PORT-AU-PRINCE: The leader of Haiti’s transitional presidential council tried to allay surging alarm among Haitians over rampant gang violence by acknowledging Thursday that the country has “become hell for everyone” and promising new measures to stop the bloodshed.
Fritz Alphonse Jean spoke a day after gunfire erupted in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as thousands of protesters demanding an end to gang violence clashed with police outside the offices of the council and the prime minister. It was the biggest protest held since the council was installed a year ago.
“Haitian people, you’ve spoken, and we’ve heard you,” Jean said. “We understand your misery. We know your pain and your suffering.”
More than 4,200 people have been reported killed across Haiti from July to February, and another 1,356 were injured, according to the UN.
Recent gang violence also left more than 60,000 people homeless in one month alone, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
“This national address comes at a decisive moment for the transitional government,” said Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “Protesters from various parts of the capital deliberately marched toward key government buildings to express their frustration.”
He noted that Jean’s address marked the first anniversary of the political agreement that established the new transitional government’s structure and objectives. Since then, cohesion between political parties involved in creating that government “has now largely collapsed,” Da Rin said.
“The groups that originally supported this government are now calling for a change in leadership,” he noted.
The council has not addressed those concerns, which also have been voiced by the international community.
During his public address, Jean rattled off a list of neighborhoods that gangs have recently attacked.
“You lost your homes, you lost your businesses, you lost your jobs, they raped you, they raped your kids. The criminal gangs killed a lot of people,” he said. “The fight against the darkness is not insignificant. But we are not insignificant ourselves… It’s nothing compared with the battle we fought to get out of slavery.”
Jean referenced how Haiti became the world’s first free Black republic in a bid to rally support from Haitians, asking them to help law enforcement officials and eschew efforts by gangs to recruit people, especially children.
“Don’t let people profit from your distress and drag you in bad directions,” he said.
Jean said the council would take “important measures” to help quell the persistent violence, including setting aside a special budget and incorporating agents from an armed state environmental group known as BSAP.
“The council asks the prime minister and the police to take these measures without delay,” Jean said. “We are telling everyone in this government that we are at war.”
Jean did not provide further details, including how much money would be set aside for the budget and how many BSAP agents would join the fight against gangs.
Jean also said that the electoral council is working so that Haiti can have new leadership once the transitional presidential council’s term ends on Feb. 7 next year. He added that officials are taking steps so that the diaspora can vote in what would be Haiti’s first general elections held in almost a decade.
Haiti has not had a president since former President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, with gangs becoming increasingly powerful in the aftermath.
Last year, a UN-backed mission led by Kenyan police arrived in Haiti to help local authorities quell gang violence, but the mission remains understaffed and underfunded, with only about 40 percent of the 2,500 personnel originally envisioned.
Haiti taking more steps against gangs after thousands of protesters demand security
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Haiti taking more steps against gangs after thousands of protesters demand security
- More than 4,200 people have been reported killed across Haiti from July to February
- Recent gang violence also left more than 60,000 people homeless in one month alone
China, Cambodia sign major canal deal
- The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost $1.7 billion — nearly 4 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product — and stretching 180 km, is now valued at $1.16 billion with a length of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government said in a
BEIJING: China and Cambodia have agreed to build safe and stable supply chains and strengthen cooperation in transportation infrastructure, they said in a joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday.
The two countries also signed a deal to construct a major canal, which Cambodia hopes will transform its economic fortunes.
The agreements came after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-nation tour of Southeast Asia, which included stops in Vietnam and Malaysia.
The trip was part of Beijing’s effort to consolidate economic and trading ties with close neighbors.
“China supports Cambodia in building the Funan Techo Integrated Water Conservancy Project in accordance with the principles of feasibility and sustainability,” the joint statement said.
The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost $1.7 billion — nearly 4 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product — and stretching 180 km, is now valued at $1.16 billion with a length of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government said in a separate statement.
The statement showed that it will be financed through a public-private partnership, with Cambodian investors holding a 51 percent stake and Chinese investors holding 49 percent.
China also commended Cambodia’s efforts in cracking down on illegal online gambling and telecom fraud in the joint statement, with the two countries agreeing to strengthen law enforcement cooperation further.
Before Xi’s visit, the Cambodian government said it had deported to China several “Chinese criminals,” including people from Taiwan, in a move that angered Taipei and was praised by Beijing.
The two countries also agreed to establish a ministerial dialogue between their foreign and defense ministers to facilitate coordination on major strategic issues.
Three tourists among 4 killed after Italian cable car crashes into a ravine south of Naples
- An Arab woman with Israeli citizenship was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday’s accident
- The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car
ROME: Three tourists, including a brother and sister from Britain, were among four people who were killed when a mountain cable car plunged into a ravine south of Naples, an Italian official said Friday.
An Arab woman with Israeli citizenship was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday’s accident, said Marco De Rosa, a spokesperson for the mayor of Vico Equense.
The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car. A fifth tourist, said to be the brother of the Israeli victim, is in a stable but critical condition at a Naples hospital, officials said.
Initial reports suggested that a traction cable may have snapped as the cable car ascended Monte Faito, in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. The cable car plunged into a ravine after stopping very close to the station at the top of the peak, at around 1,050 meters (3,400 feet).
Sixteen passengers were helped out of another cable car that was stuck mid-air near the foot of the mountain following the incident.
The accident happened just a week after the cable car, which is popular for its views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season. It averages around 110,000 visitors each year.
The emergency services, including Italy’s alpine rescue, more than 50 firefighters, police and civil protection personnel, worked into the evening in severe weather conditions, with fog and strong winds making rescue operations difficult.
“The traction cable broke. The emergency brake downstream worked, but evidently not the one on the cabin that was entering the station,” Luigi Vicinanza, the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, said on Thursday. He added that there had been regular safety checks on the cable car line, which runs 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the town to the top of the mountain.
Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter, which will involve an inspection of the cable stations, the pylons, the two cabins and the cable, officials said Friday.
The company running the service, the EAV public transport firm, said the seasonal cable car had reopened with all the required safety conditions.
“The reopening had taken place a week ago after three months of tests every day, day and night,” said EAV President Umberto De Gregorio. “This is something inexplicable.”
De Gregorio said technical experts believed there was no connection between the severe weather and the cause of the crash. “There is an automatic system. When the wind exceeds a certain level, the cable car stops automatically,” he said.
The Monte Faito cable car opened in 1952. Four people died in 1960 when a pylon broke.
Italy has recorded two similar fatal accidents involving cable cars in recent years.
A cable car crash in May 2021 in northern Italy killed 14 people, including six Israelis, among them a family of four. In 1998, a low-flying US military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Half a million weapons lost or smuggled after Taliban takeover in Afghanistan
- When Taliban swept through Afghanistan, they captured about 1 million pieces of US-funded military equipment
- Many weapons were abandoned by retreating Afghan soldiers or left behind by US forces
LONDON: Around half a million weapons seized by the Taliban after their 2021 takeover of Afghanistan have been lost, sold, or smuggled to militant groups, according to sources who spoke to the BBC.
Some of the missing weapons are believed to be in the hands of Al-Qaeda affiliates, UN officials say.
When the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, they captured about 1 million pieces of US-funded military equipment, including M4 and M16 rifles, according to the report published on Thursday.
Many weapons were abandoned by retreating Afghan soldiers or left behind by US forces, it added.
At a closed-door UN meeting in Doha last year, Taliban officials reportedly admitted that half of this equipment is now “unaccounted for.”
A UN report in February said groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were accessing Taliban-captured weapons or buying them on the black market.
The Taliban government denies the claims, insisting that all weapons are securely stored.
However, a 2023 UN report said local Taliban commanders were allowed to keep 20 percent of seized US arms, fueling a thriving black market.
Sources described an underground trade where US-made weapons are now sold via messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Oversight of US equipment in Afghanistan has long been criticized, and a US watchdog, Sigar, said tracking efforts were hampered by poor record-keeping across multiple agencies.
US President Donald Trump has vowed to reclaim the lost weaponry, though experts argue the cost of recovery would outweigh its value.
Meanwhile, the Taliban have used captured Humvees, rifles, and other simpler equipment to bolster their military strength, although they struggle to maintain more complex machinery like Black Hawk helicopters.
Concerns remain that the flow of advanced weaponry to militant groups will continue to destabilize the region.
Australian to stand trial in Russian-occupied Ukraine on mercenary charges
- Jenkins came to Ukraine in February 2024 from Melbourne
- Then fought against the Russian army between March and December 2024
MOSCOW: An Australian man will stand trial on mercenary charges in Russian-occupied Lugansk, the eastern region’s Moscow-installed authorities said on Friday, the latest foreign soldier fighting for Ukraine to appear before the court.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of the Lugansk People’s Republic approved the indictment in the criminal case against 33-year-old citizen of the Commonwealth of Australia Oscar Charles Augustus Jenkins,” the authorities said in a statement.
According to the investigators, Jenkins came to Ukraine in February 2024 from Melbourne and then fought against the Russian army between March and December 2024, for which he was paid around $7,000-9,000 a month.
Russia and its eastern Ukraine proxies typically consider foreigners traveling to fight in Ukraine as “mercenaries.”
This enables them to prosecute fighters under its criminal code, rather than treating them as captured prisoners of war with protections and rights under the Geneva Convention.
Most recently British man James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was charged with terrorism after he was caught in the Kursk region fighting on Ukraine’s side.
Prince Harry requested taxpayer-funded security after Al-Qaeda death threat
- The prince is in a legal battle with the Home Office over the level of protection he receives in Britain
- Terror group called for prince ‘to be murdered’ after 2020 decision to reduce his security, court told
LONDON: The UK’s Prince Harry, duke of Sussex, requested taxpayer-funded protection following a murder threat against him by Al-Qaeda, new court documents show.
The prince is in a legal battle with the UK Home Office over the level of taxpayer-funded personal security he receives when traveling back home from the US, and the documents were revealed following the duke of Sussex’s appearance at London’s Royal Courts of Justice last week, The Independent newspaper reported.
The Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) ordered in 2020 that Prince Harry should receive a lower grade of security when in the UK.
He fought back against the decision, but the High Court dismissed his case against the Home Office last year, which he is now appealing.
Private evidence was heard in the case, showing that Prince Harry submitted a request for protection following the Al-Qaeda threat.
A court summary said the prince “confirmed that he had requested certain protection after a threat was made against him” by the terror organization.
Prince Harry previously claimed he faces a greater risk than Princess Diana, his late mother, with “additional layers of racism and extremism.”
After the RAVEC decision in 2020, Al-Qaeda called for Prince Harry “to be murdered,” written submissions in the prince’s appeal say.
Shaheed Fatima KC, for the prince, said that his security team was told that Al-Qaeda had released a document which said his “assassination would please the Muslim community.”
The RAVEC decision was made after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they would step back from public duties in early 2020.
The pair were later told that, while in the UK, they would no longer receive the full-scale police protection offered to the king and queen, the prince and princess of Wales, and their three children.
An alternative “bespoke” security detail was arranged for the duke and duchess of Sussex.
They are required to give 30 days’ notice of their arrival in Britain for officials to make threat assessments.
Prince Harry had been “singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment,” Fatima said, adding that he “does not accept that ‘bespoke’ means ‘better.’”
