DRONES TARGET MOSCOW IN 1ST ATTACK TO HIT CIVILIAN AREAS

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to Tuesday's drone attacks on the capital Moscow, accusing Ukraine of trying to frighten Russians.

He said civilians were targeted, but air defences dealt satisfactorily with the threat.

The defence ministry said at least eight drones caused minor damage, but Kyiv has denied responsibility.

This is the first time the city has been targeted by multiple drones since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no-one was seriously injured. Several drones fell on an exclusive western suburb where senior officials live.

Speaking on Russian TV, Mr Putin said the attack had been a response to what he described as a Russian attack on Ukraine's military intelligence HQ in recent days. The BBC is unable to independently verify whether any such attack took place.

"In response to this, the Kyiv regime chose a different path - the path of attempts to intimidate Russia, to intimidate Russia's citizens, and of air strikes against residential buildings," he said.

"This is obviously a sign of terrorist activity."

"They are provoking us into responding in kind," he added.

Russia's foreign ministry said Western support for Kyiv was "pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards ever more reckless criminal deeds including acts of terrorism".

NOVAK DJOKOVIC ACCUSED OF STOKING KOSOVO-SERBIA TENSION

Kosovo's tennis federation has accused Serbia's Novak Djokovic of aggravating an already tense situation after the world number three wrote that Kosovo was "the heart of Serbia" on a camera lens following his first-round win at the French Open.

Some 30 NATO peacekeeping soldiers were injured on Monday in clashes with Serb protesters in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan, where Djokovic's father grew up.

Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo's north, have never accepted the country's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. They still see Belgrade as their capital more than two decades after a Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule. Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population of Kosovo as a whole.

Monday's clashes came as ethnic Albanian mayors took office in Serb-majority areas following elections that the Serbs had boycotted.

"Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence," 22-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic wrote in Serbian on a TV camera at the French Open in Paris.

He later explained that he was against war but defended his statement and described Kosovo's situation as a "precedent". "As a son of a man born in Kosovo, I feel the need to give my support to our people and to entire Serbia," he told reporters.

Kosovo tennis federation president Jeton Hadergjonaj said in a statement: "The comments made by Novak Djokovic at the end of his Roland Garros match against Aleksandar Kovacevic, his statements at the post-match press conference and his Instagram post are regrettable."

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COULD LEAD TO EXTINCTION, EXPERTS WARN

Artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of humanity, experts - including the heads of OpenAI and Google Deepmind - have warned.

Dozens have supported a statement published on the webpage of the Centre for AI Safety.

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war" it reads.

But others say the fears are overblown.

Sam Altman, chief executive of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Demis Hassabis, chief executive of Google DeepMind and Dario Amodei of Anthropic have all supported the statement.

The Centre for AI Safety website suggests a number of possible disaster scenarios:

AIs could be weaponised - for example, drug-discovery tools could be used to build chemical weapons

AI-generated misinformation could destabilise society and "undermine collective decision-making"

The power of AI could become increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, enabling "regimes to enforce narrow values through pervasive surveillance and oppressive censorship"

Enfeeblement, where humans become dependent on AI "similar to the scenario portrayed in the film Wall-E"

Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who issued an earlier warning about risks from super-intelligent AI, has also supported the Centre for AI Safety's call.

Yoshua Bengio, professor of computer science at the university of Montreal, also signed.

Dr Hinton, Prof Bengio and NYU Professor Yann LeCun are often described as the "godfathers of AI" for their groundbreaking work in the field - for which they jointly won the 2018 Turing Award, which recognises outstanding contributions in computer science.

But Prof LeCun, who also works at Meta, has said these apocalyptic warnings are overblown tweeting that "the most common reaction by AI researchers to these prophecies of doom is face palming".

RUSSIA HAS GIVEN PASSPORTS TO 1.5M PEOPLE IN ANNEXED UKRAINE, SAYS PM

Russia has given passports to almost 1.5 million people living in the annexed parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions since last October, Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday. Moscow claimed the four Ukrainian regions as its own last September. It does not fully control any of the regions, and the annexations are not recognised internationally. Mishustin said some 1.6 million people in the regions were receiving pensions and about 1.5 million were receiving social benefits.

ANARCHISTS DON’T QUALIFY FOR DIALOGUE: PAK’S PM SHARIF ON IMRAN’S FENCE-MENDING OFFER

Islamabad : Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharifon Tuesday hinted that his government was unwilling to talk with former premier Imran Khan’s PTI, saying the “anarchists and arsonists” who wear the garb of politicians and attack the symbols of the state do not qualify for a dialogue.

Imran has said he is ready to speak to “anyone who is in power” after senior PTI members began to quit the party following the May 9 riots. Khan, the chairman of PTI, constituted a seven-member team to hold talks with the government — for developing a consensus on a date for general elections — amid a massive crackdown on his party for the May 9 violence. PMSharif, in a tweet, acknowledged that dialogue is deeply embedded in the political process.

“Many political reakthroughs occurred when political leaders sat across the table to craft a consensus,” Sharif said without naming anyone. But he said there is a major difference when it comes to the party led by Imran. “The anarchists and arsonists who wear the garb of politicians and attack the symbols of the State do not qualify for a dialogue. They should rather be held to account for their militant actions,” he said.

Information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb also rejected the PTI chief’s offer for talks, Geo News reported.

IMF: RESOLVE ROW IN LINE WITH RULE OF LAW

In an unusual move, the IMF on Tuesday urged Pakistan to resolve its political disputes in line with the “constitution and rule of law”. The remarks by IMF mission chief to Pakistan Nathan Porter came after PM Shehbaz Sharif contacted the chief of the lender to revive the much-awaited $6. 5 billion bailout package in a last-ditch effort to avoid a possible default. Pakistan and the IMF have failed to reach a staff-level deal on the much-needed $1. 1 billion bailout package aimed at preventing the country from going bankrupt. “We take note of the recent political developments (and) do hope that a peaceful way forward is found in line with the Constitution and rule of law,” Porter said.

IMRAN SUES FOR $10BN OVER ‘COKE USE’ CLAIM

Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan on Tuesday slapped a Pakistani Rs 10 billion defamation notice on health minister Abdul Qadir Patel after the latter disclosed “traces of alcohol and cocaine were found in the former PM’s urine analysis”. The notice was served on account of the “dissemination of wrongful, malicious and defamatory information” against Imran, Express Tribune said. Meanwhile, Imran was granted bail on a new charge of abetting violence against the military by his supporters after he was arrested on May 9, his lawyer said. The lawyer, Intezar Hussain Punjotha, said an anti-terrorism court confirmed the bail after Imran appeared before it and submitted surety bonds.

JAPAN COURT: BAN ON SAME-SEX UNION UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Tokyo : A Japanese court ruled on Tuesday that not allowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, a decision activists welcomed as a step towards marriage equality in the only Group of Seven nation with no legal protection for same-sexunions. The ruling by the Nagoya district court was the second to find a ban against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, out of four cases over the past two years, and is likely to add to pressure to change the law in a country. “This ruling has rescued us from the hurt of last year’s ruling that said there was nothing wrong with the ban, ” lead lawyer Yoko Mizutani said.

NORTH KOREA LAUNCHES ROCKET AFTER SATELLITE WARNING

North Korea has launched a rocket shortly after announcing it planned to send up its first space satellite, sources in Japan and South Korea say.

Japan issued a warning to residents in the southern prefecture of Okinawa but later reported there was no danger of the rocket hitting its territory.

The rocket has since come down, possibly after breaking up in the air.

North Korea said earlier it planned to launch a satellite by 11 June to monitor US military activities.

Japan said it was ready to shoot down anything that threatened its territory.

There was chaos and confusion in Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Wednesday morning local time, as people awoke to the sound of an air raid siren and an emergency message telling them to prepare for an evacuation - only to be told 20 minutes later it had been sent in error.

The stakes are high on the Korean Peninsula, where tensions have existed between the two countries for 70 years, and this false alarm could seriously damage people's trust in the alert system.

North Korea poses a threat to South Korea, and if there is an alert in the future one question being asked is whether it will be taken seriously, or brushed off as another mistake.

South Korea's military said the projectile might have broken up in mid-air or crashed after it vanished from radar early, adding that analysis was being conducted, Yonhap news agency reports.

On Tuesday, Ri Pyong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea's ruling party's central military commission, announced the launch plan, saying it was in response to "reckless military acts" by the US and South Korea.

He accused the countries of "openly revealing their reckless ambition for aggression".

LET LEADER WHO INDOCTRINATED 26/11 TERRORISTS DIES IN PAK JAIL

Islamabad : Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader and outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founding member Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, who had indoctrinated terrorists for the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, was found dead inside his prison cell in Sheikhupura town of Punjab province, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

Speaking to TOI, authorities claimed that the JuD leader’s death had occurred due to cardiac arrest on Monday. “It was a severe heart attack and it caused sudden death on the spot in a prison cell,” a well-placed source confirmed. His funeral prayers were offered at 9 am (local time) on Tuesday at LeT’s headquartersin Muridke, near Lahore.

Bhuttavi (78) was believed to be a key figure responsible for indoctrination of LeT terrorists and its affiliated outfits. He, however, was not sentenced for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks. A court in Pakistan had sentenced him to prison time along with two other JuD leaders, Malik Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, in August 2020 for financing terror, ahead of a September 2020 deadline for Pakistan to avoid being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force the global financial watchdog, for failing to curb “terror financing”. Each of them were handed more than 16 years in jail to be served concurrently. The men were considered tobe close associates of LeT founder Hafiz Saeed. Bhuttavi was described as the interim leader of the group during the brief periods when Saeed was arrested following the Mumbai attacks, and running its network of seminaries. In mid-2002, Bhuttavi was in charge of establishing an LeT organisational base in Lahore.

The US treasury department had sanctioned him in September 2011, saying he had been responsible for fundraising, recruitment and indoctrination of LeT operatives for 20 years. “Bhuttavi. . . helped prepare the operatives for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks by delivering lectures on the merits of martyrdom,” it had said at the time. The UNSC designated Bhuttavi a terrorist in 2012. At the time, the UNSC described Bhuttavi as a founding member of LeT and deputy to Saeed. The UNSC notification too added that Bhuttavi helped prepare the operatives for the 2008 terrorist assault in Mumbai.

TWO FEMALE IRAN JOURNALISTS FACE TRIAL FOR COVERING HIJAB DEATH ROW

A Revolutionary Court in Iran on Tuesday began the trial of a female journalist behind closed doors on charges linked to her coverage of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in custody last year sparked months of unrest, her husband said on Twitter.

Mahsa Amini’s death while held by the morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code unleashed a wave of mass anti-government protests for months, posing one of the boldest challenges to the country's clerical leaders in decades.

A photo taken by Niloofar Hamedi for the pro-reform Sharq daily showing Amini’s parents hugging each other in a Tehran hospital where their daughter was lying in a coma was the first sign to the world that all was not well with 22-year-old Amini. Tuesday’s trial session “ended in less than two hours while her lawyers did not get a chance to defend her and her family was not allowed to attend,” her husband, Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou, said on Twitter. “She denied all the charges against her and emphasized that she had performed her duty as a journalist. ”

Hamedi, along with another female journalist, Elaheh Mohammadi, who went on trial on Monday, face several charges including “colluding with hostile powers” for their coverage of Amini’s death. Iran’s intelligence in October accused Mohammadi and Hamedi, imprisoned for over eight months, of being CIA foreign agents.

MUSK IN CHINA WITH TESLA EXPANSION, TIES WITH AMERICA IN FOCUS

BEIJING: Elon Musk met Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing on Tuesday, as the Tesla CEO embarks on his first trip to China in more than three years. Qin and Musk discussed relations between China and the U.S., with the Qin saying the two countries should “apply the brakes in a timely manner to avoid dangerous driving”.

UN CHIEF ‘VERY CONCERNED’ OVER UGANDA’S HARSH ANTI-GAY LAW

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was “very concerned” after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay law described as among the world’s harshest. “The secretary-general continues to call on all member states to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” his spokesperson said.

CHINESE MISSION WITH FIRST CIVILIAN REACHES SPACE

China sent three astronauts to its Tiangong space station on Tuesday, putting a civilian into orbit for the first time as it pursues plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030.

The world’s second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its military-run space programme in a push to catch up with the United States and Russia.

The Shenzhou-16 crew took off atop a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 9:31 a.m. (0301 IMT). They docked at the space station’s Tianhe core module on Tuesday afternoon, more than six hours after taking off.

The launch was a “complete success” and the “astronauts are in good condition”, Zou Lipeng, director of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center said.

Leading its crew is commander Jing Haipeng on his fourth mission, as well as engineer Zhu Yangzhu and Beihang University professor Gui Haichao, the first Chinese civilian in space.

China was the third country to put humans in orbit and Tiangong is the crown jewel of its space programme, which has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon.