New Delhi: Around 50 diplomats and security personnel were pulled out from the Indian consulate in Afghanistan’s Kandahar, people familiar with the development said on Sunday.

This was done taking cognisance of the deteriorating security situation in the region as the Taliban gains control of new areas around the southern Afghan city

According to the sources privy to the operation, a special aircraft of the Indian Air Force was sent on Saturday to bring back the Indian diplomats, officials and other staff members including a group of Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel.

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India has temporarily shut the consulate in Kandahar in view of Taliban militants rapidly seizing control of a number of key areas in the region as well as in western Afghanistan triggering serious security concerns.

The Indian embassy in Kabul had on Tuesday said there was no plan to close the embassy and the consulates in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.

Later, the Ministry of External Affairs informed that India was carefully monitoring the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and its implications on the safety and security of Indian nationals.

“Our response will be calibrated accordingly,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing on Thursday.

Afghanistan is once again witnessing turmoil with a series of terror attacks in the last few weeks as the US maintained its position to completely withdraw its forces from Afghanistan by August-end, bringing nearly two-decades of its military presence in the war-ravaged country to an end.

Reports stated that at least two foreign missions in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, have closed their operation because of escalating violence in the region.

Afghan Ambassador Farid Mamundzay on Tuesday briefed Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla about the situation in Afghanistan as India became increasingly concerned over the deteriorating situation in the country.

Last week, the Indian embassy had asked all Indians visiting, staying, and working in Afghanistan to exercise utmost caution for their security and avoid all types of non-essential travel in view of rising incidents of violence.

In an advisory, the embassy warned that the security situation in Afghanistan remains “dangerous” and that terror groups have carried out a series of complex attacks including targeting civilians. Indian nationals face a “serious threat” of kidnapping, it added.

India has already invested nearly USD three billion in aid and reconstruction activities in Afghanistan, being a major stakeholder in the peace and stability of the country. The former has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, and Afghan-controlled.

During Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar’s visit to India in March, External Affair Minister S Jaishankar conveyed to him that India has long-term commitment towards a peaceful, sovereign, and stable Afghanistan.

(With Agency Inputs)

New Delhi: Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Georgian counterpart David Zalkaliani unveiled a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Tbilisi Park in Georgia on Saturday.

S Jaishankar arrived in Tbilisi on Friday for his two-day official visit. He was received by Zalkaliani.

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In a tweet, Union External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar wrote, “A fitting conclusion to a memorable visit. Joined by VPM/FM @DZalkaliani in unveiling the Mahatma Gandhi statue in a prominent Tbilisi Park.”

Earlier in the day, both Jaishankar and his Georgian counterpart David Zalkaliani held a bilateral meeting and discussed economic cooperation, tourism, trade, and connectivity between the two countries.

“It was a very good discussion. We discussed economic cooperation, tourism, trade, and connectivity. Our relationship is doing well. There’re some big Indian projects in Georgia,” the Union Minister said.

Dr. S Jaishankar also handed over the Holy Relic of St. Queen Ketevan to the Government and the people of Georgia at a ceremony in the presence of His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, and Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

St. Queen Ketevan was a 17th century Georgian Queen who attained martyrdom. Her relics were found in 2005 at the St. Augustine Convent in Old Goa, India, on the basis of medieval Portuguese records.

Writing about the same, he tweeted: “Returned from Georgia with an abiding memory of its Goa connect”.

“Honoured to represent India at the ceremony to mark the return of the holy relics of St. Queen Ketevan. Expressed gratitude to the people of Goa for taking care of Georgia’s valuable heritage. Moved by the ceremony at the Sameba Holy Trinity Cathedral,” he had earlier written.

Houston: Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, is set to become the third Indian-origin woman to head to space when she flies as part of Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed flight test on Sunday.

Bandla, who was born in the Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in Houston, Texas, will join Sir Richard Branson, the company’s billionaire founder, and five others on board Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from New Mexico.

“I am so incredibly honoured to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all,” she tweeted.

Bandla will be astronaut no 004 and her flight role will be Researcher Experience, according to her profile on Virgin Galactic.

She will become the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.

“When I first heard that I was getting this opportunity, it was just. I think that that probably captured it very well, I was speechless. This is an incredible opportunity to get people from different backgrounds, different geographies and different communities into space,” she said in a video posted on Virgin Galactic Twitter on July 6.

Bandla, a Purdue University alumna, will be evaluating the human-tended research experience, using an experiment from the University of Florida that requires several handheld fixation tubes that will be activated at various points in the flight profile, a statement on the Galactic website said.

Bandla started in her role as the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic in January 2021, the university said in a statement.

Bandla grew up in Houston, near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and always wanted to become an astronaut. But poor eyesight meant she could not meet the requirements to become a pilot or an astronaut, derailing her high-school plan to go the Air Force-to-NASA route, she said in the statement.

“I’ve had fond memories of my time at Purdue,” Bandla said in 2021, being part of a group of passionate individuals… Purdue built a strong foundation of technical and programmatic principles we all carried into our successful careers.

The flight window for the next rocket-powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity opens July 11, pending weather and technical checks, Galactic said in a statement.

Welcome Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett, and Beth Moses — our expert crew members joining @richardbranson on our #Unity22 test flight. Watch LIVE this Sunday at https://t.co/5UalYT7Hjb. @SirishaBandla @VGChiefTrainer pic.twitter.com/F4ZrGnH3vo

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) July 5, 2021

The ‘Unity 22’ mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the company’s founder, Sir Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience, it said.

“I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalatic spaceflight,” Branson tweeted following the announcement on July 2.

Building on the success of the company’s most recent spaceflight in May, Unity 22 will focus on cabin and customer experience objectives.

Beckwourth (US), Jul 10 (AP): Firefighters struggled to contain an exploding Northern California wildfire under blazing temperatures as another heat wave hits the US West this weekend, prompting an excessive heat warning for inland and desert areas.

On Friday, Death Valley National Park in California recorded a staggering high of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 Celsius) and could reach the same high on Saturday. If verified, the 130-degree reading would be the hottest high recorded there since July 1913, when the same Furnace Creek desert area hit 134 F (57 C), considered the highest reliably measured temperature on Earth.

The Beckwourth Complex — a merging of two lightning-caused fires — headed into Saturday showing no sign of slowing its rush northeast from the Sierra Nevada forest region after doubling in size only a few days earlier.

California’s northern mountain areas already have seen several large fires that have destroyed more than a dozen homes. Although there are no confirmed reports of building damage, the fire prompted evacuation orders or warnings for roughly 2,800 people in California along with the closure of nearly 200 square miles (518 square kilometers) of Plumas National Forest.

On Friday, ridgetop winds up to 20 mph (32 kph) combined with ferocious heat as the fire raged through dry pine, fir and chaparral. As the fire’s northeastern flank raged near the California-Nevada state line, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office asked people to evacuate some areas in the rural communities of Ranch Haven and Flanagan Flats, north of Reno.

“Evacuate now,” a sheriff’s office tweet said.

Hot rising air formed a gigantic, smoky pyrocumulus cloud that reached thousands of feet high and created its own lightning, fire information officer Lisa Cox said.

Spot fires caused by embers leapt up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) ahead of the northeastern flank — too far for firefighters to safely battle, and winds funneled the fire up draws and canyons full of dry fuel, where “it can actually pick up speed,” Cox said.

Firefighters usually take advantage of cooler, more humid nights to advance on a fire, Cox said, but the daytime conditions persisted. More than 1,200 firefighters were aided by aircraft but the blaze was expected to continue forging ahead because of the heat and low humidity that dried out vegetation.

The air was so dry that some of the water dropped by aircraft evaporated before reaching the ground, she added.

“We’re expecting more of the same the day after and the day after and the day after,” Cox said.

The blaze, which was only 9 per cent contained, increased dramatically to 86 square miles (223 square kilometers) after fire officials made better observations.

It was one of several threatening homes across Western states that are expected to see triple-digit heat through the weekend as a high-pressure zone blankets the region.

The National Weather Service warned the dangerous conditions could cause heat-related illnesses, while California’s power grid operator issued a statewide Flex Alert from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday to avoid disruptions and rolling blackouts.

Flex Alerts call for consumers to voluntarily conserve electricity by reducing the use of appliances and keeping the thermostat higher during evening hours when solar energy is diminished or no longer available.

Meanwhile, other fires were burning in Oregon, Arizona and Idaho.

In Oregon, pushed by strong winds, a wildfire in Klamath County grew from nearly 26 square miles (67 square kilometers) Thursday to nearly 61 square miles (158 square kilometers) on Friday in the Fremont-Winema National Forest and on private land. An evacuation order was issued for people in certain areas north of Beatty and near Sprague River.

That fire was threatening transmission lines that send electricity to California, which along with expected heat-related demand prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday to issue an emergency proclamation suspending some rules to allow for more power capacity.

In north-central Arizona, increased humidity slowed a big wildfire that posed a threat to the rural community of Crown King. The 25-square-mile (64-square-kilometer) lightning-caused fire in Yavapai County was 29 per cent contained as of Friday. Recent rains allowed five national forests and state land managers to lift public-access closures.

In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little declared a wildfire emergency Friday and mobilised the state’s National Guard to help fight fires sparked after lightning storms swept across the drought-stricken region.

Fire crews in north-central Idaho were facing extreme conditions and gusts as they fought two wildfires covering a combined 19.5 square miles (50.5 square kilometers). The blazes threatened homes and forced evacuations in the tiny, remote community of Dixie about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Grangeville. (AP) MRJ

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)

Addis Ababa, Jul 10 (AP): Ethiopia’s ruling Prosperity Party on Saturday was declared the winner of last month’s national election in a landslide, assuring a second five-year term for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The National Election Board of Ethiopia announced that the ruling party won 410 seats out of 436 contested in the federal parliament, which will see dozens of other seats remain vacant after one-fifth of constituencies didn’t vote due to unrest or logistical reasons. Ethiopia’s new government is expected to be formed in October.

The vote was a major test for Abiy, who came to power in April 2018 after the former prime minister resigned amid widespread protests. Abiy oversaw dramatic political reforms that led in part to a Nobel Peace Prize the following year, but critics say he is backtracking on political and media freedoms.

Abiy also has drawn massive international criticism for his handling of the conflict in the Tigray region has that left thousands of people dead.

June’s vote, which had been postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic and logistical issues, was largely peaceful but opposition parties decried harassment and intimidation. No voting was held in the Tigray region.

Abiy has hailed the election as the nation’s first attempt at a free and fair vote, but the United States has called it “significantly flawed,” citing the detention of some opposition figures and insecurity in parts of Africa’s second most populous country.

The leader of the main opposition Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice party, Birhanu Nega, lost while opposition parties won just 11 seats. The Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice party has filed 207 complaints with the electoral body over the vote.

Popular opposition parties in the Oromia region, the largest of Ethiopia’s federal states, boycotted the election. The ruling party ran alone in several dozen constituencies.

The head of the electoral board, Birtukan Mideksa, said during Saturday’s announcement that the vote was held at a time when Ethiopia was experiencing challenges, “but this voting process has guaranteed that people will be governed through their votes,” she said. “I want to confirm that we have managed to conduct a credible election.” Voter turnout was just over 90 per cent among the more than 37 million people who had been registered to vote.

The Prosperity Party was formed after the dismantling of Ethiopia’s former ruling coalition. Disagreements over that decision signaled the first tensions between Abiy and Tigray leaders that finally led to the conflict there in November.

Though Abiy hinted in 2018 that Ethiopia will limit a prime minister’s terms to two, it is not clear whether he will act on that. (AP) MRJ

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)

To everyone’s amazement, Richard Branson, the billionaire businessman and founder of the Virgin Group, who is preparing to launch into space the coming Sunday, has a surprise Indian connection: an ancestor from Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu.

The British business tycoon, who visited Mumbai back in 2019, to commemorate his airline Virgin Atlantic’s new route to the city, claimed that Cuddalore is home to a branch of his family that dates back to 1793 and that his great, great, great grandmother Aria was an Indian.

“I knew that I had past generations living in India but haven’t realised how strong our connections were. So, it turned out that from 1793, we had four generations living here in Cuddalore and one of my great, great, great grandmothers was an Indian named Aria who was married to one of my great, great, great grandfathers,” he said during his visit. “Every time I meet an Indian, I say we might be relatives,” the 70-year-old jokingly added.

He also revealed Virgin Atlantic’s newest flying icon in 2020 after his great, great, great grandmother’s name, Aria.

On July 11, Branson’s Virgin Galactic will launch its first fully crewed mission outside the earth’s atmosphere. Set to launch from New Mexico, Branson is one of the six crew members who will on board Virgin Galactic’s ‘VSS Unity,’ this Sunday.

The “Unity 22” mission will be VSS Unity’s 22nd flight test and fourth crewed spacecraft. It will also be the first to have a full crew in the cabin, comprising of two pilots and four mission specialists along with the company’s founder.

Completing the mission before July 20, 2021 will make Richard Branson the first billionaire to fly into space, winning the new space race by nine days over fellow billionaire and e-commerce giant Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

According to reports, up to 60% of Hong Kong residents are concerned about their futures as a result of China’s harsh national security law, which was imposed on the territory in June of last year. The impact of the legislation enacted by China’s Xi Jinping-led communist government has had a “chilling effect” on Hong Kong residents, quoted mainland affairs council officials acquainted with the situation according to a story in the Taipei Times. 

Activists, students, and journalists have all been arrested in Hong Kong in recent months as a result of security laws. According to the council’s assessment, the wide range of people arrested for making a speech previous to the law’s passing — from politicians to academics and journalists — has had a dangerous impact. 

What does the law state? 

It criminalises any act of: 

• Secession – breaking away from the country 
• Subversion – undermining the power or authority of the central government
• Terrorism – using violence or intimidation against people
• Collusion with foreign or external forces 

What does it mean for the people of Hong Kong? 

According to the law, everything that the Chinese Communist Party considers to be a threat to the “national-security” of the country, can either be punished by a summon to the mainland China or by lifelong imprisonment. 

What stands out in this law is the fact that the definition of “national security” is decided by China itself. So to say that anyone protesting even non-violently in the region to demand democracy could be declared “anti-national” and put behind bars.  

Following are other activities a person can be punished for conducting in Hong Kong:- 

• Terrorism can be defined as the destruction of public transportation facilities. 
• Those who are found guilty will be barred from running for public office. 
• If a company is found guilty under the law, it may be penalised. 
• Beijing will open a new security office in Hong Kong, complete with its own law enforcement staff, that will be independent of the local government. 

Prior to the law, the judiciary in Hong Kong used to be independent, under which even if the Chinese government said that an activity is against the Communist Party and declares them “anti-national”, the issue would be taken to the court where this independent judiciary would take further decisions.  

But the new law even bypasses this judiciary. It states that the judges who would decide whether this law is applicable in a particular case or not would be elected by the people belonging to the Communist Party.  

This further means that:-

• To enforce the legislation, Hong Kong will have to form its own national security committee, with a Beijing-appointed adviser. 
• Beijing, not any Hong Kong court or policy authority, would have the last say on how the law is applied. If a law in Beijing disagrees with a law in Hong Kong, the Beijing law takes priority. 
• Some of the trials will be held in private. 
• Wiretapping and surveillance of those accused of breaching the law is possible. 

Uncertainty amongst people 

Despite Beijing’s statement that Hong Kong should respect and protect rights and liberties while maintaining national security, many people in Hong Kong fear that this law will limit their freedoms. It not only outlaws anti-government acts, but it also has a significant and direct impact on freedom of expression. 

Many people fear that Hong Kong’s judicial independence will be lost, and that the court system would become more like that of mainland China. People are also concerned that a threat to Hong Kong’s rights will hurt the city’s appeal as a worldwide corporate hub and economic powerhouse. 

Los Angeles: United States President Joe Biden named Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as his ambassador to India on Friday. Garcetti, 50, would succeed Kenneth Juster if confirmed by the Senate.

Earlier this week, Juster was named a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Who is Eric Garcetti?

• Garcetti has been the Mayor of Los Angeles since 2013, following 12 years in the City Council, including six as Council President, according to a White House press release.
• Garcetti has extensive administrative experience, having overseen the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere, the country’s largest municipal utility, and one of the busiest airports. For the first time in three decades, he led the city’s successful quest to bring the summer Olympic Games back to American soil. He also chairs LA Metro, the US’s second-busiest transit agency, which is building or extending 15 new transit lines, and shifting to an all-electric fleet.
• Climate change advocacy: Garcetti co-founded Climate Mayors and oversaw the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement by more than 400 US mayors. He is the current Chair of C40 Cities, a global network of 97 of the world’s most populous cities committed to taking ambitious climate action, and has overseen the organization’s engagement and expansion in India. In addition, he was in charge of the C40’s global reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic through the sharing of best practices and resources.
• Garcetti served in the United States Navy Reserve Component as an Intelligence Officer for 12 years. Garcetti worked for the Commander, US Pacific Fleet, and the Defense Intelligence Agency until retiring as a Lieutenant in 2017.
• He studied at Queen’s College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Rhodes Scholar. Garcetti taught at Occidental College’s Department of Diplomacy and World Affairs, as well as the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations, and was named an inaugural Asia 21 Fellow of the Asia Society.

In Southeast Asia and Northeast Africa, he did fieldwork on nationalism, ethnicity, and human rights. According to the White House, he is the founder of the Latino Alliance of Mayors at the United States Conference of Mayors, serves on the Board of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and speaks fluent Spanish.

According to The Washington Post, Garcetti has recently been embroiled in controversy in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles police officer has filed a lawsuit against the city, saying that Garcetti’s former top aide Rick Jacobs harassed him and that Garcetti did not stop the behavior. Jacobs has denied the allegations, and Garcetti has said he did not witness any inappropriate behavior. Also, Garcetti’s chief of staff, Ana Guerrero, was suspended in June after mocking labor icon Dolores Huerta.

 

As per the AP report, one of Garcetti’s former deputy mayors was indicted on corruption charges in an ongoing federal investigation at City Hall.

Bogota: Haiti has requested U.S. and U.N. security forces to help it protect key infrastructure like the airport and ports after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise by foreign mercenaries, a government minister said on Friday.

The assassination of Moise by a squad of gunmen in the early hours of Wednesday morning at his home in Port-au-Prince pitched Haiti deeper into a political crisis which may worsen growing hunger, gang violence and a COVID-19 outbreak.

Elections Minister Mathias Pierre said a request for U.S. security assistance was raised in a conversation between Haiti`s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. Haiti also made a request for forces to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Pierre said.

“We were in a situation where we believed that infrastructure of the country – the port, airport and energy infrastructure – might be a target,” the minister told Reuters.

Another aim of the request for security reinforcements would be to make it possible to go ahead with the scheduled presidential and legislative elections on Sept. 26, Pierre said.

A letter from Joseph`s office to the U.N. offices in Haiti, dated July 7 and reviewed by Reuters, requested the dispatch of troops to support the national police in reestablishing security and protecting key infrastructure across the country following Moise`s assassination.

A similar letter, also dated July 7 and seen by Reuters, was sent to the U.S. embassy.

The 15-member U.N. Security Council would need to authorize a deployment of U.N. peacekeepers or police to Haiti. The United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Asked about the request, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the Haitian government had requested security and investigative assistance and said it would remain in regular contact with Haitian officials to discuss how the United States can assist.

The United States and Colombia had already said they would send law enforcement and intelligence officials to assist Haiti after a number of their nationals were arrested for Moise`s murder.

Police in Haiti said the assassination was carried out by a commando unit of 26 Colombian and 2 Haitian-American mercenaries. The two Haitian Americans were identified as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55, both from Florida.

Seventeen of the men were captured – including Solages and Vincent – after a gun battle with Haitian authorities in Petionville, a hillside suburb of the capital Port-au-Prince where Moise resided.

Three others were killed and eight remain at large, according to Haitian police. Authorities are hunting for the masterminds of the operation, they said.

A judge investigating the case told Reuters that Moise was found lying on his back on the floor of his bedroom. The front door of the residence had been forced open, while other rooms were ransacked.

“His body was riddled with bullets,” Petionville tribunal judge Carl Henry Destin said. “There was a lot of blood around the corpse and on the staircase.”

COMMANDO UNIT

The United States on Thursday pledged to send senior officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to Haiti as soon as possible to assess the situation and see how best they can assist, the White House said.

A State Department spokesperson said, “We are aware of the arrest of two U.S. citizens in Haiti and are monitoring the situation closely.”

The head of Colombia`s national intelligence directorate and the intelligence director for the national police will also travel to Haiti with Interpol to help with investigations, Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Friday.

Haitian officials have not given a motive for Moise`s killing or explained how the assassins got past his security detail. He had faced mass protests against his rule since taking office in 2017 – first over corruption allegations and his management of the economy, then over his increasing grip on power.

Moise himself had talked of dark forces at play behind the unrest: fellow politicians and corrupt oligarchs who felt his attempts to clean up government contracts and to reform Haitian politics were against their interests.

Investigators in Colombia discovered that 17 of the suspects had retired from Colombia`s army between 2018 and 2020, armed forces commander General Luis Fernando Navarro told journalists on Friday.

Jorge Luis Vargas, director of Colombia`s national police, said initial investigations had shown that 11 Colombian suspects had traveled to Haiti via the resort city of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Two others traveled via air to Panama, before flying to Dominican capital Santo Domingo and then Port-au-Prince, Vargas said.

CONFUSION OVER POLITICAL CONTROL

In Haiti, the government declared a 15-day state of emergency on Wednesday to help authorities apprehend the killers but has since urged businesses to open up again.

Stores, gas stations and commercial banks re-opened on Friday. The streets were quiet, although some supermarkets bustled with people stocking up amid the uncertainty.

Moise`s killing has sparked confusion about who is now the legitimate leader of the country of 11 million people, the poorest in the Americas.

“The assassination… has provoked a political and institutional vacuum at the highest level of state,” said Haitian opposition politician Andre Michel. “There is no constitutional provision for this exceptional situation.”

The 1987 constitution stipulates the head of the Supreme Court should take over. But there is no one currently in that role. Nor is there a sitting parliament, following the postponement of elections in 2019.

Just this week, Moise had appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to take over from Joseph, although he had yet to be sworn in when the president was killed.

Joseph has appeared to take charge of the situation, but Henry – who is viewed more favorably by the opposition – told Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste he did not consider Joseph the legitimate prime minister.

Live TV

Washington: President Joe Biden has nominated Los Angeles mayor and climate advocate Eric Garcetti to be the U.S. ambassador to India, a country Washington sees as a key partner in its effort to push back against China`s expanding power and influence.

Garcetti, a Biden loyalist who co-chaired the successful Biden-Harris 2020 election campaign, has served as mayor of Los Angeles since 2013.

The White House biography accompanying the announcement of Garcetti`s nomination highlighted his role in co-founding the bipartisan “Climate Mayors” network and in leading more than 400 U.S. mayors to adopt the Paris Climate agreement.

It said Garcetti is the current Chair of C40 Cities, which it described as “a network of 97 of the world’s biggest cities taking bold climate action,” and led the organization’s engagement and expansion in India and its global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

India is the world`s third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, albeit with far lower emissions per capita than those countries. It is under pressure from the United States and others to commit to a target of decarbonizing its economy by 2050.

Garcetti issued a statement saying he was “honored” to accept the nomination, which has to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Garcetti was a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford and the London School of Economics, and also lived and conducted field work on nationalism, ethnicity, and human rights in Southeast Asia and Northeast Africa, the White House said.

It said he spent 12 years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve Component, serving under the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and with the Defense Intelligence Agency, before retiring in 2017 as a lieutenant.

Biden has sought to strengthen ties with India, particularly through the Quad group of countries, which also includes Australia and Japan, all of which share concerns about China.

The White House says Biden will host a summit of Quad leaders this year focusing on infrastructure after a virtual meeting in March.

The grouping agreed at that meeting that Indian drugmaker Biological E Ltd would produce at least a billion vaccine doses by the end of 2022, mainly for Southeast Asian and Pacific countries.

However, India, the world`s largest vaccine producer, was subsequently hit by a catastrophic wave of infections and halted vaccine exports amid intense criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s domestic vaccination efforts.

Kavrepalanchok: A flooded workplace every monsoon brings no surprise to Ram Krishna Shilpakar, a wood architect of Bhaktapur, as water in the Hanumante River always makes its way into his tin thatched structure, where he has been making wooden scriptures since nearly a decade.

“It`s been about a decade that I am running my business here, it`s a phenomenon that takes place annually,” Shilpakar told ANI.

“On an annual basis, I have been incurring losses of about 30 to 40 thousand. Machines stop working after being submerged in water, other materials and essentials used for produces gets soaked and damaged. We cannot come and work in such situations which ultimately would increase loss. Also, flood water dumps wastages inside, forcing us to shift to other places,” Shilpakar added.

Along with the business of Shilpakar, temples, paddy fields and houses around the ancient city of Bhaktapur submerged in the water after heavy downpours in early Friday morning.

Monsoon- annual rainfall pattern which remains activated in the Himalayan Nation from June to August recharges most of the rivers and its tributaries which often results in flooding and sometimes sweeps away landmasses.

As many as 51 people have already lost their lives in less than a month since the start of the monsoon as floods, landslides, and inundation induced by heavy rainfall is wreaking havoc across the nation. As per data from the Nepal Police headquarters, 26 men, 15 women and 10 children are among those killed. Of them, five are from Sindhupalchowk, four from Doti, three each from Rolpa, Dang, Palpa, Darchula and Gorkha.

According to Meteorological Forecasting Division, the present monsoon trough will remain active till Saturday afternoon in many parts of the country including Province No 1, 2, Bagmati, and Lumbini. There is a chance of very heavy rainfall in one or two places of Bagmati, Gandaki, and Lumbini Provinces this week.

Meanwhile, water flow in Narayani and its tributaries, especially Budhigandaki, Trishuli, Marsyangdi, and Kaligandaki, has increased significantly and some of them reached alarming levels on Thursday afternoon.

Also, water flow in Saptakoshi and its tributaries Sunkoshi, Bhotekoshi, Tamakoshi, Dudhkoshi, Arun, Tamor, and other rivers is expected to increase and some of them will reach near alert level while the flow in the Tinau, Kankai, Kamala, Bagmati, and their tributaries will increase significantly till Saturday.

As the monsoon takes destructive form in the Himalayan Nation, major road sections are facing inundation or disruption in operation. A section of Arniko Highway that links capital Kathmandu with some districts of Southern Plains got disturbed for hours on Friday as it was submerged in water, throwing traffic out of gear.

Meanwhile, the vehicular movement on Saturday got affected following heavy rainfall causing waterlogging in parts of Kathmandu.”Every single year, that too for over dozen times, we have been facing inundation in the area we have to go through this situation time and again,” Krishna Kumar Ranjitkar, a flood victim resident of Banepa in Kavrepalanchok District complained ANI.

“We face a lot of problem with this (inundation after rainfall), my house is flooded with water. A few years back also, the river flooded my house. Crossing a bridge, it entered all residential homes,” Krishna Kumar added.

Meteorologists of Nepal and other South Asian nations earlier have forecasted that the monsoon for the year 2021 will arrive earlier than last year and Nepal and some other Asian countries are expected to receive normal to above-normal rainfall.

As per Nepal’s Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD), the monsoon has already set off in Nepal from June 1st which will continue for about three months.

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Jakarta: Just two months ago, Indonesia was coming to a gasping India’s aid with thousands of tanks of oxygen. Today, the Southeast Asia country is running out of oxygen as it endures a devastating wave of coronavirus cases and the government is seeking emergency supplies from other countries, including Singapore and China.

A shipment of more than 1,000 oxygen cylinders, concentrators, ventilators and other health devices arrived from Singapore on Friday, followed by another 1,000 ventilators from Australia, said Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the government minister in charge of Indonesia’s pandemic response.

Beside those donations, Indonesia plans to buy 36,000 tons of oxygen and 10,000 concentrators- devices that generate oxygen- from neighbouring Singapore, Pandjaitan said.

He said he is in touch with China and other potential oxygen sources. The U.S. And the United Arab Emirates also have offered help.

“We recognize the difficult situation Indonesia currently finds itself in with a surge of COVID cases,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. In addition to sending vaccines, the US is working to increase assistance for Indonesia’s broader COVID-19 response efforts, she said, without elaborating.

Overall, Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, has reported more than 2.4 million infections and 63,760 fatalities from COVID-19. Those figures are widely believed to be a vast undercount due to low testing and poor tracing measures. On Thursday, Indonesia reported nearly 39,000 confirmed cases, its largest one-day jump.

Indonesia’s hospitals are swamped, with growing numbers of the ill dying in isolation at home or while waiting to receive emergency care.

On Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, hospitals began setting up makeshift intensive care units in mid-June. Many patients are waiting for days to be admitted. Oxygen tanks were rolled out onto sidewalks for those lucky enough to get them, while others have been told they have to find their own.

Emergency rooms at a public hospital in Bandung city closed earlier this week after running out of oxygen amid panic buying fueled by soaring infections in the West Java provincial capital, said Yaya Mulyana, the city’s deputy mayor.

“Panicked people bought oxygen tanks even though they didn’t need them yet,” Mulyana said. “That has led to oxygen supplies running out.”

At one hospital in Yogyakarta, in central Java, 63 COVID-19 patients died in one day — 33 of them during an outage of its central liquid oxygen supply, though the hospital had switched to using oxygen cylinders, spokesman Banu Hermawan said.

Indonesia donated 3,400 oxygen cylinders and concentrators to India when a brutal outbreak ravaged the country. As its own cases surged, Jakarta then canceled a plan to send another 2,000 oxygen concentrators to India in late June.

The daily need for oxygen has reached 1,928 tons a day. The country’s total available production capacity is 2,262 tons a day, according to government data.

“I asked for 100% of oxygen go to medical purposes first, meaning that all industrial allocations must be transferred to medical,” said Pandjaitan, the government minister. “We are racing against time, we have to work fast.”

Given the rapid spread of the highly infectious delta variant, he warned that Indonesia could face a worst-case scenario with 50,000 cases a day. The next two weeks will be critical, he said.

The Ministry of Industry responded by issuing a decree that all oxygen supplies be sent to hospitals overflowing with coronavirus patients, and asked industry players to cooperate.

Oxygen is used in making many products, including textiles, plastics and vehicles. Oil refiners, chemical manufacturers and steel makers also use it. But industry leaders have fallen in line in supporting government efforts to maximize supplies for hospitals.

The government has redirected oxygen supplies from industrial plants in Morowali in Central Sulawesi, Balikpapan on Borneo island, and Belawan and Batam on Sumatra islands, Pandjaitan said. Smaller oxygen industries have also been directed to produce pharmaceutical oxygen. 

Tokyo: Japan issued evacuation requests to more than 120,000 residents in some southern prefectures due to heavy rain on Saturday (July 10, 2021), NHK reported, just days after deadly landslides struck the seaside city of Atami southwest of Tokyo.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued its highest rain alerts in three prefectures on Kyushu island, prompting some local governments to order residents to evacuate.

A week ago heavy rains lashed the resort city of Atami, triggering landslides that have killed at least nine people and left 20 missing.

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New Delhi: As the world observes Population Day on July 11 every year, it reminds itself of the challenges faced globally due to overpopulation. The alarming trend shows that after hundreds of thousands of years the population reached 1 billion, and then in just another 200 years, it grew sevenfold, as per United Nations. 

The worldwide population reached the 7 billion mark in 2011, and today it has climbed to about 7.7 billion. It is expected to grow to nearly 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100, the worrying UN trend shows. 

History:

July 11 marks World Population Day when people remind themselves of the hazards of overpopulation and raise awareness about how overpopulation can harm ecosystems and hamper progress of humanity. The United Nations Development Programme’s Governing Council created World Population Day in 1989. On July 11, 1987, the population day witnessed the Five Billion Day, or the estimated day when the world’s population surged above five billion people. Further, the day was commemorated by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1990 with Resolution 45/26.

The topics of discussion on the day include family planning, poverty, sexual equality, maternal health, civil rights, among others. 

The theme this year for World Population Day- Rights and choices are the answer: Whether baby boom or bust, the solution to shifting fertility rates lies in prioritizing the reproductive health and rights of all people. 

India has the world’s second-largest population after China. While China contributes to 18.47 % of the world’s share, India is not far behind with 17.70 % share of the global population. Following India, the United States has a share of 4.25 % of the entire world population, according to data by Worldometer. 

Why has the population grown so dramatically?

As UN states, the growth in populace has been driven largely by ‘increasing numbers of people surviving to reproductive age, and has been accompanied by major changes in fertility rates, increasing urbanization and accelerating migration’. It warns that these trends will have far-reaching implications for generations to come.

In order to overcome the problem of overpopulation, focus must be on population management on a worldwide scale. 

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New Delhi: Two German Shepards are going to be put down after they mauled a lawyer in an upscale neighbourhood in Pakistan, Khyaban-e-Rahat, DHA Phase VI. An agreement was met between the pets’ owner, Humayun Khan, and the victim, Mirza Akhtar Ali.

The incident occurred when he was out on a morning walk last month.

ALSO READ: US To Add More Chinese Firms To Its Blacklist Over Human Rights Violation In Xinjiang

A CCTV in the area captured the attack which shows the dog pouncing the lawyer and then pinning him to the ground, the video went viral on social media. 

Violent #Dogattack in #DHA Phase 7, Street number 14. #Karachi.#Pakistan pic.twitter.com/TxFhq6TiQL

— Asad Zaman (@asadweb) June 27, 2021

It was only after Khan’s son intervened that the dogs let go of Mirza Ali who was left badly injured and bleeding despite all efforts of the handlers to pull the dogs away. According to the Tribune report, in the notarised report, the lawyer agreed for the sake of God to forgive Khan. The main clause within the agreement shared by the Tribune is that both the dogs involved in the attack will be euthanized immediately and if Khan has other dogs he has to give them away. 

According to a Tribune report, rights activists call the agreement between the two parties preposterous.

Aside from this, the conditions also list that the dog owner will have to register any other canines with the Clifton Cantonment Board (CBC) and that the owner is not allowed to let out any other pet dog onto the street unless they are leashed and muzzled and accompanied with a “properly trained handler”.

The final clause is a donation of Rs 1 million to a local animal shelter. 

New Delhi: After New Zealand origin vlogger Karl Rock alleged that his Indian visa was cancelled and he has been blacklisted by the Indian government, the Home Ministery has confirmed the move. 

In his 9-minute long monologue, the Youtuber said that he has been separated from his family in India. Karl Rock is married to an Indian woman named Manisha. “I left India in October 2020 to live in Dubai and in Pakistan. When I went to the New Delhi International Airport, they cancelled my visa. They did not tell me why they were cancelling my visa. So, when I went to Dubai to re-issue my visa to go back home, I was called in the Indian High Commission and told in person that I have been blacklisted.”

In his video titled “Why Haven’t I Seen My Wife In 269 Days”, the vlogger said that the government’s decision to blacklist him coincided with his wife contracting the deadly Coronavirus during the 2nd wave. He said that he was caught in a helpless state, with no option to return back to India. He also claimed that he could stay anywhere in the world but had voluntarily chosen to stay in India.

 His wife, an Indian national who lives in the capital, has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the move.

Originally from New Zealand, Karl is a YouTuber who shares tips for foreigners travelling in India.

Union Home Ministry officials said the New Zealand national has been restricted from entering India till next year for violating the terms and conditions of his visa.

“New Zealand origin vlogger Karl Rock has been blacklisted by the Government of India for violating multiple visa norms, he was found doing business on a tourist visa, he is barred for one year, his visa is cancelled”, MHA official told ANI.

The petition filed in court states that Karl had strictly been abiding by the laws of the country and conditions of the visa and that there has not been a single complaint against him. After he got married, he was issued an X-2 visa, meant for spouses and children of Indian nationals, which was valid till 2024. One of the conditions of the visa was that he had to exit India every 180 days or intimate the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) concerned.

While many on social media speculated that the reason for the blacklisting was because he had visited an anti-CAA protest site and documented it. This video was later deleted, MHA has now issued a clarification. 

New Delhi: In a moving ceremony, India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar on Friday (July 9, 2021) handed over the holy relic of St. Queen Ketevan to the Government of Georgia. The relic was handed over in the presence of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia–Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II and the Prime Minister of Georgia H.E. Irakli Garibashvili.

EAM Jaishankar reached Georgia on Friday from Moscow, in the first-ever visit by Indian External Affairs Minister since the country’s independence in 1991. A part of the relic has been gifted by the Indian government and was a long-standing request of the government of Georgia of the immense emotional and historical value for them.

St. Queen Ketevan was 17th century Georgian Queen who was martyred in Iran’s Shiraz. Her relics were found in St. Augustine Convent in Old Goa, India in 2005. DNA analysis by the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad at the instance of the Archaeological Survey of India confirmed its authenticity. It is believed her relics were brought to Goa in 1627.

The relics have reached Georgia back after more than 390 years. In the past, in September 2017, relics were sent to Georgia for almost a year and were returned to India in September 2018.

The last time an Indian EAM visited the country was 40 years ago. In 1978, the then EAM of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Georgia. After that, Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagarishvili and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had met in New Delhi on 11 May 2000.

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New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and New Vietnamese PM Phạm Minh Chính will be speaking to each other on Saturday (July 10, 2021). The talks will happen around 11:15 am IST and comes as part of growing engagement between the two countries. This is the first conversation between the two leaders after Pham took charge as the Prime Minister of Vietnam. Phạm Minh Chính took charge in April this year and has served in various positions of the government.

The key focus, during the talks, will be on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, vaccines, engagement in Indo pacific, and other related areas. Amid the second wave of the COVID pandemic, Vietnam had reached out to India with supplies. 

Vietnam’s envoy Pham Sanh Chau speaking to a leading news channel recently on vaccines said, “We also have the opportunity to purchase Covaxin. Covaxin is not approved yet by WHO for emergency use, that is why we are waiting for this approval by WHO and then we will intensify the discussion and drafting of the contract for the purchase of this COVAXIN for Vietnamese people.”

In December of last year, Indian PM Narendra Modi and the then PM of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc held a virtual summit. During the summit, India handed over the first of 12 High-Speed Guard boats to Vietnam under the $100 million Defence Line of Credit extended by New Delhi to Hanoi.  

Defence in fact has emerged as one of the pillars of the relationship. On the first of this month, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the Defence Minister of Vietnam, Sr. Lt. Gen. Phan Van Giang. Tweeting after the meet, he said, “India and Vietnam continue to make forward movement in overcoming the challenges posed by COVID-19.”

India and Vietnam continue to make forward movement in overcoming the challenges posed by COVID-19.
I thank my Vietnamese counterpart for inviting me on an official visit to his beautiful and amazing country. I look forward to it. 3/3

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 1, 2021

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Washington: President Joe Biden-led administration in the United States of America has recently stated that it may add another 10 Chinese companies to its economic blacklist over the alleged human rights violation and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang.

The Commerce Department’s action comes after it announced last month that it had added five more companies and other Chinese organisations to the blacklist because of claims of forced labour in China’s far western region. 

ALSO READ | TMC In Action! Mukul Roy Appointed Appointed As PAC Chairman In Bengal Assembly; BJP Stages Walkout

According to the sources close to news agency Reuters, the changes to the Commerce Department’s Entity List are part of the Biden administration’s efforts to make China responsible for human rights crimes. 

China denied the allegations, claiming that its restrictions are required to combat separatists and religious extremists who plotted attacks and fuelled tensions between the Han, China’s largest ethnic group, and the predominantly Muslim ethnic Uyghurs. 

“The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and rejects US attempts to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Friday. 

ALSO READ | ‘Open Invitation To Virus’: Govt’s Warning After Tourists Violate Covid Norms In Uttarakhand, Himachal

The Commerce Department announced last month that it was adding five Chinese firms to its sanctions list for using forced labour in the People’s Republic of China’s suppression of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The move in June targeted the five companies’ ability to access commodities, software, and technology, according to the department, and is part of a US Government-wide commitment to take forceful action against “China’s ongoing campaign of repression against Muslim minority groups” in Xinjiang. 

 This is not the first time the US government has targeted Chinese companies related to high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang. Back in 2019, in response to the country’s treatment of Muslim minorities, the Trump administration included several of China’s biggest artificial intelligence businesses to its economic blacklist. 

Kabul: Hours after US President Joe Biden ordered his troops to pull out of the war-torn nation, the Taliban on Friday claimed to be in control of 85 percent of Afghanistan’s territory.

The Taliban claimed that its fighters had seized the border town of Islam Qala, thereby completing an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China.

A delegation of Taliban officials in Moscow said that they controlled around 250 of Afghanistan’s 398 districts.

READ: India Gives Stern Response Over Pakistan Alleging Involvement In Blast Near Hafiz Saeed’s House

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid too confirmed the same and said that the Islam Qala border crossing was “under our full control”.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government officials in Kabul said: “efforts are underway to recapture the site”.

“All Afghan security forces including the border units are present in the area, and efforts are underway to recapture the site,” AFP quoted Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian as saying.

This came as the US President had earlier said that his country’s military mission would end on August 31.

Biden, however, admitted it was “highly unlikely” Kabul would be able to control the entire country.

ALSO READ: ‘Boycott Beijing Winter Olympics’ Call By Brit Lawmaker Over Atrocities On Uighur Muslims

“The status quo is not an option,” he said, adding that he would “not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan”.

The US President said the Afghan people alone should determine their future.

Dhaka: As many as 52 people have died and 50 others were injured after a fire broke out in a juice factory in Bangladesh`s Narayanganj city on Thursday (July 8) afternoon. Even after 21 hours, the fire is yet to be fully doused as firefighting units from around the country were struggling at the factory building till 2:15 pm on Friday, Dhaka Tribune reported.

According to fire officials, the fire broke out at around 5 pm on Thursday (July 8). The Tribune reported that it is suspected that the fire originated from the ground floor of the six-storey building, and spread due to the presence of chemical materials. Local police said people have gathered in front of the building in search of their loved ones who are still missing.

Alleging delay in rescuing the people trapped inside the building, the protesters on Friday (July 9) vandalized cars and had a clash with police. Thereafter, police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Fire-fighters will take some time to fully control the fire, said Deputy Director of Narayanganj District Fire Service Abdullah Al Arefin.

“Until the fire is doused, it is not possible to say exactly how much damage has occurred and the cause of the fire,” he added. A probe committee has been formed by the district administration to look into this incident.

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Dhaka: As many as 52 people have died and 50 others were injured after a fire broke out in a juice factory in Bangladesh`s Narayanganj city on Thursday afternoon. Even after 21 hours, the fire is yet to be fully doused as firefighting units from around the country were struggling at the factory building till 2:15 pm on Friday, Dhaka Tribune reported.

According to fire officials, the fire broke out at around 5 pm on Thursday. The Tribune reported that it is suspected that the fire originated from the ground floor of the six-storey building, and spread due to the presence of chemical materials.

Local police said people have gathered in front of the building in search of their loved ones who are still missing.

Alleging delay in rescuing the people trapped inside the building, the protesters on Friday vandalized cars and had a clash with police. Thereafter, police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Fire-fighters will take some time to fully control the fire, said Deputy Director of Narayanganj District Fire Service Abdullah Al Arefin.

“Until the fire is doused, it is not possible to say exactly how much damage has occurred and the cause of the fire,” he added.

A probe committee has been formed by the district administration to look into this incident.

 

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered condolences to the family of President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated at his private residence by a group of unnamed gunmen late on Wednesday.

In his condolence message, the PM expressed his profound grief over his killing. 

“Saddened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the attack on First Lady Martine Moise of Haiti. My Condolences to the family of President Moise and the people of Haiti,” tweeted PM.

 

Saddened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the attack on First Lady Martine Moïse of Haiti. My Condolences to the family of President Moïse and the people of Haiti. @claudejoseph03

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 8, 2021

 

He also tagged the Acting Prime Minister of Haiti Claude Joseph in his tweet.

Assassination

President Moise was assassinated at his private residence by a group of unnamed gunmen. After the assassination, Haiti declared a state of emergency. 

A heavily armed commando unit that assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise was composed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, authorities said on Thursday, as the hunt went on for the masterminds of the killing.

Moise, 53, was fatally shot at his home by what officials said was a group of foreign, trained killers, pitching the poorest country in the Americas deeper into turmoil amid political divisions, hunger and widespread gang violence.

Authorities tracked the suspected assassins to a house near the scene of the crime in Petionville, a northern, hillside suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince. A firefight lasted late into the night and authorities detained a number of suspects on Thursday.

Police Chief Charles Leon paraded 17 men before journalists at a news conference late on Thursday, showing a number of Colombian passports, plus assault rifles, machetes, walkie-talkies and materials including bolt cutters and hammers.

“Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,” Charles said. There were … 26 Colombians, identified by their passports … and two Haitian Americans as well.” He said 15 Colombians were captured, as well as two Haitian Americans. Three of the assailants were killed and eight remained on the run, Charles said.

Colombians involved in the attack

Colombian Defence Minister Diego Molano said in a statement that preliminary information indicated that Colombians involved in the attack were retired members of the country`s military. He said Bogota would cooperate in the investigation.

Haiti`s minister of elections and interparty relations, Mathias Pierre, identified the Haitian-American suspects as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55.

A State Department spokesman could not confirm if any US citizens were among those detained, but U.S. authorities were in regular contact with Haitian officials, including investigative authorities, to discuss how the United States could provide assistance.

Officials in the mostly French- and Creole-speaking Caribbean nation had said on Wednesday the assassins appeared to have spoken in English and Spanish. “It was a full, well-equipped commando, with more than six cars and a lot of equipment,” Pierre said.

Officials have not yet given a motive for the killing. Since taking office in 2017, Moise had faced mass protests against his rule – first over corruption allegations and his management of the economy, then over his increasing grip on power.

An angry crowd gathered on Thursday morning to watch the police operation unfold, with some setting fire to the suspects` cars and to the house where they had hunkered down. Bullets were strewn in the street. “Burn them!” shouted some of the hundreds of people outside the police station where the suspects were being held.

Charles said the local population had helped police track down the suspects, but he implored residents in the sprawling seafront city of 1 million people not to take justice into their own hands.

15-day state of emergency in Haiti

A 15-day state of emergency was declared on Wednesday to help authorities apprehend the killers. But interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said on Thursday it was time for the economy to reopen and that he had given instructions for the airport to restart operations.

Vacuum of power 

Moise`s death has generated confusion about who is the legitimate leader of the country of 11 million people, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

Haiti has struggled to achieve stability since the fall of the Duvalier family dictatorship in 1986, grappling with a series of coups and foreign interventions. A UN peacekeeping mission – meant to restore order after a rebellion toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 – ended in 2019 with the country still in disarray.

“I can picture a scenario under which there are issues regarding to whom the armed forces and national police are loyal, in the case there are rival claims to being placeholder president of the country,” said Ryan Berg, an analyst with the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Haiti`s 1987 constitution stipulates the head of the Supreme Court should take over. But amendments that are not unanimously recognized state that it be the prime minister, or, in the last year of a president`s mandate – the case with Moise – that parliament should elect a president.

The head of the Supreme Court died last month due to COVID-19 amid a surge in infections in one of the few countries yet to start a vaccination campaign. There is no sitting parliament as legislative elections scheduled for late 2019 were postponed amid political unrest. Moise just this week appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to take over from Joseph, although he had yet to be sworn in when the president was killed.

Joseph appeared on Wednesday to take charge of the situation, running the government response to the assassination, appealing to Washington for support and declaring a state of emergency.

Henry – considered more favorably by the opposition – told Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste that he did not consider Joseph the legitimate prime minister and he should revert to the role of foreign minister. The United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti said on Thursday Joseph would remain leader until an election was held, urging all parties to set aside their differences.

Moise, backed by the international community, had been pushing to hold both elections and a constitutional referendum in September, efforts that were vehemently opposed by Haitian civil society, which had called first for a transitional government to guide the country to a vote.

(With Agency Inputs)

 Live TV

 

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered condolences to the family of President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated at his private residence by a group of unnamed gunmen late on Wednesday.

In his condolence message, the PM expressed his profound grief over his killing. 

“Saddened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the attack on First Lady Martine Moise of Haiti. My Condolences to the family of President Moise and the people of Haiti,” tweeted PM.

 

Saddened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the attack on First Lady Martine Moïse of Haiti. My Condolences to the family of President Moïse and the people of Haiti. @claudejoseph03

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 8, 2021

 

He also tagged the Acting Prime Minister of Haiti Claude Joseph in his tweet.

Assassination

President Moise was assassinated at his private residence by a group of unnamed gunmen. After the assassination, Haiti declared a state of emergency. 

A heavily armed commando unit that assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise was composed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, authorities said on Thursday, as the hunt went on for the masterminds of the killing.

Moise, 53, was fatally shot at his home by what officials said was a group of foreign, trained killers, pitching the poorest country in the Americas deeper into turmoil amid political divisions, hunger and widespread gang violence.

Authorities tracked the suspected assassins to a house near the scene of the crime in Petionville, a northern, hillside suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince. A firefight lasted late into the night and authorities detained a number of suspects on Thursday.

Police Chief Charles Leon paraded 17 men before journalists at a news conference late on Thursday, showing a number of Colombian passports, plus assault rifles, machetes, walkie-talkies and materials including bolt cutters and hammers.

“Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,” Charles said. There were … 26 Colombians, identified by their passports … and two Haitian Americans as well.” He said 15 Colombians were captured, as well as two Haitian Americans. Three of the assailants were killed and eight remained on the run, Charles said.

Colombians involved in the attack

Colombian Defence Minister Diego Molano said in a statement that preliminary information indicated that Colombians involved in the attack were retired members of the country`s military. He said Bogota would cooperate in the investigation.

Haiti`s minister of elections and interparty relations, Mathias Pierre, identified the Haitian-American suspects as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55.

A State Department spokesman could not confirm if any US citizens were among those detained, but U.S. authorities were in regular contact with Haitian officials, including investigative authorities, to discuss how the United States could provide assistance.

Officials in the mostly French- and Creole-speaking Caribbean nation had said on Wednesday the assassins appeared to have spoken in English and Spanish. “It was a full, well-equipped commando, with more than six cars and a lot of equipment,” Pierre said.

Officials have not yet given a motive for the killing. Since taking office in 2017, Moise had faced mass protests against his rule – first over corruption allegations and his management of the economy, then over his increasing grip on power.

An angry crowd gathered on Thursday morning to watch the police operation unfold, with some setting fire to the suspects` cars and to the house where they had hunkered down. Bullets were strewn in the street. “Burn them!” shouted some of the hundreds of people outside the police station where the suspects were being held.

Charles said the local population had helped police track down the suspects, but he implored residents in the sprawling seafront city of 1 million people not to take justice into their own hands.

15-day state of emergency in Haiti

A 15-day state of emergency was declared on Wednesday to help authorities apprehend the killers. But interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said on Thursday it was time for the economy to reopen and that he had given instructions for the airport to restart operations.

Vacuum of power 

Moise`s death has generated confusion about who is the legitimate leader of the country of 11 million people, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

Haiti has struggled to achieve stability since the fall of the Duvalier family dictatorship in 1986, grappling with a series of coups and foreign interventions. A UN peacekeeping mission – meant to restore order after a rebellion toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 – ended in 2019 with the country still in disarray.

“I can picture a scenario under which there are issues regarding to whom the armed forces and national police are loyal, in the case there are rival claims to being placeholder president of the country,” said Ryan Berg, an analyst with the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Haiti`s 1987 constitution stipulates the head of the Supreme Court should take over. But amendments that are not unanimously recognized state that it be the prime minister, or, in the last year of a president`s mandate – the case with Moise – that parliament should elect a president.

The head of the Supreme Court died last month due to COVID-19 amid a surge in infections in one of the few countries yet to start a vaccination campaign. There is no sitting parliament as legislative elections scheduled for late 2019 were postponed amid political unrest. Moise just this week appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to take over from Joseph, although he had yet to be sworn in when the president was killed.

Joseph appeared on Wednesday to take charge of the situation, running the government response to the assassination, appealing to Washington for support and declaring a state of emergency.

Henry – considered more favorably by the opposition – told Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste that he did not consider Joseph the legitimate prime minister and he should revert to the role of foreign minister. The United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti said on Thursday Joseph would remain leader until an election was held, urging all parties to set aside their differences.

Moise, backed by the international community, had been pushing to hold both elections and a constitutional referendum in September, efforts that were vehemently opposed by Haitian civil society, which had called first for a transitional government to guide the country to a vote.

(With Agency Inputs)

 Live TV

 

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered condolences to the family of President Jovenel Moise, who was assassinated at his private residence by a group of unnamed gunmen late on Wednesday.

In his condolence message, the PM expressed his profound grief over his killing. 

“Saddened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise and the attack on First Lady Martine Moise of Haiti. My Condolences to the family of President Moise and the people of Haiti,” tweeted PM.

 

Saddened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and the attack on First Lady Martine Moïse of Haiti. My Condolences to the family of President Moïse and the people of Haiti. @claudejoseph03

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 8, 2021

 

He also tagged the Acting Prime Minister of Haiti Claude Joseph in his tweet.

Assassination

President Moise was assassinated at his private residence by a group of unnamed gunmen. After the assassination, Haiti declared a state of emergency. 

A heavily armed commando unit that assassinated Haitian President Jovenel Moise was composed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans, authorities said on Thursday, as the hunt went on for the masterminds of the killing.

Moise, 53, was fatally shot at his home by what officials said was a group of foreign, trained killers, pitching the poorest country in the Americas deeper into turmoil amid political divisions, hunger and widespread gang violence.

Authorities tracked the suspected assassins to a house near the scene of the crime in Petionville, a northern, hillside suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince. A firefight lasted late into the night and authorities detained a number of suspects on Thursday.

Police Chief Charles Leon paraded 17 men before journalists at a news conference late on Thursday, showing a number of Colombian passports, plus assault rifles, machetes, walkie-talkies and materials including bolt cutters and hammers.

“Foreigners came to our country to kill the president,” Charles said. There were … 26 Colombians, identified by their passports … and two Haitian Americans as well.” He said 15 Colombians were captured, as well as two Haitian Americans. Three of the assailants were killed and eight remained on the run, Charles said.

Colombians involved in the attack

Colombian Defence Minister Diego Molano said in a statement that preliminary information indicated that Colombians involved in the attack were retired members of the country`s military. He said Bogota would cooperate in the investigation.

Haiti`s minister of elections and interparty relations, Mathias Pierre, identified the Haitian-American suspects as James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55.

A State Department spokesman could not confirm if any US citizens were among those detained, but U.S. authorities were in regular contact with Haitian officials, including investigative authorities, to discuss how the United States could provide assistance.

Officials in the mostly French- and Creole-speaking Caribbean nation had said on Wednesday the assassins appeared to have spoken in English and Spanish. “It was a full, well-equipped commando, with more than six cars and a lot of equipment,” Pierre said.

Officials have not yet given a motive for the killing. Since taking office in 2017, Moise had faced mass protests against his rule – first over corruption allegations and his management of the economy, then over his increasing grip on power.

An angry crowd gathered on Thursday morning to watch the police operation unfold, with some setting fire to the suspects` cars and to the house where they had hunkered down. Bullets were strewn in the street. “Burn them!” shouted some of the hundreds of people outside the police station where the suspects were being held.

Charles said the local population had helped police track down the suspects, but he implored residents in the sprawling seafront city of 1 million people not to take justice into their own hands.

15-day state of emergency in Haiti

A 15-day state of emergency was declared on Wednesday to help authorities apprehend the killers. But interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said on Thursday it was time for the economy to reopen and that he had given instructions for the airport to restart operations.

Vacuum of power 

Moise`s death has generated confusion about who is the legitimate leader of the country of 11 million people, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.

Haiti has struggled to achieve stability since the fall of the Duvalier family dictatorship in 1986, grappling with a series of coups and foreign interventions. A UN peacekeeping mission – meant to restore order after a rebellion toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 – ended in 2019 with the country still in disarray.

“I can picture a scenario under which there are issues regarding to whom the armed forces and national police are loyal, in the case there are rival claims to being placeholder president of the country,” said Ryan Berg, an analyst with the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Haiti`s 1987 constitution stipulates the head of the Supreme Court should take over. But amendments that are not unanimously recognized state that it be the prime minister, or, in the last year of a president`s mandate – the case with Moise – that parliament should elect a president.

The head of the Supreme Court died last month due to COVID-19 amid a surge in infections in one of the few countries yet to start a vaccination campaign. There is no sitting parliament as legislative elections scheduled for late 2019 were postponed amid political unrest. Moise just this week appointed a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, to take over from Joseph, although he had yet to be sworn in when the president was killed.

Joseph appeared on Wednesday to take charge of the situation, running the government response to the assassination, appealing to Washington for support and declaring a state of emergency.

Henry – considered more favorably by the opposition – told Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste that he did not consider Joseph the legitimate prime minister and he should revert to the role of foreign minister. The United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti said on Thursday Joseph would remain leader until an election was held, urging all parties to set aside their differences.

Moise, backed by the international community, had been pushing to hold both elections and a constitutional referendum in September, efforts that were vehemently opposed by Haitian civil society, which had called first for a transitional government to guide the country to a vote.

(With Agency Inputs)

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