Britain committed to Israel’s security, PM Starmer tells Netanyahu

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a statement on the evolving situation in the Middle East, inside 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a statement on the evolving situation in the Middle East, inside 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 01 October 2024
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Britain committed to Israel’s security, PM Starmer tells Netanyahu

Britain committed to Israel’s security, PM Starmer tells Netanyahu
  • Starmer condemned Iran’s attack on Israel, which began during the leaders’ conversation, in the “strongest terms,” the spokesperson added

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has expressed to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday his country’s “steadfast commitment” to Israeli security and protection of civilians after Iran’s missile attack.
A spokesperson for Starmer’s office said the prime minister spoke with Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon, and the leaders discussed the escalating situation across the Middle East.
Starmer condemned Iran’s attack on Israel, which began during the leaders’ conversation, in the “strongest terms,” the spokesperson added.
Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and Israel vowed a “painful response” against its enemy.
Alarms sounded across Israel and explosions could be heard in Jerusalem and the Jordan River valley after Israelis piled into bomb shelters. Reuters journalists saw missiles intercepted in the airspace of neighboring Jordan.
Starmer also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah, and they underscored the urgent need for a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza.
“The prime minister said he will work alongside partners and do everything possible to push for de-escalation and push for a diplomatic solution,” the spokesperson said.

 


South Korea president close to averting impeachment

South Korea president close to averting impeachment
Updated 20 sec ago
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South Korea president close to averting impeachment

South Korea president close to averting impeachment
  • Yoon Suk Yeol stunned the nation and the international community Tuesday night by suspending civilian rule
  • The probable outcome is likely to enrage crowds demonstrating outside parliament for Yoon’s ouster

SEOUL: A motion to impeach South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was on the brink of failing Saturday, after lawmakers from his ruling party boycotted the ballot despite huge protests outside parliament.

Yoon stunned the nation and the international community Tuesday night by suspending civilian rule and sending troops to parliament, but was forced into a U-turn after lawmakers nixed his decree.

Opposition parties, which hold 192 seats in the 300-seat parliament filed the impeachment motion, which needed 200 votes to pass and went to the vote on Saturday evening.

But almost all 108 members of Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) filed out of the chamber before the vote, prompting critical shouts from the opposition — with one yelling “where are you going?” and others calling them “accomplices to insurrection.”

Only three PPP members cast ballots, but speaker Woo Won-shik stopped short of calling the result, appealing to PPP lawmakers to return “to protect the Republic of Korea and its democracy.”

The probable outcome is likely to enrage crowds — numbering 150,000 according to police, one million according to organizers — demonstrating outside parliament for Yoon’s ouster.

Demonstrators booed while some sighed or even wept in frustration as the ruling party lawmakers walked out of the chamber. Some protesters went home.

“Even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted today, I am neither discouraged nor disappointed because we will get it eventually,” said Jo Ah-gyeong, 30.

“I’ll keep coming here until we get it. I’d like to tell ruling MPs this: Please do your freaking job,” she said.

Across town, thousands of pro-Yoon protesters gathered for a rally in Seoul’s main square.

Before the vote, Yoon, 63, apologized for the turmoil but said he would leave it to his party to decide his fate.

“I caused anxiety and inconvenience to the public. I sincerely apologize,” he said in the televised address, his first public appearance in three days.

He said he would “entrust the party with measures to stabilize the political situation, including my term in office.”

The backing of PPP lawmakers came despite party head Han Dong-hoon — who was allegedly on an arrest list on Tuesday night — saying Yoon must go.

If the motion does still pass, Yoon would be suspended from duties pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said Yoon’s comments on Saturday were “very disappointing” given widespread anger among South Koreans.

His speech “only exacerbates the sense of betrayal and anger among the citizens,” Lee said, adding the only solution was “the immediate resignation of the president or an early departure through impeachment.”

An opinion poll released Friday put backing for the president at a record low of 13 percent.

“The public will not forgive him,” 63-year-old retiree Lee Wan-pyo said at Seoul’s main train station before the vote.

“I just want him to step down,” said Han Jeong-hwa, a 70-year-old housewife.

Regardless of the vote, police have begun investigating Yoon and others for alleged insurrection.

In his address declaring martial law late Tuesday, Yoon claimed it would “eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness.”

Security forces sealed the National Assembly, helicopters landed on the roof and almost 300 soldiers tried to lock down the building.

But as parliamentary staffers blocked the soldiers with sofas and fire extinguishers, enough MPs got inside — many climbed walls to enter — and voted down Yoon’s move.

Soldiers had been ordered to detain key politicians, lawmakers from both parties have said, with the special forces chief later describing being given orders to “drag out” MPs from parliament.

Experts and lawmakers have speculated that the elite special forces soldiers may have slow-walked following orders, after discovering themselves to be involved in a political rather than national security incident.

The episode brought back painful memories of South Korea’s autocratic past and blindsided its allies, with the US administration only finding out via television.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Friday that he “expects the... democratic process to prevail.”


Pakistan national airline to resume flights to Europe after ban lifted

Pakistan national airline to resume flights to Europe after ban lifted
Updated 07 December 2024
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Pakistan national airline to resume flights to Europe after ban lifted

Pakistan national airline to resume flights to Europe after ban lifted
  • The airline remains banned from operating in the United States

Islamabad: Pakistan’s beleaguered national airline will resume flights to Europe on January 10 after European Union authorities lifted a four-year ban on the carrier, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
The statement from Pakistan International Airline (PIA), which was at the center of a pilot license scandal, said a “PIA flight will depart from Islamabad to Paris on January 10.”
“Initially, two flights will be operated weekly (on Friday and Sunday), which will gradually be increased.”
PIA was barred from flying to the EU in June 2020, a month after one of its aircraft plunged into a street in the southern city of Karachi, killing nearly 100 people.
The disaster was attributed to human error by the pilots and air traffic control, and was followed by allegations that nearly a third of the licenses for its pilots were fake or dubious.
The airline remains banned from operating in the United States.
After Europe’s ban was lifted last week, a spokesman for the carrier said they would “strictly adhere to EASA’s regulations and guidelines,” referring to the European Union’s aviation authority.
PIA, which employs 7,000 people, has long been accused of being bloated and poorly run — hobbled by unpaid bills, a poor safety record and regulatory issues.
Pakistan’s government has said it is committed to privatising the debt-ridden airline and has been scrambling to find a buyer.
Last month, a deal fell through after a potential buyer reportedly offered a fraction of the asking price.
The sale was also part of IMF demands in exchange for aid programs, including the privatization of public companies, establishing a broader tax base and ending subsidies for the 40 percent of Pakistanis who live below the poverty line.
In 2023, PIA had losses of $270 million according to local media.
Its liabilities were nearly $3 billion, about five times the total worth of its assets.
Last year, dozens of flights were canceled when it could not afford fuel for its planes.
While speaking to reporters last week, Pakistan’s aviation minister Khawaja Asif called the restoration of flights to Europe a “major value addition” that will make the airline more attractive to potential buyers.
PIA came into being in 1955 when the government nationalized a loss-making commercial airline and it enjoyed rapid growth until the 1990s.


India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester

India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester
Updated 07 December 2024
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India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester

India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester
  • Relations soured when ex-PM Sheikh Hasina, toppled after uprising this year, fled to India
  • Bangladesh’s current government leader has accused India of destabilizing his administration

NEW DELHI: India’s top diplomat will head to Bangladesh Monday after the student-led revolution in August that toppled autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina’s government in Dhaka soured ties between the two neighbors.
Hasina’s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India and the 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster, despite Bangladesh announcing it would seek her extradition.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is leading an interim government tasked with implementing democratic reforms, has condemned acts of “Indian aggression” that he alleged were intended to destabilize his administration.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal confirmed late Friday that his department’s secretary Vikram Misri would visit Bangladesh on Monday.
Misri “will meet his counterpart and there will be several other meetings during the visit,” Jaiswal told journalists in New Delhi.
Yunus, 84, faced numerous criminal proceedings during Hasina’s regime that her critics say were concocted to sideline one of her potential rivals.
He has been a vocal critic of India for backing Hasina’s rule to the hilt despite the mounting rights abuses seen over her 15-year tenure.
India for its part has accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu community from reprisals.
The arrest of a prominent Hindu priest in Bangladesh on sedition charges last month further added to tensions, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing supporters urging his government to take a more hard-line stance on Dhaka.
“We want to reiterate our position again that they have legal rights and we hope that these legal rights will be respected and that the trial will be fair,” Jaiswal said of the case.
Yunus’s administration has acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus, including during the chaotic hours after Hasina’s ouster, but said that in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion.
He has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a “propaganda campaign.”
“They are undermining our efforts to build a new Bangladesh and are spreading fictitious stories,” Yunus said this week.
Numerous street demonstrations have been staged against India in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster.
Several rallies were held this week to protest an attempt by Hindu activists to storm a Bangladeshi consulate in an Indian city not far from the neighbors’ shared border.
India condemned the breach afterwards and arrested seven people over the incident.
Despite cratering diplomatic ties the two neighbors are key economic partners with with annual bilateral trade worth about $14 billion.


Apartment block in The Hague ‘partially collapsed’ after explosion: authorities

Apartment block in The Hague ‘partially collapsed’ after explosion: authorities
Updated 07 December 2024
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Apartment block in The Hague ‘partially collapsed’ after explosion: authorities

Apartment block in The Hague ‘partially collapsed’ after explosion: authorities
  • It was not known how many people could be missing nor what caused the explosion in the block of flats not far from the center of the city

The Hague: A three-story apartment block in The Hague partially collapsed Saturday after a fire and explosion, firefighters said, with first responders searching for people under the rubble.
“At this moment, the emergency services are busy rescuing and searching for people and fighting the fire,” said the city’s fire service in a statement.
It was not known how many people could be missing nor what caused the explosion in the block of flats not far from the center of the city.
According to local media outlet Regio15, several people had already been rescued from the scene.
Four people injured in the explosion had been taken to local hospitals, according to the fire service.
“The fire is releasing a lot of smoke in the immediate vicinity... Residents are advised to close windows and doors and turn off ventilation,” authorities said.
The city’s mayor Jan van Zanen was on site to coordinate rescue efforts, according to Regio15.
Homes on multiple floors appeared to have been destroyed by the explosion, said Regio15.
Early images from public broadcaster NOS showed several dozen firefighters tackling a large blaze and breaking down doors to gain access to the block.
A picture from local news agency ANP showed one person being led away on a stretcher into a waiting ambulance.


India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester

India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester
Updated 07 December 2024
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India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester

India’s top diplomat to visit Bangladesh as tensions fester
  • Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India
  • She remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster

NEW DELHI: India’s top diplomat will head to Bangladesh Monday after the student-led revolution in August that toppled autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina’s government in Dhaka soured ties between the two neighbors.
Hasina’s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India and the 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster, despite Bangladesh announcing it would seek her extradition.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is leading an interim government tasked with implementing democratic reforms, has condemned acts of “Indian aggression” that he alleged were intended to destabilize his administration.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal confirmed late Friday that his department’s secretary Vikram Misri would visit Bangladesh on Monday.
Misri “will meet his counterpart and there will be several other meetings during the visit,” Jaiswal told journalists in New Delhi.
Yunus, 84, faced numerous criminal proceedings during Hasina’s regime that her critics say were concocted to sideline one of her potential rivals.
He has been a vocal critic of India for backing Hasina’s rule to the hilt despite the mounting rights abuses seen over her 15-year tenure.
India for its part has accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu community from reprisals.
The arrest of a prominent Hindu priest in Bangladesh on sedition charges last month further added to tensions, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing supporters urging his government to take a more hardline stance on Dhaka.
“We want to reiterate our position again that they have legal rights and we hope that these legal rights will be respected and that the trial will be fair,” Jaiswal said of the case.
Yunus’s administration has acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus, including during the chaotic hours after Hasina’s ouster, but said that in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion.
He has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a “propaganda campaign.”
“They are undermining our efforts to build a new Bangladesh and are spreading fictitious stories,” Yunus said this week.
Numerous street demonstrations have been staged against India in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster.
Several rallies were held this week to protest an attempt by Hindu activists to storm a Bangladeshi consulate in an Indian city not far from the neighbors’ shared border.
India condemned the breach afterwards and arrested seven people over the incident.
Despite cratering diplomatic ties the two neighbors are key economic partners with an annual bilateral trade worth about $14 billion.