Sadiq Khan sworn in, promises a ‘better’ London

Newly elected London Mayor’s opening words at his swearing-in ceremony – “Good Morning, I’m Sadiq Khan, and I’m the Mayor of London” – were drowned in claps and whistles by the audience at the Southwark Cathedral in London.

The 44-year old human rights lawyer of Pakistani descent is not only the first Muslim head of London, but set a record by winning 1.1 million votes. His lead over his closest rival was bigger than that achieved by both his predecessors Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone. With a 45 per cent election turnout, he finished with a margin of 13.6 percentage points over Zac Goldsmith of the Conservative Party.

Warmly acknowledging the introduction made by Doreen Lawrence, the mother of the British teenager Stephen Lawrence who was killed in a racist attack in London in 1993, Mr. Khan promised to “lead the most transparent, engaged and representative council London has ever seen”.

He harked back to his humble beginnings – “So you better know this but I grew up in a council estate,” – and said he achieved what he never dreamt of because of the opportunities and “helping hand” the city offered him and his family. Promising a “better” London, he pledged to give all Londoners the opportunities that he was offered.

Smear campaign

Mr. Khan led an energetic campaign that was turned increasingly toxic by the personal attacks and slander levelled against him by his opponent, the billionaire Mr. Goldsmith, including the smear that he shared platforms with extremists in the past.

Mr. Goldsmith’s campaign, which started with a focus on green and sustainable solutions to city issues, rapidly descended into racism and divisiveness. His piece in the Daily Mail four days before the elections made the schism between him and his opponent unbreachable. He warned that with a Labour victory “we will have handed control of the Met, and with it control over national counter-terrorism policy, to a party whose candidate and current leadership have, whether intentionally or not, repeatedly legitimised those with extremist views.”

There was mounting criticism even within the Conservative Party to Mr. Goldsmith’s campaign. Andrew Boff, a former Conservative member of the London Assembly, told Newsnight that Mr. Goldsmith’s tactic of painting religious conservatives as “extremists” had alienated the party from the city’s ethnic minority voters.

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn’s absence at Mr. Khan’s swearing-in has led to speculation of an increasingly frosty relationship between the two.

Mr. Khan, a practising Muslim, is a liberal who received death threats from extremists for his support for the legalisation of gay marriage in 2013.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/

Haqqani network’s chief made deputy leader of Taliban to protect him from US, says report

Pakistan’s powerful ISI had brought in Haqqani network’s chief Sirajuddin Haqqani as the deputy leader of the Taliban last year to protect him from the Americans, a media report said on Sunday.
The New York Times, quoting Afghan and American officials, said in a report that the “closer integration of
the feared” Haqqani militant network into the leadership of the Taliban is “changing the flow of the Afghan insurgency this year, with the Haqqanis’ senior leader increasingly calling the shots in the Taliban’s offensive.
It quoted Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil as saying that “the ISI brought Sirajuddin as the deputy to the Taliban to give him protection, so if the peace talks get serious, the Americans wouldn’t be able to say, ‘We will make peace with the leader but not with the deputy’.”
Nabil, who now runs a charity for wounded Afghan soldiers, said the merger had been helped by the fact that the
Haqqanis were struggling financially, after their chief fund-raiser was gunned down near Islamabad in 2013, and that the Taliban needed Haqqani’s expertise in waging complex attacks.

Pak arrests top Taliban commander Nasiruddin Haqqani
US,Afghan negotiating peace deal with Haqqanis: Report
Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, the chief spokesman for United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said that “Sirajuddin increasingly runs the day-to-day military operations for the Taliban, and, we believe, is likely
involved in appointing shadow governors.”
“The Haqqani network’s closer integration with the Taliban command also creates awkwardness for the Obama
administration, and is raising tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” it said.
The report cited some senior Afghan officials as saying that the Pakistani military was “central” to bringing the Haqqanis more closely into the Taliban during the insurgency’s leadership councils in 2015 summer, which were held in Quetta.
The report said that the Haqqanis have “refined a signature brand” of urban terrorist attacks and cultivated a sophisticated international fund-raising network, factoring prominently in the United States military’s push to keep troops in Afghanistan.
It added that the group’s growing role in leading the entire insurgency in the war-torn country has raised concerns about an even deadlier year of fighting ahead, as hopes of peace talks have collapsed.
“The shift is also raising tensions with the Pakistani military, which American and Afghan officials accuse of sheltering the Haqqanis as a proxy group,” it said.
While the Haqqani network has always nominally been a branch of the Taliban, the report said the selection of
Sirajuddin Haqqani to become the deputy leader of the Taliban during a leadership struggle in summer 2015 has turned out to be far from a “symbolic move” with Haqqani bringing to the Taliban a “more applied and lethal military expertise” than the supreme leader of the group, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.
“Mullah Mansour has been consumed with a campaign to quell dissent against his leadership, and he is said to have limited his movements and access since a reported attack on his life in Quetta, Pakistan. Accordingly, Haqqani has stepped in, at times even running meetings of the Taliban leadership council,” the report said citing senior Afghan security officials.
A senior Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan said Haqqani had been in “constant contact” with Taliban field
commanders in the south and the north of the country, in addition to his stronghold in the southeast.
Mawlawi Sardar Zadran, a former Haqqani commander in eastern Afghanistan, said Haqqani had a central role in
appointing Taliban governors.
“No one can be appointed without his advice,” he said. “The influence of Sirajuddin in the Taliban ranks seems to be just growing.”
The report quoted a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, as confirming Haqqani’s elevated role, saying it was
because of “his bravery”.
“We can say that not only his military obligations but all his obligations have increased,” Mujahid said.
The State Department had officially listed the Haqqanis as a terrorist group in 2012, and there is a USD 5 million
American bounty on Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The report added that the Afghan Taliban, as a group, have remained off that terrorist list, “partly to ease the prospect of starting peace talks between them and the Afghan government — a process that American officials have been centrally involved in.
“With the clear and public integration of the Haqqanis into the Taliban leadership over at least the past year, American officials have essentially been unable to dodge the claim that they are trying to broker talks with terrorists,” it said.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/

Pakistani Rights Activist Khurram Zaki Shot Dead In Karachi

Prominent Pakistani rights activist Khurram Zaki was shot dead while having dinner with a friend at a restaurant here, and his NGO blamed "Takfiri Deobandi militants" for the killing.

Zaki, 40, was with his journalist friend Rao Khalid when two attackers arrived on a motorcycle, sprayed bullets at them and sped away, the media quoted police as saying.

Rao Khalid and a bystander were critically wounded in the attack.

The News International said Zaki suffered multiple bullet wounds. The attackers used a 9mm pistol. Ten spent bullet shells were found from the scene of the crime.

A former journalist, Zaki was an active campaigner for human rights and edited the website and Facebook page "Let Us Build Pakistan (LUBP)", which claimed to "spread liberal religious views".

LUBP Editor in Chief Ali Abbas Taj offered condolences "to Pakistani nation on the martyrdom of Zaki" and said he was second from the editorial team of LUBP to be killed by Deobandi militants.

"For the last one year, Zaki was a target of a systematic hate campaign by Deobandi fanatic Shamsuddin Amjad of the Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in collaboration with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)."

Taj said "hateful and violence inciting posters" against Zaki had been published recently by the Facebook page run by the pro-Taliban fanatics of Jamaat-e-Islami.

According to his Twitter profile, Zaki was the former head of current affairs for TV Channel News One, where he looked after infotainment and religious programming.

Zaki's website Lubpak.com is currently blocked in Pakistan, Dawn News reported today.

Zaki was last in the media limelight alongside activist Jibran Nasir in a campaign against Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz for inciting hatred against Shia Muslims.

The campaigners had managed to get a case registered against Aziz.

Rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, who was also gunned down in Karachi, had also taken part in the protest against Lal Masjid.

According to social media, Zaki was also a research scholar, blogger as well as human rights activist.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) condemned the killing and demanded the immediate arrest of the murderers.

"Zaki's murder is condemnable. Incidents of targeted killing are occurring in spite of on-going operations in the city," the MQM said.

LUBP described Zaki as a staunch critic of the systematic attacks on Shia Muslims, Sunni Sufis Muslims, Christians and other communities in Pakistan at the hands of Deobandi militants.

"In boldly highlighting and supporting the rights of Sunni Barelvis, Shias, Sufis, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians, his contribution as citizen journalism was much bigger than all journalists combined in Pakistan.

"His death is the grim reminder that whoever raises voice against Taliban and Jamaat-e-Islami Deobandi mafia in Pakistan will not be spared. And when they have to murder, they never fail."

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/

Google Maps May Need a License, IRCTC Data Leak, and More News This Week

It's been an interesting week in tech news, with both scientific development and consumer tech ticking along nicely.

There have been some major developments from India, but one of the most important bits of news that we came across was that the government might be working on a law that could would make it mandatory for Google Maps to get a license in India. According to a draft bill, the Ministry of Home Affairs is planning a law where you need a government license to acquire and to disseminate map data; and there are huge fines if this is not the case. There are also huge fines for "incorrect" depictions of India's borders. While the idea of a law around geospatial information makes sense, the specifics of the draft could be worrying.

The next piece of news from India is also really big - the Mumbai police warned that data had been hacked from the rail ticket booking site IRCTC, which is the biggest e-commerce destination in the country. It later turned out that this was not the case, but there was still serious cause for concern as officials admitted customer data might have been sold, and an enquiry is being conducted. IRCTC has three crore active and registered users, so the information of these users and their cards could be at risk, though officials assured all sensitive information is encrypted before it's stored.

Another huge piece of news for Indian tech enthusiasts was the announcement of carrier billing for Google Play, launched on Idea. This allows people to pay for apps without a credit or debit card - instead, the money is deducted from your prepaid balance, or added to your postpaid bill. Gadgets 360 first reported this on Tuesday, but one development we learned on Thursday was that Idea is charging a convenience fee for all transactions. This could be a spanner in the works - if it's cheaper to use a debit card, and people are anyway not used to paying for apps, then this mode of payment might not catch on. Idea did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

Continuing the theme of big stories, Reliance Jio has started to roll out its 4G services to the public. It's not the open market yet, but the company has launched an employee referral program through which Jio employees can invite up to 10 people to join the network. These users will get 10GB free voice and data for three months, and also get access to "premium applications" for live TV, video on demand, news, and cloud storage.

Possibly the most exciting tech news right now is that SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform early on Friday. The rocket went into space, came down from a height of around 25,000 miles, and then landed on a floating platform. It's an incredible achievement with far reaching possibilities, though of course, that's all going to be off in the future.

In Brazil, there were some developments around the use of WhatsApp. On Tuesday, a judge ordered carriers to block WhatsApp for 72 hours, a move that affected 100 million users. This was struck down the next day by another judge, but it shows how vulnerable the services that we all rely on actually are.

Meanwhile, one of the more humorous developments took place recently, when the Los Angeles Police Department revealed that it cracked an iPhone 5s, at the same time the FBI was struggling with an iPhone 5c. Apple can't be happy about this news, but it's probably even more upset by the fact that a Chinese court rejected its trademark over the iPhone name. The court declared that a leathermaker can use the iPhone name for its handbags and phone cases. Meanwhile, long-time HTC fans might be saddened (if unsurprised) as the company continues to struggle. The company has seen dismal sales of its new flagship in China, and it's very promising VR division just become a new company.

Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/

Canada wildfire: Images show Fort McMurray devastation

Pictures obtained by the BBC show large parts of the Canadian city of Fort McMurray in ruins following a devastating wildfire.

The exact scale of the damage is difficult to assess, as access to the city is restricted.

Officials have given few details other than to report that 1,600 homes and other buildings have been destroyed.

However, people who have seen the damage say whole neighbourhoods have been wiped out.

One picture shows the ruins of many houses, with a car untouched by fire. In another, a destroyed church is surrounded by rubble.

Some parts of the city, in the province of Alberta, have been defended resolutely and are still standing.

The city's airport suffered only minor damage despite being licked by flame and engulfed by smoke.

Only the "Herculean" efforts of fire fighters saved the facility, says Scott Long of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.

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• The images of whole neighbourhoods in ruins are shocking but they will not surprise the people of Fort McMurray who fled knowing that their city was in danger of being consumed by fire.
  The fire in the province of Alberta covers 850 sq km (328.2 sq miles), and the entire city of almost 90,000 people was evacuated three days ago.
  Most fled south but some of those who headed north have been airlifted to safety.
  A police-escorted convoy of 1,500 vehicles was passing through the city along the only safe route to Edmonton and Calgary to the south, but police have told the BBC it has has been suspended because of flames up to 200 feet high on both sides of the road.
  It will take approximately four days for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to escort all evacuees from sites north of Fort McMurray, authorities said.
  For nearby communities though the danger has not receded.
  Officials are predicting that it will be "weeks and weeks" before the fire is completely out. The region has not had significant rain in two months.

The skies above the empty and smouldering city are full of strange shapes.

There are clouds that billow like bright white cauliflowers, boiling rapidly as they change by the second.

There are clouds illuminated by vertical streaks of a dull red from the fires on the ground.

And there are giant clouds stretching as far as the eye can take in with a single glance, great walls of smoke blown sideways by the strong winds.

The helicopters - almost 150 of them, we are told - look puny in the face of such a dramatic display of nature's power, but occasionally they do seem to be making progress in slowing the fire's march across the plains.

Ultimately though, says Bill Stewart, co-director of the University of California's Center for Fire Research and Outreach, only nature can stop it entirely. Source: BBC News

Elections: Labour's Sadiq Khan promises a 'better' London

Labour's Sadiq Khan has vowed to do all in his power to make London "better", as he was sworn in as the new mayor.

Referring to his council estate roots, Mr Khan, the city's first Muslim mayor, said he wanted all Londoners to have the same opportunities he has had.

It comes as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon defended Conservative Zac Goldsmith's campaign, describing it as the "rough and tumble" of politics.

The much-criticised campaign questioned Mr Khan's alleged links to extremists.

Mr Khan beat Mr Goldsmith, by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614, giving him a larger personal mandate than either of his predecessors, Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone.

He has announced he will step down as MP for Tooting, meaning a by-election will be held to elect a new representative in Parliament.

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The former Labour minister's victory in London ends eight years of Conservative control of City Hall.

It has also given a boost to Labour after its poor performance in Scotland's election which saw it slump to third place behind the Conservatives.

Following on from its London success, Labour has also won Bristol's mayoral contest, with candidate Marvin Rees beating the incumbent, independent George Ferguson, by a comfortable margin.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed Mr Rees' victory, saying in a tweet: "Another Labour mayor who will stand up for their city!"

But Mr Corbyn was absent from Mr Khan's swearing-in ceremony earlier on Saturday.

Mr Khan - who nominated but did not vote for Mr Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest - said he was "not sure" why, adding: "We'll have to find out what he was doing."

Donald Trump the `presumptive` White House nominee as Cruz crashes out

Donald Trump looked all-but-certain of carrying the Republican Party colors in the 2016 presidential election after the billionaire political novice sent his only serious challenger Ted Cruz crashing out of the race.

Addressing jubilant supporters at Trump Tower in New York after romping to his seventh straight state-wide victory in the Indiana primary, the real estate mogul promised them: "We`re going to win in November, and we`re going to win big, and it`s going to be America first."

Tuesday`s contest in the midwestern state was seen as a final firewall by the "stop Trump" movement seeking to prevent him from locking in the party nomination.

But as the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump`s favor, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forwards.

"We left it all on the field in Indiana," Cruz said. "We gave it everything we`ve got, but the voters chose another path."

"And so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign."

It was a stunning denouement for the arch-conservative Texas senator who had insisted he would press on to the final day of the Republican race.

His departure leaves the low-polling Ohio Governor John Kasich as Trump`s only challenger for the nomination -- making it a virtual certainty that he will go head to head in a general election matchup with the likely Democratic flagbearer Hillary Clinton.

The top echelon of the Republican establishment said as much minutes after Cruz capitulated, with Republican Party chief Reince Priebus declaring Trump the "presumptive" nominee.

"Donald Trump will be presumptive @GOP nominee, we all need to unite and focus on defeating @HillaryClinton," Priebus said, in an extraordinary move to embrace a candidate the party establishment fought tooth and nail to stop.

Clinton meanwhile suffered an upset in Indiana as her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders mounted a come-from-behind victory, denying the former secretary of state a feather in her cap as she seeks their party`s presidential nomination.

Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, beat Clinton by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with about three quarters of precincts reporting -- although Clinton remained well ahead in the overall delegate battle for the nomination.Cruz had been hoping to use the midwestern state to block Trump from receiving the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination ahead of the Republican convention in Cleveland in July.

But the bombastic real estate mogul -- who has thus far defied all political logic to lead the Republican race -- swept the arch-conservative senator aside.

Trump was leading Cruz by about 53 percent to 37 percent, with Kasich languished at less than eight percent.

"Lyin` Ted Cruz consistently said that he will, and must, win Indiana. If he doesn`t he should drop out of the race-stop wasting time & money," Trump taunted in a tweet.

With 1,002 delegates to his name, Trump was already in favorable position to reach the magic number needed to avoid a contested party convention. With Cruz out of the race, crossing the threshold is a foregone conclusion for Trump.

Even before the Indiana results, Trump and Clinton had pivoted toward one another.

"I`m really focused on moving into the general election," Clinton said confidently Tuesday in West Virginia.

"That`s where we have to be because we are going to have a tough campaign against a candidate who`ll literally say or do anything," she said of Trump. "We`re going to take him on at every turn."

Cruz`s exit comes after the primary battle took a nasty turn Tuesday when Trump cited a tabloid report linking Cruz`s father Rafael to John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Trump raised the recent National Enquirer story in his interview with Fox News.

"This is just kooky," an irate Cruz shot back while stumping in Evansville, Indiana, branding Trump a "pathological liar."

"The man is utterly amoral," said Cruz, adding that "we are staring at the abyss" if Trump wins the White House. Source: http://zeenews.india.com