GOVERNMENT forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir have killed a top militant commander linked to al-Qaida, officials said.
.It comes as authorities restricted internet access and enforced a curfew to prevent anti-India protests.
Zakir Musa was killed on Thursday evening in a gunfight after police and soldiers launched a counter-insurgency operation in the southern Tral area, said Colonel Rajesh Kalia, an Indian army spokesman.
Musa refused to surrender and fired grenades at the troops after they zeroed in on his hideout in a civilian home, police said.
Residents said government troops destroyed the home using explosives, a common tactic by Indian forces in Kashmir.
Musa’s killing triggered violent anti-India protests in many places. No-one was immediately reported injured.
MEANWHILE, Donald Trump has suggested he might be willing to make embattled Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei part of trade talks with China.
His administration last week put Huawei, which it has called a threat to national security, on a blacklist that effectively barred US firms from selling the Chinese company computer chips and other components without government approval.
The move could cripple Huawei, the world’s largest manufacturer of networking gear and the second-biggest smartphone maker.
“I can imagine Huawei being included in some form of a trade deal,” Trump told reporters.
He offered no details but said any arrangement “would look very good for us, I can tell you that”.
ELSEWHERE, hundreds of same-sex couples in Taiwan have rushed to get married on the day a landmark decision to legalise their union took effect.
Taiwan became the first place in Asia to allow same-sex marriage last week in a legislative vote. It comes after the island’s LGBT rights activists spent two decades fighting for equality.
A registration office in central Taipei was packed as couples seized the earliest opportunity to tie the knot. Jubilant couples held flower bouquets and posed for photos, smiling and kissing.
FINALLY, Libya’s navy has confirmed it recovered three boats carrying a total of 290 Europe-bound migrants off the country’s Mediterranean coast.
It follows reports by a German aid group about the disaster.
Libyan coastguards first reported finding a sinking rubber boat whose bottom had collapsed on Thursday, leaving most migrants in the water and hanging on to what was left of the boat and plastic barrels.
A statement said the boat was carrying 87 migrants, including six women and a child.
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