An Australian court today convicted Sydney man Hamdi Al Qudsi of recruiting seven young men to travel overseas and fight alongside Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria, a spokeswoman for the court said. 
 
Al Qudsi, 42, was found guilty by the New South Wales state Supreme Court in Sydney of aiding the men to fight with extremist groups in 2013, the spokeswoman told Reuters. 
 
&quot;The charges were give money/goods to promote/support foreign hostile acts,&quot; she said. Each of the seven charges carries a 10 year prison sentence. Al Qudsi is yet to be sentenced. 
 
Prosecutors alleged that Al Qudsi made arrangements for the men to travel to Syria in 2013 for the purpose of fighting alongside groups listed by the Australian government as terrorist organisations. 
 
Under tough new security powers passed in 2014, Australians face up to a decade in prison for overseas travel to areas declared off limits, which includes the province of Raqqa in Syria, a key strategic hub for Islamic State militants. 
 
A copy of the indictment provided to Reuters lists seven men that Al Qudsi recruited to fight in Syria. Two of those men - Tyler Casey and Caner Temel - were killed in Syria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported. 
 
Two other men listed in the indictment, Muhammed Abdul-Karim Musleh and Mehmet Biber, have since returned, the ABC said. 
 
About 100 people have left Australia for Syria to fight alongside organisations such as Islamic State, Australia&#39;s Immigration Minister said earlier this year. 
 
Australia, a staunch US ally, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since 2014 and authorities say they have thwarted a number of plots. 
 
There have been several &quot;lone wolf&quot; assaults, including a 2014 cafe siege in Sydney that left two hostages and the gunman dead. Also in 2014, police shot dead a Melbourne teenager after he stabbed two counter-terrorism officers. 
 
In 2015, a 15-year-old boy fired on an accountant at a police headquarters in a Sydney suburb and was then killed in a gunfight with police. 
 
(Reuters)

Hamdi Al Qudsi made arrangements for seven young men to travel to Syria in 2013 to fight with IS, and gets 10 years in jail for each recruit

An Australian court today convicted Sydney man Hamdi Al Qudsi of recruiting seven young men to travel overseas and fight alongside Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria, a spokeswoman for the court said. Al Qudsi, 42, was found guilty by the New South Wales state Supreme Court in Sydney of aiding the men to fight with extremist groups in 2013, the spokeswoman told Reuters. "The charges were give money/goods to promote/support foreign hostile acts," she said. Each of the seven charges carries a 10 year prison sentence. Al Qudsi is yet to be sentenced. Prosecutors alleged that Al Qudsi made arrangements for the men to travel to Syria in 2013 for the purpose of fighting alongside groups listed by the Australian government as terrorist organisations. Under tough new security powers passed in 2014, Australians face up to a decade in prison for overseas travel to areas declared off limits, which includes the province of Raqqa in Syria, a key strategic hub for Islamic State militants. A copy of the indictment provided to Reuters lists seven men that Al Qudsi recruited to fight in Syria. Two of those men - Tyler Casey and Caner Temel - were killed in Syria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported. Two other men listed in the indictment, Muhammed Abdul-Karim Musleh and Mehmet Biber, have since returned, the ABC said. About 100 people have left Australia for Syria to fight alongside organisations such as Islamic State, Australia's Immigration Minister said earlier this year. Australia, a staunch US ally, has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown radicals since 2014 and authorities say they have thwarted a number of plots. There have been several "lone wolf" assaults, including a 2014 cafe siege in Sydney that left two hostages and the gunman dead. Also in 2014, police shot dead a Melbourne teenager after he stabbed two counter-terrorism officers. In 2015, a 15-year-old boy fired on an accountant at a police headquarters in a Sydney suburb and was then killed in a gunfight with police. (Reuters)

Australian convicted of recruiting foreign fighters for Islamic State

Justice Sushila Karki is to be the Chief Justice of the Nepal Supreme Court as the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee today unanimously endorsed her name for the vacant position. 
 
Karki will be the first woman to lead Nepal&#39;s judiciary after President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will appoint her to the post, reports the Himalayan Times. 
 
Speaking at the meeting with the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee, she told the lawmakers that the Supreme Court was facing a tough time due to a low number of available justices. 
 
Dismissing accusations filed against her at the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee that she was involved in corruption, she asked the committee to complete the hearing for justice appointments soon. 
 
Karki has been taking charge of the Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice since her predecessor Kalyan Shrestha retired on April 14. 
 
(ANI)

Karki took charge of the Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice since her predecessor, Kalyan Shrestha, retired on April 14

Justice Sushila Karki is to be the Chief Justice of the Nepal Supreme Court as the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee today unanimously endorsed her name for the vacant position. Karki will be the first woman to lead Nepal's judiciary after President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will appoint her to the post, reports the Himalayan Times. Speaking at the meeting with the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee, she told the lawmakers that the Supreme Court was facing a tough time due to a low number of available justices. Dismissing accusations filed against her at the Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee that she was involved in corruption, she asked the committee to complete the hearing for justice appointments soon. Karki has been taking charge of the Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice since her predecessor Kalyan Shrestha retired on April 14. (ANI)

Sushila Karki to be Nepal's first woman Chief Justice

The apex court in India refused on Wednesday to hear a petition challenging a law criminalising gay sex, a battling in the country&#39;s courts to get the ban overturned. 
 
A number of well-known lesbian, gay and bisexual Indians had argued that Section 377 of India&#39;s penal code, which prohibits &quot;carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal&quot;, undermined their fundamental rights by failing to protect their sexual preferences. 
 
&quot;The Supreme Court refused to hear the matter and asked the petitioners to approach the Chief Justice of India,&quot; Arvind Dattar, a lawyer for one of the petitioners, told Reuters. 
 
India&#39;s Chief Justice is already hearing a separate case to strike down the ban, and the top court has previously argued that only parliament has the power to change Section 377. 
 
The decision is the latest setback India&#39;s gay community has faced in its fight to get a prohibition on homosexual sex overturned ever since the Supreme Court reinstated a colonial-era ban in late 2013.&nbsp;That ban ended a four-year period of decriminalisation that had helped bring homosexuality increasingly out into the open in a deeply conservative society. 
 
Discrimination faced by homosexual communities across the world was thrown into sharp relief again this month after a gunman slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida. 
 
Some western countries have pressured India to overturn its ban on gay sex and respect human rights regardless of sexual orientation. 
 
This month, US Ambassador Richard Verma&#39;s residence in New Delhi&#39;s leafy diplomatic quarter was lit in the colours of the rainbow in a gesture of solidarity towards victims of the Orlando massacre. 
 
Pertinently, violation of the Indian law on gay sex can result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years. 
 
(Reuters)&nbsp;

Some Western countries have pressured India to overturn its ban on gay sex and respect human rights regardless of sexual orientation

The apex court in India refused on Wednesday to hear a petition challenging a law criminalising gay sex, a battling in the country's courts to get the ban overturned. A number of well-known lesbian, gay and bisexual Indians had argued that Section 377 of India's penal code, which prohibits "carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal", undermined their fundamental rights by failing to protect their sexual preferences. "The Supreme Court refused to hear the matter and asked the petitioners to approach the Chief Justice of India," Arvind Dattar, a lawyer for one of the petitioners, told Reuters. India's Chief Justice is already hearing a separate case to strike down the ban, and the top court has previously argued that only parliament has the power to change Section 377. The decision is the latest setback India's gay community has faced in its fight to get a prohibition on homosexual sex overturned ever since the Supreme Court reinstated a colonial-era ban in late 2013. That ban ended a four-year period of decriminalisation that had helped bring homosexuality increasingly out into the open in a deeply conservative society. Discrimination faced by homosexual communities across the world was thrown into sharp relief again this month after a gunman slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida. Some western countries have pressured India to overturn its ban on gay sex and respect human rights regardless of sexual orientation. This month, US Ambassador Richard Verma's residence in New Delhi's leafy diplomatic quarter was lit in the colours of the rainbow in a gesture of solidarity towards victims of the Orlando massacre. Pertinently, violation of the Indian law on gay sex can result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years. (Reuters)

India's Supreme Court refuses to hear plea on Sec 377, setback for gay rights movement

The US Supreme Court on Thursday dealt President Barack Obama a harsh defeat by blocking his plan to spare millions of illegal immigrants from deportation in a split 4-4 ruling he called frustrating to those aiming to fix America&#39;s broken immigration system. 
 
The ruling, coming seven months before Obama&#39;s term in office ends, marked the latest success that his Republican adversaries have had in thwarting a major policy initiative of the Democratic president. It also guarantees that immigration will remain a prominent part of the campaign ahead of the November-8 election in which voters will pick his successor. 
 
&quot;For more than two decades now, our immigration system ... has been broken, and the fact that the Supreme Court was not able to issue a decision today doesn&#39;t just set the system back even further, it takes us further from the country that we aspire to be,&quot; Obama said at the White House. 
 
The 4-4 decision left in place a 2015 lower-court ruling blocking the plan, which was never implemented. 
 
Obama called the ruling frustrating to those who want to &quot;bring a rationality&quot; to the immigration system and to allow the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally to &quot;come out of the shadows.&quot; 
 
Obama&#39;s 2014 plan was tailored to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. 
 
The issue of illegal immigration has featured prominently in the presidential campaign. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has called for deportation of all immigrants in the United States illegally - most of them from Mexico and other Latin American countries - and building a wall along the Mexican border. 
 
&quot;In the end, it is my firm belief that immigration is not something to fear,&quot; Obama said. &quot;We don&#39;t have to wall ourselves off from those who may not look like us right now, or pray like we do, or have a different last name, because being an American is something more than that. What makes us American is our shared commitment to an ideal that all of us are created equal.&quot;

The ruling is frustrating to those who want to 'bring a rationality' to the immigration system, Obama says

The US Supreme Court on Thursday dealt President Barack Obama a harsh defeat by blocking his plan to spare millions of illegal immigrants from deportation in a split 4-4 ruling he called frustrating to those aiming to fix America's broken immigration system. The ruling, coming seven months before Obama's term in office ends, marked the latest success that his Republican adversaries have had in thwarting a major policy initiative of the Democratic president. It also guarantees that immigration will remain a prominent part of the campaign ahead of the November-8 election in which voters will pick his successor. "For more than two decades now, our immigration system ... has been broken, and the fact that the Supreme Court was not able to issue a decision today doesn't just set the system back even further, it takes us further from the country that we aspire to be," Obama said at the White House. The 4-4 decision left in place a 2015 lower-court ruling blocking the plan, which was never implemented. Obama called the ruling frustrating to those who want to "bring a rationality" to the immigration system and to allow the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally to "come out of the shadows." Obama's 2014 plan was tailored to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, have no criminal record and have children who are US citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. The issue of illegal immigration has featured prominently in the presidential campaign. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has called for deportation of all immigrants in the United States illegally - most of them from Mexico and other Latin American countries - and building a wall along the Mexican border. "In the end, it is my firm belief that immigration is not something to fear," Obama said. "We don't have to wall ourselves off from those who may not look like us right now, or pray like we do, or have a different last name, because being an American is something more than that. What makes us American is our shared commitment to an ideal that all of us are created equal."

Obama: Supreme Court decision on immigration sets the system back

Brazil&#39;s interim President Michel Temer dismissed graft allegations against him as dishonest and reckless, pledging in a national address on Thursday that his government would not be distracted from fiscal reforms aimed at reviving the economy. 
 
Temer said it was &quot;irresponsible, ridiculous, mendacious and criminal&quot; to suggest, as former Petrobras executive Sergio Machado did in plea bargain testimony, that he had sought campaign funds for his party from a graft scheme at the state-run oil company. 
 
The testimony, made public by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, was the first direct link between Temer and the sweeping corruption probe that has thrown Brazil&#39;s politics into chaos and deepened its worst recession in decades. 
 
&quot;I say it again, when an idea as flippant as this comes out, it embarrasses or can embarrass the government&#39;s activity. But I want to say here, to register, loud and clear, nothing will embarrass our intentions, our mission, our task during the period in which I am in front of the presidency of the republic, with an extraordinary economic team, with a foreign affairs team which is equally as extraordinary, and a very adequate ministry. Nothing will impede us from continuing to work for the good of Brazil and the Brazilian people,&quot; said Temer in Brasilia on Thursday. 
 
The highly charged plea bargain implicating Temer and two dozen other elected officials, many of them senior members of his ruling coalition, stole the thunder from a landmark fiscal reform revealed the same day. 
 
Machado&#39;s plea deal included allegations that Temer had sought campaign funds for his party&#39;s 2012 Sao Paulo mayoral candidate from the graft scheme at Petrobras, the biggest ever uncovered in Brazil. 
 
The accusations provide more fodder for suspended President Dilma Rousseff and her allies, who accuse Temer and his party of&nbsp;&nbsp;mounting the impeachment process against her in order to distract from their own roles in the corruption scandal. Rousseff faces a trial in the Senate on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules. 
 
(Reuters)

The testimony by Petrobras executive Sergio Machado has thrown Brazil's politics into chaos and deepened its worst recession in decades

Brazil's interim President Michel Temer dismissed graft allegations against him as dishonest and reckless, pledging in a national address on Thursday that his government would not be distracted from fiscal reforms aimed at reviving the economy. Temer said it was "irresponsible, ridiculous, mendacious and criminal" to suggest, as former Petrobras executive Sergio Machado did in plea bargain testimony, that he had sought campaign funds for his party from a graft scheme at the state-run oil company. The testimony, made public by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, was the first direct link between Temer and the sweeping corruption probe that has thrown Brazil's politics into chaos and deepened its worst recession in decades. "I say it again, when an idea as flippant as this comes out, it embarrasses or can embarrass the government's activity. But I want to say here, to register, loud and clear, nothing will embarrass our intentions, our mission, our task during the period in which I am in front of the presidency of the republic, with an extraordinary economic team, with a foreign affairs team which is equally as extraordinary, and a very adequate ministry. Nothing will impede us from continuing to work for the good of Brazil and the Brazilian people," said Temer in Brasilia on Thursday. The highly charged plea bargain implicating Temer and two dozen other elected officials, many of them senior members of his ruling coalition, stole the thunder from a landmark fiscal reform revealed the same day. Machado's plea deal included allegations that Temer had sought campaign funds for his party's 2012 Sao Paulo mayoral candidate from the graft scheme at Petrobras, the biggest ever uncovered in Brazil. The accusations provide more fodder for suspended President Dilma Rousseff and her allies, who accuse Temer and his party of mounting the impeachment process against her in order to distract from their own roles in the corruption scandal. Rousseff faces a trial in the Senate on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules. (Reuters)

Brazil's Temer denies alleged link to Petrobras scandal

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Australian convicted of recruiting foreign fighters for Islamic State

Sushila Karki to be Nepal's first woman Chief Justice

India's Supreme Court refuses to hear plea on Sec 377, setback for gay rights movement

Obama: Supreme Court decision on immigration sets the system back

Brazil's Temer denies alleged link to Petrobras scandal