Pakistan strongly condemned the vandalization of several mosques and properties of Muslims by radical Hindu mobs in India’s northeastern state of Tripura.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry Friday said that Indian authorities failed to protect the Muslims and accused New Delhi of not helping them despite repeated calls by the local Muslim organizations.

“It is reprehensible that the Hindutva driven BJP-RSS combine has a track record of conducting massacres and systemic human rights violations of Muslims under its watch, from Gujarat in 2002 to New Delhi in 2020,” said Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, spokesman of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.

The statement also criticized India for leaving “little space for minorities and their way of life”.

“It is equally condemnable that targeted and brutal eviction of Muslims from their decades-old homes in Assam continues unabated.”

Islamabad urged the world community to stop attacks against the Muslims and their places of worship and play its role to control the “rising trend of Islamophobia in India”.

On Wednesday, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, a civil rights group, said that at least 16 mosques were vandalized and houses and shops belonging to Muslims were set ablaze over the last week in Tripura.

The group said that there were at least 27 confirmed incidents of right-wing mobs attacking mosques, houses, and individuals in Muslim areas.

“These include 16 incidents where mosques were vandalized and flags of radical Hindu, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), were forcibly hoisted on them,” M. Huzaifa from the APCR, told Anadolu Agency.

At least three mosques – Palbazar mosque in Unakoti district, Dogra Masjid in Gomati district, and Narola Tila in Vishalgarh town – were set on fire, he said.

The APCR said almost all the attacks were carried out by various right-wing groups, including the VHP, which had ostensibly gathered to protest anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh.

However, the local police said that they are protecting all mosques in the region and the situation is under control.

“On Tuesday, one mosque was vandalized and three shops and three houses belonging to the Muslim community were set ablaze after a procession by workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) was taken out in protest of a recent incident in Bangladesh,” said Lalhminga Darlong, deputy inspector general of police./aa

Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, once the center of trade and business and a modest settlement to a provincial Mughal capital thanks to its long river routes, is now suffering due to extreme river pollution.

Dhaka, home to about 20 million people and one of the most densely populated megacities in the world, remains at the bottom in terms of livable cities and ranks 4th in terms of air pollution.

The UN's World Cities Day, to be observed on Sunday, this year focuses on adapting cities for climate resilience. The day has been observed annually on Oct. 31 each year to "promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization". An integrated climate resilience policy and action plan will greatly reduce climate-related risks for urban populations, according to the UN.

Six rivers – the Buriganga, Sitalakhya, Bangshi, Turag, Balu, and Dhaleshawri – flowing around Dhaka are currently known as the “biologically dead rivers.”

According to a study by the Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) of Bangladesh, 6,000 tons of liquid waste is dumped into the main Buriganga every day.

“Inadequate sewage and inefficient waste management contribute to the water pollution. Moreover, untreated industrial waste and household sewage are discharged into the river system, leading to the extinction of aquatic life and the failure of ecosystems,” read the ESDO study.

Didar Mohammad, 31, a headteacher of a private school in south-central Faridpur district, said: “After five years in Dhaka, I experienced it as an unhealthy living mainly due to the extreme weather, huge pollution, lack of recreation, space for breathing fresh air and walking along rivers.”

“Contrarily, despite the absence of all the citizens' facilities, the living cost is so high in Dhaka. Therefore, I had decided to leave the city for a comfortable living,” Mohammad, also a cultural and social activist, told Anadolu Agency.

Dhaka this year became the 40th most expensive city globally, costlier than Washington, according to the Mercer's Cost of Living Survey.

Salauddin Mahin, 32, hails from the northern Rangpur district, with no difference doing the same thing.

He returned to his village and started his own business after pursuing his graduation at a private university in Dhaka. He had left a private company job in Dhaka that was giving him a good salary.

Both claimed that so many young people are now following in their footsteps.

Industrial pollution killing rivers, healthy living in Dhaka

Shahriar Hossain, an environment expert, told Anadolu Agency that waters of all rivers surrounding Dhaka have become unusable and cannot be purified anymore. All the city waste, industrial garbage, and toxic liquid are directly dumped into those rivers.

“The Dhaka water supply authority has to bring water from outside of the city. Not the surface water, the groundwaters in Dhaka have already been highly polluted with heavy metals.”

The supply water by the city authority is highly contaminated, so the city residents have to burn gas worth 3.32 billion Bangladeshi takas ($38.77 million) annually to make potable water, according to Transparency International Bangladesh.

The toxic level of metal like lead, cadmium, chromium and mercury have been found in the Dhaka rivers' sediments, he added, saying: “Even the deep tube well waters of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority have already been polluted and posing a greater health risk for the city dwells.”

“River grabbing has been narrowing rivers and putting barriers to the river water flow. Death of rivers is also impacting the livelihood of people and city weather to be unbearable and forcing displacement,” Hossain, also the secretary-general of ESDO, added.

A study by Curtin University in Australia and funded by the World Bank found that even in the monsoon season, the daytime temperatures of Dhaka and Chittagong cities are as hot as in summer.

Temperatures have risen in Dhaka by 3 degrees Celsius over the past 18 years.

Gov't. helpless to protect rivers from pollution

Deputy Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibun Nahar shared with Anadolu Agency her ministry’s helplessness to protect rivers from industrial pollution and river grabbers.

“We managed the capital’s tannery industry to shift to Savar, the outskirt of Dhaka, but the nature of the factories of polluting rivers have not been changed. They are now polluting the Bangshi River, a major river in central Bangladesh, in Savar.”

Ready-made garment factories are among the major contributors to the Dhaka rivers’ pollution but they are not ready to be shifted to a neutral place, the minister added.

She expressed the same frustration on illegal brickfields around the city. “Insufficient manpower is making our job difficult.” She emphasized people’s awareness and responsibility equally to protect rivers and the environment./aa

The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) on Saturday called for the formation of a global legal front to defend the rights of Muslim minorities around the world.

In a Twitter post, IUMS Secretary-General Ali al-Qaradaghi questioned the impassivity of the Indian police as Hindu militants target Muslims in the country.

"Hindu militants are burning 12 mosques in a week, a new wave of violence against Muslims in India, why is the police silent?" the scholar tweeted.

He said there is a need for "the formation of a global legal front to defend the rights of Muslim minorities around the world."

On Friday, Indian media quoted local officials as saying that the authorities arrested dozens of people, most of whom belong to extremist right-wing groups, after they obstructed Muslims from performing their weekly Friday prayers.

Media reports said that police bolstered their presence on Friday in the northern city of Gurgaon and arrested at least 30 people as crowds of local residents and Hindu groups chanted anti-Muslim slogans.

For weeks, Hindu groups have been pressuring the Indian authorities to prevent Muslims from performing the Friday prayers in open spaces. The groups have also been committing acts of violence against Muslims and mosques in the country.

Violence against Muslims and other minority communities has become increasingly frequent in India since the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.

Members of opposition accused the BJP of persecuting minorities, including Muslims whose population in India numbers around 200 million.

The government repeatedly rejects the accusation that it has a Hindu agenda and insists that Indians of all faiths have equal rights.

Turkish commandos captured at least four PKK terrorists from a cave they stormed in northern Iraq, military sources said on Saturday.

As part of the ongoing Pence-Yildirim (Claw-Thunder) Operation, Turkish commandos stormed the cave on a hill of 1,917 meters (6,289 feet) height in the Avasin area, sources in the country’s National Defense Ministry said.

The terrorists immediately surrendered after realizing they have nowhere to flee as the commandos landed by helicopter at their hideout, they added.

According to the sources, the commandos carried out a thorough search of the cave, which had numerous rooms, and seized arms and ammunition, including two anti-aircraft machine guns, seven AK-47 rifles among 12 rifles, one M-16 and one sniper rifle, two PKM machine guns aka Bixi, two rocket launchers, and a large quantity of ammunition for these weapons.

The PKK terror group often hides out in northern Iraq, just across Turkey's southern border, to plot terror attacks in Turkey.

The Pence operations are a series of offensives Turkey has carried out since 2019 against terrorist organizations in northern Iraq, particularly the PKK.

Operations Pence-Kaplan and Pence-Kartal were initiated in June last year, while Pence-Simsek and Pence-Yildirim were launched this April in Iraq's Metina and Avasin-Basyan regions.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is PKK's Syrian offshoot./aa

Turkey has deported a total of 8,585 terrorists of 102 nationalities since 2011 as part of the efforts to ensure the country's security within and across the border, the Interior Ministry announced on Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry said the terrorists had left their home countries to join ranks of terror groups such as Daesh/ISIS or PYD/PKK.

Some 44 US nationals and 1,075 EU member country nationals were deported over the past decade.

As part of Turkey’s fight against terrorism, 126 terrorists from 12 EU countries were deported in 2019, followed by 95 terrorists from eight EU countries last year, and 61 from eight EU countries in the first 10 months of this year.

Those deported to countries of origin in the last three years are mostly from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Romania, and the UK, the statement added.

In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh/ISIS a terror group.

Daesh/ISIS terrorists have carried out multiple attacks against Turkey, including at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings, and four armed attacks, which killed 315 people and injured hundreds of others.

In response, Turkey launched military and police operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./agencies

Kuwait becomes latest Gulf country to expel Lebanese envoy

Kuwait on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Lebanon, and asked the Lebanese envoy to leave the country within 48 hours, the state news agency KUNA reported.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to expel the charge d'affaires of the Lebanese embassy within 48 hours from the country and to recall its ambassador to Lebanon," KUNA said.

While the statement did not mention the reason behind the decision, the move comes following a similar decision by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain over comments critical of the Saudi military role in Yemen by Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi in a televised interview said to be recorded before he took his post in the new Cabinet headed by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Asked if he "thinks that the Houthis, like Hezbollah, are defending their land as an armed organization," Kordahi responded: "Of course they are defending themselves ... My personal opinion is that this war in Yemen needs to end. Houses, buildings, villages, and cities are being attacked by fighter jets."

Lebanon is already facing deteriorating economic conditions and an acute shortage of energy.

In an attempt to avert a crisis, Mikati said Kordahi made the comment before taking his post and it does not reflect the government's position. He added that the remarks in no way demonstrate Lebanon's policy with Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia.

In a statement on Saturday, former Lebanese prime ministers, Fouad Siniora, Saad Hariri, and Tammam Salam, called for Kordahi’s resignation.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation and caused one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises.

US President Joe Biden has vowed a major push to promote democracy worldwide. But since he took office, democracy has faced repeated setbacks.

Among three nations whose democratic transitions had inspired the most hope, Myanmar and Sudan have seen generals roar back, sacking civilian leaders and suppressing street protests, while in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring a decade ago, the president seized wide-ranging powers.

Military juntas have also grabbed power in the West African nations of Guinea, Mali and Chad, while in Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents seized power after a US troop withdrawal brought the quick collapse of the Western-backed government.

While local factors are at play in each country, experts see common trends including economic insecurities exacerbated by Covid-19 and climate change, ruling elites who failed to meet aspirations and the growing role of China, which can support nations shunned by the West.

"There is an increase in attacks on democracy around the world -- and not in the demand for democracy," said Derek Mitchell, the first US ambassador to Myanmar after its transition a decade ago.

"It's a matter of old mindsets dying hard, particularly in militaries where people don't give up power and privilege easily," said Mitchell, now president of the National Democratic Institute, which promotes democracy worldwide.

- 'No magic bullet' -

Fulfilling a campaign promise, Biden has announced a two-part summit of democracies starting in December.

He is drawing a sharp contrast with his predecessor Donald Trump, who openly embraced authoritarian leaders seen as useful and who inspired a violent mob that on January 6 attacked the US Capitol as it certified Biden's victory.

With the possible exception of Afghanistan, where Biden's decision to end the two-decade US war has been hotly debated, few link democracy's woes to the current occupant of the White House.

"Democracy takes literally decades to consolidate and it takes years to erode. So I think there's very little that any administration could do in the first nine months tangibly moving the needle on global democracy," said Frances Z. Brown, who worked on supporting democracies in Barack Obama's White House.

Crucially, Biden responded quickly to the coups in Myanmar and Sudan including suspending aid, said Brown, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"It shows the United States is watching and it cares. There's no one magic bullet but I think it all matters," she said.

Biden has also taken a distance with Trump allies, halting some military support for Saudi Arabia and leveraging part of its aid to Egypt on human rights progress, although activists say he should go further.

Scott Warren, a visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins University's Agora Institute, said that Biden inviting leaders to a summit was insufficient and that he should prioritize civil society and youth.

"Sometimes the US strategy toward democracies can be very reactive. I think having a more proactive strategy -- what conditions are going to be necessary in the long-term -- is really important," he said.

State Department spokesman Ned Price acknowledged there have been "setbacks in certain countries" on democracy but added, "We will continue to lead that charge."

- 'Shock to system' -

The Economist Democracy Index rated the global state of democracy in 2020 at its lowest since its survey began in 2006, fueled not only by coups but by the rise of right-wing populists in democracies.

Jonathan Powell, an expert in civil-military relations at the University of Central Florida, said the economic blow from Covid-19 has hastened the democratic decay.

"When you have countries that are already dealing with a very delicate balance between authoritarianism and attempting to maintain some form of democratic stability, when you have some sort of a shock to the system, even if it doesn't necessarily seem as bad as what some other countries are dealing with, it can really have a critical impact," he said.

The rise of China has also offered an alternative, he said.

"It's not on the scale that we would have had during the Cold War with the Soviet Union," Powell said.

"But it is a similar dynamic where if you do have one side cut off military or economic assistance, there is a foregone conclusion that you can go to the other side," he said.

Mitchell, the former ambassador, acknowledged the Beijing factor but called it overemphasized, saying Chinese leaders acted opportunistically.

But he said that the United States, with its intense polarization and the January 6 violence, no longer offered the same powerful model.

"Certainly those who are fighting for their own democratic rights are not giving up because the United States can't get its act together," Mitchell said.

"But I think we'd rather have the United States demonstrating how democracy can deliver."/agencies

• As the Capitol riot unfolded, Trump attorney John Eastman wrote to Mike Pence's aide to blame the VP's inaction for the riot.
• An email exchange between Eastman and a Pence aide while the rioters entered the Capitol, The Washington Post says.
• Pence was sheltering from the mob at the time, some of whom were calling for his execution.

As Vice President Mike Pence hid from the mob entering the Capitol on January 6, Trump attorney John Eastman told Pence's team that they were to blame for the riot, a new report from The Washington Post says.

Eastman made the comments in an email exchange with top Pence aide Greg Jacob, who described the riot as a "siege" while he sheltered with the vice-president in a secure area.

"Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege," Jacob wrote, according to the paper.

"The 'siege' is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened," Eastman replied, referring to Trump's false claims about the 2020 election being fraudulent.

In the days and weeks leading up to the election certification, conservative legal scholar John Eastman took an active role in urging Pence to overturn the election by concocting various legal theories.

The vice president reportedly repeatedly refused, arguing that he had no constitutional authority to do so.

As the Capitol riot unfolded, Trump himself tweeted, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution."

Several rioters were heard calling for the vice president to be executed.

Mike Pence has since said about Trump, "I don't know if we'll ever see eye to eye on that day."

In interviews with The Post, Eastman confirmed the content of the emails to Jacobs but denied that he was blaming Mike Pence for the violence at the Capitol.

Eastman argued that Trump's team was right to exhaust "every legal means" to challenge the election results, which he claimed were plagued by fraud.

"Are you supposed to not do anything about that?" Eastman told the paper.

On January 6, as unrest began, Jacob emailed Eastman to memorialize his conversation with Eastman from the day before, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Post.

When Pence and his team were escorted out of the Senate and to a safe location, Jacob again emailed Eastman to criticize the legal advice he had given Pence about stopping certification.

An anonymous individual familiar with the emails told The Post that Jacob later apologized for his use of profanity in the email to Eastman, but stood behind his criticisms.

Greg Jacob included the email from Eastman in a draft opinion article that he wrote in January but ultimately chose not to publish, which The Post obtained and published on Friday.

In the article, Jacob said that by sending that email an hour into the assault on the Capitol, Eastman displayed a "shocking lack of awareness of how those practical implications were playing out in real time."

Jacob further accused outside Trump lawyers of spinning "a web of lies and disinformation, to him and to the public" to pressure Pence to contest the results of the election.

Jacob wrote that the legal profession should now consider whether the attorneys involved should be disciplined for "using their credentials to sell a stream of snake oil to the most powerful office in the world, wrapped in the guise of a lawyer's advice."

  Business Insider

• Bill Gates celebrated his 66th birthday by hosting a private party in a secluded Turkish cove, per reports.
• He invited billionaire Jeff Bezos and 50 other guests, the Daily Sabah reported.
• The party lasted four hours. Guests were reportedly served champagne, sushi, pizza, and local seafood.
Bill Gates, formerly the richest man in the world, invited fellow super-rich billionaire - Jeff Bezos - to a private birthday party in a Turkish cove near Bodrum, according to local media.
The Microsoft founder, who has an estimated net worth of $136bn, celebrated his 66th birthday with Bezos and 50 other guests at Sea Me Beach in Fethiye, beside the Mediterranean, on Wednesday, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported.
Guests were helicoptered from Bill Gates's megayacht, Lana, to the secluded and picturesque cove. He is currently renting the yacht for 1.8 million euros per week, according to reports.
The yacht has a gym, jacuzzi, beach club, and swimming pool, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported.
The Cayman Islands-flagged luxury yacht "Lana" of Microsoft founder Bill Gates is seen anchored off Buyuk Boncuklu Bay in Karagozler neighbourhood in Fethiye district of Turkey's Mugla province on October 27, 2021. Ali Riza Akkir/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesMore
Gates has been vacationing along Turkey's coast and visited the popular tourist destination Bodrum last week, per reports.
Gates's birthday celebration lasted for about four hours, according to the Daily Sabah. Local seafood, sushi, and pizza were on the menu, with plenty of champagne on offer, the media outlet reported.
Those working at the venue were not allowed to use their phones in order to protect attendees' privacy, the Daily Sabah added.
Bezos reportedly returned to his own yacht, docked in Gökova, by private helicopter. The "Flying Fox," which the former Amazon CEO is believed to own, was previously spotted in Turkey in 2019, Insider reported.

ATHENS (Reuters) -Greece mounted a rescue operation on Friday for a Turkish-flagged cargo ship carrying about 400 migrants after it sent out a distress signal off the island of Crete, the coast guard said.

The Greek coast guard quoted passengers as saying the vessel had sailed from Turkey, calling it "one of the largest search and rescue operations carried out in the eastern Mediterranean."

"The ship is now sailing in international waters. Greece's Shipping Ministry has asked Turkey to accept the vessel's return to Turkey," a migration ministry official said, declining to be named.

The official said Greece's migration and asylum minister had contacted Turkish authorities and the EU Commission to resolve the matter.

Earlier, Greek authorities had said the ship was being taken to land without giving further details. The nationalities of the passengers were not immediately made public.

Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for asylum-seekers arriving from Turkey. But the number of arrivals has fallen sharply since 2016 after the EU and Ankara agreed a deal to stop migrants from crossing to Greece.

Nearly 1 million people, mainly Syrian refugees, arrived in the EU in 2015 after crossing to Greek islands close to Turkey. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, many EU states fear a replay of that crisis.

On Tuesday, four migrants, three of them children, drowned after a boat in which they and 23 others were trying to cross from Turkey to Greece sank off the island of Chios.