Zelensky asks Modi to use his influence to end war in Ukraine
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called on Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to use his influence on Vladimir Putin to push for an end to the war.
Mr Modi invited Mr Zelensky to come to India during his visit to Ukraine in August when he said New Delhi was on the side of peace from the very first day of the war.
Kyiv has repeatedly shown frustration with India for seeking to do a balancing act between the West and its ally Russia. India has called for peace but sought to increase trade links with Russia, a key arms supplier and energy exporter.
Mr Zelensky said Mr Modi has “huge influence” on Mr Putin and can take a “real step”.
“As for the position of PM Modi I think that any assertions today should not end with the word only. Modi is the PM of a really huge country from the perspective of population, economy, influence and impact. Such a country cannot just say we are interested in the end of the war, we are all interested in that,” he said in an interview with the Times of India newspaper.
“Especially for such a huge country like India, PM Modi can influence the end of the war. This is the huge value of him in any conflict.”
Mr Zelensky said blocking the Russian economy, its cheap energy resources and its defence industrial complex would reduce its ability to wage war against Ukraine.
He called on G20 – the grouping of the world’s largest economies – to choke Russia economically and put “Putin in his place”. “You don’t need to say we would like peace, you need to act. Because the daily war is killing people,” he said.
Kyiv has alleged that 20,000 children have been taken to Russia or Russian occupied territories without the consent of the families or guardians since the war began, calling it a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
Suggesting more concrete steps, he called on Mr Modi to join a coalition of countries helping bring back the children and said he could start with the repatriation of 1,000 such children.
“You can force Putin to bring back Ukrainian children,” Mr Zelensky said.
“PM Modi can use his influence and tell Putin just give me 1,000 Ukrainian children who will be brought back to Ukraine. Let PM Modi bring back at least 1,000 Ukrainian children.”
Mr Modi has met Mr Putin twice this year. He went to Russia in July, and was promptly criticised by Mr Zelensky for hugging the Russian leader.
The Ukrainian leader called Mr Modi’s meeting with Mr Putin “a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal on such a day”.
Mr Modi did, however, offer some veiled criticism of what was happening in Ukraine at the end of his meeting with Mr Putin. “Be it war, conflicts, terror attacks – everyone who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives,” he said. “But when innocent children are murdered, when we see innocent children dying, it is heart-wrenching. That pain is immense.”
Mr Modi repeated his embrace of Mr Putin at this month’s Brics summit and said that “problems should be resolved only through peaceful means”.
“We fully support the early restoration of peace and stability. All our efforts give priority to humanity. India is ready to provide all possible support in the times to come,” Mr Modi said, adding that he would discuss the issues with Putin.
Mr Zelensky told the newspaper the Brics summit in Russia failed as not everyone was there. Brics, he said, was divided by “Putin himself by his policy of war”.
Three dozen countries participated in the summit and 24 were represented by their leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa. The only notable absentee was Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who had to cancel his trip due to a medical emergency.
Mr Zelensky also said neutrality in the war meant support for Russia as it only helped Moscow.
“I consider this a hidden support for Russia and the ones who were present there at the summit and speaking about their neutrality and saying they would like to help solve the conflict in my opinion they look more pro-Russia,” he said.
New Delhi has been accused by the West of indirectly funding Moscow’s war by buying vast quantities of Russian crude oil. The oil purchases have increased almost 20-fold since 2021.
Russia has also long been the biggest arms supplier to India, the world’s largest arms buyer in the world, and Moscow has remained a time-tested ally.
Russia supplied 65 per cent of India’s weapons purchases of more than $60bn over the last two decades, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, but the supply has reportedly declined in recent months due to the war.
Pentagon says 10,000 North Korean troops set to join Russia’s war
North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia who could join Moscow‘s fight in Ukraine in the “next several weeks”, the Pentagon said amid rising concerns over Pyongyong’s involvement in Vladimir Putin’s war.
The soldiers were believed to be heading for the border region of Kursk, where Moscow recently suffered defeats and has been struggling to push back Ukrainian troops, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Sigh said on Monday.
On Tuesday, South Korean lawmakers, briefed by the country’s spy agency, said some high-ranking North Korean military officials and troops deployed to Russia might move to the frontline.
The lawmakers did not give any timetable but the comments come as NATO confirmed Pyongyang’s dispatch of troops to Russia. Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte officially confirmed reports that North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region.
South Korea and the US have raised alarms over North Korea sending troops to join the Russian war on Ukraine so that Russia may offer technology in return that could advance the threat posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programme.
Last week South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops are being trained to use equipment including drones before being they’re sent to fight in Ukraine.
Moscow and Pyongyang initially denied the allegations but later adopted a vaguer stance, asserting that their military cooperation conforms with international law. The Russian president sidestepped the question about the North deploying troops, saying: “This is our sovereign decision.”
“Whether we use it or not, where, how, or whether we engage in exercises, training, or transfer some experience. It’s our business,” Mr Putin told reporters.
South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, in telephone calls with EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Mr Rutte, shared South Korean intelligence assessments that North Korean troops could be deployed to battlefronts “more quickly than anticipated”.
He called for closer coordination with European governments aimed at “monitoring and blocking” illegal exchanges between Pyongyang and Moscow, Mr Yoon’s office said in a statement.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky cited intelligence about the preparation of two units with possibly up to 12,000 North Korean troops who would take part in the war alongside Russian forces.
Ukraine published a video purportedly showing dozens of North Koreans lining up to collect Russian military fatigues after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Pyongyang had shipped 3000 troops, half of them to Russia’s Far East for training.
Ukraine claims Russia has deployed roughly 50,000 troops in the Kursk region, while independent military analysts suggest that Kyiv has deployed nearly 30,000 soldiers, the New York Times reported. The additional North Korean troops could help Russia push Ukrainian soldiers out of the region.
“Given their numbers, it is possible that they will have an impact on the conduct of hostilities in certain areas,” Artem Kholodkevych, the deputy commander of Ukraine’s 61st Mechanized Brigade, told the Times.
The Nato chief told reporters in Brussels that the North Korean deployment represents “a significant escalation” in Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war”.
US president Joe Biden joined the outcry, calling the deployment “very dangerous”.
“If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” Ms Singh said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”
The Ukrainian army has reportedly issued Ukrainian-Korean phrase books for its troops to urge the North Korean troops to surrender, while Russia planned to assign one interpreter for every 30 North Korean soldiers for coordination on the battlefield.
The North is preparing to launch another military satellite with technological help from Russia, the Yonhap news agency reported citing South Korea’s spy agency.
China confirms arrest of South Korean man on suspicion of espionage
China has detained a South Korean man on suspicion of espionage, marking the first arrest of a citizen from the East Asian nation under the toughened counterespionage law.
The South Korean embassy in Beijing on Monday confirmed that a 50-year-old man identified as Mr A was taken into custody last December on suspicion of espionage.
A former employee of Samsung Electronics, he was suspected to have leaked semiconductor related information to South Korean authorities, Yonhap news agency reported.
The Chinese foreign ministry confirmed the arrest on Tuesday but did not detail the charges or even identify the person.
“The South Korean citizen was arrested by the Chinese authorities in accordance with the law on suspicion of espionage,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, said. “As a law-governing country, China has detected illegal activity in accordance with the law while guaranteeing the person’s legitimate rights.”
China revised its espionage law last July for the first time since 2014. It expanded the definition of espionage to include cyber attacks against state organs or critical infrastructure. The law, critics said, gave Beijing more power to punish what it deemed threats to national security.
In recent years, China has detained dozens of its own and foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, such as an executive at Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma who was held in Beijing last year. Espionage cases are usually tried in secret due to their national security links.
The latest arrest is likely to deter investment and operations by South Korean firms in the neighbouring country.
Mr A moved to China in 2016 and worked in major Chinese semiconductor companies, including the country’s largest memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, according to The Chosun Daily.
He left to start his own company before being detained by the authorities.
He is suspected to have leaked semiconductor related information to South Korea while working for the Chinese chipmaker. He has denied leaking the data, daily said.
Mr A was reportedly detained on 18 December 2023 after the National Security Bureau of Hefei City barged into his home. He was questioned by authorities in a local hotel where he was kept isolated for more than five months.
He was moved to a Hefei detention centre in May and his family claims he has not been given access to his medicines for diabetes.
The confirmation of the arrest follows the tightening of measures by Seoul to prevent what it sees as the theft of semiconductor intellectual property by Chinese firms.
Choi Jinseog, a former Samsung executive who ran a chipmaking venture in China, was detained last month on fresh accusations regarding the theft of chip processing technology.
Mr Choi had already been the subject of an industrial espionage trial since July 2023 that underscored South Korea‘s attempts to fight industrial espionage and slow China‘s progress in chipmaking. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Mother collecting child crashes car through school fence killing boy
A 40-year-old mother picking up her child from a school in Melbourne, crashed her car through a fence, hitting an 11-year-old boy who later died in the hospital, police said.
Police reported that a vehicle was travelling along Burgess Street when it is believed to have veered off the road and crashed through a fence near a sports court at the Auburn South Primary School shortly after 2.30pm on Tuesday.
The vehicle struck an outdoor table where five children were seated.
An 11-year-old boy was critically injured and later died in the hospital, while two 11-year-old girls, a 10-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old boy sustained serious injuries.
The driver was arrested at the scene and is currently in custody.
Victoria Police spokesperson Craig McEvoy told reporters: “It appears it is a tragic accident.”
“A 40-year-old female has driven to the school to collect a child, after collecting the child, she’s performed a U-turn, and [crashed] into the fence of the school,” he said.
“Unfortunately, she has struck a table where there were five children seated within the school grounds.
“Very tragically and sadly, one of those children has passed away while being conveyed to hospital.”
Police reported that the primary school-aged child in the passenger seat of the car was unharmed.
Video footage showed the estate car, which had significant damage to its front-left wing, coming to a stop after passing through a shaded recreation area.
”Multiple Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedics attended the scene,” Victoria Ambulance said in a statement.
“Three children were transported by road to The Royal Children’s Hospital. Two children were transported by road to Monash Medical Centre.”
The Department of Education spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au: “Our thoughts are right now with the entire Auburn South Primary School community.”
“We are working closely with staff, students and parents of the school to support them during this deeply distressing time.
“We will provide further information as soon as we can.”
Minister for education Ben Carroll expressed his condolences to the students and their families, stating that the government was closely monitoring the situation. “I’ve asked [the Department of Education] to be on standby to provide whatever supports are needed,” Mr Carroll said in a post on X.
A local business owner, identified by his first name Guy, told ABC News that he went to the school to offer any help he could after the tragic incident.
“There were some kids that are very, very frightened, not themselves,” he was quoted as saying.
After the crash, he described the scene as “chaos”, with Burgess Street near the school closed to traffic.
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan stated that a “dark shadow” has fallen over the state following the incident. “I know tonight Victorians will be thinking of Auburn South Primary, and holding our kids even closer,” she said.
Opposition leader John Pesutto described the situation as “devastating” and extended his heartfelt condolences to the injured students, their families, and the broader school community on behalf of Hawthorn.
“On behalf of the Hawthorn community, I express my sincerest condolences with the students who have been injured, their families and the broader school community,” he said.
Ex-Philippines president Duterte admits to keeping ‘death squad’
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte admitted to a senate inquiry on Monday that he had employed a “death squad” of gangsters during his tenure as a mayor of a city.
Mr Duterte, 79, gave his testimony in the televised inquiry on his campaign of “war on drugs”, making his first public appearance since his term ended in 2022.
Mr Duterte, a divisive figure in the Philippines who served from June 2016 to June 2022, projected a “strongman” image, and once called controversial leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin his idol.
His term was marred by allegations of thousands of extrajudicial killings during a brutal crackdown on suspects in his so-called nationwide war on drugs.
During the hearing, Mr Duterte acknowledged without elaborating that he once maintained a death squad of seven “gangsters” to tackle criminals when he was the longtime Davao city mayor, before he became president.
“I can make the confession now if you want,” Mr Duterte said. “I had a death squad of seven, but they were not policemen, they were also gangsters.”
“I’ll ask a gangster to kill somebody,” Mr Duterte said, adding that he would tell them “kill this person, because if you do not, I will kill you now.”
He told police officers to “encourage” suspects to fight back so that officers could justify the slayings.
“Do not question my policies because I offer no apologies, no excuses. I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it… I did it for my country,” said Mr Duterte in his opening statement.
“I hate drugs, make no mistake about it.”
He, however, denied that he gave orders to police chiefs to kill suspects as the squad was made of gangsters.
Mr Duterte won the presidency by a wide margin in 2016 on promises of eradicating drugs and crime.
Prior to his presidency, Mr Duterte served as mayor of Davao city for over 22 years, where he established a reputation for reducing crime through methods that critics argue were often extrajudicial and violent.
Rights groups have said that more than 30,000 people have been killed during his term by police officers and vigilantes during his war on drugs campaign.
“Duterte ordered Philippines’ police forces to kill anyone they believe to be connected to the drugs trade when he assumed office in June 2016. State forces and vigilante groups have followed through these orders ruthlessly,” Amnesty International said.
His first testimony in the investigation came five months after an inquiry was set up by the House of Representatives into the killings. Supporters of the former president have dismissed the investigation as politically motivated.
In 2021 the International Criminal Court in The Hague authorised the court’s Office of the Prosecutor to open an official investigation into crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the Philippines between 2011 and 2019. The decision came three years after a preliminary examination into the allegations.
Former senator, Leila de Lima, one of the most vocal critics of Mr Duterte who once investigated the drug killings in Davao, said there was adequate evidence and witnesses of the extrajudicial killings but they were scared of testifying against Mr Duterte when he was in power.
“This man, the former mayor of Davao city and the former president of the Republic of the Philippines, for so long has evaded justice and accountability,” said Ms de Lima, sitting near the former president.
She spent six years behind bars on allegations but the charges were later dropped.
Mr Duterte appeared unabashed. “If I’m given another chance, I’ll wipe all of you,” Mr Duterte said of drug dealers and criminals, who he added had resumed their criminal actions after he stepped down from the presidency.
Additional reporting by agencies
Afghan women banned from ‘hearing each other’s voices’ during praying
The Taliban in Afghanistan have implemented a bizarre new edict that will further curb the voices of women who are already prohibited from speaking in public.
Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban minister for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, declared that women must refrain from reciting the Quran aloud in the presence of other women, reported Amu TV, an Afghan news channel based in Virginia, US.
“When women are not permitted to call takbir or athan [Islamic call to prayer], they certainly cannot sing songs or music,” he said in remarks reported on Saturday.
“Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear … How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying, let alone for anything else,” Mr Hanafi was also quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.
A woman’s voice is considered awrah, meaning that which must be covered, and shouldn’t be heard in public, even by other women, the minister said.
Women, including human rights experts, fear this diktat would go beyond prayer and restrict them from holding conversations with each other, further minimising their social presence.
This comes just two months after the Taliban implemented a new set of laws in August that also ordered women to cover their entire bodies, including faces, when stepping out.
A midwife in Herat told Amu TV that Taliban officials forbid female healthcare workers, the last of the Afghan women allowed to work outside their homes, from speaking, especially with male relatives. “They don’t even allow us to speak at checkpoints when we go to work. And in the clinics, we are told not to discuss medical matters with male relatives,” the midwife, who has worked in remote healthcare clinics for eight years, told the channel.
It is not known whether the latest rule has been implemented or how widely.
The Taliban have increasingly curtailed women’s rights, even banning formal education for them, since they returned to power in 2021 after overthrowing the Nato-backed regime.
Mr Hanifi’s latest remarks have sparked a furore on social media.
“After banning women’s voices from public, the Taliban’s ministry of vice and virtue banned women from speaking to each other. I am in loss for words to express my utter rage and disgust about the Taliban’s mistreatment of women,” said journalist Lina Rozbih said. “The world must do something! Help millions of voiceless and helpless women of Afghanistan.”
“This surpasses misogyny,” said Nazifa Haqpal, a former Afghan diplomat. “It exemplifies an extreme level of control and absurdity,” she said.
Zubaida Akbar, a human rights and civil society activist from Afghanistan, called for the Taliban leaders to be held accountable for their “gender apartheid” diktats. “Today’s ban on women’s voices in each other’s presence comes from Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Taliban’s minister of vice and virtue, who published a 100-plus page book of edicts against women last month,” she said on Twitter/X.
“Every ban on women has a face behind it and must be held accountable for gender apartheid,” she said.
Children among five injured in knife attack near school in China
Five people, including three children, have suffered injuries in a knife attack near a prestigious primary school in Beijing.
The attack happened on Monday around 3.20pm local time (3.20am ET) in the capital’s upscale Haidian district, the police said in a statement.
The knife-wielding suspect, identified as a 50-year-old man, was subdued at the site and arrested.
The attack is believed to have taken place outside the school gates around a time students were leaving. The police said the injured have been taken to hospital and “are not in life-threatening condition”.
Footage circulating on social media showed emotional and chaotic scenes as at least two children were seen lying on the pavement and bleeding as cycles lay strewn on the ground. One of the injured children lay unresponsive in a mother’s lap.
A man with his face covered in blood was being held to the ground after the attack, images showed.
It was the latest knife attack in the series of incidents that have continued to rock the country where violent crimes are still rare. The country has seen a number of high-profile stabbings including at schools and hospitals as it has very tight gun control laws, making knives and homemade explosives among the most common weapons.
The incidents have also sparked a debate on social media on mental health issues with many reflecting how discontent and anxiety over the country’s economic struggles have affected people.
The world’s second largest economy has been slowed down since the stringent Covid-19 lockdowns that locked the people into their homes and the country suffered problems like property crisis, weak spending, and unemployment.
Last month, a 10-year-old Japanese student died after being attacked with a knife near his school in the southern city of Shenzhen.
In June, a Chinese woman who tried to intervene in a stabbing attack at a school bus stop for a Japanese school in Suzhou was killed while a woman and her child were injured.
In early October, three people were killed and 15 others were wounded in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket.
Nine injured as festival rush triggers stampede at Mumbai station
A stampede at a railway station platform in the Indian city of Mumbai left at least nine people injured, two critically, as passengers attempted to board a moving train amid festival season crowding on Sunday.
Western Railway officials said that the incident happened at Bandra when passengers tried to board the 22921 Bandra Terminus-Gorakhpur Antyodaya Express before it had fully stopped, resulting in serious injuries to two people.
“Due to the rush on Platform 1, several passengers were injured in the stampede reported around 5.30am. The injured persons were taken to the Bandra Bhaba hospital,” Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said in a statement.
The incident triggered a wave of criticism and backlash, with politician Rahul Gandhi criticising the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and labelling its alleged negligence a “serious concern”. He also blamed the BJP government for inadequate infrastructure and poor crowd management.
“The stampede is the latest example of India’s crumbling infrastructure. The Balasore train accident in June last year claimed the lives of 300 people, but instead of compensating the victims, the BJP government has entangled them in a long legal battle,” he said.
“Inaugurations and publicity are good only when there is a foundation behind them that actually works to serve the public. It is a serious concern when a lack of maintenance and neglect of public property lead to loss of lives.”
Political party Shiv Sena (UBT)’s leader Sanjay Raut said that more than 25 major railway accidents have taken place nationwide, claiming over 100 lives since the Modi government assumed office. He questioned, “What is the point of talking about bullet trains, Metro and high-speed trains?”
The two critically injured passengers were identified as Indrajith Sahani, 19, and Noor Mohammad Shaikh, 18, who were taken to the local KEM hospital for treatment.
Among the other injured passengers, five were receiving treatment at the Bandra Bhaba Hospital. They were identified as Parmeshwar Sukhdar Gupta, 28, Ravindra Harihar Chuma, 30, Ramsevak Ravindra Prasad Prajapati, 29, Sanjay Tilakram Kangay, 27, and Divyanshu Yogendra Yadav, 18.
“The platform was packed with people. There was no space to even stand. People were jumping and pushing each other to reach the train’s doors. I came to drop him, saw him vanish in the crowd. Later, I got to know he was badly injured,” Vikas Gupta, brother of Mr Gupta, was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
“He was going home after a year,” he said.
In response to the accident, Western Railway imposed temporary restrictions on platform ticket sales to control crowding until early November.