LONDON: A British man was convicted on Tuesday of planning an attack on a military base after being arrested with an explosive device in the grounds of a hospital, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said.
Mohammad Farooq was found guilty of preparing acts of terrorism following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court, in northern England.
The 28-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, possession of an explosive substance in suspicious circumstances, possession of information likely to be useful to a terrorist, and other offenses.
Farooq was arrested outside St. James’s Hospital in Leeds, where he had previously worked as a student nurse, after showing a member of the public a gun and saying he “felt like killing everyone,” the CPS said.
Police who attended the scene discovered in Farooq’s bag a pressure cooker with wires attached, which bomb disposal experts found to be a viable explosive device.
The CPS said Farooq’s electronic devices revealed evidence of his interest in extremist ideology and research into RAF Menwith Hill, a nearby Royal Air Force base in North Yorkshire.
Farooq had pleaded not guilty to but was convicted of preparing a terrorist attack at RAF Menwith Hill. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Bethan David, head of the CPS Counter Terrorism Division, said in a statement: “Farooq is an extremely dangerous individual who amassed a significant amount of practical and theoretical information that enabled him to produce a viable explosive device.
“He then took that homemade explosive device to a hospital where he worked with the intention to cause serious harm. Examination of his electronic devices revealed a hatred toward his colleagues at work and those he considered non-believers.
“It is clear from his Internet searches that he was also conducting extensive research of RAF Menwith Hill, with a view to launching a potential attack.”
Man convicted of terrorism offense for planning attack on UK military base
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Man convicted of terrorism offense for planning attack on UK military base
- Farooq was arrested outside St. James’s Hospital in Leeds, where he had previously worked as a student nurse
- Police who attended the scene discovered in Farooq’s bag a pressure cooker with wires attached
India’s top diplomat seeks resolution of border issues with China
- S. Jaishankar meets Chinese FM Wang Yi at Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit
- Tensions broke out between India and China after clashes at Himalayan border in 2020
New Delhi: India seeks to increase efforts to resolve border issues with China, its top diplomat said on Thursday, as he met his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in Kazakhstan.
The 10-member transregional economic and security body established by China and Russia, and comprising also Central Asian republics, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus, held a two-day meeting of its heads of state in the Kazakh capital Astana on July 3-4.
All countries were represented by their leaders and top diplomats, except for India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipped the summit. The Indian delegation was led by Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.
Jaishankar and Chinese FM Wang Yi held talks on Thursday aiming to address the tensions that broke out between New Delhi and Beijing in 2020, following deadly clashes on their de facto Himalayan border known as the Line of Actual Control.
Both have since deployed thousands of troops to the area and downscaled engagements. Multiple talks aiming to resolve the standoff have not succeeded in normalizing the ties.
“Discussed early resolution of remaining issues in border areas. Agreed to redouble efforts through diplomatic and military channels to that end,” Jaishankar said in an X post after the meeting with Wang.
“The three mutuals — mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest — will guide our bilateral ties.”
The spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the ministers “agreed to work toward stability in the border area and hold a new round of consultations on the border issue as soon as possible.”
She quoted Wang as saying that both countries, as representatives of the Global South, should work together to “safeguard the common interests of developing countries, and make due contributions to regional and world peace, stability and development.”
India and China have been unable to agree on their 3,500-km border since they fought a war in 1962.
Jaishankar and Wang’s meeting was the first high-level engagement between the countries since India’s election and the start of Modi’s third term last month.
“In that context, it is important to note that primarily the discussion seems to have revolved around addressing the standoff,” said Manoj Kewalramani, China studies fellow and chairperson of the Indo-Pacific studies program at the Takshashila Institution in Bangalore.
“It is useful that the two foreign ministers met at the sidelines of the SCO summit. Maintaining channels of dialogue between the two sides is important. To that extent, it is good that this meeting took place.”
Kewalramani told Arab News that the presence of Chinese troops in the Ladakh area on the border was, however, posing a main obstacle to normalization.
“It does seem like Delhi will be unwilling to restore normalcy unless additional disengagement takes place. It would be strategically imprudent and politically difficult to do so,” he said.
“Unless there is a meaningful change in Chinese policies, it is very difficult for the Indian government to pursue normalization.”
Indian mother delivers baby on boat as her river island is inundated by floodwaters
- “I am very happy,” said her husband, Kamaluddin, who was also on the boat
- The couple had left their home on Phuliamari Char, one of the islands in the river, after it was inundated by floodwaters, taking shelter on a nearby island known as Chars
MORIGAON, India: A blue tarp covered a mother and her newborn daughter from the incessant rain on their boat journey. Jahanara Khatoon, 25, had just given birth on the boat on their way to a health care center, surrounded by the raging floodwaters of the Brahmaputra River.
“I am very happy,” said her husband, Kamaluddin, who was also on the boat. “My wife wanted a boy, but Allah has given me a girl and I’m very satisfied. I don’t want to have any more children.”
The couple had left their home on Phuliamari Char, one of the islands in the river, after it was inundated by floodwaters, taking shelter on a nearby island known as Chars.
Increased rainfall in the region blamed on climate change has made the Brahmaputra River — already known for its powerful, unpredictable flow — even more dangerous for those who live near it or on the more than 2,000 islands in it.
India, and Assam state in particular, is seen as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change because of increasingly intense rain and floods, according to a 2021 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi-based climate think tank.
Khatoon and Kamaluddin earn their living as farmers on their island in Assam state’s Morigaon district.
A medical team was visiting flooded Chars to aid those who needed medical help, especially pregnant women. The team convinced Khatoon to travel with them to the nearest medical facility across the river.
The baby couldn’t wait for Khatoon to get to the health care center. As her labor progressed, the team on the boat quickly got to work, holding up a tarp to protect from the rain as they helped with the delivery.
Within 10 minutes the baby emerged to shouts of celebration.
Diluwara Begum, an auxiliary nurse and midwife, lifted the newborn and whispered prayers into her ears.
“This was my first time helping deliver a baby on a boat. It was a very different feeling. It feels good.” she said.
The family has named the baby Karima, which means “Giving.”
Belarus frees 10 political prisoners but 1,400 remain, rights group says
- The rare pardon still leaves some 1,400 people behind bars for political activity
- Human rights group Viasna said it knew of three women and seven men who had been freed
MINSK: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has freed at least 10 political prisoners, rights campaigners said on Thursday, including a veteran opposition figure suffering from cancer.
But the rare pardon still leaves some 1,400 people behind bars for political activity, most of them arrested after peaceful mass protests in 2020 and convicted on a range of charges related to alleged extremism.
Human rights group Viasna said it knew of three women and seven men who had been freed.
The only one named so far by relatives is Ryhor Kastusiou, 67, a former opposition party leader and presidential candidate. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in a penal colony after being convicted of plotting against the government to seize power. Following his arrest, he was diagnosed with cancer.
Activists said their happiness at the releases was bitter-sweet.
“This is a very great joy, of course, almost childlike. But it is joy through tears — there is anger too for what people have to go through,” said Inna Kovalenok, a representative of a relatives’ group that campaigns for the release of prisoners.
Andrei Stryzhak, head of an organization called Bysol that raises funds to support political prisoners and their families, said it was a delusion to think the authorities had become more humane.
“To believe that something has suddenly changed in the minds of those who torture, rape and kill for the sake of maintaining power is a dangerous fantasy bordering on treason and crime,” he posted on Telegram.
Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, this week announced an amnesty to mark the 80th anniversary of Belarus’s liberation from the Nazis in World War Two. State news agency Belta said it was expected to apply to about 7,850 prisoners including minors, pregnant women, pensioners and people suffering from tuberculosis or cancer.
Those convicted of crimes against the state or extremist and terrorist activities were excluded, but Lukashenko signalled there would be some exceptions for those who were seriously ill.
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, staged a violent crackdown in 2020 to suppress mass protests following an election that the opposition and Western governments said he had heavily rigged.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against him in that election and now leads the opposition in exile, welcomed the release of some prisoners but said more were still being detained.
“Political trials & arrests continue without a break in #Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya posted on X. “Repression doesn’t stop for a day & we won’t stop our fight for freedom.”
Tsikhanouskaya’s husband Syarhei is among the best known prisoners, along with Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and Maria Kolesnikova, a protest leader who tore up her passport in September 2020 to thwart the security services from expelling her from the country by forcing her to cross into Ukraine.
Sweden says three citizens given death sentences in Iraq over shooting
- Sweden does not have the death penalty and opposes its use in all circumstances
STOCKHOLM: Three Swedish citizens have been sentenced to death in Iraq over their involvement in a shooting and a fourth may also face the same punishment over a separate crime, the Swedish foreign ministry said on Thursday.
The government summoned Iraq’s charge d’affaires last month to protest the death sentence against one of the three involved in the shooting.
Sweden does not have the death penalty and opposes its use in all circumstances.
The foreign ministry said it had now received confirmation that two more Swedes have been convicted in relation to the same crime, and received the death penalty.
“The information we have received on the death penalties is extremely serious and we are working to ensure the sentences will not be carried out,” the foreign ministry said in an emailed statement.
In June, the Daily Aftonbladet reported that the men had been involved in the shooting of another Swedish citizen in Iraq in January.
The ministry said it had received a report that a fourth Swede was given a death sentence for a different, drug-related crime, but that it could not confirm the information.
Germany summons Turkish ambassador over right-wing ‘wolf’ goal celebration
- Turkish football player’s “wolf salute” goal celebration considered by Germany as racist due to its far-right associations
BERLIN: Turkiye’s ambassador to Germany has been summoned over a Turkish football player’s “wolf salute” goal celebration, the German foreign ministry said on Thursday, ramping up a diplomatic spat amid reports that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will come to Berlin this weekend.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA opened an investigation into the Turkish center back Merih Demiral’s celebration after scoring in a Tuesday evening European Championship match. Germany condemned the gesture as racist due to its far-right associations.
Turkiye’s foreign ministry said UEFA’s probe was unacceptable and that German authorities’ approach to Demiral “involved xenophobia.”
The ministry had summoned Germany’s ambassador to Ankara over the dispute, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Wednesday.
German and Turkish media reported on Thursday that Erdogan now planned to come to Berlin on Saturday for Turkiye’s game against the Netherlands.
Erdogan changed his schedule to attend the game, NTV and other Turkish media reported on Thursday.
He was scheduled to attend a summit of Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Azerbaijan on Saturday.
The gesture made by the player is linked to the “Grey Wolves,” an ultra-nationalist youth branch of Turkiye’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party.
The wolf salute is not banned in Germany.
However, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on X that “using the European Football Championship as a platform for racism is completely unacceptable.”
