Rilek1Corner

Tag: USA

  • Duterte Nixes Military Alliance With Any Nation Other Than The US

    Duterte Nixes Military Alliance With Any Nation Other Than The US

    Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday (Oct 24), on the eve of his visit to Japan, that he has no plan to forge a military alliance with any country other than the United States, downplaying concerns over his veering toward China.

    “The alliances are alive, it is there,” the Philippine leader said, referring to the Philippines’ longest standing ally, the United States. “There should be no worry about changes of alliances. I do not need to have alliances with other nations.”

    Mr Duterte added that he only plans to have an “alliance of trade and commerce” with China.

    These remarks to a group of Japanese reporters came after he announced amid a visit to China last week his “separation from the United States, both in military, not maybe social, but economics also” and suggested his country would be much better off aligning itself with China.

    “America has lost. I realign myself in your ideological flow,” he told his Chinese hosts at a business forum.

    “And maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world — China, Philippines, and Russia. It’s the only way,” he said then.

    Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella later downplayed the president’s remarks in China, saying he was merely “asserting the imperative to separate the nation from dependence on the US and the West, and rebalance economic and military relations with our Asian (China, Japan and South Korea) neighbours and the ASEAN community.”

    The populist leader had already declared there will be no more joint military exercises with the United States, with which the Philippines has a mutual defence treaty.

    Japanese government sources said earlier Monday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to call for Mr Duterte to repair his government’s strained ties with the United States when they meet later this week in Tokyo.

    Japan has been concerned over the strain on US-Philippine relations from Mr Duterte’s repeated anti US comments and the possible impact on stability in the South China Sea, where China is engaging in military expansion.

    The talks between the leaders, likely to take place on Wednesday, will be most closely watched for whether Mr Duterte expresses a willingness to continue cooperating with Japan and the United States, which seek to halt China’s expansionary activities.

     

    Source: TODAY Online

  • Kebakaran Masjid Orlando: Polis Tangkap Lelaki Yang Disyaki

    Kebakaran Masjid Orlando: Polis Tangkap Lelaki Yang Disyaki

    Seorang lelaki berusia 32 tahun ditangkap berkaitan serangan membakar sebuah masjid di Florida, yang dikunjungi oleh penyerang kelab malam homoseksual di Orlando, pada hari Ahad lalu (11 Sep).

    Joseph Michael Schreiber berdepan dengan sekurang-kurangnya 30 tahun dipenjara jika sabit kesalahan sengaja membakar masjid sebagai jenayah kebencian yang dipertingkat, menurut pihak berkuasa.

    Suspek didakwa membuat beberapa catatan anti-Muslim di media sosial.

    Pusat Islam Fort Pierce mengalami kerosakan teruk akibat kebakaran tersebut, yang dilakukan pada hari yang sama dengan hari memperingati insiden 9/11.

    Omar Mateen, yang kadang-kala mengunjungi masjid tersebut, sebelum ini menembak mati 49 orang di kelab malam Pulse pada bulan Jun lalu sebelum dia sendiri dibunuh.

    Dia juga pernah mengisytiharkan taat setianya kepada kumpulan ISIS.

    Pada malam semalam (14 Sep), Pejabat Polis St Lucie menyatakan bahawa Schreiber membuat beberapa catatan terhadap Islam di laman Facebooknya.

    Salah satu catatan itu berbunyi: “Semua yang Islam itu radikal dan perlu dianggap sebagai pengganas dan penjenayah dan semua yang menyertai kegiatan sedemikian mesti didapati bersalah melakukan jenayah perang”.

    Schreiber sebelum ini pernah dijatuhi hukuman di mahkamah negara sebanyak dua kali kerana mencuri, menurut Jabatan Pembetulan rekod di Florida.

    Dia menjalani hukuman penggal pertama daripada tahun 2008 sehingga 2009 dan penggal kedua daripada tahun 2010 sehingga 2014.

    Tiada sesiapa yang cedera semasa kebakaran masjid yang berlaku pada sambutan Aidiladha.

    FBI dan Biro Persekutuan bagi Minuman Keras, Tembakau, Senjata Api dan Bahan-Bahan Letupan turut menyertai siasatan.

    Kebakaran itu menyebabkan para anggota masjid “bersedih dan takut”, menurut penolong Imam Hamaad Rahman.

    Selain Omar, masjid itu juga pernah dikunjungi oleh Moner Mohammad Abu Salha, yang menjadi rakyat Amerika yang pertama melancarkan serangan bom nekad di Syria.

    Source: Berita MediaCorp

  • Philippines Drug War Deaths Climb To 1,800; US ‘Deeply Concerned’

    Philippines Drug War Deaths Climb To 1,800; US ‘Deeply Concerned’

    The Philippines has recorded about 1,800 drug-related killings since President Rodrigo Duterte took office seven weeks ago and launched a war on narcotics, far higher than previously believed, according to police figures.

    Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa told a Senate committee on Monday that 712 drug traffickers and users had been killed in police operations since July 1.

    Police were also investigating 1,067 other drug-related killings, Dela Rosa said, without giving details. On Sunday, Duterte railed against the United Nations for criticising the wave of deaths.

    The United States, a close ally of the Philippines, said it was “deeply concerned” by the reports, and U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner urged Duterte’s government to ensure that law-enforcement authorities abided by human rights norms.

    The drug trafficking crackdown and some strongly worded criticisms Duterte has made of the United States since coming to power present a dilemma for Washington, which has been seeking to forge unity among allies and partners in Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China, especially in the strategic South China Sea.

    Toner made the dilemma clear in responses to questions at a regular State Department briefing in Washington, in which he referred to Duterte as “a plain-speaking politician.”

    “We continue to make clear to the Philippines government … our concern about human rights, extrajudicial killings, but we are also committed to our bilateral relationship and strengthening that bilateral relationship,” he said.

    Toner said there was no question of the United States turning a blind eye to rights abuses and that the relationship with Manila, while good, was “frank and candid.”

    As recently as Sunday, the number of suspected drug traffickers killed in Duterte’s war on drugs had been put at about 900 by Philippine officials. But this number included people who died since Duterte won the May 9 presidential election.

    Duterte said in a strongly worded late-night news conference on Sunday the Philippines might leave the United Nations and invite China and others to form a new global forum, accusing it of failing to fulfil its mandate.

    His foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, said on Monday the Philippines would remain a U.N. member and described the president’s comments as expressions of “profound disappointment and frustration”.

    “We are committed to the U.N. despite our numerous frustrations and disappointments with the international agency,” Yasay told a news conference. U.S. officials declined comment on Duterte’s U.N. remarks.

    Last week, two U.N. human rights experts urged Manila to stop the extra-judicial executions and killings.

    Yasay said Duterte has promised to uphold human rights in the fight against drugs and has ordered the police to investigate and prosecute offenders. He criticised the U.N. rapporteurs for “jumping to an arbitrary conclusion that we have violated human rights of people”.

    “It is highly irresponsible on their part to solely rely on such allegations based on information from unnamed sources without proper substantiation,” he said of the United Nations.

    Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of the president, started a two-day congressional inquiry into the killings on Monday, questioning top police and anti-narcotics officials to explain the “unprecedented” rise in killings.

    “I am disturbed that we have killings left and right as breakfast every morning,” she said.

    “My concern does not only revolve around the growing tally of killings reported by the police. What is particularly worrisome is that the campaign against drugs seems to be an excuse for some law enforcers and other elements like vigilantes to commit murder with impunity,” De Lima said.

     

    Source: ChannelNewsAsia

  • Walid J. Abdullah: Chastise, Don’t Dismiss, Donald Trump And Supporters

    Walid J. Abdullah: Chastise, Don’t Dismiss, Donald Trump And Supporters

    So many people going out of their way to chastise Donald Trump. I have no doubts some do it out of their convictions that his rhetoric is simply vile; yet, i can’t help but feel some just do it to present themselves as enlightened individuals.

    Regardless, condemning his supporters as bigots, racists, narrow-minded, dumb and stupid is not going to change their vote. In fact, it will merely strengthen their conviction that Trump is indeed being targeted by the establishment and the rest of the world. An establishment that they perceive to have lost touch with the masses, and one that has not taken care of their bread and butter.

    Learn from the lessons of Brexit. Displaying self-righteousness will not get us anywhere (look at those idiots supporting Trump; i’m anti-racism (selectively), i read so much, i’m clever, and they are morons). The rhetoric of hate, when heard by disenfranchised people, can really result in racist, bigoted and weird outcomes.

    Address the real issues surrounding disenfranchisement, and don’t just dismiss them as ‘Trump supporters are just racists and misogynists’! (Which undeniably, some are)

    But sure, if we want to take the moral ‘high ground’, in spite of our own silence toward racism in our midst, and if we wish to portray to the world how illuminated we are, continue to be condescending toward Trump supporters. Just don’t act surprised or sad if he eventually wins.

    I don’t think he will, but hey, i didn’t think George W. Bush would get elected. Twice. The second time, after the illegal invasion of Iraq.

     

    Source: Walid J. Abdullah

  • Saudi Arabia Identifies Bombers In Two Attacks This Week

    Saudi Arabia Identifies Bombers In Two Attacks This Week

    Saudi Arabia identified on Thursday suspects in two of the three attacks that struck the kingdom on the same day this week, including one outside the sprawling mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried in the western city of Medina that killed four Saudi security troops.

    In a statement released by the Interior Ministry late Thursday, authorities said the Medina bomber in Monday’s apparently coordinated attacks was 26-year-old Saudi national Na’ir al-Nujiaidi al-Balawi.

    Three suicide bombers behind a botched attack, also Monday, outside a Shiite mosque in the eastern region of Qatif in which no civilians or police were wounded, were identified as Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed, Ibrahim Saleh Mohammed and Abdelkarim al-Hesni, all in their early 20s.

    It was not immediately clear what nationality or nationalities the three carried.

    The ministry said investigations following the attacks led to the arrests of 19 suspects, seven Saudi and 12 Pakistani nationals. No other details were immediately available.

    On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia identified the suicide bomber who struck outside the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah as a Pakistani resident of the kingdom who had arrived 12 years ago to work as a driver. It named him as 34-year-old Abdullah Qalzar Khan. It said he lived in the port city with “his wife and her parents.” The statement did not elaborate.

    In that attack, the bomber detonated his explosives after two security guards approached him, killing himself and lightly wounding the guards, the ministry said. No consular staff were hurt.

    No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks but their nature and their apparently coordinated timing suggested the Islamic State group could be to blame.

    Pakistan has condemned Monday’s attacks in the kingdom. There are around 9 million foreigners living in Saudi Arabia, which has a total population of 30 million. Among all foreigners living in the kingdom, Pakistanis represent one of the largest groups.

    The Saudi ministry said the attacker in the Medina assault set off the bomb in a parking lot after security officers became suspicious about him. Several cars caught fire and thick plumes of black smoke were seen rising from the site of the explosion as thousands crowded the streets around the mosque.

    Worshippers expressed shock that such a prominent holy site could be targeted.

    The Prophet Muhammad’s mosque was packed on Monday evening, during the final days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended on Tuesday. Local media say the attacker was intending to strike the mosque when it was crowded with thousands gathered for the sunset prayer.

    Saudi Arabia is part of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and the militant group views its ruling monarchy as an enemy.

    The kingdom has been the target of multiple attacks by the group that have killed dozens of people. In June, the Interior Ministry reported 26 terror attacks in the last two years.

     

    Source: abcnews.go.com