Author: Mike Harrison

The teen, inspired by Christchurch attacker, was “self-radicalized, motivated by a strong antipathy towards Islam and a fascination with violence,” the department said in a statement. Authorities in Singapore have detained without trial a 16-year-old student who made detailed plans and preparations to carry out “terrorist attacks” on two mosques with a machete.The Singaporean teen was inspired by an Australian white supremacist who killed 51 worshippers at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, the Internal Security Department said Wednesday.The teen, an ethnic Indian Christian who wasn’t named as he is underage, was “self-radicalized, motivated by a strong antipathy towards…

BSE Sensex was trading 523.14 points or 1.10% lower at 46,886.79; NSE Nifty fell 167.80 points or 1.2% to 13,799.70 Equity benchmark Sensex dropped over 520 points in early trade on January 28, tracking losses in index-heavyweight stocks like HDFC twins, TCS, Infosys and ICICI Bank amid weak trend in global markets.The 30-share BSE index was trading 523.14 points or 1.10% lower at 46,886.79.Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty fell 167.80 points or 1.2% to 13,799.70.HDFC Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2.50%, followed by HDFC, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, PowerGrid, Kotak Bank, SBI,…

Facebook capped a tumultuous 2020 with soaring earnings in the final quarter, its user base boosted by people staying home and its revenue buoyed by a shift to digital advertising amid the pandemic.But the company predicted uncertainty for 2021 and said its revenue in the latter half of the year could face significant pressure. Because revenue grew so quickly in the second half, the social network could have trouble keeping up that pace.It’s also facing challenges in how it targets advertisements, including Apple’s coming launch of privacy protections that could limit Facebook’s ability to target ads.Facebook earned $11.22 billion, or…

Michelle Bachelet accused Sri Lanka of reneging on promises to ensure justice for thousands of civilians killed in the civil war. The U.N. human rights chief has called for an International Criminal Court investigation into Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist conflict and sanctions on military officials accused of war crimes, according to a report obtained by AFP.Michelle Bachelet accused Sri Lanka of reneging on promises to ensure justice for thousands of civilians killed in the final stages of the 37-year separatist war that ended a decade ago.“Domestic initiatives for accountability and reconciliation have repeatedly failed to produce results, more deeply entrenching…

Australia suspended a one-way “travel bubble” with its trans-Tasman neighbour for 72 hours after New Zealand confirmed its first case in months on Monday. New Zealand will tighten quarantine rules after two cases of the South African COVID-19 variant were confirmed in Auckland, as it awaits an Australian decision on whether it would reopen quarantine-free travel to arrivals from the Pacific nation.Australia suspended a one-way “travel bubble” with its trans-Tasman neighbour for 72 hours after New Zealand confirmed its first case in months on Monday.Since then, two people have tested positive to the South African variant of the coronavirus, and…

The top diplomat did not explicitly commit the support of the new administration for India to be a permanent member of the Security Council. U.S. President Joe Biden’s pick for the ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, on Wednesday did not explicitly commit the support of the new administration for India to be a permanent member of the Security Council. Three previous administrations, that of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, had publicly said that the United States supports India’s bid to be a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. However, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield, who has spent…

The U.S. is ready to deal with with a number of other issues that are deeply problematic in the relationship with Iran, says the U.S. Secretary of State The United States is ready to rejoin the Iranian nuclear deal and start negotiations with it only if Tehran joins and complies with its provisions, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken said on Wednesday.Also read: Editorial | The Iran challenge The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popular as the Iranian nuclear deal, was one of the key foreign policy achievements of the Obama-Biden Administration. The Previous Trump Administration withdrew from it.“With…

Officials suspect the January 6 riot at the Capitol may embolden U.S. terrorism and grow up a chance for another chaos. The United States Department of Homeland Security suggested that the January 6 riot at the Capitol may embolden U.S. terrorism and set the stage for additional attacks. The department did not cite a specific threat, but pointed to “a heightened threat environment across the United States” that it believes “will persist” for weeks after Mr. Biden’s January 20 inauguration. “Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as…

Day after violence, crowd seemed less than usual and spirit lower at Singhu border A day after violence in Delhi, it was business as usual at the Singhu border with protesters speaking on stage one after the other but the crowd seemed less than usual and spirit lower than every day. While the majority of the protesting farmers admitted that the violence shouldn’t have occurred, they believed a host of reasons led to how the events unfolded including blaming the government sending it’s ‘elements’ to infiltrate the protest and further inciting the already angry and frustrated youth of the movement.…

Congress ‘continuously instigating agitating farmers’, says Union Minister Prakash Javadekar The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday accused the Congress of “continuously instigating agitating farmers” which led to the violence during the tractor rally taken out by farmers groups on Republic Day on Tuesday, and singled out the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government of not taking acting against “habitual offenders” who, the BJP said, had headed to Delhi for the rally.Union Minister Prakash Javadekar in a press conference late in the evening on Wednesday squarely blamed the Congress and the party’s government in Punjab for inciting protesters that led to…