News Kashmir Magazine

The United States has sent a warship very close to one of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea, a move apparently designed to increase tensions with Beijing. 

The US Navy sent its USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, within 12 nautical miles of the island on Tuesday, said a US military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The operation has begun… It will be complete within a few hours,” the official added.

The White House had approved the movement by the USS Lassen, which sailed around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, a disputed group of hundreds of reefs, islets, atolls and islands in the South China, the official noted.

“We will fly, sail and operate anywhere in the world that international law allows,” another US military official told CNN.

“US Freedom of Navigation operations are global in scope and executed against a wide range of excessive maritime claims, irrespective of the coastal state advancing the excessive claim,” the official added.

In a press statement AISA has wished to express their disappointment and concern at the way the government of Jammu and Kashmir is handling the issue of shifting of the engineering college from North campus to Zakura. AISA Stated – “ It is sad that the North Campus is being starved for facilities and the students are being made to suffer endlessly due to this political deadlock. We believe that the academic interests of students must be kept at the forefront of every decision. Ahead of the Academic Council meeting, we appeal to the Vice-Chancellor and members of the Academic Council to prioritise their role as academicians first and help to end this political deadlock.”
AISA appealed to the other stakeholders to realize the harm that this deadlock is doing to the education and career of students of Computer Science department of North Campus. AISA Statement reads – “The other stakeholders need to realize that there is no point in having a defunct facility in Baramulla. It is sad that the fund-starved campus facility is being used to please vested political interests. It is a fraud being committed with the people of Baramulla. The people of Baramulla are being made to think that a favour is being bestowed upon them in the name of a defunct facility in the name of the engineering college. Facilities at the campus must be improved and, until that is done, the shifting of engineering college to Zakura campus cannot be indefinitely postponed. The students had been promised that the campus would be shifted and the promise must be fulfilled.”
AISA added –“The genuine demands of the students must be fulfilled and academics should be the prime concern. It is a sad state of affairs where the students are being made to starve for facilities in their campus facility but are being held hostage to political interests. This deadlock must end and the suffering of students should be put to an end.”

Srinagar Oct 15: In its efforts to get problems of people resolved during holy occasions in Moharum, Divisional Administration Kashmir has established Moharum helpline in Police Control Room Kashmir.

The Police helpline will deal with the specific requirements put across by the citizens with regard to electricity, water, sanitation, health and other issues of emergency. Senior officers from departments of Police, Municipality, PHE, Health, PDD, R&B, CAPD, Fire & Emergency Services have been designated to take call on issues flagged by public. The helpline will remain functional round the clock with effect from October 15-2015.
General public is requested to call up on following numbers to register their grievances. 0194-2506508, 0194-2506509 and 9858222333.

Srinagar, October 16: A lady who had set herself ablaze in Dooru area of district Anantnag on 03-10-2015 died yesterday.

A 30 years old lady (name withheld) resident of  Chenigund in the jurisdiction of Police Station Dooru who had set herself ablaze after pouring kerosene oil on her body at her home on 03-10-2015 breathed her last yesterday evening at SMHS hospital Srinagar. In this regard a Case has  already been registered in Police Station Dooru.

Following a meeting with the Syrian president in Damascus Iran’s high-level security delegate said that his country would consider sending troops to Syria if requested.
“If this issue is requested by Syria we will consider it and make a decision,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran’s national security and foreign policy committee told the media. “We are serious about fighting terrorism.”
Ahead of a major offensive by Syrian forces against the northern city of Aleppo this week, media reports suggested the deployment of Iranian ground troops in Syria.
A report by Sputnik International said that thousands of personnel had traveled from Iran to Syria to participate in the battle for Aleppo.
But Iran’s foreign ministry rejected such reports Wednesday, saying that Tehran has only sent military advisors to Syria.
Iran has been the main backer of the Assad regime since the start of the civil of war in that country in 2011.
Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, a top Iranian military commander was killed in the outskirts of Aleppo last week.

In Damascus Boroujerdi said that Iran would continue its military support for Syria and Iraq.
“We have sent arms support and advisors to Syria and Iraq and will consider their other requests, too,” he said at a press conference.
Courtesy: Rudaw

Only 150 people have turned up at a demonstration against Russian military involvement in the Syrian war that was sanctioned to gather 300 protesters in Moscow.
The rally that was organised on Saturday by two independent movements, Solidarity and Party of December 5, came after an opinion poll suggested that a large majority of Russians support Moscow’s decision to launch air strikes in Syria.
In the survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center on October 3 and 4 in 46 Russian towns, 66 percent of respondents said they fully or conditionally support the decision to use Russian air force in Syria.
Only about 27 percent conditionally or absolutely disapprove of the involvement, according to the poll.
“While the appetite for deploying troops in Syria is low, Russians are increasingly looking to such displays of military might as a substitute for their country’s economic ills and ostracism in the West,” Peter Zalmayev, a Russian affairs expert and director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative in New York, told Al Jazeera.
Zalmayev said the mood could change, however, if Russia sends ground troops to Syria.

“If that happens and coffins of Russian soldiers, including young conscripts, begin to arrive, Russians will be reminded of the Soviet fiasco in Afghanistan. Their support for further adventurism in the Middle East – especially if the economy doesn’t pick up – will wane,” he said.
Source: Al Jazeera

The Zimbabwean government is struggling to deal with a worsening unemployment crisis as companies collapse or are forced to make redundancies.
Zimbabwe looks for more cash loans to solve debt crisis

Officials in the country have tried to stop the trend by passing laws preventing organisations from laying off workers and forcing them to give workers severance pay, but economists warn the number of jobless will continue going up as the economy worsens.

The current rate of unemployment in the country stands at 80 percent and worsening environmental conditions, such as an anticipated drought, will hit the country’s finances harder.

“We are anticipating a serious drought which might affect electricity production through next year as well as crop production … we don’t have the money to pay for the food we now need to import,” said economist John Robertson.
Business owners Al Jazeera spoke to said they felt they had few options other than cutting back on jobs.

Many are operating at less than half their capacity and employers say they have to lay off workers, insisting the only way they can survive is by cutting jobs.

Political stability

Lovemore Madhuku, a lawyer representing workers, said the issue of unemployment posed a threat to the country’s fragile political order.

“In 2008 we had an election that was influenced largely by the economic framework … the government of President [Robert] Mugabe found it very difficult to survive in that election.

“If we have more people losing jobs it will cause more suffering… I don’t see the government being able to deal with that situation.”

Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is worsening and has taken a toll on employment rates and government expenditure.

Source: Al Jazeera

Syrian forces have managed to purge strategic hilltops on the northeastern outskirts of the capital, Damascus, of militants as part of what they call ground anti-terror operations under Russian air support.

On Saturday, Syrian army troops established full control over the hilltops overlooking the city of Harasta, located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Damascus, as well as those behind Douma, situated about 10 kilometers (six miles) northeast of the capital, Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen satellite news network reported.

The development came a day after Syrian armed forces launched a large-scale military offensive against militants in the southern countryside of Aleppo, located 355 kilometers (220 miles) north of Damascus.
Courtesy : Press Tv

A senior al-Qaeda commander has been killed along with two other members in an airstrike in Syria, says a UK-based monitoring group.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday, Abdul Mohsen Abdallah Ibrahim al-Charekh, a Saudi national also known as Sanafi al-Nasr, was killed in a strike along with two other members of the Qaeda affiliate group al-Nusra in the northern Syrian town of Dana on Thursday.

It is still not clear if Charekh was killed in a US or Russia strike, said Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman, but according to Takfiri social media users, he was killed in a US drone strike.

The group released pictures of a car along with several corpses claiming that they were those of Charekh, who was allegedly a senior strategist and an important power broker for al-Qaeda, and the other militants.
Courtesy: Press TV