Asia
Philippines’ Mayon Volcano spews lava down its slopes in gentle eruption putting thousands on alert
The Philippines' most active volcano was gently spewing lava down its slopes Monday, alerting tens of thousands of people they may have to quickly flee a violent and life-threatening explosion.
More than 12,600 people have left the mostly poor farming communities within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius of Mayon Volcano's crater in mandatory evacuations since volcanic activity increased last week. But thousands more remain within the permanent danger zone below Mayon, an area long declared off-limits to people but where generations have lived and farmed because they have nowhere else to go.
With the volcano beginning to expel lava Sunday night, the high-risk zone around Mayon may be expanded should the eruption turn violent, said Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Bacolcol said if that happens, people in any expanded danger zone should be prepared to evacuate to emergency shelters.
Also Read: Philippines evacuates people near Mayon Volcano, where more unrest indicates eruption may be coming
Heavy rains in northwest Pakistan leave 25 dead, 145 injured
Heavy rains swept through Pakistan's northwest on Saturday, causing several houses to collapse and leaving at least 25 people dead and 145 injured, authorities said.
Rains and hail hit the Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Karak districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, senior rescue officer Khateer Ahmed said, uprooting trees and knocking down electrical transmission towers.
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Officials were working to provide emergency relief to the injured, Ahmed said.
Last year, monsoon rains and flooding devastated Pakistan, killing more than 1,700 people, affecting around 33 million people and displacing nearly 8 million.
To mitigate the effects of natural disasters, the government in its national budget draft presented Friday allocated $1.3 billion for climate resilience.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday expressed grief over the loss of life loss from the storm and directed authorities to pick up the pace of the relief operation.
Meanwhile, Sharif ordered officials to put in place emergency measures in advance of the approaching Cyclone Biparjoy in the Arabia Sea. The "severe and intense" cyclone with wind speeds of 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) was on a course toward the country's south, Pakistan's disaster management agency said.
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Turkey appoints first female central bank governor
Turkey's recently re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appointed former Wall Street executive Hafize Gaye Erkan as the central bank governor as part of his attempts to overhaul his economic team.
Erkan, a former co-CEO of First Republic Bank and managing director at Goldman Sachs, will become the first woman to lead the central bank, reports Arab News.
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Erkan was the first woman under the age of 40 to hold the title of president or CEO at one of America’s 100 largest banks.
She has a doctorate in financial engineering from Princeton, and previously worked as First Republic’s co-chief executive officer. She abruptly resigned from that position in December 2021 before the bank was sold.
Last year, she was appointed CEO of the real estate finance and investment firm Greystone, a post she resigned in December.
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Following her new appointment, there are now 23 female central bank governors around the world.
On Monday, Erkan reportedly met Turkiye’s newly appointed Treasury and Finance Minister, Mehmet Simsek, a former Merrill Lynch economist, in Ankara to discuss her new role.
Simsek told media that Turkiye would now return to economic “rationality” with a “credible program” to address the cost-of-living crisis. However, he also warned there would be “no shortcuts or quick fixes” and asked the public to be patient.
Economists believe that Erkan’s appointment may indicate that Turkiye will now follow orthodox economic policies, including interest rate hikes.
Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of London-based Teneo Intelligence, thinks that “an outright and fast pivot toward a conventional policy set, especially in terms of monetary policy, remains unlikely.”
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He told Arab News: “Erkan’s appointment seems designed to regain credibility in the eyes of foreign investors. But how she will adapt to Ankara’s working culture, where obedience matters, remains to be seen. Also, Erkan has no formal monetary policy experience.
“The appointments are important, but the next crucial step should be the decisions,” he said.
Runway closed at Tokyo's Haneda airport after 2 planes bump into each other
Two passenger planes bumped into each other on a runway at a major Tokyo airport Saturday but no injuries were reported, Japanese media reports said.
A Thai Airways International jet headed to Bangkok accidentally hit an Eva Airways plane headed to Taipei at Haneda airport and the runway was subsequently closed and some flights were delayed, the reports said.
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Footage broadcast by TBS TV News showed two commercial jets stopped on the same runway.
The airlines, the airport and Japan's Transport Ministry were not immediately available for comment and did not answer repeated calls.
The cause of the accident was not clear.
A winglet on the Thai Airways plane appeared to have been damaged, according to photographs and media reports. Winglets are the vertical projections on the tip of the wing that reduce drag.
Runway closed at Tokyo's Haneda airport after 2 planes bump into each other
TOKYO (AP) — Two passenger planes bumped into each other on a runway at a major Tokyo airport Saturday but no injuries were reported, Japanese media reports said.
A Thai Airways International jet headed to Bangkok accidentally hit an Eva Airways plane headed to Taipei at Haneda airport and the runway was subsequently closed and some flights were delayed, the reports said.
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Footage broadcast by TBS TV News showed two commercial jets stopped on the same runway.
The airlines, the airport and Japan's Transport Ministry were not immediately available for comment and did not answer repeated calls.
The cause of the accident was not clear.
A winglet on the Thai Airways plane appeared to have been damaged, according to photographs and media reports. Winglets are the vertical projections on the tip of the wing that reduce drag.
Extremist rebels kill at least 15 civilians in eastern Congo, rights group says
At least 15 people were killed by extremist attacks in eastern Congo's North Kivu province, a rights group said Friday.
Fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces —believed to have ties with the Islamic State group — attacked people for multiple days this week in the Ruwenzori sector of Beni territory, said Meleki Mulala, a coordinator for the New Congolese Civil Society group, a local rights organization.
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“They (also) seriously injured several other civilians who were dispatched for urgent care," he said. The attackers executed the victims with knives, and the bodies of the dead were taken to the morgue and will be buried, Mulala said.
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Violence has simmered for decades in eastern Congo, where about 120 armed groups fight over land, resources and power, and some to defend their communities.
Attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces have increased recently.
Read: Philippines evacuates people near Mayon Volcano, where more unrest indicates eruption may be coming
This week's violence comes days after at least 18 people were killed by the group in neighboring Ituri province and weeks after 17 people were killed, also in North Kivu.
A little white pill, Captagon, gives Syria's Assad a strong tool in winning over Arab states
A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbors, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria.
Western governments have been frustrated by the red-carpet treatment Arab countries have given Assad, fearing that their reconciliation will undermine the push for an end to Syria's long-running civil war.
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But for Arab states, halting the Captagon trade is a high priority. Hundreds of millions of pills have been smuggled over the years into Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, where the drug is used recreationally and by people with physically demanding jobs to keep them alert.
Saudi Arabia has intercepted large shipments of pills hidden in crates of fake plastic oranges and in hollowed out pomegranates — even pills crushed and molded to look like traditional clay bowls.
Analysts say Assad likely hopes that by making even limited gestures against the drug he can gain reconstruction money, further integration in the region and even pressure for an end to Western sanctions.
The vast majority of the world's Captagon is produced in Syria, with smaller production in neighboring Lebanon. Western governments estimate the illegal trade in the pills generates billions of dollars.
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The United States, Britain and European Union accuse Assad, his family and allies, including Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, of facilitating and profiting from the trade. That has given Assad's rule a massive financial lifeline at a time when the Syrian economy is crumbling, they say. The Syrian government and Hezbollah deny the accusations.
Syria's neighbors have been the biggest and most lucrative market for the drug. As the industry flourished, experts say Damascus in recent years saw Captagon as more than just a cash cow.
"The Assad regime realized that this is something they can weaponize for political gain ... and that's when production started being on a large scale," said Karam Shaar, a senior fellow at Washington-based New Lines Institute.
Stopping the trade has been a top demand of Arab countries in their talks with Syria on ending its political isolation. Syria was readmitted last month from the Arab League, from which it was suspended in 2011 because of Assad's brutal crackdown on protesters. On May 20, Assad received a warm welcome at the Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
A possible sign of the behind-the-scenes trade-offs came on May 8, when airstrikes in southern Syria reduced the home of a well-known drug kingpin to rubble. Merhi al-Ramthan, his wife and six children were killed. Another strike destroyed a suspected Captagon factory outside the city of Daraa, near the Jordanian border.
Jordan was likely behind the strike, with Assad's consent, say activists and experts. The strike came one day after the Arab League formally re-admitted Syria, a step Jordan helped broker.
"Assad gave assurances that he would stop the regime from supporting and protecting smuggling networks," a former brigadier general of Jordan's intelligence service, Saud Al-Sharafat, told The Associated Press. "For example, he facilitated the disposal of al-Ramthan."
Jordan, he said, sees the Captagon trade as "a threat to both security and communal peace."
In public comments, Jordan's foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, refused to confirm or deny whether his country was behind the airstrikes but said it was willing to take military action to curb drug smuggling.
Arab states, many of which had backed the rebels trying to oust Assad, say they share the goal of pushing him to make peace. Ahead of the Jeddah summit, Jordan hosted a meeting of top diplomats from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt, and the long agenda included setting a roadmap for peace talks and the return of millions of Syrian refugees.
But it was on Captagon where the gathering made the most progress. Syria pledged to clamp down on smuggling, and a regional security coordination committee was agreed on. Days later, Syrian state media reported that police quashed a Captagon smuggling operation in the city of Aleppo, discovering 1 million pills hiding in a pickup truck.
Jordan has intensified surveillance along the Syrian border in recent years and has raided drug dealers. Jordanian troops killed 27 suspected smugglers in a fierce gun battle in January.
Smuggling routes have made untangling drug networks more difficult. A member of an Iraqi militia told the AP that militias in Iraq's desert Anbar province, which borders Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, have been crucial for Captagon smuggling. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Syrian lawmaker Abboud al-Shawakh denied the government profits from the drug trade and insisted authorities are trying vigorously to crack down on smuggling.
"Our country is used as a regional transit route as there are border crossings out of the state's control," al-Shawakh told the AP. He alleged that only armed opposition groups are involved in Captagon dealing.
Syrian opposition groups are believed by many observers to have some involvement in drug smuggling. Western governments, however, accuse Assad's relatives and allies of a direct role in Captagon production and trade and have imposed sanctions on a string of individuals close to Assad.
While Assad may be willing to move against some parts of the drug trade, he has little incentive to crush it completely without winning something in return from Arab states, al-Sharafat said.
A Saudi official denied reports that Riyadh had offered billions of dollars to Damascus in exchange for a crackdown. But he added that whatever the kingdom might offer Syria would be less costly than the damage that Captagon has caused among Saudi youth. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The U.S. and other Western governments fear that the Arab states' normalization with Syria undermines attempts to push Assad to make concessions to end Syria's conflict. They want Assad to follow a peace roadmap outlined in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254, passed unanimously in 2015, which calls for talks with the opposition, rewriting the constitution and U.N.-monitored elections.
So far, the resolution has gone nowhere. Since it passed, Assad regained control over previously lost territory, confining the opposition to a small corner of the northwest. His grip on power now seems solid, though much of the north and east remains out of his hands, held by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.
Shaar said Assad might use the Captagon card to try to get the U.N. resolution shelved.
Other concessions, like the lifting of Western-led sanctions, would be harder for him to win. While Gulf Arab states won't be able to directly inject cash into Assad's government with the sanctions in place, Shaar said they could funnel money through U.N.-led projects in government-held Syria to get action from Assad against Captagon.
Philippines evacuates people near Mayon Volcano, where more unrest indicates eruption may be coming
Philippine troops, police and rescue workers began forcibly evacuating residents near Mayon Volcano on Friday as its increasing unrest indicated a violent eruption of one of the country's most active volcanoes is possible within weeks or days.
The area within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius of Mayon's crater is supposed to be off-limits due to possible volcanic emissions, lava flows, rockfalls and other hazards. But many poor villagers have built houses and tended farms in Mayon's danger zone over the years.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said an evacuation of residents from the permanent danger zone was underway and promised to provide aid to the displaced until the crisis ended.
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"Right now, what we are doing is preparing and moving people away from the area so that, should the time come, I hope it doesn't happen…we're ready," Marcos told reporters. "But unfortunately science tells us that may happen because the lid or the cap on top of the lava is slowly rising."
Authorities had raised the alert level for the volcano in northeastern Albay province Thursday after superheated streams of gas, debris and rocks cascaded down its upper slope, indicating activity below the surface that could precede a hazardous eruption.
Conditions have advanced a little bit more Friday, although lava hasn't started to flow, Marcos said.
The numbers of residents being evacuated weren't immediately available.
A tourist draw for its picturesque conical shape, 2,462-meter (8,077-feet) Mayon last erupted violently in 2018, displacing tens of thousands of villagers.
Government volcano experts raised the alert level around Mayon to the third of a five-step warning system Thursday after detecting an increasing number of rockfalls and at least two volcanic earthquakes in recent days.
Six brief volcanic gas and ash emissions streamed down the volcano's southern gullies about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the crater Friday. Numerous rockfalls and thin ash and steam plumes that drifted south were also observed, the government volcanology institute said.
Mayon is at "a relatively high level of unrest as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days," the institute said in its latest update Friday morning.
Mayon is one of the most restive of two dozen active volcanoes across the Philippines.
Officials also were closely monitoring Taal Volcano south of Manila and Mount Kanlaon on central Negros island due to renewed signs of restiveness.
A number of villages in three towns near Taal suspended classes Wednesday due to thick smog emanating from the volcano and residents were advised to limit outdoor activities and wear masks for protection.
The Philippines lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the area around the ocean rim where tectonic plates meet that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. A long-dormant volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top north of Manila in 1991 in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people.
Suicide bomb in northeast Afghanistan kills 13 people
A suicide bomber targeted a memorial service in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, officials said.
A former Taliban police official was among those killed and at least 30 people were wounded in the explosion near Nabawi Mosque, according to Abdul Nafi Takor, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the interior ministry. He added that the casualty numbers could rise further as more information becomes available.
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The Badakhshan provincial governor's office later said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and that "several of the seriously wounded were transferred by military helicopters to Kabul for further treatment."
The memorial service was held for Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, the deputy governor of Badakhshan who was killed in a car bombing on Tuesday in Faizabad, the capital of Badakhshan,. That attack also killed the deputy governor's driver and wounded 10 other people.
Moazuddin Ahmadi, the Taliban official in charge of information and culture, said that Safiullah Samim a former Taliban police chief in Baghlan was among those killed in Thursday's attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Islamic State group — a top rival of the Taliban — had claimed responsibility for Tuesday's car bombing.
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Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying in a tweet that the bombing of mosques is an act of "terrorism" and goes "against human and Islamic standards"
On Wednesday, several senior Taliban officials attended Ahmadi's funeral, along with hundreds of residents of Faizabad.
The Taliban chief of the military, Fasihuddin Fitrat, denounced the IS attacks in Badakhshan and asked people to cooperate with Taliban security forces and report suspicious activities in their areas.
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In December, a car bombing killed Badakhshan's provincial police chief as he was on his way to work. The IS regional affiliate — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — said at the time that it had carried out that attack. IS said it had parked an explosive-laden car on the road and detonated it when the police chief was close by.
Japan aims to refocus its foreign aid on maritime and economic security and national interests
Japan approved a major revision to its development aid policy Friday to focus on maritime and economic security and its national interests while helping developing nations overcome compound challenges amid China's growing global influence.
The revision to the Development Cooperation Charter, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet, comes two years early since the last was in 2015 and updates are usually on a 10-year cycle. That underscores the sense of urgency in addressing widening China concern and other global challenges such as the impact of Russia's war on Ukraine.
Japan in December adopted a new National Security Strategy, setting a goal of doubling defense spending to 43 trillion yen ($310 billon) over the next five years to fund a military buildup. That means Japan, with fiscal conditions already tight, must use development aid more effectively and strategically.
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Under the new security strategy, Japan's Foreign Ministry has launched official security assistance, or OSA, for the militaries of developing nations primarily in the Indo-Pacific region and is likely to provide Japanese-made, non-lethal equipment like radars, antennas, small patrol boats or improvements of infrastructure such as ports.
Ministry officials say that's different from assistance under the Development Cooperation Charter, which sticks to non-military cooperation and ensuring peace and prosperity, while focusing on human security as "a guiding principle."
The Foreign Ministry in April had 571 billion yen ($4.1 billion) development aid for non-military purposes and, separately, 2 billion yen ($15.2 million) to help strengthen national security of the "like-minded" Indo-Pacific militaries.
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Under the revised charter, Japan will prioritize measures to combat climate change, food and energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as strengthening maritime security, supply chain resiliency and digital transformation.
"The international community is at a historic turning point, facing compound crises," the revised charter stated, noting worsening global challenges such as climate change, infectious diseases, serious challenges to the free and open international order and risks of fragmentation, and their impact on developing nations.
The growing challenges make development aid a more important diplomatic tool than ever, at a time cooperation with so-called Global South countries as equal partners is key to gain their consensus on vital issues such as Russia's war on Ukraine, China's growing assertiveness, debt and development issues as well as climate change, Foreign Ministry officials say.
Japan aims to work with recipient nations as equal partners in creating social values to promote shared cycle of growth and rules-based free and open international order — a vision that Japan promotes along with the United States and other democracies as a counter to China.
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To do that, Japan may offer development funding for infrastructure projects like fisheries or tourism on remote islands in the South China Sea or the South Pacific, officials say.
Many Southeast Asian nations may be eager to balance their relationships with both Japan and China, while trying to get more from both. The revised charter stresses the importance of working with the private sector and civil society and bringing in new funding as Japan takes care not to put other nations on the spot as they build ties.
Japan also wants to take the initiative to set international rules and guidelines as a donor nation that are based on inclusiveness, transparency and fairness.
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China's aid donations in Africa and elsewhere have trapped many recipient countries in debt while allowing the Chinese access to local ports and other infrastructure.
Indian wrestlers demanding arrest of sports official for sexual abuse suspend protests
Elite wrestlers who are demanding the resignation and arrest of India's wrestling federation president for allegedly sexually harassing young athletes have suspended their protests after the country's sports minister promised a swift investigation.
The protesting wrestlers have been staging a protest in the center of New Delhi for months seeking the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has denied the allegations.
They met with Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday. Thakur said the police would file charges by June 15, and that the wrestlers had assured him they would not hold any protests until then.
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India's federal government has also promised to hold elections for the top positions in the wrestling federation by the end of this month. Singh continues to head the federation.
Two Olympic medalists, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, are part of the protests and have threatened to hand back their medals if no action is taken against Singh.
Last month, the protest site was cleared and several wrestlers were briefly detained as they tried to march to India's new parliament on the day it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last week, the wrestlers threatened to dump their medals into the Ganges -- India's holiest river – but stopped at the last moment. A delegation of protesters also met India's Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence last week.
The protesting wrestlers have accused Singh, a 66-year-old powerful lawmaker representing the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, of sexually harassing seven young female wrestlers. Singh has called the protests "politically motivated."
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Vinesh Phogat, who has won wrestling medals at the world championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, claimed in January that several coaches have exploited female wrestlers at the behest of the WFI president.
Indian police are investigating the allegations against Singh, and he has been questioned in the case. India's Supreme Court has also acknowledged that the case involves "serious allegations of sexual harassment."
The protests have found support from India's opposition parties and farmer unions. Most of the Indian wrestlers come from the northern agricultural states of Haryana and Punjab.
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The case has again highlighted the #MeToo movement in India, which picked up pace in 2018 when a spate of actresses and writers flooded social media with allegations of sexual harassment and assault.