Asia
A bus hits a van and catches fire in Pakistan, killing 20 people and injuring 11 others
A bus in Pakistan caught fire after hitting a van parked on the shoulder of an intercity highway in eastern Punjab province, killing at least 20 people and injuring 11 others, police and rescue officials said Sunday.
Read more: Pakistan arrests 129 Muslims after mob attacks on churches and homes of minority Christians
The accident occurred early Sunday near Pindi Bhattian, where the Islamabad-bound bus hit a van parked on the shoulder of the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, senior police officer Fahad Ahmed said. The van was carrying fuel drums, which caused an inferno that engulfed the bus, Ahmed said.
There were more than 40 passengers on the bus, Ahmed said. Those who were rescued were badly burned, including several in critical condition. Other passengers were slightly injured with burns after escaping through the windows.
Read more: Muslim mobs attack churches in eastern Pakistan after accusing Christians of desecrating the Quran
The drivers of both vehicles died, police said.
Mohammad Jawed, a medical officer at a hospital in nearby Faisalabad district, said two of the seriously burned injured died in the hospital, taking the death toll to 20 with 11 hospitalized.
Read more: Pakistan’s caretaker premier is to be sworn in as people celebrate Independence Day
Ehsan Zafar, a spokesman for the motorway police, said the fire completely gutted the bus and only the steel frame remained. He said the fire fighting squad reached the scene in minutes but by that time fire had engulfed both vehicles. He said initial investigation suggests that the accident was due to negligence on the part of the bus driver, who hit the parked vehicle from behind.
Imdad Ali, who was on the bus, said most of the passengers were sleeping when the crash happened.
“The jerk due to the accident woke everybody but the fire gave no time to passengers to escape. Flames quickly covered the bus like an envelope and all women, children and men were screaming,” Ali said. He said he succeeded in breaking a window but hesitated over climbing through the sharp broken glass.
“Suddenly someone pushed me and I fell outside, thank God, and thanks to that man whosoever he was that I am alive.”
Accidents happen frequently on Pakistan's highways, where safety standards are often ignored and traffic regulations violated. Fatigued drivers also fall asleep behind the wheel during long drives.
Bus engulfed in flames after hitting van in Pakistan, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others
A bus in Pakistan caught fire after hitting a van parked on the shoulder of an intercity highway in eastern Punjab province, killing at least 18 people and injuring 13 others, police and rescue officials said Sunday.
The accident occurred early Sunday near Pindi Bhattian, where the Islamabad-bound bus hit a van parked on the shoulder of the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, senior police officer Fahad Ahmed said. The van was carrying fuel drums, which caused an inferno that engulfed the bus, Ahmed said.
Read: Pakistan arrests 129 Muslims after mob attacks on churches and homes of minority Christians
There were more than 40 passengers on the bus, Ahmed said. Those who were rescued were badly burned, including several in critical condition. Other passengers were slightly injured with burns after escaping through the windows.
The drivers of both vehicles died, police said.
Read: Muslim mobs attack churches in eastern Pakistan after accusing Christians of desecrating the Quran
Such accidents happen frequently on Pakistan's highways, where safety standards are often ignored and traffic regulations violated. Fatigued drivers also fall asleep behind the wheel during long drives.
Read more: Death toll from train derailment in Pakistan rises to 30 with 60 others injured
Chinese military launches drills around Taiwan as a 'warning' after a top island official went to US
The Chinese military launched drills around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning” over what it called collusion between “separatists and foreign forces,” its defense ministry said, days after the island's vice president stopped over in the United States.
Taiwanese Vice President William Lai's recent trip to Paraguay to reinforce relations with his government's last diplomatic partner in South America included stops in San Francisco and New York City. The mainland’s ruling Communist Party claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and says it has no right to conduct foreign relations.
A spokesperson for China’s Eastern Theater Command said in a brief statement that the military exercises involved the coordination of vessels and planes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces.
It was also testing the forces' “actual combat capabilities," Shi Yi said. The drills in the waters and airspace to the north and southwest of Taiwan were a warning over provocations from pro-Taiwan independence forces and foreign forces, he added.
The command released footage of the drills online that showed soldiers running, as well as military boats and planes.
State media CCTV reported that missile-equipped boats and fighter jets were involved in the operation and that units worked together to simulate the surrounding of Taiwan.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that its forces detected 45 Chinese military aircraft and nine vessels around the island between 6 a.m. Saturday and 6 a.m. Sunday. It said 27 of the planes, including Su-30, J-10 and J-11 fighters, crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait — an unofficial boundary considered a buffer between the island and the mainland — and entered the island's air defense identification zone.
Taiwan deployed aircraft and vessels and activated land-based missile systems in response to the drills and was closely monitoring the situation, the ministry said.
The ministry also strongly condemned what it called the “irrational, provocative moves" in a separate statement. It said its military would stand ready in the face of the threats posted by the Chinese army, adding that its forces have “the ability, determination and confidence to safeguard national security.”
Read: China says US military aid to Taiwan will not deter its will to unify the island
It posted a video on Facebook that showed previous military drills and said the Chinese military exercises reflected a militaristic mentality.
Taiwan and China split in 1949 following a civil war that ended with the ruling Communist Party in control of the mainland. The self-ruled island has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, but Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be retaken by force if necessary.
China's official Xinhua news agency on Saturday reported that an unnamed official in China's Taiwan Work Office strongly condemned what it called further collusion between Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the U.S. and said it was a “new provocative move."
The official pointed to the stopovers in the U.S., an interview Lai gave to news outlet Bloomberg and his meeting with U.S. officials in Paraguay, the report said. The official said Lai had used “Taiwan independence” rhetoric in the interview.
The official also accused Lai of using his stopovers in the U.S. to sell out the interests of Taiwan to seek gains in the island's election, and described him as a “troublemaker who will push Taiwan to the dangerous brink of war,” the report added.
Read: US ‘does not support’ Taiwan independence, Blinken says
Lai is his party's candidate for the 2024 presidential election in January.
Taiwanese Presidential Office spokesperson Olivia Lin accused China of trying to influence its election by sparking fears and condemned the provocation in a Facebook post. She said the international community has repeatedly stressed the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait and urged China to stop such moves.
Taiwan's foreign minister, Joseph Wu, wrote on the X platform that China "has made it clear it wants to shape” the island's national election, and attached the command’s statement and the Xinhua report in his post. “It's up to our citizens to decide, not the bully next door," he wrote.
China's largest military drills in recent years were in response to former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August. It fired missiles over the island in a significant escalation and the military exercises disrupted trade lanes in the Taiwan Strait and forced airplanes to reroute their flights.
Read more: China defends buzzing American warship in Taiwan Strait, accuses US of provoking Beijing
In April, Chinese forces held large-scale combat readiness drills in the air and waters around Taiwan in response to President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with current U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
7th China-South Asia Expo kicks off in China's Yunnan
The seventh China-South Asia Expo kicked off Wednesday in Kunming.
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More than 30,000 exhibitors, representatives and guests from 85 countries and regions, and international organizations, are expected to attend both online and offline activities during the five-day expo.
Also read: China's Xi calls for measures to mitigate disastrous flooding amid economic slowdown
The expo, themed "Solidarity and Coordination for Common Development," has set up 15 exhibition halls featuring diverse themes including South Asia Pavilion, Southeast Asia Pavilion, resource-based economy pavilion, and port economy pavilion. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)
Taliban official says women lose value if their faces are visible to men in public
Women lose value if men can see their uncovered faces in public, a spokesman for a key ministry of Afghanistan’s Taliban government said Thursday, adding that religious scholars in the country agree that a woman must keep her face covered when outside the home.
The Taliban, who took over the country in August of 2021, have cited the failure of women to observe the proper way to wear the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, as a reason for barring them from most public spaces, including parks, jobs and university.
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Molvi Mohammad Sadiq Akif, the spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press that if women’s faces are visible in public there is a possibility of fitna, or falling into sin.
“It is very bad to see women (without the hijab) in some areas (big cities), and our scholars also agree that women’s faces should be hidden,” Akif said. “It’s not that her face will be harmed or damaged. A woman has her own value and that value decreases by men looking at her. Allah gives respect to females in hijab and there is value in this.”
Tim Winter, who is the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, said there was no scriptural mandate in Islam for face coverings and the Taliban would struggle to find anything in Islamic scripture that backed their interpretation of hijab rules.
“Their name implies they are not senior religious experts,” he told AP. “The word Taliban means students. "
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He said the Taliban operate on the basis of textbooks used in village madrassas, religious schools, and that Muslim scholars who have been to Afghanistan during both periods of Taliban rule have been underwhelmed by their level of religious knowledge. “They have just been so isolated from the wider Muslim community.”
The Taliban’s restrictions on girls and women have caused global outrage, including from some Muslim-majority countries.
Read more: Muslim mobs attack churches in eastern Pakistan after accusing Christians of desecrating the Quran
On Wednesday, U.N. special envoy Gordon Brown said the International Criminal Court should prosecute Taliban leaders for crimes against humanity for denying education and employment to Afghan girls and women.
Akif, who is the main spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry, did not answer questions about the bans, including whether any of them could be lifted if there were to be universal adherence to hijab rules. He said there were other departments to deal with these issues.
Akif said the ministry faced no obstacles in its work and that people supported its measures.
“People wanted to implement Sharia (Islamic law) here. Now we’re carrying out the implementation of Sharia.” All the decrees are Islamic rulings and the Taliban have added nothing to them, he said. “The orders of Sharia were issued 1,400 years ago and they are still there.”
He said that under the current administration men no longer harass or stare at women like they used to do in the time of the previous government.
The Taliban government also says it has destroyed the “evils” of drinking alcohol and bacha bazi, a practice in which wealthy or powerful men exploit boys for entertainment, especially dancing and sexual activities.
The ministry is in a fortified compound near Darul Aman Palace in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Women are forbidden from entering ministry premises, some of the guards who were on duty Thursday told AP, although there is a female-only security screening hut.
Slogans on concrete barricades praise the purpose of the ministry.
One reads: “The promotion of virtues and the prohibition of vices are an effective means of social order.” Another says: “The promotion of virtues and the prohibition of vices save society from catastrophe.”
Akif said the ministry relies on a network of officials and informants to check if people are following regulations.
“Our ombudsmen walk in markets, public places, universities, schools, madrassas and mosques,” he said. “They visit all these places and watch people. They also speak with them and educate them. We monitor them and people also cooperate with and inform us.”
When asked if women can go to parks, one of the spaces they are banned from, he said they would be able to if certain conditions could be met.
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“You can go to the park, but only if there are no men there. If there are men, then Sharia does not allow it. We don’t say that a woman can’t do sports, she can’t go to the park or she can’t run. She can do all these things, but not in the same way as some women want, to be semi-naked and among men."
China's Xi calls for measures to mitigate disastrous flooding amid economic slowdown
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for measures to mitigate the effects of this year’s disastrous flooding which has left scores dead and inflicted massive damage on crops, homes and infrastructure, including in and around Beijing.
At least 90 rivers have risen above warning levels and 24 have already overflowed their banks, according to state media, threatening a vast area in northeastern China with flooding, including the Songliao Basin north of the capital, which encompasses more than 1.2 million square kilometers (482,200 square miles) with a population of almost 100 million.
“As China is still in the main flood season, rainstorms, floods, typhoons and other disasters still occur frequently in many places across the country,” the Xinhua News Agency said, summarizing conclusions of Thursday's meeting of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee presided over by President Xi.
Read more: Small plane crashes in Malaysia, with at least 9 bodies recovered
Participants “urged relevant localities and departments to always prioritize the safety of people’s lives and property, and keep doing a good job in flood prevention and disaster relief,” Xinhua said.
The reinforcement of dams and the efficient use of disaster relief funds to “repair damaged infrastructure such as transport, communications and electricity, and restore farmland and agricultural facilities” is crucial, it said.
Schools, hospitals and nursing homes must be swiftly restored, along with damaged housing “to ensure the affected residents can return home or move to new homes before the winter.”
The flooding this year has also affected large parts of the central and eastern parts of the country, both in the semi-tropical south and the northern plains.
Much of China is having a particularly damp summer, with 142 people killed by flooding i n July and dozens more this month.
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Meteorologists warned that thunderstorms, gales and hail will affect parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin in the north, along with Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian to the center and southeast.
Residents have been urged to reduce outdoor activities and seek shelter.
The severe weather comes as economic growth slid to 0.8% in the three months ending in June, down from 2.2% in January-March. That is equivalent to a 3.2% annual rate, which would be among China’s weakest in decades.
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A survey in June found unemployment among urban workers aged 16 to 24 spiked to a record 21.3%. The statistics bureau said this week it would withhold updates while it refined its measurement.
In a speech recently published by Qiushi, the party’s top theoretical journal, Xi called for patience in a as the party tries to reverse the deepening economic slump.
That came hours after data Tuesday showed consumer and factory activity weakened further in July despite official promises to support struggling entrepreneurs. The government skipped giving an update on a politically sensitive spike in unemployment among young people.
Pakistan arrests 129 Muslims after mob attacks on churches and homes of minority Christians
Police arrested 129 Muslims after a mob angered by an alleged Quran desecration attacked a dozen churches and nearly two dozen homes of minority Christians, officials said Thursday. Police also arrested two Christian men accused of defacing Islam's holy book.
The alleged desecration set off a violent rampage Wednesday in Jaranwala, causing Christians to flee to safer places in the eastern city as the mob inflicted one of the country's most destructive attacks on Christians.
The city police chief, Bilal Mehmood, said officers arrested Raja Amir and a friend who were accused by local Muslims of tearing pages from a Quran, writing insulting remarks on other pages and then throwing the book on the ground.
Also read: Muslim mobs attack churches in eastern Pakistan after accusing Christians of desecrating the Quran
The regional police chief, Rizwan Khan, said 129 people had been arrested as suspected rioters and the situation was under control. Authorities summoned soldiers to restore order, and Christian residents slowly returned home to see the destruction Thursday.
"We were sitting at home when suddenly we heard that a mob is coming and it is burning homes and attacking churches," Shazia Amjad said as she wept outside her charred home.
She said that the mob burned household items and furniture and that some of her possessions were stolen while she was staying with her family in a safer area.
Other Christians described similar ordeals and expressed bewilderment.
Also read: Thousands of Muslims take to the streets to express outrage over Quran desecration in Sweden
Azeem Masih wept as he sat outsisitting outside his home, which was one of several buildings burned on his street. He said some rioters brought in vehicles to haul away Christians' household items after burning furniture and other belongings.
"Why did they do it to us? We had not done anything wrong," he said.
Local priest Khalid Mukhtar said he believed most of Jaranwala's 17 churches were attacked and his own home was damaged.
Government officials said all of the damaged churches and homes would be repaired within a week and those who suffered losses would be compensated.
Also read: OIC seeks collective measures to prevent desecration of Holy Quran, insult against Prophet
The violence drew nationwide condemnation, and caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul-ul-Haq Kakar ordered police to ensure rioters were arrested.
The regional police chief said the mob quickly gathered and began attacking churches and Christian homes. Rioters also assaulted the offices of a city administrator, but police intervened, shooting into the air and wielding batons to disperse the attackers with the help of Muslim clerics and elders.
Videos and photos posted on social media show a throng of angry people descending on a church, throwing pieces of bricks and setting it on fire. In another video, four other churches are attacked, their windows broken as attackers throw pieces of furniture outside and set them on fire.
In another video, a man is seen climbing to the roof of a church and removing a steel cross after repeatedly hitting it with a hammer as a crowd cheers him on.
The violence drew condemnation from domestic and international human rights groups.
Amnesty International called for the repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
Under Pakistan's blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often just an accusation can incite mobs to violence, lynchings and killings.
Rghts groups say blasphemy allegations have been used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores.
Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, urged Pakistan to conduct a full investigation. "We support peaceful freedom of expression and the right to freedom of religion and belief for everybody," he said in Washington on Wednesday.
Small plane crashes in Malaysia, with at least 9 bodies recovered
A small aircraft crashed Thursday in a suburb in Malaysia's central Selangor state, with at least nine bodies recovered, police said.
Shah Alam district police chief Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim confirmed that a jet has crashed. He said it appeared that all the passengers on the plane had perished but couldn’t give further details. Another police officer, who declined to be named as he isn’t authorized to speak to the media, said that at least nine bodies have been found.
Read: Philippine plane crash kills 2, another carrying 6 missing
Civil aviation authorities said there were six passengers and two crew members on board the plane. The Malay Mail online news portal quoted eyewitnesses as saying the airplane exploded upon impact, with some of the debris from the crash hitting a motorcycle.
The New Straits Times, an English-language newspaper, said on its website that the plane was believe to be en route from the northern resort island of Langkawi to the Subang airport in Selangor when it was believed to have encountered difficulties and crashed onto the highway.
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Videos shared on social media showed fire and plumes of black smoke rising from the crash site on a grassy lawn by the side of a main highway in Shah Alam. Part of the road was seen covered in thick soot. Police and firemen have been deployed to the scene.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke is expected to release further details at a news conference later Thursday.
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Ambassador Fick to visit India, Sri Lanka from August 17 to 23
US Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy Nathaniel C. Fick will travel to India and Sri Lanka from August 17-23.
In India from August 17 to 20, Ambassador Fick will head the US delegation to the G20 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting in Bengaluru, said the Spokesperson at the US Department of State.
He will highlight US views on digital economy topics including priority areas set by India’s G20 presidency: Digital public infrastructure, security in the digital economy, and digital skilling.
Ambassador Fick will also meet with technology entrepreneurs and other representatives from industry and civil society.
Ambassador Fick will then travel to Sri Lanka from August 20 to 23.
He will hold bilateral consultations in Colombo with a range of counterparts in government, the private sector, and think tanks on cybersecurity, information and communications technologies, and digital freedom.
Rescuers recover 33 bodies from a landslide at a Myanmar jade mine, with 3 people still missing
The bodies of 33 people have been recovered from a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar and rescuers are searching for at least three people believed to be missing, a rescue official said Wednesday.
In the landslide on Sunday in Hpakant, the center of the world's largest and most lucrative jade mining district, earth and debris from several mines slid about 300 meters (1,000 feet) down a cliff into a lake below, carrying more than 35 miners with it.
About 150 rescuers using five small boats have recovered the bodies from the muddy lake in Manna village in Hpakant, a remote mountainous town in Kachin state about 950 kilometers (600 miles) north of Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, the leader of a local rescue team said. He said at least three people were feared missing.
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He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared arrest by the military-installed government.
The corpses were covered with green plastic sheets and placed in a row on the bank of the lake as relatives came to carry them away for cremation. All of the victims were men.
A miner who lost two relatives said local authorities provided about 700,000 kyats ($330) per victim as a contribution toward the cost of funerals.
Landslides occur several times a year in Hpakant's jade mines. In July 2020, at least 162 people died in a landslide in the same area, and 113 were killed in a November 2015 accident.
Most victims are independent miners who settle near giant mounds of discarded earth excavated by heavy machinery used by mining companies.
Also read: Cox's Bazar landslide kills 2 siblings aged 1 and 5
They scavenge for bits of jade and usually work and live in abandoned mining pits at the base of the mounds, which become particularly unstable during the rainy season.
Most scavengers are unregistered migrants from other areas, making it hard to determine exactly how many people are missing after such accidents.
Human rights activists say jade mining is an important source of revenue for Myanmar's military-installed government. Opponents of army rule advocate sanctions and boycotts to reduce jade sales.
Jade mining also plays a role in the decades-long struggle of ethnic Kachin rebel groups in Myanmar for greater autonomy.
The region is now embroiled in an armed conflict between the Kachin Independence Army and the military which has driven many civilians into displacement camps in nearby townships.
Also read: Indian rescuers recover 27 dead but no sign of dozens of missing villagers swamped by a landslide