US troops cautioned about social media risks

WASHINGTON: US authorities have warned troops to avoid drawing attention to their military ties on their social media accounts, ABC news reported on Monday.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security want current and former military members to check accounts for information that might attract the attention of the Islamic State group and its supporters, a bulletin to law enforcement agencies said.

The bulletin added that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had information indicating that people overseas were “spotting and assessing” people who were willing to commit attacks against current and former US-based military personnel.

Authorities are especially worried about the possibility of copycats inspired by two separate attacks on soldiers in Canada in October.

The first successful jihadist attacks on Canadian soil resulted in the deaths of two soldiers. Police said the two suspects in the separate incidents held jihadist sympathies and wished to join the IS group.

Since the start of US-led air strikes against the IS in Iraq and Syria, Washington has increased calls for vigilance.

Putin, Erdogan hold talks to boost trade,strengthen relations

ANKARA: Tu­­rk­ish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday held talks in Ankara with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin aimed at boosting trade and strengthening relations, despite sharp differences over the crises in Syria and Ukraine.

Erdogan personally welcomed Putin for the one-day state visit at the gates of his controversial new presidential palace in Ankara and the Russian leader is only the second world dignitary to visit the grandiose complex after Pope Francis on Friday.

Talks were expected to focus on energy cooperation — with Ankara seeking not only a reduction in gas prices from Russia, but also greater import volumes ahead of the winter — as well key diplomatic issues.

Putin, heading a delegation of 10 Russian ministers, was also expected to discuss how to realise the aim of tripling bilateral trade to a target of $100 billion in the next years from $32.7bn in 2013, a goal some analysts see as wildly over-ambitious.

His visit came just over a week after talks between US Vice President Joe Biden and key Nato ally Turkey failed to reach a breakthrough on cooperating over Syria. CHARISMATIC STRONGMEN: The meeting is the first time the pair have met face-to-face since Erdogan moved from the post of prime minister to president in August, the same job change that Putin himself made in 2012.

Putin, whose motorcade was accompanied along closed-off streets by soldiers on horseback, was welcomed with full state honours at the palace which has just become operational after being built at a cost of $615 million.

Commentators often note the similarities between Erdogan, 60, and Putin, 62, both charismatic strongmen accused abroad of authoritarianism, while retaining significant support at home.

Afghanistan plans security overhaul amid fresh terrorist attack

KABUL: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani plans to fire senior civilian and military leaders in the country’s most volatile provinces to reinvigorate the battle against militants as a suicide attack on Monday left nine people dead, officials said.

With Afghan security forces suffering high casualties in the run-up to the official Dec 31 end of the US and Nato combat mission, the newly elected president is eager to chart a new course. But the question remains what effect the shake-up will ultimately have in a war-torn country mired in corruption and riven by complex ethnic and tribal rivalries.

“Ghani feels there is a need for reform within the armed forces,” said Franz-Michael Mellbin, the special representative in Afghanistan for the European Union. “There is an inherent weakness in the way the armed forces have been managing their personnel that didn’t allow the best and brightest to step forward.”

Mr Ghani plans to replace officials in the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghdis, Ghazni and Nangarhar provinces in the east bordering Pakistan and Helmand in the south, presidential spokesman Nazifullah Salarzai told that,

The provincial sweep will roll out over the next two to three months and will begin soon, he said.

“Senior government officials will be replaced,” Mr Salarzai said. Areas of all five provinces have been under Taliban control for years and security forces have suffered record-high casualties as they come under regular attack by insurgents.

A Nov 23 suicide bombing at a volleyball tournament in eastern Paktika province killed at least 50 people, making it Afghanistan’s deadliest terrorist attack this year.

The attacks put pressure on Mr Ghani’s administration, which earlier this month ordered a top-to-bottom review of the country’s military and security strategy. The review, which officials say will examine everything from battlefield strategy to the rules of engagement for Afghan security forces, is expected to be completed within six months.

One major resignation came on Sunday when Kabul police chief Gen Mohammad Zahir stepped down following a string of attacks in the capital over three days that killed four foreigners and several Afghan civilians.

On Monday, however, police spokesman Obidullah said that the Interior Ministry had rejected Gen Zahir’s resignation.

Already, President Ghani has signed a bilateral security agreement with Washington and a status of forces agreement with Nato that his predecessor Hamid Karzai declined to sign.

US President Barack Obama also has approved an expanded combat mission authorising American troops to engage Taliban insurgents – not just Al Qaeda – and to provide air support when needed.

SUICIDE BOMBING: Monday’s suicide blast that claimed nine lives ripped through a funeral in northern Afghanistan, officials said.

“A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives among people who were attending a funeral...in Burka district this morning,” Aminullah Amarkhil, police chief of Baghlan province, told that,

“Initial reports show nine people, including two police, were killed and around 18 wounded.”

Mr Amarkhil said the funeral was for a tribal elder in Baghlan, a province on the main road from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif that has suffered worsening security in recent years.

Taj Mohammad Taqwa, the district chief of Burka, said, “The target was probably a number of high-ranking police officials and provincial council members who were attending the [funeral] ceremony,” he said. “They are unharmed.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

President Ghani has reacted to the spate of attacks by describing the Taliban as “a small minority who want to hijack the nation”. “We won’t allow that,” he vowed.

Afghan soldiers and police have suffered soaring casualties on the battlefield, with more than 4,600 killed this year as they take on the Taliban with less assistance from the US military.

Afghanistan faces a fragile economy and declining aid funds as well as worsening violence.

Mr Ghani and chief executive officer Abdullah Abdullah, who signed a power-sharing deal in September, headed to a Nato meeting in Brussels on Monday before attending a conference in London on Thursday.

Their “national unity government” has struggled to get off the ground, with no ministers yet confirmed two months after Mr Ghani was inaugurated.

The then Afghan president Karzai opened preliminary contacts with the Taliban but they collapsed acrimoniously last year.

Nigeria rocked by Boko Haram suicide attacks

MAIDUGURI: Boko Haram on Monday launched two separate attacks on state capitals in northeast Nigeria, when two women suicide bombers hit a busy market and fighters launched a major assault on police.

The blasts in Maiduguri and dawn raid in Damaturu came just days after a deadly mosque attack in the northern city of Kano left at least 120 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Almost daily attacks have heightened tensions in Nigeria’s far northeast and sparked fears of unrest beyond the country’s borders.

Both Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state, and Damaturu, the main city in neighbouring Yobe, have been hit repeatedly by Boko Haram.

The site of the latest blasts in Maiduguri — the popular Monday Market — was hit just last Tuesday when two women detonated explosives hidden in their hijabs among the crowds of shoppers. In that attack, more than 45 people were killed.

Two suspected female suicide bombers were arrested in the city on Wednesday and Thursday, while on Friday, a roadside bomb near another market was defused.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a similar raid in Damaturu on October 24, 2013, in which Newspaper.Business:LatestNewsfour police buildings were hit with guns and explosives and militants battled with security forces.

Both incidents will add to claims that Nigeria’s government has not done enough to protect civilians from the Islamists, whose insurgency has claimed over 13,000 lives since it began in 2009.

Nigeria’s main Muslim body, the JNI, on Sunday attacked the government for failing to prevent the deaths of ordinary people and called for civilians to protect themselves against attack.In Maiduguri, witnesses said the first explosion happened as a middle-aged woman tried to enter the market and refused a security check of her bags. A second woman then tried to get into a nearby shop but as she was denied access detonated her explosives. Death tolls are notoriously difficult to corroborate in Nigeria and the authorities often downplay numbers.

Borno state police commissioner Clement Adoda said six people were killed, including the two bombers, but one witness said he counted at least 10 dead bodies at the scene.

A source at the Borno State Specialist Hospital said: “We received 16 dead bodies and 25 people with serious injuries”. Borno, Yobe and neighbouring Adamawa were placed under a state of emergency in May 2013 but the special measures have failed to end the violence.

Boko Haram has seized control of more than two dozen towns in all three states and more than 1.5 million Nigerians have been forced to flee their homes, the United Nations said last week.

Nigeria goes to the polls to elect a new president in February next year but the main opposition has voiced concern that tens of thousands will be unable to vote because of the bloodshed.

The former head of Nigeria’s secret police, Mike Ejiofor, said Boko Haram had moved from being a national problem to a “global problem” and voiced fears about the upcoming vote.

“They (the militants) want to prove that they don’t recognise established government and want to disrupt whatever government that has been put in place”, he told Al-Jazeera English.In Damaturu, residents in the Gujba Road area of the city were jolted out of bed by the sound of gunshots and explosions at about 4:45am and many fled.

“The gunmen came in numbers. They have burnt down the police barracks....

We have left our home. We are now in the bush. We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said one local, Umar Sada.

The Yobe state police commissioner, Marcus Danladi, described the attack as a “serious situation”. Civilian vigilantes in the city claimed that more than 40 Boko Haram fighters were killed.

Others described the scene as “chaos” as shells fell in the federal polytechnic compound and fierce fighting raged near detention facilities where Boko Haram suspects were being held.

India takes step to resolve border dispute with BD

NEW DELHI: India has inched closer to settling a long-simmering border dispute with Bangladesh, possibly signalling a softer line from Prime Minister Narendra Modi than when he was in opposition.

On Monday, a parliamentary committee urged the government to table a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for a land swap deal that Bangladesh and India have been negotiating for years. That followed a speech by Mr Modi at the weekend that suggested a solution was in the offing.

A deal with Bangladesh would end decades of uncertainty for tens of thousands of citizens living in enclaves on the “wrong” side of their homeland’s border.

Dozens of enclaves exist on either side of the border, a historical oddity left after British India’s partition in 1947.

The proposed solution would enable each side to acquire the enclaves within its borders, along with other disputed territories. On paper, the exchange appears to leave India with about 10,000 acres less territory and affects the more than 50,000 people living in the enclaves, as of a July 2011 headcount.

People living in the enclaves would have the right to move to live in their original country of nationality or to become nationals of their ‘new’ country after the exchange. Most are expected to stay put, according to the Indian government.

Neither country would lose any territory they currently control, said Shashi Tharoor, head of the parliamentary committee and a minister in the previous government.

IDENTITY “It is merely regularising the existing reality in a way that permits both countries to extend normal public services to the residents of these areas,” Mr Tharoor said.

Despite the BJP’s past objections, Modi seemed to back such a deal during a speech on Sunday in Assam, one of the Indian states that would be affected.

“Whatever we do, there might be a perception of a short-term loss, but ultimately Assam will gain,” said Modi, who discussed the border with his Bangladeshi counterpart last week.

IS jihadists kill 16 border guard in Iraq

BAGHDAD: At least 16 Iraqi border guards were killed on Monday in a dawn assault by the Islamic State jihadist group on their post near the Syrian frontier, provincial and security officials said.

“Sixteen border guards, including a captain, were killed and four wounded in an attack targeting their headquarters in Al-Walid, near the Syrian border”, Faleh al-Issawi, deputy head of Anbar provincial council, said. He said the attack occurred at around 6am. A commander in the Iraqi border force and a police major confirmed the death toll.

Despite the attack, “Al-Walid is still in the hands of Iraqi forces,” the major said.

The crossing is one of the country’s most remote outposts and lies 500 kilometres west of Baghdad near the westernmost point in Anbar province where the borders of Iraq, Syria and Jordan meet.

Jihadist fighters briefly held Al-Walid border crossing on June 23 but it has remained in government hands since.

Parts of the vast Anbar province, which also borders Saudi Arabia, have been out of government control since the start of the year, months before IS launched a major offensive across Iraq in June.

Angelina Jolie involved in car accident

LOS ANGELES: Actor Angelina Jolie reportedly got into a car accident after a screening of her new movie, Unbroken.

The 39-year-old was returning home when her car skidded on the road due to the rain and hit a curb. As a result of the impact, two of the vehicle's tires exploded.

 the accident was bad but could have been much worse.

Quoting an eyewitness, the website reported: "The car slammed into the curb at a significant speed. Jolie must have wondered if they hit another car. It was pretty bad – the tire exploded and it's amazing nothing worse happened to the car. I wouldn't be surprised if she has whiplash."

The actor had been travelling in a hired car and was picked up by another car from the same service shortly after the car accident.

Directed and produced by Angelina Jolie, Unbroken chronicles the life of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner who spent 47 days afloat in the Pacific Ocean after his military plane crashed and was later captured by Japanese forces during World War II and spent two years as a prisoner of war.

The actor looked radiant at the screening at the Writers Guild Theater donning an all-white ensemble and a Louis Vuitton purse.

It is unknown whether the actor suffered any injuries.