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Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal (C), Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi on September 13, 2024. (AFP)
Arvind Kejriwal (C), Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi on September 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 15 September 2024
Reuters
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Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
  • Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party quickly rose to mainstream politics
Updated 15 September 2024
Reuters
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NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, a day after he was released from prison on bail in a graft case. Kejriwal was granted bail on Friday by India’s Supreme Court and left prison on Saturday almost six months after being detained in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared to older opposition parties.
AAP had expected that Kejriwal’s release from prison would allow him to campaign as a chief minister in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal, announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, said he would only return to the post if people certify his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the Election Commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.
“I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections, I demand the elections be held immediately,” Kejriwal said.
He was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest the previous month by the federal police in another graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”

Topics: India Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal

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African Union ‘dismayed’ US withdrawing from WHO

Updated 6 sec ago
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African Union ‘dismayed’ US withdrawing from WHO

African Union ‘dismayed’ US withdrawing from WHO
Updated 6 sec ago
AU’s Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said he was “dismayed to learn of the US government’s announcement to withdraw” from WHO
Trump has repeatedly criticized the WHO over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic

ADDIS ABABA: The African Union expressed dismay Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, urging his administration to reconsider.
Just hours after taking office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order directing the US to withdraw from the UN agency, which threatens to leave global health initiatives short of funding.
African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement he was “dismayed to learn of the US government’s announcement to withdraw” from the Geneva-based WHO.
Washington is easily the biggest financial contributor to the organization and the pullout comes as Africa faces a range of health crises, including recent outbreaks of mpox and Marburg viruses.
“Now more than ever, the world depends on WHO to carry out its mandate to ensure global public health security as a shared common good,” Moussa Faki said, adding he hopes “the US government will reconsider its decision.”
He said Washington was an early supporter of the Africa CDC, the African Union’s health watchdog which works with the WHO to counter present and emerging pandemics.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the WHO over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and said prior to his inauguration that “World Health ripped us off.”
The United States was in the process of withdrawing from the WHO during Trump’s first term, but the move was reversed under Joe Biden.
Tom Frieden, a former US senior health official, wrote on X that the withdrawal “weakens America’s influence, increases the risk of a deadly pandemic, and makes all of us less safe.”
It comes as fears grow of the pandemic potential of a bird flu outbreak, which has infected dozens and claimed its first human life in the United States earlier this month.
WHO member states have been negotiating the world’s first treaty on handling future pandemics since late 2021 — negotiations now set to proceed without the US.

In Itaewon, Seoul’s Korean Muslim minority finds a sense of belonging

In Itaewon, Seoul’s Korean Muslim minority finds a sense of belonging
Updated 19 min 59 sec ago
Seung-ku Lee
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In Itaewon, Seoul’s Korean Muslim minority finds a sense of belonging

In Itaewon, Seoul’s Korean Muslim minority finds a sense of belonging
  • Muslims make up only around 0.3 percent of South Korea’s 51 million population
  • Seoul Central Mosque in Itaewon is South Korea’s first and largest
Updated 19 min 59 sec ago
Seung-ku Lee

SEOUL: Tucked away behind the main avenue of Seoul’s central Itaewon district, the signs along “Muslim Street” — which features the Korean alphabet Hangul and Arabic script side by side — is the first giveaway of the neighborhood’s soul.

A little walk up the street, visitors would then find the Seoul Central Mosque — the country’s first and largest — that for decades has served as a beating heart for South Korea’s minority Muslim community.

“Korean Muslims are one of the smallest minority groups in Korea … In Itaewon, no one thinks I am weird when I tell them I am Muslim, or when I pray at the mosque or dress in Arab clothes. It gives me a sense of tranquility. And it also satisfies a big portion of the loneliness I feel as a Muslim,” Eom Min-a, a 35-year-old government official, told Arab News.

“When I meet friends in Itaewon, or when I pray in the mosque with other Muslims, I feel that I am not alone in this country. That makes me keep wanting to go there.”

In South Korea, Muslims make up only around 0.3 percent of the country’s 51 million population, according to the Korea Muslim Federation. Migrant workers from Muslim countries make up the bulk of the Korean Muslim community, as around 70 percent of them are foreigners.

For Koreans like Eom, being Muslim is often a lonely and alienating experience. She deals with microaggressions from time to time and often feels excluded from the larger society.

But whenever she visits Itaewon, she feels liberated. It is also the place where she meets her Muslim friends — most of whom are foreigners — and eats Arab food.

“When you go to Itaewon, you can see the mosque on top of the neighborhood’s highest hill. You feel a sense of pride,” she said. “I feel liberated and I find a lot of emotional comfort there.”

Though small, the growth of the Muslim community in Korea is often traced back to when the Seoul Central Mosque was built in 1976, with funding from Saudi Arabia.

Since then, Muslims in and around Seoul have visited the mosque in Itaewon especially to get together and celebrate the main holidays in Islam, Eid Al-Adha and Eid Al-Fitr.

“Before my child was born, I would go to the central mosque in Itaewon during Ramadan or Eid and participate in the prayers,” business owner Kim Jin-woo told Arab News.

“From our point of view as Muslims, the neighborhood and the Central Mosque feel like home … In our heart, it is a place like home.”

Kim’s visits to Itaewon are also related to household needs at times, including buying halal or Arab ingredients. From dates to homemade hummus to falafel, the shop Kim goes to carries more Arab products than Korean ones.

“My family also goes to Itaewon to shop for groceries. My wife mostly cooks Moroccan food at home, and the shopping center there has a large assortment of Arab groceries and halal meat,” he said.

Over the years, Seoul’s Muslim neighborhood has grown into a beacon of diversity and peaceful coexistence even for other Itaewon residents, including for 83-year-old Kim C., a non-Muslim who has run a shop in the area for over 40 years.

“I have hired foreign Muslim employees myself. They are genuine people,” Kim told Arab News. “They are no different from my other neighbors.”

Topics: South Korea Seoul Itaewon

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200,000 intl troops needed to secure any Ukraine peace: Zelensky

200,000 intl troops needed to secure any Ukraine peace: Zelensky
Updated 28 min 22 sec ago
AFP
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200,000 intl troops needed to secure any Ukraine peace: Zelensky

200,000 intl troops needed to secure any Ukraine peace: Zelensky
  • Zelensky said that given the small size of the Ukrainian army compared to that of Russia, “we need contingents with a very strong number of soldiers” to secure any peace deal
  • “From all the Europeans? Two hundred thousand. It’s a minimum. Otherwise, it’s nothing“
Updated 28 min 22 sec ago
AFP

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any peace deal agreed with Russia would require at least 200,000 European peacekeepers to oversee it, according to comments published Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has raised the spectre of some kind of halt in the fighting after he vowed to end the war — though he has never explained how.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a day earlier, Zelensky said any deal to end the conflict would need to be overseen by a large foreign contingent of peacekeepers.
Zelensky said that given the small size of the Ukrainian army compared to that of Russia, “we need contingents with a very strong number of soldiers” to secure any peace deal.
“From all the Europeans? Two hundred thousand. It’s a minimum. Otherwise, it’s nothing,” he said.
He said any other arrangement would be akin to the monitoring mission led by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in eastern Ukraine that disintegrated when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“They had offices and that’s all,” Zelensky said, underscoring the need from the Ukrainian perspective for an armed force to prevent further Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said that Ukraine must be represented at any talks with international parties to end the conflict and that only robust security guarantees can dissuade Russia from attacking again.
Ukraine’s fear that Moscow would use a truce to rebuild its military stems partially from the decade that followed peace agreements between Kremlin-backed separatists and Kyiv in 2014 which failed to halt Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
In an earlier address at Davos, Zelensky called on Europe to establish a joint defense policy and said European capitals should be prepared to increase spending, while calling into question Trump’s commitment to NATO, the US-led security bloc.
Trump on Tuesday indicated he would consider imposing fresh sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

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Afghan suspect arrested after two killed in knife attack in German park

Afghan suspect arrested after two killed in knife attack in German park
Updated 43 min 45 sec ago
Reuters
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Afghan suspect arrested after two killed in knife attack in German park

Afghan suspect arrested after two killed in knife attack in German park
  • The Afghan suspect was detained at the scene in Schoental park
  • A 41-year old man and a two-year old boy were fatally injured, police said
Updated 43 min 45 sec ago
Reuters

BERLIN: A 28-year-old man from Afghanistan has been arrested following a knife attack in a park in the German city of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday in which two people were killed, including a toddler, police said.
The suspect was detained at the scene in Schoental park, an English-style garden in the Bavarian city, where the attack occurred at around 1045 GMT.
A 41-year old man and a two-year old boy were fatally injured, police said in a post on social media platform X. Two seriously injured people were receiving hospital treatment.
Police said there was no indication of further suspects and no danger to the public.
The stabbing adds to a string of violent attacks in Germany that have raised concerns over security and stirred up tensions over migration ahead of parliamentary elections on Feb. 23.
A doctor was arrested after a car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg on Dec. 20, in which six people were killed and around 200 injured.

Topics: Germany knife attack Bavaria Afghanistan

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Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return

Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return
Updated 22 January 2025
Reuters
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Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return

Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return
  • Macron made the remarks at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Updated 22 January 2025
Reuters

PARIS: More than ever, Europeans, including France and Germany, must protect their sovereignty in the face of the return of US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.
He made the remarks at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris, adding that it was important to support the automobile, steel, chemical sectors, among others.
“After the inauguration of a new administration in the United States, it is necessary more than ever for Europeans and for our two countries to play their role of consolidating a united, strong and sovereign Europe,” Macron said.

Topics: Trump Returns French President Emmanuel Macron German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Europe

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