Armed militants in Pakistan's Balochistan region have attacked a train and threatened to harm the hundreds of passengers on board. Also: Manchester United have announced a brand new football stadium.
Chapter 1: What are the main headlines of the day?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach, and at 14 Hours GMT on Tuesday 11th March, these are our main stories. Gunmen in Pakistan seize a train and threaten to harm hundreds of passengers on board. Ukraine launches its biggest drone attack yet on Moscow, as its diplomats are meeting the US to discuss how to end the war.
Police in the Philippines arrest the former president, Rodrigo Duterte, in connection with his brutal war on drugs.
Also in this podcast, how China is seeking to beat the US and become the global leader in AI and... We have one billion people around the world who follow Manchester United and they will all want to visit this stadium.
Manchester United announce a brand new football stadium capable of holding 100,000 fans. Let's start, though, in Pakistan, where gunmen have seized a passenger train in the mountainous southwest. I heard the latest from our correspondent in Islamabad, Azadeh Moshiri.
Chapter 2: What happened during the train attack in Balochistan?
An official has told us that more than 400 passengers were on board when gunmen stormed the train. And it's important to say that while we do know that there were injuries, officials have confirmed that to us, including the driver themselves. We don't have any confirmation on any casualties.
The Jaffar Express left the city of Quetta and it was headed for one of Pakistan's major cities, Rawalpindi, as well as Peshawar. And That train tends to go through an area with very poor cellular service and it goes through several tunnels. From what we understand, the train was stopped in between two of them.
Now, we've also been told by local railway officials that a group of civilians, including women and children, were seen to be disembarking the train and leaving. So keep in mind that 400 figure may have changed by now. A militant group called the Baloch Liberation Army has claimed the attack, and it's said that it's still in control of the train.
And it's also threatened to harm those on board if authorities do respond with any military operation.
Right. So there's still a threat seemingly to the passengers who are still on board the train. It could still be quite a large number. Do we know what it is they want?
Well, so yes, that is what the militant group is claiming. And they've carried out many deadly incidents in the province before. And a lot of this has to do with the context of that region. Balochistan is home to several separatist groups, and they're all calling for independence. It's Pakistan's largest province.
And what they accuse the central government of is exploiting a lot of the rich resources in the region. Because even though it's the least developed province, despite being one of the largest, it has a lot of rich natural resources, gas, minerals. And it's also home to a multi-billion dollar project that's funded by China called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
So the region is very important to China as well. And what these groups typically do is target military personnel, but not only military personnel, they also go after miners as well as labourers.
And obviously the authorities will be responding carefully, bearing in mind there could still be people who are threatened. But what is their response looking like right now?
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Chapter 3: Why is Rodrigo Duterte being arrested?
Now, he said that they wanted this to be very constructive, that they were very open towards peace, tried to press him a bit. on things like concessions and whether they were still asking for a US security guarantee. He said, yes, of course they were, but this was much more about finding a path to an immediate ceasefire.
So I think the sense here is that we could be looking at a kind of rapprochement here, what the Americans, I think, would see as some kind of a reprieve for Mr Zelensky, and that could, in the end, see that intelligence and military support being reinstated. But we'll have to see for the outcome of the meeting.
Now, there's talks in Jeddah got underway just hours after Ukraine launched what seems to have been its biggest drone attack on Moscow. Russia editor Steve Rosenberg told us more.
It was huge. I mean, we've seen drone attacks here before, but not really on this scale. First of all, that the defence ministry issued a statement saying that more than 330, maybe more than 340 now, Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defences targeting 10 Russian regions, including Moscow.
and the Moscow mayor announced that the drone attack was the biggest on Moscow ever. But it's the area around Moscow, Moscow region, which seems to have been affected most by this, and the death toll stands at three people, and around 20 people were wounded in the attacks overnight. What are people saying about it?
Well, earlier today I went to an apartment block in the south of Moscow, one of the apartment blocks that was damaged by... debris from a drone. And there was a large crowd of people just looking up at the apartment block and the damage and some people filming it on their mobile phones. We got chatting to people in the crowd. One woman said, it's terrifying. You know, they're
She'd been woken up, people had been woken up at 5 o'clock in the morning by an explosion. And there was a little argument that started. One woman said, only politicians can sort this out, can resolve this situation after three years of war. And then a man said, no, not the politicians, only the Russian army. can do that.
But I think, you know, people, after three years of this, there is a fatigue and people do want to see this over. Although some people say we want this to end with a Russian victory. Other people say, well, let's just have talks. Let the politicians find a way out of this.
Steve Rosenberg in Moscow. Reports from the Philippines say the former president, Rodrigo Duterte, is aboard a plane bound for The Hague. Earlier today, police arrested Mr Duterte as he arrived back at Manila airport. They served him with a warrant from the International Criminal Court, accusing the former leader of crimes against humanity over his seven-year self-proclaimed war on drugs.
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Chapter 4: How is China advancing in AI technology?
Chapter 5: What are the details of Manchester United's new stadium?
Manchester United announce a brand new football stadium capable of holding 100,000 fans. Let's start, though, in Pakistan, where gunmen have seized a passenger train in the mountainous southwest. I heard the latest from our correspondent in Islamabad, Azadeh Moshiri.
An official has told us that more than 400 passengers were on board when gunmen stormed the train. And it's important to say that while we do know that there were injuries, officials have confirmed that to us, including the driver themselves. We don't have any confirmation on any casualties.
The Jaffar Express left the city of Quetta and it was headed for one of Pakistan's major cities, Rawalpindi, as well as Peshawar. And That train tends to go through an area with very poor cellular service and it goes through several tunnels. From what we understand, the train was stopped in between two of them.
Now, we've also been told by local railway officials that a group of civilians, including women and children, were seen to be disembarking the train and leaving. So keep in mind that 400 figure may have changed by now. A militant group called the Baloch Liberation Army has claimed the attack, and it's said that it's still in control of the train.
And it's also threatened to harm those on board if authorities do respond with any military operation.
Right. So there's still a threat seemingly to the passengers who are still on board the train. It could still be quite a large number. Do we know what it is they want?
Well, so yes, that is what the militant group is claiming. And they've carried out many deadly incidents in the province before. And a lot of this has to do with the context of that region. Balochistan is home to several separatist groups, and they're all calling for independence. It's Pakistan's largest province.
And what they accuse the central government of is exploiting a lot of the rich resources in the region. Because even though it's the least developed province, despite being one of the largest, it has a lot of rich natural resources, gas, minerals. And it's also home to a multi-billion dollar project that's funded by China called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
So the region is very important to China as well. And what these groups typically do is target military personnel, but not only military personnel, they also go after miners as well as labourers.
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Chapter 6: How is Ukraine impacting the Russia conflict?
On the way in, the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, swept through the lobby of the hotel here on the way to the meeting room along with his delegation. I asked him what his expectations were for the meeting. He gave a thumbs up and said, good. That gives a sense, I think, of how upbeat the Americans have appeared in the run-up to all of this.
They're framing this very much as an opportunity, as they see it, to see if the Ukrainians are committed to what President Trump wants. And that is, of course, a quick truce with the Russians. And remember, it is less than a fortnight since that Oval Office meeting where Mr. Zelensky was kicked out, basically told that he was disrespectful and ungrateful.
And we then saw that profound deterioration and acrimony with the Americans suspending military and intelligence, some intelligence-sharing support with the Ukrainians. Now, I also asked a top aide to Mr. Zelensky on his way into this meeting, Andrei Yakov, about their expectations.
Now, he said that they wanted this to be very constructive, that they were very open towards peace, tried to press him a bit. on things like concessions and whether they were still asking for a US security guarantee. He said, yes, of course they were, but this was much more about finding a path to an immediate ceasefire.
So I think the sense here is that we could be looking at a kind of rapprochement here, what the Americans, I think, would see as some kind of a reprieve for Mr Zelensky, and that could, in the end, see that intelligence and military support being reinstated. But we'll have to see for the outcome of the meeting.
Now, there's talks in Jeddah got underway just hours after Ukraine launched what seems to have been its biggest drone attack on Moscow. Russia editor Steve Rosenberg told us more.
It was huge. I mean, we've seen drone attacks here before, but not really on this scale. First of all, that the defence ministry issued a statement saying that more than 330, maybe more than 340 now, Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defences targeting 10 Russian regions, including Moscow.
and the Moscow mayor announced that the drone attack was the biggest on Moscow ever. But it's the area around Moscow, Moscow region, which seems to have been affected most by this, and the death toll stands at three people, and around 20 people were wounded in the attacks overnight. What are people saying about it?
Well, earlier today I went to an apartment block in the south of Moscow, one of the apartment blocks that was damaged by... debris from a drone. And there was a large crowd of people just looking up at the apartment block and the damage and some people filming it on their mobile phones. We got chatting to people in the crowd. One woman said, it's terrifying. You know, they're
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