World

SIBI, Pakistan - Pakistan security sources said on Wednesday the military had freed 190 train passengers taken hostage by gunmen as a deadly siege in the mountainous southwest stretched through its second day.

More than 450 passengers were on board when a militant separatist group captured the train in a remote frontier district of Balochistan province on Tuesday afternoon, with an unknown number of hostages still being held.

"So far, 190 passengers have been rescued, and 30 terrorists have been killed. Due to the presence of women and children with suicide bombers, extreme caution is being exercised," a security source told AFP.

"The operation continues to eliminate the remaining militants."

An AFP photographer in Quetta, the provincial capital, witnessed about 140 empty coffins being transported by train to the incident site on Wednesday.

The assault was immediately claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which released a video of an explosion on the track followed by dozens of militants emerging from hiding places in the mountains and storming onto the carriages.

Attacks by separatist groups who accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, have soared in the past few years. 

The deaths of three people have been confirmed so far -- the train driver, a police officer and a soldier -- according to paramedic Nazim Farooq and railway official Muhammad Aslam.

A security official in the area also told AFP: "Information suggests that some militants have fled, taking an unknown number of hostages into the local mountainous areas."

Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, said on Tuesday afternoon that the 450 passengers on board had been taken hostage.

Passengers who walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety described being set free by the militants.

"Our women pleaded with them, and they spared us," Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian labourer told AFP on Wednesday. "They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us."

Muhammad Bilal, who was travelling with his mother on the Jaffar Express train, described their ordeal as "terrifying".

"I can't find the words to describe how we managed to escape," he told AFP. 

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said Monday that the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in New York, is "the first arrest of many to come."

"We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Khalil, one of the most prominent faces of the university's protest movement that erupted last year in opposition to Israel's war in Gaza, was arrested by immigration officials over the weekend.

The Department of Homeland Security said the action was taken "in support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State."

Khalil, a Columbia graduate, held a permanent residency green card at the time of his arrest, according to the Student Workers of Columbia union.

Trump threatened in his post further action against other campus protesters, some of whom he alleged without evidence to be "paid agitators."

"We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country -- never to return again," he wrote.

US campuses including Columbia's were rocked by student protests against Israel's war in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The demonstrations ignited accusations of anti-Semitism.

Protests -- some of which turned violent and saw campus buildings occupied and lectures disrupted -- pitted students protesting Israel's conduct against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish. 

GRIMSBY, United Kingdom - A cargo ship ran into a US-military charted tanker carrying jet fuel in the North Sea on Monday, sparking a massive fire off the English coast and injuring more than 30 people, the tanker's operator and authorities said.

A major rescue operation was being coordinated by the UK Coastguard as images showed a huge plume of thick, black smoke and flames rising from the scene about 10 miles (16 kilometres) off the coast.

The Stena Immaculate was "anchored off the North Sea coast near Hull... [and]was struck by the container ship Solong", the Stena's US-based operators Crowley said in a statement.

The tanker was on a short-term US military charter with Military Sealift Command, according to Jillian Morris, the spokesperson for the command that operates civilian-crewed ships providing ocean transport for the US Defense Department.

Crowley said the impact of the collision "ruptured" the cargo tank "containing A1-jet fuel" and triggered a fire, with fuel "reported released".

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the situation "extremely concerning". 

Grimsby port director Martyn Boyers told AFP that 32 injured people had been brought ashore for treatment in three vessels, adding that "ambulances were queueing on the quay" in the northeastern English fishing port.

Local MP Graham Stuart later wrote on X that 37 people had been injured.

All crew members on board the tanker, owned by Swedish shipowner Stena Bulk, were confirmed to be alive, Lena Alvling, a spokesperson for the firm, told AFP.

'Not like crude spill' 

There were reports of "fires on both ships" that UK lifeboat services were responding to, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) confirmed to AFP.

A spokesman said the coastguard was carrying out an assessment of the likely counter-pollution response required, while a government body probing marine accidents deployed a team to Grimsby.

"Our team of inspectors and support staff are gathering evidence and undertaking a preliminary assessment of the accident to determine our next steps," a Marine Accident Investigation Branch spokesperson said.

Ivor Vince, founder of ASK Consultants, an environmental risk advisory group, told AFP that "the good news is it's not persistent, it's not like a crude oil spill". 

"Most of it will evaporate quite quickly and what doesn't evaporate will be degraded by microorganisms quite quickly", he added, while warning that "it will kill fish and other creatures".

Martin Slater, director of operations at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said it could be potentially "devastating" to seal and bird populations if the nearby Humber estuary became polluted.

Humber traffic suspended 

All vessel movements were "suspended" in the Humber estuary that flows into the North Sea, according to Associated British Ports (ABP).

The ABP, which operates in the Ports of Hull and Immingham in the region, added that it was "assisting" the Coastguard. 

The International Maritime Organization told AFP "the current focus is on the firefighting and search-and-rescue operation".

The alarm about the crash near the port city of Hull in East Yorkshire was raised at 0948 GMT.

A coastguard helicopter, a plane, lifeboats from four towns and other nearby vessels were part of the large rescue operation, UK Coastguard said.

The cargo ship was the Portuguese-flagged "Solong", owned by the German company Reederei Koepping.

The 140-metre-long cargo vessel left Grangemouth in Scotland and was bound for Rotterdam, according to the Vessel Finder website.

Collisions rare 

Vessels with firefighting capabilities have been dispatched to the scene off the northeast coast.

Collisions remain rare in the busy North Sea.

In October 2023, two cargo ships, the Verity and the Polesie, collided near Germany's Heligoland islands in the North Sea.

Three people were killed and two others are still missing and considered dead.

The Isle-of-Man-flagged Verity, which was carrying steel from the northern German port of Bremen to Immingham, sank.

In October 2015, the Flinterstar freighter, carrying 125 tonnes of diesel and 427 tonnes of fuel oil, sank after colliding with the Al Oraiq tanker eight kilometres  off the Belgian coast.

A major North Sea oil spill took place in January 1993 when the Liberian tanker Braer suffered engine damage while en route to Canada from Norway.

Water seeped into the holds of the ship, which ran aground off Scotland's Shetland Islands and released 84,500 tonnes of crude oil.

SAPRONOVO, Russia - Ukrainian drones smashed into high-rise apartment blocks and hit parking lots on the outskirts of Moscow in the early hours of Tuesday, with both sides saying it was the largest attack on the Russian capital of the three-year-conflict. 

The Kremlin condemned the attack, which came hours before top US and Ukrainian officials sat down for talks in Saudi Arabia and after three years of Russian aerial barrages on Ukrainian cities. 

The attack killed three people, Russian officials said. 

Kyiv said the strikes should push Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept its call for a halt to long-range aerial strikes, a proposal Moscow has previously ruled out. 

Ukrainian and US diplomats were meeting for talks on ending the conflict, with Kyiv saying it would try to get Washington -- which has resumed talks with Moscow under President Donald Trump -- on board with the idea. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Kyiv targeting "residential houses", claiming Russia's own forces only hit military infrastructure, despite near daily attacks on Ukraine's civilian areas and thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed by its offensive.

Moscow's army said it intercepted 343 Ukrainian drones with some falling on "residential and economic infrastructure".

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called it the "most massive enemy drone attack on Moscow".

At the site of one attack, AFP journalists saw holes on the upper floors of an apartment block and broken glass and debris strewn across the asphalt.

The drones hit areas surrounding Moscow, including Ramenskoye that is home to an air base, and an area near Moscow's Domodedovo airport. 

'All the neighbours jumped' 

"We were sleeping, there was an explosion, the children screamed," Yevgenia Bakatuyeva, a 38-year-old who lives in one of the apartment blocks that was hit in Sapronovo, south of Moscow, told AFP.

"I opened my door, and all the neighbours jumped out. Somebody was in blood," she added. 

Artyom, a 34-year-old car sales manager also living in the building, said he had "only seen such things on TV" and that it was "scary when in real life." 

The conflict in Ukraine often feels distant in the Russian capital, where life has continued as Moscow's army advances and attacks Ukrainian cities. 

Ukraine has previously targeted Moscow, but deadly strikes so far away from the front lines are rare. 

No air raid alert or siren was announced in the capital amid the attack.

More than 90 drones were intercepted over the Moscow Region, which surrounds the heavily defended capital. The rest targeted regions surrounding Moscow as well as regions bordering Ukraine. 

Truce in the sky 

Russian aviation officials temporarily closed the four main airports serving Moscow. 

Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov said a 50-year-old and a 38-year-old security guard were killed, with a local official later saying a third man died in hospital. 

The health ministry earlier said several people were in hospital, including a child. 

Russia's investigative committee called it a "terrorist attack" and opened a criminal investigation.

In the Vladimir region, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Moscow, a village of around 800 people was evacuated after two drones there were shot down, local authorities said.

Russia's foreign ministry said it had taken OSCE Secretary General Feridun Sinirlioglu -- in Moscow on Tuesday -- to the site of one of the attacks.

'Signal to Putin' 

"This is an additional signal to Putin that he should also be interested in a ceasefire in the air," said Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's National Security Council's Center for Countering Disinformation. 

Kyiv is set to present the United States with a plan for a partial ceasefire with Russia, hoping to restore support from its key benefactor, which under Trump has demanded concessions to end the conflict. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will take part in the Saudi talks, indicated the idea had promise.

Russia has previously ruled out partial ceasefires.

Russia's defence ministry said the attack, hours before the talks, were designed to "demonstrate" Ukraine's military capacity.

On the battlefield, Moscow said it retook 12 villages in its Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, territory Kyiv hoped to use as leverage in peace negotiations, but where it has been losing ground.

Russia also said it captured the village of Dachne in eastern Ukraine. 

Russia's military launched a ballistic missile and 126 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv's air force said. 

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard explosions overnight as air defence downed a wave of drones.

A Russian bomb attack on the eastern Donetsk region killed one and wounded four, the regional governor said.

MANILA - Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday in Manila by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs.

The 79-year-old faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder", according to the ICC, for a crackdown that rights groups estimate killed tens of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

"Early in the morning, Interpol Manila received the official copy of the warrant of the arrest from the ICC," the presidential palace said in a statement. 

"As of now, he is under the custody of authorities."

The statement added that "the former president and his group are in good health and are being checked by government doctors".

But Duterte demanded to know the basis of his arrest in a video posted to his youngest daughter Veronica's Instagram account following his detention.

"So what is the law and what is the crime that I committed? Show to me now the legal basis of my being here," he said in the video.

"I was brought here not of my own volition but somebody else's ... you have to answer now for the deprivation of liberty."

While no location was given for the video, a photo released by his political party said he was being held at the Villamor Air Base next to Manila airport.

Duterte's former chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, called the arrest "unlawful".

"The (Philippine National Police) didn't allow one of his lawyers to meet him at the airport and to question the legal basis for PRRD's arrest," he said, adding a hard copy of the ICC warrant had not been provided.

Reactions from those who opposed to the drug war, however, were jubilant.

One group that worked to support mothers of those killed in the crackdown called the arrest a "very welcome development".

"The mothers whose husbands and children were killed because of the drug war are very happy because they have been waiting for this for a very long time," Rubilyn Litao, coordinator for Rise Up for Life and for Rights, told AFP.

"Now that Duterte has been arrested, (President) Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should make sure that he is actually delivered to the ICC for detention and trial," said Philippine rights alliance Karapatan, calling the arrest "long overdue".

Human Rights Watch also called on the government to "swiftly surrender (Duterte) to the ICC", saying the arrest was a "critical step for accountability in the Philippines".

A winding path 

Duterte's Tuesday morning arrest at Manila's international airport followed a brief trip to Hong Kong.

Speaking to thousands of overseas Filipino workers there Sunday, the former president decried the investigation, labelling ICC investigators "sons of whores" while saying he would "accept it" if an arrest were to be his fate.

The Philippines quit the ICC in 2019 on Duterte's instructions, but the tribunal maintained it had jurisdiction over killings before the pullout, as well as killings in the southern city of Davao when Duterte was mayor, years before he became president.

It launched a formal inquiry in September 2021, only to suspend it two months later after Manila said it was re-examining several hundred cases of drug operations that led to deaths at the hands of police, hitmen and vigilantes.

The case resumed in July 2023 after a five-judge panel rejected the Philippines' objection that the court lacked jurisdiction.

Since then, the Marcos government has on numerous instances said it would not cooperate with the investigation.

But Undersecretary of the Presidential Communications Office Claire Castro on Sunday said that if Interpol would "ask the necessary assistance from the government, it is obliged to follow".

Duterte is still hugely popular among many in the Philippines who supported his quick-fix solutions to crime, and he remains a potent political force. 

He is running to reclaim his job as mayor of his stronghold Davao in May's mid-term election.

Charges have been filed locally in a handful of cases related to drug operations that led to deaths -- only nine police have been convicted for slaying alleged drug suspects.

A self-professed killer, Duterte instructed police to fatally shoot narcotics suspects if their lives were at risk and insisted the crackdown saved families and prevented the Philippines from turning into a "narco-politics state".

At the opening of a Philippine Senate probe into the drug war in October, Duterte said he offered "no apologies, no excuses" for his actions.

"I did what I had to do, and whether or not you believe it or not, I did it for my country," he said.