World

Kiev, Oct 5 (IANS) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree to put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC), which rules out holding any negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky's press service reported.

The document, published on Zelensky's website, on Tuesday said that Ukraine's NSDC deemed holding talks with Putin "impossible".

With his decree, the Ukrainian President also instructed the government to prepare proposals for the creation of a multi-level security guarantee system designed to boost Ukraine's defence potential, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Sept. 30, the NSDC adopted a decision aimed at guaranteeing Ukraine's security and restoring its territorial integrity following Moscow's formal recognition of four Ukrainian regions, which are partially controlled by Russia, as Russian territory.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators held the latest round of face-to-face peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29.

--IANS
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Beirut, Oct 5 (IANS) Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has called for the election of a new President for Lebanon within the constitutional time frame before President Michel Aoun's tenure ends on October 31, a statement by the Council of Ministers reported.

"I hope that the parliament succeeds in electing a new President for the country within the constitutional time frame because the challenges facing Lebanon require a strong cooperation among constitutional institutions," Mikati said on Tuesday at a Beirut forum to discuss difficulties facing Lebanon's youth.

As President Aoun's six-year tenure is about to end, Lebanese politicians have voiced their concerns about no successor being found, warning of greater institutional deadlock in the absence of a new President, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lebanon has previously witnessed several periods of presidential vacancy due to political differences among the different parties governing the country. The current situation raises concerns in the country about the possibility of the post being left vacant again while the country grapples with a steep financial crisis.

--IANS
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By Arul Louis
United Nations, Oct 5 (IANS) In the latest attacks on UN peacekeepers, three Bangladeshis have died from a bomb attack in the Central African Republic (CAR), barely a week after a Pakistani was killed in Congo, according to a UN spokesperson.


The Bangladeshi peacekeepers in the CAR were killed when their vehicle hit an explosive ordnance device on Monday evening, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.

Another Bangladeshi peacekeeper was injured and is in hospital, he added.

On Friday, a Pakistani peacekeeper was killed in Congo when a base in Minembwe, South Kivu, was attacked "by suspected Twirwaneho combatants," he said.

Dujarric added that attacks on peacekeepers are "war crimes".

The Bangladeshis were killed when they were on patrol, nearly five kilometre from the CAR peacekeeping mission's temporary base in the Ouham-Pende Prefecture, he said.

According to the peacekeeping mission, the Bangladeshi battalion patrol was to protect civilians.

The CAR peacekeeping operation known as MINUSCA, from the French initials for Mulitdimensional Integrated Mission in CAR, was created in 2014, taking over an earlier operation set up in 2009.

It has 14,400 personnel with 1,333 Bangladeshi troops.

The operation has claimed the lives of 169 peacekeepers, 10 of them Bangladeshis.

In January three Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in the CAR when their vehicle hit a landmine.

The Congo peacekeeping operation known as MONUSCO, an acronym derived from French for Organisation Stabilisation Mission in Congo, was created in 2010 to succeed an earlier mission set up in 1999.

It is the second largest peacekeeping operation with 14,671 personnel, which include 1,929 troops from Pakistan.

More than 431 peacekeepers have died in the operations in Congo, of them, 31 were Pakistanis.

In March, six Pakistani peacekeepers were killed when their helicopter was brought down in Congo.

A MONUSCO statement said that the Twirwaneho fighters had come to the UN base, saying they wanted to surrender but instead attacked it.

According to AfricaNews media, The Twirwaneho militia claims to defend the interests of the Banymulenge community, a Congolese Tutsi minority.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

--IANS
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By Rahul Kumar
New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS) The convulsions in Iran over the hijab protests and the killings in Iran's south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan are fuelling the Baloch separatist movement in south-eastern Iran.



Reportedly, about 40 protesters were killed after security personnel opened fire on people in Sistan-Baluchistan's capital Zahedan after Friday prayers. The crowd was protesting against the rape of a teenage Baloch girl by an officer in a police station. Baloch groups alleged that Colonel Ebrahim Khouchakzai, police commander in the Iranian port city of Chabahar, called the girl to the police station where he assaulted her.

Protests by the Baloch people, who call Sistan-Baluchistan occupied territory by Iran, have spread from Zahedan to other Iranian cities.

The violence in Sistan-Baluchistan resulted in the deaths of five Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) members including two colonels and a senior intelligence official.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA said: "With the death on Saturday night of one of the members of the paramilitary forces, the number of martyrs among the Guards in the terrorist incident in Zahedan on Friday has increased to five." It added that 32 IRGC members were injured in the clashes.

Iran-based Baloch religious scholar Maulvi Abdul Hameed has blamed Iranian security forces for the killings, alleging: "The bullets have been fired into the heads and hearts of most of the worshipers, and it is clear that it was the work of snipers." He added that the police did not disperse the protesters but instead fired at them.

The Free Balochistan Movement (FBM), in a statement from London, has criticised Iran for firing at "peaceful Baloch protesters in Iranian-occupied Balochistan" on September 30. The FBM said that Iran has deprived the Baloch people of their national identity and has placed "restrictions on the culture, language and collective thinking of the Baloch people."

Meanwhile Iran has vowed to avenge the deaths of the IRGC personnel in the Zahedan violence.

The Iran government has blamed the Jaish al-Adl, also known as the Army of Justice, for the unrest in Zahedan. Iran considers it a militant group linked to the Al-Qaeda while the Baloch say that it is fighting for an independent Balochistan. The group operates in south-eastern Iran, close to the border with Pakistan and has carried out numerous bombings in Iran.

Sobdar Baloch, human rights activist and member of the FBM told India Narrative that their leader Hyrbair Marri is supporting the freedom movement of other ethnic communities in Iran like the Kurds and Ahwaz in fighting "Iranian occupation". The Baloch separatists have also been holding joint protests with the Kurdish separatist groups.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish Freedom Party (PAK), a Kurdish nationalist militant group has announced its support to the Baloch nationalist movement. In a statement issued from Turkey, it said: "The Kurdistan Liberation Party supports the Balochi movement", adding that the people of Balochistan are fighting against ransom and crimes against the State, they are united in the war against Iran."

The Baloch have been waging an armed struggle against both Pakistan and Iran for independence.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative

Islamabad, Oct 4 (IANS) Officials of Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce told the Senate Standing Committee on Commerce that China is interested in importing donkeys from Pakistan, Geo News reported.

During the briefing, officials maintained that China was a big market for exporting meat.

Dinesh Kumar, a member of the standing committee, said that China is asking Pakistan to export donkeys as well as dogs, Geo News reported.

Upon this, Senator Abdul Qadir said that the Chinese ambassador has talked about exporting meat from Pakistan several times. Pouring in his suggestion, Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi said that since animals are comparatively cheaper in Afghanistan, Pakistan can import them from there and then export the meat to China, Geo News reported.

However, the officials of the commerce ministry informed the committee that due to the prevalence of lumpy skin disease among animals, their import from Afghanistan has been temporarily banned.

Aside from the topic of exporting animals, the standing committee expressed its concerns over the withdrawal of electricity subsidy given to five export sectors. In response to that, commerce ministry officials said that the issue has been raised before the Ministry of Finance to revert the subsidy as the export sectors are facing various difficulties.

The standing committee recommended that the government resolve the issue of electricity subsidy to the export industry as soon as possible.

--IANS
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Lahore, Oct 4 (IANS) Pakistan's Prime Pinister, Shehbaz Sharif, has accused the former premier Imran Khan of being the "the biggest liar on the face of the earth" and injecting poison into society to "dangerously polarise the electorate" after he was toppled from power earlier this year, The Guardian reported.

Speaking in his first interview from Pakistan since he took over as Prime Minister in April, Sharif, 70, spoke unsparingly of the "damage" that Khan, the former cricket superstar who ruled Pakistan from 2018, had done to the country in both domestic and foreign affairs.

Sharif, who is the younger brother of the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and part of one of Pakistan's most powerful political dynasties, called Khan "a liar and a cheat" whose policies had left the economy in ruins, The Guardian reported.

He accused Khan, who ran on an anti-corruption manifesto, of conducting the country's affairs to suit his own personal agenda "in a manner which can be only described as the most inexperienced, self-centred, egotistical, immature politician in the history of this country."

Sharif said the leaked audios were "an irrefutable endorsement that he [Khan] is the biggest liar on the face of the earth. I'm not saying this with a sense of glee but a sense of embarrassment and concern. My country's image has been been damaged hugely by these lies told out of mean personal interest."

Sharif, who has always worked with the military establishment, acknowledged that he faced significant challenges ruling Pakistan while Khan was mobilising on the streets. Several of the economic decisions made by Sharif's government, such as raising fuel taxes, have proved very unpopular.

"Never before was I concerned about our country's future," said Sharif. "Imran Khan has injected infinite amount of poison in this society and made it hugely polarised as never before...he is distorting facts and creating hate," The Guardian reported.

--IANS
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Jakarta, Oct 4 (IANS) Indonesian authorities have formed an independent fact-finding team to investigate Saturday's deadly stampede that occurred after a football match in East Java province, Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said Monday.

The minister, who leads the fact-finding team, told a virtual press conference that the team was assigned directly by President Joko Widodo to find out the causes of the stampede which killed 125 people and injured at least 320 others, and who would be responsible for the incident.

"This team will work for a maximum of one month ahead. All results and recommendations will be directly reported to the president," Mahfud said.

The team members consisted of officials from relevant ministries and government institutions, professional football organisations, observers, academics and mass media, he said.

Besides establishing the team, Widodo had also instructed the country's police and military institutions to respectively probe their officers and soldiers who were allegedly involved in causing the stampede, Mahfud said.

According to local reports, the Indonesian Police have been under fire by the public as many believe that the stampede happened after the police fired tear gas at the crowds, sparking panic among spectators and a stampede at one of the stadium's exits.

"In three days, the National Police must impose disciplinary measures towards its regional structural officers assigned in the area where the incident occurred. The police must also immediately name suspects of all possible perpetrators," Mahfud said.

"Meanwhile, the Indonesian military must impose sanctions and probe all of its soldiers who are proven to have done unnecessary measures that triggered the stampede," he added.

--IANS
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Beijing, Oct 4 (IANS) The Chinese mainland on Monday reported 250 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 151 in Inner Mongolia and 27 in Guangdong, according to the National Health Commission's report.

A total of 626 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified on Tuesday.

A total of 266 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland on Monday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals after recovery to 243,151.

Monday saw no new deaths from COVID-19, with the total death toll at 5,226.

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Seoul, Oct 4 (IANS) North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) over Japan on Tuesday in its first launch of an IRBM in eight months, according to South Korea's military.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from Mupyong-ri in the northern province of Jagang at 7:23 a.m. and that the missile flew some 4,500 kilometres at an apogee of around 970 km at a top speed of Mach 17.

The missile flew past Japan, they said, adding that the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the U.S. are conducting a detailed analysis to verify the specifics of the missile.

Pyongyang last fired an IRBM in January. The Hwasong 12-type missile flew some 800 kilometres at a top altitude of 2,000 km.

"The series of North Korea's ballistic missile provocations will further strengthen deterrence and the response capabilities of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and only deepen the North's isolation from the international community," the JCS conveyed in a correspondence with Yonhap, a South Korean news agency.

It also condemned the launch as an act of "significant" provocation that undermines peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in the international community, and a "clear" breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Soon after the launch, JCS Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum and Gen. Paul LaCamera, the commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, had virtual consultations and reaffirmed that they would solidify the allies' combined defense posture against "any North Korean threats and provocations," according to the JCS.

In a statement over the launch, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command called on the North to refrain from further "unlawful and destabilising" acts.

"While we have assessed that this event does not pose a threat to U.S. personnel, or territory, or to our allies, we will continue to monitor the situation," the command said. "The U.S. commitments to the defense of Japan and the ROK remain ironclad."

ROK stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

Given its flight distance, Tuesday's missile appears to have been fired at a standard angle -- in contrast to the North's earlier launch of an IRBM on a lofted trajectory, observers said.

The IRBM puts the U.S. territory of Guam within range in a reminder that it poses threats far beyond the peninsula.

The North launched one short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) on September 25, then two last Wednesday, another two the following day and two on Saturday.

The string of the North's missile launches raised questions over the efficacy of the deterrence efforts by South Korea and the U.S.

The allies have recently ramped up their rhetoric against Pyongyang and held a naval exercise involving the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. They also resumed the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group (EDSCG) session last month after a nearly five-year hiatus.

Analysts said the North's recent provocations indicate it has been doubling on its major weapons development schemes, including developing a tactical nuclear warhead mountable on short-range ballistic missiles.


--IANS
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Amman, Oct 4 (IANS) Jordan and Egypt have agreed to increase their exchange of expertise in the fields of mining, petrochemical industry, oil and natural gas, according to a statement by Jordan's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

During a virtual meeting on Monday, a technical committee of officials from the two countries also agreed to prepare a timetable to support each other's scientific and technical needs to help develop natural resources, stimulate investments and boost economies, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hassan Hiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Energy Affairs at Jordan's Energy Ministry, highlighted a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries in June that encourages exchange of expertise in developing natural gas and improving public energy distribution.

The MoU also encourages cooperation in training technical personnel in related sectors, Hiari said.

--IANS
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