Pakistan Says Afghan Cross-Border Fire Kills Soldier

FILE - In this June 15, 2016 file photo, a Pakistani army soldier stands guard in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, near Torkham border post between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan started building a fence along the Afghan border in areas where it says militants have launched cross-border attacks on its security posts in recent weeks, a move analysts Sunday, March 26, 2017, said will help restraining cross border terrorism and will prove to be a stabilizing factor for regional peace. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)
FILE - In this June 15, 2016 file photo, a Pakistani army soldier stands guard in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, near Torkham border post between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan started building a fence along the Afghan border in areas where it says militants have launched cross-border attacks on its security posts in recent weeks, a move analysts Sunday, March 26, 2017, said will help restraining cross border terrorism and will prove to be a stabilizing factor for regional peace. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)
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Pakistan Says Afghan Cross-Border Fire Kills Soldier

FILE - In this June 15, 2016 file photo, a Pakistani army soldier stands guard in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, near Torkham border post between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan started building a fence along the Afghan border in areas where it says militants have launched cross-border attacks on its security posts in recent weeks, a move analysts Sunday, March 26, 2017, said will help restraining cross border terrorism and will prove to be a stabilizing factor for regional peace. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)
FILE - In this June 15, 2016 file photo, a Pakistani army soldier stands guard in Pakistani tribal area of Khyber, near Torkham border post between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan started building a fence along the Afghan border in areas where it says militants have launched cross-border attacks on its security posts in recent weeks, a move analysts Sunday, March 26, 2017, said will help restraining cross border terrorism and will prove to be a stabilizing factor for regional peace. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)

Pakistan’s military on Tuesday said a soldier was killed in the country’s northwest by fire from across the Afghan border, a sign of increasing violence in an area that until recent years served as a base for Pakistani and foreign militants.

The attack late Monday hit a border security post in Bajur district, a former tribal region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The military statement said the shooting came from the Afghan side of the frontier and provided no further details.

The brief statement said Pakistan "has been consistently raising the issue for border management on other side to avoid use of Afghanistan soil against Pakistan.”

The two sides often accuse each other of turning a blind eye to militants operating along the porous frontier, which stretches 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) across rugged mountainous terrain, The Associated Press reported.

In July, Pakistan said militants killed a soldier in a cross-border attack on a security post in Bajur district.

That same month, a United Nations report said more than 6,000 Pakistani insurgents were hiding in Afghanistan, most belonging to the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan's border areas served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban and other militants until a few years ago, when the army said it cleared the region of insurgents, but occasional attacks have continued.

Such attacks have raised fears that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping. Last week, the insurgents released a statement asking residents to vacate the former tribal regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, as the group plans to launch more attacks on security forces.



Daughter of North Korea’s Kim Might Be Heir Apparent, Says Seoul

This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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Daughter of North Korea’s Kim Might Be Heir Apparent, Says Seoul

This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

Seoul's Unification Ministry on Monday added its voice to growing speculation around Kim Jong Un's succession plans, saying they have not "ruled out" that his daughter could be next in line to lead North Korea.

Pyongyang state media on Saturday referred to Kim's teenage daughter as a "great person of guidance" -- "hyangdo" in Korean -- a term typically reserved exclusively for top leaders and their successors.

Analysts said it was the first time Kim's daughter -- never named by Pyongyang, but identified as Ju Ae by South Korean intelligence -- had been described as such by the North.

It has redoubled speculation that the teen, who often appears next to her father at key public events, could have been chosen as the next leader of the nuclear-armed North, for a third hereditary succession.

"Usually the term 'hyando' is only used to refer to the highest-ranking official," Koo Byoung-sam, a spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, said at a briefing Monday.

"We are not ruling out the possibility of Ju Ae's succession", he said, adding that Seoul was "monitoring the situation and remaining open to possibilities."

However, he warned that if Ju Ae were to take her father's place as the fourth leader of the reclusive state, "North Korean people will bear the brunt of the fallout", he said.

Ju Ae was first introduced to the world by state media in 2022, when she accompanied her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Since then, the North's official outlets have referred to her in various ways, including the "morning star of Korea" and "beloved child".

She has been seen at many of her father's official engagements, including military drills, a visit to a weapons factory, and a stop at a new chicken farm.

In an image released by Pyongyang on Saturday, Ju Ae was seen using binoculars to observe recent paratroop drills, standing beside her father and senior military officials.

Before 2022, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who made a visit to the North in 2013 and claimed he'd met a baby daughter of Kim's called Ju Ae.

Seoul had initially indicated that Kim and his wife Ri had their first child, a boy, in 2010, and that Ju Ae was their second child.

But last year, Seoul's unification minister said that the government was "unable to confirm for sure" the existence of Kim's son.

Kim Jong Un inherited the regime after his father's death in late 2011 and has overseen four nuclear tests under his watch, with the latest one conducted in 2017.


Kremlin Says Only Way to Protect Russia Is to Create a Buffer Zone with Ukraine 

This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)
This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)
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Kremlin Says Only Way to Protect Russia Is to Create a Buffer Zone with Ukraine 

This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)
This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)

The Kremlin said on Monday that the only way to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks was to create a buffer zone that would put Russian regions beyond the range of Ukrainian fire.

The Kremlin was commenting after President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility of setting up such a zone in a speech after winning re-election on Sunday.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Against the backdrop of (Ukrainian) drone attacks and the shelling of our territory: public facilities, residential buildings, measures must be taken to secure these territories.

"They can only be secured by creating some kind of buffer zone so that any means that the enemy uses to strike us are out of range."

After winning re-election, Putin said he did not rule out setting up such a buffer zone.

"I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, that we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain 'sanitary zone' in the territories today under the Kyiv regime," Putin said.

Putin declined to give any further details, but said such a zone might have to be big enough to stop foreign-made weapons striking Russian territory.

He made the remark after being asked whether he thought it necessary for Russia to take Ukraine's Kharkiv region, which borders Belgorod, a Russian province that has come under regular attack from Kyiv's forces since 2022.

Russian forces initially tried to seize Kharkiv region in February 2022, but were routed from most of the area in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September that year.

Russian in September 2022 said it had annexed the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, even though it did not fully control any of them.

The Ukrainian leadership has said that Russia's annexation is illegal and that it will not rest until every last Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian soil.


Mahsa Amini's Death in Iran Custody was 'Unlawful', UN Mission Says

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Mahsa Amini's Death in Iran Custody was 'Unlawful', UN Mission Says

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

A fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations said on Monday the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of Iran's morality police was "unlawful" and caused by violence and that women in the country remain subjected to wide-ranging discrimination.
The death of 22-year-old Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, in September 2022 while in custody for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed months of mass protests across Iran. Her death marked the biggest challenge to Iran's clerical leaders in decades, Reuters said.
"Our investigation established that her death was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of state authorities," Sara Hossain, chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
She said the protests that followed were marked by "egregious human rights violations", including extra-judicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment, as well as rape and sexual violence.
"These acts were conducted in the context of a widespread and systematic attack against women and girls, and other persons expressing support for human rights," Hossain said.
"Some of these serious violations of human rights thus rose to the level of crimes against humanity."
In response, Kazem Gharib Abadi, secretary general of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, accused the fact-finding mission of a "glaring lack of independence and impartiality".
Hossain said that since the protests, women and girls in Iran were confronted daily by discrimination "affecting virtually all aspects of their private and public lives".
"It is hard to fathom that in the 21st century, women's access to the most basic service and opportunities, such as schools, universities, hospitals, and courts, or to opportunities for employment in government or other sectors, should be subjected to a wholly arbitrary requirement of wearing the mandatory hijab," she said.


Azeri President Says Peace with Armenia Is Closer Than Ever 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)
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Azeri President Says Peace with Armenia Is Closer Than Ever 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his country is "closer than ever" to a peace with Armenia, half a year after Azerbaijan recaptured its Karabakh region from its ethnic Armenian majority, prompting a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians.

"Today, we are in an active phase of peace talks with Armenia," Aliyev said in remarks after meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Baku, according to a transcript published on the Azeri leader's website.

"We are now closer to peace than ever before."

Stoltenberg said he welcomed the move towards peace between the two nations.

"I appreciate what you say about that you are closer to a peace agreement than ever before," Stoltenberg said, according to a transcript published on NATO's website.

"And I can just encourage you to seize this opportunity to reach a lasting peace agreement with Armenia."

In December, the South Caucasus neighbors issued a joint statement saying they want to reach a peace deal and have since held numerous talks, including two days of negotiations in Berlin in February.

The press office of Armenian's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not immediately respond to Reuters' request to comment on Aliyev's statement.

Armenia and Azerbaijan first went to war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988. After decades of enmity, Azerbaijan in September recaptured Karabakh, controlled by its ethnic Armenian majority since the 1990s despite being internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

The offensive prompted most of the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to neighboring Armenia.

Armenia described the offensive as ethnic cleansing. Azerbaijan denied that and said those who fled could have stayed on and been integrated into Azerbaijan.

Key elements in securing a treaty are demarcation of borders and the establishment of regional transport corridors through each others' territory.

Armenia has also raised the issue of determining control of ethnic enclaves on both sides of the border.


China Congratulates Putin on Election Win, Says Ties Will Strengthen 

Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)
Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)
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China Congratulates Putin on Election Win, Says Ties Will Strengthen 

Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)
Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)

China congratulated Vladimir Putin on Monday on winning Russia's presidential election and said the strategic relationship between the two countries will continue to strengthen.

Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia's election on Sunday, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.

"We firmly believe that under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, China-Russia relations will continue to move forward," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters when asked about the vote.

"China and Russia are each other's largest neighbors and comprehensive strategic partners in the new era."

China has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past few years, even as Western criticism of the war in Ukraine intensified.

The two countries declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

It has been reported that China and Russia are preparing "several meetings" between Xi and Putin this year.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, and Lin said the two heads of state would continue to maintain close exchanges.


Taliban Admits Need for International Community after UNAMA Mandate Extended

Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
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Taliban Admits Need for International Community after UNAMA Mandate Extended

Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)

The Taliban have welcomed the one-year extension of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) in Afghanistan, hoping the move will revive relations with the international community.

The Taliban position came on Saturday despite criticism from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his call for the movement to lift all restrictions on girls' access to education immediately.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously extended the mandate of UNAMA until March 17, 2025, highlighting the UN’s crucial role in promoting peace, stability and inclusive governance in Afghanistan.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban, said Afghanistan needs to foster diplomatic relations with international organizations, especially the UN, and the international community, adding that UNAMA can contribute in this regard.

However, he condemned “unfair pressures” on Afghanistan and reiterated the demand that frozen Afghan assets be released.

The UN and the Taliban authorities have still not agreed on the appointment of a UN special envoy to Afghanistan. The Security Council had adopted a resolution last December calling for the appointment of an envoy for the country to coordinate engagement between Kabul and the international community.

Guterres’ Report

In a report to the Security Council, Guterres said that not withstanding the complex challenges, there remains a potential future in which Afghanistan is able to achieve sustained economic growth by promoting trade and transit with the neighboring countries, thus reducing its dependence on foreign aid, as well as the end state described in Security Council Resolution 2721.

He said Afghanistan could return as a country at peace with itself and its neighbors, fully integrated into the international community and meeting its international obligations.

The UN chief then referred to the independent assessment of the Special Coordinator, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, who took comprehensive stock of the current situation and offers a way forward that will require commitment and compromises from all stakeholders.

Guterres praised the “overall consensus that the international community was united in its continued engagement on Afghanistan, and in a more coherent, coordinated and structured manner.”

He said the de facto authorities are making efforts to present their policy directions through the drafting of a “domestic and foreign policy approach” led by de facto Deputy Prime Minister, Abdul Kabir, who has conducted consultations with de facto officials as well as with ulema and elders.

Also, Guterres said: “Despite dwindling financial resources and competing priorities, the need for assistance funding to support the people of Afghanistan has further increased due to the earthquakes, large-scale returns of Afghans from Pakistan, and persistent drought.”

He added that the UN continues to deliver vital humanitarian assistance in a principled manner to the country’s most vulnerable communities.

“I implore donors to urgently renew their support for the 23.7 million people in need of life-saving responses,” he said. “I also reiterate my appeal to the de facto authorities to rescind their restrictive measures imposed on Afghan female aid workers and Afghan female staff of the United Nations in order to facilitate the reach and effectiveness of humanitarian operations.”

The UN chief then tackled the issue of drugs in Afghanistan. “The drug ban by the de facto authorities resulted in a large reduction in opium cultivation but also led to a vast loss of income for farmers, which, compounded by the absence of alternative income sources, has the potential to incentivize some farmers to revert to p oppy cultivation,” he said.

Girls’ Education

In his report, Guterres said the accessibility and quality of education for girls in Afghanistan remain deeply concerning.

“As the ban on secondary schooling for girls remains, the start of the new school year in March will be another day of grief for Afghan girls and for the world,” he noted.

Therefore, the UN chief reiterated his call for the immediate reversal of the ban.

He said the continued restrictions of the de facto authorities against women and girls, including the arrest and detention of women and girls for not observing hijab, are unacceptable.

“Such actions are in direct violation of their fundamental human rights and carry enormous stigma for women and girls in Afghan culture, creating a chilling effect among the wider female population who are now afraid to move in public,” Guterres added.


Pakistani Airstrikes Target Suspected Pakistani Taliban Hideouts in Afghanistan, Killing 8 People

FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Pakistani Airstrikes Target Suspected Pakistani Taliban Hideouts in Afghanistan, Killing 8 People

FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Pakistani airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan early on Monday, killing at least eight people, two days after insurgents killed seven soldiers in a suicide bombing and coordinated attacks in a northwestern region, officials said.
The Afghan Taliban government denounced the strikes, which are likely to further increase tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, The Associated Press said.
According to a Pakistani security official and an intelligence official, the airstrikes were carried out in Khost and Paktika provinces bordering Pakistan. The officials provided no further details. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
There was no immediate comment by Pakistan’s military. The Pakistani Taliban — a separate militant group but allied with the Afghan Taliban — also confirmed the strikes, saying the attacks killed several women and children.
It was not immediately clear how deep inside Afghanistan the Pakistani jets flew. The airstrikes were the first since 2022, when Pakistan targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan. However, Islamabad never officially confirmed those strikes.
Separately, in January, Pakistani strikes — in a tit-for-tat exchanges with Tehran — hit Pakistani militants inside Iran.
Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Pakistan's airstrikes on Monday killed three women and three children in the district of Barmal in Paktika province while two other women were killed in a strike in Khost province.
“Such attacks are a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and there will be bad consequences that this country will not be able to control,” Mujahid said.
On Saturday, seven soldiers were killed when suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden truck into a military post in the town of Mir Ali, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. Troops responded and killed all six attackers in a shootout, the military said.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari attended the funerals of the soldiers and vowed to retaliate for their killings, saying “the blood of our martyred soldiers will not go in vain."
Saturday's attack on the military post was claimed by a newly formed militant group, Jaish-e-Fursan-e-Muhammad. However, Pakistani security officials believed the group is mainly made up of members of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, which often targets Pakistani soldiers and police.
Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad based security expert, said Monday's strikes were in retaliation for a series of TTP attacks, especially the one on Saturday in Mir Ali where an army lieutenant colonel and a captain were among those killed.
Ali said the Pakistani strikes came within 24 hours of Zardari's promise of strong retaliation.
“It also indicates that Pakistan’s patience for the Afghan interim government’s continued hospitality for terrorists conducting frequent attacks on Pakistan from inside Afghanistan has finally run out,” he said.
The Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as the US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout after 20 years of war. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan emboldened the TTP, whose top leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.
Though the Taliban government in Afghanistan often says it will not allow TTP or any other militant group to attack Pakistan or any other country from its soil, the Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks inside Pakistan in recent years, straining relations between Kabul and Islamabad.


Nine Arrested after Paris Suburban Police Station Attacked

A view shows the Eiffel Tower, La Defense business district and rooftops of Paris, France, March 16, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
A view shows the Eiffel Tower, La Defense business district and rooftops of Paris, France, March 16, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
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Nine Arrested after Paris Suburban Police Station Attacked

A view shows the Eiffel Tower, La Defense business district and rooftops of Paris, France, March 16, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
A view shows the Eiffel Tower, La Defense business district and rooftops of Paris, France, March 16, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

Nine people were arrested after a police station in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve was attacked late on Sunday evening following clashes between youths and police forces, the head of the Paris police said on Monday.
The clashes occurred following the death last week of a youth who had failed to stop his motorbike after police had ordered him to do so.
"There were nine arrests, which is not insignificant," Laurent Nunez told TF1 television on Monday.
"Police reinforcements quickly restored order and security," Reuters quoted him as saying.
Security issues are of paramount importance for French authorities with the Paris Olympics due to start on July 26. Some Paris Olympics sites were vandalized during rioting in the summer of 2023 which was triggered by the fatal shooting of a teenager of north African descent by police.


Putin Wins Russia Election in Landslide with No Serious Competition

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, early Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, early Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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Putin Wins Russia Election in Landslide with No Serious Competition

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, early Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, early Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia's election on Sunday, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.
Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, made it clear that the result should send a message to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come, Reuters said.
The outcome means Putin, 71, is set to embark on a new six-year term that will see him overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia's longest-serving leader for more than 200 years if he completes it.
Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest ever result in Russia's post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87%. First official results indicated the polls were accurate. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.
Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4%, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.
Putin told supporters in a victory speech in Moscow that he would prioritize resolving tasks associated with what he called Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine and would strengthen the Russian military.
"We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated - no matter who wants to intimidate us, suppress us - nobody has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future," said Putin.
Supporters chanted "Putin, Putin, Putin" when he appeared on stage and "Russia, Russia, Russia" after he had delivered his acceptance speech.
Inspired by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month, thousands of opponents protested at noon against Putin at polling stations inside Russia and abroad.
Putin told reporters he regarded Russia's election as democratic and said the Navalny-inspired protest against him had had no effect on the election's outcome.
In his first comments on his death, he also said that Navalny's passing had been a "sad event" and confirmed that he had been ready to do a prisoner swap involving the opposition politician.
The Russian election comes just over two years since Putin triggered the deadliest European conflict since World War Two by ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
War has hung over the three-day election: Ukraine has repeatedly attacked oil refineries in Russia, shelled Russian regions and sought to pierce Russian borders with proxy forces - a move Putin said would not be left unpunished.
Putin said Russia might need to create a buffer zone inside Ukraine to prevent such attacks in future.
While Putin's re-election was not in doubt given his control over Russia and the absence of any real challengers, the former KGB spy had wanted to show he had the overwhelming support of Russians.
Nationwide turnout was 74.22% at 1800 GMT when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5%.
There was no independent tally of how many of Russia's 114 million voters took part in the opposition demonstrations, amid tight security involving tens of thousands of police and security officials.
Reuters journalists saw an increase in the flow of voters, especially younger people, at noon at polling stations in Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, with queues of several hundred people and even thousands.
Some said they were protesting, though there were few outward signs to distinguish them from ordinary voters.
At least 74 people were arrested on Sunday across Russia, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors crackdowns on dissent.
Putin portrays the war on Ukraine as part of a centuries-old battle with a declining West that he says humiliated Russia after the Cold War by encroaching on Moscow's sphere of influence.
Russia's election comes at what Western spy chiefs say is a crossroads for the Ukraine war and the wider West.
Support for Ukraine is tangled in US domestic politics ahead of the November presidential election.
Though Kyiv recaptured territory after the invasion in 2022, Russian forces have made gains after a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive last year.


After UN Report, Iran Reveals its Official Account of Amini Protests

A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest against her death, in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 2022. (AP)
A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest against her death, in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 2022. (AP)
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After UN Report, Iran Reveals its Official Account of Amini Protests

A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest against her death, in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 2022. (AP)
A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest against her death, in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 2022. (AP)

A fact-finding committee formed by President Ebrahim Raisi to probe the protests that swept Iran in wake of the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 announced that the unrest left 281 Iranian dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.

The report was issued three days before the country celebrates its Nowruz new year holiday and ten days after the release of a UN fact-finding mission report on the violations that took place during the protests.

The government report said “social disturbances” can happen in any society. It added that it was “normal for countries to take measures to contain the situation if protests were to veer off their peaceful course and if they were to go against order, peace and public security.”

The committee defended the “responsible” actions of the security forces in handling the protests.

It said: “The Islamic Republic confronted the situation that unfolded in wake of the death of young woman Mahsa Amini on September 16.” It noted that a protest first erupted around the Kasra hospital in Tehran and days later, spread to other parts of the capital and beyond.

Some elements caused the protests to veer off their peaceful course, it noted.

The committee said it based its findings on witness testimonies, information collected from the media, open sources and reports from the government and non-governmental organizations.

It focused on four issues: claims of human rights violations during the “disturbances”, claims about arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force, information about the death and injury of individuals, and losses in public funds.

Amini’s death

The committee addressed the arrest and death of Amini, 22. It said she lost consciousness 26 minutes after being taken to a police station. She was detained for violating the hijab dress code.

She received treatment by the medical team at the station seven minutes before an emergency team arrived at the scene. She was then transferred to hospital where she died 62 hours later.

The committee stuck to official statements that denied that Amini had succumbed to injuries she had sustained while in custody.

Had the reporting of the incident taken place “correctly in the hours that followed and had accurate information been released at the appropriate time, the public could have been better informed and rumors and false reports by media hostile to Iran would have been contained,” it added.

Amini’s family has dismissed the official authorities’ claims that she had prior health problems.

Deaths

The committee said that out of the 202 civilians who were killed in the protests, 90 had used weapons in terrorist attacks and attacks on military and security bases.

It added that 112 of the victims were “passersby who were killed by rioters.” Fifty-four members of the security forces were killed in the “widespread violence sparked by rioters and terrorists” It also noted the death of 25 people in an ISIS attack on a religious shrine in Shiraz city.

The committee insisted that seven people in the southwestern city of Izeh were killed in a terrorist attack, while their loved ones have said they were shot by security forces.

Iranian human rights organizations have said the actual number of victims from the protests is higher. Trusted sources have put the figure at 551 killed by the security forces, including at least 49 women and 68 children, according to United Nations experts.

The majority of deaths were caused by firearms.

Iranian authorities have executed nine people, while dozens of others have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the protests.

The committee did not disclose the number of wounded, saying the authorities could not reach conclusive figures.

It acknowledged the injury of 5,200 members of the police and 1,540 members of the Revolutionary Guards Corps and its Basij force.

The report said 34,000 people were arrested during the protests, but 90 percent of them have been released on bail.

Root of the protests

The committee said it had taken into account the opinions of researchers and expert opinions on the impact economic sanctions are having on Iran. It also took into account political, security, social and cultural factors and concluded that what took place during the protests was a “planned plot by some foreign countries.”

The report sought to underscore the official story that the protests were part of a conspiracy, pointing fingers at foreign parties, especially countries that condemned how the authorities treated the protesters.

It said “hostile governments and foreign intelligence” played a role in orchestrating and inciting the protests. It accused the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Israel and others of involvement in the unrest.

The report said nine westerners were arrested during the protests, accusing them of involvement in the unrest. It claimed the arrest of 50 members of the opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran and 77 members of Kurdish-Iranian opposition parties.

On March 8, a UN fact-finding mission found that Iran employed “unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force” to quell the protests that followed Amini’s death.

The mission said Iran's response to the protests amounted to “crimes against humanity — specifically those of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, forced disappearance and other inhumane acts.”