Terror groups resort to sexual violence as war tactic: UN

April 14, 2015

United Nations, Apr 14: A new report by the United Nations has revealed that rape and sexual attacks have turned into a tactic of war in the hands of Takfiri terror groups such as ISIL and Boko Haram.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in the world body's annual report released on Monday that the year 2014 saw “harrowing accounts of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage being used by extremist groups, including as a tactic of terror.”

women

According to the review, sexual assaults in Iraq, Syria and Nigeria do not occur incidentally, but are “integrally linked to strategic objectives, ideology and funding of extremist groups.”

The UN report listed ISIL and Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists along with 11 other groups as the parties that resort to sexual violence.

Boko Haram, which controls part of the northeastern Nigeria, recently declared allegiance to the ISIL Takfiri group, which is perpetrating heinous crimes against humanity in areas under its control in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.

It further noted that the ISIL terrorists purportedly held captive and forced into sexual slavery young women, particularly those from the Izadi minority group, after capturing Iraq's northern city of Mosul last June.

Over the past several months, some 1,500 civilians may have been forced to become sex slaves in Iraq, the report said, while pointing to a “significant increase” in the number of cases of sexual violence in Syria where abductees from Iraq are being sold in markets in areas under the control of ISIL.

The UN covered 19 nations in the report and listed 45 groups engaged in sexual violence.

Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of Nigeria since the beginning of its operations in 2009. The insurgency has left over 13,000 people dead and 1.5 million displaced.

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Agencies
February 18,2020

British lawmaker Debbie Abrahams' e-Business visa was revoked as she was involved in anti-India activities and the cancellation was conveyed to her on February 14, government sources said on Tuesday.

Asserting that the grant, rejection or revocation of a visa or electronic travel authorisation is the sovereign right of a country, the sources said Abrahams was issued an e-Business visa on October 7 last year which was valid till October 5, 2020 for attending business meetings.

"Her e-Business visa was revoked on February 14, 2020 on account of her indulging in activities which went against India's national interest. The rejection of the e-Business visa was intimated to her on February 14," a source said.

Abrahams, who chairs a British parliamentary group on Kashmir, was denied entry into India upon her arrival at the New Delhi airport on Monday.

Government officials had said on Monday also that she was informed in advance that her e-visa had been cancelled.

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Agencies
February 16,2020

Wuhan, Feb 16: The death toll from China's coronavirus epidemic has climbed to 1,665 after 142 more people died, mostly in the worst-hit Hubei Province, and the confirmed cases jumped to 68,500, officials said on Sunday, as top WHO experts scramble to assist Beijing contain the virus spread.

China's National Health Commission confirmed 2,009 new cases across the country.

Hubei and its provincial capital Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, reported 1,843 of the new cases. The latest report brought the total confirmed cases in Hubei to 56,249 cases.

Of the new deaths, 139 were in Hubei, two in Sichuan, and one in Hunan, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The number of new cases, however, appears to have started dropping and a top Chinese health official has said efforts to control the outbreak have reached the “most crucial stage".

The report said 9,419 infected patients had been discharged from hospital after recovery so far.

The coronavirus has posed a severe threat to the medical staff as more than 1,700 Chinese health officials have been infected by the virus while treating the patients and six of them have died.

Experts from the World Health Organisation are expected in Beijing on Sunday to join Chinese health authorities in containing the virus, which has spread to several other countries forcing them to temporarily stop tourist arrivals from China.

The health commission said a joint mission with WHO experts will pay field visits to China's three provincial-level regions to learn the effectiveness of the epidemic control measures.

One task of the mission will be to come up with standard medicine to cure the disease, according to the health commission.

Several antiviral drugs are under clinical trials and Chinese researchers have narrowed down their focus to a few existing drugs, including Chloroquine Phosphate, Favipiravir and Remdesivir, said Zhang Xinmin, director of the China National Centre for Biotechnology Development.

Experts have asked people to frequently wash hands and face, and wear masks.

Authorities have begun quarantining large quantity of bank notes and coins in the affected areas and sanitising them with UV light before releasing them back into circulation to stop the virus from spreading.

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June 1,2020

Washington, Jun 1: As protesters gathered outside the White House on Friday night in Washington DC, US President Donald Trump was briefly taken to the White House underground bunker, The New York Times reported citing a person having firsthand knowledge about the incident.

Trump was there for less than an hour before being brought upstairs. After hundreds of people surged towards the White House on Friday, Secret Service and the United States Park Police officers sought to block them.

Trump's team was surprised by the protests that were witnessed outside the White House on Friday night, according to the US daily. It is, however, unclear if Melania Trump and Barron Trump were also taken down with him.

in response to the continuing protests against the death of African-American man George Floyd in police custody.

National Guard members have been activated in 15 states and Washington, DC with another 2,000 prepared to activate if needed.

Demonstrators across the United States have been protesting since May 25, when George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died under the police custody in the city of Minneapolis.

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