NAIROBI/GARISSA: Kenya’s religions unite in national mourning for massacre victims.
Kenyans prayed for unity Sunday at the start of three days of national mourning for the 148 people murdered in a university massacre by Somali militants.
Flags flew at half mast after President Uhuru Kenyatta warned that people’s “justified anger” should not lead to “the victimization of anyone, (as) this would only play into the hands of the terrorists.”
Militants lined up students during the massacre Thursday described by Kenyatta as a “barbaric medieval slaughter.”
The president vowed Saturday to retaliate in the “severest way” for the killings in the northeastern town of Garissa, close to the border with Somalia.
The massacre, Kenya’s deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi, claimed the lives of 142 students, three police officers and three soldiers.
“The terrible events in Garissa are still fresh in our minds and heart, but today is a day for new hope,” Kenyan Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala told a packed cathedral in Nairobi, as armed soldiers patrolled outside.
“These terrorists want to cause scare and divisions in our society, but we shall tell them, you will never prevail.”
Top Muslim leader Hassan Ole Naado also offered his condolences: “Kenya is at war, and we must all stand together.” The deputy head of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims said the organization was helping to raise money for the funerals of those killed and medical costs of the scores wounded.
Sunday’s ceremony was laden with emotion for the several hundred members of Garissa’s Christian minority, which is fearful following the attack by Shabab, a Somalia-based militant group. The gunmen who attacked Garissa University College on Thursday singled out Christians for killing, though Shabab has a long record of killing Muslims over the years.
“Thank you for coming, so many of you,” Bishop Joseph Alessandro said to the congregation. He said some of those who died in Thursday’s attack would have been at the service, and he read condolence messages from around the world.
“We deeply feel the pain of the loss of young lives,” he added in a statement, warning the Shabab was aiming to “create religious conflict.”
Political and religious leaders have condemned the attacks.
Pope Francis called the killings “senseless brutality,” while the Cairo-based top Sunni Muslim body Al-Azhar has condemned the “terrorist act committed by Somalia’s Shabab.”
On Saturday, the Shabab warned of a “long, gruesome war” unless Kenya withdrew its troops from Somalia, and threatened “another bloodbath.”
Hours after the Shabab’s warning, police in Garissa paraded four corpses of the gunmen piled on top of each other face down in the back of a pick-up truck followed by a huge crowd.
All four gunmen were killed, but five men have been arrested in connection with the attack, including three “coordinators” captured as they fled towards Somalia, and two others in the university.
The two arrested on campus included a security guard and a Tanzanian found “hiding in the ceiling” and holding grenades, the interior ministry said.
Forensic investigators aided by foreign experts continued to scour the site where one student shocked security forces on Saturday, who had said all students were accounted for, by emerging unharmed from a wardrobe where she had hidden for over two days.
The remaining 600 student survivors from the now closed college have now left Garissa for good, boarding buses for the home towns around the country.
Dozens of families of those killed continue to wait for the remains of their loved ones.
Hurling grenades and firing automatic rifles, the gunmen stormed the university at dawn on Thursday as students were sleeping, shooting dead dozens before setting Muslims free and holding Christians and others hostage.
National mourning in Kenya; faiths unite to stand together
National mourning in Kenya; faiths unite to stand together
Israel’s prime minister says Trump has invited him to the White House on Feb. 4
“I’m going to be speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not too distant future,” he said
WADI GAZA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on Feb. 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to do so in Trump’s second term.
The announcement came as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza. Talks about the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which aims to end the war, are set to begin on Feb. 3.
There was no immediate comment from the White House. Trump teased the upcoming visit in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, but didn’t provide details. “I’m going to be speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not too distant future,” he said.
The meeting would be a chance for Netanyahu, under pressure at home, to remind the world of the support he has received from Trump over the years, and to defend Israel’s conduct of the war. Last year, the two men met face-to-face for the first time in nearly four years at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.
Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid, and Netanyahu is likely to encourage Trump not to hold up some weapons deliveries the way the Biden administration did, though it continued other deliveries and overall military support.
Netanyahu also wants Trump to put more pressure on Iran, and renew efforts to deliver a historic normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Even before taking office this month, Trump was sending his special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region to apply pressure along with the Biden administration to get the current Gaza ceasefire achieved.
But Netanyahu has vowed to renew the war if Hamas doesn’t meet his demands in negotiations over the ceasefire’s second phase of the ceasefire, meant to discuss a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.”
Under the deal, more than 375,000 Palestinians have crossed into northern Gaza since Israel allowed their return on Monday morning, the United Nations said Tuesday. That represents over a third of the million people who fled in the war’s opening days.
Many of the Palestinians trudging along a seaside road or crossing in vehicles after security inspections were getting their first view of shattered northern Gaza under the fragile ceasefire, now in its second week.
They were determined, if homes were damaged or destroyed, to pitch makeshift shelters or sleep outdoors amid the vast piles of broken concrete or perilously leaning buildings. After months of crowding in squalid tent camps or former schools in Gaza’s south, they would finally be home.
“It’s still better for us to be on our land than to live on a land that’s not yours,” said Fayza Al-Nahal as she prepared to leave the southern city of Khan Younis for the north.
At least two Palestinians set off for the north by sea, crowding into a rowboat with a bicycle and other belongings.
Hani Al-Shanti, displaced from Gaza City, looked forward to feeling at peace in whatever he found, “even if it is a roof and walls without furniture, even if it is without a roof.” One newly returned woman hung laundry in the ruins of her home, its walls blown out.
Under the ceasefire, the next release of hostages held in Gaza, and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody, is set to occur on Thursday, followed by another exchange on Saturday.
Putin says there is a way to organize talks with Ukraine, but Kyiv not willing
- “Essentially, if they want to proceed, there is a legal way to do it. Let the chairman of the Rada handle it in accordance with the constitution,” Putin said
MOSCOW: Ukraine could find a legal way to hold peace talks with Russia on ending their nearly three-year-old war, but Moscow sees no willingness on Kyiv’s part to engage, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
Putin told Russian state television that negotiations with Ukraine were complicated by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “illegitimacy” in remaining in power beyond his mandate with no authority to sign documents.
“But essentially, if they want to proceed, there is a legal way to do it. Let the chairman of the Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) handle it in accordance with the constitution,” Putin told top Kremlin reporter Pavel Zarubin.
“If there is a desire, we can resolve any legal issues. However, so far, we simply do not see such a desire.”
If Ukraine showed a desire to negotiate and seek compromises, Putin said, “let anyone suitable lead those talks. We will naturally secure what meets our interests.
“But in terms of signing documents, everything has to be done in a way that legal experts confirm the legitimacy of those who are authorized by the Ukrainian state to sign these agreements.”
Russia has long alleged that Zelensky no longer has legal authority as his term in office ran out in May 2024 and no presidential election has since been held.
Ukraine’s constitution empowers the speaker of parliament to act if the president is unable to do so.
But Ukrainian authorities say Zelensky remains the legitimate president on grounds that martial law has been in effect since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. They say wartime conditions do not allow for an election to be held.
In his comments, Putin said that if Ukraine’s Western allies backed the notion of talks it would be simple to find a legal way to proceed with them. Putin said he had sent “an appropriate signal” to this effect to former President Joe Biden.
In addition, Putin said, a legal means could be found to rescind a 2022 Ukrainian presidential decree that Moscow says barred any talks with the Russian leadership.
Zelensky said last week that the decree, signed after Russia unilaterally annexed four Ukrainian regions, only barred negotiations with Ukrainian groups outside his authority and was aimed at blocking talks with separatists.
Nepal resumes rescue helicopter flights to Mount Everest
KATHMANDU: Nepali airlines have resumed rescue helicopter flights to the Everest region, an aviation industry official announced Tuesday, following weeks of suspension prompted by protests from locals citing environmental impact and loss of income from trekkers.
Helicopters are a key means of transport and crucial for emergency rescue in many remote regions around mountainous Nepal, vast stretches of which are often inaccessible by road.
But they have also been used to give mountaineering teams and tourists a shortcut over challenging terrain in the Sagarmatha National Park, home to Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak.
For those who can afford the $1,000 price tag, helicopters reduce the two-week long trek to Everest base camp to just a day — depriving Nepalis along the overland route of a key source of revenue.
In early January, the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal grounded all flights, blaming the halt on local youths who had blocked landing sites with flags.
The association also said the protesters had warned pilots who landed that they would be forced to walk back on foot.
On Tuesday, association official Pratap Jung Pandey told AFP that rescue flights were reopened Saturday “on humanitarian grounds.”
But commercial flights to the region were still suspended, as negotiations with locals for their resumption were ongoing.
“It is going in a positive direction and it should reopen soon. But I cannot say exactly when,” Pandey told AFP.
Over 50,000 tourists visit the Everest region every year.
According to the association, the Everest region sees about 15 helicopter flights per day in the winter and up to 60 per day during peak tourist season.
“Rescue flights are crucial in mountaineering to save lives of climbers if anything happens,” said Mingma Gyalje Sherpa who runs Imagine Nepal, a mountaineering expedition company.
Italy sends 49 more migrants to Albania for processing after court rejections
SHENGJIN, Albania: An Italian navy ship arrived on Tuesday in Albania with 49 migrants intercepted in international waters for processing of their asylum applications at special Albanian centers, in the third such attempt following hurdles earlier raised by Italian courts.
Italy’s Interior Ministry did not specify the nationality of the migrants brought to the port of Shengjin, 66 km northwest of the capital, Tirana, but Italian media said they were from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Gambia.
The attempt at processing in Albania follows two previous failures in October and November, when Italian judges refused to approve the detention of two small groups at the Albanian centers, built under a contentious agreement between Italy and Albania. The courts ruled that the migrants’ countries of origin weren’t safe enough for them to face the possibility of being sent back by the centers.
The cases have been referred to the European Court of Justice, which earlier established that asylum applicants could not undergo a fast-track procedure that could lead to repatriation if their home countries are not deemed completely safe.
The European court hearing on the case is scheduled for Feb. 25.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government has vowed to reactivate the two centers in Albania after they remained dormant following the Italian courts’ decisions.
Meloni’s position was partially backed by a ruling in late December by Italy’s highest court, which said Italian judges could not substitute for government policy in deciding which countries are safe for repatriation of migrants whose asylum requests are rejected.
The decision does allow lower courts to make such determinations on a case-by-case basis, short of setting overall policy.
The migrants are to be checked in at a reception center at the port of Shengjin before being taken to the Gjader accommodation center, about 22 km to the east.
The November 2023 agreement allows up to 3,000 migrants intercepted by the Italian coast guard in international waters each month to be sheltered in Albania and vetted for possible asylum in Italy or repatriation.
Italy has agreed to welcome those migrants who are granted asylum, while those whose applications are rejected face deportation directly from Albania.
UN confirms US demand to withdrawal from Paris climate deal
- “I can confirm to you that the US has notified the secretary-general… of its withdrawal on January 27 of this year from the Paris agreement,” said Dujarric
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations confirmed Tuesday it had received notification from Washington of its withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement, a key campaign pledge of US President Donald Trump.
On his first day back in the White House, Trump announced the United States would leave the accord, which is managed by the UN climate change body. It brings together almost all the world’s nations and aims to keep global average temperature rise below a critical threshold.
“I can confirm to you that the United States has notified the secretary-general, in his capacity as a depository, of its withdrawal on January 27 of this year from the Paris agreement,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.
“According to Article 28, paragraph two, of the Paris agreement, the withdrawal of the United States will take effect on January 27, 2026.”
Washington typically provides 22 percent of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs for 2024-2025 projected at $96.5 million.
Billionaire entrepreneur Michael Bloomberg has announced that his foundation will step in to meet the shortfall.
The secretariat is tasked with supporting the global response to climate threats, and organizes international climate conferences, the next of which will be COP30 held in Brazil in November.
