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Bomb blast in Kabul kills eight, injures more than 20

Taliban fighters stand guard at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 6, 2022. (REUTERS)
Taliban fighters stand guard at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 6, 2022. (REUTERS)
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Updated 07 August 2022
Reuters

Bomb blast in Kabul kills eight, injures more than 20

Taliban fighters stand guard at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 6, 2022. (REUTERS)
  • Daesh does not control any territory in Afghanistan but it has sleeper cells that have been attacking religious minorities in the country as well as patrols by the ruling Taliban
Updated 07 August 2022
Reuters

KABUL: A bomb blast in a busy shopping street in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least eight people and injured 22, hospital officials and witnesses said.
The bomb exploded in a western district of the city where members of the minority Shiite Muslim community regularly meet. Daesh, a militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group said on its Telegram channel.
A senior medical officer at a private hospital said at least eight people died and 22 were wounded.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said an investigation team was at the blast site to help the wounded and assess casualties.
Video footage posted online showed ambulances rushing to the scene, which is also near bus stations.
The attack came ahead of Ashura, a commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, which is marked mainly by Shiite Muslims.
On Friday, at least eight people were killed and 18 injured in a blast in Kabul carried out by Daesh.
Daesh does not control any territory in Afghanistan but it has sleeper cells that have been attacking religious minorities in the country as well as patrols by the ruling Taliban.
The Sunni Muslim Taliban authorities, who took over Afghanistan in August last year after a two-decade insurgency, have said they will provide more protection for Shiite mosques and other facilities.
Sayed Kazum Hojat, a Shiite religious scholar in Kabul, said the Taliban government had ramped up security ahead of Ashura but should improve vigilance.
No up-to-date census data exists, but estimates put the size of the Shiite community at between 10-20 percent of the population of 39 million, including Persian-speaking Tajiks and Pashtuns as well as Hazaras.

Topics: Daesh Afghanistan shiite

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Ukraine’s Zelensky visits Kherson region, vows to ‘restore everything’

Updated 16 sec ago

Ukraine’s Zelensky visits Kherson region, vows to ‘restore everything’

Ukraine’s Zelensky visits Kherson region, vows to ‘restore everything’
Updated 16 sec ago
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the southern region of Kherson, where he toured local infrastructure and promised to “restore everything” following Russia’s invasion.
The visit, to a region where Ukraine staged a successful counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces late last year, was his second outside Kyiv this week. On Wednesday he visited troops near the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut. “I spoke with local residents about their current issues and needs,” Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app under footage of his visit to Kherson region.
“We will restore everything, we will rebuild everything. Just like with every city and village that suffered because of the occupiers.”
The Ukrainian counteroffensive last year pushed Russian troops out of the regional capital Kherson after months of occupation. Workers in the region are now busy restoring power and the water supply.
“We have to ensure full restoration and protection of our energy sector!” Zelensky wrote in a separate post showing him inspecting energy infrastructure.
“I am grateful to everyone who works for this and returns the light to our people!“

Indian court rules Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation over Modi remark

Indian court rules Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation over Modi remark
Updated 23 March 2023
AFP

Indian court rules Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation over Modi remark

Indian court rules Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation over Modi remark
  • Narendra Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the law to target and silence critics
  • Case stems from a remark the opposition leader made during the 2019 election campaign
Updated 23 March 2023
AFP

AHMEDABAD, India: An Indian court Thursday found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation for a 2019 campaign trail remark implying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a criminal.
Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the law to target and silence critics, and the case in the premier’s home state of Gujarat is one of several lodged against his chief opponent in recent years.
Gandhi, the leading face of the opposition Congress party, was sentenced to two years imprisonment but immediately granted bail after his lawyers announced their intention to appeal.
The case stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign in which the 52-year-old had asked why “all thieves have Modi as (their) common surname.”
His comments were seen as a slur against the prime minister, who went on to win the election in a landslide.
Members of the government also said the remark was a smear against all those sharing the Modi surname, which is associated with the lower rungs of India’s traditional caste hierarchy.
“If you are going to insult the entire Modi surname, this is completely defamatory,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, a lawmaker for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told reporters.
“There was a proper hearing. He got an opportunity to present his side of things,” he added. “The decision has been taken according to the due judicial process.”
Gandhi’s lawyer B. M. Mangukiya said his client had not meant to insult anyone.
“When the magistrate asked Gandhi what he had to say in his defense, the Congress leader said that he was fighting to expose corruption in the country,” Mangukiya told reporters outside the court.
“His comments were not meant to hurt or insult any community.”
Gandhi is the son, grandson and great-grandson of a dynasty of former Indian prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.
But the scion of India’s most famous political dynasty has struggled to challenge the electoral juggernaut of Modi and its nationalist appeals to the country’s Hindu majority.
Gandhi, who was present in court in Surat for the verdict, was greeted by supporters on his arrival.
He faces at least two other defamation cases elsewhere in the country.
Gandhi is also on bail in another money laundering case that has been snaking its way through India’s glacial legal system for more than a decade. He denies any financial impropriety.

Topics: India Rahul Gandhi

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Nationwide protests in France after Emmanuel Macron doubles down on pension bill

Nationwide protests in France after Emmanuel Macron doubles down on pension bill
Updated 23 March 2023
Reuters

Nationwide protests in France after Emmanuel Macron doubles down on pension bill

Nationwide protests in France after Emmanuel Macron doubles down on pension bill
  • ‘The best response we can give the president is that there are millions of people on strike and in the streets’
  • Protests against the policy changes have drawn huge crowds in rallies organized by unions since January
Updated 23 March 2023
Reuters

PARIS: Train services were disrupted and some schools shut while garbage piled up on the streets of France on Thursday as part of a ninth nationwide day of strikes against a deeply unpopular bill to raise the pension age.
Protesters blocked a highway near Toulouse in southwestern France in the early morning and a bus depot in the west, in Rennes, Le Parisien newspaper said. Protest rallies were scheduled across the country later in the day.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said the legislation — which his government pushed through parliament without a vote last week — would come into force by year-end despite escalating anger across the country.
“The best response we can give the president is that there are millions of people on strike and in the streets,” said Philippe Martinez, who leads the hardline CGT union.
Protests against the policy changes, which lift the retirement age by two years to 64 and accelerate an increase in the number of years one must work to draw a full pension, have drawn huge crowds in rallies organized by unions since January.
Most protests have been peaceful, but anger has mounted since the government pushed the bill through parliament without a vote last week.
The past seven nights have seen spontaneous demonstrations in Paris and other cities with rubbish bins set ablaze and scuffles with police.
Labor unions said Thursday’s day of strikes and protests would draw huge crowds against what they described as Macron’s “scorn” and “lies.”
Laurent Berger, the head of France’s biggest union, the moderate CFDT, told BFM TV the government must withdraw the pension law.
The latest wave of protests represents the most serious challenge to the president’s authority since the “Yellow Vest” revolt four years ago. Polls show a wide majority of French opposed to the pension legislation as well as the government’s decision to push it through parliament without a vote.
Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt said the government was not in denial about the tensions but wanted to move on.
“There is a disagreement that will persist on the retirement age. On the other hand, there are many subjects which make it possible to renew a dialogue,” he said, including how companies share their profits with workers.
“Things will be done gradually,” he said.
Electricity power supply was reduced on Thursday as part of rolling strikes in the sector.
The government has renewed a requisition order requiring some employees to return to work at the Fos-sur-Mer fuel depot in southern France to secure petrol supplies for the region.

Topics: France Emmanuel Macron

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EU leaders to discuss Ukraine war with UN chief, back ammunition plan

EU leaders to discuss Ukraine war with UN chief, back ammunition plan
Updated 23 March 2023
Reuters

EU leaders to discuss Ukraine war with UN chief, back ammunition plan

EU leaders to discuss Ukraine war with UN chief, back ammunition plan
  • Leaders to give their blessing to a plan to send 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year
  • Officials have warned that Ukraine is burning through shells at a faster rate than its allies can produce them
Updated 23 March 2023
Reuters

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders will discuss the war in Ukraine with UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday and also endorse a plan to ramp up the supply of artillery shells to Kyiv.
Guterres will be a guest at an EU summit in Brussels, days after the renewal of a deal brokered by the UN and Turkiye on the safe export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.
That humanitarian measure will discussed at a working lunch with Guterres before the UN secretary-general takes his leave and EU leaders get an update on the war from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky via video link, officials said.
“We will, as always, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to assist Ukraine,” declared Charles Michel, president of the European Council of EU leaders.
The leaders will give their blessing to a plan — agreed by foreign ministers on Monday — to send 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year by digging into stocks and making a landmark move into joint procurement.
Zelensky’s government has told its Western allies that it urgently needs large amounts of 155mm shells as it fights a fierce war of attrition with invading Russian forces.
Officials have warned that Ukraine is burning through shells at a faster rate than its allies can produce them, prompting a renewed search for ammunition and ways to boost production.
The EU scheme is based on a plan from foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, following a proposal from Estonia, one of Ukraine’s most assertive supporters inside the EU.
The plan earmarks $1.09 billion (1 billion euros) for the swift supply of shells – and possibly missiles – from existing stocks and another 1 billion euros for joint orders by EU countries for more rounds.
The money will come from the European Peace Facility, an EU-run fund that has already provided billions of euros for military aid to Ukraine. Leaders at the summit may begin a discussion on a further top-up to the fund, diplomats said.
It is unclear how quickly the plan could have an impact on the battlefield, partly because governments keep secret how much ammunition they have left in their stockpiles, which have already been depleted by deliveries to Ukraine.
Artillery produced via a new joint procurement initiative will take months to arrive, although EU officials stress they are moving at unprecedented speed for such a project. They say they aim to sign first contracts with arms firms in late May.
“We will need to take measures to boost the manufacturing capacity of the European defense industry,” Michel said in his letter inviting fellow EU leaders to the summit.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia Ukraine EU UN

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China, Philippines assess ties amid escalating sea disputes

China, Philippines assess ties amid escalating sea disputes
Updated 23 March 2023
AP

China, Philippines assess ties amid escalating sea disputes

China, Philippines assess ties amid escalating sea disputes
  • Discussions would focus on the long-seething territorial spats in the disputed South China Sea
  • Marcos administration has filed at least 77 of more than 200 diplomatic protests against China’s increasingly assertive actions
Updated 23 March 2023
AP
MANILA: Senior Chinese and Filipino diplomats were meeting in Manila on Thursday to review their relations amid thorny issues, including Beijing’s alarm over a Philippine decision to allow the US military to expand its presence to a northern region facing the Taiwan Strait and escalating spats in the disputed South China Sea.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro were leading the talks aimed at assessing overall relations on Thursday. The discussions would focus on the long-seething territorial spats in the disputed waterway on Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said.
The back-to-back meetings are the first under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June last year. He met Chinese President Xi Jinping in a state visit to Beijing in January where both agreed to expand ties, pursue talks on potential joint oil and gas explorations and manage territorial disputes amicably.
But the territorial conflicts have persisted as a major irritant in relations early in the six-year term of Marcos, whose administration has filed at least 77 of more than 200 diplomatic protests by the Philippines against China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed waters since last year alone.
That included a February 6 incident when a Chinese coast guard ship aimed a military-grade laser that briefly blinded some crew members of a Philippine patrol vessel off a disputed shoal. Marcos summoned the Chinese ambassador to Manila to express concern over the incident, but Beijing said the Philippine vessel intruded into Chinese territorial waters and its coast guard used a harmless laser gadget to monitor the vessel’s movement.
Early last month, the Marcos administration announced it would allow rotating batches of American forces to indefinitely station in four more Philippine military camps. Those are in addition to five local bases earlier designated under a 2014 defense pact between the longtime treaty allies.
Marcos said Wednesday the four new military sites would include areas in the northern Philippines. That location has infuriated Chinese officials because it would provide US forces a staging ground close to southern China and Taiwan.
The Americans would also have access to military areas on the western Philippine island province of Palawan, Marcos said, adding that the US military presence under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was aimed at boosting coastal defense.
Palawan faces the South China Sea, a key passage for global trade that Beijing claims virtually in its entirety but a United Nations-backed arbitration tribunal ruled in 2016 that historical claim had no legal basis under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Seas.
China had dismissed the ruling, which Washington and other Western governments recognize, and continues to defy it.
When asked to react to the Philippine decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that defense cooperation between countries “needs to be conducive to regional peace and stability and not targeted at or harmful to the interests of any third party.”
Wang warned countries in the region “to remain vigilant and avoid being coerced or used by the US” without naming the Philippines.
A recent statement issued by the Chinese Embassy in Manila was more blunt and warned that the Manila government’s security cooperation with Washington “will drag the Philippines into the abyss of geopolitical strife and damage its economic development at the end of the day.”
The Biden administration has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan. The US moves dovetail with Philippine efforts to shore up its territorial defense amid its disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Two senior Filipino officials said that the Philippine government would extend the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows the temporary presence of US forces and their defense equipment in the country. The Philippine Constitution prohibits the permanent basing of foreign troops in the country and their involvement in local combat.
The agreement, signed in 2014, would initially be effective for 10 years and would remain in force automatically unless terminated by either side with a one-year advance written notice.
The two officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they lack authority to discuss the issue publicly.

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