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China's Xi says won't allow Taiwan to be 'split' off again
China will never allow the tragedy of Taiwan being "split" off from the rest of the country to happen again, state media on Sunday quoted President Xi Jinping as saying, offering a strong warning to the island against any moves towards independence.
China considers self-ruled and democratic Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.
Beijing has repeatedly warned against any moves towards independence since January's landslide win by Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Sri Lanka brings back war-time measures to fight gangs
Road blocks and random vehicle checks return seven years after war ended in effort to combat surge in drug smuggling and serious crime
Sri Lanka’s police have re-introduced war-time road blocks and random checks on vehicles following a surge in gang-related shootings in the capital.
More than 100 police stations in Colombo and its suburbs have been asked to erect snap blocks, a common practice during the island’s separatist war that ended nearly seven years ago, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.
“The objective is to prevent serious crime and drug smuggling as well as to catch those committing serious crime,” he said.
Gunasekera said there was a surge in drug smuggling and shootings that prompted the authorities to take extraordinary measures.
Is it Isis or the economy that will ruin Iraq?
Jihad is still a threat to the people of Baghdad, but lack of oil revenue is inducing near-panic
Islamic State prepares its murderous bombings with chilling care and attention to detail. Several months ago, the Iraqi security forces discovered a plan to bomb al-Khadamiya, an ancient quarter of Baghdad at the centre of which is one of the holiest Shia shrines. Isis operatives first spent a month watching the checkpoints protecting the district, looking for weaknesses. Then they sent a woman through the checkpoint they had chosen as the most vulnerable, to look at it more closely but without carrying explosives. Soon afterwards she was sent again, but this time carrying a child’s toy under her robes. Nobody stopped or questioned her, so Isis had her do the same journey, but this time with a much bulkier toy which the security men at this checkpoint should have noticed but did not.
The next occasion the would-be suicide bomber entered alKhadamiya it would have been on a one-way mission to blow herself up and kill as many people as possible in the area of the shrine. Fortunately, it never happened because the Iraqi security forces received some quite separate intelligence about what was intended, and arrested the bombing team. The elaborate nature of the preparations for the attack were typical of the mixture of fanaticism and expertise with which Isis carries out its terrorist acts.
Zaman journalist speaks from inside offices of seized newspaper
A day after the Turkish government seized the country’s biggest newspaper, Zaman, FRANCE 24 spoke to Mustafa Edib Yılmaz, a Zaman journalist, from inside the newspaper’s offices that are now under police control.
Turkish authorities seized control of the country’s largest newspaper on Friday in a widening crackdown on both the free press and supporters of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, an influential friend-turned-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has close links to the newspaper.
A court ruling on March 4 put Zaman and its English-language sister publication Today’s Zaman under state control. They will now be run by a board of court-appointed trustees. Hundreds of people protested the takeover. Police used tear-gas to break up the protests on Friday night and again on Saturday.
How guns have become integral to elections in India
- Danish Raza, Hindustan Times |
- Updated: Mar 06, 2016 12:48 IST
His mother, Ishrat Begum, thought eight-year-old Mohammad Shami shook for the fraction of a second on hearing the sound of a gun going off. Members of the Samajwadi Party (SP) were firing from rifles and country made pistols during a procession in the middle of a busy market in Shamli district, western Uttar Pradesh, to celebrate the victory of local politician Nafeesa as the block head. But a moment later, Ishrat saw a stream of blood oozing from Shami’s body as he lay dead next to her in a rickshaw.
Local and state level elections in parts of the country are marred by violence including incidents of shooting, arson, the sabotaging of public property and ‘harsh (Hindi for ‘joy’) firing’. It was this celebratory firing that claimed Shami’s life in the first week of February, this year. In response to the event, the state government transferred Shamli’s Sub-Divisional Magistrate and Deputy Superintendent of Police. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expelled Nafeesa from the SP and ordered the immediate arrest of her supporters who were seen firing in the air in a video recording.
Many Russians feeling nostalgic for communist past
Amid a worsening economy, Kremlin seems concerned about potential resurgence of Communist party as elections near.
Rory Challands | | Politics, Europe, Russia
Moscow - Saturday marks the 63rd anniversary of Joseph Stalin's death, but while the infamous dictator is dead and gone, communism in Russia is not.
A worsening economy has many Russians feeling nostalgic for the Soviet days of old. Recent polls suggest half of all Russians still think they were actually better off under the Soviet system.
Maria Krechatova, a curator at a Moscow exhibition of Stalin-era art, said: "Interest in Joseph Stalin is increasing. It is understandable. We celebrated the 70th anniversary of the World War II and we should not forget who was at the helm of the country and under whose leadership the victory was achieved."
With parliamentary elections looming, a possible Communist party resurgence is starting to worry the Kremlin.
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