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Fresh earthquake hits Turkey-Syria border two weeks after disaster

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(Last Updated On: February 21, 2023)
Another earthquake struck the border region of Turkey and Syria on Monday, just two weeks after the area was devastated by a larger quake that killed more than 47,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, Reuters reported.
 
Monday’s quake, this time with a magnitude of 6.4, was centred near the southern Turkish city of Antakya and was felt in Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.
 
It struck at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.
 
Hatay Mayor Lutfu Savas told HaberTurk broadcaster that he had received reports about some people stuck under rubble after the latest quake. Three people were killed and more than 200 injured, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
 
In Samandag, where the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority AFAD reported one person dead, residents said more buildings collapsed but most of the town had already fled after the initial earthquakes. Mounds of debris and discarded furniture lined the dark, abandoned streets, read the report.
 
Muna Al Omar said she was in a tent in a park in central Antakya when the ground started heaving again.
 
“I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet,” she said, crying as she held her 7-year-old son in her arms.
 
Hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Turkey that Washington would help “for as long as it takes” as rescue operations in the wake of the Feb. 6 earthquake and its aftershocks were winding down, and focus turned to toward urgent shelter and reconstruction work.
 
The death toll from the quakes two weeks ago rose to 41,156 in Turkey, AFAD said on Monday, and it was expected to climb further, with 385,000 apartments known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing, Reuters reported. 
 
President Tayyip Erdogan said construction work on nearly 200,000 apartments in 11 earthquake-hit provinces of Turkey would begin next month.
 
Total US humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria has reached $185 million, the US State Department said.
 
Among the survivors of the earthquakes are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to health services, the U.N. sexual and reproductive health agency has said.
 
They include 226,000 women in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, about 38,800 of whom will deliver in the next month. Many of them were sheltering in camps or exposed to freezing temperatures and struggling to get food or clean water, Reuters reported.
 
SYRIA AID
 
In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most deaths have been in the northwest, where the United Nations said 4,525 people were killed. The area is controlled by insurgents at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, complicating aid efforts.
 
Syrian officials say 1,414 people were killed in areas under the control of Assad’s government.
 
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said a convoy of 14 of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria from Turkey on Sunday to assist in rescue operations.
 
The World Food Programme has also been pressuring authorities in that region to stop blocking access for aid from Syrian government-controlled areas.
 
As of Monday morning, 197 trucks loaded with U.N. humanitarian aid had entered northwest Syria through two border crossings, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
 
Thousands of Syrian refugees in Turkey have returned to their homes in northwest Syria to get in touch with relatives affected by the devastation, read the report.
 
At the Turkish Cilvegozu border crossing, hundreds of Syrians lined up starting early on Monday to cross.
 
Mustafa Hannan, who dropped off his pregnant wife and 3-year-old son, said he saw about 350 people waiting.
 
The 27-year-old car electrician said his family was leaving for a few months after their home in Antakya collapsed, taking up a pledge by authorities allowing them to spend up to six months in Syria without losing the chance to return to Turkey.
 
“I’m worried they won’t be allowed back,” he said. “We’ve already been separated from our nation. Are we going to be separated from our families now too? If I rebuild here but they can’t return, my life will be lost.”

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Tajikistan detains 9 people over Russian concert shooting

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(Last Updated On: March 29, 2024)

Tajikistan’s State National Security Committee has detained nine people this week who it believes have links to the Russian concert hall shooting suspects as well as Daesh-Khorasan, Reuters reported on Friday.

All nine people were detained on Monday in the city of Vakhdat and have been brought to the capital, Dushanbe, Reuters reported citing a Tajik security source.

At least 140 people were killed and 182 others wounded in the attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow last Friday.

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US says it doesn’t support Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project going forward

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

The U.S. said on Tuesday it does not support a Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project from going forward and cautioned about the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran, Reuters reported.

The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, opens new tab, is a long-term project between Tehran and Islamabad, and has faced delays and funding challenges for several years. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Iran to neighboring Pakistan.

Iran and Pakistan had signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 and set a bilateral trade target at $5 billion.

Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said this week that his country was seeking a U.S. sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline from Iran, read the report.

“We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing.

“We do not support this pipeline going forward,” the spokesperson added, saying that Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and Central Asia, had said as much to a congressional panel last week.

A few weeks ago, Pakistan and Iran engaged, opens new tab in tit-for-tat strikes when they exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other’s territory, Reuters reported.

Washington’s relations, opens new tab with Iran have been thorny for a long time and the U.S. has issued multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities.

Officially allies in fighting extremism, Pakistan and the U.S. have had a complicated relationship, opens new tab over the years, bound by Washington’s dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops during its long war in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad played a double game.

Some Pakistani politicians have also accused Washington of meddling in Pakistan’s domestic politics, charges that Washington denies, read the report.

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Kyrgyzstan urges citizens not to fly to Russia unless necessary

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to put off unnecessary travel to Russia after a deadly mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow that was blamed on migrants from Central Asia, Reuters reported.

Last Friday’s attack by camouflague-clad gunmen has fanned anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia, especially towards labourers from the predominantly Muslim countries of Central Asia. Seven suspects originally from Tajikistan and one from Kyrgyzstan have been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.

Islamic State has said it was responsible for the attack and has released video footage of the massacre, in which at least 139 people were killed and 182 wounded. Russia, without providing evidence, has said it suspects a Ukrainian link in the attack, something Kyiv strongly denies.

Videos and photographs circulated online appear to show the suspected gunmen in detention being tortured. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter and many Russian politicians have praised the security officers involved in the detentions, read the report.

In an advisory issued this week, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry urged citizens to visit Russia only if necessary and, if they do, to make sure they have all the required documents on them at all times and comply with lawful orders of Russian police.

Authorities in neighbouring Uzbekistan issued similar advice to any Uzbek citizens currently in Russia or planning to go there, local media reported.

Hundreds of thousands of Central Asians work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so. Some passengers, for example, refuse to board taxis with Tajik drivers.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that many passengers trying to fly to Moscow on Monday from the capital of Turkmenistan, another Central Asian state, were not allowed to board. It said they were told by immigration and law enforcement officials that this was connected to “the recent terrorist attack in Moscow”.

Any fall in the availability of migrant labour could cause problems for the Russian economy, which relies heavily on Central Asian workers in sectors such as construction, retail and delivery services.

Russia is suffering an overall labour shortage because of the demands of its war in Ukraine, which led it to call up 300,000 reservists to join the army in 2022 and prompted hundreds of thousands of others to flee the country, Reuters reported.

Alexandra Prokopenko, an economist and analyst at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the inflow of migrants had “almost stopped” since the start of the war – partly because immigrants could face pressure to join the Russian army and partly because of competition from other countries to attract them.

“All these people from Central Asia can go and work in Gulf states, South Korea or Turkey – they can get jobs and there would be no problems with money transfers because of (Western) sanctions, there would be fewer problems in terms of safety and security, and probably local authorities would treat them better than in Russia,” she said.

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, suggested Friday’s attack was an attempt by those who wish Russia ill to stir up interreligious tensions.

“An attempt was made to pit two traditional religions (Christianity and Islam) against each other, an attempt was made to divide people according to religious principles and also pit one against the other. Of course, we cannot allow anything like this in Russia,” the RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

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