After worrying drone reports and the "sabotage" of Nord Stream's Baltic Sea pipelines, Europe's biggest gas supplier Norway is beefing up security at its energy installations, which experts have singled out as vulnerable targets.. Norway has become Europe's main gas supplier after Moscow cut deliveries in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
Iran was accused of killing seven people and wounding 28 in cross-border strikes Wednesday against Kurdish factions in Iraq that have deplored an ongoing protest crackdown in the Islamic republic.. Her death sparked protests across Iran and a crackdown that has killed at least 76 people in the Islamic republic, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights.
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, just days after Pyongyang's last test and ahead of a visit to South Korea by US Vice President Kamala Harris.. South Korea's military said it had "detected two short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Sunan area in Pyongyang".
Outside an army recruitment centre in Saint Petersburg, women and children embrace Russian men called up to fight in Ukraine, whispering among each other where their loved ones will be sent.. At the army centre in southern Saint Petersburg, AFP journalists saw men between 20 and 40 years old.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on Wednesday said President Alexander Lukashenko would commit "political suicide" if he involved Belarus's military in the war in neighbouring Ukraine.. Tikhanovskaya claimed victory in Belarus's contested 2020 presidential election but now lives in exile in Lithuania after Lukashenko launched a brutal crackdown on the opposition.
The EU said Wednesday that leaks from two Russia-Germany undersea gas pipelines appeared to be "a deliberate act", as fossil fuel-rich Norway boosted security at its installations.. Non-EU member Norway, which has now overtaken Russia as the biggest supplier of gas to Europe, said it will beef up security around its oil and gas facilities.
Iran's police warned Wednesday they will confront "with all their might" women-led protests that erupted nearly two weeks ago over the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, despite growing calls for restraint.. The statement came only hours after the UN said its secretary general, Antonio Guterres, had called on Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi not to use "disproportionate force" against protesters.
Turkey's booming wartime trade with Moscow took a giant step back on Wednesday with confirmation that the last three banks still processing Russian payments were pulling out under pressure from Washington.. The three banks "are still processing (the outstanding) payments, but they have set a future date" for pulling out, the official said on condition of anonymity because no formal decision by the three state lenders has been announced.
Russia fired a salvo of missiles at Ukraine's second city Kharkiv overnight, officials said on Wednesday, hitting a railway yard and knocking out power to more than 18,000 households.. Kharkiv governor Oleg Synegubov said Russian forces had fired S-300 missiles, designed as an anti-aircraft weapon but now often re-purposed to hit civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities.
Washington will operate "undaunted and unafraid" throughout Asia, including the Taiwan Strait, US Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday as she addressed American troops in Japan.. "We will continue to fly, sail and operate, undaunted and unafraid, wherever and whenever international law allows," she added.
