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Biden, Modi Discuss Ukraine War After PM’s Visit, Situation in Bangladesh 

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
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Biden, Modi Discuss Ukraine War After PM’s Visit, Situation in Bangladesh 

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on August 23, 2024, shows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posing at the entrance of the Mariinskyi Palace ahead of their meeting, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Ukrainian President press-service / AFP) /

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday discussed the Russia-Ukraine war following Modi's visit to Ukraine, along with the situation in Bangladesh where protests led to the ousting of former leader Sheikh Hasina earlier this month.

Modi posted online that he discussed the situation in Ukraine with Biden over the phone and "reiterated India's full support for early return of peace and stability."

He also said the two leaders stressed "the need for early restoration of normalcy, and ensuring the safety and security of minorities, especially Hindus, in Bangladesh."

The White House issued a separate statement, saying Biden commended Modi's recent visit to Poland and Ukraine, and that both leaders expressed "support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law, on the basis of the UN Charter."

Last week, Modi visited Ukraine in the first visit by an Indian prime minister in modern Ukrainian history. It came at a volatile juncture in the war launched by Russia in February 2022. Moscow is making slow gains in eastern Ukraine as Kyiv presses a cross-border incursion.

Modi urged President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to sit down for talks with Russia to end the war and offered to help bring peace.

Modi's Ukraine visit followed a visit he made to Russia in July where he embraced President Vladimir Putin on the same day that a deadly Russian missile strike hit a children's hospital.

That visit angered Ukraine and the US State Department said it raised concerns with India about ties with Russia.

Moscow has been a large weapons supplier to India since the Soviet Union days. Washington in recent years has looked to woo New Delhi to counter China's influence.

Modi said the two leaders also discussed the situation in Bangladesh where about 300 people, many of them university and college students, were killed during protests that began in July with students agitating against quotas in government jobs before the events spiraled into demonstrations to oust long-serving former Prime Minister Hasina.

An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was sworn in after Hasina fled to India.

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Nearly 200 Killed in Terrorist Attack in Burkina Faso

Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)
Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)
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Nearly 200 Killed in Terrorist Attack in Burkina Faso

Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)
Staff are seen at the hospital of Kaya which received more than 300 wounded. (State television)

The Burkina Faso government said it will respond firmly to a terrorist attack that killed at least 200 people, mostly civilians, in the Barsalogho region, where terrorist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS are active.

The attack, which is the deadliest in the country this year, was carried out by dozens of heavily armed terrorists who entered the village in the early hours of Saturday morning.

For more than seven hours, they clashed with a unit of the army supported by local militia.

At least 200 people were killed, with another 300 wounded, according to an unofficial tally.

Local witnesses said every family lost at least one relative in the assault.

The assailants also targeted security forces, killing community leaders, numerous civilians, and several members of the security forces who responded to the attack.

The victims were buried in mass graves not far from the village.

Most of the injured were taken to a hospital in Kaya, the regional capital, about 45 kilometers from the site of the attack.

In light of the popular shock caused by the terrorist attack, the government sent on Sunday a ministerial delegation to the hospital, including Health Minister Robert Kargougou, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana, and government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo.

Ouedraogo, denouncing the attack on national television, described it as a “cowardly and barbaric attack” carried out by “hordes of criminals” who targeted “women, children, the elderly, men, indiscriminately.”

Security Minister Sana assured the public that the Burkinabe armed forces will give “an answer so that the enemy knows that we will never again accept similar barbarism on our territory.”

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, evidence show the attack was carried by the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al-Qaeda’s branch for West Africa.

According to a local resident, the victims were mainly “young civilians, who came out in large numbers to help the soldiers dig trenches around the town, to protect themselves from possible attacks by armed terrorist groups.”

A security source said that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralize several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”

Extremists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS have waged a grinding insurgency since 2015 in Burkina Faso that has killed more than 20,000 people, including 4,000 in 2024, ACLED figures show.

The attacks have also displaced two million people.