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Pakistan is making good progress with IMF, finance minister says

Pakistan is making good progress with IMF, finance minister says
Photo taken on March 14, 2024, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb (2L) speaks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Chief for Pakistan Nathan Porter (2R) during a meeting in Islamabad.(AFP)
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Updated 21 August 2024
Reuters
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Pakistan is making good progress with IMF, finance minister says

Pakistan is making good progress with IMF, finance minister says
  • The IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pakistan’s external financing needs
Updated 21 August 2024
Reuters
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KARACHI: Pakistan is making good progress with the International Monetary Fund and hopes to get board approval in September for a new $7 billion loan program, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday.
Pakistan and the IMF reached an agreement for the 37-month loan program in July. The IMF said the new Extended Fund Facility program is subject to approval from its Executive Board and obtaining “timely confirmation of necessary financing assurances from Pakistan’s development and bilateral partners.”
“We are making good progress with IMF for Board approval in September,” said Aurangzeb in text message to Reuters.
Rollovers or disbursements on loans from Pakistan’s long-time allies Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China, in addition to financing from the IMF, have helped Pakistan meet its external financing needs in the past.
The IMF did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Pakistan’s external financing needs and the executive board’s meeting on Pakistan’s loan program.

Topics: Pakistan IMF

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Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicenter

Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicenter
Updated 4 sec ago
AFP
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Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicenter

Reeking mud sparks health fears in Spain flood epicenter
Updated 4 sec ago
AFP

SEDAVI, Spain: The sea of mud and stagnant water submerging Spanish towns more than 10 days after the country’s worst floods in decades has sparked a sickening stench and health fears.
“That’s the rotten meat,” said Toni Marco, pointing to a destroyed supermarket in the devastated town of Sedavi from which a disgusting odour wafted when AFP visited.
The meat was only removed recently, well after the floods cut the refrigerators’ electricity supply, added Marco, a 40-year-old employee of a private cleaning company.
The nearby town of Catarroja also remains a mud bath after the October 29 disaster that has claimed 219 lives, with a powerful reek compounding the woes of survivors.
The diversity of matter decomposing under the mud produces a spectrum of smells ranging from the mildly unpleasant to the outright repulsive.
“Each decomposition of an element smells differently,” which explains why the odours vary from street to street, said Angel Aldehuela, a 51-year-old firefighter from the southern Seville region.
Dead animals may also lie buried under the mud, he told AFP.
When the mud dries, the organic matter decomposes without oxygen and “that’s where those smells we’re not used to start to appear,” explained Miguel Rodilla, a biologist at Valencia’s Polytechnic University.
“There aren’t necessarily bodies nearby, but simply organic matter decomposing.”

FEARS OF AN OUTBREAK
In scenes reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic, rescuers, volunteers and residents have worn facemasks and gloves during the clean-up, while some people have complained of the stink causing headaches and dizziness.
Breathing in the pestilential miasma “isn’t ideal for health,” but “higher concentrations” of decomposing matter would be necessary to make it toxic, said Rodilla.
Stagnant water can trigger gastrointestinal disorders or pneumonia, Health Minister Monica Garcia told public radio RNE, but she ruled out the possibility of an “outbreak.”
The health board of the Valencia region, particularly crippled by the floods, has also reported no outbreak of infectious diseases or a major threat to public health.
Even so, regional health authorities have asked local councils to apply measures to control and prevent the proliferation of mosquitoes and other insects capable of spreading diseases.
Aldehuela warned that the foetid fumes enveloping Catarroja “will get worse, without a doubt,” predicting they would linger for up to a week more.
But in towns where the muck has been cleared swiftly, an aroma of bread or fruit has replaced the stench, the head of the army’s emergencies unit Javier Marcos said on Friday.

Topics: Spain floods weather

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Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises

Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
Updated 09 November 2024
AP
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Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises

Japan’s Ishiba vows military buildup and deeper ties with US as regional tension rises
  • Shigeru Ishiba: Security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea
Updated 09 November 2024
AP

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Saturday renewed a pledge to build up his country’s military and deepen its alliance with the United States under President-elect Donald Trump.
Ishiba, who made the comments at an annual troop review held at Camp Asaka in the Tokyo suburbs, said the security environment surrounding Japan and the international community has significantly worsened due to escalating tensions with China, Russia and North Korea. He pledged to reinforce Japan’s military power.
He said breaches of Japanese airspace by Chinese and Russian warplanes earlier this year “not only violated Japanese sovereignty but also threatened the safety of Japan and are absolutely unacceptable.” He said Japan faces growing threats from China’s accelerating military activity around Japanese coasts and from North Korea’s repeated missile firings.
“As we face the most severe and complex security environment, I will balance and strengthen Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Ishiba said in his speech before hundreds of troops gathered for the ceremony.
The Japan-US alliance is the lynchpin for achieving this, Ishiba said, pledging to elevate Japan’s ties with the United States and work closely with Trump as they agreed during a brief telephone conversation Thursday.
Ishiba took office on Oct. 1, replacing his unpopular predecessor Fumio Kishida but his governing coalition badly lost a recent parliamentary election and could face difficulty pursuing his party’s planned policies and budget plans in coming months.
Ishiba pledged to pursue the ongoing military buildup plan under the 2022 security strategy adopted by his predecessor, Fumio Kishida, which calls for a counter-strike capability with long-range cruise-missiles, a break from its self-defense only principle. Ishiba said he will pursue strengthening of command system to improve operation between Japanese and US troops.
After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan had prioritized economic recovery over defense under its war-renouncing constitution, but has steadily strengthened its defense capability over the past years.

Topics: Japan US Shigeru Ishiba Donald Trump

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At least 24 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say

At least 24 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say
Updated 9 sec ago
Reuters
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At least 24 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say

At least 24 killed in Pakistan train station bomb blast, police say
Updated 9 sec ago
Reuters

QUETTA: At least 24 people were killed and more than 40 injured in a bomb blast at a railway station in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday, police and other officials told Reuters.
Pakistan is grappling with a surge in strikes by separatist ethnic militants in the south and Islamist militants in its northwest.
Inspector general of police for Balochistan, Mouzzam Jah Ansari, said 24 people have died from the blast so far.
“The target was army personnel from the Infantry School,” he said, with many of the injured in critical condition.
“So far 44 injured people have been brought to civil hospital,” Dr. Wasim Baig, a hospital spokesman, told Reuters.
Senior superintendent of police operations, Muhammad Baloch, said the blast seemed to be a suicide bomb and that investigations were underway for more information.
“The blast took place inside the railway station when the Peshawar-bound express was about to leave for its destination,” Baloch said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast at Quetta’s main railway station, which is usually busy early in the day.
In August, at least 73 people were killed in Balochistan province after separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines and highways.
The assaults in August were the most widespread in years by militants fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine.

Topics: Pakistan

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North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South

North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South
Updated 09 November 2024
AFP
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North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South

North Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South
  • North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine
Updated 09 November 2024
AFP

Seoul: North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, Seoul’s military said, an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea.
The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.
The South fired its own ballistic missile into the sea on Friday in a show of force aimed at showing its resolve to respond to “any North Korean provocations.”
“North Korea conducted GPS jamming provocations in Haeju and Kaesong yesterday and today (November 8-9),” Seoul’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement Saturday, adding several vessels and dozens of civilian aircraft were experiencing “some operational disruptions” as a result.
The military warned ships and aircraft operating in the Yellow Sea to beware of such attacks.
“We strongly urge North Korea to immediately cease its GPS provocations and warn that it will be held responsible for any subsequent issues arising from this,” they said in the statement.
Tensions on the peninsula have been at their highest pitch in years, with the North launching a flurry of ballistic missiles in violation of UN sanctions.
It also has been bombarding the South with trash-carrying balloons since May, in what it says is retaliation for anti-Pyongyang propaganda missives sent North by activists.
North Korea has become one of the most vocal and important backers of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
Seoul and the West have long accused Pyongyang of supplying artillery shells and missiles to Moscow for use in Ukraine.
The latest accusations, based on intelligence reports, indicate the North has deployed around 10,000 troops to Russia, suggesting even deeper involvement in the conflict and triggering outcry in Seoul, Kyiv and Western capitals.
South Korea, a major arms exporter, has a long-standing policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict.
But President Yoon Suk Yeol said this week that Seoul is now not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons directly to Ukraine, given Pyongyang’s military support of Moscow.
On Friday, Seoul’s presidential office said cyberattacks by pro-Russian hacking groups against South Korea have increased following North Korea’s troop dispatch for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Topics: North Korea South Korea

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Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky

Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky
Updated 09 November 2024
AFP
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Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky

Indonesia volcano catapults vast ash tower into sky
  • There were no immediate reports of damage to nearby villages from Saturday’s fresh eruption.
  • Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
Updated 09 November 2024
AFP

East Flores: A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted again on Saturday, sending a giant ash tower nine kilometers (more than five miles) into the sky, days after it killed nine people and forced thousands of locals to evacuate.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-meter (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, has erupted more than a dozen times this week, killing nine people after its initial burst on Monday.
“The ash column was observed at approximately 9,000 meters above the summit. The ash column appeared grey with thick intensity,” the country’s volcanology agency said in a statement about the eruption that began at 04:47 local time (2047 GMT).
There were no immediate reports of damage to nearby villages from Saturday’s fresh eruption.
But the agency warned residents to “remain alert to the potential for cold lava floods” due to heavy rainfall.
On Friday, another huge eruption forced officials at a nearby monitoring post to evacuate as ash and small rocks rained down.
The mountain on Thursday spewed an ash tower eight kilometers high, which locals said was one of the biggest they had ever seen.
More than 10,000 people have been affected by the eruptions, with officials telling locals to permanently relocate from an eight-kilometer exclusion zone.
The head of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said authorities would temporarily house and fund locals while new homes were built.
“Since the preparation and planning process for relocation takes time, we hope we can build them quickly,” said Suharyanto, who goes by one name, on a visit to a shelter Friday.
Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman.”
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

Topics: Indonesia

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