ROME: Video footage shows books pulled from the shelves, door locks smashed and pictures defaced. Four years after a Taliban suicide bombing ended Najiba Bahar’s life, the hard-line group trashed the library that became her legacy.
“I am devastated right now,” her fiancee Ghulam Hussain Rezai told AFP at a hotel near Rome, where he is staying after being evacuated by the Italian military in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
Following Najiba’s death in 2017, he and her friends and family set up the Najiba Foundation library and computer lab to provide education for girls and boys in Afghanistan’s remote Daykundi province.
It even hosted a girl’s volleyball team.
But the building in Nili City was looted when the Taliban swept through last month, according to videos and photos shared with AFP.
“The library and computer lab is partially destroyed,” said Rezai.
He said his team managed to flee from Daykundi but “my family, my friends, my staff at the Najiba Foundation are totally in panic.”
“They are living in hiding, I am worried about their security.”
He and Najiba had been planning their wedding when on July 24, 2017, a Taliban-claimed car bomb struck a bus carrying her and other government employees in Kabul.
The 27-year-old was among at least 26 people killed, her body so disfigured that she was only identified through her engagement ring.
Najiba grew up in a village in Daykundi but blazed a trail for girls’ education by winning scholarships to study computer sciences first in India and then in Japan, where she received her master’s degree.
Her friends and family were stunned by her death, but setting up the foundation “helped me with the trauma, that I did something for Najiba,” Rezai said.
“I cannot bring her back.”
They began with an idea for a library, ending up with around 12,000 books, but also a computer lab to reflect Najiba’s passion and to help youngsters in a region with little Internet access.
Rezai thinks it became a target of the Taliban because the Islamist group is “opposed to girls’ education, and this was a hub for girls and boys.”
And he believes there was another factor: “This was somehow evidence of their crime.”
The foundation aimed to counter extremism through education, promoting open-mindedness and tolerance, and to remind the local community not just about Najiba but also others who lost their lives.
“We stand against forgetting,” Rezai said, emphasising it was important to remember “how many beautiful lives were lost.”
“Everyone in Afghanistan has lost someone... the tragedy becomes normal. I wanted to establish this to show that this is not normal,” he said.
Rezai would like the foundation to continue, if there was a way to do it while ensuring the security of his staff.
But for now he is facing an uncertain future, waiting to hear where the Italian government will send him once he finishes coronavirus quarantine.
NATO-member Italy was a key player in the international military operation in Afghanistan and evacuated almost 5,000 Afghans in the chaotic last few weeks.
Rezai flew out with his 21-year-old sister but left everything and everyone else behind, including his mother and two nephews aged 16 and 21 who were in his care.
His nephews were supposed to travel with him but became separated in the crowds at Kabul airport. For several gut-wrenching hours, he did not know if they survived the August 26 attack by the local chapter of the Daesh group.
Finally he got through to his mother. “Of course they are emotionally affected, but thank god they are safe,” he said.
Looking around the little hotel that is his temporary home, he says the last few years have been “torture,” but adds ruefully: “This is the Afghan way of living.”
Bomb victim’s Afghan library trashed under Taliban
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Bomb victim’s Afghan library trashed under Taliban
- Four years after a Taliban suicide bombing ended Najiba Bahar's life, the hardline group trashed the library that became her legacy
- Najiba’s fiancee, her friends and family set up Najiba Foundation library and computer lab to provide education
Israeli Rafah offensive would break international law, says UK deputy foreign minister
- Andrew Mitchell warns a ground invasion could strengthen Hamas, in comments viewed as attempt to get Israel to sign up for peace deal accepted by Hamas on Monday
- UN chief Antonio Guterres urges Israel to ‘stop any escalation’ after tanks enter Rafah and army takes control of crossing on the border with Egypt
LONDON: An Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would contravene international humanitarian law and would not succeed in removing Hamas from power in Gaza or eradicating the organization, Britain’s deputy foreign minister warned on Tuesday.
Andrew Mitchell said Israeli authorities had failed to present a military plan that complies with international law, and that entering Rafah, which has become the final refuge for more than a million people displaced by fighting in other parts of Gaza, could strengthen, not weaken, Hamas.
However, he stopped short of saying what international consequences, if any, Israel might face if it proceeds.
Mitchell reiterated the UK government’s desire for a permanent, sustained ceasefire in Gaza. His comments, which followed a similar statement by authorities in France on Monday, were seen as an attempt to put pressure on Israel to sign up for a provisional, three-stage peace deal that was accepted by Hamas on Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Israeli minister Benny Gantz has said the peace proposal did not “correspond to the dialogue that has taken place so far with the mediators and has significant gaps.”
Mitchell also echoed calls from the UN for Israel to end a renewed block on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Also on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for border crossings to be reopened “immediately” so that essential aid can be delivered to Gaza. He urged Israeli authorities to “stop any escalation” after they sent tanks into Rafah early on Tuesday and the army took control of the nearby crossing on the border with Egypt.
“Things are moving in the wrong direction. I am disturbed and distressed by the renewed military activity in Rafah by the Israel Defense Forces,” Guterres said.
International pressure has been building on Israel over the potentially devastating consequences of a threatened ground invasion of Rafah, where the UN estimates about 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said such action could cause many “civilian casualties.” White House spokesperson John Kirby said that Israel told Washington its operation in Rafah “was limited and designed to cut off Hamas’s ability to smuggle weapons” into Gaza.
Egypt has urged Israeli authorities to “exercise the utmost restraint.” The Organization for Islamic Cooperation condemned Israel’s “criminal aggression.”
Berlin students protest for Gaza as demos spread across Europe
- Scuffles erupt between officers, protesters
- Crackdown on University of Amsterdam protest
- Israel has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas government's Ministry of Health
AMSTERDAM: German police on Tuesday broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at Berlin’s Free University earlier in the day, the latest such action by authorities as protests that have roiled campuses in the US spread across Europe.
Some demonstrators have even called for a break in academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza.
In Berlin, the protesters had put up about 20 tents and formed a human chain around them. Most had covered their faces with medical masks and draped keffiyeh scarves around their heads, shouting slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina.”
Berlin police called on the students via loudspeakers to leave the campus. Police were seen carrying some students away as scuffles erupted between officers and protesters. Police also used pepper spray against some of the protesters.
In the eastern German city of Leipzig, about 50 pro-Palestinian protesters set up tents on campus of Leipzig University and occupied a lecture hall on Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier on Tuesday, Dutch police broke up a similar pro-Palestinian demonstration camp at the University of Amsterdam. Police spokeswoman Sara Tillart said about 140 protesters were arrested, two of whom remain in custody on suspicion of committing public violence.
Amsterdam police said on the social media platform X that their action was “necessary to restore order” after protests turned violent. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Video aired by national broadcaster NOS shows police using a mechanical digger to push down barricades and officers with batons and shields moving in, beating some of the protesters and pulling down tents. Protesters had formed barricades from wooden pallets and bicycles, NOS reported.
In Austria, protesters camped out in about 20 tents set up in the main courtyard of the University of Vienna for a second day Tuesday. With police monitoring, protesters cordoned off the encampment, which is near a memorial for Austrian Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
The University of Vienna and the main Austrian Union of Students distanced themselves from the protest. The union said “antisemitic groups were among the protest’s organizers,” which the protesters denied. Pro-Palestine protest camps have sprung up at about a dozen universities in Britain, including at Oxford and Cambridge, urging the institutions to fully disclose investments, cut academic ties with Israel and divest from businesses linked to the country.
Dozens of students have pitched up Gaza solidarity encampments on lawns outside King’s College at Cambridge University and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
“Oxbridge’s profits cannot continue to climb at the expense of Palestinian lives, and their reputations must no longer be built on the whitewashing of Israeli crimes,” said a joint statement from protesters at the two universities.
Over 200 Oxford academics have signed an open letter supporting the protests.
In Finland, dozens of protesters from the Students for Palestine solidarity group set up an encampment outside the main building at the University of Helsinki, saying they would stay there until the university, which is Finland’s largest academic institution, cuts academic ties with Israeli universities.
In Denmark, students set up a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Copenhagen, erecting about 45 tents outside the campus of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The university said students can protest but called on them to respect the rules on campus grounds.
In Italy, students at the University of Bologna, one of the world’s oldest universities, set up a tent encampment over the weekend to demand an end to the war in Gaza as Israel prepared an offensive in Rafah, despite pleas from its Western allies against it. Groups of students organized similar protests in Rome and Naples, which were largely peaceful.
In Spain, dozens of students have spent over a week at a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Valencia campus. Similar camps were set up Monday at the University of Barcelona and at the University of the Basque Country. A group representing students at Madrid’s public universities announced it would step up protests against the war in the coming days.
In Paris, student groups called for gatherings in solidarity with Palestinians later Tuesday.
On Friday, French police peacefully removed dozens of students from a building at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, known as Sciences Po, after they had gathered in support of Palestinians.
On Tuesday, students at the prestigious institution, which counts French Premier Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron among its alumni, were seen entering the campus unobstructed to take exams as police stood.
Key debt ratio resumes rise as global debt burden hits record $315 trillion, IIF says
- The turnaround comes as dollar value of global debt surged by some $1.3 trillion quarter-on-quarter
- Pakistan is set to spend above 50 percent of its revenue on interest and Egypt more than 60 percent
NEW YORK: A key measure of world indebtedness has resumed its climb as global debt hit a record high of $315 trillion in the first quarter of the year, fueled by borrowing in emerging markets, the United States and Japan, a study showed.
The global debt-to-output ratio — a measure describing the ability of a borrower to pay back debt — rose to hit 333 percent after three consecutive quarters of decline, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said on Tuesday in its quarterly Global Debt Monitor report.
The turnaround comes as the dollar value of global debt surged by some $1.3 trillion quarter-on-quarter.
Debt in emerging markets grew to a record of more than $105 trillion — having more than doubled over the past decade according to IIF data.
The largest contributors to the increase among emerging economies were China, India and Mexico. South Korea, Thailand, and Brazil posted the largest dollar value declines in overall debt among the subgroup, the data showed.
“Government budget deficits are still higher than pre- pandemic levels and are projected to contribute around $5.3 trillion to global debt accumulation this year,” the IIF said in a statement. “Rising trade friction and geopolitical tensions also present significant potential headwinds for debt markets.”
Interest rates were expected to have started declining in the United States by now but sticky inflation has seen the Federal Reserve stand its ground.
This has meant higher borrowing costs across the globe and, for many emerging markets, weakened currencies that further exacerbate the cost of servicing debt and “could once again bring government debt strains to the fore,” the IIF said.
Egypt and Pakistan are seen as the emerging economies where the interest expense on government debt will be highest through 2026, with Pakistan set to spend above 50 percent of revenue on interest and Egypt more than 60 percent.
Among developed economies, the United States and Japan saw debt rise the quickest, adding 17 percentage points and 4 percentage points respectively.
Japan is expected to continue to spend on average under 2 percent of government revenue in debt servicing through 2026, according to the IIF. In the US, the figure is expected to rise above 10 percent from the current 8 percent and brush against 12 percent in the same period.
Last month, the International Monetary Fund warned the US level of spending is “of particular concern” and “out of line with long-term fiscal sustainability.”
UK prime minister summons university leaders over pro-Palestinian protests
- Meeting to discuss antisemitism, ensuring Jewish students are safe
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is to summon the leaders of universities following pro-Palestinian protests that have taken place at campuses across the country.
The meeting will take place this week to discuss antisemitism on campuses and ensuring Jewish students are safe, Sunak told Britain’s Cabinet on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the prime minister said Sunak expected university leaders to take “robust action” in dealing with the protests, The Evening Standard reported.
“Our university campuses should be places of rigorous debate, but they should also be tolerant places where people of all communities, particularly Jewish students at this time, are treated with respect,” the spokesman said.
The “right to free speech does not include the right to harass people or incite violence,” he added.
The summons comes after British students set up pro-Palestinian protest encampments at Oxford and Cambridge campuses on Monday, in a show of solidarity with their American peers.
Cambridge University said its priority was the “safety of all staff and students” and that it was committed to freedom of speech.
“We will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racial or religious hatred, or other unlawful activity,” a spokesperson said.
Pro-Palestinian protests have been taking place at US universities since April 17 and the protests have spread to Europe.
Police broke up student demonstrations in the Netherlands, Germany, and France on Tuesday as Israeli forces seized the main border crossing between Egypt and southern Gaza.
2,000 religious leaders attend Muslim World League conference in Kuala Lumpur
- MWL co-organized international gathering with the Malaysian government
- Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivers speech during the conference
KUALA LUMPUR: More than 2,000 religious leaders and scholars from 57 countries gathered in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday for a conference organized by the Muslim World League to discuss the role of religion in facilitating dialogue and peace initiatives.
The MWL, an international non-governmental Islamic organization founded in Saudi Arabia in 1962, organized the 2024 International Conference of Religious Leaders with Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development.
The conference was inaugurated by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and MWL Secretary-General Sheikh Dr. Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa.
“This religious conference will be an annual feature in Malaysia since it has proved successful in building an understanding and affinity among religions in the world, as well as in Malaysia,” Anwar said during his speech.
“In a conference like this, we can observe the things that need to be done and need to be improved among Muslims, Christians, Buddhists or Hindus. We want to listen to your advice, criticisms and suggestions.”
While about two-thirds of Malaysia’s more than 33 million population are Muslims, there are also large Buddhist, Hindu, and Christian minorities in the country.
“Religious leaders should take an active, effective and courageous role in promoting peace and justice. It is the duty of religious leaders to ensure that governance is guided by strong moral and ethical values,” Anwar said.
Al-Issa said the conference seeks to have a tangible impact.
“This international conference was attended by international, religious, political, intellectual, academic and media leaders. It is considered the first nucleus of a major breakthrough through a number of initiatives and programs around the world, aiming to enhance friendship and cooperation between nations and peoples,” he said.
“Our world is most in need of true solidarity, solidarity with a tangible impact, and is most in need of awareness of the threats threatening its global peace and the harmony of its diverse national communities in their religions and races.”
