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Pakistani army helicopter goes missing with top commander on board

Special Pakistani army helicopter goes missing with top commander on board
A Pakistan army helicopter reviewing flood relief operations in Lasbela, Balochistan, has gone missing with the top military commander from the southwestern province on board, the army's media wing said on Monday. (AFP/File)
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Updated 01 August 2022

Pakistani army helicopter goes missing with top commander on board

Pakistani army helicopter goes missing with top commander on board
  • Country lashed by torrential rains since monsoons began in June
  • Nine people killed in Balochistan in 24 hours, 149 dead since mid-June
Updated 01 August 2022
Saadullah Akhtar

QUETTA: A Pakistan army helicopter reviewing flood relief operations in Lasbela, Balochistan, has gone missing with the top military commander from the southwestern province on board, the army's media wing said on Monday.

The XII Corps, also known as Quetta Corps, is stationed in Quetta, Balochistan. It is commanded by Lt. Gen. Sarfraz Ali, who was on the helicopter.

“A Pakistan army aviation helicopter which was on flood relief operations in Lasbela, Balochistan lost contact with air traffic control,” the army's ISPR media wing said. “6 individuals were on board including Commander 12 Corps who was supervising flood relief operations in Balochistan. Search operation is underway.”

Pakistan has witnessed torrential rains since the monsoon season began in June, causing flash floods in several parts of the country.

Statistics from the National Disaster Management Authority said 434 people had been killed in rains across Pakistan since the onset of the monsoon season, with Balochistan worst hit with 149 deaths since mid-June.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Qudous Bizenjo expressed concern about the disappearance of the army helicopter.

“May Allah Almighty protect all the people and crew in the helicopter,” Bizenjo said. “The chief minister instructed the district administration of Lasbela and the police to use all means and resources to search for the helicopter. Provide full support to administration and police rescue teams.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the disappearance of the army helicopter as “alarming.”

“The entire nation prays to Allah Almighty for the safety, security and return of these sons of the country who came out to help the flood victims,” he tweeted.

On Monday, Sharif visited flood relief camps in Balochistan’s Qila Saifullah district.

He was accompanied by Bizenjo and said he had witnessed several administrative weaknesses in the relief camps, including the absence of proper records maintained by the doctors and paramedics responsible for treating flood victims.

“There are camps in which people have come from adjoining areas with their families, leaving behind their houses which have been destroyed in rains,” the prime minister said. “I have met them, including children and elderly people. However, I could not get any confirmation that they were given food. In fact, the inhabitants of the relief camps clearly told us they had not been fed.”

Sharif directed the chief minister to take strict action against all “negligent” officials.

Topics: Pakistan army helicopter Flood relief Balochistan Pakistan Floods

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King Charles III makes world debut as tour starts in Germany

King Charles III makes world debut as tour starts in Germany
Updated 12 sec ago

King Charles III makes world debut as tour starts in Germany

King Charles III makes world debut as tour starts in Germany
Updated 12 sec ago
BERLIN: King Charles III arrived in Berlin on Wednesday for his first foreign trip as Britain’s monarch, hoping to improve the UK’s relations with the European Union and to show that he can win hearts and minds abroad, just as his mother did for seven decades.
Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, landed at Berlin’s government airport in the early afternoon. The king, dressed in a black coat, and his wife, in a light blue coat and a feather-trimmed teal hat worn at a jaunty angle, paused at the top of their plane’s stairs to receive a 21-gun salute as two military jets performed a flyover.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was scheduled to welcome the royal couple with military honors at the German capital’s historic Brandenburg Gate.
Charles, 74, who ascended the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, is set to be crowned on May 6. As Britain’s head of state, the king meets weekly with the prime minister and retains his mother’s role as leader of the Commonwealth.
He had initially planned to first visit France, but the first leg of his trip was canceled due to massive protests over planned pension changes there.
Billed as a multi-day tour of the European Union’s two biggest countries, the trip was designed to underscore British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s efforts to rebuild relations with the bloc after six years of arguments over Brexit and highlight the countries’ shared history as they work together to combat Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Now everything rests on Germany, where the king faces the first big test of whether he can be an effective conduit for the “soft power” the House of Windsor has traditionally wielded, helping Britain pursue its geopolitical goals through the glitz and glamor of a 1,000-year-old monarchy.
Charles, a former naval officer who is the first British monarch to earn a university degree, is expected to insert heft where his glamorous mother once wielded star power. His visit to Germany will give him an opportunity to highlight the causes he holds dear, like sustainability and the environment.
But there will also be a full dose of the pomp and circumstance that screams royal visit, starting with the ceremonial welcome at the Brandenburg Gate and a white tie dinner at Schloss Bellevue, the German president’s official residence, on Wednesday evening.
Royal fans started lining up early in the morning for security checks at the Brandenburg Gate, hoping to get a close view of Charles and Camilla. By noon, hundreds of fans awaited their arrival as police and sniffer dogs worked in the area. About 1,500 spectators were admitted to the cordoned-off area, German news agency dpa reported.
Christoph Muehlbach, 59, had traveled by train from Hamburg to see the British royals. He described himself as a supporter of the royal family for the last 20 years and said he had traveled to London in the past for weddings, anniversaries and the queen’s state funeral.
“I take great pleasure in the British royal family,” Muehlbach told dpa.
Gabriele Fluechter, 57, of Berlin, said she came “out of love for England,” where she had attended university. She said she had seen Elizabeth on one of the queen’s visits to Berlin, and also had spotted Charles and Camilla before.
“They walked along there very casually,” she said, adding that the long wait was no problem,
On Thursday, the king is scheduled to give a speech to the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. He will also meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, talk to Ukrainian refugees, and meet with British and Germany military personnel who are working together on joint projects. In the afternoon he will visit an organic farm outside of Berlin.
The royal couple plan to go to Hamburg on Friday, where they will visit the Kindertransport memorial for Jewish children who fled from Germany to Britain during the Third Reich, and attend a green energy event before returning to the UK
The king was urged to make the trip by Sunak, who during his first six months in office negotiated a settlement to the long-running dispute over post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland and reached a deal with France to combat the people smugglers ferrying migrants across the English Channel in small boats. Sunak hopes goodwill created by a royal visit can help pave the way for progress on other issues, including Britain’s return to an EU program that funds scientific research across Europe.
Britain’s senior royals are among the most recognizable people on the planet. While their formal powers are strictly limited by law and tradition, they draw attention from the media and the public partly because of the historic ceremonies and regalia that accompany them — and also because the public is fascinated by their personal lives.
Elizabeth’s influence stemmed in part from the fact that she made more than 100 state visits during her 70 years on the throne, meeting presidents and prime ministers around the world in a reign that lasted from the Cold War to the information age.
Politicians were eager to meet the monarch for tea, if for no other reason than she’d been around so long.

Ukraine sets eyes on Filipino workers to help rebuild war-torn cities

Ukraine sets eyes on Filipino workers to help rebuild war-torn cities
Updated 31 min 15 sec ago
Ellie Aben

Ukraine sets eyes on Filipino workers to help rebuild war-torn cities

Ukraine sets eyes on Filipino workers to help rebuild war-torn cities
  • Philippines is a ‘priority nation’ in the region, Kyiv’s envoy says
  • Ukraine is also offering potential cooperation in IT, e-governance
Updated 31 min 15 sec ago
Ellie Aben

MANILA: Ukraine is planning to attract Filipino workers to help rebuild its cities ravaged by Russia’s invasion, Kyiv’s envoy said on Wednesday.
Russia began a multipronged attack on Ukrainian territory and major cities in February last year, destroying critical infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of homes, and forcing more than 8 million people to flee to neighboring European countries.
The country’s reconstruction is expected to stretch over at least 10 years, costing $411 billion, according to a World Bank report released last week.
As leaders lay postwar plans, Denys Mykhailiuk, chargé d’affaires of the Ukraine Embassy in Malaysia, which holds jurisdiction over the Philippines, was on a four-day trip to the archipelagic nation to explore potential cooperation.
He told reporters in Makati City that talks would soon be initiated regarding Filipino workers helping in the reconstruction effort as “whole cities (were) wiped out.”
He added that “hardworking Filipinos” and investors from the country “will be very much welcomed.”
Ukraine is also planning to increase bilateral trade and open an embassy in the Philippines later this year, Mykhailuk said, describing the Southeast Asian country as a “priority nation” in the region.
“Unfortunately, since the war started, they have a drop of 94 percent in bilateral trade. We want to remedy (this), and we proposed to our partners of the Republic of Philippines several ways to do so,” Mykhailuk said.
Kyiv, a major exporter of wheat, has offered to help Manila build a “grain bank” and work together in information technology and e-governance, the envoy said.
Mykhailiuk’s visit comes about a month after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had their first phone call, during which the two leaders discussed how to further bilateral cooperation.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Philippines workers

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Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development

Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development
Updated 30 min 5 sec ago

Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development

Dhaka looks to establish ties with Riyadh for smart city development
  • Riyadh 3rd-smartest city among capitals of G20 states
  • Dhaka seeks sister city relationship to learn Riyadh’s best practices
Updated 30 min 5 sec ago
SHEHAB SUMON

DHAKA: The Bangladeshi capital wants to establish a sister city relationship with Riyadh to follow its development practices, the local administration said on Wednesday, after a meeting with the Saudi ambassador in Dhaka.

A megacity of more than 22 million people, Dhaka is one of the most densely populated built-up and unsustainable urban areas in the world. It has been struggling to handle its rapid expansion and waste management.

Riyadh, on the other hand, is undergoing rapid modernization under Vision 2030, with vast investment into infrastructure and digital solutions making it the third-smartest city among the capitals of the Group of Twenty states, and the 30th smartest city at global level, according to the 2021 Smart City Index of the IMD World Competitiveness Center and Singapore University of Technology and Design.

The possibility of Dhaka’s partnership with Riyadh was raised on Tuesday, during Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Al-Duhailan’s meeting with the Dhaka North City Corp., which governs around 80 percent of the Bangladeshi capital.

“Both Dhaka and Riyadh are capital cities. Riyadh is considered one of the smart cities in the world. We want to follow the best practices of that city,” DNCC Secretary Mohammed Masud Alam Siddique told Arab News.

Dhaka’s sister city relationship with Riyadh would enable the exchange of know-how and best practices. Such ties are long-term partnerships promoting joint cultural, research, and development projects between two geographically and politically distinct localities.

“If a sister city agreement is in place, it would become easier to exchange ideas and boost cooperation,” Siddique said.

“Our councilors, city corporation officials, could receive training in Riyadh, especially on waste management, traffic management, mosquito control ... During the discussion (with the Saudi ambassador), the issue of waste management was on the table. The ambassador explained the waste management systems of Riyadh, and we were interested in this.”

As the Saudi capital has much of its services for residents digitalized, Dhaka is keen to follow in its footsteps under Bangladeshi’s own development vision.

“Our prime minister has the vision to build a smart Bangladesh by the year 2041. To achieve this target, first of all, we need to build smart cities,” Siddique added.

“In Riyadh, any citizen can avail of any service from the city corporation sitting at home through a mobile phone. We want to adopt this system.”

So far, Dhaka has such an agreement with only one other capital, Lima, the largest city in Peru.

To develop sister ties with the Saudi capital, top officials from Riyadh and Dhaka would have to agree on terms to facilitate cooperation.

“We will send a proposal soon. Once they accept it, a memorandum of understanding will define in which areas we are interested to work together,” Siddique said. “We hope it will be possible by the next two to four months.”

Topics: Saudi Arabia Bangladesh

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Humza Yousaf sworn in as Scotland’s leader as bid for unity falters

Humza Yousaf sworn in as Scotland’s leader as bid for unity falters
Updated 56 min 35 sec ago
Reuters

Humza Yousaf sworn in as Scotland’s leader as bid for unity falters

Humza Yousaf sworn in as Scotland’s leader as bid for unity falters
  • Yousaf is the first Muslim to lead a democratic western European nation
  • Ceremony blended formal tradition with his Pakistani heritage
Updated 56 min 35 sec ago
Reuters

LONDON: Humza Yousaf was sworn in as Scotland’s new leader on Wednesday in a ceremony that blended formal tradition with his Pakistani heritage before he announces appointments to his cabinet that risk worsening the deep divisions in his governing party.
Yousaf, the first Muslim to lead a democratic western European nation, was dressed in a black shalwar kameez at Scotland’s highest court, the Court of Session in Edinburgh, as his family watched on.
The 37-year-old pledged an oath of allegiance to King Charles. He has previously said he wants to replace the monarchy with an elected head of state if he achieves his dream of ending Scotland’s three-centuries-long political union with England.
Yousaf narrowly won a leadership race on Monday after a bruising contest that followed the surprise resignation last month of Nicola Sturgeon, who had dominated Scottish politics for almost a decade.
The internal disagreements over the future of the pro-independence Scottish National Party and the country re-emerged after Yousaf’s main rival, Kate Forbes, quit the government.
Forbes turned down an offer to become the minister for rural affairs and islands, a step down from her previous role as finance minister, according to the BBC and Scottish newspapers.
Former health secretary Alex Neil, who backed Forbes, said the proposed post was “an insult and not a real effort to unite” the party.
Yousaf had been expected to offer his leadership rival, whom he only defeated by only about 2,000 votes, a more senior role.
During his leadership campaign, Yousaf had said he would depart from Sturgeon’s “inner circle” style of leadership in favor of a “big tent” approach.
Forbes, who had questioned Yousaf’s record in government during the leadership campaign, posted on Twitter a reminder of the closeness of the contest, while saying Yousaf had her “full support.”
Yousaf said on Tuesday that Shona Robison — a close friend of Sturgeon — will serve as his deputy first minister. More appointments to cabinet roles are expected on Wednesday afternoon.

Topics: Scotland Humza Yousaf

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UN nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuclear plant amid safety concerns

UN nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuclear plant amid safety concerns
Updated 29 March 2023
Reuters

UN nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuclear plant amid safety concerns

UN nuclear chief visits Ukraine nuclear plant amid safety concerns
  • Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived by car at Europe's largest nuclear power plant to review the situation there
  • Grossi wants to assess first-hand the "nuclear safety and security situation" and press on with efforts to broker a deal to protect the plant
Updated 29 March 2023
Reuters

KYIV: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog visited the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday as part of efforts to avert the risk of an atomic accident.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived by car at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to review the situation there, an IAEA spokesperson said.
Grossi wants to assess first-hand the “nuclear safety and security situation” and press on with efforts to broker a deal to protect the plant.
“I am not giving up in any way. I think on the contrary we need to multiply our efforts, we need to continue,” Grossi told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
In Moscow-held territory, he told Russian news agencies that the situation at the plant had not improved, that fighting nearby had intensified and that he wanted to come up with realistic ways to reduce the threat of a catastrophe.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of shelling the site of the power station over the last year. Grossi has been pushing for a safety agreement between Ukraine and Russia to protect the facility.
A Reuters reporter at the Russian-held plant saw a motorcade transporting the IAEA expert mission arriving at the facility, escorted by the Russian military.
Grossi told Reuters in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Tuesday that the situation at the plant remained “very dangerous” and “very unstable,” noting that military activity in the region had increased in recent weeks.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February last year, has been pressing a winter offensive in the east, while Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive using Western-supplied battle tanks and fighting vehicles.
The sprawling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was a prized part of Ukraine’s energy network and accounted for around 20 percent of national power generation before the Russian invasion.
It has not produced any electricity since September, when the last of its six reactors was taken offline.
Ukraine’s Energoatom nuclear agency said Grossi would assess how the situation had changed at the plant, speak to workers and also act as a “guarantor” for the rotation of a group of IAEA monitors at the facility.
The IAEA has had monitors stationed at the plant since September, when Grossi traveled to the facility as fears were mounting of the possibility for a nuclear accident.
It is Grossi’s second visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant since it was captured by Russian troops.
Grossi, who met President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, says his attempt to broker a deal on protecting the plant is still alive, and that he is adjusting the proposals to seek a breakthrough.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict IAEA Rafael Grossi Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

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