Pakistan’s ruling party now plots ban on rival

Pakistan’s government will seek to ban the political party of jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan, the information minister said yesterday, days after twin court decisions that favoured the former leader.Former cricket star Khan was ousted in 2022, before launching a comeback campaign in which he criticised Pakistan’s powerful generals and drew massive crowds onto streets across the country.His arrest last year saw supporters storm military buildings and unleashed a crackdown against his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, culminating in elections marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging.Khan has been jailed for nearly a year, but last week an Islamabad judge overturned his illegal marriage conviction while the Supreme Court awarded PTI more parliamentary seats — a move set to make them the largest party in the National Assembly.Both cases were considered a major blow to the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters the government would now bring a case to ban PTI to the Supreme Court.“We will vigorously defend this case and spare no effort to contest it,” he said, citing allegations against Khan including leaking state secrets and inciting riots.Khan, 71, was banned from contesting the February elections, while PTI was sidelined and the Sharif-helmed alliance of parties considered close to the military came to power.“The federal government will move a case to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf,” he said, adding that the plan will be taken up before the cabinet, which was empowered to take a decision.The government will also file a legal reference against Khan and former president Arif Alvi for treason charges under the country’s constitution before the Supreme Court, Tarar said.Khan’s aide Zulfikar Bukhari said the decision was a move towards “soft martial law”. “This is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure,” he said.The latest turmoil comes at a time when the country has to make politically unpopular reforms such as raising taxes on farm income to get $7bn from the IMF.“A weak government, hobbled by questions about its legitimacy and consumed with desperate attempts to keep Imran Khan from being released will struggle to take the kinds of decisions that are needed to keep the IMF programme on track,” said Khurram Husain, an economic analyst and journalist.A PTI spokesman said in a statement that the bid to formally ban the party “is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure”.The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the attempt to ban PTI “an enormous blow to democratic norms” and said it “reeks of political desperation”.“If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarisation and the strong likelihood of political chaos and violence,” Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said in a statement.Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics.In opposition, more than 200 court cases were quickly brought against him. He was first briefly arrested in May 2023 — sparking nationwide unrest, some of which targeted military installations.The regime used the riots as justification for a crackdown which saw senior PTI leaders jailed or defect, before Khan was re-arrested last August and barred from standing for office.PTI members were forced to campaign for February 8 elections as independents, and in the days ahead of the vote Khan was hit with a trio of swift convictions for graft, treason and illegal marriage.Independent legal expert Osama Malik warned “it would be very difficult to prove, before the Supreme Court, that an entire party should be banned for the actions of a few”.“It would be in violation of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association,” he told AFP.A UN panel of experts found this month that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.The “prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose,” it said, calling for his immediate release.In a landmark ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court granted PTI more parliamentary seats in a post-election dispute arising from their run as independent candidates.Khan’s conviction for illegal marriage — which carried a seven-year sentence — was then overturned by an Islamabad court on Saturday.All three of the convictions Khan was hit with ahead of the election have now been at least partially rolled back on appeal, though he remains jailed after other cases swiftly prevented his freedom.PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan told AFP the party “will not tolerate” the government’s effort to ban it. “PTI has become stronger than before. We will face it,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686752/international/pakistans-ruling-party-now-plots-ban-on-rival

Georgian top court asked to annul ‘foreign influence’ law

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili (pictured) yesterday asked the country’s top court to annul a controversial “foreign influence” law that has sparked mass protests and condemnation from the West.Initiated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, the law was adopted in May despite weeks of unprecedented street protests and warnings it would undermine Tbilisi’s bid for EU membership.The law, which critics have compared to repressive Russian legislation used to silence dissent, forces groups receiving at least a fifth of their funding from abroad to register as “organisations pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.Yesterday, the pro-Western president Zurabishvili filed a complaint to Georgia’s constitutional court asking it “to suspend the law’s enactment and to annul it definitively”, her parliamentary secretary, Giorgi Mskhiladze, told reporters.He called the law “unconstitutional” because it contradicts a provision requiring the authorities to “take all measures within the scope of their competence to ensure the full integration of Georgia into the European Union and Nato”.Lawmakers earlier overrode a veto by Zurabishvili to pass the law.Zurabishvili, a fierce critic of the ruling party, has called on the opposition to form a united front ahead of parliamentary elections in October.The Georgian government has defended the law as only aimed at boosting transparency of NGOs’ foreign funding.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686750/international/georgian-top-court-asked-to-annul-foreign-influence-law

100 hurt as Bangladesh student groups clash

Rival students in Bangladesh clashed yesterday leaving at least 100 people injured, as demonstrators opposing quotas for coveted government jobs battled counter-protesters loyal to the ruling party, police said.Police and witnesses said hundreds of anti-quota protesters and students backing the ruling Awami League party battled for hours on Dhaka University campus, hurling rocks, fighting with sticks and beating each other with iron rods.Some carried machetes while others threw petrol bombs, witnesses said.The quota system reserves more than half of well-paid civil service posts totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs for specific groups, including children of heroes from the country’s 1971 liberation war from Pakistan.“They clashed with sticks and threw rocks at each other,” local police station chief Mostajirur Rahman said.Masud Mia, a police inspector, said “around 100 students including women” were injured, and had been taken to hospital. “More people are coming”, Mia added.Students launched protests earlier this month demanding a merit-based system.They have continued despite Bangladesh’s top court suspending the quota scheme.Anti-quota protesters blamed the ruling party students for the violence.“They attacked our peaceful procession with rods, sticks and rocks,” Nahid Islam, the national co-ordinator of the anti-quota protests, said.“They beat our female protesters. At least 150 students were injured including 30 women, and conditions of 20 students are serious.”Critics say the system benefits children of pro-government groups who back Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina, 76, won her fourth consecutive general election in January, in a vote without genuine opposition parties that saw a major crackdown against her political opponents, who boycotted the poll.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686749/international/100-hurt-as-bangladesh-student-groups-clash

Rwanda: landlocked nation with influence beyond its borders

A small landlocked African nation playing in the big league: with military might, image branding and political influence, Rwanda under President Paul Kagame has become a major strategic player with tentacles spread far and wide.De facto leader since the 1994 genocide and running for a fourth term as president in elections Monday, Kagame has established a sphere of influence far outweighing Rwanda’s size to develop the country and entrench his own power base.Unlike many other African nations, “Rwanda is pursuing a real foreign policy strategy”, says Paul-Simon Handy, East Africa director at the Institute for Security Studies. This strategy is similar to “smart power”, says Handy, combining hard power — the use of military and economic means for influence — and soft power.The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is one of the pillars of this policy, though its role is contradictory. The Democratic Republic of Congo has for years accused its neighbour of fomenting instability in the east and supporting armed groups.A recent UN experts report said 3,000-4,000 Rwandan soldiers are fighting alongside M23 rebels and that Kigali had “de facto control” of the group’s operations.Questioned repeatedly on the issue, Kagame has not explicitly denied the presence of Rwandan forces in DRC, instead pointing to the “persecution” of the Tutsi minority and the risk of instability on Rwanda’s border. “By nature, Rwanda’s security posture has always been defensive, not offensive. We only act when trouble is brought on us,” he said this month.Its murky role in the DRC has however cost Kigali some financial support from the West, which since 2012-2013 has cut development aid and investment.At the same time, Kagame has established his army as the “policeman of Africa”.Since 2024, the RDF has taken part in numerous UN peacekeeping missions. With 5,894 men deployed as of March 31, Rwanda is the fourth largest contributor, with forces in South Sudan and the Central African Republic.“By participating in and leading peacekeeping and unilateral military missions, Rwanda has significantly enhanced its global image and strategic relevance beyond its historical association with the 1994 genocide,” said Federico Donelli, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Trieste.It also reaps a financial windfall. The UN pays contributors $1,428 per soldier per month, meaning Kigali receives more than $100mn a year. The RDF has also been deployed under bilateral deals with, for example, CAR and Mozambique.These military commitments are often accompanied by economic agreements, offering development opportunities for Rwanda, which does not have its own natural resources or industrial base, and is reliant on international funding.In CAR, Rwandans enjoy privileged investment access to sectors such as mining, agriculture and construction, often led by Crystal Ventures, an investment firm owned by Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).DIPLOMATIC LEVERThese deals also represent a valuable diplomatic lever to ward off sanction threats over the DRC or its dismal human rights record.“Rwanda has never hidden its threat to withdraw from peacekeeping operations if it were to be sanctioned,” said Handy. “It has proven its effectiveness: DRC efforts to have Rwanda sanctioned for its support for the M23 were unsuccessful.” Donelli said Kagame has an ability to read global dynamics.“He knows that Western actors are increasingly reluctant to get involved in African crises,” he added.“In an increasingly chaotic regional context, he is using Rwanda’s role as a reliable partner in crises to reduce Western criticism and divert attention from domestic issues such as the lack of democratic development, centralisation of power and human rights concerns.” Kagame is accused of muzzling the media and political opposition, while according to the World Bank almost half the population lives on less than $2.15 a day.But he has sought to burnish Rwanda’s image abroad — selling itself as an African flagship for new technology, a hub for conferences and major sporting events, and a leading ecotourism destination.Sponsorship deals have seen “Visit Rwanda” emblazoned on the shirts of European football teams Arsenal, PSG and Bayern Munich.Rwanda has also boosted its presence in global organisations.In 2009, it became a member of the Commonwealth and hosted its 2022 summit, while a former minister is head of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (French-speaking union), another serves as deputy chair of the African Union Commission.Handy says Rwanda’s “smart power” was illustrated by the controversial deal to take in asylum seekers deported from Britain.“The interest was essentially financial but it was also the projection of an image of a peaceful country where it would be good for refugees to live.”Widely condemned by rights groups and blocked by UK courts, the scheme has now been scrapped by Britain’s new government — but Rwanda insists it is not obliged to return the £240mn ($311mn) payment already sent by London.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686664/international/rwanda-landlocked-nation-with-influence-beyond-its-borders

Nepal recovers first body from buses lost in landslide

Nepali rescue teams recovered on Saturday the first body from around 50 people missing after monsoon rains triggered a landslide that swept two buses off a highway and into a river.

The force of Friday’s landslide in central Chitwan district pushed the vehicles over concrete crash barriers and down a steep embankment, at least 30m (100’) from the road.

“One body has been found about 55km (35 miles) from the accident site,” police spokesman Kumar Neupane told AFP.

District official Khimananda Bhusal told AFP that roughly 50 people remained unaccounted for, revising down the number of missing from the 63 reported by authorities on Friday.

“It is hard to confirm the total number because we don’t know if the buses stopped to add or remove passengers along the way,” he said.

Dozens of rescuers spent hours struggling to comb the raging Trishuli river with rafts, sensor equipment and dive teams to find any trace of the passengers or the vehicles.

Teams also moved downstream on Saturday in hope of locating the missing passengers.

Fierce currents made worse by this week’s torrential downpours have hampered their efforts so far.

Chitwan district chief Indra Dev Yadav said that all authorities in the area have been instructed to stay on alert for any signs of the missing.

“The river is narrow here and very deep,” he told AFP. “The water level is high, its speed is high and its turbidity is also high.”

The accident happened before dawn on Friday along the Narayanghat-Mugling highway, around 100km west of Kathmandu.

One bus was heading from the capital to Gaur in Rautahat district in southern Nepal, and the other was en route to Kathmandu from southern Birgunj.

A driver was killed in a separate accident on the same road after a boulder hit his bus.

He died as he was being treated at a hospital.

Deadly crashes are common in the Himalayan republic because of poorly constructed roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

Nearly 2,400 people lost their lives on Nepal’s roads in the 12 months to April, according to government figures.

Twelve people were killed and 24 injured in an accident in January when a bus heading to Kathmandu from Nepalgunj fell into a river.

Road travel becomes deadlier during the annual monsoon season as rains trigger landslides and floods across the mountainous country.

Monsoon rains across South Asia from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies, but also bring widespread death and destruction.

The rainfall is hard to forecast and varies considerably, but scientists say climate change is making the monsoon stronger and more erratic.

Floods, landslides and lightning strikes have killed 88 people across the country since the monsoon began in June, according to police figures.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686606/international/nepal-recovers-first-body-from-buses-lost-in-landslide

Qatar's UN Permanent Representative attends media stand supporting UNRWA

HE Qatar's Permanent Representative to the UN Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani took part in a media stand following the meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA Pledging Conference), at the UN headquarters in New York. The group expressed its solidarity and full support for UNRWA's work, highlighting its indispensable role as the backbone in providing humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip. (QNA)

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686585/international/qatars-un-permanent-representative-attends-media-stand-supporting-unrwa

Landslide in Vietnam kills 9 people

At least nine people were killed today and four others were critically injured in a landslide that took place in the North of Vietnam.The people were in a vehicle trapped by a landslide in Bac Me district, the Vietnam News Agency reported, the sand from the landslide buried the people in the vehicle. Rescue work is ongoing to rescue the people that are still under the debris.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686568/international/aseanphilippines/landslide-in-vietnam-kills-9-people

UN Secretary-General renews call to end Gaza war

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has reiterated his call for an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, urging all parties to quickly reach an agreement.In a post on the social media platform X today, Guterres said, it was time to end the war in Gaza, and that the parties involved had to demonstrate political courage and the will to finally reach an agreement.Guterres's call coincides with a message from Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations Riyad Mansour, urging the international community and the UN to stop the Israeli massacre of the Palestinian people and ensure the protection of Palestinians in accordance with international law and the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice.US President Joe Biden emphasized last Thursday that the war in Gaza should end now and that there should be no Israeli occupation of the strip afterward.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686567/international/un-secretary-general-renews-call-to-end-gaza-war

Nearby exoplanet could be first known ocean world

A planet relatively close to Earth could be the first ever detected with a potentially life-sustaining liquid ocean outside our Solar System, according to scientists using the James Webb space telescope.More than 5,000 planets have been discovered outside of the Solar System so far, but only a handful are in what is called the 'Goldilocks zone' — neither too hot or too cold — that could host liquid water, a key ingredient for life.The exoplanet LHS 1140 b is one of the few in this habitable zone, and has been thoroughly scrutinised since it was first discovered in 2017.It sits 48 light years from Earth, which equates to more than 450tn km (280tn miles) — relatively close in the vast distances of space.The exoplanet had been thought to be a small gas giant called a 'mini-Neptune' with an atmosphere too thick with hydrogen and helium to support alien life.However, new observations from the Webb telescope have confirmed that the exoplanet is in fact a rocky 'super-Earth'.It is 1.7 times bigger than Earth, but has 5.6 times its mass, according to a study published late Wednesday in *The Astrophysical Journal Letters.The Webb telescope was able to analyse the planet's atmosphere as it passed in front of its star.There were no signs of hydrogen or helium, which ruled out that the planet was a mini-Neptune.The density of the planet indicates that it 'actually has large quantities of water,' study co-author Martin Turbet of France's CNRS scientific research centre told AFP.It could be a truly immense amount of water.All the water in Earth's oceans represent only 0.02% of its mass. But 10 to 20% of the exoplanet's mass was estimated to be water.Whether or not this water is in liquid or ice form depends on the planet's atmosphere.'We do not have direct evidence that it has an atmosphere, but several elements point in that direction,' Turbet said.Lead study author Charles Cadieux, a PhD student at the University of Montreal, said that 'of all currently known temperate exoplanets, LHS 1140 b could well be our best bet to one day indirectly confirm liquid water on the surface of an alien world'.One positive is that the planet is gently warmed by its red dwarf star, which is one-fifth the size of the Sun.The exoplanet's surface temperature should be fairly similar to that on Earth and Mars, Turbet said.The presence of gasses such as carbon dioxide will play a key role in determining whether the planet is covered in ice or water.One possibility is that the surface is mostly ice, but there is a vast liquid ocean where the planet is most exposed to its star's heat.This ocean could measure about 4,000km in diameter, around half the surface area of the Atlantic Ocean, modelling suggested.Or the liquid water could be hidden under a thick shell of ice, like on the moons Ganymede, Enceladus or Europa orbiting around Jupiter and Saturn.Webb's instrument spotted signs that suggest 'the presence of nitrogen,' Cadieux said, adding that more research was needed to confirm the finding.Nitrogen is found everywhere on Earth, and is thought to be another potentially ingredient for life.The researchers are hoping to get a few more hours of the Webb's telescope's precious time to find out more about LHS 1140 b.It will take at least a year to confirm whether the exoplanet has an atmosphere, and two or three more to detect the presence of carbon dioxide, the researchers estimated.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686511/international/nearby-exoplanet-could-be-first-known-ocean-world

Bangladesh suspends job quotas after protests

Bangladesh’s top court on Wednesday temporarily suspended quotas for coveted government jobs after thousands of students staged nationwide protests against what they call a discriminatory system, lawyers said.The quota system reserves more than half of well-paid and massively over-subscribed civil service posts, totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs, for specific groups including children of liberation heroes.Students launched protests earlier this month, demanding a merit-based system, with demonstrations on Wednesday blocking highways and railway lines.“We will not return to classrooms until our demand is met,” protest leader Rasel Ahmed of Chittagong University said.The quota system was abolished in 2018 after weeks of protests, but reinstated in June by Dhaka’s High Court, sparking fury from students. The Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended that order for a month, said lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque, who represents two students seeking to end the quota system.Hoque said chief justice Obaidul Hassan had also requested that students return to class.Despite the call, student groups continued to block key highways and railway tracks, bringing traffic movement in much of the capital Dhaka and several major cities to a halt. “This (court) order is temporary. We want a permanent executive order from the government, saying that the quotas are abolished, except some quotas for the disabled and minorities,” said Parvez Mosharraf, a student at Dhaka University.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686444/international/bangladesh-suspends-job-quotas-after-protests

Libya says ‘cannot continue’ hosting Europe-bound migrants

Authorities in Libya said yesterday that up to four in five foreigners in the North African country are undocumented, and hosting migrants hoping to reach Europe has become “unacceptable”.Libya, about 300 kilometres from Italy, is a key departure point for migrants, primarily from sub-Saharan African countries, risking perilous Mediterranean Sea journeys to seek better life in Europe.But with mounting efforts by the European Union to curb irregular migration, many have found themselves stranded in Libya.“Today, there are approximately 2.5mn foreigners in Libya,” said Imad Trabelsi, the interior minister in the war-torn country’s Tripoli-based administration.He told a news conference that “70 to 80% of them entered the country illegally”. “The issue of immigration concerns our national security,” said Trabelsi.“It’s time to resolve this problem”, he added, because “Libya cannot continue to pay its price”.According to Trabelsi, the country has turned from a “transit country to a country of settlement”, and undocumented migrants “don’t pay taxes”.“The resettlement of migrants in Libya is unacceptable.” Libya is still struggling to recover from years of war and chaos after the 2011 overthrow of longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.Smugglers and human traffickers have taken advantage of the climate of instability which has dominated the vast country since.Since the start of 2024, Libyan authorities have “repatriated 6,000 migrants” through a UN scheme, the minister said.Tripoli is set to host the Trans-Mediterranean Migration Forum on July 17, bringing together African and European governments and aiming to forge “a new strategy for development projects in the countries of departure”, the Libyan government said on Facebook.The meeting comes as the EU and Italy have ramped up efforts to combat irregular migration.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686442/international/libya-says-cannot-continue-hosting-europe-bound-migrants