Day: September 26, 2022

Around 90,000 people have been displaced due to violence in Papua New Guinea since May this year.

 

The incidents in the country’s Highlands Region flared up during elections held in July.

 

“Women and children are the most affected,” Themba Kalua, the UN Resident Coordinator in the South Pacific Island nation, told Australia’s ABC news.

 

He said over 25,000 students remain affected as schools are closed in the region.

 

The UN official said 70 women and girls were kidnapped and raped.

 

Another official said people do not feel safe to return home as many homes have been burnt down.

 

“Before July’s general election, violence began in Papua New Guinea in May and continued through August with clashes during the days-long period of the election being most severe,” the UN had said earlier this month.

 

Access to several locations was restricted while food, water and sanitation, shelter, health, and protection were most needed.

 

The violence is directly related to the general elections in most areas, the UN said, adding that long-standing issues, including land disputes, retribution, and unsettled disputes between clans, also reignited conflicts during the time of instability.

 

“Affected communities are reporting injuries, deaths, damage to food gardens, destruction of property, displacement, and disruption of education services.”

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

Canada will drop its COVID-19 measures on Oct. 1 for those entering the country, including requirements for proof of vaccinations, tests and masks, the government announced Monday.

 

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the border measures were ended because travelers “no longer influence in a significant way” the importation and spread of COVID-19 in Canada.

 

However, in a joint press conference with two other senior cabinet ministers, Duclos said the government would re-establish the measures “should they be required in the future…to protect Canadians.”

 

Duclos said the cases have dropped dramatically because most Canadians have been vaccinated and inoculations continue to be available for those aged six months and older, providing adequate protection.

 

“This is great news for the economy,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said at the press conference.

 

The announcement comes after a number of Canadian Members of Parliament and mayors of Canada-American border towns asked in an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden to end the measures. They called them “unnecessary” and wanted the rules dropped to help their communities recover economically from the pandemic.

 

The removal of restrictions for wearing masks, random testing for all those entering or traveling in Canada whether by airplane, train or bus or proof of vaccination also applies to passengers on cruise ships.

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

South Africa’s president has admitted that there is “no quick fix” to the current rolling power cuts plaguing the continent’s most industrialized economy.

 

“We will not be able to eliminate loadshedding (power cuts) in the short term. This is the unfortunate reality of our situation, which has had a long history,” Cyril Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly column.

 

Power utility Eskom, which caters to more than 90% of South Africa’s electricity needs, has been implementing power cuts for extended hours as it struggles to maintain output level due to its aging coal-fired plants.

 

Facing multiple corruption accusations, the firm is also largely shunned by investors.

 

Ramaphosa said his government’s immediate goal “is to reduce the frequency and severity of load shedding by addressing power station breakdowns.”

 

He said people with experience in running power stations are being brought back to help with plant operations and management, while the government is also procuring electricity from independent power producers.

 

“The government is giving close attention to the skills, experience and capabilities of the Eskom leadership to ensure that the company has the best people at all levels of the organization,” he said.

 

Ramaphosa urged citizens to resist the “great temptation to give up hope,” arguing that “just beyond the most immediate crisis, there are real signs of progress and good reasons to be optimistic.”

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

The 14th plane carrying humanitarian aid from Türkiye is heading to flood-hit Pakistan, the country’s disaster management authority announced on Monday.

 

In a statement, the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) said Türkiye continues to extend its helping hand to Pakistan, where millions of people have been affected by floods.

 

Türkiye has so far dispatched 14 planes and 12 “Kindness Trains” carrying humanitarian aid supplies to Pakistan under the coordination of AFAD and with the support of the government, municipalities and Turkish nongovernmental organizations.

 

Planes and trains loaded with over 25,000 tents, 409,000 food parcels and cleaning materials, 38,000 blankets, beds and pillows, and over 2.2 million pieces of medical equipment have been dispatched to Pakistan.

 

A total of 23 people – including 12 AFAD personnel, a medical team comprising three persons, and eight NGO officials – are working in Pakistan to coordinate the distribution of aid and to assist in the establishment of tent cities, the disaster management authority said.

 

Türkiye has also sent two mobile health units and 50 motorboats to the flood-hit South Asian country.

 

With seven more deaths, the number of casualties from flood-related incidents across the country has risen to 1,576 since mid-June, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.

 

Some 803,400 houses have been completely destroyed, while over 1.21 million houses are partially damaged across the country.

 

The floods have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who are living in tents.

 

The monsoon season in Pakistan, like in other countries in the region, usually results in heavy rains, but this year has been the wettest since 1961.

 

Currently, one-third of the country is under water as the massive rains and melting glaciers have caused the country’s main Indus River to overflow, inundating vast swaths of plains and farms.

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

The US announced on Monday a new $457.5 million civilian security assistance package for Ukraine to bolster the besieged country’s law enforcement capabilities.

 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new package would be used to improve the “operational capacity” of Ukrainian law enforcement and would help to “save lives” amid Russia’s ongoing war.

 

“Our provision of personal protective equipment, medical supplies, and armored vehicles has significantly reduced casualties for Ukrainian civilians and their defenders,” the top diplomat said in a statement.

 

“Ukrainian law enforcement officers remain resilient, motivated, and determined to carry out their wide-ranging law enforcement missions and support for innocent civilians in towns and cities facing continuous Russian shelling,” he added.

 

In addition to directly bolstering local law enforcement, some of the new funds will be used to help Ukraine document, investigate, and prosecute potential war crimes committed by Russian forces.

 

The US has now provided Ukraine with $645 million in civilian security assistance since December 2021, according to the State Department.

 

The funding announcement comes as Russia continues to hold polls in occupied parts of Ukraine that the West has denounced as a “sham” that is all but certain to be used by the Kremlin to annex further Ukrainian territory.

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

Turkish security forces have “neutralized” nearly 400 PKK terrorists in northern Iraq since the start of a cross-border operation in April, the country’s defense minister said on Monday.

 

“As part of Operation Claw-Lock, 397 terrorists have been neutralized. All caves, shelters, and so-called terrorist headquarters continue to be checked one by one,” Hulusi Akar told commanders via video conference.

 

Ankara launched Operation Claw-Lock in April to target the PKK terror group’s hideouts in Iraq’s northern Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.

 

Akar said Türkiye will resolutely continue with its counter-terrorism operations “until the last terrorist is neutralized.”

 

“Our only target is terrorists. We respect the borders and sovereign rights of all our neighbors, especially Iraq and Syria. Our only goal is to ensure the security of our borders and citizens,” he added.

 

The defense chief said a total of 2,874 terrorists have been neutralized in northern Iraq and northern Syria since January.

 

Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

 

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

Lebanon’s first grain ship departing from Ukraine under the historic Istanbul grain export deal arrived at Tripoli port in northern Lebanon on Monday.

 

Ukrainian Ambassador Ihor Ostosh said Ukraine seeks to prevent an entire food crisis despite the negative impact of the Russian war on the country.

 

He said that approximately 1.6 million tons of grain products have been exported from Ukrainian ports since the Istanbul agreement.

 

The ambassador noted that 220 ships had arrived at Odessa Port to transfer a total of 500 million tons of grain, mostly to the Middle East and African countries.

 

Noting that 325,000 tons of wheat were imported by Lebanon in the first seven months of this year, Ostosh said that 210,000 tons of grain exports were from Ukraine.

 

Tripoli Port chairman Ahmed Tamer, for his part, said that Ukraine stood by Lebanon and exported grains to the Arab state despite the difficulties the country was going through.

 

This July, Türkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed an agreement to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports after they were paused when the Russia-Ukraine war began in February.

 

A Joint Coordination Center with officials from the three countries and the UN was set up in Istanbul to oversee the shipments.

 

Source: Anadolu Agency

Bosnia and Herzegovina will hold elections on Oct. 2 to choose members of cantons, entity and national parliaments, as well as the Presidential Council.

 

Some 3.3 million people are expected to vote for members of parliament in the country’s two entities — the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska — as well as 10 cantons within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Also, voters will choose representatives of the Presidential Council and the national parliament.

 

Bosnia Herzegovina’s political structure is often dubbed as one of the most complicated systems in the world.

 

A total of nine candidates will compete in the election for the Bosniak, Serb and Croat members of the Presidential Council.

 

This is the lowest number of candidates since 2002 when the 4-year mandate was implemented.

 

In 2002, a total of 35 candidates competed for council membership. This number decreased rapidly with each election.

 

3 candidates are Bosniak, 2 Croat, and 4 Serb

 

The presidency in the Balkan nation rotates every eight months among three members (Bosniak, Serb, Croat).

 

While the Bosniak and Croat members are elected from a joint constituency in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serb member is elected by voters in the Republika Srpska.

 

Three candidates will compete for the seat that is reserved for the Bosniak member of the Presidential Council.

 

The first candidate, Bakir Izetbegovic, is from the Democratic Action Party, the largest political party of Bosniaks. Denis Becirovic, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, is supported by the opposition bloc consisting of 11 political parties. Mirsad Hadzikadic, the candidate of the state coalition, was announced last year.

 

Meanwhile, two candidates will compete to become Croat members of the council. The incumbent Croat member, Zeljko Komsic, is running for a second term with the support of a coalition group. The second candidate is Borjana Kristo.

 

The Serb member of the council will be determined by voters registered in the Serb entity from among four candidates.

 

The candidate of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, headed by the incumbent Serb member of the council Milorad Dodik, announced Zeljka Cvijanovic as their candidate. The Serb Democratic Party chose Mirko Sarovic, the former minister of foreign trade and economic relations. Vojin Mijatovic is the candidate of the Social Democratic Party and Nenad Nesic of the Democratic People’s Alliance.

 

The Bosniak and Croat members of the Presidential Council are elected from the votes in the two entity parliaments.

 

Voters in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will choose representatives of the entity and cantonal parliaments as well as the national legislature — Parliament of Bosnia Herzegovina.

 

Voters in the Republika Srpska will choose representatives of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Presidency, as well as the vice president of the Republika Srpska and members of the entity’s National Assembly.

 

Voting will be held across the 10 cantons of Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica-Doboj, Una-Sana, Central Bosnia, Herzegovina-Neretva, Bosnia-Podrinje, Western Herzegovina, On, and Posavina.

 

90 political parties

 

A total of 90 political parties have fielded their candidates. Also, 17 independent candidates are contesting.

 

According to the Bosnia and Herzegovina Election Commission, this year’s participation has been the highest since 2002.

 

Approximately 68,000 voters registered abroad will be able to cast their votes by mail or at the ballot boxes to be set up at the diplomatic representations.

 

The election campaigns will continue until the morning of Saturday, Oct. 1, after which the election ban kicks in.

 

Allegations of new election law

 

There were reports in Bosnia and Herzegovina that Christian Schmidt, the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, would impose a new election law.

 

Local media in July reported that by Aug. 1, German politician Schmidt would impose measures for the re-functioning of Bosnia’s federation.

 

The alleged new law would determine how delegates are chosen from the House of Peoples of the Bosniak-Croat Federation entity’s parliament.

 

If the law would be put into action, the founding nations of Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs will lose representatives of their ethnic population if any federation canton is less than 3%.

 

Under the current election law, at least one Bosniak, one Croat, and one Serb delegate are elected from each canton.

 

This would be the third time Schmidt uses the so-called “Bonn powers” after assuming office in August 2021.

 

The first time he did so was to annul a law on immovable property in Republika Srpska, a Serb-dominated entity.

 

The second time, Schmidt used his “Bonn powers” to finance the country’s general elections on Oct. 2, allocating €6.5 million (approximately $6.97 million) for the Central Election Commission.

 

The Office of the High Representative was established with the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia Herzegovina. The office oversees the implementation of the peace agreement in the country on behalf of the international community. The high representative also coordinates the activities of international institutions operating in the country.

 

The high representative has the authority to dismiss anyone who interferes with the implementation of peace in the country, including members of the Presidential Council, and to pass laws as necessary.

 

These powers are dubbed “Bonn powers.”

 

Source: Anadolu Agency