Jerusalem, March 21 (IANS) The Israeli military on Wednesday acknowledged its involvement in airstrikes that demolished a suspected nuclear facility in Syria 11 years ago.

Israel said the air raid in the eastern Deir-al-Zour region in 2007 had removed “an emerging existential threat to Israel and the entire region”. It said the reactor was close to being completed.

Previously, Israel never admitted it was involved in the strikes. On Wednesday, the Israeli censor’s office lifted a long-held prohibition on publishing information on the attack, the BBC reported.

In a statement, the Israeli military said that in the assault, dubbed “Operation Out of the Box”, Israeli fighter jets attacked and destroyed an undeclared nuclear facility in Deir-al-Zour on September 6, 2007.

Several months after the strike, the US announced that intelligence indicated the site was a nuclear reactor with military purpose.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in the past that the site was “very likely” to have been a nuclear reactor. It also suggested that it was being built with the help of North Korea.

Syria, which has joined the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has denied this.

The attack was a result of an extensive intelligence effort. The collection of information began in 2004 and included cooperation with “parallel security forces”, the Israeli military statement said, hinting at top-level coordination between the Israeli government led by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the George W. Bush administration ahead of the strike.

Commenting on the operation, Israel’s then Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said the Army feared the strike would spark a war in the region and took steps to prevent an escalation as part of the preparations for the operation.

Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, who served as commander of the Northern Command during the operation, said: “The lesson from the 2007 attack on the reactor is that Israel will not accept the establishment of a capability that constitutes an existential threat to Israel. This is the message to our enemies in the near and far future.”

The issue recently resurfaced after Olmert compiled a memoir during his time in prison, where he served a 16-month corruption sentence.

The manuscript, which included a chapter about the attack and Olmert’s part in leading to the decision to execute it, was sent for review to the censor’s office.

(IANS)

People who are less emotionally stable and suffer from anxiety and depression are more likely to be addicted to their smartphones, according to a research.

Emotional stability is characterised by being emotionally resilient. The study found that being less emotionally stable was associated with problematic smartphone behaviour.

People who struggle with their mental health are more likely to intensively use their smartphone as a form of therapy and that the less conscientious individuals are, the more likely they are to be addicted to their phones.

As levels of anxiety increase, problematic smartphone use also increases, the findings showed.

“Problematic smartphone use is more complex than previously thought and our research has highlighted the interplay of various psychological factors in the study of smartphone use,” Zaheer Hussain, Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Derby in Britain, said in a statement.

“This is because people may be experiencing problems in their lives such as stress, anxiety, depression, family problems, so in that state they are emotionally unstable, meaning they may seek respite in very excessive smartphone use. This is worrying,” Hussain said.

For the study, a team of psychologists conducted an online study with 640 smartphone users, aged between 13-69 years, to find out the association between smartphone use and personality traits.

The results showed that people who are “closed off” or less open with their emotions are more likely to have problems with smartphone use.

“They may be engaging in passive social network use, where you spend a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, browsing other peoples’ comments, pictures, and posts, and not posting anything of your own and not engaging in discussion with others, so there is no real positive social interaction while social networking,” Hussain noted.

(IANS)

Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen on Thursday lifted a widely denounced state of Emergency after a period of 45 days, stating that the situation in the atoll nation had returned to normal.

“Upon the advice of the security services and in an effort to promote normalcy, the President has decided to lift the state of Emergency,” President Yameen’s office said in a statement.

The President’s international spokesperson Ibrahim Shihab said all departments had been notified.

The state of Emergency was declared by Yameen on February 5 for a period of 15 days due to a “threat to the national security” following a Supreme Court ruling ordering the release of detained opposition leaders including self-exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed.

It was extended via a resolution of Parliament on February 20 for 30 days following a request by the President.

During the 45-day state of Emergency, the government said day-to-day activities of the citizens had not been affected and tourists could continue to visit the island nation.

Meanwhile, several members of Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) detained under Emergency powers were released without charge, the Maldives Independent reported.

MDP Vice President Mohamed Shifaz, former MP Ilyas Labeeb and several council members were arrested in the build-up to the March 16 mass protest after police alleged there were plans to overthrow the government by inciting unrest and violence in the capital.

With constitutional due process rights suspended, the detainees were not informed of charges or taken against them. Their release came ahead of the expiry of the 45-day state of Emergency on Thursday night.

According to the opposition, around 60 people were arrested since the declaration of Emergency on February 5. The Emergency was widely condemned internationally including by the US and India.

(IANS)

At least 26 people killed and 18 others wounded in attack close to Kabul University and Ali Abad hospital.

At least 26 people have been reported killed and 18 others wounded in a mid-day explosion in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Tolo News reported that the attack on Wednesday happened close to Kabul University and Ali Abad hospital.

News reports said an interior ministry spokesman confirmed the number of casualties.

The explosion is believed to have been a car bomb.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

But the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group have launched a series of deadly attacks across the country, killing more than 200 people in Kabul alone since the beginning of 2018, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Htin Kyaw, Myanmar’s first civilian president in more than a half-century, has resigned from office, according to an official statement Wednesday.

A loyal and longtime aide to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, he was elected president after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide victory in the 2015 general election.

The statement from the Myanmar President’s Office said Htin Kyaw resigned from office as he no longer wants to perform the duty.

Myint Swe, the military-nominated vice president, will act in the role until parliament can confirm a replacement in seven days, it said.

Htin Kyaw is seen as a proxy of Suu Kyi as she is barred from the presidency by the country’s military-drafted constitution.

She was later elected to the newly-invented post of State Counselor, officially answering to the president but in reality occupying a powerful spot at the top by the NLD-dominated parliament despite opposition from the military.

PTI

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken into police custody for questioning over allegations that he received funding from the regime of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for the 2007 presidential election campaign.

Sarkozy, 63, was summoned to a police station in Nanterre and was being questioned in relation to “irregularities” over the financing of his 2007 campaign that swept him to power for a single five-year term, Le Monde daily reported citing court sources.

An inquiry was opened in April 2013 into allegations that Sarkozy’s campaign had benefited from illicit funds from Gaddafi but it was the first time that he is being questioned over the matter. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The development came several weeks after a former associate, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London and later released on bail. One of Sarkozy’s former ministers and a close ally, Brice Hortefeux, was also being questioned on Tuesday, the BBC reported.

The former President can be held by police for up to 48 hours before facing magistrates.

French law bans candidates from receiving cash payments above 6,300 pounds, but the massive donation is said to have been laundered through bank accounts in Panama and Switzerland.

A document made public in Paris apparently showed that the French leader and the former Libyan dictator made an illegal financial deal, reports say.

Written in Arabic and signed by Mussa Kussa, Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, in 2006, it referred to an “agreement in principle to support the campaign for Sarkozy for a sum equivalent to 50 million euro”.

A bundle of evidence was originally leaked by senior members of Libya’s National Transitional Council to French investigative news site Mediapart, according to a Daily Mail report.

A governmental briefing note among papers sent to Mediapart pointed to numerous visits to Libya by Sarkozy and his colleagues which were aimed at securing funding, it said.

(IANS)

A small plane crash-landed on a house shortly after it took off from Plaridel airstrip in Bulacan province of Manila on Saturday, killing seven, authorities said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said all six people, including the two pilots aboard the six-seater twin-engined Piper PA-23 Apache plane, were killed.

Police said the plane landed on a house and erupted in flames. A resident of the house was also killed, Xinhua reported.

CAAP spokesman Eric Apolonio said the plane, operated by Lite Express, crashed in a residential area a few minutes after it took off at 11.21 a.m. It was reportedly bound for Laoag City in Ilocos Norter province.

At least six persons have been killed after a footbridge collapsed near Florida International University in Miami, crushing eight vehicles and leaving rescue workers racing to free victims from chunks of concrete and snapped metal.

At least nine survivors were taken to hospitals, a Fire Department official said. Vehicles had stopped at a red light when the bridge, which weighed more than 950 tonnes, crashed down on the busy road on Thursday, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

“The most important thing we can do right now is pray for the individuals who ended up in the hospital, for their full recovery, and pray for the family members who lost loved ones,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said.

The bridge was erected on Saturday in just six hours. It was built using a method called “accelerated bridge construction” to avoid traffic disruption. A major section of the bridge was assembled on the side of the road and then raised into place.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday night he was monitoring “the heartbreaking bridge collapse”.

“Continuing to monitor the heartbreaking bridge collapse at FIU – so tragic. Many brave First Responders rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage. Praying for all who are affected,” he tweeted.

“I heard what sounded to me like a sonic boom from an aircraft which shook the ground below,” said Kurt Baker, a student at the university who had just exited the Florida Turnpike.

“There was a large plume of smoke,” said Adrian Mesa of the Sweetwater Police Department. “And then you could see the south end of the bridge was tilted over.”

The bridge was designed to connect the city of Sweetwater with the campus of Florida International University and to make it safer for students to cross the frenetic roadway.

“It was going to be a significant project,” Senator Marco Rubio said. “To see it on the ground and underneath it those who died and who were injured is a tragedy.”

He said the cause of the collapse will be fully investigated.

“The victims and their families deserve to know what went wrong. There will be an extraordinary review into what the errors were and what led to this catastrophic collapse,” Rubio said.

(IANS)

March 15 (IANS) BY NASHEMAN

Pakistan has called back its High Commissioner in New Delhi, Sohail Mahmood, for consultation to Islamabad over incidents of “harassing” of its Embassy’s staff in the Indian capital, the Foreign Office stated on Thursday.

Speaking at his weekly press briefing, Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said they will hold consultations with the High Commissioner over “recent incidents of harassing of their diplomats”.

Faisal claimed that the Indian government had not taken measures to safeguard Pakistani diplomats and their families in India, adding that the Pakistani government lodged protests over the matter with the Indian deputy High Commissioner as well as India’s External Affairs Ministry.

The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said its “staff and their families had been facing harassment, intimidation and outright violence from Indian state agencies in recent weeks in New Delhi”.

It claimed that its Deputy High Commissioner’s car was chased and his driver was abused by a group of men in the Indian capital last week.

Responding to complaints by Islamabad, New Delhi assured last week that “India makes all efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for diplomats to work in”. It added the Indian officials had also faced “harassment” last year in Pakistan but they chose to deal with it through “quiet and persistent diplomacy”.