Syrians leave Lebanese border camps in buses for rebel-held territory

A Hezbollah fighter watches buses that will transfer Nusra Front militants in Jroud Arsal, Syria-Lebanon border, July 31, 2017. (REUTERS)
Updated 02 August 2017
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Syrians leave Lebanese border camps in buses for rebel-held territory

BEIRUT: Buses carrying Syrians left refugee camps in a Lebanese border area bound for a rebel-held part of Syria on Wednesday under a truce deal between Shiite Hezbollah and Sunni Islamist Nusra Front militants, a security source and Hezbollah TV said.
Thousands of Syrians including militants and their families and refugees are to leave the border zone of Jroud Arsal and head for Syria’s northwestern Idlib province under the deal.
The transfer echoes deals struck within Syria in which Damascus has shuttled rebels and civilians to Idlib and other opposition areas. Such evacuations have helped President Bashar Assad recapture several rebel bastions over the past year.
The cease-fire took effect last week, just days after Lebanese Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched an offensive to drive Nusra Front and other Sunni Muslim militants from their last foothold along the Syria-Lebanon border.
The Jroud Arsal operation has highlighted the major role of Hezbollah in fighting militants along the frontier during Syria’s six-year war, sending thousands of combatants to support Assad’s government.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar television said that 26 buses had crossed from the Arsal area to Wadi Hmeid further northeast in the direction of the Syrian frontier. A security source said they were carrying 1,020 people.
Nearly 7,000 Syrians are expected to leave the area under the cease-fire deal, according to Hezbollah-run media outlets.
Security sources say that some 1,000 Nusra Front militants are among those who will leave the area for Idlib aboard dozens of buses.
The deal included the release of several Hezbollah fighters by the Nusra Front in exchange for individuals held by Lebanon. The first stage of the swap took place overnight.
Last week, Hezbollah captured most of the mountainous zone of Jroud Arsal from the militants.
The Nusra Front was Al-Qaeda’s Syria branch until it severed ties and rebranded last year. It now spearheads the Tahrir Al-Sham Islamist alliance in the Syrian civil war.
The Lebanese army, which receives considerable US and British military support, did not take an active part in the operation, setting up defensive positions around Arsal.
The next phase is expected to focus on a nearby enclave currently in the hands of jihadists. Local media say the Lebanese army will likely wage that phase of the operation.
Hezbollah’s role in Syria’s conflict has been criticized by its Lebanese political opponents, including Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri, who is a Sunni.


Pakistan preparing to debut yuan-denominated bonds this year, finance minister says

Updated 1 min 8 sec ago
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Pakistan preparing to debut yuan-denominated bonds this year, finance minister says

  • Pakistan planning to raise $200 million to $250 million from Chinese investors over next six to nine months
  • Government is optimistic it will meet the terms for an ongoing $7 billion IMF loan, finance minister says

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is preparing to debut yuan-denominated bonds this year to shore up finances, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Bloomberg in an interview Monday, saying his government remained optimistic it would meet the terms of an International Monetary Fund bailout program.

The South Asian nation is planning to raise up to $250 million from Chinese investors over the next six to nine months, Aurangzeb said of the plan that comes as Pakistan’s sovereign rating has been upgraded recently by all three credit agencies. Aurangzeb said he expected further upgrades, and the challenge was to get into a “single-B” category, which would allow the country to return to global bond markets to raise funds.

“The country is very keen to tap the Panda bonds and the Chinese capital markets,” Aurangzeb said on the sidelines of the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong. “We have been remiss as a country not to tap it previously.”

The latest figure is slightly lower than the $300 million the finance minister was targeting in a March 2024 interview. China International Capital Corporation is advising Pakistan on the issuance of Panda bonds, Aurangzeb said.

Pakistan has enjoyed some stability from two years ago when an IMF bailout deal was in limbo and inflation and interest rates were above 20 percent. The government is optimistic it will meet the terms for an ongoing $7 billion loan, the finance minister said. 

The IMF, which is scheduled to visit Pakistan next month, wants Pakistan to broaden its tax base and reach a tax-to-GDP ratio of 13.5 percent, from 10 percent in December, Aurangzeb said.

“We are well on our way to achieve that target, not only because the IMF is saying that but because from my perspective the country needs to get into that benchmark to make our fiscal situation sustainable,” he said.

After Pakistan clinched the IMF bailout last year, it has been getting some reprieve, including from cooling inflation that provides space for policymakers to cut borrowing costs further and help prop up a nation that remains hammered by structural weaknesses. Stronger remittances, a bright spot, have also helped shore up currency reserves.

The rupee, as a result, rose about 2 percent in 2024, among best performers in emerging markets. The benchmark stock index outperformed nearly all other equities markets last year.

Pakistan still remains in a tough spot.

The government has to increase taxes to secure a fresh $1 billion loan tranche from the IMF or miss the lender’s tax revenue requirement for fiscal year ending June 2025 which could put the bailout at risk, Bloomberg Economics’ Ankur Shukla said in a note on Jan. 8.

Having gone through 25 loan programs over half a century, Pakistan must institute durable reforms in key areas of the energy sector, tax collection and state-owned enterprises to end a cycle of indebtedness, Aurangzeb told an IMF forum in October.

On Monday, Aurangzeb said the nation’s gross domestic product would probably expand 3.5 percent in the fiscal year ending June. Pakistan had set a 3.6 percent economic growth target after a 2.5 percent expansion the prior financial year.

The State Bank of Pakistan, which has cut the benchmark rate to the lowest in more than two years, is scheduled to announce its decision on Jan. 27 while inflation is expected to stabilize within the target range of 5 percent–7 percent in the next 12 months.

“We are into that phase of stabilization,” Aurangzeb said. “Now where do we go from here? We have to focus on sustainable growth. We are now very focused on fundamentally changing the DNA of the economy to make it export-led.”


Japan govt officials attend Saudi Vision 2030 Ministerial Roundtable

Updated 27 min 8 sec ago
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Japan govt officials attend Saudi Vision 2030 Ministerial Roundtable

  • Plan for further cooperation between Riyadh and Tokyo in culture, sports, education and research

TOKYO: A Japan government delegation including Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto and Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Hisashi Matsumoto held talks with Saudi Arabia government officials on Vision 2030 in Riyadh on Jan. 12, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said.

Saudi Arabia officials who attended the Japan-Saudi Vision 2030 Ministerial Roundtable included Investment Minister Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih and Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al-Saud, chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation.

According to a ministry statement, the officials discussed cooperation and progress between the two nations since the 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Japan-Saudi Vision 2030 in December 2023.

Matsumoto stated that he was satisfied with the progress made and that further cooperation was being planned in culture, sports, education and research.

He said Japan remained committed to strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia to mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations this year.

The Japanese officials hoped that EXPO 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, would be a success, and that there would be a smooth handover to Riyadh for EXPO 2030.


India opens giant Hindu festival for 400 million pilgrims

Updated 36 min 4 sec ago
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India opens giant Hindu festival for 400 million pilgrims

  • Festival is held at site where the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet
  • Millennia-old Kumbh Mela is a show of religious piety and features ritual bathing

Prayagraj, India: Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India began bathing in sacred waters on Monday as the Kumbh Mela festival opened, with organizers expecting 400 million people — the largest gathering of humanity.

The millennia-old Kumbh Mela, a show of religious piety and ritual bathing — and a logistical challenge of staggering proportions — is held at the site where the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers meet.

In the cool pre-dawn gloom, pilgrims surged forward to begin bathing in the waters.

“I feel great joy,” said Surmila Devi, 45. “For me, it’s like bathing in nectar.”

Businesswoman Reena Rai’s voice quivered with excitement as she spoke about the “religious reasons” that brought her to join the sprawling tents, packed along the river banks in the north Indian city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state.

“As a Hindu, this is an unmissable occasion,” said the 38-year-old, who traveled around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Madhya Pradesh state to take part in the festival, which runs from Monday until February 26.

Saffron-robed monks and naked ash-smeared ascetics roamed the crowds offering blessings to devotees, many of whom had walked for weeks to reach the site.

The massive congregation is also an occasion for India’s Hindu nationalist government to burnish its credentials.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a “divine occasion,” that brings together “countless people in a sacred confluence of faith, devotion and culture.”

Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk and Utter Pradesh’s chief minister, welcomed devotees to “experience unity in diversity” at the “world’s largest spiritual and cultural gathering.”

Organizers say the scale of the Kumbh Mela is that of a temporary country — with numbers expected to total around the combined populations of the United States and Canada.

“Some 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,” festival spokesman Vivek Chaturvedi said.

Hindu monks carried huge flags of their respective sects, while tractors turned into chariots for life-size idols of Hindu gods rolled by behind them accompanied by elephants.
Pilgrims exulted in the beat of drums and honking horns.

The festival is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.

Organizing authorities are calling it the great or “Maha” Kumbh Mela.

The riverside in Prayagraj has turned into a vast sea of tents — some luxury, others simple tarpaulins.

Jaishree Ben Shahtilal took three days to reach the holy site, journeying with her neighbors from Gujarat state in a convoy of 11 buses over three days.

“I have great faith in god,” she said. “I have waited for so long to bathe in the holy river.”

Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time.

Another 68,000 LED light poles have been erected for a gathering so large that its bright lights can be seen from space.

The last celebration at the site, the “ardh” or half Kumbh Mela in 2019, attracted 240 million pilgrims, according to the government.

That compares to an estimated 1.8 million Muslims who take part in the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia.

Indian police said they were “conducting relentless day-and-night patrols to ensure top-notch security” for the event.

Authorities and the police have also set up a network of “lost and found” centers and an accompanying phone app to help pilgrims lost in the immense crowd “to reunite with their families.”

India is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.4 billion people, and so is used to large crowds.

Temperatures hovered around 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) overnight, but pilgrims said their faith meant their baths were not chilly.

“Once you are in the water, you don’t even feel cold,” said 56-year-old devotee Chandrakant Nagve Patel. “I felt like I was one with god.”

Hindus believe bathing there during the Kumbh helps cleanse sins and brings salvation.

Government employee Bhawani Baneree, who had come from the western state of Maharashtra, said the “vibrant atmosphere” had made his long journey worthwhile.

“Everything is so beautiful,” he said.


Pakistan, UAE logistics firm finalize freight corridor project

Updated 50 min 4 sec ago
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Pakistan, UAE logistics firm finalize freight corridor project

  • Project will run 50 km from Karachi Port in Pakistan’s most populous city to the Pipri marshalling yard
  • Aim is to decongest Karachi, improve road safety, increase efficiency, reduce transport times and costs

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani officials and Dubai-based logistics giant DP World have finalized terms for a freight corridor project from Karachi Port to the Pipri Marshalling yard in southern Pakistan, state media reported on Monday.

The Karachi Freight Corridor is an infrastructure project in Pakistan aimed at improving the movement of freight from the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest, to various parts of the country. The project involves the construction of a dedicated double-track corridor and other related facilities that will run 50 km from Karachi port to the Pipri Marshalling yard.

“A high-level delegation of Dubai-based logistics firm DP World led by Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem visited Pakistan through the SIFC [Special Investment Facilitation Council] platform to finalize various commercial aspects of the freight corridor project from Karachi Port to Pipri,” state news channel PTV said. 

“A mutually agreed-upon term sheet was signed between DP World and the relevant parties for the project’s implementation.

“This project will reduce the movement of freight vehicles in the Karachi metropolis through improved railway Infrastructure, aimed at advancing freight services within the country in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner.”

Pakistan and the UAE last year signed two inter-governmental framework agreements to establish a dedicated rail freight corridor and economic zone near Karachi. 

The agreements cover plans for over $3 billion investments in railways, economic zones and infrastructure. DP World will act on behalf of Dubai, while the Pakistan Railways and Port Qasim Authority will act on behalf of Pakistan.

The aim is to decongest Karachi, improve road safety, increase efficiency and reduce transport times and costs.

A second framework agreement covers dredging of the navigation channel and the development of an economic zone at Port Qasim.

Pakistan sees the signing of the investment framework agreements as a step toward the South Asian nation becoming a gateway to Asia and reaping the commercial dividends associated with its strategic location.

Last month, Pakistan’s National Logistics Corporation (NLC) and DP World said they would begin a shipping service between Karachi and Dubai from January. 


Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sign Hajj 2025 agreement in Jeddah 

Updated 25 min 37 sec ago
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Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sign Hajj 2025 agreement in Jeddah 

  • As per agreement, 179,210 Pakistanis will perform Hajj pilgrimage this year
  • Pakistan’s religion minister is in Kingdom to attend four-day Hajj conference

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have signed the Hajj agreement 2025, the spokesperson of Pakistan’s religion ministry said on Monday, according to which 179,210 pilgrims from the South Asian country would be able to perform the annual pilgrimage this year.

The agreement was signed by Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain and Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umra Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabi’ah in Jeddah. Hussain arrived in the Kingdom on Sunday for a three-day visit to attend the Global Hajj and Umrah Conference and Expo in Jeddah. 

“As per the agreement, 179,210 Pakistanis will perform the Hajj this year,” the religious affairs ministry’s spokesperson said, according to Pakistan’s Press Information Department (PID). “It has been agreed to provide Pakistani Hajj pilgrims the best possible facilities.”

The spokesperson said Pakistani Hajj pilgrims will be provided a special place in Mina where the rates will be low, the spokesperson said. 

“A shortened Hajj program of 20 to 25 days has been introduced to make the Hajj journey more accessible, easy and comfortable,” he said, adding that pilgrims will have the option to spend four to eight days in Madinah during the Hajj. 

He said every Pakistani pilgrim will receive a specially designed bag containing the Pakistani flag, QR code for identification and information relevant to the Hajj. 

The spokesperson said Hussain will participate in the four-day Hajj conference, adding that more agreements will also be signed with institutions and companies responsible for providing facilities to pilgrims. 

Pakistan’s quota of 179,210 Hajj pilgrims for Pakistan in 2025 will be divided equally between government and private schemes.

For the first time, Pakistan’s Hajj policy allowed pilgrims last year to make payments in installments. Under this scheme, the first installment of Rs 200,000 ($717) had to be submitted with the application, the second installment of Rs 400,000 ($1,435) within 10 days of balloting and the remaining amount by Feb. 10 this year.

The Pakistani religious affairs ministry has also launched the Pak Hajj 2025 mobile application, available for both Android and iPhone users, to guide pilgrims. Additionally, the government announced a reduction in airfare, lowering ticket prices for federal program pilgrims to Rs 220,000 [$785.41], down from last year’s Rs 234,000 [$835.39].

Pakistan International Airlines, Saudi Airlines, and private carriers have agreed to transport pilgrims this year.