News in Brief
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia announced on Monday it would hold a large test of its Strategic Missile Forces that will see it fire ballistic and cruise missiles from the land, sea and air this week.
The exercise, from Oct. 15-17, will involve around 12,000 military personnel, as well as aircraft, including strategic nuclear bombers, surface ships and submarines, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The drills come at a time when President Vladimir Putin is warning of a burgeoning arms race spurred by the unraveling of a key arms control treaty, something he blames on the United States. Washington rejects that and says Russia is the one who has flouted its arms control commitments.
The aim of this week’s exercise is to test the readiness of Russia’s command structure and how efficiently its orders are carried out, the defense ministry said.
Missiles will be fired on military testing ranges in Russia’s Far East and at remote locations in its Far North. Russia’s Northern Fleet will be involved, the ministry said, saying the naval part of the exercise would cover the Barents, Baltic, Black, Caspian and Okhotsk seas.
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TUNIS (Reuters) -- An attacker killed a French citizen and wounded a soldier with a knife in northern Tunisia on Monday, state media quoted the Interior Ministry as saying.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Hayouni was quoted on state news agency TAP as saying police knew the identity of the assailant, a 28-year-old man with a criminal record, but he did not suggest a motive for the killing.
The attack took place in Jarzouna, a town connected by bridge to the port city of Bizerte, the day after Tunisia held a presidential election.
The attacker assaulted the uniformed soldier and then the French citizen, who died before reaching hospital, it quoted Hayouni as saying. Reuters could not immediately reach Hayouni for comment.
Takfiri militant groups have repeatedly attempted to target security services and foreign tourists in Tunisia in recent years. Two attacks in 2015 in the cities of Tunis and Sousse killed scores of foreign tourists, but Western diplomats say Tunisian security services are now better equipped to deal with militant threats.
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LONDON (Reuters) -- A man who drove his car at members of the public and police officers outside Britain’s parliament last year in what authorities treated as a terrorist attack was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.
Salih Khater, 30, accelerated a silver Ford Fiesta into 14 cyclists at a crossing, before veering across the road into a security lane and driving at two police officers.
The police officers jumped out of the way of the car, which was which was traveling at more than 30 mph (50 kph) before crashing into barriers outside parliament.
Khater had argued that the incident was an accident, but a judge at the Old Bailey found that the offense had a "terrorist connection” and gave him a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years.
Police said that Khater had acted alone, traveling to the capital from Birmingham, central England, in the early hours of the morning of the attack. After scoping out the area, he drove four times around the square outside parliament before veering onto the wrong side of the road.
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COPENHAGEN (Dispatches) -- Denmark will fast-track legislation allowing people with dual citizenship who have gone abroad to fight for militant groups like Daesh to be stripped of their Danish nationality, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday.
European states are trying to accelerate a plan to shift thousands of foreign Daesh militants out of Syrian prison camps and into Iraq, as a fresh conflict in Syria has raised the risk of Takfiris escaping or returning home.
"There is a risk that the Kurdish-controlled Daesh-camps in the border area will collapse and that foreign warriors with Danish citizenship will move toward Denmark,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
Authorities believe at least 158 people from Denmark have joined militant Takfiri groups in Syria or Iraq since 2012, about 27 of whom remain in the conflict zone. Twelve of these are believed to be imprisoned.
All 27 are Danish nationals but it is unclear how many also have citizenship of another country.
Europeans comprise a fifth of around 10,000 Daesh fighters held captive in Syria by Kurdish militias which are now under heavy attack by Turkish forces.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President Donald Trump’s former Russia adviser arrived on Capitol Hill on Monday as the latest witness summoned in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Fiona Hill, former senior director for European and Russian Affairs on Trump’s National Security Council, was called to appear behind closed doors before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
The Trump administration’s removal in May of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine could figure in Hill’s testimony.
On Friday, Yovanovitch testified that she had been removed based on "unfounded and false claims” after coming under attack by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who had been working to get Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden.
The inquiry focuses on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former vice president Biden, a top contender for the Democratic nomination to face him in the 2020 presidential election, and Biden’s businessman son Hunter Biden.
The exercise, from Oct. 15-17, will involve around 12,000 military personnel, as well as aircraft, including strategic nuclear bombers, surface ships and submarines, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The drills come at a time when President Vladimir Putin is warning of a burgeoning arms race spurred by the unraveling of a key arms control treaty, something he blames on the United States. Washington rejects that and says Russia is the one who has flouted its arms control commitments.
The aim of this week’s exercise is to test the readiness of Russia’s command structure and how efficiently its orders are carried out, the defense ministry said.
Missiles will be fired on military testing ranges in Russia’s Far East and at remote locations in its Far North. Russia’s Northern Fleet will be involved, the ministry said, saying the naval part of the exercise would cover the Barents, Baltic, Black, Caspian and Okhotsk seas.
***
TUNIS (Reuters) -- An attacker killed a French citizen and wounded a soldier with a knife in northern Tunisia on Monday, state media quoted the Interior Ministry as saying.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Hayouni was quoted on state news agency TAP as saying police knew the identity of the assailant, a 28-year-old man with a criminal record, but he did not suggest a motive for the killing.
The attack took place in Jarzouna, a town connected by bridge to the port city of Bizerte, the day after Tunisia held a presidential election.
The attacker assaulted the uniformed soldier and then the French citizen, who died before reaching hospital, it quoted Hayouni as saying. Reuters could not immediately reach Hayouni for comment.
Takfiri militant groups have repeatedly attempted to target security services and foreign tourists in Tunisia in recent years. Two attacks in 2015 in the cities of Tunis and Sousse killed scores of foreign tourists, but Western diplomats say Tunisian security services are now better equipped to deal with militant threats.
***
LONDON (Reuters) -- A man who drove his car at members of the public and police officers outside Britain’s parliament last year in what authorities treated as a terrorist attack was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.
Salih Khater, 30, accelerated a silver Ford Fiesta into 14 cyclists at a crossing, before veering across the road into a security lane and driving at two police officers.
The police officers jumped out of the way of the car, which was which was traveling at more than 30 mph (50 kph) before crashing into barriers outside parliament.
Khater had argued that the incident was an accident, but a judge at the Old Bailey found that the offense had a "terrorist connection” and gave him a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years.
Police said that Khater had acted alone, traveling to the capital from Birmingham, central England, in the early hours of the morning of the attack. After scoping out the area, he drove four times around the square outside parliament before veering onto the wrong side of the road.
***
COPENHAGEN (Dispatches) -- Denmark will fast-track legislation allowing people with dual citizenship who have gone abroad to fight for militant groups like Daesh to be stripped of their Danish nationality, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday.
European states are trying to accelerate a plan to shift thousands of foreign Daesh militants out of Syrian prison camps and into Iraq, as a fresh conflict in Syria has raised the risk of Takfiris escaping or returning home.
"There is a risk that the Kurdish-controlled Daesh-camps in the border area will collapse and that foreign warriors with Danish citizenship will move toward Denmark,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
Authorities believe at least 158 people from Denmark have joined militant Takfiri groups in Syria or Iraq since 2012, about 27 of whom remain in the conflict zone. Twelve of these are believed to be imprisoned.
All 27 are Danish nationals but it is unclear how many also have citizenship of another country.
Europeans comprise a fifth of around 10,000 Daesh fighters held captive in Syria by Kurdish militias which are now under heavy attack by Turkish forces.
***
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. President Donald Trump’s former Russia adviser arrived on Capitol Hill on Monday as the latest witness summoned in the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against Trump.
Fiona Hill, former senior director for European and Russian Affairs on Trump’s National Security Council, was called to appear behind closed doors before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
The Trump administration’s removal in May of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine could figure in Hill’s testimony.
On Friday, Yovanovitch testified that she had been removed based on "unfounded and false claims” after coming under attack by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who had been working to get Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden.
The inquiry focuses on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former vice president Biden, a top contender for the Democratic nomination to face him in the 2020 presidential election, and Biden’s businessman son Hunter Biden.