SRINAGAR: Two PhD scholars of the Department of Physics from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar have been selected for a prestigious internship at the University of Free State (UFS), South Africa for the period of one year.
Research Scholars, Irfan Ayoub and Umer Mushtaq have been selected for the position of Research Assistant at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa.
The scholars will get to work with Prof Hendrik C Swart who holds a Research Chair in Solid State Luminescent and Advanced Materials. He is an NRF B1-rated researcher and is an internationally acclaimed researcher.
The scholars will work on the synthesis and spectroscopic investigations of rare-earth, transitional metal ions doped nanomaterials, nanocomposites, and hybrid materials to achieve color-tunable emission in solid-state lighting and white light LEDs.
Director NIT, Prof Rakesh Sehgal complimented both students and their mentor Dr Vijay Kumar for bagging the prestigious internship in one of the leading institutes in South Africa and hoped that they would justify the fellowship with a quality research outcome.
“It is a proud movement for the entire Institute. Research is important and vital for any engineering institution. Without research and investigation, there will be no progress and we cannot stay relevant in a competitive market,” he said.
Registrar NIT, Prof Syed Kaiser Bukhari extended his greetings to the PhD scholars. He said this prestigious internship will provide them with exposure and would fulfill their professional aspirations.
Head Department of Physics, Dr M.A. Shah also congratulated both PhD Scholars for bagging the prestigious fellowship andf said that the opportunity will help the scholars learn new techniques for the characterization of nano phosphor materials for various applications.
Both the selected scholars at present are pursuing PhD on “Improving luminescent materials for use in flat panel displays, solar cells, solid-state lighting, dosimetry, and thermometry under the supervision of Dr. Vijay Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, NIT Srinagar.
Representatives for Mali and Turkey declined to comment on the documents.
Despite its support from the Kremlin and its ability tosecure lucrative contracts in Africa, some experts who study Wagner maintain that the U.S. and its allies have historically held far greater sway among African government officials than Prigozhin and his fighters.
“There’s no question Wagner has a strategy in Africa … to connect neighboring states under Wagner influence. Washington is trying to disrupt that for a host of reasons,” said Cameron Hudson, analyst and consultant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.“But let’s not put Wagner on par with the United States government. These are not equals — the United States doesn’t see them as equals. What we have seen is Wagner doesn’t have an ability — by itself — to create winners and losers in these countries.”
Making inroads
Wagner is helmed by Prigozhin, a former caterer for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since 2017, Prigozhin has expanded the group into an international military and influence force with tentacles that span the globe.
The organization, which has strong ties to the Russian state, including its security services, is known for its work helping prop up regimes in the Middle East, in countries such as Syria. And its forces are leading the fight in parts of Ukraine, especially in the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Russians and Ukrainian soldiers are locked in a bloody battle. Wagner is viewed by U.S. officials as having gained newfound prominence in the wake of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In recent years, Prigozhin has expanded Wagner’s operations to Africa, helping foster relationships for the Kremlin in countries such as Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad and Mali. The group’s work includes securing critical mineral and oil sites in Africa as well as protecting government officials.
Its presence in those countries has prompted senior officials in the Biden administration to draft a new road map for routing the group out of the region, the U.S. officials said.
Although Wagner has worked on the continent for years, the Biden administration is newly worried about the extent to which the group’s activities there are not only threatening regional stability but are also being used by the Kremlin as a way to develop long-term influential relationships — relationships that could potentially sideline Washington for years to come.
Washington’s stated strategy for the Sahel region, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced from Africa in 2022, lays out U.S. thinking about Russia’s influence on the continent. Without naming Wagner, the document describes how Moscow uses “private military companies” to foment “instability for strategic and financial benefit.”
POLITICO has obtained and reviewed a series of internal documents from Prigozhin’s empire that detail how the leader of Wagner has expanded the paramilitary group and his businesses across the continent, specifically in Sudan and Central African Republic.
They also mention the Democratic Republic of Congo. The documents confirm previous reporting, including by POLITICO, about Wagner’s operations in Africa. But they also provide unusual detail about the close connection between Prigozhin’s businesses, Wagner and the local African governments and militaries.
Prigozhin set up offices in Sudan in 2017 and has in recent years built out a sprawling business network in the country.
Prigozhin established his operations in Sudan by working with government officials — including former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted from power by the military in 2019 — and by securing lucrative mining contracts.
A CNN investigation last year revealed the extent to which Russia was smuggling gold out of Sudan and using Wagner to help plunder the country’s natural resources. According to the U.S. officials who spoke with POLITICO, Wagner appears to conduct much of its mining business through Meroe Gold. The U.S. and Europe have both sanctioned the entity. Meroe could not be reached for comment.
Wagner also has a history of supporting the country’s security services.
Prigozhin’s operatives in Sudan also work on disinformation and misinformation campaigns in the country to sway political events on the ground, according to documents and experts who study Wagner’s work in the country.
Several of the documents from inside Prigozhin’s business empire outline detailed media strategies to suppress protests and to pay local Sudan journalists to promote content in support of the ruling party and against the opposition of then-president Bashir. One outlines recommendations on how to manage protests that swept the country in 2018 that threatened to topple the government of Bashir. The New York Times reported on a similar memo in June 2022.
Among the suggestions included in the memo POLITICO reviewed: The creation of a Russian-run internet center that would control the narrative about the government and launch a campaign portraying protesters in a negative light. The plan also laid out plans to control the protests by blocking foreigners’ access to areas with demonstrations and infiltrating the ranks of the protest’s organizers.
Several of the documents obtained by POLITICO show the expansion of Wagner’s military activities in the country, including its connection to the country’s military. The organization has helped train soldiers over the years, the documents show.
One of the documents appears to show a request by a Prigozhin-linked business to pay for the use of the Khartoum military airbase to ensure the arrivals and departures of employees and cargo. Another memo from 2021 outlines Wagner positions in the country, including on several bases. It also lists Prigozhin employees serving in other command centers where they coordinate with the Sudanese military and police, including Aswar, a company controlled by Sudanese military intelligence. Aswar could not be reached for comment.
It is unclear whether, or the extent to which, Russia, Wagner or any of Prigozhin’s affiliate entities are currently involved in the ongoing violence in Sudan. U.S. officials did not answer questions about whether they assessed that the paramilitary group is currently providing aid or helping prop up either side of the conflict.
“The interference of external entities in Sudan’s internal conflict will only lead to more human suffering and delay the country’s transition to democracy,” a State Department official said in a statement.
Putting down roots
Wagner has also set up command centers in the Um Dafuq region of western Sudan, where it has been accused of attacking civilians. It has used the town as a base for supporting its gold-mining activities in Central African Republic.
The paramilitary organization set up shop in CAR in 2017, creating cultural centers and other local initiatives to make inroads with the government. Since then, it has moved in to protect the country’s gold mines and is training government forces, according to documents obtained by POLITICO and one of the U.S. officials.
One 11-page document POLITICO obtained from Prigozhin’s network from 2020 details Wagner’s training of government forces and its protection of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. Another lists in detail the location of Wagner fighters, including how many soldiers are stationed at each base throughout the country. Other documents in the Prigozhin tranche detail media campaigns carried out by employees of the Wagner leader — many of which were designed to spread Russian propaganda, discredit the French and organize protests against United Nations peacekeepers in the country.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The U.K conducted its last evacuation flight from Sudan on Saturday, as the U.S. and France also brought groups of foreign nationals out of the conflict-torn African country.
The moves come amid a deteriorating security situation in Sudan, as fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The British government decided to end evacuation flights “because of a decline in demand by British nationals, and because the situation on ground continues to remain volatile,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement.
“Focus will now turn to providing consular support to British nationals in Port Sudan and in neighboring countries in the region,” it said, noting that more than 1,888 people were evacuated on 21 flights during the operation.
A French plane arrived in Chad on Friday carrying staff from the United Nations and international humanitarian non-profit organizations. France has evacuated over a thousand people from Sudan since the outbreak of hostilities.
The U.S. State Department said on Saturday that a convoy of U.S. citizens, locally-employed staff and citizens of partner countries arrived in Port Sudan and that it is assisting those eligible to travel onward to Saudi Arabia.
“Intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners enabled the security conditions that have allowed the departure of thousands of foreign and U.S. citizens,” the State Department said.
“We continue,” it added, “to call on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to end the fighting that is endangering civilians.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Under a frail ceasefire, evacuations have been taking place from Sudan for diplomatic staff and citizens from around the world due to the escalating violence. Ten days of heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries, including airstrikes and artillery barrages, have killed hundreds of people, many of them civilians, and left some neighbourhoods of the capital in ruins
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Gay sex is punishable by life imprisonment in Uganda and a proposed law would impose the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’. An LGBTQ-led church held in a safe house supporting transgender people in Kampala is defying the threats and providing a space for worship for Uganda’s Christian sexual minorities
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Sudan has been gripped by intense violence after clashes broke out between the country’s military and its main paramilitary force, in fighting that threatens to destabilise the wider region. The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another. Guardian journalist Zeinab Mohammed Salih explains the origins of the conflict, and what’s next for the east African country
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
BRUSSELS — China and other powerful countries need to step up to help steer the world away from a potentially “catastrophic” hunger crisis this year, the new head of the United Nations’ World Food Programme said.
Cindy McCain, an American diplomat and the widow of the late U.S. Senator John McCain, also told POLITICO that the EU and U.S. should see world hunger as a national security issue due to its impact on migration. She furthermore accused Russia of using hunger as a “weapon of war” by hindering exports of Ukrainian grain.
McCain, formerly the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. food agencies, took the helm of the WFP on April 5 and begins her five-year term at a time of increasing world hunger. The number of people facing food insecurity around the world rose to a record 345 million at the end of last year, up from 282 million in 2021, according to the WFP’s figures, as Russia’s war in Ukraine deepened a food crisis driven by climate change, COVID-19 and other conflicts.
This year could be worse still, McCain warned, with the Horn of Africa experiencing its worst drought in 40 years and Haiti facing a sharp rise in food insecurity, among other factors. “2023 is going to be catastrophic if we don’t get to work and raise the money that we need,” she said. “We need a hell of a lot more than we used to.”
Non-Western countries, which have traditionally contributed much less to the WFP, need to step up to meet the shortfall, McCain said, pointing specifically to China and oil-rich Gulf Arab countries. China contributed just $11 million to WFP funds last year, compared to $7.2 billion donated by the U.S.
“There are some countries that have just basically not participated or participated in a very low fashion. I’d like to encourage our Middle Eastern friends to step up to the plate a little more; I’d like to encourage China to step up to the plate a little more,” said McCain. “Every region, every country needs to step up funding.”
Her entreaty may fall on deaf ears, however, given rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China. The WFP’s last six executive directors have been American, dating back to 1992, and Beijing may prefer to distribute aid through its own channels. Last summer, for example, China shipped food aid directly to the Horn of Africa following a drought there.
National security
Countries hesitant to throw more money into food aid should think about the alternative, McCain said, particularly those in Europe that are likely to bear the brunt of any new wave of migration from Africa and the Middle East.
“Food security is a national security issue,” she said. “No refugee wants to leave their home country, but they’re forced to because they don’t have enough food, and they can’t feed their families. So it comes down to if you want a stable world, food is a major player in this.”
The WFP is already having to make brutal decisions despite raking in a record $14.2 billion last year — more than double what it raised in 2017. In February, for instance, it said a funding shortfall was forcing it to cut food rations for Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh.
The problem is compounded by surging costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which sent already-high food prices soaring further, as grain and oilseed exports through Ukraine’s Black Sea ports plunged from more than 5 million metric tons a month to zero.
A U.N.-brokered deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports to pass through Russia’s blockades in the Black Sea has brought some reprieve, but Moscow’s repeated threats to withdraw from the agreement have kept prices volatile.
Moscow claims that “hidden” Western sanctions are hindering its fertilizer and foods exports and causing hunger in the Global South | Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
The deal, initially brokered in July last year, was extended for 120 days last month; Russia, however, agreed to extend its side of the Black Sea grain initiative only for 60 days. Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov threatened, once again, to halt Moscow’s participation in the initiative unless obstacles to its own fertilizer and food exports are addressed.
Moscow claims that “hidden” Western sanctions — those targeting Russia’s fertilizer oligarchs and its main agricultural bank, as well as others excluding Russian banks from the international SWIFT payments system — are hindering its fertilizer and foods exports and causing hunger in the Global South.
Ukraine and its Western allies have countered that Russia is deliberately holding up inspections for ships heading to and from its Black Sea ports, creating a backlog of Ukraine-bound vessels off the Turkish coast and inflating prices.
These delayed food cargoes are hindering the WFP’s ability to respond to humanitarian crises, said McCain, who did not hold back on the issue.
“Let’s be very clear, there are no sanctions on [Russian] fertilizer,” she said. “It is not sanctioned and never has been sanctioned.”
Russia is “using hunger as a weapon of war,” said McCain. “it’s unconscionable that a country would do that — any country, not just Russia.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Johannesburg: South Africa will appeal the decision by a court of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to decline the extradition of the Indian-origin Gupta brothers to be tried in the country for fraud and money laundering, said Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola.
Lamola made the remarks on Friday at a virtual media briefing on updates about the extradition of Rajesh and Atul Gupta, reports Xinhua news agency.
The brothers are also accused of influencing former President Jacob Zuma to appoint individuals to certain cabinet and government posts to facilitate corruption.
The extradition was denied by a UAE court on February 13, and South Africa was informed on April 5, according to the Minister.
“The reasons provided for denying our request are of a technical nature and fly in the face of the assurances given by Emirati authorities that our requests meet their requirements,” said Lamola.
“This approach is inconsistent with Article 17 of the UN Convention Against Corruption, to which both nations are a signatory. Article 17 places a clear requirement on state parties to obtain clarity on a specific matter before refusing an extradition request.”
The UAE court ruled that the arrest warrant relating to fraud was cancelled, Lamola said.
On the charge of money laundering, the UAE court ruled the crime in question was alleged to have been committed in the country and South Africa, and they have the jurisdiction to prosecute that, according to Lamola, who added that his government would appeal against the decision.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
London: Leading UK-based Indian-origin consultant cardiologist Aseem Malhotra is among a group of international experts backing an approach to the High Court of South Africa, calling for an urgent judicial review of Pfizer’s mRNA COVID vaccine products which he fears may be “harmful”.
Lawyers representing the human rights group Freedom Alliance of South Africa (FASA) say the show cause notice was filed on Monday at the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Pretoria, along with real-world data analysis, which is claimed to show an association with increasing death from both COVID and non-COVID causes in the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated.
FASA has approached the court to review and set aside the authorisation of Pfizer’s vaccine products on the basis that the authorisation was “unlawful”.
If successful, this could result in the removal of COVID mRNA vaccines from the South African market and also have global implications.
“Having critically appraised the literature and the Pfizer trial data, the evidence is unequivocal,” Malhotra said.
“For the overwhelming majority of people, the Pfizer COVID mRNA vaccine is significantly more harmful than beneficial and likely should never have been approved to be administered to a single human being,” said Malhotra, who himself took two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and is now backing the show cause notice.
“It is alarming to me that the local regulators are encouraging the vaccination of young children in the circumstances. The rollout of the Pfizer vaccine products should, in my opinion, be halted pending a full investigation into how we got this so very wrong. That is, without question, the responsible and ethical move,” he said.
The FASA case, among the first of its kind, is being handled by advocate Erin-Dianne Richards, briefed by Daniel Eloff of Hurter Spies Incorporated in South Africa and is supported by leading medical and scientific professionals from around the world.
Malhotra, among the supporters, believes the case is “factually, medically and scientifically sound”.
Dr Herman Edeling, a specialist neurosurgeon with over 40 years of experience, notes in the founding affidavit that the mRNA vaccine administered as Comirnaty in South Africa should “never have been branded as safe’ and effective’”.
“The applicants in this application call on Pfizer to explain their conduct; they call on the South African regulators and government to hold Pfizer to account and to act in the best interests of the South African public, and they humbly request this Honourable Court to come to their aid in achieving these calls in the interests of the health of the South African public,” said Edeling.
While the notice of the motion was recorded by the South African court registrar on Monday, FASA hopes to announce a date of hearing in due course.
Pfizer’s media office has been approached for a response and it is yet to comment on this development.
