China ambassador arrives in North Korea in sign of reopening

China ambassador arrives in North Korea in sign of reopening
North Korea claimed it again detonated mock warheads during tests of nuclear-capable missiles and a purported underwater attack drone this week. (File/AP)
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Updated 28 March 2023

China ambassador arrives in North Korea in sign of reopening

China ambassador arrives in North Korea in sign of reopening

BEIJING: China said Tuesday its new ambassador to North Korea has taken up his post, in a sign the North is reopening amid reports it has been suffering heavily from the COVID-19 pandemic and food shortages.
Wang Yajun will help in the development of the traditional friendship between the “close neighbors sharing mountains and rivers,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing.
China is North Korea’s main source of economic aid and political support, but interactions have been disrupted by travel restrictions imposed in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The ambassador’s posting comes as North Korean state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un urged his nuclear scientists to increase production of weapons-grade material to make bombs to put on the country’s widening range of weapons.
The report Tuesday followed a series of missile launches — seven this month alone — and rising threats to use the weapons against North Korea’s enemies.
North Korea’s weapons tests and US-South Korea military exercises have intensified in recent months, increasing tensions in the region.
China’s support for both North Korea and Russia is seen as an act of defiance against the US-led liberal world order, along with ensuring security along its borders. While China has agreed to United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear tests, it has repeatedly assured the Kim regime of support to prevent its collapse and the potential humanitarian, military and political consequences that might ensue.


Mystery of the desert: the lost cities of the Nigerien Sahara

Mystery of the desert: the lost cities of the Nigerien Sahara
Updated 22 sec ago

Mystery of the desert: the lost cities of the Nigerien Sahara

Mystery of the desert: the lost cities of the Nigerien Sahara

DJADO, Niger: A long trek across the desert of northeastern Niger brings the visitor to one of the most astonishing and rewarding sights in the Sahel: fortified villages of salt and clay perched on rocks with the Saharan sands laying siege below.

Generations of travelers have stood before the “ksars” of Djado, wondering at their crenelated walls, watchtowers, secretive passages and wells, all of them testifying to a skilled but unknown hand.

Who chose to build this outpost in a scorched and desolate region — and why they built it — are questions that have never been fully answered. And just as beguiling is why it was abandoned.

No archaeological dig or scientific dating has ever been undertaken to explain the mysteries.

Djado lies in the Kawar oasis region 1,300 km from the capital Niamey, near Niger’s deeply troubled border with Libya.

Once a crossroads for caravans trading across the Sahara, Kawar today is a nexus for drug and arms trafficking.

Its grim reputation deters all but the most determined traveler.

“There have been no foreign tourists since 2002,” said Sidi Aba Laouel, the mayor of Chirfa, the commune where the Djado sites are located.

“When tourism was good, there was economic potential for the community.”

A blessing of sorts occurred in 2014, when gold was discovered. It saw an influx of miners from across West Africa, bringing life and some economic respite, but also bandits who hole up in the mountains.

Few of the newcomers seem interested to visit the ksars.

The mayor is careful when speaking about local history, acknowledging the many gaps in knowledge.

He refers to old photocopies in his cupboard of a work by Albert le Rouvreur, a colonial-era French military officer stationed in Chirfa, who tried without success to shed light on the origins of the site.

The Sao, present in the region since antiquity, were the first known inhabitants in Kawar, and perhaps established the first fortifications.

But the timeline of their settlement is hazy. Some of the ksars still standing have palm roofs, suggesting they were built later.

Between the 13th and the 15th centuries, the Kanuri people established themselves in the area.

Their oasis civilization was almost destroyed in the 18th and 19th centuries by successive waves of nomadic raiders — the Tuaregs, Arabs and finally the Toubou.

The arrival of the first Europeans in the early 20th century spelt the beginning of the end of the ksars as a defense against invaders. The French military took the area in 1923.

Today, the Kanuri and Toubou have widely intermingled but the region’s traditional leaders, called the “mai,” descend from the Kanuri lineage.

They act as authorities of tradition, as well as being custodians of oral history.

But even for these custodians, much remains a mystery.

“Even our grandfathers didn’t know. We didn’t keep records,” said Kiari Kelaoui Abari Chegou, a Kanuri leader.

Three hundred kilometers to the south of Djado lies the Fachi oasis, famous for its fortress and old town, with the walls still almost intact.

Some symbolic sites of the ancient city are still used for traditional ceremonies.

A traditional authority of Fachi, Kiari Sidi Tchagam says the fortress is “at least two hundred years old.”

“According to our information, there was an Arab who had come from Turkiye, it was he who gave people the idea of making the fort there,” he said, echoing theories of Turkish influence.

While the ruins are a point of pride, descendants are worried the fragile salt buildings, threatened by rain, are not properly safeguarded.

Since 2006, Djado has languished on a tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

“It’s really crucial it’s registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” said Tchagam.

“We are reminded of ourselves in this fort, it’s a part of our culture, (it’s) our entire history.”


Political stability of Libya is a ‘priority for Italy’s national security,’ says Meloni

Political stability of Libya is a ‘priority for Italy’s national security,’ says Meloni
Updated 50 min 53 sec ago

Political stability of Libya is a ‘priority for Italy’s national security,’ says Meloni

Political stability of Libya is a ‘priority for Italy’s national security,’ says Meloni
  • The comment from the Italian prime minister came during a lengthy meeting with Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, her counterpart in Libya’s transitional government
  • Giorgia Meloni said Libya ‘remains a strategic economic partner for Italy’ and stressed the importance of holding presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya ‘as soon as possible’

ROME: Italian authorities consider political stability in Libya “a priority for Italy’s national security,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, her counterpart in Libya’s transitional government, on Wednesday.
It came during a lengthy meeting in Rome, during which enhanced joint efforts to tackle illegal migration and cooperation in the fields of energy and waste management were the core issues they discussed, sources said.
Meloni said that Libya “remains a strategic economic partner for Italy.” She also stressed how important it is “to hold Libyan presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible,” and added that “Italy will continue to work to guarantee the success of the United Nations mediation.”
Sources in the Italian prime minister’s office told Arab News that Dbeibah was accompanied by the Libyan ministers of foreign affairs, interior, transport and communications.
Other representatives of the Italian government included deputy premiers Antonio Tajani, who is also the foreign minister, and Matteo Salvini, Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.
Piantedosi and his Libyan counterpart signed a memorandum of understanding for strengthening security cooperation.
On the sidelines of the meeting, an agreement for joint initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was signed by Claudio De Scalzi, the CEO of Italian energy company ENI, and a representative of the Libya’s National Oil Corporation.
In addition, Telecom Italia Sparkle and the Libyan Post Telecommunications and Information Technology Company signed a memorandum of understanding for an underwater data cable linking the two countries.


Over 1,400 migrants are rescued from overcrowded boats off Italy by coast guard

Over 1,400 migrants are rescued from overcrowded boats off Italy by coast guard
Updated 07 June 2023

Over 1,400 migrants are rescued from overcrowded boats off Italy by coast guard

Over 1,400 migrants are rescued from overcrowded boats off Italy by coast guard
  • There were 47 migrants, including two children in immediate need of medical care, aboard the sailboat in distress off the region of Calabria
  • The rescues began late Monday night and ended in the early hours of Wednesday in the Ionian Sea off Calabria's east coast

ROME: More than 1,400 migrants have been rescued from overcrowded vessels, including a sailboat, in four separate operations in the Mediterranean Sea off southern Italy, the Italian coast guard said Wednesday.
There were 47 migrants, including two children in immediate need of medical care, aboard the sailboat in distress off the region of Calabria, in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula, a coast guard statement said. They were rescued by a coast guard motorboat early Tuesday.
The statement said the rescues began late Monday night and ended in the early hours of Wednesday in the Ionian Sea off Calabria’s east coast. One coast guard vessel took on around 590 migrants from aboard a fishing boat, and then later brought on around 650 migrants from another fishing boat, the statement said.
A coast guard motorboat and an Italian border police ship came to the assistance of a fourth vessel, with 130 migrants aboard.
Authorities didn’t immediately give details on the nationalities of the passengers or routes taken by the migrant vessels. But generally, many boats with migrants sighted off the Ionian Sea set out from Turkiye’s coast, where smugglers launch crowded and unseaworthy boats.
Earlier this year, a migrant boat navigating on that route slammed into a sandbank just off a Calabrian beach town and broke apart. At least 94 migrants perished and 80 others survived.
That shipwreck is under criminal investigation, including the role of several members of Italy’s border police corps, which operates vessels off the country’s long coastline. Four suspected smugglers have been arrested.
In addition, prosecutors want to know if rescue efforts could have been launched hours earlier. Italian border police boats reportedly turned back to port because of rough seas, and by the time a coast guard vessel, better equipped to navigate in poor sea conditions, reached the area, bodies were already in the water. In that case, the migrant boat had been spotted hours earlier by a surveillance aircraft operated by Frontex, the European Union’s border monitoring force.
Wednesday’s statement by the coast guard said that crew on a Frontex surveillance plane had spotted a fishing boat with the 590 migrants aboard. A Frontex patrol boat and a Frontex support vessel were among the assets involved in the rescue operations for the two fishing boats, according to the coast guard.
Alarm Phone, a nongovernmental organization that frequently receives satellite calls from migrant vessels in distress and relays the information to maritime authorities in Italy and Malta, was among the organizations signaling the need for rescue for the 130 people aboard the fourth boat.


Erdogan proposes destroyed dam probe in Zelensky call

Erdogan proposes destroyed dam probe in Zelensky call
Updated 07 June 2023

Erdogan proposes destroyed dam probe in Zelensky call

Erdogan proposes destroyed dam probe in Zelensky call
  • Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for the destruction of Kakhovka hydroelectric dam
  • President Erdogan said that a commission could be established with the participation of experts from the warring parties, the United Nations and the international community

ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday proposed, in a call with his Ukrainian counterpart, creating an international commission to probe the destruction of a major dam in southern Ukraine, his office reported.
Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame for the destruction of Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which was ripped open early Tuesday after a reported blast.
“President Erdogan said that a commission could be established with the participation of experts from the warring parties, the United Nations and the international community, including Turkiye, for a detailed investigation into the explosion at Kakhovka dam,” his office said after the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Kakhovka dam sits on the Dnipro River, which feeds a reservoir providing cooling water for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, Europe’s largest, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) upstream.
The destruction of the dam caused torrents of water to pour into the Dnipro, pushing thousands of civilians to flee the flooded areas while raising fears of an ecological disaster.
NATO member Turkiye, which has good ties with Moscow and Kyiv.


Marcos to strengthen ties with countries hosting Filipino workers

Marcos to strengthen ties with countries hosting Filipino workers
Updated 07 June 2023

Marcos to strengthen ties with countries hosting Filipino workers

Marcos to strengthen ties with countries hosting Filipino workers
  • Philippines celebrates Migrant Workers’ Day every June 7
  • Overseas ‘heroes’ are key drivers of the Philippine economy

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced on Wednesday his administration would foster stronger ties with countries that host overseas Filipinos to ensure their safety and welfare.

Nearly 2 million migrant workers are key drivers of the Philippine economy and a main source of the country’s foreign reserves.

Often referred to as “modern-day heroes,” Marcos said overseas Filipinos “fuel the engine of progress” in the Philippines. They sent around $36 billion in personal remittances last year, making up about 8.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to central bank data.

“We understand the challenges that you faced being far from your loved ones, adjusting to new cultures and overcoming barrier(s),” Marcos said in a video message broadcast to mark Migrant Workers’ Day in the Philippines.

“That’s why this administration will continue to foster stronger ties with countries that host our migrant workers, ensuring safety, welfare and well-being.”

Nearly a quarter of overseas Filipinos, or OFWs, work and live in Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Singapore and Qatar.

“In every corner of the globe, you have left an indelible mark that uplifted both your host countries and our nation in the process,” Marcos said, adding that their sacrifices had “nurtured dreams, elevated livelihoods, and fueled the engine of progress” in the Philippines.

The Philippines celebrates Migrant Workers’ Day every June 7 in commemoration of enacting the 1995 Migrant Workers’ Act, which introduces standards for the protection and welfare of those working abroad, their families and overseas Filipinos in distress.

In 2021, former president Rodrigo Duterte signed a law establishing the Department of Migrant Workers, which is tasked with overseeing policies protecting OFWs.

The DMW’s Secretary Susan Ople announced on Wednesday training and mentorship programs for OFWs with the Department of Trade and Industry to help Filipino migrant workers start their own businesses once they return to home.

“Our OFWs contribute to our economy through their dollar remittances but at some point in their lives, they would also need to come home and create sustainable sources of income through entrepreneurship, sound investments or by landing a better job here at home,” Ople said.

“We want them to come back with excitement in their hearts on what the future holds for them and their families, through meaningful partnerships across the government bureaucracy and with NGOs and private companies serving as their mentors and cheerleaders.”