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White House suggests Kremlin behind Prigozhin death

White House suggests Kremlin behind Prigozhin death
The White House on Tuesday came close to declaring that the Kremlin was responsible for the death of Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was believed to have been killed in a mysterious plane crash last week. (AFP/File)
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Updated 31 August 2023
Reuters
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White House suggests Kremlin behind Prigozhin death

White House suggests Kremlin behind Prigozhin death
  • “We all know that the Kremlin has a long history of killing opponents,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
  • “It’s very clear what happened here”
Updated 31 August 2023
Reuters
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WASHINGTON: The White House on Tuesday came close to declaring that the Kremlin was responsible for the death of Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was believed to have been killed in a mysterious plane crash last week.
“We all know that the Kremlin has a long history of killing opponents,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “It’s very clear what happened here.”
Her comment was the closest US statement yet on the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed the killing of Prigozhin, who had launched a brief mutiny against the Kremlin in June.
Prigozhin was killed last week when the plane he was flying in crashed outside of Moscow. Theories have abounded on what brought the plane down, from an explosion on board to a surface-to-air missile strike.
US President Joe Biden told reporters last week that the United States was working to try to reach a conclusion on how the plane was brought down. “We’re trying to nail (it) down precisely,” he said on Friday.
Biden also said it was no surprise that Prigozhin had been killed after opposing Putin.

Topics: Russia Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin White House Kremlin

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At least 47 dead in Tanzania landslides: local official

A general view of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (AFP)
A general view of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (AFP)
Updated 21 sec ago
AFP
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At least 47 dead in Tanzania landslides: local official

A general view of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (AFP)
  • “Up to this evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media
Updated 21 sec ago
AFP

DAR ES SALAAM: At least 47 people were killed and 85 others injured in landslides caused by flooding in northern Tanzania, a local official announced Sunday, with warnings the toll would rise.
Heavy rain on Saturday hit the town of Katesh, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of the capital Dodoma, district commissioner Janeth Mayanja said.
“Up to this evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media.
Both warned that the death toll was likely to increase.
Mayanja added the many roads in the area had been blocked by mud, water and dislodged trees and stones.
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in Dubai for the COP28 climate conference, sent her condolences and said she had ordered the deployment of “more government efforts to rescue people.”
Images broadcast on state television TBC showed many flooded homes and vehicles stuck in thick mud.
After experiencing an unprecedented drought, East Africa has been hit for weeks by torrential rain and flooding linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon.
The downpours have displaced more than a million people in Somalia and left hundreds dead.
In May, torrential rains caused devastating floods and landslides in Rwanda that killed at least 130 people.
El Nino is a naturally occurring weather pattern that originates in the Pacific Ocean and drives increased heat worldwide, bringing drought to some areas and heavy rains elsewhere.
Scientists expect the worst effects of the current El Nino to be felt at the end of 2023 and into next year.
Between October 1997 and January 1998, massive flooding exacerbated by heavy El Nino rains caused more than 6,000 deaths in five countries in the region.
Scientists say extreme weather events such as flooding, storms, droughts and wildfires are being made longer, more intense and more frequent by human-induced climate change.

 

Topics: Tanzia

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New UK foreign secretary David Cameron to visit Washington

New UK foreign secretary David Cameron to visit Washington
Updated 04 December 2023
AFP
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New UK foreign secretary David Cameron to visit Washington

New UK foreign secretary David Cameron to visit Washington
  • Former PM will meet with key members of Biden Administration, including Secretary of State Blinken
Updated 04 December 2023
AFP

LONDON: Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, a former prime minister brought back into government last month, will visit Washington from Wednesday, his office said.

The trip will be a chance to “reaffirm the strength of the UK’s relationship with its closest strategic ally,” the foreign office said in a statement on Sunday.

Cameron, who served as Conservative prime minister from 2010 to 2016, was named as Britain’s top diplomat on November 13 as current premier Rishi Sunak shuffled his ministerial team.

He is due in the US capital on Wednesday where he will meet with “key members of the Biden Administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as meeting Republican and Democratic Congressional figures,” the foreign office said.

At the center of Cameron’s discussion will be “support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and work to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East,” it added.

Cameron made his first overseas trip in his new post to Ukraine just days after he was appointed.

While in Kyiv, he promised that London would “continue to give you the moral support, diplomatic support, the economic support, but above all, the military support, that you need... for however long it takes.”

Topics: UK US David Cameron

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Religious leaders, victims’ relatives hold UK vigil over Israel-Hamas war

Religious leaders, victims’ relatives hold UK vigil over Israel-Hamas war
Updated 03 December 2023
AFP
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Religious leaders, victims’ relatives hold UK vigil over Israel-Hamas war

Religious leaders, victims’ relatives hold UK vigil over Israel-Hamas war
Updated 03 December 2023
AFP

LONDON: A UK interfaith coalition comprising religious, political and civic leaders, as well as grieving relatives of some of those killed in the Israel-Hamas war, held a vigil Sunday in London.
Hundreds gathered mid-afternoon in wet and frigid conditions opposite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street office and residence to “give a voice to the majority of the public who stand against hate,” organizers said.
The grouping, Together for Humanity, aimed to highlight its nascent movement against rising anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hate with the event, dubbed “Building Bridges.”
It was spearheaded by Brendan Cox, the widower of murdered British lawmaker Jo Cox, and supported by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as well as a leading British rabbi, imam and peace activists.
Welby told the crowd it was time to “clean away anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” both of which have been on the rise in Britain since the war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack.
Hamas militants burst through Gaza’s militarised border into Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while also taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 15,500 people in the besieged Palestinian territory, mainly civilians and thousands of them children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“We will not let anti-Semitism, Islamophobia have a role in our streets, our schools, our towns,” Welby added.
Imam Monawar Hussain said “we stand united against all those who seek to sow hatred and division.”
British-Israeli Magen Inon, whose parents were killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack, was also among the speakers.
“Of course I’m angry,” he said.
“What the terrorists really tried to kill is the possibility of people of different backgrounds and faiths to live in peace alongside one another,” Inon added.
“The only possible revenge of my parents is to set aside fear and hate and to be hopeful that a better future is possible.”
Others at the vigil included Palestinian peace activist Hamze Awawde, who lives in Ramallah in the Palestinian Territories and has had relatives injured recently in the conflict.
He spoke of his grandfather, who 50 years ago “chose to fight and sacrifice himself, so his children and grandchildren would have a better future.”
But “50 years on, every year is worse than the last.”
With rain pouring down, those gathered observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the conflict, “whatever their origins.”
Together for Humanity has emerged since Israel began bombing Gaza in response to the October 7 attack, which has prompted a spike in anti-Semitism in Britain.
At least 1,747 incidents were recorded between October 7 and November 29 by the Community Security Trust, whose role is to protect the UK’s Jewish community.
Meanwhile, London and other UK cities have seen large-scale protests on recent weekends in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which have polarized public opinion and been blamed for stoking social divisions.
Ahead of the vigil, Cox, a father of two, said the “loudest and most extreme voices have drowned out the vast majority of the public” when it came to the conflict.
His wife was killed by a Nazi sympathizer days before Britain’s contentious 2016 Brexit referendum, and he subsequently co-founded the Together Coalition charity.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Palestine Gaza Hamas UK

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ICC prosecutor vows to ‘further intensify’ Gaza probe

ICC prosecutor vows to ‘further intensify’ Gaza probe
Updated 03 December 2023
AFP
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ICC prosecutor vows to ‘further intensify’ Gaza probe

ICC prosecutor vows to ‘further intensify’ Gaza probe
Updated 03 December 2023
AFP

THE HAGUE: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has vowed to step up efforts to investigate alleged war crimes, as he wrapped up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Karim Khan stressed his visit was “not investigative in nature” but said he was able to speak to victims on both sides of the conflict.

More than 15,200 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza, according to Hamas, in more than eight weeks of combat and heavy bombardment.

“My office will further intensify its efforts to advance its investigations in relation to this situation,” Khan said.

“Credible allegations of crimes during the current conflict should be the subject of timely, independent examination and investigation.”

Opening its doors in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only independent court set up to probe the gravest offenses, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

It opened an investigation in 2021 into Israel as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups for possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

Khan has previously said this investigation now “extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on Oct. 7, 2023.”

But ICC teams have not been able to enter Gaza or investigate in Israel, which is not an ICC member.

The war broke out when Hamas militants burst through Gaza’s militarised border into Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, while also taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.

Khan emphasized that how Israel responded to Hamas attacks is subject to clear legal parameters that govern armed conflict.

Acknowledging that conflict in densely populated areas such as Gaza was “inherently complex,” international humanitarian law must still apply, Khan said.

Legal experts have said that both Hamas and Israel could face war crimes charges over the conflict.

Five countries called in mid-November for an ICC investigation into the Israel-Hamas war, with Khan saying his team had collected a “significant volume” of evidence on “relevant incidents.”

Khan also called for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza and not be seized by Hamas.

“All actors must comply with international humanitarian law. If you do not do so, do not complain when my office is required to act,” he warned.

Topics: War on Gaza

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Indonesia wants to introduce local products through stores across Saudi Arabia

Indonesia wants to introduce local products through stores across Saudi Arabia
Updated 03 December 2023
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Indonesia wants to introduce local products through stores across Saudi Arabia

Indonesia wants to introduce local products through stores across Saudi Arabia
  • Kingdom is ‘always an important trade partner for Indonesia,’ minister had said
  • Indonesia is hoping to start negotiations for free trade pact with Saudi Arabia
Updated 03 December 2023
Sheany Yasuko Lai

JAKARTA: Indonesia is introducing a wide range of its national products to the Saudi market through shops established across the Kingdom, an Indonesian Embassy official has said, following the latest store opening in Riyadh.

There are dozens of Indonesian stores established in various Saudi cities, including in Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah and Alkhobar.

The latest shop to join the list is the Indonesia Market, which was inaugurated last week by the Indonesian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Abdul Aziz Ahmad and Suhanto, secretary-general at the Indonesian Ministry of Trade.

“Now there are 24 Indonesian stores in Riyadh, and the number keeps on growing. This growth shows that Indonesian products have garnered an interest and are accepted in Saudi Arabia,” Ihsan Nugroho, economic and trade consul at the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News.

“We are hoping that in the future Indonesian stores will serve as a bridge for the entry of Indonesian products (to Saudi Arabia), especially those coming from small and medium enterprises.”

Indonesian stores in the Kingdom also symbolized good relations between the two countries, Nugroho said, adding that snacks, biscuits and other food items are popular.

“Many of our products from small and medium enterprises are of high quality and value, but they are not too well-known in the Saudi market. For that reason, we hope that Indonesian stores can accelerate the introduction of these products in Saudi Arabia,” he said.

The Indonesian Trade Ministry is also supportive of the opening of such shops, as they help promote Indonesian goods and contribute to increase in exports.

“The secretary-general (Suhanto) also stressed the need to speed up the process for an Indonesia-Saudi Arabia trade pact in order to boost the competitiveness of Indonesian products in the Saudi market,” the ministry said in a statement.

Indonesia has been seeking to enhance its trade ties with Saudi Arabia and gain a greater presence in the Middle East.

President Joko Widodo and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had discussed the formation of a negotiation team for the Indonesia-Saudi Arabia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement during the former’s visit to Riyadh in October.

Saudi Arabia is “always an important trade partner for Indonesia,” Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said after the meeting.

Saudi-Indonesia trade has been on the rise, increasing by about 45 percent to $7 billion, between January and November last year, compared to the same period in the previous year.

Topics: Indonesia Saudi Arabia

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