ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said talks with Finland and Sweden about their joining NATO were not at the “expected level” and Ankara cannot say yes to “terrorism-supporting” countries, state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Sunday. Turkey has objected to Sweden and Finland joining the Western military alliance, holding up a deal that would allow for a historic enlargement following the Ukraine conflict. Erdogan’s latest comments indicated his opposition continued. “For as long as Tayyip Erdogan is the head of the Republic of Turkey, we definitely cannot say ‘yes’ to countries which support terrorism entering NATO,” he was cited as telling reporters on his return from a trip to Azerbaijan on Saturday. Two sources previously told Reuters that Wednesday’s talks with Finnish and Swedish delegations made little headway and it was unclear when further discussions would take place. All 30 NATO members must approve plans to enlarge NATO. Turkey challenged the bids from Sweden and Finland on the grounds that the countries harbor people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and others it deems terrorists, and because they halted arms exports to Ankara in 2019.

 

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KATHMANDU (AFP) – A passenger plane with 22 people on board went missing in Nepal on Sunday, the operating airline and officials said, as poor weather hampered a search operation. Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers. But it has a poor safety record. The Twin Otter aircraft operated by Tara Air took off from the western town of Pokhara bound for Jomsom at 9:55 am (0410 GMT) but air traffic control lost contact after 15 minutes. “We are trying to locate the possible area where the aircraft might be,” Sudarshan Bartaula, spokesman for Tara Air, told AFP. “Search and rescue teams from both the police and the army are heading towards that direction.” He said there were 19 passengers on board and three crew members. The passengers included two Germans and four Indians, with the remainder Nepali. Jomsom is a popular trekking destination in the Himalayas about 20 minutes by plane from Pokhara, which lies 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu. Phanindra Mani Pokharel, a spokesman at the Ministry of Home Affairs, said two helicopters had been deployed for a search operation. But he said visibility was low.

 

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NEW YORK (RT) – The hundreds of cases of monkeypox that have been diagnosed in the past month across Europe, North and South America, Israeli-occupied territories, the UAE and Australia may be just “the tip of the iceberg”, World Health Organization (WHO) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention Chief Sylvie Briand warned. Briand suggested there could be “many more cases that are undetected in communities”, as monkeypox does not immediately present with definitive symptoms. Infected individuals initially complain of flu-like ailments such as a fever, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes before the telltale chickenpox-like rash appears on the face and body. While there is no known cure for the virus, it usually recedes within two to four weeks. Despite stating that “we know that we will have more cases in the coming days”, Briand discouraged people from panicking, insisting that “this is not a disease the general public should be worried about. It is not COVID or other diseases that spread fast”. While the WHO is still seeking to determine the exact origin of the recent monkeypox outbreak, there is no indication that the virus responsible for it has mutated or otherwise become more dangerous.

 

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BRASILIA (Al Jazeera) – Landslides caused by heavy rains killed nearly 30 people in the metropolitan region of Recife, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern Pernambuco state, authorities said. “In the last 24 hours, 28 deaths have been recorded,” the Civil Defence said in a statement. More than 760 people have been forced to leave their homes because of the flooding in Pernambuco, civil defence officials said on Twitter. The executive secretary of the civil defense agency in Pernambuco, Lieutenant Colonel Leonardo Rodrigues, said in a video posted on Instagram that about 32,000 families live in areas at risk of landslides or flooding in the state. Schools in the city of Recife have been opened to receive the homeless. In Alagoas, another state in the region, two people died when they were swept away in river flooding on Friday.

 

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MAKASSAR (AP) – Rescuers in Indonesia were searching for 25 people who were missing after a cargo boat sank in the Makassar Strait in South Sulawesi province, officials said Sunday. A total of 42 people were on the boat when it sank in bad weather on Thursday morning while traveling from a seaport in Makassar to Kalmas Island in Pangkep Regency, said Djunaidi, the head of the provincial search and rescue agency. Like many Indonesians, Djunaidi goes by only one name. Seventeen people were later rescued, including some by two tugboats that were at sea at the time of the incident. Djunaidi said the search and rescue agency received new information about the location of the sunken boat on Saturday and dispatched crews to the area. Two motor boats and a search and rescue boat, along with local fishing boats and Indonesia air force helicopters, are involved in the search for the missing passengers. The sunken vessel was initially said to be a passenger ferry, but Djunaidi later clarified that it was a cargo boat carrying construction materials. Thirty-six passengers had asked for a ride on the boat and there were six crew members. Ferry tragedies are common in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, where ferries are often used as transport and safety regulations can lapse.

 

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ADDIS ABABA (Xinhua) – Africa’s fight against terrorism is reduced to the minimum due to a lack of strong support from the international community, chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat says. Mahamat made the remarks as African leaders convened the AU Extraordinary Summit on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa that was held in Malabo, capital of Equatorial Guinea. The meeting envisaged strengthening the collective security of African countries facing terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government. Mahamat said terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government feed each other, with intertwined causes which provide fertile ground for military coups and terrorist attacks on the continent. He further expressed concern over the resurgence in military coups across Africa, as he emphasized the need to abolish unconstitutional changes of government in Africa as it promotes terrorism and armed violence.