SRINAGAR, Indian-administered Kashmir: Six civilians were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir Sunday when police opened fire at protesters who stormed polling stations during a by-election for a parliamentary seat, a top officer said.
State and paramilitary police fired bullets and shotgun pellets as thousands of protesters shouting slogans against Indian rule charged into voting booths in Budgam district near the main city of Srinagar.
“Violent protests happened at many places in Budgam. Protesters damaged and snatched electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some places,” Shantmanu, the state’s chief electoral officer, told AFP.
“Six persons have died so far in the violence,” said Shantmanu, who uses only one name.
In the Charare-e-Sharif area of Budgam two people were killed when the paramilitary Border Security Force fired at protesters, he said.
In the Beerwah area of the same district the paramilitary police opened fire at a stone-throwing crowd, killing another person.
Two more were killed in the continuing clashes, with one of them succumbing to multiple pellet injuries from the shotguns which Indian paramilitary forces use in Kashmir for crowd control.
Polling had to be halted in at least 10 places amid a call by top Kashmiri separatist leaders opposed to Indian rule to boycott the by-election.
Former state Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who is contesting the Srinagar seat, slammed the government for its failure to maintain law and order.
“Elections should have been peaceful. This government has failed in giving a peaceful atmosphere for people to come and vote,” he told reporters.
Ahead of the polling, authorities suspended Internet services across the Kashmir Valley for fear of widespread protests.
Police had also detained hundreds of young people and separatist activists in the run-up to the poll, sources told AFP.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British rule in 1947. Both claim the disputed territory in its entirety.
Rebel groups in Indian Kashmir have for decades battled troops and police, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan. Around 500,000 Indian soldiers are deployed in the region.
Ahead of Sunday’s polling, the Indian government had sent in 20,000 additional paramilitaries.
Armed encounters between rebels and government forces have become more frequent since the killing of a popular rebel leader by security forces last July sparked widespread unrest.
Police and army officials say dozens of local youths have joined the rebel ranks since then.
Six dead after Indian police open fire at Kashmir protesters
Six dead after Indian police open fire at Kashmir protesters
Maldives to ban Israelis to protest Gaza war
- President Mohamed Muizzu has “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports,” a spokesman for his office said in a statement
The Maldives, a tiny Islamic republic of more than 1,000 strategically located coral islets, is known for its secluded sandy white beaches, shallow turquoise lagoons and Robinson Crusoe-style getaways.
President Mohamed Muizzu has “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports,” a spokesman for his office said in a statement, without giving details of when the new law would take effect.
Muizzu also announced a national fundraising campaign called “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine.”
The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and moved to restore relations in 2010.
However, normalization attempts were scuttled following the toppling of president Mohamed Nasheed in February 2012.
Opposition parties and government allies in the Maldives have been putting pressure on Muizzu to ban Israelis, as a sign of protest against the Gaza war.
Official data showed the number of Israelis visiting the Maldives dropped to 528 in the first four months of this year, down 88 percent compared to the corresponding period last year.
In response to the ban, an Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman urged citizens to avoid travel to the Maldives.
“For Israeli citizens staying in the country, it is recommended to consider leaving, since if they fall into distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to help,” the spokesman added.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,439 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Chile joins developing nations rallying behind genocide case against Israel at international court
- President Borice said he was appalled by the humanitarian devastation in Gaza
SANTIAGO: Chile has joined a group of nations supporting a genocide case against Israel filed last year at the International Court of Justice.
President Gabriel Boric said in a speech to lawmakers Saturday that he was appalled by the humanitarian devastation in Gaza, especially against women and children. He accused the Israeli army of using "indiscriminate and disproportional" force.
“These acts demand a firm and permanent response of the international community,” the president said.
South Africa last year accused Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly rejected the claim and has argued that the war in Gaza is a legitimate defense against Hamas militants for their Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East, with a population of around 500,000, many of them descendants of Christian Arab immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. They took root in the South American country as small retail traders but have since gained prominence in business and politics. One of the country's most popular soccer teams is Palestino, whose white, black, green and red uniforms match the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Chile joins a group of mostly developing countries including Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia that has rallied behind South Africa's petition.
Boric, a leftist former student leader, has balanced condemnation of Hamas' attack with fierce criticism of Israel's military offensive, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Fire at Russian oil refinery has caused deaths and injuries, officials say
- Regional governor said the fire was not caused by a Ukrainian drone strike
The regional governor said the fire was not caused by a Ukrainian drone strike and investigators opened a criminal case on suspicion of negligence.
The fire near the city of Ukhta in Russia’s northwestern Komi Republic left at least three people injured, Komi’s emergencies ministry said. Regional investigators said that the fire also caused deaths, but did not specify how many. They did not say whether the fire had yet been extinguished.
“Today a fire occurred at an oil refinery facility in the city of Ukhta during scheduled technical work by a contractor, resulting in deaths and injuries,” the investigative department wrote on Telegram.
Investigators have opened a criminal case into possible negligence at the oil refinery.
Regional Gov. Vladimir Uyba said that the fire was not related to a drone strike. In recent months, Russian refineries and oil terminals have become priority targets of Ukrainian drone attacks, part of stepped-up assaults on Russian territory.
Local officials did not specify which company the refinery belongs to, but images published by the local emergencies ministry show the logo of oil giant Lukoil.
India’s Modi eyes election victory, top opponent back behind bars
- Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest as a ‘political conspiracy’
- Exit polls showed Modi was well on track to triumph, with the premier saying he was confident the people of India voted for him ‘in record numbers’
NEW DELHI: A top opponent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Sunday to keep fighting “dictatorship” before he returned to jail Sunday, following elections widely expected to produce another landslide victory for the Hindu-nationalist leader.
Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an alliance formed to compete against Modi, Kejriwal was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe.
He was later released and allowed to campaign but ordered to return to jail once voting ended.
“When power becomes dictatorship, then jail becomes a responsibility,” said Kejriwal, who promised to continue “fighting” from behind bars.
“I don’t know when I will return,” he told supporters in an emotional departure speech at his Aam Aadmi party headquarters.
“I don’t know what they will do to me... every drop of my blood is for the country.”
Kejriwal later returned to jail, his party spokesman told AFP.
Exit polls showed Modi was well on track to triumph, with the premier saying he was confident that “the people of India have voted in record numbers” to re-elect his government.
Results are expected Tuesday but supporters of Modi in his constituency of Varanasi — the spiritual capital of the Hindu faith — said they believed their leader’s win was secure.
“His government is coming back,” said Nand Lal, selling flowers outside a temple.
Voting in the seventh and final staggered round of the six-week poll ended on Saturday, held in brutally hot conditions across swaths of the country.
At least 33 polling staff died from heatstroke in Uttar Pradesh state alone, where temperatures hit 46.9 degrees Celsius (116.4 degrees Fahrenheit), election officials said.
India’s top court granted Kejriwal bail last month, giving a fleeting boost to the opposition’s quixotic campaign to oust Modi, but ordered him to return to custody after the election.
Kejriwal, 55, has been chief minister for nearly a decade and first came to office as a staunch anti-corruption crusader.
His government was accused of corruption when it implemented a policy to liberalize the sale of liquor in 2021 and give up a lucrative government stake in the sector.
The policy was withdrawn the following year but the resulting probe into the alleged corrupt allocation of licenses has since led to the jailing of two top Kejriwal allies.
“All of you, take care of yourselves,” Kejriwal, who has consistently denied wrongdoing and refused to relinquish his post, said earlier on social media.
“I will take care of you all in jail.”
Modi’s political opponents and international rights groups have long sounded the alarm about threats to India’s democracy.
US think tank Freedom House said this year the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents.”
Rahul Gandhi, the most prominent member of the opposition Congress party and scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court and raised concerns over democratic norms in the world’s most populous country.
Hemant Soren, the former chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, was also arrested in February in a separate corruption probe.
Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and Soren are all members of an opposition alliance composed of more than two dozen parties, but the bloc struggled to make inroads against Modi.
Women lead race as Mexicans vote for new president
- Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people
MEXICO CITY: Mexicans started voting Sunday in a presidential election dominated by two women — a historic first in a country with a history of gender-based violence and discrimination.
Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, had a 17 percentage point lead over her main opposition rival Xochitl Galvez on the eve of the vote.
The only man running, centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez, was trailing far behind as a particularly violent campaign season marked by a string of candidate murders drew to an end.
It means that, barring a huge surprise, a woman is almost certain to break the highest political glass ceiling in Mexico, where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.
That prospect motivates other women to succeed and to think “yes, you can,” said Blanca Sosa, a 31-year-old store worker in Mexico City.
She expects Sheinbaum to continue the “good things” done by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, such as pensions for the elderly and an increased minimum wage.
Ricardo Sanchez, however, said he planned to vote for Galvez because of her “business vision.”
Lopez Obrador’s “policy of putting the poor first is to ruin us all so that we’re poor and then he gives to us,” the 55-year-old businessman said in the northern city of Monterrey.
Sheinbaum, 61, owes much of her popularity to Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.
Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people.
Polls opened at 08:00 am (1300 GMT) in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo and some areas near the US border, with other regions in different time zones due to follow later.
Thousands of troops will be deployed to protect voters from ultra-violent drug cartels that have gone to extreme lengths to ensure their preferred candidates win.
More than two dozen aspiring local politicians have been murdered during the election process, according to official figures, in a nation where politics, crime and corruption are closely entangled.
In a sign of the difficulties of staging elections in cartel hotspots, voting was suspended in two southern municipalities because of violence, local authorities said Saturday.
“The fight against organized crime will be the biggest challenge for the next president,” said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University, in the United States.
Security was the weakest point of Lopez Obrador’s administration, she told AFP.
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue the outgoing president’s controversial “hugs not bullets” strategy of tackling crime at its roots.
Galvez has vowed a tougher approach to cartel-related violence, declaring “hugs for criminals are over.”
More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
The next president will also have to manage delicate relations with the neighboring United States, in particular the vexed issues of cross-border drug smuggling and migration.
Addressing a cheering crowd of thousands at her closing campaign rally, Sheinbaum said Mexico was going to “make history” this weekend.
“I say to the young women, to all the women of Mexico — colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers — you are not alone,” she said.
The ruling party candidate had the backing of 53 percent of voters as campaigning drew to a close, according to a poll average compiled by research firm Oraculus.
Galvez, an outspoken senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots, was second with 36 percent. Maynez, 38, had just 11 percent.
Galvez, 61, often evokes her childhood story of growing up in a poor, rural town in central Mexico where she says she sold candy to help her family.
“While you danced ballet at the age of 10, I had to work,” she told Sheinbaum, a former student activist who was born in the capital to a family of Jewish immigrants.
While millions of Mexicans have escaped poverty in recent years, more than a third still live below the poverty line in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.
As well as voting for a new president, Mexicans will choose members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials.
In total, more than 20,000 positions were being contested.
