Bangkok, April 22 (IANS) Myanmar authorities and members of Arakanese groups have committed crimes against humanity in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State since June 2012, Human Rights Watch said Monday.
A 153-page report describes the role of the Myanmar government and local authorities in the forcible displacement of more than 125,000 Rohingya and other Muslims and the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Tokyo, April 22 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The cooling system for the spent fuel pool at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in northeast Japan was halted Monday after several dead rats were discovered at the facility, the Kyodo news agency reported.
The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), said the system was stopped for inspection after dead rats were found near a transformer.
The inspection is expected to take several hours, after which the cooling system will be restarted, Tepco said.
Kabul, April 22 (IANS) “The Taliban captured us and chopped off our hands and feet,” one of the two victims of the Taliban’s harsh justice said in a hospital in the western Herat province over the weekend.
What happened shocked not just the doctors and other medical staff in the hospital but also other patients.
“Amputation of these two men is the barbaric act of Taliban and this reminds us of the brutality of the Taliban rule 12 years ago,” one hospital staff member told Xinhua but declined to be identified for security reasons.
Kabul, April 22 (IANS) Taliban militants captured nine people from a downed helicopter in Afghanistan’s Logar province overnight, official Hamidullah Hamid said Monday.
“A civilian helicopter went down in Darai Manga area of Azra district overnight and Taliban militants captured all nine aboard,” Hamid told Xinhua.
Eight of the hostages are Turkish nationals and one is Afghan, Hamid said, adding that the Turkish nationals are construction engineers and were coming from Khost to Kabul.
According to the Hamid, efforts are underway to rescue the abducted people.
Beijing, April 22 (IANS) A strong quake in southwest China’s Sichuan province has left 188 people dead and 25 missing as of Monday, authorities said.
Altogether 11,950 people were injured and more than 1.72 million people were affected by the deadly quake, reported Xinhua citing the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
A total of 2,044 aftershocks have been monitored in China’s quake-hit Lushan county till Monday, authorities said.
Four of the aftershocks measured 5.0-5.9 magnitude, reported Xinhua citing the China Earthquake Administration.
Borno (Nigeria), April 22 (IANS) At least 185 people were confirmed dead in a weekend crossfire between the military and Boko Haram sect in Baga, a fishing community located in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, according to military authorities.
Austin Edokpaye, commander of the Multinational Military Joint Task Force of Nigeria, Niger and Lake Chad, confirmed the casualty figures and said the attack began in the commercial border town of Nigeria and Lake Chad late Friday and continued till Saturday evening.
Brasilia, April 22 (IANS) A Brazilian judge has sentenced 23 police officers to 156 years in prison each for involvement in a notorious prison massacre in 1992.
The officers were convicted of killing 13 inmates during an operation to quell a revolt in Carandiru Prison in Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. The incident came to be known as the “Carandiru massacre”.
A seven-member jury at the trial found the officers guilty of shooting at rioting prisoners from the facility’s second-floor using machine guns, reported Xinhua.
Expressing serious concern over the brutal rape of a five-year old girl in the capital, the BJP Monday favoured death penalty to culprits responsible for such incidents, while the Congress sought an all-party meeting to make anti-rape bill more stringent.
BJP member Maya Singh, who initiated a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on growing incidence of crimes against women, accused Delhi Police of callousness in its initial handling of the case of brutal rape of the five-year-old.
Andhra Pradesh has 30 national highways having a length of 6,759 km, parliament was informed Monday.
Road Transport and Highways Minister S. Sathyanarayana told the Lok Sabha that work on improving 56 of the highways was in progress in the state.
He said some of the projects had got delayed due to various reasons including land acquisition, shifting of utilities and slow progress of work by the contractor.
All transport departments in the country have been told to recognize ‘Aadhaar’ for evidence of age and address while issuing driving license.
Road Transport and Highways Minister S. Sathyanarayana said this in the Lok Sabha.
World No.2 Saina Nehwal says she is excited as well as nervous at the prospect of playing compatriot P.V. Sindhu in the women’s singles quarterfinals at the India Open starting here Tuesday.
“I think it will be an interesting, good match. I am also very excited to play against her. It will be very exciting for the spectators as well. I am also a little nervous being a top player but I will give my best,” said Saina, at the $200,000 India Open Super Series opening press conference, Monday.
In a powerful speech, expressing his “very deep sense of anger and anguish” at the manifold rise in crimes and their gruesomeness, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury Monday said the “depravity” in society was due to “modernoxicity” and the “neo-liberal economic reforms” that had unleashed “a new animal in India”.
Addressing a debate on issues relating to safety of women in the Rajya Sabha, Yechury said: “Today our heads hang in shame that we cannot protect our mothers and children.”
A minor girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour in Benipur village here, police said today.
The seven-year-old girl was sleeping with her sister yesterday when Jayprakash (35) took her to a field and raped
her, said Mirzamurad SHO Dinesh Chandra Mishra.
Later, the girl was found by her parents, who lodged a complaint against the accused.
The accused has been arrested today, the SHO said, adding that the further probes are on.
————————PTI
Dhaka, April 22 (IANS) Abdul Hamid was Monday elected unopposed the president of Bangladesh which has been reeling under a violent political stand-off between the ruling and the main opposition parties.
“Abdul Hamid, speaker of the National Assembly, is elected president of Bangladesh as per section 7 of the Presidential Election Law 1991,” said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Kazi Rakib Uddin Ahmed in a formal announcement Monday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling coalition Sunday named Abdul Hamid as its candidate for the post of the country’s 20th president, reported Xinhua.
Five people, including a woman, were killed in a shootout, apparently sparked by a dispute, at a Washington state apartment complex, police said today.
Officers responding to an emergency call last night at the apartments in Federal Way, about 32 kilometres south of Seattle, encountered a chaotic scene, with bullets flying.
“When officers arrived there were still shots being fired,” said Federal Way police spokeswoman Cathy Schrock.
They found two injured men on the ground in a parking lot.
One of the men reached for a gun as police moved in to assist the two, she said.
Kolkata, April 22 (IANS) West Bengal Monday set up a high-powered commission headed by a former Calcutta High Court judge and a special investigation team to unravel the chit fund mess in wake of the Saradha Group going bust, affecting lakhs of depositors and agents.
“The commission will be headed by retired Justice Shaymal Sen. It will look into how much money has been laundered, who all were the depositors, how much money is involved, and how can we return the money,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told mediapersons after a high-level meeting at the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings.
Chennai, April 22 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Monday called for a third front at the national level as the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have both failed in their promises.
“Samajwadi Party believes that there should be a third front at the national level. The policies of Congress and BJP are not pro-poor,” he told reporters here, claiming that both the parties and their allies have failed to fulfill their promises and there is a bright opportunity for an alternative political grouping.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee on Monday sought the support of BJP for the Sansad Yatra it would organize later in the month.
TJAC members met senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and urged them to express solidarity with the TJAC which will organize the dharna in the national capital to press for their demand of a separate Telangana.
The BJP has been vociferous of the separate state demand and the leader of opposition has moved a private bill in the Parliament earlier. The Telangana issue was raised by many BJP members in both houses of the parliament earlier.
Chandigarh, April 22 (IANS) Three officials of Punjab’s Faridkot town jail were injured Monday in a clash with inmates following the death of a prisoner, police said.
The inmates went on the rampage and damaged property inside the prison, police officials in Faridkot, 250 km from here, said.
Police reinforcements and fire brigade had to be rushed into the jail complex to control the situation.
The deputy jail superintendent and two other jail officials were injured in the clash. The inmates even set some property on fire inside the jail complex.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon blasts, had objected to a sermon at a Cambridge mosque in which the speaker compared the Prophet with civil rights leader Martin Luther King, a mosque official said.
Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston, which runs the mosque, said 26-year-old Tsarnaev told the speaker, “You are a kafir [an unbeliever],” and said he was contaminating people’s minds and was a hypocrite.
–Agencies
Hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore would be looking to consolidate their position at the top of the league table and also maintain their unbeaten run at home when they face a struggling Pune Warriors India in the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) here Tuesday.
Royal Challengers, led by the aggressive Virat Kohli, have looked unbeatable at the Chinnaswamy stadium, a couple of close games notwithstanding. In fact, their only two defeats so far in seven outings have been in away matches, at Hyderabad and Chennai.
In a temporary relief to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s interim government today refused to put him on trial for treason for violating the Constitution, saying such a move was not part of its mandate.
The caretaker administration, formed last month to conduct the May 11 general election, conveyed its position in a reply submitted to the Supreme Court.
Late Richard Holbrooke, the first US special Af-Pak envoy, was fully aware that the Pakistani generals were lying to him on their support to the extremist groups against India, but he was against cutting off military aid to Islamabad, a new book has said.
In his latest book “Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East”, the two-time Pulitzer winner David Rhode said Holbrooke wanted massive aid for Pakistan and launch some signature big projects there, in the absence of which he increasingly became frustrated with the USAID.
People in Karnataka are generally crazy about film stars but this adoration has not tempted many actors to enter politics. And the few contesting the May 5 assembly polls are having a tough time.
The most prominent actor in the fray is Congress candidate M.H. Ambareesh, who was a junior minister for a short period in the first United Progressive Alliance government at New Delhi. Known as “rebel star” in his reel life, Ambareesh, 61, is battling the strongest rebellion against him in his 15-year-old political career in his home district of Mandya, about 80 km from Bangalore.
The Lok Sabha was Monday adjourned repeatedly over various issues, including statehood for Telangana, demands for the resignation of union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and the unrest in West Bengal over Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee being heckled.
As soon as the lower house assembled after a month-long break for the second half of the budget session, Speaker Meira Kumar led the MPs in paying tributes to the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and victims of the April 4 building collapse in Thane, Maharashtra. Seventy-four people were killed in that tragedy.