Philippines, China say to address maritime issues peacefully

Philippines, China say to address maritime issues peacefully
Above, Philippine foreign affairs undersecretary Theresa Lazaro and Chinese vice foreign minister Sun Weidong during their bilateral meeting in Manila on March 24, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 24 March 2023

Philippines, China say to address maritime issues peacefully

Philippines, China say to address maritime issues peacefully
  • Philippines hosts first in-person meeting between diplomats from the countries since before the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Last month, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. granted the United States expanded access to military bases

MANILA: Maritime issues between the Philippines and China remain a “serious concern,” a Philippine official said on Friday, as the countries pledged to use diplomacy to resolve differences peacefully during high-level talks.
The Philippines hosted this week the first in-person meeting between diplomats from the countries since before the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a flare-up in tensions over what Manila described as China’s “aggressive activities” in the South China Sea.
“Both our countries’ leaders agreed that maritime issues should be addressed through diplomacy and dialogue and never through coercion and intimidation,” Philippine foreign ministry undersecretary Theresa Lazaro said at the opening of bilateral talks on the South China Sea.
The discussions come two months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s state visit to China, where President Xi Jinping said he was ready to manage maritime issues “cordially” with Manila.
“Maritime issues are an important part of China-Philippines relations that should not be ignored,” China’s vice foreign minister Sun Weidong said.
“In the past years, through friendly dialogue and consultations, the two countries have generally managed and effectively dealt with our differences on maritime issues. And we have also advanced our practical cooperation and our mutual trust,” added Sun, who is on a three-day visit to Manila.
Beijing, which claims large parts of the South China Sea, including some areas in Philippine waters, has expressed concern over an increasing US military presence in its neighbor, accusing Washington of increasing regional tensions.
Last month, Marcos granted the United States expanded access to military bases, amid China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea and toward self-ruled Taiwan.
The agreement has been seen as a sign of a rekindling of ties between Manila and its former colonial master, which soured under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Last month, the Philippines accused China’s coast guard of using a laser against one of its vessels supporting a resupply mission for troops in the disputed Spratly islands. Marcos later summoned the Chinese ambassador to relay his concern over the intensity and frequency of China’s activities in the area.
Maritime differences with Beijing were a “serious concern” but could be resolved through the “exhaustion of all diplomatic means,” Lazaro said.


Five Greek border police accused of smuggling migrants

Five Greek border police accused of smuggling migrants
Updated 9 sec ago

Five Greek border police accused of smuggling migrants

Five Greek border police accused of smuggling migrants
  • The five men appeared before a prosecutor in the northeastern city of Orestiada
  • Thousands of migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have in recent years crossed into Greece from Turkiye in the hope of making it to western Europe
ATHENS: Five Greek border police officers were arraigned Tuesday as suspected accomplices of a smuggling network that illegally brought migrants into the country from Turkiye.
The five men appeared before a prosecutor in the northeastern city of Orestiada, a day after the police department’s internal affairs division said they had been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes and breach of duty.
They are accused of helping to smuggle an unknown number of migrants on at least 12 occasions in the Didymoteicho area in northeastern Greece, the police said in a statement.
“An investigation so far has shown that the officers had been in contact with networks operating in a neighboring country at least since October, and allegedly carried out actions or omissions aimed at facilitating the entry of (non-EU) nationals into our country,” it said.
Evidence linked to the case includes nearly 60 cellphones, Turkish lira and banknotes from a number of Asian countries, the police said.
Thousands of migrants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have in recent years crossed into Greece from Turkiye in the hope of making it to western Europe.
With the stepping up of patrols in the Aegean Sea making it harder for migrants to reach Greek islands, more are taking their chances by crossing the River Evros, Greece’s natural border with Turkiye, and having traffickers take them from there by road.
Athens has decided to extend by 35 kilometers (22 miles) a five-meter high steel fence which runs along the river.
The fence is currently 38 kilometers long, and Athens aims to carry out the extension within a year, adding a total of 100 kilometers by 2026.

South Korea, Australia agree to step up defense cooperation

South Korea, Australia agree to step up defense cooperation
Updated 48 min 5 sec ago

South Korea, Australia agree to step up defense cooperation

South Korea, Australia agree to step up defense cooperation
  • The two countries agreed to hold working-level meetings as part of steps to revise a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 aimed at enhancing defense industry cooperation

SEOUL: South Korea and Australia’s defense chiefs agreed on Tuesday to step up defense cooperation, South Korea’s defense ministry said.
Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup met his Australian counterpart Richard Marles on the sidelines of the inaugural South Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul.
Lee expressed the South Korean military’s willingness to join the Indo-Pacific Endeavour, an Australian-led multinational military drill, as well as Operation Render Safe, activities by the Australian Defense Force to remove underwater mines in the Pacific.
The two countries agreed to hold working-level meetings as part of steps to revise a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 aimed at enhancing defense industry cooperation.
Marles also met with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and discussed joint efforts to expand cooperation with the Pacific Islands countries, a presidential spokesperson said.


Sudan refugees strain cash-strapped Chad’s hospitality

Sudan refugees strain cash-strapped Chad’s hospitality
Updated 30 May 2023

Sudan refugees strain cash-strapped Chad’s hospitality

Sudan refugees strain cash-strapped Chad’s hospitality
  • They are among 90,000 people who have escaped to Chad since fighting broke out in Sudan in mid-April
  • Tensions have risen over water use, which is traditionally sourced from communal wells

KOUFROUN: There used to be one family in Fanna Hamit’s compound, now there are 11 families struggling to get by selling roasted crickets after she took in relatives fleeing the conflict in Sudan.
They are among 90,000 people who have escaped to Chad since fighting broke out in Sudan in mid-April — a major extra burden on one of the world’s poorest countries.
Even before this emergency, Chad was hosting 600,000 refugees from its war-torn neighbors and grappling with a fourth consecutive year of acute food shortages. Overall, around 2.3 million people are in urgent need of food aid, the World Food Programme warned earlier in May.
“The extraordinary hospitality of the Chadian government and its people has been demonstrated yet again ... but the scale of this crisis requires more funding to save lives,” UN aid agency OCHA said in a call for increased international support.
Hamit, a 58-year-old widow with six children of her own, has had to make careful economies to provide for those sheltering in her compound, most of whom arrived in this border village of Koufron with nothing.
Squeezed into the open-air compound, the women cook together over small braziers in the sand as children play around them.
“They share everything with us: their food, their toilet, their clothes and all the rest,” said 78-year-old Kaltouma Yaya Abderahmane, who pitched up at Hamit’s door in the middle of the night in late April.
The sudden arrival of large numbers of people has also distorted the market for goods and squeezed water supplies in Chad’s remote and arid borderlands.
“Let’s not even talk about sugar ... it’s doubled in price,” Hamit said, also lamenting the higher cost of grains and peanuts.
Tensions have risen over water use, which is traditionally sourced from communal wells. Some refugees at the Goungour refugee camp, south of Koufroun, told Reuters they had been barred by locals from drawing water in a nearby village and had to dig their own wells in dry riverbeds.
Hamit said she tried to help “even the refugees who have set up shelters nearby .... they come to us for water”.

“The situation is tough for everyone.”


At least 10 dead, 55 injured as bus of Hindu pilgrims falls into gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir

At least 10 dead, 55 injured as bus of Hindu pilgrims falls into gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir
The overloaded bus was on way to Katra from Punjab state when it fell off the highway bridge. (AP)
Updated 30 May 2023

At least 10 dead, 55 injured as bus of Hindu pilgrims falls into gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir

At least 10 dead, 55 injured as bus of Hindu pilgrims falls into gorge in Indian-controlled Kashmir
  • The overloaded bus was on way to Katra from Punjab state when it fell off the highway bridge and into the gorge near Jammu city

SRINAGAR: A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to a shrine in Indian-controlled Kashmir skid off a highway bridge into a Himalayan gorge Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 55, police said.
The bus was on way to Katra town from the northern state of Punjab’s Amritsar city when it fell into the gorge near Jammu city, police said.
Local police officer Chandan Kohli told reporters that the bus was overloaded. He said the dead were from India’s eastern Bihar state.
Residents and authorities rushed to the accident spot and launched a rescue operation. The injured have been hospitalized.
The shrine of Vaishno Devi in Katra is highly revered by Hindus and hundreds of thousands visit it every year.
India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.


Prominent Somali politicians protest at election overhaul deal

Prominent Somali politicians protest at election overhaul deal
Somalia’s government announced an agreement on Sunday that a one-person one-vote system would be introduced in June 2024. (AFP)
Updated 30 May 2023

Prominent Somali politicians protest at election overhaul deal

Prominent Somali politicians protest at election overhaul deal
  • Somalia’s government announced an agreement on Sunday that a one-person one-vote system would be introduced in June 2024
  • Eight prominent politicians, among them former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and four former prime ministers, issued a statement Monday objecting to the agreement

MOGADISHU: A group of leading Somali politicians denounced Monday a move to overhaul the country’s electoral system and introduce universal suffrage, charging that there was a lack of broad consultation and that some of the proposals were unconstitutional.
Somalia’s central government and four federal member states announced an agreement on Sunday that a one-person one-vote system would be introduced with local elections set for June 2024.
It followed a pledge by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in March to end the complex clan-based indirect voting system in place for more than half a century in the troubled Horn of Africa nation.
Sunday’s agreement reached at a meeting of the National Consultative Forum also calls for a single presidential ticket in which voters would choose a president and vice president, effectively quashing the post of prime minister.
The proposals still have to be approved by parliament.
But about eight prominent politicians, among them former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and four former prime ministers, issued a statement Monday objecting to the agreement.
“We applaud efforts to get the country to a level of one-person one-vote and a multi-party system... that enforces democratic governance,” they said.
However, they charged that making a decision of such national interest “without the full representation of all federal member states, will put the unity of the people in jeopardy”, referring to the absence of Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni at Sunday’s meeting.
“Making changes in the power-sharing mechanism and the governance system of the country without in-depth consultation, without consulting the public, will lead to a breakdown, a lack of confidence and the disintegration of society.”
The signatories voiced their opposition to a new electoral calendar calling for parliamentary and presidential votes in the federal states on November 30 next year, beyond the current expiry dates of some mandates.
They also objected to plans to limit to two the number of political parties able to contest elections, saying it meant that “power will be confined to a small group of people”.
Somalia is struggling to emerge from decades of conflict and chaos while battling a bloody insurgency by Al-Shabab jihadists and natural disasters including a punishing drought that has left millions facing hunger.
The country has not had one-person, one-vote elections nationwide since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.
However, in a landmark move on Thursday, Puntland held direct elections for local councils, with Somalia’s international partners voicing hope they would inspire increased democracy across the nation.