(LONDON) — A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after three people were killed in the English city of Nottingham and a van attempted to run over more people early Tuesday morning, police said.
Police were called to Ilkeston Road in the center of the city shortly after 4 a.m. local time and discovered two people dead in the street. Authorities have not disclosed how those individuals were killed.
Shortly after, police officers were called to another incident a short distance away on Milton Street to reports that a van had attempted to run over three people. Those three people were taken to a hospital and are being treated for their injuries though authorities have not released any details on their condition.
Another man was found dead a few blocks away on Magdala Road but no cause of death was given for the third victim.
“This is an horrific and tragic incident which has claimed the lives of three people. We believe these three incidents are all linked and we have a man in custody,” said Chief Constable Kate Meynell in a statement following the incident.
“This investigation is at its early stages and a team of detectives is working to establish exactly what has happened, she continued. “We ask the public to be patient while inquiries continue. At this time, a number of roads in the city will remain closed as this investigation progresses.”
Alex Norris, Labour MP for Nottingham North, said in a statement posted to social media that “our community’s thoughts and prayers are with all those affected. Our gratitude is with our blue light responders for their work today also.”
Police have shut down six roads in the area while police investigate the ongoing issue and the Nottingham Express Transit tram network has also suspended all of its services.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine has begun its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia, officials told ABC News.
Multiple reports have said a major battle has begun in southeastern Ukraine, south of the major Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 13, 5:52 AM EDT
Russian missiles strike Zelenskyy’s hometown, killing six
At least six people were killed and 25 were injured in Kryvyi Rih, as Russian missiles targeted the city overnight, Ukrainian officials said.
Missiles hit residential buildings, including a five-story apartment building, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post early Tuesday morning local time.
“More terrorist missiles, Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Ukrainian on Twitter.
Russia also attacked Kyiv with cruise missiles overnight into Tuesday morning. All of the cruise missiles were shot down, the Kyiv city military administration said on Telegram
Air raid sirens were activated across Ukraine early Tuesday morning.
Jun 12, 11:19 AM EDT
Ukraine makes first small gains in counteroffensive
Ukraine is making its first notable advances since the start of its counteroffensive, in the past two days rapidly compelling Russian forces to pull back from three villages on the southern front line.
Russian and Ukrainian public sources confirm Ukraine has liberated the villages in the area known as the Vremeyevskoe salient, at the border of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
The advances are still small but notable because they show Ukraine beginning to pierce Russia’s defensive line. Since liberating the villages, Ukraine is continuing to push south toward another village, according to Russian pro-war bloggers linked to Russia’s military.
Russia’s pro-war military bloggers are sounding the alarm about the Ukrainian advances. Russian units were forced to pull back from two villages, Neskuchnoe and Blagodatnoe, almost without a fight because of the risk of encirclement.
Jun 10, 12:53 PM EDT
Zelenskyy makes first comments on counteroffensive
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his first public comments on Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began earlier this week.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions, accordingly, are taking place in Ukraine, on which stage, I won’t say in detail,” Zelenskyy said.
“I think we should trust our militaries. And I trust them. I am in touch with our commanders of different areas every day: Syrskyi, Tarnavskyi, Moskaliov, Nayev, Zaluzhnyi. Everyone is optimistic. Pass this to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he added.
Jun 09, 9:50 AM EDT
Putin says tactical nukes to be deployed to Belarus after July 7 or 8
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons after July 7 or 8, when storage sites are ready, according to Russian news service Interfax.
“Everything is going to plan in the most sensitive matters you and I have agreed on. As you know, preparations of the relevant facilities will be finalized on July 7-8, and we will start taking measures towards the deployment of respective types of weapons in your territory as soon as that happens,” Putin said at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Everything is going to plan, all is stable,” he said.
Jun 09, 9:36 AM EDT
Putin says tactical nukes to be deployed to Belarus July 7-8
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons after July 7 or 8, when storage sites are ready, according to Russian news service Interfax.
“Everything is going to plan in the most sensitive matters you and I have agreed on. As you know, preparations of the relevant facilities will be finalized on July 7-8, and we will start taking measures towards the deployment of respective types of weapons in your territory as soon as that happens,” Putin said at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Everything is going to plan, all is stable,” he said.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Jun 09, 9:19 AM EDT
Counteroffensive begins in southeastern Ukraine, south of Zaporizhzhia
Arguably, Ukraine’s counteroffensive was getting going a few days ago, and the Institute for the Study of War said as much on Monday, saying on Twitter that “Russian and Ukrainian officials are signaling the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.”
However, there were significant developments on Thursday. Multiple reports said a major battle has begun in southeastern Ukraine, south of the major Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Well-placed unofficial pro-Ukrainian sources said the southeastern front is becoming more active and there are unconfirmed images and reports that Ukraine’s new modern German-made Leopard 2 tanks are involved in the offensive.
“The events that are happening now on the front line signal the start of the offensive and Ukraine will intensify its efforts,” the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Thursday morning.
Jun 09, 9:19 AM EDT
Ukraine begins counteroffensive against Russia
Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia on Thursday, officials told ABC News.
Well-trained Ukrainian troops had been near the front lines in recent days, Western officials said last week.
Two Ukrainian officials, including a source close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, confirmed to ABC News that an active phase of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway.
(ROME) — Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has died in Milan at 86, Italian media reported.
The three-time premier and former leader of the Forza Italia party had suffered with a series of medical ailments over the past several years.
The billionaire media tycoon — worth approximately $7 billion — has had a pacemaker since he was 70-years-old but, more recently, underwent heart surgery in 2016 to replace an aortic valve and has also survived a bout with prostate cancer.
“The end of an era,” Guido Crosetto, Italy’s defense minister, said in Italian. “I loved him very much. Goodbye Silvio.”
His death was first reported Monday by ANSA, the Italian newswire. Berlusconi’s brother, Paolo, along with his children, arrived at the hospital within moments of his death on Monday, ANSA reported.
Berlusconi sat until his death in the upper house of the Italian parliament, the Senate, but does not have a government role in Georgia Meloni’s conservative coalition that currently governs the country.
Berlusconi was born in Milan in 1936 and entered into the media world in the early 1970s before turning to politics in the 90s. He was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies and appointed as prime minister of Italy in the 1994 general election his party, Forza Italia, gained a relative majority only three months after the party was launched.
Berlusconi was no stranger to legal troubles during his career and a court only recently acquitted him in February regarding allegations of paying off witnesses to lie in an underage prostitution case that had been under litigation for more than a decade.
Berlusconi is survived by his 33-year-old partner, Marta Fascina — a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing Forza Italia since 2018 — as well as his five children from previous relationships.
Matteo Salvini, deputy prime minister, called on Monday for a moment of silence for his former colleague. On Twitter, he praised Berlusconi’s generosity and respect.
(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, appeared in court in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday, pleading not guilty to federal extortion and wire fraud charges.
Holloway’s mom, Beth Holloway, looked on as van der Sloot, who is accused of trying to extort her, walked into the courtroom.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen, chose not to use an interpreter in court, saying, “My English is perfect.”
Van der Sloot was flown to the U.S. on Thursday from Peru, where he had been serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. Plans for his extradition were announced last month.
“For 18 years, I have lived with the unbearable pain of Natalee’s loss,” Beth Holloway said in a statement Thursday. “Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a longing for justice that has eluded us at every turn. But today, with her perpetrator’s extradition to the United States, I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized, even though no act of justice will heal the pain we’ve endured.”
Mark White, attorney for Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, called the extortion and wire fraud case “some form of accountability,” but “not accountability for the ultimate transgression of what a lot of people think this person did to their child.”
White told ABC News on Thursday that he feels “more than 100%” certain that van der Sloot knows where Natalee Holloway’s body is located.
“Beth and Dave Holloway, they have been living every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said. “We all hope … that somehow the truth will come out.”
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama, went missing in May 2005 on a high school graduation trip in Aruba. She was last seen with a group of young men, including van der Sloot, then 17.
Van der Sloot, who was detained as a suspect in Holloway’s disappearance and later released, was indicted by an Alabama federal grand jury in 2010 for allegedly trying to extort Holloway’s family.
Federal prosecutors alleged that in March 2010 van der Sloot contacted Beth Holloway through her lawyer and claimed he would reveal the location of the teen’s body in exchange for $250,000, with $25,000 paid upfront. During a recorded sting operation, Beth Holloway’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, met with van der Sloot at an Aruba hotel, giving him $10,000 in cash as Beth Holloway wired $15,000 to van der Sloot’s bank account, according to prosecutors.
Then, van der Sloot allegedly changed his story about the night he was with Natalee Holloway, prosecutors said. Van der Sloot claimed he had picked Natalee Holloway up, but she demanded to be put down, so he threw her to the ground. Van der Sloot said her head hit a rock and he claimed she died instantly from the impact, according to prosecutors.
Van der Sloot then took Kelly to a house and claimed that his father, who had since died, buried Natalee Holloway in the building’s foundation, prosecutors said.
Kelly later emailed van der Sloot, saying the information he had provided was “worthless,” according to prosecutors. Within days, van der Sloot left Aruba for Peru.
Van der Sloot will be held in U.S. Marshals custody until trial.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine. Ukraine has begun its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia, officials told ABC News.
Multiple reports have said a major battle has begun in southeastern Ukraine, south of the major Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 09, 9:36 AM EDT
Putin says tactical nukes to be deployed to Belarus July 7-8
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons after July 7 or 8, when storage sites are ready, according to Russian news service Interfax.
“Everything is going to plan in the most sensitive matters you and I have agreed on. As you know, preparations of the relevant facilities will be finalized on July 7-8, and we will start taking measures towards the deployment of respective types of weapons in your territory as soon as that happens,” Putin said at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“Everything is going to plan, all is stable,” he said.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Jun 09, 9:19 AM EDT
Counteroffensive begins in southeastern Ukraine, south of Zaporizhzhia
Arguably, Ukraine’s counteroffensive was getting going a few days ago, and the Institute for the Study of War said as much on Monday, saying on Twitter that “Russian and Ukrainian officials are signaling the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.”
However, there were significant developments on Thursday. Multiple reports said a major battle has begun in southeastern Ukraine, south of the major Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
Well-placed unofficial pro-Ukrainian sources said the southeastern front is becoming more active and there are unconfirmed images and reports that Ukraine’s new modern German-made Leopard 2 tanks are involved in the offensive.
“The events that are happening now on the front line signal the start of the offensive and Ukraine will intensify its efforts,” the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Thursday morning.
Jun 09, 9:19 AM EDT
Ukraine begins counteroffensive against Russia
Ukraine began its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia on Thursday, officials told ABC News.
Well-trained Ukrainian troops had been near the front lines in recent days, Western officials said last week.
Two Ukrainian officials, including a source close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, confirmed to ABC News that an active phase of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway.
(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) — Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, is heading to a federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday to face federal extortion and wire fraud charges.
Van der Sloot, who is accused of trying to profit from his connection to the Holloway case, is scheduled to be arraigned at 11 a.m. CT.
The Dutch citizen was handed over to the FBI on Thursday morning to be extradited from Peru, where he had been serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. Van der Sloot’s plane took off for the U.S. Thursday morning from a military base in Lima and he landed on U.S. soil Thursday afternoon.
“For 18 years, I have lived with the unbearable pain of Natalee’s loss,” Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, said in a statement Thursday. “Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a longing for justice that has eluded us at every turn. But today, with her perpetrator’s extradition to the United States, I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized, even though no act of justice will heal the pain we’ve endured.”
Mark White, attorney for Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, called the extortion and wire fraud case “some form of accountability,” but “not accountability for the ultimate transgression of what a lot of people think this person did to their child.”
White told ABC News on Thursday that he feels “more than 100%” certain that van der Sloot knows where Natalee Holloway’s body is located.
“Beth and Dave Holloway, they have been living every parent’s worst nightmare,” he said. “We all hope … that somehow the truth will come out.”
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama, went missing in May 2005 on a high school graduation trip in Aruba. She was last seen with a group of young men, including van der Sloot, then 17.
Van der Sloot, who was detained as a suspect in Holloway’s disappearance and later released, was indicted by an Alabama federal grand jury in 2010 for allegedly trying to extort Holloway’s family.
Federal prosecutors alleged that in March 2010 van der Sloot contacted Beth Holloway through her lawyer and claimed he would reveal the location of the teen’s body in exchange for $250,000, with $25,000 paid upfront. During a recorded sting operation, Beth Holloway’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, met with van der Sloot at an Aruba hotel, giving him $10,000 in cash as Beth Holloway wired $15,000 to van der Sloot’s bank account, according to prosecutors.
Then, van der Sloot allegedly changed his story about the night he was with Natalee Holloway, prosecutors said. Van der Sloot claimed he had picked Natalee Holloway up, but she demanded to be put down, so he threw her to the ground. Van der Sloot said her head hit a rock and he claimed she died instantly from the impact, according to prosecutors.
Van der Sloot then took Kelly to a house and claimed that his father, who had since died, buried Natalee Holloway in the building’s foundation, prosecutors said.
Kelly later emailed van der Sloot, saying the information he had provided was “worthless,” according to prosecutors. Within days, van der Sloot left Aruba for Peru.
White, Dave Holloway’s attorney, said “federal defendants awaiting trial are typically housed in one of the state county jails that has a contract with the federal government. And so they will pick one that has absolute security because the defendant is a flight risk.”
“The defendant has already been convicted of one violent crime, and so he will be in very tight custody,” White said.
ABC News’ Amanda McMaster contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, is en route to the United States to face extortion and wire fraud charges, according to Peruvian Interpol.
The Dutch citizen was handed over to the FBI on Thursday morning in Peru, where he had been serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
Van der Sloot’s plane took off for the U.S. around 8:15 a.m. local time from a military base in Lima.
In the U.S., van der Sloot faces federal extortion and wire fraud charges stemming from an accusation that he tried to profit from his connection to the Holloway case.
Holloway, 18, went missing in May 2005 on a high school graduation trip in Aruba. She was last seen with a group of young men, including van der Sloot, then 17.
Van der Sloot, who was detained as a suspect in Holloway’s disappearance and later released, was indicted by an Alabama federal grand jury in 2010 for allegedly trying to extort Holloway’s family.
Federal prosecutors alleged that in March 2010 van der Sloot contacted Holloway’s mom, Beth Holloway, through her lawyer and claimed he would reveal the location of the teen’s body in exchange for $250,000, with $25,000 paid upfront. During a recorded sting operation, Beth Holloway’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, met with van der Sloot at an Aruba hotel, giving him $10,000 in cash as Beth Holloway wired $15,000 to van der Sloot’s bank account, according to prosecutors.
Then, van der Sloot allegedly changed his story about the night he was with Natalee Holloway, prosecutors said. Van der Sloot claimed he had picked Natalee Holloway up, but she demanded to be put down, so he threw her to the ground. Van der Sloot said her head hit a rock and he claimed she died instantly from the impact, according to prosecutors.
Van der Sloot then took Kelly to a house and claimed that his father, who had since died, buried Natalee Holloway in the building’s foundation, prosecutors said.
Kelly later emailed van der Sloot, saying the information he had provided was “worthless,” according to prosecutors. Within days, van der Sloot left Aruba for Peru.
(NEW YORK) — Ukraine on Thursday began its long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia, officials told ABC News.
Well-trained Ukrainian troops had been gathering at strategic locations near the front lines in recent days, Western officials said last week.
Two Ukrainian officials, including a source close to President Volodymry Zelenskyy confirmed to ABC News that an active phase of the Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway.
(LONDON) — An increasing number of family and friends of Belarusian political prisoners say they are unable to contact their loved ones.
There are hundreds of political prisoners in Belarus, many of whom were arrested in the aftermath of the disputed 2020 presidential election, when protests and dissent were violently suppressed.
Tatsiana Komich hasn’t heard from her sister, Maria Kalesnikava since February. Kalesnikava has been in prison since September 2020 after she refused to be forcibly deported from Belarus by tearing her passport to shreds.
She was a key figure in the 2020 election against President Alexander Lukashenko and remained an active protest leader even after most prominent activists had fled the country. She is serving an 11-year sentence, charged with extremism and trying to seize power.
“There are no letters, no calls, which previously were allowed also and no visits as well,” Khomich, who lives outside Belarus, said.
Their father sought answers from authorities but he was told that no restrictions on communication had been put in place. Kalesnikava simply did not want to communicate with them.
But Khomich says she knows that isn’t true.
“It’s definitely been done on purpose to isolate her, to cut off any communication with the outside world,” she said.
Kalesnikava’s is not a unique case. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’ de facto opposition leader in exile, ran against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential elections after her husband, Siarhei — who had intended to run — was imprisoned on trumped up charges.
She has posted to her social media accounts that she hasn’t heard from her husband in nearly three months.
Belarusian human rights organization, Viasna, says there are 1,513 recorded political prisoners in Belarus.
Dziyana Pinchuk, a human rights activist who works for Viasna, says Lukashenko has long hoped silence would stop people from asking questions about political prisoners.
“The regime supposedly erases these people from our lives, as if they are dead. But more than 1,500 political prisoners are alive and held in prisons only because they yearned for a democratic Belarus and opposed the war in Ukraine,” she told ABC News.
She added that while several high profile prisoners are bringing the issue to the mainstream, there are probably many more instances of contact being cut off between prisoners and family members “because Belarusian society is in a state of extreme fear, so relatives are afraid to tell human rights activists and journalists such facts under the threat of persecution.”
Khomich echoed this, saying relatives inside Belarus walk a fine line and that “people in Belarus cannot have any public protests or publicly actually express their opinion. It’s a very complicated situation because you need to find the balance so that these relatives who are in Belarus, they are not imprisoned.”
Pinchuk added that Viasna continues to help families file complaints. They also work with the United Nations and other international organizations to both raise awareness for Belarusian political prisoners, and try to improve conditions amidst the increasing repressions.
But, despite their endeavors, answers about this latest crackdown on already limited freedoms continue to remain elusive.
(PARIS) — Eight people, including children, were injured in a stabbing in a town in the French Alps on Thursday morning, local authorities said.
The attack took place at about 9:45 a.m. local time, in Annecy’s city center, a spokesperson for the local prefecture told ABC News.
A suspect was arrested immediately and is currently in police custody, the spokesperson said.
“Several people including children have been injured by an individual armed with a knife in a square in Annecy,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter.
The local prefecture said it had not yet released the health status or ages of the victims.
Annecy sits close to the French border and is about 20 miles south of Geneva, Switzerland. Tourists flock to the historic Medieval city center to stroll alongside canals, according to the local tourist office.
