Al-Qaida has exhorted Indian Muslims to bring former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma to ‘justice’ for alleged blasphemy.
Al-Qaida, in its mouthpiece for the Indian subcontinent Nawa-e-Ghawa-e-Hind, detailed the ‘blasphemy’ by Sharma and called for revenge in its latest issue which is also marked by an appeal to Muslims to arm themselves against the enemy for a ‘defensive jihad’ and participate in the ‘nearest jihad’ in Kashmir. Intelligence agencies are specially worried for Sharma’s safety in the wake of recent attack on author Salman Rushdie in the US for alleged blasphemy decades ago. Read full story
British health authorities have authorised an updated version of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that aims to protect against the original virus and the omicron variant.
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it had given the green light to Moderna’s combination ‘bivalent’ vaccine, which will be used as an adult booster shot. Each dose of the booster shot will target both the original Covid-19 virus that was first detected in late 2019 and the omicron BA.1 variant that was first seen in November. British regulators said the side effects were similar to those seen for Moderna’s original booster shot and were typically “mild and self-resolving.” Read full story
China’s military said it carried out more exercises near Taiwan as a group of US lawmakers visited the Chinese-claimed island.
The five US lawmakers, led by Senator Ed Markey, arrived in Taipei on an unannounced visit late on Sunday and met President Tsai Ing-wen, in what Beijing said was an infringement of its sovereignty. This is the second high-level group to visit following that of US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August, which set off several days of Chinese war games. Read full story
Iranian government make the country’s first public comments on author Salman Rushdie attack, denying that Tehran was involved.
Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said, “We, in the incident of the attack on Salman Rushdie in the US, do not consider that anyone deserves blame and accusations except him and his supporters. Nobody has right to accuse Iran in this regard,” Kanaani said. Read full story