Briefly

UNITED KINGDOM

Gunman shot dead near royal palace

British police say a man was shot dead during a confrontation with firearms officers on Saturday near the Kensington Palace royal residence in London. The Metropolitan Police force said officers were called to reports that a man with a firearm had entered a bank and bookmakers in the Kensington area of west London. He fled in a vehicle, which was stopped by officers nearby in a wealthy area that is home to several embassies and the palace, the official London residence of Prince William, his wife Kate and their three children. It is also home to several other members of the royal family. The force said "shots were fired and a man sustained gunshot wounds". He was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident was not being treated as terrorism, police said.

AFGHANISTAN

Donors release $280m frozen funds for needy

Donors have agreed to transfer $280 million from a frozen trust fund to the World Food Program and UNICEF to help needy Afghans, the World Bank said as it seeks to help a country facing famine and economic free fall. The World Bank-administered Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund will this year give $180 million to the WFP to scale up food security and nutrition operations and $100 million to UNICEF to provide essential health services, the bank said on Friday. The money would aim to support food security and health programs in Afghanistan as it sinks into a severe economic and humanitarian crisis that accelerated in August when the Taliban overran the country as the Western-backed government collapsed and the last US troops withdrew.

INDIA

Scammers hack PM's Twitter account

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Twitter account was hacked on Sunday with a message declaring his country had adopted bitcoin as legal tender and was distributing the cryptocurrency to citizens. Modi is a prolific tweeter and is the world's most popular incumbent politician on the platform, with more than 73 million followers on his main account. A swiftly deleted tweet from his main@narendramodi handle said the Indian government had officially bought 500 bitcoins and was "distributing them to all residents of the country", along with a scam link. His office tweeted that the account was "very briefly compromised" and that Twitter had since restored control. It is the second time one of Modi's Twitter accounts has been hacked.

Agencies via Xinhua