A fire broke out Thursday at a car battery factory owned by Iran's Defense Ministry for the second time in less than a week, state media reported.

No one was injured in the blaze, which erupted in an area where plastic waste is stored, state TV said. Iranian news outlets circulated photos and video footage of a column of black smoke rising into the sky north of the capital, Tehran.

Iran's regular military and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard operate several factories across the country, many of which produce civilian goods.

RUSSIA DEPLOYS SARMAT INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILES PUTIN SAYS WILL MAKE WORLD ‘THINK TWICE’ FOR COMBAT

Iran has seen a series of fires and other mishaps in its military facilities over the years, and often accuses its archenemy Israel of sabotage. Last month, Iran said Israel tried to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode.

Iran has been under heavy Western sanctions for several years that prevent it from importing a range of machinery and replacement parts, forcing it to build its own or source them on the black market. That has likely made industrial mishaps more common.

A court in northern Switzerland on Thursday acquitted a former security Belarusian operative over the enforced disappearances of three of President Aleksander Lukashenko's political opponents in the late 1990s, said an advocacy group that spearheaded the case.

Judges in the northern town of Rorschach said they were not convinced that the defendant, Yuri Harauski, a former member of a Belarusian military unit known as SOBR, was involved in the disappearances.

According to the Geneva-based advocacy group TRIAL International, the court ruled that Harauski's participation in the crimes could not be established beyond reasonable doubt.

"The families of the victims remain in a state of uncertainty about the exact circumstances of their loved ones’ disappearances," said the group.

TRIAL International, the International Federation of Human Rights and Viasna — a Belarusian rights group whose founder Ales Bialiatski was a co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize — jointly spearheaded the case.

MAN WHO OPENED FIRE AT SLOVAK POLICE FROM APARTMENT WINDOW FATALLY SHOT, ACCORDING TO REPORT

The three organizations "regret today’s verdict and will continue to support the victims in their quest for justice, including during the appeal process," TRIAL International said. The trial took place over two days last week.

Activists have said the trial marked a pivotal moment in international justice that could trigger prosecutions abroad of other Belarusian officials — including Lukashenko.

The court case was brought under a rarely applied legal principle known as universal jurisdiction, under which foreign courts can prosecute severe crimes that happened in other countries.

Harauski was tried over the enforced disappearances of Yuri Zakharenko, a former interior minister who was fired by Lukashenko in 1996; opposition leader Viktor Gonchar; and publisher Anatoly Krasovsky, the advocacy groups said.

Harauski lives in Switzerland, where he applied for asylum in 2018. He has made high-profile confessions about his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Lukashenko’s political opponents in 1999. The motives behind the confessions were not entirely clear.

An extract of the court filing, obtained by The Associated Press, indicated that prosecutors had planned to seek a three-year prison sentence — of which two would be suspended — against Harauski for his alleged role in the disappearances.

Lukashenko’s regime has come under criticism for years, most recently over a crackdown against opposition leaders that began in August 2020 and also over support for Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine last year.

Two people were killed by a lone gunman who opened fire and started fires in a hospital and an apartment in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday, the city's police chief said.

The shooter, a 32-year-old student from Rotterdam, wore a bulletproof vest as he shot and killed a 39-year-old woman and seriously injured her 14-year-old daughter, Police Chief Fred Westerbeke said.

FLORIDA OFFICER, 13-YEAR-OLD SUSPECT BOTH SHOT DURING FOOT PURSUIT, ENSUING ‘GUN BATTLE’

The shooter then went to the nearby Erasmus Medical Center where he shot and killed a 46-year-old man, a teacher at the academic hospital.

The suspect’s identity was not released.

No motive was announced. 

Hundreds of Lebanese Armenians scuffled with riot police on Thursday outside the Azerbaijan Embassy in northern Beirut during a protest against the Azerbaijani military offensive that recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh from the enclave's separatist Armenian authorities.

Protesters waved flags of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and burned posters of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the demonstration in the Ein Aar suburb of the Lebanese capital.

Lebanese riot police lobbed teargas canisters at the protesters after they hurled firecrackers toward the embassy building.

LEBANON INVESTIGATES SHOOTING OUTSIDE US EMBASSY

The 24-hour Azerbaijan military blitz last week forced Armenian separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and sit down for talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s "reintegration" into Azerbaijan. The separatist government said Thursday that it would dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by year’s end after a three-decade bid for independence.

More than 50% of Nagorno-Karabakh’s population of 120,000 have left the region for Armenia as of nightfall Wednesday. Though Azerbaijani authorities promised to respect the rights of ethnic Armenian, many fear reprisals. The former head of Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist government was arrested as he tried to cross into Armenia alongside tens of thousands of others who have fled.

CEASE-FIRE DECLARED IN LEBANON’S LARGEST PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP FOLLOWING DAYS OF INTENSE FIGHTING

During the enclave's independence bid, Lebanese Armenians have sent money and aid, and have actively campaigned in the media in support of Nagorno-Karabakh, which they refer to as Artsakh.

Lebanon is embroiled in an unprecedented economic crisis, which has lately restricted the financial support of the Lebanese Armenians for Nagorno-Karabakh because of banks imposing tight withdrawal limits.

Lebanon, a tiny Mediterranean country of about 6 million people, is home to some 150,000 Armenians. It's one of the largest Armenian communities in the world outside Armenia, most of them descendants of survivors of the 1915 mass killings during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

At the time, an estimated 1.5 million people were killed in the events that are widely viewed by scholars at the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Six female migrants trapped inside a refrigerated food truck were rescued by French police after one of the women made a distress call to a reporter, the BBC and French authorities said Thursday.

The women — four Vietnamese and two Iraqis — hid for hours in a truck loaded with boxes of bananas in northern France, believing the vehicle was on its way to the U.K. or Ireland.

When they realized that the truck was going the opposite way, they started to panic in the cold and cramped, dark space. One of them managed to reach a BBC reporter in London, who then helped the women alert French police Wednesday.

French prosecutor Laetitia Francart said the truck driver, who was in fact heading for Italy, was not at fault. The women told investigators that the driver wasn’t involved, "saying that they climbed abord the truck thinking they were going to England because of the Irish registration plates," Francart said in a statement.

"After several hours on the road without a stop, they realized their mistake and alerted a journalist," she added.

SWISS GLACIERS HAVE LOST 10% OF VOLUME IN LAST 2 YEARS DUE TO WARMING TEMPERATURES, EXPERTS SAY

The broadcaster reported that the woman was able to send text messages, the truck's GPS location and short videos showing the conditions inside the truck. The women were shown sitting in a tight space on the floor, surrounded by boxes of fruit, panicking and struggling to breathe, according to the BBC.

The truck was just 6 degrees Celsius inside, said Francart, Villefranche-sur-Saône’s prosecutor. The women were all wearing thick coats and had no health problems, she said.

French police soon tracked them down and managed to intercept the truck on a highway, the broadcaster said. Francart said the driver also called police after hearing noise coming from his trailer.

The six women were detained for being in France illegally before being released. Four were given 30 days to leave the country. The other two were permitted to stay so they can request asylum.

Thousands of migrants seeking a better life in the U.K. attempt to cross from northern France to Britain every year, either by hiding in trucks or onboard small, unseaworthy boats across the English Channel.

Both routes can be perilous. In 2019, 39 migrants from Vietnam who paid large sums of money to human smugglers suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England.

In July, a Romanian man described by British prosecutors as part of an international human smuggling ring that made huge profits exploiting migrants was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for the deaths. Four other gang members were imprisoned in 2021 for terms ranging from 13 to 27 years for manslaughter. A further 18 people were convicted in Belgium, where the Vietnamese ringleader was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government has taken an increasingly punitive approach to people who arrive by such unauthorized means.

The government has passed a controversial law calling for migrants who arrive on small boats to be detained and then deported permanently to their home nation or third countries. The only third country that has agreed to take them is Rwanda, and no one has yet been sent there because that plan is being challenged in the U.K. courts.

Taiwan revealed the island’s first domestically built submarine on Thursday, a major breakthrough in its defense capabilities as tensions with China continue to rise.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen unveiled the submarine, named Hai Kun after a fish in Chinese mythology called kun, saying that "history will forever remember this day."

"In the past, a domestic-made submarine was considered impossible, but today a submarine designed and built by our countrymen is in front of you," she said at the launch ceremony.

"Building a submarine is the concrete realization of our resolution to protect our country," Tsai continued. "Submarines are an important piece of equipment for the Taiwan navy to develop asymmetric combat power in terms of strategy and tactics."

ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO GOVERNORS SEEK STRONGER BUSINESS TIES WITH TAIWAN

Taiwan's CSBC Corp. led the construction of the submarine, which underwent seven years of design and construction.

The U.S. has been pushing Taiwan to develop asymmetric warfare strategies by investing in smaller and lighter weapons such as the reduced-size submarine.

The submarine will be launched at a port in Kaohsiung, where it will begin tests before heading into the ocean. If all the tests are successful, the submarine will be given to the island's military.

China's Defense Ministry responded Thursday to the submarine’s unveiling, saying that Taiwan was "heading down the path of its own destruction."

CHINA OFFERS TAIWAN PROMISES OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES WHILE RAMPING UP MILITARY DRILLS NEAR THE ISLAND

"No matter how many weapons the Democratic Progressive Party buys, it will not obstruct the greater trend of reunification with the motherland," said Col. Wu Qian, a spokesperson in China's Ministry of National Defense.

Beijing’s recent military exercises near Tawain have ratcheted tensions between the two governments.

Last week, China flew 103 warplanes near and over the island in a 24-hour period in what the island’s defense ministry called a recent new high. A day later, an additional 55 PLA aircraft were detected near the island by Taiwan’s R.O.C. Armed Forces.

Fox News' Lawrence Richard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An Australian court is ordering a man who staged his own kidnapping to compensate police for the hassle of investigating the fake crime.

Paul Iera, 35, messaged his girlfriend on New Year's Eve 2022 from his own phone, pretending to be a group of Middle Eastern kidnappers. 

The man from Wollongong, New South Wales, was found to be lying in order to spend the night with another woman.

KIDNAPPING OF AMERICAN NURSE, HER DAUGHTER IN HAITI DEALS BLOW TO AID EFFORTS IN IMPOVERISHED NATION

Posing as the fictional abductors, Iera reportedly told his girlfriend that he would be held captive until morning – prompting her to call Lake Illawarra district police to investigate.

Iera contacted his father the next day, telling him he was being dropped off by kidnappers back at his car in Wollongong. 

Police pulled over Iera's van the same day, finding only him inside – Iera continued to play along with the false report, leading authorities on a wild goose chase for over 200 hours.

OLYMPIC BOXER CONVICTED OF KIDNAPPING, KILLING PREGNANT LOVER WHO ALLEGEDLY REFUSED TO GET AN ABORTION

Iera was busted after security footage showed him with a prostitute on the night in question – separate footage showed him with his mistress not long after initially contacting his father about the kidnapping.

"You chose to send alarming, frightening messages to your partner so you could get some extra time with another partner," Magistrate Michael Ong told Iera, according to 9 News. "You thought that would be a great way to do it – any reasonable person would have gone to the public, and that is exactly what happened."

The judge continued, "You are at a point where you need to make a choice. You either take a step back, look at yourself and your circumstances and move toward furthering yourself, or alternatively you will move into a situation where imprisonment will be a very realistic option."

Iera was sentenced Tuesday to 350 hours of community service and was ordered to pay $16,000 in compensation.

"Since the commission of the offense, Mr. Iera has made tremendous rehabilitative progress, and today’s outcome is reflective of [the] Court’s attempt to promote that ongoing rehabilitation," attorney Abbas Soukie said in a statement.

He added, "Mr. Iera continues to enjoy the support of his family and partner, and wishes to move forward with life as a productive member of the community,"

A Swiss Academy of Sciences panel is reporting a dramatic acceleration of glacier melt in the Alpine country, which has lost 10% of its ice volume in just two years after high summer heat and low snow volumes in winter.

Switzerland — home to the most glaciers of any country in Europe — has seen 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023, the second-biggest decline in a single year on top of a 6% drop in 2022, the biggest thaw since measurements began, the academy’s commission for cryosphere observation said.

Experts at the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center have been on the lookout for a possible extreme melt this year amid early warning signs about the country's estimated 1,400 glaciers, a number that is now dwindling.

GERMAN POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF DUMPING OIL ON RADICAL CLIMATE PROTESTORS THAT BLOCKED, GLUED HANDS TO ROAD

"The acceleration is dramatic, with as much ice being lost in only two years as was the case between 1960 and 1990," the academy said. "The two extreme consecutive years have led to glacier tongues collapsing and the disappearance of many smaller glaciers."

The team said the "massive ice loss" stemmed from a winter with very low volumes of snow — which falls on top of glaciers and protects them from exposure to direct sunlight — and high summer temperatures.

All of Switzerland — where the Alps cut a swath through most of the southern and central parts of the country — was affected, though glaciers in the southern and eastern regions melted almost as fast as in 2022's record thaw.

"Melting of several meters was measured in southern Valais (region) and the Engadin valley at a level above 3,200 meters (10,500 feet), an altitude at which glaciers had until recently preserved their equilibrium," the team said.

The average loss of ice thickness was up to 10 feet in places such as the Gries Glacier in Valais, the Basòdino Glacier in the southern canton, or region, of Ticino, and the Vadret Pers glacier system in eastern Graubunden.

The situation in some parts of the central Bernese Oberland and the Valais was less dramatic — such as for the Aletsch Glacier in Valais and Plaine Morte Glacier in the canton of Bern, because they enjoyed more winter snowfall. But even in such areas, "a loss of over 2 meters of the average ice thickness is extremely high," the team said.

EXTENSIVE FLOOD DAMAGE PRODS NEW ENGLAND STATES TO REEVALUATE DAMS, CULVERTS

Snow depths measured in the first half of February were generally higher than in the winters of 1964, 1990 or 2007, which were also characterized by low snowfalls, the team said. But snow levels sank to a new record low in the second half of the month of February, reaching only about 30% of the long-term average.

Over half of automated monitoring stations above 2,000 meters that have been in place for at least a quarter-century tallied record-low levels of snow at the time.

After that, an "extremely warm June" caused snow to melt 2 to 4 weeks earlier than usual, and mid-summer snowfalls melted very quickly, the team said.

Swiss meteorologists reported in August that the zero-degree Celsius level — or the altitude where water freezes — had risen to its highest level ever recorded, at nearly 5,300 meters 17,400, which means that all the Swiss Alpine peaks faced temperatures above freezing.

Gang violence in Haiti is escalating and spreading from the capital Port-au-Prince through the center of the country to its two other major cities, Gonaives and Cap-Hatien, with a significant increase in killings, kidnappings and rapes in the past few months, the U.N. chief said in a report circulated Wednesday.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the new report to the U.N. Security Council that 2,728 intentional killings were recorded between October 2022 and June 2023 including 247 women, 58 boys and 20 girls.

The continuing rise in homicides is attributed to the emergence of a vigilante movement, known as "Bwa Kale," in the capital in April which has gone after the gangs, he said. The U.N. chief also reported an increase in kidnappings for ransom during that time with 1,472 reported, though he said the actual number is almost certainly higher because families often do not report missing members to authorities out of fear for the victims’ safety.

Gang members also continue to use sexual violence including collective rape "to terrorize populations under the control of rival gangs," Guterres said, pointing to 452 rape cases reported during the October-June period.

HAITI POLICE PROBE KILLINGS OF PARISHIONERS WHO WERE LED BY PASTOR INTO GANG TERRITORY

The secretary-general's report on progress toward meeting key benchmarks in the Security Council resolution adopted last October that imposed sanctions against a powerful gang leader was issued as council members were negotiating a new U.N. resolution that would authorize a non-U.N. multinational force led by Kenya to combat the gangs.

Diplomats said the resolution is expected to be voted on later this week or next week.

Political instability has simmered in Haiti since the 2021 still-unsolved assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, who had faced protests calling for his resignation over corruption charges and claims that his five-year term had expired.

Gangs have grown more powerful since his assassination, and Guterres said they now control or exercise influence over 80% of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and their violent activities have expanded especially to the central Artibonite Valley and the regions of major cities Gonaives in the northwest and Cap Hatien in the north.

He said indiscriminate attacks have displaced almost 130,000 people.

Guterres said there had been little or no progress on the benchmarks in the October resolution: a judicial system that can handle gangs and criminal-related activities, a progressive reduction in gang violence, improvements in human rights, a decrease in illicit arms trafficking and financial flows, and an increase in arms seizures.

Thee gangs "have overwhelmed already weak national institutions, including the judiciary, the national police and the prison administration directorate," he said.

"Corruption remains endemic," impunity remains pervasive and 84% of inmates in Haitian prisons are in pretrial detention and the conditions they face are "alarming," the secretary-general said. And a recent vetting exercise lifted the certification of about one-third of the country’s judges and prosecutors "due to a lack of moral integrity, invalid credentials or unlawful release of criminals," he said.

The police have been unable to deal with the powerful gangs despite an increase in their budget, Guterres said, and they are "grappling with a constantly declining workforce due to resignations, dismissals, retirements and fatalities in the line of duty." While 714 new police officers were selected in December, 774 officers, representing more than 5% of the force, left in the first six months of this year, he said.

AMERICAN NURSE AND DAUGHTER RELEASED AFTER KIDNAPPING IN HAITI

Over the past year, the secretary-general said, the human rights situation also continued to deteriorate, with escalating gang attacks including the use of snipers on rooftops "to indiscriminately shoot people carrying out their daily activities."

In some instances, gangs have attacked entire neighborhoods, firing guns indiscriminately, "burning people alive and executing individuals perceived as being opposed to them," he said.

Since the sanctions resolution was adopted last October, and despite a targeted arms embargo, Guterres said, "experts assess that the illicit trafficking of weapons and ammunition has continued unabated due to poor border control, limited capacity for seizures and weak weapons management systems."

The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime assesses that increasingly sophisticated and high-caliber weapons and ammunition are being trafficked into Haiti, the secretary-general said, and most are from the United States and make their way to gang members through intermediaries.

A moose which was found wandering down the tracks of the Stockholm subway and causing havoc was shot dead by a wildlife ranger on Wednesday after the service on the southern part of a busy line had to be suspended.

The moose somehow managed to enter the enclosure that surrounds the tracks and roamed the southwestern part of the so-called Red Line with above-ground stations. At one point, seven stations had to be closed.

Claes Keisu, a press officer with the subway operating company — owned by Stockholm County Council — told Swedish news agency TT that the animal had entered the Varby Gard station in suburban Stockholm at around 11 a.m.

HIKER ON TRAIL NEAR COLORADO SPRINGS TRAMPLED BY A MOOSE 

TT said that the moose wandered for several hours and the number of stations that were shut down gradually increased. At most, a total of seven stations along the Red Line that goes from north to south via the city center were shut.

The animal moved back and forth very quickly, Keisu said. After failed efforts to catch it or make it leave the enclosure, the moose turned around and ran in the opposite direction. It was shot dead at Varby Gard at about 3 p.m., after which the traffic slowly resumed.

The first track of the Stockholm was opened in 1950. The subway system has about 100 stations. The red line has 36 stations and opened in 1964, according to the operator.

Three people were killed overnight in separate incidents in Sweden as deadly violence linked to a feud between criminal gangs escalated.

Late Wednesday, an 18-year-old man was shot dead in a Stockholm suburb. Hours later, a man was killed and another was wounded in a shooting in Jordbro, south of the Swedish capital.

Early Thursday a woman in her 20s died in an explosion in Uppsala, west of Stockholm. The blast, which damaged five houses, is being treated by the police as a murder. Swedish media said the woman who died likely was not the target.

2 POWERFUL EXPLOSIONS RIP THROUGH SWEDEN, INJURING AT LEAST 3

Swedish broadcaster SVT noted that the two fatal shootings brings the death toll from gun violence in September to 11, making it the deadliest month for shootings since police started keeping statistics in 2016.

It was not known whether the shootings or the blast were related to each other but Swedish media said at least two of the three events were somehow connected to a feud between criminal gangs, a growing problem in Sweden with drive-by shootings and bombings.

Two gangs — one led by a Swedish-Turkish dual national who lives in Turkey, the other by his former lieutenant — are reportedly fighting over drugs and weapons.

Three people have been detained, suspected of complicity in the fatal shooting in Jordbro. Police said that two people have been arrested over the Uppsala explosion, which was so violent that the facades of two houses were blown away.

Earlier this week, two powerful explosions ripped through dwellings in central Sweden, injuring at least three people and damaging buildings, with bricks and window sections left spread outside.

Sweden’s center-right government has been tightening laws to tackle gang-related crime, while the head of Sweden’s police has said that warring gangs have brought an "unprecedented" wave of violence to the country.

Earlier this week, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer reiterated that Sweden will increase the penalty from three years to five years for possessing explosives without a permit as of April 1 when a new legislation enters into force.

Two migrants from Honduras and El Salvador died Wednesday trying to board a moving train in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, authorities said.

Coahuila’s department of public security said the bodies of two male migrants, aged 22 and 23, were found Wednesday morning along the railway tracks near the town of Escobedo, about 93 miles from the Texas border.

The deaths are the latest in a string of accidents involving Central and South American migrants traveling north through Mexico on a network of trains known collectively as "The Beast" in a bid to reach the U.S. border.

MEXICO CRACKS DOWN ON MIGRANTS HITCHING RIDE TO US ON FREIGHT TRAIN KNOWN AS 'THE BEAST'

A sudden surge of migrants last week triggered the closure of one U.S. border crossing and forced Mexico’s largest railroad to suspend dozens of freight trains.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Wednesday his office will invite about ten foreign ministers from countries where he suggested most migrants originate.

López Obrador said the meeting, expected to take place within the next 10 days, is an invitation to create a "joint aid plan" between those countries and Mexico.

"We have to reach an agreement. This is not just a Mexican issue, it's a structural issue," he said. Although he did not specify which countries will attend, he mentioned "a flow of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba (and) Colombia."

PERUVIAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS' ALLEGED MURDER VICTIM IS US CITIZEN, SHERIFF CONFIRMS

As desperation to reach the U.S. border grows, Mexico is on track to break a record number of asylum applications this year. According to the director of Mexico's refugee agency, applications could reach 150,000 by year's end, well above the 129,000 record set in 2021.

Last week Mexico’s largest concessionary railway operator Ferromex temporarily halted service in the north of the country, citing about a "half-dozen regrettable cases of injuries or deaths" among migrants hopping freight cars in recent days.

In the same statement, the company noted "a significant increase in the number of migrants," and specifically warned about the "grave danger" of boarding moving trains.

Despite warnings and canceled services, thousands of migrants continue to wait trackside and in railway yards across Northern Mexico. Ferromex said last week 1,500 people were gathered waiting in the city of Torreon, Coahuila, about 177 miles southwest of where the two bodies were found Wednesday.

Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, a renowned agricultural scientist who revolutionized India’s farming and was a key architect of the country’s "Green Revolution" died Thursday. He was 98.

Swaminathan died at his home in southern Chennai city after an age-related illness, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the agriculturalist was instrumental in bringing industrial farming to India, making the country self-sufficient in food and reducing widespread hunger. India’s "Green Revolution," as it was known, turned the northern states of Punjab and Haryana into breadbaskets for wheat and rice production, helping low-income farmers.

INDIA RACING TO CONTAIN DEADLY NIPAH VIRUS OUTBREAK 

The initiative, now dubbed as a transformational era in Indian agriculture, introduced high-yielding cereal varieties and expanded use of irrigation and fertilizers. Grain production increased exponentially, at a time when India was beset with widespread starvation.

For his work, Swaminathan was named one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century by Time magazine.

Swaminathan also held administrative positions in various agricultural research institutes in India and served as a top planner at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research between 1972 and 1979. He received the Padma Shri, one of the Indian government’s top honors, in 1967.

Swaminathan also served as a lawmaker in India’s upper house of the Parliament.

The North Korean government has added the policy of growing its nuclear capabilities into the national constitution. 

The 14th Supreme People's Assembly, the unicameral legislative body of the country, made the constitutional change on Wednesday.

"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un said during the legislative session.

US OFFICIALS SAY TRAVIS KING IS IN AMERICAN CUSTODY AFTER MONTHS OF DETAINMENT IN NORTH KOREA

He added, "This is a historic event that provided a powerful political lever for remarkably strengthening the national defense capabilities."

The Supreme People''s Assembly is, on paper, the highest governing body in North and the government's strongest political organ.

In actuality, the parliament has served as a mere formality — rubber-stamping the policies decided by the Kim family dynasty — for generations.

PENTAGON DISPUTES PYONGYANG'S CLAIM THAT US SOLDIER TRAVIS KING WILLINGLY SOUGHT 'REFUGE' IN NORTH KOREA

The nuclear force-building amendment unanimously passed the Supreme People's Assembly.

Kim Jong Un said at the assembly that the enshrinement of nuclear development into the national constitution was a response to trilateral cooperation from the US, Japan, and South Korea..

The supreme leader accused the U.S. of conducting "large-scale nuclear war joint drills with clear aggressive nature and putting the deployment of its strategic nuclear assets near the Korean peninsula on a permanent basis."

North Korea is positioning itself as an eager ally of Russia, the People's Republic of China, and others in the face of American influence in East Asia.

Russia and China have increased diplomatic efforts with the hermit kingdom in recent months, with Kim Jong Un making a rare foreign visit to Russia earlier this month.

A shooting incident early Thursday in the Slovak capital left one person dead and four others injured, officials said.

A 32-year-old man died and four other people were transported to hospitals with injuries, the rescue service in Bratislava said. The incident occurred in the Dubravka neighborhood after midnight on Thursday, police said.

Police spokesman Michal Szeiff told the local TASR news agency that officers arrived at the scene after receiving calls from people who reported gunshots and an explosion.

NJ SCHOOL DISTRICT TO PAY $9.1M SETTLEMENT TO FAMILY OF BULLIED GIRL, 12, WHO TOOK HER OWN LIFE

Police fired shots at one person, Szeiff said.

According to the news website aktuality.sk, a man opened fire from the window of an apartment building and was shot dead by police when he attacked them with a knife.

Police didn't immediately give more details about the incident but said they were investigating.

Terror gripped a small village in northern Kosovo last Sunday, sparking renewed tensions in a restive part of the country.

At least 30 armed attackers blocked a road in the ethnically Serb dominated village of Banjska in northern Kosovo and then stormed an Orthodox monastery, launching intense gun battles throughout the village and leaving three of the gunmen dead.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said one police officer was killed, and two others were wounded in the siege. After police initially repelled the attack, the assailants, dressed in military gear and wearing face masks, barricaded themselves in a Serbian Orthodox monastery where monks and pilgrims were allegedly held hostage.

The skirmish started in the early morning hours on Sunday when two trucks without license plates blocked a bridge leading to Banjska. Police arrived and were met with a barrage of heavy weapons fire,

EUROPEAN NATION HAS WEAPON ULTIMATUM FOR CITIZENS: HAND OVER GUNS AND AMMO OR ELSE

Overall, Kosovo police confiscated one heavy armored vehicle, 24 SUV vehicles, 29 anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 150 explosive dynamites, 142 mortar shells, 75 hand grenades, seven rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and eight anti-tank mines, and more, according to Kosovo’s Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Sveçla and Police Director Gazmend Hoxha.

Prime Minister Kurti placed the blame directly at Serbia, saying organized criminal groups with political, financial and logistical support from official Belgrade attacked the country. 

"There is no doubt that Belgrade is fully responsible for systematically inciting and sponsoring violence against Kosovo's democratic institutions," Kosovo’s ambassador to the U.S., Ilir Dugolli, told Fox News Digital. 

Reports in local Kosovo media alleged that Russia's Wagner Group may have played a role in the attack. KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission operating in Kosovo since 1999, previously rejected the notion that Wagner units were in the country and news reports making such claims are generally unverified or misinformation. Ambassador Dugolli said that while the allegation cannot be ruled out, it's clear that the assailants have connections to Belgrade.

"Preliminary intelligence analysis suggests that the persons involved in the deadly clash near the village of Banská in northern Kosovo on Sept. 24, were connected to Serbian special forces and Russian military intelligence," Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News Digital. "The attackers appeared professionally trained and some of them spoke Serbian and Russian. While the presence of Wagner mercenaries could not be confirmed, I don’t rule out the possibility of their participation in these recent events."

Koffler also warned about Russian interference, "Neither Russia, nor Serbia, who are staunch allies, recognize Kosovo independence. It is their long-term goal to reverse the situation. There are indications that Russia and Serbia are working together to spark another mass Serb-Albanian conflict, in order to create justification for the deployment of Serbian forces to ensure "peace and stability." 

Koffler concluded, "Covert destabilization operations conducted by mercenary groups such as Wagner is a long-standing standard tradecraft used by Putin when he needs the hand of the Russian government hidden. It would be consistent with the Russian doctrine of lateral escalation if Putin helped Vucic ran a destabilization campaign in Kosovo to distract Washington and NATO forces from Ukraine. What Putin fears most is the deployment of NATO forces into the theater in Ukraine."

Kosovo's ambassador to the U.S. also claimed that Kosovo police seized documents related to Milan Radojcic, a notorious criminal and vice-leader of the leading Serbian political party in Kosovo who is a close associate of Serbia's president. The fact that Radojcic’s documents were seized, and several suspects found shelter in Serbia, indicates involvement of Serbian authorities who refuse to hand over those that executed the attack, the ambassador alleged.

Ambassador Dugolli claimed that this fits a pattern of deliberate behavior of Serbia toward Kosovo in recent times. 

"It is Belgrade that orchestrated the walk out of Kosovo Serbs from institutions, just as Serbia's regime refuses to dismantle illegal security structures, intimidates Kosovo Serbs from participating in elections, forces them to man barricades, orders attacks where more than 90 KFOR soldiers as well as many police officers and journalists were seriously injured, it provides impunity to those responsible for attacks, and consistently violates Kosovo's sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security," the ambassador said. 

Serbia’s ambassador to the U.S., Marko Djuric, expressed condolences to the victims’ families, but argued that Kurti bears responsibility for the bloodshed in the north of Kosovo. 

"Bloodshed in the north of Kosovo is a tragedy that could and should have been prevented. Albin Kurti’s irresponsible policies have set the stage for today's tragedy," Ambassador Djuric told Fox News Digital.

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Djuric made five separate accusations against the Kurti government, among others the monoethnic structure of Kosovo forces in the north, failure to respect the existing agreements, terror treatment of the Serb population in the north which has involved many raids in Serb areas, forced installment of mayors in north Kosovo municipalities and public denouncement of EU mediated normalization talks. 

Djuric also dismissed reports by some Kosovar media of Wagner involvement by highlighting comments by the commander of KFOR, who said there was no evidence of the mercenary group's presence in Kosovo.

In a televised address to the nation, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic condemned the violence and categorically rejected Kurti’s claim that the attackers were sponsored by Belgrade, instead saying the Serbs behind the attack were from Kosovo.

The Serbian Orthodox Church also condemned the violence, saying in a statement, "This is a serious incident that can have major consequences, and therefore it is very important that everything is done to preserve order of peace and order." 

While 92% of Kosovo is ethnic Albanian, Serbs in the north are a majority and remain loyal to Belgrade and refuse to accept Kosovo’s 2008 unilateral declaration of independence.

Conflict between Serbia and Kosovo following the 1999 war is unresolved and is a roadblock to their further European integration. Kosovo was a former province of Serbia and was once integrated within the nation of Yugoslavia. NATO led a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, which comprised Serbia and Montenegro, to defend Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians against violence from Belgrade. Nearly a decade later, in 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, but Serbia refuses to recognize their independence.

HISTORIC RUSSIAN ALLY SNUBS PUTIN IN GROWING SHIFT TO EUROPEAN UNION

Any hopes of continuing the path of peace and reconciliation, which seemed promising months ago, now seem further out of reach.

"The normalization talks have been in a deadlock since before the latest round of escalation," Helena Ivanov, associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.

"Notably, Kurti rejected the latest EU proposal insisting that for any step forward Serbia must first recognize Kosovo as independent. This demand by Kurti is of course contrary to previously signed agreements, which stipulate that Kosovo must create the Association of Serb Municipalities. The latest round of escalation most certainly will not help these talks and is likely to lead to more disagreements and difficulties," Ivanov added.

A Mexican mother was seen on video protecting her own cub from a young bear that had crashed the boy’s birthday party, jumped onto their picnic table and devoured their food just inches from their faces.

The family was eating their meal at Chipinque Park in San Pedro Garza García, located on the outskirts of the northern city of Monterrey, when the bear decided to join their party. 

Video shows the mother holding her teen son and shielding his face as the pair sit completely still while the bear devours their tacos and enchiladas.

The mother, identified as Silvia Macías of Mexico City, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they were celebrating her son Santiago’s 15th birthday. She said Santiago has Down syndrome and was concerned his reaction to the bear might cause the animal to attack.

GRIZZLY BEAR MAULS MONTANA HUNTER IN CUSTER GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST

"The worst thing was that Santiago might get scared," Macías said. "Santiago is very afraid of animals, a cat or a dog, any animal scares him a lot."

"That's why I covered his eyes, because I didn't want him to see it and scream or run," she continued. "I was afraid that if he got scared or screamed or scared the bear, that the bear would react." 

When asked if he was scared, Santiago told the outlet, "Yes, a lot."

However, the mother and son’s plan to remain motionless appeared to work, as the bear seemed more concerned with eating the birthday meal than the people at the picnic table.

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Macías’ friend Angela Chapa recorded the encounter and helped to eventually lead the bear away from the table.

The friend picked up an enchilada in a Styrofoam container and caught the bear’s attention. The video shows that she tossed the container far away from the table. The bear followed the food and left the family alone.

Macías and Santiago were then able to slowly retreat while the bear was distracted.

The family did not let the scary encounter end the celebration, quickly replacing Santiago’s birthday tacos that the bear had devoured, the report said.

The North Korean government has released a U.S. serviceman after holding him in detainment since July.

The North Korean government stated Wednesday it was planning the return of U.S. Army Pvt. Travis King to U.S. custody following months of imprisonment, according to state-run news agencies.

"The relevant organ of the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, under the law of the Republic," state media outlet Korean Central News Agency wrote, according to translations provided by Yonhap News Agency.

Fox News Digital has confirmed that King has been turned over to U.S. custody.

PENTAGON DISPUTES PYONGYANG'S CLAIM THAT US SOLDIER TRAVIS KING WILLINGLY SOUGHT 'REFUGE' IN NORTH KOREA

King has been held by North Korean authorities since July 18, when he reportedly sprinted away from a tour group into the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea.

Since his capture, there has been no contact with King, and North Korean officials have been intentionally obtuse in responding to U.S. inquiries.

US 'WORKING VERY HARD' TO DETERMINE CAPTURED SOLDIER TRAVIS KING'S STATUS IN NORTH KOREA, DIPLOMAT SAYS

The incident happened after King finished approximately two months in a South Korean detention facility following a physical altercation with locals, a senior defense official told Fox News on Tuesday. Throughout the time he was held at the facility, he made comments that he did not want to come back to America, according to a U.S. official.

King was eventually released on July 10 and was sent home Monday to Fort Bliss, where he could have faced additional military discipline and discharge from the service. King has faced at least two other assault-related allegations in South Korea. 

In February, a court fined him $3,950 after being convicted of assaulting an unidentified person and damaging a police vehicle in Seoul last October, according to a transcript of the verdict obtained by The Associated Press. 

North Korea's state media reported that King confessed to crossing into the North because of "inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army."

"During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army," KCNA reported. "He also expressed his willingness to seek refuge in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society."

King's mother disputed the reports from North Korea, saying that her son had no motivation to defect to the totalitarian nation.

A raging fire seemingly caused by fireworks set off to celebrate a Christian wedding consumed a hall packed with guests in northern Iraq, killing around 100 people and injuring 150 others as authorities warned Wednesday the death toll could still rise.

Authorities said that flammable building materials also contributed to the latest disaster to hit Iraq’s dwindling Christian minority. In the fire's chaotic aftermath, officials offered conflicting death tolls and security officials said they had detained staff at the wedding hall as part of their investigation.

The fire happened in the Hamdaniya area of Iraq’s Nineveh province, authorities said. That's a predominantly Christian area just outside of the city of Mosul, some 205 miles northwest of Baghdad.

There was no official word on the cause of the blaze, but the Kurdish television news channel Rudaw aired footage showing pyrotechnics shooting flames up from the floor of the event and setting a chandelier aflame.

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Multiple witnesses, including 50-year-old wedding attendee Faten Youssef, said the fire started as the bride and groom began their slow dance. The flames raced through plastic decorations and the ceiling started collapsing, she said.

"Flames started falling on us," Youssef told The Associated Press. "Things were falling down and blocked the way to the exit."

She said her family found their way out through a kitchen, after the family struggled through smoke and flames and her son failed to kick through a jammed exit door.

It wasn't immediately clear if the bride and groom were among those hurt.

Survivors arrived at local hospitals in bandages, receiving oxygen, as their families milled through hallways and outside as workers organized more oxygen cylinders. Some of those burned included children. Ambulance sirens wailed for hours after the fire as paramedics brought out the injured.

Extravagant wedding ceremonies are common in Iraq, like many countries in the Middle East. Families often invite hundreds of relatives and members of the broader community, spending heavily on spectacular ceremonies with elaborately decorated halls, music and entertainers, often including pyrotechnics.

Casualty figures fluctuated in the hours after the incident, which is common in Iraq.

An initial Health Ministry statement, carried by the state-run Iraqi News Agency, said the blaze killed over 100 people and injured 150. Health officials in Nineveh province put the death toll at 114, while Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari later put the death toll at 93.

A Health Ministry official, speaking to the AP at midday Wednesday on condition of anonymity as he did not have authorization to talk to journalists, said that 30 bodies have been identified by their relatives, but the rest are so badly burned that will require DNA identification.

He put the death toll at 94, with around 100 people still receiving medical treatment. "The death toll is expected to rise as some are in critical condition," he said.

MEXICAN AUTHORITIES ASSIST US WITH CAPTURE OF BANK ROBBERY SUSPECT

Ahmed Dubardani, a health official in the province, told Rudaw that many of those injured suffered serious burns.

"The majority of them were completely burned and some others had 50 to 60% of their bodies burned," Dubardani said.

Father Rudi Saffar Khoury, a priest at the wedding, said "It was a disaster in every sense of the word."

The number of Christians in Iraq today is estimated at 150,000, compared to 1.5 million in 2003. Iraq’s total population is more than 40 million.

Over the past two decades, Iraq’s Christian minority has been violently targeted by extremists first from al-Qaida and then the Islamic State militant group. Although the Nineveh Plains, their historic homeland, was wrested back from the Islamic State group six years ago, some towns are still mostly rubble and lack basic services, and many Christians have left for Europe, Australia or the United States.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered an investigation into the fire and asked the country's Interior and Health officials to provide relief, his office said in a statement online.

Hamdaniya is on Iraq's Nineveh Plains and under the control of its central government, though it is close to and claimed by Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish regional government. Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish region, ordered hospitals there to help those hurt in the blaze.

The United Nations’ mission to Iraq offered its condolences over the blaze as well, describing its staff as "shocked and hurt by the huge loss of life and injuries" in the blaze.

Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said that the primary forensic report described a "lack of safety and security measures" at the venue. Iraqi security forces arrested nine workers at the venue as part of their investigation, said Abdullah Al-Jabouri, a security official who heads the Nineveh Operations Command.

One of the owners of the venue, Choony Naboo, declined to comment when contacted by the AP. "I can’t talk right now, I’m very busy," he said before hanging up.

Civil defense officials quoted by the Iraqi News Agency described the wedding hall's exterior as decorated with a highly flammable type of "sandwich panel" cladding that is illegal in the country.

"The fire led to the collapse of parts of the hall as a result of the use of highly flammable, low-cost building materials that collapse within minutes when the fire breaks out," civil defense said.

Experts say cheaper sandwich panels don't always meet stricter safety standards, and are especially dangerous on buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze. That includes the 2017 Grenfell Fire in London that killed 72 people in the greatest loss of life in a fire on British soil since World War II, as well as multiple high-rise fires in the United Arab Emirates.

Similar panels have been blamed in several previous fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah was determined to have been fueled by sandwich panels. It killed between 60 to 92 people, according to conflicting statements by officials at the time.

The German government on Wednesday banned a far-right, racist group known for its indoctrination of children as police raided dozens of homes of its members and other buildings early in the morning.

A statement from the German interior ministry said it banned the Artgemeinschaft group, an anti-democratic association with around 150 members. All of its sub-organizations, including the Gefaehrtschaften, Gilden, Freundeskreise, and Familienwerk e.V., were also banned, the ministry said.

"We are banning a sectarian, deeply racist and antisemitic association," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

PITTSBURGH SYNAGOGUE GUNMAN FOUND GUILTY OF KILLING 11 IN FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY TRIAL 

"This is another hard blow against right-wing extremism and (those) who continue to spread Nazi ideologies to this day," she said, adding that the organization had attempted to indoctrinate their children and young people with their anti-democratic ideology.

Under the cover of a pseudo-religious Germanic belief in gods, the Artgemeinschaft spread its Nazi world view, the ministry said.

"The group's central goal was the preservation and promotion of one’s own ‘kind,’ which can be equated with the National Socialist term 'race'," according to the statement.

In addition to the ideology of racial doctrine, the symbolism, narratives and activities of the group showed further parallels to the Nazis' ideology.

The group gave its members instructions on how to choose a "proper spouse" within the Northern and Central European "human kind" in order to pass on the "correct" genetic makeup according to the association’s racist ideology. People of other origins were degraded, the ministry said in its statement.

In early morning raids across 12 states, police searched 26 apartments of 39 group members as well as the organization's club houses.

Last week, the German government banned the neo-Nazi group Hammerskins Germany and raided homes of dozens of its members. The group was an offshoot of an American ring-wing extremist group and played a prominent role in the far-right scene across Europe.