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OIC praises Cambodia’s religious tolerance at annual reception

OIC praises Cambodia’s religious tolerance at annual reception
El Habib Bourane, director of Muslim communities and minorities at the Department of Political Affairs at the OIC. (Supplied)
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Updated 28 March 2023
Arab News

OIC praises Cambodia’s religious tolerance at annual reception

OIC praises Cambodia’s religious tolerance at annual reception
  • OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha thanked Cambodia’s leadership, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, for hosting the event
  • Speaking before more than 6,000 people, from different regions of Cambodia and neighboring countries, Hun Sen said that his government had always promoted freedom of religion
Updated 28 March 2023
Arab News

JEDDAH: A delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has attended the annual Ramadan iftar reception hosted by Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, in Phnom Penh.

The event was attended by dignitaries from the region’s countries, including the prime minister of Malaysia, the former vice president of Indonesia, and members of the diplomatic community.

OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha thanked Cambodia’s leadership, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, for hosting the event.

In a statement delivered on his behalf by El Habib Bourane, director of Muslim communities and minorities at the Department of Political Affairs at the OIC, Taha said that the occasion testified to Cambodia’s long-standing respect for diversity, peaceful coexistence and tolerance among all communities, and to the high regard the government of the country accords to Muslims.

He acknowledged that the Cambodian government’s promotion of peaceful integration, coexistence and harmony among various communities provided an example for other countries to follow.

The OIC chief expressed appreciation for constructive engagement between the organization and Cambodia, and stressed his commitment to strengthening the close and friendly relations and cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.

Speaking before an audience of more than 6,000 people from different regions of Cambodia and neighboring countries, Hun Sen said that his government had always promoted freedom of religion by facilitating all practices and resolutely opposing racism.

He emphasized that religious harmony was indispensable in building and ensuring peace and development.

Hun Sen called on the Cambodian Islamic Supreme Council to strengthen and expand national and international cooperation to help mobilize both technical and financial assistance to contribute to the well-being of the Muslim community.

The delegation from the OIC also held meetings with a number of Cambodian officials, the mufti of the country, and representatives of the Muslim community. It also visited mosques in Phnom Penh.

Topics: Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Cambodia Hun Sen Hissein Brahim Taha El Habib Bourane

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Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’
Updated 05 June 2023
AP

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’
  • The Congress Party defeated the BJP in recent state elections in the Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka states, wins that came after a series of state elections defeats after Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014
Updated 05 June 2023
AP

NEW YORK: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi pressed his criticism of the country’s leadership in a speech Sunday, calling for Indians in the US and back home to stand up for democracy and the Indian constitution.
Gandhi, a sharp critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was expelled from Parliament, accused Modi and his Bharativa Janata Party (BJP) of dividing the country and failing to focus on important issues such as unemployment and education.
“To be nasty to people, to be arrogant, to be violent, these are not Indian values,” Gandhi, 52, told a crowd of about 700 at the Indian Overseas Congress USA event at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. He spoke just after a minute of silence recognizing a massive train derailment in eastern India that killed 275 people and injured hundreds more.
Gandhi has been on a three-city tour of the United States, including speaking engagements at Stanford University in California and the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, US congressional leaders have invited Modi to address a joint meeting of Congress later this month. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other leaders announced the address as an “opportunity to share your vision for India’s future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face.”
Grandson of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Indian National Congress party. He is considered to be Modi’s main challenger in the upcoming 2024 elections.
“Modern India cannot exist without our constitution and our democracy,” he said Sunday. He also urged a stronger partnership between India and the US to offset China’s influence.
“One of the things we have to think about is the bridge between India and the United States,” he said. “How do we compete with the challenge the Chinese have placed on the table,” he asked, specifically citing issues of mobility and the world’s energy supply.
The Congress Party defeated the BJP in recent state elections in the Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka states, wins that came after a series of state elections defeats after Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014. Gandhi now holds no official position in his party. He gave up the post of party president after his severe defeats by Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2019 national elections, though his supporters hope the more recent results will impact the country’s 2024 national elections, which are likely to be held before May.
Gandhi suffered a serious setback in March when a court convicted him in a criminal defamation case for mocking Modi’s surname, a decision that led to him being expelled from parliament. He could lose his eligibility to run for a parliamentary seat for the next eight years if an appeals court doesn’t overturn his conviction. The conviction came in connection with a speech he gave in 2019.
Gandhi, who is not related to Mahatma Gandhi, also invoked the assassinated Indian leader’s name several times during his speech, praising his model of non-violence.

 

 

Topics: Rahul Gandhi INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS RSS BJP

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Russia says shoots down Ukraine-launched drones over Crimea, Kursk

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Updated 05 June 2023
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Russia says shoots down Ukraine-launched drones over Crimea, Kursk

Russia says shoots down Ukraine-launched drones over Crimea, Kursk
  • The strikes came after multiple attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod and oil infrastructure inside the country, as well as a drone strike on wealthy districts of Moscow earlier in the week
Updated 05 June 2023
Reuters

MOSCOW: Russia said on Sunday it intercepted nine drones over the Crimean Peninsula and one over the small town of Sudzha in the southern region of Kursk, in what have been nearly daily attacks inside the country or on Moscow-held territories.
Five drones were shot down and four were jammed and did not hit their targets in Dzhankoi in Crimea, said a Russian-installed official in the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
A Ukrainian-launched drone was downed over Sudzha later in the day, the governor of the Kursk region that borders with Ukraine said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
The strikes came after multiple attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod and oil infrastructure inside the country, as well as a drone strike on wealthy districts of Moscow earlier in the week.
Kyiv denied attacking Moscow and Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks elsewhere inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.
There were no casualties in the Sunday drone attacks, officials said. In Dzhankoi, windows were broken in several houses, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He added that one unexploded drone was found on the territory of a residential house, forcing the temporary evacuation of about 50 people in the area.
Russia has a military air base near Dzhankoi. Ukrainian officials have long said the city and surrounding areas have been turned into Moscow’s largest military base in Crimea.

 

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Police officers detain a demonstrator in Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 4, 2023. (AP)
  • Navalny, who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s elite and alleging vast corruption, said in April that an “absurd” terrorism case had been opened against him that could see him sentenced to a further 30 years in jail
Updated 05 June 2023
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MOSCOW: Russian police on Sunday arrested more than 100 people who had taken to the streets to mark the 47th birthday of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, a protest monitoring group said.
OVD-Info said in a statement that 109 people had been detained in 23 cities as of 10:42 p.m. Moscow time (1942 GMT). Authorities have clamped down heavily on signs of dissent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and in most cities, only a handful of people were held.
Navalny is serving combined sentences of 11-1/2 years for fraud and contempt of court on charges that he said were trumped up to silence him.
Footage from Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia’s two largest cities, showed police arresting individual demonstrators. One man could be seen briefly holding up a sign before Moscow police ushered him away, bent over, as he groaned in pain.
Another man, who held up a sign in English that read “Free Navalny,” was also arrested in Moscow.
In St. Petersburg, a woman accompanied by a child told reporters that “I’m against the war, that’s why they detained me with my underage kid.”
Navalny, who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s elite and alleging vast corruption, said in April that an “absurd” terrorism case had been opened against him that could see him sentenced to a further 30 years in jail.

 

 

Topics: Alexei Navalny Russia

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Prigozhin says Kremlin factions are destroying the Russian state

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Updated 05 June 2023
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Prigozhin says Kremlin factions are destroying the Russian state

Prigozhin says Kremlin factions are destroying the Russian state
  • Prigozhin said a dispute between him and Chechen forces who are also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine had been resolved
Updated 05 June 2023
Reuters

MOSCOW: Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.
That row had now been settled but infighting in the Kremlin had opened a Pandora’s Box of rifts, he said.
Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former restauranteur who founded the Wagner mercenary group and is a member of President Vladimir Putin’s wider circle, has gained widespread notoriety during the 15-month war in Ukraine.
His troops have spearheaded battles in the city of Bakhmut and elsewhere, but he has also rowed with the Russian military over tactics, logistical support and other issues.
Prigozhin said a dispute between him and Chechen forces who are also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine had been resolved. But he laid the blame for the discord on unidentified Kremlin factions — which he calls “Kremlin towers.”
Their scheming had got so out of hand that Putin had been forced to scold them at a Security Council meeting, he said.
“Pandora’s Box is already open — we are not the ones who opened it,” Prigozhin said in a message posted by his press service. “Some Kremlin tower decided to play dangerous games.”
“Dangerous games have become commonplace in the Kremlin towers...they are simply destroying the Russian state.”
He did not identify the Kremlin faction but said that it continued its attempts to sow discord, it would have “hell to pay.” The Kremlin did not comment on his remarks.
Putin held a Security Council meeting of Friday about what he said were “interethnic” relations inside the country.
Prigozhin said Chechen remarks made about him sounded like something out of the early 1990s when conflicts gripped Russian cities after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Clearly the statements made were rather provocative, aimed at hurting me and freaking me out,” Prigozhin said.
Prigozhin also said any battle between Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat special forces and Wagner would result in serious bloodshed but there was no doubt who would win.
He also again vented his anger about the current state of the war and the culpability of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
“The ministry of defense is not in a state to do anything at all as it de-facto doesn’t exist — it is in chaos,” Prigozhin said.
The defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Niether Shoigu nor Gerasimov have commented in public about Prigozhin’s comments.

 

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Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths

Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths
Updated 04 June 2023
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Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths

Nepal urged to tighten climbing rules to cut Everest deaths
  • At least 12 climbers died and five are missing during this year’s main climbing season
Updated 04 June 2023
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KATHMANDU: Weak climbers being led up Mount Everest by expedition operators with insufficient experience are causing problems, a veteran mountain guide said on Sunday, after one of the deadliest climbing seasons in years on the world’s highest mountain.

At least 12 climbers died and five are missing and feared dead on the 8,849 meter Mount Everest during this year’s main climbing season that has just ended, the deadliest since an earthquake triggered an avalanche that killed 18 people in 2015.

“Weakest clients with less experienced operators is part of the problem,” Guy Cotter, 69, a noted guide from the New Zealand who has climbed Everest five times, said in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.

“Clients should have minimum climbing standards with proven prior ascents before coming to Everest,” he said.

Three sherpa climbers were killed when ice came crashing down on them on the lower reaches of the mountain in April and the rest of those who died succumbed to illness or exhaustion, government and hiking officials said.

Nepal does regulate the climbing of Everest and its other Himalayan peak, insisting that everyone gets a permit, for example, but Cotter said the operators who guide clients up the mountain should meet minimum standards of equipment and staff.

“There are many operators who take clients to Everest but do not understand how to avoid incidents occurring and when things do go wrong they do not have processes in place to address the problems,” Cotter said.

Bigyan Koirala, an official with the Department of Tourism that oversees climbing, said the government was considering more regulations but did not give details.

Nepal issued a record of 478 permits for Everest this year and hundreds of people made it to the summit.

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