Author: Vividh Bharathi

Montevideo, Dec 11 (IANS) Uruguay’s 2023 national census counted 3,499,451 inhabitants, 2.5 percentage points higher than the 2011 one, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported.

Despite the growth, the number of children per woman fell from 1.8 to 1.7, according to the census. And there were 31,385 births registered in the country and 34,678 deaths last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We are with a negative population growth, unless immigration compensates, or we are already losing population,” INE director Diego Aboal said, adding that Uruguay reported “a drop of 18,000 births” in the last eight years.

According to the census, the number of foreign residents settling in Uruguay has grown by 4 per cent since 2011.

Montevideo, the capital city, is still the most populous city with a population of 1,302,954, or 37 per cent of Uruguay’s total.

–IANS

int/rs

Manila, Dec 11 (IANS) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday said it has approved a grant of $25.45 million to help the Solomon Islands develop sustainable, inclusive, and climate-resilient water supply and sanitation services.

The Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project is implementing high-priority components of the government’s water and sanitation sector plan to increase access to piped supply and sanitation services, enhance hygiene awareness, promote water conservation, and improve fecal sludge management, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ADB said the latest additional financing will help meet cost overruns incurred from the growing cost of goods and works, which have increased significantly since March 2020.

The ADB, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, and the European Union are funding the 125-million-dollar project.

–IANS

int/rs

San Francisco, Dec 11 (IANS) US Alaska Airlines announced a new strategic plan to offer at least 12 nonstop global destinations with long-haul widebody aircraft from Seattle by 2030.

Dubbing Seattle a “new global gateway,” Alaska said it will begin offering nonstop flights from Seattle to Tokyo in May and Seoul in October, Xinhua news agency reported.

“There has never been a more exciting time to be a part of Alaska Air Group,” Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said in a statement. “Now, with the combination with Hawaiian Airlines, we will transform our business and solidify our competitive advantage for years to come.”

The Alaska Air Group, based in SeaTac, includes subsidiaries Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, McGee Air Services and the recently acquired Hawaiian Airlines.

Tokyo and Seoul were first on the list because Hawaiian Airlines was already in those two markets. While Alaska already flies Boeing 737 MAXs to Mexico and Central America, Hawaiian flies across the Pacific Ocean, using long-haul widebody jets to reach destinations in Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Alaska also updated its 2027 financial targets Tuesday to include 1 billion USD in profits and earnings per share of at least $10. It expects full year 2025 earnings per share to reach $5.75.

For the three months between July and September this year, the most recent financial information available, Alaska reported $3 billion in revenue and $236 million in profit, which amounts to $1.84 per share.

The commercial side of the business will drive the vast majority of its anticipated profit growth, the company said, with an estimate that it will bring in an additional $800 million in revenue over the next three years.

–IANS

int/rs

United Nations, Dec 11 (IANS) The United Nations stands against any violation of the territorial integrity of Syria, a UN spokesperson said, after Israel seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad government.

When asked about media reports that recently the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted 320 Syrian military targets, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said at a daily press briefing, “It is very clear that we stand against any violation of the territorial integrity of Syria. We are against these types of attacks.”

In the wake of the fall of al-Assad’s government, Israel ramped up its military operation in Syria, launching airstrikes against military weaponry and seizing control of a demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights, Xinhua news agency reported.

Dujarric said that the United Nations continues to consider Golan Heights to be the occupied territory of Syria. “I think we were very clear about the violation of the disengagement agreement following the IDF occupation of the buffer zone,” he added.

“I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbours to encroach on the territory of Syria,” the spokesperson said.

It should be used by all those in the region and beyond to support the Syrian people, so they can choose their own path, so they can work on a transition that is Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, and inclusive, he said.

Geir Pedersen, special envoy of the UN secretary-general for Syria, on Tuesday urged Israel to cease its military operations in Syria, emphasising the urgent need to halt all conflicts across the Middle East.

“A very troubling development is that we are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory,” Pedersen said. “This needs to stop.”

–IANS

int/rs

New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) The quick fall — and flight — of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has evoked triumph in certain quarters and disquiet in others, as it seems to have upended the political situation and strategic calculus of the Middle East. However, a look at the record of the key Arab country and others may suggest the last word on what follows remains to be said.

Both Israel and the US have rushed to take claim for the overthrow of the over six-decade rule of the Ba’ath Party, Turkey is quietly exulting, and the end of the Russian and Iranian influence in the Arab heartland state is being celebrated.

There are, however, reports that Assad, who had been moving family members out of the country quietly, had cut a deal with the rebels for a safe exit, given the problems in maintaining control over a fragmenting and impoverished country. Russia, involved in Ukraine, and Iran, weakened by attacks on its regional proxies, are perceived as not extending themselves over much in preserving Assad’s rule, like earlier. They are also seeking to build bridges with the new rulers — Russia has obtained guarantees on its bases in the country, and both Moscow and Tehran may be biding their time till the inherent contradictions in the situation bubble up.

The Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces, and other elements of what may become a toxic Syrian brew, may find ousting Assad was the easy part. Take the SDF, which is predominantly Kurdish — a community which Turkey regards as its enemy incarnate — what happens when they come close?

While Syria is predominantly Sunni, the power was long held by the Alawite sub-sect of Shias, from which the Assad family and its key personnel hail, and the country also has sizeable Kurd, Druze, Shia, and Arab Christian (divided into six major churches) segments of the populace.

Described as a tribal and fractious country by then Saudi Crown Prince Faisal in the mid-1950s, Syria has witnessed at least eight military coups and a short-lived union with Egypt in the first quarter century as a free country following independence from France in 1946. It was only after Air Force chief Hafez Al Assad seized power in 1970, after being a key part of the 1961, 1963, and 1966 coups, that there was a semblance of stability, though with an authoritarian bent, save the abortive Islamist revolt of the early 1980s.

While Assad had groomed his eldest son Bassel as his successor, the latter’s death in a 1994 accident forced him to choose his second son, Bashar, for the role. Bashar Al Assad succeeded his father in 2000 and governed without hitch till the Arab Spring affected his country too, leading to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. It was a tough time for him till Russian and Iranian military intervention turned the tide, leading to roughly another decade in power till the rebels’ resurgence at the end of 2024 spelt a final finish.

Then, the Assads’ long rule may have been despotic, but, here its end must be compared with the situation that arose after the violent overthrow of other ‘despots’ in the Middle East, spanning the entire region from the dusty plains of Iraq to the sandy expanses of Libya. Did the ouster of either Saddam Hussain of Iraq in 2003 or Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 meet the strategic aims of their adversaries or leave the countries a better place?

The answer is evident — in Iraq, the long-repressed Shia majority rose up and an alignment with neighbouring Iran was achieved, while sparking a Sunni insurgency that required the US and the regime a considerable time to stamp out. Scarcely had this been done, the spectre of the Islamic State — which in some respects, outdid Al Qaeda in viciousness — arose. While the US claims credit for countering and weakening it, the role of Iran-backed Iraqi militias, and Gen Qassem Soleimani as a strategist, was also key. In an unstable Syria, could either Al Qaeda or the IS regain strength?

Israel, as a neighbour, will also face the blowback, irrespective of rumours of “common interests”. And growing Turkish influence in an adjoining country, given the rising tension between the two over Gaza is not conducive to peace.

On the other hand, the removal of Gaddafi’s strong hand left the country divided and in chaos. More significantly, for Europe, just across the Mediterranean, it sparked a refugee influx, straining littoral states like Italy and Greece, and as far beyond as the United Kingdom, creating social and demographic tensions, and fuelling the rise of nativist and populist parties that are gaining strength.

Remember what they say about history repeating itself?

(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)

–IANS

vd/kvd