Special UK unit to track down soldiers over deaths of Afghan civilians

The UK Ministry of Defence has instructed a special unit to find former elite soldiers wanted in connection with alleged killings of Afghan civilians, The Times reported on Friday. (AFP/File)

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Updated 19 sec ago

Arab News

January 10, 2025 17:15

Special UK unit to track down soldiers over deaths of Afghan civilians

Ministry of Defence team tasked with finding ex-personnel wanted in connection with alleged killings between 2010, 2013
Afghan Inquiry established in 2022 following Times, BBC investigations

Updated 19 sec ago

Arab News

January 10, 2025 17:15

LONDON: The UK Ministry of Defence has instructed a special unit to find former elite soldiers wanted in connection with alleged killings of Afghan civilians, The Times reported on Friday.
The Afghan Inquiry Response Unit will locate people named by sources in relation to the alleged war crimes covered by the Afghan Inquiry.
It will use information including the addresses of people drawing military pensions to track down those wanted for questioning.
The AIRU, which was set up in 2023, includes military personnel, civil servants, former police detectives and a specialist Metropolitan Police counterterrorist officer.
The Afghan Inquiry is looking into claims that UK special forces members killed unarmed Afghans during night raids across a three-year period of operations, and attempted to hide evidence of wrongdoing.
The Afghan Inquiry was established in 2022 after investigations by The Times and the BBC uncovered claims that UK Special Air Force units killed numerous Afghan civilians between 2010 and 2013, including an incident where three boys aged 12, 14 and 16 were killed while drinking tea in their home.
The inquiry has the power to compel witness testimony under threat of imprisonment, but has had to contend with issues including former serving personnel not keeping contact with their regiments and some witnesses refusing to give evidence.
Former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer was threatened with jail last year after he refused to give up the names of soldiers who had told him about alleged war crimes.

Saudi-based doctor receives highest award for overseas Indians

Updated 10 January 2025

Sanjay Kumar

January 10, 2025 15:37

Saudi-based doctor receives highest award for overseas Indians

Dr. Syed Anwar Khursheed among 27 awardees of this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman
He has served at King Faisal Hospital in Taif and as Royal Protocol physician in Riyadh

Updated 10 January 2025

Sanjay Kumar

January 10, 2025 15:37

NEW DELHI: Dr. Syed Anwar Khursheed, one of the longest-serving Indian physicians in Saudi Arabia, received on Friday the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honor conferred by India’s president on nationals based overseas.

Dr. Khursheed was born in Gulbarga city in the southwestern state of Karnataka and has spent most of his professional life — more than 40 years — in the Kingdom.

He has served for three decades at King Faisal Hospital in Taif and nearly a decade as a Royal Protocol physician in Riyadh, was involved in the COVID-19 response, and has overseen critical care operations and medical assistance to Hajj pilgrims.

He has also contributed to education, founding the International Indian School in Taif, and provided guidance on the establishment of other schools for the Indian community in Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Khursheed usually travels to India twice a year to see his relatives and hometown, but this time the visit is different, coming with a recognition that he did not expect.

“My heart rate is higher this time,” he told Arab News, as he arrived in India to take part in the ceremony in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

“I really felt excited, thrilled when the award was announced. I was not in the race for the award. I am aware of the honor associated with the award, the prestige it has ... I will be joining an elite club of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman awardees and meet top-level personalities from around the globe. It’s a lifetime achievement.”

Established in 2003, the annual award celebrates the exceptional contributions of overseas Indians in various fields, including medicine, community service, education, business and public affairs.

Dr. Khursheed is among 27 recipients of this year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, and the only one based in Saudi Arabia. He received the award from President Droupadi Murmu.

“Dr. Syed Anwar Khursheed is a distinguished physician with 45 years of experience in public health care and is one of the longest-serving physicians in the government sector. Having spent three decades at the King Faisal Hospital, he was a part of the Medical Protocol Department of the Royal Saudi Family for eight years. He also oversaw critical care operations in the Hajj program at Minah and Arafat,” Suhel Ajaz Khan, India’s ambassador to the Kingdom, told Arab News.

“The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award to Dr. Syed Anwar Khursheed is a matter of great pride for the Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia, since it is the highest honor conferred on overseas Indians by the Hon’ble President of India. The award has recognized Dr. Khursheed’s outstanding achievements in the field of medical science and health care, and his long-standing contribution to the welfare of the Indian community in Saudi Arabia.”

More than 2.65 million Indians live and work in Saudi Arabia. They constitute the second-largest Indian community in the Middle East after the UAE.

Among the previous recipients of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from Saudi Arabia are Dr. Majid Kazi, personal physician to King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, who was honored with Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2006, and Rafiuddin Fazulbhoy, social worker and the founder of Indian International School in Jeddah, who received it in 2008.

In 2011, the award was conferred to renowned pediatrician Dr. M.S. Karimuddin, and in 2014 to Shihab Kottukad, a social worker engaged in assisting the poorest Indian laborers in the Kingdom.

Educationist Zeenat Jafri, who started the first Indian school in Riyadh, was awarded Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2017. In 2021, the recognition was granted to Dr. Siddeek Ahmed, investor and philanthropist based in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

Topics: Saudi Arabia India

Kremlin says Putin ready for talks with Trump

Updated 10 January 2025

AFP

January 10, 2025 11:15

Kremlin says Putin ready for talks with Trump

Incoming US president has said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine
Washington has delivered tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its military offensive

Updated 10 January 2025

AFP

January 10, 2025 11:15

MSOCOW: The Kremlin said Friday that President Vladimir Putin was open to talks with Donald Trump, after the incoming US president said a meeting between the pair was being set up.
Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, without presenting a concrete plan.
“The president has repeatedly stated his openness to contact with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Trump on Thursday said a meeting with Putin was being arranged.
“He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up,” Trump said at a meeting with Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“President Putin wants to meet, he’s said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with, that’s a bloody mess,” he said.
The Kremlin welcomed Trump’s “readiness to solve problems through dialogue,” Peskov said Friday, adding Moscow had no prerequisites for staging the meeting.
“No conditions are required. What is required is mutual desire and political will to solve problems through dialogue,” he told reporters in a daily briefing.
Trump’s hopes for a swift end to the conflict have stoked concern in Kyiv that Ukraine could be forced to accept a peace deal on terms favorable to Moscow.
Washington has delivered tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that without such support his country would have lost the conflict.
He is pushing Trump to back his “peace-through-strength” proposal, seeking NATO protections and concrete Western security guarantees as part of any settlement to end the fighting.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry dismissed Trump’s comments on any forthcoming meeting with Putin.
“Trump has talked about plans for such a meeting before, so we see nothing new in this,” said spokesman Georgiy Tykhy.
“Our position is very simple: we all in Ukraine want to end the war fairly for Ukraine, and we see that President Trump is also determined to end the war,” he said, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Tykhy said Ukraine was preparing for high-level discussions between Kyiv and Washington “immediately” after the inauguration, including between Trump and Zelensky.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia US Vladimir Putin Donald Trump

The Supreme Court is considering a possible TikTok ban. Here’s what to know about the case

Updated 10 January 2025

January 10, 2025 11:12

The Supreme Court is considering a possible TikTok ban. Here’s what to know about the case

Three appeals court judges have sided with the government and upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold
The justices largely hold the app’s fate in their hands as they hear the case Friday

Updated 10 January 2025

January 10, 2025 11:12

WASHINGTON: The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court on Friday, with the justices largely holding the app’s fate in their hands.
The popular social media platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down.
TikTok’s parent company is based in China, and the US government says that means it is a potential national security threat. Chinese authorities could force it to hand over sensitive data on the huge number of Americans who use it or could influence the spread of information on the platform, they say.
An appeals court has upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold.
The law is set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before a new term begins for President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform. The Republican says he wants to “save TikTok.”
Here are some key things to know about the case:
Is TikTok banned?
Not now, but the short-form video-sharing app could be shut down in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law.
Congress passed the measure with bipartisan support, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law in April.
TikTok’s lawyers challenged the law in court, joined by users and content creators who say a ban would upend their livelihoods. TikTok says the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.
But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents has upheld the law.
When will the Supreme Court decide?
The justices will issue a decision after arguments Friday, a lightning-fast movement by court standards.
The conservative-majority court could drop clues about how it’s leaning during oral arguments.
TikTok lawyers have urged the justices to step in before the law takes effect, saying even a monthlong shutdown would cause the app to lose about one-third of its daily American users and significant advertising revenue.
The court could quickly block the law from going into effect before issuing a final ruling, if at least five of the nine justices think it is unconstitutional.
What has Trump said about it?
The law is to take effect Jan. 19, the day before Trump takes over as president.
He took the unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court to put the law on hold so that he could negotiate a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office. His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself into national issues before he takes office. It also was a change from his last presidential term, when he wanted to ban it.
Parent company ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell. Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last month.
Who else is weighing in?
Free-speech advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have urged the court to block the law, saying the government hasn’t shown credible evidence of harm and a ban would cause “extraordinary disruption” in Americans’ lives.
On the other side, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican former Senate leader, and a group of 22 states have filed briefs in support, arguing that the law protects free speech by safeguarding Americans’ data and preventing the possible manipulation of information on the platform by Chinese authorities.

Topics: TikTok

State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumes direct flights to Europe after EU lifts ban

Updated 10 January 2025

January 10, 2025 10:33

State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumes direct flights to Europe after EU lifts ban

The curb was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi
The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million a year in revenue for the flag carrier

Updated 10 January 2025

January 10, 2025 10:33

ISLAMABAD: State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumed direct flights to Europe on Friday following a decision by the European Union’s aviation safety agency to lift a four-year ban over safety standards, officials said.
Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif inaugurated the twice-a-week flights to Paris and vowed that PIA will expand its operations to other European countries soon.
The flight from Islamabad was fully booked with more than 300 passengers, the airline said.
Asif said in a speech that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency had imposed the ban on PIA’s operations to Europe because of an “irresponsible statement” by a former aviation minister.
The curb on PIA was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi in southern Pakistan. Then-Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said an investigation into the crash found that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot’s exams. A government probe later concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.
The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million a year in revenue for PIA, officials say.
Meanwhile, the first international flight was scheduled to depart from Gwadar, a new airport in southwestern Pakistan, later Friday. The Chinese-funded airport was inaugurated by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in October.
The airport, Pakistan’s largest, is located in restive southwestern Balochistan province and is part of a massive investment by Beijing that links a deep seaport and airport on the Arabian Sea by road with China.

Topics: aviation Pakistan Pakistan International Airlines

Tajikistan bets on giant dam to solve electricity crisis

Updated 10 January 2025

AFP

January 10, 2025 12:24

Tajikistan bets on giant dam to solve electricity crisis

Tajikistan is reviving the colossal project, first planned by Soviet authorities in 1976, before being abandoned due to the end of communist rule
The plant will not only generate enough power to use domestically, but could supply other Central Asian countries and even Afghanistan, Pakistan

Updated 10 January 2025

AFP

January 10, 2025 12:24

ROGUN: In a remote village in Tajikistan’s soaring mountains, Muslikhiddin Makhmudzoda relies on a mobile phone to light his modest home as his family spends another winter without electricity.
Makhmudzoda’s three children and wife were sitting huddled together to share the phone’s flashlight in their modest brick home.
A shortage of water needed to fuel hydroelectric plants has led to serious power outages in Tajikistan, a poor former Soviet republic nestled in the Central Asian mountains and surrounded by Afghanistan, China, and fellow ex-Soviet states Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The power crisis is only set to worsen, as Central Asia is hard-hit by climate change.
Amid chronic shortages, Tajikistan has promised it will end the power outages and has revived a Soviet-era mega-project to build the world’s highest dam.
Makhmudzoda’s family spend much of their day without power.
“We have electricity from 5:00 am to 8:00 am and then from 5:00 p.m. until 11:00 pm,” the 28-year-old said.
To cope with intermittent power supplies, the family resorts to using a charcoal stove for heating — a risky choice, since many Tajiks die from carbon monoxide poisoning each year caused by such appliances.
Every year, the impoverished country’s state electricity company Barqi Tojik restricts power supplies starting in September to prevent the system’s collapse during the coldest months.
It says this is an “inevitable measure” as demand has skyrocketed.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the small country’s population has doubled to 10 million, with economic growth steady at around eight percent after decades of stagnation.
The rationing is also due to falling water levels in reservoirs used to drive turbines in hydroelectric power plants, which provide 95 percent of Tajikistan’s electricity.
Authorities say “feeble rainfall” means that water levels in the country’s biggest river — the Vakhsh — are low.
“Every centimeter of water counts,” Barqi Tojik has warned, urging Tajiks to pay their bills to renovate aging infrastructure.
The average salary in Tajikistan hovers around $190 (180 euros) a month.
But the government is now promising that all these inconveniences will soon be a thing of the past thanks to the construction of a massive dam and plant.
Tajikistan has placed its bets on Rogun, planned to become the most powerful hydropower plant in Central Asia. It is set to have the highest dam in the world at 335 meters (1,100 feet).
When completed, the plant is intended to produce some 3,600 megawatts — the equivalent of three nuclear power stations.
Tajikistan is reviving the colossal project, first planned by the Soviet authorities in 1976, before being abandoned due to the end of communist rule and then the Tajik civil war.
At the site, dozens of bulldozers go up and down the mountains and dozens of kilometers of underground tunnels are equipped with giant turbines.
Some 17,000 people are working on the site which lies west of the capital Dushanbe, in the foothills of the Pamir Mountains.
The site is already partially functioning but it is not known when construction will be finished.
Giant banners showing President Emomali Rahmon — in power for 32 years — hang over the construction site.
Rahmon has stressed the importance of the dam, calling it a “palace of light,” the “pride of the Tajik nation” and the “construction project of the century.”
Surrounded by giant machinery, engineer Zafar Buriyev said he was certain the dam would end power cuts.
“Once the construction at Rogun is finished, Tajikistan will completely come out of its electricity crisis,” he told AFP.
He stood in what he called “the heart of the dam” in between giant peaks.
“By next summer, this area will be submerged and the water will reach an altitude of 1,100 meters and then eventually 1,300.”
Authorities have said the plant will not only generate enough electricity to use domestically, but could supply other Central Asian countries — and even nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Water resources have long been a source of tension between Central Asian countries as they suffer shortages.
The plant’s technical director Murod Sadulloyev told AFP it will help “reinforce the unified energy system” in Central Asia — a concept dating back to the USSR that enables the former Soviet republics to exchange water and electricity.
Tajikistan’s neighbors are also working to revive Soviet-era energy projects.
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have pledged to build the Kambar-Ata hydroelectric power plant jointly in a mountainous area of Kyrgyzstan.
Tajikistan’s Rogun project has been criticized for its constantly rising cost — currently more than $6 billion — and its environmental impact, while information on Kambar-Ata has been classified as secret.
The Central Asian power plants are being built in the context of dire climatic realities.
According to the UN, Central Asia is “warming more rapidly than the global average.”

Topics: Tajikistan

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Special UK unit to track down soldiers over deaths of Afghan civilians

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