Fighting raged between troops and rebels in Syria as Damascus ratcheted up the tension with Ankara by banning all Turkish passenger flights from Syrian airspace from yesterday.
Rebels and activists said a Syrian regime warplane was shot down near Aleppo, while part of the embattled northern city’s historic Ummayad mosque was set ablaze in fighting as rebels attacks army positions inside, monitors said.
A car bomb blast near Damascus killed eight people, including a child and two women, in al-Nabak on the road to Homs Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
As the fighting on the ground escalated, so too did the tension with Turkey.
Syria banned Turkish passenger flights from midnight on Saturday, state news agency SANA said, citing the foreign ministry.
The suspension came after Turkey and Syria engaged in sporadic cross-border shelling last week.
The decision, “in accordance with the principle of reciprocity,” was in retaliation for Turkey’s decision to stop Syrian civil aviation flights over its territory, SANA said.
The Turkish government has not announced a similar ban for Syrian civilian aircraft.
However, Turkish jets forced a Syrian passenger plane en route from Moscow to Damascus to make an emergency landing in Ankara on Wednesday on suspicion it was carrying weapons.
Both Damascus and Moscow denied the claim, and the plane was allowed on Friday to continue on its journey.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Syrian Air passenger plane had been carrying radar equipment that could have either civilian or military uses, and insisted that Moscow had violated no laws.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for reform of the UN Security Council to help resolve the crisis, after Russia and China have repeatedly used their veto powers to block resolutions condemning Syria.
“It’s time to change the structure of international institutions, starting with the UN Security Council,” Erdogan told reporters, calling for “wider, fairer and more effective representation.”
In Istanbul, Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held talks on Syria with visiting Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi, Turkish news agency Anatolia said.
In related developments, Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday accused the Syrian air force of using cluster bombs against rebels and in populated areas across the country.
“Syria’s disregard for its civilian population is all too evident in its air campaign, which now apparently includes dropping these deadly cluster bombs into populated areas,” said Steve Goose, arms director at the New York-based group.
“Cluster bombs have been comprehensively banned by most nations, and Syria should immediately stop all use of these indiscriminate weapons that continue to kill and maim for years,” he said in a statement.
HRW reported their increased use in the past week, notably in the Maaret al-Numan area, where the armed forces have been locked in combat with rebels for control of the highway linking Damascus to Aleppo.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique