Month: January 2023

PESHAWAR: Four terrorists were gunned down Saturday in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) conducted by Peshawar region’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and security forces, the department said.

According to CTD, the operation by the teams was carried out in Peshawar’s Sango and Sarband localities based on confirmed information to arrest the terrorists. 

The militants attempted to escape and opened fire as soon as they saw soldiers at the Khyber border.

Crossfire between the terrorists and operation teams, as per CTD, continued for a while. Once the gun battle ended, a clearance operation was conducted in which four terrorists were found dead while three to four managed to escape in the dark.

CTD stated that the killed terrorists belonged to a banned organisation and were wanted by the department in several cases.

The department also mentioned recovering four Kalashnikovs and three hand grenades from the terrorists who were shot dead.

Two days earlier, security forces killed 11 terrorists in an operation in South Waziristan district’s Wana area, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

The operation was also conducted based on intelligence after which Pakistan’s troops successfully “foiled a high-profile terrorist activity”.

The country’s government, military and other institutions have resolved to take on terrorism and terrorists following a spate of incessant attacks for the last couple of months, particularly those carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The activities of militants have been mainly focused in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with the former accounting for 31% of the attacks during the last year and the latter 67%, according to statistics provided by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah.

In its annual report, the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) said that Pakistan saw as many as 376 terror attacks in the last year, while a majority of these attacks were claimed by banned terror outfits such as TTP, Daesh and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

In light of the rising terror incidents, the National Security Committee (NSC) decided on January 2 that no country would be allowed to provide sanctuaries and facilitation to terrorists, and Pakistan reserves all rights to safeguard its people.

Helicopters have been winching people to safety as floodwaters rise in the sparsely populated Kimberley region of Western Australia. While the worst of the rain has eased, some towns could be cut off for the next few days.

Emergency services have called the unfolding disaster “the worst flooding event” the state has seen. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it had been difficult to reach some of the waterlogged areas.

“These floods are having a devastating impact,” he told reporters.

“Many of these communities are communities that do it tough. The resources simply aren’t there on the ground.” One of the worst-hit towns was Fitzroy Crossing, where residents had to wait for the sodden airstrip to dry out before military planes could bring in supplies.

According to authorities, the Kimberley region covers a tract of land three times larger than the United Kingdom but has a population of less than 40,000.

Australia has been repeatedly lashed by heavy rain in the past two years, driven by back-to-back La Nina climate cycles.

Flash floods swept through parts of eastern Australia in November last year, tearing entire homes from their foundations in some country towns.

Tens of thousands of Sydney residents were ordered to evacuate in July when floods swamped the coastal city’s fringe.

And an east coast flooding disaster in March — caused by storms in Queensland and New South Wales — claimed more than 20 lives.

Australian researchers have repeatedly warned that climate change is amplifying the risk of natural disasters.

Local media reported the trains collided in a tunnel between the stations of Potrero and La Raza on the north-south line three.

“Sixteen people were taken to hospitals […] So far, one death has regrettably been reported,” Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Twitter. Television footage showed injured passengers being treated in ambulances.

Inaugurated in 1969, the Mexico City Metro covers 226 kilometres with 195 stations on 12 different lines.

Authorities estimate it moved a total of 837m passengers in 2021.

However, the metro system has been the subject of much criticism for a lack of maintenance. In the most serious of a series of failures, a metro bridge collapsed in May 2021, killing 26 people and injuring dozens.

As Brazil’s new government held its first meeting Friday, the new first lady got down to business too, dealing with what she called major damage, leaks, and missing artwork and furniture at the presidential palace.

First Lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva gave Brazil’s biggest broadcaster, TV Globo, a tour of the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence in Brasilia, to highlight what she described as its shoddy condition at the end of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro’s four-year tenancy.

Da Silva, who married newly inaugurated leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in May, said important parts of the iconic modernist building were left in “deteriorated” condition.

She showed the camera crew torn rugs, damaged floors, a broken window, a ceiling stained by water leaks, a massive banquet hall left bare of furniture and other issues that would leave normal outgoing tenants nervous over getting their deposits back.

An unknown amount of furniture and artwork from the official residence was missing, damaged or — in the case of one 19th-century work — left on the floor, she said.

Electronic equipment was meanwhile left strewn around the library where Bolsonaro used to give his weekly social media live addresses to his far-right base.

Da Silva, 56, said the first couple would carry out renovations to repair the damages and a full inventory of the residence’s furniture and art before moving in.

“This building is on the national register of historic places,” she told TV Globo.

“We’re thinking of adding the things that are inside it (to the register), too, so this doesn’t happen again, where a president comes and takes historic items that belong to the Brazilian state.”

Lula, 77, knows the palace well, having lived there during his first presidency (2003-2010) with his late wife Marisa Leticia.

His Workers’ Party (PT) occupied the sleek white Oscar Niemeyer-designed building from 2003 to 2016, when his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached.

Lula, who survived being jailed on controversial corruption charges to regain the presidency Sunday, now returns to the palace after the tenancies of center-right ex-president Michel Temer and Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for the US state of Florida on the second-to-last day of his term, could not be reached for comment.

Terming Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan a “hypocrite”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Friday said it was now out for everyone to see how General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa had been helping the former premier achieve his political tragets.

“In a bid to steer the country out of the crisis, Pakistan’s armed forces and Gen Bajwa provided all possible support to Imran Khan but he failed,” said PM Shehbaz while addressing the launching ceremony of the Hazara Electric Supply Company (HAZECO) in Islamabad.

“What language is Khan using against Gen Bajwa? He has no match in abusing,” he said, adding that the PTI leader had destroyed Pakistani society.

Khan ruined relations with friendly countries

Taking a dig at the former prime minister, who was ousted from power through a vote of no-confidence last year, PM Shehbaz said that he ruined Islamabad’s relations with friendly countries who always supported Pakistan.

Khan accused Chinese companies of corruption, which angered Beijing, he added. “I cannot disclose the details here because my position doesn’t allow it.”

Traders urged to save ‘national resources’

Addressing the ceremony, PM Shehbaz urged the business community to support the government’s recently announced energy conservation plan marking the early closure of markets and restaurants, to ensure judicious use of national resources and reduce the import bill.

“I appeal to the business community to extend their support to the government [for energy conservation]. This will reduce the oil import and bring down the dollar rate which would later be spent on the country’s progress including agriculture and medicine,” he added.

The premier said any difficulty faced by a nation necessitated collective action and expressed the hope that the traders from across the country would take part in this “jihad” to save the national resources.

‘Govt to abide by its commitments with IMF’

Referring to his telephonic interaction with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday, the prime minister assured that, unlike its predecessor, the incumbent government would abide by its commitments with the international lender without further burdening the masses.

However, he also sensitised the IMF head over the country’s economic condition adversely affected by the worst floods and made it clear his government had already taxed the rich but could no more burden the poor.

The premier also said that an IMF delegation is expected to visit Pakistan in 2-3 days to “take up and finalise” the ninth review of the economy to unstick a direly needed bailout tranche of $1.1 billion.

He also apprised the gathering of his 45-minute-long telephonic conversation with the Chinese premier on Thursday in which the latter assured him not to leave Pakistan alone, which the prime minister said evidenced the improvement of bilateral relations strained by the poor foreign policy of the previous government.

The prime minister assured that the coalition government would do its maximum for the relief of the masses including the provision of jobs.

He expressed the resolve that under PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s leadership, the incumbent government would lead Pakistan to become a great nation.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called the session “pathetic” and “absurd” while the Palestinian envoy accused the Jewish state of acting “with absolute contempt.”

The 15-member Security Council discussed the visit, which has enraged Palestinians, at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday following a request by the United Arab Emirates and China.

Ahead of the session, Israel’s permanent representative to the world body, Gilad Erdan, told reporters that there was “absolutely no reason” for the meeting to be held. “To hold a Security Council session on a non-event is truly absurd,” he said.

Israeli ambassador calls session ‘absurd’, Palestinian envoy accuses Jewish state of acting ‘with absolute contempt’

Tuesday’s visit by Israel’s new national security minister, firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked a wave of international condemnation, including from the United States, a longstanding ally of Israel.

Al-Aqsa mosque lies in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and is the third-holiest site in Islam. It is the most sacred place to Jews, who refer to it as Temple Mount.

Under a longstanding status quo, non-Muslims can visit the site at specific times but are not allowed to pray there — although some Israeli nationalists are believed to do so covertly, which angers the Palestinians.

Erdan said Ben-Gvir’s visit was “in line with the status quo and whoever claims otherwise is only inflaming the situation”. “To claim that this brief and completely legitimate visit should spark an emergency Se­curity Council session is pathetic,” he added.

Western governments warned such moves threaten the fragile arrangement at Jerusalem’s holy sites.

The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, accused Israel of acting “with absolute contempt” for the Palestinians, the Security Council, and the entire international community.

He called on members of the council to take action against Israel. “What red line does Israel need to cross for the Security Council to finally say, ‘Enough is enough’, and to act accordingly?” Mansour asked.

US diplomat Robert Wood told the meeting that America opposes “any and all unilateral actions that depart from the historic status quo, which are unacceptable”.

“We urge both Israelis and Palestinians to take the necessary steps to restore calm, prevent further loss of life and preserve the possibility of a two-state solution,” to peace in the Middle East, he said.

The UN Security Council has adopted several resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the years and supports the two-state solution to peace in the Middle East.

After the two-hour session wrapped up, Mansour voiced satisfaction at what he called the “unanimity (of the Security Council) to defend the status quo,” adding that he did not expect further concrete action from the world body.