ISIS suicide bomber kills 60 at Afghanistan voter registration site
KABUL (April 22, 201) — A suicide bombing outside a voter-registration center in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed at least 60 people and wounded 119 others, officials say. Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said a bomber on foot targeted a crowd that had gathered to pick up national identification cards ahead of legislative elections later this year. The government said 22 of the dead were women and eight were children. Some of the dead children were students at a nearby high school. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack in Dashte Barchi, a heavily Shi’ite-populated area in western Kabul, through its Amaq news agency.
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Afghan capital hit by morning rush hour blasts, 21 killed and 27+ wounded
KABUL (Reuters) – Two blasts hit the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, 30th April, killing at least 21 people, including a photographer for French news agency AFP. The photographer, Shah Marai, was among a group of journalists caught in the second explosion as they were reporting on the initial blast. The attacks came just a week after a blast at a voter registration center killed 60 people, in the wake of warnings by security officials against the risk of increasing attacks ahead of parliamentary elections planned in October.
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US, UK and France Targeted on Syrian so called ‘Chemical Weapons Sites’
WASHINGTON (APRIL 14, 2018) —- Defense Department officials said that American-led strikes against Syria had taken out the “heart” of President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons program, but acknowledged that the Syrian government most likely retained some ability to again attack its own people with chemical agents. Warplanes and ships from the United States, Britain and France launched more than 100 missiles at three chemical weapons storage and research facilities near Damascus and Homs, the officials told reporters, in an operation that President Trump and Pentagon leaders hailed as a success.
“A perfectly executed strike last night,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!”
The strikes were the second time in just over a year that President Trump had sent missiles crashing into Syrian military targets, adding American firepower to one of the most complex and multisided conflicts in a generation.
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Syria intercepted 77 of 100+ missiles launched at its civilian, military objects
14 Apr, 2018| — The majority of rockets fired in Syria by the UK, US, and France were intercepted by Syrian air defense systems, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Russian air defense units were not involved in repelling the attack. The warplanes and vessels of the US and its allies launched over 100 cruise missiles and air-surface missiles on Syrian civil and military facilities, the ministry stated. The strikes were conducted by two US ships stationed in the Red Sea, with tactical air support from the Mediterranean. The Pentagon deployed B-1 Lancer strategic bombers which also took part in the combat sorties, according to the statement. Syrian Al-Dumayr Military Airport, located 40 km north-east from Damascus, was attacked by 12 cruise missiles, the Russian MoD confirmed, adding that all missiles were intercepted by Syrian air defense systems. To repel the attack, Damascus deployed Soviet-made surface-to-air missile systems, including S-125 (NATO reporting name: SA-3 Goa), S-200 (SA-5 Gammon), 2K12 Kub (SA-6 Gainful) and Buk.
The ministry issued a statement saying that none of the missiles launched by the US and its allies reached the Russian air defense zones that shield facilities in the port city of Tartus and Khmeimim Air Base.
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Israeli forces kill four Palestinians, wound 955 at Gaza protest
GAZA: ( Fri 20 Apr, 2018) Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians on the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, bringing to 35 the death toll in recent weeks among Palestinian protesters demanding the right to return to their former homeland. Gazans used catapults and sling-shots to launch stones at Israeli forces, and some Palestinians brought wire-cutters to cut through the border fence, ignoring leaflets dropped by the Israeli military warning residents not to approach the frontier. The deaths included a 15-year-old boy shot dead in northern Gaza, Palestinian health officials said, adding that 178 people were wounded by Israeli gunfire. UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov wrote on Twitter: “It is outrageous to shoot at children! How does the killing of a child in Gaza today help peace? It doesn’t! It fuels anger and breeds more killing. Children must be protected from violence, not exposed to it.”
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Peace At Hand? Korean Leaders Meet For Historic Border Handshake
Friday , April 27, 2018 | ….. An historic handshake at the most heavily fortified border in the world on Friday symbolized the hope that two Koreas could create a lasting rapprochement but failed efforts in the past weighed heavily over the moment.
“I can’t stop feeling excited to meet in this historic place, and I am very moved that the President came to greet me at the demarcation line,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, according to South Korea’s presidential office.
A year of especially serious tensions leading up to Friday 27 April, was followed by a sudden thaw and an offer by Kim in recent weeks to meet with President Trump. Mere months ago, the two leaders were trading insults and threatening to wage war. However, the White House appears to be taking Kim’s offer seriously and the two men could meet as soon as next month.
At Panmunjom, Kim and Moon smiled and exchanged greetings. They walked side-by-side down a red carpet, observed a brightly-colored traditional Korean honor-guard ceremony, before proceeding into the three-story Peace House for their summit. Once seated inside, Kim quipped he brought Pyongyang’s famous naengmyun, cold noodles, “from far away,” before then correcting himself to say it wasn’t so far away at all.
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Koreas Set Bold Goals: Peace by Year’s End and No Nuclear Arms
By CHOE SANG-HUN | …. SEOUL, South Korea The leaders of North and South Korea agreed to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, by this year, declare an official end to the Korean War that ravaged the two nations from 1950 to 1953. At a historic summit meeting that marked the first time a North Korean leader had set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a peace treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula for more than six decades, while ridding it of nuclear weapons. “The South and the North confirmed their joint goal of realizing a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons through complete denuclearization,” read a statement signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, after their meeting at the border village of Panmunjom. The meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon was marked by some surprisingly candid moments but also sweeping pledges, with Mr. Kim saying, “I came here to put an end to the history of confrontation.”
The event, at the Peace House, a conference building on the South Korean side of Panmunjom, was closely watched because it could set the tone for the even more critical summit meeting between President Trump and Mr. Kim, two leaders known for bold if unpredictable actions who only recently had the world fearing a nuclear war. ‘Courtesy Asia Pacific’
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Algerian military plane crashes : killing 257 in nation’s worst aviation disaster
Apr 11, 2018 | Associated Press| — ALGIERS A hulking military transport plane crashed just after takeoff in Algeria on Wednesday, 11 April 2018, killing 257 people in the worst aviation disaster in the North African nation’s history and plunging the country into mourning. Soldiers, their family members and a group of 30 people returning to refugee camps from hospital stays in Algeria’s capital died in the morning crash of the Russian-made II-76 aircraft. Several witnesses told Algerian TV network Ennahar they saw flames coming out of one of the planes’ four engines just before it took off. The flight was scheduled to go to Tindouf and then Bechar, the site of another military base, according to Farouk Achour, spokesman for Algeria’s civil protection services. Tindouf is home to many refugees from the neighboring Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco.
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Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: Anti-apartheid campaigner dies at 81
Johannesburg: 2 April 2018| —- South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died aged 81. She and her former husband Nelson Mandela, who were both jailed, were a symbol of the country’s anti-apartheid struggle for three decades. However, in later years her reputation became tainted legally and politically.
‘Mother of the Nation’
– Mrs Madikizela-Mandela was born in 1936 in the Eastern Cape – then known as Transkei. She was a trained social worker when she met her future husband in the 1950s. They went on to have two daughters together. They were married for a total of 38 years, although for almost three decades of that time they were separated due to Mr Mandela’s long imprisonment.
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Number of Republicans quitting Congress hits 44-year high amid backlash against Donald Trump
By: Ben Riley-Smith, Us editor | 7 APRIL 2018
More Republicans are quitting Congress than at any time in the last 44 years, analysis for The Telegraph has revealed, as a backlash against Donald Trump gathers pace. Thirty seven Republicans in the US House of Representatives are not seeking re-election in the 2018 mid-terms a higher number than any point since 1974. Fear of being swept away by a “blue wave” of Democratic support is partly driving the exodus, according to experts and Republican insiders. The trend makes it easier for the Democrats to take back control of the House from the Republicans because incumbent candidates are harder to defeat. Losing the House would have a profound effect on Mr Trump’s ability to pass new laws…
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Former top U.S. intelligence officials back Trump’s CIA pick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, has received the strong, cross-partisan backing of dozens of former top intelligence officials, according to a letter sent to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Gina Haspel, a veteran CIA clandestine officer picked by U.S. President Donald Trump to head the Central Intelligence Agency, is shown in this handout photograph released on March 13, 2018. CIA/Handout via Reuters “Ms Haspel’s qualifications to be CIA Director match or exceed those of most candidates put forward in the Agency’s 70-year history,” they said in the letter to the committee’s leaders that was released.
Among the 53 signing the letter expressing “strong support” for Haspel were three former Directors of National Intelligence and six former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump nominated Haspel, a veteran CIA undercover officer who is currently CIA deputy director, to be director last month. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to lead the agency. The announcement prompted objections over connections Haspel, who oversaw a “black site” prison in Thailand, may have had to the use of water boarding and other brutal interrogation techniques widely seen as torture in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
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Britain opens first naval overseas base in 50 years in sign of ‘global reach’
By Con Coughlin, Defence editor, Bahrain | Britain’s ability to maintain a global military presence post-Brexit has been greatly enhanced by the opening of the Royal Navy’s new permanent base in the Gulf, according to one of Britain’s most senior officers. And, at a time when Iran is continuing to pose a serious threat to the security of the oil-rich Gulf region, the Navy’s new HMS Juffair base at the Bahraini port of Mina Salman will enable Britain to play its part in keeping the region’s vital sea-lanes open. The Navy’s new £40 million base, which was built with the Bahraini government agreeing to pay most of the cost, will allow the Navy to maintain a permanent presence in the region, without having to return warships to Britain every…
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At least 25 dead 18 injured as bomb attacks Iraqi fighters’ funeral
SAMARRA: (April 12, 2018) “Two bombs exploded as the funeral procession was entering the cemetery” in Asdira, village mayor Salaheddin Shaalan told AFP. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since a January 16 double suicide bombing in Baghdad claimed 31 lives. This attack took place during a funeral for five members of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units killed Wednesday 11 Apr, night in the same village, 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad. (AFP)
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Boing Inks Make-In-India Pact With Hal For Righter Jets
13 April 2018 | Kestur Vasuki | Bengaluru
In a major initiative to boost Indian air defence, the Indian military aviation giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has announced a tie-up with Boeing and Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) for manufacturing the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India and pursuing the joint development of future technologies. Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar, HAL Chairman and Managing Director T Suvarna Raju and Mahindra Defence Systems Chairman SP Shukla exchanged a ‘Memorandum of Agreement for ‘Make in India fighter’ at the ongoing ‘DefExpo’ near here.
In a Press statement, the HAL said ‘the partnership will transform India’s aerospace and defence ecosystem, further building on its ‘Make in India’ successes. “HAL has always been at the forefront of development in India’s aerospace sector. This partnership with Boeing and Mahindra Defence Systems will create an opportunity to develop capabilities of the aerospace industry and strengthen indigenous platforms in India thereby contributing to the Make-in-India activities”, said T. Suvarna Raju.
“Boeing is happy to team up with HAL, India’s leading company that manufactures combat fighters along with India’s company that manufactures small commercial airplanes, Mahindra. This partnership brings the best of Indian public and private enterprises together with the world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing, to accelerate a contemporary 21st century ecosystem for aerospace & defense manufacturing in India,” said Pratyush Kumar, president, Boeing India.
Future production with Indian partners will involve maximising indigenous content and producing the F/A-18 in India thereby creating a 21st century aerospace ecosystem. “We are excited about the opportunities that this partnership will provide for us to contribute further to ‘Make in India’ for defence,” said SP Shukla, Group President, Aerospace & Defence Sector and Chairman, Mahindra Defence Systems.
The Super Hornet Make in India proposal is to build an entirely new and state-of-the-art production facility that can be utilised for other programmes like India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme. This partnership is intended to bring HAL, Boeing and MDS global scale and supply chain, its best-in-industry precision manufacturing processes as well as the unrivalled experience designing and optimising aerospace production facilities to both expand India’s aerospace ecosystem and help realise the Make in India vision. The plan addresses the infrastructure, personnel training and operational tools and techniques required to produce a next generation fighter aircraft in India. In addition, Boeing will work closely with India industry to ensure they have the very latest technologies, applying lessons learned from the current Super Hornet production line.