Russian drone attack damages homes and railway depot in Ukraine

Russian drone attack damages homes and railway depot in Ukraine
Ukrainian firefighters put out a fire following a Russian missile attack on the country’s energy system in Dnipropetrovsk region on Dec. 25, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
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Russian drone attack damages homes and railway depot in Ukraine

Russian drone attack damages homes and railway depot in Ukraine
  • Ukraine’s state railways Ukrzaliznytsia said Russia attacked a depot in Dnipropetrovsk region
  • Russia has pummeled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones over the past year

KYIV: Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday that it shot down 37 out of 65 Russian drones overnight in an attack that damaged businesses, a railway depot and homes around the nation.
Ukraine’s state railways Ukrzaliznytsia said Russia attacked a depot in Dnipropetrovsk region, causing significant damage to infrastructure and premises.
The attack also caused fires at three private enterprises in the central Cherkasy region, its governor Ihor Taburets said via Telegram.
In the northeastern region of Sumy, it damaged eight residential buildings and one apartment building, regional authorities said.
Of the 65 drones, 28 more did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare, Ukraine’s military said.
Ukrenergo, the country’s national grid operator, reported emergency power cuts in eight regions on Tuesday, citing damages from the missile and drone attacks.
It did not specify when the attacks took place.
The announcement followed emergency power cuts in nine Ukrainian regions on Monday.
Russia has pummeled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones over the past year. The assaults have triggered deep power cuts, damaging the distribution system and knocking out about half of Ukraine’s generating capacity.
Russia denies targeting civilians but thousands have been killed and injured in its invasion of Ukraine.


Danish PM visits UK counterpart amid Greenland tensions

Danish PM visits UK counterpart amid Greenland tensions
Updated 4 sec ago
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Danish PM visits UK counterpart amid Greenland tensions

Danish PM visits UK counterpart amid Greenland tensions
COPENHAGEN: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was due on Tuesday to meet UK counterpart Keir Starmer, as she seeks European support to counter US President Donald Trump’s remarks about taking over Greenland.
The meeting in London will focus on “security in Europe,” according to Frederiksen’s office.
While the statement did not specifically mention Greenland — which is an autonomous Danish territory — or the United States, Frederiksen was quoted saying: “We need a stronger Europe that contributes more to NATO and stands more on its own.”
“At the same time, we must do our part to maintain the transatlantic partnership that has been the foundation for peace and prosperity since World War II,” Frederiksen added.
Trump has repeatedly signalled that he wants the Arctic island — which is strategically important and is believed to hold large untapped mineral and oil reserves — to become part of the United States.
In an interview with broadcaster Fox News over the weekend, US Vice President J.D. Vance said Greenland was “really important” to US “national security.”
“Frankly, Denmark, which controls Greenland, it’s not doing its job and it’s not being a good ally,” Vance said.
On Monday, Frederiksen insisted Denmark was “one of the United States’ most important and best allies.”
Last week, she visited Paris and Berlin to seek backing from the European Union’s traditional powerhouses against Trump’s threats.
A day after Trump was sworn in as president, Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede insisted that Greenlanders “don’t want to be American.”
Danish leaders have insisted that Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders

Hundreds flee Santorini as quakes disrupt life

Hundreds flee Santorini as quakes disrupt life
Updated 40 min 46 sec ago
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Hundreds flee Santorini as quakes disrupt life

Hundreds flee Santorini as quakes disrupt life

SANTORINI: Hundreds of people packed a port in Santorini in the early morning hours of Tuesday to board a ferry and reach safety in Athens as a series of quakes kept shaking the famous Greek tourist island.
Hundreds of quakes have been registered every few minutes in the sea between the volcanic islands of Santorini and Amorgos in the Aegean Sea since Friday, prompting authorities to shut schools in Santorini and the small nearby islands of Ios, Amorgos and Anafi until Friday.
A tremor with a magnitude of 4.7 was recorded by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) at 0653GMT on the island most of whose popular white and blue villages cling to steep cliffs over the sea.
“Everything is closed. No one works now. The whole island has emptied,” said Dori, a 18-year-old local resident who declined to give his last name, before boarding the ferry to Athens.
“We will go to Athens until we see how things develop here.”
More people were expected to fly out on an additional flight on Tuesday.
With seismologists estimating that the intense seismic activity could take days or weeks to abate, people were advised to stay out of coastal areas due to the risk of landslides and avoid indoor gatherings.
Some hotels started emptying their pools as they were told that the water load made buildings more vulnerable.
Greece is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in Europe as it sits at the boundary of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates whose constant interaction prompts frequent quakes.
Santorini took its current shape following one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, around 1600 BC. The last eruption in the area occurred in 1950.


Japan PM to meet Trump on Feb. 6-8 US trip: government spokesman

Japan PM to meet Trump on Feb. 6-8 US trip: government spokesman
Updated 5 min 33 sec ago
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Japan PM to meet Trump on Feb. 6-8 US trip: government spokesman

Japan PM to meet Trump on Feb. 6-8 US trip: government spokesman

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will meet President Donald Trump on a visit to the United States this week, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday.
“If circumstances permit, he will visit the United States from February 6-8 and hold (his) first face-to-face Japan-US summit meeting with President Trump in Washington DC,” Hayashi said.


Prisoners killed in Tajikistan riot were members of Daesh

Prisoners killed in Tajikistan riot were members of Daesh
Updated 30 min 42 sec ago
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Prisoners killed in Tajikistan riot were members of Daesh

Prisoners killed in Tajikistan riot were members of Daesh

DUSHANBE: The five prisoners killed in a riot in an escape attempt from a facility in Tajikistan on Tuesday were members of Daesh, a source in Tajik law enforcement said.
Nine prisoners armed with homemade knives attacked guards on Tuesday, according to the justice ministry, which said the prisoners had tried to kill the guards and escape from the penal colony 20 km (12 miles) east of Dushanbe.
At least five prisoners were killed and three prison employees were injured, security agency sources told Reuters.


Frenchman on death row in Indonesia to return home

Frenchman on death row in Indonesia to return home
Updated 04 February 2025
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Frenchman on death row in Indonesia to return home

Frenchman on death row in Indonesia to return home
  • Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory in a Jakarta suburb where tens of kilos of drugs were discovered

JAKARTA: A Frenchman on death row in Indonesia since 2007 for drug offences will be returned to his home country on Tuesday, where he hopes to be granted his freedom.
Indonesia, which has some of the world's toughest drug laws, has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mother on death row and the last five members of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug ring.
Serge Atlaoui, 61, will be driven from Salemba prison in Jakarta to the city's main airport in a convoy before being handed over to French police officers and boarding a commercial flight to Paris, due to arrive Wednesday morning.
Upon arrival, "he will be taken to Bobigny (a suburb of Paris), presented to prosecutors and most likely detained while awaiting a decision on the adaptation (of his sentence)", his lawyer Richard Sedillot told AFP.
Then "in the coming weeks or months" the lawyer will request that a French court "adapt his sentence to grant his freedom".
"Serge is happy and calm", added Sedillot, "but he is going to need a little bit of time to reorganise himself".
France requested his return officially on November 4 and it was made possible after an agreement between the French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin and his Indonesian counterpart Yusril Ihza Mahendra on January 24.
In the agreement, Jakarta said they had decided "not to execute the prisoner" and authorised his return on "humanitarian grounds" because "he is ill".
Atlaoui has been receiving weekly medical treatment at a nearby hospital.
Jakarta also left it to the French government to grant Atlaoui -- the only Frenchman on death row in Indonesia -- "clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence".

Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory in a Jakarta suburb where tens of kilos of drugs were discovered and accused of being a "chemist" by the authorities.
A welder from Metz in northeastern France, the father of four has always denied being a drug trafficker, saying that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory.
"I thought there was something suspicious (about the factory)," Atlaoui told AFP in 2015.
Initially sentenced to life in prison, his sentence was reviewed by the supreme court and changed to death on appeal.
He was due to be executed alongside eight others in 2015, but was granted a reprieve after Paris applied more pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed.
There are currently at least 530 inmates on death row in Indonesia, according to the human rights organisation Kontas, referencing official figures.
Among them 90 foreigners, including at least one woman, according to the Ministry of Immigration and Correction.
The Indonesian government recently signalled it will resume executions, on hiatus since 2016.
In December, Filipina inmate Mary Jane Veloso, who was arrested in 2010 and also sentenced to death for drug trafficking, was returned to her home country after an agreement was reached between both countries.