INDIA
Army kills Kashmir militants
Troops yesterday killed six separatist militants in a gunfight in the disputed region of Kashmir, the army said, taking the death toll in the region for the year to the highest in nearly a decade. This year, 400 people have been killed in the country’s only Muslim-majority state, more than half of whom were guerrillas fighting Indian rule. It is the highest toll since 2008, when 505 people died. Security forces have stepped up an offensive against militants operating inside the Kashmir Valley, as well as those trying to intrude from across the border with Pakistan, officials have said. The militants have hit back, targeting members of the Kashmir police and their families in the past few months. An operation was launched in Sekipora village, about 50km south of Srinagar, after intelligence reports about the presence of a group of militants, army spokesman Rajesh Kalia said. “Six militants were killed during a fierce gunfight, and arms and ammunition along with their bodies have been recovered,” Kalia said. Among the dead was a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba who police have said was part of the group that gunned down a top newspaper editor, Syed Shujaat Bukhari, outside his office in June.
NEW ZEALAND
Man sets record pace in run
Powered by hash browns and chocolate milkshakes, a 64-year-old man has run the length of the country in a record time of 18 days and eight hours. Perry Newburn, a former drug addict, is not your typical endurance athlete. His nutrition plan included plenty of stops at McDonald’s restaurants. He kept his pace in his head rather than using a fancy GPS watch and his support crew for half the distance consisted of his friend Graeme driving ahead in Newburn’s Toyota Corolla wagon. However, Newburn ran and ran and ran, averaging close to three full marathons each day along the 2,100km journey, which he finished on Wednesday. About 50 people ran alongside him at various points and he raised several thousand dollars for an autism charity.
PAKISTAN
Kids die playing with shell
Police yesterday said that three children have been killed in the northwestern Swat Valley while handling an abandoned mortar shell they thought was a toy. Two children were also wounded in Wednesday’s incident in the village of Matta, police official Bakhat Khan said. The mortar round might have been lying there since 2009, when the army evicted the Pakistani Taliban from the area, he said, adding that security officials have launched a search to clear the region of other unexploded ordnance. The Swat Valley is the home of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and wounded in 2012 by militants for promoting girls’ education.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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