A Dhaka University professor along with two others is facing sedition charges for allegedly defaming Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, and distorting the history of the 1971 Liberation War. Aminul Islam Bulbul, the president of the central committee of the Muktijuddha Mancha, filed a written complaint against Professor Morshed Hasan Khan, daily Jai Jai Din editor Kazi Rokonuddin Ahmed and daily Naya Diganta editor Alamgir Mohiuddin at the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate. The court has ordered the police investigate and submit a report by October 20, after taking the plaintiff's statement into account. 'Sedition cases require the approval of the home ministry. The investigation agency will submit a report if they find any substance in the claims after investigating the allegations and quizzing the plaintiff,” the court's clerk Rakib Chowdhury said.
Pak appoints first VC of Baba Guru Nanak University
Pakistan's Punjab government appointed the first vice-chancellor of the Baba Guru Nanak International University in Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak. Professor Asghar Zaidi, the vice-chancellor of the College University Lahore, has been given the additional charge of the post of vice chancellor of Baba Guru Nanak International University (BGNIU). He will be the first vice chancellor of the varsity located about some 80 km from Lahore.
A notification was issued by the Punjab Higher Education Department after the approval of Chancellor/Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar. In October, 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan had laid the foundation stone of the BGNIU in Nankana Sahib. 'It is a matter of great pride for me that I will work as the first/founder Vice Chancellor of Baba Guru Nanak International University.' said Zaidi, an eminent social policy analyst and a recent recipient of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz.
Sri Lanka’s death row MP takes parliamentary oath
A Sri Lankan lawmaker from the ruling party, who was elected to Parliament while serving a death sentence in a murder case, was sworn in as an MP by the speaker. Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP) lawmaker Premalal Jayasekera was convicted in a murder case on July 31, just days ahead of the August 5 parliamentary elections which he contested from the south western Ratnapura region. He was sworn in as a member of parliament by speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. His oath taking followed the court of appeal issuing an interim order directing the Commissioner-General of Prisons to make arrangements for Jayasekara to attend Parliament. Jayasekara had filed a writ petition before the Court of Appeal asking for a relief. The appeal court order had come after the Attorney-General Dappula de Livera's ruling last week that Jayasekara is “unsuitable to either sit in parliament or vote in the house”.
Two US cops shot in ambush
Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were recovering after being shot in Compton in what authorities described as an “ambush” that was captured on surveillance video. The video shows a man walking up to the deputies’ parked patrol car, pulling out a gun and firing several times into the front seat area from the passenger side. The assailant is then seen running from the scene. Officials asked for the public’s help to locate the person who opened fire. According to the Sheriff’s office, one male deputy and a female deputy were ambushed as they sat in their patrol vehicle. Both sustained multiple gunshot wounds and are in critical condition. The deputies were listed in critical condition but were expected to survive. One was shot in the face and other in the head. Sheriff Alex Villanueva described one of the injured deputies as a 31-year-old mother of a 6-year-old boy and the other as a 24-year-old man. He said both deputies were sworn into office just 14 months ago.
US, Maldives sign defence deal
The US has signed a framework for defence cooperation with Maldives to deepen engagement in support of maintaining peace and security in the strategic Indian Ocean, the Pentagon has announced, as the Trump administration looks for strengthening alliances in the Indo-Pacific to counter China’s growing presence in the region. The framework for defence and security relationship was signed between the US deputy assistant secretary of defence for south and southeast Asia Reed Werner and Maldivian minister of defence Mariya Didi. “The framework sets forth both countries’ intent to deepen cooperation in support of maintaining peace and security in the Indian Ocean, and marks an important step forward,” Pentagon said.
33 killed as wildfires ravage US West Coast
The death toll from wildfires that have ravaged the United States' West Coast has risen to 33 as the National Weather Service has issued a "red flag warning" amid high winds and dry conditions in Oregon and some California counties. Authorities said the conditions are expected to "contribute to a significant spread of new and existing fires", amid days of blazes across the states of California, Oregon and Washington that have destroyed neighbourhoods and forest land, leaving barren and grey landscapes the size of New Jersey. At least 10 people have been killed in the past week throughout Oregon. Officials have said more people are missing from other blazes, and the number of fatalities is likely to rise. Twenty-two people have died in California since early August, and one person has been killed in Washington state. On Sunday, search and rescue teams, with dogs in tow, were deployed across the blackened ruins of southern Oregon towns. At least 35 active fires were burning in the state, as drought conditions, extreme temperatures, and high winds created the "perfect firestorm" for the blazes to grow, Governor Kate Brown told CBS news.
US govt formally proposes DNA collection of immigrants
The Trump administration formally proposed a sweeping expansion of its collection of DNA and other biometric data of immigrants, to go beyond detained migrants in order to include US citizen sponsors and others. Its proposal also vastly expands the biological information that the department of homeland security collects beyond genetic material to include eye scans, voice prints, and palm prints, the department’s US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a notice published in the Federal Register. The proposal, first announced on September 1, would vastly expand such collections that DHS said would help prove family relationships, verify identities, and check criminal histories. It also moves to include children, among other changes. Critics have said it raises serious privacy concerns. It is unclear when DHS will finalise the rule. Representatives for the department did not respond to a request for comment. Public comment on the measure is due on October 13.
US cancels visas of 1,000 Chinese nationals
The US has revoked visas for more than 1,000 Chinese nationals under a presidential measure denying entry to students and researchers deemed security risks, the state department said, a move China called a violation of human rights. The acting head of the US department of homeland security, Chad Wolf, said earlier that Washington was blocking visas “for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to China’s military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing and otherwise appropriating sensitive research.” In a speech, Wolf repeated US charges of unjust business practices and industrial espionage by China, including attempts to steal coronavirus research, and accused it of abusing student visas to exploit American academia. Wolf said the US was also “preventing goods produced from slave labour from entering our markets,” an apparent reference to accusations of abuse of Muslims in Xinjiang. A state department spokeswoman said the visa action followed a May 29 proclamation by President Trump as part of the US response to China’s curbs on democracy in Hong Kong.
New fire erupts in Beirut port area
A store of oil and tyres at Beirut port caught fire last week, a military source said, a little more than a month after a massive blast devastated the port and a surrounding residential area of the Lebanese capital. The fire erupted in the duty free zone of the port, sending a huge column of smoke above the city. The military source said the cause of the blaze was not immediately clear. Television footage showed firefighters trying to douse the blaze at the port, where warehouses and concrete grain silos were shattered by the Aug. 4 blast. About 190 people were killed in last month’s explosion and a swathe of Beirut near the port was ruined. The blast was caused by a huge store of ammonium nitrate that had been kept at the port in haphazard manner for years.
Nurse convicted of killing 85 patients loses appeal
A German federal court has rejected an appeal by a former German nurse convicted in the killing of 85 patients. Last year, 42-year-old Niels Hoegel was sentenced to life in prison for deliberately inducing cardiac arrest in patients by injecting them with certain drugs. According to reports, Hoegel would give his victims overdoses of medications because he enjoyed the feeling of resuscitating them. Dubbed by some unsuspecting colleagues at the time as “resuscitation Rambo,” Hoegel “always pushed everyone else aside” when he attempted to revive the overdosed patients. Many patients, however, weren’t able to be saved. Hoegel was originally accused of killing 100 patients from 1999 until 2005. On June 6, 2019, he was sentenced in the killing of 85 of them. A court in the northwestern city of Oldenburg found him not guilty on 15 counts for lack of evidence. During the trial, he admitted to 43 of the killings, disputed five of them, and said he didn’t remember the rest.
2 Oz scribes flee China fearing arrest
Two Australian journalists fled China under diplomatic protection, fearing arrest as political pawns in the worsening relationship between Canberra and Beijing. Their dramatic overnight exit came following days of secret wrangling that had seen both men holed up in Australia’s diplomatic missions to escape the clutches of China’s feared security police. Bill Birtles and Michael Smith had to consent to questioning before they were allowed to leave China. Both men were quizzed about fellow Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who has been detained since last month. Beijing acknowledged for the first time that she was being held on national security grounds - a broad category that can include crimes resulting in lengthy prison sentences. China confirmed the two men had been questioned, but insisted the move had been legitimate. Several reporters for US media have had their visas revoked and been forced to leave the country - what critics have interpreted as targeting of Western media by the Communist Party.
EU diplomats at Belarus Nobel winner’s home to prevent arrest
Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich accused the authorities in Belarus of terrorising their own people as another opposition politician was detained by masked men in plain clothes. Maxim Znak was the latest figure to be seized in a systematic campaign by the government of President Alexander Lukashenko to round up leaders of a protest movement. “What is happening is terror against the people,” said Alexievich, who summoned supporters to her home. “We have to unite and not give up our intentions,” she said. In a show of solidarity with Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, diplomats from at least seven European countries joined her in her flat. Lithuania said the envoys’ aim was partly to protect the author from abuse. Znak was detained two days after another opposition leader, Maria Kolesnikova, was snatched in the street by masked men. Both are leaders of protests demanding Lukashenko’s resignation.
