The Defend Assange Campaign, a legal campaign to defend Assange, said Julian has been nominated for a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Defend Assange Campaign tweeted a photo of Assange next to a Nobel coin on Monday.

Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has been apparently nominated by 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire.

Maguire, who won for her work promoting peace in Northern Ireland during that country’s religious clashes, wrote in the Irish Examiner of her decision to nominate Assange saying that he met all criteria for the Nobel peace prize.

This year, there are a total of 304 candidates nominated for the prize.

Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.

MIAMI: U.S. President Donald Trump has warned the Venezuela’s military, loyal to President Nicolas Maduro, that they are risking their future, and urged them to allow humanitarian aid into the country.

Speaking to a crowd of Venezuelan and Cuban immigrants in Miami, Trump warned if Venezuela’s military continues to support Maduro, they will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. They will lose everything.

Maduro, however, reacted that Trump’s speech was “nazi-style” alleging Trump of acting as if he were the owner of Venezuela and the citizens his slaves. (Reuters)

Here’s a chronological timetable of events that occurred on this day in history. Let’s find out what happened today in history.

February 19

1701       Philip V of Spain makes his ceremonial entry into Madrid.

1902       Smallpox vaccination becomes obligatory in France.

1903       The Austria-Hungary government decrees a mandatory two-year military service.

1917       American troops are recalled from the Mexican border.

1919       The First Pan African Congress meets in Paris, France.

1926       Dr. Lane of Princeton estimates the earth’s age at one billion years.

1942       Port Darwin, on the northern coast of Australia, is bombed by the Japanese.

1965       Fourteen Vietnam War protesters are arrested in New York.

1966       Robert F. Kennedy suggests the United States offer the Vietcong a role in governing S. Vietnam.

1976       Britain slashes welfare spending.

1981       The U.S. State Department calls El Salvador a “textbook case” of a Communist plot.

Born on February 19

1473       Nicholas Copernicus, Polish astronomer

1683       Philip V, King of Spain.

1817       William III, King of the Netherlands.

1859       Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist, founder of physical chemistry.

1902       Kay Boyle, short story writer (“The White Horses of Vienna”).

1911       Merle Oberon, film actress.

1917       Carson McCullers, writer (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter).

1940       Smokey Robinson, American singer and songwriter.

Source: History Net

Seven MPs of the UK’s Labour Party have resigned in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Brexit and anti-Semitism.

MPs, including Chuka Umunna, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Luciana Berger, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey resigned from the party.

MP Berger alleged the party of becoming ‘institutionally anti-Semitic’ and therefore, she was “embarrassed and ashamed” to stay.

Chuka Umunna urged other Labour MPs to join them in “building a new politics”.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has conferred Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Pakistan’s highest civilian honor. The honor has been conferred a day after signing $20 bn in investment deals between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Prince Mohammed on Monday met President Arif Alvi in Islamabad, where he was awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan (Order of Pakistan) at an official ceremony, according to agencies.

Pakistan was the first stop in the crown prince Salman’s three-nation tour. He will also visit India and China next. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan had received him at an airbase in Pakistan on Sunday. (Agencies)

LONDON: British lawmakers have demanded that Facebook should be subject to a compulsory code of ethics to confront the spread of fake news.

The UK parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said that Facebook and other big tech companies had been ineffective in stopping damaging content and disinformation on their platforms, according to agencies.

A report of the committee said Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg as a leader failed to take personal responsibility.

Committee Chairman Damian Collins said that the guiding principle of the ‘move fast and break things’ culture often seems to be that it is better to apologize than ask permission.”

He demanded radical shift in the balance of power between the platforms and the users saying that the age of inadequate self-regulation has to end.

ISLAMABAD: Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has said Saudi Arabia has signed investment agreements worth $20 billion during his visit to Pakistan, agency reports said.

He said the $20 billion figure represents the start of an economic tie-up aimed at bringing the historic Muslim allies closer.

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has kicked off his tour of South Asia and China, according to agencies.

However, his visit is at risk of being overshadowed by Pakistan’s growing tensions with India. Last week a suicide bomber killed 44 Indian paramilitary police in the disputed Kashmir region. Indian has accused Pakistan of having a hand in the bombing, which Pakistan denies. (Agencies)

Here’s a chronological timetable of events that occurred on this day in history. Let’s find out what happened today in history.

February 18

1688       Quakers in Germantown, PA adopt the first formal antislavery resolution in America.

1813       Czar Alexander enters Warsaw at the head of his army.

1861       Victor Emmanuel II becomes the first King of Italy.

1865       Union troops force the Confederates to abandon Fort Anderson, NC.

1885       The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is published in New York.

1907       600,000 tons of grain are sent to Russia to relieve the famine there.

1920       Vuillemin and Chalus complete their first flight over the Sahara Desert.

1932       Manchurian independence is formally declared.

1935       Rome reports sending troops to Italian Somalia.

1939       The Golden Gate Exposition opens in San Francisco.

1943       German General Erwin Rommel takes three towns in Tunisia, North Africa.

1944       The U.S. Army and Marines invade Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

1945       U.S. Marines storm ashore at Iwo Jima.

1962       Robert F. Kennedy says that U.S. troops will stay in Vietnam until Communism is defeated.

1967       The National Art Gallery agrees to buy a Leonardo da Vinci for a record $5 million.

1968       Three U.S. pilots that were held by the Vietnamese arrive in Washington.

1972       The California Supreme Court voids the death penalty.

1982       Mexico devalues the peso by 30 percent to fight an economic slide.

Born on February 18

1516       Queen Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants.

1795       George Peabody, U.S. merchant and philanthropist.

1848       Louis Comfort Tiffany, glassware artist and designer.

1859       Sholem Aleichem, Yiddish author.

1892       Wendell Willkie, Presidential candidate against Franklin Roosevelt.

1909       Wallace Stegner, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (Angle of Repose).

1922       Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.

1929       Len Deighton, English spy writer (The Ipcress File).

1931       Toni Morrison, Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author

1934       Audre Lord, poet.

Source: History Net

DUBAI: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran is ready to ‘work with all its neighbors’ to secure peace in the Middle East, reports said.

His views come at a time when Iran and Saudi Arabia have been fighting proxy wars for years.

Observers has taken this move as an ‘attempt to weaken ties’ between Saudi Arabia and the US.

In a speech telecast live on state TV, Rouhani said his country is ready to work with all regional states to ‘preserve security’ in the Middle East, agencies have said.

“Iran wants to establish brotherly ties with all countries of the region,” newspapers quoted him as saying. (Agencies)

DHAKA: A devastating blaze that raged through a slum in Bangladesh killed at least nine people, a fire official said.

The fire that broke out early morning in Chaktai of Chittagong injured dozens of slum dwellers, officials said. The slum dwellers were asleep when the fire broke out, agencies have said.

According to officials, at least 200 shanty homes were gutted. However, the fire was brought under control with the help of fore brigades.

The cause of the fire was not yet known, agencies quoted officials as saying. (Agencies)