‘Members’ surprised by Saudi anti-terror coalition plan
‘Members’ surprised by Saudi anti-terror coalition plan ‘Members’ surprised by Saudi anti-terror coalition plan A number of countries have expressed surprise that they were included by Saudi Arabia in a new military alliance to fight terrorism. Officials in Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia all said they had not formally agreed to join the alliance. Saudi Arabia […]
‘Members’ surprised by Saudi anti-terror coalition plan
‘Members’ surprised by Saudi anti-terror coalition plan
A number of countries have expressed surprise that they were included by Saudi Arabia in a new military alliance to fight terrorism.
Officials in Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia all said they had not formally agreed to join the alliance.
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said 34 mainly Muslim nations would be part of the counter-terrorism grouping.
Prince Mohammed said it would focus on efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.
He indicated there were still “procedures” for these countries to go through before joining, “but out of keenness to achieve this coalition as soon as possible, [the alliance of] 34 countries has been announced”.
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry was quoted in the Dawn newspaper as saying he was surprised by the announcement and had asked the Pakistani ambassador in Riyadh for clarification.
The country’s foreign office said in a statement later on Wednesday that it was “awaiting further details to decide the extent of its participation in different activities of the alliance” before making a decision on whether to join.
In Indonesia, the foreign ministry said it too had not yet decided whether to join. “The government is still observing and waiting to see the modalities of the military coalition formed by Saudi Arabia,” foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told The Jakarta Post.
Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein went further – expressing support for the coalition but ruling out any military involvement from Kuala Lumpur.
Announcing the alliance, Saudi Arabia said a joint operations centre would be established in the capital Riyadh and the coalition would focus on terror groups “whatever their doctrine”.
#ZumaMustFall: South Africans march against Jacob Zuma
Thousands of protesters are marching in South Africa to demand President Jacob Zuma is sacked.
The latest protests are a reaction to him sacking two finance ministers last week, further damaging confidence in the economy.
This comes on top of claims of widespread corruption, recent student protests and a succession battle in the governing African National Congress. The marchers are using the hasthag #ZumaMustFall on social media.
But unlike the groundswell of protest that led to the recall of President Thabo Mbeke in 2008, Jacob Zuma still appears to have support within the National Executive Committee of the ANC.
Earlier this week, the party’s top brass went on TV to deliver a message to a South African public still reeling from the events of the past week, that they still support their president.
No evidence California attackers were part of terrorist cell: FBI head
There is no evidence a married couple who killed 14 people in California this month were part of a terrorist cell, the head of the FBI said on Wednesday, echoing investigators’ views that the pair were inspired by, rather than organized by Islamic State.
The Islamist militant group has “revolutionized” terrorism by seeking to inspire such small-scale attacks, FBI Director James Comey said, noting the group uses social media, encrypted communications and slickly produced propaganda to recruit followers around the world.
“Your parents’ al Qaeda was a very different model than the threat we face today,” Comey told a counterterrorism conference in New York.
However, he said that while the perpetrators of the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino, California – Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 29 – had expressed support for “jihad and martyrdom” in private communications, they never did so on social media.
Comey said the Federal Bureau of Investigation currently has “hundreds” of investigations in all 50 U.S. states involving potential Islamic State-inspired plots.
Libya: Rival parliament leaders hold first meeting
The heads of Libya’s two rival parliaments have met for the first time, Libyan television reported.
Agila Salah, from the internationally recognised congress in the eastern city of Tobruk, and Nouri Abusahmen, from the Tripoli-based General National Congress, held talks in Malta.
But the expected signing of a UN plan for a national unity government has been put back until Thursday.
Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Amid the turmoil the country has become a major departure point for some of the thousands of migrants travelling to Europe.
There is also international concern that the so-called Islamic State group is taking advantage of the instability to expand inside Libya.
The meeting in Malta between the two men follows weekend talks in Rome in which world powers urged Libya’s warring factions to stop fighting and back a unity government.
Malala condemns Donald Trump call for Muslim ban in US
Malala Yousafzai has condemned a call by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump to ban Muslims from entering the US.
The Nobel Prize winner said his comments were “full of hatred” and blaming Muslims for terrorism would only “radicalise more terrorists”.
She was speaking at an event in Birmingham to mark one year since a Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan left more than 150 dead, most of them children.
“Well, that’s really tragic that you hear these comments which are full of hatred, full of this ideology of being discriminative towards others,” Malala told AFP news agency.
The 18-year-old Pakistani campaigner also spoke to BBC Urdu’s Adil Shahzeb at the event, and urged politicians and the media to exercise more caution.
“I have to say that whether it’s Western media or Eastern media, if they only blame 1.6 billion Muslims for terrorists attacks then terrorism can’t be defeated, that just leads to creating more anger in people and leads to producing more terrorists.”
Tanzania anti-corruption chief fired
The head of Tanzania’s anti-corruption body, Edward Hoseah, has been sacked by President John Magufuli for negligence, the government says in a statement.
The president expresses his dissatisfaction at the body’s conduct in fighting corruption in the country, it added.
Mr Magufuli has also suspended four top officers in the anti-corruption body who travelled abroad despite the government’s recent suspension of all foreign trips for public servants.
Since coming to office in October, Mr Magufuli, who is nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, has announced a range of cost-cutting measures, including a ban on unnecessary foreign travel by government officials.
He also replaced the independence celebration with a clean-up campaign.
This suspension should send a clear message to other public servants who think the president was bluffing when he announced the ban on foreign trips, the government added.
Mass prisoner swap under way in Yemen
A mass prisoner exchange is under way between Houthi fighters and government forces in Yemen amid UN-sponsored talks to end the fighting in the Arabian Peninsula country.
Expectations for a deal at the peace talks in Switzerland are low as both sides seem to be failing to honour a week-long ceasefire.
There were reports on Wednesday of heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Houthis around the city of Taiz in central Yemen.
The swap was taking place a day after the truce came into force to halt fighting in nine months of civil war between the Iran-allied Houthis, based in Yemen’s north, and Arab coalition-backed fighters loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Seychelles vote in presidential run-off
The Seychelles voted on Wednesday in the second round of a presidential election in which incumbent James Michel is seeking a third term by touting the Indian Ocean archipelago’s economic expansion under his watch.
It is the first time a run-off ballot is being held in Seychelles, where voting runs over three days because of huge distances between some of the 115 islands that are home to 93,000 people. Results are expected late on Friday.
Michel, 71, who whose ruling Parti Lepep party, or People’s Party in Creole, has been in power for 38 years, is seen having an edge over Wavel Ramkalawan, a 54-year-old Anglican priest-turned-politician.
In the first round, Michel secured 48 percent of the vote, just short of the more than 50 percent needed to win outright, against 34 percent for Ramkalawan, who now has the backing of three of the four opposition candidates from the first round.
Tornado rips roofs off homes as record winds lash Sydney
A tornado has ripped through Sydney, with one weather station recording the fastest ever wind speeds in the state of New South Wales.
Destructive winds of 213km/h hit Kurnell, on the southern headland of Botany Bay, Wednesday morning.
Two people have been taken to hospital, one suffering head injuries and another suffering shock, a NSW Ambulance spokesperson told the BBC.
A Kurnell resident told Sky News the storm sounded “like a freight train”.
Authorities said it is lucky no-one was seriously injured, but at least 25 properties have been severely damaged, some declared uninhabitable.
“This is a hard blow for the Kurnell community, just one week before Christmas,” NSW State Emergency Service (SES) spokesperson Phil Campbell said.
Turkey mistreated scores of migrants, says Amnesty
Turkey has detained and mistreated scores of migrants, pressuring some to return to war zones, a new report by Amnesty International says.
The group says EU pressure on Turkey to stem migration to Europe has resulted in the “forcible transportation” of hundreds of migrants.
Pressuring them to return was in breach of international law, the Amnesty report said.
Turkey “categorically denied” any Syrian migrant had been forced home.
In the report, released on Wednesday, Amnesty blames the EU’s “recklessness” and says it should suspend “Action Plan” – the EU-Turkey migration deal signed in November – until human rights obligations are met.