ISLAMABAD: Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, often referred to as AQ Khan, said on Sunday his health was improving after he was hospitalized with the coronavirus disease.
Khan is often dubbed the “father of Pakistan’s nuclear program,” having founded the Engineering Research Laboratory to help the South Asian country develop uranium enrichment capability.
It was renamed Khan Research Laboratory in 1981.
Khan was taken to KRL hospital’s COVID-19 ward in Islamabad on Aug. 26 after testing positive for the disease.
His health deteriorated last week, prompting rumors about his passing. “Am better today than yesterday,” Khan said in a message to Arab News. “May God be with you and protect you.”
Born in 1936 in the Indian city of Bhopal, Khan graduated in metallurgy from the University of Karachi in 1960. He pursued higher studies in West Berlin and the Netherlands, and was awarded a doctorate in metallurgical engineering by the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1972.
Pakistan placed him under house arrest in 2004 after he confessed to selling nuclear secrets to foreign countries. Several of his collaborators in Europe have been arrested in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa. Khan was released in 2009.
Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan says he is recovering from COVID-19
https://arab.news/gb7hq
Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan says he is recovering from COVID-19
- His health deteriorated last week, prompting rumors about his passing
Suspect in shooting of Minnesota lawmakers to appear in court on murder charges
Vance Boelter, 57, is being held in Hennepin County after he was arrested on Sunday following a massive manhunt over the weekend. Boelter is accused of shooting dead Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday.
Authorities said Boelter was also suspected of shooting and wounding another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home a few miles away.
Governor Tim Walz has characterized the crimes as a “politically motivated assassination.”
“A moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences,” Walz said.
Boelter was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, a criminal complaint showed. He is scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. local time, jail records showed.
Three of those charges are punishable with jail terms of up to 40 years, according to a Hennepin County criminal complaint unsealed on Sunday.
Boelter had been impersonating a police officer while carrying out the shootings, wearing an officer’s uniform and driving a Ford SUV with police-style lights, the complaint said.
Boelter fled on foot early on Saturday when officers confronted him at Hortman’s Brooklyn Park home, said authorities who had warned residents to stay indoors for their own safety and unleashed the state’s biggest manhunt.
When police searched Boelter’s SUV after the shootings, they discovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9-mm handgun, and a list of other public officials including their addresses, the criminal complaint showed.
Working on a tip that Boelter was near his home in the city of Green Isle, more than 20 SWAT teams combed the area, aided by surveillance aircraft, officials said. Boelter was armed but surrendered with no shots fired.
The operation to capture Boelter, drawing on the work of hundreds of detectives and a wide range of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, was the largest manhunt in state history, Brooklyn Park police Chief Mark Bruley said during a news conference on Sunday.
The killing was the latest episode of high-profile US political violence.
Such incidents range from a 2022 attack on former Democratic US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their home, to an assassination bid on Donald Trump last year, and an arson attack at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s house in April.
Israel furious as France shuts four weapons stands at Paris Airshow
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that the instruction came from French authorities after Israeli firms failed to comply with a direction from a French security agency to remove offensive or kinetic weapons from the stands.
The stands were those being used by Elbit Systems , Rafael, IAI and Uvision. Three smaller Israeli stands, which didn’t have hardware on display, and an Israeli Ministry of Defense stand, remain open.
France, a long-time Israeli ally, has gradually hardened its position on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu over its actions in Gaza and military interventions abroad.
French President Emmanuel Macron made a distinction last week between Israel’s right to protect itself, which France supports and could take part in, and strikes on Iran it did not recommend.
Israel’s defense ministry said it had categorically rejected the order to remove some weapons systems from displays, and that exhibition organizers responded by erecting a black wall that separated the Israeli industry pavilions from others.
This action, it added, was carried out in the middle of the night after Israeli defense officials and companies had already finished setting up their displays.
“This outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition — weapons that compete with French industries.”
IAI’s president and CEO, Boaz Levy, said the black partition walls were reminiscent of “the dark days of when Jews were segmented from European society.”
Two US Republican politicians attending the air show also criticized the French move.
Talking to reporters outside the blacked-out Israeli defense stalls, US Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders described the decision as “pretty absurd,” while Republican Senator Katie Britt criticized it as “short-sighted.”
The French prime minister’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Meshar Sasson, senior vice president at Elbit Systems, accused France of trying to stymie competition, pointing to a series of contracts that Elbit has won in Europe.
“If you cannot beat them in technology, just hide them right? That’s what it is because there’s no other explanation,” he said.
Rafael described the French move as “unprecedented, unjustified, and politically motivated.”
The air show’s organizer said in a statement that it was in talks to try to help “the various parties find a favorable outcome to the situation.”
India and Cyprus to step up defense, maritime and cybersecurity cooperation, Indian PM says
NICOSIA: India will step up its defense ties with Cyprus through collaboration between the two countries’ respective defense industries, the Indian prime minister said Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t offer details, but he said talks would begin on boosting bilateral maritime and cybersecurity cooperation.
He said after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that the two countries would also set up an information exchange mechanism geared toward combatting the threat of terrorism.
Modi’s two-day visit to Cyprus, ahead of his trip to Canada for the G7 summit, is the first by an Indian prime minister in more than two decades.
In a joint declaration, the two countries also pledged to expand maritime cooperation through more frequent Indian navy calls to Cypriot ports and looking at enhancing joint maritime training and search and rescue operations.
Modi underscored the role of the envisioned India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a means to usher peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
Cyprus figures to act as the linchpin between India, the Middle East and Europe in the trade, energy and digital connectivity corridor, given the island nation’s geographical location as the nearest European Union country to the Middle East and India.
Christodoulides said Cyprus was India’s “gateway into Europe” as a base for Indian businesses. He pledged to help implement initiatives such as IMEC that will connect India through specific infrastructure works with the Gulf, the Mediterranean and the European continent.
The Cypriot president said India-EU ties and an upgraded free trade agreement would be among his country’s top priorities when Cyprus assumes the 27-member bloc’s rotating presidency in the first half of 2026.
The Indian prime minister hailed the visit as a harbinger of a new era of India-Cyprus relations built on shared values and deep historic ties that “have been tested time and again.”
Former British colonies Cyprus and India were among members of the Non-Aligned Movement, a collection of nations which opted out of the Cold War choice of allegiance to either the West or the Communist bloc.
India relocates students in Iran as Israel strikes continue
- Tehran has hit back with strikes against Israel since it unleashed attacks against Iran on Friday
- The escalation has sparked global alarm that the conflict could erupt into a regional war
New Delhi said Monday its diplomats were helping some Indian students relocate out of harm’s way in Iran, which has come under days of deadly Israeli bombardment.
Tehran has hit back with strikes against Israel since it unleashed waves of attacks against Iran on Friday, sparking global alarm that the conflict could erupt into a regional war.
New Delhi, which has relations with both countries, has sought to relocate its citizens within Iran after Tehran closed its airspace.
“The Indian Embassy in Tehran is continuously monitoring the security situation and engaging Indian students in Iran to ensure their safety,” a foreign ministry statement said.
“In some cases, students are being relocated with (the) Embassy’s facilitation to safer places within Iran,” the ministry added.
There are around 10,000 Indian citizens in Iran, according to government data last year, while figures from 2022 listed more than 2,000 students in Iran.
New Delhi on Friday said it stood ready “to extend all possible support” to both countries, as it urged them to “avoid any escalatory steps.”
“Existing channels of dialogue and diplomacy should be utilized,” said foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal.
Iran’s health ministry has reported at least 224 people killed in Israeli strikes, while Israeli authorities have tallied more than a dozen deaths since Tehran began its retaliatory attacks Friday.
Relatives wait for remains after Air India crash
- While mourners have held funerals for some of the 279 people killed when the Air India jet crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad, others are still waiting
AHMEDABAD: Indian health officials have begun handing relatives the bodies of their loved ones after one of the world’s worst plane crashes in decades, but most families were still waiting Monday for results of DNA testing.
While mourners have held funerals for some of the 279 people killed when the Air India jet crashed in the western city of Ahmedabad, others are facing an anguished wait.
“They said it would take 48 hours. But it’s been four days and we haven’t received any response,” said Rinal Christian, 23, whose elder brother was a passenger on the jetliner.
There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound plane Thursday when it slammed into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground as well.
“My brother was the sole breadwinner of the family,” Christian said Sunday. “So what happens next?“
Among the latest victims identified was Vijay Rupani, a senior member of India’s ruling party and former chief minister of Gujarat state.
His flag-draped coffin was carried in Ahmedabad by soldiers, along with a portrait of the politician draped in a garland of flowers.
A two-hour journey away in Anand district, crowds gathered in a funeral procession for passenger Kinal Mistry.
The 24-year-old had postponed her flight, leaving her father Suresh Mistry agonizing that “she would have been alive” if she had stuck to her original plan.
Air India said there were 169 Indian passengers, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian on board the flight, as well as 12 crew members.
Eighty crash victims have been identified as of late Sunday, according to Rajnish Patel, a doctor at Ahmedabad’s civil hospital.
“This is a meticulous and slow process, so it has to be done meticulously only,” Patel said.
One victim’s relative who did not want to be named told AFP they had been instructed not to open the coffin when they receive it.
Witnesses reported seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.
Nilesh Vaghela, a casket maker, was asleep when the crash happened early afternoon.
“Then around 5:00 pm, I got a call from Air India saying they need coffins,” he told AFP after delivering dozens.
“My work is very sad. All these innocent people died, small children,” he said. “Someone has to do it.”
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it went down moments after takeoff, smashing into buildings used by medical staff.
The task of clearing debris from the scorched crash site went on in Ahmedabad, where an AFP photographer saw dozens of workers in yellow hard hats.
Indian authorities have yet to identify the cause of the disaster and have ordered inspections of Air India’s Dreamliners.
The airline said one of its Dreamliners on Monday returned to Hong Kong airport “shortly after take off due to a technical issue” and was undergoing checks.
Indian authorities announced Sunday that the second black box of the Ahmedabad plane, the cockpit voice recorder, had been recovered. This may offer investigators more clues about what went wrong.
Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said Saturday he hoped decoding the first black box, the flight data recorder, would “give an in-depth insight” into the circumstances of the crash.
Imtiyaz Ali, who was still waiting for a DNA match to find his brother, is also seeking answers.
“Next step is to find out the reason for this accident. We need to know,” he told AFP.
