MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia said on Monday it had arrested a woman suspected of blowing up a prominent war blogger in a St Petersburg cafe the previous day as nationalist politicians and commentators accused Ukraine of the crime and called for retribution. Maxim Fomin, a well-known Russian military blogger and cheerleader for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine who called himself Vladlen Tatarsky, was killed on Sunday in what appeared to be the second assassination on Russian soil of a figure closely associated with the conflict. The woman arrested - Darya Trepova - was a Russian citizen who had previously been detained for protesting against the war in Ukraine, the state news agency TASS said.  With over 500,000 followers on the Telegram messaging service that is popular in Russia, Tatarsky - who had himself fought in Ukraine in the past - mixed ultra-nationalist messaging with criticism of the way Russia is prosecuting what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. More than 30 people were injured in the blast which killed him. Some Russian commentators saw the bombing as the latest sign that violence related to the war in Ukraine is increasingly spilling onto Russian territory.

 

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SOFIA (Reuters) -- Bulgaria looked set on Monday for lengthy and difficult coalition talks after a parliamentary election, the fifth in two years, again failed to produce a clear winner.  A bloc led by the centre-right GERB party of former prime minister Boyko Borissov won 26.5% of votes in Sunday’s election, while a pro-Western reformist bloc led by We Continue the Change (PP) had 24.9%, according to preliminary results based on 96% of ballots counted. The nationalist Revival party, which is sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war, took third place with 14.4%, up several percentage points from the previous election last October. The ethnic Turkish MRF was in fourth place with 13% and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), heir to the once powerful Communist Party, had 9%. Bulgaria’s prolonged political deadlock, caused mainly by personal animosity among leaders of the two main blocs, has already forced the country to delay its target date for adopting the euro, and it has yet to approve a budget bill for 2023.

 

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 SURAT, India (Reuters) -- Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi Monday lodged an appeal against his conviction for defamation, hoping to overturn a judgment that resulted in his expulsion from parliament a year before a general election is due. The court accepted his petition and posted it for hearing on April 13. Gandhi, 52, was found guilty of defamation last month in a case brought by a state lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after comments Gandhi made in a 2019 speech were deemed to be insulting to the prime minister and other people surnamed Modi.

 

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MANILA (Reuters) -- The office of the Philippine president on Monday identified the four additional bases the United States will have access to under an existing defense agreement to expand military cooperation. The announcement comes amid concern over China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea and tension over Taiwan. The sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) will be in Isabela and Cagayan, on the island of Luzon, facing north towards Taiwan, and on Palawan, near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

 

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SEOUL (AFP) -- Firefighters were scrambling Monday to contain wildfires across South Korea as a dry spell led to blazes in multiple regions, including on a mountain popular with hikers in central Seoul. A fire broke out Sunday morning on Mount Inwang, a popular outdoor destination in Seoul’s Jongno district, and spread rapidly due to strong winds, the city government said in a statement. About 120 households were forced to evacuate, but no deaths or injuries were reported, it added. Firefighters using helicopters were still struggling to extinguish smoldering fires early Monday, the statement said, although the main blaze was put out Sunday evening. Authorities planned to investigate the cause of the fire once it was completely extinguished, Yonhap news agency reported. On Monday, firefighting authorities were also battling strong winds and smoke in an effort to contain wildfires across Chungcheong province, south of Seoul.

 

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KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) -- Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Monday that Malaysia was prepared to negotiate the South China Sea dispute with Beijing to safeguard the country’s energy exploration efforts. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea -- a strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars in trade pass annually -- despite an international court ruling that Beijing’s assertion has no legal basis. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have overlapping claims in the sea, while the United States sends naval vessels through it to assert freedom of navigation in international waters. Anwar -- who was on a visit to Beijing recently -- said the “sensitive” issue was raised at a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas has its largest oil platform in the disputed area, as well as several exploration projects.