Foreign News
North Korea plans to launch satellite by June 4: Japan
North Korea has notified Japan of plans to launch a satellite between May 27 and June 4, after putting its first spy satellite into orbit at the third attempt last November.
The Japanese Coastguard said the eight-day launch window began at midnight on Sunday into Monday, with North Korea detailing three maritime danger zones near the Korean Peninsula and the Philippines island of Luzon where the satellite-carrying rocket’s debris might fall.
The notice came ahead of the first trilateral summit between Japan, South Korea and China in nearly five years.
Officials from the United States, Japan and South Korea held phone discussions after the notice was issued and urged Pyongyang to suspend the plan as a satellite launch using ballistic missile technology would be in violation of United Nations resolutions, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Nuclear-armed North Korea placed its first spy satellite in orbit in November, following two unsuccessful attempts, in a move that drew widespread condemnation.
The US called the launch, which came two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia and promised technical assistance to the isolated country, a “brazen violation” of UN sanctions.
Kim Jong Un said at the end of last year that Pyongyang would launch three more military spy satellites this year, as he continues a military modernisation programme that saw a record number of weapons tests in 2023.
Experts say that spy satellites could improve Pyongyang’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.
Seoul said on Friday that South Korean and US intelligence were “closely monitoring and tracking” presumed preparations for the launch of another military reconnaissance satellite.
The suspected preparations were detected in North Korea’s Tongchang-ri, in Cholsan County, where the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground is based and where the previous launches took place.
Seoul has said that North Korea received technical help from Russia for that satellite launch, in return for sending Moscow weapons for use in its war in Ukaraine.
(Aljazeera)
Seven students and a teacher have been killed in Bangladesh after a landslide hit a girls’ school inside a refugee camp
The Islamic study centre in the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar was buried by mud and debris on Wednesday afternoon, sparking frantic search and rescue efforts. It is unclear how many people were inside the school.
The country has been battered by monsoon rains since Sunday, with several deadly landslides reported in Cox’s Bazar.
More than one million Rohingya people live there in what is the world’s largest refugee settlement, having fled a deadly military crackdown in Myanmar.
Rescuers pulled 13 people from the mud that engulfed their school hut, eight of whom died, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said.
“Some of them are seven, eight, 11 or 12 years old,” Panna Akhter, a local district officer, told BBC Bangla.
The other five children were taken to hospital for treatment.
Earlier, officials said other landslides had killed at least eight Rohingya refugees, including five children, since Sunday.
Thousands of Rohingya, one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities, were killed and more than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during an army crackdown in Myanmar in 2017
The group, which is primarily Muslim, are denied citizenship by the government of Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country.
Many face poor living conditions in Bangladesh, living in makeshift homes of tarpaulin and bamboo on steep hillsides.
More rain is forecast for the coming days, with authorities issuing warnings for more landslides and floods, and evacuating families in high risk areas.
(BBC)
Pakistan is searching for a Boeing cargo aircraft missing over the Arabian Sea with five crew members on board.
The Karachi-bound 737-400 plane operated by a Pakistani carrier took off from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and lost contact with air traffic control about 9:18pm (16:18 GMT) on Tuesday after reporting a navigational system fault, the Pakistan Airports Authority said.
Minutes later, data from Flightradar24, a global flight-tracking service, showed the plane losing nearly 1,525 metres (5,000ft) of altitude in less than a minute before climbing about 1,830 metres (6,000ft) in the next 30 seconds. It then entered a final, near-vertical descent from a height of 11,140 metres (36,550ft).
Its last transmitted position placed it at 335 metres (1,100ft), descending at 22,400 feet per minute, or about 400 kilometres per hour. All contact was lost about 155 nautical miles (287km or 178 miles) west of Karachi.
Security sources told Al Jazeera a Pakistani navy ship, a merchant vessel operated by the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and two navy aircraft are taking part in the search.
No wreckage or survivors have been found so far.
“We continue to pray, earnestly, for the safety of our colleagues,” K2 Airways, the Karachi-based private cargo airline that operated the flight, said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that it was fully cooperating with authorities on the search.
It was the only plane in the K2 Airways fleet.
If a crash is confirmed, the incident would mark Pakistan’s first major civilian air disaster since May 2020 when a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed short of the runway in Karachi, killing 97 of the 99 people on board.
The 27-year-old K2 Airways’ 737-400 has flown for six operators.
Delivered to Russia’s Aeroflot as a passenger aircraft in 1999, it later flew for Garuda Indonesia before being converted into a freighter in 2012 for Belgium’s TNT Airways.
Aircraft tracking records show it was withdrawn from service in June 2023 and parked in France for about 10 months.
Irish company AerCap reactivated the aircraft in April 2024 before placing it back into storage, first in Jakarta and later in Karachi, where it remained for nearly six months before entering service with K2 Airways in December 2024.
In a statement, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the incident and offered his sympathies to the families of the missing crew members.
(Aljazeera)
The woman suspected of carrying out a parcel bombing in Monaco which injured a sanctioned Ukrainian multi-millionaire and his family has been found dead, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has said.
A cross-border manhunt had been launched for Anastasiia Berezovska, a Ukrainian woman who officials believed had fled the wealthy city-state after planting the bomb in the entrance hall of an apartment building on 29 June.
The 39-year-old’s body was found with gunshot wounds to the head, according to the SBU.
Two people including a current officer within Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) have been detained on suspicion of murder.
Berezovska arrived in Ukraine two days after the attack on 1 July, the SBU said in its statement, citing law enforcement sources.
There, she communicated with her family and two men – a former law enforcement officer and a current officer in the MoD’s main intelligence directorate.
The two men were investigated as possible accomplices in the Monaco attack based on information that they “repeatedly transferred funds” to Berezovska’s “crypto and bank accounts”.
The intelligence officer subsequently confessed to Berezovska’s murder and said he had done so with “another suspect”, the agency said.
It continued: “During the search of the former law enforcement officer’s home, a basement room resembling a torture chamber was found.
“Both suspects were detained on suspicion of committing murder with premeditation by a group of individuals.”
An investigation is ongoing with the “personal assistance” of the head of the intelligence directorate Oleg Ivashchenko.
Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond said Berezovska had spent days casing out the residence and was “disguised as a man” during the attack last Monday.
Three people were injured, two of them seriously, when a package exploded just as they entered the building shortly after 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
Berezovska was believed to have fled in a hire car to Italy and onwards to Germany – where special forces searched an apartment rented by a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman “currently on the run” in the central state of Hesse on Thursday, police said.
The SBU said Ukrainian authorities had shared all available information with officials in Monaco, with who its prosecutor general was in “close co-operation”.
Law enforcement authorities were working to identify “other suspects” in the attack, it added.
Authorities in Monaco have not confirmed the victims’ identities, but local media reported Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and his 13-year-old son had been targeted.
Yermolaiev, a real estate developer, was named the 39th richest Ukrainian by Forbes magazine in 2020 with a reported fortune of $230m (£173.8m).
He has major interests are in wine and alcohol in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and has been the subject of sanctions imposed by the government in Kyiv since 2023.
He is a Cypriot citizen, having renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019, and has been living in Monaco.
Several spells of showers will occur in the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts
Prison officers urge Justice Minister to protect their colleague who opened fire
Negombo Prison riot: Ensuring protection of prisoners fundamental responsibility of the state – UN
Govt. considers banning or restricting social media for children under 16: PM
Brandix donates vital ECG machine to Mirigama Base Hospital Emergency Care Unit
High-scoring draw gives West Indies rare series win
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News4 days agoSingapore-based Buddhist monk marks nearly four decades of humanitarian service
-
News6 days agoCIABOC to question Harak Kata on Rs. 200 mn bribery allegation
-
News5 days agoFreedom 250: US Embassy celebrates America’s 250th Independence Day through magic of American cinema
-
News6 days agoSLAF conducts successful rescue mission under UN command in Central African Republic
-
News3 days agoAI concerned over proposed SL military deployment in Haiti
-
Business6 days ago‘Dialog Air Fibre powers a new era of Ultra Fast Home WiFi’
-
News6 days agoUNEP support pledged to strengthen Sri Lanka’s Environmental Priorities
-
Midweek Review1 day agoUnexpected focus on ‘pieces of tin’ worn by military men