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Princess of Wales appears at first public event since cancer diagnosis

Princess of Wales appears at first public event since cancer diagnosis
Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, smiles inside the Glass State Coach on her way to Horse Guards Parade for the King's Birthday Parade "Trooping the Colour" in London on June 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 17 June 2024
AFP
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Princess of Wales appears at first public event since cancer diagnosis

Princess of Wales appears at first public event since cancer diagnosis
Updated 17 June 2024
AFP
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LONDON: Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Saturday made a tentative return to public life for the first time since being diagnosed with cancer, attending a military parade in central London to mark Britain’s King Charles III’s official birthday.
Kate, as she is widely known, rode in a carriage alongside her three children at the outset of the annual celebration before disembarking to watch proceedings from a viewing point.
It comes nearly three months after the future queen revealed she was receiving chemotherapy treatment. The 42-year-old princess had not been seen at a public engagement since a Christmas Day service last year.
In a Friday evening statement Kate said she was “making good progress” with her treatment, which is set to last for several more months, but was “not out of the woods yet.”
“I’m looking forward to attending the King’s Birthday Parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer,” the princess said.
Kate’s announcement that she had cancer came just weeks after it was disclosed that her father-in-law, King Charles III, had also been diagnosed with the condition.
Neither has revealed what type of cancer they have.
British head of state Charles, 75, was given the green light to resume public duties in April, after doctors said they were “very encouraged” by his progress.
His first engagement was meeting staff and patients at a London cancer treatment center.
Earlier this month, he attended commemoration events in northern France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.


However, unlike previous years when he inspected troops on horseback at Trooping the Color, Charles participated this year from a carriage, in full military regalia alongside Queen Camilla.
His elder son and heir William, 41, rode on horseback, also in military uniform.
Kate, wearing a white dress and hat, had been seen arriving by car at Buckingham Palace with William and their children ahead of the parade, which formally began at 11:00 am (1000 GMT).
Spectators on The Mall leading to Buckingham Palace to witness the yearly ceremonial event welcomed Kate’s tentative return to public appearances.
“I was so pleased to hear the news last night,” Angela Perry, a teacher in her 50s from Reading in central England, told AFP.
“She’s our future queen. She’s so important,” she added, calling Kate’s reemergence “reassuring.”
Royal officials will be keen to manage expectations about Kate’s gradual return to the public eye, and have maintained that her appearances will depend on her treatment and recovery.
Kate explained in her statement that she had “good days and bad days” and was “taking each day as it comes.”
After traveling with Prince George, aged 10, Princess Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis in a state carriage to watch the parade from a building, the family were set to return to Buckingham Palace for a balcony appearance.

Trooping the Color marks the British sovereign’s official birthday and is a minutely choreographed military tradition dating back more than two centuries.
It starts at Buckingham Palace and moves down The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, where Charles will receive a royal salute before inspecting soldiers.
Charles was actually born in November but the second birthday tradition dates back to King George II in 1748, who wanted to have a celebration in better weather as his own birthday was in October.
The ceremony has its origins in the preparations for war, where all regimental flags — or colors — were shown to the soldiers so that they would recognize them in the confusion of battle.
This year’s event will include three of five military horses that bolted through the streets of central London in April after being spooked by the noise of building construction.
London’s Metropolitan Police said it would mount a “significant” security operation and had been liaising with anti-monarchy group Republic, which kicked off protests at the event.
The force said it had banned “amplified sound” in and around the parade route on public safety grounds and to avoid disruption to the mounted regiments taking part.
Republic’s activists, who huddled on a section of The Mall alongside royalists, held aloft placards bearing slogans including “not my king” and “down with the crown.”

Topics: Kate Middleton British royal family

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Kyiv says received bodies of 757 killed Ukrainian troops

Updated 4 sec ago
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Kyiv says received bodies of 757 killed Ukrainian troops

Kyiv says received bodies of 757 killed Ukrainian troops
  • The exchange of prisoners and return of their remains is one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv
Updated 4 sec ago
AFP
KYIV: Kyiv said Friday it had received the bodies of hundreds of Ukrainian troops killed in battle with Russian forces, in one of the largest repatriations since Russia invaded.
The exchange of prisoners and return of their remains is one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since the Kremlin mobilized its army in Ukraine in February 2022.
The repatriation announced by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a Ukrainian state agency, is the largest in months and underscores the high cost and intensity of fighting ahead of the war’s three-year anniversary.
“The bodies of 757 fallen defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters said in a post on social media.
It specified that 451 of the bodies were returned from the “Donetsk direction,” probably a reference to the battle for the mining and transport hub of Pokrovsk.
The city that once had around 60,000 residents has been devastated by months of Russian bombardments and is the Kremlin’s top military priority at the moment.
The statement also said 34 dead were returned from morgues inside Russia, where Kyiv last August mounted a shock offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region.
Friday’s repatriation is at least the fifth involving 500 or more Ukrainian bodies since October.
Military death tolls are state secrets both in Russia and Ukraine but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed last December that 43,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and 370,000 had been wounded since 2022.
The total number is likely to be significantly higher.
Russia does not announce the return of its bodies or give up-to-date information on the numbers of its troops killed fighting in Ukraine.

EU says it is ready to ease sanctions on Syria

EU says it is ready to ease sanctions on Syria
Updated 23 min 9 sec ago
AP
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EU says it is ready to ease sanctions on Syria

EU says it is ready to ease sanctions on Syria
  • The top EU diplomat said the EU would start by easing sanctions that are necessary to rebuild the country
Updated 23 min 9 sec ago
AP

ANKARA: The European Union’s foreign policy chief said the 27-member bloc is ready to ease sanctions on Syria, but added the move would be a gradual one contingent on the transitional Syrian government’s actions.
Speaking during a joint news conference in Ankara with Turkiye’s foreign minister on Friday, Kaja Kallas also said the EU was considering introducing a “fallback mechanism” that would allow it to reimpose sanctions if the situation in Syria worsens.
“If we see the steps of the Syrian leadership going to the right direction, then we are also willing to ease next level of sanctions,” she said. “We also want to have a fallback mechanism. If we see that the developments are going to the wrong direction, we are also putting the sanctions back.”
The top EU diplomat said the EU would start by easing sanctions that are necessary to rebuild the country that has been battered by more than a decade of civil war.
The plan to ease sanctions on Syria would be discussed at a EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday, Kallas said.

Topics: Syria EU

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
Updated 55 min 37 sec ago
AFP
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Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
  • The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting US-backed government in Afghanistan
  • The Afghan rulers say the court should ‘not ignore the religious and national values of people’
Updated 55 min 37 sec ago
AFP

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women — a crime against humanity.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”
It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”
The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the country’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attacks in October 2023.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and three top Hamas leaders in November last year.
Afghanistan’s government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.

Topics: Haibatullah Akhundzada

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
Updated 24 January 2025
AFP
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Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’
  • Prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women
Updated 24 January 2025
AFP
Kabul: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women — a crime against humanity.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”
It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”
The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the country’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attacks in October 2023.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and three top Hamas leaders in November last year.
Afghanistan’s government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time
Updated 24 January 2025
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Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time
  • Azharul Islam Khan’s clips about plants earned him a million followers on social media
  • He introduces them to indigenous Bangladeshi flora species and basics of plant medicine
Updated 24 January 2025
SHEHAB SUMON

DHAKA: When Azharul Islam Khan’s father gave him bougainvillea stems to grow, it marked his first experience tending to plants — a lesson that 40 years later would shape his social media fame in Bangladesh.

Khan was just 14 when his adventure with botany began. Unfamiliar with how to properly water the colorful ornamental vines, he lost two of the stems he tried to grow, but another two survived and blossomed.

“One was red, and the other was white. It was very inspiring when the two branches stayed alive, and I felt amazed,” Khan told Arab News at Zinda Park in Dhaka, surrounded by various tree and flower species, many of which have been featured in his online classes.

The classes are unlike traditional botany courses. Khan keeps his videos short and simple, focusing on the knowledge that he believes everyone should possess to understand plant life, know the basics of botanical medicine, and appreciate biodiversity.

His classroom is open to all, regardless of their academic background, and more than 1 million people have followed him on Facebook since he started regularly sharing his clips in 2023.

The videos often go viral and many have gained millions of views.

A pharmacist by training and profession, Khan also holds a degree in botany from the University of Dhaka.

“I like nature and plants and trees from my childhood. It’s my passion ... and I learned it from my father,” he said.

“When I see a plant, a flower, how it blooms, how it survives, it is amazing. When I walk and observe the flowers and plants growing, I feel pleased. And it is very important not only for me. It is very important for all the people ... Plants always support our wildlife. If wildlife remains alive, then us, humans, we will remain alive.”

In 2023, Bangladeshi researchers published a red list of plants, which showed that over the past few decades the country has lost seven flora species. Some 127 are currently endangered and 262 are considered vulnerable.

Khan believes that 30 of them are nearly extinct.

“If we don’t take special care of these species, within a very short time they will disappear in our country. So, we need to take care of these plants,” he said.

“We need indigenous plants ... local plants are very important for local nature.”

His videos spread awareness on the importance of various species for the entire ecosystem and for the individual lives of his students.

“I want to make them learn how to grow plants, how important it is for human life,” he said.

“I am trying to do this for the nation, for the future generations, for Bangladesh.”

The videos find appeal among his followers as they offer practical knowledge too.

“I watch brother Azhar’s videos regularly. The best part is that his videos are short — one and a half minutes, two minutes, or three minutes long. I like this style very much,” Mohammad Zakir Hossain, a shopkeeper from Narayanganj, told Arab News.

“Many plants grow all around us. But we have no idea about the benefits of these plants. I came to know about their medicinal values and their names. It’s a great gain for me.”

Topics: botany Bangladesh

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