Rohingya Muslims mark ‘black day’ ; A year after fleeing Myanmar, Rohingya demand justice
By : AFP : Rohingya Muslims refugees on Saturday 25 Aug. 2018, marked the anniversary of a deadly military crackdown in their Myanmar homeland that drove 700,000 of the persecuted minority into Bangladesh, stateless and confronting a grim future.
Raids by Rohingya militants on August 25 last year across Myanmar’s Rakhine state spurred an army crackdown which the United Nations has likened to “ethnic cleansing”. Waves of Rohingya fled by foot or boat to Bangladesh in an exodus unprecedented in speed and scale. Rohingya activists in Bangladesh’s refugee camps vowed to mark the “black day” with prayers, speeches and song. The latest influx has placed enormous pressure on Bangladesh’s impoverished Cox’s Bazar district, which quickly grew into the world’s largest refugee settlement. The squalid camps already hosted generations of Rohingya expelled from Rakhine and the latest arrivals pushed numbers close to one million.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar says it is ready to take back those who fled. But it refuses to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, falsely labelling them “Bengali” illegal immigrants. A deal between Myanmar and Bangladesh to start sending them back has stalled. Fewer than 200 have been repatriated so far.
Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi this week said it was up to Bangladesh “to decide how quickly” repatriation can be done, while insisting the “terrorist threat” posed by Rohingya militants remains “real and present”.
The Rohingya say they will not return without a guarantee of their safety, citizenship and compensation for homes and land torched. “We don’t want to [go] back without justice and without our rights and a proper guarantee that we won’t be driven out again,” 18-year-old Aman Ullah told AFP in Cox’s Bazar.
Thousands of refugees, from children to the elderly, marched prayed and chanted slogans in events across the sprawling camps in southern Bangladesh. Many wore black ribbons to commemorate what they said was the start of the ‘Rohingya genocide’.
“We prayed the morning prayers inside our house over the sound of bullets. We were so scared,” said Aisha, 47, one of dozens of women at a gathering in the Kutupalong camp, recalling the outbreak of the conflict.
Things became worse from 2012. In June that year, some Rakhine people killed 10 Rohingya in a village called Toung Gu. Then we heard they and the government were involved in killing hundreds more Rohingya in other towns and districts burning them alive and shooting them dead. Many women were gang-raped. Villages were burned down and Rohingya were arbitrarily arrested. Many died in jail. Four years later, when I was 26, nearly 300 villages were burned down by the Myanmar military. Mosques and Islamic schools were also set on fire. Uncountable numbers of Rohingya people were arrested and sentenced to prison, said Aisha.
I am a Rohingya refugee: We will become like animals if we stay in these camps. Despite everything, we want to go back to Myanmar, but only with citizenship and our rights ‘Noor Ilyas in Jamtoli refugee camp, southern Bangladesh’
The UN and international rights groups say conditions are not ready for them to go back. “It may be decades until they can safely return to Myanmar, if ever,” Medecins Sans Frontieres head of mission in Bangladesh, Pavlo Kolovos, said in a statement.
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Taliban Assault on Ghazni, a Key Afghan City
Ghazni, a city of 280,000 people according to Afghan figures, sits astride the important Highway 1 linking Kabul and Kandahar, the second largest Afghan city, in the south. Provincial council member Nasir Ahmad Faqiri said fresh fighting erupted in the morning of August 12 near the police and spy agency headquarters, as well as the governor’s palace. At least 80 members of Afghanistan’s security forces have been killed in three days of fighting, according to Provincial council member Ahmad Faqiri.
The estimated number of civilian casualties is around 300, with verification ongoing.
The fighting in the city has reportedly ended and Afghan security forces are manning checkpoints throughout the city.
Both electricity and telecommunication services are reportedly operational again, however outages persist. A large number of solar power systems that residents relied on prior to the conflict have re-portedly been damaged and are no longer functional.
Tawhid Abad and Pashtoon Abad neighbourhoods appear to be the most affected areas of the city, with an estimated 2,000 houses damaged to some extent during the recent fighting. There also re-ports of the conflict having damaged pubic infrastructure, including the water distribution system.
Source: ‘UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’
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Kabul suicide bomber kills 48 in tuition centre attack
Forty-eight people have been killed and 67 injured in a bomb explosion at an education centre in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, officials say. Police say a suicide bomber walked into the centre while teaching was under way and detonated his bomb belt. Many of those killed were teenagers who were getting extra tuition as they prepared for university entrance exams. In the northern province of Baghlan, an attack killed at least nine policemen and 35 soldiers, officials say. Taliban militants denied involvement in the Kabul attack, in a mostly Shia Muslim area. The Shia community in Afghanistan has been repeatedly targeted by Sunni Muslim extremists of the Islamic State group, which views the Shia practice of Islam as heretical.
ISIS Leader, Abu Sayeed Orakzai Killed By US Drone Strike In Afghanistan
The head of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, Abu Sayeed Orakzai, has been killed in a U.S. Strike, according to Afghan officials. The U.S. military said the strike took place Saturday in Nangarhar province, close to the Pakistan border. “I can confirm that U.S. forces conducted a counterterrorism strike … which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization,” Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement. O’Donnell also pointed to comments via Twitter by a deputy spokesperson of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that Orakzai, described as the emir of ISIS in Afghanistan, had died in the strike. The U.S. has killed a succession of ISIS leaders in Afghanistan.
In July 2017, the Pentagon said a strike killed Abu Sayed — the heir to Abdul Hasib, who died three months earlier. A drone strike in July 2016 killed Hafiz Sayed Khan. Discussing the weekend operation, O’Donnell drew a distinction between counter-terrorism efforts against the Taliban and groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS-K, or ISIS-Khorasan, a name for the extremist group’s outpost in Afghanistan.
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Saudi coalition air strike in Yemen kills 50, including 29 school children
09 Aug 2018| An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels hit a bus driving in a busy market in northern Yemen, killing least 50 people including children and wounding 77, Yemen’s rebel-run Al Masirah TV said citing rebel Health Ministry figures.
The Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile, said it targeted the rebels, known as Houthis, who had fired a missile at the kingdom’s south on Wednesday, killing one person who was a Yemeni resident in the area. The attack took place in the Dahyan market in Saada province, a Houthi stronghold. The province lies along the border with Saudi Arabia. The bus was ferrying local civilians, including many children, according to Yemeni tribal leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
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Lombok Earthquake Kills 100, Strands Tourists on Indonesian Islands
August 6, 2018: The 6.9 magnitude earthquake was felt throughout neighboring islands like Bali. Just one week ago, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the southeastern Indonesian island of Lombok, killing at least 16, injuring around 330, and stranding hikers across the island’s Mount Rinjani volcano. Then on Sunday, the island was hit by an even deadlier 6.9-magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 100 so far, though officials expect the number to grow as rescue efforts continue. Lombok and the surrounding islandsincluding Balihave felt more than 130 aftershocks, including one that registered as 5.4, The New York Times reports.
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Italy bridge collapse ‘leaves 35 dead’
14 Aug. 2018 : The Ponte Morandi A10 – in Genoa – has been destroyed in what a minister has described as “an immense tragedy”. Around 35 people – including a 10-year-old boy – have died, and many more are fighting for their lives after after a 200-metre long section of an Italian motorway bridge collapsed. Devastating footage shows the viaduct on the A10 motorway in Genoa disintegrating in the catastrophe at around 11.30am. Around 30 vehicles are believed to have been on the road when both carriageways fell away. There had been heavy rain during a violent storm before the incident and Italian media reported that the bridge had been struck by lightening.
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Cost Of Syria War Destruction At $388 Billion, Says UN
BEIRUT, LEBANON: Agence France-Presse | August 09, 2018
Seven years of relentless conflict in Syria have wreaked destruction that the United Nations said Wednesday had cost the country close to a whopping $400 billion. The figure was released after a two-day meeting of more than 50 Syrian and international experts in neighbouring Lebanon, hosted by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
ESCWA said the “volume of destruction in physical capital and its sectoral distribution” had been estimated at more than $388 billion. It said the figure did not include “human losses resulting from deaths or the loss of human competences and skilled labour due to displacement, which were considered the most important enablers of the Syrian economy.”
More than half of Syria’s pre-war population has fled the country or been displaced internally over the past seven years. Russia’s 2015 military intervention helped a spectacular recovery by government forces, which have regained significant ground in recent months. Terrorist and rebel forces remain in some pockets, but with the military balance hugely in the regime’s favour, efforts have already been shifting toward reconstruction.
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Major provocations using chemical weapons planned in Syria – Russia’s Ministry of Defense
MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/. Major provocations with the alleged use of chemical weapons are planned in Syria with the participation of foreign specialists, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters. “According to the information that the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria received today from the residents of the Idlib, foreign (English-speaking) experts arrived in the Hbit settlement located in the south of the Idlib zone of de-escalation for staging a ‘chemical attack’ using chlorine-loaded missiles,” said he. “Thus, the interested extra-regional forces are once again preparing major provocations in Syria using poisonous substances to severely destabilize the situation and disrupt the steady dynamics of the ongoing peace process,” Konashenkov noted.
Provocation with the use of ammunition with toxic substances will be conducted in Syria in the next two days with the participation of foreign special agents, Konashenkov told reporters.
“The strike on the settlement of Kafr Zayta from rocket launchers using poisonous substances is planned in the next two days,” he said.
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Iran test-fires ballistic missile for first time in 2018, officials say
EXCLUSIVE 11-Aug, 2018| For the first time in more than a year, Iran test-fired a ballistic missile in a brazen display of defiance months after President Trump pulled the United States out of a landmark nuclear deal and days before his administration slapped new sanctions on the Islamic Republic, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the launch.
The test of an Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile coincided with a large-scale naval exercise by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces late last week involving over 50 small gunboats in the Strait of Hormuz to rehearse “swarm” tactics which could one day potentially shut down the vital waterway, through which 30 percent of the world’s oil passes each year. While the U.S. military publicly acknowledged the naval activity, the missile test from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base in Bandar-e-Jask in southeastern Iran has not been previously reported. The launch was detected by U.S. spy satellites.
According to the officials, the anti-ship Fateh-110 Mod 3 flew over 100 miles on a flight path over the Strait of Hormuz to a test range in the Iranian desert. “It was shore-to-shore,” said one U.S. official describing the launch, who like the others requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information. There were no U.S. military assets nearby or in danger when Iran conducted the test, the official added. The guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans has been escorting vessels through the strait in recent days.
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Iran unveils new domestic fighter jet ‘Kowsar’
The fighter jet called Kowsar was fully domestic made, capable of carrying various weapons, and will be used for short aerial support missions. Images released by state media show President Hassan Rouhani sitting in the cockpit of the aircraft named Kowsar. Iran unveiled a new domestic fighter jet with President Hassan Rouhani saying Tehran’s military strength was only designed to deter enemies and aimed at creating “lasting peace”.
Images broadcast on state television showed Rouhani sitting in the cockpit of the new Kowsar fourth-generation fighter at the National Defence Industry exhibition in Tehran. State media said it had “advanced avionics” and multi-purpose radar, and it was “100-percent indigenously made” for the first time.
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Israel plans to land unmanned spacecraft on moon in February
YEHUD, Israel (Reuters) – By : Ari Rabinovitch
An Israeli non-profit group plans to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon in February in the first landing of its kind since 2013. The craft, which is shaped like a round table with four carbon fiber legs, is set to blast off in December from Florida’s Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, said Ido Anteby, chief executive of the SpaceIL non-profit.
It aims to transmit pictures and videos back to earth over two days after it lands on Feb. 13 as well as measuring magnetic fields. “Our spacecraft will be the smallest ever to land on the moon,” said Anteby.
Since 1966, the United States and the former Soviet Union have put around 12 unmanned spacecraft on the moon using braking power to perform “soft” landings and China did so in 2013.
SpaceIL was founded in 2011 by a group of engineers with a budget of about $90 million and they had to sacrifice size and operational capabilities for more efficient travel.
The craft, unveiled on Tuesday at state-owned defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries, stands about 1.5 meters high and weighs 585 kg (1,290 lb). The spacecraft has four carbon fiber legs and fuel takes up two-thirds of its weight.
At 60,000 km (37,000 miles) above Earth the spacecraft will deploy. It will orbit Earth in expanding ellipses and, about two months later, cross into the moon’s orbit. It will then slow and carry out a soft landing causing no damage to the craft.
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China just tested a hypersonic weapon the US can’t defend against
By : Steve Mollman :
Provided by Quartz An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 2:10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, U.S., August 2, 2017. China has successfully tested a new hypersonic aircraft that would likely make a mockery of US missile defense systems in battle. The experimental “waverider” vehicle, China’s first, rides the shock waves generated during hypersonic flight. It could one day carry multiple nuclear warheads.
According to state media reports published, the test was in northwestern China. The Starry Sky 2 was first carried airborne by a solid-propellant rocket. After separation, it glided back to down to earth at speeds reaching 7,344 km per hour (4,563 mph), displaying a high degree of maneuverability along the way.
The US’s existing missile defense systems, criticized for their high price and spotty track record, struggle to intercept more conventional projectiles, much less hypersonic aircraft, which travel in a less predictable manner and are hard to detect.
This is the first time China has officially confirmed its development of “wave rider” technology, though it has been working on hypersonic glide vehicles since 2014. China, Russia, and the US are the main contenders in the hypersonic arena, and are engaged what some see as a new arms race based on the technology.
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NASA launches probe to go deep into Sun’s scorching atmosphere
(Reuters)| The craft will endure extreme heat while zooming through the solar corona to study the Sun’s outer atmosphere that gives rise to the solar winds. The Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft the size of a small car, launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, on a seven-year mission. It is set to fly into the Sun’s corona within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the solar surface, seven times closer than any other spacecraft.
The corona gives rise to the solar wind, a continuous flow of charged particles that permeates the solar system and can cause havoc with communications technology on Earth. NASA hopes the findings will enable scientists to forecast changes in Earth’s space environment.
The project, with a $1.5 billion price tag, is the first major mission under NASA’s Living With a Star program.The probe, named after American solar astrophysicist Eugene Newman Parker, will have to survive difficult heat and radiation conditions. It has been outfitted with a heat shield designed to keep its instruments at a tolerable 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) even as the spacecraft faces temperatures reaching nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,370 degrees Celsius) at its closest pass.
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An Air Force Stealth B-2 Spirit Just Test-Dropped a Nuclear Bomb
This is what it could do in battle.
by Kris Osborn : National Interest
The Air Force’s B-2 Stealth bomber has test-dropped an upgraded, multi-function B61-12 nuclear bomb which improves accuracy, integrates various attack options into a single bomb and changes the strategic landscape with regard to nuclear weapons mission possibilities.
Earlier this summer, the Air Force dropped a B61-12 nuclear weapon from a B-2 at Nellis AFB, marking a new developmental flight test phase for the upgraded bomb, Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Hope Cronin told Warrior Maven. “The updated weapon will include improved safety, security and reliability,” Cronin said.
The B61-12 adds substantial new levels of precision targeting and consolidates several different kinds of attack options into a single weapon. Instead of needing separate variants of the weapon for different functions, the B61-12 by itself allows for earth-penetrating attacks, low-yield strikes, high-yield attacks, above surface detonation and bunker-buster options.
“The main advantage of the B61-12 is that it packs all the gravity bomb capabilities against all the targeting scenarios into one bomb. That spans from very low-yield tactical “clean” use with low fallout to more dirty attacks against underground targets,” Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project, Federation of American Scientists, told Warrior Maven.
Air Force officials describe this, in part, by referring to the upgraded B61-12 as having an “All Up Round.”
“The flight test accomplished dedicated B61-12 developmental test requirements and “All Up Round” system level integration testing on the B-2,” Cronin said.
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Washington shows greater trust in India
In terms of being accorded an exception to receive dual-use technologies that are highly restricted, India is now in a even higher category than long-term US ally Israel, and in Asia it joins Japan and South Korea. It can now import without seeking specific licenses around 90 per cent of the defense equipment and sophisticated technologies that the US may have. The manufacture of such equipment in India is also not ruled out, and that is a major spinoff.
Washington giving New Delhi this new status is thought to underline three key aspects of international security:
One, America is satisfied that India’s credentials on proliferation are of the highest order and what is sold to India will not be leaked to any other country;
Two, India acquiring the most sophisticated American defense and technology wares will not cause regional instability (Israel is probably ruled out on this count);
Third, that the US is steadfast in its thinking India is fit to be a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), from which it has been kept out through assiduous Chinese exertion.
In Indian policy circles, it was thought America’s relations with India weren’t valued as much as it was under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The placing of India on Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 now, pushing it up from STA-2, appears to negate that line of thought. New Delhi will no doubt want that its placement in the highest category is given effect to at the earliest by Washington. Perhaps this will come through when US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defense secretary Jim Mattis visit New Delhi in September for the “2+2” dialogue. India will do well to keep the focus on the new defence acquisitions it seeks from the United States.
Indications also became available that the US will not now sanction India over obtaining defence supplies from Russia, including the S-400 anti-missile system which earlier appeared to have upset the Americans. This is a good sign and admits of a better US appreciation of India’s strategic concerns and its geostrategic sensitivities in a multi-polar world. It is desirable from the Indian perspective that American clarity of this order also applies to India’s autonomy on obtaining energy supplies, including from Iran, with which America’s relations have been tangled since the Shah of Iran was overthrown.
In the end, no country should be able to dictate who India’s friends should be, and those who want India to not remain engaged with the US on compatible terms should also be given short shrift.
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India to Raise Indigenous Content in Upcoming Nuclear Power Projects
By : ASIA & PACIFIC | The Indian government has made it clear that it has no proposal under consideration to allow private sector firms to set up nuclear power reactors in the country, but that the share of indigenous content in the upcoming nuclear power reactors, including that of foreign contributed projects, will be raised. The Narendra Modi-led government has announced that domestic private firms will be given a major share in all upcoming nuclear power plant projects in the country, thereby increasing the share of nationally made content in the nuclear reactors.
The government has already started outsourcing a major chunk of work to the private sector in two major projects the pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR) and light water reactor projects. In the PHWR project, the private sector has been tasked with providing plant components, equipment, services in areas including construction, fabrication, and erection of equipment, piping, electrical, instrumentation, and consultancy, auxiliary and logistical services.
“In respect of Light Water Reactors (LWR) (2000 MW) set up with foreign cooperation, the Indian private sector is involved in the supply of some of the equipment and in the execution of works contracts. The indigenous content in LWRs is planned to be increased progressively,” Jitendra Singh, the junior minister in the department of atomic energy informed the Parliament.
India’s two fully operational nuclear power plant units at the Kudankulum have 20% local content. The overall indigenization of the power plant is expected to cross 50% with the commissioning of the fifth and the sixth units. Currently, the third and fourth units are being constructed at a cost of approximately $6 billion, while the $7.5 billion have been sanctioned for the fifth and sixth units.
However, the government has made it clear that the private sector will not be allowed directly in the nuclear power generation business. “There is no proposal under consideration at present, to permit private sector in the area of nuclear power generation,” Minister Jitendra Singh added. The clarification comes against the backdrop of arguments from various sectors that private enterprises should be allowed to participate in the business of nuclear power generation as the state-owned NPCIL lacks capital, which inhibits the growth potential the sector deserves.
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India Successfully Tests Home-Grown Low Altitude Ballistic Missile Interceptor
New Delhi (Sputnik) | After almost 20 years of efforts, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has developed both high-altitude and low-altitude missiles which can purportedly intercept medium-range ballistic missiles traveling at speeds of Mach 3 to 8. Advanced Air Defense (AAD) supersonic interceptor missile, designed to destroy incoming low-altitude ballistic missiles at a range of 15-25 kilometers. “This was the first time when the AAD missile was fired against multiple targets simulated electronically by the mission team. The missile attacked one after choosing it from a bunch of targets,” the defense official said.
The missile was flight tested from Abdul Kalam Island, home to the Indian military’s principal missile test facility, off the coast of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal at about 11.25 am (Indian Standard Time). The missile is 24.6 feet long and is equipped with a state-of-the-art navigation system. It is a single-stage, solid fuel, rocket-propelled guided missile that can track its target independently. Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Defense Minister, congratulated the defense scientists for this successful test-mission.
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‘Peace is never a perfect achievement’
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Passed away
World leaders honour former UN chief and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan.
He “passed away peacefully on Saturday 18 Aug. 2018, after a short illness at age 80”, the Kofi Annan Foundation said. Current UN chief Antonio Guterres hailed him as “a guiding force for good”. Mr Guterres led the tributes to his predecessor. “In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organisation into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination,” he said in a statement.
The Ghanaian national served as UN chief from 1997 to 2006 and is the only black African ever to hold the post. Since then he has served as the UN special envoy for Syria, leading efforts to find a solution to the conflict. Even out of office, Annan never completely left the U.N. orbit. He returned in special roles, including as the U.N.-Arab League’s special envoy to Syria in 2012. He remained a powerful advocate for global causes through his eponymous foundation.
Kofi Annan’s most impactful quotes
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
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Former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Passed away
The 93-year-old Vajpayee had battled poor health for years but his condition deteriorated sharply in recent days, with doctors placing him on life support. The sudden turn sparked a flurry of visits from top dignitaries, including Modi, who credited Vajpayee with laying the foundations for the meteoric rise of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which rules India today.
His more than five-decade-long career peaked in the 1990s, when his masterful oratory attracted tens of thousands of people to his rallies across the country. He also became the first non-Congress leader since India’s independence in 1947 to complete an entire term in office as head of a BJP-led ruling alliance between March 1998 and May 2004. In early 1999, he embarked on a historic bus ride to the Pakistani city of Lahore and met then-premier Nawaz Sharif in a bid to ease tensions.
Vetean US Senator John McCain dies of brain cancer, age81
Mr McCain died on Saturday 25 Aug. 2018 in Arizona. He was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in July 2017 and had been undergoing medical treatment. The six-term senator for Arizona and 2008 Republican presidential nominee was diagnosed after doctors discovered his tumour during surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye last July.
In politics, he took a conservative line on many issues, including opposing abortion and advocating higher defence spending. He backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and criticised President Obama for not intervening more in the Syrian civil war. Mr McCain criticised President Trump’s hard-line rhetoric on illegal immigration and his attacks on the media.
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Gaza protests: All the latest updates
Al Jazeera (31 Aug.) : Since protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed at least 166 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave. For more than four months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have protested along the fence with Israel demanding their right to return to the homes and land their families were expelled from 70 years ago.
The Great March of Return rallies culminated on May 15 to mark what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or Catastrophe – a reference to the forced removal of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages to clear the way for Israel’s establishment in 1948.
The mass demonstrations have since continued.
Since the protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed at least 166 Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave and wounded more than 18,000 people, according to health officials in Gaza.
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China Harbour builds new terminal south of Egypt’s Suez Canal
Source:Xinhua |30 Aug. 2018 | China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) started the main phase of the construction of a new terminal basin in Sokhna Port south of the Suez Canal northeast of Egypt. The project was assigned to CHEC by the Sokhna branch of the Emirati corporation DP World, the main investor and container operator in the port located at the Gulf of Suez. At a launching ceremony, CHEC said it will deliver the “Basin 2” project in fewer than 12 months ahead of the deadline.
“Today’s event is to show our determination to finish the project quickly and with high quality,” Chen Shuang, deputy director of CHEC marketing department, told Xinhua at the construction site. Sokhna Port is located within the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), a main economic region in Egypt whose development is one of the country’s mega projects to attract foreign investments for further economic growth.
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Body of Russian climber missing for 31 years found preserved in ice like a ‘wax doll’
31 Aug, 2018 | Elena Bazykina reportedly looked like a “wax doll” as her body was pulled from Mount Elbrus in southern Russia.
The mountaineer was 36 when she died alongside another six of her friends after they were hit by an avalanche back in 1987.
The body of the woman was found encased in ice by a group of tourists at an altitude of about 4,000 meters (over 13,000 feet). Her USSR passport was found on the remains, as well as her Aeroflot air ticket from Moscow, dated 10 April 1987. Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported that Bazykina who was unmarried and without children when she perished worked at the Moscow Scientific Institute. Mountains were “the biggest love of her life.”
Both of Elena’s parents have died, and a search for surviving loved ones was not looking promising, when her cousin saw the Komsomolskaya Pravda article and contacted the paper.
All this time, the family thought that maybe Elena was still alive, he said. “We have been waiting for Elena for 30 years.”
“We tried to guess what could have happened to her and feared perhaps that she was kidnapped or kept hostage somewhere. It is such a dangerous region,” he said.
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