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Tag: War and unrest

  • No breakthrough in Armenia, Azerbaijan peace talks in Russia

    No breakthrough in Armenia, Azerbaijan peace talks in Russia

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    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Monday to try to broker a settlement to a longstanding conflict between the two ex-Soviet neighbors, but announced no breakthrough.

    The peace talks took place as Putin’s military delivered a new missile barrage targeting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in the conflict that has entered its ninth month.

    After meetings with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said they had to remove continuing points of disagreement from a prepared statement that was to have formed the basis of a peace deal. He called the meetings “very useful” but declined to answer a reporter’s question about the remaining sticking points, saying they were too delicate to discuss publicly.

    Before the meeting with Pashinyan, Putin had said the goals would be to ensure peace and stability, and unblock transportation infrastructure to help Armenia’s economic and social development.

    A joint statement released after the talks said the two sides pledged to refrain from the use of force, to negotiate issues based on respect for each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders. It said Armenia and Azerbaijan would work to normalize relations, foster peace and stability, as well as the security and economic development of their region.

    Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

    “We see the approaches of our colleagues to what is happening on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and around Karabakh,” Putin said Monday. “This conflict has been going on for a decade, so we still need to end it.”

    The meetings concern implementation of a 2020 peace deal that Russia brokered. During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories that Armenian forces held for decades. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

    Pashinyan said Monday that he would press for Azerbaijan to withdraw its troops from the Russian peacekeeping zone in Nagorno-Karabakh, and seek freedom for Armenian prisoners of war. An extension of the Russian peacekeeping mandate was also under discussion, Russian state news agencies reported. Putin told reporters afterward that extension of Russia’s peacekeeping mission would depend on resolution of other issues.

    A new round of hostilities erupted in September, when more than 200 troops were killed on both sides. Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blame for triggering the fighting.

    Russia is Armenia’s top ally and sponsor. In a delicate balancing act, it maintains a military base in Armenia but also has developed warm ties with Azerbaijan.

    In an apparent reflection of tensions with Armenia’s leadership, Putin noted last Thursday that the Kremlin had advised Pashinyan’s government before the 2020 hostilities to agree to a compromise in which Armenian forces would give up Azerbaijani lands outside Nagorno-Karabakh that they seized in the early 1990s. Putin lamented that “the Armenian leadership has taken a different path.”

    During the 2020 fighting, Azerbaijan reclaimed not only those territories but significant chunks of Nagorno-Karabakh proper.

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  • Russia recruiting U.S.-trained Afghan commandos, vets say

    Russia recruiting U.S.-trained Afghan commandos, vets say

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    Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals told The Associated Press.

    They said the Russians want to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of steady, $1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families so they can avoid deportation home to what many assume would be death at the hands of the Taliban.

    “They don’t want to go fight — but they have no choice,” said one of the generals, Abdul Raof Arghandiwal, adding that the dozen or so commandos in Iran with whom he has texted fear deportation most. “They ask me, ‘Give me a solution? What should we do? If we go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill us.’”

    Arghandiwal said the recruiting is led by the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group. Another general, Hibatullah Alizai, the last Afghan army chief before the Taliban took over, said the effort is also being helped by a former Afghan special forces commander who lived in Russia and speaks the language.

    The Russian recruitment follows months of warnings from U.S. soldiers who fought with Afghan special forces that the Taliban was intent on killing them and that they might join with U.S. enemies to stay alive or out of anger with their former ally.

    A GOP congressional report in August specifically warned of the danger that the Afghan commandos — trained by U.S. Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets — could end up giving up information about U.S. tactics to the Islamic State group, Iran or Russia — or fight for them.

    “We didn’t get these individuals out as we promised, and now it’s coming home to roost,” said Michael Mulroy, a retired CIA officer who served in Afghanistan, adding that the Afghan commandos are highly skilled, fierce fighters. “I don’t want to see them in any battlefield, frankly, but certainly not fighting the Ukrainians.”

    Mulroy was skeptical, however, that Russians would be able to persuade many Afghan commandos to join because most he knew were driven by the desire to make democracy work in their country rather than being guns for hire.

    AP was investigating the Afghan recruiting when details of the effort were first reported by Foreign Policy magazine last week based on unnamed Afghan military and security sources. The recruitment comes as Russian forces reel from Ukrainian military advances and Russian President Vladimir Putin pursues a sputtering mobilization effort, which has prompted nearly 200,000 Russian men to flee the country to escape service.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently acknowledged being the founder of the Wagner Group, dismissed the idea of an ongoing effort to recruit former Afghan soldiers as “crazy nonsense.”

    The U.S. Defense Department also didn’t reply to a request for comment, but a senior official suggested the recruiting is not surprising given that Wagner has been trying to sign up soldiers in several other countries.

    It’s unclear how many Afghan special forces members who fled to Iran have been courted by the Russians, but one told the AP he is communicating through the WhatsApp chat service with about 400 other commandos who are considering offers.

    He said many like him fear deportation and are angry at the U.S. for abandoning them.

    “We thought they might create a special program for us, but no one even thought about us,” said the former commando, who requested anonymity because he fears for himself and his family. “They just left us all in the hands of the Taliban.”

    The commando said his offer included Russian visas for himself as well as his three children and wife who are still in Afghanistan. Others have been offered extensions of their visas in Iran. He said he is waiting to see what others in the WhatsApp groups decide but thinks many will take the deal.

    U.S. veterans who fought with Afghan special forces have described to the AP nearly a dozen cases, none confirmed independently, of the Taliban going house to house looking for commandos still in the country, torturing or killing them, or doing the same to family members if they are nowhere to be found.

    Human Rights Watch has said more than 100 former Afghan soldiers, intelligence officers and police were killed or forcibly “disappeared” just three months after the Taliban took over despite promises of amnesty. The United Nations in a report in mid-October documented 160 extrajudicial killings and 178 arrests of former government and military officials.

    The brother of an Afghan commando in Iran who has accepted the Russian offer said Taliban threats make it difficult to refuse. He said his brother had to hide for three months after the fall of Kabul, shuttling between relatives’ houses while the Taliban searched his home.

    “My brother had no other choice other than accepting the offer,” said the commando’s brother, Murad, who would only give his first name because of fear the Taliban might track him down. “This was not an easy decision for him.”

    Former Afghan army chief Alizai said much of the Russian recruiting effort is focused on Tehran and Mashhad, a city near the Afghan border where many have fled. None of the generals who spoke to the AP, including a third, Abdul Jabar Wafa, said their contacts in Iran know how many have taken up the offer.

    “You get military training in Russia for two months, and then you go to the battle lines,” read one text message a former Afghan soldier in Iran sent to Arghandiwal. “A number of personnel have gone, but they have lost contact with their families and friends altogether. The exact statistics are unclear.”

    An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Afghan special forces fought with the Americans during the two-decade war, and only a few hundred senior officers were airlifted out when the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan. Since many of the Afghan commandos did not work directly for the U.S. military, they were not eligible for special U.S. visas.

    “They were the ones who fought to the really last minute. And they never, never, never talked to the Taliban. They never negotiated,” Alizai said. “Leaving them behind is the biggest mistake.”

    ———

    Condon reported from New York. AP writers Rahim Faiez in Islamabad and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.

    ———

    Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

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  • Somalia car bombs death toll up to 120, some still missing

    Somalia car bombs death toll up to 120, some still missing

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    MOGADISHU, Somalia — The death toll from twin car bombings in Somalia’s capital has reached 120 and could rise further because some people are still missing, the country’s health minister said Monday.

    Ali Haji said more than 320 others were wounded in Saturday’s midday explosions at a busy junction in Mogadishu, and over 150 of them are still being treated at hospitals.

    It was Somalia’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot killed more than 500 people five years ago. It is not clear how vehicles loaded with explosives again made it through a city full of checkpoints and constantly on alert for attacks.

    The al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the bombings and said it targeted the education ministry, which it accused of turning youth away from Islam.

    Somalia’s government under the recently elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been engaged in a new offensive against al-Shabab, including efforts to shut down its financial network. The government has said the fight will continue.

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  • China slams reported plan for US B-52 bombers in Australia

    China slams reported plan for US B-52 bombers in Australia

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    CANBERRA, Australia — The United States is preparing to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers in northern Australia, a news report said Monday, prompting China to accuse the U.S. of undermining regional peace and stability.

    The United States is preparing to build dedicated facilities for the long-range bombers at Royal Australian Air Force Base Tindal in the Northern Territory, national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

    Tindal is south of the coastal city of Darwin, where thousands of U.S. Marines Corps troops have spent about half of each year since 2012 under a deal struck between then-U.S. President Barack Obama and then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not directly respond when asked at a news conference on Monday if the United States is preparing to deploy bombers in Australia.

    “We engage with our friends in the United States alliance from time to time,” Albanese said.

    “There are visits to Australia, including in Darwin, that has U.S. Marines on a rotating basis stationed there,” he said.

    The U.S. Air Force told ABC the ability to deploy U.S. bombers to Australia “sends a strong message to adversaries about our ability to project lethal air power.”

    Asked about U.S. nuclear bombers being positioned in Australia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said defense and security cooperation between countries should “not target any third parties or harm the interests of third parties.”

    “The relevant U.S. behaviors have increased regional tensions, seriously undermined regional peace and stability, and may trigger an arms race in the region,” Zhao told reporters at a regular briefing in Beijing.

    “China urges the parties concerned to abandon the outdated Cold War and zero-sum mentality and narrowminded geopolitical thinking, and to do something conducive to regional peace and stability and enhancing mutual trust between the countries,” Zhao added.

    Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton, who was defense minister when his conservative government was voted out office in May, welcomed the prospect of B-52 bombers having a regular presence in Australia.

    “It would be fantastic to have them cycling through more regularly,” Dutton said, referring to the bombers. “It bolsters our security position in an uncertain time.”

    While in office, Dutton said he had discussed with U.S. authorities rotating all aspects of the U.S. Air Force through sparsely populated northern Australia.

    “To defend that (northern Australia) and to deter anybody from taking action against us is absolutely essential,” Dutton said.

    “We have a vulnerability and it’s important for us to have a very strong relationship with the United States … and all of our allies,” Dutton added.

    ABC said U.S. tender documents showed that the U.S. Defense Department is planning to build an aircraft parking apron at Tindal to accommodate six B-52s.

    There were detailed designs for the construction of a U.S Force “squadron operations facility” at Tindal as well as a maintenance center, jet fuel storage tanks and an ammunition bunker, the ABC reported.

    “The RAAF’s ability to host USAF bombers, as well as train alongside them, demonstrates how integrated our two air forces are,” the U.S. Defense Department told the ABC.

    The ABC did not provide a timeframe for the Tindal upgrade.

    ———

    AP video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.

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  • Concerns rise as Russia resumes grain blockade of Ukraine

    Concerns rise as Russia resumes grain blockade of Ukraine

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports on Sunday, cutting off urgently needed grain exports to hungry parts of the world in what U.S. President Joe Biden called a “really outrageous” act.

    Biden warned that global hunger could increase because of Russia’s suspension of a U.N.-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

    “It’s really outrageous,” Biden said Saturday in Wilmington, Delaware. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

    Biden spoke hours after Russia announced it would immediately halt participation in the grain deal, alleging that Ukraine staged a drone attack Saturday against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off the coast of occupied Crimea. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that Russia mishandled its own weapons.

    Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry reported Sunday that 218 ships involved in grain exports have been blocked — 22 loaded and stuck at ports, 95 loaded and departed from ports, and 101 awaiting inspections.

    One of the blocked ships, carrying 40,000 tons of wheat for Ethiopia under a U.N. aid program, could not leave Ukraine on Sunday as a result of Russia’s “blockage of the grain corridor,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, said on Twitter. The ship, Ikaria Angel, was stuck in the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.

    The Istanbul-based UN center coordinating the ship passages later said the Ikaria Angel was among six vessels that began moving out but hadn’t yet entered a humanitarian corridor. The center reported on plans to move and inspect other ships on Monday but it wasn’t clear whether Russia would agree.

    The grain initiative — an example of rare wartime cooperation between Ukraine and Russia — has allowed more than 9 million tons of grain in 397 ships to safely leave Ukrainian ports since it was signed in July. U.N. chief António Guterres had urged Russia and Ukraine on Friday to renew the deal when it expires Nov. 19. The grain agreement has brought down global food prices about 15% from their peak in March, according to the U.N.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskky expressed outrage at Russia’s decision. Referring to the Ikaria Angel, he said in his nightly video address Sunday, “This bulk ship with wheat for the U.N. food program and other vessels with agricultural products are forced to wait, because Russia is blackmailing the world with hunger.”

    Two initiatives to revive the grain deal were reported Sunday.

    Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was in talks with his counterparts to “solve the problem and to continue the grain initiative,” his agency said, adding that no more grain ships would leave Ukraine but those already waiting near Istanbul would be inspected on Sunday or Monday.

    At the United Nations in New York, Guterres delayed a trip by a day to engage in talks aimed at ending Russia’s suspension of the grain export deal. Russia also requested a meeting Monday of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the topic.

    Analysts say Russia’s withdrawal shows that it sees the grain deal as another way to pressure Ukraine.

    “By leaving the deal now and putting the blame on Ukraine, it aims to slow Ukrainian attacks around the Black Sea,” said Mario Bikarski, a Economist Intelligence Unit analyst. Russia could be hoping that Ukraine’s Western allies might ask it to focus its forces elsewhere to save the grain deal, he said.

    More conflicting details emerged Sunday about the alleged attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

    The city council of Mariupol, a Ukrainian port now controlled by Russia, claimed on Telegram that Ukrainian special services had destroyed at least three Russian warships near the city of Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

    But an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry claimed that the Russians’ “careless handling of explosives” had caused blasts on four Russian warships. Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles.

    Reports have surfaced for months of Ukrainian sabotage of Russian warplanes and ammunition depots on Crimea and Zelenskky has vowed repeatedly to recapture the strategic Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Sunday that one Ukrainian drone that reportedly attacked Sevastopol appeared to emanate from a civilian ship carrying agricultural products from Ukraine. The ministry claimed an inspection of the wreckage showed the drones used Canadian-made navigation and their launch point was the Ukrainian coast near the port of Odesa.

    Independent verification of each side’s claims was not possible.

    Ukraine appears to have targeted the Black Sea Fleet and other Russian military infrastructure on Crimea — far from the front lines but a critical launching pad for attacks against Ukraine — since the spring, although it often doesn’t confirm its responsibility.

    On the battlefront, Russian missile attacks kept pounding key front-line hot spots in Ukraine. The Russians shelled seven Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours, killing at least five civilians and wounding nine more, Ukraine’s presidential office said.

    In the eastern Donetsk region, where the fighting is ongoing near the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, eight cities and villages were shelled.

    In areas that Ukraine has recaptured, residents are still recovering bodies of killed civilians, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

    “Over the past 24 hours alone, in three de-occupied towns and villages, we found abandoned bodies of Ukrainian civilians,” Kyrylenko said.

    Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said Sunday that Russian forces were mining territories they leave behind twice as densely as during the first months of the war.

    Power outages were reported Sunday in the occupied Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, home to the closed Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest. Ukrainian and Russian officials traded blame for the shelling that caused the blackout.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Violent clashes grip Iran universities as protests persist

    Violent clashes grip Iran universities as protests persist

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian students clashed with security forces at universities across Iran on Sunday, Iranian media reported, as videos showed security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition at students.

    Sunday’s violence came as nationwide protests gripped the country despite threats from the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The Guard’s chief had warned young Iranians that Saturday would be the last day of the protests first sparked by the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police.

    Clashes escalated at Azad University in Tehran, where Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported that some groups attacked a protest staged during a memorial ceremony for the victims of a deadly attack at a major Shiite holy site in southern Iran. Several students were injured in the clashes, Tasnim reported, without elaborating.

    Videos on social media purportedly showed security forces firing tear gas at students shouting against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. University campuses have emerged as central hotbeds of opposition, playing a central role in the protest movement.

    A video posted by the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights showed a member of the Basij, the Guard’s force of paramilitary volunteers, firing a pistol at close range at students protesting.

    The human rights group said it strongly condemned, “the encroachment of university campuses by armed plainclothes forces and violent crackdown on peaceful student protests.”

    Hardline, pro-government students in several universities across the country had gathered to commemorate a deadly Islamic State-claimed attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people on Wednesday, including women and children. The ceremonies also drew masses of antigovernment protesters, including at Azad University.

    “Freedom, freedom, freedom!” they chanted.

    The Iranian government has repeatedly alleged that foreign powers have orchestrated the protests, without providing evidence. The protests have become one of the most serious threats to Iran’s ruling clerics since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

    The protests first focused on the state-mandated hijab, or headscarf, for women but quickly grew into calls for the downfall of Iran’s theocracy itself. At least 270 people have been killed and 14,000 have been arrested in the protests that have swept over 125 Iranian cities, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran.

    Since October 24, the country’s authorities started hearing the cases of at least 900 protesters charged with “corruption on earth” — a term often used to describe attempts to overthrow the Iranian government that carries the death penalty.

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  • Concerns rise as Russia resumes grain blockade of Ukraine

    Concerns rise as Russia resumes grain blockade of Ukraine

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports on Sunday, cutting off urgently needed grain exports to hungry parts of the world in what U.S. President Joe Biden called a “really outrageous” act.

    Biden — speaking in Wilmington, Delaware — warned that global hunger could increase because of Russia’s suspension of a U.N.-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

    “It’s really outrageous,” Biden said Saturday. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

    Biden spoke hours after Russia announced it would immediately halt participation in the grain deal, alleging that Ukraine staged a drone attack Saturday against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off the coast of occupied Crimea. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that Russia mishandled its own weapons.

    A ship carrying 40,000 tons of grain bound for Ethiopia under the United Nations aid program could not leave Ukraine on Sunday as a result of Russia’s “blockage of the grain corridor,” Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure, said on Twitter. He didn’t specify from which Ukrainian port the ship, the Ikraia Angel, had been scheduled to depart.

    The grain initiative has allowed more than 9 million tons of grain in 397 ships to safely leave Ukrainian ports since it was signed in July. U.N. chief António Guterres had urged Russia and Ukraine on Friday to renew the deal when it expires Nov. 19. The grain agreement has succeeded in bringing down global food prices about 15% from their peak in March, according to the U.N., which has listed Ethiopia as one of the countries most at risk for food shortages.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 176 ships loaded with grain for more than 7 million consumers are being blocked.

    “Why is it that a handful of people somewhere in the Kremlin can decide whether there will be food on the tables of people in Egypt or Bangladesh?” he said Saturday in his nightly video address.

    Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that no more ships would depart from Ukraine but those already waiting near Istanbul would be inspected on Sunday or Monday. The statement said Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was in talks with his counterparts to “solve the problem and to continue the grain initiative.”

    Russia requested a meeting Monday of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the alleged attack and the security of the Black Sea grain corridor. Guterres delayed a trip to Algiers by a day to engage in talks aimed at ending Russia’s suspension of the grain export deal.

    Analysts say Russia pulling out of the deal signals that it sees the agreement as a way to exert pressure on Ukraine.

    “By leaving the deal now and putting the blame on Ukraine, it aims to slow Ukrainian attacks around the Black Sea,” said Mario Bikarski, Europe’s analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit. Russia could be hoping that Ukraine’s Western allies might ask it to focus its forces elsewhere in order to preserve the grain deal, he said.

    More conflicting details emerged Sunday about the alleged attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

    The city council of Mariupol, a Ukrainian port captured by Russia on the Azov Sea, said on Telegram that Ukrainian special services had destroyed at least three Russian warships near the city of Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

    An adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry claimed that the Russians’ “careless handling of explosives” had caused blasts on four Russian warships. Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Sunday that one of the drones that attacked Sevastopol could have been launched from a civilian ship carrying agricultural products from Ukraine. The ministry claimed an inspection of the wreckage showed the drones used Canadian-made navigation technology and that the launch point was the Ukrainian coast near the port of Odesa. The ministry claimed the ships that were attacked had helped secure the safety of the Black Sea grain corridor.

    Independent verification of each side’s claims was not possible.

    Russia’s action is facing international condemnation over the grain deal suspension. In a tweet Sunday, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Russia to reverse its decision.

    Russia had been angling to withdraw from the deal for some time, said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

    On the diplomatic front, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any peace talks between Russia and Ukraine should be held with Washington, which Russia views as Kyiv’s “mastermind.”

    “Obviously, the deciding vote belongs to Washington … It is impossible to talk about something, for example, with Kyiv,” Peskov said on Russian state television.

    Ukraine and the United States are unlikely to agree to such a demand.

    On the battlefront, Russian missile attacks kept pounding key front-line hot spots in Ukraine. The Russians shelled seven Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours, killing at least five civilians and wounding nine more, Ukraine’s presidential office said.

    In the eastern Donetsk region, where the fighting is ongoing near the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, eight cities and villages were shelled.

    Earlier this month, Moscow intensified its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s power stations, waterworks and other key infrastructure, damaging 40% of Ukraine’s electric system and forcing the government to implement rolling blackouts. Kyiv’s mayor said the Ukrainian capital’s power system was operating in “emergency mode.”

    In addition, in areas that Ukraine has recaptured, residents are still recovering bodies of killed civilians, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

    “Over the past 24 hours alone, in three de-occupied towns and villages, we found abandoned bodies of Ukrainian civilians,” Kyrylenko said. “The Russians are ignoring all principles of war. Every week we discover either individual or mass graves of civilians.”

    Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said Sunday that Russian forces were mining territories they leave behind twice as densely as during the first months of the war.

    “Virtually everything in the recently de-occupied territories has been mined,” Monastyrskiy told Ukrainian television.

    Power outages were reported Sunday in the occupied Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, home to the closed Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest. Ukrainian and Russian officials traded blame for the shelling that caused the blackout.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Somalia’s president says at least 100 killed in car bombings

    Somalia’s president says at least 100 killed in car bombings

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    MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s president says at least 100 people were killed in Saturday’s two car bombings at a busy junction in the capital and the toll could rise in the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500.

    President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at the site of the explosions in Mogadishu, told journalists that nearly 300 other people were wounded. “We ask our international partners and Muslims around the world to send their medical doctors here since we can’t send all the victims outside the country for treatment,” he said.

    The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which often targets the capital and controls large parts of the country, claimed responsibility, saying it targeted the education ministry. It claimed the ministry was an “enemy base” that receives support from non-Muslim countries and “is committed to removing Somali children from the Islamic faith.”

    Al-Shabab usually doesn’t make claims of responsibility when large numbers of civilians are killed, as in the 2017 blast, but it has been angered by a high-profile new offensive by the government that also aims to shut down its financial network. The group said it is committed to fighting until the country is ruled by Islamic law, and it asked civilians to stay away from government areas.

    Somalia’s president, elected this year, said the country remained at war with al-Shabab “and we are winning.”

    The attack in Mogadishu occurred on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials were meeting to discuss expanded efforts to combat violent extremism and especially al-Shabab. The extremists, who seek an Islamic state, have responded to the offensive by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to dissuade grassroots support.

    The attack has overwhelmed first responders in Somalia, which has one of the world’s weakest health systems after decades of conflict. At hospitals and elsewhere, frantic relatives peeked under plastic sheeting and into body bags, looking for loved ones.

    Halima Duwane was searching for her uncle, Abdullahi Jama. “We don’t know whether he is dead or alive but the last time we communicated he was around here,” she said, crying.

    Witnesses to the attack were stunned. “I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground due to the (number of) fatalities,” witness Abdirazak Hassan said. He said the first blast hit the perimeter wall of the education ministry, where street vendors and money changers were located.

    An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the second blast occurred in front of a busy restaurant during lunchtime. The blasts demolished tuk-tuks and other vehicles in an area of many restaurants and hotels.

    The Somali Journalists Syndicate, citing colleagues and police, said one journalist was killed and two others wounded by the second blast while rushing to the scene of the first. The Aamin ambulance service said the second blast destroyed one of its responding vehicles.

    It was not immediately clear how vehicles loaded with explosives again made it to the high-profile location in Mogadishu, a city thick with checkpoints and constantly on alert for attacks.

    The United States has described al-Shabab as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations and targeted it with scores of airstrikes in recent years. Hundreds of U.S. military personnel have returned to the country after former President Donald Trump withdrew them.

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  • Somalia’s president says at least 100 people were killed in Saturday’s car bombings in the capital and toll could rise.

    Somalia’s president says at least 100 people were killed in Saturday’s car bombings in the capital and toll could rise.

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    Somalia’s president says at least 100 people were killed in Saturday’s car bombings in the capital and toll could rise.

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  • Russia says it will suspend UN-brokered Ukraine export deal

    Russia says it will suspend UN-brokered Ukraine export deal

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia announced Saturday that it will move to suspend its implementation of a U.N.-brokered grain deal that has seen more than 9 million tons of grain exported from Ukraine during the war and has brought down soaring global food prices.

    The Russian Defense Ministry cited an alleged Ukrainian drone attack against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet ships moored off the coast of occupied Crimea, which Russia says took place early Saturday, as the reason for the move. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that the Russians mishandled their own weapons.

    The Russian declaration came one day after U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged Russia and Ukraine to renew the grain export deal. Guterres also urged other countries, mainly in the West, to expedite the removal of obstacles blocking Russian grain and fertilizer exports.

    The U.N. chief said the grain deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July and which expires on Nov. 19 — helps “to cushion the suffering that this global cost-of-living crisis is inflicting on billions of people,” his spokesman said.

    A Guterres spokesman said U.N. officials were in touch with Russian authorities over the announced suspension.

    “It is vital that all parties refrain from any action that would imperil the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is a critical humanitarian effort that is clearly having a positive impact on access to food for millions of people,” said the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

    Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday accused British specialists of being involved in the alleged attack by drones on Russian ships in Crimea.

    “In connection with the actions of Ukrainian armed forces, led by British specialists, directed, among other things, against Russian ships that ensure the functioning of the humanitarian corridor in question (which cannot be qualified otherwise than as a terrorist attack), the Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea initiative, and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period,” the Russian statement said.

    Britain’s Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

    Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, accused Russia of playing “hunger games” by imperiling global food shipments.

    “We warned about Russia’s plans to destroy the (grain agreement). Now, under false pretenses, Moscow is blocking the grain corridor that ensures food security for millions of people,” he tweeted Saturday.

    The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, denounced the suspension as “primitive blackmail.”

    Turkish officials said they haven’t received any official notice of the deal’s suspension.

    Russia’s agriculture minister said Moscow stands ready to “fully replace Ukrainian grain and deliver supplies at affordable prices to all interested countries.” In remarks carried by the state Rossiya 24 TV channel, Dmitry Patrushev said Moscow was prepared to “supply up to 500,000 tons of grain to the poorest countries free of charge in the next four months,” with the help of Turkey.

    Patrushev also reiterated the Kremlin’s earlier allegations that a disproportionate volume of grain exported from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports was bound for European destinations.

    Earlier Saturday, Ukraine and Russia offered differing versions on the Crimea drone attack in which at least one Russian ship suffered damage in the port on the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said a minesweeper had “minor damage” during an alleged pre-dawn Ukrainian attack on navy and civilian vessels docked in Sevastopol, which hosts the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The ministry claimed Russian forces had “repelled” 16 attacking drones.

    The governor of the Sevastopol region, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said the port saw “probably the most massive attack” by air and sea drones. He provided no evidence, saying all video from the area would be held back for security reasons.

    But an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry claimed that “careless handling of explosives” had caused blasts on four warships in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles used in a deadly July attack on a western Ukrainian city.

    In other developments on Saturday, Russian troops moved large numbers of sick and wounded comrades from hospitals in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region and stripped the facilities of medical equipment, Ukrainian officials said as their forces fought to retake the province.

    Kremlin-installed authorities in the mostly Russian-occupied region had previously urged civilians to leave the city of Kherson, the region’s capital — and reportedly joined the tens of thousands who fled to other Russia-held areas.

    “The so-called evacuation of invaders from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including from medical institutions, continues,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russians were “dismantling the entire health care system” in Kherson and other occupied areas.

    “The occupiers have decided to close medical institutions in the cities, take away equipment, ambulances. just everything,” Zelenskyy said.

    Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and where he subsequently declared martial law. The others are Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

    As Kyiv’s forces sought gains in the south, Russia kept up its shelling and missile attacks in the country’s east, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday. Three more civilians died and eight more were wounded in the Donetsk region, which has again become a front-line hotspot as Russian soldiers try to capture the city of Bakhmut, an important target in Russia’s stalled eastern offensive.

    Russian shelling also an industrial building in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. Around a quarter of the region — including its capital, also called Zaporizhzhia — remains under Ukrainian military control.

    In the latest prisoner exchange, 52 Ukrainians, including two former defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, were released Saturday as part of a swap with Russia, according to Yermak. The steelworks in that bombed-out port city now symbolize Ukrainian resistance.

    Also released, he said, was a sailor who defended Ukraine’s Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea outpost seized by Russia in the opening hours of the war. Others coming home were Ukrainian soldiers captured by Moscow near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant — the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986 — which Russian forces briefly occupied from February to March.

    ———

    This version has been corrected to show the Russian Defense Ministry said one ship, not two, was slightly damaged in Crimea port.

    ———

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  • Two explosions rock Somalia’s capital, leaving “scores” dead

    Two explosions rock Somalia’s capital, leaving “scores” dead

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    MOGADISHU, Somalia — Two car bombs exploded Saturday at a busy junction in Somalia’s capital near key government offices, leaving “scores of civilian casualties” including children, national police said. The attack came five years after a massive blast at the same location.

    The attack in Mogadishu occurred on a day when the president, prime minister and other senior officials were meeting to discuss combating violent extremism, especially by the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab group that often targets the capital.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al-Shabab rarely claims attacks with large numbers of civilians killed, as in the 2017 blast.

    An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw “many” bodies and said they appeared to be civilians traveling on public transport. He said the second blast occurred in front of a busy restaurant during lunchtime. The blasts left crushed tuk-tuks and other vehicles in an area of many restaurants and hotels.

    The Aamin ambulance service told the AP they had collected at least 35 wounded. One of the ambulances responding to the attack was destroyed by the second blast, director Abdulkadir Adan added in a tweet.

    “I was 100 meters away when the second blast occurred,” witness Abdirazak Hassan said. “I couldn’t count the bodies on the ground due to the (number of) fatalities.” He said the first blast hit the perimeter wall of the education ministry, where street vendors and money changers were located.

    The Somali Journalists Syndicate, citing colleagues and police, said one journalist was killed and two others wounded by the second blast while rushing to the scene of the first.

    The attack occurred at Zobe junction, which was the scene of a huge al-Shabab truck bombing in 2017 that killed more than 500 people. Police said the new attack occurred at the exact spot as the 2017 one.

    Somalia’s government has been engaged in a high-profile new offensive against the extremist group that the United States has described as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has described it as “total war” against the extremists, who control large parts of central and southern Somalia and have been the target of scores of U.S. airstrikes in recent years.

    The extremists have responded by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to dissuade support for that government offensive.

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  • Russians said to be clearing Ukrainian region’s hospitals

    Russians said to be clearing Ukrainian region’s hospitals

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops moved large numbers of sick and wounded comrades from hospitals in southern Ukraine‘s Kherson region, Ukrainian military officials reported Saturday as their forces fought to retake a province overrun by invading soldiers early in the war.

    Kremlin-installed authorities in the mostly Russian-occupied region previously urged civilians to leave the city of Kherson, the region’s capital. The Moscow-appointed authorities in Kherson also were reported this week to have joined tens of thousands of residents who fled to other Russia-held areas ahead of an expected Ukrainian advance.

    “The so-called evacuation of invaders from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including from medical institutions, continues,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a morning update. “All equipment and medicines are being removed from Kherson hospitals.”

    The military’s claims could not be independently verified. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a nightly video address Friday that the Russians were “dismantling the entire health care system” in Kherson and other occupied areas.

    “The occupiers have decided to close medical institutions in the cities, take away equipment, ambulances. just everything,” Zelenskyy said. “They put pressure on the doctors who still remained in the occupied areas for them to move to the territory of Russia.”

    Kherson is one of four regions of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and where he subsequently declared martial law. The others are Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

    Elsewhere on Saturday, at least two Russian ships suffered damage in a major port in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Ukraine and Russia offered different versions of what happened and who was to blame.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said two ships received “minor damage” during an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on navy and civilian vessels docked in Sevastopol at 4:20 a.m. The city, Crimea’s largest, hosts the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

    The ministry said 16 drones were used in the attack and that Russian forces had “repelled” them. Earlier Saturday, the Kremlin-installed governor of Sevastopol reported an “ongoing” drone attack.

    An adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry gave a conflicting account, claiming that that “careless handling of explosives” had caused blasts on four warships in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Telegram that the vessels included a frigate, a landing ship and a ship that carried cruise missiles used in a deadly July attack on a western Ukrainian city.

    Neither side’s claim could be immediately verified.

    As Kyiv’s forces sought gains in the south, Russia kept up shelling and missile attacks in the country’s east, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday. Three civilians died in the last day and eight more were wounded in the Donetsk region, which has again become a front-line hotspot as Russian soldiers try to capture the city of Bakhmut.

    Western analysts have long identified Bakhmut as an important target in Russia’s stalled eastern offensive. Capturing Bakhmut would pave the way for Moscow’s forces to threaten Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest Ukrainian-held cities remaining in the long-embattled Donbas region.

    Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province make up the Donbas. Pro-Russia separatists have controlled parts of both provinces since 2014.

    In the northeastern Kharkiv region, where Russia’s troops retreated last month and Ukrainian troops clawed back broad swaths of territory, Russian shelling overnight wounded three civilians, according to the region’s Ukrainian governor.

    Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram said that two women in their 40s and a 60-year-old man were wounded near Kupiansk, a town that served as a resupply hub for Russian forces in the region before Ukrainian troops regained control.

    In neighboring Luhansk province, Gov. Serhii Haidai said late Friday that Ukrainian forces have shelled the entire length of the Kreminna-Svatove highway, where the Russians set up their main line of defense after their withdrawal from the Kharkiv region.

    A Russian shelling attack Saturday also hit “critical infrastructure” in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian governor of the illegally annexed province said. Around a quarter of the region, including the local capital, also called Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian military control.

    Writing on Telegram, Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the damage was being assessed. He did not specify what was struck and did not mention any casualties.

    Political pressure for efforts to negotiate an end to the war are building in parts of western Europe. Zelenskyy had said his country won’t negotiate with Russia as long as Moscow insists the annexed regions are Russian territory.

    In remarks to Yale University students on Friday, the Ukrainian leader reiterated his unwillingness to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government because of its “disrespect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

    In his nightly remarks, the Ukrainian leader noted that about 4 million Ukrainians live in areas subject to rolling blackouts following weeks of Russia targeting power plants and other infrastructure. He warned the emergency blackouts were possible elsewhere in Ukraine.

    ———

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  • India to contribute $500,000 to UN to counter terrorism

    India to contribute $500,000 to UN to counter terrorism

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    NEW DELHI — India will contribute half a million dollars to the United Nations’ efforts to counter global terrorism as new and emerging technologies used by terror groups pose fresh threats to governments around the world, the foreign minister said Saturday.

    The money will go toward the U.N. Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism and will further strengthen the organization’s fight against terrorism, S. Jaishankar said as he addressed a special meeting of the U.N. Counter Terrorism Committee in New Delhi.

    It was the first such conference — focused on challenging threats posed by terror groups in the face of new technologies — to be held outside the U.N.’s headquarters in New York.

    Jaishankar said new technologies, like encrypted messaging services and blockchain, are increasingly misused by terror groups and malicious actors, sparking an urgent need for the international community to adopt measures to combat the threats.

    “ Internet and social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the toolkit of terrorist and militant groups for spreading propaganda, radicalization and conspiracy theories aimed at destabilizing societies,” he said in his keynote address.

    Jaishankar also highlighted the growing threat from the use of unmanned aerial systems such as drones by terror groups and criminal organizations, calling them a challenge for security agencies worldwide.

    “In Africa, drones have been used by the terrorist groups to monitor movements of security forces and even of U.N. peacekeepers, making them vulnerable to terrorist attacks,” he added.

    British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly reiterated the dangers of unmanned aerial platforms, saying that such systems were being used to inflict terror, death and destruction.

    “Drones are being used currently to target critical national infrastructure and civilian targets in Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine,” he said. “This is why we have sanctioned three Iranian military commanders and one Iranian company involved in the supply of drones.”

    The special conference kicked off on Friday in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, which witnessed a massive terror attack in 2008 that left 140 Indian nationals and 26 citizens of 23 other countries dead by terrorists who had entered India from Pakistan.

    Jaishankar on Friday said India regretted the U.N. Security Council’s inability to act in some cases when it came to proscribing terrorists because of political considerations, undermining its collective credibility and interests. He did not name China but referred to its decision to block U.N. sanctions against leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a Pakistan-based extremist group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.N.

    India and the United States sought the sanctions earlier this year. China put the proposed listing of the two terrorists for sanctions on hold on technical grounds, saying it needed more time to study their cases.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the Asia-Pacific region at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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  • UN urges Libya rivals to agree in road map to elections soon

    UN urges Libya rivals to agree in road map to elections soon

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    UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council voted unanimously Friday to extend the U.N. political mission in Libya for a year and urged key institutions and parties in the divided north African country to agree on a road map to deliver presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible.

    The resolution adopted by the U.N.’s most powerful body urged “dialogue, compromise and constructive engagement” aimed at forming “a unified Libyan government able to govern across the country and representing the whole people of Libya.”

    Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The oil-rich nation has been split between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.

    The country’s current political crisis stems from the failure to hold elections in December 2021 and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who led a transitional government in the capital, Tripoli, in the country’s west, to step down. In response, the country’s east-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister, Fathy Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli.

    The resolution reaffirmed the Security Council’s “strong commitment to an inclusive Libyan-led and Libyan-owned political process, facilitated by the United Nations and supported by the international community,” that leads to elections as soon as possible. It backs the resumption of efforts to resume intra-Libya talks to create conditions for elections.

    Gabon’s U.N. ambassador, Michel Xavier Biang, the current council president, said the three African nations on the council — Gabon, Kenya and Ghana — “have the sense of having contributed to an important milestone towards the stabilization of a major African state.”

    “Through this vote, we are sending a message to the Libyan people and that message is clear that the U.N. is standing by their side,” Biang said. “This is also a message to the Libyan authorities and all political stakeholders who have an opportunity to create a momentum that would lead to restoring hope in Libya.”

    The council welcomed the appointment of a new U.N. special envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, after a nine-month search amid increasing chaos in Libya.

    Russia had refused to extend the mandate of the U.N. mission in Libya, known as UNSMIL, for more than three months until a new special representative was chosen. So UNSMIL’s 12-month extension until Oct. 31, 2023, was a vote of confidence for the former Senegalese minister and diplomat.

    Bathily told the council Monday he plans to follow up on commitments by Libya’s political rivals at the end of a meeting last week that reportedly include the need to hold elections and ensure that the country has a single executive power as soon as possible.

    He said he plans to talk to leaders of the east-based parliament, the House of Representatives, and west-based High Council of State in the coming weeks “to understand” the agreements announced at the end of their Oct. 21 meeting in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

    According to the Moroccan Press Agency and the North African Post, the speaker of the east-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, and the head of the Supreme Council, Khaled al-Meshri, agreed to implement a mechanism on criteria for leadership positions agreed to at talks in Morocco in October 2020.

    Saleh was quoted as saying the rivals also agreed “to ensure that there is a single executive power in Libya as soon as possible” and to relaunch dialogue to achieve an agreement about the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections. The elections need to respect “a clear roadmap and legislation, on the basis of which the polls will be held,” he was quoted as saying at a press briefing after the meeting.

    The Security Council’s resolution underlined “the importance of an inclusive, comprehensive national dialogue and reconciliation process.”

    Council members expressed concern at the security situation in Libya, particularly recurring clashes between armed groups in the Tripoli region that have caused civilian casualties and damaged civilian infrastructure.

    They emphasized “that there can be no military solution in Libya” and called on all parties to refrain from violence.

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  • Blackouts worsen in Ukraine; fighting rages on many fronts

    Blackouts worsen in Ukraine; fighting rages on many fronts

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure prompted Ukrainian authorities on Friday to announce worsening blackouts around the country’s largest cities, with Kyiv’s mayor warning that the capital’s power grid is working in “emergency mode” with energy supplies down as much as 50% from pre-war levels.

    Meanwhile, the Russian president sought to dispel criticism of a chaotic call-up of 300,000 reservists for service in Ukraine by ordering his defense minister to make sure they’re properly trained and equipped for battle.

    In the Kyiv region, as winter looms, the latest damage to utilities would mean outages of four or more hours a day, according to Ukrenergo, the state operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines.

    But Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba warned “more severe and longer shutdowns will be applied in the coming days.”

    Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city’s power grid was operating in “emergency mode” and added he hoped Ukrenergo would find ways to address the shortage “in two to three weeks.”

    The former boxing world champion also said new air defense equipment has been deployed in the Ukrainian capital to help defend against Russian drone and missile attacks on energy facilities.

    In the Kharkiv region, home to Ukraine’s second-largest city of the same name, Gov. Oleg Syniehubov said daily one-hour power outages would begin Monday.

    Officials across the country have urged people to conserve by reducing electricity consumption during peak hours and avoiding the use of high-voltage appliances.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that 30% of Ukraine’s power stations had been destroyed since Russia launched the first wave of targeted infrastructure strikes on Oct. 10.

    In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that the thousands of reservists who were recently called up need the right training and equipment so “people feel confident when they need to go to combat.”

    Shoigu told Putin that 82,000 reservists had been deployed to Ukraine, while 218,000 others were still being trained. He said there were no immediate plans to round up more, but Putin’s mobilization order left the door open for a future military call-up.

    Putin’s effort to beef up the number of troops along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line followed recent setbacks, including a Russian withdrawal from the Kkarkiv region. The mobilization, however, fueled scores of protests in Russia and prompted hundreds of thousands of men to flee the country.

    Activists and reports by Russian media and The Associated Press said many of the draftees were inexperienced, were told to procure basic items such as medical kits and flak jackets themselves, and did not receive training before they were sent to fight. Some were killed within days of being called up.

    Shoigu acknowledged that “problems with supplies existed in the initial stages,” but told Putin those have now been solved.

    Putin ordered Shoigu to propose ways to reform the ground troops and other parts of the military based on their performance in Ukraine.

    Meanwhile, Russian missile and artillery barrages pounded targets across Ukraine. Several towns across the Dnieper River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were struck, the presidential office said. Shelling damaged dozens of residential buildings in Nikopol, and power was cut there and to thousands of families in neighboring towns.

    A Russian S-300 air defense missile destroyed a three-story office building and damaged a new residential building nearby, said Mykolaiv regional governor Vitalii Kim. Russian forces have frequently used converted S-300 missiles to strike ground targets in Ukraine.

    Moscow also pressed its ground advance on the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiikva after a string of setbacks in the east. The fighting had turned the entire Donetsk region into “a zone of active hostilities,” according to Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.

    “Civilians who remain in the region live in constant fear without heating and electricity,” Kyrylenko said in televised remarks. “Their enemy is not only Russian cannons but also the cold.”

    A Russian takeover of Bakhmut, which has remained in Ukrainian hands throughout the war, would open the way for the Kremlin to push on to other Ukrainian strongholds in the heavily contested Donetsk region. A reinvigorated eastern offensive could also potentially stall or derail Ukraine’s push to recapture the southern city of Kherson, a gateway to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

    Last month, Putin also illegally annexed annexed the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Much of the fighting since then has appeared geared toward consolidating Moscow’s control over that territory, which Putin has put under martial law.

    Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai reported Friday that Russian soldiers had retreated from some areas; Moscow had claimed Luhansk’s complete capture in July.

    “The Russians practically destroyed some villages after they started to retreat,” Haidai said. “There are a lot of freshly mobilized Russians in the Luhansk region, but they are dying in droves.” His claim could not be independently verified.

    In the Zaporizhzhia region, Kremlin-appointed officials urged residents not to switch to daylight savings time along with Kyiv and the rest of the country. Russia switched to permanent winter time in 2014.

    “We live in the Russian Federation, and our city lives by Moscow time,” said Alexander Volga, the Russian-installed mayor of Enerhodar, where Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is located.

    Meanwhile, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency planned to visit two locations where Russia alleged, without citing evidence, that Ukraine was building radioactive “dirty bombs.” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said inspectors are being dispatched after a written request from the Ukrainian government.

    Moscow has repeatedly made the unfounded claim that Ukraine is preparing to detonate a device that spreads radioactive waste on its own territory while trying to blame Russia. Western officials have dismissed the claim as misinformation possibly designed as a pretext for Russia’s own military escalation.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Putin to host leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan for talks

    Putin to host leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan for talks

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    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to help broker a settlement to a longstanding conflict between the two ex-Soviet neighbors, the Kremlin said Friday.

    Putin’s talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will be held at the Russian leader’s Black Sea residence in Sochi on Monday.

    The Kremlin said the leaders will discuss the implementation of a 2020 peace deal brokered by Russia and “further steps to enhance stability and security in the Caucasus,” adding that “the issues related to the restoration and development of trade and economic and transport links will also be discussed.”

    The ex-Soviet neighbors have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

    During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

    A new round of hostilities erupted in September, when more than 200 troops were killed on both sides in two days of heavy fighting. Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blame for triggering the fighting.

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  • Dig finds evidence of Revolutionary War prison camp location

    Dig finds evidence of Revolutionary War prison camp location

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    Researchers say they solved a decades-old riddle this week by finding remnants of the stockade and therefore the site of a prison camp in York, Pennsylvania, that housed British soldiers for nearly two years during the American Revolutionary War.

    The location of Camp Security was thought to have been on land acquired by the local government nearly a decade ago. On Monday, an archaeological team working there located what they believe to be the prison camp’s exterior security fence.

    The camp housed more than 1,000 English, Scottish and Canadian privates and noncommissioned officers for 22 months during war, starting with a group of prisoners who arrived in 1781, four years after their surrender at Saratoga, New York. By the next year, there were some 1,200 men at the camp, along with hundreds of women and children.

    Fieldwork at the site, which also includes the lower-security Camp Indulgence, has gone on for decades, but the exact spot of Camp Security — where prisoners from the 1781 Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, were kept — had been unknown until a telltale pattern of post holes in a foot-deep trench was uncovered.

    “This has been a long project, and to finally see it come to fruition, or at least know you’re not nuts, that’s wonderful,” said Carol Tanzola, who as president of Friends of Camp Security led fundraising for the project.

    Lead archaeologist John Crawmer said the location site had been narrowed down after about 28 acres (11 hectares) were plowed for metal detection and surface collection of artifacts in 2020. That further reduced the search area to about 8 acres (3 hectares), where long exploratory trenches were dug last year.

    Those trenches helped the team identify post holes that in turn led to the pattern of holes and a stockade trench that matched stockades at other 18th-century military sites, Crawmer said.

    Next spring, Crawmer and other researchers hope to determine the full size of the stockade and perform a focused search for artifacts within and around it.

    “Was it circular or square, what’s inside, what’s outside?” Crawmer said. “As we do that, we’re going to start finding those 18th-century artifacts, the trash pits. We’ll be able to start answering questions about where people were sleeping, where they were living, where they were throwing things away, where the privies are.”

    Crawmer said there is evidence the vertical posts that formed the security stockade were not in the ground for very long and that they may have been dug up and reused after the camp was closed in 1783.

    A contemporaneous account of camp life by a British surgeon’s mate said there was a “camp fever” that might have killed some of the prisoners, and a list of Camp Security inmates was located in the British National Archives. No human remains have been found at the site.

    Historians confirmed local lore about the general location of Camp Security and Camp Indulgence after a 1979 archaeological study of a small portion of the property produced buckles, buttons and other items associated with British soldiers of the period. That survey also found 20 coins and 605 straight pins that may have been used by prisoners to make lace.

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  • UN urges revival of negotiations on disputed Western Sahara

    UN urges revival of negotiations on disputed Western Sahara

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council called for a revival of U.N-led negotiations on the disputed Western Sahara in a resolution adopted Thursday that expressed “deep concern” at the breakdown of the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front whose decades-old dispute shows no sign of ending.

    The vote was 13-0 with Russia and Kenya abstaining.

    Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony believed to have considerable offshore oil deposits and mineral resources, in 1975, sparking a conflict with the Polisario Front. The United Nations brokered the 1991 cease-fire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future that has never taken place because of disagreements on who is eligible to vote.

    Morocco has proposed wide-ranging autonomy for Western Sahara. But the Polisario Front insists the local population, which it estimates at 350,000 to 500,000, has the right to a referendum.

    The U.S.-drafted resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission charged with carrying out the referendum, known as MINURSO, until Oct. 31, 2023.

    The resolution calls on the parties to resume U.N.-led negotiations without preconditions, “taking into account the efforts made since 2006 and subsequent developments with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”

    It says this should be done “in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and noting the role and the responsibilities of the parties in this respect.”

    Kenya’s U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani said his government voted for the resolution last year in hopes that the U.N. mission would return “to its core objective of implementing a referendum for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

    But he said progress has been limited and the resolution adopted Thursday “continues a gradual but noticeable shift away from the mandate and will not assist the parties to achieve a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution as originally intended.”

    U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis welcomed the council’s support, saying the Biden administration continues “to view Morocco’s autonomy plan as serious, credible, and realistic.”

    He called a political solution “vital to promoting a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Western Sahara and the region.”

    But the Polisario Front ended the cease-fire in November 2020 and resumed its armed struggle following a border confrontation with Morocco which continues today, and in comments after the vote the two sides remained at odds about the future.

    The resolution calls on the parties to “to demonstrate political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to advance negotiations.” It expresses “strong support” for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, and “strongly encourages” Morocco, the Polisario Front and neighboring countries Algeria and Mauritania to engage with him.

    Two round-table meetings of the four parties in December 2018 and March 2019 failed to make any headway on the key issue of how to provide for self-determination.

    But Morocco’s U.N. Ambassador Omar Hilale said after Thursday’s vote that they were “very fruitful and positive and substantial” because “we had very deep discussion on autonomy, on the guarantees, on the need for Polisario to design and to accept autonomy, and also on the elections.”

    He expressed hope that de Mistura “will succeed in calling for another round-table,” lamenting that a year has been lost because Algeria, which backs the Polisario, has said it will not attend.

    “Let’s hope that the wisdom will prevail in Algeria, and we can come back to the round-table because there will be no solution without discussion all together and having compromise” on Morocco’s autonomy proposal, Hilale said.

    He claimed that the resolution adopted Thursday “irreversibly consecrates, like the resolutions of the council since 2007, the pre-eminence, credibility and seriousness of the Moroccan autonomy initiative as the sole and only solution to this regional dispute.”

    The Polisario Front’s U.N. representative, Sidi Omar, strongly disagreed.

    He said the Security Council resolution refers to the referendum but again fails to empower MINURSO with “practical and concrete measures” to implement its mandate and carry out a referendum.

    The Saharwi people “will continue using all legitimate means, including the armed struggle, to defend our inalienable and individual rights to self-determination, independence, and to restore the sovereignty over the entire territory of the Saharwi, our democratic republic,” Omar said.

    He said the Polisario Front will only participate in direct negotiations with Morocco under the auspices of the U.N. and the African Union to enable the Saharwi people to exercise their free and democratic right to self-determination.

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  • Syria reports Israeli airstrikes on targets in Damascus area

    Syria reports Israeli airstrikes on targets in Damascus area

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    DAMASCUS, Syria — Israeli airstrikes targeted sites in the vicinity of Damascus early Thursday, marking the third such strikes in a week, Syrian state media reported.

    The Syrian military said that Israeli missiles were fired at posts near Damascus around 12:30 a.m. and that its air defenses had “confronted the missile aggression and downed most of them.” There were no casualties reported.

    The attack follows similar strikes Friday and Monday. Monday’s rare daytime airstrike wounded a soldier, according to the Syrian army.

    The strike Friday was the first such attack since Sept. 17, when an attack on Damascus International Airport and nearby military posts south of the Syrian capital killed five soldiers.

    The Israeli army did not release a statement on the airstrikes. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.

    Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

    The Israeli strikes come amid a wider shadow war between Israel and Iran. The attacks on airports in Damascus and Aleppo were over fears they were being used to funnel Iranian weaponry into the country.

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  • US, allies warn decisive response if North Korea tests nuke

    US, allies warn decisive response if North Korea tests nuke

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    TOKYO — Officials from the United States and its Asian allies Japan and South Korea suspect North Korea is preparing for a nuclear test, and vice foreign ministers from the three countries said Wednesday their joint response would be “decisive.”

    Cho Hyundong, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister, said the trio is bolstering their defense cooperation to deter the growing possibility of North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons since the adoption in September of legislation spelling out scenarios where it would use nukes, including preemptively.

    North Korea’s new nuclear policy is “creating a serious tension on the Korean Peninsula,” Cho told a joint news conference after talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori.

    “South Korea and the U.S. will step up their extended deterrence by utilizing all the elements of the national power and show an overwhelming, decisive response to any use of a nuclear weapon by North Korea,” Cho said.

    In 2022 alone, North Korea has launched more than 20 ballistic missiles at unprecedented pace, including one that overflew northern Japan in early October. It has also fired a barrage of artilleries toward the south in response to South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States, which Pyongyang views as a practice to invade the country.

    Sherman, during her meeting with Cho on Tuesday ahead of the three-way talks, criticized North Korea’s military actions as “irresponsible, dangerous and destabilizing” and said the United States will fully use its military capabilities, including nuclear, as she warned North Korea against escalating its provocations.

    Sherman stressed again Wednesday that the cooperation among the three countries are “ironclad,” citing signs of Japan and South Korea improving their troubled ties over historical wartime-related disputes.

    “There is so much we can achieve and are achieving when our countries work together,” Sherman said.

    It was the second in-person meeting of the three officials since conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol took office in May, signaling an improvement in difficult ties between Tokyo and Seoul. A year ago in Washington, Japanese and South Korean vice ministers declined to participate in a joint news conference after their talks, leaving Sherman to make a solo media appearance.

    The three officials also condemned Russia’s nuclear threat, as well as any other escalation of threats, and its unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was preparing to launch a so-called dirty bomb — which uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste — as unacceptable.

    Mori said the three officials also agreed to closely watch China’s maritime activity in the East and South China Seas and the situation in the Taiwan Strait under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s third term.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the Asia-Pacific region at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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