Our Reporter

Donald Trump has been served a civil rights lawsuit accusing him of inciting the Capitol riot along with Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and other far-right groups, according to reports.

Mr. Trump was given the documents, filed by Democrat congressman Bennie Thompson and civil rights group the NAACP in mid-February, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

It is unclear who will represent the former president in the case: it was merely signed for by a “Ricky”, according to The Daily Beast.

The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani “incited a crowd of thousands to descend upon the Capitol” on 6 January to disrupt Congress, while the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers – a far-right militia made up of former police and soldiers – spearheaded the assault.

They are also accused of violating the “Ku Klux Klan Act” of 1871, intended to protect lawmakers against “conspiracies through violence and intimidation”, by allegedly seeking to prevent Congress from carrying out their official duties.

READ ALSO: Trump, Pence meet for first time after Capitol riot

Thompson, the representative for Mississippi’s 2nd district, said that Mr. Trump’s “gleeful support of violent white supremacists led to a breach of the Capitol that put my life, and that of my colleagues, in grave danger.”

“We must hold him accountable for the insurrection that he so blatantly planned,” he added.

NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson accused the former president of trying to “disenfranchise African-American voters” and “destroy democracy”.

Mr. Trump was acquitted of inciting the Capitol riot in the US Senate. But he is facing numerous civil and criminal cases, relating both to his years in the White House and his pre-presidential life.

Mr. Trump’s one-time lawyer Mr. Giuliani has also been served with multiple lawsuits in recent months.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Agency Reporter

Indian authorities on Thursday shut down the Taj Mahal and evacuated tourists after police received a phone call about a bomb at India’s iconic monument.

The police stopped entry to the monument and bomb detection squads were conducting checks of the premises after the call was received in the morning, area police chief, Rajeev Kumar Singh said.

“The caller said he will blow up the monument. We have not found anything so far but take all calls seriously,” Singh said adding, “being a weekday there was not too much of a crowd.”

The stunning white marble edifice, located in the northern city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh state, is India’s top tourist attraction and draws an estimated 7 to 8 million visitors annually.

READ ALSO: WTT: Aruna outshines India’s Gnanasekaran

It was built in the mid-17th century by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his third and favourite queen, Mumtaz Mahal.

Initially closed due to the pandemic, the Taj Mahal was reopened for tourists last September with strict coronavirus safety measures after being closed for more than six months.

(dpa/NAN)

NO fewer than 10 Israeli rockets yesterday struck Al -Assad military airbase which houses American troops in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

A senior U.S. official confirmed that Iraqi Special Forces were already leading the response and probing the attack.

Col. Wayne Marotto, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, confirmed the incident on Twitter.

He said: “10 Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) rockets targeted an Iraqi military base, Al Asad Airbase, hosting Coalition troops, on March 03, 2021 at approximately 7:20 a.m. (Iraqi time) (04:20 GMT).

“Iraqi SF (Special Forces) are leading the response and investigation.

“Further information will be released as it becomes available.”

In February, a rocket attack on U.S.-led forces in northern Iraq killed a civilian contractor and injured U.S. personnel.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened an investigation into possible war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories since June 2014.

The move has been welcomed by the Palestinian Authority.

ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement yesterday: “Today, I confirm the initiation by the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of an investigation respecting the situation in Palestine.”

The inquiry will be conducted “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favour,” she added.

Despite fierce Israeli objections, the court in The Hague ruled last month that it had jurisdiction to investigate serious crimes in Palestine, opening the door for Bensouda to start formal proceedings.

That ruling came after Bensouda claimed in 2019 there was a “reasonable basis” to begin war crimes investigation into Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and called on judges to determine the ICC’s authority in Palestine.

In additional to Israeli actions, Bensouda also said the probe could investigate incidents involving Hamas and Palestinian armed groups.

The territories have been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had slammed the February ruling, claiming: “The International Criminal Court has proven once more that it is a political body and not a judicial institution.”

Israel is not a member of the court and has rejected its jurisdiction.

The news that the formal probe will be opened was welcomed in Ramallah. “This is a long-awaited step that serves Palestine’s tireless pursuit of justice and accountability, which are indispensable pillars of the peace the Palestinian people seek and deserve,” the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Hamas also welcomed the announcement.

Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabi Ashkenazi blasted the ICC’s announcement and labelled the probe an “act of moral and legal bankruptcy”.

“The fact that the murderous terrorist organisation, Hamas, welcomes the decision, indicates more than anything that it has no moral validity,” Ashkenazi tweeted yesterday.

Agency Reporter

Researchers in Switzerland have launched a training trial to see if sniffer dogs can find out people infected with COVID-19, media reports said on Wednesday.

Three dogs are being trained by researchers from Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) for four weeks by exposing to samples of sick and healthy people.

The dogs will thereafter go through a sweat-sniffing test to see if they can identify infected individuals, said the hospitals in an online statement.

If successful, “the use of dogs for screening for COVID-19 could be considered in Switzerland,” said the statement.

The study, as a collaboration between HUG, the largest university hospital in Switzerland, and the Swiss Army and United Nations Department of Safety and Security, is expected to have a final result in March.

READ ALSO: Again, Supreme Court rejects request by Abachas to unfreeze accounts in UK, Switzerland, others

Initial results from France, Germany and several other countries have shown that trained sniffer dogs are able to recognize people with COVID-19 infections, the statement said.

Sniffer dog could be an inexpensive, relatively simple and friendly alternative of screening methods currently used for slowing down COVID-19 transmission, said Dr Manuel Schibler, physician of the Infectious Diseases Department at HUG.

(ANI/Xinhua/NAN)

By Peter Adeshina

Texas made global headlines for its utter lack of preparation to deal with a catastrophic storm, and the chaos and pain that followed. Its power grid – separated from the rest of the country to give the state more control over regulations – collapsed, throwing homes into darkness and paralyzing heating systems.

Several people froze to death. Those who sought solace from the cold in their cars were met with another tragedy. The exhaust filled their lungs with poisonous carbon monoxide. They died, too.

Water pipes exploded and houses caved in. Common staples became scarce, turning most people into scavengers tearing apart bins in desperate search of food.

Those rendered homeless moved in with strangers — a remarkable turn of events following months of health messages urging them to shut their doors and avoid even their own kin.

The scenes were — and still are — horrible, the sort portrayed in movies as the aftermath of an invasion. Except that this one is real, the pain, anguish and frustration.

The world witnessed it. Those in developing countries like Nigeria, often the stage for this sort of madness, watched with both sympathy and wonder. “The rich also cry”, they observed.

Texans were out of water. Those of Nigerian descent could not help but draw parallels. In a funny video that made the rounds, and perhaps served as rare comic relief amid the tragedy, a family celebrated the restoration of power in their toppled home with shouts of “Up NEPA” — the generational chant that underscores the basic incompetence of the Nigerian government for decades.

Those sympathetic to the Texas state government have tried – shamefully so – to portray the tragedy as unexpected, unavoidable – a surprising natural disaster. But this is far from the truth. A full decade ago, Federal regulators warned of the exact same disaster that played out. Another article from 2019 in the Texas Observer explicated the weakness of the state’s power grid in light of changing climate. The state government did little in response.

When disaster struck, a serving Senator from the state, Mr. Ted Cruz, fled with his family to Cancun city, a popular holiday destination in Mexico. The irony was apparent. A serving Senator of the great USA fleeing the consequences of government incompetence in his home state to seek refuge in… Mexico! Reverse used to be the case, and his action was straight out of the playbook of morally bankrupt government officials in the developing world.

And America has behaved like those countries an awful lot lately. A President rejecting the outcome of an election he lost, thugs invading the seat of government to stop a constitutional process, and science denialism that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and counting.

The story of America’s exceptionalism hasn’t been without contentions. Many have shown, with solid facts, that it is no more than a PR exercise built on a lie. But a useful, necessary lie. It was the needed antithesis, the aspirational ideal used to shame incompetent leaders and slothful citizens elsewhere into action. Now that it is unraveling – or has unraveled, even if President Biden recently declared that ‘America is back’ — how will the world respond?