KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine accused its Moscow-allied neighbor Belarus Sunday of “concentrating” troops on the countries’ shared border and warned Minsk against “unfriendly actions,” in a statement by Kyiv’s foreign ministry.
The statement came as Kyiv mounts an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region and as Russia continues its advance into eastern Ukraine.
Belarus had allowed Russian troops to use its territory as a launchpad for their February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The statement said Ukrainian intelligence had recorded Belarus “concentrating a significant number of personnel.... in the Gomel region near Ukraine’s northern border under the guise of exercises.”
It added: “We warn Belarusian officials not to make tragic mistakes for their country under Moscow’s pressure, and we urge its armed forces to cease unfriendly actions and withdraw forces away from Ukraine’s state border to a distance greater than the firing range of Belarus’ systems.”
Kyiv accused Belarus of building up equipment and troops on the border, saying it had recorded the presence of Wagner fighters — some of whom are being hosted by Belarus after their leader’s failed rebellion last year.
Ukraine warned that military exercises in the border area pose a “global security” threat due to how close the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant — site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
“We emphasize that Ukraine has never taken and is not going to take any unfriendly actions against the Belarusian people,” the foreign ministry added.
Belarus has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.
In 2022, he had allowed Russian troops to station in Belarus during what Russia and Belarus called “drills” before they launched their invasion in February.
Belarus is politically and economically reliant on Russia.
Kyiv says Belarus ‘concentrating’ troops on border, warns against ‘unfriendly actions’
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Kyiv says Belarus ‘concentrating’ troops on border, warns against ‘unfriendly actions’
- Belarus had allowed Russian troops to use its territory as a launchpad for their February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
WHO grants first mpox vaccine approval to ramp up response to disease in Africa and beyond
- The vaccine can be administered in people aged 18 or above a two-dose regimen
The pre-qualification of the vaccine by Bavarian Nordic A/S means that donors like GAVI the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF can buy it. But supplies are limited because there’s only a single manufacturer.
“This first pre-qualification of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreaks in Africa, and in future,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The UN health agency chief called for “urgent” scale-up of procurement, donations and rollout to get the vaccine where it is needed most, along with other response measures.
Under the WHO authorization, the vaccine can be administered in people aged 18 or above in a two-dose regimen. The approval says that while the vaccine is not currently licensed for those under 18 years old, it may be used in infants, children and adolescents “in outbreak settings where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks.”
Officials at the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that nearly 70 percent of cases in Congo — the country hardest hit by mpox — are in children younger than 15, who also accounted for 85 percent of deaths.
On Thursday, the Africa CDC said 107 new deaths and 3,160 new cases had been recorded in the past week, just a week after it and WHO launched a continental response plan.
Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms like fever, chills and body aches. People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
India’s top court grants bail to opposition leader Kejriwal in graft case
- Bail paves the way for release of Delhi Chief Minister almost six months after he was arrested
- Kejriwal’s release expected to boost AAP party, allow him to campaign in regional elections
NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court granted bail on Friday to opposition leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a graft case, paving the way for his release almost six months after he was arrested.
Kejriwal’s release is expected to boost the morale of his decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as it will allow him to campaign in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, where AAP is trying to make inroads, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest a month previously by the federal police in a graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”
Ordering Kejriwal’s release, Justice Surya Kant said that the issue related to “liberty” and “prolonged incarceration” could not be justified.
The two-judge bench was split, however, on Kejriwal’s appeal challenging his arrest, with Kant holding it lawful while Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said the timing raised serious questions.
The federal police “must not only be above board but must also be seen to remain so ... in a functional democracy governed by the rule of law, perception matters,” Bhuyan said.
In its first reaction following the verdict, AAP said, “Truth can be troubled, but not defeated.”
Opposition parties have been demanding Kejriwal’s release, saying his arrest was an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to deny them a level playing field in the polls, charges denied by Modi and BJP.
Other countries, including the US, had urged a “fair” and impartial trial.
On Friday, BJP said bail to Kejriwal did not mean he was innocent.
Alleged Sinaloa cartel co-founder ‘El Mayo’ to be arraigned in New York
- Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada will likely be asked to enter a plea to the drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges he faces
- Zambada was taken into custody on July 25 at a New Mexico airfield, along with one of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s sons
NEW YORK: The accused Mexican drug kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada is expected to make an initial appearance on Friday in the same New York courthouse where fellow Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was convicted five years earlier.
At the 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) hearing before US Magistrate Judge James Cho in Brooklyn, Zambada will likely be asked to enter a plea to the drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons charges he faces.
Prosecutors will ask that Zambada, who is in his 70s, be jailed pending trial.
“The defendant has devoted his efforts over decades to growing, increasing, and enhancing the power of the Cartel — and his individual power and position in the Cartel after his partner El Chapo was captured,” the US Attorney’s office in Brooklyn wrote in a Thursday court filing.
Zambada was taken into custody on July 25 at a New Mexico airfield, along with one of Guzman’s sons, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, in a major coup for US law enforcement.
He was then taken to El Paso, Texas, where he pleaded not guilty in federal court to separate drug trafficking charges.
US District Judge Kathleen Cardone last week had him transferred to Brooklyn after the US Department of Justice asked that he face trial there first.
The Brooklyn case began in 2009, and includes allegations related to the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fueling an epidemic in the United States.
“El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado. His son has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Chicago.
Shootouts this week in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa kindled fears that an intra-cartel war is about to break out in the wake of Zambada’s arrest.
German naval ships sail to sensitive Taiwan Strait
- US and other military ships have often sailed through the sensitive waterway but it was the first time in over two decades that the German navy has done so
BERLIN: Two German naval vessels were heading into the Taiwan Strait on Friday, the German defense minister said, in a voyage expected to spark a diplomatic protest from Beijing.
Asked whether the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the supply ship Frankfurt am Main were headed into or through the Strait, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said “I can confirm that.”
“And the message is a very simple one, which we have always supported... international waters are international waters,” Pistorius told journalists in Berlin.
US and other military ships have often sailed through the sensitive waterway but it was the first time in over two decades that the German navy has done so, German media reports said.
Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province and claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the island from the Chinese mainland.
Germany and many other countries argue such voyages are usual, citing freedom of navigation in international waters.
The two German vessels were headed from South Korea to the Philippines, defense ministry officials said earlier.
Pistorius said that the course charted by the vessels was “the shortest route.”
“It is the safest route given the weather conditions. And these are international waters, so we are sailing through them.”
Global tracking service MarineTraffic on Friday showed the vessels sailing into the Strait, on a southerly course at a location to the west of Taipei.
German magazine Der Spiegel first reported the planned voyage last week, but German defense officials did not immediately confirm the plans.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it “welcomes and affirms Germany, along with the US, Canada and the Netherlands, for taking actions to demonstrate the legal status of the Taiwan Strait as international waters, while defending freedom of navigation and maintaining regional peace at the same time.”
Germany arrests Syrian national over plot to kill soldiers
- Germany is tightening border controls after recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers
MUNICH: A 27-year-old Syrian national suspected of radical Islamist views has been arrested over a plot to kill German soldiers with machetes in the Bavarian town of Hof, prosecutors said on Friday.
The accused obtained two machetes approximately 40 cm (15.75 inches) long. He planned to attack Bundeswehr soldiers in Hof who were spending their lunch break there, and to kill as many of them as possible, a statement said.
“With the act, the accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of uncertainty among the population,” it said.
Germany is tightening border controls after recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers.
The Daesh group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.
Immigration and security concerns have shot up the agenda ahead of elections in the state of Brandenburg, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling strongly.
