Man arrested for threat to kill Ramaswamy
New York, Dec 12: A man who threatened a mass shooting to kill Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, has been arrested, according to the federal prosecutor’s office in New Hampshire. Tyler Anderson, 30, was charged on Monday with transmitting a threat to injure a person, whom the prosecutor’s office identified as a “presidential candidate” without naming Ramaswamy. Responding to a text message from the “victim’s” campaign about a political event in Portsmouth, Anderson responded on Friday, “Great, another opportunity for me to blow his brains out”! and “I’m going to kill everyone who attends and then (expelitive) their corpses,” the office said. He is scheduled to be produced in court later on Monday. (IANS)
Deep divisions at UN climate talks over fossil fuels
Dubai, Dec 12: As the 2023 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 28th session of the Conference of Parties (UNFCCC COP28) comes to a close, some of the major topics are still being discussed behind closed doors, such as the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and the Global Stocktake – the main outcome of the summit with “weak language” to phase out fossil fuels and promoting renewables. Many climate negotiators and observers told IANS on Tuesday for the GGA, for example, there are still questions around the feasibility of timelines and means of implementation. And for the Global Stocktake, negotiations include next steps, funding, and implications for mitigation measures but due to huge pressure from a small number of petro-states the new draft text is actually a step backwards. The Loss and Damage Fund has now been established, but many questions remain here, too, such as how much funding will be available in the long run, how it can be accessed, etc. (IANS)
Sharif acquitted in Al-Azizia corruption case
Islamabad, Dec 12: The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday acquitted Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia Steel Mill corruption case, removing a major legal hurdle in his way to leading his party in the upcoming elections. Sharif, 73, was sentenced to seven years in jail and imposed a heavy fine by an anti-corruption court in December 2018 after he failed to convince the court that he had nothing to do with the steel mill set up by his father in 2001 in Saudi Arabia. He has already been acquitted in the Avenfield case in which he was convicted in July 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in Jail. He also got relief in the Flagship corruption case in which he was declared innocent by the court in 2018 but the acquittal was challenged in the IHC by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). A division bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the appeal against conviction by the anti-corruption court in 2018 in a case filed by the NAB, the national accountability watchdog. During today’s hearing, Sharif’s lawyer Amjad Pervaiz said that no evidence was presented against his client and he was asked by the court to prove his innocence. (PTI)