The Turkish Red Crescent on Saturday distributed meat among needy families in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, an official of the charity group said.

Orhan Kokcu, head of the Turkish Red Crescent in Somalia, told Anadolu Agency that the aid group slaughtered over 215 cattle and distributed the meat among 3,872 families in Mogadishu, adding that each aid package contained five to six kilograms (11-13 pounds) of meat.

He said the charity will continue to distribute aid in Somalia ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, set for late July.

The Turkish Red Crescent has been one of the leading aid groups in Somalia over the last 10 years. It also supports orphans throughout the Horn of Africa country.​​​​​​​/aa

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir 

Two civilians and as many policemen were killed when suspected militants attacked a police team in Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday, police said.

Dilbag Singh, director general of police in Jammu and Kashmir, told reporters the militants attacked a police team in the northern Sopore town. Of the several injured in the attack, two civilians and two policemen later succumbed to their injuries.

Two more policemen and an equal number of civilians, who were injured in the incident, have been hospitalized.

Speaking to reporters, Vijay Kumar, Kashmir zone inspector general of police, said Lashkar-e-Taiba militant outfit was responsible for the attack.

No militant outfit has yet claimed responsibility.

The government forces have cordoned off the area and launched a search operation.

On March 30, suspected militants opened fire on a group of councilors in a municipal office in Sopore. Two councilors of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and a policeman were killed in the attack which police said was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants.

Disputed region

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

Since they were partitioned in 1947, New Delhi and Islamabad have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965, and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir. Also, in Siachen glacier in northern Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops have fought intermittently since 1984. A cease-fire took effect in 2003.

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

According to several human rights organizations, thousands have reportedly been killed in the conflict since 1989.​​​​​​​/aa

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 95th birthday on Saturday with scaled back ceremonies for the second year in a row due to coronavirus restrictions.

The Trooping the Colour, a traditional ceremony on the queen’s birthday, was held at the Windsor Castle with a reduced parade instead of central London.

Her birthday coincided with a G7 summit being held in Cornwall, England this year. The queen met the leaders attending the summit at a reception Friday and she will be visited at the Windsor Castle on Sunday by US President Joe Biden and his wife.

The celebrations on Saturday will also include a 41-gun salute and a flypast by the Red Arrows, a British flight display team.

The queen, whose actual birthday falls in April, officially celebrates it in June, with the exact date determined by the Buckingham Palace.

Born on April 21, 1926, Queen Elizabeth is the UK’s longest-reigning monarch. She has been on the British throne since Feb. 6, 1952.

The queen spent her actual birthday in April without any celebrations mainly because of her husband’s death a short time before. Prince Philip, the queen’s husband and the duke of Edinburgh, died on April 9 after suffering cardiac problems at the age of 99./aa

Turkish forces “neutralized” three more PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the National Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The terrorists were “neutralized” as part of the Operation Pence-Simsek, the ministry said on Twitter.

Turkish authorities use the word “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

Several weapons were also seized during the operation, the ministry said.

Turkey launched the Pence-Simsek and Pence-Yildirim operations on April 23 in northern Iraq’s Metina and Avasin-Basyan regions.

The PKK terror group often hides out in northern Iraq, just across Turkey's southern border, to plot terror attacks in Turkey.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants./aa

Summer and the travel season are here, but expatriates in Kuwait are reluctant to travel out of the country for fear of being denied entry on return. Most of them, who have not seen their loved ones back home for over a year now, have given up any hope of being able to visit home this summer too. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of expatriates from Kuwait currently stranded abroad, continue to languish unable to enter Kuwait and grow increasingly worried over the prospects of ever being able to return to resume their lives and livelihood in this country.

Since the start of COVID-19 crisis early last year, Kuwait has imposed stringent regulations on the movement of people into and out of the country. At the first signs of virus infections in the country in March 2020, the authorities promptly shutdown all operations through Kuwait International Airport.

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The airport cautiously resumed operations in August, but direct passenger flights from over 30 countries, deemed to be of ‘high-risk’ with regard to the virus, were banned from entering Kuwait. They could however enter Kuwait provided they spent 14-days in quarantine in a third country not on the banned list. Most of those stranded abroad due to this decision, were from the Indian subcontinent, the Philippines and Egypt.

In late December,  following the outbreak of a new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, Kuwait once again shutdown all commercial flights through the airport. Though the airport resumed operations at the start of the year, the ban on direct flights from 35 countries still remained. And, in February, a blanket ban was placed on the entry of all non-Kuwaitis to the country, with the exception of diplomats, medical personnel, domestic workers and a few other pre-approved categories

The restrictions on re-entry to Kuwait have placed many expatriates living in the country in the proverbial ‘Catch-22’ situation of being caught between a rock and a hard place. They would very much love to go home and visit their near and dear ones whom they have not seen for well over a year. But if they do travel, there is no guarantee that they will be able to return any time soon.

The situation has grown worse in recent weeks with the advent of peak summer travel time. Usually, during this period, there is a rush for tickets, as school holidays prompt families to seek refuge from the sweltering summer heat of Kuwait, by visiting their home countries or taking a vacation abroad. But for a second summer season, travel agencies are reporting poor sales.

Besides the ‘Damocles sword’ of not being able to return hanging over their heads, this year there is an additional factor holding back many expatriate families from traveling. The Ministry of Education, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, has announced plans to launch a comprehensive vaccination campaign for students before the start of schools in September.

Those families willing to risk traveling abroad could end up by missing the vaccination shot for their children, which could probably prevent them from attending classes when schools resume. But, of course, this is a secondary concern, the main issue is whether they would be allowed back in when they return from their summer vacation.

Meanwhile, foreigners stranded outside Kuwait have been in a limbo since March 2020. In all fairness it needs to be said that at the start of the ban on flights, Kuwait suspended the rule that a six-month stay outside the country would automatically annul the entry visa of expatriates. Later, the authorities also allowed the sponsor of those stranded abroad to renew the visas of their workers online before its expiry date.

Nevertheless, thousands of expatriates who were unable to renew their visas due to laxity on the part of their sponsors, or for other reasons, have lost the right to return with the expiry of their residency permit. They can only hope that when the issuance of new visas resume, the sponsor will obtain a new residency permit for them. Even those who have had their residency permits extended by their sponsor, especially if they were employed in the private sector, have been living for over a year without any income.

Although there are different figures on the total number of foreigners stranded abroad since the start of the pandemic, estimates are that more than 200,000 expatriates from nearly 20 different countries have lost their residencies in the last one year, as they were unable to renew their residency statuses. Official statistics for the period from 10 March 2020 to 15 March 2021 show that the majority of those who lost their residency status were Egyptian nationals, followed by members of the Indian and Sri Lankan communities.

In the meantime, figures from the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) show that the work permits of 19,995 expats were cancelled between 12 January and 7 March of this year. Of these, 12,391 belonged to foreigners whose residence permits expired while they were stranded abroad. The Authority also revealed that over 6,245 expatriates, who were in Kuwait at the start of the pandemic, have decided to cancel their residences and leave the country permanently.

SOURCE  ;   TIMES KUWAIT

At least 10 al-Shabaab terror group militants were killed in an operation in the Hiiraan region of central Somalia late Friday, said authorities. 

The Somali National Army conducted an operation against the terror group, according to a statement from the army's radio.

It said several militants were wounded but managed to escape and there were no casualties on the army's side.

The Somali-based al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militants have been targeting security officers patrolling the Kenyan-Somali border.

As the horn of African country is preparing to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in coming months, the military has intensified operations against the terror group.

The Somali army is conducting a two-week operation against al-Shabaab in the region, so far killing more than 130 terrorists and liberating six villages, according to reports./aa

Thousands of donors from around the world have contributed nearly [CAN]$2 million as of Friday to aid Zayed Afzaal, the nine-year-old boy left orphaned when his parents were killed in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said was a terrorist act.

The driver of a half-ton truck deliberately jumped the curb Sunday in London, Ontario, and killed Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha, 44, their daughter Yumnah, 15, and Salman's mother, Talat, 74. Only Zayed survived the ordeal and he remains in hospital in stable condition.

Canadians were shocked at what police described as "a planned, premediated act motivated by hate." The family was out for a walk Sunday evening, standing at an intersection to cross the road when the truck slammed into them. The 20-year-old suspect is in custody.

Two fundraising campaigns were set up to raise funds to support Zayed.

Three days ago, Sana Yasir organized a go-fund-me campaign (https://gofund.me/a8335610) supported by Sana Ghandi, niece of Madiha Afzaal.

As of 2 p.m. Friday, more than 14,000 donors had contributed [CAN]$797,316, just a few thousand dollars short of the $800,000 target.

"It's crazy to me how much people have donated and it's people all over the world from different races and religions, all donating," Yasir, a close friend of the family, told CTV News.

A second fundraiser, called London Community United Against Hate (https://www.launchgood.com/campaign/london_community_united_against_hate#!/) had garnered more than [CAN]$1.1 million, Friday, from 19,757 donors. That campaign is supported by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the Islamic Relief Canada, the London Muslim Mosque and a family member. The fundraiser will continue until the end of June.

That campaign notes how the hate robbed the community of "four precious lives who were taken simply because of their faith" and it contains a prayer.

"Give good news to those who are patient, especially when faced with a disaster, they say, "Surely to Allah we belong and to Him we return." (2:155)

The funeral for the Afzaal family is set for Saturday./aa

US stock market closed higher on Friday as S&P 500 hit record and posted a third straight weekly gain.

The index hit an all-time high of 4,247 points before closing at 4,246 with a daily gain of 0.2%. It rose 0.4% this week.

The Dow Jones increased 13 points to end the day at 34,479, but the blue-chip index lost 0.8% for the week.

The Nasdaq added 49 points, or 0.3%, to 14,069. The tech-heavy index rose 1.9% this week.

AMC Entertainment gained the most during the day to close Friday with a 15% increase. Zoom Video and GameStop added more than 5% apiece.

Despite oil prices resuming their rally, oil majors Chevron and ConocoPhillips were down around 0.4%, while ExxonMobil shed 0.9%

Brent crude was at $72.58 per barrel with a 0.1% gain. The US' West Texas Intermediate closed the day at $70.79 with a 0.7% increase before hitting its 52-week high at $71.23 during trading hours.

The US dollar index gained further by adding 0.5% to 90.51, however the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note was down 0.6% to 1,450%.

VIX volatility index also declined 2.8% to 15.65, indicating higher risk appetite of investors. Bitcoin was up 1.7% to $37,290./aa