عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Germany Protests to Iran Over Plot to Attack Synagogue

FILED - 15 December 2023, Berlin: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends a press conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (Not Pictured) after their meeting. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 15 December 2023, Berlin: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends a press conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (Not Pictured) after their meeting. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
TT
TT

Germany Protests to Iran Over Plot to Attack Synagogue

FILED - 15 December 2023, Berlin: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends a press conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (Not Pictured) after their meeting. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 15 December 2023, Berlin: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends a press conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib (Not Pictured) after their meeting. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

Germany protested to Iran on Tuesday after a court ruling implicated Tehran in a plan to attack a synagogue last year.
The Duesseldorf state court convicted a German-Iranian man of attempted arson and agreeing to commit arson and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison.
Judges found that the man threw an incendiary device at a school in the western city of Bochum in November 2022 because the neighboring synagogue appeared too well secured, German news agency dpa reported. The defendant denied planning to attack the synagogue. The school received minor damage.
The court found the 36-year-old defendant had been tasked with the attack by a former Hells Angels member who had gone to Iran, and that Iran was behind the latter man, dpa reported.
A court statement said the defendant tried in vain to persuade an acquaintance to join him in carrying out the attack, and that he ultimately threw the incendiary device at the school “to simulate carrying out the act, or at least corresponding efforts, to the initiator.”
The German judges established that “the plan for the attack stems from an Iranian state institution,” according to the statement, which didn't give more precise details.
Germany's Foreign Ministry wrote Tuesday on social platform X that the Iranian charge d'affaires was summoned to discuss the matter.
“It is intolerable that Jewish life was to be attacked here,” it added. “We will tolerate no foreign-steered violence in Germany.”
The ministry said the court's detailed reasons for the verdict will be important in determining “consequences and (the) next steps,” including at the European Union level.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Kremlin Rejects European Assessment Navalny Died of Poisoning

People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
TT
TT

Kremlin Rejects European Assessment Navalny Died of Poisoning

People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People queue to visit the grave of Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader, on the second anniversary of his death, at the Borisovskoye Cemetery in Moscow, Russia, 16 February 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

The Kremlin said Monday that it "strongly rejected" an assessment by five European countries that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died from poisoning two years ago, as his supporters marked the anniversary of his death in prison.

Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner who rallied hundreds of thousands to the streets in protest at the Russian leadership, was Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic opponent for years.

He died in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024 while serving a 19-year sentence for "extremism", a charge that he and his supporters say was punishment for his opposition work, said AFP.

Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands issued a joint statement on Saturday saying they believed he had been poisoned with epibatidine -- a toxin found in poison dart frogs -- and that the Russian state had the "means, motive and opportunity" to administer it.

"We naturally do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and baseless," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, during a daily briefing call.

"In fact, we strongly reject them," he added.

Dozens of people visited his grave in Moscow early Monday, among them foreign diplomats, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Some of those who attended wore masks or scarves over their faces.

Russian authorities designated Navalny and his organization "extremist" before his death, and anyone who mentions him or his exiled anti-corruption foundation are liable for prosecution.

Navalny, a Yale-educated lawyer, was the most widely known Russian opposition figure and galvanized thousands of young people to protest against Putin.

He had already survived a suspected poisoning with the Novichok nerve agent in 2020.

- Ecuadoran dart frog -

Navalny's mother Lyudmila told reporters she felt vindicated by the European statement and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

"This confirms what we knew from the very beginning. We knew that our son did not simply die in prison, he was murdered," she said outside the cemetery where he was buried in Moscow.

"I think it will take some time, but we will find out who did it. Of course, we want this to happen in our country, and we want justice to prevail," she added.

Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnya, said on Saturday it was now "science proven" that her husband had been murdered.

She had previously said in September that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found that her husband was poisoned.

Epibatidine, found in the Ecuadoran dart frog, causes muscle paralysis and eventual asphyxiation.

Experts have said the toxin can also be produced synthetically, instead of extracting it directly from the frog itself.

The European statement did not say how it was administered or by whom.

Britain's foreign office said the poison is not found naturally in Russia and that "only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin."

Russia's prison service said he died after going for a walk and falling ill.

Since Navalny's death, Russia's opposition has remained largely exiled and fragmented.

Navalny's widow Yulia vowed to take the mantle of Russia's opposition in the wake of his death but has struggled to galvanize widespread support.

Inside Russia, Moscow has intensified a crackdown on anybody who had links with the late opposition leader.

In addition to targeting his allies and backers, photographers who covered his court hearings and lawyers who represented him at trial have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

World

Madagascar Cyclone Death Toll Rises to 59 

General view of the city center of Toamasina on February 14, 2026 following the passage of tropical cyclone Gezani during the night of February 10, 2026. (AFP)
General view of the city center of Toamasina on February 14, 2026 following the passage of tropical cyclone Gezani during the night of February 10, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Madagascar Cyclone Death Toll Rises to 59 

General view of the city center of Toamasina on February 14, 2026 following the passage of tropical cyclone Gezani during the night of February 10, 2026. (AFP)
General view of the city center of Toamasina on February 14, 2026 following the passage of tropical cyclone Gezani during the night of February 10, 2026. (AFP)

Flooding and fierce winds have pushed Madagascar's death toll from Cyclone Gezani to 59, with more than a dozen people still unaccounted for, the country's disaster agency said on Monday.

It is the latest in a string of tropical storms to batter the southern African island in recent months, underscoring its vulnerability to increasingly extreme weather fueled by climate change.

At least 59 people had been killed countrywide by the cyclone, which slammed into Madagascar on February 10, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNRGC) said, while more than 16,000 people have been displaced by storm waters.

A previous report had put the death toll at 43.

Most of the fatalities were reported in the port city of Toamasina on the east coast, formerly known as Tamatave, Madagascar's second-largest urban center with around 400,000 inhabitants.

Another 15 people remain missing nearly a week after the cyclone struck, according to BNRGC.

The damage to housing was extensive, with some 25,000 homes destroyed, 27,000 others flooded and more than 200 classrooms partially or completely wrecked, it said.

Gezani made landfall last week with winds topping around 250 kilometers (160 miles) per hour, prompting the government to declare a national emergency.

AFP images showed a trail of destruction across Toamasina, with streets in the city center still swamped by muddy floodwater and debris strewn between shuttered shops and damaged homes.

Residents queued for food at a primary school turned relief hub, while health workers screened families for malaria as the city began the slow clean-up and took stock of the cyclone's toll.

The World Food Program warned Friday that "the scale of destruction is overwhelming," with the city running on roughly five percent of its electricity and without water.

China and France have sent support for search and rescue efforts.

The storm largely spared neighboring Mozambique, skirting about 50 kilometers (30 miles) off its coast and causing far less damage, though authorities reported at least four deaths.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday offered condolences and prayers for "the people of Madagascar, who have been struck by two cyclones in quick succession".

In early February, Madagascar's northwest was hit by Tropical Cyclone Fytia, which killed at least seven people and displaced more than 20,000.

World

Kremlin Says 'Main Issues' Will Be Discussed in Geneva Talks on Ukraine this Week, Including Territory

FILED - 26 July 2023, Russia, Saint Petersburg: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting at the Konstantinovsky Palace. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov/KREMLIN/dpa
FILED - 26 July 2023, Russia, Saint Petersburg: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting at the Konstantinovsky Palace. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov/KREMLIN/dpa
TT
TT

Kremlin Says 'Main Issues' Will Be Discussed in Geneva Talks on Ukraine this Week, Including Territory

FILED - 26 July 2023, Russia, Saint Petersburg: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting at the Konstantinovsky Palace. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov/KREMLIN/dpa
FILED - 26 July 2023, Russia, Saint Petersburg: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting at the Konstantinovsky Palace. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov/KREMLIN/dpa

The Kremlin said on Monday that what it called "the main issues" would be ‌discussed ‌in peace talks ‌on ⁠Ukraine due to be ⁠held in Geneva this week, including territory.

Kremlin spokesman ⁠Dmitry Peskov ‌said ‌that Putin ‌aide Vladimir ‌Medinsky, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov, and special ‌envoy Kirill Dmitriev would take ⁠part ⁠in the talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States.