2 Indian soldiers and a suspected militant are killed in a drawn-out gunfight in Kashmir

2 Indian soldiers and a suspected militant are killed in a drawn-out gunfight in Kashmir
According to officials, two army soldiers were killed and two others injured on the eighth day, late Friday. (AP file)
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2 Indian soldiers and a suspected militant are killed in a drawn-out gunfight in Kashmir

2 Indian soldiers and a suspected militant are killed in a drawn-out gunfight in Kashmir
  • Officials say fighting began on Aug. 1 after Indian troops laid a cordon in southern Kulgam district’s Akhal forested area following a tip that a group of insurgents was operating there
  • Officials did not give any other details. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the details

SRINAGAR: Two Indian soldiers and a suspected militant have been killed in one of longest gunfights in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday.
The fighting began on Aug. 1 after Indian troops laid a cordon in southern Kulgam district’s Akhal forested area following a tip that a group of insurgents was operating there, officials said.
Multiple search operations in the area by soldiers triggered a series of firefights with militants, initially leaving one militant dead and seven soldiers wounded, officials said. Since then, intermittent fighting continued in the area as troops deployed helicopters and drones to combat an unspecified number of militants in the vast, forested area.
According to officials, two army soldiers were killed and two others injured on the eighth day, late Friday.
The Indian army in a statement on social media said the operation continued in the area on Saturday.
Officials did not give any other details. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the details.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Last month, India’s powerful home minister Amit Shah said in parliament that three suspected militants killed in a gunbattle in the disputed region were responsible for a shooting massacre in which more than two dozen people died and that led to a military clash between India and Pakistan earlier this year.
Before the April gun massacre in the Kashmiri resort town of Pahalgam, the fighting had largely ebbed in the region’s Kashmir Valley, the heartland of anti-India rebellion, and mainly shifted to mountainous areas of Jammu in the past few years.
The massacre increased tensions between India and Pakistan, leading to the worst military confrontation in decades and the death of dozens of people, until a ceasefire was reached on May 10 after USmediation.
The region has simmered in anger since New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while intensifying counterinsurgency operations.


Firefighters battle blaze near Athens for second day

Firefighters battle blaze near Athens for second day
Updated 17 sec ago

Firefighters battle blaze near Athens for second day

Firefighters battle blaze near Athens for second day

ATHENS: Hundreds of firefighters on Saturday battled for a second day a large wildfire near Athens that left one dead, with strong winds raising fears it could spread.
A fire department spokesman said over 260 firefighters with nearly 80 fire engines and 12 aircraft were deployed in Keratea, a rural area some 43 kilometers (27 miles) southeast of Athens.
“The fire has weakened but there are still active pockets,” the spokesman told AFP.
Dozens of people were evacuated late Friday from homes and an elderly care center as the flames neared the nearby coastal resort of Palea Fokea.
Firefighters later found the remains of an elderly man in a hut near Keratea.
Gale-force winds on Friday also caused the deaths of two Vietnamese tourists who fell into the sea at Sarakiniko beach on the Cycladic island of Milos.
The 61-year-old woman and 65-year-old man were on a cruise ship group visiting the lunar-like, volcanic rock beach, the coast guard said.
A coast guard spokeswoman told AFP the woman had fallen into the water, and the man had tried to help her.
Greece’s national weather service EMY said winds of up to 74 kilometers (46 miles) an hour were forecast for Saturday.
The weather on Friday disrupted ferry travel for tens of thousands of summer holidaymakers. A sailing ban on Athens ports was lifted Saturday.


Zelensky warns against ‘decisions without Ukraine’

Zelensky warns against ‘decisions without Ukraine’
Updated 6 min 48 sec ago

Zelensky warns against ‘decisions without Ukraine’

Zelensky warns against ‘decisions without Ukraine’
  • President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday warned that “decisions without Ukraine” would not bring peace and ruled out ceding territory to Russia

KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday warned that “decisions without Ukraine” would not bring peace and ruled out ceding territory to Russia.
“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” he said on social media, as US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepare to hold a summit next week.
“Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said.


Mexico discounts risk of ‘invasion’ after Trump order to target cartels

Mexico discounts risk of ‘invasion’ after Trump order to target cartels
Updated 09 August 2025

Mexico discounts risk of ‘invasion’ after Trump order to target cartels

Mexico discounts risk of ‘invasion’ after Trump order to target cartels
  • The Mexican foreign ministry said later that Mexico ‘would not accept the participation of US military forces on our territory’

MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that there would be “no invasion of Mexico” following reports that President Donald Trump had ordered the US military to target Latin American drug cartels.

“There will be no invasion of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said after The New York Times reported that Trump had secretly signed a directive to use military force against cartels that his administration has declared terrorist organizations.

“We were informed that this executive order was coming and that it had nothing to do with the participation of any military personnel or any institution in our territory,” Sheinbaum told her regular morning conference.

The Mexican foreign ministry said later that Mexico “would not accept the participation of US military forces on our territory.”

The remarks followed a statement released by the US embassy in Mexico, which said both countries would use “every tool at our disposal to protect our peoples” from drug trafficking groups.

US ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said on X that the countries “face a common enemy: the violent criminal cartels.”

The Pentagon referred questions on the issue to the White House, which did not immediately confirm the order.

The Times said Trump’s order provided an official basis for military operations at sea or on foreign soil against the cartels.

In February, his administration designated eight drug trafficking groups as terrorist organizations. Six are Mexican, one is Venezuelan and the eighth originates in El Salvador.

Two weeks ago, his administration added another Venezuelan gang, the Cartel of the Suns, which has shipped hundreds of tonnes of narcotics into the United States over two decades.

On Thursday, the US Justice Department doubled to $50 million its bounty on Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whom it accuses of leading the Cartel of the Suns.

Venezuela has dismissed the allegations, with Foreign Minister Yvan Gil calling it “the most ridiculous smokescreen we have ever seen.”

Sheinbaum has made strenuous efforts to show Trump she is acting against her country’s cartels, whom he accuses of flooding the United States with drugs, particularly fentanyl.

“We are cooperating, we are collaborating, but there will be no invasion. That is absolutely ruled out,” she said.

She said that in “every call” with US officials, Mexico insisted that this “is not permitted.”

The 63-year-old has been dubbed the “Trump whisperer” for repeatedly securing reprieves from his threats of stiff tariffs over the smuggling of drugs and migrants across their shared border.


Trump demands $1bn from University of California over UCLA protests

Trump demands $1bn from University of California over UCLA protests
Updated 09 August 2025

Trump demands $1bn from University of California over UCLA protests

Trump demands $1bn from University of California over UCLA protests
  • Trump administration pushes its claims of antisemitism in UCLA’s response to 2024 student protests related to Gaza

LOS ANGELES, United States: President Donald Trump demanded a massive $1 billion fine from the prestigious University of California system on Friday as the administration pushed its claims of antisemitism in UCLA’s response to 2024 student protests related to Gaza.

The figure, which is five times the sum Columbia University agreed to pay to settle similar federal accusations of antisemitism, would “completely devastate” the UC public university system, a senior official said.

President James Milliken, who oversees the 10 campuses that make up the University of California system, including Los Angeles-based UCLA, said managers had received the $1 billion demand on Friday and were reviewing it.

“As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians,” he said.

“Americans across this great nation rely on the vital work of UCLA and the UC system for technologies and medical therapies that save lives, grow the US economy, and protect our national security.”

Asked about Trump’s fine during a press conference on Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom – who sits on the UC’s board – said “we’ll sue” and accused the president of trying to silence academic freedom.

“He has threatened us through extortion with a billion dollar fine unless we do his bidding,” Newsom said, crediting the UC system as “one of the reasons California is the tentpole of the US economy, one of the reasons we have more scientists, engineers, more Nobel laureates, than any other state in this nation.”

Media reports suggest the government wants the money in installments and is demanding the university also pay $172 million to a claims fund to compensate Jewish students and others affected by alleged discrimination.

The UC system, with schools that are consistently ranked among the best public universities in the United States, is already grappling with the Trump administration’s more-than half-billion dollar freeze on medical and science grants at UCLA alone.

The move appears to follow a similar playbook the White House used to extract concessions from Columbia University, and is also trying to use to get Harvard University to bend.

Columbia’s agreement includes a pledge to obey rules barring it from taking race into consideration in admissions or hiring, among other concessions, drawing criticism from Newsom.

“We will not be complicit in this kind of attack on academic freedom, or on this extraordinary public institution. We are not like some of those other institutions that have followed a different path,” Newsom said.

Pro-Palestinian protests rocked dozens of US campuses in 2024, with police crackdowns and mob violence erupting over student encampments, from Columbia to UCLA, with then-president Joe Biden saying “order must prevail.”

Universities have been in Trump’s sights since he returned to the White House in January.

His Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement views academia as elite, overly liberal and hostile to the kind of ethno-nationalism popular among Trump supporters.


Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search

Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search
Updated 09 August 2025

Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search

Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search
  • Michael Paul Brown was taken into custody around 2 p.m. near the area where authorities had focused their search
  • The shooting rattled the tight-knit town of about 9,000 people and prompted the closure of a 57-square-kilometer stretch of forest

A man suspected in a shooting at a Montana bar that left four people dead was captured Friday just a few miles from where the shooting happened after hundreds of law enforcement officers spent the past week scouring nearby mountainsides, authorities said.

Michael Paul Brown, 45, was taken into custody around 2 p.m. near the area where authorities had focused their search in the days following the Aug. 1 shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, about 190 kilometers) from Missoula.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said during a news conference that about 130 law enforcement officers made a hard push Thursday after getting tips that helped verify they were looking in the right area.

“It’s not someplace he’d been hiding. He was flushed out,” Knudsen said.

Gov. Greg Gianforte first confirmed Brown’s capture on social media Friday afternoon, saying it was the result of what he called a “Herculean effort” from law enforcement officers across the state.

The community finally would be able to sleep tonight, Anaconda-Deer Valley County Attorney Morgan Smith said, adding that the case is just the beginning for prosecutors who will be seeking to charge Brown with the killings.

It was not immediately clear if Brown had legal representation. Email and phone messages were left Friday with the Montana public defender’s office.

State authorities have not said what sparked last week’s shooting, which left a female bartender and three male patrons dead. The victims were identified as Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74.

Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, said Kelley worked previously as an oncology nurse and was a close family friend who helped Brown’s mother when she was sick.

Bar owners from around the state have pledged to donate a portion of sales to a fund for each of the victims’ families.

The shooting rattled the tight-knit town of about 9,000 people and prompted the closure of a 57-square-kilometer stretch of forest as authorities searched for Brown. He had fled from the shooting in a white pickup that he later ditched. Authorities say he later stole another white vehicle stocked with clothes, shoes and camping gear. Earlier in the week, Knudsen had said it didn’t appear that Brown had broken into any homes in the area for food or additional supplies.

Lee Johnson, administrator of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, said search teams found Brown at a structure near The Ranch Bar and that he looked to be “in pretty good shape, physically.” He was communicative and able to identify himself, Johnson said. Brown was taken to a hospital for treatment and was medically cleared earlier Friday.

Eric Hempstead, who owns The Ranch Bar, about eight kilometers west of The Owl Bar, described an intense law enforcement presence in the densely wooded area over the last couple of days that involved search dogs and drones.

“The guy was never going to make it out in the open,” he said, noting that he and his neighbors were armed and ready to protect themselves.

Brown, who lived next door to The Owl Bar in Anaconda, served in the Army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005 and deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005. He also was in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to 2009.

Boyle said that her uncle has struggled with mental illness for years, and she and other family members repeatedly sought help for him.

Before Brown’s father died in 2015, Boyle said Brown was “a good, loving uncle.” Then, she and other family members noticed a slip in his mental state. Brown began experiencing delusions and often did not know who, when or where he was. He was an avid hunter and kept guns in his home.

Family members had requested wellness checks when they believed he was becoming a danger to himself, she said. Boyle said Brown would tell authorities he was fine.

The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Department did not respond this week to several email and phone messages requesting records of the wellness checks Boyle said they helped conduct on Brown in the years leading up to the shooting.

At the news conference, Knudsen said officials had no comment on whether police had performed wellness checks.

Montana is not among the states that have red flag laws allowing families to formally petition for guns to be removed from the homes of people who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. The state Legislature passed a bill this year banning local governments from enacting their own red flag gun laws. The governor signed it into law in May.