Russians down five Ukrainian battlefield balloons
Moscow: Russian air defences say they downed five Ukrainian balloons overnight.
Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials have provided details about the balloons, which Moscow authorities and media have reported on the battlefield in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s military has been driving innovation, notably adapting drones for wide use against the larger Kremlin forces.
According to Russian media, the balloons were equipped with a GPS module and carry explosives.
They are harder to detect and can carry a bigger payload than small drones.
It is not clear if they are helium, hot air, or another type of balloon.
The balloons aren’t able to manoeuvre in the air.
The GPS module is likely used to co-ordinate the release of explosives if the balloon floats over a specific area.
Ceuta: Two people smugglers have been sentenced to nine years each in prison for the deaths of four Moroccan migrants who drowned after they were forced to jump out of a boat near the Spanish enclave in North Africa last year.
The prosecutor’s office in Ceuta said the sentences were decided without trial after a plea deal was reached.
The office said the pair – one from Ceuta and a Moroccan resident – picked up nine young men in a recreational boat in Morocco in January 2023 with the intention of getting them to Spanish territory illegally.
As winds grew stronger on approaching the port city of Ceuta, the smugglers forced the migrants to jump into the water and swim ashore.
Five of them managed to do so but the others drowned. Their bodies were found days later.
The two people smugglers were each charged with four counts of negligent homicide and an offence against the rights of foreign nationals.
Prior to the plea deal being reached, the prosecution had sought 32-year prison sentences.
The two men were also ordered to pay £175,459 in compensation to each of the victims’ families.
Tokyo: A strong earthquake that struck south-western Japan left nine people with minor injuries and caused damages such as burst water pipes and small landslides.
The magnitude 6.6 quake on Wednesday was centred just off the western coast of the south-western main island of Shikoku, in an area called the Bungo
Channel, a strait separating Shikoku and the southern main island of Kyushu.
The earthquake occurred 30 miles below the sea’s surface and posed no danger of a tsunami, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said that six people in Ehime prefecture, two in neighbouring Kochi and two others in Oita on Kyushu island suffered minor injuries, mostly from falling at home.
As part of the Pacific “ring of fire,” Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone areas.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in 2011 devastated large areas along Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people.
On January 1, a magnitude 7.6 quake struck the north-central region of Noto and left
241 people dead.