Kuwait's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), via its official Twitter account, announced (20/21-Feb-2022) a reduction in international entry requirements, effective immediately. Under the new directives, COVID-19 PCR tests prior to and on arrival will no longer be required for fully vaccinated or otherwise immune passengers. DGCA also suspended the mandatory use of various passenger and test monitoring platforms, effective 23-Feb-2022./agencies

An initial package of sanctions against Russia has been prepared by President Joe Biden’s administration and will include barring U.S. financial institutions from processing transactions for major Russian banks, three people familiar with the matter said.

The measures, which would only be implemented if Russia invades Ukraine, aim to hurt the Russian economy by cutting the "correspondent" banking relationships between targeted Russian banks and U.S. banks that enable international payments.

While U.S. authorities have said banking restrictions would be part of a package of possible sanctions, the administration's plan to cut correspondent banking ties – which underpin global money flows – has not previously been reported.

The United States will also wield its most powerful sanctioning tool against certain Russian individuals and companies by placing them on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, effectively kicking them out of the U.S. banking system, banning their trade with Americans and freezing their U.S. assets, the same sources said.

The White House and Treasury Department declined to comment.

The sources said the package could change up to the last minute and it was unclear who the targets would be. However, they believe top Russian financial institutions including VTB Bank, Sberbank, VEB, and Gazprombank are possible targets.

Experts consulted by Reuters said that while the correspondent banking tool lacks the punch of an SDN designation, which freezes a bank's assets, they could still deal a meaningful blow to the target banks by making it difficult to transact in U.S. dollars, the global reserve currency.

Much of global trade is transacted in dollars.

It is unclear whether Russian banks would be added to the SDN list, but both types of sanctions could hit Russia hard.

"Since a significant number of global trade transactions are in U.S. dollars this is a sanction with bite, but without the more complicated and deadly sanction of being placed on the SDN list and having all assets in the U.S. or in the hands of U.S. persons frozen," said Washington lawyer Kay Georgi, who specializes in international trade.

Sources noted that the administration could exempt certain transactions from the restrictions if deemed necessary.

‘Upfront costs’

The Biden administration has been threatening tough banking sanctions against Russia for weeks in a bid to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine. Moscow has amassed upward of 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, but Putin has denied plans to launch an attack.

Peter Harrell, who sits on the National Security Council, said last month that "heavy hitting financial sanctions" were part of a strategy to hurt Russia's economy but spare its citizens.

"The goal of the financial sanctions is really to have short term upfront costs on Russia, to trigger capital flight, to trigger inflation, to make the Russian central bank provide bailouts to its banks," he said in a speech late last month.

The tough warnings have put some U.S. financial firms on edge. Members of the financial services and payment industries have been in touch in recent days with the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers sanctions, sources said.

Tensions grew over the weekend as Russia extended military drills in Belarus, heightening fears among Western powers of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden and Putin on Sunday agreed in principle to a summit, France said, offering hope conflict could be avoided.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the United States and Britain would cut off Russian companies' access to U.S. dollars and British pounds if the Kremlin orders an invasion.

The Biden administration has been similarly aggressive in its rhetoric. In a briefing on Friday, Deputy National Security advisor Daleep Singh told reporters that the cost to Russia of an invasion would be "immense, both to its economy and its strategic position in the world."/ Daily Sabah

A group of male and female students protested outside the Indian Embassy in Tehran, Iran against the ban on wearing hijab in schools and colleges of the Indian state of Karnataka.

The protestors gathered outside the embassy on Saturday and expressed their solidarity with Muslim students facing humiliation for wearing hijab in India.

Muslim students and teachers have been subjected to harassment and forced to take off their hijab before entering schools and colleges in Karnataka.

The Karnataka High Court has initiated hearing on petitions of some victim students. It has issued an interim order restraining students from wearing hijab or any other form of religious dress in schools and colleges.

After the court order, a group of students have been suspended and a police complaint has been registered against another group of female students for protesting against hijab ban./ Muslim mirror

  Years of fighting caste prejudices, assault, and false accusations levelled against educated youths have compelled a group of 40 Dalits in Dombuchery hamlet, Bodinayakanur town, in southern Tamil Nadu, to convert to Islam.

In December 2021, a group of 40 Dalits from ten households in Dombuchery, a village in Theni district, around 520 kilometres from Chennai, converted to Islam. Bodinayakanur is the seat of O Panneerselvam, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and a key leader of the AIADMK.

After a 17-year-old girl studying in a minority institution committed suicide last month, the Tamil Nadu BJP unit and radical Hinudtva outfits have been alleging “forced” religious conversions in the state and clamouring for an anti-conversion law.

According to The Federal, the converted persons rebutted the BJP allegation of forced conversion. They told The Federal that the caste-Hindus in Dombuchery have repeatedly targeted the dalits in the village, forcing them to take this step. In particular, the Piramalai Kallars, a Most Backward Community (MBC), a Kallar sub-caste and part of the Mukkulathor caste, have allegedly been the major perpetrators.

The villagers who had recently accepted Islam in December narrated their stories with The Federal during a visit to Dombuchery village last week.

Dalits were heckled by caste-Hindus in the hamlet, according to Yaser Arafath, a villager whose previous name was Veeramani.  He said dalits were heckled by caste-Hindus even whether they strolled along the streets or their children were riding bicycles.

Dombuchery comprises roughly 800 OBC families, 200 MBC families, and around 400 Dalit families, according to the villagers.

Arafath stated that after every altercation, they would be assaulted by the police, who would allegedly file cases against the dalits. “I’ve lost track of the number of cases brought against me; I believe there are four.” “I just got back from the police station where I signed the conditional bail,” he said.

Six cases have been filed against Manoj, who is the sole Dalit lawyer in the area, said Ismail. On the other hand, a case was filed against a woman working in an Anganwadi centre on Diwali, and she is Dombuchery’s only government employee from the dalit community, per the Ismail.

Arafath went on to say that the police cases were affecting their livelihood because they would have to visit the police station every 15 days before 10.30 a.m. to register their presence. After that, it’s impossible to find job anywhere.

The caste-Hindus, according to the Muslim converts, did not like that some of the Dalit youths in the area were educated and able to find work. To retaliate against the dalits, Mohammed Ismail, formerly known as Kalaikannan, said the caste-Hindus would designate educated members of the communities whenever they filed police complaints against the dalits in the village.

Vairamuthu, whose name is now Mohammed Ali Jinnah is a functionary in a Tamil Puligal organisation who claims that prejudice against SCs persists in villages despite various laws and guidelines.

“They won’t trim our hair if we go to the barbershops in the village.” We need to get a haircut in a nearby village. “Until recently, even the two tumbler method was in use,” he claimed.

He further claimed that their village has two bus stops, and that caste slurs were yelled at them at both of them. “As a result of such instances, a number of girl youngsters have stopped going to school.” “We believe that if we switch our religion, this will no longer happen,” Jinnah stated. He sincerely believed that by embracing Islam, they would be able to live in the hamlet in a more harmonious and peaceful manner.

Abdul Razak, the first Dalit to accept Islam and practise the faith for over 30 years in Dombuchery, indicated that facing assault was the key reason for his conversion.

“I had land, a house, and everything else that a caste-Hindu has.” Nonetheless, I was constantly harassed and discriminated against. In school, I was not permitted to sit on benches. I couldn’t take it anymore as I grew older, and when I started speaking up, the violence began,” Razak explained.

“I battled in every way I could. I filed grievances and staged demonstrations. I questioned why the authorities had taken no action in response to the concerns. Nothing, however, worked. It wasn’t until I left my village and went to work in a Muslim’s home that I realised how well he treated me. That’s when I realised what Islam was all about and decided to follow it. “I converted in 1990, and these folks are doing it in 2022,” he added, adding that after all these years, nothing has changed.

Villagers in Dombuchery village’s Nadu Theru (Central Street), where many caste-Hindus live, complained they were unable to regulate the young people in their community.

Nagarajan, a peasant from Nadu Theru, said they were raised to feel they were “superior” to others in the hamlet. “However, we are not in favour of violence.” It’s not that the villagers are all casteists. “On a good side, people are slowly becoming educated, and change will occur,” he remarked.

As a result, the converts claimed that they had little choice but to embrace Islam in order to escape the discrimination and violence. They claimed they could no longer face the humiliation of their Scheduled Caste status.

“The only reason for discrimination and clashes is caste. It is only because I am in this religion; they say I belong to this caste. So, I left Hinduism and embraced Islam,” Ismail underlined.

Meanwhile, the 40 Dalits who converted to Islam say there seemed to be no other way out of the life-long abuse and ridicule except to reject Hinduism at this time./MM

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring new investment, trade and financing to, from, or in Ukraine's breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the White House said Monday.

The order also provides authority to impose sanctions on any person determined to operate in those areas of Ukraine, which both lie along the country’s border with Russia.

The move came after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow’s recognition of the self-proclaimed republics in a speech Monday that also attacked Ukraine’s government and the US and accused the West of ignoring Russia’s core security concerns.

“President Putin’s action contradicts Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements, refutes Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy, and undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the White House said in a separate statement.

The order bans the importing into the US, directly or indirectly, of any goods, services or technology from the regions.

Along with Russia’s military buildup, tensions have recently risen dramatically in eastern Ukraine, with reports of a growing number of cease-fire violations, multiple shelling incidents, and the evacuation of civilians from the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The US, with its European allies, has said that Russia is setting the stage to invade Ukraine after having amassed over 100,000 troops and heavy equipment in and around its neighbor.

Russia has denied that it is preparing to invade and instead accuses Western countries of undermining its security through NATO’s expansion towards its borders.

In 2014, Moscow began to support separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained since then. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN./aa

The top UN court on Monday resumed hearing of the Rohingya genocide case against Myanmar in The Hague where the junta regime represented the Southeast Asian nation. 

Myanmar, which is accused of committing genocide of the Rohingya community, presented its objections before the judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

The ICJ has been hearing the case brought by Gambia in November 2019, accusing Myanmar of violating the Genocide Convention in its brutal crackdown on the Rohingya community.

However, following a deadly military coup in Myanmar last year in February, activists have expressed concern whether the ICJ hearing the junta regime would grant it any legitimacy.

Until Feb. 27, for four days, the ICJ judges will hear the junta’s objections to the jurisdiction of the court.

Presiding judge Joan Donoghue told the court that the parties in cases before the court “are states, not particular governments.”

Ko Ko Hlaing, the junta regime’s minister for international cooperation, said the “military government wants to cooperate with the judges.”

“In arguing that the court lacks jurisdiction or that the case is inadmissible, Myanmar is therefore not thereby seeking to impede the judicial process of the court. On the contrary it’s seeking to answer the proper administration of justice. Myanmar raises these preliminary objections with utmost respect to the court,” he said.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya were killed and thousands of women and girls were raped when Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in Rakhine state in August 2017.

More than 1.2 million Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most persecuted people, were forced to flee Myanmar and continue to live in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Progress on the case filed by Gambia against Myanmar for violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide has been slow.

In January 2020, the ICJ imposed “provisional measures,” ordering the end to genocidal practices against the Rohingya.

Myanmar was previously being represented in the case by former State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, who was overthrown in the coup and has been jailed by the junta on various charges.

The military takeover has triggered mass protests in Myanmar, with the junta forces having killed more than 1,500 people in a crackdown on dissent, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local monitoring group./aa