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Battlefield Lebanon

EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon

EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon
Medical aid provided by France is unloaded off of a French Air Force military transport aircraft on the tarmac at Beirut International Airport. (File/AFP)
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Updated 09 October 2024
AFP
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EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon

EU opens ‘air bridge’ to fly aid to Lebanon
  • The European Commission said three initial flights were scheduled to carry supplies from Italy and Dubai to Lebanon
Updated 09 October 2024
AFP
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BRUSSELS: The European Union said Wednesday it had launched a “humanitarian air bridge” to fly aid to Lebanon as fighting rages between Israel and Hezbollah.
The European Commission said three initial flights were scheduled to carry supplies from Italy and Dubai to the conflict-wracked country, with the first arriving in Beirut on Friday.
“The EU stands by the people affected by the crisis in Lebanon,” commission president Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
“From blankets to shelter kits and medicines. More will come.”
The EU last week said it was ramping up spending on humanitarian assistance to Lebanon by 30 million euros ($33 million) in response to the unfolding violence.
Israel has intensified strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, leaving more than 1,150 people dead and forcing more than a million to flee.
Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel Wednesday and said it foiled ground incursions, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon could face destruction like Gaza.
Brussels said that it was already coordinating deliveries of aid to Lebanon from member states Belgium, France, Poland, Slovakia and Spain since last week.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon

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US Navy ship makes a port call in Cambodia, first in eight years

US Navy ship makes a port call in Cambodia, first in eight years
Updated 1 min 19 sec ago
AP
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US Navy ship makes a port call in Cambodia, first in eight years

US Navy ship makes a port call in Cambodia, first in eight years
  • The USS Savannah docked at the port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand for a five-day visit
  • The US and others suggest China’s navy is establishing a permanent base at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base
Updated 1 min 19 sec ago
AP
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia: A US Navy warship arrived Monday in Cambodia, the first such visit in eight years to a nation that is China’s close ally in Southeast Asia. Cambodia’s government has suggested the port call reflects an upgrade in often-strained relations.
The USS Savannah docked at the port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand for a five-day visit. The Savannah, classed as a Littoral Combat Ship, carries a crew of 103.
“It’s great to be back, returning US presence to here after eight years,” the ship’s commanding officer, Daniel A. Sledz, said in brief remarks to reporters. He was given a bouquet of flowers by a Cambodian officer and shook hands with a line of her colleagues.
The United States for many years has had rocky relations with Cambodia, criticizing its government for political repression and human rights violations. There is particular concern about its close ties with China, which Washington fears may get exclusive access to a Cambodian naval base on the Gulf of Thailand, not far from where the Savannah docked.
Recently, there seem to have been moves to patch up relations.
Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defense said last week that the visit was scheduled after a US request for a port call, and would “strengthen and expand the bonds of friendship as well as promote bilateral cooperation” between the two nations.
Two days before that, Cambodia’s foreign ministry noted “positive momentum of bilateral ties and cooperation” and “the reinvigoration of military-to-military cooperation” between Cambodia and the US
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Cambodia in early June, where he held talks with Prime Minister Hun Manet and other senior officials. He also met with Cambodian alumni of US military training programs. Hun Manet himself is a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point.
The US Defense Department said at the time that Austin’s discussions concerned “opportunities to strengthen the US-Cambodia bilateral defense relationship in support of regional peace and security,” and other matters.
But Washington remains concerned that the upgrading of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base near Sihanoukville will serve Beijing’s strategic interests in the region.
The US and others suggest China’s navy is establishing a permanent base at Ream, which would give it easier access to the Malacca Strait, a critical shipping route between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Controversy over the Chinese activity at Ream initially arose in 2019 when The Wall Street Journal reported that an early draft of an agreement seen by US officials would allow China 30-year use of the base, where it would be able to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships.
Cambodia’s government has denied such an agreement or any intention to grant China special privileges at the base, though Beijing has funded its expansion.
In September, Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said that China is giving its navy two warships of the type it has had docked there for months. China is set to hand over two newly built Type 56 corvettes — smaller vessels typically used for coastal patrols — next year at the earliest, after Cambodia requested China’s support.
Cambodia’s defense ministry said the Savannah’s port call will include “a working meeting with the commander of the Ream Naval Base,” as well as meetings with provincial officials and “a friendship sports competition between the crews of the US Navy and the Cambodian Navy.”
Cambodian Navy Capt. Mean Savoeun, deputy commander of the Ream Naval Base, was among those dockside welcoming the Savannah to Sihanoukville. He said he was happy to see the good relationship between Cambodia and the US, especially their navies, and believed the visit will bring closer diplomatic cooperation.

EU diplomat to make contact with new Syria leaders in Damascus

EU diplomat to make contact with new Syria leaders in Damascus
Updated 17 min 47 sec ago
Reuters
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EU diplomat to make contact with new Syria leaders in Damascus

EU diplomat to make contact with new Syria leaders in Damascus
Updated 17 min 47 sec ago
Reuters

BRUSSELS: European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday she had instructed the bloc’s top diplomat for Syria to go to Damascus and make contact with the country’s new government.
Speaking to reporters on arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Kallas said the diplomat would go to the Syrian capital on Monday.

Topics: Fall of Assad Syria EU

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Pakistan begins last anti-polio vaccination campaign of the year after a surge in cases

Pakistan begins last anti-polio vaccination campaign of the year after a surge in cases
Updated 37 min 51 sec ago
AP
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Pakistan begins last anti-polio vaccination campaign of the year after a surge in cases

Pakistan begins last anti-polio vaccination campaign of the year after a surge in cases
  • Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the potentially fatal, paralyzing virus has not been stopped
  • Thousands of police officers deployed to protect the health workers following intelligence reports that insurgents could target them
Updated 37 min 51 sec ago
AP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan began on Monday its last nationwide vaccination campaign for the year to protect 45 million children from polio after a surge in new cases hampered efforts to stop the disease, officials said.
According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the potentially fatal, paralyzing virus hasn’t been stopped,
Pakistan has reported 63 confirmed cases since January.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s adviser for the polio eradication program, said the anti-polio drive will continue until Dec. 22.
“As a mother, I am appealing to you to open your doors for health workers,” she said.
Pakistan regularly launches such campaigns despite violence affecting medical personnel who oversee the vaccinations and security forces escorting them. Militants falsely claim that vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Authorities deployed thousands of police officers to protect the health workers following intelligence reports that insurgents could target them. However, gunmen opened fire Monday on police escorting polio workers in Karak, a city in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing a police officer and wounding a health worker, local police official Ayaz Khan said.
More than 200 polio workers and police assigned for their protection have been killed since the 1990s, according to health officials and authorities.
The latest anti-polio drive campaign began a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met with medical staff and vowed that Pakistan would win the war against polio.
Afghanistan reported at least 23 confirmed cases in 2024, according to data from the World Health Organization.
In September, the Afghan Taliban suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Afghanistan, a devastating setback for polio eradication as the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.

Topics: public health Polio Pakistan

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Filipino on Indonesia death row moved before transfer home

Filipino on Indonesia death row moved before transfer home
Updated 43 min 19 sec ago
AFP
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Filipino on Indonesia death row moved before transfer home

Filipino on Indonesia death row moved before transfer home
  • Mary Jane Veloso was arrested and convicted in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6kg of heroin
Updated 43 min 19 sec ago
AFP

JAKARTA: A Filipino inmate sentenced to death in Indonesia was moved to capital Jakarta before she is expected to fly home on Wednesday, after the government signed an agreement to repatriate her.

Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso, 39, was arrested and convicted in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin.

On Sunday, officers picked her up from a women’s prison in Yogyakarta province, an AFP journalist present said, before transporting her to another prison in Jakarta more than 418 kilometers away.

From there she will be flown back to the Philippines early Wednesday morning, I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, acting deputy for immigration and corrections coordination, told a press conference.

She will travel home on a Cebu Airlines flight shortly after midnight on December 18, he confirmed to reporters.

Foreign affairs ministry spokesman Roy Soemirat said they did not yet “have any formal information from our law enforcement agency on the details” of her transfer.

The Philippine embassy in Jakarta did not respond to a request for comment.

Both Veloso and her supporters said she was duped by an international drug syndicate, and in 2015, she narrowly escaped execution after her suspected recruiter was arrested.

She said on Friday in her first interview since the repatriation agreement that her release was a “miracle.”

Muslim-majority Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.

At least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.

According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, 96 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November.

Topics: Philippines Indonesia Mary Jane Veloso

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Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain dies at 73

Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain dies at 73
Updated 16 December 2024
Reuters
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Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain dies at 73

Indian tabla maestro Zakir Hussain dies at 73
  • Hussain died in San Francisco from a chronic lung disease
  • He was the eldest son of legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha
Updated 16 December 2024
Reuters

Zakir Hussain, considered one of the greatest players of the tabla or Indian drums and known for his “dancing fingers,” has died.

Hussain, 73, died in a San Francisco hospital from complications of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a chronic lung disease, his family said in a statement.

Zakir Hussain accepts the award for Best Global Music Performance for Pashto, by Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain featuring Rakesh Chaurasia during the Premiere ceremony of the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, on February 4, 2024. (REUTERS/File)

The eldest son of legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha, Hussain was a child prodigy, beginning his professional career at the age of 12 accompanying Indian classical musicians.

By 18, he was touring internationally, winning acclaim for his accompaniment, dazzling solo performances and pioneering collaborative work with world musicians that elevated the status of the tabla in India and abroad.

Collaborators included George Harrison, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and jazz musician Herbie Hancock.

India's tabla maestro Zakir Hussain plays tabla during a cultural programme in the eastern Indian city of Patna on December 19, 2008. (REUTERS/File)

He was nominated for seven Grammy awards, winning four including three this year, according to the Grammy website. He was also the recipient of India’s highest honor for artists, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

Topics: India Zakir Hussain Tabla Music Arab News Pakistan

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