Ruin and rescue dogs in quake-ravaged Wajima

Wajima (Japan) (AFP) – Joining soldiers and firefighters in the desperate search for survivors after a huge earthquake in central Japan was rescue dog Elsa, described by her trainer as "the best of the best".


Issued on: 05/01/2024 - 

Elsa the rescue dog helps firefighters search for people in quake-hit Wajima 

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

Nimbly crossing loose roof tiles and splintered wooden beams, she sniffed through the wreckage of a destroyed wooden house in Wajima, one of the cities worst hit by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake on New Year's Day.

Along with rescuers including Japanese troops, the large black dog with pointed ears was searching for an elderly woman possibly buried under the rubble of her home.

"Please Elsa, please find her," came a voice from a crowd of neighbours and other relief workers watching their efforts, three days after the disaster struck.

The dog was brought to the coastal city by Yasuhiro Morita from his rescue dog training centre around 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in western Tottori region.

"She reacts to dead bodies when searching the rubble -- she is trained to always bark when she finds a body," Morita told AFP.

Strong aftershocks have shaken the region since Monday's terrifying main tremor 

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

"But today, she just wandered off towards the bystanders instead, which likely means there was no body inside," he said.

Morita described Elsa as "the best of the best in western Japan", but she wasn't the only mutt on the job -- the defence minister announced Thursday that a rescue dog named Jennifer had found an elderly woman under the rubble who was pulled out and saved.

The ravaged house was just one of the devastating scenes in Wajima and other parts of Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast.

Strong aftershocks have shaken the region since Monday's terrifying main tremor, which triggered landslides, a major fire and a tsunami more than a metre high.

So far 92 people have been confirmed dead in the disaster © STR / JIJI Press/AFP

As of Friday, 92 people had been confirmed dead in the disaster, with 242 others reported missing.

Wajima resident Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, had been relaxing with his relatives when the quake struck.

"Things fell over and walls crumbled, and the entrance door also collapsed. The house itself is standing, but it's far from liveable now," he told AFP.

Water and food are scarce, as "supplies have hardly arrived yet, but I guess they're on their way now", he said.

"I don't have the space in my mind to think about the future. Things are all scattered inside my house. More aftershocks could make it collapse, so I can't go back just yet."

On the approach to Wajima, fallen boulders partially blocked roads 

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

On the approach to Wajima -- a city of around 23,000 residents, known for its artisan lacquerware -- tunnels were partially blocked by fallen boulders, and mountain surfaces had been left barren by landslides.

Flattened houses lined the route, with debris and snow dotting the sides of the road.
'No trace left'

Even more shocking sights awaited those who made it into the city.

An imposing seven-storey building lay on its side, while fallen utility poles blocked a path surrounded by twisted wreckage.

An imposing seven-storey building lay on its side 

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

"Is someone there? Answer us please!" a soldier was heard shouting while his team searched the ruins of a home for another missing resident, entering through broken windows.

The quake sparked a blaze that laid waste to an entire market area where 200 structures reportedly burned down.

There, the ground was blanketed in charred building materials, with burned-out cars sitting in front of a topsy-turvy backdrop of houses dislodged from their foundations.

Fallen utility poles block a path surrounded by twisted wreckage 

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

Standing looking at the ruins was Shinichi Hirano, 47.

"This is where my grandma's house used to be, but it's all burned down," he told AFP.

"She passed away a while ago, so her house has long been vacant, but still, this area is full of fond memories," he said, reminiscing about a cake store and a barbershop he used to frequent as a child.

"But they're all gone. I only see burned ruins now," he said, with a sad smile on his face.

"It pains me" to see these familiar places decimated, Hirano said, adding: "I'm just speechless."

The quake sparked a blaze that laid waste to an entire market area 

© Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

An 80-year-old man, who declined to give his name, gazed on woefully as the pungent smell of soot wafted through the air.

Even three days after the earthquake, faint columns of smoke were still billowing here and there in the desolate city.

"I came to check on my relatives. I haven't been able to see them yet," the elderly man said.

"This is just terrible. There is no trace left," he said.

"Terrible," he repeated, sighing heavily at the sight. "It's just like war."

© 2024 AFP

Animal victims of the war: NGO in Israel rescues dogs left behind after Oct. 7th attacks

Issued on: 05/01/2024 - 

03:13
Video by:  Luke SHRAGO

Animals have also become the victims of the war between Hamas and Israel. FRANCE 24's team on the ground met a man who has set up a foundation to rescue dogs left behind after Oct. 7th attacks.

Ethnic armies’ ‘Operation 1027’ put Myanmar junta on defensive in 2023

Resistance forces are now turning their attention to

setting up civil administrations in towns they control.

By Tin Aung Khaing and Kyaw Lwin Oo for RFA Burmese
2023.12.30

A member of Ta'ang National Liberation Army walks past damaged pagodas after clashes with Myanmar’s military in Namhsan township in Myanmar's northern Shan state, Dec. 12, 2023.

Myanmar’s ethnic armed organizations and other resistance groups made significant gains against the country’s military dictatorship in 2023.

"Operation 1027," launched by the Three Brotherhood Alliance in northern Shan state in October, was a surprising success. Along with the efforts of local People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, and ethnic armed groups in Kayah, Kayin, Chin and Kachin states, anti-junta forces put the ruling military junta on the defensive. 

The junta lost hundreds of outposts as rebel forces captured towns and several key border crossings in November and December, suggesting the tide could be turning in the country's civil war that erupted after the military overthrew a democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup d'etat

“The military council suffered great losses in 2023, while the people’s revolution has stepped forward gradually,” said Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG. “It is the victory of the people.”

The number of junta troops surrendering to resistance forces increased after Operation 1027 began. 

People's Liberation Army forces from China fight Myanmar junta army troops near northwestern Myanmar's Sagaing region, Nov. 23, 2023. (Reuters)

On Oct. 30, more than 40 members of Light Infantry Battalion 143 in Kunlong township, northern Shan state, surrendered to the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which includes the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army.

A day later, the military junta’s 15 local militia members laid down their weapons and turned over their arms and ammunition. Reports of junta units submitting to resistance forces have continued over the last two months.

“Many have contacted us to surrender,” said Maung Maung Swe, spokesman for the NUG’s Ministry of Defense. “If we can have more collaborative fights, the military council will soon topple.”

Junta troops have lost motivation and confidence in their fighting ability because of Operation 1027, political observer Than Soe Naing said. 

“They have realized they should not sacrifice their lives for corrupt senior military officials,” he said. “They will surrender if they are defeated, and will flee from the military if they have an opportunity. It’s become a common idea among soldiers.”

RFA was unable to reach junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment about junta forces surrendering. 

Local administrations

Ethnic armies and officials from the NUG, which is mostly made up of former civilian government leaders, have been setting up interim administrative bodies in areas they control. 

In other areas of the country, resistance leaders have started to think about what Myanmar would look like if the junta was defeated. 

In Sagaing region, a hotbed of resistance to military rule that saw a resurgence of anti-junta protests in 2023, more than 170 resistance forces held a forum on May 30-31 to discuss the armed revolt and local administration.

Ta'ang National Liberation Army troops prepare to launch a drone during their attack on a Myanmar junta military camp in Namhsan township in Myanmar's northern Shan state, Dec. 12, 2023. (AFP)

“The forum was held to continue the revolution collaboratively as it has been for more than two years,” Sagaing Forum spokesman Chaw Su San said. “It also aims to forge more cooperation among anti-military dictatorship forces in Sagaing region.”

On Nov. 17, democratically elected representatives from Sagaing, Tanintharyi and Magway regions convened regional parliaments and approved a preparatory bill for an interim constitution, supported by the dissolved National League for Democracy.

But revolutionary groups objected to the measure, saying they wanted to ensure equal rights for negotiation, participation and collective leadership by all resistance groups, said Soe Win Swe, another Sagaing Forum spokesman.

“We concluded that the recent approval was intended just for the interest of a single organization, so we objected to it,” he said. “The Sagaing Forum firmly stands on collective leadership.”

Draft constitutions

In western Myanmar, armed ethnic Chin groups have also gone on the offensive since October.

“Our resistance forces could capture only four or five military outposts in the past two and half years,” said Salai Timmy, the secretary of the Chinland Joint Defense Committee. 

“However, after launching Operation 1027, we controlled about nine outposts,” he said. “Meanwhile, the military troops abandoned about 12 camps.”

The Chin National Front, an ethnic Chin political organization whose armed wing has battled junta forces, along with local administration organizations, established Chinland — Chin state’s new name – following the approval of a new constitution on Dec. 6.

The Chinland Council, the new governing body, will form a legislature, an administration and a judiciary branch within 60 days, said Salai Htet Ni, first joint secretary of the council. 

Members of the Myanmar Army’s Light Infantry Battalion 129 surrender to the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army in northern Shan state, Nov. 12, 2023. 

(Three Brotherhood Alliance)

In eastern Myanmar, ethnic Karenni forces launched Operation 11.11 — their own version of Operation 1027 — in November, seizing at least nine military outposts in Kayah state, said Khun Bedu, chairman of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force.

“The junta soldiers abandoned their camps,” he said. “We are moving on to capture more outposts.”

Resistance forces in Kayah state set up an Interim Executive Council, or IEC, on June 12, putting in place local administrations at village, village-tract and township levels, IEC General Secretary Khu Plue Reh said.

NUG is working with the IEC without intervening in administrative procedures, he said.

“We also work together to provide public services especially in education, health care and humanitarian assistance,” he said.

With its own public support, the establishment of the IEC could be an initial step toward the establishment of a federal union in Myanmar — a long-running goal of ethnic political organizations and their respective ethnic armies.

In adjacent Kayin state, the Karen National Union, or KNU, battled junta troops, while providing training to local PDFs. 

The KNU’s Karen National Liberation Army and PDF forces took control of Mon township in early December — the first town captured in Bago region. Resistance forces controlled four other military outposts near the township after three military officers and 19 soldiers surrendered during the battles, according to a KNU news release on Dec. 6. 

Ethnic Karen resistance groups announced that they would form a federal unit this year and would prepare a draft constitution, KNU spokesman Padho Saw Taw Nee said.

Translated by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

Myanmar junta and ethnic army alliance fail to reach agreement to reduce combat

Both sides are set to meet again for a third round of talks in

 January.

By RFA Burmese
2023.12.28

Members of the Ta'ang National Liberation Army rest at a checkpoint amid fighting with Myanmar's military in Namhsan township in northern Shan State, Dec. 12, 2023.

Myanmar’s military junta and the Three Brotherhood Alliance held talks earlier this week about reducing armed conflict in northern Shan state, but failed to agree to meet each other’s demands, officials from one of the alliance’s ethnic armies said.

The Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) formed the alliance in June 2019, and gained prominence in fighting junta soldiers following the February 2021 military coup. 

The alliance has captured several cities and border hubs crucial for trade with China, as well as several junta military positions over the last few months in an offensive known as Operation 1027 in northern Shan state.

Regime forces have tried to regain the upper hand by launching artillery and air strikes. 

The fighting has resulted in the deaths of more than 130 civilians, displaced nearly 100,000 people, and disrupted border trade with neighboring China, according to officials of the Shan Human Rights Foundation.

The Chinese-brokered talks in Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province, on Dec. 22-24 failed to achieve results because of a wide gap between the two sides’ demands, top TNLA officials told Radio Free Asia.

Both sides have agreed to meet again for the third time in January, the sources said.

RFA could not reach the spokesmen for the three ethnic armies, nor junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment.

Joint Karenni resistance forces celebrate after seizing the state police station in Loikaw, capital of eastern Myanmar's Kayah state, Dec. 10, 2013. (Progressive Karenni People's Force)

The meeting was a follow-up to the first round of talks that took place in Kunming on Dec. 7-9, during which the parties agreed to a temporary cease-fire until Dec. 31, sources close to the junta said at that time. 

The Chinese Embassy in Yangon did not respond to an RFA email request for comment on the talks. 

But during a press conference on Dec. 19, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing supported the peace process in northern Myanmar, and that the relevant parties needed to implement what already had been agreed to reduce the fighting.

No signs of compromise

China-based political analyst Hla Kyaw Zaw said that the talks are unlikely to be successful because the interests of the two sides are not close enough for them to negotiate.

“The junta does not intend to share political and economic powers with others,” she said. “The purpose of attending the peace talks was to find a way to continue to hold on to the power it held.” 

“The alliance wants the liberation of their region at least,” she added. 

Because the junta has shown no signs of compromise, the Three Brotherhood Alliance must make further military achievements to gain the upper hand in further discussions, Hla Kyaw Zaw said.

“The more victories it has, the better it is for it to talk with the junta,” she said.

Aung Myo, a political analyst and former military officer, said the situation will not be resolved if it affects the perpetuation of national sovereignty upheld by Myanmar’s military

“The army will not compromise on this,” he said.  

An agreement between the two sides can be reached only if the Three Brotherhood Alliance respects the national flag and stops dealing with the shadow National Unity Government that opposes the junta, he added.

A member of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force rescues civilians trapped amid airstrikes during the battle for Loikaw in eastern Myanmar's Kayah State, Nov. 14, 2023. (Reuters)

Sai Kyi Zin Soe, a political observer, said China would continue to intervene in northern Shan state to protect its interests in Myanmar.

“Its main goal is to eradicate cross-border crimes,” he said. “And since this is related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, [it] is eager to increase its investments and develop other businesses there.”  

As clashes continued in northern Shan state on Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar warned its citizens to immediately leave the town of Laukkai in MNDAA-controlled territory bordering China, AFP reported.  

The MNDAA has vowed to recapture the town located in an area run by a military-aligned militia and known for gambling, prostitution and online scams, the report said.

Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

 

S Korean spy agency sees Kim Jong Un’s daughter as ‘probable successor’

Kim Ju Ae, born in 2013, gained attention in Nov 2022,

following her first public appearance with her father.

By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA
2024.01.03
Seoul, South Korea

Kim Ju Ae, daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a military parade to mark the 75th founding anniversary of North Korea’s army, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea Feb. 8, 2023.

The nominee to be the next head of South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday that he sees North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Ju Ae, as his “probable successor,” marking the first time the agency has officially indicated her possible succession of power.

Radio Free Asia reported in November last year that the daughter received a new official title “Morning Star of Korea” – an apparent and deliberate parallel to the country’s founding leader Kim Il Sung.

Historically, Kim Il Sung was referred to by the title during his time as a guerrilla leader fighting against Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

In a written response submitted to the South’s National Assembly ahead of his hearing, the National Intelligence Agency chief nominee, Cho Tae-yong, said: “A thorough analysis of Kim Ju Ae’s public engagements and the level of respect shown to her by North Korea since she came into the public eye, suggests that she is currently a probable successor.”

The daughter, born in 2013, has started making public appearances since November 2022, accompanying Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s various high-profile occasions including his visiting of missile launching sites. 

The emergence of Ju Ae in these public settings was unprecedented, leading to speculation about her potential future role in the North Korean leadership.

The latest assessment reflects South Korea’s changing stance on Ju Ae. Previously in September, the agency stated it was too early to see her as a successor due to North Korea’s male-centric leadership succession culture.

Cho, however, indicated on Thursday that the succession of power to Ju Ae is not yet definitive. 

“Since Kim Jong Un is still young and does not have significant health issues, and considering there are various uncertainties, we are monitoring all possibilities,” Cho said. 

The ex-chief of South Korea’s National Security Office also added that North Korea’s leader has other children besides his daughter, with unknown genders, highlighting the uncertain nature of North Korea’s leadership succession.

In March 2023, South Korea’s then Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said Kim Jong Un had “either two or three children.”

Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.

AUSTRALIA

More than 100 workers laid off after Queensland coal miner New Wilkie Energy enters administration

ABC Southern Qld / By David Chen
Posted Wed 3 Jan 2024 

New Wilkie Energy went into administration days after Christmas.

More than 100 workers have been laid off from a Western Downs coal mine after its owner went into administration.

Key points:

New Wilkie Energy was placed into administration days before Christmas

More than 100 workers have been laid off from the mine site

Company BRI Ferrier has been appointed to assess the business' position


New Wilkie Energy, which operates the Wilkie Creek mine near Dalby, about 200 kilometres west of Brisbane, was placed into administration on December 27.

Administrator BRI Ferrier has been appointed to assess the business's position.

New Wilkie Energy, a private company, acquired the mine site in July 2021 from mining giant Peabody Energy.

The mine had been mothballed since 2014.

Western Downs Regional Council mayor Paul McVeigh said 100 workers from the mine site had been laid off just prior to Christmas.

He said news of the company going into administration was very disappointing.

"We were excited about the news when Wilkie Creek was re-opening and were excited about the 230 jobs coming into the region," he said.


"Very disappointed about the announcement — an opportunity lost I'd say."
Paul McVeigh says he is disappointed New Wilkie Energy had gone into administration.(ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)

New Wilkie Energy, which exported its first shipment of coal from the mine last year, had also planned to build a 400-megawatt solar farm and 200-megawatt wind farm at the site.

In October, the company sent 82,500 tonnes of coal from the Port of Brisbane to China.
Coal costs

Energy analyst Tim Buckley from public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance said as New Wilkie Energy was a private company, the reasons for it entering administration were not clear.

But he said it was likely significant costs for mining operations played a role in the company's demise.


"It's using contractors, not employees, it probably doesn't have a lot of capital," Mr Buckley said.

"It was hoping to get product out the door and sold in order to cash in on the very high current coal prices but with that comes a whole lot of risk."

Tim Buckley says high costs and falling prices could pose problems for coal miners in 2024.(ABC News: Daniel Irvine)

While coal prices remain at historical highs, predicted falls this year could signal problems for other smaller mining operations, he said.

Mr Buckley said costs were high at a time of falling prices. The price for thermal coal is $US128 a tonne and the long-term average is $US75.


"If I had to predict, the price is likely to drop another 20 to 50 per cent over the next two, three years as it moves back to long-term averages," he said.

Mr Buckley said he believed more companies would seek to divest their coal mining operations as the world shifted to renewable energy.

Wilkie Creek was bought in 2021 after having been mothballed for seven years

(Supplied: Facebook)

"There will be demand for coal in the next 10, 20 years, even potentially 30 years," he said.

"But the trajectory is for continuing decline — the sciences say we have to see demand reduce over time."

The ABC has contacted administrator BRI Ferrier for comment.

UN experts sound alarm over planned first US execution by nitrogen gas

Posted Wed 3 Jan 2024 

Kenneth Smith survived an execution attempt by lethal injection at an Alabama prison in 2022. (AP Photo: Brynn Anderson, file)

United Nations experts are urging authorities in the United States to halt the planned execution of a prisoner by asphyxiation using pure nitrogen, saying the untested method may subject him to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture".

Key points:Kenneth Smith is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on January 25
Officials plan to deprive him of oxygen by using a face mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen
It would be the world's first judicial execution using asphyxiation with an inert gas


Kenneth Smith, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in 1988, is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on January 25 using the method, which is intended to deprive him of oxygen by using a face mask connected to a cylinder of nitrogen.

It would be the first time a judicial execution has been carried out anywhere in the world using asphyxiation with an inert gas, according to capital punishment experts.

Smith, 58, is one of only two people alive in the US to have survived an execution attempt after Alabama botched his previously scheduled execution by lethal injection in November 2022, when multiple attempts to insert an intravenous line failed.

Four UN human rights special rapporteurs said the new execution method could cause "grave suffering" and "a painful and humiliating death" that would likely violate an international treaty, to which the US is a party, which bans torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment

.
Kenneth Eugene Smith was convicted in a 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife. (AP Photo: Alabama Department of Corrections)

Smith's lawyers have said the untested gassing protocol likely violates the US constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishments", and have argued a second attempt to execute him by any method is unconstitutional.

US prison inmate alleges 'physical and mental torture' in failed execution attempt


Alan Eugene Miller says he was poked with needles for over an hour as prison staff tried to find a vein.

A federal judge in Alabama is weighing whether to agree to Smith's request to issue a temporary injunction halting the execution to allow his lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new protocol to proceed.

Smith's lawyers and the Alabama Department of Corrections declined to comment on Wednesday US time.

Spokespeople for Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and the US State Department did not respond to questions about the UN experts' statement.

Most US executions are carried out using lethal doses of a barbiturate, but some states have struggled to obtain the drugs because of a European Union law banning pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs that can be used in executions to prisons.

Reuters

Türkiye opens first trial into earthquake deaths allegedly linked to poor building construction

Turkish prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence on materials used in constructions.

(AP Photo: Hussein Malla)

Türkiye has opened the first major trial investigating the construction of buildings that crumbled in two massive February 2023 earthquakes that claimed more than 50,000 lives.

Key points:

The hotel's collapse killed 24 children who had flown to Türkiye to attend a students' volleyball tournament

Turkish Police have arrested around 200 people over allegedly poor building construction after the first earthquake struck

Prosecutors say it was a tragedy that could have been averted if proper safety standards were met

The hearing on Wednesday in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman involves 11 defendants accused of "conscious negligence" while overseeing the construction of the Isias Hotel.

Five of the 11 defendants, including the hotel's owner, were arrested and charged with crimes that could see them jailed for more than 20 years each.

The hotel's collapse killed 24 children from Northern Cyprus who had flown to Türkiye to attend a students' volleyball tournament.

As well as the children, a group of parents and chaperones also died in the hotel.

Survivors in Türkiye's quake-hit Adiyaman left 'frustrated' and homeless

Turkish prosecutors said it was a tragedy that could have been averted if proper safety standards had been met.

The building collapse claimed the lives of 72 people, with 39 of them from Northern Cyprus.

Turkish police arrested about 200 people over allegedly poor building construction immediately after the first magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck.

A second earthquake struck in late February on the Türkiye-Syria border. It was a magnitude-6.4.

Türkiye issues quake related arrest warrants

As despair turns to rage at the agonisingly slow rescue efforts, the focus turned to who was to blame for not better preparing people in the earthquake-prone region.

Today's indictment said the building was illegally converted from a residence into a hotel in 2001.

It added that the hotel had illegally erected an additional floor to the nine permitted by the original plan.

The plaintiffs include Northern Cyprus Prime Minister Unal Ustel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged politically unscathed from the disaster, winning the re-election months after the earthquakes struck.

He blamed the large death toll on corrupt property developers who paid off local inspectors in order to use cheap building materials and illegally put up additional floors.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won his re-election in May 2023.(AP: Ali Unal)

Mr Erdogan's critics counter that most of Türkiye's main construction and real estate companies have formed a close relationship with the ruling AKP party during his 21-year rule.

AFP/ABC

Iran blames Israel, US for deadly twin blasts near grave of Guards general Soleimani

Iran blamed Israel and the United States on Wednesday for twin bomb blasts that killed at least 95 people in the country's south, ripping through a crowd commemorating Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani four years after his death in a US strike.

Issued on: 04/01/2024 - 

An image grab from a video released by state-run Iran Press news agency on January 3, 2024 shows ambulances leaving the site where two explosions in quick succession struck a crowd. 

AFP
By NEWS WIRES

The two explosions -- labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities -- came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday.

The unclaimed attacks, which sparked fears of a widening conflict in the region, rattled global markets, where oil prices jumped more than three percent and sparked global condemnation.

"Washington says USA and Israel had no role in terrorist attack in Kerman, Iran. Really? A fox smells its own lair first," the Iranian president's political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"Make no mistake. The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist regimes (Israel) and terrorism is just a tool," he added.

The United States had earlier rejected any suggestions that it or ally Israel were involved while Israel declined to comment.

"The United States was not involved in any way... We have no reason to believe that Israel was involved in this explosion," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

Asked about the blasts, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said: "We are focused on the combat with Hamas."

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed "evil and criminal enemies" of the country for the attack and vowed a "harsh response".

President Ebrahim Raisi, who scrapped a visit to Turkey on Thursday, condemned the "heinous" crime as the Islamic Republic of Iran declared Thursday a national day of mourning.

The blasts, about 15 minutes apart, struck near the Martyrs Cemetery at the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque in Kerman, Soleimani's southern hometown, as supporters gathered to mark his killing in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.

Iran's official IRNA news agency initially reported 103 people were killed while state television said 211 were wounded, some in critical condition.

Health minister Bahram Eynollahi later revised the toll, saying: "The exact number of the people killed in the terrorist incident is 95".

He said the reason for the earlier figure of 103 was that some names "were wrongly registered twice".

Three paramedics who rushed to the scene after the first explosion were among those killed, said Iran's Red Crescent.

IRNA said the first explosion took place around 700 metres (yards) from Soleimani's grave while the other was around one kilometre away.

Tasnim news agency, quoting what it called informed sources, said that "two bags carrying bombs went off" and "the perpetrators... apparently detonated the bombs by remote control".

Online footage showed panicked crowds scrambling to flee as security personnel cordoned off the area.

'Shocking cruelty'

State television showed bloodied victims lying on the ground and ambulances and rescue personnel racing to help them.

"We were walking towards the cemetery when a car suddenly stopped behind us and a waste bin containing a bomb exploded," an eyewitness was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"We only heard the explosion and saw people falling."

By nightfall, crowds returned to the Martyrs Cemetery in Kerman chanting: "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".

In Tehran, thousands gathered at the Grand Mosalla Mosque to pay tribute to Soleimani.

"We condemn today's bitter terrorist incident... I hope the perpetrators of the crime will be identified and punished for their actions," Soleimani's daughter, Zeinab, said.

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, overseeing military operations across the Middle East.

The United Nations, European Union, and several countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany and Iraq denounced the blasts.

UN chief Antonio Guterres "strongly condemns" the blasts, his office said, and the EU said: "This act of terror has exacted a shocking toll of civilian deaths and injuries."

The EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said that he spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to "convey condolences" and "condemned this terrorist attack in the strongest terms and expressed solidarity with the Iranian people".

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote to Raisi and Khamenei that "the killing of peaceful people visiting the cemetery is shocking in its cruelty and cynicism."

Iran ally Hamas denounced the "criminal attack" while the Saudi foreign ministry in Riyadh voiced "solidarity with Iran in this painful event".

The blasts came a day after Hamas number two Saleh al-Aruri -- an Iran ally -- was killed in a strike, which Lebanese officials blamed on Israel, on a southern Beirut suburb that is a stronghold of Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Wednesday's bomb blasts were Iran's deadliest since a 1978 arson Cinema Rex attack in the southwestern city of Abadan, which killed at least 377 people, according to AFP archives.

Previous plots

Iran has long fought a shadow war of killings and sabotage with arch-enemy Israel while also battling various jihadist and other militant groups.

In September, the Fars news agency reported that a key "operative" affiliated with the Islamic State group, in charge of carrying out "terrorist operations" in Iran, had been arrested in Kerman.

In July, Iran's intelligence ministry said it had disbanded a network "linked to Israel's spy organisation" that had been plotting "terrorist operations" across Iran, IRNA reported.

The alleged plots included "planning an explosion at the grave" of Soleimani, it said.

Soleimani, whom Khamenei years ago declared a "living martyr", was widely regarded as a hero in Iran for his role in defeating IS in both Iraq and Syria.

Long seen as a deadly adversary by the United States and its allies, Soleimani was one of the most important powerbrokers across the region, setting Iran's political and military agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

(AFP)

Islamic State group claims responsibility for deadly Iran bombings

Issued on: 05/01/2024

People gather near a body lying on the ground at the scene of explosions during a ceremony held to mark the death of late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Kerman, Iran, January 3, 2024. © WANA news agency via Reuters

Video by: Emerald MAXWELL

1:55

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility on Thursday for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a memorial for top commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed in Iraq in 2020 in a US drone strike.

UK anti-monarchy group makes new report to police about Prince Andrew

London (AFP) – A UK anti-monarchy group on Thursday said it had made a complaint to police in London about Prince Andrew, after the release of US court documents detailing people linked to Jeffrey Epstein.


Issued on: 04/01/2024 

Prince Andrew attended a Christmas Day church service with other members of the royal family last month

 © Adrian DENNIS / AFP
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"We've just reported Andrew to the police," Republic, which wants an elected British head of state, said in a statement.

A New York judge on Wednesday began to unseal the identities of those linked in the documents to the disgraced US financier Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while waiting trial for sex crimes.

In them, Andrew, who is formally known as the Duke of York, is accused of groping a woman, which he denies.

Andrew withdrew from frontline royal duties in late 2019 after public outrage at a BBC television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.

The former Royal Navy helicopter pilot, 63, in February 2022 settled a US civil case brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17.

Andrew's mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, stripped him of his honorary military titles and patronages soon afterwards, effectively shutting him out of royal life.

He has consistently denied sexual assault and even meeting Giuffre.

The Metropolitan Police announced in October 2021 that it had closed its review into Giuffre's claims in the US civil action, stating that it would take "no further action".

The London force said it had also looked into a report by Channel 4 News that British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked, groomed and abused women and girls in the UK.

Giuffre alleged that Andrew abused her at the London home of Maxwell, Epstein's former mistress who was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison.

Republic chief executive Graham Smith said he wants the case reopened, MPs to debate the matter in parliament, and Andrew's elder brother King Charles III to respond publicly to the claims.

AFP contacted the Met but there was no immediate response.

Despite his low profile, Andrew was seen in public on Christmas Day attending a church service with his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, and members of the royal family in Sandringham, eastern England.

© 2024 AFP

US puts Azerbaijan on religious freedom watchlist

Washington (AFP) – The United States on Thursday added Azerbaijan to a watchlist on religious freedom, following fears for Christian heritage after the country seized back an ethnic Armenian enclave.


Issued on: 04/01/2024 - 

Armenians pray during a service for refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, seized back from Azerbaijan, at the Saint-Sargis cathedral in Yerevan on October 1, 2023 

© ALAIN JOCARD / AFP/File
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken, releasing an annual index of designations, maintained all 12 countries that had been on the previous year's blacklist, including China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

In the sole change, Blinken added Azerbaijan to a watchlist, meaning it will join the blacklist, which carries potential sanctions, without improvements.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan, a frequent US partner, sent troops on September 19 into Nagorno-Karabakh and quickly achieved the surrender of Armenian separatist fores who had controlled the region for three decades.

In a recent recommendation to the State Department, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom pointed to concerns for the preservation of Christian religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, where virtually the entire population of 100,000 ethnic Armenians has fled to Armenia.

The commission also voiced alarm over regulations on all religious practice in the Shiite Muslim-majority but largely secular country under strongman President Ilham Aliyev, including a requirement that all religious groups be registered and their literature approved by an official body.

The commission, which is appointed by lawmakers but does not set US policy, was ignored by Blinken on another recommendation -- blacklisting India.

The commission alleged incitement and a climate of impunity by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government on rising attacks against religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians.

India has scoffed at the accusations and few had expected any action by the US government, which for years has sought warmer relations with New Delhi, seeing the fellow democracy as a bulwark against China.

Blinken in a statement noted that "significant violations of religious freedom also occur in countries that are not designated."

"Governments must end abuses such as attacks on members of religious minority communities and their places of worship," he said.

The "countries of particular concern" on the blacklist are China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Besides Azerbaijan, countries on the watchlist are Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam.

© 2024 AFP

A year on, Brazil high court judge blames Bolsonaro for Jan 8 riots

Brasília (AFP) – A year after Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed the seat of power in Brazil, the senior justice on the country's Supreme Court says the far-right ex-president bears "unequivocal" responsibility for the unrest.


Issued on: 05/01/2024 - 

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes says the high court must decide whether far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro is guilty of a crime for his alleged links to the January 8, 2023 riot in Brasilia by thousands of his supporters 

© EVARISTO SA / AFP
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But Justice Gilmar Mendes says the court must now decide whether Bolsonaro is guilty of a crime for his alleged links to the January 8, 2023 riots, which stunned the world with striking echoes of the US Capitol invasion two years earlier.

"His political responsibility for January 8 is unequivocal," Mendes told AFP in an interview at his office in Brasilia ahead of the anniversary.

"His legal responsibility is still being examined in court."

Bolsonaro's arch-rival and successor, veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had been in office just one week when tens of thousands of protesters overwhelmed security forces to storm the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.

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Alleging foul play in Bolsonaro's narrow loss in Brazil's bitterly divisive October 2022 elections, they smashed through doors and windows, vandalized priceless artworks and trashed the premises, urging the military to intervene to oust Lula.

Bolsonaro, who was in the United States at the time, denies responsibility.

But the Supreme Court is investigating allegations the polarizing ex-army captain instigated the riots, including with his repeated attacks on the credibility of the election system -- which already earned him an eight-year ban from running for public office, in a separate case.

Mendes says he thinks that before Bolsonaro left office, his government "had encouraged some sort of anarchy, especially among the police forces."

"I believe the military even refrained from removing the invaders because of (Bolsonaro's) encouragement," says the 67-year-old judge, who took his seat on the 11-member court in 2002.
'Looking for a pretext'

Mendes was in Lisbon, Portugal having lunch with a friend, fellow judge Nuno Picarra of the European Court of Justice, when he got the news of the mounting unrest in Brasilia.

He rushed to contact three people: fellow Supreme Court justices Alexandre de Moraes and Rosa Weber, and Lula's justice minister, Flavio Dino.

The January 8, 2023 riot in Brasilia by supporters of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro stunned Brazil, and led to a series trials and the convictions of at least 30 defendants, some for crimes including an attempted coup 

© Sergio Lima / AFP/File

Mendes soon decided to cut short his trip and fly back to Brazil.

"Nobody knew just how big it was," he recalls.

"The intelligence services were still occupied by people from the previous government," he says. "Information wasn't being shared adequately. The assessment of the threat was clearly flawed."

Mendes calls the riots the result of months of verbal attacks from Bolsonaro's camp on the credibility of the electoral system and courts.

"Every day (former) defense minister Paulo Sergio was writing letters suggesting some kind of measure" to change the electronic voting system Brazil has used since 1996, according to Mendes.

"They knew the system was fraud-proof, but we still faced all that coercion. What that suggests, going by the populist playbook, is that they were looking for a pretext to annul the elections."

Tables turned

The Supreme Court was a frequent target of attacks from Bolsonaro, who was furious over its investigations against him, including over using state resources to spread disinformation.

The high court remains a widely hated institution on the far right in Brazil, where judges are particularly visible and even outspoken figures.

The court's headquarters were the most badly damaged of the three buildings invaded on January 8.

"A lot more hate and anger were dumped on the Supreme Court than Congress or the presidential palace," notes Mendes, one of the few justices who maintained communication with Bolsonaro during his 2019-2022 presidency.

Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro denies involvement in the violent uprising in Brasilia by his supporters on January 8, 2023 after the far-right leader narrowly lost re-election to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 

© Sergio Lima / AFP/File

"The propaganda worked."

Now, the tables have turned, with the Supreme Court holding the first trials of those charged over the riots.

Of the 2,170 people arrested, 30 have been convicted of crimes including an attempted coup, with sentences of up to 17 years.

"The political system is more alert now" to potential unrest, Mendes says.

But "we need reforms to prevent a repeat of the military becoming politicized and holding civilian posts in government" as they did under Bolsonaro, he adds.

© 2024 AFP