EX-POLICEMAN KILLS 22 CHILDREN AT DAYCARE CENTRE IN THAILAND

An ex-policeman killed 38 people, including 22 children, in a knife and gun rampage at a daycare centre in Thailand on Thursday, later shooting dead his wife and child at their home before turning his weapon on himself, police said.

The children at the daycare centre in Uthai Sawan, a town 500 km northeast of Bangkok, were mostly stabbed to death, they said.

Police identified the attacker as a former member of the force who was dismissed from his post last year over drug allegations and he was facing trial on a drugs charge.

The man had been in court earlier in the day and had then gone to the daycare centre to collect his child, police spokesperson Paisal Luesomboon told broadcaster ThaiPBS.

When he did not find his child there, he began the killing spree, Mr. Paisal said. “He started shooting, slashing, killing children at the Utai Sawan daycare centre.” Videos posted on social media showed sheets covering what appeared to be the bodies of children lying in pools of blood in the garden of the daycare centre. Reuters could not immediately authenticate the footage.

About 30 children were at the facility when the attacker arrived, fewer than usual, as heavy rain had kept many people away, district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a nearby office at the time. “The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first,” Ms. Jidapa said.

The attacker forced his way into a locked room where the children were sleeping, Ms. Jidapa said. She said she thought he killed children there with a knife, adding that a teacher who was eight months pregnant was also stabbed to death. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, in a statement on Facebook, called the shooting a “shocking incident”.

RUSSIAN-INSTALLED UKRAINE OFFICIAL POURS SCORN ON PUTIN’S GENERALS, DEFENCE MINISTER

In a rare public rebuke of the Kremlin’s top brass, a Russian-installed official in Ukraine slammed Moscow’s generals and recommended Ukraine’s defense minister hang himself because of shortcomings in the Ukraine conflict.

After more than seven months of fighting in Ukraine, Russia’s most fundamental war objectives remain unfulfilled, while Russian forces have suffered a string of combat losses in recent months, leading Putin to declare a partial mobilization.

The withdrawal of Russian forces from a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine prompted two powerful allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin this week to publicly ridicule the war machine’s leaders.

In a four-minute video message, Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-installed deputy head of the annexed Kherson region, followed suit, publicly scolding the “generals and ministers” in Moscow for failing to understand the problems on the front.

“Indeed, many say: if they were a defense minister who had allowed such a state of affairs, they could, as officers, have shot themselves,” Stremousov said. “But you know the word ‘officer’ is an incomprehensible word for many.”

Stremousov laced his criticism with words of praise for the soldiers who stood to the death to defend their country, contrasting their heroism with the “incompetent military leaders” in Moscow.

Such public – and insulting – criticism of Putin’s top team from within the system is extremely rare in modern Russia.

FRENCH AUTHOR ANNIE ERNAUX WINS NOBEL FOR LITERATURE

French author Annie Ernaux, known for her deceptively simple novels drawing on personal experience of class and gender, won the Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, the jury announced.

Ernaux, 82, was honored “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory,” the jury said.

Interviewed on Swedish television immediately after the announcement, Ernaux called it a “very great honor” and “a great responsibility.”

Her more than 20 books, many of which have been school texts in France for decades, offer one of the most subtle, insightful windows into the social life of modern France.

Above all Ernaux’s crystalline prose has excavated her own passage from working-class girl to the literary elite, casting a critical eye on social structures and her own complicated emotions.

The Nobel Prize comes with a medal and a prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $911,400).

Last year, the award went to Tanzanian-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work focuses on the plight of refugees and exile, colonialism and racism.

Ernaux will receive the Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

Ernaux, whose name has circulated in Nobel speculation for several years, is the 17th woman to win the prestigious prize, out of 119 literature laureates since the first Nobel was awarded in 1901.

RECAPTURED VAST TRACTS OF KEY KHERSON REGION: UKRAINE

Ukraine said Thursday that it had wrested Russian troops out from swathes of the southern Kherson region, pushing a counter-offensive that has undermined the Kremlin’s claim to have annexed the territories.

The announcement came after a barrage of devastating Russian bombardments of the city of Zaporizhzhia that left several civilians dead in an attack Kyiv said was a deliberate attempt to “sow fear” among the population.

Ukraine’s military has not only said it was reclaiming territory in the south, but also in the eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions, that have been partially controled by Kremlin proxy forces since 2014.

Kherson, a region with an estimated pre-war population of around one million people, was captured early and easily by Moscow’s troops after their invasion launched February 24 and was occupied by the forces for months.

The Ukrainian push deeper into Kherson is putting further strain on the Kremlin’s announcement last week that it had annexed the territory — alongside three others — and that its residents were Russian “forever”.

The four territories — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — create a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

BIDEN DOESN’T EXCLUDE MEETING PUTIN AT G-20

President Joe Biden on Thursday did not rule out meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during the G-20 summit next month in Asia.

“That remains to be seen,” the United States leader told reporters when asked if he’d use the G-20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia, as an opportunity to talk directly with Mr. Putin. The White House has previously said such a meeting is not excluded.

However, travel plans for both men remain unconfirmed currently and the White House has said that if Mr. Putin attends the G-20 summit, then Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, should also participate, even if Ukraine is not a member of the group.

EU HOUSE TO TURN OFF HEAT IN DRIVE TO SAVE ENERGY

The European parliament will turn off heating in its buildings for three days per week and adjust its thermostats for other days in a drive to save energy. The move comes as EU nations including France and Germany have rolled out energy savings measures of their own as they try to avert power or gas shortages during winter. The buildings will switch off heating or cooling of its buildings from Thursday evening until Monday, and during holidays, as per an internal email from parliament’s environmental management service. Until now the heating has been turned down, but not off, at the weekend. The buildings will also be heated to no more than 19°Celsius and cooled to no less than 25°C, and external illuminations will be limited. The curbs are expected to save over € 2 million (nearly $2 million) per year.

IN POLAND, PEOPLE ARE BURNING TRASH TO STAY WARM

When Paulina Mroczkowska noticed a growing pile of garbage in the yard of a carpenter’s workshop across the street, the alarm bell rang. Her concern wasn’t over the hazards of uncollected waste, but how it was going to be used. Poland is home to 40 of the 100 cities with the worst air quality in the EU because of reliance on coal to heat homes. But now a shortage of the fuel and the soaring cost of living are spurring people to burn alternatives — including household refuse. “It’s so bad this season that you can smell trash burning every day, which is completely new,” said Mroczkowska, 35, a mother of three from Jablonna on the northern outskirts of Warsaw. “It’s scary to think what happens when it really gets cold. ”

As Russia’s war in Ukraine exposes the fragility of Europe’s energy security, Poland has another layer of risk: efforts to tackle pollution going backwards. The government, which has temporarily suspended quality controls for coal, is considering handing out protective masks as the temperature drops. Last month, Law & Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski suggested people do whatever it takes to keep warm. He told supporters at a rally in Nowy Targ that “one needs to burn almost everything, except for tyres and similarly harmful things. ”

Some municipalities have been relaxing environmental restrictions. The Malopolska regional assembly in Krakow last month voted to delay a ban on furnaces, allowing the burning of anything from coal to trash until early 2024.

SWEDEN: EVIDENCE IN PIPELINE LEAKS POINTS TO SABOTAGE

After inspecting two gas pipelines from Russia to Europe where several leaks occurred last week, the Swedish Security Service, the Swedish equivalent of FBI, said on Thursday the leaks were caused by detonations they strongly suspect were acts of sabotage.

Swedish and Danish authorities have been probing four leaks from the pipelines, known as Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, since they were first spotted at the beginning of last week.They said there was extensive damage to the pipelines and that evidence gathered from the site will now be analysed by experts. The evidence “has strengthened the suspicions of gross sabotage”, they said.

Russia said on Thursday it had been informed via diplomatic channels that it was not able to join the investigation. “As of now, there are no plans to ask the Russian side to join investigations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

18 MIGRANTS DEAD IN SHIPWRECK OFF GREECE’S LESBOS

At least 18 people, most of them women, died when their vessel sank off the Greek island of Lesbos on Thursday, the country’s coastguard said, in the second maritime disaster involving migrants in the Aegean Sea in under a day. The boat was carrying about 40 people, authorities said. A search for survivors was underway. Authorities had on Wednesday rescued 80 migrants whose boat sank in waters near the island of Kythira.

NORTH KOREA WARPLANES STAGE BOMBING DRILL

Seoul/Tokyo : South Korea scrambled fighter jets after North Korean warplanes staged an apparent bombing drill on Thursday, Seoul’s defence ministry said, as allied warships held missile defence drills and Pyongyang fired off the latest in a series of ballisticmissiles.

The rare bombing drill by at least eight North Korean fighter jets and four bombers prompted the South to deploy 30 fighters. The warplanes swarmed each side of the heavily fortified border amid rising tensions over a string of missile tests by Pyongyang. North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in the direction of Japan after condemning the repositioning of a US aircraft carrier to the region. North Korea has launched about 40 missiles this year.

WHO LINKS GAMBIA DEATHS TO INDIA-MADE COUGH SYRUPS

The World Health Organization has issued a product alert on four cough syrups made in India, linking them with 66 child deaths in The Gambia.

This came after an investigation into the deaths of children from kidney injuries in the West African country.

The health body is "conducting further investigation" with the firm - Maiden Pharmaceuticals - and Indian authorities.

It has also advised regulators to stop sale of the syrups.

India's health ministry and drugs regulator are yet to officially comment on the WHO's product alert, which it published on its website.

The BBC has emailed Maiden Pharmaceuticals for comment.

Indian government sources told the BBC on condition of anonymity that India's drug regulator had launched an investigation after it was informed of the issue on 29 September.

The regulator has also asked the WHO to share its report establishing the "causal relation to death with the medical products in question", they said.

The WHO findings, announced by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday, came after samples of each of the four cough syrups were tested. It identified the medicines as Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup.

The health body said that laboratory analysis had confirmed that the syrups contain "unacceptable amounts" of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are toxic to humans and can prove fatal when consumed.

The WHO said that so far, the products have been identified in The Gambia, but that they may have been distributed to other countries through informal markets.

"All batches of these products should be considered unsafe until they can be analysed by the relevant National Regulatory Authorities," it added.

TWO TOP ISIS TERRORISTS KILLED IN US AIR RAIDS IN SYRIA

Washington: The U.S. military said it carried out an air strike on Thursday in northern Syria that killed two Islamic State members including a leader it named as Abu-Hashum al-Umawi.

The strike came just hours after a rare U.S. helicopter raid on a government-held village in Syria's northeast killed another Islamic State official.

As with the helicopter raid, the U.S. military's Central Command said initial assessments indicated no civilian casualties and it said there were no U.S. military casualties.

US COURT TEMPORARILY BLOCKS NEW YORK GUN LAW

New York: A US federal judge blocked the enforcement of New York's new gun law Thursday, undermining for the second time this year the state's efforts to control a key factor in rising homicides.

The judge accepted a petition to place a temporary stay on the state law passed on July 1 and implemented on September 1 that tightly restricted carrying guns in "sensitive places" such as Times Square in New York City, bars, schools and playgrounds.

The new law was passed after the Supreme Court -- in a landmark ruling on June 23 -- overturned New York's previous gun laws, saying they unlawfully limited a person's right to carry a firearm in public.

But gun rights advocates said the new law, even though tailored to follow the Supreme Court ruling, in practice impinged on their constitutional rights to free speech and to possess firearms.

Judge Glenn Suddaby apparently agreed, awarding the gun rights advocates a stay, or temporary block, on the new law while their lawsuit over it proceeds.

The ruling is the latest chapter in the fight over the state's gun laws tightly limiting permission to carry a firearm outside the home.

In the newest version after the Supreme Court ruling, the state law required a person seeking a public handgun license to demonstrate "good moral character," a process that included vetting their social media accounts, providing four character references and taking 18 hours of firearms training.

It also set a long list of "sensitive locations" where firearms could not be carried.

The judge agreed that these requirements were unlawfully onerous and broad, and that Times Square and other sensitive locations did not merit special protection.

Suddaby said the new law still gives New York officials too much power to reject gun permit applicants by forcing them to go to lengths to prove they were of good moral character, rather than assuming they were in the absence of contradictory information.

"We are grateful to Judge Suddaby for his quick action to restore the right of the people to keep and bear arms," said Erich Pratt, the senior vice president of Gun Owners of America.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said they were weighing an appeal against the stay.

AT 34, BURKINA’S NEW JUNTA CHIEF IS WORLD’S YOUNGEST LEADER

Just a week ago, 34-year-old Ibrahim Traore was an unknown, even in his native Burkina Faso. But in the space of a weekend, he catapulted himself from Army captain to the world’s youngest leader — an ascent that has stoked hopes but also fears for a poor and chronically troubled country.

Mr. Traore, at the head of a core of disgruntled junior officers, ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power just in January.

The motive for the latest coup — as in January — was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly two million people from their homes.

On Wednesday, Mr. Traore was declared President and “guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity... and continuity of the State”.

At that lofty moment, Mr. Traore became the world’s youngest leader, wresting the title from Chilean President Gabriel Boric, a whole two years older.

Mr. Traore’s previously unknown face is now plastered on portraits around the capital Ouagadougou.

Mr. Traore was born in Bondokuy, in western Burkina Faso, and studied geology in Ouagadougou before joining the army in 2010.

He graduated as an officer from the Georges Namonao Military School — a second-tier institution compared to the prestigious Kadiogo Military Academy (PMK) of which Damiba and others in the elite are alumni.