Massive volcanic eruptions in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula extremely rare: scientists
Emergency repair crews have been dispatched to restore power. In the town of Frolovo, a fire erupted at a technical building in the Archeda railway station, prompting temporary train suspensions as explosive ordnance disposal teams neutralized an unexploded drone that had landed on the tracks. Six trains, including Moscow- and St. Petersburg-bound long-distance services, were delayed due to the incident, Russian Railways' Privolzhskaya branch confirmed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
8 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Ukraine's funeral workers bearing the burden of war
SUMY, Ukraine: At a funeral home in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, Svitlana Ostapenko paced around as she prepared the dead for their final journey. After five years of working in the funeral home, she was used to seeing dead bodies, but the growing number of dead—including young people from Russia's invasion—was starting to overwhelm even her. 'Death doesn't discriminate between young and old,' the funeral director told AFP, breaking down in tears. Ukraine's funeral workers, who are living through the war themselves and have been repeatedly exposed to violent death throughout Russia's invasion launched in early 2022, are shouldering a mounting emotional toll while supporting grieving families. What's more, Ostapenko's hometown of Sumy near the Russian border, has come under bombardment throughout the invasion but advancing Russian troops have brought the fighting to as close as 20 kilometers (12 miles) away. Every day, Ostapenko lays the region's dead in coffins. 'One way or another, I'm getting by. I take sedatives, that's all,' the 59-year-old said. There has been no shortage of work. On April 13, a double Russian ballistic missile strike on the city killed 35 people and wounded dozens of others. Residents pass without giving a second thought to the facades of historic buildings that were pockmarked by missile fragments. 'We buried families, a mother and her daughter, a young woman of 33 who had two children,' said Ostapenko. During attacks at night, she said she takes refuge in her hallway—her phone in hand in case her services are needed. Every day, the Ukrainian regional authorities compile reports on Russian strikes in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Petro Bondar, Svitlana's colleague, said he noted the names of the victims in his notebook to 'understand how much grief these bombings cause.' 'They're not just numbers,' he told AFP. 'They were living people, souls.' Igor Kruzo knew them only too well. His job is to immortalize their names in granite tombstones, along with portraits he paints stroke by stroke. The 60-year-old artist and veteran said he found it difficult to live with the faces he has rendered for gravestones. Soldiers, civilians, children, 'all local people,' he said. 'When you paint them, you observe their image, each with their own destiny,' he said, never speaking of himself in the first person, avoiding eye contact. At the cemetery, bereaved families told him about the deaths of their loved ones. 'They need to be heard.' The conversations helped him cope psychologically, he said. 'But it all cuts you to the bone,' he added. He used to paint elderly people, but found himself rejuvenating their features under his brush. He remembered a mother who was killed protecting her child with her body at the beginning of the war. 'A beautiful woman, full of life', whom he knew, he said. 'And you find yourself there, having to engrave her image.' In recent months, his work had taken an increasingly heavier toll. In the new wing of the cemetery reserved for soldiers, a sea of yellow and blue flags was nestled among the gravestones. Enveloped by pine trees, workers bustled around a dozen newly dug holes, ready to welcome young combatants. In February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since 2022, and 'tens of thousands' more were missing or in captivity—a figure that observers believed to be an underestimate. Russia has not published its combat losses, but a tally by the independent newspaper Meduza and the BBC estimates the military death toll at more than 119,000. 'The dead appear in my dreams,' Kruzo said. He said he saw soldiers crying over graves, or his daughter's friends lying lifeless in the cemetery aisle. 'For the past three years, all my dreams have been about the war. All of them.' Ironically, he said he was drowning himself in work because 'it's easier'. He said he had never broken down, that he was tough man who served in the Soviet army, but that he was living in a 'kind of numbness.' 'I don't want to get depressed,' he said, taking a drag on his cigarette. Behind him, a young, pregnant woman fixed her eyes on the portrait of a soldier smiling at her from the marble slab set in the earth. – AFP
Arab Times
3 days ago
- Arab Times
US Justice Dept launches grand jury probe into Obama-era Russia intelligence claims
WASHINGTON, Aug 5, (Xinhua): US Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into allegations that officials from former president Barack Obama's administration fabricated intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters Monday. The probe follows a referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who last month declassified documents she claims reveal a "treasonous conspiracy" to falsely link then-candidate Donald Trump to Moscow. Gabbard has threatened to seek prosecutions of Obama-era officials. A Justice Department "strike force" was recently formed to assess Gabbard's allegations about what she described as the intelligence community's "weaponization." Fox News first reported that Bondi directed an unnamed federal prosecutor to initiate legal proceedings, and the prosecutor is expected to present department evidence to a grand jury, which could consider indictments. A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment. Trump, who defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, has accused Obama of treason, alleging -- without evidence -- that the Democrat led a coordinated effort to sabotage his campaign. A 2017 intelligence assessment concluded Russia sought to influence the 2016 election in Trump's favor but found no evidence that votes were changed. Obama's spokesperson dismissed the claims as "bizarre" and "ridiculous."
Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Suspects on trial over Moscow venue attack
MOSCOW: Nineteen people went on trial in Moscow on Monday over an attack on a city concert hall that killed 149 people in one of the deadliest strikes in Russia. Armed men stormed the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow on March 22, 2024, opening fire and then setting the building alight, injuring hundreds of people. The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility. The four suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan—an ex-Soviet republic in central Asia—and another 15 people accused of being accomplices have gone on trial. An AFP reporter at the courtroom before saw some of the defendants in glass cages, their hands cuffed behind their backs. Around 30 survivors were also present. One of them, Tatiana Ruzanova, told AFP she came to the court to see the defendants. 'They all sit quietly with their heads slumped in cages... I didn't see if they felt guilty, they all had their heads down,' Ruzanova said. On the night of the attack, she came to the concert of the Russian rock group Piknik with a friend but did not make it inside the hall. 'We saw everyone already in the foyer, maybe that saved us. We inhaled smoke. It was a miracle that we didn't make it,' Ruzanova said. Subsequent hearings were to take place on Tuesday and Thursday, according to the court's website. The judge ordered the trial to proceed behind closed doors. The attack shocked Russia, which has been battling Ukraine in a military offensive since February 24, 2022. Despite IS claiming responsibility, Russia implicated Ukraine in the attack, an allegation that Kyiv called baseless and absurd. The massacre ignited a debate about the reintroduction of the death penalty. Some hardline politicians publicly called for a moratorium, observed since 1996, to be lifted. It also sparked a wave of xenophobia against central Asian migrants in Russia. Nearly half of the victims were killed by smoke and carbon monoxide inhalation from the fire that broke out, rather than from gunshot wounds, the state TASS news agency reported on Sunday, citing case materials. Ekaterina Klimenko, who survived the attack, told AFP she hoped for a 'fair decision' from the judges. 'I still go to concerts, but intuitively I look around with my eyes to see if there is any danger,' she said. – AFP
