SEOUL: North Korea has created a new holiday to celebrate the anniversary of the successful test launch of its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile last year, state media reported Sunday.
On November 18, 2022, Pyongyang carried out what is believed to be the first full flight test of the Hwasong-17 — dubbed the “monster missile” by analysts.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday that the anniversary had been designated as a holiday at a meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly.
“The establishment of Missile Industry Day marks a special event in our sacred journey of national defense development,” KCNA said.
With the launch, it added, North Korea had “demonstrated to the world the majesty of a world-class nuclear power and the nation with the strongest intercontinental ballistic missile.”
North Korea often carries out major weapons tests on key holidays, and Seoul’s spy agency said last week that the country was in the final stages of preparing for a third launch of a military reconnaissance satellite.
After a failed second attempt in August, Pyongyang said it would carry out the third launch in October, though it never materialized.
Analysts have said there is significant technological overlap between space launch capabilities and the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, from which Pyongyang is banned under multiple UN sanctions.
North Korea has conducted a record number of missile tests this year, ignoring warnings from the United States, South Korea and their allies.
In September, Pyongyang enshrined its status as a nuclear power in its constitution, with leader Kim Jong Un calling for more modern atomic weapons to counter perceived threats from the United States.
North Korea creates new holiday to mark ICBM test launch
https://arab.news/w2t6m
North Korea creates new holiday to mark ICBM test launch
- The holiday is in celebration of the North Korea's anniversay of the first full flight test of its Hwasong-17 ICBM
- East Asia's impoverished nation often carries out major weapons tests on key holidays
UN says ‘deeply troubled’ by Kenya protest killings
The violence erupted on Saba Saba Day (meaning Seven Seven) when demonstrators annually mark the events of July 7, 1990 when Kenyans rose up to demand a return to multi-party democracy after years of autocratic rule by then-president Daniel arap Moi.
“We are deeply troubled by the killings yesterday of at least 10 people, as well as looting and destruction of property in Kenya,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
She said that “lethal ammunition, rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons were used” as police responded to the protests.
She highlighted that Kenyan police had reported that at least 11 people were killed, 52 police officers injured and 567 arrests made.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights meanwhile reported at least 10 deaths, 29 injuries, 37 arrests and two abductions, she added.
“We have also received reports of looting and damage to public and private property by unidentified individuals in multiple locations.”
Shamdasani said the violence came “barely two weeks after 15 protesters were reportedly killed and many more injured in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya on 25 June.”
UN rights chief Volker Turk renews “his call for calm and restrain, and full respect for the freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” she said.
“It is essential that legitimate grievances at the root of these protests are addressed,” the spokeswoman said.
The UN rights office noted that Kenyan police had announced an investigation into earlier incidents.
Shamdasani stressed that “under international human rights law, intentional lethal force by law enforcement officers, including with firearms, should only be used when strictly necessary to protect life from an imminent threat.”
Turk reiterates “his call for all reported killings and other alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law, including with respect to use of force, to be promptly, thoroughly, independently and transparently investigated,” she said.
“Those responsible must be held to account.”
Acropolis shuts, outdoor work halted as heatwave scorches Greece
The Greek culture ministry said the world-renowned site would be shut till 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) “for the safety of workers and visitors, owing to high temperatures.”
The four-day heatwave confirmed by meteorologists began Sunday is the second to grip Greece since late June.
Temperatures are expected to reach 42 Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, with a maximum of 38 Celsius in Athens.
Similar temperatures are expected on Wednesday.
To protect outdoor workers, the labor ministry has decreed a work stoppage from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. in various parts of the country, including several islands.
The stoppage mainly affects construction work and delivery riders.
“Days with a heatwave make my job more difficult,” cycle-riding courier Michalis Keskinidis told AFP.
“We drink a lot of water to protect ourselves from the heat, combined with electrolytes, and take breaks whenever possible,” the 43-year-old said.
The 2,500-year-old Acropolis, built on a rock overlooking the capital that offers little shade, draws tens of thousands of visitors daily.
Last year it recorded some 4.5 million visitors, an increase of over 15 percent compared to 2023.
Officials had been forced to order similar shutdowns in the past two years in heatwave conditions.
The Greek civil protection authority has warned of high fire risk in the greater Athens area, in central Greece and the Peloponnese peninsula.
Greece’s fire department has been dealing with up to 50 fires daily, the head of the Greek fire service officers’ union Constantinos Tsigkas told state TV ERT.
Elsewhere, Serbia’s hydrometeorological service RMHZ warned that weather conditions could fuel more fires, after 620 fires were recorded Monday.
But there are also thunderstorms expected in Serbia’s northern Vojvodina region, as well as in western and central areas.
RHMZ has also warned of the possibility of hail and hurricane-force gusts of wind.
Croatia has already felt the impact of storms since Monday, with several of the country’s regions affected.
Two people were injured and hospitalized in Vinkovci after a storm knocked down a power line on a family house near the eastern town, police said.
The authorities said they had taken dozens of calls over wind-related emergencies including trees blocking roads, damaged roofs and power failures.
On Tuesday, heavy rain and gale-force winds flooded roads, knocked down trees and caused power outages at the Croatian port town of Split, the state-run HRT broadcaster reported.
At the town’s port, a ferry broke its moorings and hit a catamaran and a tourist excursion boat, sinking the latter.
There was similar trouble further north, with storms raging in Hungary and Slovakia.
In Budapest, strong winds damaged roofs, felled trees onto roads and downed power lines on Monday, with the national meteorological service HungaroMet measuring winds up to 137 kilometers (85 miles) per hour locally.
Rail traffic was severely disrupted across Hungary with full restoration of services potentially requiring weeks, according to Construction and Transport Minister Janos Lazar.
In Slovakia, gale-force winds caused power outages and blew off the roof of a block of flats in the eastern town of Gelnica and fallen trees disrupted road and railway transport across the region.
The country’s weather service SHMU has issued a storm warning with heavy rain, wind and hail for Tuesday, mainly for central and eastern Slovakia.
Thousands told to stay home as Spain forest fire rages on
- Forest fire stoked by fierce winds has burned more than 2,300 hectares
- Spain has in recent days sweltered through a heatwave that parched the land and heightened the risk of forest fires
MADRID: Spanish firefighters on Tuesday were battling a forest fire stoked by fierce winds that has burned more than 2,300 hectares (5,680 acres), with authorities urging thousands of residents to stay home.
The Spanish army’s emergency response unit said it had deployed overnight near the northeastern city of Tarragona to assist local authorities.
The blaze has devoured “around 2,377 hectares of land, mostly forest,” countryside rangers in the Catalonia region wrote on X.
The protected Els Ports natural park makes up 30 percent of the affected area, they added.
Firefighters released video footage shot from a helicopter on Monday showing hills enveloped in a cloud of grey and orange smoke stretching into the distance.
Winds of up to 90 kilometers per hour (56 miles per hour) made it harder to extinguish the fire overnight, firefighters said.
The national civil protection authority urged residents in the area to close their doors and windows and stay home, saying that around 18,000 people were affected.
Scientists say human-induced climate change is increasing the intensity, length and frequency of the extreme heat that causes some forest fires.
Spain has in recent days sweltered through a heatwave that parched the land and heightened the risk of forest fires.
National weather agency AEMET said last month was Spain’s hottest June on record and that the frequency of extreme heat had tripled in the past 10 years.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), some 500 fires destroyed 300,000 hectares in Spain in 2022, a record for the continent.
Around 21,000 hectares have burned so far this year.
Kremlin says former minister’s suicide is shocking
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the suicide of former Transport Minister Roman Starovoit just hours after his dismissal by President Vladimir Putin was shocking.
Starovoit was found dead in his car outside Moscow with a gunshot wound and the principal hypothesis is that he took his own life, state investigators said on Monday, hours after Putin fired him.
A presidential decree published on Monday gave no reason for the dismissal of Starovoit after barely a year in the job.
Philippines summons Chinese envoy over sanctions against former senator
- Francisco Tolentino was banned from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau over ‘egregious conduct’ detrimental to relations between Manila and Beijing
- He lost his bid for a second term in the Philippines’ midterm elections in May
MANILA: The Philippines’ foreign ministry has summoned China’s ambassador to Manila over Beijing’s imposition of sanctions against former senator Francis Tolentino, the president’s office said on Tuesday.
Tolentino, who lost his bid for a second term in the Philippines’ midterm elections in May, was banned from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau over “egregious conduct” detrimental to relations between Manila and Beijing.
Tolentino helped in approving laws last year that defined the country’s sea lanes and maritime zones, which China opposed. He also accused the Chinese embassy of contracting a firm that maintains troll farms to sow disinformation.
“The imposition of punitive measures ... is inconsistent with the norms of mutual respect and dialogue that underpin relations between two equal sovereign states,” presidential press officer Claire Castro told a briefing.
Manila’s foreign ministry said it summoned Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian on Friday. China’s embassy in Manila said in a statement the ambassador notified the Philippines’ foreign ministry of China’s decision to impose sanctions on Tolentino.
“It should be noted that such sanctions fall purely within China’s legal prerogative, and there are consequences for hurting China’s interests,” the embassy said.
The Chinese foreign ministry has previously accused some Filipino politicians of making “malicious remarks and moves” that hurt ties between the two nations.
Relations between China and the Philippines have soured under President Ferdinand Marcos over a longstanding dispute in the South China Sea.
In 2016, an international tribunal ruled Beijing’s sweeping claims to the waterway had no basis in international law. China has rejected the decision. Several other countries in Southeast Asia also claim parts of the South China Sea.
