Israel launches strikes as Lebanon warns of invasion

The tiny Caribbean island of Terre-de-Haut boasts pristine turquoise waters and deserted coves. It also has goats, hundreds of them.

There are as many goats as humans on the island and, while they charm the tourists as they roam on the beaches and graze in the gardens, there is a darker side to this uncontrolled feral herd.

They ravage protected areas, munch through vegetation and destroy the habitats of other animals -- some of which are endangered and endemic to Terre-de-Haut and other islands in Les Saintes archipelago.

Officials on the island chain, which is part of the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe, are now considering drastic action.

The animals could be shunted into designated grazing areas then, after health checks are carried out, they could be used for meat.

Marie Robert of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), a government body, told AFP the situation was alarming.

"On Terre-de-Haut alone, the herd is estimated at least one goat per inhabitant, or about 1,500," she said.

"They overconsume native plants, leaving all the space to more resilient invasive exotic species."

- Species at risk -

At Le Chameau, the highest point on Terre-de-Haut, the vegetation is devastated -- trees stripped bare and branches gnawed away.

Robert said the destruction wrought by the goats raised the risk of landslides and threatened animal biodiversity.

Several endemic species are particularly at risk, including the Terre-de-Haut racer snake, the Guadeloupe skink and a tiny brightly coloured gecko called Les Saintes Sphaerodactylus.

It's feared that these species, already weakened by rats and stray dogs and cats, could disappear entirely.

The OFB is tapping the EU's fund for environmental projects, the LIFE programme, to help.

It has an estimated budget of 10 million euros to protect reptiles in Guadeloupe and the nearby islands of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy, which face similar pressures.

"It involves eradicating species like rats, but also bringing goats under control," said Philippe De Proft, a coastal warden in Les Saintes for nearly 20 years.

- A new scourge? -

The goats were brought over by humans and were used for many years as the only local source of meat.

But tourism has long since displaced livestock farming as a way of life.

The goats, however, have not stopped reproducing -- a female can give birth to two or three kids several times a year.

The authorities are looking to Saint-Barthelemy for inspiration.

Goats are already being captured there and confined to grazing areas.

Officials have given an exemption from the usual rules to allow the animals to be used for meat.

"Even wild adults can be put to good use," explained Rudi Laplace, whose Island Nature Experience group organised the capture on Saint-Barthelemy.

Officials on Les Saintes are keen to follow the example, and they cannot act quickly enough as a new scourge could be on the way.

Sheep abandoned by a farmer are beginning to proliferate -- from a single pair, the flock has now grown to 25 animals.

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The head of the International Energy Agency said Wednesday he was "ready to move forward" with an additional release of oil reserves "if and when necessary".

Fatih Birol's comments in Tokyo came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi asked the agency "to prepare to implement an additional release in case the situation drags on" with the war in the Middle East.

The IEA said earlier this month that member countries would unlock 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves to ease the impact of the Middle East war, the biggest such release ever.

But Birol said that there was "still a significant amount of oil in our stocks".

"Eighty percent of our stocks are still with us. This 400 million barrels were only 20 percent of our stocks," he said. 

"If and when necessary we are ready to move forward, but I very much hope that it will not be necessary."

He added: "The world is facing a serious energy security threat, but the International Energy Agency is ready to play its core role of being a guardian of global energy security."

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Even if Hungary's nationalist premier Minister Viktor Orban loses next month's election, it does not mean relief for the country's embattled LGBTQ community, rights activists say.

Orban -- Vladimir Putin's closest ally in Europe -- has led a years-long crackdown on LGBTQ rights, culminating in an unprecedented ban on Pride marches in an EU member state. 

His challenger, conservative Peter Magyar, whose party is leading the polls, regularly says he supports equality, but avoids taking a clear stance on LGBTQ rights.

Orban has been in power since 2010 and just "returning to legal conditions before Orban's tenure would be an improvement," rights activist Geza Buzas-Habel told AFP at an LGBTQ-friendly cafe in the southern university city of Pecs.

Even if Orban goes after the April 12 vote, "we still have a lot to do", he insisted. "The main opposition is unwilling to communicate on LGBTQ rights, so we must pressure them," the 32-year-old Roma rights activists added.

- 'Courting conservative voters' -

Nor are they an issue in the elections, despite Orban, 62, facing one of the strongest challenges to his rule on the streets when the government enacted a ban on Pride marches last year. 

Instead of being scared away, record crowds defied the law to take part in parades in Budapest and Pecs.

"Hundreds of thousands went, risking fines... It felt like a breath of fresh air after all these measures suffocating us," said Hella Zsirka, acting head of LGBTQ rights group Hatter Society.

The 26-year-old trans activist legally changed her name and gender before a law barring such changes came into force in 2020.

A barrage of anti-LGBTQ measures followed, including a 2021 law against "promoting" homosexuality or gender change to minors on "child protection" grounds.

The European Union's top court is challenging the legality of the ban.

Orban's crackdown has fuelled hostility towards the LGBTQ community, Zsirka said.

In one case, a knife-wielding man threatened a lesbian couple for holding hands on a tram, Zsirka recalled.

"When we took the case to court, the attacker stated that he did it because according to Orban, it's right (to do this)," she said.

Many LGBTQ activists, including Zsirka, are "disappointed" that their cause is ignored by the main opposition.

But political analysts say strategically it makes sense.

Opposition leader Magyar is "courting more conservative voters in smaller towns", convinced that the committed anti‑government urban base will support his TISZA party anyway, Andrea Virag, director of strategy at liberal Republikon think tank said.

Orban's Fidesz party is not too keen to revisit the issue either, the expert added, since they "miscalculated" the public mood on Pride and had to downplay the high turnout.

- 'Wait for the vote' -

But an Orban victory could embolden the government to take an even harsher stance after the elections, activists fear.

Party hardliners like parliament speaker Laszlo Kover have indicated that they would like the Pride ban enforced this year if Fidesz stays in power.

"This issue must be dealt with after the election," Fidesz spokesman Balazs Nemeth told AFP.

For now, LGBTQ activists face uncertain futures, with Orban accused of repressing civil society, seeking to discredit and defund critical NGOs since returning to power in 2010.

Buzas-Habel, who organised Pecs Pride, is now facing criminal charges because of the ban.

He lost his job as a teacher at a Roma high school in 2024 over what he describes as a political order "from high up".

Since then, he has applied "for multiple posts, but even free-thinking institutions asked me to wait for the April vote," he said.

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko began on Wednesday his first official visit to North Korea, with the two countries united by Western sanctions, closeness to Russia and accusations of rights violations.

Belarusian state news agency Belta said the two-day visit was to deepen ties and "identify key areas of mutual interest and the most promising projects for implementation".

Both nations have provided Moscow assistance with its war in Ukraine, with Pyongyang dispatching ground troops and weapons and Minsk serving as a launchpad for Russia's invasion in 2022.

Kim Jong Un and Lukashenko met in September in Beijing when they attended a military parade at Tiananmen Square, where the North Korean leader reportedly extended an invitation.

The visit is intended to "show solidarity" among nations opposed to the Western order, Lee Ho-ryung of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses told AFP.

"Kim will try to use the occasion to raise its diplomatic profile and strengthen solidarity among the so-called anti-Western bloc," she said.

In a letter to Lukashenko earlier this month, Kim said he was "willing to expand and develop the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation... to a new, higher stage in line with the demands of the new era", the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The Belarusian leader in return said that "Minsk affirms it has an interest in actively expanding political and economic ties with Pyongyang at all levels".

- Prison camps -

North Korea has been under a barrage of Western sanctions, mostly due to its nuclear weapons programme and missiles activity, but also because of its support for Russia's war against Ukraine.

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have estimated that the North has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia, primarily to the Kursk region, along with artillery shells, missiles and rocket systems.

Around 2,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded, according to estimates from South Korea.

Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology, food and energy supplies from Russia in return. President Vladimir Putin visited in 2024.

This has enabled Pyongyang to lessen dependence on its main long-term backer, China.

International rights organisations accuse the North Korean regime of torture, public executions, prison camps, forced labour and restrictions on the freedom of expression and movement.  

- Crackdown -

Lukashenko meanwhile has moved Minsk deeper into Russia's orbit and come down hard on any dissent inside the country during his three decades in power.

The West had heavily sanctioned Minsk over its role in facilitating the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as a crackdown on protests in 2020.

But US President Donald Trump has sought to build ties with Belarus in his second term, easing sanctions and welcoming it to his "Board of Peace".

Belarus has released dozens of prisoners in recent months, largely due to US efforts, including 250 earlier this month.

But it still holds hundreds of political prisoners in its jails, many of whom were arrested after the 2020 election that saw a landslide victory for Lukashenko seen as a sham by the opposition.

Trump met Kim in his first term and there has been speculation of a re-run when the US president makes his delayed visit to China next month.

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Halit Krendali peered over the edge of a freshly dug pit in southern Kosovo, desperately hopeful his uncle, missing for nearly 30 years, had finally been found in a mass grave.

The 70-year-old looked on as forensic experts in white coveralls carefully examined the excavated earth for any sign of the dozens of dead believed to be buried there.

"Inshallah, I'll never come here again because there is no heavier burden than this," he told AFP during his third visit to the site.

For over a week, forensic teams have been exhuming remains at the Perzhina site in southern Kosovo, the latest in hundreds of mass graves uncovered since the end of the Balkan country's 1998-1999 war with Serbia.

The conflict between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serbian armed forces killed around 13,000 people and left 4,000 missing.

Thousands of people have been identified through exhumations and DNA testing but 1,600 are still missing.

Most of the latter are ethnic Albanians. Another 500 are Serbs, Roma and other minorities.

- 'Damaged, fragmented, burned' -

So far, the remains of three people have been exhumed at Perzhina, where the government's missing persons commission expects as many as 47 bodies to be uncovered in the coming days.

But the chairman of the government's commission for missing persons, Kushtrim Gara, said he suspected the bodies of dozens more Albanian civilians had been moved from the site to another location.

"They were excavated and buried elsewhere by Serbian forces to hide war crimes," Gara said.

During the war, Serb forces moved bodies from mass graves to conceal massacres, regularly using heavy machinery, making the job of forensic teams even harder, he said.

Around 1,000 bodies have been recovered from sites in Serbia alone -- with over 740 found in one mass grave in the outer Belgrade neighbourhood of Batajnica in 2001.

It can take years and even decades to identify remains found in these graves accurately and some are still unknown.

At the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Pristina, boxes containing remains of between 250 and 300 people recovered from sites around the region are stored for years after being uncovered.

"Why don't we know the exact number? Because their bones are often damaged, fragmented (or) burned to the point that a DNA profile cannot be taken from them," institute forensic anthropologist Ditor Haliti said.

- 'A place to put a flower' -

Naxhije Dushi, whose brother Nazmi was abducted during a Serbian police operation in 1999, is still searching for answers.

"I need to know at least where his bones are, to cry and talk to him like I used to when he was alive," the 60-year-old said.

Her brother, then 23, was taken by Serbian forces along with her 26-year-old cousin, Masar, and never seen again.

She was hopeful, when excavations revealed Masar's body in 2024, that Nazmi would also be found.

But he remains missing.

It took around two years for scientists to confirm her cousin's identity.

But when he was finally buried in Klina last month, along with two other victims, it was with state honours, their caskets draped in flags with a military escort.

Klina mayor Zenun Elezaj, speaking at the funeral, said the burial gave only a small but important respite to families.

"It just gives families a place to put a flower for their loved ones," he said.

- Unbearable waiting -

Serbia has never recognised the independence of Kosovo, its former province, and relations between the two remain strained.

In January, both countries agreed to a joint commission to accelerate the search for war missing.

Despite this, Gara said Belgrade remained reluctant to share reliable information that could help find mass graves.

"This is directly related to the lack of willingness on the Serbian side to provide data from their archives, especially the military," he said.

For its part, Serbia accuses Kosovo of a lack of interest in searching for mass graves containing Serb victims.

For those who don't know where their loved ones are, the slow progress is excruciating.

"This waiting is unbearable," said Krendali.

Now a retiree, he attends every excavation he can in the decades-long search for his uncle Ramadan but fears it could take years more.

"I don't have much time to wait."

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Pet lovers eagerly gathered around a container to snap photos of meerkats at a Beijing animal fair, each selling for $320, while nearby a raccoon nervously paced in a cage only slightly bigger than itself.

Throngs of people from across China packed into the cavernous exhibition halls for the annual pet fair, where exotic animals are a more common sight than cats or dogs.

The exotic pet industry is experiencing rapid growth with a market nearing 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion), Chinese state media have said.

Approximately 17.07 million people in China have exotic pets, Xinhua reported last year, and animal rights groups have raised concerns about welfare standards.

Unconventional pets are particularly popular among young people, with videos on how to raise them widely shared on social media platforms.

An 18-year-old putting down a deposit for a meerkat told AFP he was confident it would be easier to raise the animal than his previous cats and dogs.

"I feel that raising exotic pets is really just child's play by comparison," said Xiong, who had travelled to Beijing from Jiangxi province.

He had previously bought a sugar glider -- a nocturnal palm-sized possum sold at the same store -- and said he found raising exotic pets easier as they did not feel separation anxiety as dogs do.

It was "quite a hassle-free" experience, Xiong said.

"When you want to interact, it's happy to engage with you, but when you're not in the mood, it's perfectly content playing by itself," he told AFP.

- Reptilian rapport -

In another part of the fair, patterned snakes and spotted geckos squirmed in round plastic containers as people shopped for their latest reptile.

Yang Xurui brought his green Argentine snake to the fair, where he told AFP he was searching for new exotic pets.

"I consider her a friend of mine," said Yang, 24, caressing the slithering creature hanging around his neck.

"Every day, the moment I walk through the door, she stands tall and straight like a giant green onion to welcome me home," he added.

"She keeps me company while I watch TV, and then, come evening, she goes off to bed on her own -- marking the end of our day together."

Yang said he feels a certain sense of responsibility to dispel commonplace fear of snakes as pets.

"I want to tell everyone that she isn't terrible, that she isn't something to be feared."

China's Ministry of State Security has warned against the exotic pet craze it says is driven by trend-seekers.

"The trade, rearing, medical treatment, and abandonment of these exotic animals harbour latent safety risks," it said last year, adding that this warrants "serious attention".

Animal welfare regulations, however, remain lax in China, where pets such as fish, birds and pigs are commonly sold even in shopping malls. 

The pandemic, meanwhile, sparked fears that animals may be carriers of diseases including Covid-19, which was widely believed to have originated in bats.

- Lack of knowledge -

Authorities in China should target the traders, breeders, and retailers who depend on the business -- and its expansion -- for profit, said Peter Li, a specialist in China's animal protection policy at the University of Houston-Downtown.

Businesses engaged in the sale and transport of exotic animals have reportedly used fraudulent labeling, withheld critical information, and engaged in deliberate deception to move these animals through supply chains, Li told AFP.

Abandoned exotic species can reproduce rapidly in the wild, creating significant ecological pressures on local environments, while diseases carried by them could pose public health risks, he said.

Public awareness in China regarding wildlife protection has improved significantly, but some consumers of exotic pets still lack sufficient knowledge before purchasing such animals, conservation charity WWF told AFP.

"Some consumers may not be fully aware of which species are legal to own, whether specific permits are required, the varying levels of care difficulty for different species, long-term financial costs," it added.  

At the fair, 26-year-old Zhang Yue agreed that bringing certain animals "into human-inhabited environments could lead to various repercussions".

Nevertheless, Zhang told AFP she would still consider owning a sugar glider as they are "absolutely adorable".

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Iran launched a new missile salvo across the Middle East on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump's signals that he was eager to talk with Tehran steadied global markets.

Oil prices dropped sharply and stocks in Asia rose on broader de-escalation hopes following nearly four weeks of war, as Trump appeared to be ramping up efforts to bring an end to his joint military operation with Israel.

Trump, whose daily statements have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said Washington was "in negotiations right now" with Tehran.

"They did something yesterday that was amazing actually. They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money," he told reporters in the Oval Office.

"That meant one thing to me -- we're dealing with the right people."

The US leader did not explain further but said it related to the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has largely blockaded in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes, spiking global energy prices.

Iranian officials have yet to confirm any formal talks. 

However, the New York Times -- quoting several unnamed officials -- reported that Washington has sent a 15-point plan to Iran via Pakistan, which has offered to mediate, in a bid to end the war. 

It was not clear if Israel, which has been carrying out strikes on Iran and ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, was aware or on board with the plan.

Trump's cryptic statements on his eagerness to talk with Iran included repeating a claim that Tehran has "agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon".

Iran had agreed in 2015 to broad restraints on its contested nuclear program in a deal that Trump ripped up during his first term as he joined Israel in applying pressure to the cleric-run state.

Despite the US leader's stated hopes for a deal, The Wall Street Journal reported that Washington is planning to send a further 3,000 soldiers to the Middle East.

- Fresh Gulf attacks -

While Trump hinted at backchannel diplomacy, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had fired a fresh wave of missiles Wednesday at Israel, as well as bases hosting US forces in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.

The Islamic republic has kept up its retaliatory attacks on Israel and Gulf nations it accuses of serving as launchpads for US strikes.

Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport, the Gulf state's civil aviation authority said, causing "limited" damage.

In Bahrain, the interior ministry said air raid sirens were activated, while Jordan's public security directorate reported shrapnel fell near the capital Amman, resulting in no casualties or damage.

Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted at least four drones in the kingdom's east.

Israel meanwhile said it was launching new strikes on "infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime" after announcing new Iranian missile launches at the country.

Iran on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a second strike on Bushehr nuclear plant, a civilian site. 

"The sounds, the explosions, the missiles -- they are part of our daily life now," a 35-year-old woman in Tehran told AFP by telephone.

In Lebanon, state media said Israeli strikes killed six people in a town and a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Sidon area. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel has stepped up its campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, saying its military would take control of south Lebanon up to the Litani river, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border.

Trump's envoys were negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran just two days before the United States and Israel launched the massive attack on February 28, killing Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day.

Lebanon was then pulled into the war when Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge Khamenei's killing.

The conflict has also pulled Iraq, which neighbours Iran, deeper into the war.

Baghdad said it would summon the US charge d'affaires and the Iranian ambassador after deadly strikes blamed on their countries, as Iraqi authorities granted targeted former paramilitary groups the "right to respond".

- 'Non-hostile vessels' -

As the trading of strikes carried on, focus remained on the Strait of Hormuz, the key oil route responsible for carrying a fifth of the world's crude oil.

Tehran, in a message circulated by the International Maritime Organization, assured safe passage through the strait to "non-hostile vessels".

Iran had already said it was not targeting friendly nations.

The IMO said a communique issued by Iran's foreign ministry said any vessels belonging to "the aggressor parties -- namely the United States and the Israeli regime" would not be allowed passage.

Trump had earlier threatened to "obliterate" Iran's power plants, which some argue would be a war crime, if it did not open the strait by late Monday Washington time. 

Before US markets opened Monday, Trump abruptly extended that deadline by five days, citing diplomatic progress.

But signs of a possible conclusion to the war saw benchmark price of crude oil dropped more than six percent.

Prices at the pump have soared in the US after Trump launched the war with Israel, causing him a political headache.

As the US leader mounted his threats if Iran did not agree to his demands, French President Emmanuel Macron demanded Tehran take any talks seriously.

"I called on Iran to engage in good faith in negotiations," he wrote on X, after a call with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian.

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The comeback concert by K-pop megastars BTS drew an estimated 18.4 million viewers worldwide, streaming giant Netflix said Wednesday.

The seven-member group took to the stage together for the first time at the weekend following a years-long hiatus prompted by mandatory military service, and a day after releasing their latest studio album, "ARIRANG".

The comeback concert was held against the backdrop of the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace -- fitting for the "Kings of K-pop".

Netflix said its livestream of the show on Saturday "drew 18.4 million global viewers... proving the group's influence has only intensified during their time apart".

The live broadcast from Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square reached Netflix's weekly Top 10 in 80 countries and secured the number one spot in 24 countries, it said.

The event marked Netflix's first live event in South Korea, as well as its first instance of live-streaming a music performance on a global scale.

Netflix added that its estimates were derived from so-called first-party data.

During the performance, they sang "Body to Body," a track from the new album that incorporates a choral sample of the traditional Korean folk song Arirang, after which the album is named.

The folk song, about longing and separation, is often dubbed South Korea's unofficial national anthem.

Fans waved a sea of glowsticks and sang along to the group's hits, holding their phones aloft to film the performance as giant screens set up across the venue allowed the crowd to watch.

It drew more than 100,000 fans to central Seoul, according to the group's label.

The figure includes ticket holders and factors in data from the three major telecom carriers, budget mobile users and foreign visitors. 

According to the Seoul metropolitan government's crowd-tracking system, an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people were in the area that night, a city official said.

Local reports said the figures vary as Seoul's crowd-tracking system relies largely on mobile base station connections and does not capture signals from foreign visitors.

The group's label, citing streaming platform Spotify, said "SWIM," the title track of its latest album, topped the Daily Top Songs Global chart for three straight days from March 20 to 22, while "Body to Body" held at No. 2 over the same period.

Around 15,000 police officers and security personnel were mobilised for the concert, with barricades lining the roads and nearby venues shut.

The latest album, "ARIRANG", released Friday, is billed as reflecting the maturing boy band's Korean identity. 

It sold nearly four million copies on its first day, according to the label.

Following Saturday's concert, the superstars will embark on their "ARIRANG" world tour, beginning April 9 in Goyang, South Korea.

The 2026–27 tour spans 82 concerts across 34 cities in Asia, North America, Europe and Latin America. 

Tickets for shows in South Korea, North America and Europe sold out within hours.

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A confidential report into the OSCE's "chaotic" evacuation of its monitors from Ukraine after Russia invaded four years ago is damning about how it put its own staff at "serious security risk", AFP can reveal.

It comes as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is angling to send a mission back to Ukraine to monitor any eventual ceasefire.

The internal inquiry seen by AFP blasts the organisation's "insufficient preparedness" and lack of a "standing security risk assessment and an up-to-date and operational evacuation plan".

A month before the invasion an order was even given to "destroy preparatory work done for the evacuation and cease further planning going ahead to avoid 'creating panic' in the host country", the report says.

One Ukrainian staffer, Maryna Fenina, was killed during the Russian assault on her hometown Kharkiv on March 1, 2022, while three others who stayed on in the rebel-held east were arrested and are still languishing in Russian prisons. 

The OSCE, of which both Russia and Ukraine are members, believes it can be a key player in moves to end the war.

It has proposed sending a new monitoring and verification mission to Ukraine should a ceasefire be negotiated, with top OSCE officials visiting Moscow in February.

Local and international staff from the Vienna-based body had been monitoring a ceasefire with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014 when war broke out. 

One of the staffers, American medic Joseph Stone, was killed in 2017 when his armoured vehicle struck an anti-tank mine in a part of rebel-held Lugansk, with two of his colleagues wounded.

- Staff still in jail -

While the OSCE managed to get hundreds of its staff to safety when Russia invaded in 2022, "a number of vital and sensitive records were not evacuated during the emergency evacuation," said the report, compiled as part of a "lessons learned" process.

"There was and continues to be a high concern of sensitive information being released that can lead to NMM (locally-hired 'national mission members') persecution," it added.

The three jailed Ukrainian employees -- Dmytro Shabanov, Maxim Petrov and Vadym Golda -- were convicted of espionage by Russian authorities, charges which the OSCE strongly disputes.

The report, dated September 2022, highlights "a general lack of clarity of roles, responsibilities and decision-making authority of all the stakeholders involved".

"Plans were not properly and timely communicated" by senior management of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to staff nor "reinforced through training and exercises", it added.

This "led to somewhat chaotic movements of people and assets out of Ukraine and within the country, posing a serious security risk and complications".

- Countries wanted to withdraw -

Some nations in the Ukraine mission had been pressing since "late autumn 2021" for the OSCE to plan for a possible withdrawal, according to the report's annexes. 

But a number of other states, and the OSCE chair and its secretariat had "a strong desire" to preserve the mission, even reinforce it.

Then in mid-February -- just over a week before the invasion -- the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Denmark said they were withdrawing their contingents, while Netherlands and Sweden announced partial withdrawals.

With the opposing positions, it was "very difficult for the mission to develop and communicate contingency plans without potentially exposing itself politically", the report said.

The decision was not "coordinated in advance" with the mission's leadership and placed it "in a difficult position at a particularly sensitive time," it added.

The OSCE -- which was set up in 1975 during the Cold War -- said it had "strengthened our crisis response framework" since the invasion, taking on board the findings of the "lesson learned" reviews. 

"We have also introduced regular crisis response training through simulation exercises," a statement added.

"Each exercise stress-tested crisis preparedness and response elements of both field operations and the OSCE Secretariat, identifying areas for improvement and honing coordination between executive structures," it said.

"The lessons learned from 2022 also contributed to continued efforts to ensure that staff and assets are adequately prepared in the event of a critical incident," the OSCE added.

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Jalen Brunson scored 32 points as the New York Knicks stretched their winning streak to seven games with a 121-116 defeat of the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday.

Brunson was one of seven Knicks players to finish in double figures, with Karl Anthony-Towns and OG Anunoby finishing with 21 points apiece at Madison Square Garden.

The win saw the Knicks keep up the pressure on the Boston Celtics in the battle for the No.2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

With less than three weeks of the regular season remaining, the Knicks are third in the East with a 48-25 record, a fraction behind the Celtics who are second on 47-24. Detroit lead the standings on 52-19.

Zion Williamson scored 22 points to lead the scoring for the Pelicans, who have been eliminated from playoff contention in the West.

In other games, Donovan Mitchell scored 42 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers edged the Orlando Magic 136-131.

The Cavs' fourth straight victory leaves them in fourth place in the Eastern Conference on 45-27.

The Charlotte Hornets remain in the hunt for a playoff spot after thrashing the Sacramento Kings 134-90.

The Hornets are one of three teams in the middle of the Eastern Conference standings with identical 38-34 records. 

The Philadelphia 76ers are just above them on 39-33, one spot outside the last automatic playoff place occupied by the Atlanta Hawks (40-22).

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