Month: October 2023

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Death Toll Soars As Mastung Remains a Terror Target in Balochistan

A suicide bomber on Friday targeted people gearing up for a procession related to Eid Miladun Nabi, near a mosque in the Mastung district….reports Asian Lite News

Seven more people succumbed to their injuries from the suicide blast in Balochistan’s Mastung district, as death toll from the incident rose to 59, Geo News reported on Saturday citing a spokesperson of the Civil Hospital in Quetta.

In a statement, the spokesperson said 52 deaths were recorded in the Nawab Ghous Bakhsh Memorial Hospital, six in the civil hospital, and one in the BMC Complex.

A suicide bomber on Friday targeted people gearing up for a procession related to Eid Miladun Nabi, near a mosque in the Mastung district.

At least 52 people were killed initially, according to district health official Abdul Rasheed, including the children who were aged 9-11, and at least 58 people were injured, Geo News reported.

“My feet trembled and I was thrown to the ground,” said 49-year-old Hazoor Bakhsh.

“As the dust settled, I saw people scattered in all directions, some screaming while others called out for help, Geo News quoted him as saying.

Hours after the blast in Balochistan, a second attack took place at a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu city. That incident has claimed the lives of five people — including a policeman — and injured 12 others, according to Geo News.

The incident took place within the parametres of Police Station Doaba during the Friday sermon.

Earlier in the day, the Pakistan security forces in Balochistan registered the first information report (FIR) regarding the Mastung suicide blast.

According to the ARY News, the preliminary report of the incident has been submitted to the Balochistan caretaker Chief Minister Ali Mardan Khan Domki. The caretaker CM has also chaired a high-level session to review progress on the investigation into the Mastung suicide blast.

In the previous blast on September 14, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah and several others were injured, Geo News reported.

A week before that, a Levies official was gunned down at a bus stand by unidentified men, while two others who were passing by were injured.

In May, unidentified attackers targeted a polio vaccination team in the Killi Sour Karez area on the outskirts of Mastung, resulting in the killing of a policeman.

In October 2022, three people were killed and six others injured in a bomb attack targeting two vehicles in the mountainous area of Qabu in Mastung.

Mastung has remained a target of terror attacks for the past several years with a major attack in July 2018 being one of the deadliest in the district’s history during which over 200 were injured and at least 128 were killed, including Mir Siraj Khan Raisan — a provincial assembly candidate from the then-newl; y-formed Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). (ANI/IANS)

ALSO READ: Pak Army Targets Civilians In Balochistan

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Maldives Polls: Pro-China Candidate Wins Presidency

Mohamed Muizzu has reportedly won with more than 53 per cent of the vote, after the tallying of results of all 586 ballot boxes…reports Asian Lite News

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) candidate Mohamed Muizzu, won the Maldivian presidential elections on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported citing local media.

This was the second round of polling after no candidate emerged clear winner in the first round. Muizzu had emerged as the frontrunner in the first round with around 46 per cent votes, followed by Ibrahim Solih’s 39 per cent.

Al Jazeera reported citing several local media platforms that Muizzu has won with more than 53 per cent of the vote, after the tallying of results of all 586 ballot boxes.

After the thumping win, the Maldives president-elect delivered a brief statement at his party’s headquarters, thanking all those who voted for him and calling on the government to release former President Abdulla Yameen, who is serving an 11-year jail sentence on a corruption conviction.

“Today is a very happy day…I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the Maldivian people. This outcome today is a huge encouragement for us in our pursuit to build a better future for our country, and to ensure the sovereignty of our nation,” Al Jazeera quoted him as saying.

“Yameen, the leader of the PPM, must be released”, Muizzu said. “The president has the power to transfer [Yameen] home imprisonment. And doing so, I believe, is the best action that can be taken in our nation’s interests,” he added.

Notably, Muizzu and his is considered ‘pro-China’ because of the huge Chinese loans by the country, under the previous PPM government.

After the results, Maldives President Ibrahim Solih conceded defeat in Saturday’s run-off vote and congratulated Muizzu

“Congratulations to the winner of the presidential election @MMuizzu. Thank you for the beautiful democratic example shown by the people in the elections. Thank you to the MDP and AP members who worked together and to all the people who voted for me,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Maldives Foreign Minister and Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) leader Abdulla Shahid also congratulated Muizzu and also thanked President Ibrahim Solih for his tenure.

“Congratulations to President-elect Dr @MMuizzu for winning the Presidential Election 2023. Many congratulations and much gratitude to President @ibusolih, for the many seeds of hope he had sown over the last 5 years, which will surely reap much prosperity for our country and people,” he posted on X.

Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed also congratulated Muizzu on his apparent second round victory.

“Congratulations, President-elect Dr. @MMuizzu”, he posted on X.

Muizzu is currently serving as the mayor of the capital, Male. He holds a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. He was the Minister of Housing in former President Abdulla Yameen’s cabinet, according to Al Jazeera.

Notably, Solih’s defeat to Muizzu marks the first time Maldivians have voted out a liberal democratic government in favour of an authoritarian challenger since the country held its first multi-party elections in 2008, Al Jazeera reported.

The outcome also marks a stark reversal of fortune for Solih, who won the last election in 2018 by a landslide, amid widespread anger over human rights abuses and corruption under his predecessor. (ANI)

Abdulla Shahid Congratulates Mohamed Muizzu

Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid on Saturday congratulated Mohamed Muizzu for winning the Presidential election.

Foreign Minister of Maldives Abdulla Shahid in a post on ‘X’, said: “Congratulations to President-elect Dr Mohamed Muizzu for winning the Presidential Election 2023.” 

He said: “Many congratulations and much gratitude to President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, for the many seeds of hope he had sown over the last 5 years, which will surely reap much prosperity for our country and people.” 

Parliament Speaker and former President Mohamed Nasheed congratulated Muizzu on his second round victory. 

“Marhaba President-elect Dr. Muizzu,” he wrote in a post on ‘X’. 

Even President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who contested against Muizzu also congratulated him and said: “Congratulations to the winner of the presidential election Muizzu. Thank you for the beautiful democratic example shown by the people in the elections. Thank you to the MDP and AP members who worked together and to all the people who voted for me.” 

The pro-India incumbent President Solih, has trailed Muizzu, the mayor of the capital, Male, who has pushed for stronger ties with China. 

Interestingly, the election was a virtual referendum on which regional power – India or China – will have the biggest influence in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. 

Solih was seeking a second five-year term and he championed an “India first” policy during his time in power and focused on building relations with its powerful neighbour, while the coalition backing Muizzu by contrast launched an “India out” campaign. 

Muizzu came in the election fray with support from pro-China former President Abdulla Yameen, who was banned from contesting the election by the Supreme Court in August this year following a conviction for corruption and money laundering. 

ALSO READ: China Tries to Block Uyghur Activist at UN

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UAW adds GM, Ford SUV plants to strike

During a Facebook live on Friday, Fain told workersthat negotiations haven’t broken down but Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress….reports Asian Lite News

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is expanding its strike against the ‘Big Three’ US automakers to General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Company SUV plants, the union’s President Shawn Fain announced on the 15th day of the strike.

During a Facebook live on Friday, Fain told workersthat negotiations haven’t broken down but Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress.

“Sadly, despite our willingness to bargain, Ford and GM have refused to make meaningful progress at the table,” Fain said.

More than 7,000 workers at the GM plant in Delta Township in Lansing, Michigan, and the Chicago Ford assembly plant in Illinois began their strike at noon on Friday.

The GM plant has more than 2,800 employees making large crossover SUVs such as Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse, while the Ford plant has 5,700 hourly workers making Ford Explorer and Explorer police interceptors, as well as the Lincoln Aviator SUV.

With these additional members joining in the strike, the total number of striking UAW members across all three automakers would reach over 25,000.

Stellantis NV is spared of the strike expansion this time following progress made in negotiations, Fain said on Friday.

Last week, the UAW spared Ford from an expansion of the strike, saying it had made progress at the bargaining table with the automaker.

UAW announced strike at three select factories of Ford, GM and Stellantis on September 14, after its contract with the Big Three expired.

It then spread the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers around the country on September 22, following a failure in making meaningful progress in new contract negotiations.

According to the latest updates from the company and the union, Ford has offered a 20 per cent wage increase over the four years of the contract, job security the UAW had sought, the restoration of cost-of-living adjustments, an enhanced profit-sharing formula, the elimination of a tiered wage, the immediate conversion of temporary workers to permanent status, and cutting the time it takes for permanent full-time workers to reach the top of the wage scale from eight years to four.

GM and Stellantis have made similar wage offers.

The union initially demanded 46-per cent in compounded wage increase over four years and has since reduced its request to 36 per cent without compounding.

ALSO READ: Italy’s wine production shrinks after extreme weather hit this year

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-Top News Crime USA

US expresses concern over Serbian military build-up near Kosovo border

Pentagon Press Secretary John F Kirby.(photo:John F Kirby Twitter)

Following deadly clashes at a monastery in northern Kosovo, Serbia deployed advanced tanks and artillery to the region….reports Asian Lite News

The United States has expressed deep concern over Serbia’s significant military mobilisation near the Kosovo border, calling it an “unprecedented” development, Al Jazeera reported.

Following deadly clashes at a monastery in northern Kosovo, Serbia deployed advanced tanks and artillery to the region. The violence, which resulted in the death of a Kosovar police officer and three Serb gunmen, marked a severe escalation in tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated, “We are monitoring a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo, including an unprecedented staging of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, mechanized infantry units. We believe that this is a very destabilising development.” The US has urged Serbia to withdraw its forces from the border, emphasising the need for immediate de-escalation and a return to dialogue, according to Al Jazeera.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken telephoned Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, urging him to take action to de-escalate the situation. While Vucic did not directly deny the recent military buildup, he rejected claims of heightened combat readiness. “We don’t even have half the troops we had two or three months ago,” Vucic stated.

On Wednesday, Serbia said that the defence minister and head of the armed forces had gone to visit a “deployment zone” but gave no further details.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also expressed concern to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti regarding the Serbian military mobilisation. The two leaders discussed the EU-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia as the long-term solution for stability in the region.

The recent military buildup followed clashes initiated by heavily armed Serb gunmen who ambushed a patrol near the Serbian border, resulting in the death of a Kosovar police officer. Subsequently, dozens of assailants barricaded themselves at an Orthodox monastery, leading to an hour-long firefight in which three gunmen were killed, and three were arrested. Kosovo’s government accused Belgrade of supporting the armed operation.

Kirby described the attack as highly sophisticated, involving approximately 20 vehicles, military-grade weaponry, equipment, and training, raising concerns about its origins and motivations, as reported by Al Jazeera.

“It’s worrisome. It doesn’t look like just a bunch of guys who got together to do this,” he said.

In response to the situation, the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, announced plans to increase its presence in the region. NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg affirmed the alliance’s readiness to bolster the KFOR force to address the escalating tensions.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move that Belgrade and Moscow have not recognised. Tensions have persisted between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority, with recent months witnessing a sharp escalation of tensions in northern Kosovo, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Italy’s wine production shrinks after extreme weather hit this year

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‘Armed forces, police to jointly combat gang violence in Sweden’

Kristersson said that the decision to allow the police forces to request assistance from the Armed Forces is merely a first step, and the police will be given further powers…reports Asian Lite News

The Swedish Armed Forces have been called in to help the police combat a recent surge in organized crime, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters here.

The armed forces are well-equipped to handle explosives and IT forensics, and to organise helicopter transports and they also have extensive analytical skills which makes them competent to assess risk scenarios, Kristersson said.

The National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA), a civil authority subordinated to the Ministry of Defence, will also be tasked with assisting the police with signals intelligence, Xinhua news agency quoted the Prime Minister as saying.

“We have increased their funding to enable them to intensify their signals intelligence operations with regards to cross-border serious crime,” Kristersson said.

Legislation that allows preventative wiretapping to stop shootings, bombings and other crimes related to organized crime before they are committed will come into effect on Sunday, following a decision made earlier this year.

Kristersson also said that the decision to allow the police forces to request assistance from the Armed Forces is merely a first step, and the police will be given further powers.

In a 2020 study that analyzed criminal activities in 23 European countries, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention found that between 2000 and 2019, Sweden had moved from having the lowest number of shootings to having the highest number of incidents.

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Italy’s wine production shrinks after extreme weather hit this year

The decline will make Italy fall to second among global wine producers by volume, behind France….reports Asian Lite News

Italy’s grape harvest will decline by around 14 percent this year compared to 2022 after a year of extreme weather, according to the country’s main agriculture union Coldiretti.

The decline will make Italy fall to second among global wine producers by volume, behind France.

A year of extreme weather in Italy — including heat waves, droughts, floods, hail, wildfires, and windstorms — took a toll on Italian wine production this year.

According to Coldiretti, the Italian grape wine harvest this year will be around 14 percent smaller than in 2022, totaling about 43.9 million hectoliters.

That means Italy will fall to second among global wine producers by volume, behind France, which is predicting total wine production of between 44.2 and 47.0 million hectoliters despite its own challenges from dry weather and downy mildew, a plant disease. Spain, which will produce around 36 million hectoliters of wine this year, remains third, despite its own 11-percent drop.

The last time Italy was not the top global producer of wine when measured by volume was in 2014 when Italy produced 44.4 million hectoliters, just behind France with 46.6 million.

“The year didn’t start out well because of problems with rain and then the heat, but we can say now that the quality is very high,” Roberto Puggioni, winemaker at the Cantina della Vernaccia vineyards on Italy’s island region of Sardinia, told Xinhua. “Production is down, but the quality is higher.”

Assoenologi, the Italian national association of winemakers; the union of Italian wines; and ISMEA, the Italian Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market, all echoed the view, releasing statements in September predicting good results for the 2023 vintage.

“In Italy, we can say goodbye to the top position, but we’re seeing better wine on average,” ISMEA said in a statement.

All three groups said the drop in production levels but the increase in quality is part of a necessary and long-standing trend.

According to Massimo Lorenzi from the Enio Ottaviani Vineyards in the Emilia-Romagna region, the extreme weather that gripped Italy for most of the 2023 growing season did something his vineyards and many others in Italy were already trying to do.

“Starting well before this year we were reducing production as part of a strategy to increase quality,” Lorenzi told Xinhua. “Most years we produce 120,000 or 130,000 bottles, and that’s probably going to be around 15 percent lower for us this year. But the quality of the wine will probably be around 10 percent better.

“In a few years,” he said, “I think we’ll be producing around 90,000 bottles from the same land, regardless of the weather, but with an even higher level of quality.”

ALSO READ: Lulu Group Arrives In Italy

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NATO must be quantum-ready, says Stoltenberg

Stoltenberg gave a keynote speech about Denmark’s “leading role” in the field of quantum technology development and the importance for NATO of being “quantum ready”….reports Asian Lite News

The NATO has inaugurated a new quantum technology centre called the Deep Tech Lab Quantum (DTL Q) in Copenhagen aimed at keeping the defence alliance at the forefront of cutting-edge technology.

During his brief visit to Denmark, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at the Copenhagen Quantum 2023 Conference hosted by the Niels Bohr Institute.

Stoltenberg gave a keynote speech about Denmark’s “leading role” in the field of quantum technology development and the importance for NATO of being “quantum ready”.

“Different sectors must work together in the development of technology throughout NATO. Even if we do not understand all the complexities, we understand that it is important for our society and our security,” he said.

Outlining the societal benefits of advances in quantum technology for medicine and combating climate change, Frederiksen emphasised its potential military benefits for NATO.

“Quantum technology has the potential to influence the future global balance of power in ways that we cannot even imagine today,” Frederiksen said.

Recognizing the pivotal importance of quantum technology, NATO’s new center is part of the DIANA (Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic) initiative.

Consisting of various test centers and accelerator sites across member states, this initiative aims to ensure NATO’s technological edge in realms like artificial intelligence, space technologies and quantum technology, according to a press release from Denmark’s Defence Ministry.

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Fresno Becomes Second U.S. City to Ban Caste Discrimination

The development is significant as it coincides with the pending approval of the SB 403 Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill by Governor Gavin Newsom..reports Asian Lite News

After Seattle, Fresno in California has become the second US city to ban caste discrimination following the city council’s unanimous 7-0 vote in favour of adding caste as a ‘protected category’ in its anti-discrimination policy.

The development comes as the SB 403 Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill awaits a signature from Governor Gavin Newsom, which would make California the first state in the US to outlaw discrimination based on caste.

“I’m proud of our City for once again, raising the bar on civil rights protections,” Fresno City Council Vice-President, Annalisa Perea, said in a press statement this week.

“While we acknowledge that discrimination won’t end overnight, our city took bold action by passing this anti-discrimination policy to strengthen civil rights protections against caste discrimination.”

The push for the ban was led by Fresno’s Sikh residents, who were later joined by people of Oaxacan descent, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported, adding that the two communities have worked together for years.

Tens of thousands of Sikhs and Oaxacans, many of them farmers or farmworkers, live in Fresno County and the Central Valley, the report noted.

Stating that caste is an urgent civil rights issue affecting the international community, Dalit civil rights group Equality Labs welcomed the move, saying that the “implementation of this new ordinance represents a stunning display of South Asian and Indigenous solidarity”.

“Today, in a California first, Fresno’s city council voted 7-0 to add caste as a protected category in its anti-discrimination policy. Congrats to our Californians… for securing this amazing victory!” Equity Labs, wrote on X on Friday.

Amar Daroch, a Fresno resident and President of the local Sikh temple, Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, said, “It is an honour and a dream to have brought freedom for so many people in Fresno with this historic win.”

“There are so many of us who are survivors of global caste systems,” Daroch said in a press statement.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, the Executive Director of Equity Labs, and several caste leaders have been on a hunger strike for three weeks to push Newsom to sign Senate Bill 403 before its deadline on October 14.

Alongside them, several Hindus in the state have upped the ante against the bill by calling protests and going on hunger strike, saying the bill will further fuel instances of Hinduphobia if signed into law.

This February, Seattle became the first US city to explicitly ban caste discrimination, and in January 2022, California State University became the first university system in the US to add caste to its anti-discrimination policy.

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