Russian Missiles Kill One, Wound Four in Air Strike on Ukraine

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members cover a tank with a camouflage net at their position, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova./File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members cover a tank with a camouflage net at their position, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova./File Photo
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Russian Missiles Kill One, Wound Four in Air Strike on Ukraine

FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members cover a tank with a camouflage net at their position, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova./File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian service members cover a tank with a camouflage net at their position, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine July 23, 2022. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova./File Photo

Russian warplanes fired 19 long-range missiles at targets in Ukraine on Friday morning, killing one civilian in a central region, wounding four more and damaging an industrial facility, Kyiv officials said.
The strike was the first big salvo of missiles Russia has fired at targets, including the Ukrainian capital, in weeks. Russia has mainly been using drones for its overnight attacks in recent weeks, Reuters said.
"Unfortunately, one person is dead. Preliminarily, four people are wounded. They are all in hospital. Two people are in severe condition," Dnipropetrovsk's regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on the Telegram messaging app.
Air defenses shot down 14 incoming missiles over the region outside Kyiv and the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in televised comments.
The strike damaged an unnamed industrial facility and more than a dozen homes in the towns of Pavlohrad and Ternivka and the village of Yuryivska, Lysak said.
Russia used seven Tu-95 bombers to launch missiles at different regions across the country, the air force said in a statement.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the Ukrainian capital had been targeted in the attack but that all the missiles were downed by air defenses as they approached.
Missile debris damaged privately-held homes in several settlements in Kyiv region, smashing windows and destroying some walls, governor Ruslan Kravchenko said.
Air alerts were announced at about 0700 a.m. (0500 GMT) and lasted for over 2 hours.
Officials reported an earlier overnight missile attack that struck the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said rescuers and police were clearing rubble after the attack damaged a five-story residential building, at least seven residential homes and 20 cars.



France Allows Asymptomatic Passengers off New Cruise Ship Struck by Stomach Bug Outbreak

File photo of a cruise ship operated by Ambassador Cruise Line. © John MacDougall, AFP
File photo of a cruise ship operated by Ambassador Cruise Line. © John MacDougall, AFP
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France Allows Asymptomatic Passengers off New Cruise Ship Struck by Stomach Bug Outbreak

File photo of a cruise ship operated by Ambassador Cruise Line. © John MacDougall, AFP
File photo of a cruise ship operated by Ambassador Cruise Line. © John MacDougall, AFP

Passengers unaffected by an illness outbreak on a British cruise ship have been allowed off the ship in the French port city of Bordeaux, while authorities confirmed the cause of the outbreak is norovirus, a nasty stomach bug that spreads easily.

French authorities had initially ordered over 1,700 passengers and crew on The Ambition cruise ship to remain on board, but then decided late Wednesday to let those unaffected disembark. One passenger was spotted raising his arms in triumph while leaving the vessel.

It was not immediately clear how many left the ship, but the British operator of the ship said Thursday that passengers are able to disembark “with all scheduled shore excursions operating as planned today.” As of Thursday morning, 60 passengers and four crew members were experiencing gastrointestinal illness, according to Ambassador Cruise Line.

French authorities said there is no link to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on a Dutch vessel that has put European health authorities on alert in recent weeks.

The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool, with scheduled stops in northern Spain and along France’s Atlantic coast. It reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening.

The boat will remain in Bordeaux overnight before continuing its journey on a revised itinerary from Friday to avoid bad weather.

“This will allow the ship to avoid forecast unsettled weather conditions in the Bay of Biscay this evening which would be less than ideal for guests and crew recovering from gastrointestinal illness while also providing valuable additional time for crew who have worked exceptionally hard in challenging circumstances over recent days,” Ambassador Cruise Line said.

Samples analyzed at Bordeaux University Hospital confirmed an outbreak of norovirus. Local authorities said at this stage no serious cases have been reported and that sick passengers were cared for onboard by the ship’s medical team.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks outbreaks on voyages that call on US and foreign ports, recorded 23 gastrointestinal outbreaks on cruise ships last year. Most were caused by norovirus, including a new strain.

Ambassador Cruise Line, a British operator catering to passengers over 50, was founded in 2021.

The operator said a 92-year-old male passenger died on Sunday but did not report any symptoms consistent with gastrointestinal illness.


US Jury Awards $49.5 Mn Damages to Boeing 737 MAX Victim's Family

(FILES) A boy looks as forensic investigators comb the ground for DNA evidence near a pile of twisted airplane debris at the crash site of an Ethiopian airways operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on March 16, 2019 at Hama Quntushele village near Bishoftu in Oromia region. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)
(FILES) A boy looks as forensic investigators comb the ground for DNA evidence near a pile of twisted airplane debris at the crash site of an Ethiopian airways operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on March 16, 2019 at Hama Quntushele village near Bishoftu in Oromia region. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)
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US Jury Awards $49.5 Mn Damages to Boeing 737 MAX Victim's Family

(FILES) A boy looks as forensic investigators comb the ground for DNA evidence near a pile of twisted airplane debris at the crash site of an Ethiopian airways operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on March 16, 2019 at Hama Quntushele village near Bishoftu in Oromia region. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)
(FILES) A boy looks as forensic investigators comb the ground for DNA evidence near a pile of twisted airplane debris at the crash site of an Ethiopian airways operated Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on March 16, 2019 at Hama Quntushele village near Bishoftu in Oromia region. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP)

A US jury awarded $49.5 million in damages on Wednesday to the family of a 24-year-old American who perished in a 2019 Boeing 737 MAX crash.

The suit was brought by relatives of Samya Stumo, who died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash which claimed a total of 157 lives.

The Chicago jury, which deliberated from around two hours, found that "the total amount of damages suffered by Plaintiff is $49.5 million", according to documents.

Nearly all of the civil lawsuits around the crash had been settled out of court, AFP reported. In Stumo's case, however, her family had been unable to reach an agreement with Boeing ahead of the trial, which began on Monday.

"We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302," Boeing said in a statement.

"While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so."

Stumo was killed en route to Kenya for her first assignment with ThinkWell, a public health NGO that aimed to increase access to health care in Africa and Asia.

But the plane went down shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing everyone aboard. The Ethiopian crash followed a Lion Air crash about four and a half months earlier in Indonesia.

The two crashes claimed 346 lives in total.

Boeing acknowledged that anti-stall software was implicated in both accidents.

Stumo's family and their lawyer Shanin Specter did not immediately reply to a request for comment from AFP.

Specter told the Chicago federal civil court that Boeing was "negligent", the aircraft was "unsafe" and that "Boeing caused this crash and these deaths."

The trial featured testimony from Stumo's relatives, including father Michael Stumo, who said the disaster still haunts the family.

"It feels like since she's been gone, we don't have permission to be happy," Michael Stumo testified. "Sometimes you catch yourself being happy, and you correct yourself, like you shouldn't be."

Speaking ahead of the verdict, the aviation giant's attorney, Dan Webb, expressed the company's sorrow at the crash.

He said that Boeing's "only disagreement" with the Stumo family was "on the exact amount of compensation."

A US judge dropped criminal charges against Boeing in 2025 over the deadly crashes as part of an agreement between the company and prosecutors.

In November, a Chicago jury awarded a widower of one of the MAX victims $28.45 million. A second trial, in January, was halted after an out-of-court settlement was reached after the second day.

The next trial is scheduled for August 3 and focuses on the death of Michael Ryan of Ireland.


US Army Says Body of Second Soldier Recovered in Morocco

US soldiers take part in the "African Lion" joint military exercise between US and Moroccan forces in the Tan-Tan region in southwestern Morocco on May 8, 2026. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)
US soldiers take part in the "African Lion" joint military exercise between US and Moroccan forces in the Tan-Tan region in southwestern Morocco on May 8, 2026. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)
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US Army Says Body of Second Soldier Recovered in Morocco

US soldiers take part in the "African Lion" joint military exercise between US and Moroccan forces in the Tan-Tan region in southwestern Morocco on May 8, 2026. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)
US soldiers take part in the "African Lion" joint military exercise between US and Moroccan forces in the Tan-Tan region in southwestern Morocco on May 8, 2026. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)

The body of the second of two US soldiers reported missing during an international training exercise in Morocco has been recovered, the US Army said Wednesday.

The pair disappeared near a cliff on the Atlantic coast while taking part in the African Lion 2026 military exercises.

The remains of the two servicemembers -- including 19-year-old specialist Mariyah Collington whose body was found in a coastal cave on Tuesday -- were transferred to a Moroccan military hospital and then loaded onto a US Air Force C-130 plane for repatriation.

The two bodies "are en route to the United States," the US Army said in a statement.

A massive week-long land, air and sea search was launched by the United States military, Moroccan and allied forces in the Cap Draa Training Area after the service members went missing last Saturday, AFP said.

"Search and rescue operations have concluded. With both Soldiers accounted for, the focus shifts to recovery and repatriation," the US Army said.

"The incident remains under investigation."

More than 1,000 US and Moroccan military and civil personnel took part in the search, covering 21,300 square kilometers (8,200 square miles), it added.

Last week a US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the two soldiers may have fallen into the sea, pointing to the likelihood of an accident and ruling out terrorism.