Month: August 2023

Prime Minister Robert Glob has described the torrential rains and severe flooding that hit the Alpine country of two million as its worst natural disaster since independence three decades ago.

On Sunday, emergency workers recovered the body of a 35-year-old man in a river near the village of Mirna Perc in the east.

Another man, who was taking part in the clean-up operations, was found dead after falling into a cesspit near the town of Kamnik close to Ljubljana, media reports said.

Police did not immediately confirm the reports when contacted by AFP.

The bodies of two Slovenians and two Dutch citizens had been found earlier.

On Monday, rescue workers tried to reopen roads to the most remote or isolated places, while assessing damages when the government has said could exceed half a billion euros.

Harrowing accounts have emerged of rescue workers and volunteers helping to save locals and tourists from the floods, and sheltering them in community halls and other places.

Slovenia, an EU member, has asked for help from the bloc, seeking in particular heavy machinery such as excavators and prefabricated temporary bridges to deal with the aftermath of the flooding.

Slovenia has also asked NATO to provide transport helicopters and soldiers to help with the recovery efforts.

A first truck with humanitarian help and food arrived from Hungary late Sunday, followed by a helicopter, while Croatia provided a military helicopter to help close and secure a broken levee on the Mura River.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country was sending emergency workers, expressing “dismay” at the “terrible flood catastrophe in Slovenia and Austria”.

In neighboring Austria, the body of a man was recovered on Sunday from a river in Carinthia state, with heavy rains causing flooding and landslides in the south.

An explosion occurred around 2:40 p.m. (1140 GMT) near Turkish Grain Board (TMO) silos, Yavuz said.

“Initial evaluations show that an explosion occurred due to wheat dust compression during the transfer of wheat from a ship to the silo,” Yavuz said.

“We were told that it is technically possible that a blast could occur due to compression of wheat dust, but we are investigating every possible reason”.

Two of the injured are in serious condition in hospital, and everyone has been accounted for, he added.

The Ministry of Transportation said no ships were damaged due to the explosion.

Millions of people were under severe weather alerts, including tornado watches, as rain, strong winds, and hail swept east along nearly the entire eastern seaboard, from Alabama to New York.

The National Weather Service (NWS) had predicted a “moderate risk” of hazardous storms, with gusts up to 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour).

“Stay weather aware and make sure you have multiple ways to receive warnings,” the NWS in Baltimore and Washington said on social media earlier in the day.

As much of the severe weather danger subsided into the late evening, some areas faced flood threats as the rain continued to fall.

Hail as large as 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) in diameter was recorded in Virginia, the NWS said.

In Alabama, a 28-year-old man died after being struck by lightning in an industrial park parking lot, a local ABC station reported.

And in South Carolina, a 15-year-old was killed when he was hit by a falling tree outside his grandparents’ house, according to a local CBS station.

By late Monday, more than 700,000 customers had lost power along the East Coast, according to tracking website Poweroutage.us.

More than 1,700 US flights were canceled on Monday and more than 8,000 were delayed as the severe weather loomed, the website FlightAware said.

In Washington, federal agencies sent employees home early at 3 pm (1900 GMT) in anticipation of the weather.

The storms came as large parts of the southern United States, including Texas, Louisiana, and Florida boiled under excessive heat warnings, with temperatures up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) predicted through Tuesday.

Scientists say climate change has amplified the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events around the world.

KASUR: For the first time, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday publicly announced that the National Assembly would be dissolved on August 9, three days before the lower house of parliament’s term is scheduled to expire.

The premier made the announcement while addressing a mass public rally in Kasur, a city in south Punjab, after laying the foundation stone for the Taray Garh interchange on the Lahore-Bahawalnagar motorway and Rai Mansab Ali Khan interchange on Abdul Hakim motorway on the Bucheki-Nankana road.

Quoting credible sources, reports started circulating on August 3 over various print and electronic media that PM Shehbaz had told his coalition partners that the summary to dissolve the NA would be moved on August 9.

The assurance was given by the premier during the farewell dinner he hosted for his coalition partners during which the political situation of the country and general elections came under discussion.

The current assembly’s tenure will end on August 12 and if it completes its stipulated time then elections will be held within 60 days. However, the Constitution states that the polls must be held within 90 days if the assembly is dissolved before the completion of its tenure.

If the summary is moved to dissolve the lower house on August 9 that it would be liable to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold polls within 90 days.

However, before the assembly dissolution, the government and the opposition need to agree on a name for a caretaker prime minister.

Addressing the public rally, PM Shehbaz said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif would be the next prime minister of Pakistan.

He claimed that the three-time premier — who has been in self-imposed exile in London since November 2019 owing to health reasons — would change the destiny of the country by initiating projects in the sectors of agriculture, industry and infrastructure.

“Nawaz Sharif will serve the people of Pakistan as prime minister for another term if voted to power. He considers the whole of Pakistan as his family and in the past selflessly served the people,” the premier added.

Rs263 billion, he said, would be spent on the construction of the motorway from Lahore to Bahawalnagar and on other projects.

PM Shehbaz recalled that in the past, Pakistan suffered from load shedding of 20 hours every day and then the PML-N supremo came in 2013 and he removed the darkness caused by power shortages by setting up power projects, revived industry and agriculture and brought the CPEC project of $ 30 billion with the collaboration of China.

He said their government provided laptops worth billions of rupees to millions of students, adding he was unfairly criticised for delivering laptops to youth who were now using modern tools of communication and earning livelihoods.

Premier Shehbaz said the PML-N supremo had initiated the project of the Diamer Bhasha and Dasu dams and made Pakistan a nuclear state by conducting six nuclear explosions in response to five explosions by India.

He reminded that Nawaz had rejected the offer of $5 billion by then-US president Bill Clinton and went on with the nuclear explosions while ignoring pressure. He also said that the PML-N supreme leader also started Zarb-e-Azab led by the Pakistan Army to eradicate terrorism and the jawans of armed forces and people from all sections of society rendered sacrifices against terrorism.

Lashing out at the previous PTI-led government, Premier Shehbaz said that terrorists were again allowed to re-enter Pakistan and they took many innocent lives in terrorist acts.

In the era of Nawaz, the PM said Pakistan had good relations with friendly and brotherly countries including China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Qatar and others.

“Then, Imran Niazi was imposed on the country after the rigged election in 2018,” the PM said, adding that his regime caused severe damage to relations with these countries including Islamic countries and he resorted to baseless allegations of corruption against companies of China.

Ties with China were broken by the former government despite the fact that the neighbouring country massively invested in infrastructure, power and road projects, the premier pointed out.

The purpose of the rare visit by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to a G7 member country was not announced, but reports said Japan would press Iran to stop supplying Russia with army Pause

Amir-Abdollahian will meet with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Amir-Abdollahian would also make a courtesy visit to Kishida, private broadcaster TBS reported.

TBS, citing unnamed government sources, said Japan would raise the issue of arms exports to Russia.

Japan and Iran have traditionally kept friendly ties despite key Tokyo ally Washington’s tense relations with Tehran.

Iran used to be a major oil exporter to resource-poor Japan, but volumes dropped sharply in recent years due to US economic sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.

Hayashi and Amir-Abdollahian have held telephone talks in the past, most recently in April this year.

In the April talks, Hayashi expressed Japan’s support for the 2015 nuclear accord and urged Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.

Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to current G7 head Japan is the first visit by an Iranian top diplomat since December 2019 and the first under President Ebrahim Raisi.

The 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six major powers – including Russia and China – was aimed at scaling down Iran’s activities in that sector in order to allay fears it was developing atomic weapons.

But the United States pulled out of the deal under former president Donald Trump and efforts to revive it under President Joe Biden have faltered, while Tehran has expanded its nuclear work.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 is showing that there are currently no aircraft in Niger’s skies.

The West African group of countries, Ecowas, had earlier warned it could use force if President Mohamed Bazoum was not reinstated by 23:00 GMT on Sunday.

A junta spokesman says Niger’s armed forces are ready to defend the country.

Mr Bazoum was detained on 26 July, and Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, commander of the presidential guard, later proclaimed himself the new leader.

The military takeover has been internationally condemned, including by former colonial power France and the rest of the European Union, as well as the United Nations and the United States.

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Reading a statement on national television on Sunday, the representative from Niger’s junta said they had information that “a foreign power” was preparing to attack Niger.

After a crisis meeting in Nigeria, Ecowars military chiefs said on Friday they had drawn up a detailed plan for the possible use of force.

“All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going deploy the force,” said Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowars commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.

And he added: “We want diplomacy to work, and we want this message clearly transmitted to them [Niger’s junta] that we are giving them every opportunity to reverse what they have done”.

They issued their ultimatum a week ago, demanding the generals relinquish power by midnight local time, which has now passed.

Ecowars is a regional trading bloc of 15 West African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Ghana.

The coup leaders seem to be showing no sign of willingness to cede power, and on Sunday thousands of their supporters rallied defiantly at a stadium in Niger’s capital Niamey.

Two of Niger’s neighbours – Burkina Faso and Mali – earlier warned they would treat any outside military intervention in Niger as “a declaration of war” against them. Burkina Faso and Mali are both Ecowas members but have been suspended from the bloc since being ruled by military juntas.

Niger is a significant uranium producer – a fuel that is vital for nuclear power – and under Mr Bazoum was a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in West Africa’s Sahel region.

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Niger coup: The basics:
Where is Niger? It’s a vast country in West Africa, and one of the poorest countries in the world.

Why was there a coup? The military said it seized power because of insecurity and the economic situation, but there have been suggestions it came after reports the coup leader was about to be sacked.

What next? It’s feared the military may seek to switch allegiance to Russia and close French and US bases there; for their part, Niger’s neighbors have threatened to use force to end the coup.