Russian Ships Enter Mediterranean for Navy Drills

A view shows Russian warships on sunset ahead of the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea July 27, 2019. (Reuters)
A view shows Russian warships on sunset ahead of the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea July 27, 2019. (Reuters)
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Russian Ships Enter Mediterranean for Navy Drills

A view shows Russian warships on sunset ahead of the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea July 27, 2019. (Reuters)
A view shows Russian warships on sunset ahead of the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea July 27, 2019. (Reuters)

A group of Russian Northern Fleet ships has entered the Mediterranean Sea via Gibraltar for naval drills, Interfax news agency reported on Monday, citing a fleet statement.

Russian military moves are being closely scrutinized as a troop build-up near Ukraine and a volley of hawkish rhetoric have rattled the West and sparked fears of a looming war. Moscow vehemently denies any plan to invade Ukraine.

Russia announced last month its navy would stage a sweeping set of exercises involving all its fleets this month and next, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, the latest show of strength in a surge of military activity during the standoff with the West.

Interfax said ships that entered the Mediterranean Sea were the cruiser Marshal Ustinov, the frigate Admiral Kasatonov and the destroyer Vice-Admiral Kulakov.

They will later join drills with the Russian Black Sea and Pacific Sea's fleets.



Tropical Storm Sara Kills Four in Honduras and Nicaragua

FILE - This GeoColor satellite image taken, Nov. 3, 2020, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Eta in the Caribbean Sea, arriving at Nicaragua's northern shore. (NOAA via AP, File)
FILE - This GeoColor satellite image taken, Nov. 3, 2020, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Eta in the Caribbean Sea, arriving at Nicaragua's northern shore. (NOAA via AP, File)
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Tropical Storm Sara Kills Four in Honduras and Nicaragua

FILE - This GeoColor satellite image taken, Nov. 3, 2020, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Eta in the Caribbean Sea, arriving at Nicaragua's northern shore. (NOAA via AP, File)
FILE - This GeoColor satellite image taken, Nov. 3, 2020, and provided by NOAA, shows Hurricane Eta in the Caribbean Sea, arriving at Nicaragua's northern shore. (NOAA via AP, File)

Tropical storm Sara left at least four people dead in Honduras and Nicaragua over the weekend, while more than 120,000 were left homeless or suffered damages in floods across Central America, officials said Monday.
Sara weakened to a tropical depression as it passed through Belize on Sunday and was dissipating while moving over the western Yucatan Peninsula, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
One of the dead in hardest-hit Honduras was a three-year-old boy, washed away by a soaring river on Sunday, authorities said.
More than 200 houses in the Central American country were destroyed and some 3,200 damaged, while nearly 1,800 communities were left isolated by flooding, collapsed bridges and destroyed roads.
Farming crops were also severely damaged.
Two deaths were also reported in Nicaragua, with some 1,800 homes flooded and about 5,000 people affected, authorities said.
In Costa Rica, where at least six people died in flooding two weeks earlier, officials reported more than 50 landslides, and some 5,000 people needing emergency assistance.
Storm damage from Sara in Guatemala and El Salvador was not as severe.