ISLAMABAD: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai left Pakistan on Monday, ending a surprise visit to the country, her first since being shot in 2012 by Taliban militants who tried to kill her for promoting girls’ education.
A smiling Yousafzai was seen with her parents at Benazir Bhutto International Airport before they boarded a plane to return to London after the four-day visit.
Amid tight security, Yousafzai earlier in the day left her hotel in Islamabad, where she had stayed for four days, and in a convoy of vehicles headed to the airport. Touching scenes were witnessed when the now-20-year-old university student left the hotel, thanking Pakistani officials for giving her an army helicopter over the weekend to fly to the Swat Valley, once virtually under the control of militants, and see her home in the northwest town of Mingora.
After visiting Mingora on Saturday, Yousafzai in a tweet said it was “the most beautiful place on earth” for her.
“So much joy seeing my family home, visiting friends and putting my feet on this soil again,” said, as she posted a picture of her, showing her standing at her home’s lawn with her father, mother and brothers.
Youzafzai also said in her hometown that she had waited for the moment for more than five years and said she often looked at Pakistan on the map, hoping to return.
She said she plans to permanently return to Pakistan after completing her studies in Britain.
On Monday, Yousafzai’s uncle Mahmoodul Hassan told The Associated Press that “she is leaving Pakistan with good and memorable memories, but is going back to England because she wants to complete her education there.”
During her visit, Yousafzai also met with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. She attended a reception at Abbasi’s office and made an emotional speech in which she said it was one of the happiest days of her life to be back in her country.
Most Pakistanis warmly welcomed Yousafzai’s visit but some launched a campaign on social media against her and she also faced tough questions from journalists, asking about the campaign. She said she failed to understand why she was being subjected to this kind of criticism by educated people.
“We want to work for the education of children and make it possible that every girl in Pakistan receives a high-level education and she can fulfil her dreams and become a part of society,” she told Pakistan’s ARY news channel.
Her hometown of Mingora is not far away from the village of Mullah Fazlullah, the head of Pakistani Taliban who dispatched attackers in 2012 to kill Yousafzai, at the time already a known teen activist for girls’ education, but she miraculously survived a bullet wound to the head. Fazlullah had taken over Swat in 2007, marking the height of the militant’s strength there.
The Pakistani military later mostly evicted the militants from the valley and now Fazlullah is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.
Since her attack and recovery, Yousafzai has led the Malala Fund, which helps students in Swat and elsewhere.
Malala Yousafzai ends her 1st Pakistan visit since shooting
Malala Yousafzai ends her 1st Pakistan visit since shooting
Indonesian VP praises Saudi government for Makkah Route Initiative
- Indonesia will be sending 241,000 pilgrims for this pilgrimage season
- The scheme operates this year from 3 Indonesian cities
JAKARTA: Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin has praised Saudi Arabia’s Makkah Route Initiative and hopes that the flagship program will be expanded to other cities in the country, his spokesperson told Arab News on Sunday.
With Hajj expected to start on June 14 this year, special pilgrimage flights from the Southeast Asian nation started on May 12.
Indonesia will be sending 241,000 Hajj pilgrims to the Kingdom this year and many pilgrims are departing under the Makkah Route Initiative, which was launched in Saudi Arabia in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon their arrival.
The initiative was expanded to three airports in the country this year and Amin visited one of the new cities — Solo, Central Java — over the weekend to take a look at the program in action.
“The working visit is the vice president’s appreciation on behalf of the government toward the Saudi government’s move in conducting a breakthrough and excellent program, the Makkah Route,” Masduki Baidlowi, the vice president’s spokesperson, told Arab News.
“This is extremely useful and beneficial for Hajj pilgrims, because many of the pilgrims are elderly and they are assisted by the Makkah Route program. With this program, the pilgrims are spared from exhaustion.”
Under the program, the pilgrims’ luggage is delivered straight to their hotels in Makkah and Madinah.
Amin surveyed the program in Solo in the company of the Saudi Director General of Passports Lt. Gen. Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al-Yahya, and Saudi Ambassador to Indonesia Faisal Abdullah Amodi.
Amin is hoping to see the initiative expanded to more cities in Indonesia next year.
“The vice president is hoping that the Makkah Route program can be expanded to Medan and Makassar, not just Jakarta, Solo and Surabaya,” Baidlowi said.
“This can be a symbol of friendship between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.”
South Africa’s ANC calls demands for President Ramaphosa to step down for coalition talks a ‘no-go’
CAPE TOWN: South Africa's African National Congress party will not consider any demands from possible coalition partners that President Cyril Ramaphosa step down, a top official said Sunday, as the ANC attempted to present a united front after a stinging election result ended its 30-year majority.
As South Africa heads for a series of complex talks to form a national coalition government for the first time and establish stability, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said Ramaphosa would remain as party leader and any demands from others that he resign for talks to go ahead was “a no-go area.”
“President Ramaphosa is the president of the ANC,” Mbalula said in the ANC leadership's first public comments since the landmark election results. “And if you come to us with that demand that Ramaphosa is going to step down as the president, that is not going to happen.”
Mbalula said the ANC was open to talks with every other political party in an effort to form a government, but “no political party will dictate terms to us, the ANC. They will not ... You come to us with that demand, forget (it).”
Mbalula conceded the ANC, which has dominated South African politics since the end of apartheid in 1994, “suffered heavily” in the election but said it was “not booted out.”
The ANC received just over 40% of votes, falling well short of the majority it has held for all of South Africa’s young democracy. It will still be the biggest party by some way. But it needs to talk with others to form a government and to reelect Ramaphosa for a second and final term. South Africa’s president is elected by Parliament after national elections.
“The results send a clear message to the ANC,” Mbalula said. “We wish to send a message to the people of South Africa: We have heard them.” He said the ANC was committed to forming a government that reflects the will of the people and is stable.
The new MK Party of former President Jacob Zuma, which won 14% in the election in a surprise showing that makes it the third biggest in parliament, has said Ramaphosa must go as leader of the ANC and the country for it to enter any coalition talks with the ANC.
The ANC has many options for coalition partners among South Africa's other parties, including one with the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which won 21% of votes.
"We’ll talk to everybody," Mbalula said. “We are talking to everybody because the election did not give us outright majority. Talks about talks are in full swing. We are engaged and we are open to engagement. We need stability in this country.”
Energy shutdowns hit Ukraine after Russian attacks target infrastructure
- State-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo says shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers
- Sustained attacks on Ukraine’s power grid have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts
KYIV: Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province.
The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people.
Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers.
Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts. Without adequate air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs, though, the shortages could still worsen as need spikes in late summer and the bitter-cold winter.
Among the most significant recent strikes were an April barrage that damaged Kyiv’s largest thermal power plant and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions.
Following Saturday’s barrage, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday that air defenses had shot down all 25 drones launched overnight.
Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Umanske in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.
Russia’s coordinated new offensive has centered on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, but seems to include testing Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk farther south, while also launching incursions in the northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
In Russia, six people were injured in shelling in the city of Shebekino in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday. He also said that a local official, the deputy head of the Korochansky district, had been killed by “detonation of ammunition.” He gave no details.
In the neighboring Kursk region, three people were injured Sunday when an explosive device was dropped from a drone, according to acting regional head Alexey Smirnov.
Speaking at Asia’s premier security conference in Singapore, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused China on Sunday of helping Russia to disrupt an upcoming Swiss-organized peace conference on the war in Ukraine.
Sri Lanka monsoon floods kill 14, schools shut
- Sri Lanka faces more frequent floods as the world heats due to climate change
COLOMBO: Flash floods, mudslides and falling trees have killed at least 14 people in Sri Lanka as the island nation is battered by monsoon storms, the country’s disaster center said Sunday.
Some drowned, including three members of the same family swept away near the capital Colombo on Sunday.
Others were buried alive in mudslides, including an 11-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man, the Disaster Management Center (DMC) said.
Nine other people were crushed and killed when trees fell on them in seven districts since the monsoon intensified on May 21, the DMC said.
While Sri Lanka depends on the seasonal monsoon rain for irrigation as well as hydroelectricity, experts have warned that it faces more frequent floods as the world heats due to climate change.
The DMC said 20 out of the country’s 25 districts were affected by heavy rain and issued warnings to people living on the banks of main rivers to move to higher ground.
Flights arriving at Colombo’s main international airport were diverted to a smaller airport, and some key highways were flooded at several exits.
The government also ordered all schools to remain shut on Monday after the weekend holiday, as more rain was forecast.
“There could be more heavy rains accompanied by strong winds and thunder,” the DMC said.
Last week, wildlife authorities found seven carcasses of young elephants who drowned in the biggest single loss of the animals in five years.
The onset of the southwest monsoon triggered flooding in the elephant habitat in Dimbulagala, around 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Colombo.
French far right has big lead over Macron ally ahead of EU vote: poll
PARIS: France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party holds a commanding lead in voting intentions for upcoming European Parliament elections, according to an opinion poll published on Sunday.
Voting intentions remained “very volatile,” however, said the Elabe institute, which conducted the polls for broadcaster BFMTV and weekly La Tribune Dimanche.
“One in three voters could still change their minds before the election, especially on the left.”
The poll was conducted among 1,803 people between May 29 and 31.
The extreme-right RN’s top candidate, Jordan Bardella, is credited with 32.5 percent of voting intentions in the poll,
Valerie Hayer, an ally of center-right President Emmanuel Macron, came second with 16 percent, followed by center-left Socialist candidate Raphael Glucksmann with 13.
While the standing of the main candidates was broadly unchanged from a similar poll a week ago, left-wing parties France Unbowed, the Greens and Communists made slight gains.
The right-wing opposition Les Republicains and the extreme-right Reconquete were, meanwhile, below the five percent threshold needed for representation in the European Parliament.
In France, the European Parliament elections are primarily seen as a key gauge of national politicians’ popularity.
Bardella was later on Sunday to hold a final election rally in Paris.
Around 5,500 supporters and RN party heavyweight Marine Le Pen were expected to attend.
Opinion polls show far-right parties making gains in several European Union countries in the elections on June 6-9.
