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Thursday, 8 September 2016

Turkey-PKK conflict: Thousands of teachers suspended

file pic (2000) of Turkish children on their way to school — Image captionChildren in Turkey start back at school next week

More than 11,000 teachers in Turkey have been suspended for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a week before children go back to school.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had said he thought as many as 14,000 teachers were associated with terror activities.

Turkey, alongside Western countries, regards the PKK as terrorists.

Tens of thousands of school workers and private teachers were purged separately after a failed coup in July.

Tens of thousands of people have died in a decades-long insurgency by the PKK, who want more self-rule for Kurdish people.

Who are the PKK?

Who are the Kurds?

Who did Turkey purge after the coup?

Turkey's education ministry said 11,285 teachers had been suspended and were on paid leave pending an investigation.

The state-run Anadolu news agency said they were suspected of activities "in support of the separatist terrorist organisation and its affiliates".

It also said the number was meant to grow to 14,000 after an investigation carried out alongside local governors' offices.

It is not clear what part of the country the suspended teachers are mainly from, but Turkey's Kurdish population is concentrated in the south-east, near the borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran.

There are 850,000 teachers in Turkey, meaning the suspensions only affect less than 2% of teachers.

However earlier this year, 15,200 education ministry officials lost their jobs and 21,000 private school teachers had their licences revoked, amid a crackdown on followers of cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed for the failed 15 July coup.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas 'was KGB agent'

File photo of Mahmoud Abbas (2013) — Image captionPalestinian officials said the allegation against Mahmoud Abbas was made up by Israel

Israeli researchers have alleged that the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, worked for the Soviet intelligence agency the KGB in the early 1980s.

Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem say a Soviet-era document lists him as an agent.

The president's spokesman described the claim as an absurd Israeli "smear".

He suggested it was made to derail attempts to re-start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Researchers Gideon Remez and Isabella Ginor said the document, in an archive at Cambridge University, shows that Mr Abbas was a KGB spy when he lived in Damascus in Syria.

The document, which the University of Cambridge's Churchill Archives Centre confirmed was authentic, was smuggled in to the UK by a defector called Vasily Mitrokhin.

It is entitled "KGB developments - Year 1983" and Mr Abbas identifies him by the codename "Krotov" or "mole".

"'Krotov' - Abbas, Mahmoud, born 1935, origin Palestine, member of the executive committee of Fatah, PLO, Damascus, agent of the KGB," says the brief entry.

An adviser to the president told the BBC the allegation was made up by Israel.

He said Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained reluctant to meet Mr Abbas in a potential new round of peace talks organised by Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB staff member.

The Palestinian leader said earlier this week that he had agreed to see Mr Netanyahu in Moscow on Friday, but that Israeli officials had asked to delay the meeting until an unspecified later date.

The two men shook hands last year at a global climate change conference in Paris, but have not attended substantial public talks since 2010.

Image captionChannel 1 TV broadcast pictures of the document that identifies Mr Abbas as a KGB agent

Mr Abbas was born in 1935 in what was then British mandate of Palestine. After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 his family fled to the Syrian capital, where he was educated.

He founded the Fatah movement with the late Yasser Arafat in 1959 and became a key figure in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) after its creation in 1964.

Although the biographical details are correct, the BBC's Thomas Fessy in Jerusalem notes that the document does not say how and when Mr Abbas would have been recruited, whether he was paid, and how long he might have worked for the KGB.

Palestinian officials also said the PLO was openly working with Moscow in the early 1980s. Mr Abbas, they added, did not need to be a Soviet agent to liaise with it.

South B homes destroyed after deadly fire

Abdikarim Hussein 42 minutes ago 3070

– A huge fire in South B, Nairobi has destroyed more than 500 homes

– The fire incident has left more than 2000 people homeless

– One child is reported to have been killed in the fire

A fire at Kisii village, South B estate in Nairobi on Thursday, September 8, has left more than 2000 people homeless.

South B homes destroyed after deadly fire

A huge fire in South B, Nairobi has destroyed more than 500 homes.

The fire is said to have started at around 4 pm, razed down more than 500 houses.

Residents said a baby was killed in the fire but any fatalities are yet to be confirmed.

The fire is said to have started at around 4 pm, razed down more than 500 houses.

A fire at Kisii village, South B estate in Nairobi on Thursday, September 8, has left more than 2000 people homeless.

The affected residents are now taking shelter at a local church and school with others seeking assistance from family and friends for a place to spend the night.

The cause of the deadly fire is yet to be established.

Cover photo: Kenya Red Cross

Non-Jews should not be allowed to live in Israel – Israel’s Chief Rabbi

Published time: 29 Mar, 2016 21:01Edited time: 30 Mar, 2016 00:03

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Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef © Andrew Medichini

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has faced a public backlash after saying that according to Jewish law some non-Jews should be forbidden to live in Israel.

“According to Jewish law, it’s forbidden for a non-Jew to live in the Land of Israel – unless he has accepted the seven Noahide laws,” Rabbi Yosef said during his weekly Saturday lecture on March 26.

Non-Jews who fail to live by the seven Noahide laws should be expelled to Saudi Arabia, he added.

“If he’s not willing to accept one of them, [which is] not to commit suicide, if he’s not willing to accept this, you send him to Saudi Arabia,”Yosef said.

The seven Laws of Noah include prohibitions against idolatry, blaspheming God, murder, illicit sexual relations, stealing and eating a limb of a live animal. It also prescribes the establishment of a legal system that would ensure obedience to the law.

If a non-Jew stays in Israel, he has to serve the Jews, the Rabbi said.

“Who will be the servers? Who will be our assistants? Therefore, we leave them here in the land,” he said.

However, following a wave public outrage, Yosef had to backtrack on his comments. He explained that his words had nothing to do with today’s world as he had been referring to the “days of the messiah.”

“These laws are theoretical, [and] refer to fulfilling the seven Noahide Laws in the days of the messiah, and have no connection to the present day,” he wrote, adding that he has “always adopted a peaceful and embracing path.”

“It’s clear that there’s no law in our time, God forbid, to expel non-Jews from Israel,” he concluded.

This is not the first time Chief Rabbi Yosef has found himself in hot water over his comments. Earlier this month he said that Israelis should not be afraid to kill terrorists armed with knives.

China says it has stealth-defeating quantum radar

Published time: 8 Sep, 2016 13:05

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A Chinese firm has reportedly developed and tested a radar system that uses quantum entanglement to beat the stealth technology of modern military craft, state media said.

China's quantum satellite - nicknamed Micius after a 5th century BC Chinese scientist - blasts off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in China's northwest Gansu province on August 16, 2016. © Stringer

The first Chinese quantum radar was developed by the Intelligent Perception Technology Laboratory of the 14th Institute in CETC, according to Xinhua news agency. CETC stands for Electronics Technology Group Corporation, a defense and electronics firm.

The radar was tested in mid-August, Xinhua said in a Thursday report.

The system was able to detect a target at a range of 100 kilometers in a real-world environment, the report said. The device employs single photon detection technology.

Quantum radar is a device that uses quantum entanglement photons to provide better detection capabilities than conventional radar systems. The method would be useful for tracking targets with a low radar cross section, such as modern aircraft using stealth technology or targets employing active countermeasures to jam or baffle enemy radar.

The technology may also find use in biomedicine, since quantum radar requires lower energy and can be used to non-invasively probe for objects with low reflectivity, such as cancer cells.

Earlier, China launched the world’s first quantum communications satellite, which uses quantum entanglement for cryptography.