24-10-2025

Month: February 2023

US weapons sales to get stricter human rights review under Biden

As Reuters reported on Wednesday, the new Commercial Arms Transfer (CAT) policy covers a review of security assistance, government-to-government weapons transfers, and licensed commercial sales of US-origin military equipment and services overseen by the State Department as well as the Defence and Commerce departments, including firearms commonly available in the United States.

Defence companies and activists scrutinise such policies for insight into the administration’s posture as it balances the commercial interests of exporters like Lockheed Martin Co and Raytheon Technologies against the country’s stated commitment to human rights.

One change is how the CAT policy addresses the possibility that arms from the United States could be used for major human rights violations, State Department officials said.

Under the new policy, a weapons transfer will not be approved if the State Department assesses the arms “more likely than not” will be used to commit or facilitate genocide, crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva conventions, or serious violations of international law.

Previous CAT policy had said such transfers would not be authorised only when Washington had “actual knowledge” that the arms would be used in such actions.

“We are looking at a policy of prevention when there is a risk of violation of human rights,” one official said. The policy also allows deals to be canceled if rights violations are documented after they are announced.

The officials declined to specify countries or past deals that the new policy might affect.

Rhetoric vs rights reality

Advocates have long questioned weapons sales to countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the civilian toll of the war in Yemen.

Biden’s administration was criticised last year for approving the potential sale of radars and aircraft to Egypt despite what Human Rights Watch called Egypt’s “atrocious human rights record”.

 

“Unfortunately, the Biden administration has a mixed record on these issues so far,” William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in an emailed statement, adding that the administration “will have to change course if they are going to live up to the rhetoric of the new policy”.

The change could also affect exports of smaller weapons such as assault rifles that can be used against domestic populations. Some of this has been under the aegis of the Commerce Department since the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump.

The new CAT policy has been in development for months. Reuters reported in 2021 that the Biden administration was considering a CAT policy shift to emphasise human rights.

The United States is by far the world’s biggest arms merchant, selling some $150 billion in weapons, services, and training a year.

The US Arms Export Control Act requires Congress to be notified of major foreign defence sales agreements, and an informal review process allows the Democratic and Republican leaders of foreign affairs committees to vet such agreements.

Lawmakers often raise rights concerns. For example, Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposes the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft to Turkey for reasons including disregard for human rights.

Trump viewed weapons deals as a way to generate US jobs. He rolled out a CAT policy in 2018 that gave commercial concerns as much weight as human rights in deciding whether to approve weapons sales.

Moldova’s pro-EU leaders have rejected Russian claims that Ukraine is planning to attack the country’s breakaway pro-Russian territory, and called for calm.

Russia’s defence ministry alleged, with no evidence, that Ukrainian saboteurs would stage an invasion of Transnistria dressed as Russian soldiers as a pretext for a Ukrainian invasion.

Moldova has warned for weeks that Russia is plotting to seize power.

And officials rejected Russia’s claims as “psy-ops” as part of the war.

“The defence ministry believes it is an element of a psychological operation rather than a real plan,” said state secretary Valeriu Mija.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu, on a visit to neighbouring Romania, spoke of unprecedented security challenges ahead.

“Some wanted our country to fall and to install in Chisinau a puppet government enslaved to the interests of the Kremlin,” she said.

Moldova is not part of Nato but last June it was awarded EU candidate status on the same day as Ukraine. Earlier this week the Moldovan leader met US President Joe Biden, who promised to support her country’s sovereignty.

Challenges created by war in Ukraine

With a population of just 2.6 million, Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest economies and has been heavily exposed to the war in Ukraine.

It has faced a major energy crisis because its power infrastructure dates back to the Soviet era. Not only did Russia restrict its gas supplies but its attacks on Ukraine’s power grid had knock-on effects.

This protest on Thursday, organised by the pro-Russian Sor party, called for higher pensions

Rampant inflation and a big influx of refugees from Ukraine have created further pressures, leading to protests organised by the populist and pro-Russian Sor party, led by fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor.

There has also been an apparent escalation of incidents described by new Prime Minister Dorin Recean as “hybrid attacks”.

A Russian missile was fired at Ukraine through Moldovan airspace on the day the previous government collapsed earlier this month, in the face of what his predecessor called “multiple crises”.

 

President Sandu has accused Russia of plotting to bring down Moldova’s leadership with the aid of foreign saboteurs from Russia, Serbia, Belarus and Montenegro. She said their aim would be to attack government buildings, seize hostages and then spark protests to replace the government with one “at the service of Russia”.

Shortly after her speech, twelve Serbian football fans were barred from entering Chisinau for a match.

The Kremlin accused Moldova’s leaders of slipping into anti-Russian hysteria and warned them to be “very, very careful” with their statements.

Political analyst Denis Cenusa said Moldova’s weakest point for pro-Russian forces was its internal socio-economic stability. If Russia failed in the short term, he said it could succeed at the ballot box in local elections this year and the presidential vote in 2024.

Moldova’s breakaway territory

On Moldova’s eastern flank lies a narrow strip of land called Transnistria, between the Dniester river and the Ukrainian border. Dominated by Russian speakers, it proclaimed independence from Moldova in 1990 as the Soviet Union fell apart.

A short border war led to a ceasefire in 1992 and that has been enforced ever since by 1,500 Russian troops stationed there.

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As soon as Russian forces invaded southern Ukraine a year ago there were fears they would try to seize Odesa and the entire coast to Transnistria.

That has not happened, but what Moldova’s leaders are warning of now is reminiscent of what happened in April 2022.

A series of mysterious explosions were reported, which separatist authorities in Transnistria said targeted their state security HQ, old Soviet-era radio masts and a military unit.

Ukrainian “infiltrators” were held responsible then as well by Transnistria’s authorities. Kyiv blamed Russian special services, warning they were seeking to threaten Moldova and destabilise the situation.

Earlier this week a pro-separatist social media channel said it had seen Ukrainian military equipment on the motorway linking Ukraine to Moldova, but an unconvincing photo showed only a couple of small armoured vehicles and a Ukrainian flag.

The head of Transnistria’s peacekeeping body, Oleg Belyakov, said there was no panic among its population but Russia’s warnings did “give reasons for serious concerns”.

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans may be exposed to radioactive materials creeping into water, a non-governmental organisation based in Seoul says.

This is also a risk to people in China, South Korea and Japan, the Transitional Justice Working Group says.

The group is urging South Korea to offer radiation exposure tests for defectors who have lived near Punggye-ri, the North’s main nuclear site.

It estimates that up to 540,000 residents may be at risk.

The group – which was established in Seoul in 2014 by activists and researchers from South Korea, North Korea, US, UK and Canada – analysed publicly available data and open-source intelligence for its latest report.

Nuclear experts the BBC spoke to largely agree with the possibility of nuclear contamination but say its extent will be hard to determine.

Nuclear radiation can damage living cells partially or completely, sometimes resulting in cancer. As with most toxins, the risks associated with radioactive materials depend on the amount of exposure.

North Korea last tested a nuclear bomb in 2017 – the most powerful of six tests conducted at Punggye-ri.

The Ministry of Unification, an executive department in South Korea promoting Korean reunification, stopped testing defectors for radiation exposure in 2019.

Nine of the 40 defectors tested in 2017 and 2018 showed “worrying levels” of genetic abnormalities, the group said in its report. While the TJWG did not directly attribute these to radiation exposure, it noted higher radiation doses for those who showed more abnormalities.

The South Korean ministry said it would consider resuming these tests if North Korean defectors reported health issues and requested medical support.

In particular, the TJWG flagged the leakage of radioactive materials into groundwater as a particular concern, given people’s growing tendency to consume groundwater.

North Korea’s 2008 census data shows that a sixth of households in the northernmost province of North Hamgyong, where Punggye-ri is located, use groundwater as drinking and agricultural water.

This proportion is likely to have gone up due to a chronic shortage of electricity across the country. Electricity is supplied only on a part-time basis even in the capital Pyongyang, which is always prioritised in resource allocation.

 

North Korea’s weapons programme has accelerated under leader Kim Jong-un, who said in September 2022 that his country’s nuclear weapons were no longer designed just to prevent war, but could also be used pre-emptively and offensively, to win a war.

“North Korea’s rulers have sought to maximise international interest in its nuclear capabilities while avoiding attention on its human rights issues. There is in fact a tendency to view the North Korean nuclear issue solely from a security perspective,” said the authors of the TJWG’s report.

Satellite photo of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site

Unlike the US and Russia, which conducted nuclear tests in the early days, North Korea is fairly new to the game, said freelance energy journalist Chris Cragg.

“The very odd thing is that North Korea keeps on upping its tests to keep on reminding the world that it has the technology, as a political gesture rather than a technical one. The rest of the world has largely abandoned testing because they know how such bombs actually work.”

Mark Diesendorf, a energy policy researcher at the University of New South Wales Sydney, said the high radiation doses in the defectors reported by TJWG – about 100 times the global average of natural background radiation – is likely to increase the risk of cancers in those exposed. But he questioned how those doses were measured or estimated.

Underground tests are not very effective in containing radiation, he noted.

Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council for Foreign Relations, said the history of nuclear testing around the world had drawn a “pretty consistent linkage between radiation exposure and public health impact on proximate populations”.

It is “not surprising” that the health and environmental impact would be underappreciated or go unaddressed in North Korea, he added.

The TJWG said neighbouring countries like South Korea, China, and Japan might also be at risk because of the smuggling and distribution of agricultural and marine products, as well as North Korean specialities like pine mushrooms, from areas close to Punggye-ri.

The group called out the governments of these countries for not doing enough to guard their populations against these risks.

It noted that the South Korean government had come under criticism in 2018 for giving away pine mushrooms that its then-President Moon Jae-in received as a gift from Kim Jong Un to about 4,000 elderly families – reportedly without testing them for radiation.

Chinese authorities have also failed to stop the smuggling of North Korea’s agricultural and marine products within China or to a third country, it alleged.

The group urged the South Korean government to resume tests, and for South Korean and Chinese authorities to disclose results of past tests, for radiation exposure. It is also calling for an international inquiry into the radiation risks for communities around Punggye-ri.

The troubled Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow has been warned it may be forced to stop trading after missing a deadline for filing accounts.

It is building two CalMac ferries – but their cost is now well over double the original contract price, and delivery is more than five years late.

Companies House required the Scottish government-owned firm to submit its annual accounts by the end of December.

Ferguson said it expected the accounts to be submitted by the end of March.

Companies House issued a public notice warning that it could strike off the firm if it fails to file them.

 

Ferguson’s chief executive David Tydeman said that auditors Grant Thornton were handling what he called “outstanding issues” with the Scottish government and the public spending watchdog Audit Scotland.

He said the reasons for the delay were “beyond the directors’ control”.

The accounts require the approval of MSPs before being submitted to Companies House.

It is expected Ferguson will have to pledge to cover its losses over the delayed and over-budget construction of the two CalMac ferries before auditors sign off the company as financially secure and a going concern.

‘Fully committed’

Mr Tydeman said: “We have been assured that Ferguson Marine will not be removed from the register provided we meet the undertakings we have given on filing by the end of March.”

He added: “The directors and management team remain fully committed to delivering the two hulls currently under construction and winning new contracts to secure the yard’s future.

“This short term issue does not affect our ability to keep trading and continue the work in progress.”

The shipyard collapsed into administration and was nationalised in 2019 amid an acrimonious dispute between former owner Jim McColl and the government’s ferries agency CMAL, who both blamed each other for the problems.

In November, the Scottish government chose former Prestwick Airport chairman Andrew Millar to take over as chairman of Ferguson Marine.

He is responsible for delivering “ministerial priorities”.

Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson MSP urged the Scottish government to “tell us why the company that they own has got itself in such a mess that it risks being struck off”.

Rishi Sunak is to urge allies to “move faster” in arming Ukraine, during a G7 meeting to mark the anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

During a video call on Friday, the prime minister will say giving Ukraine a “decisive” edge in the conflict “must be our priority now”.

The call will take place on a day of events in the UK, including a minute’s silence at 11:00 GMT.

A vigil in London on Thursday brought actress Dame Helen Mirren to tears.

Dame Helen became emotional while reciting an English translation of Take Only What Is Most Important, written by Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace described Ukrainian soldiers as the “bravest of the brave” while addressing the crowd in Trafalgar Square.

It followed a demonstration outside the Russian Embassy in London where a group of protesters painted the road in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

A section of a Bayswater Road in central London – which leads up to the embassy – will be permanently renamed Kyiv Road by Westminster Council as another symbolic gesture highlighting the UK’s support.

Mr Sunak will host Ukrainian troops at a gathering at Downing Street later.

Other British political leaders will also mark the occasion, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to “double down” on support for Ukraine.

 

The conflict, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February last year, has seen at least 100,000 of each side’s soldiers killed or injured, according to the US military.

Thousands of civilians have also been killed, with more than 13 million people made refugees abroad or displaced within Ukraine.

Rita and her four children were among those who fled the country in the early stages of the conflict. They are now living in the UK with Rita’s British partner, Andy.

Rita told BBC Two’s Newsnight programme she would “never forget” the “horrible sound, that panic, that fear” when Russian troops invaded.

Rita said her heart was “aching” after witnessing how parts of Ukraine had changed after 12 months of conflict.

“The country is in pain,” she said. “I know how my country is and how it can be, I know how beautiful it is. Now it’s different [but] it can come back to that beautiful place.

“I can see summer time – it is going to be warm, it’s going to be green. That’s how I see Ukraine – with lots of green trees with lots of flowers… with lots of smiles on people’s face and with tears from happiness.”Rita has been back to Ukraine since settling in the UK

Ukraine has been urging its Western backers to increase support, as Russia mobilises ahead of an expected spring offensive.

During the virtual meeting of leaders from the G7 group of advanced economies, Mr Sunak is expected to say an acceleration in support is “what it will take to shift Putin’s mindset”.

“This must be our priority now,” he will add. “Instead of an incremental approach, we need to move faster on artillery, armour, and air defence.”

He is expected to make the argument for supplying Ukraine with “longer-range weapons” to disrupt Russia’s ability to target Ukraine’s infrastructure, something to which he committed the UK earlier this month.

In other developments:

  • The UN General Assembly in New York overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion. 141 nations voted for the resolution, with 32 abstaining and seven – including Russia – voting against.
  • In Vienna, a large number of delegates walked out during a Russian address at a parliamentary session of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – a security body with 57 participating countries.
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During a recent tour of Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky increased his calls for Western nations to supply his country with modern fighter jets.

The UK is to start training Ukrainian forces to fly Nato-standard jets. But like other Western nations, it has so far not supplied jets, saying it remains a long-term option.

Although support for Ukraine has united the UK’s main political parties, Mr Sunak has faced pressure from some of his own Conservative MPs to supply fast jets as soon as possible.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in office when Russia invaded and is among those urging faster action on jets, used the anniversary to repeat his call to give President Zelensky weapons “to finish the job”.

“The last year has taught us that sooner or later, the West gives the Ukrainians what they need,” he said in a statement released to journalists.

“And if that is the choice – sooner or later – let’s make it sooner, for the sake of Ukraine and the world.”

Rishi Sunak hosted Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky during his trip to London earlier this month

As he marked the anniversary, Sir Keir said UK parties should continue the unity they had shown during the war so far in the coming months.

“The resolve and the bravery of the Ukrainian people, supported by their allies across the world, has doomed Putin’s barbaric invasion to failure,” he said.

“We should take inspiration from their courage and resolve to double down on our support for them.

“Their fight for democracy, freedom and liberty in the face of tyranny is also our fight”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey paid tribute to the “amazing acts of heroism in Ukraine” and said the UK would “stand in solidarity with Ukraine until they achieve victory”.

In a letter to Ukrainians in Scotland to mark the anniversary, SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wished a “speedy victory for Ukraine”.

Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said Russia “must be able to recover an be secure without being allowed to repeat its aggression” when a peace settlement is reached.

“Russia cannot end up like Germany after 1919,” the archbishop writes in an editorial in the Daily Telegraph.

Pakistan, Afghanistan discuss security issue amid ‘rising terror threats’

ISLAMABAD: Amid the worsening of ties between the two countries due to rising terror attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a high-level delegation led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif visited Kabul where it met with acting Deputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The Foreign Office, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the high-ranking delegation will meet with Afghan officials to discuss security-related matters including counter-terrorism measures.

The delegation includes Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq, Foreign Secretary Asad Majeed Khan, and Kabul mission head Ubaid Ur Rehman Nizamani.

The delegation, apart from the deputy PM, also met senior leadership of the Afghan government — including Defence Minister Mawlavi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, and Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

“Matters relating to the growing threat of terrorsim in the region, particularly by TTP and ISKP came under discussion. The two sides agreed to collaborate to effectively address the threat of terrorism posed by various entities and organizations,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Both sides, according to the statement, agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields to further enhance the fraternal relations between the two countries.

This is the first meeting between the senior leadership of the two countries after the November 2022 visit by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar.

The visit comes after the closure of the Torkham border crossing by the Afghan authorities following a row over the entry of citizens into Pakistan without documents.  A Pakistani soldier had also sustained injuries when the Afghan Taliban opened fire at a border.

A senior Pakistan government official at the Torkham border said, “The Afghan border officials made it an issue, saying Pakistani authorities should allow the patients and their attendants without visas or legal travel documents to enter Pakistan for treatment in Peshawar or elsewhere.”

The decision to strengthen security measures by mandating Afghan citizens to carry travel documents was made following the Peshawar police lines suicide attack.

In a separate statement about the meeting, the office of the Afghan deputy PM stated that the two parties discussed economic cooperation, regional connectivity, trade, and bilateral relations during the meeting.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbours and should get along well. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan emphasises the development of commercial and economic ties with Pakistan as they are in the interest of both countries,” Baradar was quoted as saying.

The Taliban leader said that political and security concerns should not affect business or economic matters.

He also asked the officials to release Afghans being detained in detention facilities in Pakistan.

Baradar further added that passengers at Torkham and Spin Boldak should be well-facilitated, with special consideration being given to emergency patients.

The Pakistani side, according to Baradar’s office, assured Afghanistan of the aforementioned issues and added that the concerned ministries and appointed committees would soon work.

PM to write to President over announcement of election date

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to write a letter to President Dr Arif Alvi in connection with the latter’s step to unilaterally announce the date for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The prime minister was referring to President Alvi’s order which he gave to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on February 20 for holding elections on April 9 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dissolved its governments last month. However, the president’s order attracted a lot of criticism from the PDM parties.

PM Shehbaz, along with his cabinet members, said that the President’s announcement of the election date was an unconstitutional move. The premier said he would write a letter to President Alvi on behalf of the cabinet condemning his [the President’s] action.

Addressing a press briefing, Shehbaz Sharif said that the President of the country had also undertaken an unconstitutional act nine months ago — a clear reference to President Alvi’s refusal to administer the oath to PM Shehbaz on the heels of a successful no-confidence motion that saw PTI Chairman Imran Khan ousted from the premiership last April. President Alvi went on sick leave just hours before he was scheduled to administer the oath to Shebaz Sharif on April 11.

The Prime Minister also condemned the PTI rule, saying that the Gwadar port failed during the Imran era. However, the port has started functioning today with dredging being operational and wheat being shipped from there, he stressed.

President Alvi’s move to unilaterally announce the election date triggered a debate among the  political leaders as well as legal and constitution experts regarding his jurisdiction. Many condemned him over the step while others from across aisle supported him.

Those aligned with the PDM parties condemned President Alvi’s decision. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the president is “exceeding his limits”, adding that Alvi is doing so at the behest of Imran Khan.

Moreover, PML-N senior leader Talal Chaudhary, while speaking to Geo News said: “Election cannot — and will not — be held on the President’s directives.” Slamming the PTI chief for trying to “become the president of the country”, he said that the real president should be mindful of his role.

Federal Minister for Planning and Development and senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said that “it is the prerogative of the ECP” to announce a date for the elections. He was of the view that the president should not have announced the date.

Former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani said that the president was not empowered to take the decision.

Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb slammed the PTI chief for making a spectacle in the country, saying: “That person has been summoned by every court in the country, yet he never shows up.”

According to legal experts, the date should be given by the governor, and actual arrangements should be done by ECP. However, the governor can only set the date when he signs the dissolution paper. In KP, the governor signed the paper, but not in Punjab. Therefore the matter remains disputed.

Erdogan drops idea to postpone elections

Last month, Erdogan, aiming to extend his rule into a third decade, said he was bringing the presidential and parliamentary votes forward to May to avoid holidays in June. Polls suggest they would be his biggest electoral challenge yet.

Days after the quake struck on Feb 6, killing more than 42,000 people in Turkiye, an official said it posed “serious difficulties” for holding elections on time. Now those close to the president say the government has turned against the idea of a postponement.

“It is very likely that an agreement will be reached on holding the election on June 18,” a government official said, adding that Erdogan and his nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli would meet to reach a final decision.

He said a shadow was cast over the idea of a postponement by the perception that the government was avoiding elections, by the opposition’s negative response to the proposal, and by legal issues relating to the constitution. He and the other officials were speaking anonymously as they were not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.

The presidency and Erdogan’s ruling AK Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the timing of the election. Before the disaster, Erdogan’s popularity had been eroded by the soaring cost of living and a slump in the lira. He has since faced a wave of criticism over his government’s response to the deadliest quake in the nation’s modern history.

Turkiye launched a temporary wage support scheme and banned layoffs in 10 cities on Wednesday to protect workers and businesses from the financial impact of the earthquake.

The government official said a May election, as Erdogan previously planned, would leave little time for election authorities to prepare and make logistical arrangements for the voting of those affected in the quake zone, home to some 13 million people.

A senior AKP official also said the view had gained weight that elections should be held on June 18.

“Erdogan and Bahceli will discuss the issue and make a final decision, but at the moment it seems that May 14 is too early and both leaders will say okay to June 18,” he said.

Another senior Turkish official also said the idea of postponing the elections had been shelved.

“If there were going to be a delay, it would take a one-year delay for it to be of value. The public doesn’t like that at all. Partly for this reason, June 18 is seen as the actual date at the moment.”

6.8-magnitude quake hits eastern Tajikistan: USGS

The USGS estimated that “little or no population” would be exposed to landslides from the quake.

Its epicentre appeared to be in Gorno-Badakhshan, a semi-autonomous eastern region that borders Afghanistan and China, about 67 kilometres from the small mountain town of Murghob.

A 5.0-magnitude aftershock hit the area about 20 minutes after the initial quake, followed by a 4.6-magnitude quake.

The sparsely populated territory is surrounded by the towering Pamir Mountains and is home to Lake Sarez.

The aquamarine-coloured body of water — formed as a result of an earthquake in 1911 — is among Tajikistan’s largest lakes.

Located behind Lake Sarez is a natural dam deep in the Pamir mountains, and experts have warned the consequences will be catastrophic if the dam is breached.

Tajikistan — like much of the rest of Central Asia — is highly prone to natural disasters and has a long history of floods, earthquakes, landslides, avalanches and heavy snowfalls.

Earlier this month, nine people died in a February 15 avalanche in Gorno-Badakhshan, while another person was killed the same day in an avalanche on a highway near the capital Dushanbe.

At least two people have died and more than 50 are missing after a mine collapsed in northern China.

President Xi Jinping has ordered a search and rescue mission following the collapse at around 17:13 local time (09:13 GMT) on Wednesday.

Six injured individuals have been rescued from the site so far.

More than 200 rescue workers are at the scene, according to state news agency Xinhua. The mine is located in Alxa League, in Inner Mongolia region.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that the collapse occurred in a shaft operated by Xinjing Coal Mining Company.

Mines in Inner Mongolia are some of China’s top coal producers.

Accidents are not uncommon in China, where the industry safety regulations can be poorly enforced. In December 2020, 23 miners died after a carbon monoxide leak at a coal mine.

And in January 2021, 10 miners were killed in a blast at a gold mine in Shandong province.

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