UK paves road for Pakistan travel

 

ISLAMABAD.: 

More than six months after British Airways resumed operations to Pakistan, the United Kingdom on Friday relaxed its travel advisory for the country in a major step welcomed by Islamabad as “great news”.

The UK changed its travel advice for Pakistan in almost five years, allowing its citizens to travel by road to the north of Pakistan as well as the scenic Kalash and Bamboret valleys, the UK High Commission in Islamabad said on Friday.

The first major update of the travel advice by Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) since 2015 is the result of a comprehensive review of Pakistan’s security situation based on a wide-ranging assessment of the country’s security situation.

Pakistan has made tremendous strides towards bettering the internal security situation. In June, British Airways resumed operations to Pakistan after 11 years of suspension, when the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner touched down at Islamabad International Airport.

Climate change in focus as royal couple visits Chitral

In October, Pakistan rolled out red carpet for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as the royal couple undertook an array of engagements over five days, which took them as far as Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

A statement issued by the British High Commission on Friday mentioned the return of British Airways to Pakistan and the visit by Prince William and his wife Catherine, as major milestones in the “improved security situation” in Pakistan.

“The improved security situation allowed for the return of British Airways to Pakistan in June 2019 and the visit by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in October 2019,” it said. “Among other changes, the advice now allows for travel by road to the North of Pakistan as well as the Kalash and Bamboret Valleys,” the high commission said.

The announcement follows the arrival of Dr Christian Turner, as the new high commissioner to Pakistan. “Following my arrival in December 2019, I made this review of the travel advice a priority,” the statement quoted Turner as saying.

“It is great credit to the hard work of the Government of Pakistan in delivering improved security over the past five years. I am delighted that British nationals will be able to see more of what Pakistan has to offer,” he added.

Previously, Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice put travel restriction on the full route from Islamabad to Gilgit.

However, Friday’s update reduces the restriction on section of the Karakoram Highway between Mansehra and Chilas alone. “Travellers may bypass this section by taking the alternative route through the Kaghan Valley and Babusar Pass,” it said.

The FCO advised against all travel to most of Balochistan, including Quetta. “This is except for the southern coast of Balochistan, including the city of Gwadar, where the FCO advises against all but essential travel,” it added.

‘Great news’

Friday’s announcement was warmly welcomed by the Pakistani leadership, who described it as a major step towards the government’s efforts to boost tourism, attract foreign investment and further strengthen relations with the UK.

“This is great news as it will address two most important economic issues facing Pakistan today: employment & our current account deficit, by bringing in tourism & investment which in turn will provide employment opportunities especially for our youth,” Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also lauded the announcement. “This change in travel advice is encouraging … [and] will further strengthen Pakistan-UK relations,” he wrote in a tweet.

“Pakistan; land of peace and progress with incredible natural beauty, warmth & hospitality. This change in travel advice is encouraging, the first major update to the UK’s travel advisory to Pakistan since 2015. This will further strengthen Pakistan-UK relations. Welcome to Pakistan.”

Earlier, Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said in a statement that the government and the people of Pakistan welcomed the FCO’s announcement of relaxing its travel advice for the British nationals for Pakistan.

“A positive step forward, forging even stronger and closer people-to-people links between Pakistan and the UK,” she said on Twitter. “Look forward to welcoming more tourists, investors, academics and other visitors from the UK.”

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan in a meeting with High Commissioner Turner, termed the British government’s decision “vital” step towards boosting tourism activities in Pakistan.

“Pakistan is now open to the world, with peaceful and welcoming environment,” she said during the meeting. High Commissioner Turner said the travel advisory revision would pave the way for enhanced travel and connectivity between the two countries.

“I have been to the UNESCO sites and amazed to see the tourism potential of Pakistan,” Turner said, adding the credit went to the government of Pakistan under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan for ensuring better security conditions in the country.

The FCO provides travel advice based on objective information to help British nationals make better informed decisions about foreign travel. In 2018, there were an estimated 484,000 visits by British nationals to Pakistan. There are 22 weekly direct flights to the UK.

US unveils latest sanctions targeting Russia

 

Washington (CNN)The United States on Wednesday unveiled its latest round of sanctions going after Russia over its war on Ukraine, this time targeting a key commercial bank and "a global network of more than 40 individuals and entities led by U.S.-designated Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev."

In a news release, the US Treasury Department said it was also targeting "companies operating in Russia's virtual currency mining industry, reportedly the third largest in the world," noting it was the first time it has "designated a virtual currency mining company."

In addition, the State Department is imposing a slew of visa restrictions in response to the Russian war and for "undermining democracy in Belarus."

Wednesday's actions are the latest by the Biden administration meant to punish the Kremlin and its enablers for invading Ukraine at the end of February. The war has taken the lives of hundreds of service members and civilians, and US and European officials say it could last months. Experts who spoke with CNN have said that sanctions are unlikely to immediately deter Russian President Vladimir Putin against pursuing aggression in Ukraine.

Wednesday's sanctions

The US previously sanctioned Malofeyev in December 2014 for funding "separatist activities in eastern Ukraine" and for his close links to "Aleksandr Borodai, Igor Girkin (a.k.a. Igot Strelkov), and the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, which have all been previously sanctioned as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs)," according to a Treasury release from the time.

Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice unveiled its first criminal charges since Russia's war in Ukraine began against Malofeyev, indicting him for sanctions evasion attempts.

Malofeyev was again sanctioned by the US on Wednesday "for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly," the government of Russia. The Treasury Department also sanctioned members of Malofeyev's "vast global network of cut-outs and proxies to attempt to evade sanctions and conduct malign influence activities," including those involved in pro-Kremlin propaganda. Those sanctioned include entities in Russia, Moldova, Singapore, and a number of Russian individuals, inclding Malofeyev's son.

The Treasury Department also went after "Public Joint Stock Company Transplantation (TKB)" for being "at the heart of sanctions evasion" and its subsidiary, as well as companies in Russia's virtual currency mining industry.

The United States is committed to ensuring that no asset, no matter how complex, becomes a mechanism for the Putin regime to offset the impact of sanctions," the release issued Wednesday said.

In a separate statement Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department is imposing visa restrictions on 635 Russian individuals, including members of the Russian Duma and "ten purported 'authorities' of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic."

It is also imposing visa restrictions on Russian officials Khusein Merlovich Khutaev, Nurid Denilbekovich Salamov, and Dzhabrail Alkhazurovich Akhmatov, "for their involvement in a gross violation of human rights perpetrated against human rights defender Oyub Titiev."

Additionally, the State Department is targeting "17 individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Belarus" with visa restrictions, Blinken said.

"We will use every tool to promote accountability for human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine," Blinken said.

Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Europe Center, said Wednesday said these sanctions "are really meaningful," noting the US keeps "adding different Russian oligarchs, different Russian banks that perhaps weren't in the first few rounds of sanctions."

"They'll continue to cripple the Russian economy even though Putin continues to paint a rosy picture of what the Russian economy looks like," she said. "There's no doubt that it should see a major contraction in the next year."

What comes next?

Rizzo told CNN that the US could recognize Russia as state sponsors of terrorism -- a process underway at the State Department. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted in an interview with SABC News Wednesday that actions against Russia "will certainly increase, should that state sponsorship go through."

There is also the potential of a total ban on Russian energy. Inaction in this space is a major pitfall because Russia's revenue from its global oil and gas sales is keeping its economy afloat and allowing the Kremlin to finance the Ukraine War, some sanctions experts have argued.

The Biden administration has banned Russian energy imports by the US, but it has not imposed sanctions on countries that still import Russian energy or moved to prevent the Russian energy revenue from being funneled into the Ukraine war.

"Russia's oil and gas sales have not been impeded all that much by sanctions so Russia is still making about a billion dollars a day selling energy around the world," said Edward Fishman, another senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "It continues to generate significant new revenues every day, which gives Russia a pretty significant financial runway. They can continue funding the war and they can continue funding government budgets."

The US has applied strict energy sanctions to one country in the recent past: Iran. Experts say that using the Iran oil sanctions as a model could be effective because it wouldn't send sudden shock waves through the global economy, particularly in European countries that are currently reliant on Russian oil.

"If you were to use the Iran sanctions as a model, the US policy of trying to reduce Iran's oil exports over time, so it didn't go from 100% to 0%. It was phased in. So it's certainly plausible that you could have a similar phase-in, probably over a longer time period, of forcing the world to cut down on Russian energy," said Christopher Miller, assistant professor of international history at Tufts.

"I don't think we should treat it as a light-switch-on, light-switch-off type of question, because there are intermediate steps along the way that that you can move towards that would limit the impact on the oil market, and make the cost something that Western leaders be willing to bear."

The Biden administration is working with countries that are still reliant on Russian energy to develop alternatives, administration officials say. They make the case that they are managing this effort in a way that works for European allies -- without sanctioning close partners who have been effective in rolling out sanctions on Russia.

There have been commitments from European countries to phase out Russian energy. The EU proposed a ban on Russian coal by August and Germany plans to phase out oil imports by the end of the year.

But other experts note that the shift by European countries may not come quickly enough if their feet are not held to the fire.

"Germany banning imports by year end provides a lot of time for Russia to adjust and find other buyers -- such as China and India -- who are not planning to cut oil imports from Russia," Miller said.

Sanctions experts also say that there is more runway when it comes to a few different areas such as non-financial Russian firms.

Overall, there are signals the Russian economy is already hurting because of the sanctions. The chairwoman of the Russian central bank warned lawmakers in recent days that sanctions "will now begin to increasingly affect the real sectors of the economy" and noted that "practically every product" manufactured in Russia relies on imported components, according to the White House.

However, there is a sense among experts that Putin will not immediately change his behavior due to sanctions.

"As the Russian economy shrinks because of these (sanctions), Putin will have fewer resources at his disposal to use to wage the war in Ukraine, and the hope is that that pushes him toward a certain behavior down the line. However, I don't think that these sanctions will have an immediate effect," Rizzo said.

Three years after going missing, US teen found shivering outside service station 1100km away

 

Authorities in the US state of Utah had been hearing about a young man wandering the area with a shopping cart for several weeks.

When they encountered him last Saturday, they discovered he was reported missing nearly three years ago in northern California, more than 1100km away.

Sheriff's deputies responded to a gas station on the morning of April 9 in the greater Park City area in Summit County after a "concerned community member" reported seeing the man sleeping there, the Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.

The area is about a 40-minute drive from Salt Lake City.

Deputies offered the man to sit inside one of their vehicles to warm up and began researching who he was.

"Through past interactions and the Saturday interaction, it was clear to deputies that the man communicated differently," the sheriff's office said, and also included an autism awareness hashtag on its Facebook post.

A dispatcher began looking through pages on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website, and more than a dozen pages in, came across a missing poster for Connerjack Oswalt.

Bodycam footage provided by the sheriff's office shows the day deputies encountered Oswalt at the gas station.

Oswalt, now 19, had been reported missing in September 2019 from Clearlake, California, northwest of Sacramento and roughly an 11.5-hour drive from Summit County.

Authorities believed it was the same person they had found shivering at the gas station.

"Deputies began making phone calls and were able to make contact with Connerjack's mother," Summit County Sheriff's Lt. Andrew Wright told CNN in an email.

His mother told authorities Oswalt had a distinctive birthmark on his neck.

Deputies found the mark on Oswalt, Wright said.

Though authorities had previous interactions with Oswalt prior to that day, he had not shared who he was and police "didn't have reason to demand his information because he wasn't violating the law," Wright said

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Nigeria's Chibok girls: Why was this former captive treated differently?

In our series of letters from African journalists, to mark eight years since the Chibok school abductions, Nigerian journalist and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani speaks to a rescued girl who has been treated very differently to her former classmates who were freed earlier.

Short presentational grey line

Hassana Adamu is delighted to be back home with her family almost eight years after she was kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists from her school in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Chibok, but she is distressed that she is not receiving the same special treatment as her classmates who were freed long before her.

"I want the government to assist me with good things," she told me. "I want to go back to school and to have a better life."

Ms Adamu, then 18, was among the more than 200 girls stolen from their school dormitory in the middle of the night on 14 April 2014. She and two of her former classmates were finally reunited with their families in January, bringing the total number of girls freed so far to more than 100.

Between 2016 and 2018, three Chibok girls were found or rescued in the Sambisa forest hideout of Boko Haram by the Nigerian military, while 103 were freed following negotiations between the Nigerian government and the militants.

Their return home was followed by global fanfare. International media scrambled to capture their stories and snapshots. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari invited them to meet him in the capital city, Abuja, with state governors and other top government officials in attendance.

For the next several months, the girls were kept in government accommodation at a ministry of women affairs facility in Abuja, where they were put through a government-sponsored rehabilitation programme that included medical and psychological care.

They were fed three square meals a day and provided free clothes and gadgets such as laptops and phones. They received visits from international dignitaries, such as Nobel-Prize winning Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by Taliban militants for going to school in 2012.

Thereafter, they were sent to begin a specially designed programme at the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, north-eastern Nigeria, on full government scholarships. More than four years later, the government is still sponsoring the Chibok girls who have chosen to remain at the AUN.

'Is it because I'm married?'

"The girls in the school are the ones who told me how the government is taking care of them," said Ms Adamu, who has reconnected with her former classmates by phone since regaining her freedom. "They told me how they stayed in Abuja before they were sent to school."

"Is it because we stayed so long or because we were already married? Maybe that is why the government does not want to take care of us," she added.

Ms Adamu got "married" to a Boko Haram fighter about two years into her captivity - many of the girls felt they had little choice - and her so-called husband is among the many militants that have surrendered to the Nigerian government in the past year, following intensified anti-terror operations by the military. The Nigerian military stated that 7,000 jihadists surrendered during one week in March alone.

Ms Adamu and her "husband" spent about five months in Maidugiri, the Borno state capital, in separate sections of a camp for repentant Boko Haram fighters and their wives. Afterwards, she and her two children were sent home to her parents in Chibok while the man returned to his family in the north-eastern border town of Banki.

"It was not a real marriage," she said. "I want a better life for myself and my children. I am never going back to him."

Two other Chibok girls, Ruth Ngaladar and Halima Ali Maiyanga, also parted ways with their husbands.

"They were released with children and sent home with nothing," said Yakubu Nkeki, the chairman of the missing girls' parents association. "These three girls, they are suffering a lot."

Mr Nkeki worries that the government's apparent loss of interest in the Chibok girls could mean that the 109 still missing may never be reunited with their families, even if they are or can be rescued.

The Minister for Women's Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, told me that President Buhari had not yet had the chance to meet the three recently freed Chibok girls, but would happily do so when the opportunity arose.

Some of the stolen students have contacted their parents to say that they are in government camps in Maidugiri, he added, while some others have phoned their families from remote towns. In the past, such information would have led to frenzied activity by the government to find and display them to the world.

Once upon a time, the Chibok girls were victims of a most shocking and unusual incident - children stolen from inside the four walls of their school.

"About five of the girls are calling their parents from the Sambisa [forest]. They say that they are on top of the Gwoza mountain," Mr Nkeki said.

"About five are with the state government. The girls are calling us. One of the girls called her parents during our meeting and he left it on speaker for us to hear what she is saying. We don't know if the government knows that they are Chibok girls."

The rise of school kidnappings

Whether or not the government is aware of their origin may not make much of a difference. Once upon a time, the Chibok girls were victims of a most shocking and unusual incident - children stolen from inside the four walls of their school. But in the past two years, Nigeria has experienced a spate of school kidnappings carried out by armed gangs known in local parlance as bandits.

At least 1,409 students were kidnapped from their schools in northern Nigeria in the 19 months between March 2020 and September 2021, according to Nigerian intelligence platform SBM, and at least 220 million naira ($530,000; £410,000) paid out as ransoms.

While the Nigerian government reportedly paid 3 million euro ($3.3m; £2.4m) to Boko Haram as ransom for the Chibok girls freed in negotiations, the recent school kidnappings have seen little government involvement, with the parents and relatives left to pay the amounts demanded by the bandits for their children's release.

Nevertheless, Ms Adamu believes that she is entitled to the same opportunities as her classmates. If nothing else, she wants to be included in the scholarship scheme at the AUN.

"It worries me so much because we started the suffering together but the other girls have become like American people while I am at home taking care of babies," she said.

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Media Roundtable: USA ToDay's investigation into nursing home failures during COVID-19

 

on this edition of Media Roundtable, we talk about a USA TODAY deep analysis of More than 15,000 nursing homes to see how they performed during a winter surge of COVID infections & Deaths that started in late 2020.

The Investigation has traced the casualties back to one nursing home chain, Trilogy

Health Servies, owned by a real estate venture with a new business plan for the cutthoat world of eldercare.

The Investigation; This nursing home chain stood out for nationally high death rates as pandemic peaked 

Residents at Trilogy's 115 campuses died of COVID-19 last winter at twice the national average for nursing home, USA TODAY found, based on figures facilities must file weekly with the federal government..

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India Also Has Concerns About Human Rights in US: Jaishankar

 The external affairs minister alluded to attacks on Indians in America and Indian-origin Americans, days after US secretary of state Antony Blinken said his country was monitoring a rise in human rights abuses in India.

New Delhi: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar said on Wednesday that New Delhi also has concerns about human rights in the US, alluding to attacks on Indians in America and Indian-origin Americans.

The external affairs minister’s statement comes after US secretary of state Anthony Blinken said his country was monitoring “a rise in human rights abuses in India by some officials”. He said this at a joint news conference on Monday, after the 2+2 dialogue was addressed by Blinken, Jaishankar, defence minister Rajnath Singh and US defence secretary Lloyd Austin.

According to news agency PTI, Jaishankar said, “Look, people are entitled to have views about us. But we are also equally entitled to have views about their views and about the interests, and the lobbies and the vote banks which drive that. So, whenever there is a discussion, I can tell you that we will not be reticent about speaking out.”

“I would tell you that we also take our views on other people’s human rights situation, including that of the United States. So, we take up human rights issues when they arise in this country, especially when they pertain to our community. And in fact, we had a case yesterday…that’s really where we stand on that,” he said.

On Tuesday, two Sikh men were attacked and robbed in Queens in New York City. Just a few days ago, an elderly Sikh man was also assaulted in New York.

Speaking to the press, Jaishankar said that human rights were not a topic of discussion during the India US 2+2 ministerial meeting this week.

Speaking to the press, Jaishankar said that human rights were not a topic of discussion during the India US 2+2 ministerial meeting this week.

“On the human rights issue; no, we did not discuss human rights during this meeting. This meeting was primarily focused on political-military affairs,” Jaishankar told reporters as he concluded his trip here, which was primarily to attend the India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue.

Responding to a question, Jaishankar said while the issue of human rights was not discussed during the current meeting, it has come up in the past.

“It is a subject which has come up in the past. It came up when secretary Blinken came to India. I think if you recall the press briefings after that I was very open about the fact that we had discussed it and said what I had to say,” he said.

“So let me put it to you this way so that there’s clarity about where we stand on this matter,” he added.

In a separate development, the US state department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the India section of which said:

“Despite government efforts to address abuses and corruption, a lack of accountability for official misconduct persisted at all levels of government, contributing to widespread impunity. Investigations and prosecutions of individual cases took place, but lax enforcement, a shortage of trained police officers, and an overburdened and underresourced court system contributed to a low number of convictions.” 

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