AUSTRALIA: 19 HURT AS CAR DELIBERATELY HITS PEDESTRIANS

BRUSSELS: Mexico and the EU on Thursday pushed back an agreement on a revamp of their 17-yearold trade deal to 2018, missing a chance to make a stand against the protectionist policies of Donald Trump. Hopes were raised after rapid progress on issues including market access and intellectual property during talks in Mexico, but high-level negotiators couldnt close. LONDON: An Indian-origin driver is among 10 members of a so-called “white van group” jailed for a total of 31 years for smuggling drugs and money across the UK.

Daljeet Singh Juttla from west London had been stopped by Scotland Yard officers with 90,000 pounds of drugs money couriered by one of the other gang members.

On Wednesday, Liverpool Crown Court handed the 42-year-old Juttla a 20-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and 200 hours of unpaid work for the money laundering charge.

“Established trafficking routes like these present a complex and troubling threat to the UK. With well worked-out logistics a criminal group can turn its hand to anything from gun running or drug smuggling, expanding their own operations or hiring out their services to others,” said Jane Lloyd, branch commander at the UK’S National Crime Agency (NCA), which conducted the Uk-wide investigation.

“The NCA officers are alert to the tactics criminals use to shift commodities and hide their activity and are equipped with the skills and tools needed to bring them to justice,” she said. The officers exposed the gang in an investigation that ran from October 2014 to January 2016. Officers from the Metropolitan, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Merseyside police provided support to the operation. UNITED NATIONS: India has hit out at some UN members for failing to “clearly understand” the common threat of terrorism due to their “narrow political and strategic concerns”, apparently referring to Pakistan and China.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin said terror networks operate across borders in terms of propagation of hateful ideologies, sometimes based in deep-rooted perceived grievances, raise finances, procure arms, and recruit operatives.

“This is a common challenge which requires greater focus by this Council, one where closer international cooperation needs to be, can be and should be expanded for our common interest,” Akbaruddin told the Security Council during an open debate on ‘Addressing complex contemporary challenges to International Peace and Security’ on Wednesday.

“It appears that this common threat to states and soci- eties is not clearly understood here. Even on counter-terrorism, cooperation continues to elude the Council,” he said.

Akbaruddin was apparently referring to China’s decision to repeatedly block a move by India to designate Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-mohammed (JEM) militant group, as a global terrorist.

On an issue as serious as designation of terrorist individuals and entities, the Council-mandated Sanctions Committees fail to make concrete progress and fall victim to “narrow political and strategic concerns in some cases”, he said.

Akbaruddin also referred to the fact that the Un-designated terrorist and Mumbai attack mastermind, Hafiz Saeed, was seeking to contest elections in Pakistan.

Saeed had announced that his Jamaat-ud-dawa (JUD) will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

“In other cases where Sanctions Committees have designated terrorists, there are states who venture to mainstream UN designated terrorist individuals into their political process in total disregard of international law, thus putting our common security in peril,” Akbaruddin said in his address to the Security Council.