Sunni mob razes minority sect’s mosque
ISLAMABAD — Sunni extremists have demolished a mosque belonging to Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi sect in the eastern city of Sialkot, the latest mob attack on minorities in the country.
No one was inside the Ahmadiya Mosque and there were no casualties in the pre-dawn attack Thursday. The mosque had been closed years ago by authorities to avoid violence.
A video of the attack surfaced on social media, showing a mob demolishing the mosque, which is said to have been visited by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the Ahmadi faith in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century. Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974.
Ahmadis make a tiny minority of the Muslim-majority Pakistan and are often targeted by Sunni militants who consider them heretics.
2 men get jail time in organ harvesting
PRISTINA, Kosovo — A Kosovo court Thursday imprisoned two ethnic Albanians for their involvement in organ harvesting.
The Pristina court international judge Francesca Fischer sentenced former urologist Lutfi Dervishi to 7½ years and a fine of $9,400. He cannot exercise his profession for two years after his prison term ends.
Sokol Hajdini, an anesthetist, was sentenced to one year in prison after it was proven that he was aware of the work and willingly took part.
International prosecutors in Kosovo have said the Medicus clinic managed by Dervishi and his son is believed to have carried out at least 23 kidney transplants in 2008 for which buyers, many from Israel, paid $94,000 to $117,000.
Kidney donors from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Romania, Israel and Turkey were offered the more modest sum of about $11,700. Prosecutors proved that all donors were poor and that their health deteriorated after the surgeries.
Israeli wants settlement homes surge
JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister said Thursday that he will seek approval next week to fast-track construction of 2,500 new West Bank settlement homes in 2018.
Avigdor Lieberman’s office said in a statement that he aimed to fulfill a commitment to expand construction in the West Bank settlements, including some remote outposts and the Jewish settler enclave in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Besides the 2,500, Lieberman said he will advance another 1,400 units that are in preliminary planning stages.
The announcement came two days after Palestinians urged the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, to open an investigation into Israeli policies in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, including settlement construction, accusing Israel of systematic crimes, including apartheid in the occupied territories.
The request includes the recent round of bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli fire killed more than 100 Palestinians during mass protests along the Gaza border.
Violence between the sides continued Thursday. The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was “severely injured” when a “heavy object” was thrown at his head during an operation in the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and has since built dozens of settlements there. Over 600,000 Israelis now live in east Jerusalem and West Bank settlements, areas Palestinians seek for their future state.
Airstrikes in Syria said to kill 12 fighters
BEIRUT — Airstrikes overnight in eastern Syria killed at least 12 pro-government fighters, all reportedly foreign nationals, a war-monitoring group said Thursday.
The Syrian government-run media blamed the strikes on the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group.
In Damascus, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said coalition aircraft struck military positions between the towns of Boukamal and Hmeimeh in Deir el-Zour province. It did not report any casualties.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war through a network of activists on the ground, said the fatalities were not Syrian nationals but foreign fighters. It said the coalition was likely behind the strikes.
The Pentagon said it had “no information” to substantiate reports that the coalition was behind the latest airstrikes.
Late Thursday, Syrian TV reported that a military base in central Syria came under attack from “enemy” fire and that Syrian air defenses confronted a missile attack.
It did not give additional details.
A Section on 05/25/2018