Europe

Climate change changing Earth’s time: study

By Daniel Lawler and Juliette Collen PARIS, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Struggle to wrap your head around daylight savings? Spare a thought for the world’s timekeepers, who are trying to work out how climate change is affecting Earth’s rotation — and in turn, how we keep track of time. In a strange twist, global warming could even help out timekeepers by delaying the need for history’s first “negative leap second” by three years, a […]

Milky Way’s black hole surrounded by strong magnetic fields: astronomers

PARIS, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Astronomers have discovered powerful magnetic fields spiralling around the black hole that sits at the centre of the Milky Way, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday. A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for the first time showed in polarised light a ring of magnetic fields surrounding the Sagittarius A* black hole. The fields are similar to those observed around the M87* black hole at the heart […]

Russia blames Kyiv, West over Moscow gun attack

MOSCOW, March 26, 2024 (AFP) – Russia on Tuesday sought to shift blame for the Moscow concert hall attack onto Ukraine and its Western backers, despite the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the massacre of at least 139 people. The Kremlin’s security services have been scrambling to explain how gunmen on Friday managed to carry out the worst attack in Russia in over two decades. President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that “radical Islamists” conducted […]

Putin says ‘Islamists’ behind Moscow attack, links them to Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 25, 2024 (AFP) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday acknowledged for the first time that “radical Islamists” were behind last week’s attack on a concert hall outside Moscow, but suggested they were linked to Ukraine somehow. Eleven people have been detained in connection with the attack, which saw camouflaged gunmen storm into Crocus City Hall, open fire on concert-goers and set the building ablaze, killing at least 139 people. “We know that the […]

Four suspects remanded in custody over Moscow concert hall massacre

MOSCOW, March 25, 2024 (AFP) – Four men accused of involvement in a massacre at a Moscow concert hall that killed 137 people were remanded in custody Sunday, as Russia observed a national day of mourning following the attack claimed by the Islamic State. All four suspects have been charged with terrorism, according to Moscow’s Basmanny district court, and face life imprisonment. Their detention is set until May 22 but may be extended depending on […]

Russian cruise missile breaches Polish airspace: army

WARSAW, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – A Russian cruise missile fired at towns in western Ukraine breached Polish airspace, Poland’s army said Sunday. For about 40 seconds, “Polish airspace was breached by one of the cruise missiles fired in the night by the air forces… of the Russian Federation,” the army wrote on social media platform X. “The object flew through Polish airspace above the village of Oserdow (Lublin province) and stayed for 39 seconds,” […]

Kyiv and Ukraine’s Lviv region come under Russian air attack

KYIV, Ukraine, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv came under a “massive” Russian air attack early Sunday, officials said, and Polish forces were also placed on heightened readiness. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with Sunday’s strikes also coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske west of Bakhmut. A militant attack […]

President Putin vows retribution for deadly concert hall attack

MOSCOW, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack” on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 130, saying four gunmen trying to flee to Ukraine had been arrested. Kyiv has strongly denied any connection, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of trying to shift the blame onto them. Putin, in his first public remarks on the attack, made no reference to a […]

Islamic State posts video of Moscow concert hall attack

PARIS, March 24, 2024 (AFP) – A video apparently shot by gunmen who carried out the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall has been posted on social media accounts typically used by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), according to the SITE Intelligence Group. The video, which lasts a minute and a half, shows several individuals with blurred faces and garbled voices, armed with assault rifles and knives. They appear to be the lobby […]

World leaders condemn Russian concert hall attack

PARIS, March 23, 2024 (AFP) – World leaders denounced a deadly attack by gunmen on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 90 people and wounded at least another 100. Attackers dressed in camouflage uniforms entered the Crocus City venue before the start of a rock concert on Friday, opened fire on the audience and threw flammable liquid, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency at the scene. The assault was […]

Afghan IS branch top suspect in Moscow attack

By Didier LAURAS PARIS, March 23, 2024 (AFP) – The Islamic State group (IS) has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 100 people — terrorism experts say its Afghan branch is likely responsible. Since the fundamentalist Taliban took over Kabul, the ISKP — the Afghan branch of IS — has managed to poach members from its rival movement and has repeatedly shown off its will and capability […]

Russia arrests concert hall gunmen as death toll rises to 115

MOSCOW, March 23, 2024 (AFP) – Russia on Saturday said it had arrested 11 people — including four gunmen — over the attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by the Islamic State, as the death toll rose to 115. Russian President Vladimir Putin was yet to comment publicly on the attack and Moscow has not addressed the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility, even as some lawmakers pointed to a possible Ukraine connection. Camouflaged gunmen […]