BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) – Dozens of hungry and weak Rohingya Muslims were found on a beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh on Sunday after weeks at sea, officials said. The group of 58 men arrived on Indrapatra beach at Ladong, a fishing village in Aceh Besar district, early Sunday, said local police chief Rolly Yuiza Away. Villagers who saw the group of ethnic Rohingya on a rickety wooden boat helped them to land and then reported their arrival to authorities, he said. “They look very weak from hunger and dehydration. Some of them are sick after a long and severe voyage at sea,” said Away, adding that the men received food and water from villagers and others as they waited for further instructions from immigration and local officials in Aceh. At least three of the men were rushed to a health clinic for medical care, and others are also receiving various medical treatments, Away said. The United Nations and other groups on Friday urged countries in South Asia to rescue as many as 190 people believed to be Rohingya refugees aboard a small boat that has been adrift for several weeks in the Andaman Sea. Groups of Rohingya have attempted to leave the crowded camps in Bangladesh and travel by sea in hazardous voyages to other Muslim-majority countries in the region.

 

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BERLIN (Dispatches) – Germany is running the risk of becoming a dysfunctional bankrupt state if it fails to tackle the energy crisis and continues the imbalanced financial policies, Bundestag Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki says. “If we continue that way and want to provide energy assistance for years, then we could face state bankruptcy rather that state socialism,” the German parliament’s deputy speaker told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The lawmaker said the extra money that Germany is now planning to spend on energy imports from elsewhere than Russia would be withdrawn from other areas, as the surplus can be “neither printed on a money printing machine nor covered by taxpayers”. “Many people have a feeling that Germany is on the way to becoming a dysfunctional state. Infrastructure, governing, energy prices and inability of the Bundeswehr to defend its country - we have to take countermeasures; otherwise, things could go wrong,” Kubicki added. Western countries and their allies have been facing high energy prices in the aftermath of imposing sanctions on Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. The Ukraine crisis and sanctions have led to disruptions of supply chains and a spike in energy prices worldwide.

 

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ISLAMABAD (AP) – The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on Sunday warned its staff of a possible attack on Americans at a top hotel in Pakistan’s capital as the city was already on high alert following a suicide bombing earlier in the week. The U.S. government is aware of information that “unknown individuals are possibly plotting to attack Americans at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad sometime during the holidays,” the embassy said in a security alert. The advisory banned its American personnel from visiting the popular hotel over the holidays. The U.S. mission also urged all personnel to refrain from non-essential travel in Islamabad during the holiday season. The embassy directive came two days after a suicide bombing in a residential area of the capital killed a police officer and wounded ten others. The explosion happened when police stopped a taxi for inspection during a patrol. According to the police, a rear seat passenger detonated explosives he was carrying, blowing up the vehicle.

 

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BEIJING (Al Jazeera) – Rescuers were working on Sunday to reach 18 people trapped underground after a collapse at a gold mine in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, state media reported. A total of 40 people were working at the mine in Yining county, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the border with Kazakhstan when the mine caved in on Saturday afternoon. Twenty-two miners were brought to the surface but 18 remain trapped. “A rescue operation is under way to retrieve the remaining miners,” Xinhua news agency said. Mine safety has improved in recent decades in China, but accidents still occur frequently in an industry where safety instructions are often lax, especially at the most rudimentary sites. In September last year, 19 miners stranded underground after the collapse of a coal mine in the northwest province of Qinghai were found dead after a long search. In December 2021, 20 miners were rescued from a flooded coal mine in northern Shanxi province while two others died.

 

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BOGOTÁ (AFP) – A group of armed renegades who refused to sign a 2016 peace accord in Colombia have declared a unilateral ceasefire until the New Year, the country’s peace commissioner tweeted. The dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had refused to lay down their arms alongside their comrades six years ago, when the fearsome rebel army signed the deal with Bogota to end more than five decades of conflict. They have continued to battle government forces, and divided into various factions. The Indepaz think tank said they total around 5,200 rebels. The news that one of the main factions would temporarily lay down their arms came days after the country’s last recognized rebel group, the powerful National Liberation Army (ELN), also announced a truce as they conduct peace negotiations in Caracas, Venezuela. Both organizations pledged to cease attacks against security forces until January 2. According to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, other FARC dissidents as well as paramilitaries in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the north, and gangs in the port of Buenaventura, the most important port on the Pacific, have also declared a ceasefire.