Fugitive Catalan ex-leader Puigdemont back in Spain despite arrest warrant

Fugitive Catalan ex-leader Puigdemont back in Spain despite arrest warrant
Above, supporters of Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont during a welcoming event organized by Junts per Catalunya party outside the parliament in Barcelona on Aug. 8, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 08 August 2024
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Fugitive Catalan ex-leader Puigdemont back in Spain despite arrest warrant

Fugitive Catalan ex-leader Puigdemont back in Spain despite arrest warrant
  • Former leader of Catalonia’s dramatic return came just days after Socialists struck a deal with moderate Catalan separatist party ERC
  • The Socialists won the most seats in a regional election in May but failed to get a majority and the support of the ERC is crucial

BARCELONA: Carles Puigdemont, the former leader of Catalonia who fled Spain over his role in a failed 2017 independence bid for the wealthy region, returned to Spain on Thursday after seven years on the run despite a pending arrest warrant.
Puigdemont shouted “Long live a free Catalonia!” as he climbed onto a stage in Barcelona to address thousands gathered near the Catalan regional parliament which is set to elect a new leader later in the day.
“I have come here to remind you that we are still here,” he said as many in the crowd waved red, yellow and blue Catalan independence flags.
After his brief address, Puigdemont appeared to head toward the nearby Catalan parliament but the assembly began an investiture vote to pick a new leader for the region without him being present.
It was not immediately clear where he was.
Nuria Pujol, a woman in her fifties who came to Barcelona from the Alt Penedes region to see Puigdemont, called him “a very noble person.”
“The only one who believes in independence and has not stopped believing,” she added.
A small group of protesters gathered nearby waving Spanish flags and holding signs that read “Catalonia is Spain” in a demonstration organized by far-right party Vox.
Puigdemont’s dramatic return came just days after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists struck a deal with moderate Catalan separatist party ERC — which competes with Puigdemont’s more hard-line JxCAT — to make the Socialist candidate, Salvador Illa, the next head of the Catalan regional government.
The Socialists won the most seats in a regional election in May but failed to get a majority and the support of the ERC is crucial.
If a new Catalan regional government is not formed by August 26, fresh elections will be held in October.
Puigdemont led the regional government of Catalonia in 2017 when it pushed ahead with an independence referendum despite a court ban, which was followed by a short-lived declaration of independence.
He fled Spain shortly after the independence bid to avoid prosecution and has since lived in Belgium and more recently France.
While Spain’s parliament in May passed an amnesty law for those involved in the botched secession bid, the Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that the measure would not fully apply to Puigdemont.
In a video posted on social network X on Wednesday to announce his imminent return to attend the investiture vote, Puigdemont accused Spanish authorities of “a long persecution.”
“This challenge must be answered and confronted,” he added.
Sanchez agreed to the amnesty law in exchange for JxCAT’s crucial support in Spain’s parliament for his fragile minority government, sparking huge street protests against the measure organized by the right.
He is now facing opposition from parts of his own Socialist party as well as the right over a proposal to give Catalonia full control of the taxes collected in the region.
The measure was promised to the ERC in exchange for the party’s support for Illa in Thursday’s investiture vote.
The proposal has for decades been one of the main demands of Catalan independence parties but critics argue it would deprive the central state of a substantial source of revenue. It still must be approved by Spain’s national parliament.
A similar system already exists in Spain’s northern Basque Country, which also has an active independence movement.
If Illa passes Thursday’s investiture vote, he will be the first head of Catalonia’s regional government who does not come from the separatist camp since 2010.
The former health minister has defended the tax agreement made with the ERC, saying they are “in favor of all Catalans.”
“They are agreements to improve our financing without harming anyone and maintaining criteria of solidarity,” he said after securing the ERC’s support.
But former Socialist deputy prime minister Alfonso Guerra has warned the tax agreement opens “a path toward a federal system and the independence of Catalonia.”

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Russia charges soldiers with killing pro-Moscow US fighter

Updated 12 sec ago
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Russia charges soldiers with killing pro-Moscow US fighter

Russia charges soldiers with killing pro-Moscow US fighter
The authorities did not say what had motivated the soldiers to kill Russell Bentley
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday it had “established all the persons involved in the death of Russell Bentley and the circumstances of the offenses committed“

MOSCOW: Russia on Friday charged four of its soldiers serving in occupied Ukraine with torturing a US citizen living in Russian-held Donetsk who had fought with pro-Moscow forces since 2014.
It is rare instance for Russia to accuse active soldiers in Ukraine — who are glorified at home — of committing crimes.
The authorities did not say what had motivated the soldiers to kill Russell Bentley, who regularly appeared on pro-Kremlin social media channels, backing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive in Ukraine.
Known as “Texas,” 64-year-old Bentley was declared dead in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in April. His wife said at the time he had been abducted and killed by Russian troops.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday it had “established all the persons involved in the death of Russell Bentley and the circumstances of the offenses committed.”
It named the four soldiers involved as Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, Andrei Iordanov and Vitaly Vansyatsky.
They are accused of “using physical violence and torture, causing the death of a victim by negligence, as well as the concealment of a particularly serious crime by moving the remains of the deceased to another place,” the committee said.
According to the investigation, the soldiers tortured and killed Bentley in Donetsk on April 8.
Two of them then blew up a military car containing his body, before another moved the remains to cover up the crime, investigators said.
Moscow said the soldiers were “familiarising” themselves with the charge before the case is sent to court.
Bentley, from Austin in Texas, had served in the US army in the 1980s.
He often wore a cap, styled on Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, with a red badge bearing hammer and sickle.

Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine

Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine
Updated 20 September 2024
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Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine

Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine
  • The extension brings the aggregate aid package to 135 billion kroner from a previous total of 75 billion kroner through 2027
  • To get the increased package through parliament, Store’s center-left minority government will need the support of the opposition

OSLO: Norway will increase civilian aid to Ukraine by five billion kroner ($475 million) this year and extend its aid package by three years to 2030, the prime minister said Friday.
The extension brings the aggregate aid package to 135 billion kroner from a previous total of 75 billion kroner through 2027.
The Scandinavian country had already pledged 22 billion kroner in military and civilian aid for this year, and the additional five billion kroner will be dedicated to “important civilian needs, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told journalists after meeting parliamentary leaders.
“We are living through a very dangerous situation in Europe,” Store said.
To get the increased package through parliament, Store’s center-left minority government will need the support of the opposition, which has largely backed greater assistance to Ukraine.
Norway is a major gas and oil exporter, and has benefitted from the run-up in prices brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
According to a finance ministry document seen by AFP Thursday, Germany is planning to increase its military aid to Ukraine by almost 400 million euros ($445 million) this year, on top of the 7.5 billion euros it had already earmarked.


Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN

Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
Updated 20 September 2024
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Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN

Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
  • Burundi is the second hardest-hit country on the continent after the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Geneva: Youngsters have been especially impacted by mpox outbreaks raging in Africa, with children under five accounting for nearly a third of the cases in Burundi, the UN children’s agency said Friday.
Burundi is the second hardest-hit country on the continent after the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Children in Burundi are bearing the brunt of the mpox outbreak, with alarming rates of infection and severe health impacts,” said Paul Ngwakum, UNICEF’s Regional Health Adviser for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Ngwakum said two-thirds of cases in Burundi concerned people aged 19 and under.
“Of particular concern is the rise of mpox among children under five years of age, representing 30 percent of the reported cases,” he told reporters in Geneva, speaking via videolink from Bujumbura.
Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can in some cases be deadly.
The World Health Organization declared an international emergency last month, concerned by the surge in cases of the new clade 1b strain in the DRC that spread to nearby countries.
A total of 25,093 suspected mpox cases and 723 deaths were reported across the continent between January and September 8, WHO said.
Of those, 21,835 suspected cases and 717 deaths were reported in the DRC, while 1,489 suspected cases and no deaths have been reported in neighboring Burundi.
Research is still under way to discover how clade 1b compares to the original strain.
The outbreak in DRC has proved deadlier than previous mpox epidemics but this could be because the vulnerable populations in the conflict-torn country are now being affected.
“It may indeed be that it’s in a population who simply cannot respond immunologically to yet another threat,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters Friday.
While no deaths have been registered in Burundi yet, Ngwakum stressed that many children in the region were already weakened by low immunity and underlying illnesses and “will need critical treatment to be able to avoid them from dying.”
The last time WHO declared a global health emergency over mpox was in 2022 when the original mpox clade 2 that had long been endemic in central Africa suddenly began spreading around the world.
That outbreak mainly impacted gay and bisexual men with more than 100,000 cases reported and 222 deaths, according to the WHO.
Ngwakum said the geographical area where the virus is spreading in Burundi remains limited.
With swift action “we can limit the spread, contain the virus, and potentially end the outbreak with no lives lost,” he said.
I “think this can be stopped within a very few weeks.”
UNICEF, he said, was urgently appealing for nearly $59 million to scale up responses across six African countries, including Burundi.
Immunization with vaccines originally developed for smallpox could help stem the spread.
WHO last week for the first time prequalified an mpox vaccine, the MVA-BN, and Ngwakum said UNICEF was working to procure doses for Burundi.
On Thursday, mpox vaccines were administered in Africa for the first time, with several hundred high-risk individuals receiving jabs in Rwanda.
The DRC has said it will begin its vaccination campaign on October 2.


Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says
Updated 20 September 2024
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Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says
  • The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group
  • Five assailants were killed in the encounter, which took place in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan

ISLAMABAD: Militants opened fire on a security post in northwest Pakistan late on Thursday, killing at least six personnel, the military said in a statement on Friday, saying it had foiled an attempt by the attackers to storm the premises.
The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group, and was one of two fierce encounters along the border with Afghanistan between Thursday and Friday.
The South Asian nation is faced with a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants in the northwest as well as an intensifying ethnic separatist insurgency in the South.
“Troops fought bravely, foiling the attempts of intrusion,” the military’s information wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement, adding that six security personnel were killed in an intense exchange of fire.
Five assailants were killed in the encounter, which took place in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan, the statement added.
In a separate incident in the neighboring district of North Waziristan, the military said it had killed a group of seven militants attempting to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan, and recovered a large quantity of ammunition and explosives.
Islamabad says TTP uses Afghanistan as a base and says the ruling Taliban administration has provided safe havens to the group close to the border. The Taliban deny this.
The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban movement, but pledges loyalty to the Islamist group that now rules Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US led international forces from the country in 2021.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram warned the Security Council this week that the TTP, while currently perceived as a threat only to his country, could soon become the “spearhead of global terrorist goals” including of groups such as Al-Qaeda.


Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000

Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000
Updated 20 September 2024
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Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000

Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000
  • The toll comes from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media

Warsaw: The BBC and the independent Russian news site Mediazona said on Friday they had documented the deaths of around 70,000 Russian soldiers since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The toll comes from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media, as well as tombstones in Russian cemeteries.
“We have identified the names of 70,112 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine but the actual number is believed to be considerably higher,” the BBC said.
“Some families do not share details of their relatives’ deaths publicly — and our analysis does not include names we were unable to check, or the deaths of militia in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine,” the British broadcaster added.
The same two organizations had put the toll at 66,000 in mid-August.
Mediazona and another independent Russian news site, Meduza, have also analyzed official data from notaries on inheritance cases.
This has led them to estimate that the military death toll could be much higher — at 120,000.
The toll is considered secret in Russia.
Ukraine also communicates very little about losses for fear of demoralizing its citizens after more than two and a half years of Russia’s invasion.
In February, President Volodymyr Zelensky said around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died, although analysts and observers have said they believe the real number to be much higher.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the war had killed or injured a total of one million soldiers on both sides.
“A confidential Ukrainian estimate from earlier this year put the number of dead Ukrainian troops at 80,000 and the wounded at 400,000, according to people familiar with the matter.
“Western intelligence estimates of Russian casualties vary, with some putting the number of dead as high as nearly 200,000 and wounded at around 400,000,” it said.