GERMANY
Zelenskiy to meet leaders
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in Berlin early yesterday for talks with leaders about further arms deliveries to help his country fend off the Russian invasion and rebuild what has been destroyed by more than a year of devastating conflict. A Luftwaffe jet flew Zelenskiy to the German capital from Rome. On the eve of his arrival — which was taking place amid tight security — Berlin announced a new package of military aid for Ukraine worth more than 2.7 billion euros (US$3 billion), including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition. “Already in Berlin. Weapons. Powerful package. Air defense. Reconstruction. EU. NATO. Security,” Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter yesterday, in an apparent reference to the key priorities of his trip. Announcing the new arms package, Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius said Berlin would help Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”
PAKISTAN
Imran Khan calls for protests
Former prime minister Imran Khan yesterday called for nationwide “freedom” protests, after his brief arrest and detention this week triggered deadly unrest. The one-time cricket superstar — who has been tied up in dozens of legal cases since being ousted from power in April last year — was on Friday freed on bail after his detention was declared unlawful by the Supreme Court. Enraged by the arrest, supporters set fire to government buildings, blocked roads and damaged property belonging to the military, which they blame for Khan’s downfall. “Freedom does not come easily. You have to snatch it. You have to sacrifice for it,” he said in an address broadcast on YouTube on Saturday night. He called for supporters to hold protests “at the end of your streets and villages” across the country yesterday evening for one hour starting at 5:30pm. Yesterday morning was quiet, but Khan has pledged to return to campaigning on Wednesday for immediate elections.
BURKINA FASO
Shooters kill 33 civilians
At least 33 people were killed when assailants on motorcycles opened fire on vegetable farmers, Boucle du Mouhoun Governor Babo Pierre Bassinga said on Saturday, as the country struggles to stem an Islamist insurgency. A state of emergency has been in force in eight of the country’s 13 regions since March, including in western Boucle du Mouhoun. The attack on the farmers happened on Thursday at about 5pm, Bassinga said in a statement. “The village of Youlou in the department of Cheriba, Mouhoun province suffered a cowardly and barbaric terrorist attack,” he said. “The gunmen targeted peaceful civilians” who were farming along the river, he said.
SOMALIA
Flooding displaces 200,000
About 200,000 people have been displaced due to flash flooding in the country’s central region, a regional official said on Saturday, as the Shabelle River burst its banks and submerged roads. Inhabitants of Beledweyne town in the Hiran region were forced out of their homes as heavy rainfall caused water levels to rise sharply, with residents carrying their belongings on top of their heads as they waded through flooded streets in search of refuge. “Some 200,000 people are now displaced due to the Shabelle River flash floods in Beledweyne town and the number may increase any time. It is a preliminary figure now,” Hiran Deputy Governor for Social Affairs Ali Osman Hussein said. Hiran Deputy Governor Hassan Ibrahim Abdulle said on Friday that “three people were killed by the floods.”
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
DEFIANT: Ukraine and the EU voiced concern that ICC member Mongolia might not execute an international warrant for Putin’s arrest over war crimes in Ukraine Russian President Vladimir Putin was yesterday visiting Mongolia with no sign that the host country would bow to calls to arrest him on an international warrant for alleged war crimes stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The trip is Putin’s first to a member country of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since it issued the warrant about 18 months ago. Ahead of his visit, Ukraine called on Mongolia to hand Putin over to the court in The Hague, and the EU expressed concern that Mongolia might not execute the warrant. A spokesperson for Putin last week said that the Kremlin
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