A Russian spy ship has sunk off the Turkish coast after being breached in a collision with a freighter, with all its crew rescued, the Turkish coastal authority says.
Russia confirmed earlier that the hull of the Liman, part of its Black Sea Fleet, had sustained a breach, with crew working to keep it afloat. The cause of the collision is unclear but fog was reported in the area. The ship hit a Togo-flagged boat carrying livestock, Turkish media say.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, to express his sadness over the collision, sources in the Turkish prime minister's office were quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. The Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) passes through the Bosphorus Strait for deployments in the Mediterranean, notably in Syria.
All 78 crew aboard the Liman were safely evacuated, the Turkish coastal authority said in a statement (in Turkish) on its website.
It collided with the Youzarsif H freighter, reportedly 29km (18 miles) from the Turkish town of Kilyos on the Black Sea coast just north of the city of Istanbul, and had sunk by 14:48 (11:48 GMT). It was not clear whether either vessel was heading to the Bosphorus Strait at the time, Reuters news agency reports.
The BSF said the Russian crew had followed all the rules of sailing and manoeuvring and it suggested the incident had been caused by the other ship, Russia's Interfax news agency reports. A former commander of the fleet, Adm Viktor Kravchenko, told Interfax the event was "out of the ordinary". "There have been collisions but I do not remember a case like this, of a vessel, a warship sinking after it," he said.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionThe Liman was photographed passing through the Bosphorus in October
The freighter reportedly sustained minor damage in the incident.
Built in Gdansk, Poland, the Liman was launched in 1970, when it served with the USSR's Northern Fleet before joining the BSF in 1974, according to the kchf.ru naval website (in Russian). Based at Sevastopol in Crimea, the territory annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, it was a regular visitor to the Syrian port of Tartus for decades, the site notes.
A German soldier who pretended to be a Syrian refugee and was allegedly planning a gun attack has been arrested in southern Germany.
Prosecutors in Frankfurt said the 28-year-old suspect was motivated by a "xenophobic background". A student, 22, said to be a co-conspirator, has also been arrested. The soldier was first detained by Austrian police in February after he tried to retrieve a handgun he had hidden in a toilet at Vienna airport.
He was released but police subsequently discovered the suspect had registered as a Syrian refugee at a shelter in central Germany in December 2015 and later officially requested political asylum in Bavaria, prosecutors said.
No concerns were raised at the time, despite the man speaking no Arabic. German media report that he even received monthly payments and accommodation.
"These findings, and indications of a xenophobic background of the Bundeswehr soldier, suggest that the accused was planning a serious crime endangering state security with the weapon that was earlier deposited at Vienna airport," the prosecutors' statement said, according to AFP news agency.
The gun is reported not to have come from the German armed forces. The man is a lieutenant normally stationed on a base near Strasbourg in north-east France, but he was arrested in Hammelburg in Bavaria, southern Germany, on Wednesday.
Police searched 16 properties in Germany, France and Austria on the same day. Items banned under weapons and explosives laws were found in the student's home in Offenbach, near Frankfurt. Offenbach is also the soldier's hometown.
An Israeli missile strike has caused a large explosion and fire at a military site near Damascus international airport, Syrian state media report.
A fuel tank and warehouses were damaged, the Sana news agency said. But Syrian rebel sources said an arms depot run by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, which is fighting in Syria as an ally of the government, was hit. Israel said the explosion was "consistent" with its policy to prevent Iran smuggling weapons to Hezbollah.
But it stopped short of confirming it was responsible. Israel regards Hezbollah, and its key backer Iran, as its biggest threat. It went to war with Hezbollah in 2006 and the group has grown considerably more powerful since then.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that the powerful blast was heard across the capital at dawn on Thursday and that it was believed to have happened near the main road that leads to the airport. Sana said several missiles had been fired at a military site south-west of the airport, causing explosions that resulted in some material losses. Pro-government Al-Mayadeen TV cited sources as saying that missiles had been fired by Israeli jets flying inside the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Two senior rebel sources based in Damascus told Reuters news agency that the missiles had hit an ammunition depot in a closed military area that was used by Iran-backed militias operating alongside the Syrian army, led by Hezbollah.
Appearing to confirm Israeli involvement, Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Israeli Army Radio: "I can confirm that the incident in Syria corresponds completely with Israel's policy to act to prevent Iran's smuggling of advanced weapons via Syria to Hezbollah in Iran. Naturally, I don't want to elaborate on this."
"The prime minister has said that whenever we receive intelligence that indicated an intention to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah, we will act."
The Israeli military declined to comment on the reports.
Israel's tacit understanding with Russia, by Jonathan Marcus, diplomatic correspondent, BBC News
Image copyrightAFP
In the wake of the US cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base at the start of this month, there was a lot of talk about Russia and Syria strengthening their air defences and the likely implications of this for Israel. Would it hamper the Israeli Air Force's freedom of action in the skies over Syria, where it has been conducting an intermittent air campaign to prevent sophisticated weapons transfers to the Lebanese Shia militia group Hezbollah?
Well, Thursday's attack near Damascus airport seems to provide an answer. Israel - which is widely seen as being behind the strike - clearly intends to continue its campaign against Hezbollah weapons shipments and one must assume that it has a tacit understanding with Moscow. Sophisticated Russian air defences cover much of Syrian airspace and have a more than adequate capability to interfere with Israeli attacks if Moscow so wished.
Israel is thought to have bombed arms shipments intended for Hezbollah several times since the Syrian conflict began. In a rare step last month, the Israeli military confirmed that its jets had struck several targets inside Syria in a raid that prompted the Syrian military to fire a number of ground-to-air missiles, one of which was intercepted over Israeli territory. On Wednesday, a high-ranking Israeli military officer briefed reporters that approximately 100 missiles intended for Hezbollah had been destroyed in the raid.
Recent suspected Israeli attacks in Syria
23 April 2017: Alleged Israeli attack on a training camp used by militia in Syria's Golan Heights region, kills three members of the Syrian pro-government National Defence Forces, according to the group.
22 February 2017: Israeli aircraft reportedly bomb several Syrian air bases near Damascus, including a Hezbollah convoy travelling with the Syrian army.
12 January 2017: The Syrian government accuses Israel of firing several rockets on the Mezzeh air base from the Sea of Galilee.
30 November 2016: Israeli aircraft fire missiles on the Syrian town of Saboura, west of Damascus, according to Syrian military sources.
18 January 2015: Six Hezbollah fighters and several Iranian soldiers, including a general, die in suspected Israeli air strikes in Syria's Golan Heights region.
19 December 2015: Suspected Israeli missiles hit Jaramana district of Damascus, killing nine Hezbollah fighters, including leading figure Samir Qantar.
The far-right National Front (FN) of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen may have defrauded the European Parliament of about €5m (£4m; $5.4m), EU sources say.
It is more than twice the sum initially estimated in an inquiry into FN staff. The parliament suspects the money went to FN assistants who were not really working for MEPs, but were engaged in FN party work in France.
The allegations - denied by the FN - have now gone to French investigators. Ms Le Pen is campaigning for the second-round vote in the presidential election on 7 May. Her rival, liberal centrist Emmanuel Macron, is ahead of her in opinion polls. The alleged fraudulent payments - from 2012 onwards - concern her and several other FN MEPs. The FN is highly critical of the EU, rejecting its liberal, free market agenda.
Parliamentary immunity
Ms Le Pen says she is the victim of a politically motivated vendetta. The European Parliament is currently withholding half of Ms Le Pen's salary and expenses, as it tries to recoup money it says she owes.
Currently the FN has 24 MEPs, France's biggest contingent. Ms Le Pen has refused to answer a summons over the affair in France, citing her immunity as an MEP.
The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says most voters drawn to the FN are already highly suspicious of the EU, and may not see the alleged fraud as a particularly serious matter.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says some British people have "illusions" about discussing the UK's future ties with the EU at the same time as nailing down the UK's Brexit terms.
An EU-UK deal can only be discussed once the exit issues - such as UK payments to the EU budget - are resolved, Mrs Merkel told German MPs. The UK initiated the formal procedure to leave the EU on 29 March. It sets a two-year deadline for completion of the exit negotiations.
EU leaders are to meet on Saturday to adopt their joint negotiating position on Brexit. They are working on the basis of draft guidelines issued on 31 March. Official talks will not begin until after the UK general election on 8 June.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May called the early election, saying she needed to strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations. The EU wants the terms of the UK's exit to be decided before any discussion of a future trade relationship, while Mrs May wants to the two issues to be dealt with simultaneously. The German chancellor told German MPs it would be "a waste of time" to maintain illusions that the two sets of negotiations could be held simultaneously.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the EU would "for sure" reach a free trade deal with the UK after Brexit. But Mrs Merkel warned that it would be a different relationship, saying: "A third country - which is what the UK will be - cannot and will not have the same rights as an EU member state.
"All 27 EU countries and the EU institutions agree about that," she told the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament.
Tough all along: Analysis by Jenny Hill, BBC News, Berlin
Angela Merkel's priorities are clear: to preserve the integrity of the EU and to secure the rights of its citizens living in the UK. Her speech today may have sounded tough. In truth she is simply repeating what she's said all along: Britain cannot expect to cherry-pick in these negotiations. EU unity matters here, so she's sticking - more or less - to the Brussels script.
Germany is likely to take a moderately softer stance than, say, France. Sources here indicate there might be, for example, some wriggle room over the figure of the Brexit bill. There is little appetite for a punitive approach - Germany, of course, has an eye to its economic relationship with Britain. Nevertheless even the business lobby here (including the head of the association of Germany's all powerful automotive industry) acknowledge that the EU's interests must come first.
It's also worth noting that Brexit is also not the central focus for Berlin. There is a degree of frustration among politicians who are already preoccupied - not only with other challenges facing Europe, including migration, terror, conflict - but with their own looming general election.
Mrs Merkel said the immediate Brexit priorities to decide on were the rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons in continental Europe and Britain's ongoing financial obligations.
"We can only do an agreement on the future relationship with Britain when all questions about its exit have been cleared up satisfactorily," she said.
"The sooner the UK government is ready for constructive solutions, the sooner we can meet its wish to talk about the future relationship. But first we need to know how the UK government envisages that relationship. It can only be done in that sequence."
EU officials estimate that the UK faces a bill of €60bn (£51bn; $65bn) because of EU budget rules. UK politicians have said the government will not pay a sum of that size.
Mrs Merkel stressed the need to protect the interests of some 100,000 Germans living in the UK.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionEU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier (L) held talks with PM Theresa May on Wednesday
But she went on to say "we are also ready to make a fair offer to British citizens in Germany and the rest of Europe.
"They are an important part of our community and should remain so." Mrs Merkel noted the difficulty of unpicking 44 years' worth of EU legislation that counts the UK as a member state.
Experts have warned that it usually takes the EU many years to negotiate free trade deals with non-EU countries. The EU-Canada deal, Ceta, was concluded after eight years of talks.
Brexit timetable:
29 April - 27 EU leaders (excluding the UK) meet in Brussels to adopt Brexit negotiating guidelines
8 June - UK parliamentary election - Brexit talks to start soon after the vote
24 September - German parliamentary election, with Mrs Merkel seeking a fourth term
29 March 2019 - Deadline for ending talks on UK exit terms (any extension requires agreement of all member states)
May or June 2019 - European Parliament election (without UK)
Ratification - Any Brexit deal requires ratification by all EU's national parliaments and European Parliament
The US says it plans to activate a missile defence system in South Korea "within days" and tighten economic sanctions against North Korea.
The announcements from the Trump administration come amid rising fears about the North's military advances. The Thaad system was originally not expected to be in use until late 2017. Many South Koreans oppose it, fearing they will become a target. North Korea has vowed to conduct more missile and nuclear tests.
Speaking to members of the US Congress on Wednesday, Adm Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, said Thaad would be "operational in the coming days to be able to better defend South Korea against the growing North Korea threat". He has said the system is designed to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "to his senses, not to his knees".
What is Thaad?
What is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (Thaad)?
Shoots down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their flight
Uses hit-to-kill technology - where kinetic energy destroys the incoming warhead
Has a range of 200km (120 miles) and can reach an altitude of 150km
US has previously deployed it in Guam and Hawaii as a measure against potential attacks from North Korea
Deployment to South Korea was agreed by Obama administration
The arrival of the defence equipment at the Seongju site on Wednesday was met with protests by locals. It has also angered China, which fears the system's radar capabilities will affect its own military security, and that it changes the balance of power in the region. The Thaad deployment comes at a time of escalated fears of military action on the ever-tense Korean peninsula.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionThe deployment of the Thaad system has met fierce opposition in South Korea
After repeated missile tests by North Korea - including a failed ballistic missile test on 16 April - and threats of further nuclear tests, US Vice-President Mike Pence warned North Korea not to "test" President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, a US submarine - the USS Michigan - joined a group of warships in the Korean peninsula led by aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson.
North Korea meanwhile threatened to sink the aircraft carrier and launch a "super-mighty pre-emptive strike" against what it called US aggression. After a special briefing for all 100 US senators, top US officials announced President Donald Trump's strategy on North Korea.
"The president's approach aims to pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with our allies and regional partners," said a joint statement issued by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
The US already has extensive sanctions in place on North Korea, including a blanket ban on trade and a blacklist of anyone dealing with North Korea. A White House official said an option under consideration was to put North Korea back on the state department's list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
Under measures announced last year, North Korean government property in America remains frozen and US exports to, or investment in, North Korea are banned.
Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) A North Korean government official in a rare interview promised his country's nuclear tests would "never stop" as long as the US continued what they viewed as "acts of aggression."
Speaking to CNN Wednesday, Sok Chol Won wouldn't confirm when the country's long-anticipated sixth nuclear test would take place but said it wouldn't be influenced by outside events.
"The nuclear test is an important part of our continued efforts to strengthen our nuclear forces," he said. "As long as America continues its hostile acts of aggression, we will never stop nuclear and missile tests."
Sok's official title is director of North Korea's Institute of Human Rights at the Academy of Social Sciences, but he was authorized to comment to CNN on all matters.
His comments came as top US Cabinet members put a stress on economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure to rein in North Korea, calling for a return to dialogue after a Senate briefing on the threat posed by Pyongyang's nuclear and missile program.
Another nuclear test could further inflame an already tense situation on the Korean Peninsula, at a time when the Trump administration is moving large amounts of military hardware to the region.
The USS Vinson aircraft carrier is currently on its way to the peninsula, while a nuclear-powered submarine, USS Michigan, arrived in a South Korean port on Tuesday.
"We are in a phony war phase," Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at Sydney's Lowy Institute, wrote for CNN.
"If there's an underlying motive to Washington's increased belligerence ... it is to get the Chinese sufficiently rattled that they become serious about sanctions beyond tokenistic enforcement."
Trump has repeatedly called on China, North Korea's only real ally and main economic benefactor, to do more to bring its neighbor into line.
North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un guides live fire drills Tuesday, according to North Korean State Media.
US calls for tighter sanctions, diplomatic pressure
The entire US Senate was briefed on North Korea in an unusual meeting at the White House Wednesday.
"We learned nothing you couldn't read in the newspaper," said Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat. A joint statement released after the briefing said the US was focused on stability and the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
"We remain open to negotiations towards that goal. However, we remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies," the statement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said.
Reports of human rights abuse 'fiction'
When asked about the three US citizens currently held in North Korean custody, including Kim Sang Duk who was arrested on Saturday, Sok only said they were being kept in the same conditions as other prisoners. He strongly denied statements made by defectors of brutal North Korean prison camps, where up to 120,000 men, women and children are believed to be held.
"Those people (defectors) are criminals who ran away, they're paid to lie and encouraged by the US and their followers," he said.
"The UN wants to politicize the human rights issue, use it to interfere with our internal affairs. Their reports are nothing but fiction."
Sok said human rights meant defending North Korea and its supreme leader Kim Jong Un, even if it meant nuclear war.
REUTERS
