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New Delhi (AFP) – Two days after India's capital stopped fuel sales to ageing vehicles to tackle the sprawling megacity's hazardous air pollution, authorities on Thursday said the ban was not practical.

New Delhi is regularly ranked as one of the most polluted capitals globally with vehicular emissions being one of the worst offenders, according to several studies.

At the peak of the smog, levels of PM2.5 pollutants -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- surge to more than 60 times the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum.

The fuel restriction was introduced Tuesday to reinforce an already-existing but widely disregarded ban on petrol cars older than 15 years, and diesel vehicles older than 10.

But Delhi's environment minister, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, told reporters the fuel ban was not feasible because of "crucial issues related to technological glitches".

Number plate-recognising cameras and loudspeakers installed at fuelling stations were "malfunctioning", Sirsa said, leading to "fights and arguments".

The ban had resulted in public "discontent", he added.

Sirsa said he had written to the area's pollution control authority, explaining the problems in implementing the ban.

"Unless there is a robust system and the ban is everywhere, it will not work," he added.

The ban was to be extended to satellite cities around the capital, an area home to more than 32 million people, from November.

A study in The Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths in India to air pollution in 2019.

Each winter, vehicle and factory emissions coupled with farm fires from surrounding states wrap the city in a dystopian haze.

Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants.

Piecemeal government initiatives, such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air, have failed to make a noticeable impact.

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Young children wandered through the charred shell of what had been a school sheltering displaced Palestinians on Thursday, after a pre-dawn Israeli strike killed 15 people there according to the civil defence agency.

Tattered clothes hung from the blackened exterior of the building in western Gaza City, as rubble still smouldered below in the morning light.

Bloodstains dotted the ground strewn with the remnants of daily life. Clothing, metal chairs, tins of food and part of an electric fan lay amongst the wreckage, AFP footage showed.

"This is not a life," said Umm Yassin Abu Awda, a Gaza City resident who stood amongst mourners at the city's Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike.

"Either you strike us with a nuclear bomb and end it all, or people's conscience needs to finally wake up."

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it "struck a key Hamas terrorist who was operating in a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City".

"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians," it added.

Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defence agency, told AFP that most of the 15 killed in Thursday's strike were women and children.

He also reported a large number of injuries in the "Israeli air strike on the Mustafa Hafez School, which shelters displaced persons, in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood".

They were among 69 people that the agency reported killed by Israeli forces on Thursday in the Palestinian territory, where Israel has recently expanded its military operations.

Nearly all of Gaza's population has been displaced at least once during the nearly 21-month war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people living there.

Many have sought shelter in school buildings, but these have repeatedly come under Israeli attacks that the military often says target Hamas militants hiding among civilians.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence.

At Mustafa Hafez School, a colourful mural on a wall next to the wreckage showed a smiling boy walking past a tree and a woman next to a Palestinian flag.

A small group sat on chairs in what was once the playground of the school.

Inside the building, a group of young boys surveyed the damage and climbed on upturned furniture while others sifted through the debris.

Crowds of mourners gathered at Al-Shifa Hospital, where men and women wept over the bodies of the dead.

"We have no life left. Let them just annihilate us so we can finally rest," said one woman who lost relatives in the strike and did not give her name.

"There's nothing left for us. My two daughters are gone -- and now my niece, along with her six children and her husband, were burned to death," she said, her voice breaking with emotion.

Athens (AFP) – A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds on the southern Greek island of Crete has forced the evacuation of residents and tourists, officials said on Thursday.

Hot dry weather in Greece, which is not unusual for this time of year, has heightened the risk of a repeat of the summer wildfires that have hit the country in recent years.

Media reports said around 1,500 people had to be evacuated because of the blaze, which broke out on Wednesday evening.

"Evacuations took place in numerous hotels and tourists were safely transferred to a closed gymnasium in the municipality of Ierapetra," vice-prefect Yannis Androulakis told TV channel Mega, referring to the holiday town in the southeast.

The authorities acted because water bomber planes could not reach the affected areas overnight, he added.

"At the moment, there are three active fronts," Androulakis said. "Because of the strong winds, the fire has progressed quite rapidly."

Around 270 firefighters, 10 helicopters and drones have been deployed to tackle the blaze, said Vassilios Vathrakoyannis, a spokesman for the fire service.

They include reinforcements sent in from the capital, Athens.

"There are still a number of different fronts. The fire is burning scrubland and crops," he said.

"The winds are very strong -- up to nine on the Beaufort scale."

Crete, Greece's largest island, has an arid, uneven landscape criss-crossed by gullies, making it difficult for firefighters to tackle the blaze.

The fire damaged houses and crops in fruit and vegetable greenhouses, media reports said.

Like the rest of Crete, Ierapetra -- a seaside resort with a population of 23,000 - takes in thousands of tourists in the summer.

Vathrakoyannis said the authorities would assess the damage once the fire had been brought under control.

The risk of fires was "considerable" in July, the hottest month of the year in Greece, he added.

Greece has largely escaped a heatwave that has gripped other parts of southern Europe.

The country recorded its hottest-ever summer last year when 45,000 hectares (110,000 acres) of land was burned, according to WWF Greece and the Athens National Observatory.

In terms of surface area destroyed, 2023 was the worst on record.

Nearly 175,000 hectares were obliterated and 20 people died during heatwaves when temperatures rose in places to 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit).

Beijing (AFP) – A senior Chinese official accused the United States defence chief on Thursday of "inciting confrontation and conflict" after he urged American allies to bolster their militaries to counter Beijing.

China and the United States last month said they had reached an understanding on a trade deal -- a truce after bruising tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's goods.

But the two countries still disagree on issues ranging from technology and security to geopolitics, including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as Beijing's territorial claims in Asia.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned that China is preparing to use military force to upend the balance of power in Asia and has urged American allies to achieve "peace through strength".

On Thursday, Liu Jianchao, the head of the International Department of China's ruling Communist Party, said Hegseth's remarks constituted "hegemonic thinking".

"What he truly wants is force, not dialogue," Liu told the World Peace Forum in Beijing.

"What he is inciting is confrontation and conflict, not peace and harmony," he said.

China and the United States have long been at odds over Beijing's expansive claims in the strategically crucial South China Sea, and its refusal to rule out using force to seize Taiwan, the self-governed island it claims as its own.

"The Chinese government has made it crystal clear that it will never back down on these issues," Liu said.

"The Chinese people will do their utmost to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification of the motherland, but we will never allow Taiwan independence," he added.

"The United States must respect China's sovereignty on this issue."

Hong Kong (AFP) – China's first domestically built aircraft carrier sailed into Hong Kong on Thursday, just days after the city marked 28 years under Chinese rule.

The Shandong, measuring more than 300 metres (1,000 feet) and commissioned in 2019, is China's second carrier and is central to its regional ambitions under President Xi Jinping, who has overseen a massive naval buildup that has rattled Asian neighbours.

Beijing has said the Shandong and its escort vessels, which include the destroyers Zhanjiang and Yanan and the frigate Yuncheng, will visit the Chinese finance hub for five days and host "tours and cultural exchange activities".

The Shandong's visit came days after it concluded combat drills in the western Pacific alongside China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

It anchored at the western edge of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour while the escorts berthed at the People's Liberation Army naval base on Stonecutters Island on the northern side of the famous waterway.

City leader John Lee said at a welcoming ceremony that the visit would let the public "experience the magnificence and sophistication of the country's modern warships".

The PLA navy "not only protects national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, but is also an important force for regional peace and stability," Lee said.

The Shandong and the Liaoning are both of a modified Soviet design, with J-15 fighter jets and helicopters seen on the Shandong's distinctive "ski jump" deck on Thursday.

China's third and more advanced carrier, the Fujian, is undergoing sea trials.

Tickets to visit the vessels in Hong Kong were snapped up within minutes on social media app WeChat.

Crowds flocked to the waterfront and nearby hillsides on Thursday morning to catch a glimpse of the vessels.

City officials set up a restricted flying zone over parts of the harbour and temporarily reduced ferry services.

The Shandong is the second Chinese aircraft carrier to visit Hong Kong, following a 2017 visit by the Liaoning.

"The idea appears to be to impress upon the Hong Kong public... the ruling (Chinese Communist Party's) quest for building what's termed as the status of a maritime great power," said Collin Koh, a naval affairs specialist at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

China has rapidly upgraded its naval forces as it seeks to expand its reach in the Pacific and challenge a US-led alliance.

The US Department of Defense said in a December report that China numerically has the largest navy in the world, with a battle force of more than 370 ships and submarines.

Japanese authorities said China's dual-carrier exercise in the Pacific last month was the first of its kind and reflected Beijing's intentions to improve operational capabilities in distant areas.

Chong Ja Ian of the National University of Singapore said China's latest exercises suggest "both aircraft carriers are ready to engage in more sophisticated operations" but some unknowns remain, including the operational tempo they can bear.

The Shandong was reportedly present in Philippine waters in April during a joint US-Philippines military exercise, deepening tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In that same month, the vessel also took part in drills testing the Chinese navy's ability to "blockade" Taiwan, according to the Eastern Theater Command.

China insists that the self-ruled democracy is part of its territory and has refused to rule out seizing the island by force.

Pahalgam (India) (AFP) – Hindus began a vast month-long pilgrimage in contested Indian Kashmir on Thursday, with many of the faithful starting from near the site where a deadly April attack triggered conflict with Pakistan.

Last year, half a million devotees took part in the Amarnath pilgrimage to a sacred ice pillar located in a cave in the forested Himalayan hills above the town of Pahalgam.

Pahalgam is the site where gunmen on April 22 killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists.

New Delhi said the gunmen were backed by Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected -- triggering a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures that escalated into a four-day conflict.

It was the worst standoff by the nuclear-armed nations since 1999, with more than 70 people killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, before a May 10 ceasefire.

But pilgrim Muneshwar Das Shashtri, who travelled from Uttar Pradesh state, told AFP "there is no fear of any kind".

"Our army is standing guard everywhere. No one can raise a finger towards us," he said.

India has ramped up security for the event, deploying 45,000 troops with high-tech surveillance tools overseeing the gruelling trek to reach the high-altitude cave, dedicated to the Hindu deity of destruction Shiva.

"We have multi-layered and in-depth security arrangements so that we can make the pilgrimage safe and smooth for the devotees," said VK Birdi, police chief for the Muslim-majority territory.

At Pahalgam, soldiers have turned a tented base camp into a fortress encircled by razor wire.

Troops in newly deployed armoured cars, or from gun positions behind sandbags, keep a close watch -- efforts boosted by facial recognition cameras.

"High-quality surveillance cameras have been installed at all major points along the route," said Manoj Sinha, the Indian-appointed top administrator for Jammu and Kashmir.

All pilgrims must be registered and travel in guarded vehicle convoys, until they start out to walk.

Camouflaged bunkers have been erected in the forests along the route, where dozens of makeshift kitchens provide free food.

Electronic radio cards pinpoint their location.

Pilgrims can take several days to reach the cave, perched at 3,900 metres (12,800 feet) high, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) uphill from the last easily motorable track.

"Whatever the attack that was carried out here, I am not afraid. I have come to get a glimpse of baba (the ice formation)" said Ujwal Yadav, 29, from India's Uttar Pradesh state, undertaking his first pilgrimage to the shrine.

"Such are the security arrangements here that no one can be hurt."

Sinha has said that "public confidence is returning", but admits that pilgrim registration had dipped by 10 percent this year.

Once a modest, little-known ritual, attended by only a few thousand mainly local devotees, the pilgrimage has grown since an armed insurgency erupted in 1989.

India's government has since heavily promoted the annual event, which runs until August 9.

Rebels fighting against India's control of Kashmir have said the pilgrimage is not a target, but have warned they would act if it was used to assert Hindu dominance.

In 2017, suspected rebels attacked a pilgrim bus, killing 11 people.

The gunmen who carried out the April 22 killings remain at large, despite the manhunt by security forces in Kashmir where India has half a million soldiers permanently deployed.

On June 22, India's National Investigation Agency said two men had been arrested from the Pahalgam area who they said had "provided food, shelter and logistical support" to the gunmen.

Indian police have issued wanted notices for three of the gunmen, two of whom they said were Pakistani citizens.

Sydney (AFP) – Deep-sea mining could impact marine life stretching from the tiniest bottom dwellers to apex predators like swordfish and sharks, a major piece of industry-funded research found Thursday.

The Metals Company -- a leading deep-sea mining firm -- paid Australia's government science agency to pore through data collected during test mining in the remote Pacific Ocean.

Huge tracts of Pacific Ocean seabed are carpeted in polymetallic nodules, bulbous lumps of rock that are rich in metals used in battery production -- such as cobalt and nickel.

The Metals Company is pushing to be the first to mine these nodules in international waters, striving to exploit a remote expanse known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

Australia's government science agency released a series of technical reports on Thursday detailing how mining could be managed.

Bottom-dwellers such as sea cucumbers, marine worms, starfish and crustaceans could see "significant declines in abundance immediately following mining", research found.

Some of these species would partially bounce back within a year, but filter feeders and other tiny organisms that feast on seabed sediments showed "minimal recovery".

"On the seafloor, our research shows that there are substantial local impacts from different mining operations," scientist Piers Dunstan said during a briefing.

Deep-sea mining companies are still figuring out the best way to retrieve nodules that can lie five kilometres (three miles) or more beneath the waves.

Most efforts focus on robotic harvesting machines, or crawlers, which hoover up nodules as they rove the ocean floor.

The Australian scientists looked at how sharks and fish might be harmed by plumes of sediment discharged as mining waste.

In some scenarios, apex predators could see toxic metals start to build up in their blood after prolonged exposure to these plumes.

"Long-lived top predators, such as swordfish and large sharks, accumulated the highest simulated metal concentrations," scientists noted in one report.

Simulations showed blood metal concentrations would not exceed international health guidelines, and impacts were less pronounced if sediment was discharged at a greater depth.

"This project helps ensure that if deep-sea mining were to go ahead, there is a clear approach to understand potential risks and impacts to marine life and ecosystems," Dunstan said.

Canada-based The Metals Company is striving to start industrial deep-sea mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone within the next two years.

The International Seabed Authority -- which oversees deep-sea mining in international waters -- has yet to adopt long-awaited rules governing the industry.

The Metals Company has indicated it could forge ahead even without the authority's approval, pointing to an obscure US law that says American citizens can recover seabed minerals in areas beyond the nation's jurisdiction.

The firm paid Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation -- or CSIRO -- around US$1 million to compile the reports.

CSIRO stressed it was not for, or against, deep-sea mining -- but that its work would help to measure and monitor impacts should it go ahead.

Energy transition expert Tina Soliman-Hunter said it was one of the "most comprehensive" pieces of research on deep-sea mining to date.

"Without such research, there is a risk of harm from mining activities that can persist for generations," said Soliman-Hunter, from Australia's Macquarie University.

Found in international waters between Mexico and Hawaii, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is a vast abyssal plain spanning some 4 million square kilometres (1.7 million square miles).

Jakarta (AFP) – When an Indonesian mother dropped off her daughter at school in May, she did not expect her to become violently sick after eating lunch from the government's new billion-dollar free meal programme.

"My daughter had a stomachache, diarrhoea, and a headache," the woman told AFP on condition of anonymity about the incident in the Javan city of Bandung.

"She also couldn't stop vomiting until three in the morning."

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto touted the populist scheme as a solution to the high rates of stunted growth among children, as he carved his way to a landslide election victory last year.

But its rollout since January has stumbled from crisis to crisis, including accusations of nepotism, funding delays, protests and a spate of food poisonings.

It was slated to reach as many as 17.5 million children this year to the tune of $4.3 billion.

But so far it has only served five million students nationwide from January to mid-June, according to the finance ministry.

The poisoning issues were not isolated to that girl's school -- five others reported similar incidents.

But Prabowo has lauded the number of illnesses as a positive.

"Indeed there was a poisoning today, around 200 people out of three million," he said in May.

"Over five were hospitalised, so that means the success rate is 99.99 percent. A 99.99 percent success rate in any field is a good thing."

Large-scale aid programmes in Indonesia have a history of allegations of graft at both the regional and national levels.

Experts say this programme is particularly vulnerable, with little in the way of accountability.

"A big budget means the possibility of corruption is wide open, and with lax monitoring, corruption can happen," said Egi Primayogha, a researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch.

"Since the beginning, the programme was rushed, without any good planning. There is no transparency."

The programme was rolled out soon after Prabowo took office in October and local investigative magazine Tempo reported that "several partners appointed" were Prabowo supporters in the election.

Agus Pambagio, a Jakarta-based public policy expert, said Prabowo rushed the plan, with critics saying there was little public consultation.

"Japan and India have been doing it for decades. If we want to do it just like them within a few months, it's suicide," he said.

"We can't let fatalities happen."

The plan's stated aim is to combat stunting, which affects more than 20 percent of the country's children, and reduce that rate to five percent by 2045.

Prabowo's administration has allocated $0.62 per meal and initially set a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion) for this year.

But authorities have been accused of delays and under-funding the programme.

A catering business in capital Jakarta had to temporarily shut down in March because the government had not paid the $60,000 it was owed. The case went viral and it eventually got its money back.

The government announced a $6.2 billion budget boost recently but revised it by half as problems mounted in its ambitious quest to deliver meals to almost 83 million people by 2029.

Widespread cuts to fund the programme's large budget also sparked protests across Indonesian cities in February.

Yet some say the programme has benefited their child.

"It's quite helpful. I still give my son pocket money, but since he got free lunch, he could save that money," Reni Parlina, 46, told AFP.

However a May survey by research institute Populix found more than 83 percent of 4,000 respondents think the policy should be reviewed.

"If necessary, the programme should be suspended until a thorough evaluation is carried out," said Egi.

The National Nutrition Agency, tasked with overseeing free meal distribution, did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

The agency has said it will evaluate the scheme and has trained thousands of kitchen staff.

Kitchen partners say they are taking extra precautions too.

"We keep reminding our members to follow food safety protocols," said Sam Hartoto of the Indonesian Catering Entrepreneurs Association, which has 100 members working with the government.

While they seek to provide assurances, the debacles have spooked parents who doubt Prabowo's government can deliver.

"I don't find this programme useful. It poses more risks than benefits," said the mother of the sick girl.

"I don't think this programme is running well."

Agadir (Morocco) (AFP) – On the drought-stricken plains of Morocco's Chtouka region, cherry tomato farms stretch as far as the eye can see, clinging to life through a single, environmentally contentious lifeline: desalination.

"We wouldn't be here without it," said Abir Lemseffer, who manages production for the tomato giant Azura.

Severe drought driven by climate change has gripped the North African country since 2018, leaving Azura's 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of farms entirely dependent on desalinated water.

But the technology comes at a high cost -- both financially and environmentally.

It is energy-intensive, and in a country where more than half of the electricity still comes from coal, it carries a heavy carbon footprint.

Since 2022, Morocco's largest desalination plant, located nearby, has been producing 125,000 cubic metres (4.4 million cubic feet) of water a day.

The supply irrigates 12,000 hectares of farmland and provides drinking water for 1.6 million people in Agadir and surrounding areas, said Ayoub Ramdi of the regional agricultural development office.

By the end of 2026, officials hope to boost production to 400,000 cubic metres of water, half of which would be designated for agriculture.

Without that water, "a catastrophic scenario would loom over Morocco", said Rqia Bourziza, an agronomist.

Agriculture, which contributes about 12 percent to Morocco's overall economy, has been badly hit by six consecutive years of drought -- prompting the country to go all-in on desalination.

Across Morocco, there are 16 plants capable of producing 270 million cubic metres of water per year, with a target of reaching 1.7 billion cubic metres by 2030.

While around 1,500 farmers in the Agadir region make use of the water provided by the plant, others don't because it's simply too expensive.

Among them is Hassan, who grows courgettes and peppers on half a hectare of land and uses water from a well shared with 60 other farmers.

"I can't afford to use that water," he said, declining to give his full name.

Desalinated water is sold at $0.56 per cubic metre, excluding taxes, compared with $0.11 per cubic metre for conventional water.

That hefty price tag comes despite a 40 percent subsidy from public coffers.

Ali Hatimy, another agronomist, said "the cost of desalinated water significantly reduces the range of potential crops because only very high-value-added crops can offset it".

Bourziza insisted that desalination was "a very good alternative" but only for high-value crops such as tomatoes and orchard fruits.

Beyond the financial cost, desalination also exerts an environmental cost, said Hatimy.

"The production of desalinated water requires tremendous amounts of electrical energy and brine discharges impact marine ecosystems," he said.

Highly concentrated brine is a byproduct of the desalination process.

Ramdi, from the agricultural development office, said that "no impact" had been observed in the waters around Agadir, adding that the brine was diluted before its release.

While Morocco has a growing share of renewable energy, 62 percent of its electricity came from coal in 2023 and 14 percent from oil and gas, according to the International Energy Agency.

The stakes in the wider region of Souss-Massa, which accounts for 85 percent of Morocco's fruit and vegetable exports, are high.

Nearly two million tonnes are produced each year, with a turnover of $1.1 billion.

Ramdi said the desalination plant had thus helped to protect $1 billion of revenue a year and more than a million jobs.

"Desalination has saved agriculture in Chtouka," said Mohamed Boumarg, walking through one of his tomato greenhouses.

"Before, I only cultivated five hectares because I was constrained by the amount of water I had. Groundwater was not sufficient," said the 38-year-old farmer who now grows 20 hectares of tomatoes, with 60 percent of his crop marked for export.

"Our survival depends on it," said Lemseffer of Azura. "Either we accept sacrificing some of our margin by using desalinated water, or we close up shop."

Bangkok (AFP) – Thailand's former defence chief is set to be appointed acting prime minister on Thursday, capping a colourful career for the political heavyweight once nicknamed "Big Comrade".

Phumtham Wechayachai earned his moniker over links in his youth to a 1970s student movement that rallied against the architect of a military coup, before their protests were violently crushed.

He fled to the jungle where communist guerrillas were plotting uprisings against the nation's military, and recently he has been questioned over his associations.

But the 71-year-old has successfully transitioned into the limelight from a business role in the empire of Thaksin Shinawatra, the founding force of a dynasty which has dominated Thai politics for decades.

Phumtham has held the defence and commerce portfolios, and had a previous spell as acting prime minister after a crisis engulfed the top office last year.

On Thursday he is due to be sworn in as deputy prime minister and interior minister -- making him acting premier again, after Thaksin's daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended from her role.

Born in the suburbs of Bangkok, Phumtham was nicknamed "Auan", meaning "Chubby", by his parents.

He earned a political science degree from a top Thai university and joined the student movement that took to the streets in 1976, opposing the return of military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn.

His childhood nickname belied his slim-faced appearance in a black-and-white photo of the protests, showing him brandishing speech papers with a microphone in hand.

The uprising ended in a bloody crackdown known as the "Thammasat Massacre" that killed at least 40 students and remains today one of the country's most notorious instances of protest bloodshed.

Unofficial estimates suggest the death toll could have been as high as 500, because live ammunition was used to quell the unrest.

Students from Thailand's elite universities fled into the jungle to join guerilla movements.

When Phumtham became defence minister last year he faced a grilling by the conservative and pro-military establishment who accused him of being a card-carrying communist.

"I went to escape the violence," he insisted. "It was not only me, there were other students too."

Despite his protestations, his links to the movement earned him a second alias: "Big Comrade".

Phumtham's reputation has softened since his firebrand formative years, and he is now known as a composed and diplomatic operator.

He will step into the acting prime minister role after the Constitutional Court suspended Paetongtarn pending an ethics probe which could take months.

In the brief interim between the court decision and Phumtham being sworn in as part of a cabinet reshuffle, transport minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit has been acting premier.

Phumtham's rise has mirrored that of Thaksin, whose dynastic parties have been jousting with the country's pro-monarchy, pro-military establishment since the early 2000s.

In the 1990s Phumtham was employed by the Thaksin-founded telecom giant Shin Corp, before entering politics full-time in 2001.

He served as deputy secretary-general of the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, founded by Thaksin, and was appointed deputy transport minister in 2005.

After Thaksin was ousted in a coup, the party was dissolved and Phumtham was slapped with a five-year ban from politics.

But the movement remained a potent force, with Thaksin's sister and brother-in-law both having stints as prime minister.

Paetongtarn was appointed in August, with the backing of the family's Pheu Thai party.

Phumtham, considered Thaksin's confidant, appeared by Paetongtarn's side as she gave her first press conference as leader.

Although he will be stepping into her shoes, he has signalled he remains loyal to the Shinawatra dynasty and told journalists he believes she will "survive the probe".

Denpasar (Indonesia) (AFP) – At least four people were dead and dozens unaccounted for Thursday after a ferry sank on its way to the resort island of Bali, according to local authorities who said 23 survivors had been plucked from the water so far.

Rescuers were racing to find 38 missing people in rough seas after the vessel carrying 65 passengers sank before midnight on Wednesday as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia's main island Java.

"23 rescued, 4 dead," Rama Samtama Putra, police chief of Banyuwangi in East Java, where the boat departed, told AFP.

President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement Thursday, adding the cause of the accident was "bad weather".

Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit confirmed the same figures in a statement, and said efforts to reach the boat were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions that have since cleared up.

Waves as high as 2.5 metres (8 feet) with "strong winds and strong currents" had affected the rescue operation, he said.

The agency had earlier said 61 people were missing and four rescued, without giving a cause for the boat's sinking.

"KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya... sank about 25 minutes after weighing anchor," it said.

"The ferry's manifest data totalled 53 passengers and 12 passenger crews."

A rescue team of at least 54 personnel including from the navy and police were dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city to assist the search efforts.

The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java's Banyuwangi regency to Bali's Gilimanuk port -- one of the busiest in Indonesia -- is around 5 kilometres (3 miles) as the crow flies and takes around one hour.

It is often used by people crossing between the islands by car.

Four of the known survivors saved themselves by using the ferry's lifeboat and were found in the water early Thursday, the rescue agency said.

It said the ferry was also transporting 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.

It was unclear if any foreigners were onboard when the ferry sank.

Rescuers said they were still assessing if there were more people onboard than the ferry's manifest showed.

It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.

Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather.

In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.

A ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province in 2022 and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt.

And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world's deepest lakes on Sumatra island.

Kamyanka (Ukraine) (AFP) – There were so many mines on Larisa Sysenko's small farm in Kamyanka in eastern Ukraine after the Russians were pushed out that she and her husband Viktor started demining it themselves -- with rakes.

Further along the front line at Korobchyne near Kharkiv, Mykola Pereverzev began clearing the fields with his farm machinery.

"My tractor was blown up three times. We had to get a new one. It was completely unrepairable. But we ended up clearing 200 hectares of minefields in two months," he said.

"Absolutely everyone demines by themselves," declared Igor Kniazev on his farm half an hour from Larisa's.

Ukraine is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it.

But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP.

More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages -- the biggest since World War II -- have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded.

One in 10 shells fail to detonate, experts estimate, with as much as a third of North Korean ordnance fired by Russia failing to go off, the high explosives moulding where they fall.

Yet the drones which have revolutionised the way war is fought in Ukraine may also now become a game-changer in demining the country.

Ukraine itself and some of the more than 80 NGOs and commercial groups working there are already using them to speed the mammoth task of clearing the land, with the international community pledging a massive sum to the unprecedented effort.

But on the ground it is often the farmers themselves -- despite the dangers and official warnings -- who are pushing ahead on their own.

Like the Sysenkos.

They were among the first to return to the devastated village of Kamyanka, which was occupied by the Russian army from March to September 2022.

Two weeks after its recapture by Ukrainian soldiers, Larisa and Viktor went back to check their house and found it uninhabitable, without water or electricity.

So they let the winter pass and returned in March 2023 to clean up, first taking down the gallows Russian soldiers had set up in their yard.

And they began demining. With their rakes.

"There were a lot of mines and our guys (in the Ukrainian army) didn't have time to take care of us. So slowly we demined ourselves with rakes," said Larisa cheerily.

Boxes of Russian artillery shells are still stacked up in front of their house -- 152mm howitzer shells to be precise, said Viktor with a mischievous smile.

"I served in the artillery during Soviet times, so I know a bit," the 56-year-old added.

That summer a demining team from the Swiss FSD foundation arrived and unearthed 54 mines in the Sysenkos's field.

They were probably laid to protect a 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled gun -- which looks like a big tank -- with which the Russians could hit targets up to 24 kilometres (15 miles) away.

The PFM-1 anti-personnel mines they found are sensitive enough to detonate under the weight of a small child, exploding under only five kilograms of pressure.

Known as the "flower petal" or "butterfly" mine, they blend horrifyingly well into fields and forests, with their petal shape and khaki colour.

They are banned under the 1997 Ottawa International Convention, to which Russia never signed up.

Ukraine said on Sunday it was withdrawing from the treaty.

The deminers told the Sysenkos "to evacuate the house".

"Under their rules, we couldn't stay there. So we obeyed. The demining machine went back and forth and there were tons of explosions under it."

With its gutted homes, Kamyanka still looks like a ghost village but about 40 people have moved back. (Its pre-war population was 1,200.)

Many fear the mines and several people have stepped on them -- "99 percent on the flower petal ones", said Viktor.

Yet farmers cannot afford to wait and are back at work in the vast fields famous for Ukraine's intensely black and fertile "chernozem" soil, which is rich in humus.

"If you look at the villages around here, farmers have adapted tractors themselves to clear their land and they are already planting wheat and sunflowers," Viktor added.

Ukraine's "cereal production fell from 84 million tons before the war to 56 million tons" last year, a drop of one-third, agriculture minister Vitaliy Koval told AFP.

"Ukraine has 42 million hectares (103 million acres) of agricultural land. On paper, we can cultivate 32 million hectares. But usable, uncontaminated land not occupied by Russia -- (we have) only 24 million hectares," he added.

A fifth of Ukraine's total territory (123,000 square kilometres, 48,000 square miles) is "potentially contaminated" by mines or explosives, according to government data.

That's an area roughly the size of England.

So does that make Ukraine the most mined country in the world?

"I think that is probably true in terms of the most unexploded bombs and shells and the most mines in the ground," said Paul Heslop, the United Nations Mine Action Service adviser in Ukraine.

Like all experts AFP talked to, he said it was impossible to make an accurate count in a country at war with a front line stretching 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) and its Russian-controlled areas inaccessible.

"(But) if you have got maybe four to five million unexploded shells or munitions, and three to five million mines, you potentially have 10 million explosive devices in the ground."

Pete Smith, who leads the HALO Trust's 1,500 staff in Ukraine, is a veteran of demining Iraq and Afghanistan.

But "I can say with a large degree of certainty" that no other country has been strewn with so many explosives, he said.

Some semblance of normal life has returned for the Sysenkos.

Their two dogs frolic around a sign marked "Danger Mines".

Birds now nest in the bullet and shell holes in the peach-coloured walls of their farmhouse.

But the demining will be going on for some time around them.

To get some idea of how thankless it can be, the Swiss FSD team found only the remnants of three explosives after two years of searching a nearby 2.6-hectare plot (about the size of three football fields).

"Metal contamination was so intense that our detectors became unusable. They were constantly going off," their site chief told AFP.

But after checking the thousands of metal fragments they had found, almost all turned out not to be dangerous.

The snail's pace of the meticulous process exasperates farmer Kniazev, who rattles off his gripes with the demining groups at machine gun pace.

"Every year they promise: 'Tomorrow, tomorrow, we'll clear all the fields.'" So in the end, he did it himself.

Like the Sysenkos, Kniazev went back to his land as soon as the Russians withdrew and has since demined 10 hectares by himself.

He hopes to finish the final 40 within a year.

How?

"I took a metal detector and cleared the mines," he shot back.

"I was on my tractor when the harrow (being dragged behind) hit a mine and it exploded."

Kniazev managed to repair the tractor but the harrow was a write-off.

"I was lucky," he said with a twinkle in his steel blue eyes.

Others not so much. "Demining will take a long, long time because people keep detonating mines," he said.

"Dozens (of farmers) around here have already hit TM anti-tank mines. Many of our folks also stepped on OZM mines."

These Soviet-era "jumping" anti-personnel mines are particularly dangerous, leaping up a metre (three feet) when triggered and spraying 2,400 bits of shrapnel at everything within 40 metres.

Kniazev has been turning the remnants of Russian shells into pipes.

"I'll make a lamp" with that empty cluster bomb on the floor, he said.

A prosperous farmer before the war, he is slowly getting back on his feet despite losing a large part of his agricultural machinery.

He had just planted wheat after growing potatoes last year. He plans to diversify into mushrooms, which are highly profitable, he said.

Andriy Ilkiv lost his left leg below the knee when an anti-personnel mine exploded under his foot on September 13, 2022.

"I returned to work about four months later," said the head of a Ukrainian Interior Ministry demining team, even though the father-of-five was eligible for an office job because of his disability.

"I'm used to this work, I like it," he told AFP.

"Staying in an office isn't for me," he added, his colleagues gently ribbing him as they begin their day's work, the engine of their huge 12.5-ton German-made excavator already humming.

Kniazev said many Ukrainians work in demining for the good pay and to avoid conscription.

Former hairdresser Viktoria Shynkar has been working for HALO Trust, the world's biggest non-governmental demining group, for a year.

And she happily admitted the pay was one part of what drew her to this field in Tamaryne near Mykolaiv, not far from the Black Sea.

The 1,000 euros ($1,180) monthly wage she gets after the three weeks of training is as much as a young doctor is paid.

And despite the heavy body armour and helmet, it is much less tiring than being a hairdresser, where she hated making small talk with customers and was always on her feet.

"Before I used to cut hair. Now I cut grass (looking for mines). Before I cut to the millimetre. Now it's to the centimetre," the 36-year-old said.

You need to be precise. In a field nearby, Shynkar and her colleagues uncovered 243 TM-62 Russian landmines, each armed with enough high explosive to blast through the armour of a battle tank and kill its crew.

The Ukrainian government wants to clear 80 percent of its territory by 2033, despite some questioning how the work will be funded and coordinated, never mind problems with corruption.

"I've seen contracts worth millions that made no sense," a foreign expert, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.

"So there are clearly things going on under the table."

But some "of the most significant innovations in mine clearance in 20 to 30 years" are also happening in Ukraine, said Smith of the HALO Trust.

"Drones have been incredibly useful, particularly in areas we can't enter safely but they still allow us to survey the area," said Sam Rowlands, the trust's survey coordinator in Ukraine.

It uses 80 drones with various sensors depending on the ground conditions.

The images are sent to their headquarters near Kyiv to map out the minefield and are used to train AI in detecting different types of mines.

Volodymr Sydoruk, a data analyst there, works on the algorithms from partner company Amazon Web Services.

He enters multicoloured code for each type of mine that appears on his giant screen.

It is still early days for their machine learning but it is "already around 70 percent accurate, which is not bad", said Sydoruk.

And AI is likely to make drones a lot more effective in the future, experts say.

"One day we will see demining robots working 23 hours a day, with no risk to human lives," the UN's Heslop said.

"In five or 10 years, everything will be much more automated, thanks to what is happening today in Ukraine," he added.

Then Viktor and Larisa will finally be able to retire their rakes.