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U.S. backs probe on Sikh’s slay
An American official has supported a call by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for India to cooperate in the investigation of a Sikh leader’s assassination in Vancouver in June. “We want to see accountability. And it’s important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in New York, where he was taking part in the United Nations General Assembly. “We would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well,” Blinken said, referring to Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar, who was wanted in India for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder, was shot dead by two masked assailants. Blinken’s statement came four days after Trudeau linked Indian intelligence agents to the murder of the activist campaigning for the creation of a Sikh homeland called Khalistan. New Delhi insisted it had nothing to do with the killing, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “completely rejected” the accusation when earlier raised privately by Trudeau. Following Trudeau’s bombshell, Sikh leaders in Canada demanded justice for Nijjar’s killing. “We want a full investigation that brings to justice the people involved in this assassination, including those who pulled the trigger and the ones who plotted this assassination,” Harkirt Singh Dhadda, a lawyer and prominent member of the Sikh community in the Toronto area, said. Nijjar’s son also demanded the arrest of his father’s killers. “Hopefully, you can take this a step further and get specific individuals,” Balraj Singh Nijjar told reporters. Jaskaran Sandhu, co-founder of Baaz News, a website for the Sikh community, warned that “if the government doesn’t take a strong stance and send a strong message, all it declares to the world is that it’s open season on our citizens.” Jagmett Singh, the leader of the left-wing New Democratic Party and a Trudeau ally said Trudeau’s announcement confirms suspicions that India was interfering in the democratic rights of Canadians. Canada must also put an end to intelligence sharing with New Delhi, Sikh officials said. Since 2018, the two countries have established cooperation on counter-terrorism activities which commits them to financial, judicial and police cooperation — an agreement eyed warily by 770,000 Canadian Sikhs today. WITH AFP The post U.S. backs probe on Sikh’s slay appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Court to deliver verdict on hacker behind biggest leak in football history
A Portuguese court was due on Monday to deliver its verdict on hacker Rui Pinto, whose flood of "Football Leaks" revelations exposed dirty dealings in international football. It was the biggest information leak in sports history and sparked criminal investigations in Belgium, Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland. The verdict, which has been postponed several times, was due to be delivered at a hearing in Lisbon starting at 2:30 pm (1330 GMT). Pinto, 34, is charged with 89 hacking offences, and with attempted extortion, a crime punishable in Portugal by between two and 10 years in prison. He argues he is a whistleblower, whose actions exposed underhand dealings involving top football stars, clubs and agents. Between 2015 and 2018, he shared 18.6 million documents on the internet and with a consortium of European newspapers, which published details. The revelations shook the football world. They included the salaries of Lionel Messi and Neymar, an accusation of rape against Cristiano Ronaldo, alleged financial sleight of hand at Manchester City and ethnic profiling at Paris Saint Germain. Defendant and witness Pinto is both a defendant and a protected witness in Portugal. When his trial began in September 2020, Pinto told the court he had been shocked by what he had discovered and was proud of bringing it to public knowledge. But he has admitted he used illegal means to obtain documents. His alleged victims include top Portuguese football club Sporting Lisbon, the Portuguese Football Federation, lawyers, magistrates and Doyen Sports -- a Malta-based investment fund run by Kazakh-Turkish oligarchs. Pinto was arrested in Hungary in 2019 and extradited to Portugal, where he spent a year behind bars before agreeing to cooperate with the Portuguese authorities on other cases, giving them access to encrypted documents he had obtained. The French authorities have also sought his cooperation over the "Luanda Leaks", a release of 715,000 documents providing compromising information on Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Dos Santos, once the richest woman in Africa, has faced several court cases on charges she syphoned billions of dollars from Angolan state companies during her father's four decades in office. The post Court to deliver verdict on hacker behind biggest leak in football history appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
China keeps ban on group tours to Canada
China’s Covid-era ban on group tours to a dozen countries was lifted last week but travel agents cannot arrange such visits to Canada. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa said Wednesday the exclusion of Canada was due to its anti-Beijing rattling. “The Canadian side has repeatedly hyped up the so-called ‘Chinese interference,’” according to a statement from the embassy. “Rampant and discriminatory anti-Asian acts and words are rising significantly in Canada” and “the Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safety and legitimate rights of overseas Chinese citizens and wishes they can travel in a safe and friendly environment,” the embassy added. China-Canada relations hit a new low this year amid accusations of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections and the attempted intimidation of lawmakers that led to the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat in May. Beijing responded by sending home a Canadian diplomat from Canada’s consulate in Shanghai. Janice Thomson, the head of tourism at Niagara Falls — the top tourism destination in Canada — said China’s decision to leave Canada off its approved destinations list was “disappointing” but expects the country to be added to the list in the future. In 2019, Chinese tourists spent a collective US$255 billion on international travel. In 2018, nearly 700,000 Chinese visitors came to Canada, spending an average of Can$2,600 (US$1,922) per visitor, or a total of Can$2 billion — out of Can$22 billion spent collectively by all foreign travelers, according to a report by the Canada China Business Council. That same year, tit-for-tat arrests of a top Huawei executive in Vancouver on a United States warrant and two Canadians living in China, accused of espionage, dealt a serious blow to bilateral relations. Ottawa accused Beijing of engaging in “hostage diplomacy,” before a deal was eventually reached with US prosecutors that saw all three people released in 2021. WITH AFP The post China keeps ban on group tours to Canada appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
China snubs Canada as restrictions on tourism travel lifted
China — a major source of outbound tourists — has left Canada off a list of countries now approved for travel by tour groups, its embassy in Ottawa said Wednesday, due to anti-Beijing rattling by Ottawa. Last week Beijing lifted a Covid-era ban on group tours to dozens of countries including the United States, Germany, Japan, and Australia, but not Canada. Travel agents turn to the list of approved destinations when promoting and arranging foreign vacations for Chinese nationals. There are currently 138 countries on the list. The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said in a statement that the reason behind the snub was "the Canadian side has repeatedly hyped up the so-called 'Chinese interference.'" It said "rampant and discriminatory anti-Asian acts and words are rising significantly in Canada" and "the Chinese government attaches great importance to protecting the safety and legitimate rights of overseas Chinese citizens and wishes they can travel in a safe and friendly environment." The United Nations tourism agency (UNWTO) says China grew to be the biggest tourism source market in the world prior to the pandemic. In 2019, Chinese tourists spent a collective US$255 billion on international travel. Group tours from China to Canada were first approved in 2010. In 2018, nearly 700,000 Chinese visitors came to Canada, spending an average of Can$2,600 (US$1,922) per visitor, or a total of Can$2 billion -- out of Can$22 billion spent collectively by all foreign travelers, according to a report by the Canada China Business Council. That same year, tit-for-tat arrests of a top Huawei executive in Vancouver on a US warrant and two Canadians living in China, accused of espionage, dealt a serious blow to bilateral relations. Ottawa accused Beijing of engaging in "hostage diplomacy," before a deal was eventually reached with US prosecutors that saw all three people released in 2021. China-Canada relations hit a new low this year amid accusations of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections and the attempted intimidation of MPs that led to the expulsion of a Chinese diplomat in May. Beijing responded by sending home a Canadian diplomat from Canada's consulate in Shanghai. Canadian government officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Janice Thomson, the head of tourism at Niagara Falls -- the top tourism destination in Canada -- said China's decision to leave Canada off its approved destinations list was "disappointing." She expressed hope that Canada would make it onto the list in a future round of country additions. The post China snubs Canada as restrictions on tourism travel lifted appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden’s son pleads not guilty on tax charges as deal derails
US President Joe Biden's son Hunter pleaded not guilty to minor tax offenses Wednesday as a deal with federal prosecutors derailed in a Delaware court. The surprise move came after Judge Maryellen Noreika raised questions over the original deal -- under which Biden had agreed to enter a guilty plea and admit to illegal gun possession -- and effectively placed it on hold. Biden, 53, whose legal troubles have cast a shadow over his father's reelection campaign, had reached an agreement with prosecutors that he would be sentenced to probation on two tax avoidance counts. The deal also specified that the firearms charge would eventually be erased if he adhered to a counseling-and-rehabilitation program. But the deal fell apart after Noreika queried why the gun charge was included in a tax case, and whether the plea agreement protected Biden from charges that might arise from a wider ongoing investigation of his business dealings, according to US media. When prosecutors could not resolve her questions, Noreika said she could not accept the deal, and Biden then entered a not guilty plea to close the session. That was expected to send the deal back to negotiations, which could become more complex. Prosecutor David Weiss confirmed to the court that his office is still examining other possible crimes by Biden. Weiss did not detail those possible crimes, but one issue mentioned in the court was possible violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, relating to his business deals in China, Ukraine and other countries dating back to the early 2010s, when his father was vice president. Political attacks Republicans have accused Weiss of giving Biden a "sweetheart deal" with the plea agreement announced on 20 June. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Hunter Biden was "a private citizen. This was a personal matter." The case was "handled independently by the Justice Department under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by President Trump," she added. The plea deal was to end a five-year investigation that Republicans have sought to use to politically harm his father Joe. According to the charges, Hunter, a Yale-trained lawyer and lobbyist, failed to file his tax returns on time on earnings of more than $1.5 million for 2017 and 2018. He was facing up to 12 months in prison for each tax charge and a possible maximum 10 years on a charge that, as a known drug user, he had illegally possessed a handgun in 2018. But prosecutors recommended probation on the tax charges after Biden paid the taxes and penalties, according to his attorney. In addition, the gun charge was to be suspended and then eliminated if Biden completed "pretrial diversion," which often involves counseling or rehabilitation. That would require Biden to remain sober as the charges arise from a long period when he says he struggled with addiction to alcohol, crack cocaine and other drugs. "The president, the first lady, they love their son and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life," Jean-Pierre said. The post Biden’s son pleads not guilty on tax charges as deal derails appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Wanted Korean intercepted at NAIA
The Bureau of Immigration at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport has arrested a Korean national wanted for a string of criminal cases in his country. In a report given to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, BI Intelligence Division chief Fortunato Manahan Jr. identified the arrested passenger as Kim SeonJeong, who was intercepted at NAIA Terminal 3 on 27 May. Manahan said that Kim had just arrived in the country via a Cebu Pacific flight from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, when he was accosted by elements of the BI Border Control and Intelligence Unit at the airport. BI supervisors alerted the BCIU agents after the immigration officer who processed Kim upon his arrival discovered that his name was included in the Interpol database. Tansingco immediately ordered the conduct of summary deportation proceedings against Kim to stand trial for his crimes. Information obtained from Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Manila revealed that Kim is a convicted felon and is wanted in Korea to serve his sentence for fraud, inflicting physical injuries and drunken driving. Korean authorities said that in October 2018, Kim defrauded a compatriot by enticing the victim to give him 30 million won, or nearly US$23,000, which he would pay in the amount of 100 million won within three months. Kim claimed that he would invest the funds in the casino business, but he reneged on his promise and instead pocketed the money that the victim had deposited in his bank account. It also reported that Kim presented a Korean passport, which was already reported as a stolen and lost travel document to the Interpol. The suspect is presently detained at the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, pending deportation proceedings. The post Wanted Korean intercepted at NAIA appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Manning agents plead for equal protection over disability claims
Rumors of the scrapping of the escrow provision in the Senate version of the proposed Magna Carta for Seafarers have alarmed manning agents. Captain Reynaldo Casareo, president of Cargo Safeway Inc., one of the biggest crewing agencies in the country, said Wednesday the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers headed by Senator Raffy Tulfo should clarify whether or not the Senate bill will have an escrow provision like the MCS version already passed by the House of Representatives. Casareo said they want protection against seafarers who collude with ambulance chasers to get payments for permanent disability suffered on duty when the injury is not really permanent. “Senator Tulfo, please also listen to the agencies and shipowners being abused by ambulance chasers and not those seafarer groups that clearly have different intensions,” Casareo said. Another manning executive who requested not to be named also appealed to the senator. “If Senator Tulfo has indeed believed that the escrow provision is anti-seafarer, then this is bad. It was supposed to help ship owners that are providing opportunities to our seafarers. We hope he will listen to us.” Kabayan Partylist Representative Ron Salo, chairman of the House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs, inserted in the MCS bill the provision for the creation of an escrow account that would strengthen the fight against ambulance chasing. Co-author and OFW Party-list Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino earlier said the provision was intended to address the inimical practice of ambulance chasing perpetrated by unscrupulous lawyers and litigants to the prejudice of employers and manning agencies. “The proposal is to place in escrow the monetary award (for disability claims) in favor of a seafarer if the employer or manning agency concerned has appealed the decision for judicial review,” Magsino said. “To counter-balance it, the seafarer is given the option to file a corresponding bond as a security, if he wishes to move for the execution of the decision pending appeal. These twin mechanisms are precise to prevent the dissipation of the monetary award in the hands of the winning party in the absence of a final judgment,” she said. During the Maritime Familiarization Workshop for Media organized by the seafarers’ union AMOSUP over the weekend, Atty. Iris Baguilat, chairperson of the ALMA Maritime Group and president of Dohle Seafront Crewing (Manila), said seafarer deployment dwindles yearly because of several factors, including the rampant illegal practice of ambulance chasing. Quoting the employers’ group International Maritime Employers’ Council, Baguilat said “Ambulance chasing is the biggest threat to Filipino seafarer employability” since it made them expensive due to their lawyers’ erroneous claims. She said that the Department of Migrant Workers reported that, based on National Conciliation and Mediation Board data alone for 2018 to 2022, between 28 percent and 30 percent of the monetary awards by NCMB amounting to over P2.57 billion have been reversed by higher courts for being erroneous. “Most of this award has not been returned to the shipowners,” Baguilat said. The post Manning agents plead for equal protection over disability claims appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Twitter, Saudi Arabia sued in US over jailed user
The sister of a Saudi national imprisoned after tweets criticizing the government on Tuesday sued both Twitter and the kingdom, alleging they worked together to support "repression." The lawsuit filed in a US federal court in San Francisco, which named powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a conspirator, seeks a jury trial to determine damages. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan was working for the Red Crescent in Riyadh when he was taken away from the office in 2018 and later handed a 20-year jail sentence. Al-Sadhan, who had studied in the United States, had set up an anonymous Twitter account through which he critiqued the ultra-conservative monarchy and retweeted dissident voices. US prosecutors later charged two former Twitter employees for spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia. One was convicted in December with another believed to have left for the kingdom. The lawsuit said the agents transmitted confidential Twitter data 30,892 times. Al-Sadhan's sister Areej al-Sadhan, a US citizen, said in the lawsuit that she learned that secret police "broke Plaintiff Abdulrahmam's hand and smashed his fingers, taunting him that 'this is the hand you write and tweet with.' "The secret police also tortured Plaintiff Abdulrahman with electric shocks, flogged and hung him from his feet, suspended him in contorted positions, deprived him of sleep, threatened to behead him, insulted him, and kept him in solitary confinement for years," the lawsuit said. The lawsuit sued Twitter and Saudi Arabia on allegations of racketeering, a US crime initially used to target the mafia that involves coordinating illegal activity for profit. The lawsuit noted that a Saudi investment firm as of late last year was the second biggest shareholder in Twitter after CEO Elon Musk and that some of the Saudi stake had been sold to the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund. The lawsuit said that Twitter, including by allowing anonymous accounts, had been a champion for activists in the Arab Spring democratic uprisings. "Unfortunately, Defendant Twitter became a participant tool of transnational repression to silence voices of dissent beyond Saudi Arabia's borders in the United States and abroad, all in an effort to monetize its commercial relationship with Defendant KSA," it said, referring to the kingdom. Areej al-Sadhan said in the lawsuit that she has had to be "constantly vigilant" since her brother's arrest and fears being kidnapped. "Plaintiff Areej suffers daily as a target of the Saudi Criminal Enterprise, in what she can only describe as a 'living nightmare,'" it said. The post Twitter, Saudi Arabia sued in US over jailed user appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Paris court gives Canada-based professor life for 1980 synagogue bomb
A Paris court on Friday sentenced a Lebanese-Canadian sociology professor to life in prison in absentia for the 1980 bombing of a synagogue in the French capital that left four people dead. The court followed the prosecutor's request for the maximum possible punishment against Hassan Diab, now 69 and a resident of Canada, a decision that was met with silence in court. Some victims and their families could be seen embracing at the end of three weeks of proceedings during which the suspect's box remained empty throughout. Prosecutors had said in their closing arguments Thursday that there was "no possible doubt" that Diab, the only suspect, was behind the attack. Diab, speaking to reporters in Ottawa, called the verdict "Kafkaesque" and "not fair." "We'd hoped reason would prevail," he said, adding that he expects Canada not to send him back to France to serve the sentence. In the early evening of October 3, 1980, explosives placed on a motorcycle detonated close to a synagogue on the Rue Copernic in Paris's chic 16th district, killing a student passing by on a motorbike, a driver, an Israeli journalist, and a caretaker. Forty-six others were injured in the blast. The bombing was the first deadly attack against a Jewish target on French soil since World War II. No organization claimed responsibility but police suspected a splinter group of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. French intelligence agents in 1999 accused Diab of having made the 10-kilogram (22-pound) bomb. They pointed to Diab's likeness with police sketches drawn at the time and handwriting analyses that they said confirmed him as the person who bought the motorbike used in the attack. They also produced a key item of evidence against him -- a passport in his name, seized in Rome in 1981, with entry and exit stamps from Spain, where the attack plan was believed to have originated. In 2014, Canada extradited Diab at the request of the French authorities. However, investigating judges were unable to prove his guilt conclusively during the investigation and Diab was released, leaving France for Canada as a free man in 2018. Three years later, a French court overturned this earlier decision and ordered Diab should stand trial on charges of murder, attempted murder, and destruction of property in connection with a terrorist enterprise. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference after the verdict was announced that "we will look carefully at next steps, at what the French government chooses to do, at what French tribunals choose to do". "But we will always be there to stand up for Canadians and their rights," he said. Denials Most of the evidence presented against Diab was based on intelligence sources, and his lawyers had again argued the case should be thrown out. "I'm in front of you to avoid a miscarriage of justice," celebrity defense lawyer William Bourdon told the court Thursday, saying that an acquittal was "the only judicial decision possible". Diab has claimed he was sitting exams in Lebanon at the time of the attack, backed up by statements from his ex-partner and former students. His conviction means he will now again become the subject of an arrest warrant, which risks stoking diplomatic tensions between France and Canada after his first extradition took six years. David Pere, a lawyer for some of the people present in the synagogue at the time of the bombing, said his clients were "not motivated by vengeance nor looking for a guilty person's head to stick on a pike... they want justice to be done". Diab has won some backing from NGOs, including Amnesty International, who said his assertion that he was in Lebanon at the time of the attack was credible The post Paris court gives Canada-based professor life for 1980 synagogue bomb appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Panatag is proven PH territory; China claims it by bogus history
A civilian supply expedition to Panatag (Scarborough) is set this summer. The shoal is Philippine territory. Filipinos have every right to enter its 15,000-hectare lagoon bound by rocks and reefs......»»
Flintlock: A Classic Summer Blockbuster – The Daily Guardia
A44 Games, a New Zealand-based developer, is set to release their highly-anticipated third-person action-RPG, Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn. The game pays homage to the.....»»
Tell it to SunStar: Summer school blues
Tell it to SunStar: Summer school blues.....»»
Shohei Ohtani says interpreter stole money, denies knowledge of gambling debts
Shohei Ohtani says he was unaware Ippei Mizuhara had gambling debts and that he had been lied to repeatedly by the interpreter who had been by his side since he joined Major League Baseball in 2018.....»»
Sultan Kudarat now bird flu-free
The Department of Agriculture has declared Sultan Kudarat free from avian influenza......»»
22 Mexico indigents get free medical assistance
22 Mexico indigents get free medical assistance.....»»
Unique love storyline brings ‘Asawa ng Asawa Ko’ close to viewers
‘There was a farfetched but intriguing circumstance that would give the story a richer context, namely, the kidnapping and the four-year experience that would transform the protagonist from a protected, middle-class bride to a toughened survivor when she returns. That was the thing that was different in this project,’ says director Laurice Guillen of the ‘Asawa ng Asawa Ko’ storyline......»»
Resumption of FTA talks seen to spur higher EU investments
The Philippine Economic Zone Authority expects investments from European companies to increase with the resumption of the Philippines – European Union free trade agreement negotiations......»»
Old habits die hard
In a 2018 article, I wrote about how I spent most of my weeknights playing video games and streaming random TV series, reality shows and movies......»»
CAB: Expect no changes in airfares next month
Travelers planning to book a summer trip can expect airfares to remain the same in April, as the government made no changes in the fuel surcharge that airlines can pass on......»»
NZ-EU FTA gains Royal Assent for 1 May entry to force
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand's ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. "I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union of our ratification of the New Zealand European Union Free Trade Agreement (NZ-EUFTA)......»»