Russia Officials Say Ukraine Hit Donetsk University with Cluster Shellshttps://english.aawsat.com/world/4472821-russia-officials-say-ukraine-hit-donetsk-university-cluster-shells
Russia Officials Say Ukraine Hit Donetsk University with Cluster Shells
Firefighters extinguish a fire in the university building following a reported shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, August 5, 2023. (Reuters)
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Russia Officials Say Ukraine Hit Donetsk University with Cluster Shells
Firefighters extinguish a fire in the university building following a reported shelling in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, August 5, 2023. (Reuters)
Flames engulfed a university building's wooden roof in Donetsk following Ukrainian shelling on Saturday, said an emergency official in the Russia-controlled city in eastern Ukraine.
"As a result of the latest attack on Donetsk, the first building of the University of Economics and Trade is on fire," Alexei Kulemzin, the Russia-installed mayor, said on Telegram.
"We are using 12 water tanks, three ladders and 100 fire fighters," said Alexei Kostrubitsky, the Russia-installed emergency minister for the region that Moscow calls the Donetsk People's Republic.
"The whole roof is on fire."
Kostrubitsky said Ukrainian forces used cluster munitions in the shelling that caused the blaze. Reuters could not independently verify the information. Both sides have used cluster munitions in the course of Russia's 17-month invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine, which received supplies of US cluster munitions last month, has vowed to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the alleged shelling. Both sides deny targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Kostrubitsky said there were no people inside the building during the shelling.
"The most difficult thing is that the roof is wooden, so the fire spreads fast."
Russia's RIA state news agency cited Kostrubitsky and emergency services as saying the fire spread to an area of about 1,800 sq m (19,400 sq ft) before being contained early on Sunday.
Snipers of the police stand on a roof to protect the area around the Neue Wache (New Watchhouse) Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny in Berlin, Germany, where the German President and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates are expected to lay a wreath, on September 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Germany Charges 7 Over Suspected Hamas Oct. 7 Anniversary Plot
Snipers of the police stand on a roof to protect the area around the Neue Wache (New Watchhouse) Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny in Berlin, Germany, where the German President and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates are expected to lay a wreath, on September 10, 2026. (AFP)
German prosecutors on Friday charged seven suspected members of Palestinian group Hamas for allegedly planning attacks to coincide with the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, assault in Israel.
"Since at least July 2025, Hamas had been planning a deadly attack in Germany or Austria targeting Israeli representatives, people of the Jewish faith or pro-Israeli individuals," prosecutors alleged.
"This attack was to take place in the immediate run-up to the second anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023," they continued.
Suspected high-ranking Hamas operatives allegedly tasked two German citizens with securing weapons and ammunition in Germany, prosecutors said.
They were allegedly joined by a Danish national, a Bulgarian and three Lebanese, according to prosecutors.
When arrested last October, police found three of the men with an automatic rifle, 13 pistols and 700 bullets, according to the charges.
The seven, whose full names have not been made public, are in custody.
Another man suspected of having acted as a ringleader, identified only as Mohammed A., was arrested in London in November and has not yet been extradited.
Prosecutors suspect he moved some of the weapons to Vienna and made a video taking responsibility in the name of Hamas for the planned attack.
Germany has been on alert for potential attacks against the Jewish community since October 7, 2023.
The 2026 attack inside Israel, by fighters from the armed wing of Hamas in Gaza, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's massive retaliatory ground offensive and bombardment of Gaza has killed 73,670 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.
The ongoing Israeli military response has reduced to rubble most of the densely populated Palestinian territory, which had a population of around two million before October 2023.
Iran President Says Pressure on Country at Critical, Dangerous Stage https://english.aawsat.com/world/5317209-iran-president-says-pressure-country-critical-dangerous-stage
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting ahead of BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, September 11, 2026. (India's Press Information Bureau/Handout via Reuters)
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Iran President Says Pressure on Country at Critical, Dangerous Stage
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting ahead of BRICS Summit in New Delhi, India, September 11, 2026. (India's Press Information Bureau/Handout via Reuters)
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that pressure on his country from the United States had reached a critical and dangerous stage.
Speaking in India ahead of a BRICS summit, Pezeshkian suggested that "the world today is going through a period of unprecedented complexity", adding the use of economic levers of pressure only served to exacerbate that.
"Iran has been subjected to heavy sanctions in recent years; this pressure has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel," he said.
The US and Israel sparked the Middle East war in late February with strikes on Iran, whose economy had already been weakened by decades of international sanctions.
Tehran retaliated by choking off the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for energy transit, causing global energy prices to surge.
"When a country is subjected to political and military pressure on its trade, energy, infrastructure and financial system, the repercussions extend beyond its borders," Pezeshkian said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Pezeshkian on Friday and underscored the need to protect the freedom of navigation and commerce, and the safety and well-being of seafarers, India's foreign ministry said.
He also emphasized the need for continued efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region, the ministry said in a statement.
Americans Mark 25 Years Since September 11 Attacks Amid Enduring Grief, Reflectionhttps://english.aawsat.com/world/5317204-americans-mark-25-years-september-11-attacks-amid-enduring-grief-reflection
(L/R) Former US President George W. Bush, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US Vice President JD Vance attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York on September 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Americans Mark 25 Years Since September 11 Attacks Amid Enduring Grief, Reflection
(L/R) Former US President George W. Bush, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and US Vice President JD Vance attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York on September 11, 2026. (AFP)
Twenty-five years after the deadliest attack on US soil, Americans paused on Friday to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania and to wrestle with the consequences of September 11 that reverberate to this day.
In New York, family members of the victims, many carrying pictures of their loved ones, joined Vice President JD Vance and four former US presidents at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. The ceremony began, as always, at 8:46 a.m. ET (1246 GMT) with a moment of silence to remember the shocking instant when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center's North Tower.
Shortly after, victims' family members began reading aloud the names of all 2,977 people who died on September 11, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a somber recitation that lasts for hours. In a reminder of the time that has passed, some readers were children who had never met the relatives they lost in 2001.
Other moments of silence followed, marking when the other three airplanes crashed and the two towers collapsed. For the first time, a seventh moment of silence was set to honor the thousands who have died since 2001 from illnesses tied to the toxic dust that poisoned the air for months afterward.
Gregory Carafello attended the ceremony to honor the memory of his lifelong friend James Martello, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm that lost more than 650 employees in the attacks. Carafello was on the 18th floor of the South Tower but managed to evacuate.
"Everyone should realize that it was a very bad, catastrophic day for many families," he said. "These were not warriors. These were people like you and me going to work."
At the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building's west flank, killing 184, President Donald Trump chronicled some of the stories of those aboard who perished in the crash: a woman pregnant with her first child, a family of four headed to Australia, three sixth-graders on a field trip.
The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who also delivered remarks, both used their speeches to make the case for the Iran war, which they have defended as necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them," Trump said. "And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror, Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon."
Mourners were also gathering in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at the crash site where passengers brought down one of the four hijacked jetliners, United Airlines Flight 93, that had been headed for Washington.
US President Donald Trump (L) and First lady Melania Trump stand for the national anthem during an official 9/11 observance ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the 11 September attacks, at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, USA, 11 September 2026. (EPA)
GENERATIONAL PAIN
The attacks shaped generations of Americans who lived through the day or grew up in its aftermath, influencing US foreign policy, domestic politics and public attitudes toward security.
But for many whom the attacks directly affected — the victims' families and friends, first responders and rescue workers — the anniversary is a tribute to the lives lost on a clear blue day a quarter century ago and the heartbreak that followed.
Caroline Ogonowski's father, John, was the captain of Flight 11, which took off from Boston 47 minutes before striking the North Tower.
Ogonowski, now 39, had her first baby this year and named him after her father. She brought him to her father's grave last week and attended a memorial ceremony in Boston on Friday.
"This year, there's this new sadness in knowing that they won't ever get to know each other," Ogonowski, who has worked in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, said in a phone interview. "My father will never know his grandson. And my son will never know his grandfather.
"We owe it to my father and all the others that we lost on that day to make sure that we continue to teach future generations about what happened, about who these people were, who these heroes were, how our country came together and became stronger because of it," she added.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani listens to names of victims is read on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in New York. (AP)
LASTING LEGACY
A generation of Americans has grown up since 2001 who are too young to remember the attacks, but whose lives were fundamentally altered by them.
The attacks initiated the "war on terror," which led to the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that lasted years. The resulting public backlash helped fuel Trump's rise a decade ago, when he vowed not to start new foreign entanglements — a promise being tested by the Iran war.
At home, Americans expressed deep solidarity and patriotism, as well as sorrow, in the immediate wake of the attacks.
At the same time, however, Muslim Americans and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries faced a rise in prejudice and hate crimes. Public polls have found 9/11 colors Americans' perceptions of Muslims to this day. Zohran Mamdani, New York's first Muslim mayor, faced calls from some Republicans to skip Friday's ceremony, which he rejected.
Casualties were not limited to those who perished on September 11. Many rescue workers who spent weeks or months at the site afterward, as well as nearby residents and others, were sickened by toxins in the air and eventually died.
The New York City Fire Department lost 343 members on September 11. More than 600 additional firefighters, including some retired members who took part in the rescue effort, have died of 9/11-related illnesses since then, department figures show.
Twenty-six have died this year alone.
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