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denver — Twelve people were rescued Thursday night after being trapped for about six hours at the bottom of a former Colorado gold mine when an elevator malfunctioned at the tourist site, authorities said. One person died in the accident. The elevator was descending into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near the town of Cripple Creek when it had a mechanical problem around 150 meters beneath the surface, creating a "severe danger for the participants," and one person was killed, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said. The 12 adults who were trapped were about 305 meters below ground, but they had access to water and the atmosphere was considered good. They were safe and in communication with authorities with radios while waiting, Mikesell said. They were in good spirits after they were rescued, and authorities gave them pizza once they were out and told them everything that had happened, he said. While at the bottom, authorities had told them only that there was an elevator issue. Mikesell said during a nighttime briefing that authorities do not know yet what caused the malfunction and an investigation is underway. Engineers worked to make sure the elevator was working safely again before bringing the stranded visitors back up on it. They had been prepared to bring them up by rope if necessary, had they not been able to get the elevator fixed. Mikesell declined to reveal the identification of the victim. The incident, which was reported to authorities at about noon, happened during the final week of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine season before it shuts down for the winter, Mikesell said. Earlier in the afternoon — while the 12 were stuck at the bottom — 11 other people who were riding the elevator were rescued. Four had minor injuries. The sheriff did not elaborate on how they were injured. The elevator ride typically takes about two minutes, travelling about 152 meters per minute, according to the mine's website. Mikesell said the last time there was an incident was in the 1980s when a couple of people were trapped on the elevator. Nobody died in that incident. Mines that operate as tourist attractions in Colorado must designate someone to inspect the mines and the transportation systems daily, according to the state Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. Mikesell said he didn't know the date of the last inspection. Records of the inspections weren't immediately available online. Gov. Jared Polis sent state resources including a mine rescue team. Cripple Creek is a town of about 1,100 in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Colorado Springs. The mine opened in the 1800s and closed in 1961, but still operates tours. Its website describes a one-hour tour in which visitors descend 304 meters. It says they can see veins of gold in the rock and ride an underground tram. A woman named Mollie Kathleen Gortner discovered the site of the mine in 1891 when she saw quartz laced with gold, according to the company's website.

washington — The Afghan national charged in a plot to carry out an Election Day terror attack in the United States passed multiple background checks before being allowed to enter the country, U.S. officials told VOA. FBI agents arrested Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on Monday, alleging he and a juvenile co-conspirator had been in contact with a recruiter for the Islamic State terror group and had been planning to die in a mass shooting. Court documents also stated that Tawhedi hoped to relocate most of his family, including his wife and 1-year-old daughter, back to Afghanistan to live according to what he described as "pure Islam." However, U.S. officials, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of a case still under investigation, said Thursday that there were no indications Tawhedi was sympathetic to the Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS or Daesh, either when he worked for the United States in Afghanistan or when he was screened immediately before to coming to the U.S. three years ago. "Every Afghan being resettled in the United States undergoes a rigorous screening and vetting process, no matter which [U.S.] agency they worked with," the official said. "That process includes checking against a full range of relevant U.S. records and holdings," the official added. "Tawhedi would not have been admitted to the United States had information of concern surfaced." Kinds of data A second U.S. official told VOA that Tawhedi's vetting included checks that involved both biometric data collected by the U.S. Department of Defense and the FBI, and classified information held by U.S. intelligence agencies. Subsequent screenings that allowed him to be approved for a Special Immigrant Visa after he entered the U.S. also came up clean. "Vetting is a point-in-time check that evaluates information available to the U.S. government at that time," the official said. The second official also said the government can take additional actions "if individuals who have entered the country are later found to be associated with information indicating a potential national security or public safety concern." NBC News, which first reported that Tawhedi's background checks failed to detect any red flags, quoted sources as saying he had worked as a security guard for the CIA before being resettled in the U.S. When reached by VOA, the CIA declined comment. But the arrest has raised concerns among some U.S. lawmakers. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican Representative Mark Green, sent a letter Wednesday to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security demanding more information. "These recent arrests raise serious concerns about the ongoing threat that ISIS and its fanatical supporters pose to U.S. national security, as well as the shortfall in the Biden-Harris administration's screening and vetting capabilities," Green wrote. "Additionally, news of these potential Afghan terrorists comes when only months ago, it was widely reported that eight Tajikistanis with ties to ISIS were arrested in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia after they had illegally crossed the border," Green added. The FBI confirmed receipt of Green's letter but declined further comment. A Homeland Security spokesperson did not comment on the letter but described the vetting process for Afghans fleeing Taliban rule as "multilayered." "Afghan evacuees who sought to enter the United States were subject to multilayered screening and vetting against intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism information," the spokesperson told VOA in an email. "If new information emerges after arrival, appropriate action is taken." When was he radicalized? But in the case of Tawhedi, questions remain. "What's not clear from the information currently available is exactly when Tawhedi was radicalized to the Islamic State ideology," said Austin Doctor, the director of counterterrorism research initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center (NCITE). "We don't know yet whether he radicalized after arriving to the United States or if he already held pro-ISIS beliefs prior to leaving Afghanistan," Doctor told VOA. "This matters." According to court documents, a search of Tawhedi's phone and social media accounts showed he had been doing internet searches to find and consume IS propaganda, though when that started is not clear. The earliest date for any involvement with IS, according to the criminal complaint filed Monday, is sometime around March of this year, when Tawhedi made two cryptocurrency transfers worth at least $540 to what prosecutors described as a charity that fronts for IS. About four months later, in July, someone made a video recording – saved to Tawhedi's phone – of Tawhedi reading to a nephew and his daughter about the rewards waiting for martyrs in the afterlife. The first indications of a possible terror plot emerged that same month, when the FBI said Tawhedi did online searches about webcams for the White House and the Washington Monument, as well as about procuring guns. It also remains unclear whether Tawhedi's Islamic State contact was working for the group's Afghan affiliate, known as IS-Khorasan or ISIS-K. "We've seen ISIS-K make a concerted effort to recruit from diaspora communities," NCITE's Doctor told VOA. "And facilitating external operations and inspiring homegrown violent extremist attacks are both prominent elements of the group's playbook."  

washington — The article in the Seattle Tribune had everything: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Adolf Hitler and a $15 million classic car. Unsurprisingly, it spread like wildfire across Russia's state and pro-Kremlin media. But the subject was a strange one for a news site about a U.S. city; such outlets usually cover only local stories. In fact, the article with headline "Hitler's parade car bought by Ukraine's Zelensky" was another fake spread by Russian propaganda. There is no such media outlet as the Seattle Tribune, just a website masquerading as a full-fledged publication. And the article itself was a compilation of Russia's disinformation "greatest hits" about Ukraine — "Nazism," "unrestrained corruption" and "wasting American aid." According to the phony news article, Zelenskyy was spotted in Kyiv exiting a Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen, Adolf Hitler's parade car. The sighting supposedly occurred just days after the Ukrainian leader returned from Washington, where the U.S. government had allocated an $8 billion aid package to his country. The article featured a screenshot of a post by the Ukrainian Telegram messenger channel Realna Viyna ("Real War" in Ukrainian) featuring a photo of the vehicle parked in front of the Ukrainian presidential administration building in Kyiv. However, beyond the Seattle Tribune news site not actually existing, the article had several other glaring problems. First, Realna Viyna did not publish the post in the screenshot. Second, the image of "Hitler's car" was stolen from a photo widely available on the internet that was digitally edited into an image of the Ukrainian presidential administration building. VOA found that the angle of photo in the screenshot, a black spot on the asphalt under the car's running board, and the reflection on the front windshield completely match the image of the Mercedes-Benz 770K found across the internet. Third, the Seattle Tribune website was registered on October 3, 2024, just six days before the fake article was published. And the registration was set for only one year. The Seattle Tribune appears to belong to a network of disinformation websites controlled by John Mark Dougan, an American living in Russia, according to Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist who fact checks and debunks disinformation at the BBC. He noted on social network X that creating fake local American news sites is Dougan's standard approach. That conclusion matches VOA's observations about Dougan's network. A former deputy sheriff in Florida, Dougan was charged with extortion and wiretapping in the United States. In 2016, he fled to Russia and later received political asylum there. He now operates at least 167 disinformation sites that often publish narratives serving Russian interests, according to a May 2024 investigation by NewsGuard. Dougan's sites previously attracted widespread attention for spreading a fake story claiming that Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, had purchased a $4.8 million Bugatti supercar during a visit to France for commemorations of the D-Day landing. That story seemed to be aimed at a Western audience. The fake "Hitler car" story, however, is mostly spreading in the Russian information space. In a message on the Telegram messenger, Dougan told VOA that he was unaware of the Seattle Tribune. "Never heard of it. But I looked it up [and] heard there's lots of great information on there. A real pillar of journalistic integrity, on par with the NYT, CNN and MSNBC," he wrote, referring to The New York Times and two major U.S. TV news channels. As is often the case with higher-quality fakes, the phony story about Hitler's parade car combines a fictitious narrative about Zelenskyy with real facts about the sale of a former Nazi parade car in the United States. The factual information comes from an article in a real American newspaper: The Seattle Times, which reported in February 2018 that the Mercedes-Benz 770K had briefly appeared in the Seattle area after having been put up for auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, a month earlier. While the vehicle did not sell at the auction, it soon found a buyer. After that, the "Hitler car" was briefly unloaded from a truck in the wealthy Seattle suburb of Medina, where it attracted the attention of a local resident, who told The Seattle Times about it. Later, the car was likely reloaded onto the truck and taken way. The director of the auction company Worldwide Auctioneers, Rod Egan (his name was also mentioned in the fake Seattle Tribune story), refused to tell The Seattle Times the buyer of the car, citing a non-disclosure agreement. However, Egan said the car's ultimate destination was "very, very far away" outside the United States. The Seattle Times article also cited a German media report that six such cars were bought by a Russian billionaire in 2009. Among them was the vehicle mentioned in the fake article. The fake story about Zelenskyy and the "Hitler car" also recalled a scene from the 2001 American comedy film "Rat Race," in which actor Jon Lovitz steals Hitler's parade car from a fictional museum of Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie and then crashes it into a gathering of American World War II veterans. Asked whether he was familiar with the film and scene, Dougan replied, "Comedy gold right there."

Kenya's national airline is producing diesel fuel made from plastic waste. Authorities say the goal is to provide cheaper fuel and to reduce plastic waste pollution. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.

washington — This week, Pakistan banned a grassroots protest movement advocating for the rights of Pashtuns, an ethnic minority inhabiting the country's northwestern region. The government in Islamabad contends the movement, known as PTM, poses a threat to national sovereignty and security, but human rights groups view the move as part of a larger crackdown on dissent. The ban, enacted Sunday under Pakistan's anti-terror law, comes as tensions are mounting ahead of a PTM-planned jirga, or council of elders, on Friday. Here is what you need to know about PTM: What is it? The Pashtun Tahafuz (Protection) Movement grew out of the turmoil of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and Pakistan's counterterrorism operations in the tribal region. With the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan driving the Taliban and al-Qaida into the region, the Pakistani military launched a series of operations over the next two decades to hunt down the militants. The consequences were devastating for the local population. Tens of thousands were killed, thousands were forcibly disappeared and millions more were displaced. These experiences fueled a growing sense of resentment and injustice among the Pashtuns. In response to the alleged human rights abuses by the army and extremists, a group of eight university students from the Mehsud tribe formed the Mehsud Tahafuz Movement in 2014. The movement gained national attention in 2018 after leading a 300-kilometer march to the capital to protest the killing of a Pashtun man by Pakistani police. The group then rebranded as the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, or PTM, giving fellow Pashtuns a cause to rally around. PTM co-founder Manzoor Pashteen, known for his charismatic personality and oratorical skills, has become the face of the movement. Other key leaders include Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, both of whom served as independent lawmakers in Pakistan's parliament. Along with other PTM leaders and activists, they've been repeatedly arrested on a variety of charges. How large is PTM? While there are no figures on PTM membership, it has emerged as a formidable grassroots movement in recent years. Its rallies routinely attract tens of thousands of people. What does PTM want? PTM began with a narrow set of demands, including the removal of military checkpoints, clearance of landmines and recovery of missing persons. But its campaign has evolved over the years into a broader struggle for justice, even as the government has met some of its demands. What methods does it use? Modeling itself on a British-era Pashtun civil disobedience movement, PTM uses a variety of peaceful methods such as marches, protests, processions through bazaars and open-air meetings known as jalsas. The groups have reportedly formed study circles to promote nonviolence and have called for a peace-and-reconciliation commission for justice. How does the Pakistani government view PTM? Though the movement has drawn support from other Pashtun groups, as well as progressive Pakistani activists and politicians, it has become, as one expert said, a "thorn in the side" of Pakistan's powerful army. The army, which rejects accusations that it has committed egregious human rights abuses, views PTM as a threat to its legitimacy. As Madiha Afzal, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted in a 2020 report, by "calling the army to account" and questioning its integrity, PTM effectively undermines the authority of an institution that sees itself as the guardian of the nation. But the army's hostility stems from a deeper fear: Pashtun nationalism. Pakistan, created in 1947 out of several ethnolinguistic parts of then-British India, has long been wary of "strong ethnic loyalties," according to Afzal. While PTM has remained peaceful, it is seen by the army as a potential threat to Pakistani sovereignty, as is a violent Baluch insurgency the army has been battling for decades. Since the early days of the movement, the army has used a variety of tactics to try to shut it down, censoring media coverage of its activities, arresting and jailing PTM leaders, and launching a disinformation campaign to brand PTM activists as traitors and terrorists supported by India and Afghanistan. But PTM has shown few signs of faltering, combining peaceful protests with legal battles and political activism while resisting the urge to turn violent. As one activist told researcher Qamar Jafri, "We defend against attacks through resistance driven by legal activism and remaining resilient." What is next? Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on Pakistan to revoke its ban on PTM. But Pakistani officials say PTM has ties to both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, a charge the group denies. Meanwhile, the government says PTM's planned three-day jirga will not be allowed to proceed. At least three people were killed and several others injured as police clashed with activists near the site of the gathering on Wednesday. VOA's Deewa Service contributed to this report.

Back-to-back monster hurricanes in the United States. A hurricane in France and Belgum. Record rainfall in Bosnia and Herzegovinia. Unprecedented levels of flooding, drought and wildfires across the globe. Scientists say weather events are becoming more extreme due to human caused climate change. Despite real-time catastrophes, warnings for action are not leading to the level of urgency that scientists warn is needed. And one of the problems is climate denial. We’ll speak with Joshua Newell, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability.

WASHINGTON — Russian opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza was released from a Russian prison on August 1 as part of a wide-ranging exchange of prisoners between Russia and several Western countries. He had been jailed in April 2022 on charges of treason for criticizing Russia's war in Ukraine. He was almost fatally poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017. Since his release, Kara-Murza has been actively involved in the Russian opposition’s diplomatic efforts, meeting with the U.S. and French presidents and the German chancellor. During a recent visit to Washington, he sat down for interviews with Voice of America journalists. Speaking to VOA’s Ukrainian Service, he discussed the agenda that the Russian opposition is promoting in the West. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. VOA: After your release, you met with [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden, [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron and [German] Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz. What was your main message to them about policy toward Russia? Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian opposition politician: There are two main messages. The first message is that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin must lose the war in Ukraine, because if he does win, that means that in a year or a year and a half, we will be talking about another war or another Russian invasion, because this is what this man does. The second message is that the democratic nations of the free world must have a strategy. We know from the last couple of centuries of Russian history that failed wars of aggression always lead to political changes at home. Once Putin is defeated in Ukraine, there must be a prepared strategy for reintegrating a new, changed, post-Putin democratic Russia back into Europe, back into the civilized world, and back into what we call the international rules-based order. VOA: If Putin loses power, how can democratization possibly happen? Someone from his inner circle would most likely grab power. Kara-Murza: I hope he doesn't die in office and that's how it ends. I'm a Christian, and I know that everybody gets a trial up there, and so will he. But I really want that man to get a trial in this life, too. On the question of change, this is a personalistic dictatorship. It is not an ideological dictatorship like in Soviet times, with the collective Politburo, when you could replace the person at the top without replacing the regime. This system is going to collapse very quickly, as we saw in 1953 after [Josef] Stalin's death. VOA: But [Nikita] Khrushchev, who replaced Stalin, was from his inner circle; he wasn't an outsider. Kara-Murza: Even if the next leader comes from the same circle, they always base their rule on a complete denial of everything that happened before. Khrushchev was one of Stalin's closest entourage. He was the one who released millions of people from the gulag and engaged in a very incomplete, very imperfect but nevertheless de-Stalinization process that we had in the late 1950s, early 1960s — the so-called “Thaw.” VOA: What kind of preparations should be made? How could democratic forces seize power? Kara-Murza: The domestic aspect concerns reflection and accountability, which I call a truth-and-reconciliation process. That is necessary for any society that has undergone the trauma of totalitarian rule. All the people who are responsible for the crimes against Russian citizens, like the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, the assassination of Alexei Navalny and the persecution of hundreds and hundreds of political prisoners, have to be brought to justice. All the archives and the documents of all the crimes committed must be made public. VOA: What about confronting the Russian imperialist mentality? Should Russia also confront all the crimes it has committed toward other people throughout its history? Kara-Murza: It is part of the totalitarian past, because for years and years, for decades, the regime in the Kremlin has been committing crimes against our people in Russia and against other countries, other people and other nations. Look at the aggression and the wars this regime has conducted against the Chechens, against the Georgians, against Ukraine — let's not forget, starting in 2014. Then, in Syria, of course, let's not forget [Sergei] Shoigu, [Putin’s] defense minister, boasted about new armaments they had tested — tested! — on people, on civilians in residential areas. VOA: I want to address your main argument about integrating Russia into the West after democratization and liberalization. The main argument against this would be that the West already tried that in the 1990s. Russia was part of the G8. NATO and the EU engaged with Russia. It received assistance. However, as Russia became richer, it became more aggressive. The more it became integrated with the West, the more efficient its malicious activities against the West became. Kara-Murza: Here is where I fundamentally disagree, because the whole problem is that the West did not do that in the 1990s. Yes, there were some symbolic steps, like the G8, which is just a summit meeting. But, unlike other countries of the former Warsaw Pact, Russia in the 1990s was never offered a prospect of what I would call first-tier European or Atlantic integration with tangible benefits like free trade, visa-free travel and common security guarantees. VOA: But it requires time. Ukraine still hasn't been offered NATO membership ... Kara-Murza: But the problem is that these windows of opportunity are, by definition, short and brief. They last a few months at best, and the West lost that window of opportunity in Russia in the early 1990s. We cannot allow that to happen again. In 1943, as WWII was ongoing, the U.S. government developed the Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany. It was about dismembering, de-industrializing, humiliating and basically destroying Germany as a functioning state. Given the horrors committed at the time of the war, it was emotionally very understandable. However, leaders of Western-allied nations realized that they could not base long-term strategic policy on emotion. So, the Morgenthau Plan was abandoned in favor of the Marshall Plan, which was the exact opposite: to rebuild and reconstruct Germany after the war, to make it a successful market economy and a functioning liberal democracy. VOA: Should this happen before or after Russia pays reparations for the destruction of Ukraine? Kara-Murza: It should be simultaneous. The only way we can ensure long-term peace, stability, security and democracy on the European continent is with a democratic Russia. It's not going to happen any other way.

CAIRO — A Liberia-flagged tanker was struck twice with missiles and drones in the Red Sea on Thursday morning, in an attack claimed by Iran-aligned Houthi militants.  The Olympic Spirit was hit about 135 kilometers southwest of the Yemeni port of Hodeidah, British maritime security firm Ambrey said. The tanker, en route from Saudi Arabia's Jeddah to Muscat in Oman, was struck on its starboard side. The projectile hit the bridge and caused minor damage, Ambrey said. Four hours later, two additional projectiles reportedly detonated within half a kilometer of the vessel’s port side. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said in a statement that the captain of the Olympic Spirit did not report any fires or casualties. "The damage is minor. The vessel has some technical issues, but it is seaworthy and continues its journey," a maritime security source said. "[The crew members] are all safe." The vessel is proceeding to its next port of call, the British maritime agency said. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said later Thursday it had targeted the Olympic Spirit with 11 ballistic missiles and two drones. It said that it had also targeted a vessel it identified as St. John in the Indian Ocean with a winged missile, as part of attacks it launches on global shipping over Israel's war in Gaza. Houthi fighters in Yemen have carried out nearly 100 attacks on ships crossing the Red Sea since November and say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's year-long war in Gaza. They have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.

BEIRUT / ISTANBUL — Hundreds of Turkish citizens seeking refuge from Israel's attacks on the armed group Hezbollah were evacuated from Lebanon Thursday on board two Turkish naval ships. The two vessels — the TCG Sancaktar and TCG Bayraktar — also delivered 300 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, blankets and tents, upon arrival at Beirut’s port on Wednesday. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the ships are carrying 878 Turkish citizens, 24 Turkish Cypriots from northern Cyprus and 64 of their first-degree relatives. The Turkish ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Baris Ulusoy, told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency on Wednesday that about 13,000 to 14,000 Turkish citizens live in Lebanon and that 2,000 Turkish citizens had applied for the latest evacuation. "Our country will continue to extend a helping hand to the people of the region in the face of the humanitarian crisis created by the war spread by Israel in the region and will continue to take every step to protect the life and property of its citizens abroad," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan wrote on social media platform X. Fidan noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the evacuation order. After a period of relative calm, Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel following Hamas' October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border and leading to the current escalation. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah recently intensified, with Israel launching a ground operation in south Lebanon and bombing Beirut's southern suburbs. Eyup Sabri Kirgiz, a Turkish engineer who has lived in Lebanon since 2003, was among the Turkish citizens who waited at the Beirut port to be evacuated. Kirgiz said that Lebanon was never calm but that it was manageable until the recent escalation. "Where we live is close to the area that was bombed. Each time a bomb was dropped, the house shook, the windows opened and the doors made noise. I have two children, my wife and mother-in-law. So, we could not stand it anymore," Kirgiz told VOA’s Turkish Service before boarding one of the ships in Beirut with his family, two dogs and a turtle. "There is nowhere else to go. For instance, if you go somewhere else, the rent is four or five times higher than it used to be, and they also ask for four or five months of rent up front. Lebanon is already in crisis. Thank God, our state has taken care of us," Kirgiz said. Kirgiz also said that he and his family want to return to Lebanon when things get better. "My job and everything are here,” he said. “My children were born here. They grew up here. So, they feel like they are half Lebanese and half Turkish." Several people with dual Lebanese and Turkish citizenship were among the evacuees. Maya, a 20-year-old Lebanese Turkish woman who did not give her surname, was waiting with her family to board the ship and said she is grateful to Turkey for taking its citizens out of Lebanon. "We were living under great pressure and in difficult conditions. We have to leave our university and our home in Lebanon and go to Turkey," Maya told VOA’s Turkish Service. "There was so much bombardment, it was absolutely impossible to sleep because of the noise. Thank God, nothing happened to our house," she said, adding that she and her family aim to return to Lebanon when the situation calms down. Turkey's Ministry of National Defense announced that the ships are expected to reach port in Turkey's southern Mersin province on Thursday. The voyage on the Mediterranean Sea is expected to take about 12 hours. In a statement shared on X, the ministry also noted that two frigates and two patrol ships will escort the naval ships for protection. A source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that Turkey is collecting the names of its citizens who want to leave Lebanon for further evacuation efforts. According to the Turkish Embassy in Lebanon, Ankara is also planning to organize a limited number of charter flights from Beirut to Istanbul or Adana. Hundreds of people of different nationalities have fled Lebanon through a commercial ferry line that operates twice a week from Tripoli port to Turkey's Tasucu port in southern Mersin province. The United States also has evacuated more than 1,000 U.S. citizens and their dependents via U.S.-chartered flights arriving in Turkey. In an interview in Istanbul, U.S. Consul General Julie Eadeh said, "It's the fastest, safest way to get Americans out of harm's way. "The security situation is dynamic, so we have been planning for months for all contingencies. Given the airport in Beirut remains operational and open, our focus is on facilitating departures by air," Eadeh said. According to another U.S. official, reported by the Reuters news agency, 10 of 12 U.S. chartered flights from Beirut have arrived in Istanbul carrying 1,025 citizens and immediate family members since October 2. Reuters also reported that U.S. citizens and those arriving on chartered flights from some other Western countries must continue onward from Turkey within 72 hours of arrival under an agreement with Ankara. Two other U.S.-chartered flights arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, and Doha, Qatar, and U.S. authorities expect to continue providing such flights for remaining U.S. citizens who wish to leave Lebanon. This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Militants opened fire on a police vehicle and killed two officers on Thursday in restive northwest Pakistan before fleeing the scene, police said, a sign of increasing violence ahead of a summit of an Asian security grouping in the capital, Islamabad.  Hours later, the military said it killed four militants in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The latest attack on police happened in the city of Tank, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police official Sher Afzal said.  No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, who often target security forces.  The TTP are outlawed in Pakistan. They are separate from but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban who control neighboring Afghanistan.  Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months.  On Wednesday, a suicide bomber dispatched by the Baloch Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist group, struck a convoy carrying Chinese nationals outside an airport in Karachi on Sunday, killing two engineers and wounding another.  The latest violence comes ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which will take place in Islamabad on October 15.  The Asian group was established in 2001 by China and Russia to discuss security concerns in Central Asia. Its other members are Iran, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.  The killing of the Chinese has drawn condemnation from Pakistan's leaders.  On Thursday, President Asif Ali Zardari visited the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, where he met with Ambassador Jiang Zaidong to offer condolences. Zardari denounced the attack and promised that those behind it would be punished, a government statement said.  Also on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news conference in Beijing that "China will work with Pakistan to protect the safety and security of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan."  But she said she didn't know if the movement of the Chinese nationals was being restricted because of the summit. Security in Islamabad was beefed up, with the authorities deploying troops, shutting schools and closing two restaurants on the road that will take guests from the airport to the summit venue.  Thursday's developments came a day after at least three people were killed in clashes in the northwestern town of Jamrud between police and supporters of a banned organization, the Pashtun Protection Movement, or PTM, which authorities say supports TTP.  The government has also barred PTM from holding rallies in the northwest, allegedly because the demonstrations are against the interests of Pakistan. PTM denies backing the Pakistani Taliban, and tension was growing Thursday after the group vowed to resist the ban on its rallies. 

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia's immigration officers on the tourist island of Bali have arrested a Chinese suspect sought by Beijing for helping run over $14 billion investment scam to clients in China, officials said Thursday. The 39-year-old man, identified only by his initial, LQ, was arrested on October 1, when an immigration auto-gate in Bali's Ngurah Rai international airport denied him departure for Singapore. The biometric data in the computer registry at the airport identified him as a suspect wanted by Beijing, which led to his arrest, according to Silmy Karim, the immigration chief at Indonesia's law and human rights ministry. He had been listed on an Interpol warrant since late September. The suspect first arrived in Bali from Singapore with a Turkish passport as Joe Lin on September 26, just a day before Interpol released a so-called Red Notice for him, a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to detain or arrest a suspect wanted by a specific country. Indonesian authorities brought the suspect, wearing a detainee's orange shirt and a facemask, before reporters to a news conference Thursday in the capital of Jakarta. The suspect did not make any statements and was not asked any questions. "He was wrong to use Indonesia as a transit country, let alone as a destination country to hide," said Karim, lauding technological advances and cooperation between immigration and the national police. Krishna Murti, the chief of the international division of the National Police, said the decision to deport or to extradite the suspect to China will take some time. Indonesia needs to confirm whether he has truly become a Turkish citizen in the meantime or if he used a fake passport to enter Indonesia. "We have to respect the suspect's rights," Murti said, adding that the suspect has not committed any violations inside Indonesia. The man was named as a suspect by Beijing, which requested the Red Notice from Interpol, after he allegedly collected more than 100 billion Chinese Yuan ($14 billion) from more than 50,000 people in a Ponzi scheme. Indonesia, an archipelago nation on the crossroads between Asia and the South Pacific, is attractive to local, regional and global organized crime because of its geographical location and its multi-cultural society. Last month, Indonesia arrested Alice Guo, a fugitive former mayor of a town in the Philippines accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates. She has since been deported to the Philippines. In June, Chaowalit Thongduang, one of Thailand's most wanted fugitives, was escorted back to Thailand on a Thai air force plane after being arrested in Bali following months on the run in connection with several killings and drug trafficking charges in his homeland.

We report on the first anniversary of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel. The conflict continues to escalate, and Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer. Plus, we report on Muslim Americans and their impact on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. This week on The Inside Story: Israel-Hamas, A Year of War.

MELBOURNE, Australia — China will resume importing Australian live lobsters by the end of the year, removing the final major obstacle to bilateral trade that once cost Australian exporters more than 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year, Australia's prime minister said Thursday.  Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement after meeting Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Vientiane, Laos.  The ban on lobsters was the last of a series of official and unofficial trade barriers that Beijing has agreed to lift since Albanese's center-left Labor Party government was elected in 2022.  "I'm pleased to announce that Premier Li and I have agreed on a timetable to resume full lobster trade by the end of this year," Albanese told reporters.  "This of course will be in time for Chinese New Year, and this will be welcomed by the people engaged in the live lobster industry," he added.  Albanese has given assurances that relations with China have been improved without compromising Australian interests. Beijing is unhappy with restrictions Australia has placed on some Chinese investments because of security concerns.  "What's important is that friends are able to have direct discussions. It doesn't imply agreement, it doesn't imply compliance, and I'll always represent Australia's national interest. That's what I did today. It was a very constructive meeting," Albanese said.  "I'm encouraged by the progress that we have made between Australia and China's relationship in producing stabilization to the benefit of both of our nations and with the objective of advancing peace and security in the region," Albanese added.  China's embassy in Australia did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.  Australian lobster exports to China had been worth $700 million Australian dollars ($470 million) in 2019.  Beijing ended trade with Australia in 2020 on a range of commodities including lobster, coal, wine, barley, beef and wood as diplomatic relations plumbed new depths.  Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison had angered Beijing that year by demanding an independent investigation into the origins of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Tom Ryan, a manager at lobster exporter Five Star Seafoods at Port MacDonnell in South Australia state, said he was disappointed that his trade would be the last to resume with China.  "It's been a long time coming," Ryan told Australian Broadcasting Corp. of Albanese's announcement.  "Between myself and other people in Port MacDonnell, it's an absolute relief," he added.  The industry had found new markets for lobster products but at lower profit margins, Ryan said.  Li said during a state visit to Australia in June that he had agreed with Albanese to "properly manage" their nations' differences.  Beijing had severed minister-to-minister contacts during the conservatives' nine years in power.

When it invaded Lebanon, Israel said its goal was to push Hezbollah back from the border to enable more than 60,000 residents to return to their homes in the north. But since then, its troops have been making some disturbing discoveries. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem. Camera: Ricki Rosen

STOCKHOLM — Swedish police said on Thursday they were investigating a shooting near an Israeli target in the city of Gothenburg, which the national broadcaster said was a unit of Israeli defense electronics firm Elbit Systems.  Police said in a statement it had apprehended a young suspect at the scene and launched a probe into suspected attempted murder and serious weapons crimes.  They did not identify the company, but Elbit Systems Sweden CEO Tobias Wennberg told Reuters there had been a serious incident outside its premises on Thursday, adding that no one was injured in the incident.  "Elbit Systems Sweden otherwise has no knowledge of the incident. Our operations continue as usual," he said in an email.  A police spokesperson said there was only one suspect, and investigators were not aware of any concrete threats against other Israeli targets in the city on Sweden's west coast.  The suspect is under 15 years of age, public broadcaster SVT and other Swedish media reported, without identifying their sources.  The Israeli Embassy in Stockholm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Swedish police in May said they had stepped up security around Israeli and Jewish interests in the Nordic country after officers on patrol heard suspected gunshots near Israel's embassy in Stockholm.  Sweden has seen an epidemic of gun violence in recent years, driven by criminal gangs feuding over drugs and other illicit activities.