Sayidina

Category: NEWS

  • India searches for militants in Kashmir, as tensions soar with Pakistan

    Indian security force personnel stand guard at the site of a suspected militant attack on tourists in Baisaran near Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, April 24, 2025. REUTERS

    SRINAGAR – Armed police and soldiers searched homes and forests for militants in Indian Kashmir on Friday and India’s army chief visited the area to review security, after the killing of 26 men earlier this week – the worst attack on civilians in nearly two decades.

    The militant attack triggered outrage and grief in India, along with calls for action against neighbour Pakistan, whom New Delhi accuses of funding and encouraging terrorism in Kashmir, a region both nations claim and have fought two wars over.

    India’s army chief visited Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir, and authorities scoured Pahalgam, the scenic town where the militant attack took place on Tuesday.

    India has said there were Pakistani elements in Tuesday’s attack, when militants shot 26 men in a meadow in the Pahalgam area. Islamabad has denied any involvement.

    Indian financial markets plummeted earlier in the day but recovered some of their losses by the close of trade. The key stock indexes ended lower by 0.7%-0.9%, while the Indian rupee ended 0.2% down, while the 10-year benchmark bond yield rose four basis points.

    The nuclear-armed nations have unleashed a raft of measures against each other, with India keeping a critical river water-sharing treaty in abeyance and Pakistan closing its airspace to Indian airlines, among other steps.

    General Upendra Dwivedi visited Kashmir on Friday to review security arrangements a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to chase the perpetrators to “the ends of the earth”.

    India’s chief opposition leader Rahul Gandhi also visited Srinagar on Friday, meeting the injured and local government heads.

    India’s top two carriers IndiGo and Air India said some of their international routes, including to the United States and Europe, would be affected by the closure of Pakistani airspace, leading to extended flight times and diversions.

    There have been calls for and fears that India could conduct a military strike in Pakistani territory as it did in 2019 in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police.

    Several leaders of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have called for military action against Pakistan.

    The two countries both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full, but rule it in part. India, a Hindu majority nation, has long accused Islamic Pakistan of aiding separatists who have battled security forces in its part of the territory – accusations Islamabad denies.

    Indian officials say Tuesday’s attack had “cross-border linkages”. Kashmiri police, in notices identifying three people “involved” in the violence, said two of them were Pakistani nationals. India has not elaborated on the links or shared proof.

    Those killed in the attack came from all over India, Modi has said.

    Television channels showed funerals of victims taking place in several states and newspapers carried photos of women grieving and people praying in front of funeral pyres.

    Early on Friday, authorities in Indian Kashmir demolished the houses of two suspected militants, one of whom is a suspect in Tuesday’s attack, an official said.

    A woman walks past the family house of Asif Shiekh which was demolished by the Indian authorities at Monghama village in Tral, south Kashmir, April 25, 2025. REUTERS

    Governments in many states ruled by Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have torn down what they say are illegal houses or shops of people accused of crimes, many of them Muslims, in what has come to be popularly known as “instant, bulldozer justice”.

    In an unrelated incident, sporadic firing was reported along the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani Kashmir, the Indian army said on Friday, despite a 2021 ceasefire which has been violated several times.

    REUTERS

  • Entire family killed in Israeli airstrike on tent shelter in Khan Younis

    GAZA – Five members of the same family were killed early Friday morning when Israeli forces bombed their tent shelter in the Al-Mawasi area to the west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

    According to WAFA correspondent, the airstrike targeted the tent of the Abu Taimah family, resulting in the killing of a man, his pregnant wife, and their three children.

    Additionally, a 3-year-old child died from severe burns following a fire that broke out in a separate tent in the same area.

    Israeli artillery also shelled the Qizan al-Rashwan neighborhood, southwest of Khan Younis, according to local sources.

    The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 2023 has so far resulted in at least 51,355 documented Palestinian fatalities, with over 117,248 others injured.

    WAFA

  • Thousands of Israeli colonists storm the town of Kifl Haris under military protection

    SALFIT – Thousands of Israeli colonists stormed the town of Kifl Haris, north of Salfit, last night under heavy protection from the Israeli occupation forces.

    According to local sources, Israeli forces broke into the town in advance, blocking movement of local residents in preparation for the colonists’ incursion. Shortly after, large groups of Israeli colonists poured into the town to perform Talmudic rituals at Islamic shrines inside the town.

    Witnesses reported that the colonists roamed the streets of Kifl Haris in a provocative manner, hanging racist slogans on the walls of homes and private properties.

    The town of Kifl Haris has been subjected to repeated incursions by Israeli colonists, who routinely desecrate Islamic shrines located there.

    WAFA

  • Two killed, eight wounded in Russian attack on Ukraine’s Pavlohrad, governor says

    Two people were killed and eight more were wounded in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, the regional governor said on Friday.

    “The aggressor again conducted a mass attack on the region with drones,” Serhiy Lysak, governor for the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram, adding that 11 drones where destroyed over the region.

    Lysak said that several fires had broken out in the city, posting a photo of a fire raging on some levels of a multi-storey building.

    He said that six of the wounded where hospitalised while two others, including a 15-year-old girl, were treated on site.

    As a result of the attack, fires had also broken out on the sites of enterprises in the Synelnykivskyi and Samarivskyi districts, he added.

    REUTERS

  • Police aircraft crashes in Thailand, killing 6

    BANGKOK – A small police plane crashed near the shore of Thailand’s resort town of Hua Hin on Friday morning, killing six people, the Thai police said.

    The Thai national police said on its social media page that the aircraft of the police aviation division crashed into the sea off Cha-am District, Phetchaburi Province shortly after taking off from the nearby Hua Hin airport, with all six on board killed.

    The police said the accident took place when the plane was conducting a test flight for parachute training.

    Video footage showed the plane nosedived into the sea. Initial investigations suggest that the engine malfunctioned shortly after takeoff. The police said the cause of the accident will be investigated.

    The police emergency center of Phetchaburi province said that it received notifications of a plane plunging into the sea just near a local resort at about 8:15 a.m.

    XINHUA

  • Wildfire burns thousands of acres in a rural, rugged area of Nebraska

    In this photo provided by Brown/Rock County Emergency Management, the Plum Creek Fire burns in north-central Nebraska in April 2025. AP

    JOHNSTOWN, Neb. – A wildfire burning in a rugged, wooded area of Nebraska grew to more than 6,600 acres but by Thursday hundreds of firefighters managed to contain about 40% of the blaze.

    The Plum Creek Fire started Monday afternoon from a controlled burn that got out of hand, said Jessica Pozehl, deputy emergency manager for Brown and Rock counties.

    The fire, which has burned 6,631 acres (2,683 hectares), is mainly in steep, rugged canyon ground and also some grassy areas, she said. Johnstown, population 60 people, is the closest town to the fire in the Sandhills in the north-central part of the state. Some structures might be endangered, but no one’s residence was in danger as of Thursday morning, Pozehl said.

    More than 50 fire departments, joined by National Guard members, were fighting the blaze at its height, as many as 200 to 250 people, she said.

    In recent days, responders used two planes to drop fire retardant, and two National Guard Black Hawk helicopters were dropping water on Wednesday and Thursday, Pozehl said.

    The fire has killed 45 cattle and destroyed a cabin, according to Gov. Jim Pillen ‘s office. The governor issued a statewide burn ban and authorized the Nebraska National Guard to send 29 soldiers and airmen to help volunteer fire departments.

    Much of Nebraska is facing drought conditions, with severe or moderate drought in Brown County where the fire is, said Shawn Jacobs, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Platte.

    “This is typical for what we see every year during the spring months. We have dry, warm, windy days and that’s kind of what happened leading up to the fire,” Jacobs said.

    What really helped push the fire and made it difficult to control were gusty, erratic winds from dry showers that formed, he said.

    Brown County saw from a tenth to a quarter inch (a half centimeter) of rain Wednesday and overnight, Jacobs said. Potential rain is in the forecast in days ahead.

    AP

  • Thai PM hospitalised with fever following Cambodia trip

    Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra attends the 25th ASEAN-Republic of Korea Summit to commemorate the 35th Anniversary of Dialogue Relations, at the National Convention Centre in Vientiane, Laos, October 10, 2024. REUTERS

    BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been admitted to hospital with a high fever after returning from a two-day visit to Cambodia, a government official said on Friday.

    Shortly after returning from Cambodia, she began experiencing symptoms and went to see a doctor on Thursday evening when her fever worsened, government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said.

    She was admitted to hospital for observation and would undergo additional testing, he said, adding her meetings for Friday had been postponed.

    She had been due to meet Singaporean e-commerce firm Sea Limited, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the police policy committee, the government said.

    REUTERS

  • Woman hiking with her 3 children dies in fall from a cliff in Massachusetts

    SUTTON, Mass. – A woman was killed when she fell off a cliff in Massachusetts while on a hike with her children, police said.

    Carolyn Sanger from Topsfield, Massachusetts, was hiking at Purgatory Chasm State Reservation southwest of Boston when she fell Wednesday, the Sutton Police Department said in a social media post. She fell about 50 to 75 feet (15 to 23 meters) into the chasm, police said.

    Medical professionals who happened to be hiking at the time quickly provided care but Sanger died of her injuries a short time later, police said.

    Police are investigating but said the fall appears to have been accidental.

    Sanger, 49, had been hiking with three of her four children and other families members.

    The chasm trail is closed in the winter because of slippery, wet conditions, according to information on the state website. Weather conditions on Wednesday were dry.

    “There are trails above the chasm you can go along, (and) dangerous overhangs if you’re going to the edge to look down,” hiker Andy Spears told WCVB-TV.

    AP

  • Pakistan closes air space for Indian airlines, warns against water treaty violation as ties plummet

    Members of Indian security personnel patrol on a highway leading to South Kashmir’s Pahalgam, following a suspected militant attack, in Marhama village, in Kashmir, April 23, 2025. REUTERS

    ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR, India, April 24 – Pakistan closed its air space for Indian airlines and rejected New Delhi’s suspension of a critical water sharing treaty on Thursday in retaliation for India’s response to a deadly Islamist militant attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir.

    The tit-for-tat announcements took relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours, who have fought three wars, to the lowest level in years.

    The latest diplomatic crisis was triggered by the killing of 26 men at a popular tourist destination in Indian Kashmir on Tuesday, in the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings.

    New Delhi said there were cross-border elements to the attack and downgraded ties with Pakistan on Wednesday, suspending a 1960 treaty on sharing waters of the Indus River and closing the only land crossing between the neighbours.

    Indian police published notices naming three suspects and saying two were Pakistanis, but New Delhi has not offered any proof of the links, or shared any more details.

    On Thursday, Pakistan said it was closing its air space to Indian-owned or operated airlines, suspending all trade including through third countries and halting special South Asian visas issued to Indian nationals.

    Islamabad will also exercise the right to hold all bilateral accords with India, including the 1972 Simla Agreement, in abeyance until New Delhi desists from “fomenting terrorism inside Pakistan”, Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

    The Simla Agreement was signed after the third war between the two countries and lays down principles meant to govern bilateral relations, including respect for a ceasefire line in Kashmir.

    There was no immediate response from New Delhi to Pakistan’s announcement.

    Pakistan’s dollar-denominated government bonds dropped more than 4 cents on Thursday as the tensions escalated.

    Muslim-majority Kashmir has been at the heart of the animosity between India and Pakistan, with both claiming it in full and ruling it in part. It has been the cause of two of their three wars and also witnessed a bloody insurgency against Indian rule.

    Islamabad also said it “vehemently rejects” India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and said that any attempt to stop or divert water belonging to Pakistan would be considered an “act of war and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power”.

    The water treaty, mediated by the World Bank, split the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbours and regulated the sharing of water. It had so far withstood even wars between the neighbours.

    Pakistan is heavily dependent on water flowing downstream from this river system from India for its hydropower and irrigation needs.
    Suspending the treaty would allow India to deny Pakistan its share of the waters.

    MODI PLEDGES TO PUNISH ATTACKERS

    Pakistan’s response came hours after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to pursue, track and punish the militants who separated the men among the tourists in Kashmir’s Pahalgam area and shot them dead.

    It also came after the Indian foreign ministry announced the suspension of all visa services to Pakistanis and revoked visas that have already been issued.

    Ahead of his public speech at an event in the eastern state of Bihar, Modi folded his hands in prayer in remembrance of the men killed in Kashmir, exhorting thousands gathered at the venue to do the same.

    “We will pursue them to the ends of the earth,” Modi said, without referring to the attackers’ identities or naming Pakistan.

    “They have made the mistake of attacking the soul of India. I want to say clearly, that those who have planned and carried out this attack will be punished beyond their imagination,” Modi said to cheers from the crowd.

    Modi has called an all-party meeting with opposition parties later on Thursday to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

    In New Delhi, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Pakistani embassy in the diplomatic enclave, shouting slogans and pushing against police barricades.

    A film that starred Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in the lead with Bollywood actor Vaani Kapoor will now not be released in India, local media reported, citing federal information ministry sources.

    Diplomatic relations between the two countries were weak even before the latest measures were announced as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.

    Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback to what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have projected as a major achievement in revoking the special status Jammu and Kashmir state enjoyed and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

    India has often accused Islamic Pakistan of involvement in the insurgency in Kashmir, but Islamabad says it only offers diplomatic and moral support to a demand for self-determination.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Kashmir since the uprising began in 1989, but it has tapered off in recent years and tourism has surged in the region.

    REUTERS

  • Ukraine suspects Russia of torturing Ukrainian reporter who died in captivity

    Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna attends a court hearing in Kyiv, Ukraine October 12, 2021. REUTERS/File Photo

    Ukraine said on Thursday it identified the body of journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who had died in Russian captivity, and a forensic medical examination revealed signs of torture and ill-treatment.

    Viktoria Roshchyna died at the age of 27 last September after spending months in captivity.

    The Russian defence ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

    The journalist, whose first-hand reports provided a glimpse into life under Russian occupation early in Moscow’s invasion, went missing in August 2023 during a reporting trip to Russia-held eastern Ukraine.

    The body of the journalist was discovered among bodies that Russia handed over to Ukraine in February, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.

    “A tag with the surname Roshchyna was found on one of them,” it said in a statement. The DNA tests showed that chances the body belonged to Roshchyna were over 99%, and additional tests are being carried out with the help of French specialists, it said.

    Roshchyna’s family learned about her death last year from a letter from Russia’s defence ministry, Reuters previously reported citing the campaign group Reporters Without Borders. It said she had died on September 19.

    Ukrainian forensic experts were unable to determine the cause of death, but found signs of injuries and possible torture, Yurii Bielousov, head of the war crimes department for Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said on Thursday.

    “According to the results of the forensic medical examination, numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment were found on the victim’s body, in particular, abrasions and hemorrhages on various parts of the body, and a rib was broken,” he said in a video released by Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda.

    REUTERS

  • Missile that killed 12 in Russian strike on Kyiv was North Korean, Zelenskiy says

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday the Russian missile that struck a residential building in Kyiv overnight and killed 12 people was supplied by North Korea, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

    A North Korean KN-23 (KN-23A) missile hit a residential block in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of Kyiv’s centre during a major aerial attack by Russia, a Ukrainian military source told Reuters.

    “According to preliminary information, the Russians used a ballistic missile manufactured in North Korea. Our special services are verifying all the details,” Zelenskiy said on X, without providing further details.

    Russia made no comment on Zelenskiy’s remarks. Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers that would violate U.N. embargoes.
    Russia’s military cooperation with North Korea grew rapidly as Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

    Ukraine says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

    By the start of 2025, Pyongyang had supplied Russia with 148 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s military spy agency says.

    KN-23 (KN-23A) missiles are armed with warheads of up to one tonne, which is more powerful than the Russian equivalent missiles, the Ukrainian source said.

    In the initial readout after the Russian attack, Kyiv said seven ballistic missiles were used in total, identifying them broadly as Iskander-M/KN-23.

    North Korea’s involvement in Ukraine has alarmed not only European capitals but also South Korea and its allies in Asia, who fear that lessons learned from war could be unleashed on them one day.

    REUTERS

  • Mine collapse in eastern Congo kills at least 10, rebel-appointed authorities say

    GOMA, Congo – An artisanal gold mine collapsed in a rebel-controlled territory in eastern Congo, killing at least 10 people, authorities said Thursday.

    The collapse at the Luhihi mine in Kabare territory took place late Wednesday and was caused by “a natural disaster caused by climate change,” the rebel-appointed vice-governor of South Kivu, Dunia Masumbuko Bwenge, told The Associated Press.

    Floods and landslides are frequent in this area east of South Kivu, which borders Rwanda. In 2023, at least 400 people died in flash floods in Kalehe territory.

    Bwenge said that because Luhihi is an artisanal mine, there were also several irregularities and workers did not follow safety regulations.

    Jean-Jacques Purusi, who was governor of South Kivu before M23 took over, confirmed there had been a collapse at the mine. He said the collapse killed at least six people and many bodies caught under the rubbles have not been retrieved yet. Bwenge, the rebel-appointed vice governor, said at least 10 people had been killed.

    The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels control several areas in eastern Congo, including Luhihi and the provincial capital of South Kivu, Bukavu.

    The decades-long conflict in the region escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma in North Kivu province, followed by Bukavu in February.

    M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.

    The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the east.

    AP

  • Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 50, many of them women and children

    Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 50 people, many of them women and children, the territory’s Health Ministry said Thursday. The deadly strikes tore into residential buildings, a police station, and a tent for displaced Palestinians, among other locations.

    One strike in northern Gaza killed at least 18 people and another killed 11, including at least one child, according to Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military said the strike on the police station targeted a militant command center.

    Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war over a month ago. It has sealed off Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians from all food and other imports since the beginning of March to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Around two dozen hostages are still believed to be alive.

    AP

  • Student knife attack at French school leaves 1 dead, 3 injured

    PARIS – A high school student entered a school in western France’s Nantes with a knife and stabbed at least four students Thursday afternoon, local media reported, citing the police.

    One of the victims died from injuries, according to BFMTV, citing multiple sources.

    Teachers stopped the attacker before police arrived, BFMTV said, adding that the attacker, a second-year high school student, has been detained.

    Speaking at the scene, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that some 50 investigators have been deployed and worked “tirelessly” since. Over 70 interviews have been conducted, he added.

    French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has called for an intensification of controls implemented around and within schools following the attack.

    The prosecutor in Nantes is expected to hold a press conference to give more details about the attack on Friday.

    XINHUA

  • Israeli soldier killed, 2 others injured in Gaza: army

    JERUSALEM – An Israeli tank driver was killed by sniper fire in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said in a statement on Thursday.

    The soldier, who served in the 79th Battalion of the “Machatz” Armored Brigade, was killed “during combat in northern Gaza,” the military said, adding that his family had been notified of his death. The slain soldier’s name has not yet been cleared for publication.

    In addition, an officer in the Yahalom Unit and a reservist from the same battalion were severely wounded in the incident and evacuated to a hospital, according to the statement.

    Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir warned earlier in the day that Israel would escalate its military campaign in Gaza if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages soon.

    “If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our operations to an even more intense and significant phase,” Zamir said during a tour of Gaza, where he met with ground forces and held a situation assessment with commanders, according to another military statement.

    According to Israeli authorities, 59 hostages remain in Gaza, including 58 of the 251 taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. The IDF has confirmed that at least 35 hostages of those still held are believed to be dead.

    XINHUA

  • Over 6,500 Afghan refugees return home from Pakistan, Iran in one day

    KABUL – A total of 1,127 Afghan families with 6,774 people returned to their homeland from neighboring Iran and Pakistan on Wednesday, Afghanistan’s High Commission for Addressing Returnees Problems said in a statement Thursday.

    According to the statement, the refugees have repatriated home via the Torkham border crossing in eastern Nangarhar province, the Spin Boldak border crossing in southern Kandahar province, and the Islam Qala border point in western Herat province.

    The commission provides temporary shelters, nourishment, water, medical care, and transportation services to their respective provinces for the returnees.

    Nearly 2 million Afghans have reportedly returned home from the said countries in the past year. The Pakistani government is set to deport 3 million Afghans to their home country in 2025, while Iranian officials have asked undocumented foreign nationals to put an end to their illegal stay and return to their homes.

    About 7 million Afghan refugees, most of whom are undocumented migrants, are currently living abroad, with most living in Afghanistan’s neighboring Pakistan and Iran.

    XINHUA

  • Volcanic ashfall covers three villages in Russia’s Kamchatka

    VLADIVOSTOK – Volcanic ashfall from an eruption of Bezymianny Volcano in Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula has blanketed three villages in the Milkovo District, local emergency services said on Thursday.

    Volcanic ash is currently falling in three villages from emissions from Bezymianny Volcano, the regional branch of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said on its Telegram channel.

    “While the livelihoods of residents have not been disrupted, emergency services strongly advise people to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary,” it added.

    The Far Eastern Branch of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has modeled the projected path of the ash cloud. Their data indicate that volcanic particles are drifting toward another settlement, the village of Kozyrevsk in the Ust-Kamchatsky District.

    The Bezymyanny volcano has emitted an ash column for the fifth time in 24 hours, with the latest plume rising 11 km above sea level. As a result, the aviation color code has been raised to “red,” meaning a significant threat to all types of aircraft.

    Bezymianny Volcano is situated about 40 km from the village of Klyuchi and 350 km from the regional capital city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

    XINHUA

  • Drone, missile attack on Kyiv kills nine, injures more than 70, says State Emergency Service

    An overnight Russian combined missile and drone attack triggered fires, smashed buildings and buried residents under rubble in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killing nine people and injuring more than 70, the State Emergency Service said on Thursday.

    Six children were reported to be among the injured.

    “There has been destruction. The search is continuing for people under rubble,” the State Emergency Service wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

    The most serious incident was at an apartment building destroyed in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of the city centre.

    Pictures posted on Telegram showed rescue teams working with floodlights, moving cautiously through piles of rubble and clambering up ladders extended along the facades of buildings. Police were calling from apartment to apartment to determine whether residents were safe.

    Rescue teams, the emergency service said, were operating at 13 sites in the capital with climbing specialists and sniffer dogs. Forty fires had broken out.

    “Mobile telephones are heard ringing beneath rubble. The search will continue until it become clear that they have got everyone,” it said.

    Fires had broken out in garages, administrative buildings and falling metal fragments had struck vehicles.
    An air raid alert was in effect in the capital for six hours.

    Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city in the northeast, endured two overnight waves of Russian missiles, injuring two people and smashing windows, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.

    There was also damage in Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, where emergency services said Russian forces launched a repeat strike on rescue teams attending a fire, injuring one worker.

    Ukrainian state railway Ukrzaliznytsia said that railway infrastructure had come under attack and two railway workers were hurt.

    In Kyiv and Kharkiv regions the shelling damaged track and administrative and technical buildings, but trains were operating normally.

    REUTERS

  • Soccer player’s wife and child kidnapped in Ecuador during home invasion

    Jackson Rodriguez of Ecuador’s Emelec reacts during a Copa Sudamericana round of 16 second leg soccer match against Argentina’s Defensa y Justicia at the Unico Diego Armando Maradona stadium in La Plata, Argentina, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. AP/File

    QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuadorian soccer player Jackson Rodríguez’s wife and 5-year-old child were kidnapped early Wednesday, police reported, when men broke into their home in search of the Emelec defender, who told investigators he hid under a bed.

    The kidnappings took place around 3 a.m. in the coastal city of Guayaquil, police chief Édison Rodríguez said.

    In his testimony to police, the 26-year-old fullback said he hid under a bed when he heard the front door being broken down, according to the police chief.

    The perpetrators took Rodriguez’s wife and child after asking the woman if Rodríguez was at the residence.

    According to police, Rodríguez saw at a window “that the individuals were traveling in a gray-colored double-cab pickup truck.”

    The incident occurred amid a state of emergency declared 10 days ago by the government in nine areas of the country, including the province of Guayas, to which Guayaquil belongs. The measure allows the mobilization of security forces in those territories to combat the operations of organized crime groups, which authorities blame for the wave of violence.

    Insecurity and crime have plagued Ecuador for four years, with an increase in the first few months of the year, according to the government. Between January and March, 2,345 violent deaths were reported, 742 of which occurred in Guayaquil, located 270 kilometers (168 miles) southwest of the capital Quito.

    The port city is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the country. From those ports, illegal drug shipments are sent to Europe, Central America, and the United States, according to authorities.

    Other athletes have been targeted in the past. In December 2024, soccer player Pedro Perlaza, who played for Liga de Quito also was kidnapped in Esmeraldas, a city located 182 kilometers northwest of Quito, and rescued alive a few days later.

    AP

  • Russian journalist dies of wounds suffered in March in Ukraine war

    A Russian journalist caught in a Ukrainian artillery strike last month died of his wounds in hospital, his publication said early on Thursday.

    Nikita Goldin, who worked for the military’s Zvezda Television, was part of a group that came under attack in a Moscow-controlled part of Luhansk region in northeastern Ukraine on March 24.

    Six people died in the strike, including two other journalists and their driver.

    Goldin, who also wrote for the military daily Krasnaya Zvezda, was taken to a military hospital in Moscow, but died of his wounds nearly a month after the attack.

    Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting the journalists in the attack.

    Data provided earlier in the war by the Committee to Protect Journalists counted at least 15 journalists killed since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Nearly all of the Luhansk region has been captured by Russian forces as Moscow drives to take control of the broader eastern Donbas region, one of Ukraine’s most industrialised areas.

    REUTERS