Militant attack kills 10 security personnel in northwest Pakistan

At least 10 Pakistan frontier police personnel were killed in an intense shootout in a militant attack in northwest Pakistan, authorities said on Friday.

The attack, which took place near a security outpost in Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province overnight on Thursday, also wounded other security forces, local police official Abdul Rauf said.

A large group of militants stormed the outpost and killed members of the frontier constabulary security force, according to three senior police sources who confirmed the attack to Reuters.

The assailants suffered casualties but fled along with their dead and injured accomplices when authorities dispatched reinforcements to the security post in the town of Draban, Mr Rauf said.

Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, confirmed the attack and paid tributes to the security forces killed and offered condolences to their families.

Islamist militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group, a prominent regional rival of the Taliban carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the attack was retaliation for the killing of a senior leader, Ustad Qureshi, just 24 hours before by the Pakistan security forces.

Qureshi, regarded as a senior commander by the TTP, was among the nine killed in an intelligence-based operation, which also killed two suicide bombers in the Bajaur district bordering Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military said on Thursday.

The Pakistan military’s security forces shot and killed a total of 19 insurgents within 24 hours in two separate operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur and Mianwali city in eastern Punjab.

Security forces recently have been conducting intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as TTP and have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban movement, but pledges loyalty to the Islamist group that now rules Afghanistan after US-led international forces withdrew in 2021.

According to Islamabad, the TTP uses Afghanistan as a base and says the ruling Taliban administration has provided safe havens to the group close to the border. The Taliban refute the allegations.

Man taking selfie trampled to death by wild elephant

A man in India was trampled to death by a wild elephant while he attempted to click a selfie in the western state of Maharashtra.

Shashikant Ramchandra Satre, a 23-year-old electrician, was laying cable nearby on Thursday when he learned about a wild tusker roaming in the Gadchiroli forest.

Satre, along with two of his friends reportedly decided to venture inside the forest to get a glimpse of the elephant. Upon spotting the animal, he tried to click a selfie from a distance, NDTV reported.

However, the elephant, named CME3 by forest officials, turned aggressive and trampled Satre under its feet. The other two men managed to save their lives and escape from the area.

Forest officials have described the tusker as huge and aggressive, who entered the Gadchiroli forest in Maharashtra from neighbouring Chhattisgarh state.

The elephant had killed at least seven others between November 2023 to May 2024 in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra states, the Times of India reported.

“We have already informed nearby villages to take precautions and posted forest staff in each village,” said Vivek Khandekar, Maharashtra’s principal chief conservator of forests.

“Our field staff, along with the Rapid Rescue Team, are already active in the area and informing the locals about the presence of wild elephants and does and don’ts while dealing with them,” he told the Indian daily.

India reportedly has recorded the highest number of selfie deaths followed by the US and Russia.

A man in southern India was mauled to death earlier in February by an Asiatic lion after he jumped into his enclosure to take a selfie with the animal.

Prahlad Gujjar, 38, scaled a 12ft-high fence and jumped into the lion’s enclosure at Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati on Thursday, Andhra Pradesh, zoo officials said.

In 2021, another man was trampled to death by an elephant while he tried to take a selfie with it the animal in Chhattisgarh.

There have been 379 selfie-related deaths recorded worldwide between 2008 and 2021, according to a study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.

Mapped: Severe Cyclone Dana makes landfall in India

Cyclone Dana made landfall on India’s eastern coast as a severe storm, uprooting trees with torrential rains and strong winds.

The storm entered Odisha state last night with maximum sustained winds of around 68mph and gusts are expected up to 75mph, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

As it made landfall, the storm pounded some districts in Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal state with heavy downpours as gusty winds brought down trees, local media reported.

Dana was expected to weaken into a cyclonic storm by forenoon as it moves inland.

The landfall process is expected to continue into Friday as the storm pushes further into northern Odisha, before gradually weakening over the next few hours, IMD said.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that Dana is moving north-northwest at 10kmph and is centred over north coastal Odisha, about 30km north-northwest of Dhamra town.

The storm system will move deeper in the state, triggering heavy rains, IMD DG Mrutunjay Mohapatra said.

Authorities are still assessing damage from winds and storms. As of early Friday, there were no deaths nor any major damage reported.

At least 1.1 million people were evacuated by authorities on Thursday ahead of the storm.

Flights and trains were also suspended amid storm warnings. However, Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar airports have resumed their operations on Friday.

Fallen trees and debris blocked some roads in the coastal regions as cleanup operations began on Friday.

“There has been massive damage to electrical installations due to tree falling. Roads are being cleared,” Odisha higher education minister Suryabanshi Suraj, who is in charge of Bhadrak district, said, according to NDTV.

Heavy rain was forecast to bring the risk of significant flooding in low-lying areas, the IMD warned on Thursday ahead of the storm.

Authorities were on high alert for damage in three districts in Odisha, where the weather department forecast a sea surge of around 1 meter (yard) during the landfall process, which could exacerbate flooding.

“The government is fully prepared to tackle the situation. You are in safe hands,” Odisha’s chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi told people before the storm’s arrival, according to PTI news agency.

Schools and public offices were shut on Friday and over 200 trains were cancelled in anticipation of the storm’s impact.

West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose said on Thursday that the people have braved many storms and will face Dana with confidence and patience.

“Bengal will stand together. India will stand together. We shall overcome,” he said, according to PTI news agency.

Hundreds of personnel from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) were deployed in both states.

The team went door-to-door with loudspeakers making people aware of the cyclonic storm.

Bangladesh, although not in the direct path of Cyclone Dana, was also bracing for its impact, particularly in coastal districts like Khulna and Barisal. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned of heavy rainfall and tidal surges as the cyclone passes close to the country’s southern coast.

Parts of neighbouring Jharkhand are also expected to face heavy to very heavy rainfall from Thursday night as the storm system moved inwards.

IMD issued an orange alert for the Kolhan region in East Jharkhand, which includes the districts of West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharswan, and East Singhbhum.

This alert signals the possibility of heavy rainfall ranging from 115mm to 204mm within a 24-hour period, two to four times the monthly rainfall of London, which could lead to localised flooding.

India’s eastern coastline has always been vulnerable to cyclones, but the frequency and intensity of these storms are on the rise due to the climate crisis.

In the past few years, storms like Cyclone Amphan in 2020, Cyclone Yaas in 2021, and Cyclone Fani in 2019 have killed hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in damages.

Last year was India’s deadliest cyclone season in recent years, killing 523 people and costing an estimated £2.3bn in damage.

Putin sidesteps question on North Korean soldiers training in Russia

Vladimir Putin did not deny reports that North Korea sent troops to Russia to join the Russian president’s war in Ukraine but instead pointed to his country’s recent military treaty with Pyongyang which deals with mutual defence.

Mr Putin was asked by a reporter about satellite imagery apparently showing North Korean troops operating in Russia at a news conference on Thursday during the end of the Brics summit in the Russian city of Kazan.

“Images are a serious matter. If images exist, they indicate something,” Mr Putin said. He went on to attack the US for “escalating tensions in Ukraine” and denounced “direct involvement of Nato troops” in the conflict.

On Friday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was planning to deploy trained North Korean troops to the battlefield starting 27-28 October, citing intelligence reports. The previous intelligence report said the North Korean troops’ presence was recorded in the Kursk region this week.

The US said for the first time on Wednesday it had evidence that 3,000 North Korean troops were in Russia for possible deployment against the Ukrainian army as the Kremlin’s prolonged war enters its third year, citing information from declassified intelligence.

On the question of North Korea’s engagement with Russia, he referred to the treaty on Strategic Partnership which was ratified by the lower house of parliament on Thursday.

“As for our relationship with North Korea, we ratified our Treaty on Strategic Partnership, which contains Article 4,” he said.

“We have never doubted the fact that North Korean leadership is very serious about their commitments to us and engagement with that,” Mr Putin added.

Article 4 of the “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty obliges the two countries to immediately provide military assistance using “all means” if either is attacked.

The treaty was signed between Russia and North Korea during Mr Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June, marking the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

“However, it is up to us to decide what we will do and how we are going to do it, and we will act in accordance with this article,” he said.

“First, we need to hold talks regarding the implementation of Article 4. However, we will be in contact with our North Korean friends to see how this process unfolds,” he added.

In a separate statement to Russian state television, Mr Putin said if Ukraine wanted to join Nato then Moscow could do what it wanted to ensure its own security.

“When we have to decide something, we will decide… but it is our sovereign decision whether we will apply it, whether we will not, whether we need it,” he said.

Mr Putin said that the West repeatedly backed Ukraine on how it ensured its security “with or without Nato”.

“The sooner they realise the futility of such an approach in relations with Russia, the better it will be for everyone, and perhaps, above all, for themselves [Ukraine],” Mr Putin said.

South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers that at least 3,000 North Korean troops are being trained to use equipment including drones before being they’re sent to fight in Ukraine. The intelligence agency assessed that North Korea aimed to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December.

A video, reportedly verified by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, showed a long line of soldiers queuing to pick up bags, clothes and other apparel from Russian servicemen in Russia’s Far East.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said: “There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“If they are co-belligerents – if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf – that is a very, very serious issue. It will have impacts, not only in Europe. It will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” he said.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service said the first units of North Korean soldiers were likly deployed in the Kursk region where the Ukrainian forces launched a major incursion in August.

“On 23 October 2024, their presence was recorded in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian intelligence agency said in a statement.

Ukraine said it had launched an investigation into North Korea’s military support to Russia in the war “as a possible crime of aggression”.

“We are documenting and collecting evidence of all possible aspects of such involvement as part of the core proceeding on the crime of aggression,” the office said in a statement.

Aspects of the alleged crime include supplying arms to the Russian Federation, organising training for Russian military personnel and direct participation by North Korean forces in hostilities, it said.

Russian parliament votes to ratify mutual North Korea defence treaty

Russian lawmakers ratified a treaty of mutual defence with North Korea on Thursday, just a day after the US claimed Pyongyang had deployed 3,000 soldiers to aid Moscow’s war effort.

The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted 397-0 to endorse the “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty which president Vladimir Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to Pyongyang in June.

The treaty obliges Russia and North Korea to immediately provide military assistance using “all means” if either is attacked. This marks the strongest military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

“It’s important for us to develop comprehensive and allied relations” with North Korea, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a statement.

The treaty will now be sent to the upper house of the parliament for ratification.

North Korea is already aiding Russia militarily, according to South Korea, Ukraine and the US.

Pyongyang has sent about 3,000 soldiers to Russia for training, the US defence secretary said.

“We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops,” Lloyd Austin said in Rome on Wednesday. “What exactly they are doing – left to be seen.”

It would be a “very, very serious issue” if Pyongyang indeed joined the war on Russia’s side, he said.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told the country’s lawmakers that the North had deployed troops, including special forces, to the Russian far east for training and acclimatisation at bases there, likely in preparation for sending them into combat.

The soldiers had been supplied with Russian military uniforms, weapons and false identification documents ahead of their likely deployment for combat, the spy agency said.

It was South Korea that first claimed earlier this month that the Russian Navy had transported some 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to aid Moscow’s war effort.

Then, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had intelligence that North Korea was preparing 10,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine.

White House national security spokesperson John F Kirby said North Korean troops were taken to Vladivostok in Russia by ship from the port city of Wonsan sometime earlier this month.

They had since been deployed to three training grounds, he added. “If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” he said. “They are fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they are defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said.

Hundreds of protesters try to storm presidential palace in Bangladesh

Fresh violence has gripped Bangladesh, with hundreds of protesters in capital Dhaka demanding the resignation of president Mohammed Shahabuddin, elected unopposed under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration.

Protesters tried to storm the presidential palace on Tuesday and into Wednesday night, trying to break through a security cordon and breach the compound. The protesters were, however, blocked by military barricades.

Dozens of people, including police officers and journalists, were injured, with at least 14 people being treated in hospital.

The protests began after an interview given by Mr Shahabuddin to a Bengali-language newspaper in which he raised questions over the resignation letter of Ms Hasina.

Mr Shahabuddin told the Manab Zamin daily that he had only heard about Ms Hasina’s resignation and had not seen the letter. He said he tried to collect it “many times but failed”. He added: “Maybe she did not have the time.”

The statement caused outrage in the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government and among student protesters who claimed Mr Shahabuddin contradicted his own statement on 5 August when he said he had received her letter.

According to Bangladesh’s constitution, an elected prime minister is required to submit their resignation in writing to the president. Mr Shahabuddin was appointed to his position by parliament after Ms Hasina’s re-election as prime minister for a fourth consecutive term in January.

The protesters accused Mr Shahabuddin of collaborating with Ms Hasina’s “fascist regime”.

Dhaka police deputy commissioner Talebur Rahman said at least 25 police officers were injured during the clashes and at least 30 other people received injuries.

“The situation is now calm, and there is adequate security in place,” he added.

Bangladesh’s interim government has banned the student wing of Ms Hasina’s political party as fresh protests in the country led to escalated tensions.

The Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), student arm of Ms Hasina’s Awami League, has been declared as a “terrorist organisation”, Bangladesh’s ministry of home affairs said.

Banning the BLA was one of the five demands of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, which also demanded the abolishment of the current constitution and the removal of Mr Shahabuddin.

The ministry said the BLA has a history of serious misconduct over the past 15 years, including violence, harassment, and exploitation of public resources.

The ban under the Anti-Terrorism Act takes effect immediately, it said in a gazette notification issued late on Wednesday.

The ministry added that the BLA members attacked protesting students and the public with arms and accused it of the deaths of innocent people.

The fresh protests were part of large-scale summer demonstrations across Bangladesh that forced Ms Hasina to end her 15-year long grip on power and flee to India on 5 August.

The protests, which began as a student-led movement against public sector job quotas in July, escalated into some of the deadliest unrest in the history of Bangladesh since independence in 1971, resulting in more than 700 deaths and numerous injuries.

China accuses Australia of hypocrisy after Uyghur abuses raised at UN

China has accused Australia of “hypocrisy” and “systemic racism” after Beijing was confronted at the United Nations over alleged abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The Chinese envoy to the UN also blasted Australia for ignoring the “living hell” in Gaza where Israel has conducted an onslaught of air and ground attacks since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.

Australia, the US and the UK were among 15 countries that issued a joint statement at the UN on 22 October against the alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The statement cited a UN assessment from two years ago that there had been human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

The August 2022 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded there had been “crimes against humanity” against Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang as well as other Muslims by Chinese authorities.

China had denounced the report as “illegal and void” and described it as “disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces”.

“China has had many opportunities meaningfully to address the UN’s well-founded concerns,” Australia’s ambassador to the UN, James Larsen, said.

He also raised concerns about “credible reports” of human rights abuses in Tibet, including “peaceful expression of political view”.

He said the Tibetans faced “restrictions on travel; coercive labour arrangements; separation of children from families in boarding schools; and erosion of linguistic, cultural, educational and religious rights and freedoms in Tibet”.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian denounced the statement and said that issues related to Tibet were his country’s “internal affairs”.

“Australia, long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes, has severely violated the rights of refugees and immigrants, and left Indigenous people with vulnerable living conditions,” Mr Lin told reporters.

“Australian soldiers have committed abhorrent crimes in Afghanistan and other countries during their military operations overseas.”

Mr Lin said the US and other western countries had “a bad track record in racism, gun violence, judicial injustice, wealth gap, abuse of force, unilateral sanctions, and other issues”. “These Western countries turn a blind eye to their severe human rights issues at home but in the meantime point their fingers at other countries. This says a lot about their hypocrisy on human rights,” he added.

China’s envoy to the UN, Fu Cong, chided Australia for maintaining silence on the Israeli war on Gaza that has killed thousands of Palestinians. “The human-rights situation that should gather the most attention at the committee this year is undoubtedly that of Gaza,” he said on Tuesday.

“Australia and the US, among a few others, played down this living hell, while unleashing attacks and smears against the peaceful and tranquil Xinjiang.”

If the mounting death toll in Gaza was not enough to “awaken the conscience of a few Western countries”, Mr Fu said, “then their so-called protection of human rights of Muslims is nothing but the biggest lie”.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese rejected the Chinese allegations and said that his government “will always stand up for Australia’s interests”.

Mr Albanese, asked for a response to the Chinese statement during his visit to Samo for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, said Canberra had been consistent in raising the human rights issue in China.

“We, of course, will always stand up for Australia’s interests, and when it comes to China, we’ve said we will cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must and we’ll engage in our national interest,” Mr Albanese said. “And we’ve raised issues of human rights with China. We’ve done that in a consistent and clear way.”

The spat comes as Australia and China are working to revive economic and diplomatic relations, which suffered a setback over questions about the origin of the Covid virus.

The Albanese government has been working to stabilise relations since coming to power in 2022 and Beijing has reciprocated by lifting several trade bans.

US says North Korean troops ‘fair game’ if sent to fight in Ukraine

The US has said for the first time it had evidence that 3,000 North Korean troops were receiving training in Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine in “a very serious” escalation that would make them “legitimate military targets”.

White House national security spokesman John F Kirby said North Korean troops were transported to Vladivostok in Russia by ship from the North Korean port city of Wonsan sometime earlier this month.

Ukraine and South Korea have also raised an alarm over North Korea allegedly sending soldiers to assist the Russian war effort.

They had since been deployed to three different training grounds in the Russian Far East, he added. “If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” Mr Kirby said.

“They are fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated this position on Wednesday.

“There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” Mr Austin said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“If they are co-belligerents – if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf – that is a very, very serious issue. It will have impacts, not only in Europe. It will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” he said.

US officials said the disclosure was based on information from declassified intelligence but it is not known for certain that any North Korean soldiers will join the fighting in Ukraine.

It was South Korea that first claimed earlier this month that the Russian Navy had transported some 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to aid Moscow’s war effort.

Then, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had intelligence that North Korea was preparing 10,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, South Korean intelligence service chief Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers another 1,500 soldiers from the North had reached Russia, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon.

The intelligence agency assessed that North Korea aimed to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, Mr Park, who attended Mr Cho’s briefing, said.

The agency also said Pyongyang had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles, and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023. Kyiv published a video purporting to show dozens of North Koreans lining up to collect Russian military fatigues, without providing further details.

North Korea, which has one of the largest standing armies in the world with 1.2 million soldiers, has emerged as a key ally of Russia, especially since Kim Jong-un visited Russia last year and Vladimir Putin reciprocated by travelling to Pyongyang this year.

Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a mutual defence treaty pledging to provide immediate military assistance if either country is attacked.

Russia and North Korea have rejected the allegations. A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday described the accusations as a “colossal work of the media propaganda”.