MOSCOW: The Daesh group on Monday claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on churchgoers in Russia’s predominantly Muslim Dagestan region.
At least five people were killed and four wounded when a gunman opened fire with a hunting rifle on people leaving a Sunday service at a Russian Orthodox church in the Dagestan city of Kizlyar.
Authorities say the gunman was a local resident, and his wife has been detained for questioning. But police have not commented on the possible motive for the attack.
Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region situated between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea. Following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya, an Islamic insurgency spread to Dagestan.
A statement from the Daesh group, posted Monday on a Daesh-affiliated militant website, claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying a Muslim fighter attacked “a Christian temple” in Kizlyar. The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed, but the website is regularly used by Daesh for posting militant statements.
The attack happened less than two weeks after several top officials in Dagestan were arrested on embezzlement charges, part of the Kremlin’s efforts to strengthen control over the volatile region. The officials, including the head of Dagestan’s government, were arrested at their homes before dawn in a swift, military-style operation in Dagestan and flown to Moscow. Observers saw the latest arrests as part of Kremlin efforts to rein in the local elites and establish a degree of control over the economically struggling region.
Daesh owns up to church shooting in Russia
Daesh owns up to church shooting in Russia
An electric scooter is blamed for a violent fire that killed 4 in a French city
A 13-year-old jumped to his death from the 4th-floor apartment where the fire started in the early hours of Friday and a burned body found inside is believed to be that of his older brother, aged 15, said Reims prosecutor François Schneider.
An 87-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son who lived on the 8th floor suffocated to death in the smoke, he said.
Two people were seriously injured, including the dead boys' stepfather who was badly burned, and 26 others were treated in hospital for lighter injuries, he said.
Schneider said there is “no doubt” that the blaze was accidental, spreading quickly from the scooter that caught fire for reasons unknown.
Battery fires “are extremely difficult to extinguish” and fire officers battled the blaze for more than three hours, the prosecutor said.
Bangladesh to hold national elections in April 2026, interim leader Yunus says
- Yunus took over three days after former PM Sheikh Hasina was ousted in uprising last year
- Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Hasina’s rival, eyes forming new government after polls
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Friday said that the country will hold national elections in the first half of April 2026.
In a televised address to the nation on Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said that the Election Commission would roll out a detailed roadmap for the election in due course.
Yunus took over three days after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a student-led mass uprising in August 2024, ending her 15-year rule. Hasina has been in exile in India since.
The interim government banned Hasina’s Awami League party, which is one of the country’s two largest political parties. Hasina faces trial for hundreds of deaths related to the uprising in July and August last year.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by Hasina’s archrival and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, had been demanding the elections be held in December. The BNP is the main political party and is hoping to form the next government in the absence of Hasina’s party.
Salahuddin Ahmed, a spokesman for BNP, criticized Yunus for failing to “to meet the expectation of the nation” about the polls schedule.
He told Channel 24 television that April is not ideal for an election because the annual month of fasting that starts in mid-February makes campaigning challenging. He said it would also be difficult for a new government to formulate the year’s budget, usually announced in June.
The Jamaat-e-Islami party, the country’s largest Islamist party, may also be able to take part in the elections after the country’s Supreme Court on June 1 cleared the path for the party to regain its registration as a political party.
Hasina’s party had fiercely criticized it for its opposition to Bangladesh gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the country’s independence leader.
Yunus had earlier said that the election would be held between December and next June. The relationship between Yunus and the BNP has been frosty in recent months over a disagreement about the election schedule. Zia’s party accused Yunus of tactics to delay a vote.
In February, a new party was formed by student leaders who led the anti-Hasina uprising. Yunus’ critics say the party had backing from him, and Hasina’s party calls the new National Citizen Party a “king’s party.”
Child pornography swoop leads to 20 arrests in 12 nations
- Spanish authorities arrested seven suspects, including a health care worker and a teacher
PARIS: An international operation against child pornography led by Spanish police has resulted in the arrest of 20 people in 12 nations across the Americas and Europe, Interpol said.
The operation was initiated by Spain in late 2024, when officers carried out online patrols and identified instant messaging groups dedicated to the circulation of child sexual exploitation images, Interpol said late Friday.
“As the investigation progressed, officers were able to fully identify the alleged perpetrators and alert authorities in the relevant countries,” it said.
It said there were “follow-up sessions between authorities to align operational efforts with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Paraguay.”
The arrests took place between March and May 2025.
Spanish authorities arrested seven suspects, including a health care worker and a teacher.
The health care worker allegedly paid minors from Eastern Europe for explicit images, while the teacher is accused of possessing and sharing child sexual abuse material via various online platforms.
Sixty-eight additional suspects have been identified and further investigations are underway.
Desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets and digital storage devices were seized. A teacher was arrested in Panama.
The remaining suspects were arrested elsewhere in Europe and the United States.
Millions sit China’s high-stakes university entrance exam
- China’s gaokao requires students to use all their knowledge acquired to this point
- The exam results are critical for gaining admission to university
BEIJING: Hopeful parents accompanied their teenage children to the gates of a busy Beijing test center on Saturday, among millions of high school students across China sitting their first day of the highly competitive university entrance exam.
Nationwide, 13.35 million students have registered for the multi-subject “gaokao” series this year, according to the Ministry of Education, down from last year’s record-high 13.42 million test takers.
Outside the central Beijing secondary school, a proud parent who gave her name as Chen said “12 years of hard work have finally led to this moment” – as she waved a fan in front of her daughter while the student reviewed her notes one last time before the test.
“We know our kids have endured so much hardship,” Chen said, adding that she was not nervous.
“I’m actually quite excited. I think my child is excellent, and I’m sure she will get the best score,” she said.
China’s gaokao requires students to use all their knowledge acquired to this point, testing them on subjects including Chinese, English, mathematics, science and humanities.
The exam results are critical for gaining admission to university – and determining whether they will attend a prestigious or more modest institution.
While teachers and staff offered students their support, holding up signs of encouragement, some test takers, dressed in school uniforms, appeared panicked, including a girl with tears in her eyes.
“There’s no need for us parents to add pressure. The children are already under a lot of it,” said a woman named Wang, whose son had just entered the exam hall.
Like many mothers, she wore a traditional Chinese qipao in hopes of bringing good luck.
“I hope my son achieves immediate success and gets his name on the (list of high-scoring candidates),” Wang said with a smile.
Higher education has expanded rapidly in China in recent decades as an economic boom pushed up living standards – as well as parents’ expectations for their children’s careers.
But the job market for young graduates remains daunting.
As of April, 15.8 percent of people aged 16 to 24 living in urban areas were unemployed, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Due to this pressure, many Chinese students prepare for the gaokao from a young age, often with extra lessons after the regular school day.
And every year education authorities are on guard against cheating and disruptions during the exam.
This week, China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang called for a “safe gaokao,” stressing the importance of a rigorous campaign against cheating.
Areas around exam centers are closely guarded by police, with road lanes closed to traffic and several cities banning motorists from honking their horns so as not to disrupt the concentration of students.
In some schools, facial recognition is even used to prevent fraud.
While the university admission rate for gaokao test takers has exceeded 80-90 percent in recent years, many students disappointed with their results choose to repeat the exam.
As there is no age limit for the test, some have become notorious for attempting the exam dozens of times, either after failing it or not getting into their top-choice university.
One teacher at the Beijing school where parents saw off their children on Saturday estimated that only about 10 of the approximately 600 final-year students there would earn a place at one of the capital’s top universities.
Jiang, a final-year high school student who only gave one name, said he dreamt of attending a Beijing university, and was remaining calm shortly before his Chinese exam.
“Even though the pressure is intense, it’s actually quite fair,” he said.
“I feel like all the preparations that needed to be made have been made, so there’s really no point in being nervous now, right?
“Whatever happens, happens. It’s truly not something I can completely control.”
Kenya NGO saves turtles from nets, plastic and rising tides
- Turtles are still poached for their shells, meat and oil
- But through the charity’s awareness campaigns in schools and villages, perceptions have significantly changed
WATAMU: A small charity on the Kenyan coast has become vital to the region’s majestic turtle population, saving thousands from poachers, fishermen’s nets and ever-worsening plastic pollution.
On the beach of the seaside town of Watamu, it takes four men to heave the huge Loggerhead sea turtle into the back of a car.
She has just been saved from a fishing tackle and will be taken to a nearby clinic to be checked for injuries, then weighed, tagged and released back into the sea.
A Kenyan NGO, Local Ocean Conservation (LOC), has been doing this work for almost three decades and has carried out some 24,000 rescues.
“Every time I release a turtle, it’s a really great joy for me. My motivation gets stronger and stronger,” said Fikiri Kiponda, 47, who has been part of LOC’s 20-odd staff for 16 years.
LOC began life in 1997 as a group of volunteers who hated seeing the creatures being eaten or dying in nets.
Turtles are still poached for their shells, meat and oil.
But through the charity’s awareness campaigns in schools and villages, “perceptions have significantly changed,” said Kiponda.
LOC, which relies mostly on donations, compensates fishermen for bringing them injured turtles.
More than 1,000 fishermen participate in the scheme and mostly do so for the sake of conservation, the charity emphasizes, since the reward does not offset the hours of lost labor.
At the NGO’s nearby clinic, health coordinator Lameck Maitha, 34, says turtles are often treated for broken bones and tumors caused by a disease called Fibropapillomatosis.
One current in-patient is Safari, a young Olive Ridley turtle around 15 years old — turtles can live beyond 100 — transported by plane from further up the coast.
She arrived in a dire state, barely alive and with a bone protruding from her flipper, which ultimately had to be amputated — likely the result of fighting to free herself from a fisherman’s net.
Safari has been recovering well and the clinic hopes she can return to the sea.
Other frequent tasks include removing barnacles that embed themselves in shells and flippers, weakening their host.
But a growing danger is plastic pollution.
If a turtle eats plastic, it can create a blockage that in turn creates gas, making the turtle float and unable to dive.
In these cases, the clinic gives the turtle laxatives to clear out its system.
“We are seeing more and more floating turtles because the ocean has so much plastic,” said Maitha.
LOC also works to protect 50 to 100 nesting sites, threatened by rising sea levels.
Turtles travel far and wide but always lay their eggs on the beach where they were born, and Watamu is one of the most popular spots.
Every three or four years, they produce hundreds of eggs, laid during multiple sessions over several months, that hatch after around 60 days.
The charity often relocates eggs that have been laid too close to the sea.
Marine biologist Joey Ngunu, LOC’s technical manager, always calls the first to appear Kevin.
“And once Kevin comes out, the rest follow,” he said with a smile, describing the slow, clumsy procession to the water, preferably at night to avoid predators as much as possible.
Only one in a thousand reaches adulthood of 20-25 years.
“Living in the sea as a turtle must be crazy. You have to face so many dangers, fish and poachers, and now human pressure with plastic and commercial fishing,” he said.
“Turtles are definitely survivors.”
