India students facing Canada removal over fake documents get reprieve

Canada has offered a temporary reprieve for a group of Indian students facing removal from the country over alleged fake college admission letters.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser says “genuine students who are the victims of fraud” will be allowed to stay in Canada after investigations.

The students say they were unaware of the forgeries and were duped by an immigration agency in India.

They have been holding protests to bring attention to their situation.

A number of international students have come forward in recent months in Canada to say they received removal orders after one of the documents – their college admission letter – was found to be fraudulent.

Any pending removals will now be halted while the federal government sets up a task force to conduct case-by-case analysis of all students facing a removal order, Mr Fraser said at a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.

“Our goal here is to offer a fast, fair and final resolution for people who have been impacted,” he said. “We understand the toll that this process has taken on your mental health and the challenges that you’re dealing with and we want to provide a solution.”

The minister said he expects the process will take a few months.

Mr Fraser said some students have already been removed from Canada and “they will have access to the same remedies as those who are here”.

There are no clear figures on how many students in Canada may have been affected, but the immigration minister said there are “a few dozen people who have been subject to removal orders”. He added there may be more cases that will come to light and the numbers could “potentially be in a few hundred”.

The students say they were the victims of fraud themselves, duped by an immigration consultation agency run in Jalandhar, a city in the Punjab region of India.

In March, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported that Indian authorities had arrested one of the men behind the agency.

Some students had been in the country for years and were working towards earning their degree.

Based all over Canada, including British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, they found each other on social media and have been organising protests in the Toronto-area.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has previously confirmed to the BBC that there are “a number of cases of misrepresentation, including those related to study permits” but offered no further comment due to an ongoing investigation.

Mr Fraser said the federal government will also be working over the longer term to establish a stronger system to better detect fraud in cases like these.

India sends the highest number of applicants on the foreign students visa programme and, like all foreign students, they pay nearly four to five times compared to Canadians.

Source: BBC

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Mohamed Salah helps Egypt qualify for Africa Cup of Nations

Egypt came from a goal down to beat a spirited Guinea side and book themselves a place at next year’s event.

Egypt have come from behind to beat Guinea and secure a record-extending 26th appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Egypt beat Guinea 2-1 on Wednesday to secure top spot in their qualifying group with a game in hand. It is the eighth country to qualify for the 24-team event that will be hosted in the Ivory Coast next year.

Guinea, who needed only a draw to qualify, took the lead in the 26th minute after a slick passing move in the box was finished from close range by Serhou Guirassy.

Almost immediately after the restart, Egypt’s Mahmoud Trezeguet fired a shot that Guinea’s goalkeeper parried. The ball fell to captain Mohamed Salah but the Liverpool forward skied the ball over the crossbar from close range.

However, Salah redeemed himself not long after, playing in Trezeguet from the right, who scored with a neat outside-of-the-foot finish for the equaliser.

Guinea had a few chances in the second half and looked the livelier team until the 78th minute when Mostafa Mohamed received the ball unmarked in the box and fired a fierce shot into the top right of the goal for the winner.

The win ensures Egypt will finish top of Group D and return for another opportunity at the African crown, which they have won a record seven times.

The match took place in Marrakesh, Morocco, where Guinea were forced to move from their home stadium, which was ruled unfit for the competition by the Confederation of African Football inspectors.

Defeat for Guinea, on nine points, opens the door for one of the other two teams in the group, Ethiopia and Malawi, who each have three and play on Tuesday.

The winner of that match then has a chance to catch up, but a draw would see Guinea qualify.

The Gambia, who were the surprise package of the last tournament where they reached the quarter-finals in their debut appearance, strengthened their chances of returning after a dramatic last-gasp goal earned them a 3-2 win over South Sudan.

The Gambia moved to nine points in Group G, sharing top spot with Mali, who are away against Congo in Brazzaville on Sunday.

Guinea Bissau’s 1-0 win over Sao Tome e Principe earlier on Wednesday in the Lusophone derby strengthened their chances of qualifying from Group A, where they have advanced to 10 points after five games with a one-point lead over Nigeria.

Saturday will see a further seven qualifiers played in the penultimate round of matches.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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US to address killing of American citizen ‘directly’ with Israel

Palestinian rights advocates call for US sanctions on Israeli unit involved in the killing of 80-year-old Omar Assad.

The United States will address the death of elderly American citizen Omar Assad, who was killed by Israeli forces last year, “directly” with Israel after the country’s military announced that it will not pursue criminal charges in the case.

Early in 2021, Assad, who was 80 years old, suffered a stress-induced heart attack after he was arbitrarily detained, bound, blindfolded and gagged by Israeli forces, and then left out unresponsive on the ground at a cold construction site in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it found no “causal link” between the way its soldiers treated Assad and the American citizen’s death.

The US Department of State, which often reiterates that the safety of Americans abroad is its top priority, said on Wednesday that it was looking into the Israeli findings.

“We’re aware of the conclusion of the investigation, and we’re at this time seeking more information from the Israeli government about it,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters. “We’re going to talk to them directly about it.”

Miller said Washington expected “full accountability” in the case early on.

“We have been clear about our deep concern on the circumstances surrounding Omar Assad’s death and the need for such accountability,” he added.

Assad was one of two US citizens killed by Israel last year – the other, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, was fatally shot by Israeli forces while covering a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli authorities rarely ever prosecute abuses by their forces against Palestinians, but the US vehemently opposes Palestinians’ efforts to seek accountability at the International Criminal Court, including in the case of Abu Akleh.

Israel, accused of imposing a system of apartheid by leading human rights organisations like Amnesty International, receives at least $3.8bn of US aid annually.

President Joe Biden and his top aides often stress Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to Israel.

Adam Shapiro, director of advocacy for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a US-based rights group, called for meaningful accountability for the killing of Assad.

He said the Biden administration should apply the Leahy Law, which bans American aid to foreign forces engaged in gross violations of human rights, to Israel’s Netzah Yehuda unit that was involved in the killing of Assad.

Shapiro added that the State Department has been looking at the case from the perspective of the Leahy Law after DAWN submitted a referral to the US government last October, which underscored that the blindfolding of Assad violated Israeli regulations.

“We believe that that process should not only continue, but that this closure of the Israeli investigation requires the State Department to now apply Leahy Law sanctions to the unit,” Shapiro told Al Jazeera.

He added that by blindfolding Assad, Israeli soldiers “took an action that was deliberate and intentional that was a violation of their own rules”. He said the Palestinian autopsy report on the death of Assad noted that the gagging and blindfolding of the elderly US citizen contributed to his heart attack.

“We have a direct line of causation from the deliberate illegal actions by the Israeli soldiers to the death of Assad,” Shapiro said.

For his part, Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), raised concern about the State Department statement on Wednesday.

“It’s the same message – ‘We’re following up; we’re in touch with our Israeli counterparts; we are demanding an investigation by the Israelis.’ But when the outcome of an investigation is released, and it does not meet the expectations, we don’t see an American response,” Abuirshaid told Al Jazeera.

In February 2022, Washington welcomed an Israeli report that said the death of Assad “showed a clear lapse of moral judgment” and announced disciplinary action against the commander of the Netzah Yehuda unit.

“The United States expects a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability in this case,” the State Department said at that time.

Abuirshaid said that if the Biden administration does not impose consequences on Israel for killing Assad, it would be abdicating its responsibility to protect US citizens.

“Our problem is not only with Israel and its mistreatment of American citizens, but our problem is mainly with our own administration – with our own government here – that allows Israel to continue its mistreatment of American citizens,” Abuirshaid said, also citing the killing of Abu Akleh.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Nigeria’s President Tinubu suspends anti-corruption agency head

The previous four bosses of Nigeria’s anti-corruption unit have also been involved in controversies that led to their removal.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has suspended the head of the economic and financial crimes unit, Abdulrasheed Bawa, indefinitely for abuse of office.

The suspension was due to “weighty allegations of abuse of office”, against Bawa, a statement from the presidency said late on Wednesday.

The move came a week after the president suspended the country’s central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele.

Local media have reported that Bawa is currently being interrogated by Nigeria’s secret police, like Emefiele.

A spokesman for the unit, officially known as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

Created 20 years ago, the EFCC investigates and prosecutes financial crimes, including money laundering and corruption.

Bawa, the fifth head of the anti-graft commission, was appointed in 2021 after the Senate refused to approve the reappointment of his predecessor Ibrahim Magu who was in office for four years.

Previous occupants of the office have also been involved in controversies that eventually led to their removal; Magu was also suspended by then-president Muhammadu Buhari over allegations of corruption.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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US Southern Baptists reject two churches over women pastors

The denomination’s annual convention affirms stance maintaining the role of pastor is exclusively for men.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the United States has voted to confirm the expulsion of two churches over the presence of female pastors, in what critics see as part of a conservative shift within the denomination.

At the group’s annual meeting in New Orleans on Wednesday, an overwhelming majority of delegates upheld the expulsion of Saddleback Church in southern California and Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

The vote was 9,437 to 1,212 to reject Saddleback’s appeal, and 9,700 to 806 against Fern Creek.

“There are people who want to take the SBC back to the 1950s, when white men ruled supreme and when the woman’s place was in the home. There are others who want to take it back 500 years to the time of the Reformation,” said Saddleback founder Rick Warren following the vote.

Evangelical Christians have become a highly mobilised and stridently right-wing force in US politics over the last several decades. However, points of disagreement over issues such as equality and diversity exist within various evangelical groups.

Wednesday’s vote, however, underscores the Southern Baptist Convention’s unwillingness to soften its stance on women as pastors, a role that it maintains is exclusively reserved for men.

Saddleback, the second-largest Southern Baptist congregation in the country, had named a husband-wife team to its leadership after Warren announced his retirement in 2021. Three other women were also ordained as ministers that year.

The smaller church Fern Creek, meanwhile, had been led by female pastor Linda Barnes Popham for nearly 30 years.

The Southern Baptist Convention had largely turned a blind eye to female pastors until recently, when its executive committee expelled five churches in February for having female leaders.

The committee explained that those five institutions were out of “friendly cooperation” with the convention and its rules.

“While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” the convention said on its website.

Fern Creek and Saddleback decided to appeal, leading to Wednesday’s vote.

The convention is made up of about 47,000 churches and 13.7 million members, with each church handling its own internal policies and practices. An estimated 12,700 delegates were in attendance at the New Orleans gathering.

Warren, one of the most famous Evangelical figures in the country, posted on Twitter over the weekend that he regretted not doing more to stand up for Christian women before the vote.

“I held them [women] back from using the spiritual gifts and leadership skills that the Holy Spirit had sovereignly placed in them. That breaks my heart now,  and I am truly repentant and sorry for my sin. I wish I could do it all over,” his post reads. “Christian women, will you please forgive me?”

Addressing the crowd in New Orleans on Tuesday, Fern Creek pastor Barnes Popham said, “We believe the Bible allows women to serve in ways in which all of you do not agree, but we should still be able to partner together.”

But in the wake of the vote, the pastors expressed regret at the outcome.

“Messengers voted for conformity and uniformity rather than unity,” Warren said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We made this effort knowing we were not going to win.”

Wednesday’s proceedings are not the first time that the Southern Baptist Convention has experienced controversy. In 2022, a report detailing efforts to cover up complaints of sexual abuse by clergy and staff sent shockwaves through the group.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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