12/04/2025

SATURDAY | APR 12, 2025

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Mumbai attacks accused held in Delhi o First such US transfer to India

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan told a media briefing on Thursday. Rana’s lawyer has said that Rana was a “good man and got sucked into something”. Over the course of three days in November 2008, 10 heavily armed attackers targeted major landmarks across Mumbai, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and the main train station, killing 166 people. India has said Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the State Department has designated a terrorist organisation, orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan denies supporting extremist activities. Rana was also found guilty in June 2011 of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper. – Reuters Australia set on buying nuclear subs SYDNEY: Australia is buying nuclear-powered submarines as a deterrent, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said yesterday. The US sale of three nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS treaty is facing new doubts amid concern in Washington that providing the subs to Canberra may reduce deterrence to China. The US Navy in September set a deadline of 2027 for its forces to be prepared for a conflict with China. Reuters reported, citing US defence experts and documents, consternation that Australia’s reluctance to even discuss using the attack submarines against China means transferring them out of the US fleet in 2032 could hurt deterrence efforts. Campaigning for a May 3 election in the northern garrison town of Darwin, Albanese told reporters he was “confident about AUKUS”. “We’re investing in our assets so that we’re more secure. Obviously you have assets there as deterrents,” he said. “The great benefit of nuclear-powered submarines is their stealth capacity.” On comments by a US defence strategist that Australia was unwilling to talk about the offensive capability of the submarines, Albanese said it was not responsible “to talk up war”. Opposition Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton said Australia needed nuclear submarines because it is an island nation. – Reuters China on alert for typhoon-like winds BEIJING: Northern China is bracing for typhoon like gales this weekend, with the Chinese capital postponing major sporting events, closing parks, suspending train services and warning its 22 million residents against nonessential travel. A powerful current of cold air is forecast to sweep across northern provinces, bringing unusually powerful winds, China Central Television (CCTV) reported, with gusts in some areas potentially reaching 150 kph. Beijing has issued its first orange alert in 10 years, the second-highest in a four-tier colour coded system for gales. Temperatures in Beijing could plummet by as many as 12° Celsius, CCTV said, with meteorologists warning that wind speeds may rival or exceed April records dating back to 1951. Heavy snow is expected to blanket parts of Inner Mongolia as well as northeast China, while southern China could be hit by intense hailstorms, the state broadcaster added. A half marathon in Beijing scheduled for tomorrow in which humanoid robots will race alongside humans in a showcase of advances in frontier technologies has been postponed to April 19. Several train routes operating in Beijing and nearby areas were suspended. – Reuters

announced Rana’s transfer in February this year during a joint press conference with Modi in Washington. “The United States has long supported India’s efforts to ensure those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters in Washington. “He (Rana) is in their possession and we’re very proud of that dynamic.” Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the US in 2013 for providing support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani group that India says was responsible for the 2008 attacks. “As far as our record indicates, he (Rana) did not even apply for renewal for his Pakistani origin documents for the last two decades,”

to bring the key conspirator ... to justice,” India’s anti-terror agency, NIA, said in a statement. He was accompanied by Indian security agencies after his petitions challenging the extradition were rejected by the US Supreme Court. Rana’s extradition is a “great success” of the diplomacy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday. “It is the responsibility of the Indian government to bring back all those who have abused the land and people of India,” he posted on X. India formally sought Rana’s custody in June 2020, and President Donald Trump

NEW DELHI: A Pakistani-born Canadian businessman accused of helping orchestrate the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, one of India’s deadliest, arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after the US extradited him in the first such transfer in a terrorism case. Tahawwur Rana, 64, a doctor-turned businessman, was extradited in connection with the attacks that killed more than 160 people. “The National Investigation Agency on Thursday successfully secured the extradition ... after years of sustained and concerted efforts

Russia, US swap detained ballerina for smuggler WASHINGTON: A Russian-American ballerina who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Russia for donating to a charity aiding Ukraine landed in Washington on Thursday after being freed in exchange for a man the US had accused of forming a global smuggling ring to spirit sensitive electronics to Russia’s military. Van Heerden welcoming

Karelina at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday. – AFPPIC

The exchange, which took place on the tarmac of an airport in Abu Dhabi, indicates significant detailed contacts between Kremlin and the White House. Ksenia Karelina is a dual citizen whom a Russian court found guilty last year of treason for donating US$51.80 (RM229) to a US-based charity providing humanitarian support to Ukraine. When the plane carrying Karelina landed in Washington late on Thursday night, she was met by her boyfriend, UFC fighter Chris van Heerden, who hugged and kissed her as others around them cheered. During the exchange, Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the United States after being accused of exporting sensitive microelectronics, was shown by Russian state television walking past Karelina towards a Russian plane, where he underwent medical check-ups. “Petrov was exchanged for US citizen Ksenia Karelina, who also holds Russian citizenship and was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for treason in the form of financial assistance to a foreign state,” said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet era KGB. A US official told Reuters that special envoy Steve Witkoff brought up the case of Karelina with President Vladimir Putin during a call last week and that Putin’s reaction was to “do something as a goodwill gesture because he wants to settle the war”. US talks with Russia and Ukraine about ending the war were to continue and Witkoff would travel to Russia soon, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also involved in the negotiations, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe brought the deal over the finish

“They released the young ballerina, and she is now out, and that was great. So we appreciate that. We hope that we’re going to be able to make a deal relatively soon with Russia and Ukraine to stop the fighting,”Trump told reporters. – Reuters

line, a second US official said. President Donald Trump publicly thanked Russia for the release of the ballerina. He said he had received a call advocating for her release from a friend, UFC Chairman Dana White.

Panama agrees to American troop deployment PANAMA CITY: US troops will be able to deploy to bases along the Panama Canal under a deal seen by AFP on Thursday, a major concession to President Donald Trump as he seeks to reestablish influence over the vital waterway. The agreement, signed by top security officials, allows US military personnel to deploy to Panama-controlled facilities for training, exercises and “other activities”. Trump has repeatedly claimed that China has too much influence over the canal, which handles about 40% of US container traffic. His administration has vowed to “take back” control of the strategic waterway that the United States funded, built and controlled until 1999. The United States has long taken part in military exercises in Panama.

chief Pete Hegseth that US bases, allowed under an earlier draft, would be “unacceptable”. He warned Hegseth: “Do you want to create a mess, what we’ve put in place here would set the country on fire.” In the watered-down “Memorandum of Understanding”, signed by Hegseth and Panama’s security chief Frank Abrego on Wednesday, Panama won its own concessions. The United States recognised Panama’s sovereignty – not a given following Trump’s refusal to rule out an invasion – and Panama will retain control over any installations. Panama will also have to agree to any deployments. – AFP

However, a longer-term rotational force, such as the one the United States maintains in Darwin, Australia, could prove politically toxic for Panama’s centre-right leader Jose Raul Mulino. Mulino was in Peru, when he revealed that the United States had asked to have its own bases. Mulino said he had told visiting Pentagon

The deal stops short of allowing the United States to build its own permanent bases on the isthmus. But it gives the United States broad sway to deploy personnel to bases, some of which Washington built decades ago.