MADRID: Police said Tuesday they suspect the bullet-riddled body of a man found in Spain is that of a Russian defector who escaped across the front line and into Ukraine last year with an army helicopter.
The body was found Feb. 13 in La Cala, near the eastern port city of Alicante, according to Civil Guard police. The man had been shot half a dozen times and was run over by the car, according to the Spanish state news agency Efe.
Spain’s Civil Guard said they found documents on the body that identified the man as a 33-year-old Ukrainian. But police now believe it could be Maksim Kuzminov, who defected last year by flying into Ukraine in a Mi-8 army helicopter with the help of Ukrainian intelligence.
Andrii Yusov, a representative of Ukrainian military intelligence, confirmed to local media that the former Russian pilot had died in Spain, but didn’t provide details. It is not clear how or why Kuzminov would have traveled to Spain.
The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, told Russian journalists that Maksim Kuzminov was a “traitor and criminal” who became a “moral corpse” as soon as he started planning “his dirty and terrible crime,” according to Russian state news agency Tass.
Tass also reported that Alexei Danilov, the Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said Ukraine had suggested Kuzminov remain in Ukraine where he would be protected.
Asked about the case, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said he had no information on it and that Moscow had received no information via diplomatic channels.
Spain’s Civil Guard said they found false documents on a body discovered Feb. 13 in the entrance to a residential complex in La Cala, near the eastern port city of Alicante.
Spanish state news agency Efe said the body had been hit by half a dozen bullets and was run over by the car used by the attackers.
Reports said a burning car — possibly the one used in the attack — was found near the area later but the Civil Guard could not immediately confirm that information.
Spanish police suspect bullet-riddled body may be Russian who defected with army helicopter
https://arab.news/8nwpd
Spanish police suspect bullet-riddled body may be Russian who defected with army helicopter
- Spain’s Civil Guard said they found documents on the body that identified the man as a 33-year-old Ukrainian
- Police now believe it could be Maksim Kuzminov, who defected last year by flying into Ukraine in a Mi-8 army helicopter
Philippines to send halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia this month
- Philippine businesses participate at 2024 halal expo in Riyadh
- Halal trade delegation also includes tourism, agriculture officials
MANILA: The Philippines is preparing to send a halal trade mission to Saudi Arabia later this month as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to deepen trade relations with the Kingdom.
Organized by the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, the activities will cover Riyadh and Jeddah from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5.
Philippine officials have been working to expand their domestic halal industry, while also seeking to boost trade relations with Saudi Arabia.
“This Philippine halal mission to Saudi Arabia aims to effectively promote the burgeoning Philippine halal trade industry and further strengthen trade relations between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia,” Rommel Romato, charge d’affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News on Sunday.
“The Philippine delegation is composed of government agencies and private sector entities or representatives who will take part in the Saudi International Halal Expo 2024 in Riyadh.”
The mission will also include tourism and agriculture officials, as well as members of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, the body governing Muslim affairs in the Southeast Asian nation, Romato added.
The predominantly Catholic Philippines — where Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the nearly 120 million population — has plans to double the number of its halal-certified products and services, raise 230 billion pesos ($4 billion) in investments and generate around 120,000 jobs by 2028 by tapping into the global halal market, which is estimated to be worth more than $7 trillion.
Earlier this year, the DTI sent a business-matching mission to Saudi Arabia, comprising food, beverage and personal care exporters.
Manila recorded a rise in Philippine-Saudi trade volume from 2022 to 2023, following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Riyadh last October, during which a $4.26 billion investment agreement was signed with Saudi business leaders.
Teenager 'stabbed 50 times', burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors
Speaking to reporters, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the teenager was murdered on Wednesday, describing the case as one of "unprecedented savagery."
Marseille, France's second-largest city but also one of its poorest, is plagued by drug-related violence.
Bessone said that victims and perpetrators of such violence were getting increasingly younger.
The city has in recent years witnessed a turf war for control of the highly profitable drug market between various clans including DZ Mafia.
The teenager had been hired by a 23-year-old prisoner to intimidate a competitor by setting fire to his door, the prosecutor said, adding he had been promised 2,000 euros.
The teenager had however been spotted by members of a rival gang who repeatedly stabbed him then set him on fire, he added.
The same prisoner then recruited a 14-year-old minor to carry out a revenge attack and kill a member of the Blacks gang, promising to pay him 50,000 euros.
The 14-year-old hired a 36-year-old driver who angered the minor and ended up being killed.
The two latest cases mean that the number of drug-related killings in Marseille has risen to 17 since the start of the year.
By comparison, a total of 49 people were killed in drug related violence in Marseille in 2023.
san-ol-as/rlp
1 dead as Russia strikes Ukraine with drones and missiles
KYIV: One person has died after Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with 87 Shahed drones and four different types of missiles, officials said Sunday.
A 49-year-old man was killed in the Kharkiv region after his car was hit by a drone, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. A gas pipeline was also damaged and a warehouse set alight in the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials reported.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that air defenses had destroyed 56 of the 87 drones and two missiles over 14 Ukrainian regions, including the capital, Kyiv.
Another 25 drones disappeared from radar “presumably as a result of anti-aircraft missile defense,” it said.
The barrage comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he will present his “victory plan” at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Ramstein group of nations that supplies arms to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy presented his plan to U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week. Its contents have not been made public but it is known that the plan includes Ukrainian membership in NATO and the provision of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
In a statement Sunday, the Ukrainian leader paid tribute to the country’s troops, which he also described as “preparing (for) the next Ramstein.”
“They demonstrate what Ukrainians are capable of when they have enough weapons and sufficient range,” he said in a statement on social media. “We will keep convincing our partners that our drones alone are not enough. More decisive steps are needed — and the end of this war will be closer.”
Teenager ‘stabbed 50 times’, burned alive in Marseille: prosecutors
MAREILLE: A 15-year-old boy was “stabbed 50 times” and burned alive this week in the southern French city of Marseille in an apparent case of drug-related violence, prosecutors said on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said the teenager was murdered on Wednesday, describing the case as one of “unprecedented savagery.”
Indian villagers kill last wolf from man-eating pack
LUCKNOW: Villagers in India have beaten to death a wolf believed to be the last of a six-member pack that killed nine people, eight of them children, wildlife officials said on Sunday.
The grey wolves sparked hysteria among residents in Bahraich district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where the animals were said to have attacked more than 40 people.
More than 150 armed personnel and dozens of government forestry officials were deployed to capture the wolves last month.
Five of the animals were trapped, with drones and surveillance cameras suggesting only one remained free.
Government forest officer Ajit Singh said villagers had contacted his team on Sunday after they killed a prowling wolf.
"We were informed about a dead animal in the village, and upon reaching the scene, we found a wolf with clear signs of physical injuries," Singh told AFP.
"It seems it is part of the same pack of wolves," Singh said.
Further investigations were needed to verify that no more wolves remained in the area, he said.
Experts say wolves attack humans or livestock only as a last resort when they are starving, preferring less dangerous prey such as small antelopes.
However, wildlife officials say heavy flooding from extreme torrential rains had swamped the wolves' usual territory, depriving them of hunting grounds, and driving them into areas of more populated farmland.
Some of those killed or injured were attacked while sleeping on the veranda of their homes, a common practice during the hot and humid days of the monsoon rains.
The grassland plains of Bahraich district lie about 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the border with Nepal, where thick forests cover Himalayan foothills.
The majority of India's roughly 3,000 wolves survive outside protected areas, often in close proximity to people.
Numbers have been dwindling due to the loss of habitat and a lack of wild prey, experts say.
The animals, also known as the plains wolf, are smaller than the stronger Himalayan wolf and can be mistaken for other species such as jackals.
In Rudyard Kipling's 1894 novel The Jungle Book, the "man-cub" Mowgli was raised in the jungle by grey wolves.
