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Canada alleges Indian minister Amit Shah behind plot to target Sikh separatists

Canada alleges Indian minister Amit Shah behind plot to target Sikh separatists
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah looks on at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters to celebrate the party’s win in country's general election, in New Delhi on June 4, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 30 October 2024
Reuters
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Canada alleges Indian minister Amit Shah behind plot to target Sikh separatists

Canada alleges Indian minister Amit Shah behind plot to target Sikh separatists
  • Canada in mid-October expelled Indian diplomats, linking them to the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil
Updated 30 October 2024
Reuters
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The Canadian government alleged on Tuesday that Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was behind the plots to target Sikh separatists on Canadian soil.
The Indian government has dismissed Canada’s prior accusations as baseless, denying any involvement.
The Washington Post newspaper first reported that Canadian officials alleged Shah was behind a campaign of violence and intimidation targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
Canadian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison said to a parliamentary panel on Tuesday that he told the US-based newspaper that Shah was behind the plots.
“The journalist called me and asked if it (Shah) was that person. I confirmed it was that person,” Morrison told the committee, without providing further details or evidence. The High Commission of India in Ottawa and the Indian foreign ministry had no immediate comment.
India has called Sikh separatists “terrorists” and threats to its security. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India. An insurgency in India during the 1980s and 1990s killed tens of thousands.
That period included the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that left thousands dead following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards after she ordered security forces to storm the holiest Sikh temple to flush out Sikh separatists.
Canada in mid-October expelled Indian diplomats, linking them to the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. India also ordered the expulsion of Canadian diplomats.
The Canadian case is not the only instance of India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists on foreign soil.
Washington has charged a former Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, for allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen and Indian critic in New York City.
The FBI warned against such a retaliation aimed at a US resident. India has said little publicly since announcing in November 2023 it would formally investigate the US allegations.
The accusations have tested Washington and Ottawa’s relations with India, often viewed by the West as a counterbalance to China.

Topics: Canada Amit Shah Sikh separatists Hardeep Singh Nijjar

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Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico

Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico
Updated 3 sec ago
AFP
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Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico

Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico
  • Mauricio Cruz Solis was a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet
  • Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say
Updated 3 sec ago
AFP
MORELIA, Mexico: A journalist was shot dead Tuesday night in western Mexico, a local prosecutor’s office said, in a part of the country hit hard by organized crime.
Mauricio Cruz Solis, a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet, was killed in the city of Uruapan.
One other person was wounded in the attack, the prosecutor’s office said.
The radio station where Cruz Solis worked mourned his killing in a statement published on social media.
“Mauricio was more than a colleague, he was an unconditional friend, a source of inspiration and a tireless voice in the service of our community,” the station said.
Wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994.
Cruz Solis’s murder is the first killing of a journalist under the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, although there have been other attacks on media this month.
On October 18, gunmen shot at the front of the El Debate newspaper’s office in Culiacan, the state capital of cartel stronghold Sinaloa, which has been shaken by weeks of gang infighting.
A day later, a delivery worker with the outlet was abducted by presumed criminal groups and there has been no news about his whereabouts.

A powerful typhoon nears the Philippines, with many shelters still crammed after a recent storm

A powerful typhoon nears the Philippines, with many shelters still crammed after a recent storm
Updated 30 min 47 sec ago
AP
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A powerful typhoon nears the Philippines, with many shelters still crammed after a recent storm

A powerful typhoon nears the Philippines, with many shelters still crammed after a recent storm
  • Northern Philippine provinces are forcibly evacuating villagers from high-risk areas as a powerful typhoon approached while the country is still recovering from a recent storm
Updated 30 min 47 sec ago
AP

MANILA: Villagers in northern Philippine provinces were forced to evacuate on Wednesday as a powerful typhoon approached the nation still reeling from a recent storm that left at least 182 dead and missing and emergency shelters crammed with displaced people.
Typhoon Kong-rey was last tracked 350 kilometers (217 miles) east of northern Cagayan province, with sustained winds of up to 185 kph (115 mph) and gusting up to 230 kph (143 mph). Forecasters said it could further strengthen at sea.
It was blowing northwestward and was predicted to pass near the northernmost Philippine province of Batanes before slamming into southeastern Taiwan on Thursday.
“We are still recovering from the two previous typhoon and storm and here we go again,” Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco told The Associated Press.
“We’re going around now to supervise the forced evacuation of people, specially those whose houses were severely damaged by the last storm,” Cayco said.
Elsewhere across the northern Philippines, more than 300,000 people displaced last week by Tropical Storm Trami, remained in emergency shelters as the new typhoon approached, Office of Civil Defense officials said.
Forecasters also warned of a “life-threatening storm surge reaching 2 to 3 meters (6.5 to 9.8 feet)” that could be whipped up by Kong-rey in low-lying coasts of Batanes and the nearby Babuyan cluster of islands.
All ships and cargo vessels were advised to remain in ports and those at sea should seek shelter or safe harbor as soon as possible until winds and waves subside.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., who oversees disaster-response efforts, ordered the forced evacuation of people in high-risk areas threatened by Kong-rey, which is locally called Leon.
“We always aim for zero casualty in the event of disasters, so we strongly urge the public to heed our protocols,” Teodoro said.
While Kong-rey was expected to blow off the northern Philippines, its extensive rain band with a width of more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) could lash the entire main northern region of Luzon, the country’s most populous, the government said.
Tropical storm Trami, which blew out of the northern Philippines last Friday, left at least 145 dead and 37 missing mostly in widespread flooding and landslides and affected more than 7 million people in nearly 11,000 mostly rural villages, the government’s disaster-mitigation agency said.
More than 111,000 houses were damaged, many inundated by floods and swollen rivers. Trami dumped up to two months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours in some regions, setting off flash floods that swept away cars and trapped people on their roofs.
At the height of last week’s onslaught, officials in the hard-hit region of Bicol, southeast of the capital of Manila, appealed frantically for more rescue boats to save thousands of villagers trapped in rising floodwaters.
About 20 storms and typhoons batter the disaster-prone Philippines each year. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones in the world, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages and caused several cargo ships to ran aground inland and smash into houses and people in the central Philippines.

Topics: Philippines

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Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’

Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’
Updated 15 min 5 sec ago
AP
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Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’

Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’
  • A police statement said on Wednesday 40,061 coins were found on Tuesday afternoon in a self-storage business in Sydney
  • Police were notified on July 12 that 63,000 of the coins had been stolen from a Sydney warehouse
Updated 15 min 5 sec ago
AP

SYDNEY: Australian police said on Wednesday they had recovered more than 40,000 stolen limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s animated series “Bluey.”
The Bluey coins, with a face value of one Australian dollar (65 US cents) each, were found on Tuesday afternoon in a self-storage business in the Sydney suburb of Wentworthville, a police statement said.
Bluey is the name of a blue heeler puppy whose adventures with her cattle dog family living in the Australian city of Brisbane, where the series is produced, have become popular among children around the globe.
The series premiered in Australia in 2018 and began streaming on Disney+ in 2020.
The 40,061 recovered coins were still in the Royal Australian Mint plastic bags that they had been stolen in three months earlier, police said.
Police were notified on July 12 that 63,000 of the yet-to-be-released series of coins produced by the national mint in Canberra had been stolen from a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park, not far from where the coins were recovered on Tuesday.
Police formed Strike Force Bandit to investigate. Bandit is the name of Bluey’s dad.
Three people have been charged over the theft.
A 27-year-old woman whom police allege drove two accomplices to the July burglary was arrested on Tuesday hours before the coins were recovered.
Two men had earlier been charged over the theft and police were a searching for a fourth suspect.
Police raided a Sydney property on July 31 and recovered 189 of the coins. They discovered the dealer selling them was a legitimate coin collector who had innocently bought them for AU$1.50 (98 US cents) each. He was paid no compensation for the seized coins.
A Royal Australian Mint spokesperson was not available for comment on Wednesday.

Topics: Australia BLUEY

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Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked

Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked
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Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked

Tuberculosis infected 8 million people last year, the most WHO has ever tracked
  • WHO says TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific
Updated 54 min 38 sec ago
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LONDON: More than 8 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, the highest number recorded since the UN health agency began keeping track.
About 1.25 million people died of TB last year, the new report said, adding that TB likely returned to being the world’s top infectious disease killer after being replaced by COVID-19 during the pandemic. The deaths are almost double the number of people killed by HIV in 2023.
WHO said TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific; India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Pakistan account for more than half of the world’s cases.
“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
TB deaths continue to fall globally, however, and the number of people being newly infected is beginning to stabilize. The agency noted that of the 400,000 people estimated to have drug-resistant TB last year, fewer than half were diagnosed and treated.
Tuberculosis is caused by airborne bacteria that mostly affects the lungs. Roughly a quarter of the global population is estimated to have TB, but only about 5–10 percent of those develop symptoms.
Advocacy groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have long called for the US company Cepheid, which produces TB tests used in poorer countries, to make them available for $5 per test to increase availability. Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders and 150 global health partners sent Cepheid an open letter calling on them to “prioritize people’s lives” and to urgently help make TB testing more widespread globally.

Topics: tuberculosis WHO

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In Georgia, some voters balanced EU hopes with the fear of war with Russia

In Georgia, some voters balanced EU hopes with the fear of war with Russia
Updated 30 October 2024
Reuters
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In Georgia, some voters balanced EU hopes with the fear of war with Russia

In Georgia, some voters balanced EU hopes with the fear of war with Russia
  • For many voters, avoiding war with Russia a priority
  • Election result poses a challenge to EU ambitions
Updated 30 October 2024
Reuters

TBILISI: For some Georgians who supported the ruling Georgian Dream party in Saturday’s disputed parliamentary election, the aspiration to go West toward the European Union had to be balanced by the brutal reality of the need to keep the peace with Russia.
The opposition and foreign observers had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to Europe or leans back toward Russia amid the war in Ukraine. The ruling party, which is seen as loyal to its billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, says it wants to one day join the EU but that it must also avoid confrontation with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia that could leave the South Caucasus republic devastated like Ukraine.
“We’ve had peace these 12 years in Georgia,” said Sergo, a resident of the capital Tbilisi who has voted for Georgian Dream in every election since the party rose to power in 2012. Georgian Dream clinched 54 percent of the vote on Saturday, the electoral commission said, while opposition parties and the president claimed the election had been stolen and the West called for investigations into reports of voting irregularities.
Observer groups, including the 57-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said alleged violations, including ballot-stuffing, bribery, voter intimidation and violence, could have affected the election’s outcome.
The EU and the United States said there was not a level playing field but stopped short of saying the result was stolen by Georgian Dream. Russia accused the West of meddling. Beyond the rhetoric, though, the result poses a challenge to Tbilisi’s ambitions to join the European Union, which polls show the overwhelming majority of Georgians support.
Brussels has effectively frozen Georgia’s EU accession application over concerns of democratic backsliding under Georgian Dream and what it casts is its pro-Russian rhetoric.
Georgian Dream backers say that while they want to join Europe, they don’t want to sacrifice Georgia’s traditional values of family and church.
EU ASPIRATIONS?
For them, Georgian Dream’s party slogan, “Only with peace, dignity, and prosperity to Europe,” appeals.
Official results, which the opposition says are fraudulent, showed the party securing huge margins of up to 90 percent in rural areas, even as it underperformed in Tbilisi and other cities.
Ghia Abashidze, a political analyst close to Georgian Dream, attributed the party’s showing to its emphasis on keeping the peace and preserving traditional values. The Georgian parliament passed a law this year curbing LGBT rights and Pride events have been attacked by violent mobs in years past. The topic remains sensitive in conservative Georgia, which is devoutly Orthodox Christian. Abashidze said that Georgian Dream was still committed to EU integration, but found more to like in some of the bloc’s Eastern European members such as Hungary, whose premier Viktor Orban flew to Tbilisi on Monday and hailed the election as free.
He said Orban’s Hungary, which has also been accused of democratic backsliding, shared the Georgian ruling party’s core values of “family, traditions, statehood, sovereignty, peace.”
In Isani, a working class Tbilisi neighborhood and one of the few in the capital where Georgian Dream received more votes than the four main opposition parties combined, Sergo, who did not want to give his last name, echoed the sentiment.
“We want to go to the European Union with our customs, our traditions, our mentality,” the 56-year-old said, passing freshly-baked bread to customers from his shop window. He said he believed LGBT people should receive medical treatment and go to church to become “normal people.”

RUSSIA OR EU?
By contrast, opposition supporters say the ruling party’s positions on foreign policy and social issues are incompatible with Europe’s, and keeping the peace with Russia depends on Georgia aligning with the West.
At a thousands-strong protest against the election results on Monday, Salome Gasviani said the opposition was fighting to preserve Georgia’s freedom and independence.
“We’re here to say out loud that Georgia is a very European country and our future is in the EU, in the West,” she said.
Russia, which ruled Georgia for about 200 years, won a brief war against the country in 2008, and memories of Russian tanks rolling toward Tbilisi are still fresh for many. During the campaign, Georgian Dream played on fears of war, with posters showing devastated Ukrainian cities beside picturesque Georgian ones to illustrate the threat.
“The main thing is that we don’t have a war,” 69-year-old Otar Shaverdashvili, another Isani resident, said before the vote. “I remember the last war very well. No one wants another one.”
Kornely Kakachia, head of Georgian Institute of Politics think tank, said the opposition had struggled to allay fears that a change of government could risk Georgia being sucked into the Ukraine war.
“If someone asks you to choose between war and the European Union and you have this kind of choice, then of course people will choose the status quo,” he said.

Topics: Georgia EU Russia

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