[Nasheman news] New Delhi Google on Tuesday celebrated 30 years of World Wide Web (WWW) with a doodle. English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW in 1989 and wrote the first web browser in 1990.

Working at CERN, Switzerland, Berners-Lee laid out the basic concepts of the WWW in a proposal which included ideas like HTML, URL and HTTP.

In a document titled “Information management: a proposal”, he envisioned the use of hypertext to link documents.

The WWW, commonly known as the Web, is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

The first web browser was released in 1991 — first to the research institutions and then to the general public on the Internet in the same year.

The WWW is the primary tool billions of people today use to interact on the Internet.

In addition to text, web pages may contain images, video, audio and software components that are rendered in the user’s web browser as coherent pages of multimedia content.

Before the WWW, remote computers communicated directly for the first time in 1969 and in 1983, TCP/IP standard was adopted.

By Arul Louis (10:06) 

[Nasheman news] New York The US stands with India in fighting terrorism, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale during their discussions on the “urgency” of Pakistan taking action against terror groups, according to an official.

In the first high-level face-to-face India-US encounter after the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, Pompeo “affirmed that the US stands with the people and government of India in the fight against terrorism”, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said on Monday after the talks in Washington.

He said that they discussed “the importance of bringing those responsible for the attack to justice and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil”.

Gokhale is on a three-day visit to Washington for diplomatic consultations and strategic security dialogue with the US. He is scheduled to meet Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. He will also hold talks with other US lawmakers.

The Indian Embassy in Washington said in a statement: “Pompeo expressed his understanding of India’s concerns regarding cross-border terrorism. They agreed that Pakistan needs to take concerted action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and to deny safe haven to all terrorist groups in its territory.

“They also agreed that those who support or abet terrorism in any form should be held accountable.”

Gokhale “conveyed appreciation to the US government and to Secretary Pompeo personally for the firm support that India received from the US in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Pulwama”, the statement added.

The two leaders appreciated “the significant progress and the quality of the India-US Strategic Partnership”, following Pompeo’s visit to India last September for the first Ministerial 2+2 Dialogue of the foreign policy and defence leaders. 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman and then-US Defence Secretary James Mattis were at the meeting.

He also apprised Pompeo about the recent developments in the region, it said.

Last month, the Pulwama terror attack carried out by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel. 

India launched an attack on terrorist camp in Pakistan and an air skirmish between the two neighbours followed during which an Indian MiG-21 was shot down and its pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was captured by Pakistan. He was later released after Pompeo’s intense diplomacy.

Through the crisis, US President Donald Trump, Pompeo and US National Security Adviser John Bolton backed India’s opposition to cross-border terrorism.

Later on Monday evening, Pompeo said at a news conference that during their talks he had asked India to join the US-led boycott of Venezuela’s oil.

“I’m confident that they too understand the real threat to the Venezuelan people.

“We’re asking the same thing of India as we are of every country: Do not be the economic lifeline for the Maduro regime,” he said.

He declined to say what Gokhale’s reaction was. “I certainly won’t characterise the conversations; they’re private conversations.”

The US and its allies have derecognised Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela’s President following the nation’s upheaval over last year’s elections that the National Assembly has declare invalid and recognised Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself as the country’s interim President in Jnauary, as the country’s leader.

Palladino said that Gokhale and Pompeo “noted the strength of our partnership and discussed ways to further enhance cooperation, including on counter-terrorism”.

Gokhale and Pompeo “discussed our complementary visions for the Indo-Pacific, US-India defence cooperation, and the growing US-India economic partnership, including joint efforts to expand bilateral trade in a balanced and reciprocal manner”, he said.

Responding to Pompeo’s reference to bilateral trade matters, Gokhale “underscored the significant reduction in trade deficit in the last three years and conveyed India’s willingness to remain engaged with the US for a meaningful and mutually acceptable package on trade issues” the embassy said.

The Gokhale-Pompeo meeting took place against the backdrop of Trump ending tariff concessions worth $5.6 billion top India last week under the General Scheme of Preferences citing what he called New Delhi’s failure to provide “equitable and reasonable access” for US to its markets.

The embassy said that Afghanistan also figured in their talks.

At the height of the tensions between India and Pakistan last month, Pompeo had spoken by phone with Swaraj and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in an effort to tamp down the rising hostility.

[Nasheman news] Washington US President Donald Trump’s administration said that it intends to implement a ban on transgender people serving in the military after a federal court struck down the last injunction against the policy.

Friday’s announcement comes a day after US District Judge George Russell III said he was striking down the last of four injunctions against the transgender service member ban, reports The Hill magazine.

Russell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who serves on the US District Court for the District of Maryland, cited in his ruling the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in January to stay two of the injunctions.

Obama declared in 2016 that transgender service members would be allowed to serve openly, but Trump announced a reversal to that policy in 2017, saying that transgender troops would be prohibited from serving “in any capacity” .

Four lawsuits were filed against the policy, and lower courts in all four cases issued injunctions to the rule as the cases made their way through various courts. 

Former Defence Secretary James Mattis laid out a policy in March 2018 that would allow transgender people to serve if they do so “in their biological sex”.

Advocacy groups have repeatedly slammed the policy as discriminatory against transgender people who simply seek to serve their country. 

Pakistan on Thursday claimed that it has taken control of 182 seminaries and detained more than 100 people in a crackdown on banned terrorist organisations.

“Law enforcement agencies have taken 121 people under preventive detention as of today,” the ministry said in a statement,” the interior ministry said in a statement. 

The religious schools, hospitals and ambulances of the terror outfits were also placed under the control of the Pakistan government.

Islamabad’s move comes amid growing international pressure in the wake of a bombing in Pulwama by Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist group based in Pakistan.

New Delhi on Tuesday expressed skepticism over reports that Pakistan was cracking down on terrorist outfits and that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar’s brother Mufti Abdul Rauf was among 44 members of banned outfits who were taken into ‘preventive detention.’

A day after promulgating a law which apparently allowed the government to take over all assets of banned outfits operating in the country, the Pakistan government said, “It was decided to speed up action against all proscribed organisations, and in compliance, 44 under-observation members of proscribed organisations, including Mufti Abdul Rauf and Hammad Azhar, have been taken in preventive detention for investigation.”

Minister of State for the Interior Sheryar Khan Afridi was quoted as saying that the names of Mufti Abdul Rauf and Hammad Azhar were mentioned in a dossier shared by India last week.

However, describing Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s repeated claims that Pakistan would not allow terrorists to operate from its soil as “old wine in a new bottle,” Indian sources said, “These are words we have heard several times. We have exactly the same statement by President Pervez Musharraf in January 2004. Our effort now will be to see demonstrable action. Pakistan is trying to divert attention from our concern over terrorism to their concern over a so-called threat from India.”

A source further warned that “all options were on the table” in case of another terrorist attack.

“If there is a naya Pakistan with a naya soch, we expect to see action on the ground. There is still a discrepancy between what they are saying and doing. Mere statements from various sources saying that the Pakistan army has done its bit and that the civilian government has not is not enough,” the source added.

For instance, “there was the strange phenomenon yesterday of the Pakistan ambassador to the US, while talking at the Institute for Peace,  claiming that there is no organized terror group in Pakistan. This is at variance with their own listings, starting with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and going down, of terror groups in Pakistan.”

“While we are being told that hard action is being taken against the JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, all that has been done is that they are only on the watchlist. The objective of the Pakistan government is to pretend to the international community that it is taking steps,” the source said.

The source contended that “Pakistan is trying to deflect attention by issuing various statements suggesting that India still continues to threaten Pakistan militarily.” 

Agencies

[Nasheman news] New Delhi The UKs National Security Advisor (NSA) Mark Sedwill spoke to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on Thursday and expressed solidarity with India in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack.

Sources said Sedwill conveyed that all assistance will be extended to India bilaterally in dealing with any form of terrorism through counter-terrorism cooperation, intelligence sharing and by bringing the perpetrators of terrorist attacks to justice.

Earlier in the week, US NSA John Bolton had spoken to Doval over the prevailing situation between India and Pakistan following the February 14 Pulwama attack and the retaliatory Indian air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan.

Nasheman News : Downplaying the likely effects of the US withdrawal of benefits for Indian exports under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan has said the decision will not have any major impact on overall Indian exports to the US as the concessions availed under the scheme were “minimal”.

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, Wadhawan said: “Total GSP benefits availed by India under the GSP programme were to the tune of $190 million on a trade $5.6 billion. So, the benefits both in an absolute sense, and as a percentage of the trade involved, are very minimal and moderate.”

US President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he was ending India’s trade concessions under the GSP programme accusing New Delhi of not providing Washington “equitable and reasonable access” to its markets.

Trump, who is on a mission to expand market access abroad and end US trade deficits, made the announcement in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence in his capacity as the Senate President.

The US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) said that the preferences will end in 60 days after the notification to the Congress and the Indian government.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sources said the government will continue to talk to the US during the 60-day period. They said that efforts were being made to find a reasonable package and said the problem was not systemic.

Noting that there were a number of areas where India was willing to show flexibility, they said that it did not meet the US requirement.

There were genuine cultural concerns such as in case of dairy products, they said, adding that it was second year when US imports have grown.

The Commerce Secretary also said the US went ahead with the withdrawal of benefits despite the Indian government working out on an “extensive, reasonable, meaningful package which covered almost all the US concerns”.

“Of course there were some additional requests beyond that, which could not be accepted at this time,” he said.

The body of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was likely burned in a large oven at the Saudi consulate general’s residence in Istanbul, an Al Jazeera investigation revealed.

New details of the writer’s murder by a Saudi assassination team were reported in a documentary by media that aired on Sunday night.

Turkish authorities monitored the burning of the outdoor furnace as bags believed to be carrying Khashoggi’s body parts were transferred to the Saudi consul’s house after he was killed inside the consulate a few hundred metres away.

Media interviewed a worker who constructed the furnace who stated it was built according to specifications from the Saudi consul. It had to be deep and withstand temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius – hot enough to melt metal.

Bags of meat were also cooked in the oven after the killing in order to cover up the cremation of the Saudi writer’s body, authorities reported. 

Turkish investigators also found traces of Khashoggi’s blood on the walls of the Saudi consul’s office after removing paint that the assassination team applied after killing the Washington Post columnist on October 2, 2018.

The documentary was based on interviews with security officials, politicians, and some of Khashoggi’s Turkish friends.

‘Rogue elements’

A critic of Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Khashoggi entered the consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork so he could marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.

Riyadh initially insisted Khashoggi had left the consulate alive before changing its account and admitting the journalist was killed in an operation it said was undertaken by “rogue elements”.

A CIA report said MBS likely ordered Khashoggi’s killing – an allegation Saudi Arabia denies.

Eleven suspects have been indicted for Khashoggi’s murder in Saudi Arabia, which has insisted it would handle the case and refused their extradition to Turkey.

United Nation’s special rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who is leading an international inquiry into the murder, called it “a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the state of Saudi Arabia”.

The international investigation started in late January and an official report is due in June.

Aljazeera

Foreign minister accuses Myanmar of ‘hollow promises’ over 700,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in Bangladesh.7 hours ago

Bangladesh has told the United Nations Security Council it cannot take any more refugees from Myanmar, some 18 months after more than 700,000 Rohingya fled across the border amid a brutal military crackdown.

Attacks on security posts by Rohingya fighters in Myanmar’s Rakhine state triggered the violence that the UN, the United States, Britain and others describe as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies the accusations.

“I regret to inform the council that Bangladeshwould no longer be in a position to accommodate more people from Myanmar,” Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told the UN on Thursday.

Haque accused Myanmar of “hollow promises and various obstructionist approaches” during negotiations on returns.

“Not a single Rohingya has volunteered to return to Rakhine due to the absence of [a] conducive environment there,” Haque said.

Myanmar says it has been ready to accept returning refugees since January, but the Rohingya say they want guarantees over their safety and to be recognised as citizens before they go back to Rakhine.

The UN says conditions are not yet right for their return. The Western powers on the council on Thursday lamented the lack of action from Myanmar’s government.

‘Very disappointed’

“We’re very disappointed … that there hasn’t been more progress on getting the refugees back and that obviously includes creating the conditions where the refugees feel able to go back,” Karen Pierce, Britain’s UN Ambassador, told the council.

Several council members stressed the return of refugees needed to be safe, voluntary, dignified and secure, and pushed for the Myanmar government to allow the UN widespread and unconditional access to Rakhine.

UN envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner-Burgener told the council that the UN access was currently “insufficient”.

“The scale of what has been done to the Rohingya Muslims and the allegations of crimes against humanity really mark this out as one of the most terrible events of this century so far,” she said.

The 15-member UNSC has been split over how to deal with the crisis, with Western powers pitted against Russia and China, an ally of Myanmar.

China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Wu Haitao said it was mainly an issue between Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh “and as such it is up to the two countries to work out a solution”.

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy agreed.

In December, Britain circulated a draft resolution to council members that diplomats said aims to put a timeline on Myanmar allowing the return of refugees and addressing accountability, but China and Russia have boycotted talks on the draft.

Deputy US Ambassador Jonathan Cohen said: “The international community cannot ignore the world’s largest refugee camp.”

Aljazeera

Nasheman News :  Pakistan former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court against a decision by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejecting him bail in a corruption case.

Sharif was on December 24 sentenced to seven years in prison by an anti-corruption court in Al-Azizia Steel Mills case for owning a steel factory abroad without disclosing its ownership. 

On February 25, the IHC dismissed the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader’s plea seeking bail and suspension of his sentence on medical grounds. 

A petition filed by Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris on Friday sought that the IHC decision be declared null and void.

The anti-corruption court judge had last year imposed hefty fines on Sharif after ruling that Al-Azizia Steel Mills — a Saudi Arabian firm carrying the name of his son — belonged to the three-time Premier and that he was unable to demonstrate how the project was funded.

Nasheman News : The US is offering a $1 million reward for information on the whereabouts of Hamza bin Laden, the son of slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who is emerging as a leader in the terror group’s network, the State Department has announced.

The reward was announced by Sales and State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Michael T. Evanoff on Thursday.

“He has released audio and video messages on the Internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the US and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the US in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by US military forces,” CNN quoted the Department as saying on Thursday.

It said that when Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, items seized from his hiding place indicated that he was grooming Hamza bin Laden to replace him as the leader of Al Qaeda.

Hamza bin Laden is married to the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker in the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, the State Department said.

As American officials hunt him down, UN member states are required to freeze Hamza bin Laden’s assets and comply with a travel ban and arms embargo, according to the State Department bureau of counter-terrorism.

US officials estimate Hamza bin Laden is aged between 30 and 33 years.