MOSCOW/WASHINGTON -- Russian Tu-95MS long-range bombers completed a planned patrol mission over the neutral waters of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
The flight lasted more than 14 hours, during which the aircraft were escorted by Su-35S and Su-30SM fighter jets, the ministry said in a statement.
NORAD detected and tracked two Tu-95s and two Su-35s operating in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, NORAD said.
"The Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace," NORAD said, noting that the Russian activity occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat. (Russia-US-Patrol-Bombers)
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BELGRADE -- The United States will impose sanctions on NIS, Serbia's largest energy company, from Oct. 1, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Thursday, calling the decision "expected but unpleasant."
Speaking in New York, Vucic said Serbia is "collateral damage" of strained U.S.-Russia relations, as Russia's Gazprom Neft holds a majority stake in NIS.
The sanctions had been postponed six times but the final delay expires on Sept. 30, according to Serbia's broadcaster RTS. (Serbia-U.S.-Sanction)
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SANAA -- The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Yemen's capital Sanaa on Thursday rose to eight, with 142 others wounded, Houthi-run health authorities said, adding that rescue teams were still searching for survivors under the rubble.
Al-Masirah TV, run by the Houthis, said the strikes hit the Dhahban power station, the presidential palace complex, the General Security camp and two residential neighbourhoods. (Yemen-Israel-Airstrike)
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UNITED NATIONS -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accused Israel of committing "a war of genocide" on Gaza, saying these crimes will be recorded in "the pages of international conscience as one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."
"I speak to you today after almost two years in which our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been facing a war of genocide, destruction, starvation and displacement," said Abbas while addressing the UN General Assembly via video link.
Genocide has been "waged by the Israeli occupation forces," in which they killed and injured more than 220,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are unarmed children, women and the elderly, he stressed. (Palestine-Abbas-Israel) ■
