Foreign News
At least 15 killed and 78 injured as 6.3 earthquake hits Western Afghanistan

At least 15 people have been killed and 78 injured after an earthquake hit western Afghanistan, officials say.
The US Geological Survey said the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck about 40km from the western city of Herat, close to the border with Iran, at around 11:00 local time (06:30 GMT). At least three powerful tremors followed the initial earthquake.
A number of buildings were damaged, trapping people under rubble, Afghan officials said.
More than 70 injured people were being treated at the city’s main hospital, a health official said.
Herat is located 120km east of the border with Iran and is considered to be the cultural capital of Afghanistan. An estimated 1.9 million people are believed to be living in the province, according to 2019 World Bank data.
The country is frequently hit by earthquakes – especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range as it lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.
In June last year, the province of Paktika was hit by a 5.9 magnitude quake which killed more than 1,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
Foreign News
Seven rescued, 11 missing after boat capsizes off Indonesia’s Mentawai

Rescuers in Indonesia are searching for 11 people who went missing after a boat capsized in bad weather off the Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra province, according to a local search and rescue agency.
Dozens of rescuers and two boats were at the site of the disaster on Tuesday, and seven of the 18 people on board the boat have been rescued, the agency said in a statement.
The vessel capsized at about 11am on Monday (04:00 GMT) as it sailed around the Mentawai Islands.
It had departed Sikakap, a small town in the Mentawai Islands, and was heading to another small town, Tuapejat. Of 18 people on board, 10 were local government officials.
“Our focus is on combing the area around the estimated accident site to find all victims,” said Rudi, the head of the Mentawai search and rescue agency.
He did not give a cause for the boat capsizing, but marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the Southeast Asian archipelago of approximately 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards or bad weather.
On July 3, a ferry carrying 65 people sank off the popular resort island of Bali, killing at least 18 people.
In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.
In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest volcanic lakes on Sumatra island.
[Aljazeera]
Foreign News
Teddy bear made from fake human skin leads to California arrest

A man in California has been arrested after police say he staged a “macabre teddy bear” made to look as if it were constructed from human flesh at a petrol station.
Hector Corona Villanueva, 23, is accused of planting false evidence and causing an emergency by leaving the bizarre creation at an AMPM service station on Sunday afternoon in the city of Victorville.
The bear’s discovery led to a police investigation and a coroner’s examination of the item, while the petrol station was closed as a sense of unease spread in the community.
On Monday, the sheriff’s office ruled the bear wasn’t made of any human body parts and dubbed the toy a “prank”.
Mr Villanueva was identified and arrested on Monday. It is unclear whether he has hired a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.
The gruesome discovery in Victorville, 80 miles (130km) northeast of Los Angeles, had locals worried about a possible serial killer on the loose.
The item was found around midday on Sunday at the filling station on Bear Valley Road when a witness called police to report that “a teddy bear made of what looked like human flesh was left in front of the business”.
A video posted online shows police responding to the scene as a glove-clad official from the coroner’s office examines the object and places it into an evidence bag.
A statement from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office on Monday did not mention a potential motive, and said the “investigation into who left the teddy bear at the business is continuing”.
“Incidents such as this take up valuable emergency resources and put the public at risk, possibly delaying response time to legitimate calls for service,” the statement said.
“We would like to thank those that reported information that was helpful during the investigation of this case.”
South Carolina artist Robert Kelly has taken credit for creating the object, telling US media that he recently sold the figure to a buyer in Victorville.
“Our work is pretty easily recognisable, and people were sending the articles (about the petrol station) left and right. I looked, and sure enough it was the bear I sent out last week,” Mr Kelly told People magazine.
“Every artist wants credit [for] their work, so I said ‘I made that’, and haven’t been able to catch up with messages since.”
In a post to Facebook on Sunday, Mr Kelly denied having any knowledge of what the buyer intended to do with the bear.
“No I did not have any knowledge of the [buyer’s] intentions nor was I involved in a prank on the other side of the nation from me,” he wrote.
Mr Kelly, who sells his work through a shop on the website Etsy, specialises in horror creations for Halloween displays and films.
Other items are also made to resemble construction from human body parts, similar to the bear.
[BBC]
Foreign News
Trump threatens Russia with tariffs while unveiling Ukraine weapons plan

US President Donald Trump has announced the US will send “top-of-the-line weapons” to Ukraine via Nato countries, while also threatening Russia with severe tariffs if a deal to end the war is not reached within 50 days.
“We want to make sure Ukraine can do what it wants to do,” Trump said following a meeting with Nato chief Mark Rutte in Washington.
Rutte confirmed the US had decided to “massively supply Ukraine with what is necessary through Nato” and that the Europeans would foot the bill.
European countries will send Kyiv their own Patriot air defence systems – which Ukraine relies on to repel Russia’s deadly air strikes – and replacements will then be issued by the US, Trump said.
Neither Rutte nor Trump elaborated on the weaponry that will be sent to Kyiv but Rutte said the deal included “missiles and ammunition”.
However, the president did say “top-of-the-line-weapons” worth billions of dollars would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield” in order to support Ukraine.
“If I was Vladimir Putin today… I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously,” Rutte said, as Trump nodded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that he spoke with Trump after his meeting with Rutte, and thanked him for his “willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace”.
“We discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions. We are ready to work as productively as possible to achieve peace,” he said.
On the tariffs front, Trump said that the US would impose 100% secondary tariffs targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners if a peace deal with Ukraine was not reached within 50 days.
This would see any country that trades with Russia face the tax if they want to sell their products to the US.
For example, if India keeps buying oil from Russia, US companies that purchase Indian goods would have to pay a 100% import tax, or tariff, when the products reach American shores.
This would make the goods so expensive that US businesses would likely choose to buy them cheaper from elsewhere, resulting in lost revenue for India.
The intention is also to hobble Russia’s economy. Theoretically, if Moscow was unable to generate money by selling oil to other nations it would also have less money to finance its war in Ukraine.
Given that oil and gas account for almost a third of Moscow’s state revenue and more than 60% of its exports, 100% tariffs could make something of a dent Russia’s finances.
Still, the Moscow Stock Exchange Index rose sharply following the announcement, likely as investors were expecting Trump – who last week teased a “major statement” on Russia – to pledge even harsher measures.
Although detail about both the tariffs and the Nato weapons deal was scant, Monday was the first time Trump pledged new military equipment for Ukraine since returning to the White House.
The briefing was also notable for the tone struck by US president, whose rhetoric on Vladimir Putin has become increasingly harsh.

Not for the first time, Trump implied Kyiv bore some responsibility for Russia’s decision to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But he mostly appeared frustrated at the lack of progress in ending a conflict which he once seemed to believe could be easily solvable.
Asked about his relationship with Putin, Trump said that the two speak “a lot about getting this thing done” but voiced his displeasure at the fact that “very nice phone calls” with the Russian president are often followed by devastating air strikes on Ukraine – which have been growing in intensity and frequency.
“After that happens three or four times you say: the talk doesn’t mean anything,” Trump said.
“I don’t want to call him an assassin but he’s a tough guy. It’s been proven over the years, he fooled a lot of people – Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden,” he added. “He didn’t fool me. At a certain point talk doesn’t talk, it’s got to be action.”
Two rounds of ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine took place earlier this year but no other meetings have so far been scheduled – something Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky is currently hosting US envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv and earlier on Monday hailed a “productive meeting” – saying he was “grateful” to Trump for his support.
The Kremlin did not immediately comment on the announcement – but commentary trickling in from Moscow appeared to indicate a measure of relief.
Pro-Kremlin pundit and former Putin aide Sergei Markov called the tariffs announcement “a bluff” that indicated Trump had “given up on trying to achieve peace in Ukraine”.
Senator Konstantin Kosachev argued that “if this is all Trump had to say about Ukraine today, then so far it’s been much ado about nothing”.
In 50 days a lot could change “both on the battlefield and in the moods of the powers that be in the US and Nato,” Kosachev wrote.
[BBC]
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