Gunmen kill police officer assigned to guard polio workers in northwestern Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected militants riding on a motorcycle shot and killed on Wednesday a police officer assigned to protect polio workers in a region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, the latest in a string of deadly attacks on polio workers.
The attack in Bajur, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, came just days after authorities launched the vaccination drive. Police official Nasir Khan said an investigation was underway.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
More than 200 polio workers and police assigned for their protection have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to health officials and authorities.
Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio has not been eradicated. Pakistan reported at least 74 cases in 2024 and two cases since January.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
15 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Russia launches another large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine, killing 3 and wounding 13
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia attacked two Ukrainian cities with waves of drones and missiles early Tuesday, killing three people and wounding at least 13 in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called 'one of the biggest' strikes in the 3-year-old war. The attack struck Kyiv and the southern port city of Odesa. In an online statement, Zelensky said that Moscow's forces fired over 315 drones, most of them Shaheds, and seven missiles overnight. 'Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,' Zelensky wrote, urging 'concrete action' from the U.S. and Europe in response to the attack. A maternity hospital and residential buildings in the southern port of Odesa were damaged in the attack, regional head Oleh Kiper said. Two people were killed and nine injured, according to the regional prosecutor's office. Another person was killed in Kyiv's Obolonskyi district, regional head Tymur Tkachenko wrote on Telegram. 'Russian strikes are once again hitting not military targets but the lives of ordinary people. This once again shows the true nature of what we are dealing with,' he said. Explosions and the buzzing of drones were heard around the city for hours. The fresh attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war. Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating Moscow's response to Kyiv's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases. Russia has been launching a record number of drones and missiles in recent days, despite both sides trading memoranda at direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 that set out conditions for a potential ceasefire. However, the inclusion of clauses that both sides see as nonstarters make any quick deal unlikely, and a ceasefire, long sought by Kyiv, remains elusive. The only tangible outcome of the talks has been the exchange of prisoners of war, with a swap that began Monday for soldiers aged between 18 and 25. Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday it had received a second group of exchanged soldiers as part of the deal. Amina Ivanchenko was reunited Monday with her husband, a POW for 18 months, in the release of an initial group of Ukrainian soldiers. She said was grateful to Ukrainian officials for supporting her. 'My struggle was much easier thanks to them. Our country will definitely return everyone. Glory to Ukraine! Thank you!' Anastasia Nahorna waited in the Chernyhiv region to see if her husband, who has been missing for eight months, was among those being released in the latest swap. 'This pain is more unbearable every day,' she said. 'I really want to hear some news, because since the moment of his disappearance, unfortunately, there has been no information. Is he alive? or maybe in captivity? Has someone seen him?' she asked. Anna Rodionova, the wife of another Ukrainian POW, also was waiting. 'I just want him to come back soon and for this to all be over,' she said. 'We are tired of waiting, we come every exchange and he is not there.' A similar exchange was announced for the bodies of fallen soldiers held by both sides, although no schedule has been released. Asked to comment on the exchange of dead, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was unclear when it could take place and how many bodies Ukraine would hand over. He again accused Kyiv of dragging its feet on the exchange. 'There is one unarguable fact, we have had trucks with bodies standing ready for it on the border for several days,' he told reporters. Plumes of smoke rose in Kyiv as air defense forces worked to shoot down drones and missiles Tuesday. Viktoriia Melnyk, 30, vented her anger at the Russians after her building in the Obolonskyi district was struck by a drone. 'I want them to leave our territory, to leave us alone, to leave our families alone,' she said. 'Small children are dying. This is not normal. It's not normal that (the world) is turning away. This is not normal for the 21st century.' Mariia Pachapynska, the 26-year-old manager at a T-shirt company in the Obolonskiy district that produces T-shirts, decried that her facility was struck. 'There were military facilities here,' she said, noting that 'everything and half of me, half of my soul, burned down.' Seven out of 10 districts were damaged in the attack, according to Maryna Kotsupii of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, adding that 16-story and 25-story residential buildings were hit. Residents took shelter and slept in metro stations during the long attack, including Nina Nosivets, 32, and her 8-month-old son, Levko. 'I just try not to think about all this, silently curled up like a mouse, wait until it all passes, the attacks. Distract the child somehow because it's probably the hardest thing for him to bear,' she said. Krystyna Semak, 37, said she was scared by the explosions and ran to the metro at 2 a.m., carrying a rug. Fires broke out in at least four Kyiv districts after debris from downed drones fell onto residential buildings and warehouses, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. 'I was lying in bed, as always hoping that these Shaheds would fly past me, and I heard that Shahed (that hit the house),' said Vasyl Pesenko, 25, standing in his damaged kitchen. 'I thought that it would fly away, but it flew closer and closer and everything blew away.' The attack sparked 19 fires across Ukraine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote on Telegram. 'Russia must answer for every crime it commits. Until there is justice, there will be no security. For Ukraine. And for the world,' he said. The Russian Defense Ministry said an attack early Tuesday targeted arms plants in Kyiv, as well as military headquarters, troop locations, air bases and arms depots across Ukraine. 'The goals of the strikes have been achieved, all the designated targets have been hit,' it said in a statement. The death toll rose Tuesday from previous Russian strikes. In Kharkiv, rescuers found a body in the rubble of a building that was hit Saturday, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. The discovery brought the number of dead there to five, with five others potentially under the debris, Terekhov said. In the northern city of Sumy, a 17-year-old boy died of his injuries Tuesday after a June 3 attack, acting Mayor Artem Kobzar wrote on Telegram, bringing the number killed to six. The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing 102 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow illegally annexed from Kyiv in 2014. The drones were downed both over regions on the border and deeper inside Russia, including central Moscow and Leningrad regions, according to the Defense Ministry. Flights were temporarily restricted at multiple Russian airports, including all four in Moscow and the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg, the country's second-largest city. Stepanenko and Kullab write for the Associated Press. AP Journalist Illia Novikov contributed to this report.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hong Kong police accuse a mobile game app of promoting armed revolution
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police on Tuesday accused a mobile game application of advocating armed revolution and promoting secessionist agendas, saying that those who publish it or share it with others online may risk violating national security laws. The announcement — the first to publicly denounce a gaming app — indicates that authorities are widening the crackdown that has followed anti-government protests in 2019. Authorities have crushed or silenced many dissenting voices through prosecutions under the 2020 national security law imposed by Beijing and a similar, homegrown law enacted last year. In a statement, police warned residents against downloading the 'Reversed Front: Bonfire" application, saying those with the app installed might be seen as possessing a publication with a seditious intention. They also warned people against providing financial assistance to the application developer, including making in-app purchases. ''Reversed Front: Bonfire' was released under the guise of a game with the aim of promoting secessionist agendas such as 'Taiwan independence' and 'Hong Kong independence,' advocating armed revolution and the overthrow of the fundamental system of the People's Republic of China,' police said. The game application was developed by ESC Taiwan, which did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. On the application's Facebook page, the developer posted about surging searches for the game name and a Hong Kong broadcaster's news report about Tuesday's development. According to the application's introduction, players can assume the role of Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghur, Taiwan or Cathaysian Rebel factions, among others, to overthrow the communist regime. They may also choose to lead the communists to defeat all enemies. The game's website says it 'is a work of nonfiction. Any similarity to actual agencies, policies or ethnic groups of the PRC in this game is intentional.' On Tuesday night, the app was still available on Apple's App Store but not on the Google Play store. The game publisher last month said Google Play had taken the app down because it did not prohibit users from adopting hateful language in naming. Apple, Google and Meta have not immediately commented. After playing the game for about three months, Kuo Hao Fu in Taiwan said he found that its content uses a humorous approach to describe serious political issues. Fu disagreed with the police accusations, saying players can also choose to be part of the force representing China. 'The Hong Kong police's actions demonstrate how Hong Kong's democratic freedoms have been controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,' he said. 'When even this level cannot be tolerated, it completely destroys creative freedom in gaming.' China considers Taiwan its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Many Taiwanese in the self-ruled island showed concerns about Hong Kong's declining freedoms under Beijing's grip. The Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the city's national security laws were necessary to return stability to the city following the protests. Kanis Leung, The Associated Press Melden Sie sich an, um Ihr Portfolio aufzurufen.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Found a 6,200-Year-Old Skull. Then They Noticed Something Very Wrong.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The burial site Chega Sofla has many skeletons with elongated skulls, likely from a practice called cranial bandaging where people use wrapped fabric to permanently reshape the skull in infancy and early childhood. Researchers discovered one skeleton with a cone-shaped skull that died from blunt force trauma. The study used CT scans to analyze the thickness of the elongated skull and determine whether the severity of the injuries could be attributed to the cranial bandaging. Much to your grandma's dismay, your tattoos and piercings are types of body modifications, or procedures that deliberately alter the human body. Humans have experimented with these alterations for much of our existence. And while your 'sick ink' may be widely accepted in the Western world, other cultures have body modification rituals that are much more extreme by our standards. Cranial bandaging is the practice of wrapping strips of fabric around a child's growing skull to permanently modify the shape. When performed over several years, cranial bandaging results in an elongated, cone-shaped head. Many skeletons with these modified skulls have been found at Chega Sofla, a site in western Iran that dates all the way back to 4,700 B.C. The site features dozens of graves that range in size from single burials to entire family tombs. Researchers for the Zohreh Prehistoric Project have studied the area for more than a decade, and they recently discovered the remains of a woman with an elongated skull that was inexplicably bashed in. Published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology on May 22, the researchers' new study details the traumatic head injury that killed the woman about 6,200 years ago. 'We know this woman experienced the fracture in the final moments of her life,' lead author of the study Mahdi Alirezazadeh told Live Science, 'but we don't have any direct evidence to say that someone intentionally struck her.' Alirezazadeh and the other researcher on the study, Hamed Vahdati Nasab, used CT scans to get a closer look at the woman's (referred to as BG1.12 in the study) skull. They focused on the thickness of her cranial bones and something called the diploë, or the spongy bone tissue found between the external and internal calvaria layers (think of diploë as the insulation in the walls of the skull). Researchers found that BG1.12's bones and their diploë were much thinner than that of a typical skull, although they noted that this is to be expected with cranial alterations. They explain that because of the thinness, the skull was likely much less effective at protecting the brain from external forces—like a blunt-force blow—than a normal skull would be. The triangular fracture on BG1.12's skull runs from the front to the left side of her head. According to the study, 'an intense force delivered by an object with a wide edge impacted the skull of this young woman during her final moments.' Alirezazadeh explains that they can't necessarily attribute the woman's death to her modified skull because the trauma was so severe. He also noted that another fractured skull was found at the site, except it was unmodified. 'It should be noted that the blow was so severe that it would have fractured a normal, unmodified skull as well,' the researcher told Live Science. 'So we cannot attribute cranial fractures solely to modified skulls,' he later continued. At Chega Sofla, people with and without cranial modifications are buried together, so the woman's skeleton has yet to be identified. Researchers are also still uncertain whether the woman sustained her injuries accidentally—or if she was murdered. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
