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Female student behind suicide attack at university in Pakistan

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A woman suicide bomber who killed three Chinese teachers in Pakistan was a teacher who had enrolled for a master’s degree months before her attack, carried out on behalf of separatist insurgents, Reuters quoting a Pakistani official said on Wednesday.

The blast detonated by the 30-year-old woman on Tuesday blew up a minivan outside Karachi University’s Confucius Institute, a Chinese language and cultural centre, killing her, the three Chinese teachers and a Pakistani driver.

According to Reuters it was the first major attack this year against nationals of long-time ally China working in Pakistan, and it drew Beijing’s condemnation.

A separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) based in the southwestern province of Balochistan, said the mother of two, who held a graduate degree in zoology and was studying for another, had volunteered for the attack targeting China, whose investment projects in Balochistan they oppose, Reuters reported.

“Baloch Liberation Army once again warns China to immediately halt its exploitation projects … Otherwise our future attacks will be even harsher,” the BLA said in an email.

Baloch separatist guerrillas have been fighting for a greater share of their province’s natural resources for decades, mostly focusing attacks on natural gas projects, infrastructure and the security forces.

But in recent years they have attacked Chinese projects and workers. Balochistan and its deep-water port in Gwadar are a major link in China’s Belt and Road network of infrastructure and energy projects stretching to the Middle East and beyond.

For years, suicide bombing in Pakistan have been a tactic of Islamist militants, usually carried out by men or boys. The Baloch separatists said this was their first suicide attack by a woman and warned of more.

The threat of suicide attacks by the BLA will be a major worry for Pakistan as it tries to reassure China it is doing everything it can to protect its projects and people.

China’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned the attack and demanded Pakistan punish the perpetrators and prevent such incidents happening again, read the report.

A Pakistan interior ministry official who declined to be identified said the woman, a science teacher from Balochistan, had signed up for a second master’s degree at Karachi University about five months ago.

An investigation had been launched by police and civilian and military intelligence agencies, the official said.

The acting vice chancellor of Karachi University, Nasira Khatoon, expressed “heartfelt condolences” to the families of the blast victims and said the campus would remain closed on Wednesday.

“We hope that the government will punish the elements involved … and believe that every possible step will be taken to reach the elements behind the attack,” she said.

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Israel receives shipment of heavy bombs cleared by Trump

The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000-pound (907-kg) bomb, which can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius, Reuters reported.

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Israel has received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States, after U.S. President Donald Trump lifted a block imposed on the export of the munitions by the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he lifted a Biden-era block on the export of the bombs to Israel despite a ceasefire agreement being in place because he believed in “peace through strength.”

“They contracted for the weapons a long time ago with the Biden administration, and then Biden wouldn’t deliver the weapons. But I look at it differently. I say, ‘peace through strength,'” Trump told reporters after returning to West Palm Beach, Florida, after a short trip to Daytona Beach. “They were sitting there. Nobody knew what to do with them. They bought them.”

The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000-pound (907-kg) bomb, which can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius, Reuters reported.

The Biden administration declined to clear them for export to Israel out of concern about the impact on densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.

The Biden administration sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants from Gaza but later held up one of the shipments. The hold was lifted by Trump last month.

“The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump administration, represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said late on Saturday.

The shipment arrived after days of concern about whether a fragile ceasefire in Gaza agreed last month would hold, after both sides accused each other of violating the terms of the deal to halt fighting to allow the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails, read the report.

Washington has announced assistance for Israel worth billions of dollars since the war began.

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Zelenskiy says Ukraine has ‘low chance’ of survival without US backing

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Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without U.S. support, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday after phone calls this week by U.S. President Donald Trump with Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelenskiy said in an interview on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”

An excerpt was released on Friday from the interview, which will be broadcast on Sunday. Reuters reported.

Trump discussed the war on Wednesday in separate calls with Putin and Zelenskiy, in the U.S. president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end quickly.

Trump later said he did not think it was practical for Kyiv to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get back all its land. Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.

Zelenskiy said in the interview that Putin wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war but to get a ceasefire deal to lift some global sanctions on Russia and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions, because of ceasefire,” Zelenskiy said.

Trump said his call with Putin was a good conversation that lasted over an hour, while the Kremlin said it lasted nearly an hour and a half. Zelenskiy’s office said Trump and Zelenskiy spoke for about an hour. Trump said the call “went very well.”

 

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US VP Vance threatens sanctions, military action to push Putin into Ukraine deal

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. could hit Moscow with sanctions and potential military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance said in an interview with the newspaper, according to Reuters.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin and separately with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and told U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the nearly three-year-long conflict.

The phone calls came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Ukraine’s military allies in Brussels that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders – before Russia annexed Crimea – was unrealistic and that the U.S. does not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution.

Ukrainians on Thursday worried that Trump was preparing to sell out their country following his phone call Putin.

However, Trump on Thursday said that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia. He told reporters at the White House that Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.

Kyiv said it would be premature to speak with Moscow at a security conference on Friday.

“I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people,” the newspaper quoted Vance as saying.

“The president is not going to go in this with blinders on,” Vance said. “He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal.’”

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