RUSSIA – Russia’s Vladimir Putin has acknowledged “radical Islamists” carried out last Friday’s deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall.
But he has repeated his claim that they had some kind of link to Ukraine and the West.
Ukraine has rejected the Russian claim as absurd.
The Islamic State (IS) group says it was behind the atrocity, in which 139 people were killed, and it has released footage of the attack.
Twenty-two people are still in a serious condition in hospital, including two children, according to Russian officials.
The Russian leader said during a televised meeting: “We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists, whose ideology the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries.”
He then went on to say: “We want to know who ordered it.” Many questions remained unanswered, he argued, repeating an unfounded claim that the attackers had tried to flee south to Ukraine.
“Who was waiting for them there?” he asked. “This atrocity may be just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014.”
The US was trying to convince the world that Kyiv had no connection to the attack, he said. And he pointed the finger at the West, saying the attack could only be linked to attempts made by those who had fought against Russia by using Kyiv.
One of Mr Putin’s longest-serving allies, security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, doubled down on the Kremlin claim yesterday when he was asked whether IS or Ukraine was behind the attack: “Of course, Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Russian accusations during his nightly video address: “Putin was talking to himself again… Again, he blames Ukraine. A sick and cynical creature.”
The US says IS is “solely” to blame for the Moscow attack, and several European countries have stepped up security, with France warning of a resurgence in jihadist threats.
Four citizens of Tajikistan have appeared in court accused of carrying out the massacre. Four other suspects have been accused of aiding terrorism, including a 31-year-old man from Kyrgyzstan suspected of renting out a flat used by the attackers.
The attack took place little over two weeks after the US embassy warned that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts”. Mr Putin rejected the warning as provocative only last week.
Three days before the gunmen targeted Crocus City Hall on the north-west fringe of Moscow, the Russian leader accused the US of using its warning of an imminent attack to “intimidate and destabilise our society”.
Meanwhile, Russia’s FSB security service announced yesterday that it had foiled an attack by pro-Ukraine Russian fighters in the southern city of Samara. It said a member of the Russian Volunteer Corps paramilitary group had blown himself up after being apprehended.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said it was obvious Mr Putin was looking for pretexts to attack Kyiv, but said the videos of the attack were clear and more than one IS claim confirmed the theory that it was involved.
The Moscow attack, blamed by US intelligence on a regional branch of IS called Islamic State-Khorasan, has heightened fears of renewed jihadist plots in Western Europe, ahead of a summer of major international sporting events.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said last Monday night that France had been on maximum alert since Sunday night and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said two attacks had been foiled since the start of the year. “We thwart a lot of attacks in France, one every two months,” Mr Darmanin said on France 2 TV. Paris is due to host the Olympic Games in fourth months’ time and the interior minister said the main threat was homegrown but the external IS threat was seeing a resurgence.
Mr Attal said 4,000 extra soldiers would be deployed across France in the coming days.
Germany has said it will introduce temporary border controls for the European Championships starting in June. The government in Berlin has already imposed controls on some of its borders in a bid to tackle gangs smuggling migrants across Europe.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said controls would take place on all German borders during the tournament “to prevent potential violent offenders from entering the country”.
In a separate development, Turkey said it had arrested 147 people suspected of links to IS in simultaneous raids across 30 cities. Ankara has confirmed that two of the four suspected attackers visited Turkey weeks before the Moscow attack and said they were able to travel freely there as there was no warrant for their arrest.
Italy says it has intensified security ahead of the Easter holidays and has urged people to be alert, although “there are no concrete risks”. (BBC)…[+]
Nieuws volgens datum: 27 Mar, 2024
Putin pins Moscow massacre on ‘radical Islamists’ but accuses Ukraine too
Koning Charles tijdens Pasen voor het eerst weer bij een groot evenement
ENGELAND – Koning Charles en koningin Camilla zijn zondag aanwezig bij de paasdienst in de St George’s Chapel bij Windsor Castle. Het is de eerste keer dat de Britse koning naar een groot evenement gaat sinds bekend is dat hij kanker heeft.
Het koningspaar wordt vergezeld door andere leden van de koninklijke familie. Het is niet bekend wie er verder aanwezig zullen zijn.
Prins William en zijn vrouw Kate zijn er in ieder geval niet bij. De prinses maakte vorige week vrijdag bekend dat ze kanker heeft en momenteel preventieve chemotherapie ondergaat. Het paar is op vakantie in Norfolk.
Charles heeft vanwege zijn ziekte zijn werkzaamheden buitenshuis enige tijd geleden opgeschort. De vorst vermijdt momenteel grote groepen mensen, maar blijft wel werkzaam in het paleis.
De jaarlijkse paasdienst in Windsor is populair onder Britse royals. Dit jaar zal de dienst er volgens bronnen van Britse media wel iets anders uitzien, zodat Charles niet in met te veel mensen in contact komt.(NU)
Xi, Honduran president exchange congratulations on 1st anniversary of ties
BEIJING – Chinese President Xi Jinping and Honduran President Xiomara Castro exchanged congratulations over the first anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations.
Xi pointed out that in March last year, China and Honduras established diplomatic ties, opening a new chapter in their bilateral relations.
He noted that during Castro’s successful state visit to China last June, they held talks and reached important consensus, setting the direction for the development of bilateral relations.
Over the past year, the two sides have upheld the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, and common development, ensuring that bilateral relations started to grow from a high level, he said.
Xi said he highly appreciates Honduras’s firm adherence to the one-China principle, stressing that facts have proved that the establishment of the China-Honduras diplomatic relations is a correct political decision made in compliance with the historical trend and serves the fundamental interests of the two nations.
Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Honduras relations and is willing to work with Castro to take the first anniversary of bilateral ties as an opportunity to consolidate mutual support, expand all-round cooperation, and jointly write a better future for China-Honduras relations.
Castro said that China, with a multi-millennial civilization and a major role to play in the historical process, is a role model for the world and an important partner of Honduras
The past year saw China’s dedication to innovative development, its participation in efforts to find solutions to global problems and strenuous assistance with worldwide poverty reduction efforts, she said.
Honduras firmly sticks to the one-China principle and is willing to develop ties with China that feature independence and mutual respect, she said, expressing her wish that the two peoples will enjoy a long-lasting friendship.(Xinhua)…[+]
‘Mass casualties’ feared as Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses
US – The Francis Scott Key Bridge in the United States city of Baltimore has collapsed after being hit by a ship.
Media reports said the vessel crashed into the bridge at about 1:30am (05:30 GMT) yesterday, catching fire before sinking. The bridge buckled, causing multiple vehicles to fall into the water below. Officials have called the incident a “developing mass casualty event”.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon M Scott said on X that emergency personnel were quickly at the scene and rescue efforts were under way.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore has announced a state of emergency and said on X that he has requested federal help.
“I have declared a State of Emergency here in Maryland and we are working with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden Administration,” his office wrote.
Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore City Fire Department, said emergency agencies began receiving 911 calls at about 1:30 am with reports that a vessel travelling outbound from Baltimore had struck a column on the bridge, causing it to collapse.
“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X.
It is unclear how many vehicles were on the four-lane road bridge at the time of the incident, but fire officials said “there was surely a large tractor-trailer”.
Up to 20 people are feared to be in the water, Cartwright said, adding that officials were dealing with a “mass casualty, multi-agency incident”.
“This is a dire emergency,” Cartwright said. “Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people.”
Emergency responders are having to operate cautiously as it appears that there are “some cargo or retainers hanging from the bridge”, creating unsafe and unstable conditions, he continued.
A live video streamed on YouTube showed a ship hitting the bridge, after which big portions of the spans collapsed into the Patapsco River.
Synergy Marine Corp said a container ship that it manages, the Singapore-flagged “Dali”, hit one of the pillars of the bridge. All crew members, including the two pilots, have been accounted for and there were no reports of any injuries, it added.
It was not immediately clear if the Baltimore port operations were affected.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge is a major link across the city harbour in the northeast of the United States. According to the Maryland Department of Transportation, it is more than 2.5km (1.6 miles) long and has four lanes.
The port’s private and public terminals handled 847,158 cars and light trucks in 2023, the most of any US port. The port also handles farm and construction machinery, sugar, gypsum and coal, according to the Maryland State Government website. (Al Jazeera)…[+]
Julian Assange staves off extradition to US for now, UK court rules
ENGLAND – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has fended off the threat of immediate extradition to the United States after the High Court in London asked the US to provide more assurances.
US authorities say Assange, 52, put lives at risk by publishing secret military documents and have for years been seeking his extradition on espionage charges.
At a two-day hearing last month, Assange sought permission to appeal the UK’s 2022 approval of his extradition to the US, arguing the case against him was politically motivated and that he would not face a fair trial.
In a ruling yesterday, a panel of two judges said Assange, an Australian citizen, would not be extradited immediately and gave the US three weeks to give a series of assurances around Assange’s First Amendment rights, and that he would not receive the death penalty.
If the US fails to give these assurances, Assange would be allowed to appeal his extradition at a further hearing in May.
The ruling potentially offers Assange an extraordinary lifeline in a years-long saga that saw him shoot to global prominence for revealing what he described previously to CNN as “compelling evidence of war crimes” committed by US-led coalition and Iraqi government forces.
Assange has fought extradition for the last five years from London’s Belmarsh prison, and for seven years before that was holed up as a political refugee at the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK capital.
His case has sparked condemnation from free speech advocates who say if the extradition is allowed to go ahead it will have a chilling effect on press freedoms.
The court said yesterday that Assange had a “real prospect of success” on three of the nine grounds of appeal: that his extradition is incompatible with freedom of expression; that, if extradited, Assange might be prejudiced at trial due to his nationality; and that, if extradited, he would not enjoy adequate death penalty protection.
But the court refused to grant him leave to appeal on the ground that the prosecution is politically motivated.
“The judge found, on the evidence, that Mr Assange had not shown that the request was made for the purpose of prosecuting him on account of his political opinions,” it said.
It said the judge had taken account of the evidence that the CIA had planned to kidnap Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy, but the judge “concluded that this was not related to the extradition proceedings.”
Stella Assange, Assange’s wife, told reporters outside the court after its ruling that her husband is a “political prisoner.”
“The charges against him are to punish him for publishing the truth, for publishing evidence of the war crimes committed by the country that is trying to extradite him,” she said.
She called on the Biden administration to “drop this shameful case that should never have been brought.”
Assange is being pursued by US authorities for publishing confidential military records supplied by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011.
In 2019, prosecutors in Virginia charged Assange with 18 offences including one charge of conspiracy to attempt to hack a computer in connection with the 2010 release of classified military material obtained through Manning and 17 additional counts under the Espionage Act.
The prosecution alleges that Assange goaded Manning into obtaining thousands of pages of unfiltered US diplomatic cables that potentially endangered confidential sources, Iraq war-related significant activity reports and information related to Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Each of those counts carries a potential sentence of 10 years, meaning that if convicted, Assange could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
Assange was not present at the crucial last-ditch hearing in February as he was too “unwell” to attend, according to one of his lawyers.
His legal team had argued that the US request was in breach of their client’s human rights, politically motivated and that his work was “ordinary journalistic practice” which he shouldn’t be punished for.
They also claimed Assange was the subject of an alleged CIA assassination plot while he lived at his Ecuadorian safe haven between 2012 and 2019. “There is compelling evidence now in existence… that senior CIA and [US] administration officials requested detailed plans and drawings of [the plot],” lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said.
The allegation has never been tested evidentially but his legal team had argued that it should be considered and made part of the case. (CNN)
Amerika in shock na brugramp in Baltimore
VS – Amerika is in shock na de brugramp in Baltimore. Een containerschip ramde daar in de nacht van afgelopen maandag op dinsdag de Francis Scott Key Bridge, met één van de langste overspanningen ter wereld, die daarop in luttele seconden instortte. Hulpdiensten zoeken naar slachtoffers, onder wie een groep wegwerkers die ‘s nachts op de brug reparaties uitvoerden.
Bij het ochtendgloren was de chaos aan de monding van de Patapsco-rivier niet te overzien. Helikopters cirkelen boven het water, op zoek naar overlevenden. Overal zijn zwaailichten te zien. Tot op kilometers afstand heeft de politie alle wegen rond de rampplek afgezet. De gouverneur heeft de noodtoestand uitgeroepen. Een perskaart geeft toegang tot afgezet gebied. In de nacht voert dat voorbij meerdere wegblokkades over verlaten duister industriegebied naar het kantoor van de vervoersautoriteit in de staat Maryland. Op de lokale radio spat onderweg het ongeloof van de gebeurtenissen uit de speaker. ‘De brug is weg, het is ongelooflijk. Weg! Helemaal weg!’ roept de presentator. Hij zal het deze nacht vele malen herhalen.
De verbijstering in Baltimore, en ver daarbuiten, is groot. Ooggetuigen zeggen in Amerikaanse media dat ze aanvankelijk aan een aardbeving dachten, toen de kilometerslange, stalen brug met een overspanning van 366 meter op het langste deel, rond half twee ’s nachts als een kaartenhuis in elkaar klapte nadat een containerschip een pijler had geramd. Het schip, ‘Dali’ genaamd vaart onder Singaporese vlag en was op weg naar Sri Lanka. Hoe het ongeluk kon gebeuren is onduidelijk. Het containerschip was volgens lokale media kort daarvoor stuurloos geraakt. De bemanning van het schip scheen de autoriteiten vooraf te hebben gewaarschuwd dat een aanvaring niet te voorkomen leek omdat er geen controle meer over het vaartuig was.
Een onbekend aantal automobilisten en wegwerkers is in het water beland. Tot nu toe zijn twee mensen gered, van wie er één slecht aan toe is. Met man en macht wordt gezocht naar overlevenden. Sonarbeelden lieten volgens de lokale autoriteiten zien dat er auto’s op de bodem van de rivier liggen. Het zijn onheilspellende berichten.
Aan de stadszijde van de brug heeft de pers zich als professionele ramptoeristen op een paar honderd meter van de brugoprit langs een vangrail verzameld. Het was opmerkelijk stil. Cameraploegen, fotografen en verslaggevers staren naar het verlaten asfalt, dat even verder ophoudt te bestaan. De oprit van de brug eindigt in een gapend gat. ‘We staan hier al een uur. Er valt niets te zien’, zegt een journaliste van een lokaal tv-station.
Terwijl Amerika ontwaakt wordt de omvang van de ramp gaandeweg duidelijk. De getroffen brug, die vooral voor vrachtverkeer dat de tunnels rond de stad mijdt cruciaal is, zal voor een verkeersinfarct gaan zorgen. Belangrijker is dat slachtoffers worden geborgen. Er worden nog altijd zeven mensen vermist.
Het Witte Huis zegt de gebeurtenissen nauwlettend te volgen. Hoewel de FBI bij het onderzoek is betrokken zijn er volgens de autoriteiten vooralsnog geen aanwijzingen die duiden op opzet. Op een persconferentie aan de oever van de rampplek verklaarde de Transportminister van Maryland dat federale agenten bij dit soort incidenten altijd worden ingeschakeld. De bewindsman vertelt dat hulpdiensten de voorbije uren moesten vechten tegen de elementen: kou en duisternis. (De Telegraaf)…[+]
Brits gerechtshof staat toch hoger beroep klokkenluider Assange tegen uitlevering VS toe
ENGELAND – Een Brits gerechtshof staat klokkenluider Julian Assange toch toe zijn uitlevering aan de Verenigde Staten in hoger beroep aan te vechten. Hij dreigt te worden uitgeleverd voor publicaties op de website WikiLeaks waar hij oprichter van was. Justitie in de VS heeft achttien aanklachten tegen hem geformuleerd, inclusief spionage, en hij zou in totaal 175 jaar cel kunnen krijgen.
De Australische Assange zou snel worden uitgeleverd op basis van eerdere rechtelijke besluiten, maar dat gaat met een nieuwe beroepsprocedure voorlopig niet door. Het Hoge Hof van Justitie heeft geoordeeld dat Assange in beroep mag gaan tegen het besluit tot uitlevering. Buiten het gerechtsgebouw hebben aanhangers zich verzameld om voor zijn vrijlating te betogen. Ze beschouwen hem als een succesvolle journalist en klokkenluider die onrechtmatig gevangen wordt gehouden.
Assange zit sinds 2019 in de zwaarbewaakte Londense Belmarsh-gevangenis en wordt al circa vijftien jaar vervolgd. In 2020 begon de uitleveringsprocedure aan de VS. Hij heeft vertrouwelijke informatie over vooral politieke en militaire zaken via WikiLeaks gepubliceerd. Volgens WikiLeaks wordt door toedoen van Washington de verdere verspreiding van informatie van WikiLeaks tegengegaan en zijn donors onder druk gezet.
WikiLeaks baarde onder meer opzien in 2016 met de publicatie van e-mails van het bestuur van de Democratische Partij in de VS. Die toonden dat het bestuur en campagnemedewerkers van Hillary Clinton de linkse politicus Bernie Sanders op een zijspoor wilden zetten. Assange wordt nu in de VS vervolgd voor talrijke publicaties over de Amerikaanse oorlogen in Afghanistan en Irak. Daarin komen ook gepleegde oorlogsmisdaden voor. Volgens de Amerikaanse justitie pleegde hij spionage en heeft hij medewerkers van de Amerikanen in groot gevaar gebracht met het verspreiden van geheime informatie.
Assange werd in 2010 als verdachte aangemerkt in Zweden na beschuldigingen van twee vrouwen over seksuele misdragingen. Op grond daarvan werd hij in Londen aangehouden en weer op borgtocht vrijgelaten. Maar hij verdween uit angst voor een door de VS opgezette val in de ambassade van Ecuador in Londen. Die wees hem in 2019 de deur en Assange werd gearresteerd. (De Telegraaf)…[+]
