India has been elected to&nbsp;three&nbsp;key bodies of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC). These bodies are the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal&nbsp;Justice&nbsp;(CCPCJ), Executive Board of UN Women, Executive Board of the World Food&nbsp;Programme.&nbsp;&nbsp;

CCPCJ, based in Vienna, acts as the principal policy-making body of the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice. The CCPCJ has 40 member states that are elected by ECOSOC and is chaired by a Bureau, including one member per Regional Group.&nbsp;

The Executive Board is World Food Program or WFP's supreme governing body. Comprising 36 states members of the United Nations or Member Nations of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the board provides intergovernmental support, policy direction and supervision of the activities of WFP.&nbsp;

UN Women is about gender issues. Executive Board of UN Women consists of 41 members, 10 from the African states, 10 from the Asian states, 4 from the Eastern European states, 6 from Latin American and the Caribbean states, 5 from Western Europe and the other states, and 6 from top contributing countries.

Indian diplomat Lakshmi Puri has been in the past Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.&nbsp;

India has been elected to three key bodies of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC). These bodies are the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), Executive Board of UN Women, Executive Board of the World Food Programme.

India has been elected to three key bodies of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC). These bodies are the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), Executive Board of UN Women, Executive Board of the World Food Programme. CCPCJ, based in Vienna, acts as the principal policy-making body of the United Nations in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice. The CCPCJ has 40 member states that are elected by ECOSOC and is chaired by a Bureau, including one member per Regional Group. The Executive Board is World Food Program or WFP's supreme governing body. Comprising 36 states members of the United Nations or Member Nations of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the board provides intergovernmental support, policy direction and supervision of the activities of WFP. UN Women is about gender issues. Executive Board of UN Women consists of 41 members, 10 from the African states, 10 from the Asian states, 4 from the Eastern European states, 6 from Latin American and the Caribbean states, 5 from Western Europe and the other states, and 6 from top contributing countries. Indian diplomat Lakshmi Puri has been in the past Deputy Executive Director of UN Women.

India elected to 3 key bodies of UN's economic, social council 

To Black Americans in the 1960s who were targeted and harassed by the police, 21-year-old Fred Hampton was an empowering figure.

To the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was a radical threat.

Hampton was killed by Chicago police officers early on the morning of Dec. 4, 1969, during a raid on his West Side apartment, which was a block south of the Black Panther Party’s Chicago headquarters. The ambush, and the months of FBI surveillance of Hampton and the Panthers that preceded it, are dramatized in Shaka King’s film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which began streaming Friday on HBO Max.

 
At the time of Hampton’s death, Chicago was the site of political protests and violent clashes with law enforcement. The infamous trial of the Chicago 7, a court battle that involved seven Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiring to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (a saga chronicled in Aaron Sorkin’s recent film “The Trial of the Chicago 7”), had been underway for a little over two months.

King, who co-wrote the script with Will Berson, drew mostly from fact while taking viewers inside the Black Panther Party in the months leading up to Hampton’s death, though they took a few dramatic liberties. For instance, the film’s star, Daniel Kaluuya, is a decade older than the 21-year-old Hampton was when he was killed.

Here is a guide to the real-life people, groups and events that feature in “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Be warned, there are spoilers, if such a thing is possible when speaking of history.

Who were the Black Panthers?

The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by a pair of Black college students, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, to oppose police brutality and racism in local neighborhoods. The Panthers, who were known for their military-style black berets, leather jackets and raised-fist salute, believed in removing abusive officers from communities by any means necessary, including armed resistance.

The FBI viewed the Panthers as a radical group capable of galvanizing a militant Black nationalist movement. (Hoover, the bureau’s first director, called the Black Panther Party “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”). But the Panthers also launched a number of social initiatives: Members ran medical clinics, provided free transportation to prisons for family members of inmates, and started a free breakfast program that fed thousands of schoolchildren.

Who was Fred Hampton?

The charismatic community organizer enjoyed a meteoric rise that took him from campaigning for an integrated community pool and recreational center in his hometown, Maywood, Illinois, to preaching to thousands as the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party.

In 1969, a few months after helping to found the party’s Illinois chapter, the 20-year-old Hampton brokered an alliance he called the Rainbow Coalition, which united the Black Panthers, the Young Patriots (Southern white leftists) and the Young Lords (a Puerto Rican civil and human rights organization) in an effort to combat poverty and racism in their Chicago communities.

Hampton’s rapid ascent through the ranks of the Black Panther Party landed him in the cross hairs of a secret FBI counterintelligence program, known as Cointelpro, that Hoover formed to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black nationalist, hate-type organizations.” Targets included both the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Ku Klux Klan. Hoover declared in an internal memo that he sought to prevent the “rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant Black nationalist movement.”

Under Cointelpro, the FBI tried a number of tactics to sow discord within the Black Panther Party at the national and local levels, including sending bogus letters to two of its leaders, Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton, which claimed that each sought to depose the other. Authorities also arrested Hampton and several other Panthers in an effort to publicly discredit the group.

In the months before the raid on Hampton’s apartment, the Panthers and the police also faced off in two gunbattles: One in July 1969 at the party’s West Side headquarters in which five police officers and three Panthers were injured, and a South Side fight that November that left two officers and one Panther dead.

 
Who was William O’Neal?

At 17, O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield in the movie) already had a criminal record when the FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) tracked him down after he stole a car in 1966. But O’Neal soon took on a new role: FBI informant. Given the choice between facing felony charges or agreeing to infiltrate the Panthers, he opted for the latter: as a security captain in the Illinois Black Panther Party, he infiltrated Hampton’s inner circle.

In 1969, O’Neal sketched a floor plan of Hampton’s West Side apartment, including where everyone slept, which the FBI then shared with the Chicago Police Department, the agency that conducted the fatal raid. But unlike the character in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” the real O’Neal did not see his actions as a betrayal of Hampton or the Panthers. “I had no allegiance to the Panthers,” he recalled in an interview for the PBS docuseries “Eyes on the Prize,” which chronicled the history of the civil rights movement in the United States.

What happened the morning Fred Hampton was killed?

Fourteen Chicago police officers showed up before dawn on Dec. 4, 1969, at Hampton’s apartment, acting on the orders of Edward V. Hanrahan, the Cook County state’s attorney. Over the course of about 10 minutes, more than 80 shots were fired. When the smoke cleared, Hampton, 21, and another party leader, Mark Clark, 22, were dead, and four other Panthers and two police officers were wounded.

At first, the police claimed they killed Hampton in self-defense after people in the apartment began firing shotguns at them as they tried to execute a search warrant for illegal weapons. But ballistics experts determined that only one of the bullets was probably discharged from a weapon belonging to an occupant of the apartment. A federal grand jury investigation also revealed that the “bullet holes” in the apartment’s front door, which officers had cited as evidence that the Panthers had shot at them, were in fact nail holes created by police.

Though the Chicago Police Department had led the raid, the grand jury concluded that it had been coordinated by the FBI as part of Hoover’s mission to cripple the Black Panther Party — and an FBI memo later revealed that the bureau had authorized a bonus payment to O’Neal.

The first federal grand jury declined to indict anyone involved in the raid, and though a subsequent grand jury indicted Hanrahan and the police officers who participated in the shootings, all the charges were dismissed. In 1982, without admitting any wrongdoing, the federal government, the city of Chicago and Cook County agreed to pay $1.85 million to the families of Hampton and Clark and to survivors of the raid.

Clarence M. Kelley, who succeeded Hoover as head of the FBI in 1973, issued a public apology three years later for the bureau’s abuse of power in the “twilight” of Hoover’s career. “Some of those activities were clearly wrong and quite indefensible,” Kelley said. “We most certainly must never allow them to be repeated.”

To Black Americans in the 1960s who were targeted and harassed by the police, 21-year-old Fred Hampton was an empowering figure. To the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was a radical threat.

To Black Americans in the 1960s who were targeted and harassed by the police, 21-year-old Fred Hampton was an empowering figure. To the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, was a radical threat. Hampton was killed by Chicago police officers early on the morning of Dec. 4, 1969, during a raid on his West Side apartment, which was a block south of the Black Panther Party’s Chicago headquarters. The ambush, and the months of FBI surveillance of Hampton and the Panthers that preceded it, are dramatized in Shaka King’s film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which began streaming Friday on HBO Max. At the time of Hampton’s death, Chicago was the site of political protests and violent clashes with law enforcement. The infamous trial of the Chicago 7, a court battle that involved seven Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiring to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (a saga chronicled in Aaron Sorkin’s recent film “The Trial of the Chicago 7”), had been underway for a little over two months. King, who co-wrote the script with Will Berson, drew mostly from fact while taking viewers inside the Black Panther Party in the months leading up to Hampton’s death, though they took a few dramatic liberties. For instance, the film’s star, Daniel Kaluuya, is a decade older than the 21-year-old Hampton was when he was killed. Here is a guide to the real-life people, groups and events that feature in “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Be warned, there are spoilers, if such a thing is possible when speaking of history. Who were the Black Panthers? The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by a pair of Black college students, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, to oppose police brutality and racism in local neighborhoods. The Panthers, who were known for their military-style black berets, leather jackets and raised-fist salute, believed in removing abusive officers from communities by any means necessary, including armed resistance. The FBI viewed the Panthers as a radical group capable of galvanizing a militant Black nationalist movement. (Hoover, the bureau’s first director, called the Black Panther Party “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”). But the Panthers also launched a number of social initiatives: Members ran medical clinics, provided free transportation to prisons for family members of inmates, and started a free breakfast program that fed thousands of schoolchildren. Who was Fred Hampton? The charismatic community organizer enjoyed a meteoric rise that took him from campaigning for an integrated community pool and recreational center in his hometown, Maywood, Illinois, to preaching to thousands as the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. In 1969, a few months after helping to found the party’s Illinois chapter, the 20-year-old Hampton brokered an alliance he called the Rainbow Coalition, which united the Black Panthers, the Young Patriots (Southern white leftists) and the Young Lords (a Puerto Rican civil and human rights organization) in an effort to combat poverty and racism in their Chicago communities. Hampton’s rapid ascent through the ranks of the Black Panther Party landed him in the cross hairs of a secret FBI counterintelligence program, known as Cointelpro, that Hoover formed to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black nationalist, hate-type organizations.” Targets included both the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Ku Klux Klan. Hoover declared in an internal memo that he sought to prevent the “rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant Black nationalist movement.” Under Cointelpro, the FBI tried a number of tactics to sow discord within the Black Panther Party at the national and local levels, including sending bogus letters to two of its leaders, Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton, which claimed that each sought to depose the other. Authorities also arrested Hampton and several other Panthers in an effort to publicly discredit the group. In the months before the raid on Hampton’s apartment, the Panthers and the police also faced off in two gunbattles: One in July 1969 at the party’s West Side headquarters in which five police officers and three Panthers were injured, and a South Side fight that November that left two officers and one Panther dead. Who was William O’Neal? At 17, O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield in the movie) already had a criminal record when the FBI agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) tracked him down after he stole a car in 1966. But O’Neal soon took on a new role: FBI informant. Given the choice between facing felony charges or agreeing to infiltrate the Panthers, he opted for the latter: as a security captain in the Illinois Black Panther Party, he infiltrated Hampton’s inner circle. In 1969, O’Neal sketched a floor plan of Hampton’s West Side apartment, including where everyone slept, which the FBI then shared with the Chicago Police Department, the agency that conducted the fatal raid. But unlike the character in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” the real O’Neal did not see his actions as a betrayal of Hampton or the Panthers. “I had no allegiance to the Panthers,” he recalled in an interview for the PBS docuseries “Eyes on the Prize,” which chronicled the history of the civil rights movement in the United States. What happened the morning Fred Hampton was killed? Fourteen Chicago police officers showed up before dawn on Dec. 4, 1969, at Hampton’s apartment, acting on the orders of Edward V. Hanrahan, the Cook County state’s attorney. Over the course of about 10 minutes, more than 80 shots were fired. When the smoke cleared, Hampton, 21, and another party leader, Mark Clark, 22, were dead, and four other Panthers and two police officers were wounded. At first, the police claimed they killed Hampton in self-defense after people in the apartment began firing shotguns at them as they tried to execute a search warrant for illegal weapons. But ballistics experts determined that only one of the bullets was probably discharged from a weapon belonging to an occupant of the apartment. A federal grand jury investigation also revealed that the “bullet holes” in the apartment’s front door, which officers had cited as evidence that the Panthers had shot at them, were in fact nail holes created by police. Though the Chicago Police Department had led the raid, the grand jury concluded that it had been coordinated by the FBI as part of Hoover’s mission to cripple the Black Panther Party — and an FBI memo later revealed that the bureau had authorized a bonus payment to O’Neal. The first federal grand jury declined to indict anyone involved in the raid, and though a subsequent grand jury indicted Hanrahan and the police officers who participated in the shootings, all the charges were dismissed. In 1982, without admitting any wrongdoing, the federal government, the city of Chicago and Cook County agreed to pay $1.85 million to the families of Hampton and Clark and to survivors of the raid. Clarence M. Kelley, who succeeded Hoover as head of the FBI in 1973, issued a public apology three years later for the bureau’s abuse of power in the “twilight” of Hoover’s career. “Some of those activities were clearly wrong and quite indefensible,” Kelley said. “We most certainly must never allow them to be repeated.”

'Judas and the Black Messiah': What to know about this much-talked about film

Pope Francis on Friday (June 5) spoke about the importance of education, and invited people to commit themselves to caring for the environment.

'Education is listening and celebrating life', Pope Francis says in video conference with Latin first ladies

A park in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn has installed social distancing circles to help people enjoy the outdoors while respecting the latest coronavirus guidelines.

Circles drawn in Brooklyn park to foster social distancing

Sweden ended a four-month political vacuum Friday when lawmakers elected <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/in-a-first-swedish-pm-stefan-lofven--to-receive-modi-at-airport--130780">Prime Minister Stefan Lofven </a>to a second term after he elbowed out the far-right to save one of Europe's few leftwing governments.

Lofven, 61, may have won a victory, but the former welder and union leader emerges weakened by months of wrangling in the wake of September's inconclusive legislative elections that forced him to make major concessions to centre-right parties to win their support.

Lofven will formally present his new minority centre-left government, comprising his Social Democrats and the Greens, and its programme on Monday.

His new administration will be one of the weakest in Sweden in 70 years, with just 32.7 per cent of voters have cast ballots for the two parties.

He therefore secured the backing of the Centre and Liberal parties, until now members of the four-party, centre-right opposition Alliance, agreeing to a policy document that includes, among other things, the introduction of market rates for newly produced rental housing and easing Sweden's strict labour laws.

Together, the four parties hold 167 of 349 seats in parliament, eight fewer than the 175 that constitutes a majority in the Riksdag.

'We stand up for democracy'

"All around our world we see the rising influence of rightwing extremism. But in Sweden we stand up for democracy, for people's equal rights," Lofven said after the vote.

"Sweden will have a vigorous government that is not dependent on the (far-right) Sweden Democrats," he stressed.

The nationalist and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats came third in the legislative elections in September with 17.6 per cent of the vote, putting the party in a position to act as kingmaker.

In the long weeks that followed, both Lofven and the head of the rightwing opposition Alliance, Ulf Kristersson, failed repeatedly to form a government.

Neither was able to build a majority due to their refusal to negotiate with the Sweden Democrats, with lawmakers rejecting both of the party's nominations for prime minister.

"For a long time Swedish politics was dominated by a two-bloc conflict. After the rise of the Sweden Democrats, a three-block situation occurred. Now the situation has changed dramatically," political scientist Olof Petersson told AFP.

Divide and conquer

Lofven was the most shrewd in the post-election negotiations, analysts said.

"Lofven has reached his strategic goals: to remain in power and to split up the non-socialist Alliance opposition," Petersson said.

But the deal between the coalition and centre-right parties contains "worrisome" elements for the left wing, in particular, tax policies that "risk increasing inequalities in Swedish society," said Gothenburg University political science professor Ulf Bjereld, who is affiliated with the Social Democrats.

The ex-communist Left Party had backed Lofven's previous minority government since 2014, helping pass legislation in parliament.

But this time, the Left, which now holds 28 seats in parliament, was excluded as Lofven shifted toward the centre.

The Left had considered blocking Lofven's election, arguing that he had given away too much to the centre-right, but decided against it in order to block the Sweden Democrats from wielding any influence.

The Left Party reiterated its warning Friday that while it allowed Lofven's re-election, that did not mean the party was giving the new government carte blanche.

It said it was ready to topple the new administration if it went ahead with its proposed plans for the labour market and market rates for rentals.&nbsp;

Petersson said the threat was an empty one because it would be "political suicide" to carry it out.

"At least 35 MPs are required to table a motion of non-confidence. The Left only controls 28 seats," the analyst said.

"It would be political suicide if the Left reached out to the conservative Moderates, the Christian Democrats or the Sweden Democrats to secure the 35 seats necessary."

The Moderates and Christian Democrats, the other two parties in the Alliance, together hold 92 seats.

Opposition leader Kristersson of the Moderates criticised the new government as "very shaky".

"The Left is threatening to topple it if it goes through with its reform pledges, and the Centre and Liberals are threatening to topple it if it doesn't. This is a government without a political compass or direction," he said.

Sweden ended a four-month political vacuum Friday when lawmakers elected Prime Minister Stefan Lofven to a second term after he elbowed out the far-right to save one of Europe's few leftwing governments.

Sweden ended a four-month political vacuum Friday when lawmakers elected Prime Minister Stefan Lofven to a second term after he elbowed out the far-right to save one of Europe's few leftwing governments. Lofven, 61, may have won a victory, but the former welder and union leader emerges weakened by months of wrangling in the wake of September's inconclusive legislative elections that forced him to make major concessions to centre-right parties to win their support. Lofven will formally present his new minority centre-left government, comprising his Social Democrats and the Greens, and its programme on Monday. His new administration will be one of the weakest in Sweden in 70 years, with just 32.7 per cent of voters have cast ballots for the two parties. He therefore secured the backing of the Centre and Liberal parties, until now members of the four-party, centre-right opposition Alliance, agreeing to a policy document that includes, among other things, the introduction of market rates for newly produced rental housing and easing Sweden's strict labour laws. Together, the four parties hold 167 of 349 seats in parliament, eight fewer than the 175 that constitutes a majority in the Riksdag. 'We stand up for democracy' "All around our world we see the rising influence of rightwing extremism. But in Sweden we stand up for democracy, for people's equal rights," Lofven said after the vote. "Sweden will have a vigorous government that is not dependent on the (far-right) Sweden Democrats," he stressed. The nationalist and anti-immigration Sweden Democrats came third in the legislative elections in September with 17.6 per cent of the vote, putting the party in a position to act as kingmaker. In the long weeks that followed, both Lofven and the head of the rightwing opposition Alliance, Ulf Kristersson, failed repeatedly to form a government. Neither was able to build a majority due to their refusal to negotiate with the Sweden Democrats, with lawmakers rejecting both of the party's nominations for prime minister. "For a long time Swedish politics was dominated by a two-bloc conflict. After the rise of the Sweden Democrats, a three-block situation occurred. Now the situation has changed dramatically," political scientist Olof Petersson told AFP. Divide and conquer Lofven was the most shrewd in the post-election negotiations, analysts said. "Lofven has reached his strategic goals: to remain in power and to split up the non-socialist Alliance opposition," Petersson said. But the deal between the coalition and centre-right parties contains "worrisome" elements for the left wing, in particular, tax policies that "risk increasing inequalities in Swedish society," said Gothenburg University political science professor Ulf Bjereld, who is affiliated with the Social Democrats. The ex-communist Left Party had backed Lofven's previous minority government since 2014, helping pass legislation in parliament. But this time, the Left, which now holds 28 seats in parliament, was excluded as Lofven shifted toward the centre. The Left had considered blocking Lofven's election, arguing that he had given away too much to the centre-right, but decided against it in order to block the Sweden Democrats from wielding any influence. The Left Party reiterated its warning Friday that while it allowed Lofven's re-election, that did not mean the party was giving the new government carte blanche. It said it was ready to topple the new administration if it went ahead with its proposed plans for the labour market and market rates for rentals. Petersson said the threat was an empty one because it would be "political suicide" to carry it out. "At least 35 MPs are required to table a motion of non-confidence. The Left only controls 28 seats," the analyst said. "It would be political suicide if the Left reached out to the conservative Moderates, the Christian Democrats or the Sweden Democrats to secure the 35 seats necessary." The Moderates and Christian Democrats, the other two parties in the Alliance, together hold 92 seats. Opposition leader Kristersson of the Moderates criticised the new government as "very shaky". "The Left is threatening to topple it if it goes through with its reform pledges, and the Centre and Liberals are threatening to topple it if it doesn't. This is a government without a political compass or direction," he said.

Swedish centre-left PM wins second term after months of wrangling

Social exclusion has emerged as the leading factor in creating violent jihadists, according to a new international study.

A team of researchers, including from University College London (UCL), used medical science and neuroimaging techniques to map <a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/opinion-what-jihad-has-to-do-with-islam-31228">how the brains of radicalised individuals respond to being socially marginalised</a>.&nbsp;

The findings, they claim, confirm that exclusion is a leading factor in creating violent jihadists, 'The Observer' reported.

The findings challenge the common belief among Western policymakers that other variables, such as poverty, religious conservatism and even psychosis, are the dominant drivers of radicalisation.

"The first ever neuroimaging study on a radicalised population shows extreme pro-group behaviour seems to intensify after social exclusion," he said.

Using ethnographic fieldwork and psychological surveys, researchers identified 535 young Muslim men in and around Barcelona, the Spanish city wherein 2017 Islamic State (IS) supporters killed 13 and wounded about 100 people in the Las Ramblas district.

Of those identified, 38 second-generation Moroccan-origin men, who had "expressed a willingness to engage in or facilitate violence associated with jihadist causes", agreed to have their brains scanned.&nbsp;

The results showed a striking effect when they were socially excluded by Spaniards while playing a virtual simulation called Cyberball, a ball toss game with three other players who abruptly stopped throwing them the ball.

Later scans showed that the neurological impact of being excluded meant that when issues were raised that the individual had not previously considered inviolable&nbsp;such as introducing Islamic teaching in schools or unrestricted construction of mosques they became far more important and were deemed similar to "sacred" and worth fighting for.

Previous research by the team on Israel-Palestinian, India-Pakistan and Kurds-ISIS conflicts had also found that when values deemed "sacred" are violated hostility becomes intractable.&nbsp;

"This latest research has shown how values start to become sacred and indicates that social exclusion makes non-sacred values behave like sacred values, which in turn makes people recalcitrant and prone to violence," Hamid told the newspaper.

He wants the study, a multi-university project involving scientific research organisation Artis International and partly funded by the US Department of Defence, to be used to help ensure social exclusion was factored into policies to prevent radicalisation.&nbsp;

Social exclusion has emerged as the leading factor in creating violent jihadists, according to a new international study. A team of researchers, including from University College London (UCL), used medical science and neuroimaging techniques to map how the brains of radicalised individuals respond to being socially marginalised.

Social exclusion has emerged as the leading factor in creating violent jihadists, according to a new international study. A team of researchers, including from University College London (UCL), used medical science and neuroimaging techniques to map how the brains of radicalised individuals respond to being socially marginalised. The findings, they claim, confirm that exclusion is a leading factor in creating violent jihadists, 'The Observer' reported. The findings challenge the common belief among Western policymakers that other variables, such as poverty, religious conservatism and even psychosis, are the dominant drivers of radicalisation. "The first ever neuroimaging study on a radicalised population shows extreme pro-group behaviour seems to intensify after social exclusion," he said. Using ethnographic fieldwork and psychological surveys, researchers identified 535 young Muslim men in and around Barcelona, the Spanish city wherein 2017 Islamic State (IS) supporters killed 13 and wounded about 100 people in the Las Ramblas district. Of those identified, 38 second-generation Moroccan-origin men, who had "expressed a willingness to engage in or facilitate violence associated with jihadist causes", agreed to have their brains scanned. The results showed a striking effect when they were socially excluded by Spaniards while playing a virtual simulation called Cyberball, a ball toss game with three other players who abruptly stopped throwing them the ball. Later scans showed that the neurological impact of being excluded meant that when issues were raised that the individual had not previously considered inviolable such as introducing Islamic teaching in schools or unrestricted construction of mosques they became far more important and were deemed similar to "sacred" and worth fighting for. Previous research by the team on Israel-Palestinian, India-Pakistan and Kurds-ISIS conflicts had also found that when values deemed "sacred" are violated hostility becomes intractable. "This latest research has shown how values start to become sacred and indicates that social exclusion makes non-sacred values behave like sacred values, which in turn makes people recalcitrant and prone to violence," Hamid told the newspaper. He wants the study, a multi-university project involving scientific research organisation Artis International and partly funded by the US Department of Defence, to be used to help ensure social exclusion was factored into policies to prevent radicalisation.

What creates a jihadist? New study says social exclusion

A Myanmar beauty queen has been stripped of her title after she posted a video accusing&nbsp;Rohingya Muslims of driving <a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/rohingya-situation-textbook-example-of-ethnic-cleansing-un-human-rights-commission-20075" target="_blank">communal violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar</a>.

Shwe Eain Si, 19, who was Miss Grand Myanmar, posted a video on Facebook last week describing the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) a &quot;caliphate-style movement&quot;&nbsp;and said she was using her fame to &quot;speak out the truth&quot;.

Watch the video:

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zMF3OF7NbNk" width="970"></iframe>

She can be seen talking in English in the video along with graphic images of dead bodies&nbsp;including those of children. She branded ARSA a &quot;terrorist organisation&quot; that was &quot;acting as if they are the oppressed&quot;.&nbsp;

In her posts, she blamed the&nbsp;ARSA of&nbsp;violence, accusing the &quot;militants&quot;&nbsp;of turning on their own people and then orchestrating a media campaign to win international support.

Organisers of the Miss Universe Myanmar on Sunday took a decision to strip her of her title. They did not mention the video while making the announcement&nbsp;but said that she &quot;had breached the contract rules&quot;&nbsp;and had &quot;not behaved like a role model&quot;.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/new%20(3)-20171004060613.jpg" />
<div class="media-description">
The organisers have stripped her of the title as she &#39;failed to project a decent image of a pageant contestant&#39;. (Others)
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

After the announcement came on Sunday, she posted a reply on Facebook on Tuesday calling the accusations as &quot;groundless&quot;.&nbsp;

Myanmar&#39;s army has been accused of waging an &quot;ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya&quot; resulting in <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/270000-rohingya-have-fled-myanmar-in-two-weeks-un-20008" target="_blank">more than half a million of the Muslim minority to flee the border to Bangladesh since August 25</a>.&nbsp;

In the face of intense global condemnation, Myanmar authorities have&nbsp;defended the security operation as a legitimate crackdown on Rohingya militants who attacked police posts last month.

This is not the first time when a beauty queen from Myanmar has been in the middle of a controversy.

In 2014, a Myanmar beauty queen was&nbsp;dethroned for alleged dishonesty and bad behaviour, after which she ran off with her crown to South Korea.

In a video posted on Facebook, she accused the Rohingya Muslims to 'act as if they are the oppressed'?to win 'media support'

A Myanmar beauty queen has been stripped of her title after she posted a video accusing Rohingya Muslims of driving communal violence in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. Shwe Eain Si, 19, who was Miss Grand Myanmar, posted a video on Facebook last week describing the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) a "caliphate-style movement" and said she was using her fame to "speak out the truth". Watch the video: She can be seen talking in English in the video along with graphic images of dead bodies including those of children. She branded ARSA a "terrorist organisation" that was "acting as if they are the oppressed". In her posts, she blamed the ARSA of violence, accusing the "militants" of turning on their own people and then orchestrating a media campaign to win international support. Organisers of the Miss Universe Myanmar on Sunday took a decision to strip her of her title. They did not mention the video while making the announcement but said that she "had breached the contract rules" and had "not behaved like a role model". The organisers have stripped her of the title as she 'failed to project a decent image of a pageant contestant'. (Others) × After the announcement came on Sunday, she posted a reply on Facebook on Tuesday calling the accusations as "groundless". Myanmar's army has been accused of waging an "ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya" resulting in more than half a million of the Muslim minority to flee the border to Bangladesh since August 25. In the face of intense global condemnation, Myanmar authorities have defended the security operation as a legitimate crackdown on Rohingya militants who attacked police posts last month. This is not the first time when a beauty queen from Myanmar has been in the middle of a controversy. In 2014, a Myanmar beauty queen was dethroned for alleged dishonesty and bad behaviour, after which she ran off with her crown to South Korea.

Watch: Myanmar beauty queen calls Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army 'terrorist organisation', stripped of title

Democrats demanding action on gun control turned to Twitter&#39;s Periscope and Facebook&#39;s live video platform to broadcast their &quot;sit-in&quot; on the floor of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday after the chamber&#39;s cameras shut down. 
 
Representative Scott Peters of California told Reuters he downloaded the online video platform Periscope from the House floor after it became clear that chamber cameras were not operating. 
 
The protest was the latest move by Democrats to persuade the Republican majority in Congress to take up votes on gun control measures in response to last week&#39;s mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, the deadliest in modern US history. 
 
In video streamed on Facebook Live by Congressman Beto O&#39;Rourke, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi can be seen speaking into a microphone that was turned off. She could be heard asking the House Speaker to turn the microphones back on. 
 
At about noon EDT (1600 GMT), presiding House officer and Republican Representative Ted Poe declared the House not in order, as Democratic protesters sat at the front of the chamber. 
 
Cable news channel C-SPAN, which typically uses the House cameras to broadcast live footage of Congress, broadcast Peters&#39; Periscope feed instead. 
 
The hashtag #NoBillNoBreak became a rallying cry for gun control supporters on Twitter and quickly became the top-trending hashtag in the United States on the social media platform. 
 
Politicians and average social media users alike used the hashtag as a sign of solidarity with the sit-in.&nbsp; 
 
(Reuters)

After Orlando shooting, Republicans face more pressure to stop voting against gun control measures

Democrats demanding action on gun control turned to Twitter's Periscope and Facebook's live video platform to broadcast their "sit-in" on the floor of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday after the chamber's cameras shut down. Representative Scott Peters of California told Reuters he downloaded the online video platform Periscope from the House floor after it became clear that chamber cameras were not operating. The protest was the latest move by Democrats to persuade the Republican majority in Congress to take up votes on gun control measures in response to last week's mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, the deadliest in modern US history. In video streamed on Facebook Live by Congressman Beto O'Rourke, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi can be seen speaking into a microphone that was turned off. She could be heard asking the House Speaker to turn the microphones back on. At about noon EDT (1600 GMT), presiding House officer and Republican Representative Ted Poe declared the House not in order, as Democratic protesters sat at the front of the chamber. Cable news channel C-SPAN, which typically uses the House cameras to broadcast live footage of Congress, broadcast Peters' Periscope feed instead. The hashtag #NoBillNoBreak became a rallying cry for gun control supporters on Twitter and quickly became the top-trending hashtag in the United States on the social media platform. Politicians and average social media users alike used the hashtag as a sign of solidarity with the sit-in. (Reuters)

Democrats broadcast House sit-in on social media to protest gun control impasse

A month-old Bactrian camel named Alexander Camelton at Chicago&#39;s Lincoln Park Zoo has become a social media star.

The gangly brown camel has Twitter abuzz over his name, a play on Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States and the inspiration for the smash Broadway&nbsp;musical &quot;Hamilton.&quot;

&quot;We&#39;ve been very surprised with the reaction we&#39;ve gotten on social media,&quot; Lincoln Park Zoological Manager Dan Boehm said on Tuesday.

Boehm described Alexander Camelton, the first Bactrian camel born at the zoo since 1998, as very precocious and said he was adjusting very well.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote and stars in &quot;Hamilton,&quot; posted an emoji of a camel and a blushing face on Twitter in recognition of baby Camelton.

Other social media users had fun with the camel&#39;s name.

&quot;It&#39;s going to be really awkward when Alexander Camelton dies in a duel with Aaron Brrrr the Penguin,&quot; tweeted Mike Sager (@msager) on Monday, referring to Aaron Burr, who mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel 1804.

<div class="twitter-block">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Soon all the zoo animals will have &lsquo;Hamilton&#39; names. Alexander Camelton. Salamander Hamilton. Alexander Lambilton. Lin-Manuel the Panda
&mdash; Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) <a href="https://twitter.com/gilbertjasono/status/739894758684794880">June 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="~/platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div>

A month-old Bactrian camel named Alexander Camelton has Twitter abuzz over his name

A month-old Bactrian camel named Alexander Camelton at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo has become a social media star. The gangly brown camel has Twitter abuzz over his name, a play on Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the United States and the inspiration for the smash Broadway musical "Hamilton." "We've been very surprised with the reaction we've gotten on social media," Lincoln Park Zoological Manager Dan Boehm said on Tuesday. Boehm described Alexander Camelton, the first Bactrian camel born at the zoo since 1998, as very precocious and said he was adjusting very well. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote and stars in "Hamilton," posted an emoji of a camel and a blushing face on Twitter in recognition of baby Camelton. Other social media users had fun with the camel's name. "It's going to be really awkward when Alexander Camelton dies in a duel with Aaron Brrrr the Penguin," tweeted Mike Sager (@msager) on Monday, referring to Aaron Burr, who mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel 1804. Soon all the zoo animals will have ‘Hamilton' names. Alexander Camelton. Salamander Hamilton. Alexander Lambilton. Lin-Manuel the Panda — Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) June 6, 2016

Chicago zoo's baby camel a social media star

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