At least 49 people were killed and hundreds wounded Wednesday when a massive truck bomb ripped through Kabul’s diplomatic quarter, shattering the morning rush hour and bringing carnage to the streets of the Afghan capital.
Bodies littered the scene and a towering plume of smoke rose from the area, which houses foreign embassies, after the blast blew out the windows in several missions and residences hundreds of metres away.
Witnesses described dozens of cars choking the roads as wounded survivors and panicked schoolgirls sought safety, with men and women struggling to get through security checkpoints to search for loved ones.
It was not immediately clear what the target was. But the attack underscores spiralling insecurity in Afghanistan, where a military beset by soaring casualties and desertions is struggling to beat back the insurgents. Over a third of the country is outside government control.
More than an hour after the explosion, ambulances were still taking the wounded to hospital as firefighters struggled to control blazes in several buildings.
Health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh said at least 49 people had been killed and 320 wounded, with the figures confirmed by a second health official and the government media office.
Authorities warned the toll could yet rise. “They are still bringing bodies and wounded people to hospitals,” senior health ministry spokesman Ismael Kawoosi told AFP.
The interior ministry was calling on Kabul residents to donate blood, saying hospitals were in “dire need”.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack came as the resurgent Taliban step up their annual “spring offensive”.
The Islamic State group has also claimed responsibility for several recent bombings in the Afghan capital, including a powerful blast targeting an armoured NATO convoy that killed at least eight people and wounded 28 on May 3.
Najib Danish, an interior ministry spokesman, said initial findings showed it had been a truck bomb.
Indian, Japanese embassies damaged
Manpreet Vohra, India’s envoy to Afghanistan, told the Times Now television channel the bomb went off around 100 metres from India’s embassy, one of several in the area.
“We are all safe, all our staff, all our personnel are safe. However, the blast was very large and nearby buildings including our own building have considerable damage in terms of broken glass and shattered windows and blown doors etc,” he said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “We strongly condemn the terrorist blast in Kabul. Our thoughts are with the families of the deceased & prayers with the injured.”
The explosion also shattered windows at the Japanese embassy. “Two Japanese embassy staffers were mildly injured, suffering cuts,” a foreign ministry official in Tokyo told AFP.
France also reported damage to its own embassy and the German one.
Pentagon chief Jim Mattis has warned of “another tough year” for both foreign troops and local forces in Afghanistan.
Afghan troops are backed by US and NATO forces, and the Pentagon has reportedly asked the White House to send thousands more troops to the country to break the deadlock in the fight against the Taliban.
Gunmen dressed as medics attack Afghan military hospital
US troops in Afghanistan number about 8,400 today, and there are another 5,000 from NATO allies. They mainly serve in an advisory capacity — a far cry from the US presence of more than 100,000 six years ago.
The blast was the latest in a long line of attacks in Kabul. The province surrounding the capital had the highest number of casualties in the first three months of 2017 due to multiple attacks in the city, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.
SINGAPORE — The 21km-long Downtown Line 3 (DTL3) will begin operations on Oct 21, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced on Wednesday (May 31).
With its opening, commuters can travel from the north-western and eastern areas of the island to the Central Business District and Marina Bay. For instance, commuters will be able to travel from Bukit Panjang station to Expo in approximately 1 hour 10 minutes.
DTL3 comprises 16 stations: Fort Canning, Bencoolen, Jalan Besar, Bendeemer, Geylang Bahru, Mattar, MacPherson, Ubi, Kaki Bukit, Bedok North, Bedok Reservoir, Tampines West, Tampines, Tampines East, Upper Changi and Expo stations.
Of these, three are interchange stations that will link up to the CCL and East-West Line (EWL). The MacPherson interchange station links the DTL3 to the CCL, while Tampines and Expo stations link to the EWL.
The first 10 stations from Fort Canning to Bedok North have obtained their Temporary Occupation Permit status, while final fitting-out works are currently in progress at the last six stations.
DTL3 is the longest stretch of the line to be completed, and with it, DTL will be the longest underground and driverless MRT line in Singapore at 42km long, surpassing the 35.7km-long Circle Line (CCL).
The Upper Changi station is the longest station on the DTL3 at 205m. It has four entrances and comprises three levels — concourse, intermediate and platform.
DTL1, with six stations from Chinatown to Bugis, opened on Dec 22, 2013, and DTL2, with 12 stations from Bukit Panjang to Rochor, opened on Dec 27, 2015.
A DTL3 extension from Expo to Sungei Bedok will open in 2024. This extension will have three stations: Expo, Xilin and Sungei Bedok.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry “intentionally dropped” mentioning that four more launchers had been deployed for the controversial US THAAD anti-missile system in a report to President Moon Jae-in’s top aides, his office said on Wednesday.
Moon has ordered a probe at the defence ministry, saying it was “very shocking” the launchers had been brought in without being reported to the new government or to the public, presidential Blue House spokesman Yoon Young-chan said on Tuesday.
The Defence Ministry intentionally omitted details about the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system battery (THAAD) in a report last week, when the new government was preparing for Moon’s summit with US President Donald Trump next month, Yoon told a briefing.
“The Blue House has confirmed that the Defence Ministry has intentionally dropped the introduction of four more launchers in its report,” Yoon said.
Moon took office on May 10 without a transition period because a snap presidential election was held just two months after his predecessor, Park Geun-hye, was ousted in a corruption scandal. Moon inherited his defence minister along with the rest of his cabinet from the previous administration.
The THAAD battery was initially deployed in March in the southeastern region of Seongju with just two of its maximum load of six launchers to counter a growing North Korean missile threat.
An earlier version of the defence ministry report specified the total number of launchers being prepared for deployment and the name of the US military base where the four were being kept, but the reference was removed in the final version delivered to the Blue House, Yoon said.
The Pentagon said it had been “very transparent” with South Korea’s government about THAAD deployment.
US MISSILE DEFENSE TEST
During his successful presidential campaign, Moon called for a parliamentary review of the THAAD system, the deployment of which has infuriated China, North Korea’s lone major ally. Moon had also called for more engagement and dialogue with Pyongyang.
But North Korea has conducted three ballistic missile tests since Moon took office, maintaining its accelerated pace of missile and nuclear-related activities since the beginning of last year in defiance of UN sanctions.
In Washington, the US military said on Tuesday it had staged a successful, first-ever missile defence test involving a simulated attack by an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“The intercept of a complex, threat-representative ICBM target is an incredible accomplishment … a critical milestone for this programme,” Vice Admiral Jim Syring, the director of the Missile Defence Agency, said in a statement.
Moon’s order of a probe over the THAAD deployment came amid signs of easing tensions between South Korea and China, a major trading partner.
China had been incensed over the THAAD deployment, saying it would do little to deter the missile threat from North Korea while allowing the US military to use its radar to look deep into its territory and at its own missile systems.
Beijing is also troubled by the possibility the THAAD system would open the door to a wider deployment the US missile defence systems, possibly in Japan and elsewhere, military analysts say.
South Korean companies have faced product boycotts and bans on Chinese tourists visiting South Korea, although China has denied discriminating against them.
Republicans and Democrats agree: Kathy Griffin did something disgusting.
Griffin – who you might know from, um, Suddenly Susan and reality shows I guess?- posed in a blue dress with the fake, decapitated head of Donald Trump in a photo.
It’s gross. Seriously, if you’re eating something right now, look away. OK, here’s the photo, via TMZ:
There are plenty of other tweets, too, but it’s a toxic cesspool that pretty much boils down to “SEE THIS IS LIBERAL HATE” and “TRUMP SUPPORTERS BASICALLY DID THE SAME THING TO OBAMA.”
UNITED States President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw his country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has left some of the remaining 11-member states scrambling to push on with the deal, despite America’s absence.
But as these 11 signatories work on possibly salvaging the agreement – they’ve given themselves until November to decide – questions have been raised on the viability of keeping the deal alive.
Among others, some have asked why the TPP remains a talking point when the world’s biggest economy has pulled out and why the world has heard so much more about the TPP than any other trade agreement.
Stephen Olson, a Research Fellow at the Hong Kong-based Hinrich Foundation, an organisation that focuses on research on international trade, said there were two reasons for this.
Firstly, he said, the TPP was widely seen as the “gold standard” of trade agreements, being the first such deal in the 21st century that addresses new economy issues missing from previous agreements, such as the digital economy, state-owned enterprises, and the environment, among others.
“I would quibble with that and say the agreement that was exactly reached fell far short of those goals, but it was at least positioned as the first 21st century trade agreement.”
Next, Olson said the TPP received wide coverage because of its strong geostrategic overtones – it was clearly intended as the economic component of the Obama Administration’s “Pivot to Asia”.
He said it was also meant to signal to allies that after a decade of wars and misadventures in the Middle East, the US was turning its attention back to East Asia. In addition to that, the US was using the TPP to flex its muscles at Beijing, sending a “not-so-subtle” signal to the rising Asian powerhouse that it would not likely be ceding its influence in the region.
However, Olson said, that the accord in its original form would stumble the way it has was inevitable.
“Although it was President Trump who pulled the US out of the TPP, let’s keep in mind the political context. Trump was really just firing a couple of bullets into a corpse,” Olsen told a group of foreign journalists, including this writer, last week.
He pointed out that even Trump’s presidential opponent Hilary Clinton had indicated her opposition to the deal, which was nowhere near achieving the congressional support it needed to take off.
The trade analyst was speaking at the KPMG conference room in Hong Kong, one of five scheduled city stops made by the delegation participating in the East-West Center’s Jefferson Fellowship 2017 programme. The three-week course to study Trump-era trade, security and strategic relationships in the Asia Pacific also took the journalists to Honolulu, Tokyo, Beijing, Shenzen, and Manila.
Potential paths forward
On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Hanoi, Vietnam, last month, the TPP’s original members looked bullish on proceeding with the deal sans US.
The hope was, more or less, to proceed with the TPP as it is, with as minimal as possible modification to the original agreement.
However, Olsen said the way it is currently constituted, the TPP cannot go into effect with the US.
In its current form, the deal requires ratification by countries accounting for at least 85 percent of the 12 members’ combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And because the US had accounted for at least 60 percent of the combined GDP, its withdrawal effectively prevented the deal from going into effect, at least, as is.
“It’s not a matter of keeping the agreement as is by scratching the name of the US out of it and passing the agreement – it requires at least that minor modification so it can go into effect,” Olsen said.
“If that holds together and that proves to be viable, that would be the quickest, simplest and easiest to get the agreement through.”
Stephen Olson, a Research Fellow at the Hong Kong-based Hinrich Foundation, speaks to reporters on the Jefferson Fellowship 2017 programme on May 24.
Chief negotiators of the 11 remaining TPP members are expected to meet in Japan next month to discuss the future of the trade deal without the US. The Tokyo-hosted talks will be followed by the November APEC forum gathering in Vietnam, when the deal may, or may not, be put into force.
If everything falls into place perfectly, Olsen said, TPP “minus one” should be ready to go by the end of the year.
“But then again, how many things in life often go off perfectly?” he asked. “But that’s at least the hope.”
What are the challenges?
Without the US, emerging markets like Malaysia and Vietnam, who could have been major beneficiaries under the TPP as low-cost production hubs, are said to be hesitant to proceed with the deal.
Vietnam, for example, had made some very difficult and painful concessions within the TPP, Olsen said, because it viewed that as the price necessary to get access to the US market.
“But if you pull the US out of the TPP, does it still make sense for Vietnam to stay in? Maybe it does but maybe it requires a more substantial renegotiation.
“Or maybe it would make more sense for Vietnam to walk away from the TPP and focus on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the US if the key objective was, all along, to gain access to the US market,” he said.
Malaysia, meanwhile, has said it wants a total renegotiation of the deal, given Trump’s decision to revoke US involvement due to a perceived threat to American jobs.
“One of the reasons we decided to be part of the TPP was the potential access to the American market,” Malaysian trade minister Mustapa Mohamed said in a recent interview. “And if that does not happen one of the major motivations to be part of the TPP will be removed.”
The sentiment isn’t shared by other TPP members like Japan, New Zealand and Australia, for example, who have been pushing for the deal to continue.
“Malaysia will speak for themselves,” New Zealand’s trade minister Todd McClay said last week. “Some may want to make changes, others less so. We have time and the desire to work in detail to see what it should look like. I am quite optimistic.”
Indeed these issues must be worked out come November and Olsen said member nations have the difficult task of keeping in mind the complex web of concessions and benefits made by some among them prior to the US pullout.
“When you drop the US out, for at least some countries, you’re going to have to recalculate those benefits and those concessions.”
Other scenarios
If “TPP minus one” proves too complicated, Olsen said some countries simply are not going to want to go along with it.
Rising from the ashes could be the “TPP 5”, the idea that the deal proceeds among the five nations the most enthusiastic about moving forward – Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Brunei. These countries would hope to bring the other countries in to the agreement at some point.
Olsen said the viewpoints of various countries are fluid and evolving – Japan is now a strong advocate of moving forward but in the immediate aftermath of the US dropping out, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said a TPP without the US has no meaning.
“So obviously he (Abe) had a real conversion experience and all the positions of the countries involved are emerging and evolving over time, but the five said countries appear to be the most enthuastic (in moving forward with the TPP).”
Canada and Mexico, Olsen said, both appear inclined but may be looking more towards prioritising renegotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the US. Chile and Peru, he said, appear ambivalent at this stage.
By far the most complicated scenario would be to proceed with the “TPP minus one, plus whoever”, Olsen said, referring to discussions on potentially including more countries into the deal, including China, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.
“If you do that, I would not say that you are starting from scratch, but it would require a very substantial reconfiguration of the agreement and there is no way that you’re getting that agreement done by the end of the year.”
There’s also the possibility of “organ harvesting from the corpse of the TPP”, Olsen said, with countries picking chapters from the deal and incorporating them into different trade agreements.
For example, both Robert E. Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative, and Wilbur Ross, the US Secretary of commerce, they may use TPP provisions in the renegotiated NAFTA.
Therefore, even if the TPP fails to take off, its provisions may be resurrected in other agreements, Olsen said.
Could the US rejoin the TPP?
Despite Trump’s mercurial presidency, Olsen is of the belief this isn’t likely.
Lighthizer at the Hanoi meetings recently went so far as to say the US was “done with the TPP” and that it was not moving forward on the matter. Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Tokyo similarlt said the “TPP is a thing of the past”.
However, Olsen said this could change if the Trump government continues down the track of bilateralism, and finds it difficult to gain terms as favourable as what the US received in the TPP.
“Then that would cast the TPP in a different light.”
NEW YORK – “Jagged Little Pill,” the blockbuster 1995 feminist rock album by Alanis Morissette, will take on a new form next year as a musical.
The piece will turn the album’s music into a story about “a modern and multi-generational family and their complex dynamics, touching on issues of gender identity and race,” producers said in a statement.
The “Jagged Little Pill” musical is set to open in May 2018 at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The musical will be directed by Diane Paulus, the theatre’s artistic director who led Broadway revivals of “Hair” and “Pippin,” with a script by Diablo Cody, who wrote the breakaway 2007 movie hit “Juno” about teen pregnancy.
Morissette hailed the chemistry with Paulus and Cody and called the project “my musical theatre dream come true.”
The director and writer “are already taking these deeply personal songs that are part of my soul’s marrow to a whole other level of hope, freedom and complexity,” Morissette said in a statement.
“Jagged Little Pill” was one of the seminal albums of the 1990s boom in alternative rock, with the Canadian-born singer bringing the rawness of the grunge era to a broader pop sound.
With hit songs such as “You Oughta Know,” “You Learn” and “Hand in My Pocket,” the album was considered a declaration of female empowerment as Morissette brought an assertive rock voice to tales of modern living and relationship angst.
She won the Grammy for Album of the Year for “Jagged Little Pill” when she was 21, making her the youngest artist ever at the time to win the prestigious award.
The album’s songs will be worked into stage form by Tom Kitt, who also worked on the musical adaptation of Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
The musical plans for “Jagged Little Pill” had been announced several years ago without details.
Morissette recently reappeared in the news when her former business manager was sentenced to six years in prison for stealing nearly US$5 million (S$7 million) from her.
Get up close and personal with some of your favourite superheroes at Heroes Fest, Takashimaya Square, B2 from Wed 31 May to Mon 12 Jun 2017! Plus, discover…
MARAWI CITY – Stray dogs have been feasting on bodies scattered on the streets here where Islamic State-inspired militants are holed up for a week now.
The destruction is unimaginable as mosques, houses and establishments are destroyed by the airstrikes conducted by the military.
This is how Norhidaya Imam, 20, describes what she saw in their village that has been under the control of members of the Maute terror group and Abu Sayyaf bandits.
Dead civilians
“There were many dead civilians, and the dogs were eating them,” Imam, who is staying in an evacuation centre with her 1-year-old daughter and husband in nearby Balo-i town in Lanao del Norte province, told the Inquirer.
“I saw it myself. In our village alone there were many civilians hit by bombs fired by the military,” she added.
Her husband, Bokhary, 22, said they did not bring any of their belongings when they left the city.
“And we have no reason to go back because our house was destroyed by bombs,” he said.
Retrieval of bodies
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong, the acting spokesperson for the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, said local officials received information that bodies needed to be retrieved from several areas in the city.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was concerned with the situation of civilians who were trapped in areas where fighting was continuing.
‘Very fluid’
On Tuesday, Martin Thalmann, ICRC deputy country head, said the situation in Marawi was “very fluid,” due to ongoing military operations.
“The Geneva Convention is very concerned about civilians in such conflict situation … the fighting parties need to respect civilians and not to indiscriminately bombard their areas,” Thalmann told reporters.
“We ask both sides that they [be] careful, that they respect the life of civilians and give them, if possible, time to move out of the [danger] zones,” he added.
“We met [with] the military … we have contacts with the other side as well. We reminded them of these concerns and they responded to it. We were also discussing the possibilities [of declaring ceasefire] … but the security crisis is so intense so it seems not possible,” he said.
Adiong said local officials could not assure the safety of civilians who wanted to get out of the city.
“But there are civilians who did manage to get out,” he said.
At least 65 militants, 17 soldiers, three policemen and 24 civilians died in the fighting that started last week.
Adiong said some 95,600 individuals had left Marawi, a city of more than 200,000 people. Some residents are seeking shelter in evacuation centres while others are staying with relatives outside Marawi.
SEOUL – The daughter of the woman at the centre of a corruption scandal that led to the ousting of South Korea’s president was arrested by prosecutors on a plane bound for Seoul, reports said on Wednesday (May 31).
Chung Yoo Ra, 20, was arrested immediately after boarding a Korean Air flight from Amsterdam to Incheon early Wednesday morning after being extradited from Denmark a day earlier, Yonhap news agency said citing Seoul prosecutors.
Chung is the only child of Choi Soon Sil, the close confidante of former President Park Geun Hye.
Choi – nicknamed “Rasputin” for her close influence over the then-president – is a key figure in the influence-peddling scandal that sparked huge street protests demanding Park’s ousting.
Park and Choi are already on trial for allegedly accepting or seeking millions of dollars in bribes from conglomerates including Samsung.
Chung, who was arrested by Danish police in January, dropped her appeal against extradition from Denmark, a Danish court announced last week, as Seoul wants to detain her for questioning.
The daughter is the alleged beneficiary of millions of dollars which South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung paid to finance her equestrian training and luxurious lifestyle in Europe.
A team of five officials from the prosecutors’ office was dispatched to Amsterdam to make the arrest with a pre-issued warrant, Yonhap said.
It added that the prosecutors waited until Chung boarded the Korean Air flight, since South Korea’s jurisdiction can be exercised on its national carrier.
Upon arrival at Incheon International Airport later on Wednesday, Chung is expected to make a short statement to the press and taken to the Seoul Prosecutors’ Office for questioning.
