W O R L D

Syrian air force joins battle for Aleppo
Aleppo, July 30
The Syrian military stepped up its campaign to drive rebel fighters out of Aleppo on Monday, firing artillery and mortars while a fighter jet flew over a district the army said it had retaken the day before.

SMELLING VICTORY: Syrian rebel fighters celebrate after capturing a checkpoint in the village of Anadan, about 5 km from Aleppo, on Monday. — AFP

‘Pussy Riot’ on trial for anti-Putin protest
Moscow, July 30
Three women who protested against Vladimir Putin in a "punk prayer" on the altar of Russia's main cathedral went on trial on Monday in a case seen as a test of the longtime leader's treatment of dissent during a new presidential term.

Members of the all-girl punk band ‘Pussy Riot’ — (from left) Yekaterina, Nadezhda and Maria — sit behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow. — AFP

3 dead as storm slams Philippines Manila, July 30 A tropical storm roughed up seas and dumped torrents of monsoon rain as it swept past the Philippines, leaving at least three persons dead, knocking out power and forcing many offices and schools to close today. A girl wades through floodwaters following heavy rains caused by a tropical storm in Manila on Monday. — AFP

South Korea wins right to mine under Indian Ocean
Seoul, July 30
South Korea today announced that it has secured exclusive rights to explore and develop a deep sea mine in the resource-rich Indian Ocean that can produce over $300 million worth of minerals like gold, silver and copper every year.

Syrian air force joins battle for Aleppo
Amid the ruins, rebels say victory is near

Aleppo, July 30
The Syrian military stepped up its campaign to drive rebel fighters out of Aleppo on Monday, firing artillery and mortars while a fighter jet flew over a district the army said it had retaken the day before.

However, opposition activists denied government forces had entered Salaheddine, in the southwest of Syria's biggest city. Hospitals and makeshift clinics in rebel-held eastern neighbourhoods were filling up with casualties from a week of fighting in Aleppo, an commercial hub that had previously stayed out of a 16-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

"Some days we get around 30, 40 people, not including the bodies," said a young medic in one clinic. "A few days ago we got 30 injured and maybe 20 corpses, but half of those bodies were ripped to pieces. We can't figure out who they are."

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 persons were killed in the Aleppo area on Sunday out of more than 150 persons, two thirds of them civilians, slain across Syria.

Outgunned rebel fighters, patrolling in flat-bed trucks flying green-white-and-black "independence" flags, said they were holding out in Salaheddine despite a battering by the army's heavy weapons and helicopter gunships.

"We always knew the regime's grave would be Aleppo," said Mohammed, a young fighter, fingering the bullets in his tattered brown ammunition vest. "Damascus is the capital, but here we have a fourth of the country's population and the entire force of its economy. Bashar's forces will be buried here."

An unidentified Syrian army officer said on state television late on Sunday that troops had pushed "those mercenary gunmen" completely out of Salaheddine, adding: "In a few days safety and security will return to the city of Aleppo."

Meanwhile, the rebel banner of independence waves over the scorched streets and gutted cars that litter the urban battlegrounds of Aleppo, scars of a struggle in Syria's second largest city that fighters believe they are destined to win within weeks.

The scruffy, rifle-wielding youths are undeterred by the fate of equally bold, but ultimately crushed campaigns by rebels in the capital Damascus or in Homs.

Careening through streets ripped up by army tanks on their motorbikes and flatbed trucks, young rebels with camouflage pants and Kalashnikovs patrol their newly acquired territory, which stretches from the outskirts of Aleppo in the northeast and sweeps around the city down to the southwestern corner.

"We always knew the regime's grave would be Aleppo. Damascus is the capital, but here we have a fourth of the country's population and the entire force of its economy. Bashar's forces will be buried here," said Mohammed, a young fighter, fingering the bullets in his tattered brown ammunition vest.

The government has also predicted victory in the fight to control Syria's main commercial city. But the truth could lie somewhere in between. — Reuters

Charge d’affaires in London quits

LONDON: The Syrian chargé d'affaires in London, Khaled al-Ayoubi, has resigned, the British Foreign Office said on Monday. "Mr al-Ayoubi has told us that he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people, and is therefore unable to continue in his position," the Foreign Office said in a statement. Al-Ayoubi was the most senior Syrian diplomat serving in London, it added.

Australian embassy closed

Sydney: Syria has closed its embassy in Australia two months after Canberra expelled the country's top diplomat over one of the worst massacres of the more than year-long conflict. "The Syrian Embassy in Canberra has closed," the mission said on its website.

‘Pussy Riot’ on trial for anti-Putin protest
Case seen as test of Russian President’s treatment of dissent

Moscow, July 30
Three women who protested against Vladimir Putin in a "punk prayer" on the altar of Russia's main cathedral went on trial on Monday in a case seen as a test of the longtime leader's treatment of dissent during a new presidential term.

The women from the band 'Pussy Riot' face up to seven years in prison for an unsanctioned performance in February, in which they entered Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral, ascended the altar and called on the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out!"

Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, were brought to Moscow's Khamovniki court for Russia's highest-profile trial since former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was convicted in 2010, for a second time, in the same courtroom where the Pussy Riot trial began.

Supporters chanted "Girls, we're with you!" and "Victory!" as the women, each handcuffed by the wrist to a female officer, were led from a white and blue police van into the courthouse through a side entrance.

"We did not want to offend anybody," Tolokonnikova said, speaking to a defence lawyer who stood outside the enclosure. "We admit our political guilt, but not legal guilt."

The stunt was designed to highlight the close relationship between the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and former KGB officer Putin, then PM, whose campaign to return to the presidency in a March election was backed clearly, if informally, by the leader of the church, Patriarch Kirill. — Reuters

3 dead as storm slams Philippines

Manila, July 30
A tropical storm roughed up seas and dumped torrents of monsoon rain as it swept past the Philippines, leaving at least three persons dead, knocking out power and forcing many offices and schools to close today.

The wild weather whipped up by Tropical Storm Saola as it roared off the country's northeast was compounded a separate low-pressure area that lashed the capital overnight with tornado-like winds and a powerful thunderstorm. Many parts of Manila were without power early today and low-lying areas were flooded.

The low-pressure had dissipated by midday and Saola, which was packing winds of 105 km per hour and gusts of 135 kph, was expected to blow out of the country towards Taiwan on Thursday, according to Manila's weather bureau.

Benito Ramos of the Office of Civil Defence said three persons had died in the storm and another six were missing. One of the men who died had an asthma attack while he and other passengers were being rescued from an inter-island ferry that ran aground in rough seas late yesterday off central Romblon province. — AP

South Korea wins right to mine under Indian Ocean

Seoul, July 30
South Korea today announced that it has secured exclusive rights to explore and develop a deep sea mine in the resource-rich Indian Ocean that can produce over $300 million worth of minerals like gold, silver and copper every year.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) last week unanimously agreed to recognise South Korea's rights to the offshore mine that lies across an area of 10,000 sq km in the Indian Ocean, the government said.

The site contains hydrothermal vents that could yield metals, including gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead, South Korea's maritime ministry said in a statement.

The estimated production would reach about 46,000 tonnes, worth $320 million, per annum, it said.

"This is the result of aggressive efforts by the government and related agencies on investment, research and international diplomacy... amid fierce global competition to secure resources," it said.

South Korea is Asia's fourth largest economy. Its economy is export-driven, with production focusing on electronics, automobiles, ships, machinery, petrochemicals and robotics.

Energy-hungry China last year was given exclusive rights to explore 10,000 sq km of seabed in the southwest Indian Ocean in an area off the coast of Africa. — PTI