Pakistan PM Imran Khan drew criticism for giving an inaccurate account of the proscribed terror outfit Haqqani Network, describing it as a Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan that had played a crucial role in the defeat of former Soviet Union in the 1980s before waging a war against the US and its western allies after their invasion of the war-battered country in 2001. “The Americans never understood what the Haqqani Network was. Haqqani Network is a tribe. It is a Pashtun tribe living in Afghanistan,” Khan said in an interview with the CNN. He went on to say that when the Afghan jihad took place, there were five million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. “Among them a few were Haqqanis and Haqqanis were the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets… they were born in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan,” he said. “What they (Americans) were asking us was that we were supposed to check among three million Afghan refugees which ones were Taliban (and Haqqanis) and which were not,” Imran added.
France suspends 3,000 health staff over vaccine refusal
Hospitals, care homes and health centres have suspended around 3,000 workers across France for failing to comply with mandatory Covid vaccination, the government said, as countries around Europe weigh how far to go to combat the pandemic. With the mandate for workers in hospitals and care homes taking effect, its very concrete impact - unvaccinated staff forbidden to work - started to be felt. According to local daily Nice Matin, nearly 450 health workers - out of 7,500 - have been suspended in just one hospital in the city of Nice, in southern France. The government, however, shrugged off the impact. “It hasn’t been chaos, far from it,” health minister Olivier Veran said, adding there were 27 million workers in the sector. There have been a few cases where it has affected care, he said, like the use of an MRI being briefly complicated, but most suspended staff work in support roles, limiting the impact. “Most of the suspensions are only temporary. Many have decided to get vaccinated as they see that the vaccination mandate is a reality,” Veran said.
At least $14m lost to corrupt deals in Rwanda
Perceived corruption in Rwanda’s public procurement system stands at 63.3 per cent while 79 per cent of government tender bidders admitted to have encountered corruption requests with 18 per cent of them agreeing to pay. A study conducted by Transparency International Rwanda said that at least Rwf14.2 billion (approximately $14.2 million) was spent in corruption instances in the past 12 months in the infrastructure sector alone. Respondents said ministries are the biggest receivers of bribes and the going rate is between Rwf10 million ($10,000) to Rwf120 million ($120,000) depending on the value of the contract. The study conducted in March, looked at the integrity and transparency of the public procurement system in the country’s infrastructure sector. Researchers concluded that public procurement in the infrastructure sector was the most prone to corruption, lacking transparency and integrity.
Dutch ministers quit as Afghan scandal widens
The Dutch defence minister became the second cabinet member to resign over the Afghan evacuation debacle. Ank Bijleveld followed foreign minister Sigrid Kaag out of the door after parliament formally censured them over a crisis that has left dozens of interpreters stranded in Afghanistan. The Dutch ministers are believed to be the first Western officials to resign over the chaos that followed the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. Unlike Kaag who resigned earlier, Bijleveld had originally refused to quit but finally bowed to pressure, saying she did not want to hamper the “important work” of her colleagues. The Netherlands evacuated over 1,500 people, both Dutch nationals and eligible. But many Afghans were left behind, including 22 interpreters, according to the government, despite calls from MPs to evacuate them months ago.
Putin to spend some days in isolation
Russian President Putin said he would have to spend “a few days” in self-isolation after dozens of people in his entourage fell ill with Covid-19. Putin was speaking via a video link at a summit of a Russia-led security bloc being held in Tajikistan which he had initially planned to attend. It was previously unclear how big the outbreak was. “This is not just one person or two people, there are dozens of people,” he said. “And now I have to remain in self-isolation for a few days.” Putin, 68, has had two Sputnik V shots. His spokesman said the president’s isolation could last at least a week.
Chinese envoy barred from UK parliament
A day before he was due to attend a reception at the Parliament House, China’s Ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, has been informed that he cannot come there while Beijing continues to sanction over half-a-dozen lawmakers, reports said. Zheng was due to attend a House of Commons reception, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China. However, after protests from the MPs concerned - five of the House of Commons and two of the House of Lords - the respective presiding officers, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord McFall announced their decision. In the wake of the UK’s decision to impose sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China had in March imposed travel bans on five MPs and two peers whom it accused of spreading lies about the country. The five Conservative MPs had written to the Speaker last week, expressing their concern over the parliamentary group’s invitation to Zheng to its summer party.
Biden denies Xi turned down meeting offer
US President Joe Biden denied a media report that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, recently turned down an offer from Biden for a face-to-face meeting. The Financial Times cited multiple people briefed on a 90-minute call between the two leaders last week as saying Xi did not take Biden up on the offer and instead insisted that Washington adopt a less strident tone toward Beijing. “It's not true,” Biden said when asked by reporters if he was disappointed that Xi did not want to meet with him. Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in a statement earlier that the report was "not an accurate portrayal of the call. Period."
Denmark to ban online dating for life-term prisoners
Prisoners serving a life sentence in Denmark will be stopped from entering into new romantic relationships to counter the phenomenon of “groupies” of criminals, the justice ministry said. “We have seen disgusting examples in recent years of prisoners who have committed abominable crimes contacting young people in order to gain their sympathy and attention," justice minister Nick Haekkerup said. “This must obviously be stopped”. The ban on new relationships will apply during the first 10 years of a prisoner's sentence, restricting them to letter or telephone contact only with people already close to them prior to their detention. Recently a young woman revealed that aged 17 she had fallen in love with Peter Madsen while he was in custody. He went on to be convicted of brutally killing journalist Kim Wall in his homemade submarine in 2017.
Girl students molested in Canada’s top varsity
Canada’s Western University, which is the country’s top research university, faces a major crisis as several female students residing in hostels were reportedly drugged and sexually assaulted. Many social media posts suggest that as many as 30 female students were drugged and sexually assaulted during orientation week which started on September 6. The allegations include drinks being spiked, sexual assault and rape. University authorities, who have received only four complaints so far, beefed up security on campus and in hostels. Chris Alleyne, Western University associate vice-president of housing and co-associate vice-president of student experience, said: “I want to be very clear, sexual violence will not be tolerated. Nothing is more important than the safety and welfare of our campus community. As part of Western’s policy on gender-based and sexual violence, we assess and act immediately on any reports of sexual violence.”
North and S Korea conduct duelling missile tests
North Korea and South Korea test fired ballistic missiles, the latest volley in an arms race that has seen both countries develop increasingly sophisticated weapons while efforts to get talks going on defusing tension prove fruitless. South Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), becoming the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a system. South Korean President Moon was attending that test firing when word came of the North Korean launches, its first ballistic missile tests since March. North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles that landed in the sea off its east coast, according to officials in South Korea and Japan, just days after it tested a cruise missile that is believed to have nuclear capabilities.
Plane crashes into mountain
A small cargo plane with three crew members on board crashed into a mountain in Indonesia’s jungle-clad Papua region, police said. The Rimbun Air flight lost contact with air control authorities shortly before it was due to land at an airport in Papua’s Intan Jaya regency, police and transport officials said. “The weather at the airport was not supportive, it was predicted that the plane would land but the runway was not clearly visible,” Papua police spokesman Ahmad Mustofa Kamal said, adding a search operation for the three-man crew was underway.
Blinken deletes tweet saying US stands with HK
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took down a tweet which said that the United States would “stand with the people of Hong Kong”, a post in which he accused Beijing of weakening the city’s long-term political stability. He issued the statement after seven Hong Kong opposition district councillors were disqualified this week and their oaths declared invalid. US State Department spokesman Ned Price too tweeted the same message, which was also deleted. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry’s Hong Kong office issued a statement strongly opposing “irresponsible comments from certain US politicians” on Hong Kong, saying that “no US slanders” would deter the nation’s determination to enforce “patriots administering Hong Kong”. A day later, Blinken sent a more moderate tweet, removing the US offer to stand with Hong Kong residents and the obvious exhortation to Beijing to listen to the voices of all Hong Kong residents.
Bottle washes up on Hawaii shore after 37 years
A message in a bottle released 37 years ago by Japanese high school students has been found - around 6,000 km (3,700 miles) away in Hawaii. Members of a natural science club at Choshi High School in Chiba, east of Tokyo, released 750 bottles into the sea between 1984 and 1985 to investigate ocean currents. The bottles - which contained messages in English, Japanese and Portuguese asking the finder to contact the sender - have washed up in places as far-flung as the Philippines, Canada and Alaska. But none had been found since the 50th bottle was discovered in 2002 in Japan’s southwestern Kagoshima Prefecture. The 51st bottle was discovered by a nine-year-old girl on a beach in Hawaii in June, the school announced, with the postcard-sized messages still largely legible.
IMF chief denies altering report of World Bank
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva disputed an independent probe which found that in her previous job at the World Bank, she pressed staff to alter a report to avoid angering China. The World Bank announced that it was immediately discontinuing its Doing Business report after the investigation found irregularities in the 2018 and 2020 editions. Georgieva, a Bulgarian national who was at the helm of the IMF in October 2019, rejected its conclusions regarding her role. “I disagree fundamentally with the findings and interpretations of the Investigation of Data Irregularities as it relates to my role in the World Bank’s Doing Business report of 2018,” she said in a statement. The allegations threaten to damage her reputation, and provide grist for long-time US critics of the multilateral organisations and their treatment of China.
Ex-Boeing test pilot to face charges over 737 max crashes
US prosecutors are preparing to indict a former Boeing test pilot suspected of misleading aviation regulators over the safety issues blamed for two fatal 737 MAX crashes, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mark Forkner was the lead contact between the aviation giant and the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration over how pilots should be trained to fly the planes, the Journal said. According to documents published in 2020, Forkner withheld details about the planes’ faulty flight handling system known as MCAS - later blamed for both crashes - from regulators.
China court dismisses #MeToo case
A Beijing court ruled against the complainant in a high-profile Chinese sexual harassment case, saying there was insufficient evidence to support her claims, a decision likely to deal a blow to China’s #MeToo movement. Zhou Xiaoxuan, 28, in a series of social media posts in 2018 accused TV personality Zhu Jun at state broadcaster CCTV of groping and forcibly kissing her in 2014 when she was an intern, allegations he denies. Zhou’s accusation quickly went viral and she sued Zhu for damages three years ago, although the first hearing of the case was not held until December 2020 behind closed doors.
Chinese businessman loses $27 bn in biggest wealth fall
Colin Huang, the founder of a Chinese e-commerce platform, has reportedly seen his wealth plummet by $27bn this year – the largest wealth drop in the world on record according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Pinduoduo Inc’s stocks plunged as China cracked down on its internet giants. That’s the biggest decline among the 500 members of the index, much larger even than the roughly $16 billion lost by China Evergrande Group Chairman Hui Ka Yan, whose real estate empire is struggling under a pile of debt. Colin Huang, who made his wealth through his platform Pinduouo (PDD), has suffered as a result of China’s hawkish regulations on internet and technology firms. Huang owns 28 per cent of the company and is now worth around $35bn.
