Washington, July 31 (IANS) The US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, currently on a visit to the Philippines, spoke with Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant on Wednesday afternoon.

The US Department of Defence stated that the discussion between the top defence officials focused around Israel’s response to Lebanese Hizballah’s July 27 attack on Israel, which killed 12 innocent civilians, mostly children.

“They discussed the threats to Israel posed by a range of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hizballah. Secretary Austin reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and right to self-defence,” said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

“They also discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution that enables citizens on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border to safely return to their homes,” Singh added.

Earlier, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed eliminating Fouad Shukur – “the most senior military commander in the terrorist organisation Hezbollah” and the head of the organisation’s strategic formation – in a targeted drone strike in Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut.

The IDF said that Shukur was the man behind the killing of 12 children in a soccer field after a missile fell Saturday in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.

Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas Politburo, was also killed at his residence in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday.

The Hamas leader was in the Iranian capital to participate in the inauguration ceremony of country’s newly-elected President Masoud Pezeshkian.

–IANS

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Washington, July 31 (IANS) At least 973 Native American children died at US federal-operated Indian boarding schools that “forcibly confined and attempted to assimilate Indigenous children”, according to a federal report.

The investigative report released by the US Department of the Interior on Tuesday urges the US government to formally apologise for the 150-year-long “deliberate and strategic actions” to assimilate the children and destroy their culture, Xinhua news agency reported.

From 1871 to 1969, the US government isolated Native children from their families and forced them to attend boarding schools, where they were deprived of their identities, language, and culture.

The department was able to identify, by name, 18,624 Native children who attended boarding school, adding that it is not a comprehensive list.

Indigenous children who died from “physical, sexual, and emotional abuse” were buried at 65 school sites in at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites, according to the investigation.

Additional children may have died after becoming sick at school and being sent home, officials said.

It also estimates that the US government appropriated more than $23.3 billion, in inflation-adjusted dollars, during the 150 years to run such schools and associated assimilation policies.

“I think the worst part of it was at night, listening to all the other children crying themselves to sleep, crying for their parents, and just wanting to go home,” The Washington Post reported, citing a boarding school survivor from Michigan.

–IANS

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Manila, July 31 (IANS) Philippine security forces killed two armed men during a clash in Sultan Kudarat province in southern Philippines, a military general said on Wednesday.

Major General Antonio Nafarrete, Commander of the army’s 6th Infantry Division, said a gunfight broke out on Monday in Isulan town after an armed group fired at a law enforcement team, Xinhua news agency reported.

The law enforcement team, as per the reports, was deployed to defuse fighting between former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front.

The government team said it recovered weapons and ammunition from the clash site.

Further investigation into the matter is underway.

–IANS

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Manila, July 31 (IANS) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday said that it has approved two policy-based loans totalling $400 million to support Uzbekistan’s initiatives to enhance its financial markets and develop a sustainable, market-led power sector.

A loan of $300 million for subprogram 2 of the Power Sector Reform Program provides budget support for policy actions to improve the power sector’s structure, legal and regulatory framework, and governance to encourage private sector investment and promote financial sustainability, Xinhua news agency reported.

A loan of $100 million for subprogram 2 of the Financial Markets Development Program supports regulatory and institutional reforms on improving market facilitation to streamline financial transactions and services as well as increasing supply and demand measures to grow Uzbekistan’s capital and money markets.

“Strong participation of the private sector is vital to Uzbekistan’s economic growth and transformation,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov.

“Reforms supported by these programs will help shape an enabling environment for regulators and firms to play their part in boosting development by building robust domestic financial markets and addressing energy needs while tackling climate change,” said Zhukov.

–IANS

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Manila, July 31 (IANS) A 10-year-old boy died in a fire that gutted three houses in the Philippine capital on Wednesday, the Bureau of Fire Protection said.

The bureau said the fire broke out in a residential area in Paco district in Manila City at around 10:30 a.m. (local time) and quickly spread to the neighborhood, Xinhua news agency reported.

Firefighters later found the body of the boy on the second floor.

Initial investigation showed the victim’s family scampered out of the house, thinking the boy was in tow. The father tried to run back to the burning house upon realising the boy was missing, but extreme heat and smoke prevented him from entering the house.

It took firefighters a little over an hour to put out the fire. The bureau is investigating the cause of the fire.

–IANS

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