TEHRAN, Sep. 13 (MNA) – The 6.8 magnitude earthquake in al-Haouz province, located in the west of Morocco, led to a relatively deep crack in one of the high mountains of the region.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Morocco on Friday, September 8, killing more than 2,000 people, injuring many more, and causing widespread devastation.
After touring launch pads with Putin at a remote space base in Russia’s Far East, Kim expressed “full and unconditional support” and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front
Published Date – 05:11 PM, Wed – 13 September 23
Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed support for Russia’s “just fight” during a summit with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that the US warned could lead to a deal to supply ammunition for Moscow’s war in
Ukraine.
After touring launch pads with Putin at a remote space base in Russia’s Far East, Kim expressed “full and unconditional support” and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front.
The leaders met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome for a summit that underscores how their interests are aligning in the face of their countries’ separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States. The talks lasted four to five hours, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Putin told Russian state TV that the North Korean will visit two more cities in Russia’s Far East after the summit.
North Korea may have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could give a huge boost to the Russian army in Ukraine, analysts say.
The United States has accused North Korea of providing Russia with arms, including selling artillery shells to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Both Russian and North Korean officials have denied such claims.
That would be a striking reversal of roles: the Soviet Union provided ammunition, warplanes and pilots to support communist North Korea’s invasion of the South during the 1950-53 Korean War, and the North relied on Soviet economic aid for decades afterward.
The decision to meet at the cosmodrome, Russia’s most important launch center on its own soil, suggests that in return Kim is seeking Russian help to develop military reconnaissance satellites, which he has described as crucial to enhance the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. In recent months, North Korea has repeatedly failed in attempts to put its first military spy satellite into orbit.
But either buying arms from or providing rocket technology to North Korea would violate international sanctions that Russia has supported in the past.
Putin met Kim’s limousine, brought from Pyongyang in the North Korean leader’s special armoured train, at the entrance to the launch facility, greeting his guest with a handshake that lasted around 40 seconds. In his opening remarks, Putin talked about the Soviet Union’s wartime support for North Korea and said the talks would cover economic cooperation, humanitarian issues and the “situation in the region.” Kim, in turn, expressed support for Moscow, making an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine. “Russia is currently engaged in a just fight against hegemonic forces to defend its sovereign rights, security and interests,” the North Korean leader said. “I take this opportunity to affirm that we will always stand with Russia on the anti-imperialist front and the front of independence.” The two men began their meeting with a tour of a Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility, at which Kim peppered a Russian space official with questions about the rockets.
Kim and Putin then met together with their delegations and later one-on-one, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. After the talks, the Russian president threw an official lunch for Kim, Russian state media reported.
After leaving the cosmodrome, Putin said, Kim will fly to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where he will visit an aircraft plant, and then go to Vladivostok to attend “a demonstration of capabilities” of Russia’s Pacific Fleet and visit a university.
The meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately say how far the North Korean missiles flew. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the missiles landed in the waters outside of the country’s exclusive economic zones and there were no reports of damage to vessels or aircraft.
Official photos showed that Kim was accompanied by Pak Thae Song, chairman of North Korea’s space science and technology committee, and navy Adm. Kim Myong Sik, who are linked with North Korean efforts to acquire spy satellites and nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
Asked whether Russia will help North Korea build satellites, Putin was quoted by Russian state media as saying “that’s why we have come here. The DPRK leader shows keen interest in rocket technology. They’re trying to develop space, too,” using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Asked about military cooperation, Putin said “we will talk about all issues without a rush. There is time.” Kim also brought Jo Chun Ryong, a ruling party official in charge of munitions policies, who joined him on recent tours of factories producing artillery shells and missiles, according to South Korea.
During the lunch, which reportedly featured delicacies from Siberia and Russia’s Far East, such as Kamchatka crab dumplings and taiga lingonberries with pine nuts and condensed milk, Kim said that he and Putin agreed to deepen their “strategic and tactical cooperation,” and that he believes Russia will achieve victory, apparently referring to the war in Ukraine.
“We believe with certainty that the Russian army and people will achieve a great victory in the just fight to punish the evil forces pursuing hegemonic and expansionary ambitions and create a stable environment for national development,” the North Korean leader said.
Despite the recent frequency of North Korean missile firings, Wednesday’s launches on the eve of the summit came as a surprise. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said it was the first time the North launched a missile while Kim was travelling overseas.
Kim could have ordered the launches to make a point to Putin about North Korea’s defence posture and show that he remains in close control of the country’s military activities even while abroad, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy.
Moon, a retired South Korean brigadier general who participated in past inter-Korean military talks, said the North with the launches could have also intended to express its anger toward the United States, after State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing that Putin was meeting “an international pariah to ask for assistance in a war.” Speculation about military cooperation grew after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July.
Kim subsequently toured his weapons factories, which experts said had the dual goal of encouraging the modernisation of North Korean weaponry and examining artillery and other supplies that could be exported to Russia.
In yet another attack spearheaded by the West against freedom of speech in Iran, the Australian government has imposed fresh a round of sanctions on a number of Iranian individuals and entities, including the English-language Press TV news network, on the anniversary of foreign-backed riots in the country.
The Australian ministry of foreign affairs announced in a media release on Wednesday that the restrictive measures, including financial sanctions and travel bans, targeted four individuals and three entities over what it claimed was “human rights violations” in Iran.
Iran’s police spokesman General Saeed Montazer-al-Mahdi was among the sanctioned individuals, and the targeted entities include Iran’s Cyber Police and Tehran-based Press TV news channel.
Accusing the Islamic Republic of the “oppression of people” in country, the ministry said the sanctions, the first by the Australian government, were levied on the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman of Kurdish descent who died in police custody in the capital Tehran in September last year.
The 22-year-old died in a hospital in Tehran days after she was detained by police on September 15.
Despite clarification on the circumstances surrounding her death, protests erupted in the country, which later turned violent and led to attacks on security officers and acts of vandalism against public property as well as police vehicles and ambulances.
Comprehensive investigations carried out by the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) and Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization ruled out the use of force on the woman, pointing to her medical history and brain surgery years ago.
The foreign-backed violent riots claimed dozens of lives from both security forces and innocent people as the Western media and Persian-language news networks continued to instigate unrest in Iran.
The latest anti-Iran measure by the Australian government comes as the West has a bleak history of gagging the Islamic Republic’s media apparatuses over groundless and unsubstantiated allegations of human rights violations.
In November last year, the European Union imposed sanctions on a number of Iranian institutions and individuals, including Press TV, following the riots and weeks later, the French satellite operator Eutelsat threatened to take the English-language news network off the air.
“The West has tried to stop the broadcasting of Iranian channels’ programs on satellites in the past and this action is not a new issue,” Ahmad Norouzi, the head of IRIB World Service and the CEO of Press TV said at the time.
Denouncing the removal of Press TV from the Eutelsat satellite as a shame, Norouzi said, “Iran is engaged in an all-out media war by enemies to expand the range of protests in the country and that Press TV has played a commendable role in countering these attacks.”
The Tehran-based English-language news network has repeatedly fallen victim to censorship on multiple fronts, including Twitter, Instagram, Google, and its services.
IRIB’s World Service in general, and Press TV in particular, has played a remarkable role as the counterweight to Western propagandist media for years, demolishing and debunking their lop-sided and unfair coverage of Iran and the region.
Press TV continues to challenge Western narratives and provide cutting-edge journalism based on truth and fairness.
Speaking at a joint presser with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein on Wednesday, Amir-Abdollahian touched upon the issue of implementing the security agreement between Tehran and Baghdad, according to which the separatist terrorists in the Kurdistan region should be disarmed and relocated by September 19.
Saying that he had held important talks with Hussein regarding the security deal earlier on Wednesday, the top Iranian diplomat cited that Iran is very serious about maintaining the country’s national security.
Expressing satisfaction regarding the efforts of the Iraqi side in disarming the terrorist groups, he said that the Iraqi foreign minister has announced good news in this regard and the next steps would be taken within the following days according to the security deal.
“Giving even one hour to the terrorists is detrimental to the security of Iraq, Iran, and the Iraqi Kurdistan region,” he stressed.
This item is being updated…
MP/FNA14020622000072
On January 23, Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old Northeastern University student on the South Lake Union campus, was struck by a Seattle Police vehicle driven by Kevin Dave near Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street.
Updated On – 10:56 AM, Wed – 13 September 23
New York: An officer from Seattle Police Department has been under investigation after a newly-released bodycam footage showed him laughing and joking on a phone call about an Indian student who was hit and killed by a patrol car driven by a fellow cop.
Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student of Northeastern University campus in South Lake Union, was walking near Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street when she was hit by a Seattle Police vehicle driven by Kevin Dave on January 23.
In the brief clip, Seattle Police Officers’ Guild Vice President Daniel Auderer is seen driving and can be heard saying, “she had limited value”, in a call with the guild’s president, Mike Solan, KIRO 7 news channel reported on Wednesday.
Shortly after saying “she’s dead”, Auderer laughs and says “it’s a regular person”, referring to Kandula.
He then says “just write a check — $11,000, she was 26 anyway, she had limited value”.
Auderer also mentions that Dave was “going 50 (miles an hour)”, stating how “that’s not out of control” for a trained driver.
A police investigation released in June found that Dave was actually travelling at 74 miles an hour in a 25 mile an hour zone while responding to a different call when Kandula was hit and thrown more than 100 feet.
The SPD said in a statement released on Monday that the video of Auderer’s call “was identified in the routine course of business by a department employee”, and was escalated to Chief Adrian Diaz.
Following the chain of command, the employee then escalated it to the Office of Police Accountability (OPA) for a review, the statement added.
Stating that it released the video “in the interest of transparency”, the SPD said it will not comment further on the video until the OPA completes its investigation.
“No City employee should comment, either in their official or personal capacity, in a way that suggests that any factual, policy, or legal conclusions have been reached about the incident,” the SPD statement read.
“SPD has been in touch with the family of the victim pedestrian and continues to honor their expressed request for privacy. As others in the accountability system proceed with their work, we again extend our deepest sympathy for this tragic collision,” the statement added.
Dave, was responding to a “high priority” call on the day of the incident at 8 p.m. as he plowed into Kandula.
“I f***ed up,” Dave was heard saying after the accident in a bodycam footage at the intersection where he accelerated up to 74 miles per hour at one point, much higher than the prescribed limits of 25 and 20 mph respectively.
Kandula first travelled to the US in 2021 from Adoni in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district.
Her uncle, Ashok Mandula, who lives in Texas, told the Seattle Times: “The family has nothing to say… Except I wonder if these men’s daughters or granddaughters have value. A life is a life.”
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani has ruled out the possibility of a new round of fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Ashtiani stated that “no war will break out in the Caucasus region.”
He underscored Iran’s “clear and transparent” position concerning the geopolitics of the Caucasus, saying, “We won’t approve of any change in regional geopolitics.”
“We are keeping a close watch on the unfolding developments; they do not indicate that a dramatic incident is in the offing.”
On Monday, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Tehran is closely monitoring the situation in the Caucasus region and stays in contact with Yerevan and Baku to ensure peace and security.
“Armenian officials have voiced concern about the possibility of (military) clashes. Azerbaijani authorities, however, sent a message that they have no intention of engagement in a confrontation (with Armenia),” Nasser Kan’ani noted.
He went on to describe the Republic of Azerbaijan’s recent deployment of troops as a “conventional military action” ahead of winter.
“Iran is seriously monitoring the developments. We’d give an assurance that Iran’s borders are safe and we support the security of boundaries,” Kan’ani underlined.
He also noted that Iran has unchanging and transparent stances on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Located in the South Caucasus, the landlocked region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia for more than three decades.
Since gaining independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, the two neighboring countries have fought two wars, in 1994 and 2020, over the mountainous territory.
Karabakh, while acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan by the international community, has a predominantly Armenian population that has persistently opposed Azerbaijani governance since a separatist war in 1994.
Tensions remain high and skirmishes along the shared border are a regular occurrence despite mediation efforts by the European Union, the United States and Russia.
Russia brokered a peace deal between the two sides in November 2020 bringing an end to a 44-day war in the region. It has since deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.
Speaking at Russia’s far east spaceport in the Vostochny Cosmodrome, the North Korean leader said the friendship between the two countries had “deep roots” and that Russia has “risen to a sacred fight” to protect its sovereignty and security,” the Independent reported.
“We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership…and we will be together in the fight against imperialism,” he added.
“Thank you for inviting us, despite your tight schedule,” Kim told Putin during the meeting.
The ceremony took place at the main entrance to the Unified Technical Complex Launch Vehicles assembly and test buildings.
Earlier in the day, Kim arrived at the railway station of the cosmodrome by train as part of his first visit to Russia since 2019.
AMK/PR
On Wednesday, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was presented in court after the conclusion of his 14-day judicial remand.
Updated On – 02:41 PM, Wed – 13 September 23
Islamabad: A special court in Pakistan on Wednesday extended judicial remand of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in the cipher case till September 26.
The special court – newly formed to hear cases related to the Official Secrets Act, 1923 – Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain conducted the hearing of the cipher case inside the Attock Jail where the former prime minister is currently lodged.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also produced in court on Wednesday following the completion of his 14-day judicial remand.
The 70-year-old chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been kept in jail since August 5 after his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case. His sentence was suspended by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on August 29, but he continues to remain in Attock prison in the cipher case. His remand has been extended till September 13 by a special court in the case.
The cricketer-turned-politician is charged with the violation of the Official Secrets Act in connection with the leakage of a confidential diplomatic cable from Pakistan’s embassy in Washington.
The special court hearing the case extended Khan’s remand till September 26.
“Judicial remand of Chairman PTI Imran Khan extended till September 26,” Khan’s PTI party said in a brief message on WhatsApp.
The court also extended Qureshi’s judicial remand till September 26.
Earlier, the law ministry issued a notification on Tuesday, expressing no objections to conducting the trial in jail, saying that special court judge Abul requested that proceedings be held in Attock jail “due to security reasons”.
The hearing comes at the end of a 14-day judicial remand which was ordered by the court on the last hearing conducted in the same jail.
The ministry in its notification cited unspecified security issues for allowing hearing in the jail premises.
However, Khan’s spokesman Zulfiqar Bukhari rejected the plea and demanded a trial in a normal court environment.
“Hearing continues citing security concerns, a preposterous excuse saturated with malice when there can be video link appearance if not in person,” he said in a statement.
Bukhari also said that the authorities had not waited for the outcome of the case heard by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against Khan’s trial in jail.
The IHC on Tuesday reserved its order on a petition against the conduct of Khan’s trial in prison, rather than Islamabad.
Chief Justice Aamer Farooq concluded proceedings by saying that he would pass an “appropriate order”.
Cipher Case Hearing is to proceed at Attock Prison premises on Wednesday despite a petition filed & awaiting a reserved decision by the Islamabad High Court which is yet to be announced. The hearing continues citing security concerns, a preposterous excuse saturated with malice when there can be a video link appearance if not in person.
The cipher case was filed last month against Khan on the allegations of violating secret laws of the country in the matter of a cable sent by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March last year.
Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a meeting with Asif Ali Khan Durrani, the Pakistani prime minister’s special envoy for Afghanistan on Tuesday in Tehran.
Emphasizing the effective role of Iran and Pakistan in the developments of the region and Afghanistan, Iran’s foreign minister expressed hope that the continuation of these consultations will contribute to greater peace and tranquility in the region, especially in Afghanistan.
Amir-Abdollahian also stressed the need to support regional initiatives within the framework of neighbors in order to solve Afghanistan’s challenges.
Asif Ali Khan Durrani, for his part, presented an assessment of Afghanistan’s political and security conditions, saying that Pakistan is resolved to cooperate with Iran on helping to establish peace and stability in Afghanistan.
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The cyclone has ravaged 98 municipalities and caused the Taquari River to swell, leading to the evacuation of over 25,000 people and injuring at least 925 since Sept. 4, said the Civil Defense of Rio Grande do Sul.
Eight people are still missing by Tuesday, said Vice Governor of Rio Grande do Sul Gabriel Souza.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian government launched a package of economic and reconstruction aid for the affected region, as an alert for new cyclones remains in place for Rio Grande do Sul this week.
AMK/PR
