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Many Civilians Killed In Syria After Russian Air Strikes

At least 53 civilians have been killed in Russian air strikes in the east Syrian village of Al-Shafah, a monitoring group says.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said 21 of those reportedly killed on Sunday morning were children.

The village is in Deir al-Zour, one of the last provinces where Islamic State still holds territory.

Initially SOHR said 34 had been killed in strikes on residential buildings. But the monitoring group’s head told the AFP news agency it now believed the figure was higher. «The toll increased after removing the debris in a long day of rescue operation,» Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Earlier Russia confirmed that six long-range bombers had carried out air strikes in the area, but said they had hit militants and their strongholds.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s long-running civil war.

UN-backed peace talks are expected to resume in Geneva next week, but several previous rounds of negotiations have failed.

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Six Former Soldiers Imprisoned In India On Weapons Charges To Be Released

Six British former soldiers who have been in prison on weapons charges in India since 2013 are to be released.

They were arrested while working as guards on a ship to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean.

The so-called Chennai Six always denied the charges, which were initially quashed but later reinstated. They were sentenced to five years in 2016.

The former soldiers appealed, and a judge has just ruled that they be acquitted. The men, who were working on the anti-piracy ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio, are: Nick Dunn from Ashington, Northumberland,  Billy Irving from Connel, Argyll, Ray Tindall from Chester, Paul Towers from Pocklington, East Yorkshire,  John Armstrong from Wigton, Cumbria, Nicholas Simpson from Catterick, North Yorkshire.

They were arrested on board a ship owned by an American company which offered armed protection services to vessels sailing through an area known as «pirates’ alley» between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

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Two Men Released Without Charge After Oxford Street Scare

Two men questioned over an altercation that sparked panic in London’s Oxford Street on Friday have been released without charge, police have said.

The pair — aged 21 and 40 — were quizzed on Saturday after attending a police station voluntarily.

British Transport Police are investigating after panic erupted inside Oxford Circus Tube station. A number of people were injured, with nine hospitalised, after people fled the station amid reports of shooting.

Armed police were sent to the scene and initially treated the incident as potentially terror-related. However, officers said they had found no evidence that any gunshots were fired.

Police later said the incident — which resulted in the temporary closure of two Tube stations — may have been caused by an altercation between two men on a Central Line platform. They released CCTV images of two men they wanted to speak to in connection with the incident.

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Deadly Attack In Egypt Kills More Than 200

Militants have launched a bomb and gun attack on a mosque in Egypt’s North Sinai province, killing 235 people, state media say.

Witnesses say the al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed, near al-Arish, was targeted during Friday prayers. It is the deadliest attack of its kind since an Islamist insurgency in the peninsula was stepped up in 2013.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has held emergency talks with security officials to decide how to respond.

Local police said gunmen arrived in four off-road vehicles and bombed the packed mosque before opening fire on worshippers as they tried to flee. The assailants are reported to have set parked vehicles on fire in the vicinity to block off access to the mosque.

Pictures from the scene show rows of bloodied victims inside the mosque. At least 100 people were wounded, reports say. «They were shooting at people as they left the mosque,» a local resident who had relatives there told Reuters news agency. «They were shooting at the ambulances too.»

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Militant Attack Kills Four In Georgia

Three suspected militants and a special forces soldier have been killed in a siege on an apartment in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, reports say.

Explosions and gunfire rocked a block of flats in the Isani district during the 20-hour stand-off, which officials say has ended.

One of the alleged militants was arrested and four soldiers were wounded, officials said. The suspects were not thought to be Georgian nationals.

Officials believed them to be members of a «terrorist group» and were working to identify which one, state security administration deputy chief Nino Giorgobiani said.

The security service said they had refused to surrender and were firing and lobbing grenades from inside.

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