Iran President Calls For Election In Afghanistan

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September 5, 2021

Iran’s president is calling for elections in Afghanistan to determine the future of the country, where he hopes peace will return after Western troops have left and the Taliban have seized control.

Speaking on state TV, Ebrahim Raisi said that the Afghan people should vote to determine their own government “as soon as possible, adding that government should be established there which is elected by the votes and the will of the people.

In the meantime, Afghan female filmmakers who fled the Taliban are begging the world to not forget the Afghan people and to support its artists.

The women spoke at a panel discussion at the Venice Film Festival to warn that a country without culture will eventually lose its identity.

Sahraa Karimi, the first female president of the Afghan Film Organization, choked up in telling reporters all that had been lost after the Taliban completed their takeover of the country.

She cited numerous films in pre-and-post production, filmmaking workshops, insurance policies that had all ground to a halt, and film archives that are now in the hands of the Taliban.

Navy Declares 5 Missing Sailors Dead After Helicopter Crash

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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The U.S. Navy declared five missing sailors dead nearly a week after a helicopter crashed in the Pacific Ocean, shifting the search for them to a recovery operation.

The move followed more than 72 hours of coordinated rescue efforts and nearly three dozen search and rescue flights to look for the wreckage, the Navy’s Pacific fleet said in a Saturday statement.

The names of the sailors were being withheld until their next of kin have been notified.

Also injured on Tuesday were five other sailors who were on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier where the MH-60S helicopter was operating on the deck before the crash.

They were in stable conditions as of Saturday, said Lt. Samuel R. Boyle, a spokesman for the Pacific fleet.

An investigation into what caused the crash about 112 kilometers off San Diego is ongoing, but the fact that sailors aboard the carrier were injured raised questions about whether the helicopter or parts of it hit the Lincoln.

When helicopters take off and land on the ship, there are ground crews present on the carrier nearby and other people working on deck.

The helicopter crashed during what the Navy described only as routine flight operations.

The MH-60S helicopter typically carries a crew of about four and is used in missions including combat support, humanitarian disaster relief and search and rescue.

The aircraft belongs to the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8.

Israel President Meets Jordanian King To Cultivate Ties

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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Israel’s president has met with the Jordanian king this past week, in a new sign of improved relations between the two countries, according to the president’s office.

At the king’s invitation, new President Isaac Herzog met King Abdullah II at his palace in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Herzog’s office where the two reportedly discussed a series of political and economic issues including energy and sustainability.

Herzog was quoted as saying following the meeting, that Jordan is a very important country. I have immense respect for King Abdullah, a great leader, and a highly significant regional actor

Last week’s meeting came less than two months after Abdullah II and the Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, met in secret following years of fraught relations under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the week following, Jordan and Israel signed two breakthrough water and trade deals.

In his statement, Herzog spoke of improving regional relations and the success of the so-called Abraham Accords in which Israel last year normalized diplomatic ties with Bahrain, Morrocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.

On Thursday, King Abdullah II along with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas attended a trilateral summit held by Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The leaders discussed the elusive two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, vowing their commitment for Palestinians to have a right to an independent state.

Israel and Jordan made peace in 1994 and have close security ties. However, diplomatic relations have been strained in recent years over tensions at the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, and Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Ban

Group Behind Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Vigil Denies Foreign Ties

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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The group behind the annual Tiananmen Square memorial vigil in Hong Kong said Sunday it will not cooperate with police conducting a national security investigation into the group’s activities, calling it an abuse of power.

Police notified the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China last month that it was under investigation for working for foreign interests, an accusation the group denied.

At a news conference called to address the police investigation, Chow Han Tung, vice chairwoman of the alliance, said this was a really bad precedent of the national security (police) abusing the power by arbitrarily labeling any civil organization as a foreign agent.

She said, “the alliance strongly denies that we are any foreign agents,” Chow said. “We are an organization that was founded during the 1989 democratic movement, it was founded by the Hong Kong people.”

The investigation is part of a broad crackdown on Hong Kong civil society following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Authorities have tightened control over the city with a sweeping national security law imposed by China’s ruling Communist Party that effectively criminalized opposition to the government. The law and other changes have forced several civil organizations to disband or seen their leaders arrested.

The annual candlelight vigil honors the students who died when China’s military violently suppressed massive pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

Authorities responded in the afternoon to the group’s announcement with a warning and reiterated they needed information about “certain foreign agents” although they did not name anyone specifically.

12 Killed When Bus Overturned On Egypt Highway

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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A bus overturned on a highway linking the Egyptian capital with a Suez Canal city, killing at least 12 people and injuring 30 others, according to the country’s state-run news agency.

The MENA news agency on Sunday reported that the accident took place late Saturday on the Cairo-Suez desert road near the city of Suez,.

The report said the bus was heading to Cairo from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh when it hit a concrete barrier and overturned.

Traffic accidents kill thousands of people every year in Egypt, which has a poor transportation safety record. Crashes are mostly caused by speeding, bad roads and poor enforcement of traffic laws.

The country’s official statistics agency says around 10,000 road accidents took place in 2019, the most recent year for which statistics are available. They led to more than 3,480 dead. In 2018, there were 8,480 car accidents, causing over 3,080 deaths.

Mali Police Storm Jail To Free Detained Commander

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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Mali’s anti-terror police have been widely condemned after armed officers marched on a prison to demand the release of their commander – who was then set free.

The exact circumstances of how Oumar Samake was released are not clear but some reports say prison guards stepped aside, while others say the government ordered his release to avoid unrest.

Commander Samake was accused of murder over the deaths of at least 14 anti-government protesters in July 2020.

Mali’s interim government condemned the action by uniformed and armed men from the Special Anti-Terrorist Forces (Forsat) according to a TV statement.

The Malian Association of Human Rights (AMDH) said it was “deeply shocked” and called it a serious attack on the rule of law.

It said officers had fired shots in the centre of the capital, Bamako, on Friday before heading to the city’s central prison, where Forsat commander Samake had been detained hours earlier.

The special forces unit has received training from both the EU and the US to help in the fight against jihadist groups which have been waging a decade-long insurgency in Mali.

The UN and France have thousands of peacekeepers based there to help tackle the jihadists. But the unrest has left the country deeply unstable, and it has seen two military coups in the past year.

Thousands Reported Killed In Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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Thousands have been reported killed in clashes in northern Ethiopia, as fighting between the military and Tigray rebels continues.

The conflict has been raging for 10 months, pushing hundreds of thousands of people into conditions of famine.

The rebel forces said on Sunday that they had killed 3,073 “enemy forces”, with 4,473 injured.It comes after the military said it had killed more than 5,600 rebels, without specifying a timeframe.

Senior army general Bacha Debele said a further 2,300 rebels were wounded and 2,000 captured. Correspondents say the numbers may refer to recent battles.

It is hard to verify figures from either side due to a communications blackout in the region.

The rebels said their figures were from the Afar and Amhara regions which border Tigray, adding that they had seized military tanks and weapons.

Berhane Gebrekristos, Ethiopia’s former ambassador to the US, and now a supporter of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) group, described the government’s claims as “false and laughable”.

He accused the military of trying to come up with “fake information” to give a morale boost to its troops.

He said the last five or six days, there were major military offensives by the TPLF in the two regions. In Afar and in the Amhara region, the Ethiopian military lost eight divisions.

The war began last year, after months of feuding between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and leaders of the TPLF, the main political party in the Tigray region.

The prime minister sent troops to Tigray to overthrow the regional government after accusing the TPLF of seizing military camps.

The government has designed the TPLF as a terrorist group, while it says it is the legitimate government of Tigray.

Germany’s Merkel Expresses Support For Laschet As Successor

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Zoe Maven

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September 5, 2021

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her full support for Armin Laschet, the center-right Union bloc’s candidate who is hoping to succeed her as chancellor in this month’s German national election.

Merkel and Laschet on Sunday toured the town of Hagen and another region in North Rhine-Westphalia state that were badly damaged by flooding in July. Laschet is also the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, a western state that is the country’s most populous.

Addressing reporters in Hagen, Merkel said, “Armin Laschet leads this biggest state of Germany very successfully,” adding, “Somebody who can lead such a state can also lead Germany as chancellor.”

At a press conference with Laschet, Merkel said in the next three weeks “a full commitment is needed on all levels, both from the government and the campaigners.”

Merkel, who led the Union bloc to four election victories, said in 2018 that she would not seek another term, having presided over the European Union’s biggest economy since 2005.

Germany’s parliamentary election are due to hold on Sept. 26.

Laschet, who also leads the Christian Democratic Union party, is lagging behind the center-left Social Democrats in the polls. He has received particularly unfavorable reviews after a series of slips on the campaign trail in recent months.

The Social Democrats’ success in the polls is helped by the relative popularity of their candidate, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who is also vice chancellor in Merkel’s coalition government.

Economic Growth: Egypt’s Non-Petroleum Private Sector Records High Sales

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Precious Obazee

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September 5, 2021

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Egypt’s non-petroleum private sector activity shrank for the ninth month in a row in August, but inched closer to growth as local firms rapidly expanded their purchasing on increased demand.

IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) climbed to 49.8 – just below the 50.0 threshold that separates growth from contraction – from 49.1 in July.

IHS Markit said purchasing activity expanded for the first time in nine months and at the quickest pace since the series began in April 2011.

Egyptian firms sought to build their input stocks in August amid concerns that rising new orders and supply-side pressures would lead to further price increases.

The sub index for the number of purchases jumped to 54.9 from 47.6 in July, while the purchase costs sub index climbed to 58.7 from 54.1.

IHS Markit revealed that input price increases accelerated to their fastest in two years, development firms linked mainly to a pandemic-related tightening of the international prices of commodities such as metals, timber, and plastics.

It added that this and higher demand has sparked worries of further price increases even as the new orders sub index expanded to 50.4 from 48.7, it’s the quickest since November.

IHS Markit economist David Owen said firms seeing an improvement in demand attributed this to a revival in market activity and rising tourist numbers following the pandemic.

Guinea Military Coup: Soldiers Claim To Seize Power From Alpha Condé

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Precious Obazee

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September 5, 2021

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The fate of Guinea’s President Alpha Condé is unclear after an unverified video showed him surrounded by soldiers, who said they had seized power.

They appeared on national TV claiming to have dissolved the government.

The TV address featured nine unnamed soldiers, several draped in the red, gold and green national flag, who said they had taken over because of rampant corruption, mismanagement and poverty.

Calling themselves the National Committee for Reconciliation and Development, they said the constitution had been dissolved and that there would be consultations to create a new, more inclusive one.

Numerous reports say the coup was led by an elite unit headed by a former French legionnaire, Lt Col Mamady Doumbouya.

Those behind the coup say all land and air borders have been closed for a week.

However, the defence ministry say the attempted takeover had been thwarted by the presidential guard who have allegedly “contained the threat and repelled the group of assailants”.

This follows hours of heavy gunfire near the presidential palace in Conakry, the nation’s capital.

Earlier, the only bridge connecting the mainland to the Kaloum peninsular, which houses most ministries and the presidential palace, was sealed off while many soldiers, some heavily armed, were posted around the palace, a military source told Reuters news agency.

President Condé was re-elected for a controversial third term in office amid violent protests last year.

The veteran opposition leader was first elected in 2010 in the country’s first democratic transfer of power.

Despite overseeing some economic progress, he has since been accused of presiding over numerous human rights abuses and harassment of his critics.

In the meantime, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres has condemned the apparent coup and demanded the immediate release of President Condé.