Millions affected as death toll from Pakistan's monsoon rains soars

At least 119 people have died in Pakistan in the previous 24 hours as heavy rains continue in parts of the south Asian country.

The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction. (Reuters)

The death toll from monsoon flooding in Pakistan since June has reached 1,033. Figures released by the country's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Sunday said 119 people had died in the previous 24 hours as heavy rains continued to lash parts of the country. The annual monsoon is essential for irrigating crops and replenishing lakes and dams across the Indian subcontinent, but each year it also brings a wave of destruction. Officials say this year's monsoon flooding has affected more than 33 million people – one in seven Pakistanis – destroying or badly damaging nearly a million homes. The NDMA said more than two million acres of cultivated crops have been wiped out, 3,451 kilometres (2,150 miles) of roads destroyed, and 149 bridges washed away. READ MORE: Pakistan's rain deaths near grim milestone, millions left without shelter

Thousands of livestock had been killed and 1.7 million fruit trees destroyed, raising concerns over how families would feed themselves going into the cooler months while the country deals with an economic crisis. (Reuters)

International help sought Tens of thousands of people fled their homes in northern Pakistan  after a fast-rising river destroyed a major bridge, as deadly floods cause devastation across the country. Powerful flash floods in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caused the Kabul River to swell, sweeping away a large bridge overnight, cutting off some districts from road access.  Downstream, fears of flooding around the river banks prompted around 180,000 people in the district of Charsadda to flee their homes, according to disaster officials, with some spending the night on highways with their livestock. Historic monsoon rains and flooding in Pakistan have affected more than 30 million people over the last few weeks, the country's climate change minister said, calling the situation a "climate-induced humanitarian disaster of epic proportions".  The military has joined the country's national and provincial authorities in responding to the floods and Pakistan's army chief on Saturday visited the southern province of Balochistan, which has been hit heavily by the rains. "The people of Pakistan are our priority and we won't spare any effort to assist them in this difficult time," said army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Pakistani leaders have appealed to the international community for help and plan to launch an international appeal fund. The foreign affairs ministry said Turkey had sent a team to help with rescue efforts. "The magnitude of the calamity is bigger than estimated," said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a tweet, after visiting flooded areas.

The NDMA said more than two million acres of cultivated crops have been wiped out, 3,451 kilometres (2,150 miles) of roads destroyed, and 149 bridges washed away. (Reuters)

Afghanistan floods In neighbouring Afghanistan, the Taliban administration also appealed for help after flooding in central and eastern provinces.  The death toll from floods this month in Afghanistan had risen to 192, disaster authorities said.  "We ask the humanitarian organisations, the international community and other related organisations and foundations to help us," Sharafudden Muslim, the deputy director of Afghanistan's disaster ministry, said at a press conference, adding more than a million families required assistance. READ MORE: Dozens more die as Pakistan blames 'horrors' of climate crisis for floods Source: AFP

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Shaky calm returns as death toll from Libya clashes mounts

Rival factions battle across capital Tripoli, leaving 23 people dead and damaging six hospitals, as UN-backed Dbeibah government condemns "war crimes" by rival administration led by Fathi Bashagha.

damaged vehicle is pictured in a street in the Libyan capital Tripoli on August 27, 2022, following clashes between rival Libyan groups. (AFP)

Clashes between backers of Libya's rival sides have killed at least 23 people and damaged six hospitals in Tripoli, sparking fears that a political crisis could spiral into a major new armed conflict. Small arms fire and explosions rocked several districts of the capital overnight and into Saturday when smoke could be seen rising from damaged buildings. But cautious calm appeared to have returned on Saturday night, the AFP news agency correspondent said. UN-backed Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah in the capital Tripoli posted a video of himself surrounded by bodyguards and greeting fighters supporting him. In an updated toll, the Health Ministry said 23 people had been killed and 140 wounded in the fighting. Six hospitals were hit and ambulances were unable to reach areas affected by the clashes, the ministry had said earlier, condemning "war crimes". Fighting after talks fail The Government of National Unity (GNU) of Dbeibah said fighting had broken out after negotiations to avoid bloodshed in the western city collapsed. Dbeibah's government, formed as part of a United Nations-led peace process following a previous round of violence, is challenged by a rival administration led by former interior minister Fathi Bashagha. Bashagha, who is backed by eastern-based warlord Khalifa Haftar, says the GNU's mandate has expired. But he has so far been unable to take office in Tripoli, as Dbeibah has insisted on only handing power to an elected government. Dbeibah's government accused Bashagha of "carrying out his threats" to seize Tripoli by force. In July, clashes between rival groups in Tripoli left 16 people dead, including a child. Saturday's was the deadliest violence to hit the Libyan capital since Haftar's ill-fated attempt to seize it by force in 2019 and 2020. Source: AFP

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MP Man Slaps Woman Toll Booth Employee When Asked to Pay Tax in Shocking Video

Last Updated: August 27, 2022, 11:15 IST

The woman hit the man back with her footwear. As per the reports, the incident occurred at the Kachnariya toll plaza on Rajgarh-Bhopal road. (Credits: Twitter)

The video of the same has surfaced online and left netizens in shock. In the said CCTV footage, the man can be seen slapping the woman employee after she refused to let him go without paying the tax.

A shocking incident from Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh came to light wherein a man allegedly beat up a woman who worked at a toll booth. The video of the same has surfaced online and left netizens in shock. In the said CCTV footage, the man can be seen slapping the woman employee after she refused to let him go without paying the tax. In defence, the woman hit the man back with her footwear. As per the reports, the incident occurred at the Kachnariya toll plaza on Rajgarh-Bhopal road. As per an NDTV report, the man identified as Rajkumar Gurjar had his vehicle without a FASTag – electronic toll payment system. Gurjar reportedly said that he should be exempted from paying the tax as he was a local. However, he had no documents with him to prove the same. The toll booth employee, Anurandha Dangi said, “He said he was a local. I said but I don’t know you. Then I went and informed the supervisor. The supervisor asked him if I knew the man. I said no, and then the man got out of his vehicle, abused me and hit me. I also hit him back,” as reported by the news portal. Following the incident, Anurandha lodged a complaint against the man at the Biaora rural police station. The local police station in-charge Ramkumar Raghuvanshi confirmed the same and said that they have “registered a case under 354, 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act”, according to the media reports. The accused is yet to be arrested. Anurandha Dangi also informed that around seven female employees work at the toll booth but there are no guards to ensure safety. Soon after the CCTV footage went viral on the internet, netizens condemned the act and urged the authorities to take quick action against the accused. Read all the Latest Buzz News and Breaking News here

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Exile, Fines or Jail: Censorship Laws Take Heavy Toll on Anti-War Russians

At a March council meeting in the Russian city of Voronezh, local deputy Nina Belyaeva condemned her country’s invasion of Ukraine and described the Russian military’s actions as a war crime. Within weeks, she was accused of “spreading false information” about the army — a violation of wartime censorship laws that can lead to a long jail sentence.  Belyaeva, 33, avoided arrest and fled to neighboring Latvia. Since then, she has not only been arrested in absentia by the Russian authorities, but was last month added to a terrorism list for criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. “When you understand the scale of the bombings, you cannot remain silent,” the deputy from Russia’s Communist Party told The Moscow Times in a phone interview. “I heard aircraft noise [in Voronezh] and I knew that the civilian airport was closed — I knew that any flying aircraft was a military one.” Over six months since the start of Russia’s invasion in February, thousands of people have been charged under laws punishing criticism of the war. But there appears to be little logic behind prosecutions and it is not just opposition figures and politicians on the receiving end — journalists, artists, musicians, school teachers, archaeologists, DJs, doctors and single mothers have also been targeted.

Voronezh deputy Nina Belyaeva. Nina Belyaeva / instagram

In total, Russia has opened more than 3,800 administrative cases for “discrediting” the Russian army since censorship laws were passed in March, according to the OVD-Info protest monitoring group. More seriously, there are dozens of active criminal cases for repeatedly “discrediting” the Armed Forces and at least 90 criminal cases have been opened for “spreading false information,” OVD-Info said. The punishment for those found guilty of "discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces is a fine of up to 1 million rubles ($16,467), with repeat offenders liable for prison sentence of up to five years; while those convicted of “spreading false information” can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. Like Belyaeva, many Russians have left the country due to the threat of long jail terms. Facing up to three years in prison for “spreading false information” about the Russian army, Siberian regional assembly deputy Helga Pirogova fled to neighboring Georgia last month. Pirogova, 33, was charged over a since-deleted tweet criticizing the mother of a dead Russian soldier who praised the authorities over arrangements for her son’s funeral. In a recent interview, Pirogova said a criminal case was the only thing that “could squeeze her out” of the country. 

Novosibirsk deputy Helga Pirogova. Helga Pirogova / instagram

“I didn’t want to leave Russia. I still don’t want to and, to say the least, I can’t make peace with it. I have no desire to,” she told media outlet Meduza.  But activists and those involved in politics are not the only ones to have been targeted under the new laws. Sometimes, those charged have not even made anti-war statements.  Alexei Argunov, a philosophy and history teacher from the Siberian city of Barnaul, was fined 30,000 rubles ($484) last month for “discrediting” the Armed Forces after reacting to a post on Russian social network Odnoklassniki with an emoji. Argunov put emojis under three war-related posts, ironically adding a sad smile under news about a local official who was fined for stating his opposition to the Russian invasion. “It’s dangerous to express your opinion. People are not safe,“ Argunov told The Moscow Times in a phone interview.  In other examples, teacher Irina Gen, 45, received a five-year suspended sentence earlier this month for “spreading false information”; a DJ in Russian-annexed Crimea was jailed for ten days for "discrediting" the army after playing a Ukrainian song in a karaoke bar; archaeologist Yevgeny Kruglov, 46, was arrested after being accused of "spreading fale information" on social media; and Dmitry Chistyakov, a former spokesperson for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, faces a fine of up to 50,000 rubles ($826) for “discrediting” the Armed Forces. Russian Orthodox theologian Andrei Kuraev was fined 30,000 rubles ($484) this week under the same law. While these censorship laws have been used many times, there is still much uncertainty surrounding the exact definition of “discrediting” the Armed Forces and “spreading false information.”

Irina Gen, a teacher from Penza. Photo from the personal archive of Irina Gen

Russia’s Justice Ministry apparently has compiled a special guide stating that “a negative opinion” is viewed as “discrediting,” while “a statement of fact” is considered to be “spreading false information,” the Kommersant newspaper reported earlier this month.   Either way, the laws appear to have been designed to be vague enough that almost anyone can be targeted.  “We can definitely say that the laws are military censorship,” said Alexandra Baeva, the head of the legal department at OVD-Info. “Spreading any information that contradicts Russian official statements [about the situation in Ukraine] is punishable.”  The first person to be sentenced to a long jail term under the wartime censorship laws was Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, who was given seven years in prison last month.  Gorinov’s crime was to question whether it was appropriate to hold an art competition for kids in his constituency while — as he put it — "children are dying" in Ukraine. He denied his guilt and held up a placard in court that read: “Do you still need this war?” Opposition leaders Ilya Yashin, 39, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, 40, who were arrested for allegedly "spreading false information" about the Russian army, are currently in jail awaiting trial. The former mayor of Yekaterinburg and another prominent Kremlin critic, Yevgeny Roizman, was detained Wednesday on criminal charges for repeatedly "discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces.

Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov in court with a placard that read "Do you still need this war?" Anatoly Zhdanov / Kommersant

Along with politicians, journalists are also one of the largest groups to have been targeted, with at least 14 criminal cases for “spreading fakes” about the Russian Armed Forces opened against reporters, according to lawyer Stanislav Seleznyov, a senior partner at the Net Freedoms Project.  Russia’s Interior Ministry placed investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov on the federal wanted list after he was accused of “spreading false information” in March. Journalists Alexander Nevzorov and Michael Nacke and Conflict Intelligence Team founder Ruslan Leviyev have all been accused under the same law. In total, over 200 people are currently facing criminal prosecutions for voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine, according to the tally kept by OVD-Info. These criminal and administrative prosecutions have gone a long way toward silencing criticism of Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to Seleznyov.  “Every news report about yet another criminal case or fine for discrediting the army and spreading false information cools public discussion,” he said. Yet despite the unprecedented crackdown, Russians continue to oppose the war. “It was unbearable for me to understand that people [in Ukraine] were being killed and maimed and I couldn’t do anything,” Belyaeva said from Latvia.

“At least I could speak out.”

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Death toll rises from flooding in South Korea, torrential rains lessen

At least nine people were killed and seven others missing in South Korea after intense downpours flooded major roads, metro stations and homes in the heaviest rainfall the country has ever recorded.

At least 17 people have been injured, and seven are missing. (Reuters)

Torrential rains that slammed South Korea's capital have diminished after killing at least nine people and damaging about 2,800 homes and other buildings.

More rain was forecast for Wednesday, but less than the heavy downpours on Monday and Tuesday that submerged some streets and buildings, trapping people in flooded apartments and stranding cars.

At least five people had been killed in Seoul as of early Wednesday, as well as three in the neighbouring Gyeonggi Province and one in Gangwon Province, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

At least 17 people have been injured, and seven are missing.

Flooding in some buildings around the glitzy Gangnam district continued on Tuesday, while subway stations and several roads there had been blocked.

READ MORE: In pictures: Record rainfall floods South Korean capital, several dead

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Widespread damage

Data showed at least 2,800 public and private facilities had been damaged across South Korea, and more than 1,100 households had been displaced. 

Most highways and subway lines had been cleared by Wednesday.

The accumulated rainfall in Seoul since midnight on Monday stood at 52.5 centimetres as of Wednesday morning, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). 

In neighbouring Yangpyeong County, total rainfall hit 53.25 centimetres.

The KMA expects rain to continue in most parts of the country, with especially heavier rain in Chungcheong Province.

However, the agency predicted rainfall would gradually subside in many parts of the greater Seoul area and Gangwon Province.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will preside over a meeting on Wednesday to discuss damage and countermeasures against flooding. 

Separately, the government and the ruling People Power Party are expected to hold an emergency meeting to discuss fiscal support for damage recovery.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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Gaza death toll from Israeli strikes continues to rise as tensions escalate

Fresh Israeli strikes came a little more than a year after an 11-day war between Israel and Palestine in May 2021, which killed at least 250 Palestinians in Gaza and 13 in Israel.

The Israeli attacks are the worst in Gaza since a war last year that devastated the impoverished territory home to some 2.3 million Palestinians. (Reuters)

At least 29 people, including six children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

Earlier on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry put the number of people killed at 32, but a further ministry statement brought the number down to 29, including six children and four women.

The ministry said that the victims had been killed since Friday in Israeli strikes that also wounded 253 people. 

Israeli authorities deny blame and say the children were killed on Saturday by a rocket fired by Palestinian fighters towards Israel that fell short. The claim could not be independently verified.

In response, the Islamic Jihad group said it had fired rockets at West Jerusalem from Gaza on Sunday. Witnesses report hearing rocket sirens and explosions in Israeli communities.

The group said in a statement they had "fired rockets" at the city, marking the first time West Jerusalem was targeted in this round of violence.

READ MORE: Palestine's death toll climbs as Israel continues bombarding Gaza

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Rising tensions 

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday citing an "imminent threat of attack" by the Islamic Jihad group.

At least seven people, including a child, were killed in one attack on Rafah in south Gaza, local authorities said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement that Khaled Mansour, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad group, was killed in the attack on Rafah.

The attacks came amid rising tensions across Palestinian territories since Monday, when Israeli forces detained Bassam al-Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, in a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

The Israeli army said on Sunday that twenty members of the Islamic Jihad group were arrested overnight by security forces in the occupied West Bank.

READ MORE: 'It was a catastrophe': Israel gives Gaza locals 15 minutes to flee homes

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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Gaza death toll rises to 24 from Israeli attacks

203 Palestinians injured in airstrikes since Aug. 5, says Health Ministry
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Death toll in Balochistan rains jumps to 102: PDMA

QUETTA: The death toll in Balochistan rain-related incidents has jumped to 102,  the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Monday.

Detailing the losses incurred during heavy rainfall in the province, the PDMA said that women, children and men were among 102 people killed in recent heavy rainfall in the province.

“Overall 6,063 houses were demolished while 550-kilometer road track along four major highways in the province also got damaged during the rainfall,” it said.

The authority further shared the livestock losses said that 712 animals also died during the heavy downpour. There is a flood like situation in Nasirabad, Jhal Magsi, Muslim Bagh, Pashin, KHuzdar, Bolan, Qalat and other cities.

The PDMA is carrying out relief and rescue activities and providing essential items to the affectees, while in some areas people are still waiting for aid.

The Balochistan government has already imposed section 144 in the province amid forecasts of more heavy rains. According to the notification, under section 144, people will not be allowed to go for picnic at rivers, dams and other water bodies.

Swimming in rivers and water streams will also be banned, it said, adding that the ban will remain in place for a period of one month.

Moreover, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has provided relief goods to the province.

Amongst the items, family tents and de-watering pumps have been included to assist the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Balochistan in providing relief to the rain affectees.

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