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Pakistan says traces of explosives detected in bus blast probe

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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi listens during a meeting in Manila, Philippines January 16, 2021. Francis Malasig/Pool via REUTERS

  • Beijing initially termed blast an attack
  • Islamabad termed it a mechanical failure
  • Blast killed 13, including nine Chinese

ISLAMABAD/BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) – Pakistan said on Thursday traces of explosives had been detected during an initial investigation into a bus blast that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, and said a terrorist attack could not be ruled out as the cause of the incident.

Wednesday’s blast in northwest Pakistan sent the bus hurtling over a ravine. Beijing initially said it was a bomb attack but later backed away from the assertion and said it would send a team to help investigate. read more

Pakistan originally blamed a mechanical failure, but on Thursday Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted: “Initial investigations… have now confirmed traces of explosives. Terrorism cannot be ruled out.”

China is a close ally and major investor in Pakistan, and various anti-Pakistani government militants have in the past attacked Chinese projects.

The Chinese workers killed on the bus were employed at the Dasu hydroelectric project, part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment plan aiming to link western China to the southern Pakistani port of Gwadar.

CPEC is part of Beijing’s massive Belt and Road Initiative.

Chaudhry said Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally supervising all developments in the matter.

“In this regard government is in close coordination with Chinese embassy, we are committed to fight menace of terrorism together,” Chaudhry added in his tweet.

‘LESSONS’

Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular briefing earlier on Thursday that China would cooperate closely with Pakistan in the investigation.

On Wednesday, Zhao had called the blast a “bomb attack” but Pakistan said a mechanical failure caused a gas leak that led to the explosion.

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday and urged Pakistan to investigate the blast but he stopped short of calling it an attack, the Chinese foreign ministry said on its website.

However, Wang told Qureshi that if it was indeed an attack, Pakistan should immediately arrest the culprits and punish them severely.

Wang, who is China’s State Councillor and foreign minister, said “lessons should be learned” and both sides should strengthen security measures for China-Pakistan cooperation projects to ensure their safe and smooth operation.

Wang and Qureshi spoke in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, on the sidelines of a foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Cate Cadell
Editing by Robert Birsel and Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Lithuania toughens Belarus border with razor wire to bar migrants

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VILNIUS, July 9 (Reuters) – Lithuania began building a 550-km (320-mile) razor wire barrier on its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union.

The government said the military-style wire coil would cost 4.9 million euros ($5.81 million) to put up and run along most of the frontier, which passes over sparsely populated areas and large stretches of forest and marsh.

At a later date the barrier will be reinforced with a two metre (6.5 ft) high border fence topped by razor wire, costing an additional 41 million euros, the interior ministry said.

Hundreds of migrants have crossed from Belarus in recent days, most of them Iraqi citizens, Lithuania has said.

Belarus in May decided to allow migrants to enter Lithuania in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the bloc after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil and arrested a dissident blogger who was on board.

“If someone thinks we will close our border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine and will become a holding site for those running from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Tunis and further down Africa – if someone thinks so, he is misguided, to say the least”, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.

Belarus is guarding the border now only as much as it is “profitable” to it, and as much as it can financially, the president said.

Lithuania responded on Wednesday by announcing it would put up the frontier barrier and deploy troops to prevent migrants crossing illegally into its territory. read more

Coils of razor wire lie on the ground on the border with Belarus in Druskininkai, Lithuania July 9, 2021. REUTERS/Janis Laizans

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In a related move, Lithuania’s parliament will meet on Tuesday to urgently pass legislation streamlining asylum application reviews, including shortening their initial review to no more than 10 days, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said.

All people who crossed the border illegally would be kept locked up, the draft law says, meaning an end to occasional short trips outside detention that are currently permitted.

Just over 1,500 people crossed the frontier illegally from Belarus this year, with 900 of them coming over in the first nine days of July.

The first stretch of the new barrier, to be completed on Friday, will run 500 metres (1,640 feet) in length and measure 1.8 metres (six feet) in height, the army defence chief’s spokeswoman Ruta Montvile told Reuters.

Simonyte told the national broadcaster she did not expect the migrant flow from Belarus to subside on its own.

“As the Belarus regime is making money from these people for visa charges and, I think, gets other income from them as well – it would be difficult to expect any positive trend without additional means of impact”, she said.

Simonyte said on Wednesday Belarus had been offering migrants flights to Minsk, citing documents found on at least one migrant who had reached Lithuania. read more She said the main airport from where people flew into Belarus was Baghdad, and her foreign minister said people also came Turkey.

The Lithuanian-Belarus border is 679-km (420-mile) long. About 78 km (48 miles) was fenced in preceeding years, and about 258 km (160 miles) are monitored electronically, according to the interior ministry.

($1 = 0.8433 euros)

Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius
Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Nine found dead in Swedish airplane crash -police

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STOCKHOLM, July 8 (Reuters) – All nine people onboard were found dead in the crash of an airplane outside Orebro, Sweden, on Thursday, Swedish police said.

“It’s a very severe accident,” Swedish police said on their website. “Everyone on board the crashed plane has died.”

Police said the plane, a DHC-2 Turbo Beaver, was carrying eight skydivers and one pilot. It crashed close to the runway at Orebro airport shortly after takeoff and caught fire at impact.

“It is with great sadness and sorrow that I have received the tragic information about the plane crash in Orebro,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven wrote on Twitter. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families and loved ones in this very difficult time.”

In a similar accident, nine people died in northern Sweden in 2019 when a plane carrying skydivers crashed shortly after takeoff. The crash investigation showed the plane had been improperly loaded.

Reporting by Johan Ahlander
Editing by Howard Goller and Chris Reese

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World

EXCLUSIVE New Saudi airline plan takes aim at Emirates, Qatar Airways

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DUBAI, July 2 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia plans to target international transit passenger traffic with its new national airline, going head-to-head with Gulf giants Emirates and Qatar Airways and opening up a new front in simmering regional competition.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is pushing economic diversification to wean Saudi Arabia off oil revenues and create jobs, announced a transportation and logistics drive on Tuesday aimed at making the kingdom the fifth-biggest air transit hub.

Two people familiar with the matter said the new airline would boost international routes and echo existing Gulf carriers by carrying people from one country to another via connections in the kingdom, known in the industry as sixth-freedom traffic.

The transport ministry, which has not released details of the plans, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The strategy marks a shift for Saudi Arabia whose other airlines, like state-owned Saudia and its low cost subsidiary flyadeal, mostly operate domestic services and point-to-point flights to and from the country of 35 million people.

The Saudi expansion threatens to sharpen a battle for passengers at a time when travel has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Long-haul flights like those operated by Emirates and Qatar Airways are forecast to take the longest to recover.

Riyadh has already moved to compete with the UAE, the region’s business, trade and tourism hub. The Saudi government has said that from 2024 it would stop giving contracts to firms that do not set up regional headquarters in the kingdom.

“Commercial competition in the aviation industry has always been fierce, and regional competition is heating up. Some turbulence in regional relations is on the horizon,” said Robert Mogielnicki, resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute.

Dubai, the world’s largest international air travel hub, has announced a five-year plan to grow air and shipping routes by 50% and double tourism capacity over the next two decades.

Riyadh has already moved to compete with the UAE, the region’s business, trade and tourism hub. The Saudi government has said that starting 2024 it would stop giving contracts to firms that do not set up regional headquarters in the kingdom.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a session of the Shura Council in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 20, 2019. Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS

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Prince Mohammed is trying to lure foreign capital to create new industries including tourism, with ambitions to increase overall visitors to 100 million by 2030 from 40 million in 2019.

“Saudi Arabia has the ability to push forward with its aviation and tourism strategy when others will be retreating and retracting,” aviation consultant Brendan Sobie said.

“It is a risky strategy, but also sensible given its position and overall diversification objective.”

TOURISM PUSH

However, any airline requires substantial start-up capital and experts warn that if Saudi Arabia’s ambition is to compete on transit flights it may have to contend with years of losses.

Saudi Arabia’s large population generates direct traffic that could cushion losses as a new airline targets international transit traffic, aviation consultant John Strickland said.

Emirates reported a record $5.5 billion annual loss last month with the pandemic forcing Dubai to step in with $3.1 billion in state support.

Etihad Airways has scaled back its ambitions after it spent billions of dollars to ultimately unsuccessfully compete in building a major hub in United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.

People familiar with the matter said the new airline could be based in the capital Riyadh, and that sovereign wealth fund PIF is helping set it up.

PIF did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia is developing non-religious tourism with mega projects backed by PIF. It has launched social reforms to open up the country, the birthplace of Islam, including allowing public entertainment.

Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Tim Hepher and Alexander Smith

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World

Saudi Arabia plans new national airline as it diversifies from oil

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CAIRO, June 29 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans on Tuesday to launch a second national airline as part of a broader strategy to turn the kingdom into a global logistics hub as it seeks to diversify from oil.

The creation of another flag carrier would catapult Saudi Arabia into the 5th rank globally in terms of air transit traffic, official state media reported, without giving details on when and how the airline would be created.

Prince Mohammad has been spearheading a push for Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy and the largest country in the Gulf geographically, to boost non-oil revenues to about 45 billion riyals ($12.00 billion) by 2030.

Making the kingdom a global logistics hub, which includes the development of ports, rail and road networks, would increase the transport and logistics sector’s contribution to gross domestic product to 10% from 6%, state news agency SPA said.

“The comprehensive strategy aims to position Saudi Arabia as a global logistics hub connecting the three continents,” Prince Mohammed was quoted as saying in the SPA report.

“This will help other sectors like tourism, haj and umrah to achieve their national targets.”

The addition of another airline would increase the number of international destinations from Saudi Arabia to more than 250 and double air cargo capacity to more than 4.5 million tonnes, the SPA report said.

With current flag bearer Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the kingdom has one of the smallest airline networks in the region relative to its size. Saudia has struggled with losses for years and like global peers, has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Local media reported earlier this year that the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, (PIF), planned to build a new airport in Riyadh as part of the new airline launch, without giving further details.

The fund is the main vehicle for boosting Saudi Arabian investments at home and abroad as the young prince, known in the West as MbS, seeks to diversify the kingdom’s oil-heavy economy through his Vision 2030 strategy.

($1 = 3.7503 riyals)

Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Alaa Swilam; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous and Marwa Rashad; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall, Marguerita Choy and Jane Wardell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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