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Russia claims advances in Kursk region, Zelensky demands sanctions

Russia claims advances in Kursk region, Zelensky demands sanctions
Russia on Saturday said its troops had retaken three villages seized by Ukraine in its Kursk border region in a fresh setback for Kyiv as the prospect of peace negotiations appeared to be increasing. (AFP/File)
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Updated 22 sec ago
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Russia claims advances in Kursk region, Zelensky demands sanctions

Russia claims advances in Kursk region, Zelensky demands sanctions
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called for more sanctions against Russia as overnight strikes killed at least 14 people
  • Ukraine’s troops in Kursk have seen their position worsen in recent weeks with Russia’s army encroaching
Updated 22 sec ago
AFP
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DOBROPILLIA, Ukraine: Russia on Saturday said its troops had retaken three villages seized by Ukraine in its Kursk border region in a fresh setback for Kyiv as the prospect of peace negotiations appeared to be increasing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called for more sanctions against Russia as overnight strikes killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more.
The war is at a critical juncture, days ahead of talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators aimed at securing a truce in the three-year-long war.
Washington has suspended crucial US military aid and access to satellite imagery and intelligence sharing after President Donald Trump and Zelensky had a public falling-out in the Oval Office last week.
Ukraine still controls some 400 square kilometers (150 square miles) in the Kursk region after launching a cross-border offensive last August and Zelensky sees this as a possible bargaining chip in peace talks.
But Ukraine’s troops in Kursk have seen their position worsen in recent weeks with Russia’s army encroaching.
Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday announced the recapture of three more villages: Viktorovka, Nikolayevka and Staraya Sorochina.
According to DeepState, an online military tracker linked to the Ukrainian army, the Russian move followed a “breach” in Ukrainian defense lines near the town of Sudzha, which is under Kyiv’s control.
Russia appears to have cut off the logistics route needed by Ukraine to supply its troops in the town.
The Ukrainian army has not commented on the latest claim, but Russia has already taken back more than two-thirds of its territory initially seized by Kyiv.
Peace negotiations remain a distant prospect with Kyiv and Moscow making starkly opposed demands. But Trump’s return to the White House has brought this prospect nearer.
The American president has radically shifted the US position, reaching out to Russian President Vladimir Putin while criticizing Zelensky.
Trump has said it may be “easier” to work with Moscow than Kyiv on efforts to end the three-year-long war.
Senior US and Ukrainian officials are set to meet for talks on the war in Jeddah on Tuesday. Zelensky will also visit on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said he would speak to the Ukrainian negotiators about an “initial ceasefire” with Russia and a “framework” for a longer agreement.
Trump says he wants to end the war as soon as possible, but Ukraine fears being forced to make heavy territorial concessions to Moscow.
Kyiv’s troops are also struggling on the eastern front, although an AFP analysis of US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) data showed Moscow’s advance had slowed in February.
Trump on Friday threatened new sanctions and tariffs on Russia over its bombardment of Ukraine.
Zelensky also called for allies to “increase sanctions against Russia” after heavy overnight bombardment in the east and northeast.
A Russian assault hit the center of Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region late on Friday, killing 11 people and wounding 30, according to the emergency services.
Separately, three people were killed and seven others wounded in a drone attack early on Saturday in the town of Bogodukhiv, the military head of the eastern Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubov, said.
Russia fired two missiles and 145 drones at Bogodukhiv, Ukraine’s air force said.
The latest air raids came after EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, agreed to boost the bloc’s defenses.
Putin “has no interest in peace,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Saturday, adding that “we must step up our military support.”
In Dobropillia, AFP saw charred residential buildings, flattened market stalls and evidence of cluster bomb damage.
Irina Kostenko, 59, spent the night cowering in her hallway with her husband. When she left the apartment building on Saturday, she saw a neighbor “lying dead on the ground, covered with a blanket.”
“It was shocking, I don’t have the words to describe it,” Kostenko told AFP.
Moscow’s defense ministry on Saturday said its air defense systems destroyed 31 Ukrainian drones over the past night.
A Ukrainian drone attack also targeted Russia’s Kirishi oil refinery and falling debris caused damage to a reservoir, the governor of the northwestern Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said.
A civilian was wounded by a drone attack in Belgorod district near the Ukraine border, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Kursk Region Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky

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South Korea’s President Yoon free, trials continue after court quashes detention

South Korea’s President Yoon free, trials continue after court quashes detention
Updated 22 sec ago
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South Korea’s President Yoon free, trials continue after court quashes detention

South Korea’s President Yoon free, trials continue after court quashes detention
Updated 22 sec ago
The Seoul Central District Court canceled Yoon’s arrest warrant on Friday
“I would like to thank the Central District Court for their courage and determination in correcting the illegality,” Yoon said

SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol walked out of a detention center on Saturday after prosecutors decided not to appeal a court decision to cancel the impeached leader’s arrest warrant on insurrection charges.
Yoon, 64, remains suspended from his duties, and his criminal and impeachment trials continue over his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3.
The Seoul Central District Court canceled Yoon’s arrest warrant on Friday, citing the timing of his indictment and questions about the legality of the investigation process.
“I would like to thank the Central District Court for their courage and determination in correcting the illegality,” Yoon said in a statement.
As he left the facility, a relaxed and smiling Yoon, in a dark suit with no necktie, stepped out of his car, waved, raised his fist and bowed to cheering supporters waving South Korean and US flags.
His lawyers said the court decision “confirmed that the president’s detainment was problematic in both procedural and substantive aspects,” calling the ruling the “beginning of a journey to restore rule of law.”
Prosecutors could not immediately be reached for comment.
The main opposition Democratic Party criticized the prosecutors’ decision for “throwing the country and people into crisis,” and urged the Constitutional Court to remove Yoon from office as soon as possible.
In his impeachment trial, the Constitutional Court is expected to decide in coming days whether to reinstate or remove Yoon.
On Saturday, some 55,000 Yoon supporters rallied in Seoul’s main districts, while 32,500 people demonstrated against him near the Constitutional Court, Yonhap news agency reported, citing unofficial police estimates.
The public, however remains largely anti-Yoon, with 60 percent of respondents saying he should be removed from office and 35 percent opposing removal, according to a Gallup Korea poll on Friday.
Before the prosecutors’ decision, hundreds of Yoon supporters also protested in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
“I was very sorry that he couldn’t come out quickly, and it was a hard time for me to wait, but it was very much worth the wait,” said Lee Heoung-ok, a 62-year-old supporter who waited for Yoon’s release at the detention center.
Shim Ye-rin, 27, said: “I saw him walking out on his own feet and greeting his supporters. It was a little bit ridiculous to me because it seemed like something that couldn’t happen in a democratic society, something that was outside of common sense.”
Yoon, the first South Korean president to be arrested while in office, has been held at the Seoul Detention Center, located in the city of Uiwang, 22 km (14 miles) south of Seoul, since January 15.

UK police close area around Big Ben as man with Palestinian flag scales tower

UK police close area around Big Ben as man with Palestinian flag scales tower
Updated 4 min ago
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UK police close area around Big Ben as man with Palestinian flag scales tower

UK police close area around Big Ben as man with Palestinian flag scales tower
Updated 4 min ago
LONDON: UK police closed the area around Big Ben in London on Saturday after a man holding a Palestinian flag climbed up the tower housing the famous clock and bell.
The man had ascended several meters and was perched barefoot on a ledge of the historic structure, whose official name is Elizabeth Tower, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Crowds looked on from beyond a police cordon, while emergency vehicles were deployed in the area and Westminster Bridge was closed.
Police said they were first alerted “to a man climbing up the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament” shortly after 0700 GMT.
At around 1000 GMT an emergency team used a fire truck lift and a megaphone to try to speak with the man.
But he was still there several hours later.
“Officers are at the scene working to bring the incident to a safe conclusion,” London’s Metropolitan Police force told AFP.
“They are being assisted by the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service.”

Rohingya mothers in despair as UN slashes food rations to 20 cents a day

Rohingya mothers in despair as UN slashes food rations to 20 cents a day
Updated 15 min 7 sec ago
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Rohingya mothers in despair as UN slashes food rations to 20 cents a day

Rohingya mothers in despair as UN slashes food rations to 20 cents a day
  • World Food Program will cut food rations from $12.50 to $6 per month in April after failing to secure funding
  • Daily ration per person will become equivalent to the cost of two eggs
Updated 15 min 7 sec ago
SHEHAB SUMON

Dhaka: Rohingya mothers in refugee camps in Bangladesh say they fear for the fate of their already malnourished children as their food rations are set to be halved from next month.

The UN World Food Program announced earlier this week that “severe funding shortfalls” would mean that the monthly food allowance for refugees would be cut from $12.50 to $6 per person.

The new daily ration will equal 24 Bangladeshi taka — the price of two eggs in the market. A single thin flatbread costs around 8 taka, while one liter of milk costs at least 80.

Refugees estimate that, at current costs, the most food that WFP vouchers will allow them to buy each month is 10 kilograms of rice, 1.5 kg of lentils and 500 grams of salt.

Uzala Bibi, a mother of two living in a camp in Cox’s Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh — the world’s biggest refugee settlement — told Arab News she was in “deep fear” over the situation her family will face from next month.

“I will be unable to feed my children,” she said. “How will my children survive on only rice and lentils?”

The WFP’s announcement left Bangladeshi authorities dumbfounded, with the government’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission observing that malnutrition in the camps already ranges from “severe acute” to “moderate acute” levels.

“The situation will further deteriorate with the budget cut, weakening the immunity of the Rohingya population and leading to a rise in infectious and waterborne diseases ... The Rohingya will not be able to survive,” said Dr. Abu Toha Md. Rizuanul Haque Bhuiyan, the commission’s health coordinator.

“It is absurd and beyond imagination how anyone can prepare a diet plan with just 24 taka per day. We are at a loss for what to do, and our office is deeply concerned about the situation.”

More than 1.3 million Rohingya are cramped inside 33 camps in Cox’s Bazar, where they have limited access to job opportunities and education.

A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s. Since then, many have fled to Bangladesh, with about 700,000 arriving in 2017, after a military crackdown that the UN has been referring to as a “textbook case” of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar.

International aid for the Rohingya community has been dropping over the years — particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. But the current funding gap is unprecedented.

A previous temporary round of ration cuts to Rohingya in 2023, which reduced monthly food rations from $12 to $8, led to a sharp increase in hunger and malnutrition, Bhuiyan said.

“With half of the food budget now cut, our health-sector budget is also being squeezed ...
I can’t imagine how we will cope with this situation, or what strategies should be taken to address it.”

Hason Begum, a refugee mother of five, said she had no idea how she will manage to feed her family.

“To me, it’s completely unimaginable that a person could survive on just 24 taka per day when a single egg costs 12 taka. I am forced to serve plain rice three times a day,” she said.

“My children are already suffering from malnutrition, and the situation will become unbearable next month,” she added. “How can a mother endure the pain of watching her children starve? Sometimes, I feel it would be better to embrace death.”

Topics: Rohingya UN

Female scientists, innovators ‘take over’ Indian PM’s social media on International Women’s Day

Female scientists, innovators ‘take over’ Indian PM’s social media on International Women’s Day
Updated 12 min 59 sec ago
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Female scientists, innovators ‘take over’ Indian PM’s social media on International Women’s Day

Female scientists, innovators ‘take over’ Indian PM’s social media on International Women’s Day
  • India has one of the highest percentages of female STEM graduates
  • But has been struggling to retain more of them in the workforce
Updated 12 min 59 sec ago
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Posts by female scientists and innovators dominated the Indian prime minister’s social media on Saturday, in what his office said was a tribute to their achievements in celebration of International Women’s Day.

India has been trying to engage more women in engineering and technology jobs. Various policies encouraging them to pursue education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics have already resulted in it having one of the highest percentages of female STEM graduates in the world.

According to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education by the Ministry of Education, the number of female STEM graduates has risen from 38 percent in 2014-15 to 43 percent in 2021-22.

While the rate was higher than in most countries, the percentage of women retained in the workforce was disproportionately lower. The Ministry of Science and Technology estimated last year that only 18.6 percent of researchers and scientists in India were women — a trend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been vowing to improve.

To highlight the commitment, Modi’s Women’s Day social media activity included dozens of posts by Indian women published directly on his platforms.

“Today, as promised, my social media properties will be taken over by women who are making a mark in diverse fields!” Modi said on X.

They included Elina Mishra, a nuclear scientist from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, and Shilpi Soni, a space scientist from the Indian Space Research Organisation, whose stories and achievements were narrated in first person on the prime minister’s account.

Ajaita Shah, a social entrepreneur who focuses on financial inclusion, described her efforts in supporting rural women and their entrepreneurship.

“I feel proud that not only have I been able to make a difference, I am also seeing many more women rising to the occasion and doing the same,” she said.

“Our emphasis has always been on integrating technology to ensure skilling and financial inclusion of women. It would amaze you all, the ease with which India’s women are adapting to technology.”

Dr. Anjlee Agarwal, founder of Samarthyam, an organization promoting universal accessibility and inclusive mobility, spoke about her work in empowering people with disabilities and efforts to change mindsets and incorporate the notion of inclusive spaces in India’s governance.

“I want to ignite a spark of transformation, and seek a call to action — forget labels, forget barriers,” she said.

“Let’s ensure that every woman, every individual, can navigate their life with dignity and independence.”

The youngest woman whose story was featured on the prime minister’s account was Vaishali Rameshbabu, a 23-year-old chess player who has been winning titles since the age of 12 and became a grandmaster last year.

Narrating her story, love for chess, and efforts to climb in the FIDE rankings, she wrote that she wanted to encourage women to “follow their dreams and break barriers” in any field they chose.

“I know they can!” she said, as she also left a message for Indian parents: “SUPPORT GIRLS. Trust their abilities and they’ll do wonders.”

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Taliban insist Afghan women’s rights are protected as UN says their bans cannot be ignored

Taliban insist Afghan women’s rights are protected as UN says their bans cannot be ignored
Updated 08 March 2025
AP
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Taliban insist Afghan women’s rights are protected as UN says their bans cannot be ignored

Taliban insist Afghan women’s rights are protected as UN says their bans cannot be ignored
  • The Taliban say Afghan women live in security with their rights protected
  • The UN renewed its call for bans on women and girls to be reversed, saying the erasure of Afghan females from public life should not be tolerated
Updated 08 March 2025
AP

The Taliban issued a message on International Women’s Day, saying Afghan women live in security with their rights protected, even as the UN condemned ongoing employment and education bans.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, they have barred education for women and girls beyond sixth grade, most employment, and many public spaces. Last August, the Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces outside the home.
The Taliban’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid released a statement on his official X account, without specifically mentioning International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8.
He said the dignity, honor, and legal rights of women were a priority for the Islamic emirate, the term used by the Taliban to describe their government.
Afghan women lived in security, both physically and psychologically, he added.
“In accordance with Islamic law and the culture and traditions of Afghan society, the fundamental rights of Afghan women have been secured. However, it should not be forgotten that the rights of Afghan women are being discussed within an Islamic and Afghan society, which has clear differences from Western societies and their culture,” said Mujahid.
Also Saturday, the UN renewed its call for the Taliban to lift the bans.
“The erasure of women and girls from public life cannot be ignored,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan. “We remain committed to investing in their resilience and leadership, as they are key to Afghanistan’s future.”
Alison Davidian, special representative for UN Women Afghanistan, said the world could not accept a future for Afghan women that would never be tolerated elsewhere.
“Our response to their erasure is a test of our commitment to women and girls everywhere,” said Davidian. “We must stand with Afghan women as if our own lives depend on it — because they do.”
The Taliban remain isolated from the West — and without international recognition as the country’s official government — because of their restrictions on women and girls.
The Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization said 893 women were currently employed in the media sector. That’s a drop from 2,756 who were working before 2021, according to Reporters Without Borders.
There were nine provinces where there were no women in the media industry, the Afghan support organization said. The declining participation of female journalists, driven by the Taliban’s discriminatory policies, signalled a “concerted effort” to erase women from the media landscape, it said.
On Friday in Paris, UNESCO hosted a high-level conference on women and girls in Afghanistan. Participants included Hamida Aman, the founder of the women-only station Radio Begum, Fawzia Khoofi, a parliamentarian from the former Western-backed government, and rights experts including Richard Bennett, who is barred from entering Afghanistan.
In an apparent dig at the event, the spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry Saif ul-Islam Khyber said recent international conferences held under the name of women’s rights exposed the hypocrisy of certain organizations and European Union foundations.

Topics: Taliban Afghanistan

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