Sayidina

NEWS

  • Turkiye’s Erdogan calls for Islamic alliance against Israel

    Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel. (AP)

    ISTANBUL — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called “the growing threat of expansionism” from Israel.

    He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    “The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state terrorism is the alliance of Islamic countries,” Erdogan said at an Islamic schools’ association event near Istanbul.

    He said recent steps that Turkiye has taken to improve ties with Egypt and Syria are aimed at “forming a line of solidarity against the growing threat of expansionism,” which he said also threatened Lebanon and Syria.

    Erdogan hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Ankara this week and they discussed the Gaza war and ways to further repair their long-frozen ties during what was the first such presidential visit in 12 years.

    Ties between them started thawing in 2020 when Turkiye began diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with estranged regional rivals, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

    Erdogan said in July that Turkiye would extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar Assad “any time” for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbors, who severed ties in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.

    Israel did not immediately comment on Erdogan’s remarks on Saturday.

    Israel’s military said after Friday’s incident that it was looking into reports that a female foreign national “was killed as a result of shots fired in the area.

    The details of the incident and the circumstances in which she was hit are under review.

    There was no immediate comment on Friday’s incident from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

    AN-REUTERS

  • Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 61 as UN pursues vaccinations

    A Palestinian boy wounded in an Israeli strike receives treatment at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (REUTERS)

    CAIRO — Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip killed at least 61 people in the space of 24 hours, local medics said on Saturday, as Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the territory.

    Eleven months into the war, numerous rounds of diplomacy have so far failed to clinch a ceasefire deal to end the conflict and bring the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza as well as many Palestinians jailed in Israel.

    An Israeli air strike in on the Halima Al-Sa’diyya school compound serving as a shelter for displaced people in the Jabalia urban refugee camp killed at least eight people and wounded 15 others, medics said.

    The Israeli military said the strike had targeted a Hamas command center inside the compound.

    It accused Hamas of repeatedly exploiting civilians and civilian infrastructure for military purposes, an allegation Hamas denies.

    Five more people were killed in a strike on a house in Gaza City.

    The armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah groups said they had fought Israeli troops in Gaza City, in central areas and in the south with anti-tank rockets and mortars, and in some incidents detonated bombs to target tanks and other army vehicles.

    The two warring sides continued to blame one another for the failure of mediators, including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, to broker a ceasefire.

    The US is preparing to present a new proposal, but the prospects of a breakthrough appear dim as gaps between the sides remain large. CIA Director William Burns, the chief US negotiator, told an event in London that a more detailed proposal would be made in the coming days.

    PAUSES IN FIGHTING LET POLIO VACCINATIONS CONTINUE

    On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was incumbent on both Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war and was responsible for the Oct. 7 killing spree against Jews in Israel that triggered it, to make concessions to reach a deal.

    On Saturday, senior Hamas official Hossam Badran said the group had made no new demands and remained committed to a July 2 proposal put forward by the United States, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attaching new conditions that would not end the war.

    Netanyahu says it was Hamas that introduced unacceptable conditions.

    Despite the deadlock, the United Nations, in collaboration with local health authorities, has pursued a campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza after its first polio case in around 25 years.

    Limited pauses in the fighting have allowed the campaign to proceed.

    UN officials said they were making progress, having reached over half of the children needing the drops in the first two stages in the southern and central Gaza Strip.

    On Sunday, the campaign will move to the northern Gaza Strip. A second round of vaccination will be required four weeks after the first.

    The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

    Israel’s subsequent assault on the enclave has killed over 40,900 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court, which Israel denies.

    AN-REUTERS

  • Super Typhoon Yagi strikes south China, leaving 4 dead, 95 injured

    A vehicle removes fallen branches on a street in Haikou, south China’s Hainan Province, Sept. 7, 2024. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

    HAIKOU — As of 3 p.m. Saturday, Super Typhoon Yagi has killed four people and injured 95 others in south China’s Hainan Province, local authorities said at a press conference on Saturday evening.

    More than 526,000 people across Hainan have been affected by the typhoon, according to the provincial emergency management department.

    Yagi, the 11th typhoon of the year, made landfall twice on Friday, first striking Hainan Province and later Guangdong Province.

    Most areas in Hainan have been affected to varying degrees, resulting in losses to infrastructure, industries and agriculture, and impacting the production and lives of residents, according to the press conference.

    So far, losses in highway facilities, water transportation, road transportation, civil aviation and ongoing transport projects across Hainan have climbed to a total of 728 million yuan (about 102.6 million U.S. dollars). Among these losses, 26 national and provincial trunk roads and 103 other highways, totaling more than 400 kilometers, have been damaged. Waterway passenger stations and equipment have suffered severe damage, while airports and key, ongoing related construction projects have also incurred losses.

    As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the provincial capital of Haikou has evacuated some 105,500 residents due to the typhoon, and over 400 houses have collapsed and more than 32,000 houses have been damaged. Over 167,800 trees in the city have been uprooted and 56,742 hectares of crops have been affected, resulting in direct economic losses of more than 26.3 billion yuan.

    Over 2,200 workers have been mobilized to restore power to more than 1.5 million affected households. By 7 a.m. Saturday, over one-fifth of affected households had been reconnected to the grid.

    Road repairs are also underway, with 51 of 89 blocked main roads now cleared. High-speed rail services circling the island are expected to resume on Saturday afternoon, while ferry services across the Qiongzhou Strait are anticipated to restart by Sunday evening.

    Haikou Meilan International Airport will remain closed until noon on Sunday due to the remnants of Typhoon Yagi. Sanya Phoenix International Airport began gradually resuming flights at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

    Rescue teams are racing to restore communication networks after more than 12,500 base stations were damaged across Hainan, with Wenchang City suffering the worst disruption to communication facilities.

    In Guangdong Province, Yagi had forced the relocation of 729,954 people by noon on Saturday, according to the provincial flood, drought and typhoon control authorities.

    Yagi has also wreaked havoc in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, forcing the evacuation of about 60,000 residents. As of 11 a.m. on Saturday, over 107,000 households remained without power.

    Heavy rains lashed over 30 townships and strong gales affected more than 110 townships in the region, with Jiao’an Township recording the highest rainfall at 140.6 millimeters.

    Authorities have issued flood alerts as water levels in several rivers continue to rise.

    On Saturday morning, China’s National Meteorological Center renewed its red alert — its highest alert level — for Yagi.

    It is expected to bring torrential rain to parts of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.

    XINHUA

  • Family demands independent probe into Israeli military killing of American-Turkish citizen

    This undated family photo provided by the International Solidarity Movement on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, shows Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle. (Courtesy of the Eygi family/International Solidarity Movement via AP)

    JERUSALEM — The family of a Turkish-American woman shot dead while demonstrating against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank demanded an independent investigation into her death on Saturday, accusing the Israeli military of killing her “violently.”

    Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was “shot in the head” while participating in a demonstration in Beita in the West Bank on Friday.

    “Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military,” Eygi’s family said in a statement.
    “A US citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter.

    “We call on President (Joe) Biden, Vice President (Kamala) Harris, and Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a US citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”

    The Israeli military said its forces “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them” during the protest.

    Eygi was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a pro-Palestinian organization, and was in Beita on Friday for a weekly demonstration against Israeli settlements, according to ISM.

    In recent years, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have frequently held weekly protests against the Eviatar settlement outpost overlooking Beita, which is backed by far-right Israeli ministers.

    During Friday’s protest, Eygi was shot in the head, according to the UN rights office and Rafidia hospital where she was pronounced dead.

    Turkiye said she was killed by “Israeli occupation soldiers,” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemning the Israeli action as “barbaric.”

    Washington called it a “tragic” event and has pressed its close ally Israel to investigate.

    But her family has demanded an independent probe.

    “Given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate,” her family said.

    Her family said Eygi always advocated “an end to the violence against the people of Palestine.”

    Israeli settlements in the West Bank — where about 490,000 people live — are illegal under international law.

    Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel which triggered the war in Gaza, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 690 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

    At least 23 Israelis, including security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, according to Israeli officials.

    AN-AFP

  • Typhoon Yagi kills 4, injures 78 in northern Vietnam

    HANOI — Typhoon Yagi made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, causing the deaths of four people and injuring 78 others, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

    The fatalities include three from the coastal province of Quang Ninh, and one from the northern province of Hai Duong. Among the injured, 58 are from Quang Ninh and 20 from the port city of Hai Phong.

    As of Saturday evening, six people and one ship in Quang Ninh were reported missing. Fourteen ships, including 13 unmanned fishing vessels and one unmanned tourist ship, were sunk by large waves and strong winds.

    During a government press briefing on Saturday afternoon, Pham Duc Luan, head of the ministry’s Dyke Management and Natural Disaster Control Department, said Typhoon Yagi “is the strongest storm to hit the northern region in the past 30 years.”

    So far, nearly 53,000 residents in vulnerable areas, particularly those living in fragile and makeshift homes near aquaculture zones, have been evacuated to safer locations, he said.

    Flash floods and landslides remained a significant risk in several northern localities, including Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Lang Son, Thai Nguyen, Cao Bang and Ha Giang.

    Natural disasters, mainly storms, landslides and floods, had left 111 people dead and missing in the Southeast Asian country since early this year until Aug. 5, the highest number reported for the same period in five years, according to the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

    XINHUA

  • Death toll in India’s Uttar Pradesh road accident rises to 17

    NEW DELHI — The death toll in road accident in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday has risen to 17, police said.

    Sixteen people injured in the accident are undergoing treatment in hospitals.

    The accident took place Friday after a state government-run passenger bus collided with a van near Hathras, about 384 km northwest of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.

    “Today two more children succumbed and with this, the death toll has risen to 17,” a senior police official said. “Yesterday 15 people, including four women, travelling in the van were killed after a bus hit it while trying to overtake it. Of the 16 injured, 11 are hospitalized in Hathras and five in Aligarh.”

    Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed district officials to extend help to the victims. He also gave instructions to provide the family of each deceased person with 2,381 U.S. dollars in financial assistance and 595 dollars to each injured in the accident.

    Deadly road accidents are common in India due to overloading, bad road conditions and reckless driving.

    Around 150,000 people are killed every year in about half a million road accidents across India, officials said.

    XINHUA

  • Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 40,939: health authorities

    GAZA — The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 40,939, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday.

    During the past 48 hours, the Israeli military killed 61 people and wounded 162 others, bringing the total death toll to 40,939 and injuries to 94,616 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out last October, it added.

    On Saturday, eight people were killed and 15 others injured in the Israeli targeting of the Halima al-Sa’diyya school in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it carried out a precise strike on militants operating inside a Hamas command and control compound embedded in the Halima al-Sa’diyya school.

    “The compound was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist operations against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the statement added.

    Israel has been waging a large-scale war on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, in response to a surprise military attack by Hamas on Israeli towns adjacent to the strip.

    XINHUA

  • Lemas jadi punca bayi lapan bulan maut – Polis

    ALOR GAJAH — Polis hari ini mengesahkan kematian bayi lelaki berusia lapan bulan di sebuah taman asuhan kanak-kanak (TASKA) di Taman Kelemak Utama di sini semalam, disebabkan lemas.

    Ketua Polis Daerah Alor Gajah, Superintendan Ashari Abu Samah, berkata pihaknya menerima laporan bedah siasat ke atas Muhammad Al Fateh Amri Mohd Fikry Amri yang dijalankan di Unit Forensik Hospital Alor Gajah, semalam.

    “Proses bedah siasat bermula pada 7.30 malam hingga 10.45 malam dan punca kematiannya disebabkan lemas.

    “Pemeriksaan mendapati tiada kesan kecederaan lain di tubuh bayi lelaki berusia lapan bulan itu,” katanya ketika dihubungi di sini, hari ini.

    Media sebelum ini melaporkan bapa mangsa, Mejar Mohd Fikry Amri Abdul Halim, 39, mendakwa bayinya disumbat botol susu, ditutup dengan kain dan ditekup dengan bantal oleh pengasuh taska terbabit.

    Tindakan pengasuh itu dilihat bapa mangsa menerusi rakaman kamera litar tertutup (CCTV) di pusat jagaan itu bersama pihak polis.

    Lebih menyedihkan, Mohd Fikry Amri memaklumkan isterinya terpaksa membawa sendiri bayi itu ke hospital dalam keadaan terkulai dan tidak sedarkan diri dengan mulut berdarah serta muka biru selepas dimaklumkan pihak TASKA.

    Susulan insiden itu, seorang pengasuh wanita direman tujuh hari bermula hari ini bagi membantu siasatan di bawah Seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan kerana membunuh.

    BH ONLINE – BERNAMA

  • Tiada bukti Dr Mashitah, suami terbabit sindiket pemerdagangan manusia – KPN

    KUALA LUMPUR — Polis tidak menemui bukti yang boleh mengaitkan bekas Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim dan suami dengan kegiatan sindiket pemerdagangan manusia di Myanmar seperti didakwa sebelum ini.

    Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain ketika mengesahkan perkara itu, berkata semakan polis mendapati tiada pelaburan dibuat beberapa individu termasuk Mashitah di luar negara yang didakwa ada kaitan dengan sindiket terbabit.

    Katanya, dapatan siasatan itu berdasarkan hasil analisis beberapa akaun bank individu yang mendapati wang dalam akaun itu adalah simpanan selain hasil rakaman percakapan ke atas 11 individu termasuk Mashitah dan suaminya.

    “Sebelum ini kita ada mengesahkan keberadaan ahli politik itu bersama suaminya serta tiga lagi individu ke Myanmar untuk urusan pelaburan hartanah namun siasatan mendapati tiada sebarang pelaburan dibuat.

    “Siasatan terhadap ahli politik dan suaminya itu tidak menjurus kepada sindiket pemerdagangan manusia di Myanmar,” katanya ketika dihubungi, semalam.

    Bagaimanapun, katanya siasatan kes itu masih diteruskan dengan fokus kepada peranan seorang ahli perniagaan bergelar Datuk Seri yang disyaki sebagai dalang dalam mengenal pasti pelabur-pelabur yang berpotensi untuk melabur di Myanmar.

    “Kita juga menyiasat peranan lelaki terbabit yang disyaki mengambil kesempatan untuk menjana keuntungan dari pelabur-pelabur yang berjaya dipujuk.

    “Ini juga bagi mengenal pasti perhubungan antara beberapa individu serta dua ahli perniagaan rakyat China,” katanya.

    Pada 28 Ogos lalu, media melaporkan seorang ahli politik yang juga bekas timbalan menteri didakwa terbabit dengan sindiket pemerdagangan manusia antarabangsa beroperasi di Myanmar sejak awal 2020.

    Sebelum itu, tular sebuah video pembongkaran sindiket di Myanmar itu menerusi YouTube yang diterbitkan di Indonesia dengan memaparkan rakyat negara itu turut menjadi mangsa pemerdagangan manusia.

    Berikutan itu, Mashitah membuat laporan polis berkaitan tuduhan berkenaan selain tampil memberi keterangan di Bukit Aman.

    BH ONLINE

  • Lelaki parah ditetak kerana cemburu

    TAIPING — Akibat cemburu, seorang lelaki parah ditetak dalam kejadian di bandar ini, malam tadi.

    Ketua Polis Daerah Taiping, Asisten Komisioner Mohamad Nasir Ismail, berkata pada jam 7.20 malam polis menerima laporan dari seorang wanita yang memaklumkan suaminya berusia 29 tahun ditetak suspek.

    Beliau berkata susulan laporan diterima, sepasukan polis dari Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah digerakkan bagi mengesan suspek.

    “Kurang 24 jam pihak polis berjaya menahan suspek berusia 25 tahun di Taiping.

    “Hasil siasatan mendapati motif kejadian berpunca dari perasaan cemburu.

    “Kes disiasat mengikut Seksyen 326 Kanun Keseksaan dan jika sabit kesalahan boleh di penjara sehingga 20 tahun dan boleh didenda dan sebat,” katanya dalam kenyataan.

    BH ONLINE