Greek police arrest third suspect over bombing as minister warns of new generation of extremists

Greek police arrest third suspect over bombing as minister warns of new generation of extremists
Police officers guard near the entrance of a building following an explosion, which police believe was caused by an improvised device, that killed a man and a woman was seriously wounded, in Athens on Nov. 1, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 05 November 2024
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Greek police arrest third suspect over bombing as minister warns of new generation of extremists

Greek police arrest third suspect over bombing as minister warns of new generation of extremists
  • The intended target and timing of the planned attack remain under investigation. All three suspects – as well as the man killed in the blast – are Greek nationals

ATHENS, Greece: Greek police arrested a third suspect Monday in connection with an explosion in central Athens last week that authorities have blamed on an alleged aspiring domestic extremist group.
The 30-year-old woman surrendered to Greek authorities Monday at Athens International Airport after being located in Switzerland, authorities said.
The Oct. 31 blast gutted a third-floor apartment in the central Ambelokipi neighborhood, killing a 36-year-old man believed to have been assembling an explosive device. A 33-year-old woman was severely injured and remains hospitalized under police guard. A 31-year-old male suspect surrendered to authorities.
“It was a monstrous bomb with concentrated explosive material,” Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis told private Skai television. “It would have caused great destruction, because it was very powerful.” The apartment block has been declared uninhabitable due to blast damage.
Chrisochoidis said those allegedly involved were young people who appeared to aspire to become a new generation of domestic terrorists in Greece.
Anti-terrorism units searching the blast site, three additional locations and a vehicle seized two handguns with magazines, digital devices, disguise materials including wigs and rubber masks, and handwritten diagrams.
Greece has a history of far-left extremism dating to the 1970s, with militants carrying out multiple bombings and assassinations, though major groups have been dismantled.
Recent years have seen reduced activity, with the last significant incident occurring in December 2023 when police defused a bomb at riot police headquarters following an anonymous warning.
“I think we are dealing with an attempt of some young people who are aiming to become a third generation of terrorism in Greece,” Chrisochoidis said.
The intended target and timing of the planned attack remain under investigation. All three suspects – as well as the man killed in the blast – are Greek nationals.


Muhammad becomes most popular baby name in England and Wales

Muhammad has become the most popular name for boys in England and Wales, overtaking Noah. (Getty Images/File)
Muhammad has become the most popular name for boys in England and Wales, overtaking Noah. (Getty Images/File)
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Muhammad becomes most popular baby name in England and Wales

Muhammad has become the most popular name for boys in England and Wales, overtaking Noah. (Getty Images/File)
  • Variants Mohammed and Mohammad feature in top 100 along with Yusuf and Ibrahim
  • Popular culture remains key influence, with names such as Billie and Lana gaining popularity

LONDON: Muhammad has become the most popular name for boys in England and Wales, overtaking Noah.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics do not group together the different spellings of Muhammad, meaning that all the various iterations of the name together have made it the most popular for many years.

Mohammed and Mohammad both appear in the top 100 names for boys born in England and Wales in 2023.

There were 4,661 children registered as Muhammad, increasing from 4,177 in 2022.

The name was popular in regions with higher Muslim populations, such as London, the West Midlands, Yorkshire, and the North West.

Mohammed was the 28th most popular, with 1,601 newborns registered, while Mohammad was 68th, with 835.

Other Muslim boys’ names in the top 100 include Yusuf, Ibrahim, and Musa.

The third most popular boys’ name was Oliver, followed by George and Leo.

For girls, Olivia has remained the most popular name for eight years. Amelia and Isla have been second and third for two years in a row.

The top 100 girls’ names included Layla, Maryam, and Fatima, which are all favorites with Muslim families.

The ONS said popular culture remained a key influence for parents choosing names for their babies. 

Increasing numbers were names after music stars Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey, and actors Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy.

Even the names of celebrity babies such as the offspring from the Kardashian-Jenner family, Reign and Saint, gained popularity.


Young Georgians see homeland at turning point amid pro-EU protests

Young Georgians see homeland at turning point amid pro-EU protests
Updated 05 December 2024
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Young Georgians see homeland at turning point amid pro-EU protests

Young Georgians see homeland at turning point amid pro-EU protests
  • Georgian Dream says the protests represent an attempt to stage a violent revolution by pro-EU opposition parties
  • Younger Georgians have been numerous at pro-EU rallies that have flared up periodically since the spring

TBILISI: Almost every night since pro-EU protests erupted in Georgia last week, young husband-and-wife duo Mamuka Matkava and Gogona Parkaia have been working flat out to feed their fellow demonstrators.
Each night the couple, one a musician and the other an artist, spend three to four hours cooking dozens of mchadi, a traditional cornbread native to their home region of Mingrelia in western Georgia, in their small flat in a quiet residential neighborhood of the capital Tbilisi.
Adding to each piece a slice of salty Georgian sulguni cheese, they dish out the snacks to protesters gathered on Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue, the epicenter of the protests. Many protesters stay out until morning amid lengthy standoffs with riot police armed with water cannon and tear gas.
The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million has been gripped by crisis since the Georgian Dream party, returned to power in an October election the opposition says was tainted by fraud, said last week it was halting European Union accession talks until 2028, abruptly freezing a long-standing national goal of EU membership that is written into Georgia’s constitution.
Georgian Dream says the protests represent an attempt to stage a violent revolution by pro-EU opposition parties.
Like many young Georgians, Gogona sees the question of EU membership as existential for her country, which gained independence at the Soviet Union’s break-up in 1991, but has under Georgian Dream deepened ties with Russia, which continues to support two breakaway Georgian regions.
“The most important thing is that we need to avoid becoming part of Russia,” she said.
“We need a friend who can protect us from the power of Russia, you know? Because we are a very small country, and by ourselves, we cannot do anything.”
For Gogona, who runs a YouTube channel with husband Mamuka, there is an added responsibility. She is pregnant, and says that helping feed protesters allows her to take a stand without risking her unborn child at protests that often turn violent, and at which over 300 people have been detained.
“I don’t just feel responsible for myself right now. I feel responsible for my child,” she said.

GENERATION GAP
Younger Georgians have been numerous at pro-EU rallies that have flared up periodically since the spring, when Georgian Dream introduced a law on “foreign agents” that domestic and foreign critics say is draconian and Russian-inspired.
In contrast to their elders, few younger Georgians have visited Russia, or speak its language, having grown up in a period when Moscow imposed a stringent visa regime on Georgians that was only lifted last year.
Born and raised in a country where EU and Georgian flags fly together outside government buildings, and enjoying visa-free travel to the EU’s Schengen Zone, Georgia’s Generation Z tend toward pro-Western views.
They see the current protests as a seminal moment in the history of Georgia, which was ruled from Russia for around 200 years, and fought and lost a brief war with its huge neighbor in 2008.
Twenty-year-old politics student Nini came to Wednesday night’s protest with classmates from one of Tbilisi’s private universities, most of which have suspended studies amid mass student walk-outs.
Like many rally-goers, she carried a gas mask slung around her neck in case of a police crackdown.
She said: “As a student, and as a Georgian, just a citizen, I feel like it’s my obligation to stand with my people, with my fellow Georgians when there is such a critical situation in our country.”
Nini said that her peers, who grew up online and often speak fluent English, took their pro-Western cues from their parents’ and grandparents’ bitter experiences of Georgia’s turbulent history since independence.
“We don’t want to go back into the past. We’re not going back.”
For expectant mother Gogona, her unborn child only adds to the significance of the current moment.
“We don’t want our children to have to protest in their life. We want them to have freedom and the opportunity to choose their own way,” she said.
“We just want them to be in a free country, you know?”


Russia closes Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg in tit-for-tat move

Russia closes Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg in tit-for-tat move
Updated 05 December 2024
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Russia closes Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg in tit-for-tat move

Russia closes Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg in tit-for-tat move
  • Poland announced it was closing the Russian consulate in Poznan in October, accusing Moscow of “sabotage” attempts in the country and its allies
  • Tensions between Russia and NATO member Poland have escalated since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022

MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday ordered the Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg to close in retaliation for the Poland shutting the Russian consulate in the Polish city of Poznan, the foreign ministry said.
Poland announced it was closing the Russian consulate in Poznan in October, accusing Moscow of “sabotage” attempts in the country and its allies.
“Guided by the principle of reciprocity, three diplomatic staff members of the consulate general of the Republic of Poland in Saint Petersburg have been declared persona non grata,” Moscow’s foreign ministry said.
It said the consulate must close and its staff leave Russia by January 10, 2025.
Poland responded that it would close all the Russian consulates on its soil if “terrorism” it blamed on Moscow carried on.
“If acts of diversion and terrorism continue, I will close down the rest of the Russian consulate presence in Poland,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters after Moscow announced the closure of the Saint Petersburg consulate.
Tensions between Russia and NATO member Poland have escalated since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, with both sides expelling dozens of diplomats.
Poland is a staunch ally of Kyiv and has been a key transit point for Western arms heading to the embattled country since the conflict began.
It has accused Russia of being behind espionage and sabotage attempts on its territory.
In one of the largest espionage trials, Poland last year convicted 14 citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine of preparing sabotage on behalf of Moscow as part of a spy ring.
They were found guilty of preparing to derail trains carrying aid to Ukraine, and monitoring military facilities and critical infrastructure in the country.


India set to launch Earth-mapping satellite with NASA in March 2025

India set to launch Earth-mapping satellite with NASA in March 2025
Updated 05 December 2024
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India set to launch Earth-mapping satellite with NASA in March 2025

India set to launch Earth-mapping satellite with NASA in March 2025
  • $1.5 billion NISAR mission will track the Earth’s changing surface
  • Satellite to scan nearly all of the planet’s land and ice surfaces

NEW DELHI: A new US-Indian satellite is set to be launched in March next year, India’s science minister said in parliament, updating lawmakers on the first Earth-mapping joint mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization.

A collaboration agreement between ISRO and NASA was signed in 2014, with a targeted launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, project in 2024.

The satellite’s reflector, however, which is one of the main NASA contributions to the joint mission, had to undergo corrections, Science Minister Jitendra Singh told Parliament members on Wednesday.

“The Radar Antenna Reflector was delivered to ISRO by NASA in October 2024, which is reintegrated with the satellite and currently undergoing necessary tests,” Singh said in a written reply to a parliamentary query.

“Also, due to the eclipse season, the conditions are not conducive for deployment of NISAR’s boom and the Radar Antenna Reflector. In view of the aforementioned factors, NISAR is now likely to be launched during March 2025.”

The reflector is a key component of NISAR, and at 12m in diameter it will be the largest radar antenna of its kind ever launched into space.

It will focus transmitted and received microwave signals to and from the Earth’s surface, allowing the satellite to scan nearly all of the planet’s land and ice surfaces every week.

The data will provide a picture of how Earth’s surface moves horizontally and vertically.

“The information will be crucial to better understanding everything from the mechanics of Earth’s crust to which parts of the world are prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions,” the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which leads the US component of the project, said in last month’s mission update.

“The mission will be able to detect surface motions down to fractions of an inch. In addition to monitoring changes to Earth’s surface, the satellite will be able to track the motion of ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice, and map changes to vegetation.”

The data is expected to help researchers better understand changes in the Earth’s surface and will also capture changes in its forest and wetland ecosystems.

Estimated to cost $1.5 billion, the NISAR mission is an equal collaboration between NASA and ISRO, with the US providing also the mission’s L-band radar, while the S-band radar is made in India.

The S-band radar is useful for monitoring crop structure and the roughness of land and ice surfaces, while the L-band instrument can penetrate denser forest canopies. Both sensors can see through clouds and collect data day and night.

The NISAR project marks the first time the Indian and US space agencies have cooperated on hardware development for Earth mapping.

Its launch will further add to India’s status as an emerging space superpower, following last year’s successful launch of Aditya-L1 — the country’s first solar observation mission, and the world’s second after the US Parker Solar Probe launched in 2021.

Also in 2023, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover made history by landing on the lunar surface, making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth to land on the moon — after the US, the Soviet Union and China.


Afghan economy shows modest signs of growth but recovery remains fragile — World Bank

Afghan economy shows modest signs of growth but recovery remains fragile — World Bank
Updated 05 December 2024
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Afghan economy shows modest signs of growth but recovery remains fragile — World Bank

Afghan economy shows modest signs of growth but recovery remains fragile — World Bank
  • Financial institution says modest GDP growth of 2.7 percent was driven by private consumption
  • Partial recovery, coupled with falling food prices, helped to gradually improve household welfare

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan’s economy is showing modest signs of growth after two years of severe contraction, the World Bank said this week. 

In its latest development update issued late Wednesday, the financial institution said modest GDP growth of 2.7 percent was driven by private consumption. The partial recovery, coupled with falling food prices, helped to gradually improve household welfare.

Before the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s economy relied heavily on foreign aid and corruption was rife. Their takeover three years ago sent the economy into a tailspin, as billions in international funds were frozen, and tens of thousands of highly skilled Afghans fled the country and took their money with them.

Afghan’s exports remained stable in 2023-24 but imports surged, creating a widening trade deficit, according to the World Bank. This deficit, exacerbated by dependence on imports for essential goods like fuel, food and machinery, could pose a risk to the country’s economic stability.

Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank’s country director for Afghanistan, said long-term growth prospects required tapping into the substantial potential of the domestic private sector and improving the overall business environment.

“Key to this is increased investment, providing access to finance to small businesses, and supporting educated and skilled women entrepreneurs so their businesses can thrive,” said Hadad-Zervos. “Without this, the country risks prolonged stagnation with limited prospects for sustainable development.”

The update comes days after media reports that the Taliban have ordered educational institutions to stop providing medical training to women and girls. The Taliban have neither confirmed the order nor responded to the reports.

On Thursday, the head of the UN children’s agency UNICEF said she was deeply alarmed by the reported restrictions.

UNICEF was determining the veracity of these differing accounts and welcomed efforts to address the issue, said the agency’s executive director Catherine Russell.

If confirmed, this ban was expected to immediately halt the medical education of thousands of women and jeopardize women and girls’ access to health care, she added.

“It would not only further limit the ability of women to contribute to society and earn an income but would also have far-reaching consequences for the health of the Afghan population. Lives would be lost,” she warned.