MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Anti-aircraft defenses around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant will be strengthened following days of reported shelling on the site, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted a Russian-installed separatist official as saying on Monday. Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Russian-backed administration in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region also said the nuclear station, Europe’s largest, was working normally and damaged power lines have been restored. Both Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other for attacks on the power station, located in Russian-controlled territory, over recent days. 

 

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TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will reshuffle his cabinet on Wednesday paying attention to politicians’ ties with the Unification Church, seeking to distance his administration from the controversial group and reverse a slump in opinion polls. The reshuffle comes as Kishida’s administration faces tumbling support rates. Public scrutiny of links between the group and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers has increased markedly since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was gunned down last month at a campaign rally. Abe was shot by a man whose mother is a member, and who told investigators he believed Abe had promoted the group to which his mother made ruinous donations, Japanese media have reported. Kishida said on Tuesday that incoming new members of his cabinet and new ruling party officials must “thoroughly review” their ties with the group.

 

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SEOUL (AFP) -- Subway stations and major roads were underwater in the South Korean capital Seoul after record-breaking rains caused severe flooding, with at least seven people dead and seven more missing, officials said Tuesday. Authorities warned of more rain to come even as emergency workers tried to clear the hulks of flooded cars, which AFP reporters saw strewn across major intersections throughout the city. Dramatic images shared on social media late Monday showed people wading through waist-deep water, metro stations overflowing, and cars half-submerged in Seoul’s posh Gangnam district, which was particularly hard-hit when torrential rain battered the city. The downpour that began Monday is the heaviest rainfall in South Korea in 80 years, according to Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency. Local reports said three people living in a banjiha -- cramped basement flats of the kind made famous in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite” -- including a teenager, died as their apartment was inundated by floodwaters. 

 

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NAIROBI (AFP) -- Kenyans lined up before dawn to vote in a high-stakes election Tuesday, with the East African powerhouse on edge as two political heavyweights battle it out in a tight race for the presidency. The country is hoping for a peaceful transition of power after almost a decade under President Uhuru Kenyatta, but concerns about vote-rigging linger after past election disputes spiraled into bloodshed. More than 22 million people, about 40 percent of them under 35, are registered to vote in an election held against a backdrop of soaring inflation, a punishing drought and disenchantment with the political elite. Deputy president and erstwhile heir-apparent William Ruto, 55, is running against Raila Odinga, the 77-year-old veteran opposition leader now backed by longtime rival Kenyatta after a stunning shift in allegiances.  As neither Ruto nor Odinga belong to the dominant Kikuyu tribe, which has produced three of the country’s four presidents, the election will open a new chapter in Kenya’s history. 

 

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AGUJITA, Mexico (AFP) -- Rescuers will deploy an underwater drone as part of intensified efforts to save 10 workers trapped for five days in a flooded coal mine in northern Mexico, authorities said Monday. The device provided by the navy has a high-resolution camera and light to identify possible obstacles without putting lives at risk, civil defense national coordinator Laura Velazquez said. Work continued to pump water from the mine in Agujita in the northern state of Coahuila to make it safe enough for rescuers to go inside. The military said that it was hoped rescuers would be able enter to one of the shafts in the middle of this week if the water level drops to 1.5 meters (around five feet). The mine shafts descend about 60 meters and the water inside the one that rescuers plan to go into was 19.4 meters deep, down from more than 30 meters initially, officials said. 

 

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BAMAKO (AFP) -- At least 17 soldiers and four civilians were killed Sunday in an attack in a strategic border zone between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Mali’s army said.  Some 22 troops were injured while nine other soldiers are missing, the army said late Monday, adding that the toll could still rise. The army had blamed the attack on “terrorists” in an earlier announcement late Sunday, using the term it typically uses for jihadists. It had said its troops had been repelling an attack by Daesh in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) group, affiliated with the Islamic State organization. The previous death toll was four soldiers and two civilians. The two civilians killed were local elected officials, their relatives told AFP. The army said Monday it killed seven from the attacking side, “likely” from the ISGS group, adding that there was “an unknown number of dead and injured carried away by the attackers”.