Sinai jet terror suspect killed, says Egypt
CAIRO: The Egyptian military claims it has killed the leader of the Sinai branch of the Islamic State, suspected of downing a Russian passenger jet over Sinai in October.
Abu Duaa al-Ansari, leader of the branch, was killed in northern Sinai, Egyptian officials said yesterday. The military added that 45 members of the group were killed alongside Ansari.
The Islamic State branch in Egypt is suspected by the CIA of planting a bomb on the Russian Metrojet flight that crashed, killing 224 people.
The Metrojet Airbus A321 was en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg when an explosion destroyed it in the air.
The chief of the Russian intelligence services later confirmed it was a terrorist act. – Russia Today
Gun battle rages on
AUSTIN: Three University of Texas professors plan to ask a US judge to give them the option of barring students from bringing guns into their classroom after the state gave some students that right under a law then went into effect this week.
The professors said academic freedom could be hampered under the so-called campus carry law backed by the state’s Republican political leaders that allows concealed handgun licence holders 21 and over to bring handguns into classrooms.
Lawyers for the professors said they expect a decision before August 24. – Reuters
‘N-bombing a crime’
MOSCOW: The nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US during World War II should be qualified as a crime against humanity with no statute of limitation, Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber, the Duma, said yesterday.
“This barbaric, cynical act, aimed against the civilian population, and not justified from a military point of view, should be qualified as a crime against humanity, which has no statute of limitations,” he said during a session at the Rosatom state atomic energy corporation. – Sputnik
Fire guts centre
KABUL: A business centre in the western edge of the Afghan capital Kabul city caught fire yesterday, causing millions of US dollars damage to those with shops there, witnesses and owners said.
“I have lost what I had in my shop,” shopkeeper Abdul Hamid said.
According to witnesses, the 10th floor of Abasin Zadran business centre which served as hotel caught fire at about 10.30am local time and firefighters had arrived to extinguish the fire.
“The fire engulfed the ninth and eighth floor and finally devoured the whole market,” Hamid said. – Xinhua
Migrants: EU will fail
ATHENS: Greek Minister for Migration Yiannis Mouzalas says EU countries won’t be ready to deal with another surge in migration if a deal with Turkey to limit migrant and refugee arrivals collapses.
Mouzalas said Greece and other European countries would be “severely tested” if the March agreement failed – in the wake of an attempted coup in Turkey and a government crackdown on its alleged sympathisers that has strained relations with the EU.
Mouzalas said “no country in Europe is ready” for a repeat of the mass arrival of migrants fleeing strife in their countries. – AP
Seven years for rape
NEW DELHI: A New Delhi court has sentenced an Indian filmmaker to seven years in prison for the rape of an American graduate student last year.
Mahmood Farooqui, a Bollywood director, writer and theatre performer, can appeal against the verdict within 30 days.
Farooqui was convicted last week after the woman complained that he was drunk and raped her at his house in the Indian capital.
The case highlights the persistence of violence against women in India. – AP