Russian Spy Plane Worth ₹ 2,737 Crore Destroyed By Drones In Belarus: Report

LONDON, Feb 28: A Russian spy aircraft was destroyed by two drones at a Russian airbase in Belarus, according to a report in Independent. The plane, worth 274 million pounds (Rs 2,737 crore), was hit in an attack by anti-government activists in Belarus that support Ukraine, the outlet further reported.

This comes shortly after the Russian government announced temporary closure Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg. The decision was taken after media reports claimed a drone was spotted in the area. The operations, however, resumed after a few hours.

The spy plane, which was shot down was AWACS Beriev A-50U, the Independent report said. It was "significantly damaged", the outlet further said quoting the Belarusian Hajun project, and the front and central parts of the aircraft, its avionics and radar antennae were hit.

Metro said the aircraft arrived in Machulishchi, near Belarusian capital Minsk, on December 14. It has been used since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year to locate bombing targets for Putin's air force.

The outlet further said that a military transport aircraft and snow-clearing vehicles were also damaged in the drone attack.

Neither Russia nor Belarus have so far commented on the incident but a search operation has been launched by local police and security services.

Meanwhile, data from the FlightRadar24 website showed a number of flights headed for St. Petersburg turning back to their destinations early on Tuesday, while the airspace closure also appeared to affect flights en route to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which requires planes to fly over St. Petersburg.

By 1200 local time, flights had resumed flying towards St. Petersburg, the FlightRadar24 website showed.

42 Students Stuck In US After Hotel Shredded Passports: Report

LONDON, Feb 28: Forty-two students from a school in Walsall, UK were left stranded in the US after a hotel was alleged to have accidentally shredded their passports. According to a BBC report, students from Barr Beacon School were on a ski trip to New Hampshire when they were informed their passports were destroyed by hotel management.

The students were scheduled to fly back home on Saturday, but they had to stay for four more days to get their emergency documents.

A mother said she was shocked by the strange turn of events, but the school assured her that they will manage the crisis. "It was a horrific shock really," the mother, who did not wish to be named, told BBC. "It's the first time she has been away from family for this long. And what they were doing was really challenging - skiing black runs or blue runs, depending on their experience."

The mother informed me that the teacher leading the trip communicated well and supported the students. "She was up throughout the night answering our emails and questions when she should have been sleeping," she said.

School head Katie Hibbs told the outlet that she was proud of the staff on the trip for managing the challenging situation.

She said, "Forty-one of the passports were destroyed whilst the group were staying at the hotel in New Hampshire."

The British Embassy had completed the applications and the students will return on Wednesday.

Ukraine Allies Mark Invasion Anniversary With Slew Of Sanctions On Russia

BERLIN, Feb 24: Ukraine allies around the world lit up landmark monuments, held vigils and prepared new sanctions in a collective show of support on the first anniversary of Russia's invasion.

In Germany, which has ditched its "Wandel durch Handel" (change through trade) approach to Russia and funnelled weapons to Ukraine, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the invasion was an assault on the lessons of the two world wars.

"It is an attack on everything we stand for," he said at a commemorative event, calling Russia's invasion an "epochal breach" and adding he was sure Germany would continue to be Ukraine's biggest military supporter on the European continent.

In Poland, sandwiched between Germany and Ukraine, protesters held up a banner reading "Russia is a terrorist state" and sounded sirens outside a residential building for Russian embassy employees in Warsaw.

Polish Premier Mateusz Morawiecki went to Kyiv and, together with Ukraine's prime minister, laid flowers at the Wall of Remembrance of those who died for Ukraine.

The United States marked the anniversary by announcing new sanctions against Russia and its allies, new export controls and tariffs aimed at undermining Moscow's ability to wage war. Britain also issued new sanctions.

Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, said any constructive suggestion that brings peace closer would be welcome.

"Whether the world power China wants to play such a constructive role is still in question. If that is the case, then China should definitely not only talk to Moscow, but also to Kyiv," he said, calling for peace efforts to be channelled under the umbrella of the United Nations.

China said on Friday that dialogue and negotiation were the only viable ways to resolve the crisis, and called in a 12-point foreign ministry paper for a comprehensive ceasefire and a gradual de-escalation.

Paris lit the Eiffel Tower in the Ukrainian flag colours of blue and yellow on Thursday night and people draped in Ukrainian flags, with hands on their hearts, gathered at a vigil in London holding a banner: "If you stand for freedom, stand for Ukraine."

"There will be a life after this war, because Ukraine will win," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a speech.

EU institutions were also lit in Ukrainian colours, along with the Sydney Opera House.

In Italy, the Senate said it would illuminate its Palazzo Madama building in the colours of the Ukrainian flag from sunset on Friday to sunrise on Saturday.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a YouTube video message that Ukraine was "defending the values of freedom and democracy on which European identity was born".

"Ukraine is not and will not be alone," she said. "The free world owes the Ukrainian women and men."

There were no major public events to mark the anniversary on Friday in Russia, which set off fireworks on Thursday for the annual "Defenders of the Fatherland" holiday and held a pop concert on Wednesday attended by President Vladimir Putin.

Putin says he is battling the combined might of the West in what he now depicts as a fight for Russia's survival. Kyiv says there can be no peace until Russia, which denies intentionally targeting civilians, withdraws.

Russia Tested Satan II Missile During Biden's Ukraine Visit And It Failed: Report

WASHINGTON, Feb 22: Russia tested an intercontinental missile on Monday while US President Joe Biden was in Ukraine and that appears to have failed, according to a report in CNN.

It quoted two officials who said that Russia had notified the US in advance through "deconfliction lines". One of the officials added that the missile launch did not pose a risk to the US and it did not view the test as an anomaly or escalation.

Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv with an intention to reaffirm America's "unwavering commitment to Ukraine's democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity", according to White House.

The missile that was tested during Biden's visit was SARMAT - nicknamed the Satan II in the West. It was capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads.

The missile has been successfully tested before and had this test worked, Russia's President Vladimir Putin would have highlighted it in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, CNN further said in its report quoting the officials.

One of the officials, however, clarified that the test was carried out just before Biden reached Ukraine.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the missile test on Wednesday.

After Biden left Ukraine, Russian intelligence agency director Alexander Bortnikov said that they gave no security guarantees to the US President during his unannounced visit.

"Indeed, the United States notified Russia about Biden's visit to Kiev - via diplomatic channels. But we gave no guarantees of his security," Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Bortnikov said in an interview with the Shot Telegram channel on Tuesday.

Biden visited Kyiv on Monday for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine almost a year ago. In Kyiv, he announced a half-billion dollars in new assistance, saying the package would include more military equipment, such as artillery ammunition, more javelins and Howitzers.

Germany Says India Buying Discounted Russian Oil 'Not Our Business'

NEW DELHI, Feb 22: Not our business, the German Ambassador said today on India buying discounted oil from Russia, weeks after the US said it was "comfortable" with New Delhi's approach on Russian oil purchase.

"I have made it clear time and again that India buying oil from Russia is none of our business basically that's something that the Indian government decides and if you get it at a very very low price, you know I cannot blame India for buying it," said Philipp Ackermann, German Ambassador to India.

India, the world's third-largest crude importer after China and the US, has been snapping discounted Russian oil after many Western countries shunned it as a means of punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

Western nations have been critical of India's move to keep buying oil from Russia amid the war in Ukraine. India has stood firm by its stand that it will keep buying oil from wherever it gets a good deal.

Russia has said that it welcomes India's decision to not support the price cap on Russian oil announced by the G7 and their allies.

Countering the criticism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, in December last year, said Europe bought much more fossil fuel than India between February and November. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 last year.

"I think first we need to establish the facts very clearly. Between February 24 and November 17, the European Union has imported more fossil fuel from Russia than the next 10 countries combined. The oil import in the European Union is like six times what India has imported. Gas is infinite because we do not import it while the European Union imported 50 billions Euros worth (of gas)," Jaishankar said in December.

India's Russian oil imports climbed to a record 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, up 9.2% from December, with Moscow still the top monthly oil seller to New Delhi, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported citing data from trade sources.

Refiners in India, which rarely used to buy Russian oil because of costly logistics, have emerged as Russia's key oil client, snapping up discounted crude shunned by Western nations since the invasion of Ukraine last February.

Over the last months, India has been buying more and more cheap Russian oil and refining it into fuel for Europe and the US. Fuel refined in India is not considered to be of Russian origin.

By driving a hard bargain with Russia in procuring crude oil at the lowest price possible, India is furthering the policy of G7 and Washington is "comfortable" with New Delhi over its approach in addressing issues relating to energy security, a top Biden administration official said last week.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Geoffrey R Pyatt also said the Indian companies are "very successfully" negotiating the price for Russian crude oil which enabled Indian refiners to then put the product on the global market at a "very competitive and profitable price".

The German Ambassador also pitched India as an "appropriate candidate" to come up with a solution to stop the Ukraine war.

"India is an appropriate candidate to come up with a solution (to stop Russia- Ukraine war). India has skilled and good diplomacy," Ambassador Ackermann added.

10 Palestinians killed during Israeli raid targeting militants in West Bank

JERUSALEM, Feb 22: At least 10 Palestinians were killed Wednesday during a major Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank that also left more than 100 injured, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli authorities said Wednesday’s operation targeted three suspects “planning attacks in the immediate future.” The three were “neutralized,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency said in a joint statement.

In the unusual daytime raid, Israeli forces entered Nablus in the West Bank.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its commanders were killed in ensuing clashes with Israeli troops.

The Lion’s Den militant group also confirmed its members were involved in the fighting, but did not say if any of their members were killed.

All three of the suspected Palestinian militants targeted by the IDF were killed, a list of the dead released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health shows.

Six of the dead were men in their 20s, the ministry said. One was 16, one was 33, one was 61 and was was 72. All were men, the ministry list of dead shows.

An IDF statement said earlier that two of those killed were from the Lion’s Den militant group and that one was from Islamic Jihad.

The names of at least two suspects released by the IDF – Hussam Esleem and Waleed Dakheel – appeared to match names of the dead released by the Palestinian health ministry. The IDF said one was shot while fleeing and the other two were killed in an exchange of fire with the military.

Israeli authorities said that suspects threw rocks, Molotov cocktails and “explosive devices” at Israeli forces.

The raid brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces to 61 this year, the Palestinian health ministry said. That number includes people shot as they attacked Israelis, militants being targeted in raids, people clashing with Israeli forces during raids, and bystanders, records show.

Russia Suspends Participation In Last Remaining Nuclear Treaty With US

MOSCOW, Feb 21: President Vladimir Putin said today that Russia was suspending its participation in the New START treaty with the United States that limits the two sides' strategic nuclear arsenals.

"In this regard, I am forced to announce today that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty," Putin told lawmakers towards the end of a major speech to parliament, nearly one year into the war in Ukraine.

The New START treaty was signed in Prague in 2010, came into force the following year and was extended in 2021 for five more years just after US President Joe Biden took office.

It caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with close to 6,000 warheads, according to experts. Together, Russia and the United States hold around 90% of the world's nuclear warheads - enough to destroy the planet many times over.

US slams Russia's nuclear arms treaty pullout as 'irresponsible'

ATHENS, Feb 21: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today said Russia's decision to suspend a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Washington was "deeply unfortunate and irresponsible", but that the US was willing to talk about the issue.

"We remain ready to talk about strategic arms limitations at any time with Russia, irrespective of anything else going on in the world or in our relationship," Blinken told reporters at the American embassy in Athens during a regional visit.

He was speaking after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Moscow's suspension of its participation in the last remaining arms control treaty between the world's two main nuclear powers.

"The announcement by Russia that it's suspending participation in New Start is deeply unfortunate and irresponsible," said Blinken

"We'll be watching carefully to see what Russia actually does. We'll of course make sure that in any event we are postured appropriately for the security of our own country and that of our allies," he added.

The 2010 treaty is the last major US-Russia arms control pact still in force but it has frayed in recent years, with accusations from Washington that Moscow was not complying with it.

In Kyiv, Joe Biden Pledges $500 Million To Support Ukraine Against Russia

KYIV, Feb 20: U.S. President Joe Biden made an unannounced visit to Kyiv today, promising President Volodymyr Zelensky that Washington would stand with Ukraine as long as it takes, in a strong show of support ahead of the war's one-year anniversary.

Sirens blared across the Ukrainian capital as he was there, though there were no reports of Russian missile or air strikes.

"When Putin launched his invasion nearly one year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong," Biden said, praising Ukrainians for their bravery in resisting Russia's invasion.

"The cost that Ukraine has had to pay is extraordinarily high. Sacrifices have been far too great ... We know that there will be difficult days and weeks and years ahead."

The U.S. president promised a further $500 million worth of weaponry, including artillery ammunition, anti-armour systems and air defence radars, plus tighter sanctions on Russia.

Zelensky told Biden his visit was "an extremely important sign of support for all Ukrainians."

The visit came a day before President Vladimir Putin was due to make a major address, expected to set out Russia's aims for the second year of what he now calls a proxy war against the armed might of the West.

"Of course for the Kremlin this will be seen as further proof that the United States has bet on Russia's strategic defeat in the war and that the war itself has turned irrevocably into a war between Russia and the West," said Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst.

"Tomorrow's address was expected to be very hawkish, targeted at a demonstrative rupture of relations with the West. Now additional edits could be introduced to make it even tougher."

The anniversary has taken on more than symbolic significance, becoming what the West views as the principal motivation for the war's deadliest phase, with Moscow hurling thousands of conscripts and mercenaries into a winter offensive.

Russia has secured only scant gains so far in assaults in frozen trenches up and down the eastern front in recent weeks. Kyiv and the West see it as a push to give Putin victories to tout a year after he launched Europe's biggest war since World War Two.

Moscow received its own apparent signal of diplomatic support on Monday, with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi expected in the Russian capital for talks. In public, China has so far remained neutral over the conflict despite signing a "no limits" friendship pact with Russia weeks before the invasion.

Washington has said in recent days it is concerned Beijing could begin supplying Moscow with arms. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the United States was "in no position to make demands of China", and China's "comprehensive collaborative partnership with Russia" was a matter for two independent states.

Russia is trying to secure full control of two eastern provinces that form Ukraine's Donbas mining and industrial region. It has launched assaults at locations running from Kreminna in the north down to Vuhledar in the south, securing most of its recent gains around the mining city of Bakhmut.

Kyiv, which is absorbing a major influx of Western weaponry in coming months for a planned counter-offensive, has lately stuck mainly to defence on the battlefield, claiming to be inflicting huge casualties on the assaulting Russian forces.

"We are breaking down the invaders and inflicting extraordinarily significant losses on Russia," Zelensky said in his nightly video address. "The more losses Russia suffers there, in Donbas - in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Marinka, Kreminna - the faster we will be able to end this war with Ukraine's victory."

Day After North Korea's Missile Launch, US Holds Air Exercises With Allies

SEOUL, Feb 19: The United States held joint air exercises bilaterally with South Korea and Japan involving strategic bombers on Sunday, a day after North Korea fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a "sudden launching drill".

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the exercise, in which South Korea's F-35A, F-15K, and U.S. F-16 fighters escorted American B-1B bombers, demonstrated the allies' "overwhelming" defence capabilities and readiness posture.

"(The exercise) strengthened the combined operation capability and affirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to the defence of the Korean Peninsula and the implementation of extended deterrence," the South's military said in a statement.

Japan flew F-15s over the Sea of Japan with the U.S. Armed Forces' B-1 bombers and F-16s in tactical exercises, Japan's Defense Ministry said in a statement, calling the security environment "increasingly severe" after the latest North Korea missile landed within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

"This bilateral exercise reaffirms the strong will between Japan and the United States to respond to any situation, the readiness of (Japan's Self Defense Forces) and U.S. Armed Forces, and further strengthens the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. Alliance," the ministry said.

The air drills come a day after North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan's west coast, following a warning of a strong response to upcoming military drills by South Korea and the United States.

North Korea's state media KCNA said the country conducted a "sudden launching drill" on Saturday an "actual proof" of its efforts to turn the "capacity of fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces into an irresistible one".

Leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, issued yet another warning and accused the United States of trying to turn the U.N. Security Council into what she called a "tool for its heinous hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.

"I warn that we will watch every movement of the enemy and take corresponding and very powerful and overwhelming counteraction against its every move hostile to us," she said in a statement.

Saturday's missile launch, the North's first since Jan. 1, came after Pyongyang threatened on Friday an "unprecedentedly persistent, strong" response as South Korea and the United States geared up for their annual military exercises as part of efforts to fend off the growing nuclear and missile threat that the North poses.

North Korea's state news agency said its missile had flown for 1 hour, 6 minutes and 55 seconds, as high as 5,768 km (3,584 miles), before accurately hitting a pre-set area 989 km (614 miles) away in open waters. It first test-fired a Hwasong-15 in 2017.

Last year nuclear-armed North Korea fired an unprecedented number of missiles, including ICBMs capable of striking anywhere in the United States, while resuming preparations for its first nuclear test since 2017.

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said Saturday's launch "clearly" signals the North's intent to conduct further provocations.

"If North Korea conducts the seventh nuclear test, which could happen at any time, it will be a game changer in a sense that North Korea could develop and deploy tactical nuclear missiles," Park told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

KCNA said the North's latest launch, guided by the Missile General Bureau, was conducted on an "emergency firepower combat standby order" given at dawn, followed by a written order from Kim Jong Un at 8 a.m. (2300 GMT on Friday). South Korea's military said it detected the missile at 5:22 p.m. (0822 GMT).

"The important bit here is that the exercise was ordered day-of, without warning to the crew involved," said Ankit Panda, a missile expert at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "The amount of time between the order and the launch is likely going to be decreased with additional testing."

Analysts say North Korea is likely to conduct more weapons tests, including a possible new solid-fuel missile which could help the North deploy its missiles faster in the event of a war.

North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions, but Pyongyang says its weapons development is necessary to counter "hostile policies" by Washington and its allies.

US Military Says ISIS Terrorist Captured In Helicopter Raid In Syria

WASHINGTON, Feb 19: The United States military on Saturday announced that it conducted a helicopter raid in eastern Syria that yielded the capture of a top ISIS official.

In a statement, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that its forces worked with the Syrian military to conduct a helicopter raid which led to the capture of an ISIS official identified as Batar.

As per the press note, Batar was an ISIS Syria Province Official who was "involved in planning attacks on SDF-guarded detention centres and manufacturing improvised explosive devices".

"Extensive planning went into this operation to ensure its successful execution," the statement added.

No civilians, Syrian soldiers, or US forces were killed or injured during the raid, the press release said.

Shortly after, CENTCOM issued another statement in which it said that coalition forces had been attacked by rockets in northeast Syria on Saturday evening.

"No US or Coalition troops were killed or wounded and there was no damage to Coalition infrastructure or equipment," the officials added. US forces in northeast Syria are still investigating the incident. "There are no claims of claims of responsibility at this time," the statement read.

Meanwhile, as per Fox News, the news of the successful raid in Syria comes a day after CENTCOM announced that four US service members were injured during a raid that left senior ISIS leader Hamza al-Homsi dead.

"Hamza al-Homsi oversaw the group's deadly terrorist network in eastern Syria before he was killed in the raid," a CENTCOM spokesman told the outlet.

US military informed that all four US service members, along with a working dog, were being treated for their injuries at a US medical facility in Iraq.

As Turkey Earthquake Deaths Top 46,000, Families Pray For Graves

TURKEY, Feb 19: As his bulldozer claws at the rubble of buildings destroyed by this month's earthquake, operator Akin Bozkurt consoles himself that by finding bodies he gives family members the chance to have a funeral for loved ones and a grave where they can mourn.

"Would you pray to find a dead body?" he asked. "We do...to deliver the body to the family."

Bozkurt, 42, travelled to Kahramanmaras, the southern Turkish city closest to the epicentre of the devastating quake 12 days ago from his home town of Kayseri, 250 km (155 miles) north, to help with the demolition of destroyed buildings.

"You recover a body from under tonnes of rubble. Families are waiting with hope...they want to have a burial ceremony. They want a grave," Bozkrut said.

According to Islamic tradition, the dead should be buried as quickly as possible.

At a graveyard in the city, the thousands of new graves vastly outnumbered those which predated the earthquake, underlining the scale of the catastrophe.

More than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria were killed by the earthquake and the death count is expected to climb even higher.

Bozkurt said that while he was at work with his bulldozer a father, warming himself at a fire by the ruins of his former home, asked him to find his daughter.

"He told us, 'please find a piece of her so I would know where her grave is'. This is really tragic."

"We are trying to find happiness from the saddest moment in their lives."

At least 15 killed as Israeli missile strikes building in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Feb 19: An Israeli missile struck a building in Syria’s capital Damascus that was housing senior security officials, killing at least 15 people on Sunday. The targeted strike hit the densely-populated Kafr Sousa, home to senior officials, security agencies and intelligence headquarters.

"At 00:22 am (2222 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several areas in Damascus and its vicinity, including residential neighbourhoods," Syria's defence ministry said in a statement.

The initial toll reported by the Syrian government was five dead and 15 injured, including civilians. Later, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights pegged the casualties at 15, reports a news agency.

It was not immediately clear whether the strike was aimed at a specific individual.

A video shared by state media purportedly showed that a 10-storey building was badly damaged in the attack, crushing the structure of its lower floors.

The Sunday strike comes more than a month after an Israeli missile strike had hit Damascus International Airport, killing four people, including two soldiers.

Israel has been carrying out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011. It has primarily targeted Syrian army installations, Iranian forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah, allies of the Syrian regime.

It is believed that these attacks are part of an escalation of what has been a low-intensity conflict whose main aim was to slow down Iran’s growing entrenchment in Syria.

So far, Israel's military has not made any comment on the missile strike.

Iran has been expanding its military presence in Syria over the years and now has a foothold in most state-controlled areas, with thousands of militias and local paramilitary groups under its command, say Western intelligence sources.

In recent months, Israel has also intensified strikes on airports and air bases in Syria to disrupt Iran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The missile attack comes at a time when Syria is recovering from the devastating February 6 earthquake, which killed several thousands of people.

North Korea Fires Unspecified Ballistic Missile, Says South Korea

SEOUL, Feb 18: North Korea fired at least one unspecified ballistic missile Saturday, South Korea's military said. Pyongyang's first test since the start of the year that comes days before Seoul and Washington are due to start joint tabletop exercises.

"North Korea fires an unidentified ballistic missile into (the) East Sea," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

Tokyo also confirmed the launch, with the defence ministry saying that Pyongyang had launched a "possible ballistic missile," without giving further details.

Military tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula after a year in which North Korea declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state, and carried out sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month.

In response, Seoul has ramped up joint military drills with key security ally Washington, in a bid to convince the increasingly nervous South Korean public of America's commitment to deter Pyongyang.

The Saturday launch -- Pyongyang's first since January 1 -- came days before Seoul and Washington are due to kick off a new tabletop exercise in Washington, in which the two allies will discuss how they would respond to the use of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.

The exercise next week will focus on "joint planning, joint management and joint response with Washington's nuclear assets" in case of a nuclear attack by Pyongyang, a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP on Friday.

Pyongyang on Friday threatened an "unprecedentedly" strong response to upcoming US-South Korea drills, describing them as preparations for war.

If Washington and Seoul go ahead with the drills, "they will face unprecedentedly persistent and strong counteractions", a spokesperson for the North Korean foreign ministry said Friday.

South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office in May 2022, has vowed to get tough on the North, and had moved to quickly ramp up joint drills, which had been scaled back during the Covid pandemic.

They were also paused for a bout of ill-fated diplomacy with Pyongyang under his predecessor.

South Korea also called the nuclear-armed North its "enemy" in a defence document earlier this week, the first time in six years it has used the term, signalling a further hardening of Seoul's position toward Pyongyang.

North Korea's missile tests last year also included one that landed near South Korea's territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

In December, it sent five drones across the border into Seoul's airspace, including skies near its presidential office.

Pyongyang has repeatedly said it is not interested in further talks, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently called for an "exponential" increase in his country's nuclear arsenal.

At a military parade in Pyongyang last week, North Korea showed off a record number of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missiles, including what analysts said was possibly a new solid-fuelled ICBM.

The weapons on show included at least 10 of the North's largest Hwasong-17 ICBMs, as well as vehicles apparently designed to carry a solid-fuelled ICBM.

North Korea has long sought to develop a solid-fuel ICBM because such missiles are easier to store and transport, are more stable and quicker to prepare for launch, and thus harder for the United States to detect and destroy pre-emptively.

Russia Expels 4 Austrian Diplomats In 'Tit For Tat' Move

MOSCOW, Feb 16: Moscow said today it was expelling four Austrian diplomats after Vienna expelled four employees of Russia's foreign missions in Austria, with tensions soaring over the Ukraine conflict.

The foreign ministry said the expulsion of its diplomats had been an "unfriendly and unjustified step" that "causes serious damage to bilateral relations, which are already in crisis due to the actions of the Austrian side".

Austria and other EU nations have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats since Moscow launched a military campaign in Ukraine, with Russia reciprocating the measures.

The ministry said it summoned Austria's ambassador to Moscow and informed him that four employees of Austria's embassy in Russia were "declared persona non grata".

They are given until February 23 to leave the country.

"The ambassador's attention was also drawn to the emerging difficulties with obtaining visas for official Russian delegations travelling to Vienna," the ministry added in its statement.

Earlier in February, Vienna said it was expelling four Russian diplomats, including two accredited with the United Nations in Vienna, saying they acted "in a manner incompatible with their diplomatic status".

Austria said in response the decision "comes as no surprise."

"We regret this unjustified decision by Russia, which has no factual basis whatsoever," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Diplomatic expulsions are rare in neutral Austria, which enjoyed close relations with Russia before Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.

Crashed Weather Balloon Likely From China Found At Remote Island: Taiwan

TAIPEI, Feb 16: Taiwan's military said today it had found the remains of a probable crashed weather balloon likely from China on a remote and strategically located island near the Chinese coast, amid a dispute between China and the United States over spy balloons.

Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has complained of increased harassment by Beijing's armed forces over the past three years, including fighter jets flying near the island and drones buzzing offshore islets.

Taiwan's army said that late Thursday morning its forces on Dongyin island, part of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu archipelago off the coast of China's Fuzhou, observed an unknown object falling from the sky, then found the remnants of a balloon on a shooting range.

The sphere is about 1 metre in diameter with an instrument box marked with simplified Chinese characters - which are used in China but not Taiwan - and the wording "Taiyuan Radio No. 1 Factory Co., Ltd.", "GTS13 digital datmospheric sounding instrument" and "meteorological instrument", the army said.

Taiyuan is a major city in northern China. The news agency was not immediately able to locate contacts for the factory.

"The preliminary investigation determined that the remains were of a meteorological detecting instrument, which have been collected by the relevant departments for further evaluation," Taiwan's army said in a short statement.

Taiwan's defence ministry said on Tuesday it had not spotted any surveillance balloons from China in its vicinity, as a dispute between China and the United States over spy balloons triggers worries about rising military tensions.

Dongyin sits at the top of the Taiwan Strait on an important passage for any southbound Chinese forces from the eastern province of Zhejiang if they attack Taiwan, and the island is well defended.

Last year, Taiwan said a small, propeller-driven Chinese aircraft flew very close to Dongyin in what the government said they suspected was China deploying a civilian aircraft to test the responses of the Taiwanese military.

China also deployed drones to buzz Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast last August when Beijing staged war games near Taiwan, which only ended after Taiwanese forces shot one down.

Israel Firm Sought To Influence Over 30 Elections Across World: Report

PARIS, Feb 15: An Israeli firm sought to influence more than 30 elections around the world for clients by hacking, sabotage and spreading disinformation, according to an undercover media investigation published today.

It adds to a growing body of evidence that shadowy private firms across the world are profiting from invasive hacking tools and the power of social media platforms to manipulate public opinion.

The firm was dubbed "Team Jorge" by investigating journalists who posed as potential clients in order to gather information on its methods and capabilities.

Its boss, Tal Hanan, is a former Israeli special forces operative who boasted of being able to control supposedly secure Telegram accounts and thousands of fake social media profiles, as well as planting news stories, the reports say.

The investigation was carried out by a consortium of journalists from 30 outlets, including the Guardian in Britain, Le Monde in France, Der Spiegel in Germany and El Pais in Spain, under the direction of the France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories.

"The methods and techniques described by Team Jorge raise new challenges for big tech platforms," the Guardian wrote.

"Evidence of a global private market in disinformation aimed at elections will also ring alarm bells for democracies around the world."

Hanan did not respond to detailed questions, saying only: "I deny any wrongdoing."

The 50-year-old told three undercover reporters that his services, often called "black ops" in the industry, were available to intelligence agencies, political campaigns and private companies.

"We are now involved in one election in Africa... We have a team in Greece and a team in [the] Emirates... [We have completed] 33 presidential-level campaigns, 27 of which were successful," the Guardian quoted him as saying.

Most of the campaigns -- two-thirds -- were in Africa, he claimed.

While demonstrating his technology to reporters, he appeared to hack into the Gmail inbox and Telegram account of political operatives in Kenya days before a presidential election there.

Forbidden Stories named the targets as two aides to William Ruto, who ended up winning the August 2022 ballot.

Online public influence campaigns were carried out via a software platform, known as Advanced Impact Media Solutions, that allegedly controlled nearly 40,000 social media profiles across Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, the reports say.

Hanan also claimed that his firm had planted a report on France's biggest television news channel BFM about the impact of sanctions against Russia on the yachting industry in Monaco.

A senior presenter on the channel, Rachid M'Barki, 54, has been suspended and is being investigated.

Other similar companies have been named in media reports or sanctioned by Western governments in recent years over their role in trying to influence elections and public opinion.

Notorious British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica -- since shut down -- was allegedly used to develop software steering voters towards Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election.

The group collected and exploited the personal data of 87 million Facebook users to which the platform had given it access, leading to major fines and lawsuits.

On Tuesday, the chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, admitted creating an infamous troll farm that is also suspected of interfering in Western elections.

Sanctioned by Washington and Brussels, the Saint Petersburg-based "Internet Research Agency" had for years been linked to Prigozhin, a 61-year-old ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following the latest revelations, Israel might also face increased pressure to rein in its cutting-edge cyberware and technology sector which was spotlighted in another media investigation led by Forbidden Stories in 2021.

It highlighted how the powerful Israeli-made Pegasus spyware had been sold by the cyber intelligence company NSO Group Technologies to governments and used against at least 50,000 people around the world.

Some of the alleged targets included human rights defenders and religious leaders, as well as politicians such as French President Emmanuel Macron.

Forbidden Stories is a collaborative platform set up in 2017 at the initiative of French documentary maker Laurent Richard, with the support of Reporters Without Borders, and brings together more than 30 different media from around the world.

Death toll rises above 35,000 in Turkey, Syria earthquake

ANKARA, Feb 13: The toll from last week’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria rose above 35,000 on Monday, as rescue teams started to wind down the search for survivors and the aid effort shifted to hundreds of thousands of people made homeless.

Eight days after the 7.8-magnitude tremor, Turkish media reported a handful of people were still being pulled from the rubble as excavators dug through ruined cities.

The confirmed death toll rose to 35,224 as officials and medics said 31,643 people had died in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria after the February 6 earthquake, the fifth deadliest since the start of the 21st century.

The United Nations has decried the failure to ship desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria and warned that the toll is set to rise even higher as experts caution that hopes for finding people alive dim with each passing day.

“Send any stuff you can because there are millions of people here and they all need to be fed,” Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu appealed to Turks late Sunday.

In Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre, 30,000 tents have been installed, 48,000 people are sheltering in schools and another 11,500 in sports halls, he said.

While hundreds of rescue teams were still working, efforts had ended in seven parts of the province, he added

In Antakya, clean-up teams started to evacuate rubble and erect basic toilets as the telephone network started to come back in parts of the town.

The city was patrolled by a strong police and military presence which authorities deployed to prevent looting following several incidents over the weekend.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay late Sunday said 1,08,000 buildings were damaged across the quake-hit zone with 1.2 million people being housed in student accommodation and 4,00,000 people evacuated from the affected region.

Aid packages, mainly clothes, were opened and spread across the streets in Hatay province, according to NTV. One video showed aid workers throwing clothes randomly into a crowd as people tried to grab whatever they could.

A convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but the UN’s relief chief Martin Griffiths said more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.

“We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” Griffiths said on Twitter.

In many areas, rescue teams said they lacked sensors and advanced equipment, leaving them reduced to carefully searching the rubble with shovels or only their hands.

“If we had this kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if not more,” said Alaa Moubarak, head of civil defence in Jableh, northwest Syria.

Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.

But a 10-truck UN convoy crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to reports, carrying shelter kits, plastic sheeting, rope, blankets, mattresses and carpets.

Bab al-Hawa is the only point for international aid to reach people in rebel-held areas of Syria after nearly 12 years of civil war, after other crossings were closed under pressure from China and Russia.

The head of the World Health Organization met Assad in Damascus on Sunday and said the Syrian leader had voiced readiness for more border crossings to help bring aid into the rebel-held northwest.

“He was open to considering additional cross-border access points for this emergency,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

“The compounding crises of conflict, Covid, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake have taken an unbearable toll,” Tedros said a day after visiting Aleppo.

While Damascus had given the all-clear for aid convoys to go ahead from government areas, Tedros said the WHO was still waiting for a green light from rebel-held areas before going in.

Assad looked forward to further “efficient cooperation” with the UN agency to improve the shortage in supplies, equipment and medicines, his presidency said.

He had also thanked the United Arab Emirates for providing “huge relief and humanitarian aid”, with pledges of tens of millions of dollars.

After days of grief and anguish, anger in Turkey has been growing over the poor quality of buildings as well as the government’s response to the country’s worst disaster in nearly a century.

Three people were put behind bars by Sunday and seven more have been detained— including two developers who were trying to cross into the neighbouring ex-Soviet Georgia.

Deaths From Turkey, Syria Earthquake Top 33,000

GENEVA, Feb 11: The UN denounced Sunday a failure to get desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria, while warning that the death count of over 33,000 from an earthquake that also devastated Turkey could double.

A UN convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but the agency's relief chief Martin Griffiths said much more was needed for millions whose homes were destroyed.

"We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived," Griffiths said on Twitter.

Supplies have been slow to arrive in Syria, where years of conflict have ravaged the healthcare system, and parts of the country remain under the control of rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which is under Western sanctions.

The UN convoy of ten trucks crossed into northwest Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, according to an AFP correspondent, carrying shelter kits including plastic sheeting, ropes and screws and nails, as well as blankets, mattresses and carpets.

Bab al-Hawa is the only point for international aid to reach people in rebel-held areas of Syria after nearly 12 years of civil war, after other crossings were closed under pressure from China and Russia.

Assad on Sunday thanked the United Arab Emirates for providing "huge relief and humanitarian aid" with pledges of tens of millions of dollars in aid as well.

But security concerns prompted the suspension of some rescue operations, and dozens of people have been arrested for looting or trying to defraud victims in the aftermath of the quake in Turkey, according to state media.

An Israeli emergency relief organisation said Sunday it had suspended its earthquake rescue operation in Turkey and returned home because of a "significant" security threat to its staff.

Miraculous tales of survival still emerged, though experts caution that hopes for finding people alive in the devastation dim with each passing day.

A seven-month-old baby named Hamza was rescued Sunday in southern Hatay province more than 140 hours after the quake, while Esma Sultan, 13, was also saved in Gaziantep, state media reported.

The United Nations has warned that at least 870,000 people urgently need hot meals across Turkey and Syria. In Syria alone, up to 5.3 million people may have been made homeless.

Almost 26 million people have been affected by the earthquake, the World Health Organization (WHO) said as it appealed Saturday for $42.8 million to cope with immediate health needs after dozens of hospitals were damaged.

Turkey's disaster agency said more than 32,000 people from Turkish organisations are working on search-and-rescue efforts, along with 8,294 international rescuers.

But, in many areas, rescue teams said they lacked sensors and other advanced search equipment, meaning they were often reduced to carefully digging through destroyed buildings with shovels or only their hands.

"If we had this kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if not more," said Alaa Moubarak, head of civil defence in Jableh, northwest Syria.

Syria's transport ministry said 62 aid planes had landed in Syria this week with more on the way in coming days, in particular from Saudi Arabia.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria, with a meeting to discuss Syria possible in the coming days.

After days of grief and anguish, anger in Turkey has been growing over the poor quality of buildings as well as the government's response to the country's worst disaster in nearly a century.

Officials say 12,141 buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged in the earthquake.

Turkish police reportedly detained 12 people on Saturday, including contractors, over collapsed buildings in the southeastern provinces of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa.

Officials and medics said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria from last Monday's 7.8-magnitude quake, bringing the confirmed total to 33,179.

Children Found Alive As Turkey, Syria Earthquake Count Crosses 23,000

KAHRAMANMARAS (Turkey), Feb 10: The confirmed death toll from the deadliest earthquake in the region in two decades stood at nearly 23,000 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria four days after it hit. Hundreds of thousands more people have been left homeless and short of food in bone-chilling winter conditions and leaders in both countries have faced questions about their response.

Five days of grief and anguish have been slowly building into a rage at the Turkish government's response in the face of the country's most dire disaster in nearly a century.

Rescuers pulled out children on Friday from the rubble of the Turkey-Syria earthquake. Turkish television showed rescuers pulling out a family of four - a mother and her three children - from the pile of rubble 108 hours after the disaster in the Syria-border province of Hatay.

Rescuers pulled a woman alive out of the rubble of a collapsed building in Turkey, prompting cheers from onlookers 104 hours after she was buried by the huge earthquake.

The United Nations warned that 874,000 people were now in urgent need of hot meals across Turkey and Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conceded for the first time on Friday that his government was not able to reach and help the victims “as quickly as we had desired”.

Three-year-old Zeynep Ela Parlak was also rescued in Hatay on Friday. Rescuers pulled a 10-day-old baby and his mother out alive after 90 hours trapped in Hatay on Thursday.

The Syrian government approved humanitarian aid deliveries across the frontlines of the country's 12-year civil war, a move that could speed up the arrival of help for millions of desperate people.

President Bashar al-Assad made his first reported trip to affected areas since the quake, visiting a hospital in Aleppo with his wife Asma, state media reported.

Kurdish militants from the outlawed PKK group announced a temporary halt in fighting to ease recovery work in the wake of a massive earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria.

UEFA gave 200,000 euros (USD 214,000) to help with relief work in Turkey, the country that will host the Champions League final in June.

Under Operation Dost, India sent 841 cartons of medicines, protection safety tools, and diagnostics to quake-hit Turkey and Syria, news agency ANI reported. The Indian Army set up a field hospital under ‘Operation Dost’ to provide assistance to Turkey's people.

Shot Down 61 Of 71 Missiles Russia Fired In Latest Attacks: Ukraine

KYIV, Feb 10: Russia launched 71 cruise missiles at Ukraine on Friday and 61 of them were shot down, Ukraine's air force said.

"As of 11:30 a.m., the enemy had launched 71 X-101, X-555 and Kalibr missiles. The air defence forces, Air Force and other components of the Ukrainian Defence Forces destroyed 61 enemy cruise missiles," it said on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier on Friday that Russia had fired more than 50 missiles at Ukraine and most of them were shot down.

"Russia cannot accept failures and therefore continues to terrorise the (Ukrainian) population. Another attempt (on Friday) to destroy the Ukrainian energy system and deprive Ukrainians of light, heat, and water," Shmyhal wrote on Telegram.

The Air Force said Russia had used eight Tu-95MS strategic bombers, and that they had fired X-101 and X-555 missiles from the Caspian Sea and the city of Volgodonsk in Russia.

Russian forces also launched Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea, it said.

Hopes Fade For Survivors 72 Hours After Turkey Earthquake, Nearly 20,000 Dead

SYRIA, Feb 9: Hopes faded Thursday of finding more survivors after the earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 people in Turkey and Syria, as the first UN aid reached Syrian rebel-held zones.

Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and threatened the lives of many quake victims who are without shelter and drinking water.

Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey's southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy.

"We found my aunt, but not my uncle," said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family as other survivors sought loved ones' bodies.

Chances of finding survivors have dimmed now that the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday in a region where many people had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria's civil war.

But in a potentially life-saving development, an aid convoy reached rebel-held northwestern Syria on Thursday, the first since the quake, an official at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing said.

The aid passage through the crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without going through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.

Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents -- too scared or banned from returning to their homes.

Parents walked the streets of the city -- close to the epicentre of Monday's earthquake -- carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.

Some people have found sanctuary with neighbours or relatives. Some have left the region. But many have nowhere to go.

Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened at night. But beds are still at a premium and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.

"When we sit down, it is painful and I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this," said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working into the night.

International rescuers have said the intense cold has forced them to weigh whether to use their limited fuel supplies to keep warm or to carry out their work.

Turkey-Syria Earthquake Deaths Top 11,700

SANLIURFA (Turkey), Feb 8: Rescuers in Turkey and Syria battled bitter cold Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by an earthquake that killed more than 11,700 people.

Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive.

But some extraordinary survival tales have emerged, including a newborn baby pulled alive from rubble in Syria, still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who died in Monday's quake.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions.

Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake's epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

The destruction led to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring Tuesday a three-month state of emergency in 10 southeastern provinces.

Dozens of nations including the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have begun to arrive by air.

Yet people in some of the hardest-hit areas said they felt they had been left to fend for themselves.

"I can't get my brother back from the ruins. I can't get my nephew back. Look around here. There is no state official here, for God's sake," said Ali Sagiroglu in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.

"For two days we haven't seen the state around here... Children are freezing from the cold," he added.

A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads -- some of them damaged by the quake -- almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions.

The cold rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes -- who took refuge in mosques, schools or even bus shelters -- and survivors buried under debris.

"It is now a race against time," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable," he added.

Officials and medics said 9,057 people had died in Turkey and 2,662 in Syria from Monday's 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the total to 11,719. There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with WHO officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died.

WHO warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone.

The Syrian Red Crescent appealed to Western countries to lift sanctions and provide aid as President Bashar al-Assad's government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international relief efforts.

Washington and the European Commission said on Monday that humanitarian programmes supported by them were responding to the destruction in Syria.

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO also said it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage list in Syria and Turkey sustained damage.

In addition to the damage to Aleppo's old city and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.

Much of the quake-hit area of northern Syria has already been decimated by years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russian forces that destroyed homes, hospitals and clinics.

Residents in the quake-devastated town of Jandairis in northern Syria used their bare hands and pickaxes to search for survivors.

Turkey is in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.

The country's last 7.8-magnitude tremor was in 1939, when 33,000 died in the eastern Erzincan province.

The Turkish region of Duzce suffered a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999, when more than 17,000 people died.

Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with rickety homes.

Over 6,200 Dead In Turkey, Syria Quake

HATAY (Turkey), Feb 7: Rescuers in Turkey and Syria battled frigid cold Tuesday in a race against time to find survivors under buildings flattened by a earthquake that killed more than 6,200 people.

Tremors that inflicted more suffering on a border area, already plagued by conflict, left people on the streets burning debris to try to stay warm as international aid began to arrive.

But some extraordinary survival tales have emerged, including a newborn baby pulled alive from rubble in Syria, still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who died in Monday's quake.

"We heard a voice while we were digging," Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative, said. "We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord (intact) so we cut it and my cousin took her to hospital."

The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were killed in the rebel-held town of Jindayris.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Monday as people slept, flattening thousands of structures, trapping an unknown number of people and potentially impacting millions.

Whole rows of buildings collapsed, leaving some of the heaviest devastation near the quake's epicentre between the Turkish cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

The destruction led to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring Tuesday a three-month state of emergency in 10 southeastern provinces.

Dozens of nations like the United States, China and the Gulf States have pledged to help, and search teams as well as relief supplies have begun to arrive by airplane.

Yet people in some of the hardest-hit areas said they felt like they had been left to fend for themselves.

"I can't get my brother back from the ruins. I can't get my nephew back. Look around here. There is no state official here, for God's sake," said Ali Sagiroglu in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.

"For two days we haven't seen the state around here... Children are freezing from the cold," he added.

A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads -- some of them damaged by the quake -- almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for kilometres in some regions.

The cold rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes -- who took refuge in mosques, schools or even bus shelters -- and survivors buried under debris.

"It is now a race against time," said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"We have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable," he added.

The latest toll showed 4,544 people killed in Turkey and 1,712 in Syria, for a combined total of 6,256 fatalities.

There are fears that the toll will rise inexorably, with WHO officials estimating up to 20,000 may have died.

WHO warned that up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake and urged nations to rush help to the disaster zone.

The Syrian Red Crescent appealed to Western countries to lift sanctions and provide aid as President Bashar al-Assad's government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international relief efforts.

Washington and the European Commission said on Monday that humanitarian programmes supported by them were responding to the destruction in Syria.

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO also said it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage list in Syria and Turkey sustained damage.

In addition to the damage to Aleppo's old city and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.

Much of the quake-hit area of northern Syria has already been decimated by years of war and aerial bombardment by Syrian and Russia forces that destroyed homes, hospitals and clinics.

Residents in the quake-devastated town of Jandairis in northern Syria used their bare hands and pickaxes to for survivors, as that was all they had to get the job done.

"My whole family is under there -- my sons, my daughter, my son-in-law... There's no one else to get them out," said Ali Battal, his face streaked with blood and head swathed in a wool shawl against the bitter cold.

"I hear their voices. I know they're alive but there's no one to rescue them," adds the man in his 60s.

The Syrian health ministry reported damage across the provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Tartus, where Russia is leasing a naval facility.

Even before the tragedy, buildings in Aleppo -- Syria's pre-war commercial hub -- often collapsed due to the dilapidated infrastructure.

Following the earthquake, prisoners mutinied at a jail holding mostly Islamic State group members in northwestern Syria, with at least 20 escaping, a source at the facility told AFP.

Turkey is in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.

The country's last 7.8-magnitude tremor was in 1939, when 33,000 died in the eastern Erzincan province.

The Turkish region of Duzce suffered a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999, when more than 17,000 people died.

Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people filled with rickety homes.

3 Powerful Earthquakes In Turkey In 24 Hours, More Than 2,600 Killed

ISTANBUL, Feb 6: The most powerful earthquake to strike Turkey and Syria in nearly a century killed over 2,600 people on Monday, sparked frantic rescues and was felt as far away as Greenland.

The 7.8-magnitude early morning quake, followed by dozens of aftershocks, wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a region filled with millions who have fled Syria's civil war and other conflicts.

Rescuers used heavy equipment and their bare hands to peel back rubble in search of survivors, who they could in some cases hear begging for help under the debris.

"Since I live in an earthquake zone, I am used to being shaken," said Melisa Salman, a reporter in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.

"But that was the first time we have ever experienced anything like that," the 23-year-old said. "We thought it was the apocalypse."

The head of Syria's National Earthquake Centre, Raed Ahmed, called it "the biggest earthquake recorded in the history of the centre".

At least 968 people died in rebel and government-controlled parts of Syria, state media and medical sources said, while Turkish officials reported another 1,651 fatalities.

The initial quake was followed by more than 50 aftershocks, including 7.5 and 6-magnitude tremors, that jolted the region in the middle of search and rescue work on Monday afternoon.

Shocked survivors in Turkey rushed out into the snow-covered streets in their pyjamas, watching rescuers dig through the debris of damaged homes with their hands.

"Seven members of my family are under the debris," Muhittin Orakci, a stunned survivor in Turkey's mostly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, said.

"My sister and her three children are there. And also her husband, her father-in-law and her mother-in-law."

China 'Expresses Regret' On 'Balloon' Entering US Airspace

BEIJING, Feb 3: China said on Friday an "airship" that is flying over the United States is for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes and voiced regret that it strayed into US airspace.

US officials said on Thursday that a Chinese spy balloon has been flying over the United States for a couple of days, in what would be a brazen act just days ahead of a planned trip to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In a statement late on Friday, China's foreign ministry also said that it would continue to maintain communications with the United States to properly handle the unexpected situation.

"The airship is from China and is civilian in nature, used for meteorological and other scientific research. Due to the influence of westerly winds and its limited control capability, the airship deviated from its intended course," it said.

"China regrets that the airship strayed into the United States by mistake due to force majeure. China will continue to maintain communication with the US side to properly handle this accident," it said.

Germany Authorises Sending Leopard 1 Tanks To Ukraine

BERLIN, Feb 3: Germany said Friday it has issued authorisation for Leopard 1 tanks to be sent to Ukraine, in a further boost for Kyiv as it seeks heavier weapons to counter Moscow's forces.

Berlin has already said it will provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2s from its military stocks, but manufacturers also want to send tanks they have in storage.

"I can confirm... that an export licence has been issued," government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a regular press briefing when asked about Leopard 1s.

He declined to give further information, saying more details would likely emerge in the coming days and weeks.

First entering service in the 1960s, the Leopard 1 is the forerunner of the more advanced Leopard 2, which is widely used by armies across Europe.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported that it concerned 29 Leopard 1s, which were in storage at a military manufacturer.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper meanwhile reported that two manufacturers want to refurbish dozens of Leopard 1s to send them to Ukraine, although they have faced problems in procuring ammunition.

Last month, Berlin finally agreed to sending the powerful German-made Leopards to Ukraine, following weeks of sustained pressure from Kyiv and its European allies.

Under German law, Berlin has to approve the export of the tanks, even in cases when other countries who bought them want to re-export them.

While scores of nations have pledged military hardware for Ukraine in recent weeks, Kyiv has been clamouring for the more sophisticated Leopards, seen as key to punching through enemy lines.

US, Philippines To Resume Joint Patrols In South China Sea

WASHINGTON, Feb 3: The United States and the Philippines have agreed to restart joint patrols in the South China Sea as the longtime allies seek to counter China's military rise, a US Defense Department statement said.

The two countries had suspended maritime patrols in the hotly contested area under the rule of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

During a visit to Manila by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, he and Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez "agreed to restart joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea to help address (security) challenges," the statement said Thursday.

The officials had also announced a deal to give US troops access to another four bases in "strategic areas" in the Southeast Asian nation.

The agreements come as the allies seek to repair ties that were fractured under previous Philippine president Duterte, who favored China over his country's former colonial master.

The new administration of Ferdinand Marcos has been keen to reverse that.

Beijing's growing assertiveness on Taiwan and its building of bases in the disputed South China Sea have given fresh impetus to Washington and Manila to strengthen their partnership.

Given the Philippines' proximity to Taiwan and its surrounding waters, its cooperation would be key in the event of a conflict with China, which a four-star US Air Force general has warned could happen as early as 2025.

The agreement on joint patrols was made "at the last minute" of Thursday's defense talks between Austin and Galvez, a senior Philippines official told AFP on Friday.

"There is firm agreement that we will discuss guidelines of how to do these joint patrols," said the official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"There will have to be follow up discussions... (about) exactly what we want to do, exactly where we want to do things, how often," and whether naval or coast guard vessels would participate in the patrols, the official added.

"Of course, the devil is going to be in the details, so technically if we don't agree in the end about how we want to do it, then it's not going to go forward."

UK Minister Does Not Rule Out Sending Jets To Ukraine

PORTSMOUTH, Feb 2: The UK defence minister on Thursday said he did not rule out supplying Ukraine with fighter jets while cautioning they would not be a "magic wand" in the war.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told journalists: "On the process of jets, I've been pretty clear. One thing I've learned over the last year is don't rule anything in, don't rule anything out."

Kyiv has requested American-made F-16 warplanes to help repel the Russian invasion.

The United States has ruled out any deliveries of F-16s to Ukraine for now, but other partners including Poland have shown themselves more open to the idea.

"I'm very open to examining all sorts of systems, and not just jets, to give Ukraine that assistance," Wallace said.

The minister said that "these things don't always happen overnight. But I can say, we're not putting the Ukrainians at risk."

His comments came after Downing Street had appeared to rule out sending its combat planes.

"The UK's Typhoon and F-35 fighter jets are extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly," the prime minister's official spokesman said Tuesday.

"Given that, we believe it is not practical to send those jets into Ukraine."

Britain's government said in January it was aiming to send tanks to Ukraine at the end of March, after becoming the first Western ally to promise heavy assault vehicles, with a plan to send 14 Challenger 2 tanks.

Wallace said that Kyiv's immediate need was for weaponry to allow military formations on the ground to push back Russian troops, and it was "easy to get carried away".

Supplying fighter jets would not be an overnight game changer due to the need for complex training, he added.

"You know, even if tomorrow morning we announced we were going to put them in fast jets that would take months," he said, as Ukrainians would face "suddenly having to learn to pilot" them.

"So there is no magic wand in this horrendous conflict," Wallace said, speaking at a press conference in Portsmouth in southern England with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles.

Myanmar Extends State Of Emergency By 6 Months

YANGON, Feb 1: Myanmar's National Defence and Security Council has agreed to extend the country's state of emergency by six months, state media said Wednesday, likely delaying elections the junta had pledged to hold by August.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing's request to prolong the state of emergency declared when the generals toppled Aung San Suu Kyi's government in February 2021 was granted, state broadcaster MRTV said.

The "state of emergency will be extended for another six months starting from February 1", Acting President Myint Swe was quoted as saying.

"Sovereign power of the state has been transferred to commander in chief again," he added.

The state of emergency was due to expire at the end of January but on Tuesday the junta-stacked National Defence and Security Council met to discuss the state of the nation and concluded it "has not returned to normalcy yet".

Junta opponents, including anti-coup "People's Defence Forces" and a shadow government dominated by lawmakers from Suu Kyi's party, had tried to seize "state power by means of unrest and violence", the military's information team said in a statement.

Adani Group Acquires Strategic Haifa Port In Israel For $1.2 Billion

HAIFA (Israel), Feb 1: The Adani Group on Tuesday acquired the strategic Israeli port of Haifa for USD 1.2 billion and vowed to transform the skyline of this Mediterranean city as part of its decision to invest more in the Jewish nation, including opening an artificial intelligence lab in Tel Aviv.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani, whose business empire was rocked by allegations of fraud by US short seller Hindenburg Research, appeared alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for signing of the deal to takeover Haifa Port, and spoke of investment opportunities.

Prime Minister Netanyahu described the Haifa port deal with the Adani Group as an "enormous milestone", saying it will significantly improve connectivity between the two countries in many ways.

The Port of Haifa is the second largest port in Israel in terms of shipping containers and the biggest in shipping tourist cruise ships.

"I think this is an enormous milestone...Over 100 years ago, and during World World I, it was the brave Indian soldiers who helped liberate the city of Haifa. And today, it's very robust Indian investors who are helping to liberate the port of Haifa," Netanyahu said.

The Prime Minister said that he discussed with his "good friend" Indian counterpart Narendra Modi this vision of "having connectivity between our countries in many ways, transportation lines and air routes and sea routes...and it's happening today."

He said what is happening today has historic importance because what "we see there is a tremendous boost for peace." Netanyahu said the region will become an entry point and an exit point to a vast number of goods that reach the Mediterranean and Europe directly without having to go around the Arabian peninsula without having to go through three choke points.

"This is an unequivocal expression of confidence in the Israeli economy," he said, adding that privatisation of the ports and the entry of new investors strengthen Israel's economic strength, lowers the cost of living and creates new opportunities for import and export and strengthens ties between India and Israel.

On his part, Adani said his group will also develop real estate at the port to transform the Haifa skyline.

The 60-year-old Indian tycoon did not make any mention of the Hindenburg row that has already wiped out over USD 70 billion in value from his group stocks.

"We have initiated several dozen technology relationships wherein we have offered the entire Adani portfolio of companies to be a giant sandbox for us to learn together," he said in his speech. "We are also in the process of setting up an Artificial Intelligence lab in Tel Aviv which will work in close collaboration with our new AI labs in India and US." He later tweeted about his meeting with Netanyahu.

"Privileged to meet with @IsraeliPM @netanyahu on this momentous day as the Port of Haifa is handed over to the Adani Group. The Abraham Accord will be a game changer for the Mediterranean sea logistics. Adani Gadot set to transform Haifa Port into a landmark for all to admire," Adani said in a tweet.

The UAE forged diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under a series of US-brokered deals known as the Abraham Accords. Bahrain and Morocco followed suit.

The agreements spearheaded by then US President Donald Trump challenged the long-held view that there would be no relations between the Arab world and Israel while the Palestinian question remains unresolved.

In the last six years, Adani group has struck many critical partnerships with companies such as Elbit Systems, Israel Weapon Systems, and Israel Innovation Authority.

Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd in partnership with local chemicals and logistics group Gadot in July last year won an Israel government's tender to buy the Haifa Port, a major trade hub on Israel's Mediterranean coast, for about USD 1.2 billion.

Adani's company has no holdings in the West, so its entry into Israel is a signal for increased maritime traffic between Asia and Europe, and the major Asian players' need for a hub in the Mediterranean.

"The acquisition of the Haifa port also comes with a significant amount of real estate. And I promise you that in the years to come we will transform the skyline we see around us," said Adani, the founder and chairman of the group.

"The Haifa of tomorrow - will look very different from the Haifa that you see today. With your support - we will deliver on this commitment and do our part to transform this city." He expressed confidence in transforming the entire port landscape. "We realize that there will be competition from others, but our confidence comes from our belief in the people of Israel and therefore our belief in the Israel Growth story." "Our intention is to make the right set of investments that will not just make the Adani Gadot partnership proud but will make the whole of Israel proud," he said.

Stating that the Israeli spirit makes all the difference, he said his group also aims to establish collaborative relationships with local colleges like the University of Haifa to be able to capitalise on the deep technology expertise available in this city.

Adani said India-Israel friendship dates back to September 23, 1918, when soldiers from the Indian cities of Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur battled here for the freedom of Haifa.

"And earlier today, I had an opportunity to visit the cemetery where our soldiers were put to rest. It was a moving moment for me to reflect on the fact that the port we now share - is part of the same city - where soldiers from both our countries - fought side by side for the ultimate shared cause that we all call -- Freedom," he said.

He went on to state that Israel has always motivated him. "You have rewritten the rules of what a country with a population of less than ten million can achieve. You have rewritten the rules by proving what a country with very few natural resources can achieve. And you have rewritten the rules by showcasing what a country with self-belief can achieve." The elasticity of Israel makes it the world's most resilient nation. "Your pace of innovation across multiple sectors amazes me. Your drive for innovation makes me wonder how we can learn from you. You have focused on sustainable growth far before the world was talking about sustainability," he said.