A shooting on the campus of the University of Virginia late Sunday left three people dead and two wounded, university police said in a tweet, adding that the suspect was still at large and “armed and dangerous”.

The university police identified a student, Christopher Darnell Jones as the suspect, and said multiple agencies were engaged in an active search.

Jones was described as wearing a “burgundy jacket, blue jeans and red shoes”, and may have been driving a black SUV, according to the authorities.

An email sent to the student body by the university’s vice president recommended that all students seek safety and follow shelter-in-place commands as the situation remained active.

The shooting is the latest in a wave of gun violence on US college and high school campuses in recent years. The bloodshed has fueled the debate over tighter restrictions on access to guns in the United States, where the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms.

(Source: Reuters)

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot in the shin on Thursday when his anti-government protest convoy came under attack in the east of the country in what his aides said was a clear assassination attempt.

Several others in the convoy were wounded and the information minister said a suspect had been arrested. One party member said there were reports one person had been killed.

“It was a clear assassination attempt. Khan was hit but he’s stable. There was a lot of bleeding,” Fawad Chaudhry, a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Reuters.

“If the shooter had not been stopped by people there, the entire PTI leadership would have been wiped out.”

Local media showed pictures of Khan, 70, waving to the crowd after being evacuated from his vehicle following the shooting.

He was taken to hospital in Lahore after the attack in Wazirabad, nearly 200 km (120 miles) from the capital, Islamabad.

Protesters poured out on to streets in some parts of the country as PTI leaders demanded justice.

Pakistan has a long history of political violence. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 in a gun and bomb attack after holding an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad.

Her father and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in the same city in 1979 after being deposed by a military coup.

Former cricketer Khan was leading a protest march on Islamabad to demand snap elections. There were hundreds of people in the convoy. Party colleague Faisal Javed, who was also wounded and had blood stains on his clothes, told Geo TV from the hospital: “Several of our colleagues are wounded. We heard that one of them is dead.”

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the shooting and ordered an immediate investigation.

Since being ousted in April through a parliamentary vote, Khan has held rallies across Pakistan, stirring opposition against a government that is struggling to bring the economy out of the crisis that Khan’s administration left it in.

Khan had planned to lead the motorised caravan slowly northwards up the Grand Trunk Road to Islamabad, drawing more support along the way before entering the capital.

“I want that all of you participate. This is not for politics or personal gain, or to topple the government… this is to bring genuine freedom to the country,” Khan said in a video message on the eve of the march.

Source: REUTERS

The White House said Wednesday it was increasingly concerned over Moscow’s talk of using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, after a media report said top Russian military officials had discussed how and when to use such a weapon.

“We have grown increasingly concerned about the potential as these months have gone on,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

Kirby did not confirm a New York Times report that said high-level Russian military officials recently discussed when and how they might use tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield.

The report, which cited unnamed US officials, said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not take part in the discussions, and there was no indication that the Russian military had decided to deploy the weapons.

But Kirby said any comments on the use of nuclear weapons by Russia are “deeply concerning,” and said the United States takes them seriously.

He pointed to recent Putin comments talking about nuclear weapons and referencing the bombs US forces dropped on the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II.

“We take note of that,” Kirby said.

“It increasingly is unsettling in terms of the degree to which he feels he has to continue to stretch to prosecute this war,” he said.

At the same time, Kirby reiterated, Washington sees no indications that Russia is making preparations to use nuclear weapons, adding that US intelligence does not necessarily see or know everything.

The United States has been warning Moscow for weeks over public comments from top Russian officials that they could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine in certain cases, particularly if they felt there was a threat to Russian territorial integrity.

The most recent threat came from former Russian president and senior security council official Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s objective to reclaim all its territories occupied by Russia, which include the Donbas region and Crimea, would be a “threat to the existence of our state.”

That, Medvedev said, would be “a direct reason” to invoke nuclear deterrence.

However, early Wednesday Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Western media was “deliberately pumping up the topic of the use of nuclear weapons.”

Moscow does “not have the slightest intention to take part in this,” he said, calling the Times report “very irresponsible.”

In September, Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, said that the United States has warned Russia at “very high levels” of “catastrophic consequences” for using nuclear arms.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned on October 13 that Russian forces would be “annihilated” by the West if Putin uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine.

Source: AFP

An intruder attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull in the early hours after breaking into the couple’s California house in search of the speaker, according to officials.

Addressing a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Biden said political violence had “no place” in the United States, adding “Enough is enough is enough.”

Biden also referenced media reports that the assailant was chanting “Where is Nancy,” the same chant used during the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

“I am not making this up,” Biden said. “This is reported.”

Paul Pelosi was “attacked at home by an assailant who acted with force, and threatened his life while demanding to see the speaker,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said earlier Friday.

Paul Pelosi, 82 — who underwent surgery and is recovering in hospital — was at home alone, as his wife was working in Washington.

With less than two weeks to go before the crucial US midterm elections, members of both parties have sounded the alarm about the potential for political violence.

Source: AFP

 As the world continues to deal with the devastating effects of COVID-19, the World Bank is today releasing a new report that proposes actionable solutions to end the cycle of devastating pandemics.

 The pace of emerging infectious disease (EID) outbreaks has increased at an average annual rate of 6.7 percent from 1980 onwards and the number of outbreaks has grown to several hundred per year since 2000. This is largely due to humans extending their global footprint, altering natural habitats, and accelerating the spillover of animal microbes into human populations.

 Seventy-five percent of EIDs and almost all known pandemics result from increased contact between animals and people, causing more than 1 billion human infections and 1 million deaths each year. This, coupled with increasing movement of goods and people around the world, has demonstrated the ease of spread and volatility of EIDs.

 In Putting Pandemics Behind Us: Investing in One Health to Reduce Risks of Emerging Infectious Diseases, policymakers, governments, and the international community are urged to invest in pandemic prevention and to move away from the business-as-usual approach based on containment and control after a disease has emerged. The report estimates that prevention costs guided by a One Health approach – which would sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems – would range from $10.3 billion to $11.5 billion per year, compared to the cost of managing pandemics which, according to the recent estimate by the G20 Joint Finance and Health Taskforce, amounts to about $30.1 billion per year.

 “Prevention is better than cure. COVID-19 has shown that a pandemic risk anywhere becomes a pandemic risk everywhere. The economic case for One Health is powerful – the cost of prevention is extremely modest compared to the cost of managing and responding to pandemics,” said Mari Pangestu, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships.

 Prevention costs are only about a third of the cost of preparedness, and less than 1 percent of the cost of COVID-19 in 2020 – when the global economy contracted by 4.3% or about $3.6 trillion worth of goods, services and other output lost, and the public health response. Ultimately, prevention is a global public good: no country can be excluded from benefiting and there is no limit to how many countries can benefit. Unfortunately, there is chronic underinvestment in prevention and countries must take action. In addition, when prevention is successful, the benefits are invisible and do not manifest as crises that demand immediate attention. One Health is the global approach required to break this cycle of panic, neglect, and underinvestment.

 Successful implementation of One Health will require improved coordination, communication, and collaboration between sectors reinforced by capacity building. It means managing trade-offs between development and holistic health objectives, and sharing costs more equitably through global coordination of policy and financing actions.

Investing in One Health is an investment in humanity’s future. The framework is holistic and helps governments, international organizations, and donors direct financial resources to optimize scarce funding resources and prevent pandemics. One Health actions to prevent disease outbreaks are cost-effective, with an estimated annual rate of return of up to 86 percent.  Now is the time to mainstream One-Health, leave the cycle of panic and neglect behind us, and put the notion that prevention is better than the cure into reality.

 Contacts:

In Washington: Meriem Gray, mgray@worldbank.org

For Broadcast Requests: David W. Young, dyoung7@worldbankgroup.org

Russia indicated Friday repairs to the Crimea bridge could take months after an explosion on the key supply link that sparked a barrage of retaliatory missile strikes on Ukraine.

Nearly eight months into Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, Kyiv’s emboldened military was celebrating Defender’s Day while a UN envoy claimed Russia’s forces were using rape as a weapon.

Those celebrations come after pro-Kremlin authorities in the southern Kherson region pleaded with Moscow for help evacuating civilians in the face of an advancing Ukrainian counter-offensive.

At the same time, Russian-backed forces in the east have announced they are inching closer to the Ukraine-held down of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the explosion on the Crimea bridge last week as a terrorist act and in retaliation battered Ukraine for two days with missiles that hit energy facilities and caused blackouts and disruption to water supplies.

Source: France 24

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed that one or several countries send “a rapid action force” to help Haiti’s police remove a threat posed by armed gangs, according to a letter to the U.N. Security Council, seen by Reuters on Sunday.

Guterres is not suggesting that the force be deployed by the United Nations. He said the 15-member Security Council should simply welcome such a force and notes that he may boost U.N. capacity to support a ceasefire or humanitarian arrangements and ensure coordination of efforts with an international force.

Haiti last week said it would ask for a “specialized armed force” to help combat crisis caused by a blockade of its main fuel port by a coalition of gangs that has crippled transport and forced businesses and hospitals to halt operations.

The blockade has also led to a shortage of bottled water, just as the country confirmed a new outbreak of cholera, the spread of which is controlled through hygiene and clean water.

The United States said on Saturday it was reviewing Haiti’s request.

Source: France 24

North Korea’s recent missile tests demonstrated its ability to conduct strikes with “tactical nuclear weapons”, the country’s leader Kim Jong-un has said, adding that his forces were ready to “hit and wipe out targets at any time from any location”.

Kim was quoted as saying by North Korea’s state media on Monday that the drills were “an obvious warning and clear demonstration” to the country’s enemies.

North Korean army units involved in the operation of tactical nukes staged military drills from September 25 to October 9 “to check and assess the war deterrent and nuclear counterattack capability,” the country’s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

“Through seven times of launching drills of the tactical nuclear operation units, the actual war capabilities … of the nuclear combat forces ready to hit and wipe out targets at any location and any time were displayed to the full,” the agency said.

It also made clear that the nuclear tests came in reaction to recent joint war games involving US, South Korean and Japanese troops that included the deployment of a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, enraging Pyongyang, which regards such drills as rehearsals for invading the country.

In response, North Korea “decided to organize military drills under the simulation of an actual war” that gamed out hitting South Korea’s ports, airports and military command facilities, KCNA stated.

“The effectiveness and practical combat capability of our nuclear combat force were fully demonstrated as it stands completely ready to hit and destroy targets at any time from any location,” the news agency quoted Kim as saying.

“Even though the enemy continues to talk about dialogue and negotiations, we do not have anything to talk about nor do we feel the need to do so.”

Source: Presstv

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill said Friday that Vladimir Putin’s reign over Russia had been mandated by God, congratulating the Kremlin chief on his 70th birthday.

“God put you in power so that you could perform a service of special importance and of great responsibility for the fate of the country and the people entrusted to your care,” the patriarch said, joining a chorus of Russian officials congratulating Putin on his birthday.

Source: France 24

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Thursday after the United States redeployed an aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula in response to Pyongyang’s previous launch of a nuclear-capable missile over Japan.

The latest missile launches suggest North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is determined to continue with weapons tests aimed at boosting his nuclear arsenal in defiance of international sanctions. Many experts say Kim’s goal is to eventually win U.S. recognition as a legitimate nuclear state and the lifting of those sanctions, though the international community has shown no sign of allowing that to happen.

The latest missiles were launched 22 minutes apart from the North’s capital region and landed between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The first missile flew 350 kilometers (217 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and the second flew 800 kilometers (497 miles) on an apogee of 60 kilometers (37 miles).

The flight details were similar to Japanese assessments announced by Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, who confirmed that the missiles didn’t reach Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

He added that the second missile was possibly launched on an “irregular” trajectory. It is a term that has been previously used to describe the flight characteristics of a North Korean weapon modeled after Russia’s Iskander missile, which travels at low altitudes and is designed to be maneuverable in flight to improve its chances of evading missile defenses.

South Korea’s military said it has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains readiness in close coordination with the United States. The U.S. Indo Pacific Command said the launches didn’t pose an immediate threat to United States or its allies, but still highlighted the “destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was expected to hold a telephone call with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol over the North Korean threat later Thursday, said the North’s continued launches were “absolutely intolerable.”

Yoon’s office said his National Security Director Kim Sung-han discussed the launch at an emergency security meeting where members discussed plans to prepare for further North Korean hostilities, including military provocations.

The launches were North Korea’s sixth round of weapons tests in less than two weeks, adding to a record number of missile launches this year that has prompted condemnation from the United States and other countries. South Korean officials the North may up the ante soon by testing an intercontinental ballistic missile or conducting its first nuclear test explosion since 2017 and seventh overall, escalating an old pattern of heightening tensions before trying to wrest outside concessions.

Moon Hong Sik, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesperson, said North Korea’s accelerating tests also reflect an urgency to meet Kim Jong Un’s arms development goals. Kim last year described an extensive wish list of advanced nuclear weapons systems, including more powerful ICBMs, multiwarhead missiles, underwater-launched nuclear missiles and tactical nuclear arms.

North Korea is “moving accordingly with the timeline it set for itself,” Moon said.

On Tuesday, North Korea staged its most provocative weapons demonstration since 2017, firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan, forcing the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.

Experts said the weapon was likely a Hwasong-12 missile capable of reaching the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and beyond.

Other weapons tested earlier included Iskander-like missiles and other ballistic weapons designed to strike key targets in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

Thursday’s launches came as the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan returned to waters east of South Korea in what South Korea’s military called an attempt to demonstrate the allies’ “firm will” to counter North’s continued provocations and threats.

The carrier was in the area last week as part of drills between South Korea and the United States and the allies’ other training involving Japan. North Korea considers such U.S.-led drills near the peninsula as an invasion rehearsal and views training involving a U.S. carrier more provocative.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the redeployment of the Reagan strike group poses “a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity.” The ministry said it strongly condemns U.S.-led efforts at the U.N. Security Council to tighten sanctions on the North over its recent missile testing, which it described as a “just counteraction” to joint U.S.-South Korean drills.

After the North’s intermediate-range missile launch, the United States and South Korea also carried out their own live-fire drills that have so far involved land-to-land ballistic missiles and precision-guided bombs dropped from fighter jets.

But one of the tit-for-tat launches nearly caused catastrophe early Wednesday when a malfunctioning South Korean Hyumoo-2 missile flipped shortly after liftoff and crashed into the ground at an air force base in the eastern coastal city of Gangneung. South Korea’s military said no one was hurt and civilian facilities weren’t affected.

After Tuesday’s North Korean launch, the United States, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. But the session Wednesday ended with no consensus, underscoring a divide among the council’s permanent members that has deepened over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Russia and China during the meeting insisted to fellow Security Council members that U.S.-led military exercises in the region had provoked North Korea into acting. The United States and its allies expressed concern that the the council’s inability to reach consensus on North Korea’s record number of missile launches this year was emboldening North Korea and undermining the authority of the United Nations’ most powerful body.

North Korea has fired more than 40 ballistic and cruise missiles over more than 20 launch events this year, using the stalled diplomacy with the United States and Russia’s war on Ukraine as a window to speed up arms development.

Source: AP