The English website of the Islamic magazine - Al-Mujtama. A leading source of global Islamic and Arabic news, views and information for more than 50 years.
February 12, 2025
Staff
China fines tech giants over anti-monopoly violations
November 21, 2021China fines tech giants over anti-monopoly violations
Chinese tech giants including Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings were fined Saturday for failing to report corporate acquisitions, adding to an anti-monopoly crackdown by the ruling Communist Party.
The companies failed to report 43 acquisitions that occurred up to eight years ago under rules on “operating concentration,” according to the State Administration for Market Regulation. Each violation carried a penalty of 500,000 yuan ($80,000), it said.
Beijing has launched anti-monopoly, data security and other crackdowns on tech companies since late 2020. The ruling party worries the companies have too much control over their industries and has warned them not to use their dominance to gouge consumers or block entry to new competitors.
Other companies fined in the latest round of penalties include online retailers JD.com Inc., Suning Ltd. and search engine operator Baidu Inc. The acquisitions dating back to 2013 included network technology, mapping and medical technology assets.
The companies “failed to declare illegal implementation of operating concentration,” the regulator said on its website.
Alibaba, the world's biggest e-commerce company by sales volume, was fined $2.8 billion in April for practices that regulators said suppressed competition. Meituan, a food delivery platform, was fined $534 million on Oct. 8./agencies
At least 75 migrants drowned off Libyan coasts
November 21, 2021At least 75 migrants drowned off the coasts of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Saturday.
“Over 75 migrants drowned on Wednesday (Nov. 17) after departing from Libya, according to 15 survivors rescued by fishermen and brought to (the coastal Libyan city of) Zwara,” the UN agency said on Twitter.
“This latest tragedy brings the number of lives lost in the Central Mediterranean this year to over 1,300,” it added.
Libya has become a vital transit hub for irregular migrants attempting to reach Europe in order to flee poverty and conflict in their native countries./agencies
Protests block French army convoy in Burkina Faso
November 21, 2021Demonstrators in the town of Kaya, north-central Burkina Faso, have tried to prevent the progress of the military convoy of Barkhane, the French anti-terrorist military force, local sources reported on Saturday.
"The French army was cornered and carried out some warning shots in the middle of the day on Saturday. But demonstrators who had fled, returned on their steps, determined to turn back the French military convoy coming from Ivory Coast to Niger," according to the Burkina Faso News Agency (AIB).
The source said the demonstrators found containers they said belonged to the French army.
They wanted to inspect the French convoy, suspecting that the members of the French anti-terrorist force have weapons and motorcycles in their containers that are used to supply the terrorists, according to the reports.
"Thus, after Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou, the convoy has been blocked since Thursday morning at the entrance to Kaya at the tollbooth by people gathered from various localities holding up signs saying 'France get out', 'Go back home'," according to the local media.
The AIB also reported that the intervention of local authorities was not enough to calm the demonstrators.
This unprecedented demonstration in Burkina Faso was initiated by members of the Coalition of Patriots of Burkina Faso. One of the leaders told Anadolu Agency that the demonstrators do not know the destination of the convoy and are just determined to prevent any French convoy on Burkinabe territory.
"We are not against the French people. The French people are our friends. We need France to come back so that we can revisit our agreements. We have the feeling that they are interested in our resources and not us," he added, saying the convoy is still blocked at the entrance of Kaya.
"The French army would not spend a third night in Burkina Faso and would leave," Casimir Seguida, the governor of the Centre-Nord region said on Saturday, quoted by Burkina 24, a local media outlet.
This type of demonstration against the French presence is not new in Africa. In countries such as Mali, Niger, and Chad, the so-called "anti-French feeling" has been expressed repeatedly during demonstrations./aa
Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror group al-Shabaab through a car bomb blast targeted a vehicle carrying state media journalists in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing a journalist and wounding another on Saturday, officials said.
A car bomb blast targeted the vehicle near the country's Security Ministry building in Mogadishu, according to police.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had carried out a revenge attack targeting Somali government-owned radio's Mogadishu Director Abdiaziz Guled, known as Abdiaziz Afrika.
"We are devastated and shocked as our Radiomuqdisho Director, Abdiasis Afrika was killed and our @sntvnews1 Director Sharmarke was wounded in cowardly terrorist blast," a statement by the Somali national television said.
"The attack was a car bomb blast parked near the Security Ministry building in Mogadishu, targeting a vehicle carrying state media senior journalists, including veteran journalist Abdiaziz Afrika, who was seriously wounded," a police officer earlier told Anadolu Agency over the phone after the attack.
The two journalists -- Abdiaziz Afrika and Sharmarke Warsame -- were traveling in the Shangani district when the explosion hit their vehicle. Police forces and paramedic crews were rushed to the scene, he added.
He said the police sealed the road leading to the headquarter of the country's national security and intelligence agency and the investigation into the attack is underway.
The attack came a day after eight people were killed and over 13 others wounded in a bomb blast in the town of Berdale in Somalia’s South West State.
Al-Shabaab was behind two back-to-back attacks in Mogadishu earlier this month, one of which was a suicide bombing targeting a convoy of the African Union Mission in Somalia that killed three people and injured several more. Amid rising insecurity, Somali forces have ramped up operations against the group./agencies
Around 50,000 Austrians took to the streets on Saturday to protest a national lockdown to be implemented as of Monday due to surges in coronavirus cases in the country.
Far-right groups also took part in the protests, raising the tension with the police.
Austrian police said that a total of 10 people were arrested during the protests.
According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University on Saturday, the country confirmed over 1 million cases and more than 11,990 deaths from the virus.
Austria’s Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said at a news conference on Friday that the lockdown would last for a maximum of 20 days.
Schallenberg also announced that the country will make vaccination compulsory as of Feb. 1, 2022.
The move came days after Austria announced that it will impose a curfew on those who are not fully vaccinated./aa
Taliban claim collecting $270M revenue in Afghanistan
November 21, 2021The Taliban's interim administration in Afghanistan announced on Saturday that they have collected over $270 million in revenue since taking power in August.
Ahmad Wali Haqmal, the spokesman for the Finance Ministry, told a news conference in Kabul that revenue collection is picking up momentum with each passing day. Without going into detail, he identified customs and other taxes as the primary sources of revenue.
According to the local Hasht-e-Subh daily, the previous government was generating a lowest average of about 22 billion afghanis ($235 million) revenue a month even during the coronavirus pandemic when businesses were down.
The Taliban official added a regular mechanism would be put in place to pay all government civil servants the unpaid salary for the past three months in one go. He added that pending pensions would be paid to all retirees.
Charging the previous government of corruption, the Taliban official said over 60,000 pensioners have not been paid their dues over a year.
The cash-strapped country, which has been ravaged by 20 years of war, is now in a catastrophic economic crisis, with some people selling assets and begging for bread to survive.
On Aug. 17, two days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the US government froze about $9.5 billion of Afghanistan's central bank assets. Many donors and international organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have stopped making payments to the interim Taliban regime.
The UN forecasts that around 22.8 million people or over half of Afghanistan's population, will face severe food problems.
Afghanistan is facing famine, the Human Rights Watch warned earlier this month urging the UN, and international financial institutions to urgently adjust existing restrictions and sanctions affecting the country’s economy and banking sector./aa
Georgia’s jailed former leader Saakashvili ends 50-day hunger strike
November 21, 2021Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been under detention since Oct. 1, ended his 50-day prison hunger strike on Saturday.
The decision came after Saakashvili was moved from a prison hospital to a more equipped military hospital as his condition worsened, according to his lawyer Nika Gvaramia.
Gvaramia said Saakashvili, who was held in the prison hospital in Tbilisi’s northern Gldani district, was transferred to a military hospital in the eastern city of Gori late on Friday.
Saakashvili, who had been on a hunger strike since his arrest, reportedly fainted during a meeting with his lawyers on Thursday.
Gvaramia said on Friday that Saakashvili would end his 50-day hunger strike if he was transferred to the military hospital in Gori.
Georgian opera singer Paata Burchuladze and 10 opposition lawmakers also ended their hunger strike after Saakashvili’s transfer.
Saakashvili was arrested in Tbilisi on Oct. 1 after secretly returning to Georgia from eight years in exile.
The former president, who was serving his sentence in the southeastern province of Rustavi, was transferred to the Gldani prison hospital on Nov. 8 to prevent deterioration in his health due to increased risks, the penitentiary service reported./agencies
1,149 Palestinian minors detained by “Israel” this year: NGO
November 21, 2021“Israeli” forces have detained 1,149 Palestinian children since the beginning of this year, according to a Palestinian rights group on Saturday.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society made the announcement on the occasion of World Children's Day.
The NGO said most of the detained children have since been released, but 160 of them are still languishing in the Ofer, Damoun and Megiddo prisons.
At least two-thirds of the arrested children were subjected to some form of physical torture, according to the statement, while all of them were exposed to psychological torture during detention.
Since 2000, “Israel” has arrested at least 19,000 Palestinian minors aged between 10 to 18 years old, according to the NGO.
World Children's Day is celebrated globally on the 20th of November every year with the aim of raising awareness about children’s rights and to promote policies that will improve their well-being./agencies
Palestine rejects UK terror label of Hamas
November 21, 2021The Palestinian Authority on Saturday rejected a British move to designate Palestinian resistance group Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The designation is "an unjustified attack on the Palestinian people, who are subjected to the most heinous forms of occupation, and historical injustice established by the Balfour Declaration,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Balfour Declaration is a document dated Nov. 2, 1917 that laid the groundwork for [Israel's] creation. Then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour agreed to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said the UK designation of Hamas as “terrorist” puts “obstacles in the way of achieving peace, and obstacles in the way of ongoing efforts to consolidate the truce and rebuild the Gaza Strip."
It also condemned the move as Britain’s "acquiescing to Israeli pressure”, noting that the decision “comes a week after “Israeli” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett demanded his British counterpart, on the sidelines of the climate summit meeting in Glasgow, to approve Hamas as a terrorist organization."
The ministry called on the British government to stop its policy of “double standards” and “to immediately retract (from) this decision."
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said Friday she had banned Hamas as a “terrorist” organization.
The move, which will be pushed in the UK parliament next week, could see Hamas supporters and activists face jail terms of up to 14 years.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, slammed the UK ban as "continued aggression" on Palestinians and their rights.
The UK has banned Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization in 2001, but did not include the group’s political bureau within the designation./aa
Protests against COVID-19 restrictions turn violent in Netherlands
November 21, 2021Protests against coronavirus restrictions in the Netherlands turned violent late Friday in Rotterdam.
At least two people were injured by police and at least one police car was destroyed and others damaged by the protesters on Coolsingel street, according to Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
Other vehicles, buildings and property were set on fire and a journalist was attacked and his camera destroyed by protesters.
Rotterdam police said protesters set various places on fire, set off fireworks and police fired several warning shots, adding that officers are on the scene "in large numbers and are trying to restore order."
Police said access to Coolsingel and metro stations in the area has also been restricted, with water cannons deployed./agencies
