Russia’s Investigative Committee says former Russian transport minister Roman Starovoit has been found dead, apparently with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

He was dismissed earlier on Monday by President Vladimir Putin.

No reason for Starovoit’s dismissal was given and deputy transport minister Andrei Nikitin was announced as his replacement shortly after.

The Investigative Committee said it was working to establish the circumstances of the incident.

Starovoit was appointed minister of transport in May 2024.

Before that, Starovoit had served as governor of the Kursk region for almost six years, until May 2024.

The region was partly seized by Ukrainian troops in August 2024 in a surprise offensive. Moscow only recently managed to drive out the Ukrainian forces, although in late June Kyiv said it was still holding a small area of territory inside Russia.

Starovoit’s successor, Aleksey Smirnov, was only in post for a short while. He was arrested in April and was later accused of embezzling funds that had been allocated for the building of fortifications on the border with Ukraine.

According to Russian outlet Kommersant, Starovoit was about to be brought in as a defendant in the same case.

It is unclear when, exactly, Starovoit died.

The head of the State Duma Defence Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, told Russian outlet RTVI that his death occurred “quite a while ago”.

Earlier on Monday, before Starovoit’s death was announced, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was pressed by reporters on whether the dismissal meant Putin had lost trust in Starovoit over the events in Kursk.

“A loss of trust is mentioned if there is a loss of trust. Such wording was not used [in the Kremlin decree],” Peskov replied.

Source: BBC

France’s First Lady has been caught on video slapping French President Emmanuel Macron in the face upon their arrival at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Numerous videos of the incident, which went viral over the weekend, show Brigitte Macron pushing the French president in the face as the hatch opens. Macron then pauses, turns to face outside the plane, and flashes a smile and waves, before moving out of frame just before the couple gets off the presidential plane.

Initial reports said the multiple videos showing the shocking incident were fakes. However, it was later confirmed that the incident caught on world cameras was real, with reports saying the couple had been arguing earlier.

The Elysee Palace claimed the couple were “having a laugh.” Macron himself said he and his wife were simply “horsing around.”

His wife, who belongs to a wealthy aristocratic family, opened the doors for Macron’s miraculous rise to power.

She is Macron’s former teacher and 24 years his senior. Macron met Brigitte when he was just 15 years old.  Macron was a student and a classmate of Brigitte’s daughter. Macron’s former teacher got divorced from her husband in January 2006 and married Macron the next year.

Unbeknownst to most people, Brigitte hails from a covert world of French politics and power, almost hidden from the public. In a short while after his marriage to her, the French nation and the international community witnessed one of the most astonishing rises to power.

Political analysts say the young Macron’s incredible rise would have been almost impossible without her connections to people in high places.

Source: Press TV

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s World War II Victory Day parade began in Moscow on Friday, an event the Kremlin hopes will rally patriotism at home and project strength abroad as its troops fight in Ukraine.

More than 20 foreign leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, attended the annual parade this year, the fourth since Moscow launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbour in February 2022.

Officials promised that commemorations this year – the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany – would be the “biggest” ever, with Putin ordering a “humanitarian” truce with Ukraine over the holiday.

Source: France 24

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he has ordered his forces to “stop all military activity” in Ukraine, as he declared an “Easter truce” until the end of Sunday.

He said the 30-hour truce would last until 22:00 BST on Sunday (00:00 Moscow time), adding that Russian forces should be prepared to respond to “any possible violations”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would adhere to the truce, but accused Moscow of breaking it.

“If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly – mirroring Russia’s actions,” he said.

“Our actions are and will be symmetrical. The proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day silence remains on the table — the answer to it must come from Moscow,” he wrote on X.

He said fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions and Russian drones were still in use, but added that some areas had become quieter.

Zelensky said Ukraine would be ready to extend a truce beyond 20 April, seemingly referring to an earlier proposal from the US for a 30-day ceasefire which Ukraine had already agreed to.

Responding to Putin’s initial announcement, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X: “Putin has now made statements about his alleged readiness for a cease-fire. 30 hours instead of 30 days.”

“Unfortunately, we have had a long history of his statements not matching his actions. We know his words cannot be trusted and we will look at actions, not words,” he added.

Putin announced the temporary truce at a meeting with his chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

“Based on humanitarian considerations… the Russian side announces an Easter truce. I order a stop to all military activities for this period,” Putin told Gerasimov.

“We assume that Ukraine will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations by the enemy, any aggressive actions.”

The Russian defence ministry said its troops would adhere to the ceasefire provided it was “mutually respected” by Ukraine.

It is not the first time a pause in fighting has been suddenly announced – a previous attempt at a ceasefire during Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 fell apart after both sides failed to agree on a proposal.

Reacting to Putin’s truce announcement, a Foreign Office spokesman in the UK said: “Now is the moment for Putin to truly show he is serious about peace by ending his horrible invasion and committing to a full ceasefire, as the Ukrainian government has called for – not just a one day pause for Easter.”

Source: BBC

Thieves stole a £4.8m solid gold toilet from Blenheim Palace in an “audacious raid” which took just five minutes, a court has heard.

The toilet was plumbed in and fully functioning as part of an art exhibition at the Oxfordshire stately home in September 2019.

Michael Jones, 39, from Divinity Road, Oxford denies a charge of burglary. Fred Doe, previously known as Frederick Sines, 36, from Windsor, and 41-year-old Bora Guccuk, from west London, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to transfer criminal property.

Their trial at Oxford Crown Court was told the toilet was most likely broken up and was never recovered.

The toilet was part of an art exhibition at Blenheim Palace

Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC told the court that a gang of five in two vehicles drove through locked gates of Blenheim Palace in the early hours of 14 September 2019 and smashed their way into the building with sledgehammers.

The court heard that the sledgehammers were left at the scene.

A photograph was taken about 17 hours before the toilet was stolen and Mr Christopher told the court that Mr Jones had taken it while he was “there as part of the reconnaissance for the burglary”.

Mr Christopher told the court the raid took just five minutes.

He added: “The work of art was never recovered. It appears to have been split up into smaller amounts of gold and never recovered.”

A fourth man, James Sheen, 40, from Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, pleaded guilty to burglary, transferring criminal property and conspiracy to do the same in April 2024, jurors were told.

Entitled America, the 18-carat gold toilet was part of an exhibition by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan.

It weighed 98kg and was insured for $6m. Gold prices at the time would have seen the gold alone worth £2.8m in September 2019, the court was told.

The prosecutor said a series of messages, voice notes and screengrabs discovered on Mr Sheen, Mr Doe and Mr Guccuk’s phones showed the trio negotiated a price of £25,632 per kilo for around 20kg of the stolen gold.

It was claimed Mr Guccuk, who ran the jewellers Pacha of London in Hatton Garden, would make a profit of about £3,000 for every kilo he sold on.

The palace is a Unesco World Heritage Site and was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

The trial continues.

Source: BBC

Hundreds of migrants were arrested in January as part of a UK-wide crackdown on illegal working, the government has said.

Enforcement teams raided 828 premises including nail bars, car washes, and restaurants and made 609 arrests – a 73% increase on the previous January.

Home Office Minister Dame Angela Eagle told the BBC the decision to release footage of the arrests was to send a message about the realities of working illegally and she defended the government’s approach as “compassionate”.

Later on Monday, MPs will debate the government’s immigration bill. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has called it a “weak bill that won’t stop the boats”.

Vape shops in Cheshire and a grocery warehouse in south London were among the places raided.

Those arrested made the journey to the UK through a mix of routes, including by crossing the Channel and by overstaying legitimately-granted visas.

Despite having won a landslide election victory seven months ago, senior Labour strategists are already increasingly worried about losing voters concerned about immigration to Reform come the next election.

Source: BBC

Nicolas Sarkozy is to be fitted with an electronic tag after being convicted of graft, a source close to the case said, in a first for a former French president.

France’s highest appeals court in December ordered Sarkozy to wear the tag for a year, after finding him guilty of illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge.

A judge last week decided Sarkozy, 70, would wear the ankle monitor from February 7, the source said.

The right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, would only be allowed out of his home at certain times, it said.

Sarkozy’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said procedure was “being followed” and she had no further comment.

The former head of state will however be able to apply for conditional release for people aged 70 and above. He turned 70 last week, the day he was summoned by the judge.

Sarkozy has been going to a Paris court three afternoons a week for the past month as part of a separate trial in which he is charged with accepting illegal campaign financing before his 2007 election. That trial is to run until April 10.

In the case for which he is to wear the tag, a court found that Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a “corruption pact” with judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about an investigating judge.

The deal was done in return for the promise of a plum retirement job for the judge.

The trial came after investigators looking into a separate case of alleged illegal campaign financing wiretapped Sarkozy’s two official phone lines, and discovered that he also had a third, unofficial one.

It had been taken out in 2014 under the name “Paul Bismuth”, and only used for him to communicate with Herzog.

The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict.

Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal.

But Sarkozy is France’s first post-war president to have been sentenced to serve time.

Source: AFP

Belgian police are looking for armed men after a shooting was reported outside a metro station in the centre of Brussels.

CCTV footage broadcast by local media shows at least two men wearing balaclavas and carrying weapons at the entrance of Clémenceau station in the Belgian capital early on Wednesday.

Video from the scene shows an exchange of fire at about 06:15 local time (05:15 GMT).

Sarah Frederickx, spokeswoman for Brussels police, said the suspects may have fled into the tunnels of the metro system.

The spokeswoman said there were no injuries in the shooting.

Police are looking for “a small group of people, probably two or three individuals”, Ms Frederickx said, adding that they may still be armed and that police did not want to take any risks.

BruxellesToday reported the suspects were carrying what appeared to be Kalashnikov weapons.

The BBC has verified footage of the incident circulating on social media, which showed two men brandishing what looked like rifles and shooting. From the video, it is unclear who they are aiming at.

Source: BBC

Swedish police say “around 10” people have been killed in a shooting on a school campus in the central city of Orebro.

Police believe the perpetrator is among the dead and that he acted alone, but a motive is not yet clear.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson describes the attack as the “worst mass shooting” in Sweden’s history.

The shooting happened at a school for adults, although there are children’s schools on the site.

Students and staff were kept inside buildings when police thought the attacker was still at large but have since been evacuated.

Police first warned people to stay away from the area at 13:20 local time (12:20 GMT)

Source: BBC

At least five people have been shot on a school campus in central Sweden – four have undergone surgery in hospital, and one is critically injured

One of the people in hospital is thought to be the perpetrator, police say

More people may be injured, police add.

Students and staff were kept inside buildings when police thought the attacker was still at large – they are now being evacuated.

The shooting happened at a school for adults, although there are children’s schools on the site.

Police first warned people to stay away from the area at 13:20 local time (12:20 GMT)

Soon after, they confirmed four people had been shot, before the number increased to five.

Source: BBC