LONDON: The southern portion of British Antarctic Territory has been named Queen Elizabeth Land in honor of the monarch’s 60 years on the throne, London announced yesterday. The announcement was made as Queen Elizabeth II attended her final diamond jubilee event with a visit to the Foreign Office, which handles Britain’s overseas territories.
The previously unnamed area now called Queen Elizabeth Land is around 437,000 square kilometers. It makes up just under a third of the British Antarctic Territory land mass and is an area almost twice the size of Britain.
“As a mark of this country’s gratitude to the Queen for her service, we are naming a part of the British Antarctic Territory in her honor as Queen Elizabeth Land,” Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
“This is a fitting tribute at the end of Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee year. “To be able to recognize the UK’s commitment to Antarctica with a permanent association with Her Majesty is a great honor.” The new name will be used on all British maps and other countries may follow suit.
The Foreign Office said the area’s boundaries were the Ronne and Filchner ice shelves to the north; Coats Land to the northeast; Dronning Maud Land to the east and to the west, a line between the South Pole and the Rutford Ice Stream, east of Constellation Inlet.
“From today, in your honor, it will be forever known as Queen Elizabeth Land,” Hague said.
British Antarctic Territory stretches from a longitude of 20 degrees to 80 degrees west. It was the first official claim in Antarctica, made in 1908. It was designated a separate overseas territory in 1962.
Argentina and Chile made later overlapping claims to the area in the 1940s, though all claims are held in abeyance under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Britain operates three research stations there.
It is not the first time that a patch of the icy continent has been named after Queen Elizabeth, now 86.
A sector of Australian Antarctic Territory was named Princess Elizabeth Land upon its discovery in 1931, when her grandfather King George V was on the throne.
Britain names Antarctica section Queen Elizabeth Land
Britain names Antarctica section Queen Elizabeth Land
Explosions and sounds of aircraft heard in Kabul, hours after Afghanistan attacks Pakistan
KABUL, Afghanistan: At least three explosions and the sound of aircraft reverberated in Kabul early Friday, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbors.
There was no immediate information on the exact location of the explosions in the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties.
Afghanistan said its military launched its attack across the border into Pakistan late Thursday to retaliate for Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday, and claimed to have captured more than a dozen Pakistani army posts.
Pakistan’s government, which had described last Sunday’s airstrikes as an attack on militants harbored in the area, confirmed clashes were taking place Thursday along the border but dismissed claims that army posts had been captured. It called Afghanistan’s attack unprovoked.
“In response to the repeated rebellions and insurrections of the Pakistani military, large-scale offensive operations were launched against Pakistani military bases and military installations along the Durand Line,” Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X Thursday night. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory attacks were occurring along the border in five provinces.
The two countries’ 2,611-kilometer long border is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognized.
The two sides reported widely differing casualty figures.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that “up to 55” Pakistani soldiers had been killed, with the bodies of 23 taken into Afghanistan, while an undisclosed number of soldiers had been captured.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed the claim, saying two Pakistani soldiers had been killed and three others wounded. He said 36 Afghan fighters had been reported killed. In a post on X, he said Pakistan was giving a “strong and effective response” to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan, and would continue to do so.
Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.
Fighting also broke out in a separate part of the border, with both sides reporting exchanges of fire in the Torkham border area.
Afghan authorities were evacuating a refugee camp near the Torkham border crossing after several refugees were wounded, said Qureshi Badlon, head of Torkham’s Information and Public Awareness Board. On the Pakistani side of the border, local police said residents were also evacuating to safer areas, while some Afghan refugees who had been waiting to cross back into Afghanistan were also moved to secure locations. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown on migrants in Oct. 2023 and has expelled hundreds of thousands of people.
Pakistani police said mortars fired from Afghanistan had landed in nearby villages, but there were no reports of civilian casualties.
“Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its citizens,” Pakistan’s Information Ministry said in a post on X.
Afghanistan’s military released video footage of military vehicles moving at night, and the sound of heavy gunfire. The video could not be independently verified.
Tension has been high between the two neighbors for months, with deadly border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
A Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries has largely held, but the two sides have still occasionally traded fire across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s military carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan, saying it had killed at least 70 militants.
Afghanistan rejected the claim, saying dozens of civilians had been killed, including women and children. The Defense Ministry said “various civilian areas” in eastern Afghanistan had been hit, including a religious madrassa and several homes. The ministry said the strikes were a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of which Pakistan blames on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
