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LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the European Union are overwhelmingly opposed by the British public and more than a third of voters would support a new right-wing political party committed to quitting the bloc, according to a new poll.May’s political vulnerability was exposed by the survey which found voters would prefer Boris Johnson, who quit as her foreign minister two weeks ago, to negotiate with the EU and lead the Conservative Party into the next election.Only 16 percent of voters say May is handling the Brexit negotiations well, compared with 34 percent who say that Johnson would do a better job, according to the poll conducted by YouGov for The Sunday Times newspaper.With a little more than eight months to go before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, May’s government, parliament, the public and businesses remain deeply divided over what form Brexit should take.May’s plans to keep a close trading relationship with the EU on goods thrust her government into crisis this month and there is speculation she could face a leadership challenge after two of her most senior ministers, including Johnson, resigned in protest.Only one in 10 voters would pick the government’s proposed Brexit plans if there were a second referendum, according to the poll. Almost half think it would be bad for Britain.The new Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday the prime minister was still trying to persuade members of the cabinet that her strategy was the best way forward. Raab also warned that Britain could refuse to pay a 39 billion pound divorce bill to the EU if it does not get a trade deal - a threat used before by ministers.Speaking to the BBC, Raab refused to deny reports the government is planning to stockpile food or use a section of motorway in England as a lorry park to deal with increased border checks if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.Asked about a story in The Sun newspaper that the government was planning to stockpile processed food, Raab initially replied "no" and then added: "That kind of selective snippet that makes it into the media, to the extent that the public pay attention to it, I think is unhelpful."The possibility of leaving without a trade deal has increased with May facing rebellions from different factions in her party. She only narrowly won a series of votes on Brexit in parliament last week.The Sunday Times poll found voters are increasingly polarised, with growing numbers of people alienated from the two main political parties. Thirty-eight percent of people would vote for a new right-wing party that is committed to Brexit, while almost a quarter would support an explicitly far-right anti-immigrant, anti-Islam party, the poll found.Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage and US President Donald Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon are in discussions about forming a new right-wing movement, according to The Sunday Times. Half of voters would support remaining in the EU if there were a second referendum, the poll found, a level of support found in other surveys this year.YouGov spoke to 1,668 adults in Britain on July 19 and 20, according to The Sunday Times, which did not provide other details about how the poll was conducted.

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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Sunday it was looking more and more like his campaign for the 2016 presidential election had been illegally spied upon.Trump issued the tweet after saying documents about his former presidential campaign adviser Carter Page confirmed with little doubt that the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation had misled the courts.The FBI released documents on Saturday related to the surveillance of Page as part of an investigation into whether he conspired with the Russian government to undermine the election.Page has denied being an agent of the Russian government and has not been charged with any crime. In his tweets, Trump also took aim at defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, her party’s governing body."Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon surveillance for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC," he said, referring to the Democratic National Committee."Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!" Referring to the Carter Page documents, he said: "As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts.Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam! "The 412 pages, mostly heavily redacted, included surveillance applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and warrants surrounding the investigation into Page.

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TEHRAN: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani warned the United States not to "play with the lion’s tail" on Sunday, saying that conflict with Iran would be the "mother of all wars".Addressing his US counterpart Donald Trump, Rouhani said: "You declare war and then you speak of wanting to support the Iranian people". "You cannot provoke the Iranian people against their own security and interests," he said in a televised speech at a gathering of Iranian diplomats in Tehran.Rouhani repeated his warning that Iran could shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies. "We have always guaranteed the security of this strait. Do not play with the lion’s tail, you will regret it forever," he said."Peace with Iran would be the mother of all peace and war with Iran would be the mother of all wars." Rouhani spoke ahead of a much-trailed speech by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later Sunday, seen as part of Washington’s efforts to foment unrest against the Islamic government in Iran.The US is seeking to tighten the economic screws on Iran, abandoning a landmark 2015 nuclear deal and reimposing stringent sanctions.

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NEW DELHI: India said on Sunday people whose names are missing from a list of citizens to be issued by a border state this month will not be detained, amid concerns that Muslims will be targeted under the guise of detecting illegal immigrants from Bangladesh."We will ensure that every individual gets justice and is treated in a humane manner. All individuals will have sufficient opportunity for all remedies available under the law," Rajnath Singh, India’s interior minister, said in a statement."Any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of claims and objections can appeal in the Foreigner’s Tribunal. Thus, there is no question of anyone being put in a detention centre after the publication of NRC (national register of citizens)".For an update of the NRC to be made public on July 30, all residents of Assam state in the northeast have had to show documents proving they or their families lived in the country before March 24, 1971, to be recognised as Indian citizens.The exercise has created panic among many Muslims in Assam because Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, which came to power in the state for the first time in 2016, vowed during the election campaign to act against illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh.Rights activists say the drive is also targeting Muslims who are Indian citizens, a charge the government denies. Singh also said Assam had been asked to step up security so no one was harassed in the name of citizenship, and that there was no reason for panic.Citizenship and illegal migration are volatile issues in tea-growing and oil-rich Assam, home to more than 32 million people, about a third of whom are Muslims. Hundreds of people were killed in the 1980s in a violent protest by a native Assamese group. Most of them settled in Assam and the neighbouring state of West Bengal, where there are similar demands to send back illegal Muslim immigrants.

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DHAKA: A prominent former editor and critic of Bangladesh’s government was assaulted on Sunday by ruling party student activists after a court hearing, police and witnesses said.The cadres of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, attacked Mahmudur Rahman, 66, with bricks and bamboo sticks, his colleague Mohammed Abdullah said.The attack happened when he got into a car after being bailed over a defamation case by a court in the western town of Kushtia. "It was a brutal attack. They hit the right side of his head with a brick. We are now heading to Jessore city on an ambulance," Abdullah said.Images on social media showed Rahman bloody but conscious and able to walk. Rahman was the editor of the mass-circulation pro-opposition Bengali daily Amar Desh, which was shut down by the government in 2013. He also heads a pro-opposition professional group. Abdullah said Rahman had been confined to the courtroom for five hours after more than 100 of the activists took up position outside.

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AMMAN: Israel has evacuated 800 White Helmets rescuers and their family members threatened by advancing Syrian regime forces to Jordan for resettlement in Britain, Canada and Germany, Amman said on Sunday.Founded in 2013, the Syria Civil Defence, or White Helmets, is a network of first responders which rescues the wounded in the aftermath of air strikes, shelling or explosions in rebel-held territory.Jordan "authorised the United Nations to organise the passage of 800 Syrian citizens through Jordan to be resettled in western countries," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Kayed said.An Israeli government source confirmed Israel’s military had rescued 800 people who were taken to Jordan. "Upon request of the US, Canada and European states Israel has completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organisation (‘White Helmets’) and families," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted.

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BAGHDAD: An Iraqi security agency has admitted holding hundreds of "terrorism" suspects for months, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday while calling on authorities to inform the families of those held.The National Security Service acknowledged it was holding male prisoners at a facility in east Mosul, the Iraqi city from which the Islamic State group was ousted last year. After previously denying the existence of any detention facilities, the NSS allowed HRW on July 4 to visit the centre where the group found clean but "extremely overcrowded" cells."Researchers were granted access to the facility, where officials said 427 prisoners were being held at the time," HRW said in a press release. Before visiting the facility HRW interviewed archaeologist Faisal Jeber, who said he was detained in early April and estimated at least 450 prisoners were being held, based on a daily head count.While the 47-year-old was released within 48 hours, he "described horrendous conditions and said that detainees had no access to lawyers, family visits, or medical care". Those sharing a cell with Jeber said they had been held for four months to two years, according to the May 16 interview.An NSS officer speaking on the condition of anonymity told researchers some people had been held for "over one year", before the end of the battle to retake Mosul from IS Jihadists. On a daily basis, Iraq’s two anti-terror courts in Baghdad and Mosul judge dozens of people suspected of being IS members.Around 20,000 people were arrested during the three-year battle to evict IS, which seized swathes of western and northern Iraq in 2014. Children were among those held at the Mosul facility, HRW said as it called on Iraqi authorities to release all minors who had not been charged with a crime."Authorities should be doing whatever it takes to make sure that families know where their loved ones are," said Lama Fakih, the organisation’s deputy Middle East director. HRW requested the NSS clarify how many people were being held and to detail the number and location of detention facilities.Families gather weekly in Mosul to demand news of their missing fathers, brothers and sons. Interviewed by AFP, many of those searching for relatives feared their family members were wrongly detained on "terrorism" charges amid the chaos of the offensive against IS.Jeber, the former detainee, told HRW that prisoners said a man "tortured to the point that he had been half paralysed" had died at the facility where he was held. The NSS, which reports to the prime minister, denied the use of torture and acknowledged "very limited cases of death, which were judicially documented".

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