Two Civilians Dead as Russia Pounds Frontline Kherson Region

 A Ukrainian serviceman jumps out of the boat onto the shore of Dnipro at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)
A Ukrainian serviceman jumps out of the boat onto the shore of Dnipro at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)
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Two Civilians Dead as Russia Pounds Frontline Kherson Region

 A Ukrainian serviceman jumps out of the boat onto the shore of Dnipro at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)
A Ukrainian serviceman jumps out of the boat onto the shore of Dnipro at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. (AP)

Russian shelling pounded the frontline region of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Monday, killing two civilians, hurting at least eight others and hitting a bus, a critical infrastructure facility and cemetery, local authorities said.

"As of now, we know about seven victims as a result of the shelling of a (bus) in Kherson. Two men and five women," regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram messenger, adding that some of them had sustained severe injuries.

The bus had been at a crossroads when a shell exploded nearby, local prosecutors said. Images published by local officials online showed the floor of a badly-damaged bus covered in shards of glass and blood.

"Residential buildings, power lines, and vehicles were also damaged," the prosecutors said on Telegram.

Prokudin said Russia also attacked an unspecified critical infrastructure facility in the region, leaving the residents of four small settlements without electricity.

The vast Dnipro river runs through Kherson region and Russian troops control the territory on the eastern bank of it. The city of Kherson and Ukrainian-held areas on the western bank come under regular Russian shelling.

A cemetery in the region's village of Kindiyka also came under fire, killing one person and injuring a 62-year-old man, Prokudin said.

The city of Kherson also came under heavy overnight shelling, which killed an 85-year-old woman, Roman Mrochko, head of the city's military administration, said on Telegram.

"In the central district of the city, high-rise buildings and one of the social institutions were hit," Mrochko added.

He said the attack caused a fire and injured a resident, posting a video showing scorched rooms with collapsed walls and ceilings, shattered windows and piles of construction waste.

In a separate morning missile strike, an administrative building and equipment in a shipyard in the Black Sea region of Odesa were also hit, local prosecutors said, adding that four workers had been injured.

Images showed a blast crater, buildings with shattered windows and two destroyed vehicles.

The attacks followed attempted Russian drone strikes on southern, central, and northern Ukraine. Kyiv's military said air defenses destroyed all 12 drones and two missiles launched against the Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Dnipro regions.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory in the east and south.



Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Danish Foreign Minister to Visit NATO Allies Over Greenland

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reacts, following his and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt meeting with US Senators Angus King (I-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and a press conference, in Washington DC, US, January 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Denmark's foreign minister is to visit fellow NATO members Norway, the UK and Sweden to discuss the alliance's Arctic security strategy, his ministry announced Sunday.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will visit Oslo on Sunday, travel to London on Monday and then to Stockholm on Thursday.

The diplomatic tour follows US President Donald Trump's threat to punish eight countries -- including the three Rasmussen is visiting -- with tariffs over their opposition to his plan to seize control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Trump has accused Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland of playing a "very dangerous game" after they sent a few dozen troops to the island as part of a military drill.

"In an unstable and unpredictable world, Denmark needs close friends and allies," Rasmussen stated in a press release.

"Our countries share the view that we all agree on the need to strengthen NATO's role in the Arctic, and I look forward to discussing how to achieve this," he said.

An extraordinary meeting of EU ambassadors has been called in Brussels for Sunday afternoon.

Denmark, "in cooperation with several European allies", recently joined a declaration on Greenland stating that the mineral-rich island is part of NATO and that its security is a "shared responsibility" of alliance members, the ministry statement added.

Since his return to the White House for a second term, Trump has made no secret of his desire to annex Greenland, defending the strategy as necessary for national security and to ward off supposed Russian and Chinese advances in the Arctic.


Iranian Official Says Verified Deaths in Iran Protests Reaches at Least 5,000

10 January 2026, Iran, Tehran: A police station is set on fire during protests in Tehran in response to worsening economic conditions. ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
10 January 2026, Iran, Tehran: A police station is set on fire during protests in Tehran in response to worsening economic conditions. ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Iranian Official Says Verified Deaths in Iran Protests Reaches at Least 5,000

10 January 2026, Iran, Tehran: A police station is set on fire during protests in Tehran in response to worsening economic conditions. ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
10 January 2026, Iran, Tehran: A police station is set on fire during protests in Tehran in response to worsening economic conditions. ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

An Iranian official in the region said on Sunday the authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed in protests in Iran, including about 500 security personnel, blaming "terrorists and armed rioters" for killing "innocent Iranians".

The official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, also told Reuters ‌some of ‌the heaviest clashes and ‌highest ⁠number of ‌deaths were in the Iranian Kurdish areas in northwest Iran, a region where Kurdish separatists have been active and where flare-ups have been among the most violent in past periods of unrest.

"The final ⁠toll is not expected to increase sharply," ‌the official said, adding that "Israel ‍and armed ‍groups abroad" had supported and equipped those ‍taking to the streets.

The Iranians authorities regularly blame unrest on foreign enemies, including Israel, an arch foe of the country which launched military strikes on Iran in June.

The US-based HRANA ⁠rights group said on Saturday the death toll had reached 3,308, with another 4,382 cases under review. The group said it had confirmed more than 24,000 arrests.

The Iranian Kurdish rights group Hengaw, based in Norway, has said some of the heaviest clashes during protests that erupted in late December were ‌in Kurdish areas in the northwest.


Pakistan Security Forces Kill 12 Militants, Thwarting Attempted Hostage-taking in Southwest

File photo: Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
File photo: Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
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Pakistan Security Forces Kill 12 Militants, Thwarting Attempted Hostage-taking in Southwest

File photo: Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
File photo: Pakistani Army and security officials stand guard as the opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaft (PTI) continue their protest for the third day demanding release of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, in Islamabad, Pakistan, 06 October 2024. EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD

Pakistani security forces killed at least 12 militants and thwarted an attempted hostage-taking in southwestern Pakistan after assailants attacked a police station, the military said Friday.

In a statement, it said the attackers also targeted two banks and looted millions of rupees (dollars) during the assault in Kharan district of Balochistan province a day earlier. The militants attempted to seize hostages at the police station, but a swift response by security forces forced them to retreat, it said.

The military identified the assailants as “Fitna al-Hindustan,” a phrase the government uses for the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, and other separatist groups. It claimed the attackers, including those killed in the shootouts with security forces, were backed by India, though it provided no evidence. India has repeatedly denied Pakistan’s accusations that it supports separatists in Balochistan or Pakistani Taliban fighters.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in a statement praised the security forces for killing the militants and foiling the attacks by the insurgents in Kharan, reported The Associated Press.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populated province, has long been the scene of insurgency by separatist groups, along with attacks by the Pakistani Taliban. The BLA, which the United States designated a terrorist organization in 2019, has been behind numerous attacks targeting security forces and civilians across the province in recent years.