Suspected drone attack in Abu Dhabi kills 3, wounds 6
By AYA BATRAWY | (17 Jan, 2022)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Police in the United Arab Emirates identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. It did not identify the wounded, who police said suffered minor to moderate injuries at an industrial area where Abu Dhabi’s state-owned energy company runs a pipeline network and an oil tanker storage facility. Three transport tankers caught fire at the facility, while another fire was sparked at an extension of Abu Dhabi International Airport. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed they were behind an attack targeting the United Arab Emirates , without immediately elaborating. The Iranian-backed Houthis have claimed several attacks that Emirati officials later denied took place. The incident comes as Yemen’s yearslong war rages on and as an Emirati-flagged vessel was recently captured by the Houthis. Although the UAE has largely withdrawn its own forces from the conflict tearing apart the Arab world’s poorest nation, it is still actively engaged in Yemen and supports local militias there fighting the Houthis. The UAE has been at war in Yemen since early 2015, and was a key member of the Saudi-led coalition that launched attacks against the Houthis after the group overran the capital of Yemen and ousted the internationally backed government from power.(Source: Associated Press)
Saudi-led coalition launches deadly air raids in Yemen’s Sanaa
The air raids came five days after the Houthis claimed a drone-and-missile attack on the United Arab Emirates that killed three people and prompted warnings of reprisals. At least 70 people killed in air raid on prison in northern city of Saada, and dozens of others wounded. (21 Jan 2022) A Saudi-led military coalition has intensified attacks on what it has said are military targets linked to the Houthi rebel movement, after the Houthis conducted an unprecedented assault on coalition member the United Arab Emirates and launched missiles and drones at Saudi cities. Footage released by the Houthis on Friday 21 January 2022. showed rescue workers pulling bodies from out of the rubble, following the dawn raid on the temporary detention centre in Saada. Taha al-Motawakel, health minister in the Houthi government, which controls the country’s north, told The Associated Press news agency that 70 detainees were killed at the prison. He said the death toll was expected to rise since many of the wounded were seriously hurt. An MSF spokesperson told the AFP news agency at least 70 people were killed and 138 others were wounded in the attack. NetBlocks said the internet disruption began around 1am local time (22:00 GMT on Thursday 20, January) and affected TeleYemen, the state-owned monopoly that controls internet access in the country. According to the UK-based charity Save the Children, at least three children were killed in the Hodeidah air raid. “The children were reportedly playing on a nearby football field when missiles struck the port town of Hodeidah,” it said in a statement. The Saudi-led military coalition said the reports would be fully investigated. The attacks on Yemen were also condemned by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In a statement, the UN said Guterres “reminds all parties that attacks directed against civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited by international humanitarian law”.
Escalation
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab, reporting from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, said thousands of Houthi supporters took to the streets in Sanaa and other cities across Yemen to condemn the air raids. Tensions have soared in recent month after the UAE-backed Giants Brigade drove the rebels out of Shabwa province, undermining their months-long campaign to take the key city of Marib further north. On January 3, the Houthis hijacked a United Arab Emirates-flagged ship in the Red Sea, prompting a warning from the coalition that it would target rebel-held ports.The ship’s 11 international crew members are being held captive. The UN has estimated the war killed 377,000 people by the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease. UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash warned the country would exercise its right to defend itself after the Abu Dhabi attack. “The Emirates have the legal and moral right to defend their lands, population and sovereignty, and will exercise this right to defend themselves and prevent terrorist acts pursued by the Houthi group,” he told US special envoy Hans Grundberg, according to the official WAM news agency. (SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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China and Iran Since the 25-Year Agreement: The Limits of Cooperation
By Maziar Motamedi | 15 Jan 2022
Tehran, Iran A 25-year comprehensive cooperation agreement signed between Iran and China last year has now entered the implementation stage, according to Iran’s foreign minister.
Hossein Amirabdollahian, in his first visit to China as foreign minister, announced the news late Friday after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Signed in Tehran in March 2021 when former President Hassan Rouhani was in office, the “strategic accord” entails economic, military and security cooperation, even as both countries are under different levels of United States sanctions. Among other things, China has been purchasing Iranian oil with a discount in defiance of the sanctions over the past three years. Neither country discloses exact details.During his visit, Amirabdollahian also delivered a letter by President Ebrahim Raisi for President Xi Jinping, which he said contained an “important message” for Raisi’s administration. He did not elaborate on the contents, but the Raisi administration has repeatedly emphasised an “Asia-centric” foreign policy that includes China as an important factor. Amirabdollahian’s visit came amid a flurry of meetings in Wuxi, Jiangsu. The foreign minister landed there shortly after China’s Yi held talks with the secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the foreign ministers of four of its member countries Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain in addition to the Turkish foreign minister. (SOURCE: AL JAZEERA)
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UK Sends 30 Elite Troops, 2000 Anti-tank Weapons To Ukraine
Written By Zaini Majeed | 21st January, 2022
Britain has dispatched around 30 elite troops, some 2,000 anti-tank missile launchers, and the British surveillance aircraft to Ukraine under Operational Orbital [official name of British military’s security assistance mission to Kyiv that began in 2015 after Moscow annexation of Crimea] amid the fears of the imminent Russian invasion. Members of the UK’s Ranger Regiment, part of the army’s newly formed Special Operations Brigade, flew out the military planes with the anti-tank weaponry to help Kyiv soldiers fight over 127,000 Russian forces that have amassed on the border, sources revealed to Britain’s SKY news. Top US general: Russian troop movements are “different” from what US has seen in “recent memory”
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the troop movements from Russia along the border with Ukraine and into Belarus are “different” from what the US has seen “in recent memory,” during a joint press briefing with the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.
“It does feel different,” Milley said. “This is larger in scale and scope in the massing of forces than anything we’ve seen in recent memory, and I think you’d have to go back quite a while into the Cold War days to see something of this magnitude.” Milley said these movements are different from Russian troop annual exercises, which the Pentagon watches closely. Meanwhile: In spite of the ratcheting warnings of impending war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has signaled that diplomatic discussions between Russia and the West will press on at least for now. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that Moscow did not want war with Ukraine. US and UK embassy withdrawals were a “mistake,” says Ukrainian president Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the decision by the United States and United Kingdom to withdraw some staff from their embassies in Kyiv was a “mistake.” “The signals that we were getting from the diplomats, these nonessential staff, I don’t think so. Under these circumstances, everyone is essential. Everyone should stay, to be honest,” Zelensky added. The Ukrainian president went on to give Greece as an example, which had kept its diplomats in Mariupol, a city on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine president says he’s ready to meet with Putin Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he is ready to meet with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, but noted that a conversation between the two would have to be “serious.” “I’m not afraid of any format of the meeting bilateral, OK, I don’t care, I’m ready,” Zelensky said in news conference with foreign journalists on Friday. “I mean, it has to be serious. People don’t understand the value of the human life and that’s what it’s about. I do support serious dialogue.”
(Source: CNN News)
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Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky lashes out at Western ‘panic’ over Russia tensions
Reuters | 29 Jan, 2022
President Volodymyr Zelensky did not rule out a full-blown war with Russia but said Ukraine was not a sinking Titanic and accused Washington and media of fuelling panic that weighed on the economy while there were “no tanks in the streets”. He spoke after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States and Nato had not addressed the Kremlin’s main security demands in the East-West stand-off over Ukraine, but that Moscow was ready to keep talking. Speaking at a news conference for foreign media, Zelensky said: “There are no tanks in the streets. But media give the impression, if one is not here, that we have a war, that we have army in the streets … That’s not the case. We don’t need this panic.” “I don’t consider the situation now more tense than before,” he said, but added: “I am not saying an escalation is not possible.” He said the White House was making a “mistake” in highlighting excessively the risk of a large-scale war, and that this was the message he gave US President Joe Biden in their phone call. “NO TITANIC” He said NATO was the only guarantor of hard security Ukraine had in its stand-off with Russia, warning that the military alliance’s eastern members might also be exposed to hostile tactics by Moscow. “This is a very serious challenge for Nato. Some European countries think: let’s not risk, let’s not take Ukraine in. But, if a full-blown war starts, it will also take place on the borders of some Nato countries.” “If there is major war, it will be not only against Ukraine, not only on the territory of our country,” he said. He criticized Germany for pursuing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, accusing it of prioritising business deals with Russia over Ukraine’s security and territorial integrity. He also named Britain among countries allowing money laundering by Russians, as well as by oligarchs siphoning money from countries including Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
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Taiwan reports new large-scale Chinese air force incursion
(23 Jan 2022) Taiwan has reported the largest incursion since October by China’s air force into its air defence zone, with the island’s defence ministry saying Taiwanese fighters scrambled to warn away 39 aircraft in the latest uptick in tensions. Taiwan has complained for more than a year of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. Taiwan calls China’s repeated nearby military activities “grey zone” warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan’s forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwan’s responses. The latest Chinese mission included 34 fighters plus four electronic warfare aircraft and a single bomber, the Taiwan ministry said. The aircraft flew in an area to the northeast of the Pratas, according to a map the ministry provided. The Taiwan Air Force issued radio warnings and its air defence missile systems were activated, the ministry said in the statement issued.
There was no immediate comment from China, which has in the past said such moves were drills aimed at protecting the country’s sovereignty.
Before the latest incursion, Beijing had already sent 70 Chinese warplanes on 17 days into Taiwan’s air defence zone since the new year began.
No shots have been fired and the Chinese aircraft have not been flying in Taiwan’s airspace, but in its ADIZ, a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China considers the self-ruled democracy part of its territory.(SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES)
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North Korea’s missile-firing mania continues as it conducts sixth test of 2022
(27 Jan, 2022)
South Korea’s military said the two suspected short-range ballistic missiles, launched from an eastern coastal area, flew about 190km The latest test is among the most missiles ever launched by Pyongyang in a month as it ‘runs hard in what it perceives as an arms race with Seoul’, analysts say Nuclear-armed North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Thursday 27 January, drawing condemnation from the United States for what would be the Sixth round of missile tests this month. It is among the most missiles ever launched by North Korea in a month, analysts said, as Pyongyang has kicked off 2022 by displaying a dizzying array of new and operational weapons. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it had detected the launch of what it presumed were two ballistic missiles about 8am (local time) from near Hamhung, on the east coast of North Korea. They travelled for about 190km to a maximum altitude of 20km, JCS added. North Korea’s recent “remarkable development” in nuclear and missile technology could not be overlooked, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a briefing. Earlier in the month, North Korea tested tactical guided missiles, two “Hypersonic missiles” capable of high speed and manoeuvring after lift-off, and a railway-borne missile system. North Korea has defended its missile tests as its sovereign right for self-defence, and said the US sanctions proved that even as Washington proposes talks, it maintains a “hostile” policy toward Pyongyang.(Source: South China Morning Post)
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Syria prison attack kills more than 100, clashes ongoing
(23 Jan 2022) At least 120 people have been killed in ongoing battles between US-backed, Kurdish-led forces and ISIL (ISIS) fighters after an attack on a Syrian prison.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “at least 77 IS members and 39 Kurdish fighters, including internal security forces, prison guards and counter-terrorism forces have been killed” in the attack that started. ISIL claimed responsibility for the prison break on its Amaq media mouthpiece. A video it released on Saturday purported to show armed men infiltrating the prison and raising the group’s black flag as they stormed the Kurdish-run Ghwayran jail in Hasakeh city. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)
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There’s a Mass Palestinian Grave at a Popular Israeli Beach, Veterans Confess
The Israeli veterans of the 1948 battle at Tantura village finally come clean about the mass killing of Arabs that took place after the village’s surrender
(By: Adam Raz)
“They silenced it,” the former combat soldier Moshe Diamant says, trying to be spare with his words. “It mustn’t be told, it could cause a whole scandal. I don’t want to talk about it, but it happened. What can you do? It happened.” Twenty-two years have passed since the furor erupted over the account of what occurred during the conquest by Israeli troops of the village of Tantura, north of Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast, in the War of Independence. The controversy sprang up in the wake of a master’s thesis written by an Israeli graduate student named Theodore Katz, that contained testimony about atrocities perpetrated by the Alexandroni Brigade against Arab prisoners of war. The thesis led to the publication of an article in the newspaper Maariv headlined “The Massacre at Tantura.” Ultimately, a libel suit filed against Katz by veterans of the brigade induced him to retract his account of a massacre.
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“Stop inciting murder” Hindu bigots are openly urging Indians to murder Muslims The ruling party does nothing to stop them (Jan 15th 2022)
“All hindus must pick up weapons and conduct a cleanliness drive,” bellowed a Hindu priest at a three-day “religious parliament” in north India last month. Another speaker fired up the large crowd even more crudely: “If a hundred of us become soldiers and kill two million of them, we will be victorious.” By “them”, she meant India’s 200m Muslims.
Listen to this story: Those priests baying for blood are not isolated bigots. Under the Hindu-nationalist government of Narendra Modi, the world’s most populous democracy has seen a growing wave of intolerance. In Gurgaon, a satellite city of Delhi, Muslims have been denied the use of open space to pray because it “offends sentiments”. They have also been denied permission to build mosques. Elsewhere Muslims accused of transporting cattle for slaughter, or of being in possession of beef, are sometimes lynched. Muslim businesses are boycotted. In recent months young Hindu radicals have persecuted high-profile Muslim women by creating apps to “auction” them off. Muslims are not the only target of Hindu chauvinism. In Varanasi, a Hindu temple town, posters warn non-Hindus to stay away. Attacks on Christians, a tiny minority, have risen in recent years. Last week, after Mr Modi, the prime minister, was briefly delayed on an overpass in Sikh-majority Punjab, people associated with his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) warned darkly of a repeat of 1984, when thousands of Sikhs were killed in pogroms after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. In an index of societal discrimination against minorities compiled by Bar Ilan University in Israel, India scores worse than Saudi Arabia and no better than Iran. It is impossible to know the number of hate crimes in the country: independent trackers were shut down in 2017 and 2019, and the government stopped collecting data in 2017. Another reason to worry is the silence of the government. From the prime minister downwards, no senior figure has condemned the drumbeat of incitement. When asked about it by the bbc, one BJP politician ripped off his microphone and stomped off. Academics, bureaucrats and retired army officers have sent anxious pleas to Mr Modi to appeal for calm. Yet only one unimportant official the vice-presidenthas spoken up.With big elections due next month, the mood could grow even more fissile. Senior bjp officials stop short of urging people to kill minorities, but they do incite hatred. Yogi Adityanath, the Hindu-nationalist chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest state, declared that the vote was about the 80% against the 20%that is, Hindus against Muslims.Some pundits fear the BJP is resorting to divisive rhetoric because it can no longer rely on divisive promises, such as stripping the Muslim-majority former state of Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and starting work on a temple where a mosque once stood in the holy city of Ayodhya. Having honoured those commitments, it needs something new. And with the economy battered by the pandemic, a hostile China poking at the border and slim prospects for the millions who join the labour force every year, it is succumbing to its worst instincts.The Indian government should realise that by pumping up the ridiculous notion that India’s 300m or so non-Hindus represent a threat to the 1.1bn majority, it is unleashing forces that may become uncontrollable. Sectarian bloodshed can generate a momentum of its own. India has suffered enough in the past for the risks to be obvious: hundreds of thousands died during its post-colonial partition, possibly more. Subsequent decades have seen episodic pogroms. But until recently, although rogue politicians often stirred up hatred for electoral advantage, the secular state mostly acted as a restraint. No longer. The West, distracted by Russia and China, has paid little attention. Yet a stable, democratic India would be a counterweight to authoritarian China. A Hindu chauvinist India would not only be nastier for its inhabitants; it could also spread instability, prone to even worse relations with its Muslim neighbours. India’s friends, starting with America, should use their influence to persuade Mr Modi and his acolytes to check the spread of hate before it explodes into widespread violence. Mr Modi should want to prevent such a calamity, too. Does he? (Source: The Print)
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Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi killed in during US raid in Syria
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi set off a blast killing himself and his family as special forces rounded on his hideout after a gunfight. Qurayshi’s death “removed a major terrorist threat to the world”, Mr Biden said. US officials did not name the IS deputy also killed, but provided dramatic details of the operation that had been months in the planning.
IS has so far made no public comments on the issue. Several US experts told the BBC that Qurayshi’s death would be a blow to IS, but the group would ultimately regroup.
The raid targeted a three-storey residential building on the outskirts of the opposition-held town of Atmeh, which is in northern Idlib province and close to the border with Turkey.
The region is a stronghold of jihadist groups that are fierce rivals of IS, as well as Turkish-backed rebel factions fighting the Syrian government. Intelligence reports had established that Qurayshi was living with his family on the second floor of the residential building in Atmeh from which he ran IS using couriers to despatch his orders in Syria and elsewhere. A notorious militant known as “the Destroyer”, Qurayshi – who also went by the noms de guerre Hajji Abdullah, Amir Mohammed Said Abdul Rahman al-Mawla and Abdullah Qardash – became IS leader in 2019, following the death of his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Joe Biden on ISIS leader’s death:
“Thanks to our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,”
“This horrible terrorist leader is no more”
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Thousands in Mali celebrate expulsion of French ambassador
(5 Feb 2022) The celebrations on Friday 5th February, where people waved Russian flags and burned cardboard cut-outs of French President Emmanuel Macron, came as tensions between the West African country and its former colonial power have been steadily soaring. “There are thousands and thousands and thousands of Malians today who say ‘No’ to France. So, what the European Union and France need to do is respect the Malian authorities,” Moulaye Keita, member of the country’s National Transition Council, told reporters. “They need to understand that the authorities in charge today are the only ones who can speak for our country,” Keita added.,The standoff comes as Western powers say Russian mercenaries working for the controversial Wagner group have been deployed in Mali, a country at the heart of a long-running conflict in the Sahel region, where thousands of French troops are deployed to fight armed groups. Relations between the two countries have been further deteriorating after the military, which seized power in August 2020, and then again in May, retracted the promise to hold elections in February and proposed holding power until 2025. The standoff escalated last week when the French diplomat was given 72 hours to leave the country. The EU snapped back imposing sanctions on five senior members of the country’s transitional government, including on interim Prime Minister Choguel Maiga.“The EU sanctions are ratcheting up the pressure, but simply follow what the Africans have done themselves,” Terence McCulley, former US ambassador to Mali, told Al Jazeera. “I think dialogue is still an option and still the preferred option with both ECOWAS and the international community,” he said. But Adama Ben Diarra, a sanctioned member of the transitional government, described the restricting measures as an honour, saying that expelling the French ambassador is only the latest step in getting rid of Paris’s influence.“It is an important step in the fight, but the victory must go all the way,” Diarra said in a speech during the rally on Friday. “The next step must be the departure of French forces and then we will start the move towards economic and monetary sovereignty,” he added. Addressing the deployment of Russian mercenaries to Mali, Diarra said: “For the security of my people, I am ready to make a pact with Satan to drive out France and its terrorist allies.” Mali continues to face challenges in trying to contain an armed rebellion that erupted in 2012. Rebels were forced from power in northern cities with the help of a French-led military operation, but they regrouped in the desert and began attacking the Malian army and its allies.Stability in the West African nation has worsened recently with attacks on civilians and United Nations peacekeepers. The EU has also been training the Malian armed forces and plans to continue to do so despite the severe instability and political upheaval.(Source: Al Jazeera and News Agency)
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Deadly bird flu threatens Israel’s wildlife, triggers hunting ban The outbreak is ‘worst blow to wildlife’ in the country’s history.
BYDINA FINE MARON | JANUARY 10, 2022
Thousands of migratory cranes have died and more than half a million chickens have been culled as the country tries to contain a deadly bird virus. Israel has canceled the final month of its five month-long hunting season in a bid to contain a severe bird flu outbreak that’s killed as many as 8,000 wild cranes and sparked concerns about infection among threatened bird species. Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg tweeted in December that this outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu is the “worst blow to wildlife” in Israel’s history and that the full extent of its damage is “still unclear.” The January hunting ban will help limit human-wildlife interactions. The ministry says it’s concerned that hunters unwittingly could spread the disease by carrying the virus on their shoes, tires, or via the dogs they use to collect the ducks and pigeons they shoot. Also, other birds disturbed by hunters may fly to new sites, spreading the virus. (The ministry did not respond to requests for comment about if there’s any evidence that hunters already had contributed to spread in these ways.)H5N1 was first detected at Israeli poultry farms about two months ago and it’s since been confirmed as the cause of death among common cranes, with a fifth of the population of majestic, long-necked birds already infected, according to Israeli authorities.
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Turkiye’s electric vehicle Togg named among top 20 at CES 2022
Turkiye’s homegrown electric vehicle manufacturer Togg has been named among the ‘top 20 brands’ at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where it became one of the highlights of the event.Our friend, Alex Guberman, host of the YouTube channel E For Electric, recently visited the Istanbul headquarters of TOGG, a Turkish electric vehicle startup, and produced the above video on his findings.GG’s factory which is still under construction in Gemlik, Turkey. Very little is yet known about the company, or its first offering, a compact all-electric SUV but that is expected to change very soon as TOGG is having its world premiere at CES in Las Vegas next week. TOGG hasn’t released any specifications yet, but the SUV looks to be roughly the same size of an Audi Q5 or BMW X3 and will sit in the compact-SUV category.TOGG has previously announced that there will be two battery pack options. The smaller pack option should offer about 300 km (186 miles) of range and the larger battery should provide about 500 km (310 miles) of driving range, based on the European NEDC cycle. As for battery supply, Togg has formed a 50:50 joint partnership with Chinese battery manufacturer Farasis Energy and the new company is called Siro. Siro will initially develop and produce batteries in China but will switch to production in Turkey once the domestic manufacturing facility is ready. Source: E For Electric (YouTube)
Legendary Indian Singer Lata Mangeshkar Dies at 92
BY SHEIKH SAALIQ / AP | February 6, 2022
NEW DELHI Lata Mangeshkar, a legendary Indian singer with a prolific, groundbreaking catalog and a voice recognized by more than a billion people in South Asia, has died. She was 92.The iconic singer died on Sunday 6th Feb., morning of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai, her physician, Dr. Pratit Samdani, told reporters. She was hospitalized on Jan. 11 after contracting COVID-19. She was taken off the ventilator after her condition improved in late January but her health deteriorated on Saturday and she was put back on life support.Mangeshkar received a state funeral and Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew in from New Delhi to pay his last respects. Modi laid a wreath next to Mangeshkar’s body, wrapped in the Indian flag, as thousands, including Bollywood stars and politicians, thronged Mumbai’s iconic Shivaji Park where she was cremated amid the chanting of vedic hymns and a special gun salute.India’s public broadcaster, Doordarshan, transmitted live scenes of the cremation to a grieving nation while Mangeshkar’s songs played in the background.Over the course of nearly eight decades, Mangeshkar was a major presence as a playback singer, singing songs that were later lip-synced by actors in India’s lavish Bollywood musicals. She was also fondly revered as the “Melody Queen” and “Nightingale of India.”Mangeshkar’s songs, always filled with emotion, were often sad and mostly dealt with unrequited love, but others involved national pride and were used to motivate Indians and the country’s defense forces during times of wars with neighboring Pakistan and China.Born in Maharashtra on Sept. 28, 1929, Mangeshkar first sang at religious gatherings with her father, who was also a trained singer. After she moved to Mumbai, India’s film industry capital, she became a star with immensely popular appeal, enchanting audiences with her smooth but sharp voice and immortalizing Hindi music for decades to come.Few musicians defined versatility like Mangeshkar, who issued her debut song in 1942 for a Bollywood film when she was just 13. Soon after, she became an icon of Hindi singing, lending her voice to over 5,000 songs in over a thousand Bollywood and regional language films. She sang for Bollywood’s earliest women superstars like Madhubala and Meena Kumari and later went on to give voice to modern divas like Priyanka Chopra. Mangeshkar was still in her 20s when she had already been established as one of the best playback singers in India. But her career-defining moment came in the epic historical “Mughal-e-Azam,” a romantic tragedy that was released in 1960. Its soundtrack “Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya?” (Why fear if you are in love?) is considered one of the most memorable in Bollywood films, one that over decades has become an undisputed epitome of love’s often rebellious nature.She also won dozens of singing awards, earning her a near saint-like status in the Bollywood music industry. Mangeshkar’s popularity extended far beyond India. She was celebrated not only in neighboring Pakistan and Bangladesh but also in some Western countries.Mangeshkar never married. She is survived by four siblings, all accomplished singers and musicians.(Courtesy Times, USA) TIME USA, LLC