4,000 asylum seekers arrive in Croatia in 24 hours

Nearly 4,000 refugees, mostly from crisis-hit Syria, have entered Croatia from Serbia in the past 24 hours following a move by Hungary to close its borders to them.

On Thursday, huge numbers of asylum seekers were continuing to arrive in Croatia, which has become their new path on the long journey to Western Europe, Croatia’s state-run HRT television channel reported.

Some 800 refugees on board a train from the village of Tovarnik, near Croatia’s border with Serbia, reportedly arrived in the town of Dugo Selo, near the capital, Zagreb, early on Thursday.

‘Ready for arrivals,’ but not too many of them

Croatian officials transferred the asylum seekers to a center in nearby Jezevo.

Late on Wednesday, Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic had said his country was ready for the arrivals, but could not cope with high numbers.

“We are ready to [provide] asylum to a few thousand people and we can handle that, but we are not ready for tens of thousands,” Pusic told HRT, adding, “We do not have capacities” for such an influx.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic is scheduled to hold talks on the refugee crisis in Zagreb with Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann later on Thursday. Then, Milanovic would pay a visit to Ljubljana to meet with his Slovenian counterpart Miro Cerar.

courtesy: Press Tv

Police officers killed in PKK attacks in SE Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — At least five police officers were killed in two separate attacks carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern Turkish provinces of Mardin and Hakkari, according to the Turkish Today’s Zaman news agency on Tuesday.

A roadside bomb was detonated on a passing armored police vehicle in the Demiryolu-Ucyol neighborhood of Mardin, which resulted in the death of three police officers and the wounding of one, Today’s Zaman reported.

Another bomb attacked resulted in the deaths of two police officers and the wounding of two others when the PKK detonated another roadside bomb on the Hakkari-Van Highway in southeastern Hakkari province on Tuesday.

After the attack, a wide-scale operation was launched by Turkish security forces at the scene of the incident.

Turkey and the PKK have been locked in a three-decade conflict in which some 40,000 people have been killed. The conflict re-ignited after the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish policemen in late July.

The resumption of hostilities ended a peace treaty signed between the PKK and Ankara in 2013.

Obama invites suspended Muslim student to White House

US President Barack Obama has invited to the White House the African-American student who was suspended and handcuffed for bringing to school his homemade clock.

 

Ahmed Mohamed, who is the son of a Muslim immigrant from Sudan, was arrested earlier this week after his clock was inexplicably mistaken for a bomb by a teacher at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas.

 

His father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, told the Dallas Morning News that the 14-year-old “just wants to invent good things for mankind. But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.”

 

On Wednesday, President Obama invited the ninth-grader to take his clock to the White House.

 

 

 

“Cool clock, Ahmed,” Obama tweeted about Mohamed. “Want to bring it to the White House?

 

“We should inspire more kids like you to like science,” the US president added. “It’s what makes America great.”

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also expressed his support for the teenager. In addition, engineers from Google, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NASA extended invitations to Mohamed to visit their facilities.

 

Zuckerberg said that he would like to meet with the Sudanese-American student, appreciating his work and inviting him to visit Facebook headquarters.

 

 

 

“Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed. Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post.

 

Police on Wednesday – finally – told Mohamed’s family that they had decided they would not charge the boy with making a hoax bomb.

 

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that “Ahmed’s teachers have failed him,” adding that the incident could serve as a “teachable moment” about how “pernicious stereotypes” can affect people’s judgment.

Avail loan without any guarantor or mortgage under ‘Mudra Bank Scheme’: Thakur

SRINAGAR, Sept 16: Coming with a noble idea and initiative to revitalize the small revenue generating units or establishing new ones, Narendra Modi led NDA government came up with ‘Mudra Bank Scheme’ to provide hassle free financial assistance to unemployed youth, women and weaker section of society.

BJP media in-charge Kashmir, Altaf Thakur said under the scheme a financial assistance from Rs 50, 000 to Rs five lakh and 5Lakh to 10 Lakh would be given to the needy people for restarting or establishing their business units in the state. “This scheme is aimed to save small scale business units from brokers and landlords,” Thakur said.

He also said that this loan can be availed at any bank branch in the state without any guarantee or mortgage.

“The plus point of this scheme is that meager one (1) percent interest rate would be charged monthly,” Thakur said, adding, banks would have a Nodal Officer to guide the people in availing this scheme.

Thakur further said that a loan mela would be organized from September 25th to 2nd October in all the districts.

IGP Kashmir promotes 231 SgCts to Head Constables

Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone, Shri S.J.M Gillani has approved the promotion of 231 SgCts to the next rank of Head Constables today.

The Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) comprising of four members Dy. Inspector General of Police, Central Kashmir Range Shri Ghulam Hassan Bhat, SSP PCR Kashmir Shri Imtiyaz Hussain, SSP Bandipora Shri Muhammad Shabir and DDP ZPHQ Shri Murtaza Nasir, met under the Chairmanship of the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir and promoted 231 SgCts to the next rank of Head Constables. The IGP has also granted In-situ grade promotion in respect of 36 officials on the recommendations of the committee.

Shri Gillani has felicitated these newly promoted police personnel and their families and exhorted upon them to work with more dedication and devotion in the interests of public and the department.