An Afghan security force officer carries a child rescued from the building of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in Kabul, Afghanistan April 20, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
APRIL 21, 2019
KABUL (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack at the communications ministry in the Afghan capital Kabul that killed seven people, the militant group’s Amaq news agency said on Sunday.
Saturday’s attack began when a suicide bomber detonated explosives just outside the ministry building and three other assailants then entered the premises.
Three attackers were killed by security forces who battled and also evacuated over 2,800 Afghans from the government buildings.
Among the dead were four civilians and three police officers, while another eight civilians were wounded.
The Afghan affiliate of Islamic State, sometimes known as Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) after an old name for the region that includes Afghanistan, has been active in the country since 2015, fighting the Taliban as well as Afghan and U.S. forces.
It is difficult to say how many Islamic State fighters are in Afghanistan because they frequently switch allegiances, but the U.S. military estimates there are about 2,000.
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been busy.
In his other role as Middle East peace envoy he has been working now for two years – TWO whole years – on the US administration’s peace plan for Palestinians and Israelis, AKA The Ultimate Deal™.
That plan will be, he promised recently, “a realistic and … fair solution.”
This solution is based on four principles, he said: freedom, respect, opportunity and security.
(Not justice, not rights, mind.)
And rather than focus on “the issues” – though confusingly, he and his team of crack diplomats also focused on those “extensively” – the administration team has been focused on “what’s holding back the Palestinian people from achieving their full potential and what’s holding back the Israeli people from being able to properly integrate with the whole region.”
It’s good to get a fresh perspective, isn’t it?
Let’s not be unkind, it was not as if Kushner didn’t have prior experience. He prepared for his current role by leading a foundation that raised money for illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. And while intensely working on the Ultimate Deal™, he learned a thing or two.
For instance, he learned that “all the conflict does is keep people from having the opportunity to do commerce and to have opportunity and improve their lives.”
You simply can’t make this stuff up.
Excitement builds
With such a build up, excitement is mounting, especially among those most affected.
Could this be it? Is Kushner the Messiah the Palestinians and Israelis have been waiting for?
Israel’s prime minister seemed excited.
“I know that the Trump administration seeks to ensure Israel’s security for generations to come,” Benjamin Netanyah said back in February about the mooted plan.
Netanyahu has since all but secured another term after an election campaign in which he promised to annex more settlements and during which he secured recognition from Trump – completely unrelated, of course, to Netanyahu’s bid for reelection – of Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights.
The Palestinians also seem excited, though, perhaps, not for the same reasons.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, accused the Trump administration of supporting “Israel’s violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine.”
Dr. Saeb Erekat: “Such a statement by Netanyahu is not surprising. Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity.. (1/2)
And, in a promising sign that Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza can at least agree on something, that sentiment was echoed by Hamas leaders in Gaza.
The Trump administration is “blindly biased toward the [Israeli] occupation and systematically acting against the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” said Ghazi Hamad, a former Hamas deputy foreign minister.
Interestingly, it’s not just among Palestinians that expectations are at rock bottom.
Don’t publish the plan, urged Robert Satloff, head of the Washington Institute for Whatever is Good for Israel is Good Enough For Us (better known as WIWGIFEFUS).
Any overt annexation of West Bank settlements and land, Satloff argued, which Kushner’s plan could trigger, could disturb a status quo “in which Israel maintains security control over the entire West Bank and channels support to many existing Israeli settlements.”
Satloff’s argument for continued but fig-leafed military occupation proves that whatever you think of Donald Trump’s peacemaking, at least he is not saddled with the hypocrisy of Washington think-tankers. It also shows that even in the hallowed halls of Israel’s Washington cheerleader clubs, Kushner’s plan is viewed with trepidation bordering on hysteria.
Pining for the fjords
Part of the reason for that, of course, is that a plan that offers Netanyahu everything he could possibly want, might just force him to finally and publicly declare what he wants.
We know what he wants. Everyone knows what he wants. The guy who hands out flyers for a local cleaning service knows what Netanyahu wants.
Netanyahu and the vast majority of Israelis – as evidenced by the fact that peace was not a campaign platform for any major party in Israel’s general election – want the land, all the land. But not the people. No, none of the people.
But you can’t say that in polite company. You have to, as Satloff knows, engage in decades-long, centuries-long, if need be, slow bleed of ethnic cleansing, masquerading as military occupation, masquerading as sham peace process to get to that stage.
You can’t simply come barging in with a plan that – reportedly – tells Palestinians they can’t have a state, they can’t have sovereignty, they can’t claim their right of return because they don’t have the same rights as other people, they can’t have equal rights with Israeli Jews because, well, see above point.
But, hey, here’s some money (that we will get from Arab countries) so you can fulfill your “full potential.”
It won’t fly.
For pity’s sake, even the Europeans have rejected it before seeing it.
The plan is dead in the water. Never before can a major foreign policy initiative have been so roundly dismissed ahead of publication.
Before it is even a deal, it is an ex-deal.
Which only leads us here at The Electronic Intifada’s Europe headquarters to think:
Coordinated explosions targeting churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on April 21 killed more than 200 people and injured more than 450.(JM Rieger/The Washington Post)
ByJoanna Slaterand Amantha Perera-April 21 at 6:59 PM
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Suicide bombers struck churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 200 people in a highly coordinated attack targeting Christians and foreigners that left this island nation reeling.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, the worst violence here since the end of the civil war a decade ago.
Police arrested 13 people in connection with the bombings, and three police officers were killed during a raid at a suspect’s home. Sri Lankan officials did not identify those arrested or discuss a motive for the attacks. At least 450 were injured in the attacks, according to a police spokesman.
Images of splintered pews and bloodstained floors played across local television screens Sunday as the enormity of the attacks, launched on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, became clear.
The dead included “several” Americans, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. He blamed “radical terrorists” for the attacks.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters Sunday that some government officials had prior intelligence about the attacks but didn’t act on it.
“Information was there,” he said at a news conference. “This is a matter we need to look into.”
A letter circulating on social media appeared to be a notice issued by a senior police official on April 11, warning of potential attacks on churches by a little-known Islamist extremist group. The letter could not be independently verified.
Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist nation, but it’s also home to significant Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities. A popular destination for tourists, the country has been largely peaceful since the end of its 26-year civil war.
While there has been intermittent conflict between religious groups — including threats to Christians — nothing remotely like Sunday’s attacks had occurred here.
Blasts ripped through three churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa at approximately 8:45 a.m. Sunday as worshipers were gathering for services, police said. Bombers also struck three hotels and a banquet hall in Colombo, the capital.
Ruwan Wijewardene, Sri Lanka’s defense minister, said the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers. Six of the attacks occurred between 8:45 and 9:30 a.m.
There was a seventh blast at a banquet hall about 2 p.m. and an eighth at the house raided by police around 2:45 p.m.
The deadliest attack was at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a beach town about 22 miles north of Colombo. Negombo, known as “little Rome,” is dotted with Catholic churches. Officials reported at least 104 dead there.
Also targeted was St. Anthony’s Shrine, Kochchikade, the largest Catholic congregation in Colombo, and Zion Church in the eastern city of Batticaloa.
At least 66 people were killed in Colombo and 28 in Batticaloa, officials said.
Bombers also struck three luxury hotels in Colombo. Two people at the Shangri-La Hotel described a powerful explosion that made the ground shake just before 9 a.m. Photos showed broken windows and shattered glass on a street next to the hotel.
Sarita Marlou, a guest at the hotel, wrote on Facebook that she felt the impact of the explosion in the hotel’s flagship restaurant all the way up on the 17th floor. She described seeing pools of blood as she evacuated the hotel.
Also targeted were the ground-floor Taprobane restaurant at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel and the luxury Kingsbury Hotel.
Three police officers were killed in a “scuffle” at a home in the Dematagoda area of Colombo, police said. They had gone there to interrogate an individual.
At least 11 of the dead at National Hospital in Colombo were foreigners, including two who held U.S. and British citizenship, according to the Foreign Ministry. Other foreigners included three from Britain, three from India, two from Turkey and one from Portugal. The unidentified bodies of 25 people believed to be foreigners were at a government mortuary in Colombo.
Pompeo condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms.”
“Attacks on innocent people gathering in a place of worship or enjoying a holiday meal are affronts to the universal values and freedoms that we hold dear, and demonstrate yet again the brutal nature of radical terrorists whose sole aim is to threaten peace and security,” he said in a statement.
The coordinated blasts ripped through three churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa at approximately 8:45 a.m. as worshipers gathered on Easter Sunday.
Sri Lankan authorities announced a nationwide curfew, effective immediately. They blocked Facebook and the messaging application WhatsApp in an attempt to halt the spread of false and inflammatory messages. Security was heightened at churches across the country, and the streets of Colombo grew quiet and deserted as the curfew took effect.
Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, condemned “the cowardly attacks on our people today” and urged the country to remain “united and strong.”
The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist activity online, reported Sunday that Islamic State supporters were portraying the attacks as revenge for strikes on mosques and Muslims. Sri Lankan officials did not identify the perpetrators or the motivation behind the attacks.
Yousef A. Al-Othaimeen, the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, “strongly condemned” the “cowardly attacks [on] innocent worshipers and civilians.” The OIC represents 57 predominantly Muslim nations.
People in Sri Lanka expressed a sense of disbelief at the eruption of violence. Biraj Patnaik, South Asia director for the human rights group Amnesty International, said Sri Lanka has witnessed rising hostility toward Christians and Muslims in recent years, including repeated attempted to disrupt prayers at churches. But the scale of Sunday’s attacks, he said, was “shocking and unprecedented.”
The bombings were the worst violence to hit Colombo since 1996, when a blast at the country’s central bank killed nearly 100 people. That attack was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers, which waged a war for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka’s north for more than 30 years.
A victim’s relative mourns at the police mortuary in Colombo. (Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)
Messages of condolence and condemnation on Sunday poured in from around the world.
President Trump tweeted: “The United States offers heartfelt condolences to the great people of Sri Lanka. We stand ready to help!”
Pope Francis during his Easter address called the attacks “horrendous” and expressed a “heartfelt closeness to the Christian community, attacked while gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such a cruel act of violence.”
“I entrust to the Lord all who so tragically died, and I pray for the wounded and all those who suffer because of this traumatic event,” Francis said.
India, Sri Lanka’s neighbor, strongly condemned what it called a “ghastly and heinous act” and said it stood with the people of Sri Lanka “in this hour of grief.”
The Church of England posted a prayer for the people of Sri Lanka on Twitter.
Slater reported from Mumbai. Niha Masih in New Delhi, Rukshana Rizwie in Colombo and Chico Harlan in Rome contributed to this report.
21 Apr 2019
At least 207 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in a series of explosions across Sri Lanka.
There were eight blasts, three targeting worshippers celebrating Easter Mass at churches in the capital Colombo and two other towns. Three high-end hotels in the capital were also hit.
Five British citizens are confirmed among the dead. No one has admitted being behind the attacks – although so far seven suspects have reportedly been arrested.
There are some distressing scenes in Harry Smith’s report.
Political and religious leaders across the world have rushed to condemn the killing of more than 200 people in a wave of bombings that targeted churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.
The death toll from the attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels on the island nation stands at 207 but is expected to rise, with more than 450 injured. Dozens of foreign visitors are among the casualties, with five British citizens confirmed killed.
Theresa May, the UK prime minister, called the blasts “appalling”, while Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, called for solidarity with “the people of Sri Lanka in prayer, condolence and solidarity as we reject all violence, all hatred and all division”.
Donald Trump offered condolences to the people of Sri Lanka and said the US stood “ready to help”, while António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said he was “outraged by the terrorist attacks” and stressed the “sanctity of all places of worship”.
The six initial blasts appeared timed to cause maximum casualties among worshippers attending Easter services and customers in restaurants eating breakfast in the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels in Colombo.
The Sri Lankan security services are also likely to have questions to answer after Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister, said there had been “information” about possible attacks, believed to be a reference to warnings reportedly received by local intelligence services around 10 days ago that “prominent churches” would be targeted by suicide bombers. It is not clear what if any precautions were taken.
A spokesperson for the National hospital said among the casualties were citizens of the US, Denmark, China, Japan, Pakistan, Morocco, India and Bangladesh. Eleven foreigners have been so far been confirmed dead, with nine missing. The toll is expected to rise.
The British MP Tulip Siddiq tweeted that she had lost a relative in the attacks but did not give any more details.
A man walks across a deserted street during a curfew in Colombo. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the government said eight people, all thought to be Sri Lankan, had been arrested and investigators would look into whether the attackers had “overseas links”.
Authorities also ordered a nationwide curfew and curbed social media access to restrict “wrong information” spreading throughout the country of 21 million people. Streets in the capital were deserted by early evening, with a heavy presence of security forces.
The numbers of casualties threatened to overwhelm medical facilities. At least 160 people injured in a blast at St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo had been admitted to the Colombo National hospital by mid-morning, one official said. The main hospital in the eastern port city of Batticaloa had received more than 300 people with injuries following a blast at the Zion church. Most of the bombings appeared to involve suicide attackers, officials said. One witness described a suicide bomber detonating his device when he reached the front of a buffet queue at the Shangri-La restaurant.
The bombings of the churches left casualties slumped among debris, damaged icons, and wrecked pews.
In St Sebastian’s in Negombo, near Sri Lanka’s international airport, more than 50 people were killed. Much of the church roof was blown out in the explosion, with roof tiles and splintered wood littering the floor and pools of blood in between wounded worshippers.
Two smaller explosions occurred three hours after the wave of bombings as security forces closed in on suspected attackers. Three police officers were reported to have died in one of the blasts.
The reported warnings, circulated by senior police officials, suggested that an extremist Islamist group called the National Thowheeth Jama’ath was behind the attacks. Wickremesinghe said the information had not been shared with him or cabinet ministers. “While this goes on we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” he said.
The efficiency of security agencies in Sri Lanka has long been undermined by infighting between political factions and there has been no independent confirmation of the warning.
Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site in Batticaloa. Photograph: Reuters
Wickremesinghe said the government’s first priority would be to “apprehend the terrorists” and that investigators would look into whether the attackers had any “overseas links” though “so far the names that have come up are local”.
The blasts were the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a bloody civil war 10 years ago.
Witnesses described distressing scenes at the sites of two attacks. “I saw many body parts strewn all over. Emergency crews are at all locations in full force,” Harsha de Silva, Sri Lanka’s economic reforms minister, tweeted after visiting the Shangri-La hotel and St Anthony’s Shrine. “We took multiple casualties to hospital. Hopefully saved many lives.”
Colombo’s archbishop, Malcolm Ranjith, called on the public to rally in support of the victims, requesting all doctors to report to work despite the holiday and members of the public to donate blood. Crowds formed at clinics and hospitals as members of all Sri Lanka’s diverse ethnic and religious communities responded to his appeal.
About 1.2 million of Sri Lanka’s 21 million population is Catholic. More than two-thirds are Buddhists though there are sizeable Muslim and Hindu minorities.
The Muslim council of Sri Lanka issued a statement condemning the attack on the places of worship of “our Christian brothers and sisters on their holy day of Easter, as well as on the hotels in Colombo”. “We mourn the loss of innocent lives due to extremist and violent elements who wish to create divides between religious and ethnic groups to realise their agenda,” the statement said.
The Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, speaks during a press conference in Colombo on Sunday. Photograph: Ishara S Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images
There has been growing intercommunal tension in Sri Lanka for several years. Last year, there were 86 verified incidents of discrimination, threats and violence against Christians, according to organisations that represent more than 200 churches and other Christian organisations.
This year, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), recorded 26 such incidents, including one in which Buddhist monks allegedly attempted to disrupt a Sunday worship service, with the last one reported on 25 March.
It was unclear how long the ban on social media would last. Government ministers urged people not to foster “racial disharmony”. In a statement, Udaya R Seneviratne, from the office of the president, said the government had “taken steps to temporarily block all social media avenues until the investigations are concluded”.
The government moved to ban Facebook and other sites last year after blaming reports of an attack on a Buddhist temple for deadly anti-Muslim riots by hardline Buddhist groups.
Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and other leaders condemned the attacks. So, too, did Yousef al-Othaimeen, the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, who described them as “cowardly attacks” that targeted innocent worshippers and civilians. Fifty-seven nations are part of the OIC, headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Pope Francis, giving his Easter sermon at the Vatican, expressed his “heartfelt closeness to the Christian community [of Sri Lanka], wounded as it was gathered in prayer, and to all the victims of such cruel violence”.
‘Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue’ – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
What happened in Paris where one of the world’s iconic monuments Norte Dame became an unfortunate victim of a raging fire ,was tragic and heart breaking. The sincere grief shown by the world leaders including the West and the hash tag laden expressions of sadness ablaze in the social media were touching and emotional. Trump even suggested in his usual style that perhaps flying tankers could be used to douse the flames. EU President bewailed the sad spectacle of the fire, referring to the Norte Dame as an institution allegedly belonging to the whole humanity. Around 1 Bn Euros have been pledged to reconstruct the cathedral, with most money coming from few elite families connected with Paris’ fashion houses.
It was indeed, a globally significant monument ,well known for its intrinsic arts and architectural value, beyond being a Christian landmark. The expression of global grief at all levels is understandable and part of our human value system. However the problem lies in the selective nature of the grief , sorrow and sadness shown and the double standards and hypocrisy shown particularly by the so-called leaders of the West. The fires set ablaze as a result of the West’s imposed wars and terror in various parts of the world specially the ME in partnership with the regional dictators, have become so commonplace and routine that the world outside has taken them as given and resultantly been immune to the innumerable tragedies of killings, violence , casualties and famine. Besides, what if these types of laudable gestures of pledge to restore this iconic monument, was also equally made to put an end at least to the most horrified scenes of ‘banlieues’ ( ghettos) in their own backyard in Paris. The recent gilet jaunes protests are a testimony to the extent of marginalisation in France. These types of prioritising bricks over bones and human lives are common in today’s secular world. Perhaps, this tragedy would awaken the world’s conscience, where it realises there are many more different things and people to save, beyond just Western artefacts.
Recently, the world saw on TV how WikiLeaks co-founder Assange was pulled out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, possibly to be extradited to US. His revelations included
the horrific adventures the US/UK combine did in Iraq ,Afghanistan and the ME and thus it was not in the interests of the West to keep him out revealing their well guarded secrets about their evil plans in the rest of the world. Today, many other countries have been dismembered in the ME- Libya, Syria and Yemen have been made anarchic and bombed back to Stone Age. Gaza and Occupied territories in Palestine are ruined beyond imagination, becoming a hell hole ion earth. Millions have died , rendered homeless and undergoing famine and health related issues, thanks to the trigger happy tantrums of Bush and his poodle Blair. Even ISIS was a Western construct according to even Western experts. Apart from occasional condemnations and expressions of grief, there has been no serious measures even by the UN to hold those guilty of war crimes in the West to account.
Calls for Trump’s flying tankers and such expressions of heart breaking grief were palpably absent when far more serious tragedies have been staking place in the world. Zionist Israel periodically undertakes land grabbing, forming settlements illegally and bombing expeditions in Gaza, the largest open prison camp in the world, killing hundreds and destroying Palestinian homes and heritage. During the Israel’s operation in 2014, more than 2250 Palestinians including women and children were killed. Israeli Ambassador to the US bodily declared that it is Israel’s right to bomb hospitals but this horror hardly elicited serious condemnations. In 2018, hundreds of peaceful protesters were killed near the Gaza fence, while US recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist State. Recently, the US recognition extended to Golan heights too. Many Palestinian artefacts are being destroyed on a regular basis by the Zionist regime.
What happens in Yemen is really heart breaking to say the least. The worst inhumane catastrophe in recent times according to UN ,unravelling in this poor nation due to the brutal war waged on them by Saudi and UAE supported by US military hardware and software does not attract the similar Norte Dame type condemnations or concerns around the world. Around 85,000 may have died due to starvation and malnutrition and 40 school children recently lost their lives due to a US supplied bomb. For many Barack Obama is a saint and a model US leader. But in his time , 26,171 bombs were dropped on the world in a single year|(2016) and drones were leisurely used to killed innocents in Afghanistan. Today, he was mourning about the destruction of history when Norte Dame was ablaze, when he had been part of destruction of history elsewhere. Hilary Clinton too expressed similar type mourning. Trump’s ‘feats’ in double talk and adopting double standards are open secrets. It is a shame that many tragic realities more graver than the Norte Dame have not been getting the same raging empathy.
Thus, the hypocritical outbursts of emotion and mourns from leaders such as Macrons, Obamas, Trumps and Mays belie their own countries’ complicity in killings ,destruction and wars in many other parts of the world. For them, a burning monument is their own backyard is something to grieve upon whereas evil consequences of many events undertaken to pursue their own strategic interests elsewhere are justifiable. There are many elites in Paris who will pledge money in millions to reconstruct the burning cathedral (quite justifiably), but would not part with their funds when it comes to rehabilitation of their own backyards. The ‘humane’ treatment of refugees in the Calais jungle in France or those from the other side of Mexican ‘wall’ in USA is wishful thinking! What is referred here is not about expressing grief for Norte Dame ;rather total lack of proportion generated in collective grief emerging from the decision making rooms in the west, when compared with other worst tragedies elsewhere ironically created by them.
Four militants were killed on Sunday in an attack on a Saudi security services base north of the capital Riyadh, official media said, as the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the assault.
Citing a spokesman for the state security services, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said three policemen were also wounded in the morning attack. It said a "group of terrorists" tried to "storm the building" but security authorities repelled them, killing four, AFP reported.
The four had attempted to carry out the attack on the Mabaheth (domestic intelligence) station in Zulfi, a small city about 250kms (155 miles) northwest of the capital Riyadh, a spokesman for Saudi state security said, as cited by the Voice of America.
Videos circulating online, which could not be verified by Middle East Eye, appeared to show two bloodied corpses on the ground outside a silver car with its doors open. Inside the vehicle another corpse can be seen. Gunshots can be heardin one video purportedly from the scene.
An investigation was launched to identify the assailants as well as the type of "explosive material" they had in their possession, SPA said.
The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper earlier reported that the attackers had rammed a vehicle into a security barrier around the base in an attempt to gain entry.
The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya also reported four people died during an attack, but gave no details.
IS, in a statement carried by its propaganda arm Amaq, said: "The attack on the security services base in the town of Zulfi northwest of Riyadh was carried out by Islamic State group fighters."
Militants kill more than 60 pro-Syrian government forces: Activist group
The kingdom has seen numerous attacks against security forces in recent years by militants, including by Al-Qaeda and IS.
It has also seen clashes between Shia militants and security forces in the eastern provinces.
IS's elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has in recent years called for attacks on Saudi Arabia, which is part of a US-led coalition that has been battling the militants in Syria and Iraq since 2014.
The group has claimed previous attacks in Saudi Arabia, targeting mostly security forces and members of the Shia community, who they view as heretics.
About 15 percent of the kingdom's 32 million population are Shia, although no official figures exist.
On 7 April, two men armed with explosives were killed and two others arrested as they attacked a security checkpoint in a predominantly Shia region in eastern Saudi Arabia, which has seen years of demonstrations against the Sunni royal family.
Sunday's attack took place in a majority Sunni region.
This April 16, 2019 picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 17, 2019 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visiting Sinchang Fish Farm in Sinchang. Source: KCNA VIA KNS / AFP
NORTH KOREA’s Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new tactical weapon with a “powerful warhead”, state media reported Thursday, in the first test of its kind since nuclear negotiations with Washington stalled.
The test marks a ratcheting up of tensions weeks after a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump collapsed without agreement.
It also comes after satellite imagery suggested heightened activity at a nuclear test site.
Wednesday’s test was “conducted in various modes of firing at different targets” the KCNA news outlet reported, adding that Kim “guided the test-fire”.
The report said Kim described its development as one “of very weighty significance in increasing the combat power of the People’s Army”.
The “advantages” of the weapon were “the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead”, KCNA said.
The report gave no details of the weapon.
Missiles fired by the North have previously been tracked by the US and South Korean militaries, both of which closely watch events in the isolated nation.
Neither made any immediate announcement in the wake of the report.
“The description makes whatever was tested sound like a missile, but that could be everything from a small anti-tank guided missile to a surface-to-air missile to a rocket artillery system,” said North Korea analyst Ankit Panda.
Earlier in the week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US monitor, said activity had been detected at Yongbyon, the North’s main nuclear testing facility.
The think tank said evidence suggested Pyongyang may be reprocessing radioactive material into bomb fuel.
Kim’s Hanoi summit with Trump, the second between the two men, ended abruptly, with North Korea later protesting that the US was being unreasonable in its demands.
Since then, North Korea has said it is mulling options for its diplomacy with the US, and Kim said last week he was open to talks with Trump only if Washington came with the “proper attitude”.
“Kim is trying to make a statement to the Trump administration that his military potential is growing by the day,” said Harry Kazianis, an analyst at the Center for the National Interest.
“His regime is becoming frustrated with Washington’s lack of flexibility in recent negotiations.”
Koh Yu-hwan, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, agreed the test was a message to the US showing its displeasure over the stalled nuclear talks.
But the fact that it was not a long-range missile or nuclear test “underscores Pyongyang wants to keep alive dialogue with Washington”, he added.
“Pyongyang cannot conduct a nuclear or long-range missile launch at this point unless it wants to totally shatter what remains of the US-North talks,” he continued.
Pentagon officials said they were aware of the test report but declined to comment further.
Moon overture
US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un following a meeting at the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on February 27, 2019. Source: Saul LOEB / AFP
Last November, KCNA reported that Kim oversaw the testing of a “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon” months after his first meeting with Trump.
It was the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea since Kim and Trump’s historic summit in Singapore over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programme.
The North’s latest weapon test report comes after South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday he wanted a fresh meeting with Kim “regardless of venue and form”.
Netflix’s hit show Delhi Crime documents the changes rocking Indian society—and not all of them are good.
Actress Shefali Shah in “Delhi Crime.” (Golden Karavan/Netflix)
BYIRA TRIVEDI|
“There was nothing in his eyes. It was like his soul was missing,” Neeti Singh, a young police officer, tearfully tells her boss. Deputy Police Commissioner Vartika Chaturvedi, cool and calm, dismisses her discomfort. “If you’re trying to ascribe meaning to this, forget it.” She is already on to the next crime: another recent rape, this one involving a broken beer bottle. The victim had died.
This scene comes toward the end of the hit Netflix show Delhi Crime, which fictionalizes the real-life story of Jyoti Singh Pandey, a young physiotherapy intern who was raped on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012. The popular seven-episode series, written and produced by the Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta following six years of research during which he interviewed police officers, consulted with the real-life police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, and investigated the case files. The show is made from the point of view of the Delhi Police, with Chaturvedi spearheading the manhunt that, in real life, led to the arrest of the six accused rapists in five days—a dauting task in a city with a population of 25 million.
The show may be a dramatization but it taps into something real.
The show may be a dramatization—and one that spurred at least one of the people portrayed, the police inspector Anil Sharma, to threaten legal action—but it taps into something real. New Delhi is the rape capital of the world. In the first quarter of 2018, more than five women were raped every day in the India’s national capital, according to Delhi Police statistics. And on a recent trip down the same route traversed by Nirbhaya—or fearless, as Panday has widely come to be called—the sidewalks were thronged with groups of young men. There was not a woman in sight.
The truths about New Delhi that the show picks up on make it difficult to watch, as do the scenes that recall the gruesome details of the real-life gang rape, in which one of the attackers used an iron rod to tear most of the victim’s intestines out through her vagina. But it is a useful reminder of why this particular case made the world sit up and take notice. The violence is a reflection of a deeply troubled society in the throes of dizzying changes—changes that Delhi Crime tries to document.
In one scene, two police officers race to a village in Rajasthan to hunt down one of the suspects. On their drive, one of them explains to the other why such heinous crimes happen. India has seen an explosion of uneducated youth, he says, who have no sex education and who are watching free porn online. They don’t know what to make of it, and they begin looking at all women like objects. They desire these objects, which are now more visible than ever thanks to India’s loosening mores around women in public. When the men can’t have them because they are poor, they want to take them anyway. Oftentimes, they pay no heed to the consequences. After all, when one’s prospects are so grim, what does one have to lose anyway?
In many ways, the police officer was on point with his comments. India is home to one in every three illiterate people in the world, with 34 percent of the illiterate population in the world.
Meanwhile, record-high unemployment, particularly among uneducated youth, is deeply disturbing. It is one of the main points on which India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is being slammed in the ongoing national election. According to the sociologist Gunnar Heinsohn, such a situation—when a nation’s demographics skew young and a large number of young people have low job prospects—can trigger widespread social conflict.
The manhunt in the series brings such statistics to life, as the viewer enters the suspects’ dwellings in the slums and meets their families in remote villages. We meet the mothers and fathers—and, in one case, the wife—in bucolic villages in the heartland of India. The show reveals how clueless the families are with regard to the new lives their sons are leading in the city. We come to see all six rapists for who they are: young men and all recent migrants, unmoored and unhinged, living in violent and filthy slums away from familiar social structures.
Their lashing out at a woman on a bus, then, is what the journalist Anjani Trivedi has called “the dark side” of India’s sexual revolution. It “is a manifestation of what has gone wrong, what is going wrong and what will go wrong when people, who are not ready for it, have new ideas, visions and, above all, freedoms thrust upon their existing patrilineal, patrilocal and patriarchal thought processes.”
No wonder that, during the show, one of the accused tells the police that when he saw the woman he raped on the bus with her boyfriend, he could not control his anger. By sitting together and flirting, they were flying in the face of India’s moral values. We find out through the course of the series that the man’s wife had died two years ago under unclear circumstances, after which he had regular fits of rage, which led to extreme violence. According to a Thomson Reuters Foundation 2018 survey, India is the most dangerous country for sexual violence against women. India’s National Crime Records Bureau recorded 338,954 crimes against women—including 38,947 rapes—in 2016, the most recent government data available. That’s up from 309,546 reported incidents of violence against women in 2013.
Given that the events depicted in the show took place nearly seven years ago now, one might reasonably hope that things have changed for the better. And, indeed, the crime did lead to widespread public outrage and the creation of a fast-track court to better deal with sexual crimes. But it feels like nothing much has changed. Of the six real-life accused rapists, one, Ram Singh, died in jail in mysterious circumstances; another, who was a minor, was released after a three-year sentence. The other four remain on death row.
Daily media reports make rape and sexual violence seem rampant.
Meanwhile, daily media reports make rape and sexual violence seem rampant. And, indeed, more rapes are being reported across the country (although that could just mean a greater proportion of victims are coming forward). At the same time, there has been virtually no progress on gender or sex education. And faster and cheaper internet connections have made access to pornography easier than ever before. According to Gail Dines, the author of Pornland, porn is a public health crisis. She points to extensive scientific research that shows that exposure to porn threatens the social,
emotional, and physical health of individuals, families, and communities.
A brutal and well-made series, Delhi Crime is a reminder that the inherent problems that led to the Nirbhaya gang rape—including deep-set patriarchy, lack of sex education, and migration into disorganized cities already bursting at the seams—are still very much a reality of Indian life. It is difficult to say what will follow it. Most recently, the #MeToo movement has become a champion for women’s rights in India. Its campaign led to the resignation of a high-ranking minister who had been accused of harassing subordinates (he disputes the charge) and the fall from grace of several well-known personalities in the film, writing, and business worlds. But real, lasting changes in policy and governance are hard to find. Delhi Crime thus shows viewers that although changes may be coming to Indian society, not all of them are good, and the good ones aren’t happening fast enough.
APRIL 21, 2019 
“He’s a very naughty boy.”
Sri Lankan army soldiers secure the area around St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on Sunday. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP
A man walks across a deserted street during a curfew in Colombo. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP
Sri Lankan military stand guard near the explosion site in Batticaloa. Photograph: Reuters
Actress Shefali Shah in “Delhi Crime.” (Golden Karavan/Netflix)