World

Grandmother of slain teenager calls for end to unrest in France

The grandmother of 17-year-old Nahel has called for calm after days of unrest in France over his death during a police traffic check. "Fortunately, the police officers are there. The people who are breaking things right now, I tell them 'stop it.' They used Nahel as an excuse," she told BFMTV on Sunday. While she is angry with the officer who shot her son, she does not want to generalize. He will be punished like anyone else, she said. "I have faith in the judiciary," she said, adding that people should stay calm and not destroy everything. France has been rocked by massive riots for days. It ...

Residents evacuated as WWII bomb defused in German city of Kiel

Around 8,200 people living in the northern German city of Kiel were temporarily evacuated from their homes on Sunday as a bomb disposal team defused a 250-kilogram device dating back to World War II. Police in the port city, which was a major naval base during the war, tweeted that the operation had been completed in the Neumühlen-Dietrichsdorf district without incident. The bomb was uncovered during construction work. On Tuesday, another British bomb was defused in the Schreventeich district in the city. Some 3,000 residents had to be temporarily evacuated. Unexploded ordnance left over from ...

Russian ex-arms dealer freed for Brittney Griner to run for far-right party in local vote

(Reuters) - A Russian arms dealer freed last December in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been chosen as the candidate of a far-right party for a seat in a Russian regional legislature, state news agency RIA reported on Sunday. Viktor Bout, once dubbed "the merchant of death" by the United States, served 10 years of a 25-year sentence in U.S. prisons on arms dealing charges until his release in the prisoner exchange with Griner, an Olympic gold medallist. RIA cited an official in Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR)'s local organisation as sayi...

Home of French mayor ram-raided and torched by rioters

PARIS (Reuters) - The home of a Paris suburb mayor was ram-raided and set alight while his wife and children were asleep inside during the unrest that has gripped the country following Tuesday's shooting of a teenager by a police officer, the official said on Sunday. Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of the southern suburb of L'Hay-les-Roses, said his wife and one of their two children, aged five and seven, were injured as they fled the building in the early hours. Jeanbrun, from the conservative Les Republicains party, was not at home but at the town hall during the incident. The town hall has been the...

French police, long unreformed, under scrutiny after teenager shooting

By Juliette Jabkhiro, Layli Foroudi and Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) - The killing of a teenager by a police officer has revived long-standing questions about the state of the French police and the inability of consecutive governments to reform an institution bound by powerful unions. In a country beset by regular bouts of unrest that often draw calls for a crackdown on trouble-makers, it can be hard to criticise a force that is under strain and losing staff. But experts say the authorities can no longer turn a blind eye to accusations by right groups of rampant racism with the force, raci...

Organization of Islamic Cooperation calls for measures against Koran burning

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday said that measures need to be taken to avoid repeated acts of desecration to the Koran, Saudi State TV reported. The announcement was made during an emergency session over the burning of a Koran in Sweden last week. (Reporting by Omar Abdel Razek; Writing by Adam Makary; Editing by David Goodman)

Prigozhin-controlled Russian media group shuts amid mutiny fallout

(Reuters) - Yevgeny Prigozhin's media holding group is to shut down, the director of one of its outlets said, highlighting the mercenary chief's worsening fortunes a week after the collapse of a brief mutiny staged by his Wagner Group fighters. Under a deal that halted the mutiny, Prigozhin, a former ally of President Vladimir Putin, was allowed to go into exile in Belarus and his men given the choice of joining him, being integrated into Russia's armed forces or returning home. Patriot Media, whose most prominent outlet was the RIA FAN news site, had taken a strongly nationalist, pro-Kremlin ...

Russia launches first overnight drone attack on Kyiv in 12 days - military

By Pavel Polityuk KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region after a 12-day break, with air defence systems destroying all the weapons on their approach, Ukrainian military officials said on Sunday. The country's air force said that the attack included eight Iranian-made Shahed drones and three cruise missiles which were shot down. "Another enemy attack on Kyiv," Serhiy Popko, a colonel general who heads Kyiv's military administration, said in a post on the Telegram channel. Three private houses were damaged as a result of falling drone debris ...

Fifth night of riots in France leads to more than 420 arrests

A fifth night of riots over police brutality in French cities lead to the arrest of at least 427 people overnight on Saturday. Paris, Marseille and Lyon were among the cities most affected, with riots, looting and damage to property. Police in Paris cleared the Champs Élysées using tear gas, Le Figaro newspaper reported. There was also renewed looting in Lyon and Nice. In Marseille, the situation was tense but under control, the city administration said in the evening. Groups formed throughout the evening to cause damage, the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône said, according to Le Parisien. The p...

China complains to France after Chinese tourists hurt in riots

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Consulate General in Marseille complained to France after a bus carrying a Chinese tour group in the southern city had its windows smashed leading to minor injuries, China's Consular Affairs Office said in a statement on Sunday. The Consulate General's formal complaint called for France to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens and their property, the statement said. The bus was attacked by rioters on Thursday, according to state broadcaster CCTV, during violence which hit French cities in recent days since the police shooting of a teenager of North African descent. ...

Powerful Republican asks Blinken for details on probe of US Iran envoy

By Valerie Volcovici and Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A powerful Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives has asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken for details about an investigation into the security clearance of the U.S. envoy for Iran, amid reports he may have mishandled classified documents. Citing media reports, Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to Blinken on Friday, asking why the State Department's special envoy for Iran, Rob Malley, was placed on unpaid leave after his security clearance was suspended earlier this year to investigate th...

Ultra-nationalists aim to restrict travel for Russian officials' families

(Reuters) - The ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) is working on a bill that would temporarily ban the travel of close relatives of high-ranking officials to "unfriendly countries," the RIA state news agency reported on Sunday. Russia considers all countries that have hit it with sanctions over its military campaign in Ukraine to be "unfriendly." Citing a member of the Russian Duma, Sergei Karginov, RIA reported that restrictions may also affect, among others, law enforcement officers, judges, top managers of state corporations, and the board of directors of the Centra...

Ukraine war 'corrosive' for Putin, CIA 'opportunity': spy chief

Washington (AFP) - Russia's war in Ukraine has had a "corrosive" effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin, CIA Director William Burns said Saturday, with discontent over the conflict creating a "once-in-a generation opportunity" for the spy agency. Speaking at the Ditchley Foundation in the UK, Burns called Putin's invasion of Ukraine "the most immediate and acute geopolitical challenge to international order today." The address came one week after the head of Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin led his forces in a brief mutiny against Russia's military command. In doing so, he accused...