Unfazed devotees shrug off stampede at India mega-festival

Unfazed devotees shrug off stampede at India mega-festival
Hindu pilgrims walk along the old Yamuna bridge during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Prayagraj on January 29, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 30 January 2025
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Unfazed devotees shrug off stampede at India mega-festival

Unfazed devotees shrug off stampede at India mega-festival
  • The disaster, which saw a crowd spill out of a police cordon and trample bystanders, prompted spooked pilgrims to leave festival
  • The Kumbh festival attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful from around India every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj

Prayagraj: Swarming throngs of devotees bathed in rivers at the world’s biggest religious gathering in India on Thursday, undeterred by a stampede a day earlier that killed at least 30 people.

The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful from around India every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj but has a woeful record of deadly crowd incidents.

Wednesday’s pre-dawn disaster, which saw a surging crowd spill out of a police cordon and trample bystanders, prompted some spooked pilgrims to leave the festival.

But many more were still arriving in the stampede’s aftermath to participate in what they said was a matter of religious obligation.

“We’ve obviously heard about the stampede,” 21-year-old Naveen Pradhan, who arrived at the festival with his family hours after the disaster, told AFP.

“But this is a holy thing, a religious thing, something we should do as Hindus, and my family wouldn’t have missed this no matter what.”

The six-week Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and Wednesday marked one of the holiest days in the festival, coinciding with an alignment of the Solar System’s planets.

Despite the early morning disaster, saffron-clad holy men continued with the day’s rituals hours later, leading millions into a sin-cleansing bath by the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.

“The journey was challenging — the trains were packed, the train stations were packed,” pharmacist Padmabati Dam, who traveled by train for more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to reach the festival, told AFP.

“We were tired after such a long journey but as soon as we took a dip in the river we just felt so fresh and happy. It was as if all that inconvenience was really worth it.”

The Kumbh Mela is rooted in a mythological Hindu battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.

Organizers have likened the scale of this year’s festival to a temporary country, forecasting up to 400 million pilgrims would visit before the final day on February 26.

Authorities waited nearly 18 hours after Wednesday’s stampede to give an official death toll, an apparent effort to minimize disruption to the day’s events.

Even before the latest incident, attendees have fumed over what they said was poor crowd management.

Reserved pathways and cordoned-off areas reserved for eminent attendees have been a source of vehement complaint at the festival for reducing the amount of space for common pilgrims.

Police this year installed hundreds of cameras at the festival site and on roads leading to the sprawling encampment, mounted on poles and a fleet of overhead drones.

The surveillance network feeds into an artificial intelligence system at a command and control center meant to alert staff if sections of the crowd get so concentrated that they pose a safety threat.

More than 400 people died after they were trampled or drowned at the Kumbh Mela on a single day of the festival in 1954, one of the largest tolls in a crowd-related disaster globally.

Another 36 people were crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was staged in Prayagraj.


EU official says Lebanon funding outlay depends on banking restructure, IMF deal

Updated 22 sec ago
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EU official says Lebanon funding outlay depends on banking restructure, IMF deal

EU official says Lebanon funding outlay depends on banking restructure, IMF deal
  • IMF said it was open to a new loan agreement with Lebanon following discussions with its recently appointed finance minister
  • European Union announced one billion dollars in aid for Lebanon to help stem irregular migration to the bloc
BEIRUT: A visiting EU official said Friday that disbursing half a billion euros in funding to Lebanon was conditional on a banking sector restructure and reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
In May last year, the European Union announced one billion euros ($1 billion) in aid for Lebanon to help stem irregular migration to the bloc, with the assistance designed to strengthen basic services including education and health amid a severe economic crisis.
The EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica on Friday said that of the allocated funds, “500 million (euros) was already adopted in August last year, and another 500 million will come soon, but there are some conditions.”
“The main precondition is the restructure of the banking sector... and a good agreement with the International Monetary Fund,” she told a press conference after meeting with President Joseph Aoun.
“Once these conditions will be fulfilled we will continue of course with disbursing” the funds, she added.
The international community has long demanded Lebanon enact reforms to unlock billions of dollars to boost the economy after a financial crisis widely blamed on mismanagement and corruption took hold in 2019.
Lebanon last month elected a new president after a more than two-year vacuum. This month it formed a government, replacing the previous administration that had been operating in a caretaker capacity.
This week, the IMF said it was open to a new loan agreement with Lebanon following discussions with its recently appointed finance minister.
Suica also said she discussed with Aoun a “new pact for the Mediterranean” which means “we will start bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership agreements with countries including Lebanon,” without providing details.
She and Aoun also discussed issues including a ceasefire in the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah, as well as Lebanon’s army and the Syria crisis, she added.
Suica was scheduled to meet with other senior officials including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and parliament speaker Nabih Berri during the visit, according to an EU statement.
The EU is desperate for stability in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region as it hopes to avoid major flows of migrants to Europe.
Lebanon says it hosts some two million Syrians, the world’s highest number of refugees per capita, and has also been a launchpad for Europe-bound migrants.

With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art

With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art
Updated 17 min 31 sec ago
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With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art

With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art
  • Aria and Aida Sediqy could not pursue studies after a Taliban ban on girls’ education
  • Last year, they opened a home-based workshop in Kabul specializing in latticework

KABUL: After Afghanistan’s new rulers barred females from higher education, Aria and Aida Sediqy sought other ways to learn a profession. When those options were closed off too, they turned to art — a form of expression that soon also became a path to self-sufficiency.

Aria, 21, graduated from high school in 2020 and passed national university entry exams. She studied economics at a university in Kabul but that did not last long.

The rights of Afghan females have been curtailed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.

Women and girls have been gradually barred from attending secondary school and university, undertaking most forms of paid employment, traveling without a male family member, and accessing public spaces.

Aria managed to complete one semester, but like thousands of other girls had nowhere to return after the ban took force. She chose instead to learn midwifery and together with her younger sister enrolled in a course at a private medical institute. Last year, classes for women at those institutes were banned too. “After studying midwifery for a year, the Taliban closed medical colleges as well. For the past three years, I have looked everywhere to study, but all doors were shut for us, one after another,” she told Arab News.

She then tried to rekindle her childhood interest in crafts and spent months training to produce latticework from wood under the guidance of a woman teacher who graduated in fine arts from Kabul University.

When she felt ready, her parents supported her in opening a small workshop at home. Last year, the little studio, Aria Art Gallery, opened an online shop, which Aria is now running with her sister.

Each month, their workshop earns about $100.

Works of Aria and Aida Sediqy are on display at their home studio in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Aria Sediqy)

“The income is not a lot, but I am happy that I can do something for myself. It’s a very good occupation for young girls and women,” she said.

Three girls have started learning craft from Aria. Two of them are her cousins, and the third is her younger sister, Aida, for whom the home gallery has also become a refuge when most opportunities for self-fulfillment are no more.

“We are left with a world of unfulfilled wishes, but I am happy to be able to learn art from my sister and run the gallery with her from our home,” Aida said.

“With the doors to education closed for all of us, we turn to art.”


With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art

With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art
Updated 36 min 30 sec ago
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With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art

With formal education banned, Afghan sisters find empowerment in art
  • Aria and Aida Sediqy could not pursue studies after a Taliban ban on girls’ education
  • Last year, they opened a home-based workshop in Kabul specializing in latticework

KABUL: After Afghanistan’s new rulers barred girls from higher education, Aria and Aida Sediqy sought other ways to start a profession. When those options were closed off too, they turned to art, which soon also became a path to self-sufficiency.

Aria, 21, graduated from high school in 2020 and passed national university entry exams. She studied economics at a university in Kabul but that did not last long.

The rights of Afghan women have been curtailed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021. Women and girls have been gradually barred from attending secondary school and university, undertaking most forms of paid employment, traveling without a male family member, and accessing public spaces.

Aria managed to complete one semester, but like thousands of other girls had nowhere to return after the ban took force. She chose instead to learn midwifery and together with her younger sister enrolled in a course at a private medical institute. Last year, classes for women at those institutes were banned too.

“After studying midwifery for a year, the Taliban closed medical colleges as well. For the past three years, I have looked everywhere to study, but all doors were shut for us, one after another,” she told Arab News.

She then tried to rekindle her childhood interest in craft and spent months training latticework in wood under the guidance of a female teacher who graduated in fine arts from Kabul University.

When she felt ready, her parents supported her in opening a small workshop at home. Last year, the little studio, Aria Art Gallery, started an online shop, which Aria is now running with her sister.

Each month, their workshop earns about $100.

“The income is not a lot, but I am happy that I can do something for myself. It’s a very good occupation for young girls and women,” she said.

Three girls have started learning craft from Aria. Two of them are her cousins, and the third is her younger sister, Aida, for whom the home gallery has also become a refuge when most opportunities for self-fulfillment are no more.

“We are left with a world of unfulfilled wishes, but I am happy to be able to learn art from my sister and run the gallery with her from our home,” Aida said.

“With the doors to education closed for all of us, we turn to art.”


Australia warns airlines to beware of a potential Chinese navy live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea

Australia warns airlines to beware of a potential Chinese navy live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea
Updated 21 February 2025
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Australia warns airlines to beware of a potential Chinese navy live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea

Australia warns airlines to beware of a potential Chinese navy live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea
  • China had given notice that the warships could potentially fire live weapons during an exercise
  • Chinese exercise legal and took place in international waters outside Australia’s exclusive economic zone

MELBOURNE: Australia warned airlines flying between Australian airports and New Zealand to beware of Chinese warships potentially conducting a live-fire exercise in the Tasman Sea, officials said Friday.
Regulator Airservices Australia warned commercial pilots of a potential hazard in airspace between the countries as three Chinese warships conduct exercises off the Australian east coast.
China had given notice that the warships could potentially fire live weapons during an exercise, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Australian defense officials were uncertain whether any live fire of weapons had occurred. The risk had since passed, Albanese said.
“There was no imminent risk of danger to any Australian assets or New Zealand assets,” Albanese told reporters, citing information from his Defense Ministry.
Air New Zealand, the country’s national carrier, said in a statement it had “modified flight paths as needed to avoid the area, with no impact on our operations.”
Virgin Australia said it was following Airservices Australia instructions, but did not say whether its New Zealand services had been diverted.
Pilots of Virgin, Qantas and Emirates flights from Sydney to New Zealand diverted their courses after hearing one of the warships broadcast a warning of an imminent live-fire exercise, Nine Network television reported.
Australian and New Zealand military ships and P-8 Poseidon surveillance planes have been monitoring the Chinese warships – frigate Hengyang, cruiser Zunyi and replenishment vessel Weishanhu – for days.
Chinese warships rarely venture so far south in a deployment regarded as a demonstration of the Chinese navy’s growing size and capabilities.
Australian and International Pilots Association Vice President Captain Steve Cornell, who represents pilots from Australia’s largest airline Qantas, was critical of where the Chinese choose to hold their exercise.
“Whilst it was unusual to have Chinese warships in this part of the world, pilots often have to contend with obstacles to safe navigation, whether that be from military exercises such as this or other events like rocket launches, space debris or volcanic eruptions,” Cornell said.
“That being said, it’s a big bit of ocean and you would think that they could have parked somewhere less inconvenient whilst they flexed their muscles,” he added.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong will discuss the deployment when she meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at a G20 ministers meeting underway in South Africa, Albanese said.
The Chinese exercise was legal and took place in international waters outside Australia’s exclusive economic zone, Albanese said.


Pope Francis passes another calm night in hospital: Vatican

Pope Francis passes another calm night in hospital: Vatican
Updated 21 February 2025
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Pope Francis passes another calm night in hospital: Vatican

Pope Francis passes another calm night in hospital: Vatican
  • Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital last Friday with bronchitis
  • But it later developed into pneumonia in both lungs, sparking widespread alarm

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis spent another night without incident in hospital, the Vatican said on Friday, after a week in the hospital where the 88-year-old pontiff is being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia.
“The night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said in a regular morning update.
It was the latest in a series of incrementally positive updates this week from the Vatican, which has regularly been publishing information – however modest – about the Argentine pope’s state of health.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital last Friday with bronchitis, but it later developed into pneumonia in both lungs, sparking widespread alarm.
But the Vatican said Thursday he continued to not have a fever and his “hemodynamic (blood flow) parameters continue to be stable.”
Vatican sources have said the pope continues to keep up with his correspondence and has been working with his collaborators.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, the head of Italy’s bishops conference, expressed confidence Thursday that the pope was “on the right path.”
“The fact that the pope had breakfast, read the newspapers, received people, means that we are on the right path to a full recovery, which we hope will happen soon,” Zuppi said.