Afghanistan: Child among several people killed following Islamic State bomb and gun attack outside Kabul hospital, says Taliban - Sky News

Three women and a child were among several people killed in an attack by the Islamic State (IS) group outside Afghanistan's biggest military hospital, according to a Taliban spokesperson.

Two large explosions hit the entrance to the 400-bed Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital in the capital's 10th district, said the country's new interim government.

Gunmen from IS then continued the assault by firing on the hospital but were pushed back by Taliban security forces when they tried to enter the facility, said government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

He said five attackers wanted to target civilians and doctors inside but they "were killed by our forces before reaching their aim".

Image: Smoke billows near the Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan hospital following an explosion

Mr Mujahid said no-one died or was injured in the hospital compound, while the attackers were killed at the entrance or in the courtyard.

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He also announced three women, a child and three Taliban security personnel were killed outside, adding the militant assault was under control within 15 minutes.

However, other reports, citing Taliban officials, claimed up to 25 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in the atrocity.

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A health worker at the hospital, who managed to escape, told the Reuters news agency that he heard a large explosion followed by a couple of minutes of gunfire.

About 10 minutes later, there was a second, larger explosion, he added.

Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for the attack, which follows a growing number of bombings by the extremist group since the Taliban completed their takeover of Afghanistan in August.

In mid-October, IS said it was behind a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in southern Afghanistan that killed at least 47 people.

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IS, which styles itself as an enemy of the Taliban, previously attacked the same Kabul hospital in 2017, killing more than 30 people.

The increasing number of IS attacks in Afghanistan has raised the possibility of a wider conflict between the two groups.

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2021-11-02 17:24:38Z
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Russia's excess mortality soars since start of Covid pandemic - Financial Times

Russia has recorded 753,000 excess deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, one of the highest tolls in the world, according to analysis of government data by the Financial Times that highlights the stark impact of the disease as the country imposes fresh restrictions to curb its spread.

The figure, used by demographers to measure the real impact of pandemics, covers the period to the end of September. It is calculated by comparing total mortality figures collected by statistics agency Rosstat since the emergence of Covid 19, with historical trends. It shows that Russia ranked second to the US in terms of absolute number of excess deaths and third behind Peru and Bulgaria on a per capita basis.

Excess deaths differ from official Covid-19-related figures published by state agencies in Russia. Rosstat publishes its own monthly Covid-19 death toll, estimating that 462,000 people had died of the respiratory disease as of the end of September. The country’s inter-agency coronavirus task force, a body including ministers and other officials designed to co-ordinate the pandemic response, attributed 203,549 deaths to the disease at the end of September.

Both agencies say they use different approaches to collect the data. The task force receives daily updates from hospitals on cases where Covid-19 was the evident primary cause of death, with no closer examinations. Rosstat gets monthly data from civil registries, which it says take into account follow-up examinations.

The health ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Rosstat said it did not comment on others’ calculations as it could not see the methodology.

Russia’s soaring death rate follows a struggle by authorities to boost its sluggish vaccination campaign and persuade people to use caution in public places.

“The population acts as if it has no idea, or it doesn’t care any more, while people have started dying like flies. It’s a catastrophe,” said independent demographer Alexey Raksha, a former Rosstat employee who lost his job after criticising the agency’s handling of Covid data. He said he expected average life expectancy to fall from 2019 levels of just above 73 years to about 69 years as a result of the pandemic.

Bars and restaurants in central Moscow were packed last Wednesday evening, the last night before the start of an 11-day “non-working week” in the capital, during which non-essential shops, schools and entertainment venues will be closed. Other regions are imposing similar measures.

Officials hope the fresh restrictions will reinvigorate the vaccination campaign. Since January, when Russia started rolling out its domestically produced vaccines — including Sputnik V — 32 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to Gogov.ru, which compiles data from local governments and media. That compares with a 65 per cent vaccination rate in the EU.

There are signs the announcement of restrictive measures is bearing fruit: the number of people getting their first shot rose 60 per cent in the past week compared with the previous week, according to Gogov.ru.

The coronavirus death toll is a hotly debated topic. Even President Vladimir Putin, speaking last week, warned regional authorities not to “artificially lower” or “embellish” the figures.

The low vaccination rate has frustrated officials. The Kremlin has alternated between admonishing the population for its “total nihilism” and acknowledging a degree of responsibility.

“There’s a tradition — blaming everything on the government,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by the state-run TASS news agency as saying in October. “And, of course, not everything was done that should’ve been, in terms of communicating the importance of vaccination and the lack of alternatives.”

“At the same time, a more responsible position on the part of all citizens of the country is needed too,” Peskov said.

Russia has deployed four shots developed domestically as part of its vaccine campaign but take up has been low © Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Alexey Repik, chief executive of R-Pharm, one of the manufacturers of Sputnik V doses, said the export demand for the vaccine was “colossal”. “The problem we have is that (Russian) people are not protecting themselves,” he said.

Polls point to a deep distrust of coronavirus vaccines that some say has been exacerbated by the government’s approach — including by racing to be the first country to announce it had authorised a Covid-19 shot (Sputnik V).

“The campaign was handled incorrectly from the start, because vaccines entered the Russian market before the conclusion of large-scale clinical trials,” said Alexey Erlikh, head of cardiology at Moscow’s Hospital 29, which has twice been a hub for treating Covid-19 patients. “This seriously undermines trust.”

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2021-11-02 10:51:26Z
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More than 20 killed in attack on Kabul military hospital - BBC News

Reuters

More than 20 people have been killed and at least 16 injured in a gun and bomb assault on a military hospital in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Attackers targeted the 400-bed Sardar Daud Khan hospital starting with two massive explosions outside the building, officials said.

Gunmen then broke into the hospital grounds, witnesses said.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have blamed the Islamic State affiliate IS-K for the attack.

Photographs and video footage from Kabul showed a plume of smoke over the area and recorded the sounds of gunfire. A doctor in the building told the AFP news agency he had been sent to seek shelter in a safe room during the attack and could hear guns being fired.

Sayed Ahad told broadcaster EVN that one of the blasts was a suicide attack.

"As an Afghan citizen, I am really tired of this war, suicide and explosions," he said. "How long do we have to endure this misery?"

• ANALYSIS: The Taliban’s secretive war against IS
• VOICES: How the Taliban takeover changed my life

The Taliban spokesman, Bilal Karimi, told the BBC that fighters from IS-K had entered the compound after detonating the first explosion at the entrance gate.

Mr Karimi said Taliban fighters shot and killed four IS-K attackers and captured one alive.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid meanwhile told Reuters news agency that Taliban special forces dropped by helicopter had stopped the attackers from entering the hospital itself, killing them at the entrance or in the building's courtyard. All the assailants were killed in 15 minutes, he said.

Witnesses quoted by Reuters said they saw two helicopters over the area during the assault. The news agency reports that this would be one of the first times Taliban forces have used aircraft captured from the previous, Western-backed government during an operation.

The attack is the latest to hit Afghanistan since the Taliban seized control in August, after the US withdrew its last troops from the country.

IS-K, which stands for Islamic State Khorasan, has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks targeting civilians and Taliban fighters.

In August, a bombing by IS-K at Kabul international airport in August killed more than 150 civilians and 13 US soldiers.

The Sardar Daud Khan hospital has been targeted before. More than 30 people were killed and 50 others wounded in 2017 when gunmen dressed as doctors stormed the building. That attack was also claimed by the Islamic State group.

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2021-11-02 16:50:36Z
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Scott Morrison: Australian PM rejects 'sledging' from France amid row - BBC News

Reuters

Australian PM Scott Morrison has escalated a row with France over a scrapped submarine deal, saying his nation will not accept "sledging" and "slurs".

On Sunday French President Emmanuel Macron said he knew Mr Morrison had lied to him about his intentions to renege on the deal.

Mr Morrison denies he lied.

But he's been accused of cynically twisting Mr Macron's words as rebuking Australians rather than him personally.

"I've got broad shoulders, I can deal with that [the accusations]," Mr Morrison told reporters at the COP26 climate summit.

"But those slurs - I'm not going to cop sledging of Australia. I'm not going to cop that on behalf of Australians."

In September, Australia cancelled the $37bn (£27bn) deal with France to build 12 diesel-powered submarines, and instead negotiated a defence pact with the US and the UK - the so-called Aukus.

It will see Australia gain access to US nuclear submarine technology - a move seen as a strategic counter to China.

• Australia's big gamble on the US over China
• Aukus pact delivers France some hard truths

But the move infuriated France, which said it was blindsided. Paris temporarily recalled its ambassadors to Australia and the US.

Mr Macron and Mr Morrison met at the G20 summit in Rome on the weekend - their first meeting since the row.

But asked later whether he thought Mr Morrison had been untruthful, Mr Macron said: "I don't think, I know."

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He told Australian journalists in Rome: "I have a lot of respect for your country. I just say when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line and consistently with this value."

Speaking in Glasgow, Mr Morrison maintained he did not wish to "personalise" the row, acknowledging France had taken offence.

But he said he had explained concerns about the contract to Mr Macron in June.

Australian commentators have accused Mr Morrison and his advisers of trying to blunt the row's impact domestically.

"Imagine the jetlagged brainstorming on the midnight flight to Glasgow. Let's accuse Macron of sledging. Aussies will get that. And let's say he was having a go at Australia, not me. Australia," wrote Barrie Cassidy.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden also held his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Macron since the Aukus pact was agreed.

During the seemingly awkward exchange, Mr Biden admitted that the US was "clumsy" over the negotiations.

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2021-11-02 02:05:10Z
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Russian man throws girls, nine and 14, 80ft to their death from window as they were being too noisy - Daily Mail

Russian man throws two girls, nine and 14, 80ft to their death out of apartment block window ‘because they were making too much noise’

• Sisters aged nine and 14 died after being thrown 80ft from their flat's window
• Police arrested Ochur Sanchat, 23, who confessed to killing the girls in Russia
• He was already wanted for a car theft and rented a room in the girls' home

By Will Stewart In Russia For Mailonline

Published: 15:24 GMT, 1 November 2021 | Updated: 15:33 GMT, 1 November 2021

A Russian man has been arrested after two sisters, aged nine and 14, were thrown to their death from a window on the eighth floor of an apartment block in Russia on Halloween. 

Ochur Sanchat, 23, a relative of the girls' mother, said the girls were 'making too much noise' in a flat where he rented a room and confessed to throwing them out of the window.

One of the sisters died after the 80ft fall, the other at hospital. The nine-year-old's twin sister was in bed at the time and unhurt.

Ochur Sanchat, 23, was detained on suspicion of killing two girls. He said they had been 'making too much noise'

Two sisters aged nine and 14 died after they were thrown from an eighth floor window. The nine-year-old's twin sister was in bed at the time and unhurt

The man arrested on suspicion of killing the girls was a relative of their mother and had been renting a room in their flat in Kyzyl, Russia

Neighbours heard terrible screams as the girls fell several minutes apart in the early hours of the morning in Kyzyl, capital of Russia's mountainous Tyva republic.

The children's mother was working a night shift at a café when her daughters were killed.

Sanchat has been detained for two months on suspicion of committing a double murder. 

Detectives are also checking reports that police had been called to the family multiple times in the weeks before the tragic fall. Pictured: The apartment block where Sanchat lived with the girls

He was on the run from police over a car theft and after he fled court was placed on Russia's federal wanted list.

A neighbour called Irina heard the terrible screams as the girls were thrown out.

'I woke up from a slammed balcony door and terrible screams,' she said.

Sanchat was arrested in Kyzyl, which is the capital of Russia's mountainous Tyva republic in the south of the country

The young man was arrested in the early hours of the morning on Halloween after neighbours heard the girls' screams

'While I was trying to figure out what was happening, literally a minute passed, there was a strong roar, terrible screams, and then everything subsided for three or four minutes.

'Then it happened again.

'I was alone at home with my children.

'I didn't stick my head out, but called the police.' 

Detectives are also checking reports that police had been called to the family multiple times in the weeks before the tragic fall.

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2021-11-01 15:24:31Z
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'We didn't deface the Eiffel Tower': Australia responds after Emmanuel Macron accuses Scott Morrison of lying over submarine deal - Sky News

Australia has hit back at France after French President Emmanuel Macron accused the country's PM Scott Morrison of lying to him over an abandoned £49bn submarine contract in favour of teaming up with the US and UK in a new defence partnership.

Asked whether the Australian leader had lied to him when cancelling the contract to buy diesel-electric French submarines as the G20 summit in Rome drew to a close, Mr Macron told reporters: "I don't think, I know.

"I just say when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line, and consistently, with this value."

Paris remains furious about the AUKUS deal which will see Australia scrap its 2016 agreement with French shipbuilder Naval Group to build a new fleet to replace its ageing Collins submarines.

On Monday, Australia's deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce weighed into the row and told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that defence was the nation's top priority which had to take precedence over diplomacy.

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Speaking to reporters in Moree, Mr Joyce said: "It was a contract. We didn't steal an island. We didn't deface the Eiffel Tower."

Asked if Australia could have handled the situation better, Mr Joyce added: "In hindsight. You know, tomorrow the Melbourne Cup is on. If only I could put a bet on last year's one, geez I could make some money."

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London, Canberra and Washington have said they will seek to collaborate in cyber, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as other underwater capabilities.

Nuclear-powered submarines are superior to their diesel counterparts as they can operate more quietly and stay underwater for longer.

How the collaboration will work, what it will cost, how many boats will be built, where and which companies will be involved has not yet been revealed.

The agreement has drawn mixed reactions in the Indo-Pacific region.

Malaysia and Indonesia have expressed concerns it adds to the strain in hotspots such as the South China Sea.

China, which claims most of the disputed sea, has said the new security deal between Australia, the US and Britain "intensifies the arms race".

Last month, France recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia in response to the new partnership, with France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian describing Canberra's decision to shift to nuclear-powered submarines as "a stab in the back".

"We created a relationship of trust with Australia and that trust has been broken," he said.

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2021-11-01 06:56:19Z
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Japan’s ruling Liberal Democrats secure general election victory - Financial Times

Fumio Kishida secured a bigger-than-expected victory for the Liberal Democrats in Japan’s general election despite a nationwide weariness against the ruling party’s near-decade-long grip on power.

The LDP retained majority control of the Diet’s lower house, sparing the new prime minister a humiliation that would have jeopardised his leadership.

Markets in Japan rose on Monday, with the Topix climbing as much as 1.8 per cent in morning trading, as investors welcomed greater prospects for a stable government.

But the races for many of the party’s leading figures were extremely close, a measure of the electorate’s frustration with the long LDP rule. Akira Amari, LDP party secretary-general and an architect of Japan’s new “economic security” strategy, lost his constituency seat and has told Kishida he will step down, according to NHK, the state broadcaster.

NHK said the LDP had won 261 seats, down from 276 but enough for it to hang on to single-party control of the 465-seat lower house. Its coalition partner Komeito took 32 seats, up from 29.

The biggest beneficiary of the election was the centre-right Japan Innovation party, which nearly quadrupled its representation to 41 seats after a campaign that focused on a push for regulatory reform.

“I’m very grateful for the mandate we gained. The LDP’s single-party majority also means the public accepted us,” Kishida told reporters on Sunday evening.

Kishida won the LDP leadership race in late September despite his low popular appeal by promising stability and appealing to the powerful factions and figures in the party, including former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

He dissolved the lower house soon after being appointed prime minister this month, gambling on a quick election win to push through his economic and national security initiatives.

“He took a strategy that was needed to become prime minister by striking friendly ties with Abe. But he’ll now focus on bringing out his own colours,” said Mieko Nakabayashi, a professor at Waseda University.

Many Japanese had sought a clear break after nearly nine years under Abe and his unpopular successor Yoshihide Suga. But this was undermined by Kishida’s decision to appoint veterans such as Amari to influential government roles and his failure to project the promised new image.

“I wanted to change the LDP’s one-party dictatorship,” said Yoshifumi Uchiyama, after he voted for the Democratic Party for the People, a small opposition party, at a polling station in Chiba. The financial services industry worker, 31, voted LDP in the last election.

The LDP, along with Komeito, has dominated the polls since Abe led the party to a stunning victory in 2012, raising hopes of an economic revival and ending a revolving door of prime ministers.

In this election, however, Japan’s long-fragmented opposition camp displayed a greater sense of unity in a bid to leverage the frustration that has built up over LDP’s period in power.

The five opposition parties fielded a single candidate in 213 out of 289 first-past-the-post constituencies. As a result, just 1,051 candidates — the lowest ever — competed for the lower house, including those chosen by proportional representation.

Yet Masato Kamikubo, a professor of political science at Ritsumeikan University, said the opposition focused too much on organising unified candidates without having meaningful policy discussions.

Some voters were also hesitant to place their confidence in opposition parties at a time when Japan faces various economic and foreign policy challenges, notably reviving an economy mired in deflation and recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

Kishida is now expected to travel to the UK to make his debut on the world stage at the COP26 climate summit, where he will outline how Japan intends to reach its carbon emissions targets by 2030 and 2050.

He has also placed emphasis on strengthening Japan’s economic security and defence measures given a more assertive China.

But Kishida has yet to spell out how he will break from his predecessors to create a “new form of capitalism” and finance his economic measures to achieve wage rises for all.

Additional reporting by Nobuko Juji in Chiba

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2021-11-01 01:48:49Z
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