Baluch attack on Karachi airport: 2 Chinese engineers killed

Today's news: Hamas rockets from Gaza and Israeli raids on the Strip and Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Hamas assault; Five dead from heat and crowds at an Indian acrobatic patrol performance in Chennai; Johor from 1 January will return the weekend to Saturday and Sunday; North Korean officers also among Russian soldiers killed by Ukrainians in Donetsk.

PAKISTAN-CHINA

Two Chinese citizens were killed and at least 10 people injured last night in a suicide attack near Karachi airport in Pakistan. A third body, not yet officially identified, is believed to be that of the bomber. The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said the blast was a ‘terrorist attack’ on a convoy of Chinese engineers working on an energy project in Sindh province. The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which has carried out attacks against Chinese nationals working on development projects in Pakistan in recent years, claimed the attack.

ISRAEL-GAZA-LIBAN

On the day the whole world remembers the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks that started the war, Palestinian militiamen fired rockets at southern Israel this mttina. Israel claims to have intercepted three, while a fourth fell in an open area. In turn, Israel shelled Gaza's al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, injuring at least 11 displaced Palestinians. On the northern front, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least 12 people were killed, including several children, in two separate Israeli attacks in the country.

INDIA

At least five people died and 50 others were hospitalised in a crowd of people who gathered on the Marina beach in Chennai yesterday for an exhibition of the Indian Air Force aerobatic patrol. Local authorities claim the deaths were caused by dehydration and extreme fatigue, while people who attended the event complain of poor crowd management, lack of traffic planning and inadequate public transport.

JAPAN

According to estimates by a research institute, the number of people over the age of 65 without close relatives in Japan is expected to grow by about 1.5 times by 2050, to represent more than 10 per cent of the elderly population. People without relatives up to the third degree, including great-grandchildren, would amount to 4.48 million, according to the Japan Research Institute, raising concerns about who will act as guarantors for hospitals and nursing homes and who will claim their bodies in the event of their death.

MALAYSIA

The regent of Johor, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, announced that weekend days off will be changed back to Saturdays and Sundays as of 1 January 2025. In this Malaysian state, they had been moved to Fridays and Saturdays since January 2014 to allow Muslims to perform their prayers, as decreed by Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar. But the measure created problems due to discrepancies between the public and private sectors.

NORTH KOREA-UKRAINE-RUSSIA

There were also reportedly six North Korean military officers among some 20 soldiers killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Russian-occupied territory near the city of Donetsk on Thursday. Citing Ukrainian military intelligence sources, Interfax-Ukraine said that three other North Korean military officers were also injured. According to some Russian bloggers, the North Korean military officers were visiting the front as part of an ‘exchange of experience’ programme.

RUSSIA

7 October is Vladimir Putin's 72nd birthday, and the first to fly to Moscow to congratulate him was Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukašenko. As the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed us, the CIS Council of Heads of State is being held in Moscow for the occasion, ‘in full format and with a rather full agenda’.

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