Connect with us

International

Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi face ‘terrorism’ charges after Islamabad protests

Published

on

Islamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has filed a series of charges, including one related to “terrorism”, against former Prime Minister Imran Khan, his wife, Bushra Bibi, and hundreds of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party workers after protests held in Islamabad this week.

Khan, Bibi and others have been accused of “terrorism”, violations of a law that restricts protests in the capital, attacks on police, abduction, interference in government affairs and defiance of Section 144, which prohibits gatherings of more than four people.

KEEP READING
list of 4 items
list 1 of 4
At least four killed as ex-Pakistan PM Khan’s supporters enter Islamabad
list 2 of 4
Imran Khan calls for ‘fight till the end’ as Pakistan gov’t rules out talks
list 3 of 4
Pakistan police crackdown clears Imran Khan protesters from Islamabad
list 4 of 4
What’s next for Imran Khan’s PTI after Islamabad protest setback?
end of list
Authorities have already arrested nearly 1,000 workers from Khan’s PTI party who travelled to Islamabad on Sunday to participate in the sit-in in response to their leader’s “final call” to protest against the government.

Khan, the PTI’s founder, has been imprisoned since August 2023 and is facing dozens of criminal cases. Bibi was also jailed for nine months this year before being released in October.

The protesters, who managed to reach central Islamabad despite roadblocks set up across the country by the government, called for Khan’s release among other demands. Bibi led the protest alongside Ali Amin Gandapur, the PTI chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

International

FTX executives shave serious time off their sentences

Published

on

By

Ryan Salame and Caroline Ellison, FTX executives convicted for their roles in the notorious crypto fraud led by their former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, have both shaved time off their lengthy prison sentences.

Salame, a former top executive of FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform, pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges in September 2023, and was sentenced in May to 7 1/2 years in federal prison. He began his sentence in October. But the Federal Bureau of Prisons currently lists his release date as March 1, 2031, more than a year earlier than his initial release date in April 2032. Business Insider first reported Salame’s new release date.

Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and the former CEO of FTX’s hedge fund arm, Alameda Research, was sentenced to 2 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to seven federal counts of fraud and conspiracy and was a key witness against Bankman-Fried. Her current release date is listed as July 20, 2025, three months earlier than her initial release date.

Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, does not have a release date listed on the prisons website.

The Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. However, in several past statements about early release dates, the bureau has told CNN that it does not comment on the conditions of any individual inmate, but inmates can earn good conduct time that is calculated into their projected release date.

Qualified inmates are currently eligible for up to 54 days of GCT time for each year of the sentence imposed by the court. Inmates have other ways of earning time credits while incarcerated, including participation in various prison programs.

FTX was a high-profile crypto startup that allowed people to buy and sell digital assets. It had its name emblazoned on an arena in Miami and on every Major League Baseball umpire’s jersey. The exchange had several celebrity endorsers and was widely believed to be a gold-standard for safety and security.

But FTX collapsed in November 2022 when customers pulled their funds as rumors spread about FTX’s unusually close ties to its founder’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda

Continue Reading

International

Accusations of genocide. Charges of corruption. Improbably, Netanyahu had a good year

Published

on

By

This time last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the doldrums.

“He started very low,” said Nadav Shtrauchler, a political strategist who has worked closely with Netanyahu. “The lowest point that he had.”

Many Israelis accused him of being asleep at the wheel on October 7, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Some even said he enabled it by funding Hamas.

His political support was dismal – even if the Gaza war let him brush aside calls for an election. Polls suggested support for his Likud Party was down 25% from just three months prior.

On its face, the year that followed was hardly uplifting. It brought tens of thousands of deaths, regional conflict, indictments, and accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide. And yet, Netanyahu ends the year having transformed his standing in Israel.

“I am running a marathon,” he told a Tel Aviv courtroom earlier this month, facing charges – which he denies – of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. “I can run it with 20 kilos on my back, and I can run it with 10 kilos on my back.”

Continue Reading

International

‘It’s a scary time’: US universities urge international students to return to campus before Trump inauguration

Published

on

By

Fear and uncertainty are spreading across many US college campuses ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, with some schools advising international students to return early from winter break amid promises of another travel ban like the one that stranded students abroad at the start of Trump’s last term.

In a country where more than 1.1 million international students enrolled in US colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year, the former president has pledged more hardline immigration policies upon his return to the White House, including an expansion of his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and the revocation of student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners.”

International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the US but don’t provide a legal pathway to stay in the country.

Continue Reading

Trending