BANGLADESH CLEARS EXECUTION FOR MAULANA NIZAMI
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on 5 May upheld the death sentence of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes, paving the way for his execution within days. “We’re satisfied. Now there is no bar to execute him unless he seeks clemency from the president and the president pardons him,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said after the Supreme Court dismissed Nizami’s final appeal.
Clemency has never been granted to a convicted war criminal in Bangladesh, and the 73-year-old is likely to be hanged within days. Rights groups say the trials fall short of global standards and lack international oversight.
BLIND MICROSOFT ENGINEER USES AI TO ‘SEE’ THE WORLD
Microsoft developer Saqib Sheikh who lost his eyesight at the age of seven has developed an app to help the visually challenged. London-based Shaikh said that talking computer technology inspired him to develop the application – titled SeeingAI – that is built upon Microsoft Intelligence APIs to translate real-world, a report said on 2 May.
Microsoft released a video in their developer conference Build 2016 to explain how the intelligent software system called Seeing AI works. In the video, Sheikh tells his story that how he went to the blind school where he was introduced to talking computers. After joining Microsoft as a software engineer, he always wanted to develop apps which would help others.
EU PRAISES TURKEY’S EFFORT FOR VISA DEAL
The EU on 2 May praised Turkey’s efforts to meet the conditions for visa-free travel as part of Ankara’s migrant deal with Brussels ahead of a decision on the issue this week. Turkey has demanded its citizens be allowed to enter the European Union’s passport-free Schengen zone without visas by June, in exchange for it taking back migrants from Europe.
The European Commission is due to decide whether Turkey has met the conditions, but there are still widespread concerns among many of the EU’s 28 member states. The accord is awash with legal and moral concerns, and critics have accused the EU of sacrificing its values and overlooking Turkey’s growing crackdown on free speech in order to secure the deal.
THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS BREAK INTO BAGHDAD ‘GREEN ZONE’
Thousands of protesters broke into Baghdad’s heavily fortified “Green Zone” on 30 April and rampaged to parliament after lawmakers again failed to approve new cabinet ministers. A protest held outside the Green Zone escalated after parliament again failed to reach a quorum and approve new ministers to replace the current government of party-affiliated ministers.
The unrest kicked off minutes after Moqtada al-Sadr wrapped a news conference in Najaf during which he condemned the political deadlock, but did not order supporters to enter the Green Zone.
AUSTRALIA’S ‘NO. 1 TERRORIST’ KILLED FIGHTING FOR ISIL
The most senior Australian fighting with ISIL was reportedly killed in a United States air strike in Iraq, a report said on 5 May. Attorney-General George Brandis confirmed that Melbourne man Neil Prakash was killed in Mosul on Friday night, 29 April. “Neil Prakash was the highest value target from an Australian point of view in the Middle East,” Brandis told Sky News television.
“He was the individual, more than any other, who had been actively inspiring and inciting domestic terrorism attacks within Australia. He had networks in both Melbourne and Sydney. He was very, very active until quite recently at least in social media. So if you want to describe him as Australia’s number one terrorist that wouldn’t be far from the mark.” Prakash is reported to have been involved in foiled Anzac Day plots in Melbourne and Sydney, in influencing the thwarted “pipe bomb” massacre in Melbourne in May last year.
ISRAELI WARPLANES CARRY OUT RAIDS IN GAZA STRIP
Israeli warplanes launched a number of raids on several positions in the Gaza Strip on 5 May. Israeli F-16 jets targeted Dahaniya area and the outskirt of Rafah border crossing with two missiles; no casualties were reported.
The air raids came after Israeli shells targeted several positions on the border with the Strip, including some points belonging to Hamas. The Palestinian group held Israel responsible for “military escalation” along the borders.
EGYPT JOURNALISTS PROTEST MEDIA CRACKDOWN
Scores of Egyptian journalists rallied outside the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate’s Cairo headquarters on 4 May to protest a police raid on the premises earlier this week during which two reporters were arrested. On 1 May, police stormed the syndicate’s headquarters, arresting two journalists – Amr Badr and Mahmoud al-Sakka – for allegedly “inciting protests” and “plotting to overthrow the ruling regime”. Syndicate officials have decried the raid as a “blatant assault on journalists’ dignity” and have demanded the interior minister’s dismissal.
Police cordoned off the syndicate’s headquarters on 4 May as hundreds of journalists gathered to attend an emergency assembly convened to denounce the raid and arrests. In a show of solidarity, a number of lawyers also joined the protesting journalists.
TURKEY VOWS TIT-FOR-TAT MOVES AGAINST ISIL
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 4 May vowed tit-for-tat retaliation in response to rocket attacks carried out by ISIL in southern Turkey. Speaking at an address to mukhtars, village headmen, at the presidential complex in Ankara, Erdogan said the attacks carried out on southern Kilis province had been met and would continue to be met.
Erdogan continued to say that the terrorist ISIL group paid the price with losses after attacking Kilis province and warned: “If they [ISIL] continue to do so, they will receive further losses.” Erdogan said that Turkey was “aware of intentions behind the harassment fire by the terrorist organisations”. “Turkey has the power and resolution both to fight all terror organisations and implement its own policies,” the president added.
ISRAELI GETS LIFE FOR BURNING ALIVE PALESTINIAN TEEN
An Israeli court on 3 May handed down a life sentence to the ringleader of a Jewish gang that kidnapped, beat and burned alive a Palestinian teenager in 2014. Barely two hours later, a Palestinian rammed a car into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank and injured three, including one seriously.
Settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, was sentenced in a Jerusalem court for killing 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir, and was also given 20 years for other crimes. He was also told to pay 150,000 shekels ($39,000, 34,000 euros) to Abu Khdeir’s family. After the verdict, angry relatives of the victim cursed Ben-David as he was led from the court.
NUMBER OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN ISRAELI PRISONS SOARS
At the end of December 2015, 116 Palestinian children between 12 and 15 years old were held in Israeli military detention, an eleven-fold increase from the previous year. In total, 440 children under 18 are currently held in military detention, which is the highest number since the Israeli army began sharing data in 2008, and almost two-and-half times the number imprisoned a year ago.
According to Defence for Children International–Palestine (DCIP), no other country in the world systematically prosecutes hundreds of children in military courts each year. DCIP thoroughly documents the alarming trends in Israel’s incarceration of children in a new report, No Way to Treat a Child, which details the extent to which Israel has degraded the rights of children living under its military rule.
LIBYA UNITY GOV’T TOLD TO GET PARLIAMENTARY APPROVAL
Libya’s Tobruk-based government has refused to hand over power to a UN-backed national unity government until the latter is given a vote of confidence by the country’s Tobruk-based parliament.
“We will not hand over power to the unity government until it obtains the confidence of the House of Representatives and that of the international community,” the Tobruk government, headed by Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani, said in a statement on 7 May.
The government went on to assert that it would continue to perform all of its “external and domestic functions with all necessary powers and capabilities”.