Monday 26 December 2016

Dunya TV

Dunya TV

Syrian army escalates campaign to capture Damascus water supply

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AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian army escalated aerial bombing of a rebel-held valley northwest of Damascus in an offensive begun last week to recapture the strategic area where a major spring provides most of the capitals water supplies, rebels and residents said on Tuesday.They said the army shelled and bombarded several towns in Wadi Barada valley about 18 km (11 miles) northwest of the capital in a major offensive launched since Friday. The roads leading to the towns in the valley and the mountain cliffs surrounding the area are under the control of elite Republic Guards and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group, they said.Residents said fighting on Monday focused on Baseimeh village at the edge of the valley where the army and its allies are pushing to advance deeper in an enclave where 10 villages are inhabited by an estimated 100,000 people.The rebels said the army was emboldened by gaining full control of Aleppo city and was seeking to force them to either leave or face all out war.They are seeking to push us into a surrender deal to and we will not hand over our land, said Abu al Baraa, a commander in Ahrar al Sham, a rebel group present in the area.Through a series of so-called settlement agreements and army offensives, the Syrian government, backed by Russian air power and Iran-backed militias, has been steadily suppressing armed opposition around the capital.Alongside the main spring in Wadi Barada, the area lies on the road from Damascus to the Lebanese border that is used as a supply line for the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah group which is heavily involved in fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al Assads army.A resident and rebels said the aerial bombing has put out of commission the main Ein al Fija springs water pumping station where a underground pipeline normally provides around 65 percent of the water to the capitals neighbourhoods.A picture taken by a rebel and seen by Reuters showed the pumping stations ceiling has collapsed. Several videos uploaded on social media show damage and fires with plumes of smoke near the pumping station. Others show damage to houses.Rebels and residents said the bombing has also killed 14 civilians and hit a medical clinic and civil defence unit in the area that has been besieged with limited access for food and fuel.The army said it was targeting terrorists.The Syrian army has blamed rebels for polluting the springs with diesel fuel in a move the water authorities said had forced them to cut supplies coming into the capital and resort to reserves to temporarily cover the shortfall.The rebels have allowed the governments water authority engineers to maintain and operate the station and supply the capital since they took control of the area in 2012. The rebels draw from both Islamist and Free Syrian Army factions.Fighters from the area have cut water supplies several times in the past as a pressure card to prevent the army from overrunning the area.But they deny poisoning the water as they say it would harm them before anyone else.

Obama confident he could have won the White House again

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama says he could have been reelected for a third term and that the nation still largely embraces his political vision despite last months election of Donald Trump to succeed him.The US leaders remarks were made in an interview posted on the podcast The Axe Files, produced by CNN and the University of Chicago.Obama, who ends his second and final term in office in just over three weeks, said he believes the American public still supports his progressive vision, despite having voted for Trump -- his political opposite.I am confident in this vision because Im confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I couldve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it, Obama tells the interviewer, his former senior adviser David Axelrod, in the most recent of several exit interviews he has been conducting.But President-elect Donald Trump took to a favored platform, Twitter, to reject Obamas supposition. President Obama said that he thinks he would have won against me. He should say that but I say NO WAY - jobs leaving, ISIS, OCare, etc., he tweeted, referring to the presidents signature health care plan.Hillary Clinton was defeated by Trump in a stunning outcome almost no one predicted, and Obama was philosophical and a little rueful in the interview regarding the Democrats loss. Losings never fun, he tells Axelrod, a political strategist who helped craft Obamas winning 2008 presidential campaign and then followed him to the White House. Im proud that I have tried to conduct myself in office to do what I think is right rather than what is popular, I always tell people dont underestimate the public humiliation of losing in politics, Obama said. Its unlike what most people experience as adults, this sense of rejection.But he was also proud of the way the progress made in the two terms of his presidency, thanks to the spirit of America, especially evident in the younger generation. That spirit of America has still been there in all sorts of ways. It manifests itself in communities all across the country, Obama said.We see it in this younger generation that is smarter, more tolerant, more innovative, more creative, more entrepreneurial, would not even think about, you know, discriminating somebody against for example because of their sexual orientation, the president said.All those things that I describe, youre seeing in our society, particularly among 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds.Despite the election of Trump -- a Republican who appears set to put in place policies that will take the country sharply to the right -- during his presidency the culture actually did shift, Obama told Axelrod.The majority does buy into the notion of a one America that is tolerant and diverse and open and full of energy and dynamism, the US president said.The problem is, it doesnt always manifest itself in politics.

Japan's Abe in Hawaii to visit Pearl Harbor with Obama

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HONOLULU (AFP) - Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Hawaii on Monday ahead of a symbolic meeting with President Barack Obama at the site of the Pearl Harbor attack.Japanese leaders have visited Pearl Harbor before, but Abe will be the first to go to the US Arizona Memorial, the wreck where 1,177 US personnel died.Tuesdays visit comes 75 years after Japans December 1941 attack on the base of the US Pacific fleet, drawing America into World War II.And it comes seven months after Obama and Abe made a joint visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which was devastated by a US atomic bomb in 1945.Before leaving Japan, Abe said he was to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial because: We must not repeat the horror of war ever again. Together with President Obama, I would like to express to the world this pledge for the future and the value of reconciliation, he told reporters.On December 7, 1941 a Japanese air armada descended on the Hawaiian naval base without warning, sinking much of the fleet and killing 2,400 people.Washington had been hesitating about joining a war that had already plunged Europe into chaos, but the Japanese attack forced its hand. The moving memorial, appearing to float above the rusting remains of the USS Arizona, attracts two million tourists, pilgrims and veterans every year. The curved-roofed white building was put in place in the 1960s to memorialize what president Franklin Roosevelt dubbed the day that will live in infamy.Inside are engraved the names of crewmen who died in the attack.Abe is not expected to formally apologize in the name of Japan but, as Obama did at Hiroshima, will celebrate todays friendship between the former foes.On Monday, Abe was expected to tour other sites near the Hawaiian state capital, Honolulu, including the National Memorial Cemetery of the pacific.Known colloquially as the Punchbowl, it is the final resting place for more than 13,000 American veterans of the war in the Pacific.Abe will also pay tribute to the nine Japanese crew and students who drowned in February 2001 when the fishing vessel Ehime Maru collided with a US sub.

Afghan woman pilot's asylum bid sparks fervent debate

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KABUL (AFP) - The shock announcement of Afghanistans first woman fixed-wing pilot to seek asylum in the US has touched off a spirited national debate on the countrys most vexing issues: insecurity, womens rights and mass exodus of young people.Niloofar Rahmani, a 25-year-old pilot lionised widely as the Afghan Top Gun after the 1986 Tom Cruise film on flying aces, was scheduled to return to Afghanistan last week after a 15-month training course with the US air force.But on the eve of her departure, she declared she will not be returning citing fears for her safety, triggering a storm of criticism in Afghanistan for betraying her nation but also garnering support from activists.What she said in the US was irresponsible and unexpected. She was meant to be a role model for other young Afghans, defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh told AFP Monday. She has betrayed her country. It is a shame.Rahmani became a symbol of hope for millions of Afghan women when she surfaced in the press in 2013 after becoming Afghanistans first woman pilot since the Taliban era, dressed in tan combat boots, khaki overalls and aviator glasses.The once-unimaginable feat last year won her the US State Departments Women of Courage Award.But with fame came death threats from insurgents and she routinely faced contempt from her male colleagues in a conservative nation where many still believe that a woman does not belong outside the home.In an interview with AFP in Kabul last year, Rahmani said she always carried a pistol for her protection and though she has grown accustomed to the ogling eyes of men, she never left her airbase in uniform, lest it make her a target.Rahmanis lawyer Kimberly Motley said her decision to seek asylum in the US had been a heartbreakingly difficult decision.Niloofar and her family have received vicious threats which have unfortunately confirmed that her safety is at significant risk if she were to come back to Afghanistan, Motley told AFP.The real betrayal to Afghanistan is against those who threaten her life, her familys life, and also to those who continue to oppress women.But some of the most virulent criticism over her decision has come from women.Dear Niloofar, do you think your problems are bigger than that of millions of other Afghan women? photojournalist Maryam Khamosh wrote on Facebook.I sometimes wish I were Niloofar and could soar in the sky and bomb the enemies of my people. But you, Niloofar, who touched the skies from the ashes of our land have shamed our flag.NATO forces also took umbrage at her media comment that the security situation in Afghanistan is getting worse and worse.Afghan security forces have seen definitive progress... and their performance in 2016 was better than 2015, and we expect 2017 to be better than 2016, the military coalition said.But that sentiment hardly resonates with the Afghan youth, who have continued to flee the countrys escalating conflict in record numbers.On Monday many Afghans decried another symbol of violence and impunity -- social media images of dreaded warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad relaxing in a public bathhouse. Infamous for once keeping a human dog that savaged victims on his command, Zardad was unexpectedly deported from Britain this month following his early release from jail.When someone like Zardad can roam freely in Kabul then Niloofar has the right to not come back, said an Afghan man on Facebook.

CCTV confirms Berlin attacker transited France: probe source

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PARIS (AFP) - Surveillance footage confirms that Anis Amri, the suspected Berlin truck attacker gunned down by Italian police, transited through the French city of Lyon by train, a source close to the investigation said.A man corresponding to the killer was spotted on the afternoon of Thursday, December 22, on a platform at the (Lyon-Part-Dieu) station wearing a cap and backpack, the source said, confirming media reports. He appears alone in these images.The source said investigators are still trying to determine how 24-year-old Amri, suspected of using a hijacked truck to mow down 12 people at a Christmas market in Berlin a week ago, was able to leave the German capital to reach France and then Italy.Amri was the focus of a four-day Europe-wide manhunt before being shot dead by police in Milan after firing at officers.The Berlin rampage was claimed by the Islamic State group, which released a video on Friday in which Amri is shown pledging allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.German authorities are probing whether Amri had help before or after the attack. Hundreds of investigators are set to work on the case throughout the holiday season.

Christmas weekend sees deadly spike in Chicago shootings

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CHICAGO (AFP) - Police in Chicago said Monday they were investigating 27 shootings -- 12 of them deadly -- that occurred on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a remarkable spasm of violence there in what already has been a historically bloody year.Chicago police superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters that many of the recent shootings appeared to be gang-related.We now know the majority of these shootings and homicides were targeted attacks by gangs against potential rival gang members and groups who were at holiday gatherings, Johnson said at a press conference.These were deliberate and planned shootings by one gang against another. They were targeted knowing full well that individuals would be at the homes of family and friends celebrating the holiday, Johnson said.The Christmas weekend violence occurred during a year of record bloodshed in Americas third-largest city.With a week to go before the year is over, more than 750 people have been killed in Chicago in 2016, marking the first time in nearly two decades that the number of homicides has exceeded 700, according to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which has been tracking the violence.There have been more murders in Americas third-largest city than in the two largest -- Los Angeles and New York -- combined. The city is awash in illegally obtained guns, a major contributor to the problem, law enforcement officials say.Chicago is planning to hire nearly 1,000 additional police officers over the next two years to help combat the rise in crime.

Khairpur: 20 injured in coach, truck collision

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KHAIRPUR (Dunya News) – A speeding coach carrying wedding guests collided with a truck at the National Highway in Rasulabad in Gambat area rear Khairpur on Monday night, injuring at least 20 people, Dunya News reported.The ill-fated coach was carrying wedding guests from Karachi to Rahim Yar Khan when it hit a truck coming from opposite direction near Khairpur. Women and children were among the injured.The rescue teams reached the spot and shifted the injured to a hospital in Gambat from where critically wounded passengers were referred to Karachi.Eyewitnesses said that the accident was caused due to negligence of coach driver who managed to escape from the scene.

Azhar, Shafiq take Pakistan to 232-4 at lunch

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MELBOURNE (AFP) - Azhar Ali led a stubborn Pakistan response with a century on the second day of the second Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.Azhar, playing in his 56th Test, raised his 12th Test century and third against Australia with two runs behind the wicket to fine leg.The tourists, who trail 1-0 in the series, went to lunch at 232 for four and went through the extended first session without losing a wicket, with Azhar on 112 and Asad Shafiq not out on 48.The pair had put on 107 runs for the fifth wicket after the loss of skipper Misbah-ul-Haq for 11 before tea on Mondays rain-hit opening day.Azhars hundred came off 218 balls in 338 minutes and consolidated his position as Pakistans leading runscorer this calendar year.At lunch he had scored 1062 runs for the year. Shafiq, who scored a fighting 137 in Pakistans narrow loss in the first Gabba Test, survived a review on 20 when an inside edge catch behind off Jackson Bird was found to have come off his pad.Pakistan went to first drinks at 185 for four with Azhar seven runs short of his century.Light rain sent the players from the field midway through the opening session, before play resumed and was then stopped again just before lunch.It intensified during the lunch break after washing out play post-tea on Mondays opening day.

Karachi: Robber belonging to a political party arrested

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KARACHI (Dunya News) – Police crackdown against criminal elements under National Action Plan (NAP) in Karachi continues as police arrested a dacoit belonging to a political party on Monday, Dunya News reported.According to details, police carried out an operation in Awami Colony area of Korangi in Karachi and apprehended a robber. Police also recovered narcotics and arms from his possession.Police sources have informed that the arrested robber was a member of a major political party.

Christmas train reaches Multan

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MULTAN (Dunya News) – A special Christmas train which started its journey from Peshawar has reached Multan on Monday after passing through Rawalpindi and Lahore, Dunya News reported.A large number of citizens including people from Christian community welcomed the train on arrival at the Multan Cantt Station.The train has been decorated nicely and models of Santa Claus and historic churches in Pakistan have also been placed in the train. The train will stay for one day in Multan.

Kid abducted from Sambrial, recovered from Gujrat two days later

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GUJRAT (Dunya News) - The kid which was abducted in Sambrial two days back, was recovered from Gujrat on Monday night, reported Dunya News.According to details, Alyan was going to school with his uncle and sister on motorcycle two days back when three armed men forced him to get off the motorcycle and told his uncle to arrange Rs 50 million. The case was registered by police against unknown men and tonight he was recovered.

TT Singh: Death toll from poisonous liquor rises to 20

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TOBA TEK SINGH (Dunya News) – The death toll from drinking toxic liquor in Mubarakabad area of Toba Tek Singh has reached 20 as eight more people died in various hospitals on Monday night, Dunya News reported.Condition of dozens of people deteriorated in Mubarakabad area of Toba Tek Singh on Monday after consuming poisonous liquor. The affectees were brought to District Headquarters Hospital Toba Tek Singh and Allied Hospital where 20 people were killed. Several other are still under treatment.Locals have said that selling of raw liquor is common in the area while police are not taking required action. Wife of one of the affectees revealed that those dealing in toxic liquors are giving extortion money to the police.DSP Saddar Atif Imran Qureshi while talking to media said that the liquor had been sold owing to the permit given to the dealers.

Rahim Yar Khan: Police's private torture cell revealed, RPO takes notice

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RAHIM YAR KHAN (Dunya News) - A private torture cell of police station incharge was exposed in Rahim Yar Khan on Monday night, where arrested people were tortured in a barbaric manner, reported Dunya News.There were 15 people who were tortured in the cell for 22 days inhumanly with electric current and heat gun. The Regional Police Officer (RPO) of Bahawalpur took notice of the cell.The incharge of the police station was suspended whereas cases were filed against 3 out of 15 people for theft. The other 12 innocent people were freed.

Multan: One dead in motorcycle accident, two injured in firing incident

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MULTAN (Dunya News) - One person died and other got injured due to motorcycle accident whereas two people got injured in a firing accident on Monday night in Multan, reported Dunya News.According to police Faizan Butt and Ali Ahmad got injured in firing incident which took place due to an old enmity. Police took statement from the injured persons and started the investigation.On the other hand, one person got injured while doing one-wheeling on motorcycle and another got injured. The injured person was shifted to the hospital.

9th death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto today

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KARACHI (Dunya News) – The 9th death anniversary of former Prime Minister (PM) Benazir Bhutto will be observed with reverence all over the country today (Tuesday).Pakistan People’s Party has finalized arrangements for the main function in this regard at Garhi Khuda Bakhsh. Sindh government has announced a public holiday on the day.A big public meeting is scheduled to be held in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh for which a big stage has been prepared for top leadership of PPP while the venue has been decorated with party flags and posters of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, former President and co-chairman PPP Asif Ali Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and other central leadership of PPP have reached Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to attend Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah visited the mausoleum of Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto and laid floral wreaths and offered Fateha over there. Caravans from across the country including Lahore are reaching Garhi Khuda Bakhsh to attend the main ceremony. Tight security arrangements have been made and over seven thousand policemen and 300 Rangers personnel will be deployed to maintain law and order.
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