Six In The Morning Wednesday 6 October 2021

 

Ethiopia used its flagship commercial airline to transport weapons during war in Tigray

Exclusive by Nima Elbagir, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase and Barbara Arvanitidis, CNN

Updated 1105 GMT (1905 HKT) October 6, 2021

 Ethiopia's government has used the country's flagship commercial airline to shuttle weapons to and from neighboring Eritrea during the civil war in Ethiopia's Tigray region, a CNN investigation has found.

Cargo documents and manifests seen by CNN, as well as eyewitness accounts and photographic evidence, confirm that arms were transported between Addis Ababa's international airport and airports in the Eritrean cities of Asmara and Massawa on board multiple Ethiopian Airlines planes in November 2020 during the first few weeks of the Tigray conflict.

It's the first time this weapons trade between the former foes has been documented during the war. Experts said the flights would constitute a violation of international aviation law, which forbids the smuggling of arms for military use on civil aircraft.

China could mount full scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025, island’s defence minister says

Comments come as Biden and Xi agree to stick to Taiwan agreements amid rising tension in the Indo-Pacific

Helen Davidson in Taipei and agencies

@heldavidson

Wed 6 Oct 2021 04.31 BST

China will be capable of mounting a full scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025, the island’s defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng has said, describing current tensions as the worst in 40 years.

Speaking to the China Times on Wednesday, Chiu said China was capable now, but would be completely prepared to launch an invasion in three years.

FRANCE 24 in Afghanistan: 'Women are vanishing from public life' 

Whether because they are wearing burqas or due to new restrictions on where they can venture unaccompanied,  women are vanishing from public life. Hardly any wander the streets of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, and many opt for the burqa to avoid unwanted attention or hostility, as FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent reports.

Iran ‘concerned’ by Israeli ‘presence’ in the Caucasus

Iran’s new FM, in Moscow for talks, said Tehran ‘will not tolerate geopolitical change and map change in the Caucasus’.

 

Iran has “serious concerns” about Israel’s presence in the Caucasus, as tensions mount between Iran and Azerbaijan over Baku’s ties with Israel, a major arms supplier.

Iran’s new Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who is in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said on Wednesday that Iran “certainly will not tolerate geopolitical change and map change in the Caucasus”.

“We have serious concerns about the presence of terrorists and Zionists in this region,” Amirabdollahian told reporters in Moscow.

U.S. F-35B jets used in test for MSDF’s future aircraft carrier

By NAOKI MATSUYAMA/ Staff Writer

October 6, 2021 at 19:03 JST

U.S. F-35B fighter jets took off from and landed on the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s destroyer Izumo in a test off the Shikoku region on Oct. 3, the Defense Ministry said Oct. 5.

The ministry plans to convert the helicopter-carrying destroyer into an aircraft carrier, and the test was designed to check the heat-resistance of the renovated deck.

The F-35B is a stealth fighter capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings. The ministry plans to deploy the aircraft to Air Self-Defense Force’s Nyutabaru Air Base in Miyazaki Prefecture.

Abu Zubaydah: Top US court to hear test case on state secrecy

By Bernd Debusmann Jr & Tara McKelvey & Anthony Zurcher
BBC News

According to the US government, Abu Zubaydah was a terrorist recruiter responsible for the destruction of hundreds of lives.

The George W Bush administration claimed he was an elusive master of disguise who inspired extremism, plotted attacks, and attracted new members to al-Qaeda until he was captured by the CIA.

But his alleged crimes did not give anyone the right to torture him, and on Wednesday Mr Zubaydah's story will lie at the centre of a case in the highest US court that could have far-reaching consequences globally.