LEPOSAVIC, Kosovo: Around 25 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three town halls in northern Kosovo were injured in clashes with Serb protesters on Monday, while Serbia’s president put the army on the highest level of combat alert.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, condemned the violence.
“While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” it said in a statement.
Hungary’s defense minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that 7 Hungarian soldiers were seriously injured and that they will be taken to Hungary for treatment. He said 20 soldiers were injured. Italian soldiers were also injured in clashes.
“What is happening is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible,” Italy’s Giorgia Meloni said in a statement. “It is vital to avoid further unilateral actions on the part of the Kosovar authorities and that all the parties in question immediately take a step back to ease the tensions.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that 52 Serbs were injured, three of them seriously.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani accused Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic of destabilising Kosovo.
“Serb illegal structures turned into criminal gangs have attacked Kosovo police, KFOR (peacekeeping) officers & journalists. Those who carry out Vucic’s orders to destabilize the north of Kosovo, must face justice,” Osmani tweeted.
Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of creating tensions. He called on Serbs in Kosovo to avoid clashes with NATO soldiers.
The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted — a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.
In Zvecan, one of the towns, Kosovo police — staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs quit the force last year — sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade and tried to force their way into the municipality building, witnesses said.
Serb protesters in Zvecan threw tear gas and stun grenades at NATO soldiers. Serbs also clashed with police in Zvecan and spray-painted NATO vehicles with the letter “Z,” referring to a Russian sign used in war in Ukraine.
In Leposavic, close to the border with Serbia, US peacekeeping troops in riot gear placed barbed wire around the town hall to protect it from hundreds of angry Serbs.
Later in the day protesters threw eggs at a parked car belonging to the new Leposavic mayor.
Vucic, who is the commander-in-chief of the Serbian armed forces, raised the army’s combat readiness to the highest level, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic told reporters.
“This implies that immediately before 2:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), the Serbian Armed Forces’ Chief of the General Staff issued additional instructions for the deployment of the army’s units in specific, designated positions,” Vucevic said, without elaborating.
NATO peacekeepers also blocked off the town hall in Zubin Potok to protect it from angry local Serbs, witnesses said.
Igor Simic, deputy head of the Serb List, the biggest Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of fueling tensions in the north.
“We are interested in peace. Albanians who live here are interested in peace, and only he (Kurti) wants to make chaos,” Simic told reporters in Zvecan.
Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo’s north, have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still see Belgrade as their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 percent of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.
Serbs refused to take part in local elections in April and ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoralties in four Serb-majority municipalities — including North Mitrovica, where no incidents were reported on Monday — with a 3.5 percent turnout.
Serbs demand that the Kosovo government remove ethnic Albanian mayors from town halls and allow local administrations financed by Belgrade resume their work.
On Friday, three out of the four ethnic Albanian mayors were escorted into their offices by police, who were pelted with rocks and responded with tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters.
The United States and its allies, which have strongly backed Kosovo’s independence, rebuked Pristina on Friday, saying imposing mayors in Serb-majority areas without popular support undercut efforts to normalize relations.
Kurti defended Pristina’s position, tweeting after a weekend phone call with the European Union’s foreign policy chief: “Emphasized that elected mayors will provide services to all citizens.”
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told RTS it was “not possible to have mayors who have not been elected by Serbs in Serb-majority municipalities.”
After meeting Kurti, US ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier told reporters: “We are concerned about reports today about violence against official property.”
“We’ve seen pictures of graffiti against KFOR cars and police cars, we’ve heard about attacks on journalists, we condemn that, that is not appropriate response.”
NATO soldiers injured in Kosovo clashes with Serb protesters
https://arab.news/vse2x
NATO soldiers injured in Kosovo clashes with Serb protesters
- KFOR: ‘Several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns’
- Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that 52 Serbs were injured, three of them seriously
At least 23 Indian soldiers missing in flash flood
- Intense rainfall triggers flash flood through valley in India’s mountainous northeast Sikkim state
- Flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which begins in June and ends in September
Guwahati, India: The Indian army said Wednesday that 23 soldiers were missing after a flash flood caused by intense rainfall tore through a valley in the mountainous northeast Sikkim state.
A video released by an Indian army spokesman showed a thick torrent of raging brown water sweeping down a thickly forested valley, with roads washed away and power lines ripped down.
“Due to sudden cloud burst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim, a flash flood occurred in the Teesta River... 23 personnel have been reported missing and some vehicles are reported submerged under the slush,” the army said in a statement. “Search operations are underway.”
Lhonak Lake sits at the base of a glacier in the peaks that surround Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain.
The army said water released upstream from the Chungthang dam meant the river was already more than 4.5 meters (15 feet) higher than usual.
Local media reported that three civilians had died after water smashed into homes overnight, with their bodies recovered from the town of Singtam on Wednesday.
Sikkim is close to India’s border with Nepal and China and boasts a sizeable military presence.
India has been wary of its northern neighbor’s growing military assertiveness and their 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension, with parts of Sikkim claimed by Beijing.
Clashes in January 2021 left injuries on both sides in Naku La pass, which connects Sikkim with Tibet on the Chinese side.
China and India, who fought a border war in 1962, have posted tens of thousands of troops into border zones.
Flash floods are common during the monsoon season, which begins in June and normally withdraws from the Indian subcontinent by the end of September. By October, the heaviest of the monsoon rains are usually over.
Experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
Other photographs shared by the army showed water submerging the first floor of buildings, and flowing down a street in a town with only the tip of a small construction crane visible.
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang said emergency services were working to support those impacted by the ferocious floods and urged people to “remain vigilant.”
Six bridges were washed away and the national highway that connects Sikkim with the rest of the country was badly damaged, state disaster management chief Prabhakar Rai said.
The monsoon occurs when summer heat warms the landmass of the subcontinent, causing the air to rise and suck in cooler Indian Ocean winds, which then produce enormous volumes of rain.
It brings destruction every year in the form of landslides and floods.
Melting glaciers add to the volume of water while unregulated construction in flood-prone areas exacerbates the damage.
Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters.
Glaciers disappeared 65 percent faster from 2011 to 2020 compared with the previous decade, a report in June by the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development warned.
Based on current emissions trajectories, the glaciers could lose up to 80 percent of their current volume by the end of the century, it said.
Taiwan cancels flights, shuts schools ahead of typhoon
- Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from May to November but last month’s Typhoon Haikui was the first to slam into it in four years
TAITUNG, Taiwan: Taiwan canceled flights and closed schools in parts of its southern region on Wednesday ahead of Typhoon Koinu’s expected landfall, the second major storm to make a direct hit on the island in a month.
Taiwan experiences frequent tropical storms from May to November but last month’s Typhoon Haikui was the first to slam into it in four years – unleashing torrential rains, high winds and forcing nearly 8,000 people to evacuate from their homes.
Experts say climate change has made the paths of tropical storms harder to forecast while increasing their intensity, which leads to more rains and flash floods.
Ahead of Thursday’s expected typhoon, more than 100 international and domestic flights have been canceled, while ferry services to Taiwan’s outlying islands have also been halted.
More than 200 people were evacuated for fear of landslides in the south of the island, and waves lashing the coast could reach up to seven meters (22 feet) high, authorities said.
Fishing boats were crammed into a fishing harbor in Pingtung county on Wednesday to shelter ahead of the typhoon, while primary schools in the agricultural region of Taitung allowed children to go home early.
“It’s barely a month, and we have another typhoon,” 65-year-old Yang Pi-cheng lamented said, as she waited to pick up her grandchildren from Dawang Primary School.
A major highway along the coast has also been closed as a precaution.
Koinu – which has been charting a jagged course for Taiwan’s southern tip – is currently just 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of the island, moving toward it at 10 kilometers per hour.
The typhoon has already brought heavy rains to the mountainous northeast regions of Yilan and New Taipei City.
“We forecast that its center will pass through the Hengchun Peninsula at the southern tip of Taiwan tomorrow morning,” said Lu Kuo-chen, head of Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration.
After making landfall in Taiwan, Typhoon Koinu is forecast to move toward the eastern coast of China’s Guangdong province, said the weather observatory in nearby Hong Kong.
The Chinese territory – which last month was skirted by another typhoon before being flooded by the heaviest rainfall in 140 years days later – will issue its lowest typhoon signal on Wednesday evening.
Putin’s Kyrgyzstan visit to be first abroad since ICC warrant
- The long-time leader has rarely left Russia since launching a full-scale military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Kyrgyzstan next week, authorities in the Central Asian country said Wednesday, in his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him.
Putin has not left Russia since The Hague-based court issued the warrant in March over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
“By the invitation of the president of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov on October 12 the president of the Russian Federation will pay an official visit to our country,” the Kyrgyz news agency Kabar reported, citing an official from the presidential office.
Putin is due to visit a Russian air base in the city of Kant, east of the capital Bishkek, for the 20th anniversary of its opening, Russian media reported.
The long-time leader has rarely left Russia since launching a full-scale military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.
He last traveled abroad in December last year, when he visited both Kyrgyzstan and Moscow’s neighbor Belarus.
Kyrgyzstan has not ratified the Rome Statute, a treaty obliging members to adhere to the International Criminal Court’s decisions.
Since March, ICC members are expected to make the arrest if the Russian leader sets foot on their territory.
Putin did not attend the BRICS summit hosted by South Africa — a member of the ICC — in July.
On Tuesday, lawmakers in Armenia approved a key step toward joining the ICC, angering Moscow.
Taliban brands Pakistan expulsion threat to Afghan immigrants ‘unacceptable’
- About 1.73 million Afghan immigrants are living in Pakistan without any legal status
- Interior minister alleges that Afghan nationals had carried out 14 out of 24 suicide bombings in Pakistan this year
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s threat to forcibly expel illegal Afghan immigrants is “unacceptable,” a spokesman for the Taliban administration in Kabul said on Wednesday, adding that Afghans were not to blame for Pakistan’s security problems.
Estimating that there were 1.73 million Afghan immigrants living in Pakistan without any legal status, Pakistan’s caretaker government on Tuesday set a Nov.1 deadline for them to leave or face forcible expulsion.
“The behavior of Pakistan toward Afghan refugees is unacceptable,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban administration in Kabul, said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
To help justify the crackdown, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti alleged that Afghan nationals had carried out 14 out of 24 suicide bombings in Pakistan this year.
The Taliban spokesman rejected that claim.
“The Pakistani side should reconsider its plan. Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistan’s security problems. As long as they leave Pakistan voluntarily, that country should tolerate them,” Mujahid said.
Pakistan’s ultimatum to the immigrants, most of whom have been living in the country for years, came after a meeting of civil and military leaders to review the law and order situation following two suicide bombings on Friday that killed at least 57 people. Bugti said one of the suicide bombers was an Afghan national, and he also accused India’s intelligence agency of involvement.
Relations between the Taliban and the Pakistan government have deteriorated markedly, with border clashes temporarily closing the main trade route between the neighbors last month.
Islamabad alleges that the militants use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban denies those accusations, saying Pakistan’s security problems are home-grown.
A caretaker government was installed in August to guide the Pakistan through to elections expected sometime in the coming months, and the military has been able to exert more influence as a result of the uncertainty and instability in the country.
Netflix plans to raise prices after actors’ strike ends
- WSJ reported that price increase will occur in ‘several markets globally’
LONDON: Netflix is planning to raise the price of its ad-free service after the ongoing Hollywood actors’ strike ends, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, sending the streaming company’s shares up more than 3 percent.
Netflix is discussing raising prices in several markets globally, but will likely begin with the United States and Canada, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
It was not immediately clear how much Netflix will raise prices by or when exactly the new prices will take effect, according to the report.
Netflix declined to comment on the report.
Talks between the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, are ongoing, with their next meeting scheduled on Wednesday.
The writers’ union struck a tentative deal with the AMPTP last week after five months of failed negotiations.
Netflix cut prices of its subscription plans in some countries in February. In the same month, it laid out a plan to crack down on password sharing by subscribers that was rolled out in over 100 countries in May.
