Fierce ISIL resistance as Iraqi troops move on Mosul

By-Aljazeera.

Iraqi forces launched a third front in the offensive to take back Mosul but ISIL fighters put up stiff resistance, unleashing a wave of vehicle-borne suicide bombers, while leaving a deadly trail of hidden explosive devices.

 

Iraq's government said on Thursday its soldiers advanced from the south and east, while Kurdish Peshmerga fighters moved in from the north and east on the country's second-largest city, now under control of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS.

Attack helicopters strafed ISIL positions as Iraq's special forces entered the town of Bartella, 15km east of Mosul's outskirts.

"After we break them in Bartella, everywhere else they will crumble," said Major-General Fadhil Barwari.

He said ISIL had few defences in the town, which was almost completely empty of civilians. "They just left some snipers and suicide car bombs."

ISIL fighters drove at least nine suicide car and truck bombs against the advancing troops, eight of which were destroyed before reaching their targets, while the ninth struck an armoured Humvee, Lieutenant-Colonel Muntadhar al-Shimmari told The Associated Press news agency.

The deadly defence offered a glimpse at what Iraqi forces can expect as they approach ISIL's biggest urban bastion.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Erbil, said as of 2100 GMT on Thursday Bartella remained in the hands of ISIL and the fighting continued.

He reported the area of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, also remained besieged and Iraqi forces were fighting to take villages surrounding it.

"This is a very tough fight," Khan said. "They need to push through in order to open up a road that takes them 10km into Mosul via the highway. The battle is continuing and they are getting very close towards Mosul."
 

Afghan forces retake district from Taliban

Afghan forces retake district from Taliban

KUNDUZ, AFP, Aug 21, 2016 -
Afghan forces have recaptured a district that had fallen briefly to the Taliban, officials and residents said Sunday, after thousands of people fled their homes in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunduz province.
Khan Abad district, which is around 30 kilometres east of Kunduz city -- the provincial capital where militants last year scored their biggest ever victory -- had fallen to the Taliban after they launched a pre-dawn attack on the district centre on Saturday, according to local officials.
Several hours later Afghan special forces were deployed to the area -- a key route to Kunduz city -- to retake the district.
The district was recaptured by government forces on Saturday evening, according to Sayed Mahmood Danish, a Kunduz governor spokesman.

Two billion more face Zika risk in Asia and Africa -study--newsfirst.lk

Two billion more face Zika risk in Asia and Africa -study--newsfirst.lk

More than two billion people, over a third of the global population, could be at risk from Zika virus outbreaks in parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, according to scientists writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

These are people who reside in as-yet unaffected parts of the world with the right climate and abundant mosquitoes for the virus to settle, spread and propagate an epidemic like the one besetting the Americas and Caribbean, they said.

They used data on air traveler numbers to help model their predictions.

However, they acknowledge that immunity to the virus could already exist in some areas and could reduce the risk.

The research team looked at factors such as the numbers of people who travelled from Zika-affected areas in South America to Africa and Asia, the presence of mosquitoes that can pass on the virus, and the climate in the regions to assess which countries could be most at risk from an outbreak.

In an outbreak that started mid-2015, more than 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika in Brazil, and more than 1,600 babies born with abnormally small heads and brains. Seventy countries and territories have reported local mosquito-borne Zika transmission, with Brazil by far the hardest hit.

Deadly twin blasts hits court in Pakistan

At least 12 people killed and 40 wounded after two bombs go off at a court in northwestern Pakistan.
..Aljazeera---


At least 12 people were killed and 40 wounded when two bomb blasts went off at a district court in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.
A suicide bomber threw a hand grenade at police guards before storming into the compound and blowing himself up in the court in Mardan town in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
"So far we have recovered 12 bodies of the lawyers, police personnel and civilians. Besides this, we rescued 52 injured, including lawyers, police personnel and civilians, from the spot," Haris Habib, chief rescue officer in the city of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the blasts took place, told the Reuters news agency.
Earlier, four suicide bombers who were trying to attack a Christian colony were killed during a gunfight with security forces outside the northwestern city of Peshawar, the army said.
Soldiers backed by army helicopters fought back the fighters who had tried to attack the colony near Warsak Dam, just north of Peshawar.
Asim Bajwa, an army spokesman, said "all four suicide bombers were killed" in the operation carried out against the fighters on Friday and that a clearance operation was under way.
Local sources, though, told Al Jazeera that at least one civilian was killed and several wounded in the attack.
Two of the four suicide bombers detonated their vests and the other two were shot dead, the sources said.
Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The group's spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, promised more attacks in a statement released to media.
"We appeal to civilians to remain away from law enforcement installations and these un-Islamic courts. We will target them more," he said.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said despite army claims to have limited the number of attacks, armed groups still managed to operate across the country.
"Just yesterday the Pakistan military gave a press conference in which they said they had been able to control the number of attacks in the country," he said.
"But it appears that the Tehreek-e-Taliban and their factions are still able to operate within Pakistan and carry out these attacks."
Last month, the Pakistan Taliban faction and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL,also known as ISIS) both claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at a hospital in Pakistan's Quetta that killed at least 70 people.
The attack targeted a group of mourning lawyers, who had gathered at the emergency department of the hospital to accompany the body of a murdered colleague.
The Pakistan army launched Operation Zarb-e-Azb under US pressure in 2014 in an effort to wipe out fighters and their bases in the North Waziristan tribal area.

Tips for Indian politicians who tell women what to wear

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionMillions of foreign tourists visit India every year

An Indian politician has caused outrage once again for saying that foreign tourists should avoid wearing skirts. The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi has collected some tips for politicians with a tendency to dispense unsolicited fashion advice to women.

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So what advice do politicians give to women?

There was uproar at the weekend when Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said that a list given to tourists at airports advised them not to wear skirts or dresses in India or venture out alone at night in small towns

Sadly, he is not the first - and he certainly won't be the last - to deliver such advice to women on how to keep themselves safe and avoid rape.

Image copyrightAFP

Image captionIndian politicians often tell women to cover up

Time and again, ministers, politicians and other influential community leaders have been telling women and girls not to wear jeans, short skirts, dresses or shorts. Women have also been told not to go out after dark, date, be friends with boys, or even use mobile phones.

Here's a list of recent offenders:

• Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi said scantily-clad women attracted male attention and that rape cases were on the rise due to "women wearing less clothes".
• Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the right-wing Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which is the ideological mentor of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said rapes were an urban crime shaped by westernisation, and were not happening in rural India where traditional values were upheld.
• A female politician, Asha Mirje, caused outrage for saying that "rapes take place also because of a woman's clothes, her behaviour and her being at inappropriate places".

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Why does political language matter?

Image copyrightAP

Image captionIndia has seen several protests over rape cases and the treatment of women

Since the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in December 2012 in Delhi, there is much more scrutiny within India - and globally - of what influential people and opinion makers say about violence against women.

The justification offered by many in India's largely paternalistic society is that these remarks are well meaning and actually meant to protect women.

But women activists and commentators disagree - they say that there's no correlation between short skirts and rape.

"It's very very important that these politicians stop telling women what sort of clothes to wear or what not to wear," Swati Maliwal, chief of Delhi Commission for Women, told the BBC.

"It's time they stop trivialising issues like rape and sexual harassment and do something constructive to address these serious problems."

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Some tips for politicians...

For the politicians who seem to be afflicted with foot-in-mouth disease, former public relations professional Chaya Srivatsa, who is also a life coach with an info-tech firm, has some good advice.

She points out that Mr Sharma also suggested that if female tourists were taking a cab at night, they take a photo of the number plate and send it to a friend or family member so that the driver would know not to misbehave.

Image copyrightAFP

"That was a good thought, but that went completely unnoticed. Our politicians are not good at communication. They should learn to say it in the proper manner.

"He should have just said: Sorry we have jerks here, be careful."

I also asked comedienne Neeti Palta to come up with suggestions on what our politicians should not say to stay out of controversy. Here's her wish list:

• Please remember it's not the clothes that maketh the woman. The only clothes that are rape-proof are clothes without women in them.
• Get three women to approve of what you say before you make it public.
• Put yourself in a time machine and emerge in 2016.
• Lock people like yourselves after dark so we are safer from foot-in-mouth disease

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Where did modest clothes come from anyway?

Politicians have been told to emerge in 2016. Or, perhaps they could go back to the past.

For, according to historians, modesty crept into Indian women's wardrobes during the Victorian era.

Image copyrightPRESS EYE

Image captionThe blouse and petticoat were introduced to India by the British

And what would surprise many is that the blouse and the petticoat - worn with the sari that's often described as India's national dress - only became popular with Indian women during the British rule. This means the notions of traditional modesty may not really have their roots in Indian tradition.

Whatever the argument over where prudishness came from, Indian politicians would do well to heed this sage advice - that instead of advising women what to wear, they should advise men on how to behave.


source-http://www.bbc.com/