Month: October 2020

France warned its citizens in several Muslim-majority countries to take extra security precautions on Tuesday as anger surged over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, and the head of Russia’s Chechnya region said Paris was pushing people towards extremism. In Bangladesh, thousands of protesters marched through the capital, with some stamping on a poster of French President Emmanuel Macron, and Iran summoned the French charge d’affaires to register a protest over the cartoons. But in a sign that some countries want to limit the fallout, Saudi Arabia while condemning the cartoons held back from echoing calls in other parts of the Muslim world for a boycott of French products. The row has its roots in a knife attack outside a French school on October 16 in which a man of Chechen origi...

The United States and India signed a pact to share sensitive satellite and map data on Tuesday as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned of the threat posed by an increasingly assertive China. Pompeo, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday along with Defense Secretary Mark Esper, said after talks with their Indian counterparts that the two countries had to work together to confront the threat China posed to security and freedom. The annual US-India strategic dialogue comes at a time of heightened tension in the region, with Indian troops confronting Chinese forces on their disputed Himalayan border. The new defence pact – the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation – was a “significant milestone” that would foster cooperation between the militaries of bot...

“My health condition is dangerous but my morals are high. I will not break my strike under the Israeli regime’s threats … either my freedom or martyrdom,” Akhras told his family on Sunday evening, Pars post reported. His family was allowed to visit him for the first time. They had been on an open-ended hunger strike since Saturday in front of his room in Kaplan Hospital. Akhras has thanked all those who have expressed solidarity with him from across the world. “I derive my will from our Palestinian people, and from the families of prisoners and martyrs because we will take back our freedom from the regime and it will not break us. The standing of our people everywhere with me is the best proof of that.” “At all stages, our people boosted my morale. Thanks to all because this i...