FRANKFURT: Germany said it resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country on Friday, as Berlin reverses a policy to hold off on deportations to the Taliban-ruled country.
The coalition government has come under pressure to take a tougher stance on migration after a deadly stabbing linked to Daesh at a city festival a week ago and after an Afghan man stabbed a German policeman to death in a knife attack in June.
Spiegel magazine reported that a Kabul-bound flight took off from Leipzig early on Friday with 28 convicted criminals onboard after months of secret negotiations with mediator Qatar.
The government said in a statement it thanked “key regional partners” for their support and added that more such deportations were being worked on.
Berlin had stopped returning people to Afghanistan on human rights concerns after the Taliban took power in 2021.
Two eastern regional states, where the anti-immigration AfD party is topping polls, will hold elections on Sunday.
Germany said in June it was again considering deporting Afghan migrants who pose a security threat, following the police officer’s killing in the city of Mannheim.
Negotiating directly with the Taliban, some of whose officials are under international sanctions, is widely seen as problematic.
Germany confirms it has resumed deportations to Afghanistan
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Germany confirms it has resumed deportations to Afghanistan
- The coalition government has come under pressure to take a tougher stance on migration
- Berlin had stopped returning people to Afghanistan on human rights concerns after the Taliban took power in 2021
Pakistan vows retaliation saying India fired missiles at five locations
- Military spokesman says Ahmedpur East, Muridke, Bagh, Kotli, Muzaffarabad cities hit, one killed in Bahawalpur, two in Kotli
- Indian military says nine sites targeted from where Apr. 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir had been planned
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military spokesman said on Wednesday India had fired missiles at five locations, vowing that the country would respond to the attacks at a “time and place of its own choosing.”
The development comes amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors in the aftermath of an attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month in which 26 men were killed.
India, without providing evidence publicly, has accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack in the hill station of Pahalgam and vowed to respond. Pakistan has denied involvement and several top officials have spoken since of intelligence that India was planning to attack.
“Five places, Kotli, Ahmedpur East, Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Muridke, have been attacked,” Pakistan military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told local broadcaster Geo News.
“Two civilians have been killed in Kotli and one child has been killed and 12 injured in Ahmedpur East.”
Ahmedpur East is a historic city located in the Bahawalpur District of southern Punjab, while Muridke is also located in Punjab. Bagh, Muzaffarabad and Kotli are in Azad Kashmir, which is part of the disputed Himalayan region governed by Pakistan.
Speaking separately to ARY News, Chaudhry said Pakistan had scrambled jets in response to the Indian attacks, adding that no Indian planes had entered Pakistan’s airspace.
“Let me say unequivocally that Pakistan will respond at a time and place of its own choosing to this cowardly attack, this heinous provocation will not go unanswered,” the military spokesman added.
According to an Indian government statement, its armed forces launched “Operation Sindoor,” hitting nine sites in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir from where it said the Pahalgam attack had been “planned and directed.”
No Pakistani military facilities had been targeted, the statement added.
Kashmir has been disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947. Both rule it in part and claim it in full.
India attacks 9 sites in Pakistan, Pakistan-administered Kashmir
MUZAFFARABAD/NEW DELHI: India said it attacked nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday where strikes against it had been planned, and Pakistan reported at least three people died and 12 were injured, according to an initial assessment.
The offensive occurred amid heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month.
Pakistan said India launched missiles at three places, but an Indian government statement did not detail the nature of the strikes.
“A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the Indian statement said.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” it said.
A Pakistani military spokesman told broadcaster Geo that Pakistan’s response was under way, without giving details. The spokesman said five places were hit including two mosques and reported three deaths and 12 people injured.
After the explosions, power was blacked out in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, witnesses said.
Witnesses and one police officer at two sites on the frontier in Indian Kashmir said they heard loud explosions and intense artillery shelling as well as jets in the air.
India blamed Pakistan for the violence last month in which 26 men were killed and vowed to respond. Pakistan denied that it had anything to do with the killings and said that it had intelligence that India was planning to attack.
After India’s strikes, the Indian army said in a post on X on Wednesday: “Justice is served.”
Germany’s Merz voices ‘concern’ on Gaza, to send foreign minister to Israel
- Friedrich Merz said FM Johann Wadephul would travel to Israel at the weekend and that ‘we are currently preparing this trip together’
- Friedrich Merz: ‘Israel must remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations’
BERLIN: Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday voiced “considerable concern” about the Gaza conflict and said he would send his foreign minister to Israel this weekend.
The conservative Merz, 69, long a strong supporter of Israel, said that Israel has a right to fight the Palestinian militant group Hamas but must follow international law.
Merz, who took office on Tuesday, said Germany’s new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul would travel to Israel at the weekend and that “we are currently preparing this trip together.”
Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans for the “conquest” of Gaza, an official said Monday, and Israel’s military has said expanded operations would entail displacing “most” of its residents to the southern part of the territory.
Merz, speaking to public broadcaster ARD, said: “We view the developments of the last few days with considerable concern.”
“Israel has the right to defend itself against the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and everything that followed,” said Merz.
“But Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, especially as this terrible war is raging in the Gaza Strip, where this confrontation with Hamas terrorists is necessarily taking place.”
He added that “it must be clear that the Israeli government must fulfil its obligations under the international law of war and that humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must be provided.”
Belarus opens case against a 78-year-old activist who became a symbol of the pro-democracy movement
- Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus’ laws
- Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement
TALLINN: Authorities in Belarus opened a criminal case against a 78-year-old activist who became the face of the country’s pro-democracy protests in 2020, a rights organization said Tuesday.
Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus’ laws on holding and organizing protests, Belarus’ Viasna human rights center said.
Authorities accused Bahinskaya of repeatedly walking the streets of the Belarusian capital displaying symbols striped with white, red and white: the same colors used by Belarus’ pro-democracy opposition. If found guilty, the activist faces up to three years in prison.
Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus’ pro-democracy movement, which reached its peak during mass protests in the summer of 2020, shortly after the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was declared president for a sixth consecutive term.
Observers widely condemned the vote as rigged. In March, Lukashenko was sworn in to a seventh term.
Bahinskaya’s defiance and caustic tongue quickly has made her a popular opposition figure. When told by police in 2020 that she was violating a government ban on unauthorized demonstrations, she simply responded, “I’m taking a walk” — a snappy reply that was adopted by thousands and chanted at demonstrations.
“I noticed that the riot police more rarely beat protesters when they see elderly people among them,” she told The Associated Press at the time. “So I come out to protest as a defender, an observer and a witness. I’m psychologically and intellectually stronger than the police. Even among those who detained me, there were people who respected me.”
The 2020 protests triggered a wave of police violence from Belarusian security services, and political repression that has engulfed the country of 9.5 million people.
More than 65,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been beaten by police, and independent media and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down and outlawed, prompting condemnation and sanctions from the West.
Belarus holds about 1,200 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. At least six political prisoners have died in prison, according to human rights activists.
Bahinskaya has been previously detained on multiple occasions, collecting fines totaling 7,200 Belarusian rubles (about $2,400).
As part of the case against her, Bahinskaya was detained in early May and taken for a forced psychiatric examination, Viasna said. In April, UN experts reported that Belarusian authorities had resumed the Soviet practice of forced psychiatric treatment as a punishment for political dissent, and that at least 33 cases of punitive psychiatry had already been recorded against political prisoners.
“Bahinskaya is a symbol of resistance to totalitarianism within the country, and it is important for the authorities to break her,” Viasna representative Pavel Sapelka told the AP. “This is a show case against an elderly person who has dedicated her entire life to the fight for freedom.”
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives and works in exile in Lithuania, also condemned the case.
“Today, the regime is still afraid of Nina Bahinskaya’s courage,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “For decades, Nina has stood up to tyranny.”
Putin tells Pezeshkian Russia wants ‘fair’ US-Iran nuclear deal
- The latest round of the talks between Tehran and Washington, initially set for May 3, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing ‘logistical reasons’ for the delay
- Russia has deepened its military and diplomatic ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022
MOSCOW/TEHRAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow wants a “fair” nuclear deal between the US and Iran and was ready to help advance talks, the Kremlin said.
“The Russian side confirmed its readiness to contribute to the promotion of this dialogue with the goal of reaching a fair agreement based on the principles of international law,” the Kremlin said in a readout of a call between the leaders.
The latest round of the talks between Tehran and Washington, initially set for May 3, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons” for the delay.
The two countries have held three rounds since April 12, their highest-level contact since the US withdrew from a landmark deal with Iran in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term as president.
Russia has deepened its military and diplomatic ties with Iran since it launched its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
The two countries, both under massive Western sanctions, signed a strategic partnership earlier this year.
Most recently, Moscow has sent two planes to help put down a fire after a deadly explosion in Iran’s biggest commercial port.
Russia earlier confirmed its readiness to help find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off between Washington and Tehran, and to play any role in the talks.
A fourth round of talks is likely to take place over the weekend in Muscat, with Iranian state media pointing to May 11 as a probable date.
Cautioning that the timing was not yet finalized, an Iranian source close to the negotiating team said: “The talks will take place over two days in Muscat, either on Saturday and Sunday or Sunday and Monday.”
Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff also said Washington was trying to hold the next round of talks this weekend, according to the news site Axios, a day after Iran’s Foreign Ministry reiterated
US President Donald Trump, who withdrew the US from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, has threatened to bomb Iran if no agreement is reached with his administration to resolve the long-standing dispute.
Western countries say Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes.
