Pakistan conveyed its “deep” concern to the UN over the death of jailed pro-freedom Kashmiri leader Ashraf Sehrai and called for the release of all political prisoners in the Indian-administered Kashmir, the country’s UN envoy has said.

Munir Akram, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said on Saturday in a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres, urging him to ask New Delhi to immediately release all prisoners illegally detained in the disputed Himalayan valley.

Sehrai, 77, died at a hospital in the Indian-administered Kashmir earlier this week.

He was the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, one of the constituent parties of the Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir’s biggest pro-freedom group.

Sehrai “spent his life struggling for the legitimate right of self-determination of #Kashmiris and suffered persecution at the hands of Indian occupying forces,” Akram said in a series of tweets.

Like hundreds of other Kashmiri political prisoners, Sehrai was kept in jail far from his hometown of Srinagar. He was incarcerated since July 2020 at the Uhdampur jail, more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the region’s capital.

He was already under house arrest when he was detained under the Public Safety Act, which has been described as a “lawless law” by global rights group Amnesty International.

With hundreds of prisoners having tested positive for COVID-19 across India, activists and family members of incarcerated individuals have repeatedly appealed to the Indian government to release ailing prisoners from overcrowded jails.

Akram said Pakistan has urged the UN chief to ask the government of India to immediately release all illegally detained prisoners in view of the prevailing COVID-19 crisis and deteriorating humanitarian situation in the disputed region.

Disputed region

Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir.

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

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989./aa

A prominent black French human rights defender talked to Anadolu Agency on Saturday about her brother’s death in gendarmerie custody and the racism problem in France.

Assa Traore was named one of 2020’s Guardians of the Year by Time magazine as the face of France’s movement for racial justice.

Traore’s brother died July 19, 2016, in France, where police violence against North Africans and Blacks became routine.

According to an initial statement, Adama Traore was asked for identification by the gendarmerie. After tensions escalated, he was taken to a gendarmerie vehicle where he fell sick.

Though an emergency aid team was called, he died before medical intervention became possible, said the statement.

An autopsy report listed heart failure as the cause of death but a second autopsy commissioned by the Traore family listed asphyxiation from sustained pressure as the cause of death.

Gendarmeries involved in the incident were exonerated by an investigation. Traore’s death, however, triggered a wave of riots in suburbs populated by migrants.

His sister, Assa Traore, in 2019, penned an article that accused officers involved in the stop of causing her brother’s death.

Noteworthy, the officers were defended by Rodolphe Bosselut, lawyer of extreme-right French politician Marine Le Pen.

Assa Traore, who was courted for her article, appeared before a judge on Friday and described the situation as scandalous.

She stressed to Anadolu Agency that victims are trying to be turned into offenders.

This is a result of the French justice system’s constant pressure and unfairness, she noted.

“However, our struggle will continue. If we give up now, this will turn against everyone. Nobody, especially we, black people, Arabs, and migrants will speak out again,” Traore added.

Traore’s lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou agreed with her client and argued that turning victims into offenders is usually applied in France.

Mamadou Camara, who showed up to court to show support for Traore, drew attention to racism in France.

“Studies show that French police is the most racist in Europe. In France racism is alive,” he said./aa

Africa is the only region to have developed a unified continental strategy for the coronavirus pandemic that has delivered results, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Saturday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the remarks at a high-level emergency virtual meeting of African health ministers on the situation in Africa.

He said although Africa has suffered, "we have not yet seen the same scale of devastation in Africa as we have in some other regions."

"We have seen an encouraging decline in cases and deaths since the peak in mid-January; however, several countries in the continent continue to report sustained transmission and increases in some areas," he said.

Tedros warned that what is happening in many other parts of the world can happen on the African continent "if we let down our guard."

"Although our continent has seen fewer cases and deaths than other regions, Africa has suffered from major disruptions to health systems and health services," he said.

Africa has administered 19.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, or 2% of the global total, 80% of all doses administered globally have been in high and upper middle-income countries, according to Tedros.

"We’re pleased that with the support of COVAX, 47 countries on the African continent have started vaccinating, but we know the volumes of vaccines are nowhere near enough," he said.

He thanked South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat for their leadership and all ministers who participated in the first meeting, and also thanked Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi.

There are more than 4.6 million confirmed cases in Africa - with more than 4.1 million recoveries and 123,000 deaths, according to WHO figures./aa

Debris from China's Long March rocket, announced to be out of control on May 7, fell to Earth in the Indian Ocean near Maldives early Sunday.

Parts of the debris returned to the Earth at 10.24 Chinese local time (0224GMT), according to a statement by China Manned Space Engineering Office.

Most of the rocket burned up by the time it landed in the ocean, officials said.

Long March 5B Y2 was launched April 29 to carry the core module, Tianhe, of China’s National Space Administration to its orbit.

Tianhe separated from the core stage of the launcher after 492 seconds of flight, directly entering its initial planned orbit.

China acknowledged on May 7 that debris of its indigenously built rocket was "falling back on earth."

China’s upcoming T-shaped space station said the debris might re-enter Earth's atmosphere on or around May 9-10./aa

The UK will be free from the coronavirus and its variants by midsummer, the outgoing chief of the country’s vaccine task force said on Saturday.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Clive Dix, the interim leader of the task force who stepped down from the role last week, said it is expected that everyone in the UK would have received at least one vaccine dose by the end of July.

“We’ll have probably protected the population from all the variants that are known. We’ll be safe over the coming winter,” he said, adding that by “sometime in August” there would be no virus circulating in the UK.

His comments follow those by Nadim Zahawi, the minister for vaccine deployment, who said that scientists are looking at a number of possibilities for an autumn booster campaign to make sure that the population is vaccinated and protected against a third wave of the pandemic.

“We may decide that we need to boost the immune response, and we’ve got the vaccine to do that. Whether we’ll need to or not, I would think probably not, but we might still do it in cases,” Zahawi said in a statement.

“I really don’t think it should be autumn. We should be thinking about boosting in maybe January or February, because the immune response will be strong.”

There were 2,047 more cases reported in the UK on Saturday, bringing the week’s total to 14,560 – a 5.2% decrease compared to the previous seven days.

With five more deaths recorded, the number of fatalities between May 2 and 8 within 28 days of testing stands at 79 – a spike of 26.2% compared to the previous seven days.

Over 35 million people had been administered a first dose of the vaccine in the UK as of Friday, with over 17 million people having received both shots, according to latest data./aa

The armed unmanned marine vessel (SIDA), the first platform of the ULAQ series developed in cooperation with Turkish defense industry companies, is ready to launch missiles.

The prototype production of Turkey's first armed unmanned marine vessel, which was started to be manufactured in Antalya by Ares Shipyard and Meteksan Defense three years ago, has been completed.

SIDA boasts a cruising range of 400 kilometers (249 miles) and a maximum speed of 65 km (40 miles) per hour, as well as indigenous encrypted communications and day and night vision capabilities.

While SIDA can serve in intelligence-gathering missions, it also features a command and control system that allows all its movements to be remotely controlled and managed.

The vessel is equipped with the long-range anti-tank missile manufactured by Turkish rocket maker Roketsan.

Utku Alanc, the CEO of Ares Shipyard, told Anadolu Agency that SIDA is entirely ready for operation with its prototype boat.

The simulation shots have also been successfully carried out, Alanc said, adding that this project will be completed with real missile firing with warheads in the coming days.

Saying that the priority is the Turkish security forces, Alanc stressed the exports to friendly and allied countries would be started in line with the permits given by the Ministry of National Defense.

We have the capability to produce over 50 boats a year and make them ready for operation, he added.

Erdal Torun, the vice president of Meteksan Defense, also said the vessel was produced for Turkey's Blue Homeland by combining the experience of two companies.

The Blue Homeland references Turkey's maritime sovereignty rights in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and the Aegean Sea based on international treaties.

Aiming at being a pioneer in the defense industry, Roketsan was founded in 1988 to design, develop and manufacture rockets and missiles. /aa

The Pentagon, which is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense has said it is tracking the out-of-control Chinese Long March 5B-rocket which is scheduled to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend.

The Chinese Long March 5B-rocket carried the “core module” of the country’s space station into low Earth orbit last week. Post the mission complete, the rocket looked like it has fallen into an orbit that could see it dive into the Earth at a speed of 18,000mph.

It is pretty vague at the moment on how the 30-metre-tall rocket fell. It is also yet to be known where exactly it will land. This Chinese rocket which weighs about 10 tonnes is the first since 1990 to have this heavy object fall into Earth in an uncontrolled manner. It is expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere on or around May 8 and US Space Command is tracking the rocket’s trajectory.

The concerns about where its debris may appear are on skyrocketing as the pentagon is still tracking the location. To much worse, its exact entry point into the Earth’s atmosphere cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its re-entry. To track the rocket, currently, we have a 100-foot object orbiting around Earth every 90 minutes. The New York Post reported that the giant debris may crash down in New York, leaving people fear-mongered.

However, the report gives a bit of a sigh of relief that it may most likely fall in one of the world’s oceans or in an isolated area. “I don’t think people should take precautions. The risk that there will be some damage or that it would hit someone is pretty small — not negligible, it could happen — but the risk that it will hit you is incredibly tiny. And so I would not lose one second of sleep over this on a personal threat basis,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Center at Harvard University said.

The efforts of the Ministry of Health and various concerned parties resulted in expediting the arrival of the third batch of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. The third batch is scheduled to arrive in Kuwait early next week. This Batch would contain 400,000 doses, Al Qabas reported.

Although the shipment was delayed more than once, and the arriving quantity is lesser than

the contracted quantity, but in light of the difficulty that Kuwait faces, in the midst of the global race towards vaccines, the arrival of the new shipment is an achievement at various levels.

Kuwait had previously received two shipments from the Oxford vaccine platform, the first containing 200,000 doses and the second 150,000, which means that 350,000 people, most of them citizens, are waiting for the second dose, noting that the next shipment is sufficient for everyone./agencies

Although several Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are in the process of building 50,000 briquette houses in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, an additional 100,000 such units are required to meet housing needs, according to Bulent Yildirim, head of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH).

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Yildirim said around 4.3 million people are living in Idlib. Many of them who used to live in tents have built briquette houses. But those who do not have means need help.

"We visited Syria in Ramadan, we wanted to see developments there on-site, briquette houses have been built everywhere and mosques and schools have been opened next to the houses, in addition, health services are provided," he said.

He said that Turkish institutions have set an example by turning these briquette houses into villages.

He said that IHH had a target to build 20,000 houses and 15,000 of them have been completed so far.

Yildirim said that around 50,000 houses will be built by Turkish NGOs, but at least another 100,000 houses are needed.

Previously, Turkey had announced that Turkish NGOs and institutions will build 50,000 briquette houses in Syria's northern provinces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has donated 50 houses.

He said that people have learned to stand on their own feet and have created a beautiful environment in Idlib. Yildirim said the empty and barren lands have transformed into urbanized structures with houses and shops coming up.

“There are briquette factories, food shops, clothes shops, and barbers, shops constitute trade centers and bazaars, people work like ants,” he added.

Civilization coming up in Idlib

Yildirim said civilization was being established in Idlib, with universities, schools, and hospitals.

"World-class doctors are trained here,” he added.

He urged people to support Idlib, as helping to feed a person would mean building a future for thousands of others.

About educational issues, he said around 260,000 children are unable to go to school due to their physical conditions.

He said during his tour, he found that Syrians were praying that Turkey remains by their side as the presence of Turkish people has provided hope for all needy Muslims.

People in Idlib think that Turkish people should not only help Syrians, but to the people of Turkey as well, he noted.

"Because if you don't think about your neighbor, your daily workers, and your unemployed persons, the people of Turkey cannot remain to stand," he added.

He also said the IHH is helping people in Turkey to combat the pandemic in all neighborhoods, villages, and streets.

"This year, again, including this closing period, we will declare mobilization as much as needed. All of us, with our state and NGOs, will help each person so that the hopes of the oppressed people in the world are not exhausted,” he said./aa

India registered 4,187 deaths due to COVID-19 in a single day, raising the country’s death toll to 238,270, according to Health Ministry data on Saturday.

India is the third country after the US and Brazil to report more than 4,000 deaths in a single day.

The country reported 401,078 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to nearly 21.9 million, according to the latest data.

India has been struggling with a deadly second wave that has severely strained its health system, leading to shortages of oxygen supplies at hospitals as well as beds and coronavirus treatment drugs such as Remdesivir.

Meanwhile, an Indian-American group of physicians are sending 5,000 oxygen concentrators to India to save the lives of those affected by the virus.

"These units are to be received by local Indian partners, hospitals, makeshift isolation centers, newly created mobile hospitals and charities so that local partners in the remote parts of India can use these units to provide oxygen to Covid patients as needed,” said DR Raj Bhayani, the head of the Federation of Indian Physicians Association, in a statement.

Many state governments in India have also announced strict lockdown in the second wave. The new government in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Saturday announced a complete lockdown from May 10 to 14 in the state. Rajasthan, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka are some of the states which have already announced a complete lockdown to stem the spread of the virus during the second wave of the outbreak./aa