Mozambique’s opposition extends truce as step to end war

Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi, right, shaking hands with opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama in this February 2015 file photo. (AFP)
Updated 04 May 2017
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Mozambique’s opposition extends truce as step to end war

MAPUTO: Mozambique’s opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama on Thursday extended indefinitely a unilateral truce he first announced in December, calling it the “beginning of the end” of the war between his rebels and the government.
“Today I announce an indefinite truce. It is not the end of the war, but it is the beginning of the end,” Dhlakama, whose Renamo party is the main opposition in the country, told journalists.
“This is great news for the people of Mozambique,” he said, speaking from his hideout in central Mozambique at a news briefing transmitted to the media assembled at Renamo headquarters in the capital Maputo.
Dhlakama had retreated in October 2015 to the central Gorongosa mountain range with 800 former fighters demanding a greater share of power.
His former rebel fighters — who waged a bloody 1976-1992 civil war that claimed one million lives — took up arms again in 2013 against the ruling Frelimo party, accusing its leaders of enriching themselves at the expense of the southern African country.
The fighting had often focused on the country’s main roads, with Renamo attacking government convoys and civilian vehicles, and soldiers accused of ruthlessly targeting suspected rebels in nearby villagers.
The violence sent thousands of people fleeing to government-run camps, relatives’ homes or across the border to Malawi and Zimbabwe.
Dhlakama first declared a cease-fire in December, and renewed it twice for two months in January and in March to allow time for peace negotiations with the government.
In February President Filipe Nyusi announced a new round of peace talks, but minus the international mediators who had previously been involved in the process in 2016.
Apart from a few isolated incidents, the truce has generally held since Christmas eve.
Dhlakama on Thursday admitted there was “no political agreement yet” to mark the end of the war.
But he stressed the importance of the truce.
“An open-ended truce means that there is no more shooting, that people can move freely, that investors — if still scared — can return,” he said.
He was optimistic that government would soon pull out its troops from the center of the country where they had been deployed.
“Government is committed to the complete withdrawal from all its military positions in Gorongosa region,” he said, adding that by June all government soldiers would have returned to their base camps.
Dhlakama however did not say when he would return from his hideout.
Renamo and the government had previously signed a cease-fire on the eve of the October 2014 general elections.
But then Renamo refused to accept the results of the poll when it was beaten once again at the ballot box by Frelimo, the ex-Marxist party, which has been in power since the former Portuguese colony’s independence 40 years ago.
Renamo spokesman Antonio Muchanga, said the latest truce would help speed up the negotiations toward a definitive end of the conflict, expressing the hope that “by the end of this year everything will be resolved.”
Mozambique ranks among the eight poorest countries in the world.


Russia says it downs seven Ukrainian missiles over Kursk region

Updated 4 sec ago
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Russia says it downs seven Ukrainian missiles over Kursk region

Russia’s air defense systems destroyed seven Ukrainian missiles overnight over the Kursk region, governor of the Russian region that borders Ukraine said on Monday.
He said that air defense units also destroyed seven Ukrainian drones. He did not provide further details.
A pro-Russian military analyst Roman Alyokhin, who serves as an adviser to the governor, said on his Telegram messaging channel that “Kursk was subjected to a massive attack by foreign-made missiles” overnight.


Pakistani police arrest thousands of Imran Khan supporters as capital under lock down ahead of rally

Updated 38 min 35 sec ago
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Pakistani police arrest thousands of Imran Khan supporters as capital under lock down ahead of rally

  • Former PM Imran Khan has been behind bars for more than a year and has over 150 criminal cases against him
  • Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan suspended mobile and Internet services ‘in areas with security concerns’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police arrested thousands of Imran Khan supporters as the capital remained under lock down ahead of a rally there to demand the ex-premier’s release from prison, a security officer said Sunday.
Khan has been behind bars for more than a year and has over 150 criminal cases against him. But he remains popular and his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI, says the cases are politically motivated.
Shahid Nawaz, a security officer in eastern Punjab province, said police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters. They include five parliamentarians.
Pakistan has since Saturday sealed off Islamabad with shipping containers and shut down major roads and highways connecting the city with PTI strongholds in Punjab and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
Tit-for-tat teargas shelling between the police and the PTI was reported on the highway bordering Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan suspended mobile and Internet services “in areas with security concerns.”
The government and Interior Ministry posted the announcement on the social media platform X, which is banned in Pakistan. They did not specify the areas, nor did they say how long the suspension would be in place.
“Internet and mobile services will continue to operate as usual in the rest of the country,” the posts said.
Meanwhile, telecom company Nayatel sent out emails offering customers “a reliable landline service” as a workaround in the areas suffering suspended cellphone service.
Khan’s supporters rely heavily on social media to demand his release and use messaging platforms like WhatsApp to share information, including details of events.
PTI spokesperson Sheikh Waqas Akram said Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi was traveling to Islamabad in a convoy led by the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur.
“She cannot leave the party workers on their own,” said Akram.
There was a festive mood in Peshawar, with PTI members dancing, drumming and holding up pictures of Khan as cars set off for Islamabad.
The government is imposing social media platform bans and targeting VPN services, according to Internet advocacy group Netblocks. On Sunday, the group said live metrics showed problems with WhatsApp that were affecting media sharing on the app.
The US Embassy issued a security alert for Americans in the capital, encouraging them to avoid large gatherings and warning that even “peaceful gatherings can turn violent.”
Last month, authorities suspended the cellphone service in Islamabad and Rawalpindi to thwart a pro-Khan rally. The shutdown disrupted communications and affected everyday services such as banking, ride-hailing and food delivery.
The latest crackdown comes on the eve of a visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said authorities have sealed off Islamabad’s Red Zone, which houses key government buildings and is the destination for Khan’s supporters.
“Anyone reaching it will be arrested,” Naqvi told a press conference.
He said the security measures were in place to protect residents and property, blaming the PTI for inconveniencing people and businesses.
He added that protesters were planning to take the same route as the Belarusian delegation, but that the government had headed off this scenario.
Naqvi denied cellphone services were suspended and said only mobile data was affected.


Social media sites call for Australia to delay its ban on children younger than 16

Updated 45 min 26 sec ago
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Social media sites call for Australia to delay its ban on children younger than 16

  • Advocate tells Parliament should wait until the government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed in June
  • Proposed legislation would impose fines of up to $33 million on platforms for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts

MELBOURNE: An advocate for major social media platforms told an Australian Senate committee Monday that laws to ban children younger than 16 from the sites should be delayed until next year at least instead of being rushed through the Parliament this week.
Sunita Bose, managing director of Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for the digital industry in Australia including X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, was answering questions at a single-day Senate committee hearing into world-first legislation that was introduced into the Parliament last week.
Bose said the Parliament should wait until the government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed in June.
“Parliament is asked to pass a bill this week without knowing how it will work,” Bose said.
The legislation would impose fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) on platforms for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.
It seems likely to be passed by Parliament by Thursday with the support of the major parties.
It would take effect a year after the bill becomes law, allowing the platforms time to work out technological solutions that would also protect users’ privacy.
Bose received heated questions from several senators and challenges to the accuracy of her answers.
Opposition Sen. Ross Cadell asked how his 10-year-old stepson was able to hold Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube accounts from the age of 8, despite the platforms setting a nominal age limit of 13.
Bose replied that “this is an area where the industry needs to improve.”
She said the proposed social media ban risked isolating some children and driving children to “darker, less safe online spaces” than mainstream platforms.
Bose said her concern with the proposed law was that “this could compromise the safety of young people,” prompting a hostile response from opposition Sen. Sarah Henderson.
“That’s an outrageous statement. You’re trying to protect the big tech giants,” Henderson said.
Unaligned Sen. Jacqui Lambie asked why the platforms didn’t use their algorithms to prevent harmful material being directed to children. The algorithms have been accused of keeping technology-addicted children connected to platforms and of flooding users with harmful material that promotes suicide and eating disorders.
“Your platforms have the ability to do that. The only thing that’s stopping them is themselves and their greed,” Lambie said.
Bose said algorithms were already in place to protect young people online through functions including filtering out nudity.
“We need to see continued investment in algorithms and ensuring that they do a better job at addressing harmful content,” Bose said.
Questioned by opposition Sen. Dave Sharma, Bose said she didn’t know how much advertising revenue the platforms she represented made from Australian children.
She said she was not familiar with research by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that found X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat made $11 billion in advertising from US users under 18 in 2022.
Communications department official Sarah Vandenbroek told the committee said the evaluation of age assurance technologies that will report in June would assess not only their accuracy but also their security and privacy settings.
Department Deputy Secretary James Chisholm said officials had consulted widely before proposing the age limit.
“We think it’s a good idea and it can be done,” Chisholm told the committee.


US drawing up contingency plans for Taiwan emergency: Kyodo

Updated 57 min 16 sec ago
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US drawing up contingency plans for Taiwan emergency: Kyodo

  • They will be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December
  • Washington has been strengthening alliances in the region

TOKYO: The United States is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of an emergency over Taiwan, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
They will be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, according to sources familiar with Japan-US relations, Kyodo said late Sunday.
The US Third Marine Littoral Regiment, which possesses the multiple-launch HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), would be deployed along Japan’s Nansei island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said.
From an early stage, if a Taiwan contingency becomes highly imminent, temporary bases will be set up on inhabited islands based on US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations, the report added.
Japan’s military is expected to mainly engage in logistical support for the marine unit, including supplying fuel and ammunition, it said.
Kyodo added that the US Army would deploy Multi-Domain Task Force long-range fire units in the Philippines, Kyodo said.
The Japanese and the Philippines defense ministries were not immediately available for comment. The US embassy in Manila declined to comment while the Chinese embassy in Manila “noted” the Kyodo report.
China is building up its military capacity while ramping up pressure on self-governed Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
Washington has been strengthening alliances in the region, while infuriating Beijing with regular deployments of ships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.


Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports

Updated 25 November 2024
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Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports

  • In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army

Russian forces captured a British mercenary fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia’s Kursk region, which is still partially controlled by Kyiv forces, a security source told Russia’s RIA state news agency.
“A mercenary from Great Britain, who called himself James Scott Rhys Anderson, was captured. He is now giving evidence,” the Russian source told RIA in remarks published on Sunday.
In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied in the back, says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army.
Reuters could not independently verify the video and the RIA and other media reports.
It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment on the reports outside office hours.
The BBC reported earlier that the Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
Ukraine forces, which staged a surprise incursion in the Russian border region of Kursk in August, still control parts of it. However, Kyiv said over the weekend that it has since lost over 40 percent of the territory that it had captured, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.