World

Gaza, Sep 14 (IANS) Dozens of Palestinians rallied in western Gaza against an Israeli blockade imposed on the Palestinian enclave for more than 15 years.

During the rally, which was organised on Tuesday by several Palestinian factions including Gaza's ruling faction Hamas, demonstrators demanded the Palestinians' right to natural resources, mainly the gas fields discovered in 2000 off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

They waved Palestinian flags and carried banners in both Arabic and English that read, "It is our right to travel freely and with dignity" and "Our gas is our right".

"The ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza has deprived thousands of students of freedom of movement and thousands of patients of their right to medical treatment," Suhail al-Hindi, a senior Hamas member, told the rally.

He called for efforts to put pressure on Israel to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip and uphold the Palestinians' right to exploit their natural resources, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Israel continues to deprive Gazans' rights to natural resources, communicating with the world through a sea corridor, and building a port and an airport," Al-Hindi said.

Later, dozens of boats carrying flag-waving Palestinians held a sea march, with drones belonging to armed Palestinian factions flying around to protect them.

A gas field 36 km west of Gaza city was discovered in 2000, but no major progress has been made in its development and exploitation so far.

Israel has maintained a land, air and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas violently took over the territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) Pakistan has formally written a letter to the Afghan authorities regarding the presence of Maulana Masood Azhar, the founding head of the banned terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), in Afghanistan.

The letter clarified that Masood Azhar is likely to be in Nangarhar and Kunhar areas of Afghan province.

It demanded that the defunct JeM chief be found and reported to the Pakistani authorities and arrested.

The letter for the arrest of Masood Azhar has been written by Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, no further details have been brought forward by the latter on this matter.

On May 1, 2019, the UN added the name of Masood Azhar to the list of global designated terrorists.

After the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2008, the US added JeM to the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisation.

India has been trying to ask the UN Security Council to declare JeM and Masood Azhar as global terrorist organisations, but China has been vetoing this effort.

--IANS
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By Yashwant Raj
Washington, Sep 13 (IANS) Former US President Donald Trump is back with another Hindi slogan: "Bharat and US Sabse Achhe Dost (India and US are best friends)".


Trump recorded this new catchphrase at his Mar-a-Lago residence recently for Shalabh Kumar, a Chicago-based businessman, Republican donor and strategist, who was also behind Trump's first Hindi slogan in 2016: "Ab ki bar, Trump Sarkar", which was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's poll slogan "Ab ki bar, Modi sarkar".

Kumar said Trump, who doesn't speak any Hindi at all, had an easier time recording the slogan than many people in Kumar's own team, who had trouble pronouncing the word 'Bharat' correctly. Most of them couldn't get it right, Kumar recalled with a laugh, despite "hundreds of takes".

The former President got it in "just three takes", Kumar said.

Trump had a far more difficult time with the first slogan though. In Kumar's telling, Trump had done 12 takes to finally get it right, recording it at his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower, which also served as the head office of the Trump Organization and, then, his residence. The former President now lives in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago club resort.

"We will use the slogan in the upcoming midterm elections in November," Kumar said, discussing the creation of the new slogan exclusively with this reporter.

The slogan is intended to mobilise Indian/Hindu American voters in support of Republicans, especially the key candidates endorsed by the former President - J.D. Vance in Ohio, Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin - and party candidates in Arizona, a one-time Republican stronghold that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, won in 2020, blocking Trump's path to re-election.

Indian Americans have emerged as a crucial vote bank in swing states where election outcomes can turn on thin margins, as slim as a thousand or few thousands.

A 2020 report by US think-tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted that "in select swing states, the Indian American population is larger than the margin of victory that separated (Democratic Presidential nominee) Hillary Clinton and Trump in the closely-contested 2016 Presidential race".

The Indian American community has grown to more than four million -- said to be slightly more than 1 pert cent of the total population -- but registered voters among them are less than the total registered voters, which stood at 160 million in 2020. They are located all over the country -- the largest concentrations are in California, Texas, New Jersey, New York and Illinois.

But they matter more in swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and, now, Georgia and Arizona, where their numbers, though smaller, are more than the margins of victory or defeat -- Biden had won Wisconsin by 20,000 votes (Trump had won the state by 22,000 in 2016), Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes (Trump won it by 50,000 in 2016), and Georgia by 12,000 votes (Trump had won it by 2,11,141 votes in 2016).

Both the Democratic and Republican parties now woo Indian Americans aggressively. Kumar said Trump's slogan will feature in an ad that will play on TV channels viewed mostly by Indian Americans, starting October when candidates will be in the last month of campaigning for US House of Representatives, Senate (a third of the 100 seats) and state-wide officials such as governors and state legislatures.

Kumar has been working with Trump since 2016 but things cooled between them towards the end of the former President's terms. Kumar stayed away from Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, but is back in the good graces of the former President. They recently appeared together in an NDTV interview.

--IANS
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Islamabad, Sep 13 (IANS) Pakistan fears that floods might have caused over $40 billion economic losses and damages as the National Flood Response Coordination Centre (NFRCC) dismissed the initial assessment of $18 billion, local media reported.

The $40 billion losses were flagged in a flood response centre meeting during discussion on an interim report titled "An Early Assessment of Flood Impact on Pakistan's Economy", presented by the Ministry of Finance.

"The devastating conditions suggest that the scale of flood losses is in the range of $30 billion to over $40 billion," said Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Iqbal, who is also Chairman of NFRCC, a joint civil-military body set up to monitor and coordinate relief and rehabilitation work, said, "We are going through the process of a comprehensive assessment of flood damages with the help of World Bank, Asian Development Bank, provincial and federal governments."

It is for the first time that the $40 billion loss estimate has been given, which is three times more than the initial estimate of $10 billion to $12 billion. The new number is even far higher than the $30 billion figure given by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week.

Although a detailed report of losses would be ready in four to six weeks, initial assessment would be finalised by the end of this week, said the NFRCC chairman.

The planning minister said that the finance ministry had presented an initial assessment of flood losses, which was based on predictive analysis but the model's outcome would depend on what input was fed into it, The Express Tribune reported.

"NFRCC has directed the Ministry of Finance to withhold the release of its flood impact report," he added.

"We will wait for the outcome of comprehensive assessment but damages are colossal and even more than $30 billion as suggested by the United Nations secretary general," said the NFRCC chairman.

--IANS
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La Paz, Sep 13 (IANS) Bolivia detected 29 more cases of monkeypox in the past week, bringing the total number of cases so far to 119, Minister of Health and Sports Jeyson Auza said.

The country's action plan to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus was effective, Auza told reporters at a press conference on Monday.

"To date, we have reported 119 confirmed cases ... we are working on the containment of the disease and we can say that its spread is under control," Auza added.

Of the total, 110 cases are considered to be still "active," with the patients on the road to recovery, while nine had been discharged following a full recovery, he said.

In May, the Bolivian government declared a monkeypox epidemiological alert and armed health services in all nine departments with the protocols to follow for suspected cases, Xinhua news agency reported.

The first monkeypox case in the South American country was confirmed on August 1 in Santa Cruz, involving a 38-year-old national.

--IANS
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Kiev, Sep 13 (IANS) More than 73,000 people have been evacuated from the conflict-affected eastern and southern regions of Ukraine in August, Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories said.

In particular, nearly 16,000 civilians have been evacuated in a month from the eastern Donetsk region as a part of the mandatory evacuation, the Ministry added on Monday.

Besides, 50,000 people were evacuated from the Russia-held areas in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine to Kiev-controlled territory, it said.

Ukraine started the mandatory evacuation from the Donetsk region in early August, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that the mandatory evacuation may be extended to other conflict-hit regions.

--IANS
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Brussels, Sep 13 (IANS) Belgium started a vaccination campaign with new Omicron-adapted Covid-19 shots. It is primarily a "booster" dose for people who have already received vaccines against Covid-19.

The current campaign which was started on Monday is primarily aimed at immunocompromised people, those aged 65 years and above, and health professionals in hospitals and nursing homes.

This first phase of the new Omicron-specific booster campaign will run from September 12 to October 1 in Wallonia, Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to figures published on Monday by 7sur7.be, more than 700,000 invitations have been sent to all Walloons aged above 65 years who meet the conditions for revaccination.

People in the 50-64 age group will receive their invitation later.

Coronavirus indicators remain stable in Belgium. According to the Sciensano Scientific Institute of Public Health, 1,489 new Covid-19 infections on average were recorded per day between August 29 and September 4, a decrease of 2 per cent compared to the previous week.

As autumn approaches, some experts fear a new wave and are reiterating their call for caution.

As of September 5, 25,800,728 Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Belgium. The vaccination coverage for the second booster dose is 5.2 per cent of the total population, and that of people aged 85 years and above is 48.2 per cent, according to Sciensano.

--IANS
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London, Sep 13 (IANS) Britain's King Charles III said he felt "the weight of history" and vowed to follow the example set by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in his first address to the parliament.

"As I stand before you today, I cannot help but feel the weight of history which surrounds us, and which reminds us of the vital parliamentary traditions, to which members of both Houses dedicate yourselves with such personal commitment for the betterment of us all," he told the House of Commons and House of Lords on Monday at a ceremony in Westminster Hall, the oldest building on the parliamentary estate.

King Charles III ascended to the throne following the death of Britain's longest-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II, aged 96, on Thursday. He was formally proclaimed Britain's new monarch at a meeting of the Accession Council at St James's Palace on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"While very young, her late Majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people and to maintain the precious principles of constitutional government which lie at the heart of our nation. This vow she kept with unsurpassed devotion," he told the lawmakers and peers.

"She set an example of selfless duty which, with God's help and your counsels, I am resolved faithfully to follow," he said.

Charles III travelled to Edinburgh to lead a procession behind the Queen's coffin to St. Giles' Cathedral for a service of remembrance later on Monday.

The Queen's state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey on September 19, Buckingham Palace has announced.

--IANS
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Beijing, Sep 12 (IANS) A total of 93 people have been killed, and 25 remain missing after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jolted Luding county in China's Sichuan province on September 5, local authorities said on Monday.

According to the rescue headquarters, 55 of the fatalities occurred in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where Luding is located, while 38 deaths were reported in Ya'an city, reports Xinhua news agency.

Among the missing people, nine were in Luding, and 16 were in Shimian county in Ya'an.

--IANS
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Johannesburg, Sep 12 (IANS) A mine dam collapsed in the central part of South Africa on Sunday morning as flooding caused by the collapse destroyed homes and infrastructure, according to the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (CoGTA).

The South African government has deployed different departments at Jagersfontein, in Free State province, following the bursting of the dam killing three and injuring over 40 people, said CoGTA spokesperson Lungi Mtshali.

According to CoGTA, they have deployed police emergency medical services, health, disaster management, social development, search and rescue personnel, and engineers, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The tailings of the abandoned local mine burst open leading to damages to infrastructure, personal property and homes. The untold damages in and around the community of Charlesville in Jagersfontein are extensive and has had negatively impacted the community. Some people are displaced, others lost property, while others are reported injured and missing," said the spokesperson.

Lungi Mtshali said the disaster management team has been deployed to assess the damage and impact and to provide direct operational support.

The Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe held a virtual media briefing on Sunday saying the government will ensure that the law takes its course following the incident. He said they have sent inspectors to the scene to get details of the incident.

"The owner of the mine takes the greatest responsibility in paying compensation for fatalities and damage to infrastructure and property," he said, adding that the toxic substances on the mine dam would cause a negative impact on the environment.

--IANS
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