SHANGHAI: Hundreds of people were trapped in rural Tibet in recent days after heavy rainfall caused floods and landslides, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.
At least 472 people, including local residents and tourists from outside the area, were trapped outside Chentang Township in the Shigatse area, state broadcaster CCTV said.
China is battling extreme weather across the country this summer, with the national weather agency expecting extreme heat to persist for much of the season.
Swathes of northern China have already been baked by heat waves this summer, while unseasonably torrential rains have triggered deadly floods and landslides across much of the south.
Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense, and China is the world’s biggest emitter.
Continuous rainfall since Saturday in Tibet had left roads damaged, and “power and communications in the area of Chentang Township was cut off,” according to CCTV.
Footage published by the broadcaster showed murky water tumbling down rocky hillsides, and large groups of people trekking along crumbled roads.
Large parts of one road appeared to have fallen into a river, while another one was covered in debris from a landslide.
CCTV said rescuers had been working for four days, and had successfully relocated 342 of the stranded people to nearby urban areas.
“Additionally, more than 130 tourists from outside this area, migrant workers and merchants remain temporarily stranded there due to road disruptions, rainy weather and insufficient physical ability to walk long distances,” CCTV said.
An emergency communications network has now been set up in the area, according to the broadcaster.
Hundreds stranded in rural Tibet after heavy rain: state media
https://arab.news/bfg37
Hundreds stranded in rural Tibet after heavy rain: state media
- At least 472 people, including local residents and tourists from outside the area, trapped
- China is battling extreme weather across the country this summer
UK foreign secretary urged to listen to support for recognition of Somaliland
- David Lammy pressed by former defense secretary Gavin Williamson
- Appeal comes after Liverpool calls on government to recognize East African state
LONDON: Britain’s former defense secretary Sir Gavin Williamson has urged Foreign Secretary David Lammy to listen to calls for the UK to recognize Somaliland as a sovereign nation, The Independent reported on Friday.
“This is an important symbolic step and I hope the foreign secretary listens to the growing cross-party voices on this matter and acts to move UK policy to recognize Somaliland, so recognizing the reality on the ground,” he said.
Lammy is being pushed to review UK foreign policy toward a potential key ally in the Red Sea conflict with the Iran-backed Houthis. The former British colony is not officially recognized by any international power despite functioning as an independent state since 1991 when it broke away from Somalia following a civil war.
Earlier this week, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool Richard Kemp said: “Liverpool council unanimously agreed a motion calling upon HMG (His Majesty’s Government) to recognize the former British Protectorate of Somaliland as an independent country free from Somalia. The Somaliland representative to the UK and local Somaliland residents were delighted.”
The Somaliland Diaspora Office wrote on X: “We deeply appreciate Liverpool City Council’s July 24, 2024 motion re-recognizing Somaliland’s independence. This milestone is a testament to the tireless efforts of the Somaliland community in Liverpool, the UK Mission, and advocates worldwide. We congratulate all involved!”
Williamson praised Liverpool’s decision and urged Lammy to take note.
Since the UK and US were forced to intervene against Houthi terrorists from Yemen in the Gulf of Aden — one of the world’s key shipping routes — pressure has increased to rethink recognition of Somaliland. Its port of Berbera has been described as a potential base for UK and US military operations.
Ethiopia last year became the first African country to agree any form of recognition with Somaliland with a deal that gave it access to the sea. The move infuriated Somalia which claims Somaliland as part of its territory and led to mass protests.
Belgium charges three Chechens on suspicion of ‘terrorism’
- They are suspected of involvement with the Daesh group’s Khorasan offshoot in central Asia
- Seven people, all of Chechen origin, were detained on Thursday
BRUSSELS: A Belgian judge on Friday charged three Chechens on suspicion of terrorism offenses, the federal prosecutor’s office said, a day after police launched country-wide raids over fears of an attack in preparation.
They are suspected of involvement with the Daesh group’s Khorasan offshoot in central Asia. Seven people, all of Chechen origin, were detained on Thursday.
Six suspects appeared before a judge on Friday, who ordered three kept in custody, charging them with offenses including “preparing a terrorist attack.”
One suspect was also charged with financing terrorism, the prosecutor’s office said.
The other three were released but the seventh suspect did not appear before the judge.
But the prosecutor’s office said in a statement that at this stage, there was no “concrete” information about “a specific purpose.”
Thursday’s police raids across Belgium were carried out in Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Courtrai and Menin, under warrants issued by the Antwerp-based judge.
An official told AFP on Thursday there was no evidence of any link to the 2024 Paris Olympics, whose opening ceremony takes place on Friday under unprecedented security.
Belgian media reported the arrests came as a precautionary measure ahead of the Games.
The same sources said the action was taken in coordination with authorities in Germany, where there were raids and two arrests of individuals linked to the same Daesh group.
Belgium in 2016 was rocked by suicide bomb attacks at its airport and in its metro system that killed 32 people and wounded hundreds.
The attacks were claimed by the Daesh group.
In October last year, a gunman who said on social media he was inspired by the Daesh group shot dead two Swedish football fans in Brussels.
Gaza’s ancient Christian monastery gets ‘danger listing’ at UNESCO session in India
- Founded in 340 CE, Saint Hilarion’s monastery is one of the oldest in the Middle East
- UNESCO inscription processed in wake of Israel’s destruction of Palestinian heritage sites
NEW DELHI: An ancient Christian monastery in Gaza was recognized as a World Heritage in Danger site during a UNESCO session in New Delhi on Friday.
Founded around 340 CE by Saint Hilarion, the monastery is part of Tell Umm Amer, an archaeological site located in the Nuseirat refugee camp of Gaza’s Deir Al-Balah governorate.
Submitted for inscription by the Permanent Delegation of Palestine to UNESCO in 2012, its nomination was processed on an emergency basis during the World Heritage Committee’s ongoing annual session.
Ambassador Mounir Anastas, Palestine’s permanent delegate to the UN’s cultural agency, welcomed the inscription as giving hope to the people of Gaza in the wake of the ongoing Israeli attacks, which since October have killed at least 40,000 people and destroyed most of the Palestinian enclave’s infrastructure.
“It constitutes a message of hope to our people in Gaza who are fleeing bombing, who have no shelter, no water, no food. Nevertheless, they are committed to protect their heritage because this heritage is part of our people’s memory and history,” Anastas told Arab News on the sidelines of the UNESCO session.
The move was submitted by Belgium and sponsored by 18 other members of the current World Heritage Committee, who resorted to the emergency procedure provided for in the World Heritage Convention, and agreed to inscribe the Saint Hilarion monastery complex both on the World Heritage list and on the list of the World Heritage in Danger.
By the terms of the convention, its 195 states parties — including Israel — are barred from directly or indirectly damaging the site and are committed to providing their cooperation for its protection.
“Once the site is enshrined on the World Heritage in Danger list, this means that all state parties to the convention are responsible for the protection and promotion of the site,” Mounir said.
“And this is also another strong message from the international community to our people in Gaza, saying that the international community did not forget you.”
Saint Hilarion was a native of the Gaza region and is considered the father of Palestinian monasticism. His monastery used to be an important station on the crossroads between Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, and is associated with the phenomenon of monastic desert centers during the Byzantine period. It also bears testimony to Christianity in Gaza.
One of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, the complex consists of two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall, a public cemetery, an audience hall, and dining rooms.
At least 207 archaeological sites and buildings of cultural and historical significance, out of a total of 320, have been reduced to rubble or severely damaged by Israel’s deadly military onslaught and indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip for the last 10 months.
These include the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrios — the world’s third oldest church — the 12th-century Great Omari Mosque and the nearby Al-Qissariya medieval Old City market, Gaza’s ancient seaport dating to 800 BCE, a Philistine cemetery dating to the Late Bronze period 1550-1200 BCE.
The destruction of many of the archaeological sites was detailed in South Africa’s case against Israel for the crime of genocide at the International Court of Justice. The case argues that the mass-scale killing and destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza demonstrates the Israeli leadership’s intent to destroy the Palestinian people and their cultural identity.
Senegalese navy intercepts 200 migrants near coast
- The Senegalese navy on Friday detained a boat near the northern city of Saint-Louis
- At least 25 people died on Monday when a different vessel capsized near Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott
DAKAR: Senegal intercepted 200 “irregular migrants,” the army said Friday, just days after 90 people drowned off the coast of Mauritania while attempting the same crossing.
The Senegalese navy on Friday detained a boat near the northern city of Saint-Louis, the latest in a string of interventions over the last few months.
The West African country’s army last week reported the interception of a boat carrying more than 250 “irregular migrants” from a number of African countries.
At least 25 people died on Monday when a different vessel capsized near Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott, according to the Sahelian country’s state-owned news agency.
A Europe-bound boat carrying around 170 people that set off from Senegal capsized off the Mauritanian coast in early July, killing nearly 90 people.
The disaster prompted Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko to urge people not to risk the Atlantic Ocean’s currents in overcrowded vessels that often are not seaworthy, and on which they do not carry sufficient drinking water.
But the route is increasingly used as authorities step up surveillance in the Mediterranean.
According to the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, more than 5,000 people died trying to reach Spain by sea in the first five months of this year.
That represents the highest daily average toll since it began keeping records in 2007.
Kremlin says Paris did not inform it of Russian suspect’s arrest
- The man was detained Sunday in Paris and later placed in custody
- “Our embassy in Paris should have been informed of the detention. We hope the information will be provided to them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
MOSCOW: The Kremlin’s spokesman on Friday said France did not inform Moscow of its arrest of a Russian man over a suspected “destabilization” plot targeting the Paris Olympics.
The man was detained Sunday in Paris and later placed in custody but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that France had not directly informed Russian officials.
“We have no information. We saw media reports... Our embassy in Paris should have been informed of the detention. We hope the information will be provided to them,” he added.
Peskov described media reports about the case as “quite curious.”
French prosecutors said the man, born in 1984, was suspected of “passing intelligence to a foreign power in order to arouse hostilities in France,” punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Le Monde newspaper said police had found documents “of diplomatic interest” at his apartment and he was suspected of working for the Russian FSB internal intelligence service after appearances in reality TV shows and a stint as a chef in a French ski resort.
Le Monde and other media named the suspect as Kirill Gryaznov, a chef originally from the city of Perm in the Urals.
He studied Cordon Bleu cooking in France and worked at Courchevel, a ski resort popular with Russians, French media and Russian-language investigative website The Insider reported.
He regularly visited Russia where he took part in cooking shows and a “Bachelor“-style TV reality show called “Choose Me” in 2019, but had problems with alcohol and finances, The Insider reported.
An Instagram account in his name includes wedding photos from last year and recipes.
The Insider reported that Gryaznov described himself as working for the Russian government and had security service contacts.
“We think very strongly that he was going to organize operations of destabilization, interference, spying,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told BFM television on Wednesday.
“He’s now in the justice system which will be able to confirm the suspicions of the police.”
The Insider, German magazine Der Spiegel and Le Monde reported that Gryaznov was arrested after being barred from a flight from Istanbul to Paris for being drunk.
He then booked onto another flight from Bulgaria and stopped at a restaurant there, where he reportedly told people that he was on a secret mission related to the Olympics and claimed the French would have an opening ceremony “like they have never had.”
Almost all of Moscow’s athletes have been excluded from the Paris Olympics over the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine, with only 15 set to compete as neutrals.
Paris prosecutors Friday opened a probe into a suspected bid to undermine “fundamental national interests” after rail sabotage paralyzed France’s high-speed train network hours ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony.
