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Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Ukraine attacks Crimea's Feodosia, says Russian-installed head of Crimea

Ukraine attacks Crimea's Feodosia, says Russian-installed head of Crimea
Ukrainian servicemen sing during a Christmas Day service near the front line in the Donetsk region as Ukrainians. (Reuters)
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Updated 26 December 2023
Reuters
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Ukraine attacks Crimea's Feodosia, says Russian-installed head of Crimea

Ukraine attacks Crimea's Feodosia, says Russian-installed head of Crimea
Updated 26 December 2023
Reuters
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Ukraine carried out an attack on Feodosia in Crimea, resulting in a fire in the town’s port area, the Russian-installed head of Crimea said on Tuesday.
“The port area is cordoned off. As of this moment, the detonations have stopped and the fire has been contained,” Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said on his Telegram messaging app at around 4:15 a.m. (0115 GMT). “All relevant emergency services are on site. Residents of several houses will be evacuated.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires

Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires
Updated 11 sec ago
AFP
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Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires

Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires
  • Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday
  • Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro
Updated 11 sec ago
AFP

LISBON: Forest fires halted traffic on motorways in the Aveiro region of northern Portugal Monday as homes were engulfed by a string of blazes that broke out over the weekend, local authorities said.
Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday, with the country placed on alert from Saturday to Tuesday evening because of high temperatures and strong winds.
More than 500 have been battling the largest fire near Oliveira de Azemeis, south of the city of Porto, since Sunday.
Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro.
“We already have houses in flames at the moment,” he told Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Traffic has been halted on three motorways in the area, police said.
Drivers were told not to try to get to Aveiro. “That is the best way to not to put lives at risk,” said mayor Vitor Ribero.
One firefighter died “suddenly” Sunday while taking a break from efforts to contain the fire, the interior ministry said Monday.
Portugal has seen less wildfires than usual so far this year. Some 10,300 hectares (25,500 acres) were lost to the flames by the end of August — a third of what was destroyed last year and seven times less than the average over the last decade.
Lisbon has upped fire prevention funding ten-fold and doubled the budget to fight wildfires since deadly blazes in 2017 claimed hundreds of lives.
Scientists say human-caused fossil fuel emissions are increasing the length, frequency and intensity of global heatwaves, raising the risk of wildfires.
The Iberian peninsula is particularly vulnerable to global warming, with heatwaves and drought exposing the region to blazes.

Topics: Portugal forest fires Aveiro

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Golden Pen Award invites Arabic writers to compete

Golden Pen Award invites Arabic writers to compete
Updated 3 min 36 sec ago
Arab News
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Golden Pen Award invites Arabic writers to compete

Golden Pen Award invites Arabic writers to compete
  • Top literary works to win cash prizes, movie deals and global recognition
Updated 3 min 36 sec ago
Arab News

RIYADH: Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Al-Sheikh has announced that Arabic-speaking writers can start submitting their works to compete for the Golden Pen Award, granted for the most influential literary work.

The winning scripts may be made into movies by the authority, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Monday.

Applications for the award, sponsored by Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, will be accepted until Sept. 30.

A longlist will be announced on Nov. 30, followed by the shortlist on Dec. 30. The awards will be presented at a ceremony scheduled to take place in February 2025, which is expected to draw an elite group of writers, intellectuals, filmmakers and actors.

The six award categories are — the grand prize, the novel, the screenplay, the best translated novel, the best Arab publisher, and the audience award, with a total prize value of $740,000.

For both the grand prize and the screenplay categories, the first-place prizes will be $100,000 and the production of a movie, the second-place prizes will be $50,000 and the production of a movie, while the third-place prizes will be $30,000.

In the novel category, there will be eight prizes worth $25,000 each, including the best suspense and thriller novel, the best mystery and crime novel, the best romance novel, the best fantasy novel, the best comedy novel, the best historical novel, the best horror novel, and the best realistic novel.

The best translated novel will receive $100,000, while the best Arab publisher will be awarded $50,000, and the audience award will be $30,000, with public voting to open on the award website at a later date.

Last week, at the inauguration of the Golden Pen Award website, Al-Sheikh said that the website would serve as a comprehensive repository of Arabic novels, screenplays and related content, aligning with large-scale productions underway across the Arab world, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Sheikh said the Golden Pen Forum would be a special gathering place for writers with free membership. He added that there would be specific criteria for selecting beneficiary members, making it a vibrant focal point throughout the year in the Arab world.

Chairman of the Golden Pen Award Saad Al-Bazei encouraged all Arab writers and authors to participate in the competition, which aims to enrich Arabic content with high-value works.

Topics: Saudi Arabia

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Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal

Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
Updated 5 min 44 sec ago
Ellie Aben
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Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal

Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
  • Manila suspected China carried out small-scale land reclamation activities in Sabina Shoal
  • For months, Philippines-China confrontations have increasingly taken place at the atoll
Updated 5 min 44 sec ago
Ellie Aben

MANILA: The Philippines will continue to deploy vessels to Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, its coast guard said on Monday, after the withdrawal of a Philippine ship from the contested area prompted fresh concerns of Chinese land reclamation.

In April, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed one of its largest ships, Teresa Magbanua, to Sabina Shoal to monitor what Manila suspects to be China’s small-scale land reclamation activities in the area.

The ship returned to port in Palawan on Sunday, after months of pressure from Beijing, which claimed that the vessel was “illegally stranded” at the atoll that it asserts as part of its broader claim to nearly the entire South China Sea.

PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the ship’s return was unrelated to China’s demands, citing bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care for the withdrawal.

“We have not lost anything. We can still patrol and maintain our presence in Escoda Shoal,” Tarriela told a press conference on Monday.

“It’s not a defeat … It’s (neither) the coast guard abandoning our post in Escoda Shoal; we are just repositioning our own vessels.”

Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, is a resource-rich atoll within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and close to the Philippine mainland.

For months, confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels have taken place at this location.

One of the more recent collisions damaged the Teresa Magbanua and another one of Manila’s vessels, while other incidents have involved China’s coast guard bombarding Philippine boats with powerful cannons and its crew members flashing high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.

The Philippines “did not surrender anything” by pulling out Teresa Magbanua, Tarriela said.

“We did not surrender … It’s also wrong to say that if we leave the vicinity, they will already reclaim it. Again, the reclamation would take four years. If we leave for one, two or three days, even one week, will they be able to build a runway there?”

Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila, said the ship’s withdrawal is part of “a continuing process of ensuring” that the Philippine presence in Sabina Shoal will remain intact.

“The Philippines is doing what it can based on its limited capacity to ensure the full operationalization of its sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Gill told Arab News.

The PCG had “prevailed” despite the Chinese coast guard’s efforts to “push the Philippines out as fast as possible,” he said.

“I believe that the Philippines would also be sending an alternate ship to ensure that our presence is continued there,” Gill said.

“But more importantly, Manila needs to supplement the efforts of physical presence there with other forms of activities, such as joint maritime drills along the area to make sure that it is free and open and rules-based.”

Topics: Philippines South China Sea South China Sea dispute

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Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help

Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help
Updated 6 min 56 sec ago
Reuters
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Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help

Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help
  • More than 30 people have been killed by the floods, which authorities say affected about one million people
Updated 6 min 56 sec ago
Reuters

MAIDUGURI: People in Nigeria’s flood-hit northeastern Borno state are struggling to get medical care as overwhelmed aid agencies warn of an outbreak of waterborne disease following the worst floods to hit the region in three decades.

More than 30 people have been killed by the floods, which authorities say affected about one million people, most of whom are housed in camps without food and clean water.
The deluge threatens not only the health and safety of the displaced but puts a strain on aid agencies and government resources, exacerbating an already critical humanitarian crisis.
The floods in Borno, the birthplace of Boko Haram militants in the Lake Chad basin, started when a dam burst its walls following heavy rainfall that has also caused floods in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger, all part of Africa’s Sahel region that usually receives little rain.
In the last two weeks of August, more than 1.5 million people were displaced across 12 countries in West and Central Africa due to floods, and about 465 have been killed, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office.
Over the weekend, an additional 50,000 people were displaced in northeastern Nigeria as the floods intensified, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Monday.
“The situation in the Sahel and Lake Chad region is increasingly dire, as the compounding effects of conflict, displacement and climate change take a severe toll on vulnerable populations,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s Central and West Africa regional director. The floods in West Africa come at a time of flooding in Europe after days of torrential rain that caused rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.
In a camp in Maiduguri, Borno’s state capital, Bintu Amadu was among hundreds of frustrated people waiting for hours to see a doctor because her son had diarrhea.
“We have not received any aid, and our attempts to see a doctor have been unsuccessful. We have been waiting for medical attention since yesterday, but to no avail,” she said.
Ramatu Yajubu was happy she had obtained an appointment card after waiting for days, but quickly added: “I am uncertain about receiving attention due to the overwhelming number of people seeking care.”
Mathias Goemaere, a field coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, said that even before the floods, residents in Borno were struggling with malnutrition, following years of an Islamist insurgency that has driven people from their farms.
“They are exposed to their environment, so what do we see? A lot of waterborne diseases, diarrhea, diarrheal diseases ... Malaria is around with a lot of mosquitoes,” Goemaere told Reuters.
“So a lot of people, because of malnutrition, are immuno-suppressed, which makes them more susceptible to diseases.”
Nigeria’s government has separately warned of rising water levels in the country’s largest rivers, the Benue and Niger, which could cause floods in the oil-producing Niger Delta region in the south.

Topics: Nigeria

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
Updated 14 min 53 sec ago
AP
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Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta

Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
  • Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, the Spanish Interior Ministry said
  • Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks
Updated 14 min 53 sec ago
AP

RABAT: Moroccan security forces stopped groups of people who sought to force their way across the border into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta following a call on social networks for a mass migration attempt, authorities said.
Some attempted to breach a border fence that has long been a flashpoint for sporadic migration tensions, but none successfully made it into Spain, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. It said Spanish and Moroccan security efforts over recent days ″allowed the situation to be brought under control.”
Online messages in recent days had called for people to head for Ceuta on Sunday to cross the border into Europe. Videos posted by local networks showed groups of people in the hills around the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, and a heightened Moroccan security presence, including helicopters.
Moroccan authorities also arrested 60 people suspected of inciting a mass migration attempt on social networks, Moroccan intelligence agency DGSN said in a Facebook post.
Ceuta and Melilla — two tiny Spanish territories in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean — have long been targeted by migrants and refugees seeking better lives in Europe. Many attempt to climb over barbed wire fences encircling the autonomous cities or reaching the exclaves by sea.
Nationwide, Moroccan security forces stopped more than 45,000 migration attempts from January to early September, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. In August alone, more than 11,000 migration attempts were prevented in the region around Ceuta and another 3,000 in the area around Melilla, it said in a statement.
Last month, thousands of migrants attempted to cross into Ceuta, including hundreds of young people who tried to swim their way around controls, according to Spanish authorities.

Topics: Morocco Migrantion Spain Cueta

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Latest updates

Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help
Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help
Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
Moroccan authorities stop migration attempt into Spanish enclave of Ceuta
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