Putin opponent Navalny posts photo from hospital, plans to return to Russia

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny shared a photograph from a Berlin hospital on Tuesday, sitting up in bed and surrounded by his family, and said he could now breathe independently after being poisoned in Siberia last month.

The photo - the strongest evidence yet of Navalny’s advancing recovery after emerging from a coma last week - was swiftly followed by confirmation from his press spokeswoman that he planned to return to Russia.

“Hi, this is Navalny. I miss you all,” he wrote in the caption to his Instagram followers. “I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breathe all day on my own. Actually on my own.”

The leading opponent of President Vladimir Putin, fell violently sick while campaigning on Aug. 20 and was airlifted to Berlin. Germany says laboratory tests in three countries have determined he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, and Western governments have demanded an explanation from Russia.

Moscow has called the accusations groundless. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated on Tuesday that Moscow was open to clearing up what happened to Navalny, but needed access to information on his case from Berlin.

He said Moscow did not understand why, if French and Swedish laboratories had been able to test his medical samples, Russia was not being given the same access.

The case has further strained relations between Russia and the West, already at a post-Cold War low since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the attempted poisoning of a former Russian double agent with the same Novichok nerve agent in England in 2018.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced calls to punish Russia by suspending work on Nord Stream 2, a nearly completed pipeline bringing gas from Russia to Germany.

‘NO OTHER OPTIONS’

The photograph showed Navalny looking towards the camera, with his wife Yulia supporting him with her arms and their two children looking on.

The New York Times on Tuesday quoted a German security official as saying Navalny had spoken to a German prosecutor about the incident and said he planned to return to Russia as soon as he recovered.

Confirming the report, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter: “No other options were ever considered.”

Asked for comment, Peskov said: “Any citizen of the Russian Federation is free to leave Russia and return to Russia. If a citizen of the Russian Federation recovers his health, then of course everyone will be happy about that.”

The Kremlin has for years regarded Navalny with contempt. In a rare departure from his normal practice of referring to “the Berlin patient”, Peskov spoke the opposition leader’s name on Tuesday.

Navalny, 44, has not been allowed to form a political party but has riled Putin for the past decade with detailed campaigns exposing official corruption, bypassing the state-controlled media by using Instagram and YouTube.

In his social media post, he even attempted a flash of humour, saying that breathing naturally was “an amazing process, underestimated by many. I’d recommend it.”

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Putin opponent Navalny posts photo from hospital, plans to return to Russia

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny shared a photograph from a Berlin hospital on Tuesday, sitting up in bed and surrounded by his family, and said he could now breathe independently after being poisoned in Siberia last month.

The photo - the strongest evidence yet of Navalny’s advancing recovery after emerging from a coma last week - was swiftly followed by confirmation from his press spokeswoman that he planned to return to Russia.

“Hi, this is Navalny. I miss you all,” he wrote in the caption to his Instagram followers. “I can still hardly do anything, but yesterday I could breathe all day on my own. Actually on my own.”

The leading opponent of President Vladimir Putin, fell violently sick while campaigning on Aug. 20 and was airlifted to Berlin. Germany says laboratory tests in three countries have determined he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, and Western governments have demanded an explanation from Russia.

Moscow has called the accusations groundless. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated on Tuesday that Moscow was open to clearing up what happened to Navalny, but needed access to information on his case from Berlin.

He said Moscow did not understand why, if French and Swedish laboratories had been able to test his medical samples, Russia was not being given the same access.

The case has further strained relations between Russia and the West, already at a post-Cold War low since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the attempted poisoning of a former Russian double agent with the same Novichok nerve agent in England in 2018.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced calls to punish Russia by suspending work on Nord Stream 2, a nearly completed pipeline bringing gas from Russia to Germany.

‘NO OTHER OPTIONS’

The photograph showed Navalny looking towards the camera, with his wife Yulia supporting him with her arms and their two children looking on.

The New York Times on Tuesday quoted a German security official as saying Navalny had spoken to a German prosecutor about the incident and said he planned to return to Russia as soon as he recovered.

Confirming the report, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh wrote on Twitter: “No other options were ever considered.”

Asked for comment, Peskov said: “Any citizen of the Russian Federation is free to leave Russia and return to Russia. If a citizen of the Russian Federation recovers his health, then of course everyone will be happy about that.”

The Kremlin has for years regarded Navalny with contempt. In a rare departure from his normal practice of referring to “the Berlin patient”, Peskov spoke the opposition leader’s name on Tuesday.

Navalny, 44, has not been allowed to form a political party but has riled Putin for the past decade with detailed campaigns exposing official corruption, bypassing the state-controlled media by using Instagram and YouTube.

In his social media post, he even attempted a flash of humour, saying that breathing naturally was “an amazing process, underestimated by many. I’d recommend it.”

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Two KDA officials dead after shooting incident at Karachi's Civic Centre: police

A shooting incident on Tuesday at a Karachi Development Authority (KDA) office in Civic Centre left two dead and one injured, police said.

As news of the incident broke, KDA officials put the toll at three injured; two were later reported to have succumbed to their wounds.

The deceased, both employed by the authority, were identified as Assistant Director Wasim Raza and Assistant Director Wasim Usmani. The wounded was said to be Superintendent Abdul Hafeez.

A contingent of Rangers Sindh also reached the site.

According to a preliminary investigation by the police, the incident took place in Usmani's office.

"There were six people in the room before the incident," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sajid Saduzai said.

These were identified as Wasim Usmani, Wasim Raza, Abdul Hafeez, Imran Shah, Faisal and Miraj.

Imran Shah is in police custody and his statement has been recorded. He said he is an office superintendent with the KDA. He, along with Faisal and Miraj were sent out of the room.

Shah told the police that a minute-and-a-half to two minutes after they exited the room, gunshots were heard.

"When we went back into the room, we found all three of them lying in pools of blood," Imran said.

He told police that a pistol was lying near Abdul Hafeez. The pistol has been admitted into evidence by police.

SSP Saduzai said that the police is "fairly certain" that the incident is a result of enmity between the three.

"Whether the dispute pertained to money, land, or something else, remains to be ascertained and is being probed," he said.

Abdul Hafeez's condition is stable and his statement will also be taken, the SSP added.

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UAE, Bahrain sign normalization deals with Israel at White House

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sign controversial normalization agreements with Israel at the White House amid outrage across Palestine and elsewhere throughout the Muslim world at the Arab regimes’ sheer betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

The deals were signed between Emirati and Bahraini Foreign Ministers, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. US President Donald Trump also penned his blessing into the accords.

With the US-brokered deals, the UAE and Bahrain have become only the third and fourth Arab states to ever normalize their relations with Israel after Egypt and Jordan.

At the White House, US President Donald Trump claimed “five or six” more Arab countries were poised to agree to normalize relations with Israel.

 Read more: Bahrain follows Emirates in normalizing ties with Israel ...

"We’re very far down the road with about five countries, five additional countries,” Trump said as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Emirati and Bahraini Foreign Ministers, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani.

With Trump facing a tough re-election on November 3, the back-to-back agreements could help bolster his electoral appeal to pro-Israel Christian evangelical voters in the US, an important chunk of his political base.

Taking the podium after Trump, Netanyahu thanked the US president for “unequivocally” standing by Israel’s side since taking office.

Trump and Netanyahu called the deals historic, with the former alleging that they "mark the dawn of a new Middle East."

The White House ceremony also helps distract from Netanyahu’s domestic grievances — the worst economic downturn in 45 years, a coronavirus crisis that has prompted the second general lockdown, and his own trial on corruption charges.

Hours before the signing ceremony, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash claimed that the deal with Israel had come after “we broke the psychological barrier” of establishing ties with Tel Aviv.

Also read: UAE-Israel agreement total departure from Arab consensus: Palestinian PM ...

The agreement, he added, will help the UAE and bring results “that we want to see,” calling it “the way forward for the region.”

The normalization trend has, however, been uniformly panned by all Palestinian people and factions as well as the Bahraini public that have been holding daily rallies since its inception.

Throughout the day, the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank witnessed raucous rallies against the deals, and passionate denunciation speeches and statements by Palestinian leaders and Muslim authorities worldwide.

A protest was also held in Washington to lambaste the the agreements.

In London, protesters amassed in front of the Bahraini Embassy waiving Palestinian flags and staging a mockery of the signing ceremony by dressing up as American, Israeli, Emirati, and Bahraini officials.

 ‘Palestine factions standing united’

Ahead of the signing ceremony, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas’ Political Bureau, talked to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas over the phone about the matter.

He said Palestinian groups would not allow “the Palestinian cause to turn into a bridge enabling normalization of relations with the occupying regime.”

Hamas and Fatah, the party leading the PA, “are in the same front,” Haniyeh added, hailing a recent plenary meeting of all Palestinian factions in the Lebanese capital Beirut that sought to sew up their rifts.

“The message of this meeting is unity, steadfastness, and opposition to all plots and attempts at destroying the Palestinian cause,” he said.

With Trump facing a tough re-election on November 3, the back-to-back agreements could help bolster his electoral appeal to pro-Israel Christian evangelical voters in the US, an important chunk of his political base.

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British Airways to operate direct flights from Lahore starting Oct 14

British Airways has announced it is starting direct flights from Lahore, to operate four days a week, from October 14.

Sharing the announcement British High Commissioner Christian Turner said the development is "another sign of deepening ties and opportunity for business, people-to-people links and tourism".

According to the press release by high commission, Lahore will be "the second city in Pakistan that British Airways will connect to London, US and Canada".

The airline already operates a direct flight to Islamabad.

"Flights will be operated by a Boeing 787-8 departing from Heathrow Terminal 5, landing into Lahore’s International Airport," read the statement.

Moran Birger, Head of Sales for The Middle East and Asia Pacific, said: "We are delighted to start direct flights four times a week from Lahore to London offering convenient travel options for customers flying for leisure or business.

"Our new services from Lahore will connect two of Pakistan’s biggest cities with London, and offer seamless transfer options to Manchester, the United States and Canada.

"Following the relaunch of services from Islamabad to Heathrow earlier this year, this new flight from Lahore represents our continued investment in Pakistan, and we look forward to welcoming our customers on board."

British Airways announced in 2019 that it would resume direct flights to Pakistan, after a break of 10 years.

After coronavirus restrictions were eased, the first flight took off from Islamabad for London on August 14.

COVID-19 protocols

The airline has detailed COVID-19 protocols to be followed at all times by passengers.

"In response to COVID-19, British Airways has introduced a range of measures to keep its customers safe. Prior to travel, they will receive information on changes at their airport and onboard experience and tips on how to prepare for their journey," said the statement.

Customers will also be asked to help manage the wellness of everyone travelling by:

- Checking-in online, downloading their boarding pass and where possible self-scanning their boarding passes at the departure gate.

- Observing social distancing and using hand sanitisers that are placed throughout airports.

- Using new contactless, automated features at our lounges, including a new online food and drink service.

- Wearing a facemask at all times and bringing enough to replace them every four hours for longer flights.

- Ensuring they have everything they need from their hand luggage before departure, and where possible, storing their carry-on bag under the seat in front of them.

- Not travelling if they think they have any symptoms of COVID-19.

According to British Airways, its cabin crew "will wear PPE and a new food service has been introduced which reduces the number of interactions required with customers".

The airline has assured customers that all surfaces, including seats, entertainment screens, seat buckles and food trays "will be cleaned after every flight and each aircraft is completely cleaned from nose to tail every day".

"The air on all British Airways flights is fully recycled once every two to three minutes through HEPA filters, which remove microscopic bacteria and virus clusters with over 99.9% efficiency, equivalent to hospital operating theatre standards," according to the statement.

 

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Two KDA officials dead after shooting incident at Karachi's Civic Centre: police

A shooting incident on Tuesday at a Karachi Development Authority (KDA) office in Civic Centre left two dead and one injured, police said.

As news of the incident broke, KDA officials put the toll at three injured; two were later reported to have succumbed to their wounds.

The deceased, both employed by the authority, were identified as Assistant Director Wasim Raza and Assistant Director Wasim Usmani. The wounded was said to be Superintendent Abdul Hafeez.

A contingent of Rangers Sindh also reached the site.

According to a preliminary investigation by the police, the incident took place in Usmani's office.

"There were six people in the room before the incident," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sajid Saduzai said.

These were identified as Wasim Usmani, Wasim Raza, Abdul Hafeez, Imran Shah, Faisal and Miraj.

Imran Shah is in police custody and his statement has been recorded. He said he is an office superintendent with the KDA. He, along with Faisal and Miraj were sent out of the room.

Shah told the police that a minute-and-a-half to two minutes after they exited the room, gunshots were heard.

"When we went back into the room, we found all three of them lying in pools of blood," Imran said.

He told police that a pistol was lying near Abdul Hafeez. The pistol has been admitted into evidence by police.

SSP Saduzai said that the police is "fairly certain" that the incident is a result of enmity between the three.

"Whether the dispute pertained to money, land, or something else, remains to be ascertained and is being probed," he said.

Abdul Hafeez's condition is stable and his statement will also be taken, the SSP added.

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India's objections to Pakistan's new map played down in SCO meeting: Yusuf

Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security Mooed Yusuf said Tuesday that India had raised its concerns in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) national security advisors' meeting on Pakistan's new political map and demanded that it not be displayed during his speech.

Yusuf said that Pakistan had responded in writing to India's objections, making it clear that the map was the country's right and that it was according to the United Nations' laws on Kashmir.

Yusuf said that Russia 'backed' Pakistan's stance and none of the countries participating in the conference objected to it.

Yusuf was representing Pakistan in the conference, a week after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had represented Pakistan in the organisation's foreign ministers' meeting.

"My Indian counterpart [Ajit Doval] had boycotted Pakistan's speech during the meeting," he siad, adding that Doval also attended the Russian advisor's speech for nearly 5 minutes.

Keeping in mind the United Nations' principles, we presented our point of view and raised the issue of Kashmir, he said.

"We stressed that Pakistan wishes to give a corridor to the world and believes in connectivity," said Yusuf.

The PM's advisor, earlier in a series of tweets, said that he was honoured to represent Pakistan at the SCO NSAs dialogue.

"I highlighted Pakistan’s continued commitment to peace in the region. Pakistan is committed to working with SCO member states to achieve peace and stability, economic security, and connectivity," he said.

Yusuf highlighted that unilateral and illegal actions in an internationally recognised disputed territory of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir were a threat to regional peace and prosperity.

"I also apprised counterparts of Pakistan's deep commitment to peace in Afghanistan through an Afghan-led and owned peace process," he said.

Speaking on Afghanistan's peace process, he said that a peaceful and stable Kabul was important for peace, stability, and connectivity in the region and beyond.

“Pakistan has long held that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and that a negotiated political settlement is the only way forward,” he said.

Afghan stakeholders should seize this historic opportunity and work together to secure an inclusive, broad-based, and comprehensive political settlement, he said.

Yusuf assured that Pakistan would continue to play the role of a facilitator in the peace process and that the Afghan alone have the authority to decide on the future of their country.

“No outside actor should be seen as the guarantor of peace in that country. The process must be Afghan-owned and Afghan-led,” he stressed.

Dr Yusuf highlighted that Pakistan contributed the "most" towards peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.

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