MANILA, Philippines: Four police officers assigned in the Philippine capital region have been arrested for kidnapping for ransom that victimized four foreign tourists, officials said Wednesday.
Two of the officers onboard motorcycles flagged down a luxury car carrying three Chinese and a Malaysian over the weekend, while their armed civilian cohorts handcuffed and dragged the four tourists into a van. Two of the Chinese managed to escape and notified authorities, police said.
The remaining captives were beaten by the kidnappers but freed overnight after payment of a 2.5-million-peso ($43,100) ransom, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said. Information provided by the freed tourists and images from security cameras led to the arrest of the four police, including a police major, he said.
“I was shocked that policemen were the ones involved,” Abalos said in a news conference, where the four police were presented in handcuffs and orange detainee shirts. “This incident is a serious breach of public trust and core values of the police force.”
Police said they’re looking for at least 10 other suspects who were not police but implicated in the kidnapping.
Police said they filed criminal complaints for kidnapping, carjacking and robbery against the suspects.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte had described many members of the national police, numbering more than 230,000 nationwide, as “rotten to the core,” although he ordered them to enforce his anti-drugs crackdown that led to the killings of thousands of mostly poor suspects.
The International Criminal Court has been investigating the large-scale killings as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte and the national police chiefs who served under him had denied authorizing extrajudicial killings athough the former president had publicly threatened drug suspects with death during his presidency, which ended in 2022.
Police officers in the Philippines arrested for kidnapping 4 tourists and demanding a ransom
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Police officers in the Philippines arrested for kidnapping 4 tourists and demanding a ransom
At least 25 bodies retrieved from Pakistan train siege
- The assault was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) one of a number of separatist groups
- Security forces said they freed more than 340 train passengers in a two-day rescue operation that ended late on Wednesday
Mach: The bodies of at least 25 people, including 21 hostages, killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in Pakistan were retrieved from the site on Thursday ahead of the first funerals, officials said.
Security forces said they freed more than 340 train passengers in a two-day rescue operation that ended late on Wednesday after a separatist group bombed a remote railway track in mountainous southwest Balochistan and stormed a train with around 450 passengers on board.
The assault was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of a number of separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.
Death tolls have varied, with the military saying in an official statement that “21 innocent hostages” were killed by the militants as well as four soldiers in the rescue operation.
A railway official in Balochistan said the bodies of 25 people were transported by train away from the hostage site to the nearby town of Mach on Thursday morning.
“Deceased were identified as 19 military passengers, one police and one railway official, while four bodies are yet to be identified,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
A senior local military official overseeing operations confirmed the details.
An army official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, earlier put the military toll at 28, including 27 off-duty soldiers taken hostage.
Passengers who escaped from the siege said after walking for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety that they saw people being shot dead by militants.
The first funerals are expected to take place on Thursday.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was also expected to visit Balochistan, his office said.
“The Prime Minister expressed grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of security personnel and train passengers during the operation,” it said in a statement.
'Our women pleaded'
The BLA released a video of an explosion on the track followed by dozens of militants emerging from hiding places in the mountains to attack the train.
Attacks by separatist groups have soared in the past few years, mostly targeting security forces and ethnic groups from outside the province.
Muhammad Naveed, who managed to escape, told AFP: “They asked us to come out of the train one by one. They separated women and asked them to leave. They also spared elders.”
“They asked us to come outside, saying we will not be harmed. When around 185 people came outside, they chose people and shot them down.”
Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian laborer, told AFP on Wednesday he and his family walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach a train that could take them to a makeshift hospital on a railway platform.
“Our women pleaded with them and they spared us,” he said.
“They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us.”
Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan but last year saw a surge in violence in the province compared with 2023, according to the independent Center for Research and Security Studies.
Putin, in military fatigues, orders swift defeat of Ukrainian forces in Kursk
- A lightning Russian advance over the past few days has left Ukraine with a sliver of less than 200 square km in Kursk
- It was down from 1,300 square km at the peak of the incursion last summer, according to the Russian military
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin, dressed in military fatigues, ordered top commanders to defeat Ukrainian forces in the western region of Kursk as soon as possible after the United States asked him to consider a 30-day ceasefire proposal.
Ukrainian forces smashed across the Russian border on August 6 and grabbed a slice of land inside Russia in a bid to distract Moscow’s forces from the front lines in eastern Ukraine and to gain a potential bargaining chip.
But a lightning Russian advance over the past few days has left Ukraine with a sliver of less than 200 square km (77 square miles) in Kursk, down from 1,300 square km (500 square miles) at the peak of the incursion last summer, according to the Russian military.
“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible timeframe, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Putin told generals in remarks televised late on Wednesday.
“And of course, we need to think about creating a security zone along the state border.”
The remarks by Putin, dressed in a green camouflage uniform, came as US President Donald Trump said he hoped Moscow would agree to a ceasefire and said that if not then Washington could cause Russia financial pain.
Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s General Staff, told Putin that Russian forces had pushed Ukrainian forces out of over 86 percent of the territory they had once held in Kursk, the equivalent to 1,100 square km (425 square miles) of land.
Gerasimov said Ukraine’s plans to use Kursk as a bargaining chip in possible future negotiations with Russia had failed and its gambit that its Kursk operation would force Russia to divert troops from its advance in eastern Ukraine had also not worked.
He said Russian forces had retaken 24 settlements and 259 square km (100 square miles) of land from Ukrainian forces in the last five days along with over 400 prisoners.
Russia’s operation to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk has entered its final stage, state news agency TASS reported on Thursday citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Ukraine’s top army commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Wednesday that Kyiv’s troops will keep operating in Kursk as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around the town of Sudzha.
The US on Tuesday agreed to resume weapons supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it was carefully studying the results of that meeting and awaited details from the US.
Hospitalized Pope Francis marks 12 years in job with future uncertain
- The 88-year-old pontiff was for a time critically ill as he battled pneumonia in both lungs at Rome’s Gemelli hospital
- His hospitalization has raised serious doubts about his ability to lead the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis marks 12 years as head of the Catholic Church on Thursday, seemingly out of danger after a month in hospital but with his health casting a shadow over his future.
The 88-year-old was for a time critically ill as he battled pneumonia in both lungs at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he was admitted on February 14.
The Argentine’s situation has markedly improved since then, with the Vatican confirming his condition as stable on Wednesday evening, and talk is now turning to when he might go home.
But his hospitalization, the longest and most fraught of his papacy, has raised serious doubts about his ability to lead the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics.
Francis had before now refused to make any concessions to his age or increasingly fragile health, which saw him begin using a wheelchair three years ago.
He maintained a packed daily schedule interspersed with frequent overseas trips, notably a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region in September, when he presided over huge open-air masses.
But experts say his recovery could take weeks given his age and recurring health issues, not helped by having part of one lung removed as a young man.
“The rest of his pontificate remains a question mark for the moment, including for Francis himself,” said Father Michel Kubler, a Vatican expert and former editor in chief of the French religious newspaper La Croix.
“He doesn’t know what his life will be like once he returns to the Vatican, and so no doubt reserves the option of resigning if he can no longer cope,” he said.
Francis has always left the door open to resigning were his health to deteriorate, following the example of Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step down.
But the Jesuit has distanced himself from the idea more recently, insisting the job is for life.
While in hospital, Francis has delegated masses to senior cardinals but has kept working on and off, including signing decrees and receiving close colleagues.
But he has missed a month of events for the 2025 Jubilee, a holy year organized by the pope that is predicted to draw an additional 30 million pilgrims to Rome and the Vatican.
And it is hard to imagine he will be well enough to lead a full program of events for Easter, the holiest period in the Christian calendar that is less than six weeks away.
Many believe that Francis, who has not been seen in public since he was hospitalized, has to change course.
“This is the end of the pontificate as we have known it until now,” Kubler said.
Francis struck a sharp contrast to his cerebral predecessor when he took office, eschewing the trappings of office and reaching out to the most disadvantaged in society with a message that the Church was for everyone.
A former archbishop of Buenos Aires more at home with his flock than the cardinals of the Roman Curia, Francis introduced sweeping reforms across the Vatican and beyond.
Some of the changes, from reorganizing the Vatican’s finances to increasing the role of women and opening the Church to divorced and LGBTQ members, have been laid down in official texts.
But a wide-ranging discussion on the future of the Church, known as a Synod, is not yet finished.
And there are many who would happily see his work undone.
Traditionalists have strongly resisted his approach, and an outcry in Africa caused the Vatican to clarify its authorization of non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples in 2023.
“Whether we like him or not, he has shifted the dial, but many things are still pending,” a Vatican source said.
Cautious Russia weighs Ukraine ceasefire plan as US tries to seal a deal
- Senior source says Russia will seek guarantees
- Rubio says if Russia says ‘no’, it will say a lot
MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Wednesday it would review details from Washington about a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine before responding, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hoped a deal would be struck within days.
As Moscow considered the plan, President Vladimir Putin, dressed in military fatigues, made a surprise visit to Russia’s Kursk region for the first time since Ukrainian troops captured part of it last year.
With Putin’s presence highlighting recent Russian advances in Kursk, Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia’s General Staff, told the Kremlin leader his troops had repelled Ukrainian forces from 86 percent of the ground they once held in Kursk. Ukraine had hoped to use that territory as a bargaining chip in any peace talks with Moscow.
The US on Tuesday agreed to resume weapons supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said it was carefully studying the results of that meeting and awaited details from the US.
Rubio said the United States was hoping for a positive response, and that if the answer was “no” then it would tell Washington a lot about the Kremlin’s true intentions.
Speaking to reporters when his plane refueled in Ireland, Rubio said on Wednesday: “Here’s what we’d like the world to look like in a few days: Neither side is shooting at each other, not rockets, not missiles, not bullets, nothing ... and the talking starts.”
Two people familiar with the matter said Russia has presented Washington with a list of demands for a deal to end the Ukraine war and reset relations with the United States.
The specific demands were not clear, nor whether Russia, which holds just under a fifth of Ukraine, was willing to enter peace talks with Kyiv prior to their acceptance.
The people said the demands were similar to previous Kremlin terms including no NATO membership for Kyiv, recognition of Russia’s claim to Crimea and four Ukrainian provinces and an agreement that foreign troops not be deployed in Ukraine.
Rubio said that Europe would have to be involved in any security guarantee for Ukraine, and that the sanctions Europe has imposed would also be on the table.
After a meeting of five European defense ministers, British defense minister John Healey on Wednesday told reporters that work was accelerating on a “coalition of the willing from Europe and beyond” to support Ukraine. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said about 15 countries had expressed interest.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed this week’s meeting in Saudi Arabia as constructive, and said a potential 30-day ceasefire with Russia could be used to draft a broader peace deal.
After Russian forces made gains in Ukraine in 2024, Trump reversed US policy on the war, launching bilateral talks with Moscow and suspending military assistance to Ukraine, demanding that it take steps to end the conflict.
Tuesday’s agreement signaled a major improvement in US-Ukraine relations after a clash between Trump and Zelensky at the White House last month sent them to a new low, but it did not alter the issues underlying the conflict with Russia, Ukrainian sources said.
Russia wants its advances taken into account
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions of people, reduced towns to rubble and triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West in six decades.
During Putin’s visit to Kursk, Gerasimov told him Russian forces had regained 1,100 square kilometers (425 square miles) of territory including 259 square kilometers in the last five days.
Kyiv’s forces have been on the verge of losing their foothold in Kursk. Their main supply lines were cut and they ceded control of the town of Sudzha.
Putin called for Russia’s forces to swiftly retake any remaining area from Kyiv’s troops. He also made it clear he was considering the creation of a buffer zone in Ukraine’s Sumy region, across the border from Kursk.
Deep State, an authoritative Ukrainian site that charts the frontlines of the war, updated its battlefield map to show Ukrainian forces were no longer in control of Sudzha. However, it said fighting was continuing on the outskirts.
Ukraine’s top army commander said on Wednesday that Kyiv’s troops will keep operating in Kursk region as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around Sudzha.
Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to talk about an end to the war and Trump says he thinks Putin is serious, though other Western leaders disagree.
Reuters reported in November that Putin was ready to negotiate a deal with Trump, but would refuse to make major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
Ukraine says the regions claimed by Moscow have been annexed illegally and that it will never recognize Russian sovereignty over them.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, said on Telegram that Russia’s advances in Ukraine must be taken into account in any deal.
“Real agreements are still being written there, at the front. Which they should understand in Washington, too,” he said.
At US request, India arrests crypto administrator accused of money laundering
- The exchange has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since April 2019, the US Justice Department said last week
WASHINGTON: Indian authorities arrested at Washington’s request a cryptocurrency exchange administrator accused of money laundering conspiracy and violating sanctions, India’s top crime fighting bureau said on Wednesday.
The United States, Germany and Finland took down the online infrastructure used by the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, the US Justice Department said last week, adding that two administrators of the exchange were charged.
One of those administrators was Aleksej Besciokov, a Russian resident and Lithuanian national who was charged with money laundering and also faced accusations of violating sanctions and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Besciokov was arrested in the southern Indian state of Kerala, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation said, adding he was wanted by US authorities. The CBI said that at Washington’s request, India’s foreign ministry had a provisional arrest warrant issued.
It added Besciokov was planning to flee India. It was not immediately clear why he was in India. Washington is expected to pursue Besciokov’s extradition. His representative could not immediately be reached.
“I can confirm Aleksej Besciokov, one of the administrators of Garantex, was arrested in India at the request of the United States,” a US Justice Department spokesperson told CNN.
The exchange has processed at least $96 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since April 2019, the US Justice Department said last week.
Garantex was sanctioned by the US in April 2022.
Blockchain research company TRM Labs said in a blog post last week that the takedown of Garantex “marks a major milestone in the fight against illicit finance” but cautioned that sanctioned exchanges often attempt to evade restrictions by creating new entities.
