Five people were injured in a mosque shooting Saturday in the Toronto area of Canada, according to police sources.

A group of men, who had finished midnight prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, was randomly attacked in a drive-by shooting in the Scarborough district, said Toronto Police Department spokesperson David Rydzik.

At least six shots were fired but it remains unknown how many suspects were involved in the shooting, he said.

“We are unable to say whether the victims were targeted because of their religious beliefs,” said Rydzik.

Meanwhile, Nadeem Sheikh, board member of the Scarborough Muslim Association said he is concerned about the shooting.

He urged authorities to do their best to bring the perpetrators before authorities and said more steps should be taken to curb gun violence./aa

Up to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of the Russian war late February, the Ukrainian president said.

"As to our military, out of the numbers we have, we think that we lost 2,500 to 3,000, in comparison with the Russian military, who lost about 19 (thousand) to 20,000," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with CNN on Friday.

Almost 10,000 others have been injured during the war and "it's hard to say how many will survive," Zelenskyy added.

Russia, however, said it has lost 1,351 soldiers during the war.

The Ukrainian leaders warned all the countries should be prepared for the possibility of Russia's use of tactical nuclear weapons in the war.

"Chemical weapons, they should do it, they could do it, for them the life of the people, nothing. … We should think not be afraid, not be afraid but be ready," Zelenskyy said.

Meanwhile, the president said it is difficult to talk about civilian casualties as towns and cities south of Ukraine are blocked.

"… Kherson, Berdyansk, Mariupol further east, and the area to the east where Volnovakha is -- we just don't know how many people have died in that area that is blocked."

Speaking about the sinking of Russia's Moskva missile cruiser on Friday, Zelenskyy said: "For us, it is a strong weapon against our country, so its sinking is not a tragedy for us."

Russia and Ukraine have offered varying accounts of how the Russian missile cruiser Moskva sunk in the Black Sea. Moscow claimed a fire broke out on board, leading to the explosion of munitions that were being carried. Ukraine claimed it struck the strategically valuable vessel in a missile attack./aa

Top leaders of India's opposition political parties on Saturday voiced concern over the rise in hate speech incidents in the country and condemned recent communal violence across several states during the holy Hindu festival.

Leaders of 13 opposition parties, including Indian National Congress President Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, issued a joint statement, expressing their outrage at how issues such as food, dress, faith, festivals, and language "are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarize our society."

In recent weeks, right-wing groups in the southern state of Karnataka have launched anti-Muslim campaigns, including the exclusion of Muslim traders from fairs near Hindu temples and a push to ban halal meat.

The state where a number of Muslim schoolgirls were first prohibited from entering the classroom wearing the hijab, or headscarf, earlier this year, has now snowballed into a campaign against Muslims.

Concerned about recent communal violence in various states, opposition leaders said "reports indicate that there is a sinister pattern in the areas where these incidents have occurred."

They added: "We are extremely concerned with the growing incidents of hate speech in the country by people, who appear to have official patronage and against whom no meaningful and strong action is being taken."

Of late, there has been an increase in attacks on minorities in India, particularly Muslims. Communal clashes were witnessed earlier this week during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami in a number of states.

In the Khargone city in the central Madhya Pradesh state, the authorities demolished the houses of many Muslims after they were accused of stone-pelting a Hindu procession.

This week, a number of videos surfaced on social media showing a procession of Hindu men during the festival stopping in Muslim neighborhoods, playing provocative songs against Muslims, and raising hate slogans.

The leaders expressed shock at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence for failing to "speak against the words and actions of those who propagate bigotry and those who, by their words and actions, incite and provoke our society."

This silence, they said, is "an eloquent testimony to the fact that such private armed mobs enjoy the luxury of official patronage."

The statement also noted that social media and audio-visual platforms are being "misused with official patronage to spread hatred and prejudice."

"We reiterate our collective resolve to work together to strengthen the bonds of social harmony that have defined and enriched India for centuries," these leaders stated, arguing that the country will prosper only if it respects, accommodates and celebrates its diversities.

"We reiterate our commitment to combat and confront the poisonous ideologies which are attempting to entrench divisiveness in our society," they declared.

The top political opposition leaders also appealed to the people to maintain "peace and foil the sinister objective of those who wish to sharpen communal polarization."

They called on "all our party units across the country to independently and jointly work for maintaining peace and harmony."

When asked for a comment on the opposition party leaders' joint appeal, ruling Bhartiya Janata Party spokesman Syed Zafar Islam said he will respond soon.​​​​​​​/aa

A man will stand trial in France for assaulting two Muslim women who were wearing headscarves, according to the women's attorney.

Lawyer Nabil Boudi said on Twitter on Friday that the suspect will face charges at the Montpellier Criminal Court on Sept. 14.

The alleged assailant will face charges in court for temporarily preventing the two women from working, using deliberate violence to target their belief, and humiliating them.

The man, who is in his sixties, allegedly attacked the women on March 12 in the southern city of Montpellier, surrendered to police the next day, and soon after the prosecutor's office launched an investigation.

Images circulating on social media show a man trying to forcefully seize the phone from a young woman while another hijab-wearing woman tries to pull them apart.

The suspect says in another posted video of the incident: "Really the most ridiculous religion in the world."

This is not the first time Muslim women in France have been subjected to Islamophobic attacks.

A video of a man and a woman hitting two Jordanian siblings went viral on social media in 2020. The video prompted an uproar among social media users, who decried the country's rising racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia.

In France, the Muslim community represents 8% of the population or around 6 million people out of a total population of over 65 million./aa