Tag: InternationalNews

{Investigation ordered after recovery of the bodies by rescuers at Jinshangou mine where the blast occurred on Monday.}

All 33 coal miners trapped underground in a gas explosion earlier this week in China’s Chongqing have been found dead, according to Chinese state media.

Two miners survived Monday’s explosion but rescuers working around the clock found no others alive at the privately owned Jinshangou mine, where the explosion occurred before midday.

All bodies have been recovered and rescuers were shown bowing their heads in memorial for the dead.

Gas explosions inside mines are often caused when a flame or electrical spark ignites gas leaking from the coal seam.

Ventilation systems are supposed to prevent gas from becoming trapped.

The State Administration of Work Safety ordered an investigation, sayin.those responsible must be strictly punished.

Local officials in Chongqing also ordered smaller mines to shut down temporarily.

China’s mining industry has long been among the world’s deadliest.

The head of China’s State Administration of Work Safety said earlier this year that struggling coal mines are likely to overlook maintenance.

China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal but has announced plans to shut more than 1,000 outdated mines, as part of a broader plan to cut down on overproduction.

{Troops reach outskirts of ISIL-held city for first time since offensive began, as PM warns fighters to surrender or die.}

Iraqi special forces stood poised to enter Mosul in an offensive to drive out fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group after sweeping into the last village on the city’s eastern edge on Monday.

The troops said they fended off suicide car bombs without losing a soldier.

Armored vehicles drew fire from mortars and small arms as they moved on the village of Bazwaya in an assault that began at dawn, while artillery and air strikes hit ISIL, or ISIS, positions. By evening, the fighting had stopped and units took up positions less than a mile from Mosul’s eastern border and about 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the centre, two weeks into the offensive to retake Iraq’s second-largest city.

“We will enter the city of Mosul soon and liberate it from Daesh,” said Brigadier General Haider Fadhil of Iraq’s special forces, using an Arabic acronym for the armed group.

He added that more than 20 ISIL fighters had been killed while his forces suffered only one light injury from a fall.

Three suicide car bombers had tried to stop the advance before the army took control of Bazwaya, but the troops destroyed them, he said. The army said another unit, its 9th Division, had moved toward Mosul and was about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from its eastern outskirts, the neighborhood of Gogjali.

At one point, a Humvee packed with explosives raced ahead and tried to ram the approaching forces, but Iraqi troops opened fire, blowing it up. Plumes of smoke rose from ISIL positions hit by artillery and air strikes that the army said came from the US-led coalition.

‘Battle of honour’

State TV described the operation as a “battle of honour” to take the city, which was captured by ISIL from a superior yet neglected Iraqi force in 2014.

Some residents hung white flags on buildings and windows in a sign they would not resist government troops, said Major Salam al-Obeidi, a member of the special forces operation in Bazwaya. He said troops asked villagers to stay in their homes as Iraqi forces moved through the streets – a precaution against possible suicide bombers.

As night fell, broken glass in the streets glistened from the light of some burning houses, with several buildings suffering collapsed roofs from air strikes. The army estimates hundreds of families are in the village, but few ventured out.

Since October 17, Iraqi forces and their Kurdish allies, Sunni tribesmen and Shia militias have been converging on Mosul from all directions. Entering Gogjali could be the start of a new slog for the troops, as they’ll be forced to engage in difficult, house-to-house fighting in more urban areas. The operation is expected to take weeks, if not months.

Iraqi forces have made uneven progress. Advances have been slower south of the city, with government troops still 20 miles (35 kilometers) away.

Abadi tells ISIL: Surrender or die

The US military estimates ISIL has 3,000-5,000 fighters in Mosul and another 1,500-2,500 in its outer defensive belt. The total includes about 1,000 foreign fighters.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appeared on state TV on Monday in combat fatigues and urged ISIL fighters in Mosul to surrender.

“We will close in on Daesh from all angles and, God willing, we will cut the snake’s head,” he said while visiting troops in the town of Shura, south of Mosul. “They will have no way out, and no way to escape … Either they die, or surrender.”

On Sunday, thousands of fighters flocked to join Iraq’s state-sanctioned, Iran-backed Shia militias who aim to cut off Mosul from the west. In a series of apparent retaliatory attacks over the past week, bombs exploded in five of Baghdad’s mostly Shia neighborhoods.

“It is going to be a difficult fight,” said Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from east of Mosul. “Speaking to commanders on the ground, they will tell you it could be weeks, and maybe even months.”

{At least 12 Cumhuriyet employees affected by decision described by government as arising from probe launched in August.}

Turkish police have detained at least a dozen people working for the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, according to news-media reports.

Cumhuriyet said that along with Murat Sabuncu, the editor-in-chief, 13 other other employees of the paper, including its managing staff, writers and executives, were detained on Monday.

State-run Anadolu Agency said 12 people from Cumhuriyet were detained, adding that their homes were searched.

The detentions come as authorities crack down on anyone suspected of links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based religious leader accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating a failed coup in July.

A statement by the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said the media employees had taken into custody for having alleged links to Gulen and the outlawed armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Numan Kurtulmus, a government spokesperson, said on Monday the detentions were the result of an investigation initiated in August.

He also said that it was not possible for politicians to comment on the process.

“There is an ongoing legal process. We will all follow this legal process,” he said.

Scores of opposition media organisations have been shut down since the government acquired emergency powers following the failed coup, including pro-Kurdish ones such as IMC TV, the Dicle news and the Ozgur Gundem newspaper.

More than 100,000 people had already been sacked or suspended and 37,000 arrested since the coup attempt.

Over the weekend, Turkey dismissed a further 10,000 civil servants and closed 15 more media outlets over suspected links with armed groups and Gulen.

{{Laptops seized}}

Cumhuriyet said its staff had their laptops seized from their homes after police search.

Footage showed one writer, Aydin Engin, 75, being ushered by plainclothes police into a hospital for medical checks.

Asked by reporters why he was detained, Engin said: “I work for Cumhuriyet, isn’t that enough?”

Another veteran journalist, Kadri Gursel, who began writing for Cumhuriyet in May, said on Twitter that his house was being searched and that there was an arrest warrant for him.

Readers of the daily gathered in masses at the Cumhuriyet headquarters in Istanbul to protest the operation.

Cumhuriyet, known for its critical stance towards the government, got wide international attention in 2015 when it reported on a fleet of Syria-bound trucks allegedly sent by the country’s intelligence agency, carrying weapons to Syrian anti-government fighters.

Can Dundar, Cumhuriyet’s previous editor-in-chief, was sentenced to six years for publishing state secrets for that report.

Dundar, who lives in Germany now, has ruled out returning to Turkey until the emergency measures are abolished.

He is among the people prosecutors issued arrest warrants for on Monday.

While Turkey insists it is acting within the rule of law, organisations defending free speech have accused the government of violating human rights.

“Restrictions imposed under the state of emergency go beyond those permissible under international human rights law, including unjustifiable limitations on media freedom,” Reporters Without Borders and other rights groups said earlier this month.

{Rebel offensive to cross into city’s east eases as regime forces fight back, and amid UN concern over civilian deaths.}

A rebel assault to break the siege of Syria’s Aleppo slowed on Monday amid fierce resistance from regime forces, as the UN said it was “appalled” by opposition fire on civilians.

Rebels launched a major assault on Friday, backed by car bombs and salvos of rockets, to break through government lines and reach the 250,000 people besieged in the city’s east.

Aleppo has been hit by some of the worst violence in Syria’s five-year conflict, turning the once-bustling economic hub into a divided and bombed-out symbol of the brutal war.

Since Friday, opposition factions have amassed on Aleppo’s western outskirts in a bid to end the regime’s three-month encirclement of the city’s eastern districts.

While they scored an initial advance, the offensive has since slowed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

“Since Sunday, the regime has been taking the initiative and the clashes are less intense,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said on Monday.

“The only thing that has been accomplished is partial control over Dahiyet al-Assad,” a neighbourhood on Aleppo’s western outskirts that rebels entered on Friday, he said.

Syrian and Russian air strikes were hitting the battlefronts on the city’s edges, but with less intensity than in previous days.

“The momentum of the rebel offensive slowed after failing to take control of the ‘3000’ apartment block and the military complex,” a pro-government military source said, referring to two built-up areas southwest of Aleppo.

{{Civilian toll rises}}

In a new toll on Monday, the Observatory said a total of 61 government troops and their allies were killed in the assault, as well as 72 Syrian rebels.

Heavy rebel rocket fire since Friday has killed 48 civilians, including 17 children, the monitor said.

According to Syrian state news agency SANA, three civilians were killed in rebel fire on Aleppo on Monday.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the death toll.

Syria’s army said in a statement on Monday that the Nusra Front and what it called other “terrorist” groups had killed 84 people, mostly women and children, in Aleppo during the past three days, adding that the bombardment included chemical weapons.

The Nusra Front broke allegiance with al-Qaeda and changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham in July. It is one of the main rebel groups taking part in the Aleppo offensive.

UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura said the high civilian toll raised deep concern.

In a statement on Sunday, his office said he was “appalled and shocked by the high number of rockets” fired by rebels.

{Prosecutors call Choi Soon-sil, facing allegations of fraud and meddling in state affairs, “unstable” and a flight risk.}

The woman at the centre of the political scandal embroiling President Park Geun-hye has been placed under emergency detention after prosecutors said she was “unstable” and a flight risk.

Choi Soon-sil, who faces allegations of fraud and meddling in state affairs over her decades-long friendship with Park, was questioned for hours on Monday after she returned to the country and handed herself in following mass street protests.

“There is a possibility of Choi trying to destroy evidence as she is denying all the allegations,” a prosecution official told Yonhap news agency, explaining the decision to hold her for 48 hours.

“She has fled overseas in the past, and she doesn’t have a permanent address in this country, making her a flight risk.

“She is also in an extremely unstable psychological state, and it’s possible an unexpected event could occur if she is released.”

Choi flew back to Seoul on Sunday from Germany to submit to herself for questioning and was surrounded by hundreds of journalists and angry protesters waving placards demanding her arrest.

Dressed from head to toe in black, Choi lost her hat, sunglasses and one shoe as she struggled through the scrum to the Seoul district prosecutor’s office on Monday.

“Please forgive me. I have committed a deadly sin,” Choi said after she made it inside the building, Yonhap reported.

After a night in detention, she was escorted back to the prosecutors’ office early on Tuesday wearing a prison uniform for another round of questioning – which could last for days, Yonhap said.

Prosecutors have to decide whether to seek a warrant to formally arrest Choi before the emergency detention period expires.

Public anger

Park and Choi have been close friends for 40 years. The precise nature of that friendship lies at the heart of the scandal which has caused a media frenzy in South Korea, with lurid reports of religious cults and shamanistic rituals.

Suggestions that Choi vetted presidential speeches and was given access to classified documents have exposed Park to public anger and ridicule and, with just over a year left in office, pushed down her approval ratings.

Choi has also been accused of using her relationship with the president to coerce corporate donations to two non-profit foundations, and then siphon off funds for personal use.

Park issued a public apology last week, acknowledging seeking limited advice from Choi on her speeches.

But it did little to assuage public outrage, with mass street protests erupting in Seoul and other cities to demand Park’s resignation.

The Hankyoreh newspaper reported on Tuesday that Choi had been a frequent visitor to the presidential Blue House since Park took office in 2013 – something Park’s administration has denied.

Park on Sunday carried out a partial reshuffle of key aides accused of being linked to Choi.

She is also considering calls from her ruling Saenuri Party to form a neutral multi-party cabinet to restore public trust and national unity.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has stopped short of demanding Park’s resignation.

But it is refusing to begin cross-party talks on how to end the crisis until the investigation into Choi has run its course.

Under South Korea’s constitutional law, an incumbent president is exempt from being submitted to prosecution for any criminal offence.

{Detention of Murat Sabuncu comes after closure of several opposition media organisations since July’s failed coup bid.}

Turkish police have detained the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, an opposition newspaper, according to Turkish media reports.

Reports say that along with Murat Sabuncu, Guray Oz, a Cumhuriyet columnist, was also detained on Monday morning.

Their residences were being searched, the reports said.

Cumhuriyet, known for its critical stance towards the government, had got wide international attention in 2015 when it reported on a group of Syria-bound trucks allegedly sent by the country’s intelligence agency, carrying weapons to Syrian anti-government fighters.

The reports did not give a reason for the detentions or the searches, which came as authorities crack down on anyone suspected of links to Fethullah Gulen, the US-based religious leader accused by the Turkish government of orchestrating a failed coup in July.

Scores of opposition media organisations have been shut down since the government acquired state of emergency powers following the failed coup.

{UN “appalled” with at least 17 children among those killed while some 1,500 rebels mass along Aleppo’s western edges.}

Syrian government troops and rebels were locked in fierce fighting on Sunday on Aleppo’s western edges, where at least 41 civilians have been killed over the past three days.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitor, said the death toll included at least 17 children, adding hundreds of mortars had been fired.

The northern city of Aleppo’s frontline runs through the heart of the ancient city, dividing rebels in the east from government forces in the west.

Rebels, in an opposition offensive to break a devastating siege, have unleashed car bombs and salvos of rockets and mortar shells to break through government lines.

Syrian state media on Sunday accused opposition fighters of firing shells containing toxic gas into government-controlled districts. The rebels denied the allegations.

It was impossible for Al Jazeera to independently verify the claim.

State news agency SANA reported 35 people were suffering from shortness of breath, numbness, and muscle spasms after “toxic gases” hit the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad and regime-held Hamdaniyeh.

United Nations Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said he was “appalled and shocked by the high number of rockets indiscriminately launched” on civilian suburbs of government-held Aleppo.

“Those who argue that this is meant to relieve the siege of eastern Aleppo should be reminded that nothing justifies the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate weapons, including heavy ones, on civilian areas and it could amount to war crimes,” de Mistura said.

The head of Aleppo University Hospital, Ibrahim Hadid, told state television “36 people, including civilians and combatants, were wounded after inhaling toxic chlorine gas released by terrorists”.

Rebels deny accusations

The head of the political office of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim denied the reports. “This is a lie,” said Zakaria Malahifjim of Fastaqim.

Syria’s second city, Aleppo has been ravaged by some of the heaviest fighting of the country’s five-year war, which has killed more than 300,000 people.

In a new death toll on Sunday, the SOHR monitor said fighting had also killed at least 55 government troops and allied fighters, as well as 64 Syrian rebels.

About 1,500 rebels have massed on a 15-km front along the western edges of Aleppo since Friday, scoring quick gains in the Dahiyet al-Assad district, but struggling to push east since then.

“The advance will be from Dahiyet al-Assad towards Hamdaniyeh,” said Yasser al-Youssef of the Noureddin al-Zinki rebel faction.

Hamdaniyeh is a government-held district directly adjacent to opposition-controlled eastern neighbourhoods.

A state TV presenter, Shadi Halwi, said in a video post on his Facebook page that for the first time in government-held Aleppo, “the sound of clashes is strong, very loud.”

Chris Doyle, from the Council for Arab-British Understanding, a London-based advocacy group, said the failure to end the siege of Aleppo has unified the disparate rebel groups, with hard-line fighters taking the lead.

“They have won the narrative. They’ve said, “look the United States, Turkey – these other countries aren’t going to help you, you have to work with us,’” he told Al Jazeera.

The situation for Aleppo residents on both sides of the frontline was bleak, he added.

“Civilians have been weaponised in this war. Both sides, but particularly the regime, have decided to use civilians as a tool, as a way of conducting the war. Instead of attacking military targets, they’ve attacked hospitals, schools. And we’re seeing now some among the opposition fighters doing the same,” said Doyle.

Russia and the Syrian government have halted air strikes on the eastern rebel-held part of Aleppo since last week to allow the evacuation of wounded civilians. But no evacuation took place and efforts to allow medical and food supplies into the besieged area also faltered.

Meanwhile, government troops kept up a ground offensive against rebel areas.

Ibrahim al-Haj – a member of the Syrian Civil Defense, or White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held Aleppo – said air strikes on Sunday on districts near the frontline caused material damage. He also said government artillery shelling killed three people and wounded seven.

{{‘Massive, coordinated’ assault
}}

A government military source told AFP news agency the rebel assault was “massive and coordinated”, but insisted it was unable to break into any neighbourhoods beyond Dahiyet al-Assad.

“They’re using Grad missiles and car bombs and are supported by foreign fighters in their ranks,” he said.

Those engaged in the assault include Aleppo rebels and reinforcements from Idlib province to the west, among them Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, which changed its name from al-Nusra Front after breaking ties with al-Qaeda.

Much of the once-bustling economic hub has been reduced to rubble by artillery and air bombardment, including barrel bombs – crude unguided explosive devices that also kill indiscriminately.

In late September, government troops launched an assault to recapture all of the eastern rebel-controlled territory, backed by air strikes from Russia, which began an air war in 2015 to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

That onslaught spurred massive international criticism of both Moscow and Damascus.