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In Israel, Relatives of Cable Car Survivor Ask For Privacy

Gali Peleg, center, maternal aunt of Eitan Biran, who survived a cable car crash in Italy that killed his immediate family, arrives to court in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 for a hearing in the alleged kidnapping of her nephew. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
Gali Peleg, center, maternal aunt of Eitan Biran, who survived a cable car crash in Italy that killed his immediate family, arrives to court in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 for a hearing in the alleged kidnapping of her nephew. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
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In Israel, Relatives of Cable Car Survivor Ask For Privacy

Gali Peleg, center, maternal aunt of Eitan Biran, who survived a cable car crash in Italy that killed his immediate family, arrives to court in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 for a hearing in the alleged kidnapping of her nephew. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
Gali Peleg, center, maternal aunt of Eitan Biran, who survived a cable car crash in Italy that killed his immediate family, arrives to court in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 for a hearing in the alleged kidnapping of her nephew. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

The bitter custody battle over a six-year-old boy who survived a cable car crash in Italy inched forward in Israel on Thursday, with a new court date and appeals made for privacy.

Lawyers for the two family branches spoke after Eitan Biran’s relatives on both sides emerged from family court in Tel Aviv, where a hearing date was set for next month and other logistics were discussed in a closely-watched international legal fight. Eitan’s immediate family was among 14 people killed when the cable car carrying them crashed into a mountainside on May 23.

At the center of the fight is the decision by Eitan’s grandfather, Shmulik Peleg, who spirited the boy from Italy through Switzerland and back to Israel. Italian juvenile court officials had ruled that child could live with a paternal aunt near Pavia, in northern Italy. Both Peleg and Eitan’s aunt Aya Biran, who lives in Italy, were among the relatives present Thursday for the hearing, The Associated Press reported.

Shmuel Moran, a lawyer for Eitan’s aunt, said the court will again meet on Oct. 8 and that the sides had agreed on other arrangements. Both he and Ronen Dalyahu, the lawyer for the Israeli side of the family, appealed for privacy.

But the images of Eitan’s aunt and grandfather in the same building were striking given the tragedy and gravity of the dispute.

Eitan’s relatives in Italy say he was taken without their knowledge and are seeking his return. The child’s relatives in Israel have denied to local media that they abducted Eitan and insist they are acting in his interest.

Peleg has acknowledged driving the child from Italy into Switzerland before flying him back to Israel, telling Channel 12 that “we departed in a totally legal way.”

Peleg was questioned by Israeli police on kidnapping suspicions and placed under house arrest pending an ongoing investigation.

Italian authorities also have opened an investigation. Peleg told Israel’s Channel 12 that he had given up on contesting custody in the Italian court system and said he expected the boy to understand once he got older.

“I believe that one day Eitan will grow up and say grandfather, you did everything for me, you saved me,” he said, breaking into tears. “And my daughter, who one day will meet me in heaven, will be proud of me that I saved her son.”

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World

Iran Strikes Hard Line on US Talks, Saying Tehran's Power Comes From Saying 'No'

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Strikes Hard Line on US Talks, Saying Tehran's Power Comes From Saying 'No'

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran's top diplomat insisted Sunday that Tehran's strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers," striking a maximalist position just after negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program and in the wake of nationwide protests.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, signaled that Iran would stick to its position that it must be able to enrich uranium — a major point of contention with President Donald Trump, who bombed Iranian atomic sites in June during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” he noted.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment." 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, with Iran expected to be the major subject of discussion, his office said.

While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised the talks Friday in Oman with the Americans as “a step forward,” Araghchi's remarks show the challenge ahead. Already, the US moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary to strike the Islamic Republic should Trump choose to do so, according to The AP news.

“I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others," Araghchi said.

"They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers. The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is in the power to say no to the powers.”

‘Atomic bomb’ as rhetorical device Araghchi's choice to explicitly use an “atomic bomb” as a rhetorical device likely wasn't accidental. While Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful, the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Tehran had an organized military program to seek the bomb up until 2003.

Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90%, the only non-weapons state to do so. Iranian officials in recent years had also been increasingly threatening that Tehran could seek the bomb, even while its diplomats have pointed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s preachings as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran wouldn’t build one.

Pezeshkian, who ordered Araghchi to pursue talks with the Americans after likely getting Khamenei's blessing, also wrote on X on Sunday about the talks.

“The Iran-US talks, held through the follow-up efforts of friendly governments in the region, were a step forward,” the president wrote. “Dialogue has always been our strategy for peaceful resolution. ... The Iranian nation has always responded to respect with respect, but it does not tolerate the language of force.”

It remains unclear when and where, or if, there will be a second round of talks. Trump, after the talks Friday, offered few details but said: “Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly — as they should.”

Aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea During Friday's talks, US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the American military's Central Command, was in Oman. Cooper's presence was apparently an intentional reminder to Iran about US military power in the region. Cooper later accompanied US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, to the Lincoln out in the Arabian Sea after the indirect negotiations.

Araghchi appeared to be taking the threat of an American military strike seriously, as many worried Iranians have in recent weeks. He noted that after multiple rounds of talks last year, the US “attacked us in the midst of negotiations."

“If you take a step back (in negotiations), it is not clear up to where it will go,” Araghchi said.

 

 

World

Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
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Russia: Man Suspected of Shooting Top General Detained in Dubai

An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova
An investigator works outside a residential building where the assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev took place in Moscow, Russia February 6, 2026. REUTERS/Anastasia Barashkova

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday that the man suspected of shooting top Russian military intelligence officer Vladimir Alexeyev in Moscow has been detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, ⁠Russia's military intelligence arm, was shot several times in an apartment block in Moscow on Friday, investigators said. He underwent surgery after the shooting, Russian media ⁠said.

The FSB said a Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said was designed to sabotage peace talks. ⁠Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the shooting.

Alexeyev's boss, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU, has been leading Russia's delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.

World

Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Factory Explosion Kills 8 in Northern China

Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Employees work on an electric vehicle (EV) production line at the Volkswagen Anhui factory in Hefei, Anhui province, China, February 4, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

An explosion at a biotech factory in northern China has killed eight people, Chinese state media reported Sunday, increasing the total number of fatalities by one.

State news agency Xinhua had previously reported that seven people died and one person was missing after the Saturday morning explosion at the Jiapeng biotech company in Shanxi province, citing local authorities.

Later, Xinhua said eight were dead, adding that the firm's legal representative had been taken into custody.

The company is located in Shanyin County, about 400 kilometers west of Beijing, AFP reported.

Xinhua said clean-up operations were ongoing, noting that reporters observed dark yellow smoke emanating from the site of the explosion.

Authorities have established a team to investigate the cause of the blast, the report added.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards.
In late January, an explosion at a steel factory in the neighboring province of Inner Mongolia left at least nine people dead.