Tasnim has learned that members of a team affiliated with terrorist groups had come to Iran from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with the purpose of carrying out a shooting attack on an illegal rally held in Saqqez on Friday.
The Iranian security forces thwarted the plot, arrested four terrorists, and confiscated a series of weapons and equipment, including AK-47 rifles, handguns, hunting shotguns, two sets of Iranian military force uniforms, and a number of cold weapons.
The discovery of uniforms of the Iranian military forces reveals that the terrorists had hatched a plot to shoot at the people and accuse the Iranian law enforcement forces of the crime.
Inquiries are being made from the arrestees.
In August, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps cautioned about the enemy’s plot to foment turmoil in Iran on the anniversary of the riots that broke out in September 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, who fainted at a police station and was pronounced dead days later.
Major General Hossein Salami said the enemy suffered a crushing defeat during last year’s riots, which he described as the “most severe, most dangerous, most serious, most unequal and most massive global battle” that has been waged against the Islamic Republic.
In remarks in November 2022, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei pointed to the obvious role of the enemies in the riots that took place in the country for weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini.
“The events that took place these past few weeks were not merely street riots. They were detailed plots. The enemy initiated hybrid warfare. The enemy, namely the United States, the Zionist regime, some insidious and malicious European powers, and some groups, came to the scene with all of their capabilities,” the Leader stated.
Pakistan Air Force has carried out two large-scale flying exercises, one each at China and Egypt, and claimed it marked “a significant milestone” in its journey towards emerging as a “formidable air force.”
Published Date – 05:33 PM, Sat – 16 September 23
Pakistan Air Force has carried out two large-scale flying exercises, one each at China and Egypt, and claimed it marked “a significant milestone” in its journey towards emerging as a “formidable air force.”
Islamabad: The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has carried out two large-scale flying exercises, one each at China and Egypt, and claimed it marked “a significant milestone” in its journey towards emerging as a “formidable air force.”
The participation includes PAF’s J-10 C and JF-17 lead fighter aircraft, combat pilots, air defence controllers, and technical ground crew, who are actively engaged in the Shaheen-X bilateral Air Exercise hosted by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in China, as well as the Bright Star Air Exercise held in Egypt, Dunya News channel’s website reported on Friday.
The annual bilateral China-Pakistan Joint Air Force Training Exercise ‘Shaheen (Eagle) – X’ is being held at Jiuquan and Yinchuan in northwest China. The exercise that started last week in August will continue till mid-September.
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) of China and the PAF have been conducting Shaheen joint exercises since 2011, which are being hosted by both countries on an alternate basis, ChinaMilitary.com said.
Quoting a PAF statement, the Dunya News report further said, “The participation of these fighter jets in Exercise Shaheen-X marks a significant milestone in PAF’s journey towards a technologically advanced and formidable air force.” The Shaheen-X exercise in China and the Bright Star Air Exercise in Egypt provide invaluable opportunities for PAF to build upon its operational experience and exchange knowledge with esteemed counterparts from around the world, it said.
Meanwhile, the annual ‘Bright Start’ exercise for 2023 concluded at the Mohamed Naguib Military Base in the city of Hammam in Egypt. The joint Egypt-US military exercise Bright Star 2023 saw the participation of 800 fighters from 19 countries, the Egyptian armed forces had announced earlier in the month.
Pakistan was among the countries that participated in the exercise taking place on Egypt’s North Coast and other naval bases and air bases across Egypt. The others included India, Saudi Arabia, Greece, UAE, Oman, Jordan, the UK, Greece and Cyprus.
Following their online friendship, the Swedish woman moved to Swat after falling in love with Ahmed Shah, an English bachelor’s student
Published Date – 05:37 PM, Sat – 16 September 23
Representational Image
Islamabad: In yet another online love story, a Swedish woman travelled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to marry her Pakistani lover, ARY News reported.
Thanyarat Yantasath (44) arrived in Swat area of Allabad Charbagh to visit her 23-year-old lover Ahmed Shah.
Following their online friendship, the Swedish woman moved to Swat after falling in love with Ahmed Shah, an English bachelor’s student, as reported by ARY News, a Pakistani news channel.
The Swedish woman, Yantasath, who converted to Islam, married Ahmed Shah, and the two of them relocated to Islamabad together.
Earlier, a Pakistan national Seema Haider, who had illegally entered India through Nepal to live with her Indian partner, Sachin Meena, who stays in Greater Noida, was arrested by the Noida police.
Earlier, reacting to the illegal cross-over of Seema Haider into India, the Ministry of External Affairs had said the matter was ‘under investigation’, adding that she was presented before the court and was granted bail.
We are aware of the matter. She was presented before the court and is now out on bail,” the official spokesperson of the MEA, Arindam Bagchi, said at a press briefing on July 20.
Now, farmers on the forested slopes of Mount Pilion, which overlooks the plain of Thessaly, say they face millions of euros in damage from the flooding that began earlier this mont
Published Date – 05:52 PM, Sat – 16 September 23
Floodwaters and mud cover a farm after the countrys record rainstorm, in the village of Nea Lefki, in Thessaly region, central Greece, on Sept. 6, 2023. The storms flooded 720 square kilometers (72,000 hectares), mostly prime farmland, totally destroying crops. They also swamped hundreds of buildings, broke the countrys railway backbone, savaged local roads and bridges and killed tens of thousands of livestock. Thessaly accounts for about 5% of national economic output, and a much larger proportion of agricultural produce. (AP Photo/Vaggelis Kousioras, File)
Zagora: The apples were almost ripe for harvesting when the worst storms in more than a century struck Greece‘s breadbasket in Thessaly.
Now, farmers on the forested slopes of Mount Pilion, which overlooks the plain of Thessaly, say they face millions of euros in damage from the flooding that began earlier this month.
They will be lucky to salvage a third of their crop — and that will only happen if wrecked road access to their orchards is patched up in time.
As bad as the damage suffered by the Pilion farmers was, their peers in the plain were hit by even greater devastation from last week’s disastrous floods that left 16 people dead, days after wildfires killed 20 people in northeastern Greece.
The storms flooded 720 square kilometres (280 square miles), mostly prime farmland, totally destroying crops.
They also swamped hundreds of buildings, broke the country’s railway backbone, savaged rural roads and bridges and killed tens of thousands of livestock.
Thessaly — a major farming centre for thousands of years — accounts for about 5 per cent of national economic output, and a much larger proportion of agricultural produce, although much of that is now cotton and tobacco.
Some areas remained under threat of flooding Friday, with some lakeside dwellers warned to prepare for evacuation if needed.
Greece, which has returned to fiscal health after an eight-year financial crisis that shook global markets, is now assessing the staggering cost of the flooding.
Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said the precise sum remains elusive.
“But … we’re talking in the billions (of euros),” he told private Antenna TV, adding that the centre-right government is drafting a supplementary state budget of about 600 million euros (USD 638 million) for this year’s immediate funding needs.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was expected to outline further details during a keynote economic policy speech on Saturday.
The natural disaster came amid a cost-of-living crisis triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine which, on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflated state social spending through an array of subsidies.
Hatzidakis warned that this might now be curtailed. The government is adamant that it must meet its savings targets to prove that Greece has forever rejected its former profligacy, and pending an eagerly anticipated new credit upgrade that would boost foreign investment and cut borrowing costs.
“If we send the message that in Greece we are again becoming lax and adopting wrong practices of the past, we will relapse,” Hatzidakis said.
“After so many sacrifices over so many years, and the progress in recent years, (that) would be an enormous shame.” Officials are confident that the savings target will be met, and the European Union, which has also pledged flood relief funds, has said this emergency spending won’t be subject to Greece’s budget constraints dating from the 2010-2018 financial crisis.
The government says EU assistance will contribute to urgent infrastructure repairs in Thessaly, starting with the wrecked railway line.
Nikos Tachiaos, a deputy minister for infrastructure, said the damage is “enormous,” particularly to the railway, where a 50-kilometer (80-mile) stretch of the only line carrying goods and passengers between southern and northern Greece has been largely destroyed.
He said it could take up to two months to get just one track partially functioning.
“But the full rebuilding of the railway network will take a long time … and a lot of money,” Tachiaos told state-run ERT television.
A flooded section of the main north-south highway partially reopened late Friday, while efforts were underway to restore drinking water to Volos, a town of about 85,000 in the shadow of Pilion.
The government has also promised speedy compensation to thousands of people whose houses were flooded and who lost livestock and farm machinery.
The loss of nearly 90,000 sheep, goats, pigs and cows has been registered so far, along with more than 120,000 poultry.
In the village of Zagora on Pilion, farming union leader Thodoris Georgadakis urged authorities to mend the unpassable roads leading to local orchards where apples await harvesting.
“The cost of the storms could exceed 10 million euros (USD 10.7 million) for apple farmers alone,” he told The Associated Press. “We expect this harvest to reach 6,500 tons, down from 22,000 on a normal year. That’s only if the roads are mended soon.” The damage to crops could also push up already inflated food prices across Greece, with double-digit increases already reported in some areas.
Fears have also been expressed that flooded fields will be unusable for years, though Greece’s agriculture ministry has sought to play down that concern.
A ministry statement Friday warned that authorities would crack down on profiteering, adding that Thessaly grows only 7.5 per cent of the country’s total fresh fruit and vegetables, “and very little of that has been affected.” In southern Pilion, Mayor Michael Mitzikos worries about the effect on the important tourist industry, especially in battered seaside villages from which visitors had to be evacuated by sea after their road access was destroyed.
Mitzikos said the cost was “incalculable.” “There are the tourists who fled their rented rooms and hotels (amid the floods) and also all those who cancelled,” he said. “The season in these coastal areas normally extends into early November.”
The US Department of Justice confirmed on September 8 that it had seized the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker carrying Iranian oil, named Suez Rajan, and its cargo of 980,000 barrels of crude oil off the coast of Texas.
The department claimed that Suez Rajan was in April transporting Iranian oil to China in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran. It also said the US government had obtained a warrant earlier this year for its seizure.
“This is an act of theft by the United States, which is not acceptable across the world whatsoever,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani stated.
Speaking with ISNA, Ashtiani warned that if Washington goes ahead with stealing the Iranian oil cargo, “we will definitely retaliate, and we can react on a larger scale.”
“But for now, we have limited our action to the discussions we are engaged in,” he said, stressing that Iran expects the Americans to stop such actions.
“We are located in a strategic and very important region. The energy transmission lines pass through this region, and we have control over these lines. Therefore, it is possible for us to take countermeasures against the US on a larger scale.”
For months, American oil firms had resisted the temptation of touching the 800,000-barrel tanker for fear of Iranian retaliation in the Persian Gulf waters. Still, the US Navy later unloaded the tanker of stolen Iranian oil worth around $56 million off the Texas port, brushing off warnings from the Islamic Republic.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani described the US move at the time as contradictory and said Tehran had summoned the Swiss ambassador to the ministry in this regard.
Under the guise of “sanctions-enforcement operations,” the United States has in recent years seized foreign vessels carrying Iranian oil across the world.
Back in February 2021, the Americans seized a tanker carrying Iranian oil off the coast of the Emirati city of Fujairah and sold more than a million barrels of oil confiscated from it for $110 million, or $55 a barrel.
Also, in May last year, Greek authorities confiscated a Russia-operated ship, the Pegas, carrying Iranian oil off the shore of Karystos near Greece. Despite US pressures on Greece to dispatch the oil cargo to the US, a Greek court ruled against the move, and as a result, the seizure was lifted and the ship was allowed to resume its voyage in August.
There are some persistent countries that come in that list, Afghanistan was on that list persistently. And in Afghanistan attacks on education from all sides not only state actors but also armed non-state actors were prevalent,Tolo News quoted Malik as saying.
Published Date – 05:49 PM, Sat – 16 September 23
Kabul: Highlighting the damage that has been done to the education system since the return of Taliban in Afghanistan, Maleiha Malik, Executive Director of Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC) said that the country is on the list with the worst educational situation, Tolo News reported on Friday.
Malik noted that education in Afghanistan has been damaged by the “state actors and armed non-state actorsâ€, adding that new barriers to education in Afghanistan are still challenging.
There are some persistent countries that come in that list, Afghanistan was on that list persistently. And in Afghanistan attacks on education from all sides not only state actors but also armed non-state actors were prevalent,Tolo News quoted Malik as saying.
She added,And I think what happened particularly with the media is that the armed non-state actors became more prominent, and it was hard sometimes to see that state parties were also causing massive destruction. The new barriers to education in Afghanistan are still challenging.
Responding to this, Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the Islamic Emirate is committed to ensuring Afghan girls have the right to an education. He, however, declined to comment further on the education of females in Afghanistan.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan did not say that we will not stop education, but it has been suspended for a while and the work is going on with it, Tolo News quoted him as saying.
However, despite the unsubstantiated and tall claims of the Taliban, a startling 80 per cent of Afghan girls and young women who are of school age are currently denied access to education under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a new report by Care International stated, according to Khaama Press.
It has been more than two years since girls above grade six have been prohibited from attending school in Afghanistan, and it is unclear when those doors will reopen, Tolo News reported.
“The attaché has been expelled along with personnel of the French military office in (the capital) Ouagadougou,” Omega Radio reported, citing a statement by authorities to the French Foreign Ministry.
Pasquier is accused of carrying out “subversive activities.”
A letter by Burkina Faso’s Foreign Ministry also notified France of the immediate closure of the Burkinabe military mission in Paris, according to the report.
Relations between France and Burkina Faso have soured since the September 2022 military coup when Capt. Ibrahim Traore assumed power.
India Club in London, with its early roots in the Indian independence movement as a hub for nationalists and a home away from home for Indians in the country over the years, will close permanently on Sunday
Published Date – 05:19 PM, Sat – 16 September 23
India Club in London, with its early roots in the Indian independence movement as a hub for nationalists and a home away from home for Indians in the country over the years, will close permanently on Sunday
London: The India Club in London, with its early roots in the Indian independence movement as a hub for nationalists and a home away from home for Indians in the country over the years, will close permanently on Sunday.
With its walls adorned with photographs of prominent Indians such as former prime ministers, the Club’s founding member was Krishna Menon – who went on to become the first High Commissioner of independent India to the UK. As well as housing one of the UK’s early Indian restaurants, India Club quickly transformed into a hub for a rapidly growing British South Asian community in the aftermath of Indian independence.
“We have been completely rushed off our feet since the public found out we were closing on September 17,” said Phiroza Marker, the manager of the Club.
“We are closing but looking for new premises in the vicinity to relocate to,” she said.
Parsi-origin Yadgar Marker has been running the establishment with his wife Freny and daughter Phiroza since they rescued it from ruin in 1997 as the director of Goldsand Hotels Limited.
The family had launched a “Save India Club” appeal and won an initial battle to prevent the building from partial demolition a few years ago when they were served a notice by the landlords to make way for a more modernised hotel. However, with the rents being hiked exponentially amid a cost-of-living crisis, it has spelt the end of the road for the venue.
Nostalgic visitors who have been frequenting this little slice of India in central London offering hot dosas and pakoras within a dwelling steeped in history feel bereft at the loss.
“It’s simply heart-breaking. A slice of Indian history on the Strand will be lost forever,” said British Indian historian and journalist Shrabani Basu.
“As an Indian journalist based in London, it was our watering hole. There will be no more beer and pakoras at the historic bar. We will miss it,” she said.
Smita Tharoor, the London-based daughter of one of the other founder members of India Club – journalist Chandran Tharoor, has been a regular visitor with her brother Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and other family members.
“Many of the former leaders and founders of the India League created the India Club to offer a home away from home for Indians living in London. My father regaled us with its stories when we were growing up in India,” she shared.
“For me, the closure of the club is something very emotional and sad because it is the end of my father’s memories that have been kept alive for so many years and where I could visit whenever I missed him. He died very young at the age of 63 in 1993. This is not just a place to eat Indian food. This is a place that gives us stories of the past,” she said.
Tharoor recalls how the Club has counted the likes of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of independent India, and Lord Mountbatten – the last Viceroy of India – among its many distinguished visitors and has been a little corner of India for many living in or visiting the UK capital.
“Menon intended the India Club to be a place where young Indian professionals living on a shoestring could afford to eat, discuss politics, and plan their futures,” noted Parvathi Raman, Founding Chair of the Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), when she worked on the exhibition ‘A Home Away from Away: The India Club’ in 2019, curated by the UK’s conservation charity National Trust.
The Club has functioned as an Indian restaurant since 1946 on the first floor of the 26-room Strand Continental Hotel. The freeholder of the building, Marston Properties, had earlier put in an application with Westminster City Council for a “partial demolition” to create a new hotel. The application was unanimously turned down by the Council in August 2018, noting the venue’s importance as a cultural institution in the heart of London.
India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hope to announce a major joint infrastructure deal on Saturday that will connect Gulf and Arab countries via a network of railways
Published Date – 01:30 PM, Fri – 8 September 23
New Delhi: At the G20 Summit in New Delhi, US President Joe Biden and the leaders of India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hope to announce a major joint infrastructure deal on Saturday that will connect Gulf and Arab countries via a network of railways, a media report said.
It will also connect to India through shipping lanes from ports in the region, the Axios report said.
The project is one of the key initiatives the White House is pushing in the Middle East as China’s influence in the region grows.
The Middle East is a key part of China’s Belt and Road vision.
The joint railway project is expected to be one of the key deliverables Biden wants to present during the G20 Summit in New Delhi this weekend, the Axios report said.
It comes as the Biden administration seeks to complete its diplomatic push for a mega-deal with Saudi Arabia that could include a normalisation agreement between the kingdom and Israel before the 2024 campaign consumes Biden’s agenda.
The White House said in an earlier statement previewing Biden’s trip that the president will participate on Saturday in a “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment event.”
A US official involved in the talks said the work on the announcement is still ongoing and it is not final yet, Axios reported.
If the four countries finalise the negotiations in the next two days, their leaders will sign a memorandum of understanding outlining the parameters of the project.
The project is expected to connect Arab countries in the Levant and the Gulf via a network of railways that will also connect to India through seaports in the Gulf, Axios reported.
If Saudi Arabia and Israel normalise relations in the future, Israel could also be part of the railway project and broaden its reach to Europe via Israeli seaports, according to the sources.
An announcement of the project will likely increase the chances of a possible brief bilateral meeting between Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the G20.
Axios first reported talks for the project were underway in May, when White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with his Saudi, Emirati and Indian counterparts.
The project was one of the main issues discussed at that meeting, which launched a series of follow-up negotiations led from the US side by Biden’s senior adviser for energy and infrastructure Amos Hochstein, the report said.
The idea for the new initiative came up during talks that were held over the last 18 months in another forum called I2U2, which includes the US, Israel, the UAE and India, according to the two sources.
The forum was established in late 2021 to discuss strategic infrastructure projects in the Middle East and to serve as a counterweight to Beijing’s growing influence in the region, Axios reported.
Israel raised the idea of connecting the region through railways during the I2U2 meetings over the last year.
Part of the idea was to use India’s expertise on such big infrastructure projects.
The Biden administration then expanded on the idea to include Saudi Arabia’s participation, Axios reported.
According to a release from the British High Commission, families both in Ukraine and across the world continue to suffer as a direct result of Putin’s brutal invasion 18 months ago
Published Date – 02:00 PM, Fri – 8 September 23
New Delhi: Global leaders must make it clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative has increased Moscow’s global isolation and protect those whose lives have been devastated by his illegal war, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will say as he travels to India for the G20 Summit on Friday.
According to a release from the British High Commission, families both in Ukraine and across the world continue to suffer as a direct result of Putin’s brutal invasion 18 months ago.
Russia has displaced 11 million people from their homes, manipulated global energy prices and made daily life more difficult for households across the planet.
In July, Putin demonstrated his indifference to the human consequences of his actions yet again when he withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Under this initiative, brokered in July 2022, ships carrying Ukrainian grain were freely able to transit from Black Sea ports without fear of attack.
The deal was providing a lifeline for millions of people around the world who depend on Ukrainian grain exports. In its first year, the agreement enabled 33 million tonnes of food to reach those who needed it in 45 countries around the world.
Putin’s decision to rip up the initiative has reduced global grain supply at a critical time for vulnerable people –when prices rise, the poorest pay. Since July, Russia has also damaged or destroyed at least 26 civilian port facilities, warehouses, silos and grain elevators.
These attacks have directly reduced Ukraine’s export capacity by one third and destroyed enough grain to feed more than 1 million people for an entire year.
On Saturday, G20 leaders will gather in Delhi to discuss the biggest challenges the world is facing, including the spike in the cost of living driven by Putin’s actions.
For the second year in a row, the Russian President is not expected to attend.
At the Summit, the British Prime Minister will stress the importance of those who do choose to attend demonstrating their leadership, both in helping the world’s most vulnerable people to deal with the terrible consequences of Putin’s war and in addressing wider challenges like climate change and the stability of the global economy, says the British High Commission release.
The Prime Minister will say: “Once again, Vladimir Putin is failing to show his face at the G20. He is the architect of his own diplomatic exile, isolating himself in his presidential palace and blocking out criticism and reality.
“The rest of the G20, meanwhile, are demonstrating that we will turn up and work together to pick up the pieces of Putin’s destruction.
“That starts with dealing with the terrible global consequences of Putin’s stranglehold over the most fundamental resources, including his blockade of and attacks on Ukrainian grain.”
Before Putin’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine was the world’s fifth largest wheat exporter, fourth largest corn exporter and third largest rapeseed exporter.
Grain ordinarily accounts for 41 per cent of Ukrainian export revenue, and almost two thirds of the grain exported by the country goes to the developing world.
Russia’s sudden withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and the consequent spike in global food prices, will cost lives around the world — further destabilising economies and putting people at risk of starvation.
The UK is spearheading efforts to help vulnerable people and economies deal with the impact of Putin’s actions.
The Prime Minister will announce that the UK will convene an international food security summit in November.
Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the event will bring together government representatives from across the world, including vulnerable countries, with international organisations, NGOs, researchers and private sector companies, to tackle the causes of food insecurity and malnutrition.
Since pulling out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russia has declared that all ships transiting to Ukrainian Black Sea ports will be treated as military vessels — irrespective of the cargo they are carrying.
It has acted upon this assessment by firing shots and boarding a cargo ship bound for one of Ukraine’s Danube ports, action which may constitute a violation of International Humanitarian Law.
Alongside military efforts to deter Russian attacks, the UK will also contribute 3 million pounds in funding for the World Food Programme to continue work started under President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘Grain from Ukraine’ initiative, which was established in November last year to send Ukrainian grain to countries whose people are suffering from the high global price of staple foods.
