India’s strategic railway bridge closes the gap to Kashmir

Soaring high across a gorge in the rugged Himalayas, a newly finished bridge will soon help India entrench control of Kashmir and meet a rising strategic threat from China.

The Chenab Rail Bridge, the highest of its kind in the world, has been hailed as a feat of engineering linking the Kashmir valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.

But its completion has sparked concern among some in the territory, home to a permanent garrison of more than 500,000 soldiers.

India’s military brass say the strategic benefits of the bridge to New Delhi cannot be understated.

“The train to Kashmir will be pivotal in peace and in wartime,” general Deependra Singh Hooda, a retired former chief of India’s northern military command, said.

The new bridge “will facilitate the movement of army personnel coming and going in larger numbers than was previously possible”, said Noor Ahmad Baba, a politics professor at the Central University of Kashmir.

But, as well as soldiers, the bridge will “facilitate movement” of ordinary people and goods, he said. That has prompted unease among some in Kashmir who believe easier access will bring a surge of outsiders coming to buy land and settle.

Previously tight rules on land ownership were lifted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government cancelled Kashmir’s partial autonomy in 2019.

India Railways calls the $24mn bridge “arguably the biggest civil engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history”.

It is hoped to boost economic development and trade, cutting the cost of moving goods.

But Hooda, the retired general, said the bridge’s most important consequence would be revolutionising logistics in Ladakh, the icy region bordering China.

India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, and their 3,500km shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension.

Their troops clashed in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, and forces from both sides today face off across contested high-altitude borderlands. “Everything from a needle to the biggest military equipment... has to be sent by road and stocked up in Ladakh for six months every year before the roads close for winter,” Hooda said.

Now all that can be transported by train, easing what Indian military experts call the “world’s biggest military logistics exercise” - supplying Ladakh through snowbound passes.

The project will buttress several other road tunnel projects under way that will connect Kashmir and Ladakh, not far from India’s frontiers with China and Pakistan.

The 1,315-metre-long steel and concrete bridge connects two mountains with an arch 359 metres above the cool waters of the Chenab River.

Trains are ready to run and only await an expected ribbon cutting from Modi.

The 272km railway begins in the garrison city of Udhampur, headquarters of the army’s northern command, and runs through the region’s capital Srinagar.

It terminates a kilometre higher in altitude in Baramulla, a gateway trade town near the Line of Control with Pakistan.

When the road is open, it is twice the distance and takes a day of driving.

The railway cost an estimated $3.9bn and has been an immense undertaking, with construction beginning nearly three decades ago.

While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe bridge in China.

Describing India’s new bridge as a “marvel”, its deputy chief designer R R Mallick, said the experience of designing and building was a great learning experience for the engineers.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687366/international/indias-strategic-railway-bridge-closes-the-gap-to-kashmir

Typhoon hits Chinese seaboard, widespread flooding feared

Typhoon Gaemi roared into southeastern China yesterday after churning across the Taiwan Strait, prompting warnings of swelling rivers, flash floods and waterlogging in cities and provinces that were hit by extreme rains just several weeks ago.Gaemi, the third and most powerful typhoon to hit China’s eastern seaboard this year, made landfall in Fujian province at 7.50pm (1150GMT) after whipping Taiwan with gusts of up to 227kph, some of the strongest winds recorded in the Western Pacific Ocean.Ahead of its arrival, 240,800 people in Fujian were evacuated.Despite slightly weakening since its landfall in Fujian’s Putian, a city of over 3mn, Gaemi and its giant cloud-bands are forecast to unleash intense rainfall in at least 10 Chinese provinces in the coming days.The arrival of Gaemi has drawn comparisons with Typhoon Doksuri last year, which triggered historic flooding as far north as Beijing and caused nationwide losses of nearly $30bn.Authorities said water levels in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River as well as the vast freshwater lakes of Poyang and Dongting in central China could rise, returning to dangerous levels seen in early July after intense summer rains.Due to its high vapour content, Beijing cautioned that Gaemi could spawn strong rainfall in the Chinese capital, about 2,000km north of Putian, even as the storm weakens into a tropical depression.Gaemi’s rains could cause flash floods and waterlogging particularly in parts of northern China where the soil remains saturated after being lashed by a passing system of storms earlier this week, authorities warned.In Taiwan, Gaemi killed three people, triggered flooding and sank a freighter after the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years made landfall on Wednesday night.The storm cut power to around half a million households, though most are now back online, utility Taipower said.Apart from the three fatalities, 380 were injured by the typhoon in Taiwan, the government said.Taiwan’s fire department said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687365/international/typhoon-hits-chinese-seaboard-widespread-flooding-feared

Germany's Frankfurt Airport suspends flights after climate activists stormed airport grounds

Air traffic at Germany's Frankfurt airport has been temporarily suspended after activists from the climate group Last Generation managed to gain access to the airport grounds, police said on Thursday morning.According to dpa, several protesters entered through a fence in the early hours and glued themselves to the tarmac at Germany's biggest airport.'All security authorities are currently working to resolve disruptions as quickly as possible,' a spokesman for federal police stationed at the airport said.Six Last Generation activists had gained access to the airport's runways, calling for an end to fossil fuel use by 2030.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687340/international/germanys-frankfurt-airport-suspends-flights-after-climate-activistsstormed-airport-grounds

Trump shooter ‘did online search for JFK assassination’

The 20-year-old man suspected of trying to kill former president Donald Trump conducted an online search of the John F Kennedy assassination on the day he registered for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday.“Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy’,” Wray said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.“That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally,” he said, adding that suspect Thomas Crooks had become “very focused on Trump and his rally” at the time.Former president Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald.Wray said Crooks, a nursing home aide, fired at least eight rounds from his rooftop position near the July 13 rally, wounding the Republican presidential candidate in the ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others.Crooks used an AR-15 assault-style rifle with a collapsible stock, “which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe,” Wray said.The motive for the shooting remains unclear. Wray said many people have described Crooks as a loner and the list of contacts in his phone was short.Wray also told lawmakers that Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards from the stage where Trump spoke to the crowd and live-streamed footage for about 11 minutes, some two hours before the event.He said the crude explosive devices recovered from Crooks’ car and home were designed to be detonated remotely. Crooks had a transmitter with him at the time of the shooting, Wray added. But he said the FBI believes the suspect would not have been successful had he tried to detonate the devices.The hearing also focused on the increasingly tense political atmosphere surrounding the presidential campaign.“I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated-threat environment. And tragically, the...assassination attempt is another example, particularly heinous,” Wray testified.Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the US Secret Service on Tuesday after bipartisan demands to quit over the failure to prevent the attempted assassination.Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he expected Wray to answer questions about what happened before, during and after the incident but expressed doubt about the FBI director’s answers even before questioning began.“I’m sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy scepticism regarding the FBI’s ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation,” Jordan said.Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel’s top Democrat, condemned the Trump shooting “unequivocally and unabashedly” but pointed to years of political threats and violence, and violent rhetoric from Republicans including Trump himself.“If you think that this one assassin’s bullet was a bolt out of the blue, and not part of a wave of violence that has threatened this nation for years, then you have missed the point,” the New York Democrat said.Wray has long faced opposition from hardline Republicans, some angered over the arrest of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687310/international/trump-shooter-did-online-search-for-jfk-assassination

Modi sets aside billions for jobs, allies in post-election budget

India’s government assigned billions of dollars for job creation and regions run by key coalition partners in a budget aimed at cementing the coalition and winning back voters after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election setback.Tax changes unveiled in the budget included a higher levy on equity investments to allay concerns the market might be overheating and lower taxes for foreign companies to attract more investment.The $576bn in total outlays included $32bn for rural programmes, $24bn to be spent over five years to create jobs, and more than $5bn for two states ruled by coalition partners.“In this budget, we particularly focus on employment, skilling, small businesses, and the middle class,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said yesterday.The government will also implement reforms across factors of production, including land and labour, she said.Subsequent budgets would continue to focus on those areas, Sitharaman said while presenting her seventh annual budget.Despite the new spending, India cut its fiscal deficit target to 4.9% of gross domestic product in fiscal year ending on March 31, 2025, from 5.1% in February’s interim budget, helped by a large surplus of $25bn from the central bank.The government also marginally reduced gross market borrowing to Rs14.01tn.Economist had blamed the distress in rural areas and a weak job market for a poor poll showing that cost Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) its absolute majority. They say land and labour reforms are essential for India to sustain strong economic growth.Asia’s third-largest economy grew 8.2% in the past fiscal year and the government sees growth of 6.5% to 7% this fiscal year, a report showed on Monday.Sakshi Gupta, principal economist at HDFC Bank, said the budget managed to strike a balance between policies supporting growth and maintaining fiscal discipline.However, implementing more ambitious reforms, will be “challenging” for the coalition, Gene Fang, associate managing director for sovereign risk at Moody’s Ratings, said.Previous attempts to make it easier for companies to acquire land and lay off staff have repeatedly faced pushback from states concerned about protests such measures might provoke.Among measures aimed at boosting employment, the budget included incentives for companies to train staff as well as and cheaper loans for higher education, Sitharaman said.India’s reported urban unemployment rate is 6.7%, but private agency the Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy pegs it higher, at 8.4%.The budget also maintains spending on long-term infrastructure projects at Rs11.11tn, with states assigned Rs1.5tn in long-term loans to fund such expenditure. Some will be linked to reform milestones in areas such as land and labour, which Sitharaman said the government intended to push in its third term.In a concession to the government’s allies, Sitharaman said it would hasten loans from multilateral agencies for the eastern state of Bihar and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.India raised to 20% from 15% its tax rate for equity investments held for less than a year, while the rate for those held longer than 12 months rose to 12.5% from 10%. The taxes will be applicable from today.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687245/international/modi-sets-aside-billions-for-jobs-allies-in-post-election-budget

India’s Union Budget: Balances today’s needs while establishing priorities of tomorrow

India’s Union Budget 2024 is a thought-provoking one that balances the needs of today while establishing the priorities of tomorrow.At the same time, one could always view it as a budget that could have done more in addressing immediate concerns.The focus on promoting entrepreneurship, skilling, and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises ) is commendable. The scheme offering internship opportunities in the top 500 companies will enable students to effectively translate their academic knowledge into practical professional skills, facilitating a smoother transition into the workforce.MSMEs have a vital role to play in the country’s development going forward and the moves taken in this budget to increase credit access and financial support will help these companies to scale and modernise. The initiatives to ensure credit access to MSMEs during their stress period and increase the limit in MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) loans are welcome ones.I am also happy to see the initiative to bring out a Financial Sector Vision and Strategy Document. This will provide a clear agenda for all stakeholders over the next five years, ensuring that the efforts of the government, regulators, financial institutions, and market participants are aligned towards common goals.At the same time, there could have been more incentives for the tourism and hospitality industry. Rethinking lending norms and envisioning hospitality development as a vital part of infrastructure development were necessary. With the growing use of AI in other sectors, tourism and hospitality are poised to become a major driver of job creation and the sector needs more support.There could also have been more in terms of measures to attract NRI investments to the country. Reducing corporate tax for foreign companies to 35% is a welcome development, while the move to abolish the Angel Tax for startups is indeed commendable. However, the NRI community was expecting more policies and reforms to boost NRI investment in India.Overall, while this budget is a balanced one and will stand the country in good stead over the long run, one could always argue that there are missed opportunities.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687244/international/indias-union-budget-balances-todays-needs-while-establishing-priorities-of-tomorrow

Desperate search: Gazans scour ruins for water

To get his family the water they need for drinking, bathing and laundry, Ahmed al-Shanbari steels himself for a lengthy search through the north of the Gaza Strip.Shanbari said most of the wells near his makeshift shelter in the Jabalia refugee camp have been destroyed.And the water distribution network barely works after more than nine months of war that has devastated Gaza’s infrastructure.Water was already scarce before the conflict erupted in October, and most of it was undrinkable. The 2.4mn population relies on an increasingly polluted and depleted aquifer, humanitarian agencies say. To collect what little of the fetid supply remains can take Shanbari four hours in sweltering heat.He sets off with his three children, buckets in hand, weaving through mounds of rubble and trash in search of a working spigot or an aid agency hose connected to a water truck.“We are suffering greatly to obtain water,” he said.Shanbari said the situation has worsened since heavy fighting broke out in Jabalia in May between the Israeli army and Hamas.“After the last incursion, not a single well remains,” he said.The UN humanitarian office OCHA said most of Gaza’s groundwater was contaminated with sewage even before the war. More than 97% was unsafe to drink.Today, many aid groups describe the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic”.For weeks, Palestinians in Gaza have said journalists about the intense thirst that drives them to delirium, their dreams of a cup of tea and the humiliation of being unable to wash.For the Shanbari family, water is so precious they try not to spill a single drop after finding it.From the jerrycans they haul home, they carefully transfer the water into basins for cleaning dishes and pitchers for bathing.The parents say they are “exhausted” by the constant struggle to get the barest of necessities, and their children are sick.“All my children have fallen ill, they’re suffering from kidney failure, jaundice, itching, cough,” said Shanbari. “I don’t know what to say, and there aren’t even medicines available in the north.” Not far from the Shanbari home, huge puddles of sewage, sometimes as big as ponds, cover the roads.INOPERABLEEven if he could locate a well with water, Shanbari said there is no fuel in the north to run the pumps needed to extract it.Wastewater treatment plants are also reportedly shutting down because of the lack of fuel .An expert on water infrastructure in the Gaza Strip described the territory’s water distribution system as effectively inoperable.Only a ceasefire could get it back up and running again, he said, given the need for spare parts and experts to access the stations and wells. The Israeli military on Sunday maintained that water collection points were accessible in the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone, to which it has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move.But people are afraid to go there after Israeli strikes on Al Mawasi killed at least 92 people and wounded 300 on July 13, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Israel, UN agencies and the Palestinian Authority have all raised the prospect of resupplying electricity from Israel to a desalination plant and a water treatment plant in Gaza.But the local electricity distribution company said the line was still too damaged to distribute power.The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October first week storming of southern Israel.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,006 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687185/international/desperate-search-gazans-scour-ruins-for-water

Harris wins crucial backing in her race against Trump

US Vice-President Kamala Harris won the crucial backing of Democratic heavyweight Nancy Pelosi to lead the party against Donald Trump in November after Joe Biden’s stunning exit from the 2024 race.Biden’s departure was the latest shock to a White House race that included the near-assassination of former president Trump by a gunman during a campaign stop and the nomination of Trump’s fellow hardliner, US Senator J D Vance, as his running mate.As the endorsements stacked up, the 59-year-old Harris made her first public appearance since Biden’s announcement in a ceremony at the White House where she warmly praised the outgoing president’s “unmatched” achievements.However, while she steered away from any triumphalism, Harris will now feel she has one hand on the prize after securing the support of Pelosi, the former US House speaker and a prime mover in moves to oust the 81-year-old Biden.“With immense pride and limitless optimism for our country’s future, I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States,” Pelosi, 84, said in a message on X. “I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”A flood of Democratic leaders has backed Harris as the party’s new candidate for November’s election, building momentum for a lightning-fast coronation despite some calls to show transparency with an open primary.Biden endorsed Harris – who is the first female, black and South Asian vice-president in US history – as he dropped out of the race on Sunday following a disastrous debate performance.He was followed by former president Bill Clinton and a host of other lawmakers, but ex-president Barack Obama has notably held off so far.In a strikingly symbolic moment, Harris hosted a ceremony for college athletes at the White House yesterday while Biden remained stuck in isolation with the coronavirus (Covid-19) at his Delaware beach house.“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris said in her brief remarks on the White House South Lawn, as a light rain fell.Some of her sporting metaphors did seem to nod towards the political race ahead of her, though, as she talked of bringing home the gold and “what it means to commit and to persevere”.Harris was to make a first trip to campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, later in the day – not far from Rehoboth Beach, where Biden has spent most of the last week nursing his Covid-19 infection.Harris’s campaign said it had raised a stunning $49.6mn in grassroots donations since Sunday.A series of other top Democrats have backed Harris, including a number considered as her possible running mates.“Let’s win this,” posted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, also declared his support, as did Illinois Governor J B Pritzker.Harris must still win over some key hold-outs if she is to wrap up the nomination, but it could happen as early as a remote ballot on August 1, or failing that by the Democratic National Convention starting August 19.The stunning withdrawal by Biden has completely upended the 2024 race, transforming a long slog between two unpopular elderly men into one of the most compelling in modern US presidential history.The move has brought a jolt of energy to a demoralised party that Harris could now unify, and could give America its first female president.It has also hit Republicans hard, with former president Trump, 78 – now the oldest presidential nominee in US history – having to completely retool a strategy that had been built around attacking Biden over his age and physical frailty.Harris’s entry not only flips the age issue but puts Trump – a convicted felon who has faced a series of legal cases over sexual assault – up against a woman and former prosecutor.Trump has seemed to find it hard to move on from his old opponent.He launched a series of invective-filled social media posts after Biden quit, mocking the president’s age and saying that he and Harris posed a “threat to democracy”.The challenges facing Harris remain daunting, however, with less than four months until election day.The vice-president has long suffered from poor approval ratings after a lacklustre first two years in the White House.She is polling largely neck-and-neck with Trump in the polls that have looked at a direct match up.In a head-to-head match-up, Harris and Trump were tied with 44% support each in a July 15-16 Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted immediately after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.Trump led Biden 43% to 41% in that same poll, though the two percentage point difference was not meaningful considering the poll’s three-point margin of error.Biden, the oldest person ever to occupy the Oval Office, said he would remain in the presidency until his term ends on January 20, 2025.Some Democrats were concerned about a Harris candidacy, in part because of the weight of a long history of racial and gender discrimination in the US, which has not elected a woman president in its nearly 250-year history.“We should all prepare for the onslaught of attack that would face any historic candidate,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “Misogyny in our politics is far from over. Racism in our politics – especially confronting Donald Trump as an opponent – is far, far from over.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687182/international/harris-wins-crucial-backing-in-her-race-against-trump

Meloni put domestic concerns first in rejecting von der Leyen

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s decision not to back Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission chief was driven by fear of losing right-wing grassroots supporters, analysts say, but may curb her influence over EU choices.The European Parliament elected von der Leyen for a second five-year term on Thursday to lead the bloc’s executive with support from centre-right, centre-left, liberal and green groups. She got 401 votes, with 284 against in a secret ballot in the 720-member chamber.Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), revealed its decision after the vote when it said von der Leyen had shifted too far left, particularly on green pledges.Even though von der Leyen did not need Meloni’s 24 lawmakers to win, the vote marked a shift from the prime minister’s past efforts to keep good relations with the Commission as Rome grapples with mammoth public debt.“Meloni cares a lot about being consistent. She had said she would never vote with the left. When it became clear that her votes were not needed, she stuck to that pledge,” said Giovanni Orsina, politics professor at Rome’s Luiss university.However, the move dismayed many Italian commentators who said the Commission may now be less indulgent towards Italy’s public finances and its faltering attempts to spend billions of euros of EU post-Covid recovery funds.That remains to be seen, but Meloni’s first concern appeared to be fending off internal competition at home from her hard-right coalition ally, Matteo Salvini’s League. “She is afraid of exposing herself on the right, and this fear overwhelmed everything else,” said Francesco Galietti, from Rome-based political risk consultancy Policy Sonar.Brothers of Italy is now polling at nearly 30% — its highest ever — while the League is around 8.5%, but Galietti pointed to volatility in Italian politics and said Meloni could not afford to alienate traditional voters.Before moderating her positions after coming to power in 2022, Meloni was considered further to the right than Salvini, and used to advocate for Italy to leave the eurozone. The Commission declined to comment for this story.Von der Leyen, asked by reporters on Thursday whether she regretted seeking Meloni’s support, said only that the vote showed she had taken the right approach in assembling backers who are “pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law.”Carlo Calenda, leader of centrist party Action, said in a radio interview on Friday that Meloni had preferred to be “a faction leader rather than a prime minister,” and it was “dangerous” for Italy to be in opposition in Europe.Meloni triumphed in Italy’s European Parliament elections last month, in contrast to setbacks for French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but since then things have not gone her way.After being left out of a deal on the bloc’s top jobs she protested that von der Leyen and other leaders were flouting voters’ wishes by ignoring a surge in right-wing support.She refused to back von der Leyen along with groups including the Patriots for Europe, a far-right alliance which includes Marine Le Pen’s French National Rally (RN) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz.Some analysts are suggesting Meloni did not want to side with the EU’s mainstream forces ahead of a possible Donald Trump victory at US elections in November that could boost the bloc’s nationalists.Yet Wolfango Piccoli of London-based political risk consultancy Teneo, said such a strategy could backfire as Trump would likely embrace an isolationist foreign policy which would oblige Italy to strengthen European bonds.“A plan like that would not be useful to the Italian national interest,” Piccoli said.In an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Saturday, Meloni said she would still be able to work with von der Leyen and that it would be “surreal” to imagine Brussels would punish Italy when it came to deciding on Commission roles. Rome’s candidate is European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto.But her relationship with Brussels looks trickier now and Piccoli said it might be harder to have a say on issues including defence and migration, though budget procedures based on pre-established steps are less likely to be affected.“The real question is to count in Europe,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687119/international/meloni-put-domestic-concerns-first-in-rejecting-von-der-leyen

Advisory issued as Kerala teen dies from Nipah virus

Authorities in southern India’s Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 persons in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said yesterday.Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters investigation showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.Nipah is classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent infection and no treatment to cure it.“The infected boy died on Sunday after a cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state health minister told local TV reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.Earlier, in a statement on Saturday, she said as part of Nipah control, the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to identify and isolate affected people.Dr Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a school-going boy and persons who had been in contact with him were being watched.“There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next 7-10 days.There are 214 people on the primary contact list of the boy, the statement said. Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, it said, and isolation wards have been set up at health institutions to treat patients.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687116/international/advisory-issued-as-kerala-teen-dies-from-nipah-virus

PNG Air Force takes to skies among Top Guns

One of the world’s youngest air forces is taking part in war games alongside cutting-edge stealth fighter jets as the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) boosts defence ties with Australia and the United States.Papua New Guinea’s trainee pilots have queued for take-off with US F-22 Raptor and Australian Joint Strike Fighter jets in northern Australia this week in the 20-nation “Pitch Black” war games.“It is a learning experience for us as a small air force and it helps to build our air force,” said Major Randall Hepota, one of six PNG Air Force pilots flying three small P-750 turboprop aircraft.At home, the New Zealand-made plane can take off and land in very short spaces and transports supplies and troops to border areas in treacherous mountain terrain.Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Vavar, the commanding officer of PNG Air Wing, said Pitch Black offered exposure to the world’s best pilots and was helping PNG learn how to integrate with a large coalition force.“We are becoming an air force. Flying in Papua New Guinea is a must,” he said in an interview yesterday at RAAF Base Darwin. “Eighty per cent of the population live in rural areas – so the only way you can get access to them is to fly.”The PNG Air Force could land closer to the site of the Enga landslide disaster in May to deliver aid than larger Royal Australian Air Force planes, he said.“We have been training with the Royal Australian Air Force for several years and the Enga landslide was the first time we had to deploy,” he said.The small PNG planes have been landing in remote Jabiru to deliver supplies during Pitch Black, as well as RAAF Tindal Base, home to Australia’s F-35 fighter jets.Australia’s Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, inspected one of the PNG aircraft at the RAAF Darwin base open day.Australia and the United States last year struck defence deals with PNG, which is also being courted by Beijing, amid strategic competition by major powers in the Pacific Islands.“Papua New Guinea is one of our key allies in the region,” said Fiona Pearce, senior Australian Defence Force officer for RAAF Tindal.“Their survival and our survival are interdependent,” she added.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687064/international/png-air-force-takes-to-skies-among-top-guns