlines – Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways – stepped in to absorb the bulk of the country’s international air traffic.

Pakistan has been battling the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella organisation of armed groups that has vowed to overthrow the government and enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic law, since 2007.

Since 2014, a series of military operations has seriously degraded the Tehreek-e-Taliban’s ability to launch frequent attacks targeting civilians and security forces, with violence dropping significantly as the group was displaced from its erstwhile headquarters in the northwest of the country.

Sporadic heavy-casualty attacks, however, have continued to occur, as the Pakistan Taliban has shifted its operational headquarters to eastern Afghanistan.

US man jailed for attacking Sikh cab driver

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Washington, A US man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for a brutal attack on a Sikh American taxi driver in Seattle city last year.

Swarn Singh, 53, was assaulted with a hammer by Rory Benson on December 16, 2017. The accused pleaded guilty to the attack and was given the sentence by a court in Seattle late last week, the community’s civil rights group — Sikh Coalition — tweeted on Tuesday. 

During the incident, Singh who maintains Sikh articles of faith including unshorn hair and a turban, had parked outside an apartment building to drop Benson and his mother, the group said in a statement. 

It was then that Benson, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, brutally attacked Singh. He grabbed a piece of cloth and attempted to suffocate the victim with it. 

Singh managed to get out of the taxi but Benson grabbed a hammer from his bag and chased the victim on-foot. 

Benson hit Singh in the head repeatedly, specifically targeting his turban and knocking it to the ground. The victim suffered a scalp laceration and a skull fracture and was taken to hospital, the statement said.

Benson was later arrested.

The Sikh Coalition said it worked with Singh for 11 months to make sure the Bellevue Police Department and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office were properly investigating the incident and reviewing appropriate charges.

Singh submitted a statement to the King County Superior Court, urging his attacker to recognize the damage caused, detailing his injuries and the impact of the assault on the Sikh community, the group said.

Facebook gives companies access to users’ private messages: NYT

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Facebook gave large tech companies access to users’ data, including private messages, New York Times reports.20 minutes ago

Facebook has given some of the world’s largest tech companies, such as Spotify, Amazon and Netflix, access to users’ personal information in ways not previously disclosed, according to a report released by the New York Times (NYT).

In the report, published on Tuesday, NYT says internal Facebook documents provided insights into the network’s “data-sharing agreements,” revealing that the data market is “even bigger than many consumers suspected”.

According to the publication, Facebook allowed big companies like Microsoft with its Bing search engine to “view names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent”. In addition, streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify were able to access “users’ private messages,” including the ability to “read, compose and delete messages, and to see all participants on a thread”, NTY reported.

Platforms such as Sony, Microsoft and Amazon could obtain users’ email addresses through their friends, and Yahoo was able to “view streams of friends’ posts”, despite statements saying it had stopped that type of sharing before.

The agreements between the platforms and tech companies applied to more than 150 companies, most of which are technology and online retails sites.

“The deals, the oldest of which date to 2010, were all active in 2017,” NYT reported. “[But] some were still in effect this year.”

The partnership, as explained by the report, allowed Facebook to grow by bringing new users, and encourage them to use the platform, while the companies in return “acquired features to make their products more attractive.”

In 2012, Facebook was asked by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to strengthen privacy safeguards, 
as the data-sharing deals likely “violated the consent agreement, since users had no way of knowing which companies Facebook shared their data with, and no clear means of granting or withholding permission.”

Facebook maintains that none of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without “people’s permission, nor did they violate the settlement with the FTC”.

Different scandals 

Facebook has faced multiple scandals in recent years. 

Earlier this year, it was revealed that 87 million users’ data was accessed by the UK data firm Cambridge Analytica, without proper user consent.READ MORE

Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The scandal so far

Acknowledging that it had breached users’ trust, Facebook insisted that it implemented stricter privacy protections and Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, assured lawmakers in April that people “have complete control” over everything they share on Facebook.

However, as recently as last week it was also reported that a bug may have exposed millions of Facebook users’ private photos to third party apps. 

Facebook responded to the NYT’s report and said that they do not “ignore people’s privacy settings”.

“Facebook’s partners don’t get to ignore people’s privacy settings, and it’s wrong to suggest that they do,” Steve Satterfield, Facebook’s director of privacy and public policy, said in a statement. 

“Over the years, we’ve partnered with other companies so people can use Facebook on devices and platforms that we don’t support ourselves.

“Unlike a game, streaming music service, or other third-party app, which offer experiences that are independent of Facebook, these partners can only offer specific Facebook features and are unable to use information for independent purposes.”

The platform also responded via a blog post published on Tuesday night.

In the post, the company answered different questions about the partner companies, which the company referred to as “integration partners,” and a specific kind of partnership that ran from 2010 to 2014 called “instant personalisation.”

“To be clear: none of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission,” the social media company said.

Companies also rejected the results of the report. 

A Netflix spokesperson in a statement to Al Jazeera said that it recently have tried various ways to “make Netflix more social.”

In 2014 it launched a feature that “enabled members to recommend TV shows and movies to their Facebook friends via Messenger or Netflix,” but that “at no time did we access people’s private messages on Facebook, or ask for the ability to do so.”

The feature “was never that popular so we shut the feature down in 2015,” Netflix added. 

142 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

Microsoft said that data supplied by Facebook stopped appearing in Bing search results after the contract between the two companies ended in February 2016.

“Throughout our engagement with Facebook, we respected all user preferences,” Microsoft said in a statement.

An Apple spokesman referred CNN to a paragraph in the article citing Apple officials as saying they were unaware of this agreement. 

“Any shared data would remain on the devices and be available to anyone other than the users,” the statement read.

It has been two months since the largest data breach in Facebook’s history and five days since the last time Facebook announced a significant data leak.

Aljazeera

NHAI officials booked after part of Gurugram flyover falls down

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Gurugram,The contractor and officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) have been booked in connection with the falling off of a portion of the Rampura flyover on the Delhi-Jaipur national highway on Monday, police said on Wednesday.

The case was registered on the complaint of a group of Right to Information (RTI) activists including Ramesh Yadav, Baldev Mehra, Omprakash Kataria and others.

“The nexus of contractor and NHAI officials used poor construction materials intentionally to dupe public money that caused the flyover to break off,” the complaint read. 

The accused have been booked under Section 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others) and Section 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code at Kherki Daula Police Station, Yadav told IANS.

About a six square feet portion of the flyover in Haryana fell off on December 17. The flyover is nearly 46 km from Delhi.

“The affected portion of the expressway has been cordoned off and is being repaired. It would take at least ten more days to make it fully functional,” an official said.

“Light traffic is passing on the elevated road using the two lanes. Traffic passing under the affected flyover has been completely stopped as repair work by NHAI is in progress,” chief of Manesar traffic police station Munesh Kumar said.

The flyover was opened for traffic nearly two years ago. A portion of another flyover near Manesar and Hero Honda Chowk had fallen down earlier in 2018.

17-year old Kashmiri pacer to feature in IPL 2019

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Srinagar,  Rasikh Dar, 17, a teenager from south Kashmir’s Kulgam district will feature in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 edition after being pocketed by Mumbai Indians in the just concluded auctions held in Jaipur.

The pace bowler is the youngest among the four children of a school teacher belonging to Kulgam district, and was bagged by the three-time IPL champions for Rs 20 lakh.

Dar is currently part of the state’s under-19 team for the Cooch Behar Trophy. He recently took six wickets in that trophy and impressed many by his bowling style, maintaining a decent length and pace.

He was shortlisted during a talent hunt by Irfan Pathan in the state.

Guided by Pathan and local cricketer Parvez Rasool, he was picked for the state’s senior team that played in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Talking about his entry into the IPL, Dar said: “I have over the years worked hard on my game and wanted to play at the highest level. This year I did well in district tournament and then was called for the talent hunt.”

“In the trials, I was fortunate to impress Pathan Bhai and others and was finally selected for the senior team. It is the dream of any cricketer to see himself in IPL,” he added.

Dar is the 4th ever cricketer from the state to be picked for the IPL. Earlier, Parvez Rasool, Manzoor Pandav and Muhammad Mudasir were also bought by Mumbai Indians.

Bengaluru beat Titans, enter PKL play-offs

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Panchkula, Bengaluru Bulls notched up a thumping 44-28 victory over Telugu Titans in a Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) clash here on Tuesday.

The victory ensured that Bengaluru Bulls have now qualified for the play-offs.

Pawan Sehrawat continued his fine form and got another super 10 and top scored with 13 points. It was a solid defensive performance by the Bulls. 

Star raider Rahul Chaudhari scored 12 points for Telugu Titans but couldn’t muster enough support from his teammates. Titans
still remain in the hunt for a place in the play-offs but are under pressure now.

It was a close affair in the first half as both teams started on equal footing with the score 2-2 after two minutes. Pawan Sehrawat made a two-point raid in the third minute to give Bulls 4-2 lead. A super tackle in the fourth minute got the Titans back into the game as they trailed 4-5.

Bengaluru Bulls inflicted an all out in the seventh minute to lead 11-5. Rahul Chaudhari produced a super raid in the ninth minute to get Titans back in the game once again.

The Titans inflicted an all out in the 15th minute to level the match at 16-16 and put pressure on Bengaluru Bulls. However, the Bulls scored six straight points to end the half on a high as they led 22-16.

The second half saw Bengaluru Bulls take complete control of the match as they inflicted two all outs to maintain a healthy lead. 

There were moments of quality from Titans in the second half but it just wasn’t enough. A super tackle in the 27th minute
reduced the Bulls lead to 10 points as the Titans trailed 21-31.

But Sehrawat and co. continued to score easy points at will and completed their third successive win over their arch rivals.

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