India, Pakistan continue trading fire and blame in Kashmir

An Indian man pulls a motorbike from a building razed after a firing from the Pakistan side of the border into Jora in Ranbir Singh Pura district of Jammu and Kashmir. (AP)
Updated 22 January 2018
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India, Pakistan continue trading fire and blame in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India: Officials say Indian and Pakistani soldiers have again targeted each other’s posts and villages along their volatile frontier in disputed Kashmir after a day’s lull, killing at least one civilian.
Fighting erupted overnight as the rivals traded gunfire and shelling until dawn Monday, leaving a civilian dead and three others injured on the Indian side.
The recent flare-up has left 13 civilians and nine soldiers dead on the two sides and sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing from their homes.
Most of the fighting is taking place along the portion of the frontier where each country has a paramilitary border force separating Indian-controlled Kashmir and the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Both countries have accused the other of initiating the fighting.


Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries

Updated 6 sec ago
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Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries

  • Pope Leo warns of ‘shrinking’ freedom of expression in Western countries
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo warned on Friday that ​freedom of expression is “rapidly shrinking” in Western countries, and urged the right to conscientious objection for people who ‌refuse military ‌service ‌or ⁠for ​doctors who ‌refuse to perform abortions or euthanasia.
“It is painful to see how, especially in the West, ⁠the space for genuine ‌freedom of expression ‍is ‍rapidly shrinking,” the pope ‍said in an address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.
“A ​new Orwellian-style language is developing which, ⁠in an attempt to be increasingly inclusive, ends up excluding those who do not conform to the ideologies that are fueling it,” said Leo, the first ‌US pope.