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RIYADH: Saudi Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khuraiji met his Indonesian counterpart Pahala Nugraha Mansury in Jakarta on Wednesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The two sides reviewed ways to strengthen bilateral ties and discussed issues of mutual interest.
DHAKA: Bangladesh said Sunday it would request an Interpol “red notice” alert for fugitive leaders of the ousted regime of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was toppled in a revolution in August.
“Those responsible for the indiscriminate killings during the mass uprising in July and August will be brought back from wherever they have taken refuge,” Asif Nazrul, the interim government’s law adviser, told reporters on Sunday.
“We will ensure they are arrested and brought to justice.”
Dozens of Hasina’s allies have been taken into custody since her regime collapsed, accused of involvement in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that led to her ouster.
France-based Interpol publishes red notices at the request of a member nation, based on an arrest warrant issued in their home country.
Nazrul did not mention any individual by name, but Bangladesh has already issued an arrest warrant for 77-year-old Hasina — last seen arriving in India after fleeing by helicopter as crowds stormed her palace.
Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
Red notices issued by the global police body alert law enforcement agencies worldwide about fugitives.
Nazrul said they would request a red notice “as soon as possible.”
India is a member of Interpol, but the red notice does not mean New Delhi must hand Hasina over.
Member countries can “apply their own laws in deciding whether to arrest a person,” according to the group, which organizes police cooperation between 196 member countries.
Hasina has been summoned to appear in court in Dhaka on November 18 to face charges of “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity.”
Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told AFP on Sunday that the court had “sought arrest warrants for more than 60 individuals,” and that “so far, around 25 have been arrested,.”
Jakarta: Indonesian and Chinese companies signed business agreements worth more than $10 billion on Sunday, as the two countries agreed to strengthen ties during a state visit by President Prabowo Subianto to Beijing.
Prabowo on Sunday wrapped up the first stop of his first overseas tour since taking office last month. After China, he will head to the US before making his way to South America for the APEC and G20 summits, which will be followed by trips to the UK and the Middle East.
He and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to deepen ties on Saturday, elevating security to a fifth “pillar” of cooperation, on top of political, economic, maritime and people-to-people exchange. The two countries will hold a first-ever joint meeting of their foreign and defense ministers next year, according to a joint statement.
“Indonesia and the People’s Republic of China are committed to strengthening our friendship and furthering the prosperity of our two nations,” Prabowo wrote on X on Sunday.
Before leaving Beijing for Washington, Indonesia’s new leader presided over a ceremony between the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and top Chinese corporations, during which they inked billions of dollars worth of deals on renewable energy, and health and food security, among other issues.
“The strong participation of Chinese businesses in Asia is an important element in close cooperation between our two countries. I have met the president and prime minister, where we agreed to continue this collaboration,” Prabowo said at the Indonesia-China Business Forum in Beijing, as reported by state news agency Antara.
“This is part of our synergy across all sectors, in education, business, industries, people-to-people … we are very optimistic about the prospects,” he added.
“We must give an example that in this modern age, collaboration — not confrontation — is the way for peace and prosperity.”
China, which was also Prabowo’s initial foreign destination as president-elect in April, is Indonesia’s biggest trading partner and the source of more than $7 billion of investment.
“The visit to China is significant because China currently supports Indonesia’s ambitious economic program through investment, including industrial downstreaming programs. China also supports various infrastructure projects … Prabowo has met Xi Jinping before and this visit strengthens the ties,” Dr. Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar, an Indonesian political researcher at the UK’s Aberystwyth University, told Arab News.
Economic and defense affairs appear to be a top priority for Prabowo for his overseas tour, which includes China and the US, the world’s two biggest economies.
“He's trying to balance and hedge between two sides,” Umar said. “He is trying to maximize economic benefits with China with trade and investment, and to bolster defense ties with the US for defense modernization.”
His choice of China as the first stop on his multi-country trip is likely a strategy to lure more investment from the US, said Teuku Rezasyah, an international relations expert from Padjadjaran University in West Java.
“This development will become an ammunition for Prabowo when he speaks with American businesses,” he said. “He’ll be able to say: If you want to make a comeback in Southeast Asia and be part of the economy, this is now the time.”
Prabowo is trying to establish his own legacy early on, Rezasyah added. Though the president has said he will continue the programs started by his predecessor, Joko Widodo, those are matters related to domestic affairs.
“He wants to give the international community some confidence that they’re dealing with the right person in their language because Prabowo speaks more than one international language,” Rezasyah said, referring to Prabowo’s ability to speak English, Dutch, French and German.
“So, he can easily convince the world.”
LONDON: King Charles III laid a wreath honoring fallen service personnel in central London on Sunday as the Princess of Wales looked on, in a further sign the royal family is slowly returning to normal at the end of a year in which two of the most popular royals were sidelined by cancer.
Remembrance Sunday is a totemic event in the UK, with the monarch leading senior royals, political leaders, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his eight living predecessors, and envoys from the Commonwealth countries in laying wreaths at the Cenotaph, the Portland stone memorial that serves as the focal point for honoring the nation’s war dead. It is held on the second Sunday of November to mark the signing of the armistice to end World War I “on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” in 1918.
After leading the nation in a two-minute silence, Charles, dressed in his Royal Navy uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, laid a wreath of poppies at the base of the Cenotaph, honoring those who have died in conflicts since World War I.
His eldest son and the heir to the throne, William, left his own floral tribute — featuring the Prince of Wales’ feathers and a new ribbon in Welsh red.
Dressed in somber black, his wife, Kate, watched on from a balcony of the nearby Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, as is tradition. Queen Camilla, who would normally be standing next to the princess, was not present as she is recovering from a chest infection.
It is the first time since the start of the year that Kate is carrying out two consecutive days of public official engagements. On Saturday, she attended the Royal British Legion Festival Of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Following the wreath-laying, around 10,000 veterans, including those who have fought in wars this century, notably in Afghanistan and Iraq, marched past the Cenotaph. With the passage of time, there were only a handful of World War II veterans present.
Charles’ ceremonial role as commander in chief of the armed forces is a holdover from the days when the monarch led his troops into battle. But the link between the monarchy and the military is still very strong, with service members taking an oath of allegiance to the king and members of the royal family supporting service personnel through a variety of charities. Charles and William both served on active duty in the military before taking up full-time royal duties.
“They are showing respect to us, as we’ve shown to them by serving,” said Victor Needham-Crofton, 91, an army veteran who served during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and later in Kenya.
Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February, forcing him to step away from public appearances for two months as he focused on his treatment and recovery. Just a few weeks later, Kate announced her own cancer diagnosis, which sidelined her for much of the year as she underwent chemotherapy.
The king has been in good form in recent months and recently completed a taxing trip to Australia and Samoa. Kate, who made her first post-diagnosis public appearance during the monarch’s birthday parade in June, is slowly returning to public duties.
Prince William reflected this week on the strain that the cancer scare has placed on the royal family.
“I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done,” William told reporters on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day trip to South Africa. “But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”
While the Cenotaph was the focus of the national remembrance service, communities throughout the UK held their own ceremonies on Sunday.
Needham-Crofton, who served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers before a truck accident ended his military career, planned to attend a local service in Eastbourne on the south coast of England.
He has spent much of his time honoring veterans and trying to help them, including 20 years as a volunteer for the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans. Like some of his army tasks, raising cash was rather grueling as it involved standing in front of London subway stations collecting coins to help fund the group’s efforts.
“I like to respect all the veterans and do what I can for them,’’ he told The Associated Press. “It’s a brotherhood really. Even if you don’t know a veteran that you meet, you feel a kinship toward them. That is very important to me. I shall be like that for the rest of my life.’’
ISLAMABAD: An estimated 500,000 Pakistani children missed polio vaccinations during this month’s countrywide inoculation drive, the country’s chief health official confirmed this week, attributing it mostly to people refusing vaccines or being unavailable due to traveling when the campaign was launched.
Pakistan has reported 48 polio cases this year, with 23 of those reported from the country’s southwestern Balochistan province, 13 from Sindh, ten from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
The alarming surge in cases prompted Pakistan to conduct a countrywide anti-polio vaccination drive from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, aiming to inoculate over 45 million children against the infection.
Pakistan remains one of only two countries worldwide where polio remains endemic. Misinformation about vaccinations and attacks by religiously motivated militants on polio teams have been major impediments to immunization campaigns.
“This year I don’t have the exact figure but we are expecting around 500,000 refusals, unavailability [of people for vaccinations],” Malik Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath, coordinator to the prime minister on national health services, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.
“But we are not going to leave them [children] we are going to chase them, we are going to track them, trace them and we are going to get them vaccinated for this polio.”
Since late 2018, Pakistan has seen a resurgence of poliovirus cases, highlighting the fragility of gains achieved in the preceding years when cases dropped in 2023 to six, 20 in 2022 and just one in 2022.
Attacks on polio vaccinators and security teams deployed to protect them have also increased.
Seven people, including five children, were killed when a bomb targeted police traveling to guard vaccine workers this month. Days earlier, two police escorts were gunned down by militants.
The official regretted that over 90 polio vaccinators have been killed in the country since 2012.
“[Overall] more than 90 have been martyred just because they are serving the nation and I do not think so anywhere in the world this happens,” Bharath said.
Speaking on the recent surge in polio cases, Bharath said there was nothing wrong with Pakistan’s polio program, adding that the country has one of the best surveillance systems to monitor the disease.
He said one of the major causes of the surge in polio cases this year was due to a repatriation drive launched in 2023 by Pakistan against “illegal immigrants,” causing many Afghan refugees who were not vaccinated against polio to travel to other parts of the country and spread the infection.
“The major factor is the Afghan refugees’ repatriation program started [last year],” Bharath said. “Because they were unvaccinated, they just traveled from south Khyber Pakhtunkhwa KP to all over Pakistan to just escape from that repatriation, and that is one of the biggest causes of this spread of poliovirus across Pakistan.”
He said another reason for polio spreading countrywide was because of vaccine refusals in some tribal areas of the country, where the polio teams could not administer drops and due to the deteriorating security situation which made some areas inaccessible for volunteers.
Bharat said the prime minister’s focal person on polio, the country’s polio team and the Ministry of Health developed a strategy in July and August to target previously inaccessible areas with vaccination drives.
These were the Karachi, Quetta and south KP divisions, the official said.
“The main areas of concern were the Quetta block, that is Quetta, Chaman, Killa Saifullah, Killa Abdullah and adjoining areas,” he said.
Bharath said 64 union councils in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, seven districts in southern KP were some areas where the government had been unable to eliminate polio for a very long time.
“To deal with the situation, we are working on a different plan for each area,” Bharath said. “In South Punjab, there is a different plan and If we are going in south KP, there is a different plan,” he added.
He said authorities were determining which programs, influencers or Islamic scholars should be involved in each area to achieve better results.
“There is a segregated campaign for south KP from 11th or 12th [November] which they are going to start in five or four districts,” he informed.
Bharath said synchronized campaigns with Afghanistan to target polio were “crucial” to eliminate the disease.
“We are going to hold a dialogue in the first week of December in Doha, Qatar, along with WHO and we are going to discuss how we are going to have synchronized campaigns,” he said.
RIYADH: President of the Saudi Data and AI Authority Abdullah Al-Ghamdi recently honored the winning teams of the largest event dedicated to advancing the Arabic language, the Allam Challenge, held in Riyadh from Nov. 7-9.
The competition, organized in collaboration with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, with technical support from IBM and the National Technology Development Program, attracted 600 participants from 17 countries.
The event celebrated the achievements of talented individuals dedicated to advancing Arabic language technologies through AI, with a prize pool of SR1 million ($266,000), the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The competition aimed to develop AI models capable of writing and understanding Arabic poetry, parsing sentences accurately, and teaching the Arabic language in an engaging manner.
The deputy director of the National Information Center, Mishari Almishari, emphasized the significance of developing technologies to preserve the Arabic language, especially in an era of rapid technological advancements.
The first team secured a prize of SR500,000, the second won SR300,000, and the third won SR200,000. Additionally, five teams from the National Technology Development Program were recognized for their outstanding projects, receiving a total prize of SR750,000.
More than 50 mentors and 40 judges — experts in AI and the Arabic language — oversaw the challenge, providing support to participating teams and evaluating projects based on criteria to ensure the sustainability of the proposed solutions.
By supporting such initiatives, the authority reinforces its commitment to harnessing AI to empower the Arabic language and foster innovation in the field.
