British-born Daesh recruit Shamima Begum loses appeal against removal of citizenship
Updated 22 February 2023
Reuters
LONDON: A British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Daesh lost her latest appeal against the UK government’s decision to take away her citizenship on Wednesday.
Shamima Begum left London in 2015 aged 15 and traveled with two school friends to Syria, where she married an Daesh fighter and gave birth to three children, all of whom died as infants.
She was stripped of her British citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, shortly after she was found in a detention camp in Syria.
Begum, now 23, challenged that decision at a hearing in London in November, when her lawyers argued that Britain’s interior ministry, the Home Office, failed to investigate whether she was a “child victim of trafficking”.
Her lawyers also argued that then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid had “pre-determined” that Begum’s British citizenship should be revoked before he received any evidence from officials.
But lawyers representing the Home Office said Begum’s case was about national security rather than trafficking, arguing that Begum had aligned with Daesh and stayed in Syria for four years until 2019.
On Wednesday, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission – a specialist tribunal which hears appeals against decisions to remove citizenship on national security grounds – dismissed Begum’s appeal.
Death or glory? World Cup anchors changing game of one-day cricket
One of the criticisms of ODIs is they are too often reduced to ‘meaningless’ bilateral series
Format is also viewed as too pedestrian in the slipstream of high velocity, smash-and-grab T20 format
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP
LONDON: The World Cup which gets underway on Thursday will provide a sharp focus for one-day international cricket and a chance to show how the 50-over game has evolved since India last staged the tournament in 2011.
One of the criticisms of ODIs, once the economic driving force of the global game, is that they are too often reduced to ‘meaningless’ bilateral series.
The format is also viewed as too pedestrian in the slipstream of the high velocity, smash-and-grab Twenty20 format.
“The ODI has been reduced to virtually depending on a World Cup year for its importance,” wrote former Australia captain Ian Chappell in a recent ESPNCricinfo column.
Indian cricket player Sachin Tendulkar during a news conference a day after his retirement in Mumbai, November 17, 2013. (REUTERS/File)
Meanwhile, India great Sachin Tendulkar, a 2011 World Cup winner, believes the format is now too formulaic.
“The game is becoming too predictable,” he said.
“From the 15th to the 40 over, it’s losing its momentum. It’s getting boring.”
And yet the ODI remains a key plank of the International Cricket Council’s schedule, with the 50-over format still capable of providing an entertaining spectacle.
Perhaps the biggest on-field development since 2011 has been the change in what constitutes a big total.
There have been 24 occasions on which 400 has been passed in ODI cricket and 15 of those have come since the 2011 World Cup
The 2011 final saw India reach a target of 275 with just 10 balls to spare.
But in an age where World Cup-holders England have lifted the world record for an ODI total to 444 in 2016, 481 in 2018 and 498, against the Netherlands, last year, 275 rarely represents a challenging target.
Yet for all the prevalence of shorter boundaries and the impact of the wider range of shot-making developed by T20 cricket on all other formats, ODIs are not always run-fests.
The very length of a 50-over game allows for the possibilities of both bowlers getting on top and teams recovering from a top-order collapse.
England were 55-5 in an ODI against New Zealand at Southampton last month but still managed to post a total of 226-7 in a match reduced by rain to 34 overs per side.
And they won by the large margin of 79 runs after dismissing New Zealand for 147, with left-arm quicks David Willey and Reece Topley taking three wickets apiece.
Even so the days when 300 was considered a significant ODI total do seem to belong to an earlier age, although the sheer pressure of a World Cup gives ODIs an edge lacking in bilateral series.
Indeed the greatest off-field change since 2011 is the number of people questioning whether the ODI has much of a future outside of a World Cup.
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Incoming MCC president Mark Nicholas believes all other ODIs ought to be on the way out.
“We believe strongly that ODIs should be World Cups only,” Nicholas told ESPNcricinfo.
“We think it’s difficult bilaterally now to justify them. They’re not filling grounds in a lot of countries. And there is a power at the moment to T20 cricket that is almost supernatural.”
He added: “In a free market, the most money wins. And that’s just the end-game.
“The players can see that bubbling away and they want to be a part of it. So, it is an extraordinary power that T20 has, and I think scheduling 50-over cricket alongside it just continues the story of the death knell of the ODI game.”
ODIs, which date back to 1971, are not going anywhere anytime soon, however.
And the World Cup will feature at least one match between India and Pakistan — a fixture which is effectively being kept going by ICC tournaments while political interference prevents bilateral matches between the arch-rivals.
India tells Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats by Oct. 10
FT says India had threatened to revoke diplomatic immunity of those diplomats told to leave who remained after Oct. 10
Canada says Indian government agents had a role in June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader
Updated 8 min 51 sec ago
Reuters
India has told Canada that it must repatriate 41 diplomats by Oct. 10, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Ties between India and Canada have become seriously strained over Canadian suspicion that Indian government agents had a role in the June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who India had labeled a “terrorist.”
India has dismissed the allegation as absurd.
The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the Indian demand, said India had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of those diplomats told to leave who remained after Oct. 10.
Canada has 62 diplomats in India and India had said that the total should be reduced by 41, the newspaper said.
The Indian and Canadian foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said earlier there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian diplomats in Canada, where the presence of Sikh separatist groups has frustrated New Delhi.
Presidential son facing three felony charges stemming from his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver
The younger Biden has not been charged with any crimes related to his foreign business dealings, however,
Updated 17 min 37 sec ago
AFP
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is to appear in federal court in Delaware on Tuesday and is expected to plead not guilty to charges of illegally possessing a handgun.
Hunter Biden, 53, is facing three felony charges stemming from his 2018 purchase of a .38-caliber Colt Cobra revolver.
Biden is charged with two counts of making false statements for claiming on forms required for the gun purchase that he was not using drugs illegally at the time.
He faces a third charge, based on the same statements, that he illegally possessed the gun – which he had for only 11 days in October 2018 – before it was gotten rid of.
Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has informed the court that the president’s son plans to plead not guilty at Tuesday’s 10:00 a.m. (1400 GMT) arraignment at a federal courthouse in Wilmington, the hometown of the Bidens.
Lowell had also asked Judge Christopher Burke to allow Biden, who lives in California, to appear by video instead of in person but the request was denied.
“The defendant should not receive any special treatment in this matter,” Burke wrote in his ruling.
In July, a deal with federal prosecutor David Weiss – which would have erased the gun charges while Biden pleaded guilty to two tax charges and avoided prison – fell apart.
That led to Weiss filing the three felony gun possession charges against Biden.
If convicted, Biden could in theory face 25 years in prison, though in practice such offenses, if not accompanied by other charges, are seldom punished by any jail time.
Weiss, who was elevated to special counsel for the Biden probe after the plea deal fell through, in the meantime has signaled that he is still investigating Biden on possible tax charges.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, bowing to pressure from the party’s hard right, authorized the launch last month of an impeachment investigation into the president.
The younger Biden has not been charged with any crimes related to his foreign business dealings, however, and no credible evidence has emerged so far that his father was involved in anything illegal.
Hunter Biden is a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist-turned-artist, but his life has been marred by alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction. His legal woes threaten to cast a shadow over his father’s campaign for reelection next year.
The 80-year-old president has stood firmly by his only surviving son throughout his personal and legal struggles, saying in an interview earlier this year that Hunter has “done nothing wrong.”
“I trust him. I have faith in him,” Joe Biden said.
Mali troops redeploy toward rebel stronghold: Security officials
Kidal lies more than 1,500 kilometers from the capital Bamako and hundreds of kilometers from the cities of Gao and Timbuktu
Updated 27 min 49 sec ago
AFP
DAKAR: The Malian army began redeploying troops on Monday toward the northern rebel stronghold of Kidal, two security officials said, amid a resumption of hostilities in the region.
“As part of the reorganization of our arrangements in the north, we have begun the redeployment of our forces in the northeastern region of Kidal,” a Mali military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
A convoy left the northern city of Gao, which lies 300 kilometers southwest of Kidal, early Monday, the source added.
Another security official said the convoy was made up of 119 vehicles and was currently stopped on the road to the north of Gao.
National security chiefs made the deployment decision at a meeting late on Sunday, he added.
Kidal is a crossroads region in the north that is not under the control of the Malian state but of a coalition of predominantly Tuareg groups called the Coordination of Azawad Movements.
Since the end of August, the north of Mali has seen a resumption of hostilities by the CMA and an intensification of militant attacks against the army. The fact that Kidal is still controlled by the ex-rebels continues to pose a sovereignty issue and remains a source of irritation for Bamako, including for the junta. Junta leaders have made re-establishing state control across the whole country one of their main messages.
Kidal lies more than 1,500 kilometers from the capital Bamako and hundreds of kilometers from the cities of Gao and Timbuktu.
It is a crucial stopover between Mali and Algeria.
When an insurrection broke out in 2012, the region was one of the first in Mali to fall into the hands of the rebels.
It was taken over by the CMA in 2013 following military intervention by France, and has remained in their hands despite a 2014 attempt by the Malian army to regain control.
In 2015, the rebels signed the so-called Algiers peace agreement with pro-government armed groups and the state.
The 2012, insurrection paved the way for armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda to conquer most of the north, triggering France’s intervention and plunging the Sahel into war that has left thousands dead.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant alliance now operates over large swathes of the north and center of Mali as well as on the outskirts of the capital Bamako.
In the northeast, groups affiliated to Daesh have extended their hold over almost all of the Menaka region.
The insurgency that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
Following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, the Malian junta pushed out France’s anti-rebel force in 2022.
Northern Mali has seen a series of attacks on the army in recent weeks which coincides with the ongoing withdrawal of the UN stabilization force MINUSMA.
MINUSMA has been handing over its camps to Malian authorities, but the separatists claim they should be returned to their control.
The UN mission has still to vacate its camp at Kidal and two other sites further north by the end of December.
Mali’s junta chief Col. Assimi Goita, speaking on the anniversary of the West African nation’s 1960 independence from France last month, pledged to retake control of the country from militant groups and rebels.
Diezani Alison-Madueke is the second high-profile Nigerian politician to face prosecution in Britain in recent years
Updated 02 October 2023
Reuters
LONDON: A former Nigerian oil minister appeared in court in London on Monday charged with receiving bribes in the form of cash, luxury goods, flights on private jets and the use of high-end properties in Britain in return for awarding oil contracts.
Diezani Alison-Madueke was Nigeria’s minister for petroleum resources between 2010 and 2015, during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Appearing at Westminster Magistrates Court, she spoke only to give her name, date of birth and address. She was not asked to formally enter a plea, although her lawyer Mark Bowen told the court she would be pleading not guilty.
She is the second high-profile Nigerian politician to face prosecution in Britain in recent years, following James Ibori, a former state governor who was convicted of fraud and money laundering in 2012 and received a 13-year jail sentence. Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer but it suffers from systemic corruption in the political class which has hampered development and prevented its oil wealth from benefitting wider society.
Alison-Madueke was arrested in London in 2015, shortly after stepping down as minister, and was charged in August with six bribery offenses. She has spent the past eight years on police bail, living in St. John’s Wood, an expensive area of London.
The charges against her, read out in court, all related to events alleged to have taken place in London.
Prosecutor Andy Young said she was alleged to have accepted a wide range of advantages in cash and in kind from people who wanted to receive or continue to receive the award of oil contracts which he said were worth billions of dollars in total.
The advantages included a delivery of £100,000 ($121,620) in cash, the payment of private school fees for her son, and the use and refurbishment of several luxurious properties in London and in the English countryside.
They also included the use of a Range Rover car, payment of bills for chauffeur-driven cars, furniture, and purchases from the upmarket London department store Harrods and from Vincenzo Caffarella, which sells Italian decorative arts and antiques.
