World (146)
US URGES ISRAEL TO REVERSE PALESTINIAN LAND-GRAB PLAN
WASHINGTON: Israel has faced increasing pressure, including from the United States, after saying it plans to expropriate 400 hectares (988 acres) of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem area in the south of the occupied West Bank. Ally Washington, the United Nations and Egypt all called for an urgent rethink after Sunday’s announcement, which angered the Palestinians and alarmed Israeli peace campaigners, and comes days after a long-term ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians took hold. According to the Israeli military, the land move was a political decision made after the June killing of three Israeli teenagers snatched in the same area, known to Israelis as the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. “This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve, and construction tender they issue, is counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians,” a official said.
US MAIL SERVICE WINDS DOWN IN AFGHANISTAN
GARDEZ, AFGHANISTAN / Even in the age of emails and internet video chatting, there’s nothing like a parcel or a letter from home for US soldiers on deployment in Afghanistan. The incoming mail at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Lightning consists of everything from televisions and T-shirts to golf balls — and still plenty of handwritten envelopes from family and friends. But the mail service is winding down in parallel with the pullout of US combat troops after 13 years of war and, as bases close, so too do the post offices. Troops at FOB Lightning have been rushing to send out carpets, scarves, trinkets and other souvenirs in their last chance to use the mail depot before it shuts and is replaced by an occasional delivery-only service.Mail will still get through, but it could be less reliable as the US force shrinks from the current 44,000 troops to a 10,000-strong follow-up mission next year. “The mail service is like Christmas time. I’m like Santa,” said Sergeant Michael Claggett, from Fort Hood Texas, who works at FOB Lightning post office in the volatile eastern province of Paktia. “When I have mail, it’s a good day. When I don’t have mail, it’s not so positive for everyone. “(Outgoing mail) is mostly for people who want to get a last-minute gift to send to their loved ones. They might not come back to Afghanistan, so they get something from this country.”
CHINA POULTRY FARM HIT IN NEW OUTBREAK OF H5N6 BIRD FLU
SHANGHAI: Nearly 18,000 geese died on a poultry farm in northeast China after being stricken by the H5N6 bird flu virus last month, the agriculture ministry said. As many as 20,550 geese on the farm in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, showed symptoms of avian flu and 17,790 birds died, the ministry said on its website on Monday. The ministry sealed off and sterilized the infected area, besides culling and safely disposing of almost 69,000 geese, it added. The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed that the geese had the H5N6 virus. In May, a 49-year-old man in China’s Sichuan province died of the H5N6 bird flu virus, which domestic media described as the world’s first known human infection with the strain.
RUSSIA PROTESTS OVER PHOTOGRAPHER’S ‘BARBAROUS’ KILLING
MOSCOW The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukrainian forces on Wednesday of responsibility for the “barbarous” killing of a Russian photojournalist and demanded an investigation. Andrei Stenin, 33, was confirmed dead earlier on Wednesday by his employers, state-run Rossiya Segodnya, or Russia Today, and by Russia’s Investigative Committee. He was the fourth Russian journalist killed in the conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine and had been missing since early August. The Investigative Committee said in a statement it believed Stenin was killed on Aug. 6 while travelling with a convoy of refugees that was fired on by Ukrainian tanks close to the town of Snizhne in the Donetsk region. “He did everything so that people, the whole world, knew the truth about the tragic events in Donetsk,” President Vladimir Putin said in a letter of condolence to Stenin’s mother published on the Kremlin website. The Foreign Ministry issued a statement citing evidence from Rossiya Segodnya that suggested “this is yet another barbarous crime committed by the Ukrainian military and National Guard” and demanding an impartial investigation. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe(OSCE), a security and rights group, said it was appalled to hear of Stenin’s death and also called for an investigation. A senior Ukrainian Interior Ministry official, Anton Gerashchenko, said an investigation would not be possible until the Ukrainian authorities had access to the area where Stenin was killed. “Without access to the body, without specifying how he died, we will not be able to conduct such an investigation,” Gerashchenko told Ukrainian television channel 112. In addition to the Russian journalists killed covering the fighting between Kiev and pro-Russian rebels in east Ukraine, an Italian journalist was killed in May.
AFGHAN ELECTION CLOSE TO FAILURE
KABUL Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah issued another ultimatum over the disputed election result, threatening to withdraw from all efforts to negotiate a solution to the deepening political crisis. Abdullah claims that fraud cheated him of victory in the June 14 election, and fears have risen of a return to unrest of the 1990s civil war after his supporters called on him to form a “parallel government”. As tensions threatened to boil over, the United States brokered a deal between Abdullah and his rival Ashraf Ghani in which they agreed to an audit of all eight million votes and the formation of a post-election national unity government.But Abdullah’s spokesman Fazel Aqa Hussain Sancharaki said his team was on the brink of abandoning both parts of the deal — potentially plunging Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power into further turmoil. “Our patience is running out, any announcement of results made by the fraudulent election commission will be rejected by us,” Sancharaki said. “We are setting this deadline — that if tomorrow our logical demands of transparent auditing and an honest political process are not met, we will completely boycott the whole process.” Last week Abdullah pulled out of the audit, but had said difficult negotiations on the national unity government were still under way.
Pak mulls ‘selective use of force’ against protesters
ISLAMABAD Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a joint session of parliament on Tuesday as a deepening crisis over violent protests demanding his resignation prompted fears of an army intervention. Sharif enjoys a solid majority in parliament and by convening both houses he seeks to reaffirm that he is fully in control. His office said parliament would be in session all week to discuss the
Fiji says UN negotiating demands with hostage takers
SUVA Fiji revealed for the first time on Tuesday that the demands being made by al-Qaida-linked Syria rebels who took more than 40 UN peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights last week. Fiji army chief Mosese Tikoitoga said the rebels wanted their organisation, the al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front, to be removed from the UN’s list of terrorist organisations. He said they also wanted humanitarian aid sent to a small town which is an
BAGHDAD Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iraqi counterterrorism forces have pushed Islamic State militants out of Mosul dam, state television reported. The television station quoted Lieutenant-General Qasim Atta, a military spokesman, as saying the forces were backed by a joint air patrol. He did not give details. An independent verification was not immediately possible. A Twitter account belonging to a media organisation that supports the Islamic State said the dam
POPE URGES KOREAN RECONCILIATION, REACHES OUT TO CHINA
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SEOUL Pope Francis called for peace and reconciliation on the divided Korean peninsula and sent a further message of goodwill to China, wrapping-up a five day trip to South Korea and the first papal visit to Asia in 15 years. Before a Mass at Seoul’s Myeongdong Cathedral, Francis prayed with a small number of “comfort women”, who were forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers occupying the country before and during the
KATHMANDU Nepalese authorities said they feared an outbreak of diseases as they attempt to reach thousands of people stranded by flooding that has already killed more than 100 people. The swirling floodwaters have even crossed into neighboring India, submerging farmland and hundreds of villages. At least 84 Indians have died, either from the floodwaters or from torrential rains, authorities said. Jhanka Nath Dhakal of Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center said four helicopters with food, emergency supplies, medicine and medical workers were sent to villages in the west of the country. Rescuers were also attempting to reach the villages by road. However, most of the highways and rural roads are either submerged or damaged by the flooding, preventing vehicles from passing. Thousands of people have been left
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