World

Pakistan's military says death toll from India attacks rises to 31

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

A general view of a damaged structure of an Islamic seminary after Indian strikes in Ahmedpur Sharqia, about 7 kilometers from Bahawalpur in Pakistan's Punjab province, on May 7, 2025 (AFP photo)

ISLAMABAD — The death toll from Indian air strikes and border firing on Pakistan rose to 31 on Wednesday, the country's military said.

"The death toll has climbed to 31 and 57 others have been wounded," Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said in a televised address.

India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier on Wednesday, after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades.

India said it carried out "precision strikes at terrorist camps" at nine sites in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in Punjab state, days after it blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed region.

The Indian army said "justice is served", with New Delhi adding that its actions "have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature".

Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching the strikes to "shore up" his domestic popularity, but said that Islamabad had struck back.

"The retaliation has already started", Asif told AFP. "We won't take long to settle the score."

Asif claimed five "enemy aircraft" were downed by Pakistan, without giving further details and after backtracking on an earlier statement that Indian soldiers had been captured.

An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, meanwhile said three Indian fighter jets crashed on Wednesday on home territory without giving a cause.

It was not immediately clear what happened to the pilots.

Wreckage of an Indian fighter jet was seen by an AFP photographer at Wuyan -- on the Indian controlled side of Kashmir.

'Shelling raining down'

Islamabad said a three-year-old child was among eight civilians killed in the strikes.

In Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, troops cordoned off streets around a mosque Islamabad said was hit, with marks of explosions also visible on the walls of several homes.

Shortly after, India's army accused Pakistan of "indiscriminate" firing across the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border in Kashmir, with bursts of flame as shells landed, AFP reporters saw.

"We woke up as we heard the sound of firing", Farooq, a man in the Indian town of Poonch, told the Press Trust of India news agency from his hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bandage. "I saw shelling raining down... two persons were wounded".

At least eight Indians were killed and 29 others wounded in the town, local revenue officer Azhar Majid told AFP from the town's hospital.

India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir by gunmen it said were from Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.

The assault in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam left 26 people dead, mainly Hindu men.

No group has claimed responsibility but New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.

Pakistan rejects the accusations and called for independent probe.

The two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the LoC, according to the Indian army. Pakistan also said it has held two missile tests.

'Maximum restraint'

The violence is a dangerous escalation between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of the sub-continent at the end of British rule in 1947.

The assaults already exceed India's strikes in 2019, when New Delhi said it had hit "several militants" after a suicide bomber attacked an Indian security force convoy, killing 40.

"India's strike on Pakistan is of much greater scale than the one in 2019... Pakistan's response... has also exceeded the scale of 2019", US-based analyst Michael Kugelman said.

Diplomats have piled pressure on leaders to step back from the brink of war.

"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," the spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump called Wednesday for India and Pakistan to halt their fighting, the worst violence between the nuclear-armed countries in two decades.

"I want to see them stop," Trump said at the White House, adding: "We get along with both countries very well, good relationships with both, and I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help, I will be there."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken to top security officials in both New Delhi and Islamabad since the strikes and said he was monitoring the situation "closely".

India's army said it had "demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution", adding that "no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted".

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, calling the Indian attack "unprovoked" and "cowardly", said the "heinous act of aggression will not go unpunished."

Rebels in Indian-administered Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.

India was also set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday, while schools in Pakistan Punjab and Kashmir were closed, local government officials said.

The strikes came just hours after Modi said that water flowing across India's borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an "act of war".

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World energy methane emissions near record high in 2024 — IEA

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

Kuwaiti volunteers plant black mangrove trees at the Al Jahra nature reserve, north of Kuwait City on May 6, 2025, part of a reforestation campaign (AFP photo)

PARIS — Record fossil fuel production kept planet-heating methane emissions near historic highs last year, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday, warning of a surge in massive leaks from oil and gas facilities.

Slashing emissions of methane -- second only to carbon dioxide for its contribution to global warming -- is essential to meeting international targets on climate change and one of the fastest ways to curb temperature rise.

But the IEA warned that countries are considerably underestimating their energy sector methane pollution, estimating that emissions are around 80 per cent higher than the total reported by governments to the United Nations.

The energy sector is responsible for around a third of the methane emitted by human activities.

It leaks from gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure, and is also deliberately released during equipment maintenance.

Tackling this is considered one of the easiest ways to lower emissions because plugging leaks can often be done at little or no cost.

"However, the latest data indicates that implementation on methane has continued to fall short of ambitions," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

'Super-emitters'

The IEA's Global Methane Tracker report said over 120 million tonnes was released from the fossil fuel sector in 2024, close to the record high in 2019.

China has the largest energy methane emissions globally, mainly from its coal sector.

The United States follows in second, driven by its oil and gas sector, with Russia third.

The IEA said its figures are based on measured data where possible, compared to emissions reported by governments, which can be outdated or estimated using information from the energy sector.

Global methane emissions are becoming easier to monitor from space, with more than 25 satellites tracking gas plumes from fossil fuel facilities and other sources.

The IEA said that Europe's Sentinel 5 satellite, which just sees the very largest leaks, showed that "super-emitting methane events" at oil and gas facilities rose to a record high in 2024.

These huge leaks were observed all over the world, but particularly in the United States, Turkmenistan and Russia.

Abandoned oil and gas wells, and coal mines are also significant sources of methane leaking into the atmosphere, the IEA said in new analysis for this year's report.

When taken together they would be the "world's fourth-largest emitter of fossil fuel methane", accounting for some eight million tonnes last year.

'Tremendous impact'

Some 40 per cent of methane emissions come from natural sources, mainly wetlands.

The rest are from human activities, particularly agriculture and the energy sector.

Because methane is potent but relatively short-lived it is a key target for countries wanting to slash emissions quickly.

More than 150 countries have promised a 30 per cent reduction by 2030.

Oil and gas firms have meanwhile pledged to slash methane emissions by 2050.

The IEA estimated that cutting methane released by the fossil fuel sector would significantly slow global warming, preventing a roughly 0.1 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures by 2050.

"This would have a tremendous impact -- comparable to eliminating all CO2 emissions from the world's heavy industry in one stroke," the report said.

Around 70 per cent of annual methane emissions from the energy sector could be avoided with existing technologies.

But only five percent of global oil and gas meets "near-zero" emissions standards, the IEA said.

Energy think tank Ember said the fossil fuel industry needs to reduce methane emissions by 75 per cent by 2030 if the world is to meet the target of reducing overall emissions to net zero by the middle of this century.

In particular, methane from coal was "still being ignored," said Ember analyst Sabina Assan.

"There are cost-effective technologies available today, so this is a low-hanging fruit of tackling methane. We can't let coal mines off the hook any longer."

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Ukraine and Russia trade aerial attacks ahead of parade, Putin's truce order

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

Russian Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets and MiG-29 fighter jets fly above Moscow during the general rehearsal of the Victory Day military parade on May 7, 2025 (AFP photo)

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine traded a barrage of drone strikes overnight on Wednesday, in attacks that killed two in Kyiv and forced Moscow to shut major airports hours before a swathe of foreign leaders was to arrive.

The Kremlin has announced a unilateral three-day truce -- set to start at 2100 GMT on Wednesday -- to coincide with its grand May 9 military parade on Red Square, marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany.

China's President Xi Jinping and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among 29 foreign leaders expected in Moscow to mark the occasion, which has become Russia's most important public holiday under President Vladimir Putin.

Kyiv has dismissed Putin's order to his troops to halt their attacks as a "manipulation" and "game" designed to protect his parade rather than a genuine peace measure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire -- a proposal back by US President Donald Trump and previously rejected by Putin.

Hours before Putin's order was set to come into effect, Moscow unleashed a barrage of drone attacks across Ukraine.

"Two residents of the capital died as a result of the hostile attack," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on social media.

The emergency services said falling debris from a drone attack on the central Shevchenkivsky district sparked a fire in an apartment block.

AFP journalists in the capital heard loud explosions over the city at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT).

In the morning, a first aid tent had been erected next to the charred facade of the building, blackened by the fire and with windows blown out on its top floors.

Men in camouflage were inspecting debris from a fallen drone part.

Moscow airports closed

Attempted drone attacks by Ukraine across Russia triggered hours of travel chaos, as airports across the western part of the country were repeatedly closed on Tuesday and the early hours of Wednesday.

Arrivals and departures from Moscow's main Sheremetyevo international airport were suspended for hours overnight, aviation authorities said.

"The restrictions were imposed to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights," Artyom Korenyako, press secretary for the Federal Aviation Transport Agency, wrote on Telegram.

Moscow regularly halts air traffic in areas where its air defence systems are operating, but the scale of the forced closures has escalated significantly in the run-up to the May 9 parade.

Russia's defence ministry reported downing dozens of Ukrainian drones targeting the country, including Moscow, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Since Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine has on several occasions launched attacks at the Russian capital and other major cities and infrastructure sites hundreds of miles from its border.

Kyiv calls it fair retaliation for Moscow's daily missile and drone barrages on its own cities.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded, with towns and cities across Ukraine's south and east levelled under intense Russian aerial attacks.

Moscow's army controls around 20 percent of the country, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.

A wave of deadly Russian ballistic missile strikes on civilian areas in April triggered fresh outrage in Kyiv and saw Trump issue a rare rebuke to Putin.

Ukraine has said it cannot be held responsible for the safety of foreign leaders visiting Moscow for the parade, in an apparent rejection of Putin's truce proposal.

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World's richest 10% caused two thirds of global warming — study

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

A jogger runs in the morning light through the Tiergarten Park in Berlin on April 16, 2019 (AFP photo)

PARIS — The world's wealthiest 10 per cent of individuals are responsible for two thirds of global warming since 1990, researchers said Tuesday.

How the rich consume and invest has substantially increased the risk of deadly heatwaves and drought, they reported in the first study to quantify the impact of concentrated private wealth on extreme climate events.

"We link the carbon footprints of the wealthiest individuals directly to real-world climate impacts," lead author Sarah Schoengart, a scientist at ETH Zurich, told AFP.

"It's a shift from carbon accounting toward climate accountability."

Compared to the global average, for example, the richest one percent contributed 26 times more to once-a-century heatwaves, and 17 times more to droughts in the Amazon, according to the findings, published in Nature Climate Change.

Emissions from the wealthiest 10 per cent in China and the United States -- which together account for nearly half of global carbon pollution -- each led to a two-to-threefold rise in heat extremes.

Burning fossil fuels and deforestation have heated Earth's average surface by 1.3 degrees Celsius, mostly during the last 30 years.

Schoengart and colleagues combined economic data and climate simulations to trace emissions from different global income groups and assess their impact on specific types of climate-enhance extreme weather.

The researchers also emphasised the role of emissions embedded in financial investment rather than just lifestyle and personal consumption.

"Climate action that doesn't address the outsized responsibilities of the wealthiest members of society risk missing one of the most powerful levers we have to reduce future harm," said senior author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, head of the Integrated Climate Impacts Research Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis near Vienna.

Billionaires tax

Owners of capital, he noted, could be held accountable for climate impacts through progressive taxes on wealth and carbon-intensive investments.

Earlier research has shown that taxing asset-related emissions is more equitable than broad carbon taxes, which tend to burden those on lower incomes.

Recent initiatives to increase taxes on the super-rich and multinationals have mostly stalled, especially since Donald Trump regained the White House.

Last year, Brazil -- as host of the G20 -- pushed for a two-per cent tax on the net worth of individuals with more than $1 billion in assets.

Although G20 leaders agreed to "engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed," there has been no follow-up to date.

In 2021, nearly 140 countries agreed on work toward a global corporate tax for multinational companies, with nearly half endorsing a minimum rate of 15 per cent, but those talks have stalled as well.

Almost a third of the world's billionaires are from the United States -- more than China, India and Germany combined, according to Forbes magazine.

According to anti-poverty NGO Oxfam, the richest 1 per cent have accumulated $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade.

It says the richest one percent have more wealth than the lowest 95 per cent combined.

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Explosions and fire on the contested India-Pakistan border

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

POONCH, INDIA — At dawn Wednesday on the contested border between India and Pakistan, in the usually sleepy Indian-run town of Poonch, a thumping explosion ripped the air as an artillery shell smashed into a building.

Red flames shot high in the sky, and black smoke towered high.

India launched missile strikes against arch-rival Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday, two weeks after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian-run side of the disputed Kashmir.

Pakistan reported that at least 26 civilians were killed in the strikes.

The strikes escalated repeated nighttime gunfire between Indian and Pakistani soldiers across the de facto border, known as the Line of Control, in the contested Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Buildings shook and glass shattered as the two vast armies duelled with heavy artillery across the line.

At least 12 people were killed and dozens wounded on the Indian side in Poonch, according to local government official Azhar Majid.

In the hours before sunrise on Wednesday, the crump of explosions echoed over the town, both incoming from Pakistan and Indian fire in response.

The power went out and air raid sirens wailed, as flares fired into the sky lit up the town, AFP reporters saw.

As the explosions grew louder and more frequent, some took the risk to flee and others hunkered down in basements, seeking what shelter they could find.

Calls echoed from the mosque loudspeaker warning people to stay indoors.

As dawn broke, AFP reporters heard the sound of vehicles as residents took their chance to escape.

During a lull in gunfire, hundreds of people trekked out of Poonch, by car and on foot.

Stores on the road leading away from the town did brisk business as people rushed to buy food, stocking up for when they can find somewhere safe to hunker down.

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Germany's Merz vows to be 'very European' chancellor

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

France's President Emmanuel Macron (R) welcomes Germany's newly elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz (L) at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on May 7, 2025 (AFP photo)

BERLIN — Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed Tuesday to be a "very European" leader, with the continent's other countries hopeful Germany will take on a greater international role.

"I am influenced by my work in the European Parliament, that has shaped me a lot to this day," Merz said after being elected chancellor by the Bundestag earlier in the day.

On his first full day in office, Merz will head Wednesday to France and then Poland seeking to boost ties with European neighbours in turbulent times.

Europe has sought to present a united front as US President Donald Trump upends long-standing security and diplomatic ties, and in the face of a hostile Russia.

But Germany has for the most part been on the sidelines since the collapse in November of former chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, with politics all but paralysed as the country awaited a new leader.

Asked how Germany could seek to influence talks on a possible peace deal in the Ukraine war, Merz said there was a "proven format" of Berlin working together with France and Britain.

"Germany has been quite reticent in recent months due to the transition from one government to another," Merz told public broadcaster ZDF, before adding that he planned to "consult intensively" with London and Paris from now.

"If we can include the Poles, then it will be even better," he added.

European countries have been worried about being sidelined in talks on the conflict, after Trump's overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Merz has vowed a crackdown on immigration but he insisted that European neighbours' views would be "taken into consideration".

"I will be discussing these issues with both the French president and the Polish prime minister, we want to prepare a European policy together," he said.

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India launches strikes on Pakistan, Islamabad vows to 'settle the score'

By - May 07,2025 - Last updated at May 07,2025

Civil defense volunteers take part in an emergency simulation drill as part of the nationwide civil defence mock drill in Mumbai on May 7, 2025, as border tensions surge (AFP photo)

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan — India and Pakistan exchanged heavy artillery along their contested frontier on Wednesday, after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival in the worst violence between the nuclear-armed neighbours in two decades.

Islamabad reported 26 civilians killed by the Indian strikes and firing along the border, while New Delhi said at least eight were killed by Pakistani shelling.