Iraq and Syria have become “international finishing schools” for extremists according to a UN report which says the number of foreign fighters joining terrorist groups has spiked to more than 25,000 from more than 100 countries.

The panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions against al-Qaida estimates the number of overseas terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71% between mid-2014 and March 2015.

It said the scale of the problem had increased over the past three years and the flow of foreign fighters was “higher than it has ever been historically”.

The overall number of foreign terrorist fighters has “risen sharply from a few thousand … a decade ago to more than 25,000 today,” the panel said in its report to the UN security council, which was obtained by Associated Press.

The report said just two countries had drawn more than 20,000 foreign fighters: Syria and Iraq. They went to fight primarily for the Islamic State group but also the al-Nusra Front.

Looking ahead, the panel said the thousands of foreign fighters who travelled to Syria and Iraq were living and working in “a veritable ‘international finishing school’ for extremists”, as was the case in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

A military defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq could have the unintended consequence of scattering violent foreign terrorist fighters across the world, the panel said. And while governments are focusing on countering the threat from fighters returning home, the panel said it was possible that some may be traumatised by what they saw and need psychological help, and that others may be recruited by criminal networks.

In addition to Syria and Iraq, the report said Afghan security forces estimated in March that about 6,500 foreign fighters were active in the country. And it said hundreds of foreigners were fighting in Yemen, Libya and Pakistan, about 100 in Somalia, and others in the Sahel countries in northern Africa, and in the Philippines.

The number of countries the fighters come from has also risen dramatically from a small group in the 1990s to more than 100 today — more than half the countries in the world — including some that have never had previous links with groups associated with al-Qaida, the panel said.

It cited the “high number” of foreign fighters from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Russia, the increase in fighters from the Maldives, Finland and Trinidad and Tobago, and the first fighters from some countries in sub-Saharan Africa which it did not name. The groups had also found recruits from Britain and Australia.

The panel said the fighters and their networks posed “an immediate and long-term threat” and “an urgent global security problem” that needed to be tackled on many fronts and had no easy solution.

With globalised travel, it said, the chance of a person from any country becoming a victim of a foreign terrorist attack was growing “particularly with attacks targeting hotels, public spaces and venues”.

But the panel noted that a longstanding terrorist goal is “generating public panic” and stressed that the response needed to “be measured, effective and proportionate”.

It said the most effective policy was to prevent the radicalisation, recruitment and travel of would-be fighters.

The panel noted that less than 10% of basic information to identify foreign fighters had been put in global systems and called for greater intelligence sharing. As a positive example, it noted that the “watchlist” in Turkey — a key transit point to Syria and Iraq — now included 12,500 individuals.

KOLKATA, APRIL 2:
Upping the ante against the land policy of the BJP Government, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is all set to take out a rally against the land policy on April 8.

“We will take out a rally here against the draconian land policy on April 8,” TMC leader and state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee told PTI.

TMC’s rally against the land policy of BJP comes in the backdrop of allegations by the Opposition parties, including Left, that both BJP and TMC are having a covert understanding as the latter has helped the BJP Government in passing bills in the Rajya Sabha.

Senior TMC leader and MP Sougata Roy said that it is the party’s consistent policy to oppose against the forcible land acquisition policy.

“It is our consistent policy; we have opposed the bill from the very beginning. There has been no change in our stand against BJP. If any Bills come in Parliament, we decide it on the basis of merit,” Roy said.

A record 13.45 lakh rail tickets were booked online on the first day on Wednesday when the new rule of the railways came into force, allowing passengers to book tickets 120 days in advance rather than 60 days.
Railways have extended the advance reservation period to 120 days to deal with the malaise of touts cornering bulk tickets.

The decision for increase of advance reservation period from two months to four months was taken to prevent touts to corner bulk tickets,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.
“The four-month window helps passengers to plan their vacations well in advance,” he added.
A total 13,45,496 rail tickets including 1,25,790 Tatkal were booked online through IRCTC website for total 32,16,039 passengers on the first day of this month, the official said.
The booking of over 13 lakh tickets on a day is highest record so far as IRCTC ticketing site registers an average booking of 5 lakh tickets a day.
The total collection amount for online booking was Rs 2,50,6552,814 out of which IRCTC service charge would be Rs 43,033,947.
IRCTC levies a service charge of Rs 20 per e-ticket in case of sleeper class (SL) and second class sitting and Rs 40 per e-ticket in case of all AC classes irrespective of the number of passengers on an e-ticket.
Earlier, the service charge was Rs 10 for Sleeper and Rs 20 for AC class which was doubled from the April 1.
There were total cancellation of 1,74,871 bookings on Wednesday and total cancelled amount was Rs 22,29,52,969.
Railways have banned the travel agents from booking online Tatkal tickets from 8 AM to 12 noon.
Tatkal bookings were 2,89,176 between 8 AM and 9 AM and 1,86,519 between 10 AM and 11 AM.
The 120-day advance booking rule will, however, not be applicable in case of certain day time express trains like Taj Express, Gomti Express and special trains. These trains will continue to have a 30-day advance booking window.
Railway Ministry has also recently put some curbs on the number of online bookings made during peak hours.
Now, only one train ticket can be booked online with one log-in after which the booking session will expire during the peak hours.
“This is also being done to check the menace of touts. There will be a restriction of only one booking in one user log-in session in E-ticketing and forced logging out of the user before another booking for all users including IRCTC agents,” said the official.
However, this restriction will not be applicable while booking onward journey/return journey e-tickets.

A senior Congress leader in West Bengal today demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi dismiss Union Minister Giriraj Singh immediately for his racist barb at Congress president Sonia Gandhi and apologise to the nation.

Manas Bhuniya, former state Congress president, said that the atrocious remark smacked of racial hatred and an attack on womanhood.

“Giriraj Singh’s attack on Sonia Gandhi is a reflection of racial hatred. It is also an attack on womenhood. It is an unpardonable offence. Hope the PM will take an immediate step on the issue,” Bhuniya said.

“The PM should dismiss Giriraj Singh immediately for his racial comment and apologise to the nation,” he said.

The Union Minister had asked the Congress on Tuesday at Hajipur whether the party would have accepted Sonia Gandhi’s leadership if she were not white-skinned.

Read more on: Congress

New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) Railways should be given autonomy with the government having the role of only framing policy, according to recommendations of a high-level committee which favours complete overhaul of the national transporter within a period of seven years.

The committee, chaired by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy, has also said that railways should be divided into two independent organizations ? one responsible for track and infrastructure and another to operate trains.

Railways should focus on its core activities to improve its efficiency and compete with the private sector, it said.

As part of recommendations, the panel has said that railways needs to be overhauled within seven years.

The process of restructuring should be undertaken under the supervision of Railway Minister who will directly report to the Prime Minister, it has said, adding the restructuring should not be left to the Railway Board.

As part of restructuring, it suggests, the government should be responsible only for the rail sector policy. This will give autonomy to railways and encourage private investment, the panel said in the 323-page interim report.

On the issue of FDI, the report said foreign money isn’t going to come in the present circumstances and it will come only if the Railway sector is reformed with the change in incentives and structure.

The report said that private investments will come “only if there is an independent umpire, a regulator, responsible for ensuring fair and open access and for setting access charges on the rail track.”

It has said railways should be divided into two independent organizations ? one responsible for track and infrastructure and another that will operate trains.

New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) Communist Part of India (CPI) today slammed the Narendra Modi-led government for its “anti-poor” and “anti-worker” policies, saying people have become “disillusioned” with the government and that it would hold a nationwide protest against the Land Bill on May 14.

Highlighting the recent attack on religious places, rape of a nun in West Bengal and moves to saffronise education, the party said it would like to forge alliances with like-minded parties as “minorities are feeling insecure in the country”.

“The country is passing through a critical stage and people are increasingly getting disillusioned,” senior party leader Gurudas Dasgupta told reporters here.

“The economy is in bad shape and industrial production has gone down. There is increased protest from industrial workers who are planning hartals and protests. We will continue to support their cause,” he said.

He said a nationwide protest and ‘jail bharo aandolan’ would be launched on May 14 against the Land Bill as it is “anti-rural” and against the interest of farmers and will compromise with the food security of the nation.

“The Bill has been brought by the BJP government to allow foreign and domestic corporates, land mafia and builder lobby to snatch away multi-crop irrigated land of farmers. This will be a great threat to our food security,” he said.

Dasgupta, who was elected as the deputy general secretary at the party’s recently held Congress in Puducherry, said they would support telecom workers’ strike on April 21 and 22 and the transport strike on April 30, expressing discontent with the government’s policies.

Mumbai, Apr 2 (PTI) Concerned over rising incidents of farmer suicide, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today nudged banks to be considerate in giving and recovering loans from poor saying banks would not shut by helping them.

“As RBI celebrates 80 years, can we think within ourselves that we will expand our banking sector so much that farmers would not have to commit suicide because of huge debt burden.

Can we not dream of this?… I do not believe that by helping poor a bank will become insolvent,” he said.

Farmers’ plight should “shake the conscience” of the banking sector, he said addressing the 80th anniversary celebrations of the RBI where Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan were also present.

“Our farmers commit suicide. The pain of this should not only be restricted to newspapers and TV screens. When farmer dies, does it shake the heart of banking sector? Because of taking loan from money lender, he has to face death,” Modi said.

He also asked the Reserve Bank to prepare a 20-year road map for financial inclusion and suggested that the Indian currency should be printed using indigenous paper and ink.

Lauding the efforts of Reserve Bank in improving macroeconomic conditions in the last eight decades, Jaitley said that the central bank’s professionalism has served the country well.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajan cautioned the banks against excessive lending to infrastructure sector projects as it may impact their financial stability.

Mike Holpin the 56-year-old recovering alcoholic from Ebbw Vale, says he loves sex and doesn’t believe in contraception.
Although he doesn’t support all his children half of them carry his name where as the rest have taken to their mother’s name.

For having some many children he comments he is responsible but equally blames the women that he was involved.”We should both be responsible,” he said. “It’s not just down to me.”

Mike has now been sober for five years but admitted that alcohol was at the root of his problems and the main reason he has so many children.

He admits being a dirty alcoholic which is to blame for the irresponsible act but says he loves his children.
Due to so many children he says would not be able recognize all of them if they happen to bump into him on the street.

I’m as fertile as sin,” explains Mike, who says his first sexual experience was when he was nine.

“I don’t believe in contraception and I love sex.”

With many of his relationships failing and the majority of the children being taken into care because of his alcoholism, he talks about his biggest regret.

“Due to my drinking and my womanising, most of my kids have gone through the care system,” he explains.

“It makes me feel like s*** because they’ve suffered. They took them from me because I’m an alcoholic