DUSHANBE: Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon called off a military offensive yesterday after rebel fighters agreed concessions to end a battle that had killed 42 people, security officials said.
The cease-fire followed a campaign to capture former warlord Tolib Ayombekov in a remote mountain region next to Afghanistan, a show of strength by a government whose control over parts of the Central Asian state remains tenuous 15 years after a civil war.
Twelve soldiers and 30 rebels were killed during fighting on Tuesday, officials said. Shops and markets reopened on Wednesday in Khorog, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region and the closest town to the fighting deep in the Pamir mountains.
“The decision was taken to avoid further bloodshed, after the (rebel) field commanders promised to make concessions,” a source in the presidential administration told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He declined to say what concessions had been promised.
Security forces had earlier demanded the handover of four rebels, including Ayombekov, accused of murdering the regional head of the State Committee on National Security on Saturday. Maj.-Gen. Abdullo Nazarov was dragged from his car and beaten to death.
Defense Minister Sherali Khairulloyev traveled to the region for talks with rebel fighters and offered amnesty to those who turned in their weapons, a high-ranking official in the security services told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
“The main demand from our side is that the four people directly involved in the killing of Abdullo Nazarov are brought to justice,” the source said. Ayombekov evaded capture during the offensive.
Tens of thousands of people died in Tajikistan during its 1992-97 civil war, in which Rakhmon’s secular government, backed by Moscow, fought a loosely-aligned opposition that included many Islamist fighters.
Russia still has 6,000 troops stationed in Tajikistan, its largest military deployment abroad and a bulwark against the threat of Islamist violence spilling across the Afghan border after NATO pulls its troops out in 2014.
After much wrangling over conditions, Russia and Tajikistan agreed in principle this month to extend Moscow’s lease on its military base for another 49 years.
“A military stand-off with the opposition would definitely weaken (Rakhmon’s) internal position, making him more pliant in his relations with Moscow,” said Arkady Dubnov, a Moscow-based Central Asia analyst.
“He has been a virtual steamroller that has suppressed political opposition, but the growing clout of armed gangs will pose an increasing challenge as the troop pullout from Afghanistan gets nearer,” he said.
“It’s an open secret that he no longer controls large chunks of his own country.”
Gorno-Badakhshan, separated from Afghanistan by the raging Pyandzh river, is an autonomous region where the authority of central government is fragile. Most of the 250,000 population sided with the opposition during the civil war.
Most communications in Khorog, 500 km (300 miles) southeast of the capital Dushanbe, were cut off for a second day. A local resident, able to communicate via a satellite link, told Reuters that fighting had not spread to the town itself.
n FROM: Reuters
“We heard shooting, but we didn’t see any troops,” he said. “Last night we checked on our neighbors, and everybody was safe and sound. Nobody has bombed the town.”
Ayombekov, who has denied involvement in Nazarov’s death, fought with the opposition during the civil war and was among former fighters to receive government jobs in the peace deal that ended the conflict.
But the GKNB, successor to the Soviet-era KGB, has said his gang had for many years been involved in smuggling drugs, tobacco and precious stones.
“The restoration of order in Gorno-Badakhshan is long overdue. The authorities have long discredited themselves by allowing local mobsters to run business in the region when they should be in jail,” said Dushanbe-based analyst Ramzan Sharipov.
“There will not be a second civil war in Tajikistan,” he said. “The operation comes at a good time for the president, a year before scheduled elections, and will be portrayed by authorities as a show of strength and centralized power.”
Rakhmon, in power for two decades, is widely expected to be re-elected in 2013 for another seven-year term.
Tajik forces end military offensive
Tajik forces end military offensive
Italians head to polls in referendum on citizenship and labor, but vote risks sinking on low turnout
Italians head to polls in referendum on citizenship and labor, but vote risks sinking on low turnout
- Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that only 46 percent of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums
ROME: Italians headed to the polls Monday on the second and final day of referendums that would make it easier for children born in Italy to foreigners to obtain citizenship, and on providing more job protections. But partial data showed a low turnout, well below the required 50 percent plus one threshold, risking to invalidate the vote.
Campaigners for the change in the citizenship law say it will help second-generation Italians born in the country to non- European Union parents better integrate into a culture they already see as theirs.
Partial data from Italy’s Interior Ministry published at 2100 GMT on Sunday showed that national turnout stood at 22.7 percent, just over half of the 41 percent registered at the same time of the day in the latest comparable referendum held in 2011. The polling stations close later Monday at 1300 GMT.
The new rules, if passed, could affect about 2.5 million foreign nationals who still struggle to be recognized as citizens.
The measures were proposed by Italy’s main union and left-wing opposition parties. Premier Giorgia Meloni showed up at the polls on Sunday evening but didn’t cast a ballot — an action widely criticized by the left as antidemocratic, since it won’t contribute to reaching the necessary threshold to make the vote valid.
“While some members of her ruling coalition have openly called for abstention, Meloni has opted for a more subtle approach,” said analyst Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy based in London. ”It’s yet another example of her trademark fence-sitting.’’
Rights at stake
Supporters say this reform would bring Italy’s citizenship law in line with many other European countries, promoting greater social integration for long-term residents. It would also allow faster access to civil and political rights, such as the right to vote, eligibility for public employment and freedom of movement within the EU.
“The real drama is that neither people who will vote ‘yes’ nor those who intend to vote ‘no’ or abstain have an idea of what (an) ordeal children born from foreigners have to face in this country to obtain a residence permit,” said Selam Tesfaye, an activist and campaigner with the Milan-based human rights group Il Cantiere.
Activists and opposition parties also denounced the lack of public debate on the measures, accusing the governing center-right coalition of trying to dampen interest in sensitive issues that directly impact immigrants and workers.
In May, Italy’s AGCOM communications authority lodged a complaint against RAI state television and other broadcasters over a lack of adequate and balanced coverage.
Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that only 46 percent of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums. Turnout projections were even weaker for a vote scheduled for the first weekend of Italy’s school holidays, at around 35 percent of around 50 million electors, well below the required quorum.
“Many believe that the referendum institution should be reviewed in light of the high levels of abstention (that) emerged in recent elections and the turnout threshold should be lowered,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, political analyst and pollster at YouTrend.
Some analysts note, however, that the center-left opposition could claim a victory even if the referendum fails on condition that the turnout surpasses the 12.3 million voters who backed the winning center-right coalition in the 2022 general election.
Ukraine says Russia launched 479 drones in the war’s biggest overnight drone bombardment
- Ukraine’s air defenses destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles in mid-flight
KYIV, Ukraine: Russia launched 479 drones at Ukraine in the war ‘s biggest overnight drone bombardment, the Ukrainian air force said Monday.
Apart from drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western areas of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air defenses destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles in mid-flight, an air force statement said, claiming that only 10 drones or missiles hit their target.
It was not possible to independently verify the claim.
Russia’s aerial attacks usually start late in the evening and end in the morning, because drones are harder to spot in the dark.
Russia has relentlessly battered civilian areas of Ukraine with Shahed drones during the more than 3-year war. The attacks have killed more that 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Russia says it targets only military targets.
‘Better if he was dead’: Kenyan mother’s search for son year after protests
- Susan Wangari has lost count of the morgues, hospitals and police stations she has visited in search of her son, who went missing at the height of Kenya’s mass protests last June
NAIROBI: Susan Wangari has lost count of the morgues, hospitals and police stations she has visited in search of her son, who went missing at the height of Kenya’s mass protests last June.
She last saw Emmanuel Mukuria, 24, on the morning of June 25, 2024, the day that thousands of Kenyan youths thronged the streets of Nairobi and stormed parliament in protest at planned tax rises and corruption.
“It would be better if my son were dead; at least I could visit his grave,” she told AFP.
Rights groups say at least 60 people were killed during the protests in June and July, and more than 80 abducted by the security forces since then, with dozens still missing.
Mukuria’s friends say he was arrested during the protests in the city center, where he worked as a minibus tout.
“We do not have peace in this house,” his mother, 50, told AFP during a visit to her single-room home in the Kasarani slum area.
“I sleep lightly at night in case he comes knocking at my window like he always did,” she said.
“Every time we hear that bodies have been found somewhere, we are anxious to know whose they are.”
Two men told her they shared a cell with Mukuria, but they are too afraid to speak publicly about their ordeal.
One was only released in February, giving her hope that her son is still alive in captivity.
“They told me they were beaten and questioned about the protests. They were being asked who paid them to participate,” Wangari said.
Last month, President William Ruto, in a clear admission that security forces had engaged in kidnappings, said all those abducted during the protests had been “returned to their families.”
Rights groups say dozens are still missing and police have shown little progress in investigating the disappearances despite Ruto claiming an “accountability mechanism” was put in place.
Questioned by AFP, the president’s office said the police were “handling the brief,” while a police spokesman referred AFP back to the president’s office.
The police spokesman said they had no information on Mukuria’s case. An officer-in-charge at the station where Wangari reported him missing said the matter was still under investigation.
Many other families are still dealing with the aftermath of the violence.
Rex Masai, 29, was the first to die during the protests, shot and killed in the city center on June 20.
The inquest into his death is still dragging on.
“We are hoping for the best but we are not near the truth,” Masai’s mother Gillian Munyao told AFP at her home, where a photo of her dreadlocked son hangs on the wall.
She found her son lying lifeless in a pool of blood at a clinic where he was taken that day.
The state prosecutor has said a lack of witnesses has delayed progress in the case.
One potential witness was scared off for fear he might be “forcibly disappeared” by the police, Munyao said.
Hussein Khalid, head of rights group Vocal Africa, blamed a “lack of cooperation by the authorities.”
“When you get evidence, the unfortunate bit is you have to take it to the police themselves,” he said.
He lost count of the number of funerals he attended after the protests, estimating between 20 and 30.
“Was it necessary to unleash this kind of brute force against young, innocent Kenyans?” he said.
Politicians have shown little interest in accountability or learning from the unrest.
“People were killed, we sympathized, we moved on,” Bashir Abdullahi, a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament during a debate on the protests last month.
But for victim’s families, the search for justice “means a lot,” said Masai’s father, Chrispin Odawa.
“The wound will never heal,” he said.
As the UN Ocean Conference opens in France, a push to turn promises into protection
- A major focus of the summit is the push to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which would enable conservation in international waters
- France claims progress but has been criticized for weak enforcement in many protected areas. The conference will also address climate funding
NICE:The third UN Ocean Conference opens Monday as pressure mounts for nations to turn decades of promises into real protection for the sea.
The summit comes as just 2.7 percent of the ocean is effectively protected from destructive extractive activities, according to the nonprofit Marine Conservation Institute. That’s far below the target agreed under the “30x30” pledge to conserve 30 percent of land and sea by 2030.
Atop this year’s agenda is ratification of the High Seas Treaty. Adopted in 2023, the treaty would for the first time allow nations to establish marine protected areas in international waters, which cover nearly two-thirds of the ocean and are largely ungoverned.
“It’s the Wild West out there with countries just fishing anywhere without any sort of regulation, and that needs to change,” said Mauro Randone, regional projects manager at the World Wildlife Fund’s Mediterranean Marine Initiative. “The high seas belong to everyone and no one practically at the same time, and countries are finally committing to establish some rules.”
The ocean is critical in stabilizing Earth’s climate and sustaining life. It generates 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe, absorbs around 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and captures more than 90 percent of the excess heat caused by those emissions. Without a healthy ocean, experts warn, climate goals will remain out of reach.
The treaty will only come into force once 60 countries ratify it. As of Monday, just 32 countries had. Advocates hope UNOC can build enough momentum to cross the threshold, which would allow for the first official Oceans Conference of Parties.
“Two-thirds of the ocean is areas beyond national jurisdiction — that’s half our planet,” said Minna Epps, director of global ocean policy the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “We cannot possibly protect 30 percent of the ocean if it doesn’t include the high seas.”
South Korea, France and the European Union have championed the treaty, but most large ocean nations have yet to ratify it, including the rest of the G20. Thousands of attendees are expected in Nice — from delegates and heads of state to scientists and industry leaders. The United States has yet to confirm a formal delegation.
Moving from protections on paper to something real
Beyond new commitments, the conference highlights the growing gap between marine protection declarations and real-world conservation.
France, the conference co-host, claims to have surpassed the 30 percent target for marine protection. But environmental groups say only 3 percent of French waters are fully protected from harmful activities like bottom trawling and industrial fishing.
In 2024 alone, more than 100 bottom-trawling vessels were recorded spending over 17,000 hours fishing within France’s six marine nature parks, according to ocean advocacy group Oceana.
“The government declares these as protected areas, but this is a lie,” said Enric Sala, founder of National Geographic Pristine Seas marine reserve project. “Most of it is political box-ticking. It’s all paper parks.”
That criticism is echoed across the continent. A new World Wildlife Fund report found that although more than 11 percent of Europe’s marine area is designated for protection, just 2 percent of EU waters have management plans in place.
Fabien Boileau, director of marine protected areas at France’s Office for Biodiversity, acknowledged the presence of bottom trawling in French protected areas, but said it was part of a phased strategy.
“In France, we made the choice to designate large marine protected areas with relatively low levels of regulation at first, betting that stronger protections would be developed over time through local governance,” he said. “Today, we’re gradually increasing the number of zones with stricter protections within those areas.”
France’s Port-Cros: A model for conservation
While many marine protected areas struggle with enforcement, others show what real protection can achieve. Off the southern coast of France, Port-Cros National Park is one of the oldest marine reserves in the Mediterranean. There, strict anchoring bans have allowed vast seagrass meadows to grow undisturbed. Massive groupers patrol rocky outcrops, brightly colored nudibranchs munch on algae, and schools of large corbs glide through the shallows, undisturbed by fishing lines.
“Thanks to the protections that have been in place since 1963, we can observe species that are much larger than elsewhere in the Mediterranean and at a much higher density than in other areas,” said Hubert Flavigny, manager of Mio Palmo dive center in Hyeres, France.
Still, such examples remain exceptions.
Advocates say industrial fishing lobbies continue to resist stricter protections, despite evidence that well-managed reserves boost long-term fisheries through the “spillover effect,” whereby marine life flourishes in nearby waters.
“Protection is not the problem — overfishing is the problem,” said Sala. “The worst enemy of the fishing industry is themselves.”
Frustrated by government inaction, environmental groups have taken enforcement into their own hands. In May, Greenpeace dropped 15 limestone boulders into France’s Golfe du Lion, aiming to physically block bottom trawling in a marine area that has long been designated for protection. The protected zone was established in 2008 to preserve deep-sea ecosystems, yet 12 trawlers continue to operate there, despite scientific warnings of ecological collapse, according to activist group MedReAct. The Golfe is now one of the most overfished areas in the Mediterranean.
What will UNOC deliver?
The conference will feature 10 panels on topics such as blue finance, sustainable fisheries and plastic pollution. Deep sea mining is expected to feature in broader discussions, while small island states are likely to use the platform to advocate for increased climate adaptation funding. The outcome of these discussions will form the basis of the Nice Ocean Action Plan — a declaration of voluntary commitments to be adopted by consensus and presented at the United Nations in New York this July.
“There cannot be a healthy planet without a healthy ocean,” said Peter Thomson, UN special envoy for the ocean. “It’s urgent business for us all.”
Malaysia bus crash kills at least 15, mostly students
KUALA LUMPUR: A bus carrying university students back to their campus smashed into a minivan in northern Malaysia on Monday, killing at least 15 people, police and rescue services said.
Thirteen victims died at the scene near the town of Gerik, on the busy East-West Highway near the Thai border, while two died in hospital.
The accident is the deadliest in more than a decade on Malaysia’s hazardous roads.
“It looked like the bus had lost control and hit the (minivan) from behind,” Perak State Police Chief Hisam Nordin said.
Images from the scene taken by the fire and rescue department showed a green bus overturned on its right side with a smashed rear end cover, while the red minivan had slid into a ditch, with its windows blown out.
“Some victims managed to get out on their own, some victims were thrown out while others were still (trapped) in the bus,” the Perak state disaster management authority said in a statement.
Rescuers had to use a hydraulic cutter to free people from the bus.
The death toll included 14 students from the Sultan Idris Education University, while the last victim was a bus attendant, the emergency services said.
Thirty-three others were injured, with seven in critical condition taken to hospital, it added.
Most of the victims were aged between 21 and 23. They were traveling from the town of Jerteh in northeastern Malaysia when the accident happened shortly after 1:00 am (1700 GMT on Sunday).
Police Chief Hisam said officers were investigating whether the crash “involved human negligence or if it was a technical issue.”
A witness told the New Straits Times it “was a chaotic scene with students screaming and crying for help.”
“They were pinned between the wreckage,” the witness, identified as Razali, told the paper.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ordered the Higher Education Ministry to help the victim’s families and said he and his wife Azizah were “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
“Heartbreaking disasters like these that are repeated often should be a lesson to all to be careful and not to rush,” Anwar wrote on Facebook.
“Your lives are too precious and can’t be replaced,” he added.
Malaysia has a high rate of traffic accidents, with an average of 18 people killed on the roads each day, according to government figures.
The East-West Highway, which connects the two seaboards of the Malaysian peninsula, is plagued by accidents, with frequent collisions between animals and vehicles.
Malaysia worst bus disaster happened in 2013 when an express bus plunged down a ravine northeast of Kuala Lumpur, killing 37.
