Ex-president barred from leaving Ukraine amid alleged plan to meet with Hungary’s Viktor Orban

Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been monitoring safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is one of the world’s 10 biggest nuclear power stations. (AP)
Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been monitoring safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is one of the world’s 10 biggest nuclear power stations. (AP)
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Updated 03 December 2023
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Ex-president barred from leaving Ukraine amid alleged plan to meet with Hungary’s Viktor Orban

Ex-president barred from leaving Ukraine amid alleged plan to meet with Hungary’s Viktor Orban
  • Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been monitoring safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is one of the world’s 10 biggest nuclear power stations

KYIV, Ukraine: Former President Petro Poroshenko was denied permission to leave Ukraine for a planned meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ukraine’s security service said Saturday.
Poroshenko announced Friday that he had been turned away at the border despite previously receiving permission from Parliament to leave the country. Under martial law, Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 years of age are not allowed to leave the country without special approval.
The 58-year-old, who lost his re-election bid in 2019 to current Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, said that he had planned to meet with US House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the Polish parliament during his trip.
But security officials said that Poroshenko had also agreed to meet Orban, who has previously praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and refused to support Kyiv’s bid for EU accession. In a statement on social media, they said such talks would make Poroshenko a “tool in the hands of the Russian special services.”
Poroshenko, who called his experience at the border an “attack on unity”, is yet to comment on the allegation that he planned to meet Orban.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was left on “the verge of a nuclear and radiation accident” Saturday after it was unable to draw power from two of the lines connecting it to the local energy grid, the country’s nuclear energy operator said.
It said that the plant switched to diesel generators to stop the plant from overheating before off-site power was restored by Kyiv.
Russia occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant in the early stages of the war. Over the past year, the station has become a focal point of concern for international observers, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of shelling the plant.
In a statement on social media, Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator, accused Moscow of “incorrect, erroneous, and often deliberately risky operation of the equipment” at the site.
The Associated Press was unable to independently verify the claims.
Officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been monitoring safety at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is one of the world’s 10 biggest nuclear power stations.
Although the plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia launched 11 Iranian-made Shahed drones and one guided cruise missile overnight Saturday, military officials said. The missile and all but one of the drones were reportedly destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said that it had shot down two Ukrainian C-200 rockets over the Sea of Azov.

 


15 dead after a passenger bus skids into deep gorge in northern India

15 dead after a passenger bus skids into deep gorge in northern India
Updated 11 sec ago
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15 dead after a passenger bus skids into deep gorge in northern India

15 dead after a passenger bus skids into deep gorge in northern India
  • Initial probe suggests dilapidated bus skidded before tumbling down 200-foot gorge
  • India has some of the highest road death rates worldwide, with thousands dying each year

LUCKNOW, India: A passenger bus veered off the road and plunged into a deep gorge in northern India on Monday, killing at least 15 people and injuring over 25 others, officials said.

The accident occurred in Almora district in the mountainous state of Uttarakhand. The bus was carrying over 40 people, and so far 15 bodies have been recovered, said Vineet Pal, a state government official.

Teams of rescue and relief workers have been deployed to the site and authorities warn that the death toll may rise as they work to rescue passengers that may still be trapped inside.

The state’s chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the teams are working to quickly evacuate the injured passengers to the nearest health center for treatment and that authorities have been instructed to airlift those seriously hurt.

A preliminary investigation suggested that the bus, which was reportedly in a dilapidated condition, skidded before tumbling down a 60 meter- (200-foot-)-deep gorge, Pal said. A number of passengers managed to escape or were thrown out by the impact, and then alerted authorities about the accident.

India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.

In July, at least 18 people died after a double-decker passenger bus collided with a milk truck in Uttar Pradesh state. In May, a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims skidded and rolled into a deep gorge on a mountainous highway in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least 21 people.


At least 15 killed as bus overturns in India’s Uttarakhand state

At least 15 killed as bus overturns in India’s Uttarakhand state
Updated 4 min 29 sec ago
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At least 15 killed as bus overturns in India’s Uttarakhand state

At least 15 killed as bus overturns in India’s Uttarakhand state

LUCKNOW, India: At least 15 people died and 20 were injured after a bus fell into a deep gorge in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand on Monday, an official told Reuters.
The bus was coming from Garhwal in the north and was headed to Ramnagar, with at least 42 passengers on board, Devendra Pincha, a local police officer told Reuters by phone.
The death toll is likely to rise as the condition of a few of the survivors is critical, he said.
Visuals from ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake, showed an overturned bus lying beside a river at the base of a hill.
State Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said rescue officials were working rapidly to evacuate the injured.


‘Will do everything in my power to end war in Gaza’: Harris appeals to Arab Americans, Christians

‘Will do everything in my power to end war in Gaza’: Harris appeals to Arab Americans, Christians
Updated 52 min 35 sec ago
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‘Will do everything in my power to end war in Gaza’: Harris appeals to Arab Americans, Christians

‘Will do everything in my power to end war in Gaza’: Harris appeals to Arab Americans, Christians
  • Harris addresses Michigan’s 200,000 Arab Americans, starting speech with a nod to civilian victims of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon
  • Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, the heart of the Arab American community, on Friday and vowed to end the conflict in the Middle East 

DETROIT/KINSTON, North Carolina: Democrat Kamala Harris made her closing pitch for the US presidency at a historically Black church and to Arab Americans in battleground Michigan on Sunday, while her Republican rival Donald Trump embraced violent rhetoric at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Opinion polls show the pair locked in a tight race, with Vice President Harris, 60, bolstered by strong support among female voters while former President Trump, 78, gains ground with Hispanic voters, especially men.

Voters overall view both candidates unfavorably, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, but that has not dissuaded them from casting ballots.

More than 78 million Americans have already done so ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, approaching half the total 160 million votes cast in 2020, in which US voter turnout was the highest in more than a century.

Control of Congress is also up for grabs on Tuesday, with Republicans favored to capture a majority in the Senate while Democrats are seen as having an even chance of flipping Republicans’ narrow majority in the House of Representatives. Presidents whose parties fail to control both chambers have struggled to pass major legislation.

“In just two days we have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come,” Harris told parishioners at Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ in Detroit. “We must act. It’s not enough to only pray; not enough to just talk.”

Later in a rally in East Lansing, Michigan, she addressed the state’s 200,000 Arab Americans, starting her speech with a nod to civilian victims of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

“This year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, it is devastating. And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza,” Harris said to applause.

Many Arab and Muslim Americans as well as anti-war activist groups have condemned US support for Israel amid the tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza and Lebanon, and the displacement of millions. Israel says it is targeting militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Trump visited Dearborn, Michigan, the heart of the Arab American community, on Friday and vowed to end the conflict in the Middle East without saying how.

Instead of mentioning Trump by name, Harris chose to highlight her opponent’s record during her last Sunday on the campaign trail.

TRUMP GOES OFF SCRIPT

Trump, at his first of three rallies on Sunday, frequently abandoned his teleprompter with off-the-cuff remarks in which he denounced opinion polls showing movement for Harris. He called Democrats a “demonic party,” ridiculed Democratic President Joe Biden and talked about the high price of apples.

Trump, who survived an assassination attempt in July when a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday complained to supporters about gaps in the bulletproof glass surrounding him as he spoke and mused that an assassin would have to shoot through the news media to get him.

“To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news and I don’t mind that so much,” said Trump, who has long criticized the media and sought to rile public sentiment against them.

Last week he suggested prominent Republican critic, former congresswoman Liz Cheney, should face gunfire in combat over her hawkish foreign policy, leading an Arizona prosecutor to open an investigation.

Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung issued a statement saying Trump’s comment was not directed toward the media but rather, “It was about threats against him that were spurred on by dangerous rhetoric from Democrats.”

Trump later spoke in Kinston, North Carolina, and in Macon, Georgia, where he seized on last week’s jobs report that showed the US economy only produced 12,000 jobs last month.

He told a large crowd gathered in an amphitheater that the report showed that the United States was a “nation in decline” and he warned darkly without evidence of a potentially looming repeat of the 1929 Great Depression with “people jumping off buildings.”

Senior Harris campaign officials have said her closing argument is designed to reach a narrow slice of undecided voters. That stood in contrast to Trump, who varied little from his standard speech aimed at inspiring his loyal supporters.

“Kamala’s campaign is run on hate and demonization,” Trump said.

Near the end of his Pennsylvania speech, Trump — whose false claims that his 2020 loss was the result of fraud inspired his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol — mused that he would have preferred not to have handed over power.

“We had the safest border in the history of our country the day that I left. I shouldn’t have left. I mean, honestly, because we did so, we did so well,” Trump said.

Trump said during his remarks that election results should be announced on Election Night, despite warnings by officials in multiple states that it could take days to ascertain the final outcome.

Democrats say they have plans in place should Trump try to prematurely claim victory this time.


EU’s Borrell visits South Korea amid alarm over North Korean troops in Russia

EU’s Borrell visits South Korea amid alarm over North Korean troops in Russia
Updated 04 November 2024
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EU’s Borrell visits South Korea amid alarm over North Korean troops in Russia

EU’s Borrell visits South Korea amid alarm over North Korean troops in Russia
  • Borrell arrived in South Korea after a trip to Japan and visited the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas
  • Borrell is visiting South Korea to take security and defense cooperation between the the EU and Seoul to “the next level”

SEOUL: The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell holds talks on Monday with his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul, amid growing concerns in Seoul over the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia for its war with Ukraine.
Borrell arrived in South Korea after a trip to Japan and visited the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, the diplomat said in a post on social media platform X on Sunday.
“My visit today of the Demilitarized Zone — DMZ — between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK is yet another reminder of the need to invest more in peace,” Borrell said in the post, referring to the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Borrell is visiting South Korea to take security and defense cooperation between the the EU and Seoul to “the next level,” he said in another post, without elaborating.
The first such Strategic Dialogue meeting between the EU and South Korea comes as Washington and Seoul have been sounding the alarm about the dispatch of North Korean troops to Russia for its war with Ukraine.
Borrell met with South Korea’s defense minister Kim Yong-hyun in Seoul on Monday and expressed concern over the development, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Cho said last week that all possible scenarios were under consideration, when asked about whether Seoul could send weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s aiding Russia.
South Korea has provided non-lethal aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance equipment, but so far has resisted Kyiv’s requests for weapons.
Seoul also sees it as likely that the North will be compensated by Moscow with military and civilian technology, as it races to launch a spy satellite and upgrade its missile capabilities.
North Korea last week flexed its military muscle with the test of a huge new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile dubbed Hwasong-19.
Washington expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said her country intended to back Russia until it achieved victory in the Ukraine war at talks in Moscow on Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.


Eleven injured in militant attack in India-administered Kashmir

Eleven injured in militant attack in India-administered Kashmir
Updated 04 November 2024
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Eleven injured in militant attack in India-administered Kashmir

Eleven injured in militant attack in India-administered Kashmir
  • Militants throw grenade at Indian security forces in crowded Srinagar flea market
  • Kashmir has seen spate of attacks since recent elections in territory 

NEW DELHI: At least 11 people were injured when militants threw a grenade at Indian security forces on Sunday in a crowded flea market in Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir, a police official said.

Militants missed their target and instead injured at least 11 people, the official told Reuters. The official wished to remain unnamed as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The identity of the militant group responsible for the attack is unknown.

The injured were rushed to hospital for treatment where they were in a stable condition, the official said, adding that the explosion had caused panic in the market and sent shoppers scrambling for cover.

The attack comes a day after a top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group, was killed along with two other militants by Indian troops in Kashmir.

Kashmir has seen a spate of attacks since a government formed by an opposition alliance took over the territory, where separatist militants have fought security forces for decades, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Since the new government took over earlier last month, 15 people have died in different militant attacks.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, and the 2019 revocation of its special status, which saw it being split into two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, led to the countries downgrading diplomatic ties.