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Kabul: Five killed as ISIL bomber targets spy agency

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Afghan security forces keep watch at a check point close to a compound of Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency in Kabul [Omar Sobhani/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least five people have been killed in a suicide blast near the intelligence agency in Kabul, the Afghan capital, officials said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the blast on Monday morning.

The attack near Abdul Haq Square comes one week after gunmen stormed a military training centre in Kabul, an assault also claimed by ISIL.

The interior ministry said the attacker blew himself up near the gate of the National Directorate of Security.

Video posted to social media showed emergency services on the scene.

Local media said at least two people were also wounded.

The Afghan capital has come under attack several times in 2017.

On March 8, more than 30 people were killed when gunmen dressed in white lab coats stormed a hospital in the centre of the city. ISIL claimed that attack, but officials considered other groups could have been responsible.

On May 31, a truck bomb exploded near the diplomatic district, killing more than 150 people. It remains unclear who was behing the assault.

On October 21, ISIL claimed responsibility for killing at least 39 people at a Shia mosque in Kabul.

Palestinians slam Israeli plan for new settlement units

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Israel’s construction minister announced plans for the building of 300,000 settlement housing units in occupied East Jerusalem [File: EPA]

by Al Jazeera

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates has denounced a new Israeli settlement construction plan, which includes the building of 300,000 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the ministry on Sunday held US President Donald Trump responsible for “Israeli arrogance” that has endorsed the annexation of East Jerusalem.

“The ministry affirms that this Israeli colonial arrogance would not have happened without US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” the statement read.

“Trump’s administration must bear the responsibility for new crimes that Israel, the occupying country, imposes on our people.”

The ministry urged the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to confront the move.

According to Israeli media, the country’s Minister of Housing and Construction Yoav Galant announced the launching of a campaign to promote the building of the new settlement units.

Israel’s Channel 10 said the planned construction was part of the so-called “Greater Jerusalem Bill”, which aims to annex illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli-defined boundaries of the city of Jerusalem.

The bill was meant to be voted on in October by a ministerial committee before going to the Knesset for approval, but the vote was delayed until further notice.

If passed, the bill would annex to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem the three major mega-settlement cities of Maale Adumim, Givat Zeev and Gush Etzion, which together house around 140,000 Israelis.

It would add the Israelis who live there to the population of Jerusalem, thus allowing them to vote in local elections.

To ensure a Jewish majority in the city, the bill would also create “independent municipalities” for several Palestinian neighbourhoods that are part of the Jerusalem municipality but cut off from the city by Israel’s separation wall.

These neighbourhoods are home to more than 100,000 people who suffer from a severe lack of basic services and infrastructure.

Galant’s remarks come three weeks after US President Donald Trump announced that the US recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and said his administration would be moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.

Trump’s declaration prompted international condemnation and widespread protests across the world.

Last week, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that declared Trump’s move “null and void”.

Demonstrations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been met with use of force by Israeli forces. In the Gaza Strip, Israel launched several air raids.

Since Trump’s announcement, at least 15 people have been killed across the occupied Palestinian territories, more than 2,900 people injured and more than 500 jailed.

Status of Jerusalem
The status of Jerusalem is extremely sensitive and is one of the main sticking points in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian leaders want occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, while Israel says the city cannot be divided.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and proceeded to effectively annexit, in breach of international law.

The separation wall, which Israel started building in 2002, snakes through the occupied West Bank’s territory, dividing villages, encircling towns and splitting families from each other.

Today, 86 percent of East Jerusalem is under direct control of the Israeli authorities and Jewish settlers.

Around 200,000 settlers live in settlements that have been mostly built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian property.

Of that number, 2,000 settlers live in the midst of Palestinian neighbourhoods under army protection.

Based on the law in the West Bank, a state is only allowed to expropriate private land for public Palestinian needs.

Israel uses this law, however, to confiscate private land for building Jewish-only settlement roads, connecting them with one another and to Israel. In this way, 12 settlements were built in East Jerusalem on Palestinian property declared for “public needs”.

In October, Israel’s civil administration approved for the first time in 15 years the construction of 31 settlement housing units in the occupied Palestinian city of Hebron.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers settlement construction activities there as illegal.

Trinamool wins Bengal bypoll by over 64,000 votes

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West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday won the Sabang Assembly constituency by-poll by a massive margin of 64,196 votes.

Trinamool candidate Gita Rani Bhunia got 1,06,185 votes while her nearest rival, Rita Mondal of the Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) secured 41,989 votes.

Trinamool’s Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said: “This is a victory of development. People of Sabang voted for the development works undertaken by our government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The margin of nearly 65,000 votes disapproved centre’s anti-people policies.”

The Trinamool was able to increase its vote share to 51.21 per cent.

Amid continuous downslide popularity over the past few years, the by-poll offered an opportunity for the CPI-M, which contested the seat for the first time as the Left Front, during its 34 year rule, had fielded candidates of the Biplobi Bangla Congress.

Mondal managed to get a share of about 21 per cent votes in the by-poll.

Accusing the ruling Trinamool of indulging in massive rigging, Mondal said: “This is a victory of betrayers. Genuine voters were not allowed to cast their votes. About 150-200 polling booths were captured by Trinamool’s activists.”

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aspirant Antara Bhattacharyya was in the third spot with 37,483 votes clocking about 19 per cent share.

However, the party gained a substantial number of votes in this bypoll as against about 5,000 votes secured by the party in 2016 Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed state BJP for rising vote share in the by-polls.

Bhattacharya also said that it was not “a free and fair election”. “Had common people been allowed to exercise their franchise, we would have got more favourable results. However, the results show that our party did well despite ruling party’s terror activities,” she claimed.

The Congress, which won the seat in last year’s assembly polls, fared poorly, with its nominee Chiranjib Bhowmick in the fourth position securing 18,063 votes.

The by-poll was necessitated due to sitting Congress legislator Manas Bhunia’s resignation, after he crossed over to the Trinamool. He is now a Rajya Sabha member of his new party.

Trinamool candidate Gita Rani is Manas Bhunia’s wife.

The winning margin of Gita Rani in this by-poll surpassed Bhunia’s victory margin of over 49,000 votes as a Left-backed Congress candidate in the 2016 Assembly polls.

Manas Bhunia said: “During the campaign, our leadership called the voters to defeat the Manas Bhunia’s winning margin. People of Sabang did exactly the same. I am enjoying it.”

(IANS)

AIADMK to sack 6 office-bearers supporting Dhinakaran

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Chennai: The AIADMK will sack six office-bearers supporting rival leader T T V Dhinakaran from party posts, said party sources on Monday.

In a major setback to the ruling AIADMK on Sunday, Dhinakaran won the prestigious RK Assembly bypoll.

The nephew of jailed leader V Sasikala, Dhinakaran defeated his nearest rival E Madhusudhanan of the AIADMK by 40,707 votes.

(PTI)

Karnataka BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje booked for ‘inflammatory’ tweets

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Bengaluru: BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje was booked for alleged ‘inflammatory’ tweets on the rape and murder of a minor Dalit girl in Vijayapura, an incident which led to tension in some areas there for the past three days.

Police said an FIR was registered against Karandlaje on charges of provoking people to cause riots, disturbing communal harmony.

Karandlaje had tweeted about the recent rape and murder of the 15-year-old girl and accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of inaction to catch the ‘Jehadis’ behind the incident.

“CM @siddaramaiah’s appeasement politics has turned Karnataka into a safe haven for Jihadi Goons. He is shamelessly pursuing his agenda of appeasement & dividing the society,” tweeted Karandlaje.

In a tweet about another incident she said “Jihadis tried to rape and murder a girl studying in 9th std near honnavar.

Why is the govt silent about this incident? Arrest those who molested and injured this girl. Where are you CM @siddaramaiah?” Police said the MP’s tweets and video messages through social media platforms further added to tension in the regions of coastal Karnataka, which was on the boil since December 6 when 19-year-old Paresh Mesta was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Karandlaje meanwhile shared copies of the FIR on Twitter, saying “Govt which has failed in providing safety to women in Karnataka now tries to stifle my voice through a FIR.

@siddaramaiah Govt protecting Jihadis.” She vowed to continue her fight against ‘Jihadi elements’ without succumbing to the pressure of the Chief Minister.

Police said the MP’s tweets and video messages through social media platforms further added to tension in the regions of coastal Karnataka, which was on the boil since December 6 when 19-year-old Paresh Mesta was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Karandlaje meanwhile shared copies of the FIR on Twitter, saying “Govt which has failed in providing safety to women in Karnataka now tries to stifle my voice through aFIR. @siddaramaiah Govt protecting Jihadis.”

She vowed to continue her fight against ‘Jihadielements’ without succumbing to the pressure of the Chief Minister.

Protesting against the girl’s murder, right wingoutfits called a bandh in Talikote, Vijayapura andChikkamagaluru on Friday. Security was beefed up in these areas, police said.

(PTI)

NOTA gets more votes than BJP candidate in RK Nagar

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Chennai: This is one record the BJP candidate who contested the RK Nagar bypoll will not be proud of, as NOTA got more votes than he did.

While the main battle was confined to the giants–TTV Dhinakaran and AIADMK veteran E Madhusudhanan, in an interesting aside, NOTA pipped the saffron party’s Karu Nagarajan.

As many as 2,373 voters from the constituency did not want to vote for anyone and pressed the EVM button for None of the Above (NOTA), leaving Nagarajan with a meagre 1,417 votes.

This was his second electoral failure in as many years.

Nagarajan, a regular face in Tamil TV channels who puts forth his party’s views on various issues, had unsuccessfully contested the 2016 Assembly polls from Mylapore constituency in this city.

AIADMK had then won the seat.

(PTI)

3rd T20I: India thrash Sri Lanka, inflict whitewash

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Mumbai: India produced a dominant performance to hammer Sri Lanka by five wickets in the third and final Twenty20 International (T20I) and win the series 3-0 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.

Opting to bowl on winning the toss, India restricted Sri Lanka to 135/7.

The hosts then overcame the loss of early wickets to overhaul the target with four balls to spare.

Pacers Dushmantha Chameera and Dasun Shanaka bagged two wickets each for Sri Lanka.

Chasing a modest target, India did not enjoy a great start as openers Lokesh Rahul and Rohit Sharma departed in quick succession.

Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey then added 42 runs between them in 36 deliveries to bring the Indian inings back on track.

The visitors struck back when Iyer was run out thanks to an excellent piece of fielding by Akila Dananjaya in the 14th over.

Hardik Pandya was also dismissed in the very next over as the Sri Lankans looked to make a strong comeback.

Pandya had attempted to guide a delivery from Dasun Shanaka through the empty third man region, but his miscued shot was safely grabbed by Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella.

The hosts suffered another setback when the in-form Manish Pandey, who was their top scorer with 32 runs off 29 balls, was bowled by Dushmantha Chameera.

However, Dinesh Karthick and the veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni came together to finish off the chase.

Earlier, India rode on a strong bowling performance to restrict Sri Lanka to a low total.

Asela Gunaratne (36 off 37 balls) and Dasun Shanaka (29 not out off 24) were the main contributors for the struggling visitors, who lost the first two T20Is in Cuttack and Indore.

Asked to bat by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, Sri Lanka failed to click with their batting again. Both openers Niroshan Dickwella (1) and Upul Thranga (11) fell to left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat (2/15). While left-hander Dickwella was caught by Mohammad Siraj at mid-on, Tharanga played one to the hands of Hardik Pandya at deep midwicket, leaving his side at 18/3 in 3.3 overs.

In between these two wickets, debutant off-spinner Washington Sundar got Kusal Perera’s catch of his own bowling as Sri Lanka struggled.

Gunaratne (36 off 37) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (21) seemed to be building a strong partnership until the latter mistimed Pandya and Dinesh Karthik caught it at mid-off, with Sri Lanka at 56/4 in 8.3 overs.

The Sri Lankan batting line-up showed no sign of resilience and Danushka Gunathilaka (3) and Thisara Perera (11) lost their wickets to left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Siraj respectively.

Gunaratne and Shanaka tried their best but struggled to score briskly. Gunaratne was the next one to be dismissed, pulling Pandya to the hands of Kuldeep at midwicket.

Later, Shanaka hit two sixes as Sri Lanka moved to 135/7 in 20 overs.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka: 135/7 in 20 overs (Asela Gunaratne 36, Dasun Shanaka 29 not out; Jaydev Unadkat 2/15, Hardik Pandya 2/25) vs India: 139/5 in 19.2 overs (Manish Pandey 32, Shreyas Iyer 30).

(IANS)

Triple Talaq Bill Violates Women’s Rights, Says Muslim Law Board

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The triple talaq bill is against the provisions of the Constitution and violates the rights of women, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said today, demanding its withdrawal.

Describing it as a “conspiracy”, the AIMPLB also accused the government of snatching the right of divorce from men.

The chairman of the board, Maulana Rabe Hasani Nadwi, will request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withhold or withdraw the proposed bill that criminalises the practice of instant divorce, an official spokesperson of the Muslim body said.

“The board is of the view that the triple talaq bill is against the Constitution, rights of women and Shariah (Islamic law). Apart from this, it is also an an attempt to interfere with the Muslim personal law. If this bill becomes a law, then women will face a host of difficulties,” said Maulana Khalilur-Rehman Sajjad Nomani, the spokesperson of the AIMPLB.

“The proposed bill is against the basic principles of the Constitution. It is highly objectionable that the Centre did not consult the AIMPLB, any Muslim organisation or any stakeholder before preparing the draft of the bill,” he alleged.

The Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill, prepared by an inter-ministerial group headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, will be introduced by the government in parliament next week.

Mr Nomani claimed that triple talaq, which has been termed “unconstitutional” by the Supreme Court, has been thrown into a web of “criminal procedures” by the Centre.

“We request the Centre not to present the bill in parliament. If the government feels that it is very important, then it should first speak to the Muslim Personal Law Board and Muslim women organisations,” the spokesperson said.

“Seeing the provisions of the bill, it seems that the government wants to snatch the right of divorce from men. This is a big conspiracy. The draft of the bill also states that triple talaq (talaq-e-biddat) and other forms of talaq will be banned,” Mr Nomani said.

Senior woman member of the board Asma Zehra said, “The proposed bill of the Centre is against the interest of Muslim women. If a husband gives triple talaq to his wife, and is jailed for three years, then how will the woman make her ends meet and look after her children.”

The proposed law would give power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking “subsistence allowance” for herself and minor children. The woman can also seek the custody of her minor children from the magistrate who will take a final call on the issue.

(PTI)

Bengaluru becomes first city in India to have its own logo

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Bengaluru: Based on a crowd-sourced design, a logo was unveiled on Sunday at the ‘Namma Bengaluru Habba’ fest to promote ‘Brand Bengaluru’ on the global tourist map.

“The logo captures the spirit of the city and its 11 million people. Its design is a crowd-sourced, creative identity representing the city and its denizens,” said Karnataka tourism minister Priyank Kharge. The city is the first to gets its own identity badge.

With a new identify and a new look, Bengaluru joins New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Melbourne, Singapore and other global cities in having its own tourism logo.

“As a vibrant city of many cultures, colours and flavours, Bengaluru is on the move. It’s a dynamic city where tradition and modernity co-exist and its people thrive to aspire,” said Kharge.

The state tourism department will promote Bengaluru by leveraging its new identity through the logo and showcase the city’s heritage, architecture, gardens, art, music, food and its modern lifestyle, driven by technology.

“The logo will also help to leverage Bengaluru’s identity and create a brand value that could spur its economy and generate jobs by attracting more investments,” said Kharge.

Scripted in English and Kannada, the logo is similar to the tourism department’s ‘One State Many World’s’ logo, with options to change its colour into green, red or yellow to suit the occasion.

Observing that Brand Bengaluru was not about its coffee cafes and shopping malls but a new identity representing its people, their lifestyle and culture, the minister said the logo would provide an opportunity for tourists to feel the vibrancy of the city and its ethos.

Kharge also launched the tourism department’s mobile app with audio and video facility at the street fest held around the Vidhan Soudha.

The day-long street fest also had live performances by folk artists, story-telling sessions, interactive workshops and a flea market, with stalls displaying handicrafts, terracotta jewellery, herbal products, organic grains, including millets and a variety of food items.

(IANS)

Mumbai: Relief for Ashok Chavan in Adarsh case

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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today set aside the sanction granted to the CBI by Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to prosecute senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing society scam.

A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Sadhana Jadhav ruled that though the CBI had claimed to be in possession of fresh evidence against Chavan at the time of seeking the sanction, it “failed to present any fresh evidence.”

The bench said the material presented by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before Governor Rao could not be converted into credible fresh evidence against Chavan.

“The sanctioning authority is an independent body that can’t allow itself to be influenced by anyone’s opinion,” the court said.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Chavan, challenging the sanction granted by the governor in February 2016 to prosecute the former chief minister of Maharashtra under various sections of the IPC related to criminal conspiracy and cheating, besides provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Chavan had challenged Rao’s order in the high court, calling it “arbitrary, illegal and unjust” and passed with “malafide intentions”.

Chavan, currently the president of the Maharashtra unit of the Congress, had served as the chief minister between December 2008 and November 2010 before he was asked to step down on charges of corruption in the Adarsh scam.

The CBI has accused Chavan of approving additional floor space index (FSI) for the Adarsh society in posh south Mumbai, and accepting two flats for his relatives in return when he was the chief minister.

He is also accused of illegally approving, as revenue minister earlier, allotment of 40 per cent of flats to civilians even though the society was originally meant for defence personnel.

The CBI had earlier told the HC that if Chavan’s petition is allowed, it would amount to his acquittal, which would render the entire probe exercise futile.

(PTI)

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