World

 Legal showdown over President Trump's travel ban

A suicide bomber struck an entrance to Afghanistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people in the latest in a series of attacks on the country's judiciary.

The attacker was on foot, and targeted a side door as court employees and other people were exiting the building in downtown Kabul, the Interior Ministry said. Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz said 41 people were wounded, including 10 in critical condition.

No one immediately claimed the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the Taliban. The insurgents have been at war with the U.S.-backed government for 15 years and have increasingly targeted the judiciary since the execution of six convicted insurgents last May.

Shortly after the executions, a suicide bomber targeted a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing 11 people in an attack claimed by the Taliban, which called it an act of revenge.

In June, three Taliban fighters stormed a court building in the eastern Logar province, killing seven people, including a newly appointed chief prosecutor, before being shot dead by police.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the Supreme Court attack, which he blamed on the "enemies of our people." The U.S. Embassy in Kabul called it "an attack on the very foundation of Afghan democracy and rule of law."

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed a top district official in the western Farah province as he returned home from a mosque, local police spokesman Iqbal Baher said. The Taliban claimed the attack.

Days after Hafiz Saeed's house arrest, Jamaat-ud-Dawa rebranded as 'Tehreek Azadi Jammu & Kashmir.'

Jamaat-ud-Dawa has rebranded under the new name of ‘Tehreek Azadi Jammu and Kashmir’, just days after its chief Hafiz Saeed was put under house arrest and a crackdown launched on the organisation’s activities.

The Mumbai attack mastermind had indicated about a week before his arrest that he might launch Tehreek Azadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK) to ''expedite the freedom of Kashmir''.

It shows that Saeed had got a wind of the official plans and already had worked out how to resurface and survive after the clampdown on his ostensible network of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

Official sources confirmed that the two organisations have started activities under the name new of TAJK and were planning to organise events on February 5, which is observed a ‘Kashmir Day’ in Pakistan. The TAJK banners have been displayed in Lahore and other cities and towns.

The group is also planning to hold a big Kashmir conference tomorrow in Lahore after evening prayers.

The TAJK has reactivated its donations centres and ambulance services in different districts of Punjab, including Lahore, which is the hub of its activities.

Local media reported that even after the crackdown on their activities, the volunteers of Saeed’s network yesterday actively participated in the rescue operation after a boat carrying about 100 passengers capsized in the Ravi river near Nankana Sahib town in Punjab.

A police official said law enforcement agencies were keeping a close eye on the activities of Saeed’s network and appropriate action would be taken.

''It is a sensitive issue and a measured response is needed to fulfill the international obligations of the country and deal with any possible fallout due to protest by followers of Saeed,'' he said.

Various offices of both JuD and FIF were closed on Monday following the house arrest of Saeed. Both organisations were also put on observation under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

The government on Monday had placed Saeed and his four accomplices - Abdullah Ubaid, Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Niaz - under house arrest in Lahore.

The Interior Ministry had also placed Saeed and 37 other JuD and FIF members on the Exit Control List (ECL), barring them from leaving the country.

Sri Lanka will not allow China to set up a military facility at any port in the country, the Sri Lankan ambassador to Beijing said on Saturday, adding that Chinese investors have been informed that no civilian facility will be allowed to be used militarily.

“We have to consider the concerns of the neighbours. We do not want to create any situation, which… may become (a source of) suspicion. We know the Indian Ocean is a very important ocean in international trade,” Sri Lankan ambassador Karunasena Kodituwakku said.

“We can have friendly joint exercises with India, US, Pakistan and with China. In case of Hambantota port, there will be a base for the Sri Lankan navy,” he said.

The terms of handing over the Hambantota port to the Chinese company, China Merchants Port Holding (CMPH) company have been broadly decided, Kodituwakku indicated.

“I do not know about other countries, but Sri Lanka has very categorically informed the investor that it (Hambantota port) will not be allowed to be used for any military purposes,” he said. “Not only the Hambantota port , any port in Sri Lanka will not be allowed to be used by any military.”

Kodituwakku said that the Hambantota port hasn’t been a viable project so far.

“Very small numbers (of ships). Even the incoming they have received is not even enough to maintain the port maintenance, forget the salaries about the people who are working,” he said.

With officials from both countries working to finalise a “free trade agreement” (FTA) this year, marking the 65th year of trade ties, unease over China’s financial influence could see a spike in the coming months.

The FTA and several facets of Chinese investment in Sri Lanka will be on the agenda when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visits Beijing in May to attend an international seminar on President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In January, clashes between government supporters and protesters had erupted during a rally against the port deal in Hambantota, about 240 km southeast of Colombo.

A US judge has temporarily suspended Trump's executive order barring nationals from seven Muslim-majority nations. The White House called the move "outrageous," saying the order was "intended to protect the homeland."

US District Judge James Robart on Friday granted a nationwide temporary restraining order on President Donald Trump's executive order blocking citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country.

"The state has met its burden in demonstrating immediate and irreparable injury," Robart said.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who filed the lawsuit along with the state of Minnesota, argued that the executive order failed to provide due process for legal residents of the United States.

"The law is a powerful thing - it has the ability to hold everybody accountable to it, and that includes the president of the United States," Ferguson said during a press briefing after the ruling.

Friday's ruling also blocks the suspension of the US refugee program that has left thousands stranded after receiving approval for resettlment.

In reaction to the ruling, airlines including Qatar Airways and Air France said on Saturday that they will allow people barred by last week's executive order to board flights to the US if they have valid travel documents.

The Justice Department notified State Department of the ruling, and began working with the Department of Homeland Security to determine how it affects operations, a spokesperson said.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency told airlines to allow travelers affected by Trump's executive order to board, an aviation official said, according to Reuters news agency.

Hours after the ruling, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the Justice Department "intends to file (for) an emergency stay of this outrageous order and defend the executive order of the president, which we believe is lawful and appropriate."

But the Justice Department later said it would not file for an emergency stay on Friday, according to a spokesperson.

"The president's order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people," Spicer said.

Friday's ruling has raised questions concerning the legal future of the order. However, lawyers representing Trump's administration had filed an appeal on Thursday to block any attempt at a suspension of the order.

Although the case may make its way to the Supreme Court, the highest judicial body in the US, it would likely be after the initial 90-day duration set forth in the order.

Ordered last week, Trump's travel ban caused chaos across airports in the US and prompted mass protests both in the US and abroad.

The order prevented passport-holders from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days and indefinitely suspended the US refugee program for Syrians, citing national security concerns.

However, some American lawyers argued that the order was unconstitutional because it deliberately targeted Muslims.

The US State Department on Friday announced that fewer than 60,000 people had their visas invalidated due to the executive order, a stark contrast to the 100,000-figure cited by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia.

Brinkema had ordered the federal government to provide Virginia with a list by Thursday of "all persons who have been denied entry to or removed from the United States."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this week criticized the travel ban, saying it did not contribute to the fight against terrorism.

"The necessary and decisive battle against terrorism does not in any way justify putting groups of certain people under general suspicion, in this case people of Muslim belief or of a certain origin," she told reporters in Berlin.

Meanwhile, some US-based researchers have questioned why countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have not been targeted by the ban, considered a necessity for national security by the White House.