Blast Lightly Damages Jewish School in Amsterdam

Police officers stand outside a Jewish school following an explosion that caused minor damages, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 14, 2026. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Police officers stand outside a Jewish school following an explosion that caused minor damages, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 14, 2026. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
TT

Blast Lightly Damages Jewish School in Amsterdam

Police officers stand outside a Jewish school following an explosion that caused minor damages, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 14, 2026. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Police officers stand outside a Jewish school following an explosion that caused minor damages, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 14, 2026. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

An explosion lightly damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam early on Saturday, in what the city's mayor described as "a deliberate attack against the Jewish community".

The explosion at the school in an upscale residential neighborhood on the south side of Amsterdam damaged a rainpipe and charred an outer wall, and caused no injuries.

Mayor Femke Halsema said the incident ⁠was taken very seriously, ⁠and would lead to increased security at Jewish institutions.

"This is a cowardly act of aggression against the Jewish community," Halsema said.

"Jewish people in Amsterdam are increasingly confronted with antisemitism. This is unacceptable."

The school is the ⁠only one specifically for orthodox Jews in the Netherlands, and is largely fenced off by a pointed, metal outer wall due to earlier threats.

Security at synagogues and Jewish institutions in the Dutch capital had already been heightened after an overnight arson attack at a synagogue in the center of Rotterdam on Friday.

In neighboring Belgium, an explosion caused a ⁠fire ⁠at a synagogue in Liege on Monday.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called the attack in Amsterdam "horrible" and said it understandably caused "fear and anger" in the Jewish community.

"The safety of Jewish institutions has our full attention," he said in a post on X.

Concerns about possible attacks against Jewish communities around the world have risen following US and Israeli attacks on Iran and a subsequent response from Tehran.

On Thursday, a man rammed his car into a synagogue on the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, sparking a blaze.

The suspect, identified as 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, died Friday from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," an FBI official told reporters.

Media reports have indicated his relatives were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in recent days.



Over 3,300 People Have Died in Iran During War

Commuters make their way past a giant billboard of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the Valiasr Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
Commuters make their way past a giant billboard of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the Valiasr Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
TT

Over 3,300 People Have Died in Iran During War

Commuters make their way past a giant billboard of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the Valiasr Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
Commuters make their way past a giant billboard of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the Valiasr Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (AFP)

Iran on Monday offered a new death toll for its war with Israel and the United States, with its forensic chief saying at least 3,375 people had been killed in the conflict.

The figure came from Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization.

Masjedi, quoted by the judiciary’s Mizan news agency and other outlets Monday, said only four of the dead remain unidentified.

His comments did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces, instead just saying that 2,875 were male and 496 were female.

Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and under.

Masjedi’s figures raised questions about whether or not they included security force members, particularly given the levels of intense bombings targeting military bases and arsenals in the country.


China Voices Concern Over US Seizure of Iranian Cargo Ship, Urges Further Talks

13 April 2026, China, Beijing: Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks to journalists. (dpa)
13 April 2026, China, Beijing: Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks to journalists. (dpa)
TT

China Voices Concern Over US Seizure of Iranian Cargo Ship, Urges Further Talks

13 April 2026, China, Beijing: Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks to journalists. (dpa)
13 April 2026, China, Beijing: Guo Jiakun, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks to journalists. (dpa)

China has expressed concern over the "forced interception" by the US of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, urging relevant parties to abide by the ceasefire agreement in a responsible ‌manner.

"The situation ‌in the Strait of ‌Hormuz ⁠is sensitive and complicated," ⁠said spokesman Guo Jiakun during a regular press briefing. Parties involved should avoid further escalation and "create the necessary conditions for normal transit through the strait ⁠to resume," he added.

The ‌US said ‌earlier it fired on and seized ‌an Iranian cargo ship that tried ‌to run its blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran's military said the ship had been travelling from China ‌and vowed retaliation against what it called "armed piracy by the US ⁠military."

Beijing ⁠on Monday also urged relevant parties to "continue to maintain the momentum of the ceasefire and negotiations".

"Now that a window for peace has opened, favorable conditions should be created to bring the war to an end as soon as possible," Guo said.


Russia Arrests German Woman in Alleged Bomb Plot

People visit the observation deck at Vorobyovy gory (Sparrow Hills) with the main building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in the background during a spring day in Moscow, Russia, 17 April 2026. (EPA)
People visit the observation deck at Vorobyovy gory (Sparrow Hills) with the main building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in the background during a spring day in Moscow, Russia, 17 April 2026. (EPA)
TT

Russia Arrests German Woman in Alleged Bomb Plot

People visit the observation deck at Vorobyovy gory (Sparrow Hills) with the main building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in the background during a spring day in Moscow, Russia, 17 April 2026. (EPA)
People visit the observation deck at Vorobyovy gory (Sparrow Hills) with the main building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in the background during a spring day in Moscow, Russia, 17 April 2026. (EPA)

Russia said Monday it had arrested a German woman found with a homemade bomb in her backpack in what it alleged was a Ukrainian-hatched plot to blow up a security services facility in the south.

Russia has arrested dozens of people throughout the four-year war, mostly its own citizens, on allegations of working for Ukraine to carry out sabotage attacks.

There has been a string of high-profile arrests of Western citizens since Moscow ordered its troops into Ukraine -- typically on espionage charges that are widely seen as baseless, with those detained later swapped in exchange for Russians jailed abroad.

Detentions of Western citizens for carrying out or preparing actual attacks are much rarer.

The FSB security agency said the woman, born in 1969, had been dragged into the alleged plot by a citizen from a Central Asian country, who was working on orders from Ukraine.

She was detained and found with an improvised explosive device in her bag in the Caucasus city of Pyatigorsk, the FSB said.

The FSB said it had "prevented a terrorist attack planned by the Kyiv regime against a law enforcement facility in the Stavropol region, involving a German citizen born in 1969," the agency said in a statement.

The FSB said the device -- which contained an explosive charge equivalent to 1.5 kilograms (three pounds) of TNT -- was supposed to be detonated remotely, killing the German woman.

The blast was prevented by electronic jamming, the FSB added.

- 'Radical ideology' -

A man from an unidentified Central Asian state, born in 1997 and "a supporter of radical ideology", was found and arrested near the targeted site, it added.

The pair face life in prison on terrorist charges.

There was no immediate reaction to the allegations in Kyiv or Berlin.

Video footage of the purported arrest published on state media showed armed Russian security agents approach the woman, who was lying face down dressed in all black in a car park.

Another video showed masked plainclothes agents pulling a man into a station, followed by a controlled explosion of the backpack.

Russia has previously accused Ukraine of working with fundamentalists to carry out terror attacks inside Russia, without providing evidence.

Officials initially alleged that the perpetrators of a 2024 massacre at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow that killed 150 people were ISIS members in coordination with Ukraine.

ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack, making no reference of any Ukrainian involvement, for which no evidence was presented by Moscow and which Kyiv denies.