Day: June 18, 2023

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned” a terror attack Saturday on a school in the Mpondwe region of Uganda.

“Those responsible for this terrible incident must be brought to justice,’ said UN Deputy Secretary-General spokesperson Farhan Haq, about the attack by the Democratic Alliance Forces (ADF) rebel group on the Uganda-Congo border.

He cited news of the attack that indicated many were killed and abducted — most of them students.

Haq said Guterres conveyed his condolences to the relatives of those who were killed, the government and people of Uganda.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Taliban administration declared Saturday that the day the last US soldier left Afghanistan will be a national holiday.

The decision taken by the Council of Ministers was announced in a statement by the administration office of the Taliban interim government.

It was announced that Aug. 31, the day when US forces completely withdrew from Afghanistan, was declared a national holiday.

With inconclusive negotiations between the government and the Taliban, conflicts between the parties intensified in the summer of 2021, and the Taliban began to take control of the cities one by one.

In parallel, foreign powers within NATO had accelerated the withdrawal of their troops.

Thus, the US invasion of Afghanistan, which started Oct. 7, 2001, ended with the withdrawal of the last US soldier Aug. 31, 2021.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The HIV virus, which causes AIDS, was treated with stem cell transplantation in a study on primates in the US, according to a report in SciTech Daily.

Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University studied HIV-carrying macaques, which are often used in AIDS research because they show HIV susceptibility.

Four out of eight HIV-carrying macaques received stem cell transplants from healthy donors.

Two out of four, which developed graft versus host disease (GVHD) after transplantation and were treated for it, were HIV-negative four years after treatment.

Noting that HIV in the treated macaque group was first cleared from the blood and then the lymph nodes, researchers think in people who showed signs of recovery after cell transplant treatment, the disease relapsed when HIV accumulated in the lymph nodes entered the circulation.

“Our research results show the importance of linking macaque studies with human research for answers that might not otherwise be available,” said Richard Maziarz, co-author of the study.

In the future, researchers plan to detect the molecules attacked by the immune systems of the two macaques they have successfully treated.

The study could pave the way for a definitive cure for AIDS, which affects nearly 38 million people worldwide.

The results of the research were published in the journal, Immunity.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Georgian Foreign Minister Illia Darchiashvili congratulated Hakan Fidan on his appointment as Trkiye’s foreign minister, according to a statement.

Fidan and Darchiashvili spoke on the telephone, it said.

Fidan was appointed top diplomat by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 3 following elections in Trkiye in late May. He previously served as the chief of the National Intelligence Organization from 2010 until his appointment to the Cabinet.

He took charge of the Foreign Ministry from his predecessor Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Red Bull Racing driver and Formula One’s back-to-back champion Max Verstappen secured the pole position for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Dutch racer Verstappen beat his opponents Saturday in the third qualifying session, which was held in wet conditions, with a time of a minute and 25.858 seconds to guarantee the lead spot in Montreal.

Haas team’s Nico Hulkenberg of Germany was 1.2 seconds behind Verstappen to start second in the race.

Aston Martin’s experienced racer Fernando Alonso from Spain was third in the qualifying session.

The Canadian Grand Prix, the ninth round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, will be run over 70 laps at Montreal’s 4.361-kilometer (2.7-mile) Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

The race will start at 1800GMT.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A plane left the Houthi-run Sanaa airport in Yemen on Saturday headed toward Saudi Arabia carrying Yemeni pilgrims, marking the first flight between the two countries in seven years.

A source at the airport told Anadolu that a flight from Yemen Airways took off for the coastal city of Jeddah.

“This is the first commercial flight from Sanaa airport to Saudi Arabia directly since its closure in 2016,” said the source, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said Thursday that it will facilitate the arrival of Yemeni pilgrims via the Sanaa airport.

The Hajj, the pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba in Mecca, is one of the five pillars of Islam. Muslims are required to perform it at least once if they have the means.

Since 2016, the coalition imposed a blockade on the Sanaa airport as part of its campaign against the Houthi group. The airport, however, started to operate flights in 2022 toward the Jordanian capital of Amman.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. The situation escalated when a Saudi-led military coalition entered the war in 2015 to reverse Houthi military gains and reinstate the Yemeni government.

War-torn Yemen, however, is witnessing a state of deescalation after nine years of fighting amid efforts by the UN to settle the conflict.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group agreed to a 3-day cease-fire starting on Sunday.

The cease-fire brokered by Saudi and US mediators started at 6:00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT).

‘The parties agreed that during the cease-fire they will refrain from prohibited movements, attacks, use of military aircraft or drones, artillery strikes, reinforcement of positions and resupply of forces, and will refrain from seeking military advantage during the cease-fire,’ Saudi Arabia and the United States said in a joint statement.

‘They also agreed to allow the unimpeded movement and delivery of humanitarian assistance throughout the country,’ they added.

Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the army and the RSF since April. Nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the violence, according to local medics.The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 2.2 million people have been displaced by the current conflict.

The statement called on Sudan’s warring rivals ‘to consider the immense suffering of the Sudanese people and to adhere fully to this cease-fire and cease the severity of violence.’

‘Should the parties fail to observe the 72-hour cease-fire, facilitators will be compelled to consider adjourning the Jeddah talks,’ the statement warned.

Previous cease-fire agreements between Sudan’s warring parties were repeatedly violated with the two sides blaming each other for violations.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the RSF about the integration of the paramilitary group into the armed forces — a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since the fall of 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency, in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”

The transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Qatar and Egypt sent humanitarian aid to Sudan amid ongoing clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary force, according to media reports Saturday.

A plane loaded with food was sent to those affected by the conflict in cooperation with the Qatar Development Fund, according to the Qatari News Agency citing the Qatar Charity Agency.

The aid consisted of basic food supplies and 35 tons of food aid was distributed to those in need.

Also, an Egyptian supply ship loaded with hundreds of tons of aid materials arrived in Sudan, the Egyptian army said in a statement.

The aid was provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Defense and Social Solidarity, Egyptian Red Crescent and the Egyptian Zakat and Charity House, it said.

Many Arab countries, including Egypt and Qatar, had previously sent aid to conflict-ridden Sudan.

Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the army and the RSF since April. Nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the violence, according to local medics.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 2.2 million people have been displaced by the current conflict.

The UN warned Wednesday that escalating attacks in Darfur could amount to ‘crimes against humanity.’

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the RSF about the integration of the paramilitary group into the armed forces — a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since the fall of 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency, in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”

The transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

Source: Anadolu Agency