Pakistan on Wednesday said India has refused to allow five foreign journalists based in New Delhi to visit Islamabad.

According to Pakistani Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Indian authorities did not allow the journalists to enter Pakistan through the Wagah-Attari border.

"India has refused to allow five foreign journalists permission to visit Pak, they were supposed to attend 5th August session of Azad Kashmir Assembly, so much of #FreedomofExpression," Hussain tweeted.

“We want India to allow independent journalists to visit IOK (Indian-Occupied Kashmir) and let them report facts,” he added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to address the special session of the Azad Kashmir Assembly on Thursday on the eve of the second anniversary of the annexation of Kashmir.

The journalists working for the US and UK media based in New Delhi were invited by the Pakistani Information and Broadcasting Ministry for interviews with Khan and also to visit Pakistan-administered Kashmir also known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“They were invited for interviews on Kashmir and Afghanistan,” the information minister told Anadolu Agency.

He added that his country always allowed foreign media to visit Azad Jammu and Kashmir for reporting, but India never allowed any independent journalist to visit "the occupied Kashmir."

“Foreign journalists, including Indians, are more than welcome to visit Balochistan. That is the difference. You can visit Azad Kashmir, but you (India) will never allow independent journalists to visit IoK,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted: “The denial of permission by India to 5 international journalists to travel to Pakistan, in which a visit to the Azad Kashmir Assembly was scheduled, is another damning indication of shrinking space for free speech and independent journalism under a dictatorial regime.”

On Tuesday, Indian media also reported that New Delhi turned down Pakistan’s request to allow a group of New Delhi-based foreign journalists to travel to Islamabad.

“The Wagah-Attari border crossing is currently open to very limited categories of travelers, including diplomats and people travelling for essential reasons, because of COVID-19-related restrictions,” Indian daily Hindustan Times quoted an official as saying.

Diplomatic relations between the two South Asia nuclear neighbors soured after India stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status and divided it into two centrally ruled territories on Aug. 5, 2019 -- creating fresh tensions in the restive region./aa

The EU on Wednesday called for the protection of civilians in Daraa province in Syria where Bashar al-Assad regime forces have attacked for one week.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that southwest Syria is seeing “the worst and deadliest violence” since 2018.

“Heavy shelling has killed dozens of civilians including women and children and 10,000 people have been displaced. The Daraa National Hospital, serving 50,000 people, was hit by mortars. There is a severe risk of escalation throughout Daraa province and beyond,” it said.

It urged all parties to prioritize protecting residents of Daraa and ensure unhindered, safe and sustainable humanitarian access.

“The European Union joins United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, in his call on all parties in Syria to adhere to the principle of protection of civilians and international humanitarian law and urges all parties to avoid escalation and restore calm,” it added.

Underlining the need to step up the efforts to reach a peaceful political solution, it said the EU reiterates its support for the UN Special Envoy.

“Only a political process that respects the freedom and the dignity of all Syrian people in accordance with UNSC Resolution 2254 can bring about a lasting solution to the conflict,” it added.

Daraa, known as the birthplace of the Syrian revolution, is home to 40,000 people and was an opposition stronghold until 2018.

The Assad forces and Iranian-backed militia launched a ground operation in the neighborhood on July 29, triggering clashes that spread across the countryside. Fifteen civilians have been killed.

Daraa al-Balad was blockaded by regime forces on June 25 after residents, including former members of the Syrian opposition, resisted an order to surrender light weapons and allow regime forces to search houses.

According to the Reconciliation Center and local figures, the order was opposed because it violated the terms of the Russian-mediated 2018 deal, under which residents and ex-opposition members had to surrender all heavy weapons.

The deal allowed thousands of rebels and civilians safe passage to other opposition-held regions, while Russia-backed regime forces launched an attack to reclaim Daraa.

The regime began its military action despite agreeing last week to lift the blockade./aa

France on Wednesday pledged to send 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines to Lebanon, along with €100 million ($118.9 million) in emergency aid to rebuild Beirut a year after a massive explosion tore through the capital city.

In a virtual joint conference led by French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, international leaders from 40 different governments and institutions came together with the aim of helping the recovery of Lebanon, still reeling and grief-stricken a year after the blast in the Port of Beirut left miles of devastation and over 200 people killed.

The leaders hope to raise €357 million in emergency assistance for the country, with Macron tuning in from his official state residence, Fort de Bregancon, in the Mediterranean city of Bormes-Les-Mimosas.

The massive blast erupted on Aug. 4, 2020, when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored for six years in a warehouse detonated. Terrorism was quickly ruled out but the exact cause of the explosion is still unknown.

The ammonium nitrate -- an odorless substance commonly used as fertilizer -- had been seized from a cargo ship in 2014 and never properly disposed of. Not combustible on its own, ammonium nitrate can ignite under extreme heat.

According to Lebanon's Ministry of Health, the explosion claimed the lives of 218 people, injured 7,500, and caused €13 million in property damage. Much of the devastation remains and rebuilding has been incredibly slow, with 300,000 people having lost their homes.

The explosion was felt on the island of Cyprus, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) west, and even as far away as Turkey, Israel, Syria, Palestine, and parts of Europe. The blasts registered 3.3 on the Richter scale, used to measure the intensity of earthquakes.

France sent three military planes to Beirut the morning after the blasts, loaded with 55 French soldiers, a dozen doctors, 6 tons of military equipment, and 15 tons of other equipment and aid. Macron traveled to Lebanon two days after the disaster to assess the situation, meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun and then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Macron spoke at the conference on Wednesday of "unspeakable dysfunctions" regarding what he calls a lack of leadership in Lebanon over the past year as the country grapples with the aftermath of the blast, as well as continued severe unemployment, inflation, and poverty.

One year on, a new government has yet to be formed, while an investigation into the blast has yet to yield any arrests of politicians amid allegations of widespread corruption.

In June, a new prime minister in Lebanon, Najib Mikati, was elected in hopes of moving the country towards the better rule and further reconstruction. The previous Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, resigned less than a week after the explosion last August./aa

Pakistan’s top diplomat in Turkey said that a litmus test to Indian democracy was to conduct a democratic exercise to allow the people of Jammu and Kashmir to decide their future.

On eve of the second anniversary of India’s actions of annexing the disputed region, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, Pakistan’s ambassador to Ankara, told Anadolu Agency that Aug. 5, 2019, will go down in the history of Jammu and Kashmir as a black day because India clearly conveyed to the world that it does not care about the wishes of the Kashmiris.

"India indulged in the same practice that all occupation powers have been doing throughout history, restriction on movement and internet closure of press, restriction on people coming out and going inside their houses, closure of schools, arrest of leaders. Everything that occupying powers do to deprive the people they have occupied and are oppressing any means of registering a protest,” he said.

Qazi said that India does not have any moral or legal argument to justify its actions in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and that the only thing propping India's position in Kashmir was not law, morality, or ethics, it was an only force.

He recalled that several UN Security Council resolutions as well as the 1972 Simla agreement have recognized Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory. He added that the UNSC resolution number 122 adopted in 1957 even bars Pakistan and India from taking any measure that would prejudice the future disposition of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The only people who have any right to make any change in the status of Jammu and Kashmir are the Kashmiris themselves, and they can do it through an UN-administered fair and impartial plebiscite to which both Pakistan, India and of course the UNSC agreed but unfortunately, India has now conveniently forgotten its own promise to the Kashmiris to the Pakistanis and the international community," said the Pakistani diplomat based in Ankara.

Global community needs to speak

He asked the international community to speak against the human rights violations while adding that it was not proper to pick and choose where to speak for.

"The international community must step forward and tell India that enough is enough. It needs to implement the plebiscite that was promised to the Kashmiris because it is India's own interest. And of course, at the same time, the long-suffering of the Kashmiri for the last 74 years, should come to an end," he said.

Qazi said if the situation becomes more serious, Pakistan as a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has a right to seek the assistance and support of its fellow members of the OIC and bring it to a higher forum- within the organization.

He said the Kashmir issue was related to the destiny of 10 million-plus people and the international community, India, and Pakistan, had all made a promise to them, that they will have the right to determine to decide their future, according to an UN-administered plebiscite.

Good opportunity for India, Pakistan

"This is the democratic, peaceful, decent, civilized way of addressing the dispute. The time has come that the promise made to the Kashmiris needs to be fulfilled. India claims to be the world's biggest democracy. Well, here is the litmus test for it. Let's have a democratic exercise in Kashmir to determine what the Kashmiris want and give them what they want,” said the envoy.

He said this is the way civilized and democratic nations should behave.

“This is a good opportunity for India and also Pakistan to establish their credentials as democracies, Pakistan is ready," he added.

Qazi also praised Turkey's consistent, principled position on the Kashmir issue saying that it has steadfastly stood with Pakistan, but more importantly, it has steadfastly stood with the Kashmiris and the process.

"Turkey promotes bilateral, meaningful dialogue, resolution of the situation resolution of the issue according to the UN resolutions, and also has offered its good offers to both Pakistan and India to help resolve this issue. We accept this offer heartedly and we hope that the Indian side will also accept it. Anything that will help end the misery of the Kashmiris is very welcome and, in this regard," he said.

Background of Kashmir dispute

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts but claimed by both in full. A small sliver of the region is also controlled by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, New Delhi and Islamabad have fought four wars -- in 1948, 1965, 1971, and a limited war in 1999 -- three of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

Already strained relations between the two neighbors further plummeted after India's controversial move last year.

On Aug. 5, 2019, the Indian government revoked Article 370 and other related provisions from its Constitution, scrapping the state with its autonomy. It was also split into two federally administered territories./aa

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sharply condemned on Wednesday the Assad regime's "brutal assault" on the southwestern Syrian city of Daraa.

Blinken called "for an immediate end to the violence, which has killed civilians and displaced thousands suffering from shortages of food and medication."

"We reiterate calls for a nationwide ceasefire in line with UNSCR 2254," he wrote on Twitter.

The Syrian regime renewed its attacks on Daraa al-Balad following the failure of Russian-led mediation talks between the regime and opposition forces, a local group said Tuesday.

Daraa, known as the birthplace of the Syrian revolution, is home to 40,000 residents and was an opposition stronghold until 2018.

On July 29, regime forces and Iranian-backed militia launched a ground operation in the Daraa al-Balad neighborhood, triggering clashes that spread across the countryside. Fifteen civilians have been killed.

Daraa al-Balad was blockaded by regime forces on June 25 after residents, including former members of the Syrian opposition, resisted an order to surrender light weapons and allow regime forces to search houses.

According to the Reconciliation Center and local figures, the order was opposed because it violated the terms of the Russian-mediated 2018 deal, under which residents and ex-opposition members had to surrender all heavy weapons.

The deal allowed thousands of rebels and civilians safe passage to other opposition-held regions, while Russia-backed regime forces launched an attack to reclaim Daraa.

The regime began its military action despite agreeing last week to lift the blockade./aa

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office (GBA) arrested a Syrian pro-Assad regime supporter in Berlin on Wednesday on charges of war crimes, murder, and assault in Syria.

According to the GBA, the accused Mouafak Al D. is said to have fired a grenade from an anti-tank weapon into a crowd on a square in the Syrian capital Damascus in March 2014.

Seven people were killed and three seriously injured, including a 6-year-old child.

The victims were civilians waiting in line for food donations from the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East.

The GBA accuses the suspect of war crimes, including murder in seven cases and dangerous bodily harm in three cases.

A judge from the Federal Court of Justice will decide during the day whether the suspect will remain in custody pending investigation.

Earlier in the day, Berlin police had also searched the apartment of the accused in the capital.

German authorities claim Mouafak Al D. was also a member of a Palestinian group fighting for the Assad regime at the time.

Syria has been ravaged by a civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million remain displaced, according to UN estimates./aa

The World Health Organization is calling for a freeze on booster jabs against COVID-19 until the end of September to enable at least 10% of the global population to get vaccinated, the WHO chief said Wednesday.

"WHO is calling for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September, to enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated," WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus told a webinar in Geneva on the novel coronavirus.

"To make that happen, we need everyone's cooperation, especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines.”

Tedros' call came after Israel last week begun administering third doses of coronavirus vaccines to people 60 and over who got the first two jabs at least five months ago, and other countries are considering booster jabs to protect the vulnerable.

Turkey also offers booster jabs to people 50 and older.

Tedros said so far, more than 4 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally.

"More than 80% have gone to high- and upper-middle-income countries, even though they account for less than half of the world's population," said Tedros.

Concern at spread of Delta variant

He said he understood governments’ concerns to protect their people from the fast-spreading Delta variant, which is in at least 132 countries.

"But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world's most vulnerable people remain unprotected.”

The WHO said Friday that less than 2% of all doses administered had been in Africa, while deaths rose 80% in four weeks on the continent.

Just 1.5% of Africa's population is fully vaccinated.

The WHO chief told how in May, he called for global support to enable every country to vaccinate at least 10% of its population by the end of September.

"We're now more than halfway to that target date, but we're not on track," said Tedros.

When he issued that challenge in May, high-income countries had administered around 50 doses for every 100 people.

Since then, that number has doubled. High-income countries have now administered almost 100 doses for every 100 people, with most vaccines administered in two doses per person.

"Meanwhile, low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people due to lack of supplies," said the WHO chief.

"We need an urgent reversal, from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries, to the majority going to low-income countries."

​​​​​​​The WHO works on the maxim that no one is safe from the ravages of the pandemic until everyone is safe.

As of Aug. 3, WHO said there were almost 199 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including nearly 4.24 million deaths, with a total of nearly 3.89 billion vaccine doses administered since the pandemic started./aa

Ethiopia Wednesday suspended the activities of MSF Holland (Doctors Without Borders), the Norwegian Refugee Council and Al Maktoume Foundation for three months for breach of rules.

The Ethiopian Current Issues Fact Check, a news website, said the Ethiopian Agency for Civil Society Organizations made the decision to suspend the three agencies after repeated discussions with their respective officials failed to bring them back on legal tracks.

“First, MSF Holland and Norwegian Refugee Council have been disseminating misinformation on social media and other platforms outside of the mandate and purpose for which the organizations were permitted to operate.

“Second, all of three organizations employed foreign nationals without the appropriate work permit from the Ethiopian government for more than six months.

“Third, MSF Holland illegally imported and used satellite radio equipment that was not authorized by the relevant authority and the employees were thus apprehended by the security forces for using the equipment for illegal purpose.

“Fourth, Al Maktoume Foundation failed to comply with the Ministry of Education’s COVID-19 Protocol, and mismanaged the budget,” the agency said.

The agency, which regulates civil society organizations in the Horn of Africa country, stated activities of the said organizations have been suspended for three months until a final decision is made.

“We are in the process of urgently seeking clarification from the authorities around the reasons and details for this suspension,” MSF said in a statement earlier.

Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, upon conclusion of his six-day visit to Ethiopia, said: “Blanket accusations (against) humanitarian aid workers need to stop…They need to be backed up by evidence if there is any and, frankly, it’s dangerous.”/aa

An official of the US aid agency arrived in Addis Ababa early Wednesday to press for “unfettered humanitarian access” to the restive Tigray region.

Samantha Power, the administrator of the USAID, is expected to meet the Ethiopian government’s top officials to discuss the humanitarian situation in Tigray as the Ethiopian forces try to prevent fighters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front from encroaching upon neighboring regional states in the Horn of Africa country.

On June 29, Ethiopia announced a unilateral cease-fire to allow for Tigray farmers to make use of the main rainy season for harvesting and facilitate unfettered humanitarian access as demanded by the US-led international community.

Power said her visit was aimed at pressing the Ethiopian government for “unfettered humanitarian access” to Tigray, where international aid agencies warn of an impending famine. Trying to persuade the Ethiopian government to hold dialogue with the TPLF is also on her agenda.

“… we're providing $149 million in additional assistance to fight famine. If humanitarian access doesn't vastly improve, the already catastrophic situation will get even worse,” she tweeted.

But the Ethiopian government rejected any possibility of opening up a humanitarian corridor via Sudan. Ethiopia and Sudan are embroiled in a border row with the former blaming the latter for invading its territories by force.

Any move for the opening of a new corridor under the pretext of delivering aid to Tigray is unacceptable, local broadcaster FANA quoted Mitku Kassa, Commissioner of National Disaster Risk Management Commission, as saying on Tuesday.

Tigray has come under intense international spotlight since November last year. On Nov. 3, the TPLF forces attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Forces stationed across Tigray, including the capital Mekele, killing soldiers and looting sizable military hardware.

On Nov. 4, the Ethiopian government announced a sweeping law enforcement operation in the region to quell the insurgency.

However, fighting still continues with the TPLF encroaching upon neighboring regional states of Afar and Amhara from where hundreds of thousands of people have already been displaced due to the war./aa

Wildfires have spread to many parts of the world, according to the Fire Information for Resource Management System of US space agency NASA.

Most of North and South America, the African plateau, the northern Arabian Peninsula, and the Mediterranean coast of Europe as well as Northern and Eastern Europe have been affected by fires.

In Asia, fires have been detected on the coasts of India and in Russia's Siberia region as well as in China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

European countries with Mediterranean coasts such as Italy, Spain, and Greece are also struggling with forest fires.

According to a European Commission emergency map, large and small fires on the entire continent reach almost as far as northern Russia. Satellite maps show that fires of various sizes have been burning for at least a week in various EU countries.

Turkey

Turkey has successfully contained 160 of 174 wildfires that have emerged since last week, according to a Wednesday statement by the country’s Forestry Directorate.

The directorate said in a statement that the wildfires took place in 39 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, adding that the remaining 14 blazes are ongoing in five provinces around southern/southwestern Turkey: Antalya, Mugla, Aydin, Isparta, and Denizli.

The statement said the directorate responded to wildfires in 98 rural areas with 16 firefighting aircraft, nine unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), 51 helicopters, one unmanned helicopter, 850 firefighter trucks and water tankers, 150 construction vehicles, and 5,250 personnel.

Firefighting efforts on the ground continue day and night, and aerial elements play an important role in the operations. Once a fire is contained at a location, authorities immediately start cooling down the area to prevent more fires from breaking out.

Working to detect and locate fires, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have logged 462 hours in the air.

Turkish army UAVs get real-time visuals in wildfire-prone areas and share them with a coordination center that sends them to aerial firefighting vehicles, telling them the location and direction of wildfires.

Italy

Southern parts of Italy especially are facing many forest fires, both large and small.

According to Italy’s National Fire Corps, more than 800 fires have broken out in the country in the last 24 hours.

Firefighters have responded to 250 fires on the island of Sicily and 130 in Puglia in the country’s “heel,” while 20,000 hectares of forest burned in a fire on July 24 in rural areas of the island of Sardinia, where 1,500 people were evacuated.

Italy requested firefighting aircraft from fellow EU countries to supplement its own.

Spain

On July 26, the largest forest fire in the last two years broke out in the northern Catalonia region, while 1,657 hectares of land burned in Santa Coloma de Queralt in the Tarragona region, forcing the evacuation of 168 people from residential areas.

Greece

Greek authorities reported 58 forest fires in the last 24 hours.

The fires intensified around the western port city of Patras and in the town of Soufli, near the Turkish-Greek border.

Russia

Efforts are still underway to extinguish forest fires that started this month in Russia’s northeastern Yakutia region.

Authorities declared a state of emergency in the region, where over 1.3 million hectares of forestland have gone up in flames.

Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported last Thursday that teams are working to extinguish fires that are continuing in 144 locations.

US and Canada

In the US, according to Monday data from the National Interagency Fire Center, around 450,000 acres of forest have burned in 91 blazes in 13 states. Also, new blazes were reported in the states of Idaho, Alaska, and Minnesota.

In the US’ northern neighbor Canada, 4,576 forest fires have been reported so far this year. This amounts to 1,000 times more the average rate of the last decade./aa