Kosovo races to contain blast impact, Serbia denies involvement

Update Kosovo races to contain blast impact, Serbia denies involvement
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People stand near the damaged canal in Varage, northern Kosovo, on November 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Update Kosovo races to contain blast impact, Serbia denies involvement
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People stand near a damaged canal in northern Kosovo supplying water to two coal-fired power plants that generate nearly all of the country's electricity, in Varage, Kosovo, November 29, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 30 November 2024
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Kosovo races to contain blast impact, Serbia denies involvement

Kosovo races to contain blast impact, Serbia denies involvement
  • Visiting the site on Saturday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that police had arrested several people in connection with the attack
  • Law enforcement “carried out searches” and “collected testimony and evidence, and the criminals and terrorists will have to face justice and the law,” he said

PRISTINA: Kosovo stepped up security measures around “critical” infrastructure Saturday after an explosion at a key canal feeding two of its main power plants, as neighboring Serbia rejected accusations it had staged the blast.
The explosion occurred Friday near the town of Zubin Potok in a Serb-dominated area in Kosovo’s troubled north, damaging the canal supplying water to cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo’s electricity.
Visiting the site on Saturday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that police had arrested several people in connection with the attack.
Law enforcement “carried out searches” and “collected testimony and evidence, and the criminals and terrorists will have to face justice and the law,” he said.
The arrests follow a security meeting late Friday, when Kurti pointed blame at Serbia.
“The attack was carried out by professionals. We believe it comes from gangs directed by Serbia,” he told a press conference, without providing evidence.
The government later issued a statement echoing his allegations, saying that “initial indications suggest” the explosion had been “orchestrated by the Serbian state, which has the capacity to carry out such a criminal and terrorist attack.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic hit back Saturday, denying the “irresponsible” and “baseless accusations.”
“Such unfounded claims are aimed to tarnish Serbia’s reputation, as well as to undermine efforts to promote peace and stability in the region,” he said in a statement to AFP.
Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric had earlier suggested on X that the Kosovar “regime” could itself be behind the blast, and called for an international investigation.
The main political party representing Serbs in Kosovo, Serb List, also condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.”
AFP journalists at the scene saw water leaking heavily from one side of the reinforced canal, which runs from the Serb-majority north of Kosovo to the capital, Pristina, and also supplies drinking water.
However, electricity supplies to consumers were running smoothly on Saturday morning, with authorities having found an alternative method to cool the plants, said Kosovo’s Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli.
Repair work was ongoing, authorities said, while Kurti confirmed workers had managed to restore water flows to 25 percent capacity.
The United States strongly condemned the “attack on critical infrastructure in Kosovo,” the US embassy in Pristina said in a statement on Facebook.
“We are monitoring the situation closely... and have offered our full support to the government of Kosovo to ensure that those responsible for this criminal attack are identified and held accountable.”
Turkiye’s foreign ministry also condemned the attack, adding: “We call on all parties to exercise restraint to avoid escalation in the region.”
The NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission for Kosovo joined the calls for restraint, saying in a statement: “It is important that facts are established and that those responsible are held accountable and brought to justice.”
The force is providing security in the surrounding area and has offered logistical, explosives disposal and engineering support to the Kosovo authorities, it said.
The European Union’s ambassador to Kosovo, Aivo Orav, called for an investigation.
“I have already offered EU’s help to Kosovo’s authorities. The incident needs to be investigated and those responsible brought to justice,” he said on X.
Animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to acknowledge.
Kurti’s government has for months sought to dismantle a parallel system of social services and political offices backed by Belgrade to serve Kosovo’s Serbs.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Saturday denounced “the act of sabotage on the critical water supply infrastructure in the Iber-Lepenc Canal” in comments on X, calling it “a serious crime that endangers the lives of Kosovo’s citizens and undermines the process of normalizing relations in our region.”
Friday’s attack came after a series of violent incidents in northern Kosovo, including the hurling of hand grenades at a municipal building and a police station earlier this week.


UK, Germany and France agree to cooperate on human smugglers

UK, Germany and France agree to cooperate on human smugglers
Updated 56 min 56 sec ago
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UK, Germany and France agree to cooperate on human smugglers

UK, Germany and France agree to cooperate on human smugglers
  • So far this year nearly 34,000 undocumented migrants have reached British shores
  • The toppling of president Bashar Assad threatens a period of instability in Syria that smuggling gangs could look to exploit

LONDON: Five European countries including the UK, France and Germany agreed on Tuesday to jointly step up the fight against people-trafficking, as London and Berlin signed a bilateral commitment to tackle the gangs.
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, the Netherlands’ migration minister Marjolein Faber, and Belgium’s migration minister Nicole de Moor and Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, all joined UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Britain’s border security commander Martin Hewitt for Tuesday’s meeting in London.
Ex-police chief Hewitt was appointed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in September to help deliver on his pre-election pledge to “smash” the people smuggling gangs.
A growing issue among European nations, rising irregular migration was also one of the main themes that dominated the UK’s July election which swept Starmer’s Labour Party to power.
So far this year nearly 34,000 undocumented migrants have reached British shores across the English Channel, arriving on dangerous, flimsy vessels. At least 70 people have died, making 2024 the deadliest year on record.
Berlin’s interior ministry told AFP that under the bilateral agreement with the UK, signed on Monday, it will look at “clarifying” the law surrounding activities carried out in Germany in preparation for smuggling people across the Channel.
“This will give German prosecutors more tools to tackle the supply and storage of dangerous small boats equipment and allow the UK and Germany to better counter the continually evolving tactics of people smuggling gangs,” said the UK interior ministry.
Net legal migration to the UK is also running at historically high levels, estimated at 728,000 for the year to June 2024, while the toppling of president Bashar Assad threatens a period of instability in Syria that smuggling gangs could look to exploit.
Germany’s ambassador to London, Miguel Berger, said many of the people-smuggling networks bringing people from Belarus through Poland to Germany were also sending migrants across the Channel.
He said that as a result of Brexit, the UK had withdrawn from EU accords on third-country immigration and the London-Berlin agreement would “see how we can again strengthen our cooperation.”
Germany’s Faeser said the two countries were focused on ending “the inhumane activities of criminal migrant smuggling organizations.”
“By cramming people into inflatable boats under threats of violence and sending them across the Channel, these organizations put human lives at risk.”
Many of the crossings were “planned in Germany” and the deal would help to counter “this unscrupulous business with even more resolve,” she added.
The European ministers’ talks in London were part of the so-called Calais Group.
The ministers agreed to coordinate efforts to deter would-be migrants from paying smugglers, strengthen law enforcement cooperation and disrupt gangs from using illicit finance schemes, according to a list of priorities published by the UK government.
They also pledged to tackle gangs’ use of social media to advertise their services and to explore how information can be shared to “enhance operational and technical cooperation.”
Representatives of the European Commission and the Frontex and Europol agencies also participated in the talks.
Britain’s Starmer called in November for greater international cooperation against smuggling networks, which he described as a “global security threat similar to terrorism.”


Former UK lawyer sentenced for fraud relating to Iraq abuse claims

Former UK lawyer sentenced for fraud relating to Iraq abuse claims
Updated 10 December 2024
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Former UK lawyer sentenced for fraud relating to Iraq abuse claims

Former UK lawyer sentenced for fraud relating to Iraq abuse claims
  • Phil Shiner pleaded guilty in September to three counts of fraud
  • Britain launched a public inquiry into allegations of atrocities by British troops in 2004, after a battle at the Danny Boy checkpoint in southern Iraq.

LONDON: A former British lawyer who became known for bringing lawsuits on behalf of Iraqi civilians accusing British soldiers of ill-treatment was on Tuesday given a suspended sentence for fraud.
Phil Shiner pleaded guilty in September to three counts of fraud relating to applications made in 2007 for public funding for legal action against the Ministry of Defense.
Following the legal challenge led by Shiner, Britain launched a public inquiry into allegations of atrocities by British troops in 2004, after a battle at the Danny Boy checkpoint in southern Iraq.
Shiner and his firm Public Interest Lawyers, however, were widely criticized and the inquiry ultimately concluded in 2014 that allegations British soldiers executed captured Iraqi prisoners and tortured or seriously abused others were untrue.
Shiner pleaded guilty to failing to disclose, when applying for public funding, that he had asked an intermediary to approach potential claimants and had paid for referrals, which breached his firm’s contract.
He appeared on Tuesday at London’s Southwark Crown Court, where Judge Christopher Hehir imposed a sentence of two years in jail, suspended for two years.
Shiner was struck off as a lawyer in 2017 and Hehir said: “You have already suffered professional and personal ruin and I do not consider it is necessary to add to that by sending you straight to prison.”


Russia takes step toward recognizing Afghanistan’s Taliban government

Russia takes step toward recognizing Afghanistan’s Taliban government
Updated 10 December 2024
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Russia takes step toward recognizing Afghanistan’s Taliban government

Russia takes step toward recognizing Afghanistan’s Taliban government
  • Parliament votes for law to make it possible to remove Taliban from banned terror groups’ list
  • No country currently recognizes the Taliban government which seized power in August 2021

MOSCOW: Russia moved a step closer toward recognizing the Taliban government of Afghanistan on Tuesday as parliament voted in favor of a law that would make it possible to remove the Taliban from Moscow’s list of banned terrorist organizations.
Parliament’s lower house, the Duma, approved the bill in the first of three required readings, Interfax news agency said.
No country currently recognizes the Taliban government which seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal after 20 years of war. But Russia has been gradually building ties with the movement, which President Vladimir Putin said in July was now an ally in fighting terrorism.
Moscow sees a major security threat from Islamist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East, where Russia lost a major ally this week with the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In March, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by Daesh. US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, Daesh, that was responsible.
The Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of Daesh in Afghanistan.
Western diplomats say the movement’s path toward wider international recognition is stalled until it changes course on women’s rights. The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian. It says it respects women’s rights in line with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Russia has its own complex and bloodstained history in Afghanistan. Soviet troops invaded the country in December 1979 to prop up a Communist government, but became bogged down in a long war against mujahideen fighters armed by the United States. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pulled his army out in 1989, by which time some 15,000 Soviet soldiers had been killed.


France begins military withdrawal from Chad, army says

France begins military withdrawal from Chad, army says
Updated 10 December 2024
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France begins military withdrawal from Chad, army says

France begins military withdrawal from Chad, army says
  • “It marks the beginning of the return of French equipment stationed in N’Djamena,” Army spokesperson Col. Guillaume Vernet said
  • France has already pulled its soldiers out of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger

PARIS: France has started the withdrawal of its military from Chad with the departure of two warplanes that were based in the capital N’Djamena, the French army said, two weeks after Chad said it was ending its defense cooperation pact with Paris.
In a surprise move, the government of Chad — an ally of the West in the fight against Islamist militants in the region — ended the defense cooperation pact on Nov. 28.
Terms and conditions of the withdrawal and whether any French troops will remain in the central African country altogether have yet be to be agreed, but on Tuesday the first Mirage warplanes returned to their base in eastern France.
“It marks the beginning of the return of French equipment stationed in N’Djamena,” Army spokesperson Col. Guillaume Vernet said after two Mirage fighter jets left Chad.
France has already pulled its soldiers out of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger following military coups in those West African countries and spreading anti-French sentiment.
The departure from Chad will end decades of French military presence in the Sahel region and ends direct French military operations against Islamist militants there.
France still has about 1,000 troops in Chad. Vernet said a calendar to drawdown its operations would still take several weeks for the two countries to finalize.
There were no indications Paris received advance notice of Chad’s decision to end its defense cooperation although a French envoy to President Emmanuel Macron delivered a report last month containing proposals on how France could reduce its military presence in Chad, Gabon and Ivory Coast.


Saudi businesses explore energy, tourism opportunities in Rajasthan

Business people gather at the Invest Saudi pavilion at the Rising Rajasthan summit in Jaipur, India, Dec. 10, 2024. (AN photo)
Business people gather at the Invest Saudi pavilion at the Rising Rajasthan summit in Jaipur, India, Dec. 10, 2024. (AN photo)
Updated 10 December 2024
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Saudi businesses explore energy, tourism opportunities in Rajasthan

Business people gather at the Invest Saudi pavilion at the Rising Rajasthan summit in Jaipur, India, Dec. 10, 2024. (AN photo)
  • Invest Saudi participates in Rising Rajasthan Investment Summit in Jaipur
  • With its vast deserts, Rajasthan ranks first in India for solar energy production

JAIPUR: Saudi Arabia is exploring cooperation with India in solar and wind energy, infrastructure, tourism, and technology-based industries, its Ministry of Investment said on Tuesday, as it participated in the Rising Rajasthan Investment Summit in Jaipur.

The government of India’s largest state by area is hosting the investment event from Dec. 9 to 11, as it seeks to double Rajasthan’s gross domestic product to $350 billion in the next five years.

The summit was opened on Monday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who encouraged foreign delegates — including from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UK and Japan — to explore the state’s potential as a global business destination.

The Saudi Ministry of Investment’s pavilion in the forum’s exhibition space presented Invest Saudi — the nation-wide investment brand — and promoted opportunities in the Kingdom., while delegation members held talks with Indian companies.

“We are talking about supporting our private sectors: Indians to invest in Saudi Arabia and Saudi companies to invest in Rajasthan and India,” Abdullah Al-Arfaj, director of international relations for South and West Asia at the Saudi Ministry of Investment, told Arab News.

“Through its participation in this summit, the Saudi Ministry of Investment seeks to foster productive dialogue and build actionable partnerships … The summit is an ideal platform to strengthen Saudi-Indian cooperation and establish the foundations for long-term, sustainable partnerships.”

Al-Arfaj, who was meeting with Rajasthan leadership, said they were identifying “shared areas that can contribute to the economic growth of both nations, such as solar and wind energy, infrastructure development, tourism, and technology-based industries, as well as the development of smart cities, green energy initiatives, and advanced technological solutions.”

With vast desert areas hosting photovoltaic plants, Rajasthan ranks first in India for solar energy production. It is also the largest producer of marble, has the nation’s biggest lead mines, and contains confirmed deposits of rare-earth elements.

The state’s capital, Jaipur, is a major tourist attraction. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is known as the “pink city” from the dominant color scheme of its 18th-century structures.

A number of cooperation agreements are expected to be signed during the summit between Saudi and Indian businesses.

Faisal Al-Jurbua, a member of the Saudi delegation, said his company was planning to establish a desert resort in Rajasthan — the first such property in the Indian state.

“Hopefully, in about six months, we’re going to start,” the CEO of Riyadh-based HAP Experience Co. told Arab News.

“It will be the same that we have in Saudi Arabia. It will be an oasis … We’re going to do some mix between the two cultures,” he said.

“We will be having a lot of work here in Rajasthan in the near future.”