Sri Lanka will promote free trade as head of IORA, foreign minister says

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry. (@alisabrypc)

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Updated 13 September 2023

Mohammed Rasooldeen

September 13, 2023 16:00

Sri Lanka will promote free trade as head of IORA, foreign minister says

Nation set to take over chairmanship of Indian Ocean Rim Association in October
‘Our aim is to bring together these diverse countries,’ Ali Sabry says

Updated 13 September 2023

Mohammed Rasooldeen

September 13, 2023 16:00

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will work to boost free trade among member nations of the Indian Ocean Rim Association when it assumes chairmanship of the organization, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on Wednesday.

The South Asian nation is set to take over the chairmanship for the 2023-25 period next month, when the group’s highest decision-making body meets in Colombo. Representatives of IORA member states, including the UAE, Oman and Yemen, are expected to attend along with its dialogue partners, such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the US.

“Sri Lanka would want to work with all countries in IORA, including the Middle Eastern countries, and help the organization to grow from strength to strength, learn from each other and share experiences and technical know-how, and ultimately to create a free trade arrangement among the member countries,” Sabry told Arab News.

“Our aim is to bring together these diverse countries to network and build good relationships in terms of social security, economic and maritime affairs.”

Established in 1999, the IORA has 23 members and 11 dialogue partners. It works to strengthen regional cooperation and sustainable development within the Indian Ocean region.

That region is home to about 2.7 billion people — more than a third of the world’s population — and is considered vital for global trade and energy resources, though it faces challenges, from piracy to geopolitical tensions.

Sri Lanka, which will take over the chairmanship from Bangladesh, is seeking to foster an architecture for the IORA to better tackle issues like piracy, smuggling and drug trafficking.

“Sri Lanka is committed to (maintaining) the Indian Ocean as a zone of peace,” Sabry said.

“The idea is to create a secure dialogue and diplomacy to solve differences and to build on strengths to create a better world for all.”

6 members of American UN aid worker’s family killed by Israeli attack in Gaza

Updated 4 sec ago

RAY HANANIA

November 29, 2023 21:27

6 members of American UN aid worker’s family killed by Israeli attack in Gaza

Hani Almadhoun says his brother, sister-in-law and 4 of their children died when a massive bomb reduced their home to rubble
12 members of his sister-in-law’s family, including 5 children, were killed by an airstrike during the early stages of the conflict in Gaza

Updated 4 sec ago

RAY HANANIA

November 29, 2023 21:27

CHICAGO: All 14-year-old Siwar Almadhoun wanted to do was play basketball. Her 9-year-old brother, Omar, dreamed of being a soccer star.
Their dreams died with them in the early hours of Friday, Nov. 24 when, as they slept, Israeli forces dropped a massive bomb on their home in Beit Lahia, in the Gaza Strip.
Their parents, Majed, 41, and Safa, 38, were also killed in the indiscriminate Israeli slaughter, along with siblings Reman, 18, who had just started college, and 7-year-old Ali, said Hani Almadhoun, Majed’s brother. He is an American citizen who works for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East office in Washington D.C., where he supervises charitable fundraising efforts to help needy families.
Only two of his brother’s children, daughters Roa and Salam, survived the carnage. They are married and live with their families in Rafah.
“Siwar, the basketball player, a 14-year-old girl, she loved basketball,” Almadhoun, 42, told Arab News as he struggled to speak through the grief. “The salt of this earth. A very sweet girl. She was killed. She did nothing. She was asleep, just like her family.
“And half of her mom, only one half, was recovered. Reman was recovered. Ali was recovered … their cat was buried and killed next to them. They adopted a cat named Lucky. A very unfortunate name. They liked to call her Cici. She was killed between the two kids because they loved to play with her so much.
“The only body that was found immediately was Omar. He flew through the window into the street 20 meters away. They went to bury him. They went to find Majed, and my mom knew her son was there. She was grieving and then, on top of that, (there were) no ambulances, no bulldozers were able to come to remove this rubble.”
The bodies of some of the occupants of the five-story apartment building the Almadhoun family owned were thrown from the building when it was destroyed but they could not be immediately recovered because of Israeli sniper fire and the missile strikes that continued to pound the civilian neighborhood.
Almadhoun said his father and mother spent three days searching for the remains of Majed, Safa and their grandchildren.
“They kept digging through the rubble of their destroyed homes but they could find nothing,” he said. “As they searched the area they recovered two and a half bodies that had been thrown by the explosion and were found in a destroyed home next door.
“(My mother) was desperate. She is heart-broken. Nobody is coming to the rescue. I have had meetings as high as the White House, the State Department and all these guys, and I can’t get safety to my family. It broke me.
“We all love our moms and dads. But she is just a lady whose son is buried and she can’t even have a minute with him. She can’t even take a picture with him because his face is swollen.”
Almadhoun said the search continues for Siwar’s body but his family’s efforts are hampered by the communications blackout imposed during the conflict by Israel, which has had total control of the Gaza Strip since 1967.
“There is heartbreak. There is sorrow,” he said. In response to suggestions that his relatives might have somehow had a connection with Hamas or were being used as human shields, he added: “This is personal … I know my family. There is no way that you could build a case against Majed, my brother.
“Majed loved his mom, honored his parents. He was very generous to help neighbors in need. We don’t know why they were killed.”
Almadhoun’s father owned a small grocery store a three-minute walk from the family home. Majed leased space for a kitchenware store in Sheikh Radwan, a 10 minute ride from Beit Lahia. Both shops have also been destroyed.
“All their savings were lost. My family is homeless,” Almadhoun said. “Remember the refugees from 1948.”
The massacre of his family, and the thousands of other civilians killed since the Israeli bombings and invasion began, are difficult to comprehend given their scale, he added.
According to official estimates, more than 14,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israeli assaults and invasion, nearly 10,000 of whom were civilians with no connection to Hamas.
The attacks are not only partly funded by US taxpayers through US support for Israel, but the Israelis are using American-made weapons including massive 2,000-pound bombs capable of flattening an apartment building in a single strike.
Almadhoun said his brother and sister-in-law had been grieving the loss of 12 members of the latter’s family who were wiped out several weeks ago during the early stages of the Israeli onslaught.
They were killed by an attack in the Atwan area, a few miles south of Beit Lahia, Almadhoun said. The dead included Safa’s father and mother, five of her siblings and five of their young children.
“They lived in the Atwan area of northern Gaza,” he said. “The good volunteers in the family went and dug out the bodies. It was so horrific a scene, and a genocide
at their home, that they would not let Safa see her family because of the brutality: the body parts, the known pieces, the plastic bags.
“My brother Majed, her husband, went and collected the bodies and buried them. There was no proper burial because we know that Gaza is running out of spaces for graves and cemeteries are overflowing with dead bodies.”
The Almadhouns originally came from Ashkelon, which was in the Gaza District of Palestine before it was captured by Israel in 1948. The family fled Gaza to find work in the UAE, which is where Hani was born. But they returned to Beit Lahia to open their businesses there.
Almadhoun said the last time he saw his brother and his family was during a visit to Gaza in August this year. His parents and other surviving relatives are still in northern Gaza but cannot easily be reached.
“My dad is trying to be strong, trying to be normal,” he said. “I know he is not doing well but he is trying to be strong for everybody else. My mom cries and when she cries, I cry. I can’t take it. It is a lot.”

Topics: War on Gaza Beit Lahia UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) UN aid Israeli

Russian teen handed 6 years for attempted arson of army office

Updated 20 min 32 sec ago

AFP

November 29, 2023 21:20

Russian teen handed 6 years for attempted arson of army office

A court in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday sentenced Yegor Balazeikin, 17, on “terrorism” charges
The propellant in the home-made Molotov cocktails failed to ignite and did not result in any casualties or significant damage

Updated 20 min 32 sec ago

AFP

November 29, 2023 21:20

SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia: A Russian court sentenced a 17-year-old to six years in a juvenile penal colony for throwing Molotov cocktails at army recruitment offices in protest at Moscow’s assault on Ukraine.
Dozens of military enlistment centers across Russia have been targeted in attempted arson attacks by anti-conflict protesters since Russia launched its full-scale military campaign against Ukraine last February.
A court in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday sentenced Yegor Balazeikin, 17, to six years in a youth education colony — a Russian prison colony for minors — on “terrorism” charges, reported an AFP journalist from the court.
The propellant in the home-made Molotov cocktails failed to ignite and did not result in any casualties or significant damage.
Balazeikin said he had targeted the enlistment buildings in Saint Petersburg and in his hometown of Kirovsk, 30 kilometers (20 miles) east of Saint Petersburg, in protest at Russia’s offensive on Ukraine.
His uncle was killed a few months after volunteering to fight at the start of the conflict.
Moscow has taken a harsh line against public shows of dissent and opposition to its actions in Ukraine.
Russian courts have sentenced several individuals to multiple years in prison — also on “terrorism” charges — for attempted attacks on military and government buildings.
At the time of his arrest, Balazeikin was a student at a prestigious high school in Saint Petersburg specializing in social sciences.
Balazeikin’s supporters have expressed concern about his worsening health conditions, including autoimmune hepatitis and liver fibrosis, while in custody.
“Keeping Yegor in prison while he suffers from such a dangerous and progressive disease will kill him,” said a petition launched on Change.org in October and now signed by more than 3,000 people.
According to his mother, Balazeikin “has no regrets” over his actions.
“He believes he did the right thing, because you have to be able to defend your point of view,” Tatyana Balazeikina said in an interview with the independent Doxa news outlet.
During the trial, Balazeikin admitted to throwing the Molotov cocktails, but said he did not agree with the classification of his actions as a “terrorist act.”
“I believe that if people en masse expressed their dissatisfaction — not necessarily in the way I did — it will lead to the end of this war and the saving of lives,” the independent Sota outlet quoted him as saying in court.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict court Arson Molotov Saint Petersburg

Father of British student killed by IDF urges Israel to change ‘inhuman’ military tactics

Updated 29 November 2023

Arab News

November 29, 2023 17:38

Father of British student killed by IDF urges Israel to change ‘inhuman’ military tactics

Tom Hurndall was shot by an IDF sniper while assisting Palestinian children caught in the crossfire in Gaza

Updated 29 November 2023

Arab News

November 29, 2023 17:38

LONDON: A British barrister whose son was killed by the Israel Defense Forces says that Israel will lose Western support if it continues its “fundamentally unethical and inhuman attitudes,” The Times reported on Wednesday.

Anthony Hurndall shared information about his son’s shooting, showcasing how Israeli military tactics are responsible for killing innocent people.

Tom Hurndall was a photography student, International Solidarity Movement volunteer and an activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

In April 2003, the 22-year-old was shot by IDF sniper Taysir Hayb while assisting Palestinian children caught in the crossfire in Gaza. He was left in a coma and died nine months later.

An investigation revealed that Soroka Hospital’s medical staff removed bullet fragments from Tom’s brain. Initially, the hospital claimed that his injuries were caused by a baseball bat. When that was refuted, the Israeli government claimed he was carrying a weapon and was a gunman.

Hayb was later sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter after it was revealed that he thought he was following standard military procedure.

“The investigation further revealed that, as standard practice, the IDF routinely falsely misrepresent civilians and children as militants, or as armed, and fabricate accounts of events as a pretext for their killing,” Hurndall, who is director of the Center for Justice, told The Times.

“These claims appear similar to the claims that the IDF are currently making to justify their bombing, missile and other attacks on civilian targets and hospitals in Gaza. It was the view of those in diplomatic circles, expressed to us at the time, that the IDF appeared to consider themselves immune from accountability and free to misrepresent innocent civilians as legitimate military targets and to target them, as a form of intimidation or collective punishment.”

Hurndall acknowledges the “unrelenting pressure of the UK government and press” for unearthing the mechanisms responsible for his son’s death.

“Unfortunately, Palestinian civilians do not have the resources or support to protect themselves in this way. Western governments and media appear overly willing to accept Israeli accounts and narratives and repeat them,” he said. “In doing so they actively encourage the killing of women and children and are, in my view, themselves complicit in, or at least condoning, the deliberate killing of civilians and war crimes.”

He added: “I have over the years found myself questioning my own support for Israel and find myself increasingly appalled by the accounts of the treatment of Palestinians, and the actions of the IDF and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and by the failure of those in the West to question this.

“The narrative portrayed in turn by the media and Western governments appears one-sided and to ignore the facts. My worry is that if Israel does not change fundamentally unethical and inhuman attitudes and policies and stop committing war crimes, it will build up even greater resistance from the Palestinian people and lose the sympathy and support of the West.”

“I wish Israel a happy, secure and prosperous future but it needs to abandon policies which destroy the very prospects of such a future. It will not achieve security through repression and an aggressive use of arms, but make this ever less likely.”

Topics: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Israeli occupation Israel

Kremlin warns of tensions if Poland sends troops to Finnish-Russian border

Updated 29 November 2023

Reuters

November 29, 2023 16:53

Kremlin warns of tensions if Poland sends troops to Finnish-Russian border

The head of the Polish National Security Bureau said in a post on social media X late on Tuesday that Poland would send military advisers to its NATO ally Finland
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is an absolutely redundant measure to ensure border security because there is no threat there”

Updated 29 November 2023

Reuters

November 29, 2023 16:53

MOSCOW/HELSINKI: Any decision by Finland to allow a “concentration” of troops on its border with Russia would be viewed by Moscow as a threat, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, after Poland offered to send military advisers to help Helsinki police the frontier.
The head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, said in a post on social media X late on Tuesday that Poland would send military advisers to its NATO ally Finland, in response to “an official request for allied support in the face of a hybrid attack on the Finnish border.”
“A team of military advisers will provide on-site knowledge on border security, also in operational terms,” he said.
Finland said on Wednesday it was unaware of the Polish offer. It has closed its entire 1,340 km (833 mile) border with Russia for two weeks in a bid to halt an unusually large flow of asylum seekers that Helsinki says amounts to a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by Moscow, a charge the Kremlin denies.
Asked about the Polish offer to Finland during a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is an absolutely redundant measure to ensure border security because there is no threat there.”
“The Finns must be clearly aware that this will pose a threat to us — an increase in the concentration of military units on our borders.”
Any planned deployment would be unprovoked and unjustified, said Peskov.
Finland’s Border Guard and the interior ministry both said they were unaware of any plan to bring Polish military advisers to Finland’s eastern border.
The Finnish foreign and defense ministries and its defense forces did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto held talks with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in Warsaw last week but they did not discuss military cooperation on the Finnish border with Russia, Niinisto’s office said in a statement to Reuters.
Finland infuriated Russia earlier this year when it joined NATO, ending decades of military non-alignment, due to the war in Ukraine.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Finland Kremlin Poland asylum seekers NATO

Pakistan court acquits former PM Sharif in graft case

Updated 29 November 2023

AFP

November 29, 2023 16:46

Pakistan court acquits former PM Sharif in graft case

Sharif is currently on bail appealing several convictions for corruption in an attempt to clear his name ahead of elections scheduled in February
“I had left all the matters to Allah and Allah has honored me today,” Sharif told reporters outside the Islamabad High Court

Updated 29 November 2023

AFP

November 29, 2023 16:46

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan high court on Wednesday quashed a graft conviction against three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who returned from self-imposed exile last month to launch a political comeback.
Sharif is currently on bail appealing several convictions for corruption in an attempt to clear his name ahead of elections scheduled in February, with his primary opponent Imran Khan in jail.
“I had left all the matters to Allah and Allah has honored me today,” Sharif told reporters outside the Islamabad High Court.
An official of the Islamabad high court confirmed the acquittal in one case, and Sharif is still appealing a second conviction over investments in steel companies.
Sharif was jailed for 10 years in 2018 for corrupt practices linked to his family’s purchase of upscale London flats.
He was ousted and barred from politics for life in 2017 for failing to declare parts of his income.
Sharif, who has been prime minister three times but has never completed a full term, has always maintained that the charges were politically motivated.
His political fortunes have risen and fallen on his relationship with Pakistan’s military establishment — the country’s true kingmakers who have ruled directly for more than half of its history and continue to enjoy immense power.
“Now everything is moving in favor of Nawaz Sharif,” said political analyst Hasan Askari.
“This appears to be a political game managed by powerful personalities and institutions,” he told AFP.
Sharif’s fortunes changed when Khan had a spectacular falling out with the military.
The former cricketing superstar was later jailed in connection with several cases he says are designed to keep him from contesting elections next year.
Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz came to power in a coalition that ousted Khan.
That government oversaw a change to the law limiting the disqualification of lawmakers from contesting elections to five years — paving the way for his return.

Topics: Pakistan ex prime minister Nawaz Sharif court graft case

Sri Lanka will promote free trade as head of IORA, foreign minister says

Sri Lanka will promote free trade as head of IORA, foreign minister says

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Russian teen handed 6 years for attempted arson of army office

Russian teen handed 6 years for attempted arson of army office

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Russian court sentences 11 for Saint Petersburg bombing

Father of British student killed by IDF urges Israel to change ‘inhuman’ military tactics

Father of British student killed by IDF urges Israel to change ‘inhuman’ military tactics

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Pakistan court acquits former PM Sharif in graft case

Pakistan court acquits former PM Sharif in graft case

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Sri Lanka will promote free trade as head of IORA, foreign minister says

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