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Pakistan Court Postpones Police Operation to Arrest Imran Khan

Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan carry sticks and chant slogans as they guard the entrance of Khan's house, in Lahore, Pakistan March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan carry sticks and chant slogans as they guard the entrance of Khan's house, in Lahore, Pakistan March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
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Pakistan Court Postpones Police Operation to Arrest Imran Khan

Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan carry sticks and chant slogans as they guard the entrance of Khan's house, in Lahore, Pakistan March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan carry sticks and chant slogans as they guard the entrance of Khan's house, in Lahore, Pakistan March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

A Pakistani high court ordered police on Thursday to postpone an operation to arrest Imran Khan for another day, defusing a surge in violence that saw supporters of the former prime minister fighting pitch battles with security forces.

Khan's aide Fawad Chaudhry said the Lahore high court had extended an order to halt the police operation until Friday. The state information minister, Amir Mir, confirmed the court order, Reuters said.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, dozens of Khan's supporters, armed with batons and sling-shots, barricaded his home to prevent security forces from arresting him for failing to show up in court over a case in which he is charged with illegally selling state gifts given to him while he was prime minister. Khan denies the charges.

The court-ordered attempt to arrest Khan, which began on Tuesday, triggered clashes between his supporters and security forces in his Lahore neighborhood, raising fears about the political stability of nuclear-armed Pakistan as it faces an economic crisis.

The violence, in which protesters torched police vehicles, a water-cannon truck and scores of cars and motorcycles and hurled petrol bombs at security forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets, subsided after the high court halted the police operation on Wednesday.

A lower court in Islamabad had issued a warrant against former international cricketer Khan for defying orders to present himself in court over charges that he unlawfully sold state gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries when he was prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Khan denies the charges. The National Election Commission had found him guilty and barred Khan from holding public office for one parliamentary term.

The legal proceedings against Khan began after he was ousted from office in a parliamentary vote early last year. Since then, he has been demanding a snap election and holding nationwide protest rallies, and was shot and wounded in one of these rallies. Current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has rejected Khan's demands, saying the election would be held as scheduled later this year.

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World

Immigration Judge Rules US Can Deport President of Wisconsin's Largest Mosque

FILE - This photo provided by Yaseen Jajeeb shows Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour on June 18, 2026, shortly after his release from Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana, where he was detained after his arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March. (Yaseen Najeeb via AP, File)
FILE - This photo provided by Yaseen Jajeeb shows Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour on June 18, 2026, shortly after his release from Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana, where he was detained after his arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March. (Yaseen Najeeb via AP, File)
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Immigration Judge Rules US Can Deport President of Wisconsin's Largest Mosque

FILE - This photo provided by Yaseen Jajeeb shows Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour on June 18, 2026, shortly after his release from Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana, where he was detained after his arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March. (Yaseen Najeeb via AP, File)
FILE - This photo provided by Yaseen Jajeeb shows Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour on June 18, 2026, shortly after his release from Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana, where he was detained after his arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March. (Yaseen Najeeb via AP, File)

An immigration judge ruled that the US government can deport Palestinian American Salah Sarsour, who is the president of Wisconsin's largest mosque and a US permanent resident, under a Cold War-era law.
Sarsour, who grew up in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in late March and released in mid-June after a federal judge said he had raised a substantial free speech retaliation claim that would render his detention unlawful, reported Reuters.
Chicago Immigration ‌Court Judge Jayme ‌Salinardi sided late on Tuesday with the government's argument that ‌Sarsour ⁠posed a security and ⁠foreign policy threat under the Cold War-era Immigration and Nationality Act, while rejecting the government's allegation that he lied on his green card application.
The US Department of Homeland Security welcomed the ruling, saying the judge "sustained multiple grounds of removability" in the case.
Sarsour said his legal team will appeal the ruling, which he called "deeply disappointing."
"I will not stop standing up for what's right and for justice in Palestine," he said in a statement. Sarsour cannot ⁠be deported until all legal avenues available to him are ‌exhausted. He says his life will be at risk ‌if deported to the West Bank.
Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest mosque, says Sarsour has ‌lived in the US for over three decades.
The mosque has said Sarsour ‌was "being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background, and his advocacy for Palestinian rights."
He has type 2 diabetes and lost more than 30 pounds in ICE detention, his legal team said.
Sarsour has no criminal record in the US and was convicted as a teenager ‌in Israeli military court before he came to the United States, which the Trump administration noted to cast him as a ⁠threat. Sarsour says ⁠the government has known that information for decades.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem says military courts in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried for alleged crimes, have a 96% conviction rate and a history of extracting confessions through torture.
President Donald Trump's administration says Sarsour was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces.
Sarsour denies committing such crimes and says he was tortured and coerced into past confessions.
Trump has attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, threatened funding freezes for universities where protests were held, enforced a social media screening of immigrants and sanctioned Israel's critics.
Trump alleges pro-Palestinian voices are antisemitic and support extremists. Advocates, including some Jewish groups, say their criticism of Israeli attacks on Gaza and of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories does not amount to antisemitism, and their advocacy for Palestinian rights should not be conflated with supporting extremism.

World

Ukraine Urges US to Sanction Entities Supporting Russia's Starlink Rival

Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front of Ukraine's and Russia's flag colors in this illustration taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo
Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front of Ukraine's and Russia's flag colors in this illustration taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo
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Ukraine Urges US to Sanction Entities Supporting Russia's Starlink Rival

Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front of Ukraine's and Russia's flag colors in this illustration taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo
Plastic letters arranged to read "Sanctions" are placed in front of Ukraine's and Russia's flag colors in this illustration taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo

Ukraine is urging the United States to impose sanctions on several Russian entities that it says are helping develop Moscow's Rassvet satellite network as a domestic alternative to SpaceX's Starlink, its acting ambassador said on Wednesday.

Denys Sienik, deputy chief of mission at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, told reporters Russia was rapidly expanding the Rassvet satellite network, saying its goal to start operations in 2027 would pose grave risks to Ukraine.

"If they launch Rassvet by the end of 2026, they will be able to target to hit Ukrainian targets real time on our territory," Sienik said, adding that he would share details with the US government and Congress about ‌the firms and ‌individuals that Kyiv accuses of aiding Rassvet.

"If these entities are not sanctioned, ‌it ⁠will actually make this ⁠program possible for Russia and that will be a game-changer," Sienik said. He also stressed Ukraine's urgent need for some 300 additional Patriot interceptors by winter, saying that Russia was producing more than 100 ballistic missiles per month.

The US Treasury Department had no immediate comment on Ukraine's push for new sanctions, Reuters said.

Russia plans to start operating Rassvet, a smaller version of Elon Musk's Starlink system, in 2027, Alexei Shelobkov, CEO of Iks Holding, the company developing the service, said in June. The company launched its first 16 low-orbit satellites in March ⁠and plans to reach 900 over several years.

SpaceX currently has more ‌than 10,000 satellites in orbit. Starlink is banned in Russia, ‌and the use of its equipment is subject to fines.

Western nations have targeted the infrastructure behind Russia's space-based communications ‌efforts, but gaps remain. Kyiv has been pressing Washington to expand sanctions against a broader group of ‌Russian companies and individuals.

Ukraine has been pressing for access to expanded Starlink satellite internet coverage so it can strike Russian ballistic missile launchers located inside Russian territory, a position backed by Finnish President Alexander Stubb last week.

SHORTAGE OF AIR DEFENSE

With winter looming, Ukraine has an acute shortage of air defenses to repel Russian ballistic missiles, ‌and Kyiv officials believe that turning on Starlink over Russian territory would help it target the Russian launchers that fire the missiles.

Sienik also questioned ⁠the lack of US ⁠response when Russian strikes hit American firms in Ukraine, saying US complaints about Ukrainian strikes that hit US assets in the Caspian Sea had resulted in closer cooperation and more precise targeting.

But Washington remained silent in terms of messaging to Moscow when US firms in Ukraine were struck, and officials were even reluctant to name the companies affected, he said.

Sienik last week posted details of US firms being hit by Russia missiles in Ukraine, including offices of Boeing, Flex and Bunge. A Coca-Cola facility in the Kyiv region was also hit in September, along with a logistics facility serving McDonald’s, he said in his message on X.

"It is not a coincidence, Russia knows what it is doing by attacking regular businesses operating in Ukraine, supported by American investment and serving civilian needs," he wrote.

"While Russia must be deprived of the possibility to cause more deaths and destruction by strong sanctions, Ukraine must have enough air defense capabilities to protect itself but also to ensure the security of the American businesses operating and investing in Ukraine."

World

South Korea's Lee Urges North Korea to Restore Dialogue, Pledges Military Buildup

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during the Armed Forces Day at a military base in Gyeyong, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during the Armed Forces Day at a military base in Gyeyong, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)
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South Korea's Lee Urges North Korea to Restore Dialogue, Pledges Military Buildup

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during the Armed Forces Day at a military base in Gyeyong, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech during the Armed Forces Day at a military base in Gyeyong, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool Photo via AP)

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday called on North Korea to help restore trust and resume dialogue, a day after Seoul and Pyongyang traded barbs over a landmine incident that South Korea's military and the UN Command said amounted to an armistice violation.

"I hope that the North joins us now on the path of restoring trust and resuming dialogue, ‌following a ‌long interruption," Lee said in an address ‌marking ⁠the country's Armed ⁠Forces Day, adding that his administration would "consistently pursue practical measures to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas."

The comments came after Seoul's military and the UN Command said North Korea violated the Korean War armistice following a landmine blast last week that wounded ⁠three South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized ‌Zone (DMZ).

Kim Yo Jong, the ‌influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, rejected ‌the findings in a statement on Wednesday, accused ‌Seoul of fabricating the results and warned of retaliation.

Lee reaffirmed his goal of securing the transfer of wartime operational control from the United States to South Korea, calling it ‌part of a long-standing push for self-reliant national defense.

In a wide-ranging defense reform ⁠agenda, Lee ⁠also said in his speech that South Korea would build nuclear-powered submarines by the mid-2030s and upgrade missile defense capabilities, including AI-based command-and-control systems and high-energy laser interceptors.

He said the modernization drive would also involve expanding AI capabilities, restructuring the military for future warfare and strengthening the country's three-axis defense system for detecting and intercepting missile threats.

Lee's government has sought to reopen dialogue with North Korea, but Pyongyang has largely rejected Seoul's overtures while pressing ahead with border fortification work along the DMZ.