Fire Breaks Out after Accident at Gas Pipeline in Crimea

File photo: Smoke rises following an alleged drone attack in Sevastopol, Crimea in 2023. (Reuters)
File photo: Smoke rises following an alleged drone attack in Sevastopol, Crimea in 2023. (Reuters)
TT

Fire Breaks Out after Accident at Gas Pipeline in Crimea

File photo: Smoke rises following an alleged drone attack in Sevastopol, Crimea in 2023. (Reuters)
File photo: Smoke rises following an alleged drone attack in Sevastopol, Crimea in 2023. (Reuters)

A fire broke out late Saturday after an accident at a gas pipeline near the village of Vinogradnoye in Moscow-annexed Crimea, spreading to nearby forest and cutting gas to the resort town of Alushta and more than a dozen settlements, Russian officials said.
"There is no threat to the populated area," Russia's emergency ministry said early on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia-installed officials of the Crimean Peninsula reported late on Saturday on Telegram that gas supplies were cut to Alushta, a city of around 30,000 people, and 14 nearby settlements.
"After the gas in the pipes completely burns out, restoration work will begin," the Russian-installed administration of Crimea said on Telegram.
Russian agencies reported, citing officials, that there were no injuries. The fire was consuming an area of about 1,500 square meters (16,000 square feet), TASS state news agency reported.
It was not immediately clear what accident caused the fire.



Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Death Sentence for Israeli Leaders

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
TT

Iran’s Khamenei Calls for Death Sentence for Israeli Leaders

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei shows him addressing the crowd during a meeting with members of the Basij volunteer militia in Tehran on November 25, 2024. (KHAMENEI.IR / AFP)

The supreme leader of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah fighters combating Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said on Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.

Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.

"They issued an arrest warrant, that's not enough... Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders", Khamenei said, referring to the Israeli leaders.

In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza".

The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd. Gaza residents expressed hope it would help end the violence and bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.

Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

The warrant for a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel that triggered the war on the long-blockaded Palestinian enclave, and also charges of rape and the taking of hostages.

Israel has said it killed Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike in July but Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied this.