World

YANGON — Myanmar's military withdrew from some positions close to China's border to prioritise the "safety of people", the junta chief said, days after an alliance of ethnic armed groups said they had routed state troops in the area.

Shan State in eastern Myanmar has been rocked by fighting since late June when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) renewed an offensive against the military along a major trade highway to China.

"With regard to the situation of Shan State, security forces withdrew their positions by considering the security of current areas and safety of people," Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech on state television on Monday night.

"The government will continually strive to ensure peace and stability — not only in Shan State, but the entire nation," he added.

His comments came days after the MNDAA said it had captured a regional military command after weeks of clashes, in a major blow to the junta.

Alliance fighters "fully captured the headquarters of the northeast military command" in Lashio, the group said in a statement Saturday.

Junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun admitted Monday that the military had lost contact with senior officers from the command after intense fighting.

"Got last contact with the senior officers at 6:30 pm on August 3, and we lost contact with them till now," he said in a statement.

"According to reports that are still being confirmed, it is known that terrorist insurgents arrested some senior officers."

Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting, according to the junta and local rescue groups.

Myanmar's borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have given shelter and training to newer "People's Defence Forces" that have sprung up to battle the military after its ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi's government in a 2021 coup.

China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.

Min Aung Hlaing said Monday the alliance was receiving weapons, including drones and short-range missiles, from "foreign" sources, which he did not identify.

"It is necessary to analyse the sources of monetary and technological power," the military leader said.

MOSCOW/KYIV - Russia said Sunday its armed forces seized the village of Novoselivka Persha in eastern Ukraine, the latest in a string of frontline advances Moscow has claimed in recent weeks. 

Now grinding through a third year of fighting, neither Kyiv nor Moscow has managed to swing the conflict decisively in their favour, even though Moscow's forces have gained ground in recent months.

Russia's defence ministry said forces had "liberated the settlement of Novoselivka Persha" that lies in the Donetsk region around 20 kilometres northwest of Avdiivka, which Russia seized in February.

Moscow has claimed to have taken a string of villages in the Donetsk region in recent weeks -- many consisting of just a few streets.

Ukraine on Sunday announced the mandatory evacuation of children and their guardians from areas in the Donetsk region.

Donetsk governor Vadym Filashkin cited the town of Novogrodovka, which is about 20 kilometres from the village of Novoselivka Persha that Russia claimed to have captured on Sunday.

The Donetsk governor said 744 children and their families had to be relocated to four regions of Ukraine. 

Now grinding through a third year of fighting, neither Kyiv nor Moscow has managed to swing the conflict decisively in their favour, even though Moscow's forces have gained ground in recent months.

Russia said it had annexed the Donetsk region -- along with three others in eastern and southern Ukraine — in 2022.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian drones targeted a military airfield and an oil depot in Russia, a defence source in Kyiv said on Saturday, after Moscow reported repelling the latest aerial barrage.

Kyiv has stepped up aerial attacks on Russian territory, saying it carries out the strikes in retaliation for the bombardments Ukraine has faced since Russia invaded more than two years ago.

"Last night, drones from Ukraine's Security Service visited the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region" that stored aircraft and guided aerial bombs, the source said.

"Ukrainian drones did a great job, hitting the aviation ammunition depot," the source added. 

Russia has launched more than 600 guided air bombs on Ukraine in one week alone, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"Russian combat aircraft must be destroyed where they are, by all means that are effective. Striking at Russian airfields is also quite fair," he said on social media.

Russian officials did not address claims regarding the destroyed airfield, but local governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram that authorities introduced a state of emergency in the district of Morozovsk.

"At the moment we have recorded damage to the windows in several social facilities, including schools and kindergartens, as well as in residential houses and industrial premises," Golubev said on Telegram. 

The source in the Ukrainian defence sector also said its forces hit a fuel warehouse in the Kamensky district of the Rostov region, where Russian officials earlier reported a drone attack set fire to oil tanks. 

Later the armed forces said they had sunk the B-237 Rostov-on-Don submarine in occupied Crimea the day before, and destroyed air defence systems.

Moscow did not address the specific claim but the Russian defence ministry said it destroyed at least 76 drones launched by Kyiv, including 36 over the border region of Rostov and 17 in the Oryol region.

Russian air defence disabled eight and nine drones respectively over the regions of Kursk and Belgorod, also bordering Ukraine. 

Kyiv has stepped up strikes on Russian territory this year, targeting towns and villages just across the border, as well as energy sites that it says fuel Russia's assault.

On Saturday, Kyiv said it had faced several missiles and 29 drones, out of which 24 drones were destroyed.

Local officials in the central region of Vinnytsia said the attacks damaged infrastructure, without giving more details.

WASHINGTON — US prosecutors have reached a deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Pentagon said Wednesday, reportedly involving a guilty plea in exchange for avoiding a death penalty trial.

The agreements with Mohammed and two other accused moves their long-running cases toward resolution. These have been bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings for years while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.

A Pentagon statement said no details of the deal would be immediately made public at this time, but the New York Times reported that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence instead of a trial after they could get the death penalty.

Such a proposal was detailed by prosecutors in a letter last year but divided the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, with some still wanting the defendants to face the ultimate penalty.

Much of the legal jousting surrounding the men's cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone methodical torture at the hands of the CIA in the years after 9/11 -- a thorny question that the plea deals help avoid.

Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's most trusted and intelligent lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving in Guantanamo in 2006.

The trained engineer -- who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks "from A to Z" -- was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he had attended university.

In addition to planning the operation to bring down the Twin Towers, Mohammed claims to have personally beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his "blessed right hand," and to have helped in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people.

 'War on Terror' prison 

Bin Attash allegedly trained two of the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks, and his US interrogators also said he confessed to buying the explosives and recruiting members of the team that killed 17 sailors in an attack on the USS Cole.

He took refuge in neighboring Pakistan after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and was captured there in 2003, and was then held in a network of secret CIA prisons.

Hawsawi is suspected of managing the finance for the 9/11 attacks. He was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, was also held in secret prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the "War on Terror" that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.

The facility held 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been repatriated to other countries. President Joe Biden pledged before his election to try and shut down Guantanamo, but it remains open.

In another 9/11-related case, the Justice Department denied a request by Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker," to serve the remainder of his life sentence in France.

In a hand-written letter to District Judge Leonie Brinkema obtained by the website Legal Insurrection, Moussaoui -- the only person convicted in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks -- expressed fears he would be executed if Donald Trump regains the presidency in November.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department does not discuss prisoner transfer requests but noted that Moussaoui is "serving a life sentence following conviction for terrorism offenses."

"The Department of Justice plans to enforce this life sentence in US custody," the spokeswoman added.

ANKARA — US journalist Evan Gershkovich and a Russian intelligence colonel jailed for a Berlin killing were among 24 prisoners and two minors freed Thursday in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, officials said.

The 24 were brought to Ankara from Russia, the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus under the deal that Turkey said its MIT intelligence service had spent weeks putting together.

Ten Russians, including two minors, were exchanged for 16 westerners and Russians detained in Russia, said a statement released by the Turkish presidency.

US President Joe Biden called the deal "a feat of diplomacy".

"Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over," Biden added in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal said it was "overwhelmed with relief" at the release of Gershkovich, 32, who was detained in Russia in March 2023 and jailed in July for 16 years on spying charges that were denounced by the United States.

Paul Whelan, a former US marine detained since 2018, also flew to Ankara. Another American, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian with US residency were also freed.

Opposition politician Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-Briton with US residency, who had both been jailed for criticising Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were among Kremlin opponents set free.

Yashin will go to Germany with 11 other German nationals and Russians, according to the US administration. They included Rico Krieger, a German who was sentenced to death in Belarus on espionage charges before being reprieved this week.

Among those returned to Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian intelligence agent imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a brazen assassination.

The German government acknowledged that agreeing to free Krasikov had not been an "easy decision".

"Our duty of care to German citizens as well as solidarity with the USA were important factors" in the decision to send Krasikov home, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Amnesty International said in a statement the swap was a sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is clearly instrumentalising the law in order to use political prisoners as pawns". 

Hopes for a prisoner exchange had risen in recent days after a number of high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, went missing from facilities where they were serving terms, fueling speculation they were being moved for a swap.

This was the first exchange between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner returned home in return for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.

It was the biggest since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged. They included double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sent by Moscow to Britain and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, sent by Washington to Russia.

Before then, major swaps involving more than a dozen people had only taken place during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986.

'Pushing hard' 

Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip. He, his employer and the US government all strongly denied the espionage allegations against him.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders said it was "hugely relieved" at the release.

"The Russian government's continued policy of state hostage-taking is outrageous. Journalists are not spies, and they must never be targeted for political purposes," the group said.

Washington had also been pressing for the release of Whelan, 54, who was arrested in 2018 in Moscow and charged with espionage.

Whelan was working in security for a US vehicle parts company when he was arrested, and has always asserted that the evidence against him was falsified.

Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old activist, was serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges after criticising the Ukraine war. He suffers from a nerve disease and was moved to a prison hospital this month.

Adding to the intrigue was a case in Slovenia, where a court sentenced two Russians suspected of spying for Moscow to more than a year and a half in prison -- but then ordered their expulsion from the country. 

Arrests of US citizens in Russia have increased in recent years, in what Washington sees as a Kremlin attempt to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

CARACAS — Thousands of Venezuelans gathered on Tuesday in a peaceful show of opposition support a day after 12 people died and hundreds were arrested during protests against President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed presidential election victory.

They chanted “Freedom! Freedom!” and “We are not afraid!” at a mass rally in the capital Caracas, where opposition leaders insisted they had the numbers for a convincing victory.

International calls mounted for the Maduro-aligned National Electoral Council (CNE) to release a detailed vote breakdown to back its awarding of Sunday’s election to him.

Maduro said the opposition would be held responsible for “criminal violence... the wounded, the dead, the destruction” associated with protests.

The Foro Penal human rights NGO said at least 11 people — two of them minors — had died in what its head Alfredo Romero described as “a crisis of human rights”.

Dozens more were injured, and at least 177 arrested, he said, while authorities reported more than 700 arrests.

The military has reported one death and 23 injuries among its ranks.

Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Monday at protesters who claimed the election was stolen and flooded the streets with chants of “this government is going to fall!”

The opposition rejects the authorities’ assertion that Maduro won with 51 per cent of votes compared to 44 percent for Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

Maduro, 61, has led the oil-rich country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 per cent that pushed more than 7 million of once-wealthy Venezuela’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.

He is accused of locking up critics and harassing the opposition in a climate of rising authoritarianism.

The US-based Carter Centre, whose monitors observed the poll, also called for the release of detailed polling station results.

“Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the vote results cannot be recognised until voting records are verified and made public.

“We ask to be provided with immediate access to the voting records of polling stations,” he told reporters during a trip to Vietnam on Wednesday.

Independent polls had predicted retired diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, would win by a wide margin.

Thousands of protesters streamed into the streets of several cities when Maduro was declared the winner, some ripping down and burning his campaign posters in anger.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said 749 “criminals” had been arrested at protests and faced charges of resisting authority or, “in the most serious cases, terrorism”.

Maduro’s close aide and Venezuela’s National Assembly president, Jorge Rodriguez, said Gonzalez Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado — the popular opposition leader blocked from the ballot by Maduro-aligned courts — should be locked up over the protests.

‘Maduro dictator’ 

Opposition supporters gathered for peaceful rallies in several cities on Tuesday.

Thousands waved Venezuelan flags and chanted “Maduro dictator!” and “Edmundo president!” at the Caracas rally with Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado.

“We have to stay in the streets, we cannot allow them to steal our vote so brazenly,” said Carley Patino, a 47-year-old administrator.

Gonzalez Urrutia told the crowd security forces had “no reason for so much persecution”.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday he was “extremely concerned about increasing tensions in Venezuela, with worrying reports of violence”.

The White House said “any political repression or violence against protesters or of the opposition is obviously unacceptable”.

Long queues formed at stores and supermarkets in Caracas Tuesday as residents stocked up on food, toilet paper and soap.

Most other businesses were closed.

Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said Maduro had the “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” of the armed forces and vowed to “preserve internal order”.

There had been widespread fears of fraud and a campaign tainted by accusations of political intimidation before the election.

The Organisation of American States charged there had been “exceptional manipulation” of the results.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US counterpart Joe Biden held talks on Tuesday and called for the CNE to release detailed election results. Both countries host large numbers of Venezuelan migrants.

Peru recognised Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela’s legitimate president on Tuesday, prompting Caracas to sever diplomatic relations.

Costa Rica has offered Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado political asylum.