12 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine. Rescue work continues at destroyed apartment building

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12 killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine. Rescue work continues at destroyed apartment building

2024-06-30 02:41 Last Updated At：02:50

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian attacks across eastern Ukraine killed at least 11 people Saturday, while rescuers in the city of Dnipro dug through rubble after a Russian strike ripped through a nine-story residential building, leaving one dead, officials said.

The attacks came as Russia continues to stretch out Ukrainian forces in several areas along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front. Moscow has stepped up airstrikes in a bid to drain Ukraine’s resources, often targeting energy facilities and other vital infrastructure.

The shelling of the front-line village of Niu-York in the Donetsk region also wounded five people, Gov. Vadym Filashkin said. He said that Russian forces had shelled populated areas 13 times over the past 24 hours.

A further seven people were killed Saturday afternoon in Russian shelling on the town of Vilniansk, including two children, Gov. Ivan Fedorov said. Ten other people were wounded, while infrastructure was also damaged, he wrote on social media.

Meanwhile, in Dnipro, at least one person died and 12 were wounded, including a 7-month-old girl, after a Russian strike destroyed the top four floors of the apartment building on Friday evening, regional head Serhii Lysak said. Rescuers confirmed that several residents remained missing.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Dnipro attack was a reminder to Ukraine’s allies that the country needed more air defense systems. The Ukrainian air force said Saturday that it had downed 10 Russian drones overnight.

“This is why we constantly remind all of our partners: only a sufficient amount of high-quality air defense systems, only a sufficient amount of determination from the world at large can stop Russian terror,” he said.

Russian officials also reported Ukrainian attacks, with a drone strike killing five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said Saturday.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people in Russia’s Kursk region, local officials said Saturday. Two children were among the victims of the attack in the village of Gorodishche on the Russian-Ukrainian border, Gov. Alexey Smirnov said on social media.

In its morning statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that six Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight over the country’s Tver, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It didn't give information on the reported strike in the Kursk region. The Ukrainian government also responded Saturday to a statement from the Belarusian military saying it had increased its forces along Ukraine’s northern border in response to what it described as security threats.

The announcement came after Belarus’ border agency claimed its troops downed a Ukrainian drone that had flown across the border to gather intelligence.

Kyiv denied the accusations, which it described as Russian propaganda.

“The Russians’ task is simple — to draw more of our forces (to the Belarusian border), Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation said in a statement. “Any information about our activity in the border area is a lie.”

Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has close ties with Russia and allowed Moscow to use his country’s territory to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Jurors deliberate further on Karen Read's murder charge after saying they haven't agreed

2024-07-01 22:48 Last Updated At：22:51

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the Karen Read trial returned to deliberations Monday after telling the judge Friday that they couldn’t agree on a verdict, only to be told to keep trying.

The jury must decide whether prosecutors have proven that Read drunkenly and intentionally slammed into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die. The defense challenged the evidence and suggested that one or more law enforcement colleagues killed John O’Keefe, dumped his body outside in a panic, and then framed Read to cover it up.

On their fourth day of deliberations in the two-month murder trial, a foreperson told the judge that they hadn’t reached a unanimous verdict despite an “exhaustive review of the evidence and our diligent consideration of all disputed evidence.

But Judge Beverly Cannone told the six men and six women to take lunch and try again, and they did for several more hours. “Clear your heads; we’ll start fresh on Monday,” Cannone told them later Friday.

Read, 44, had worked as an equity analyst and was an adjunct lecturer in finance at her alma mater, Bentley University. O’Keefe, 46, was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department who was raising his niece and nephew.

Jurors are deliberating events that unfolded at the Canton home of Brian Albert, a Boston police detective, after a night of barhopping in January 2022. Brian Higgins, a federal agent who was among those gathered inside, had exchanged flirtatious texts with Read earlier that month. The lead investigator was State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was friends with several witnesses and sent offensive texts about Read to friends, family and fellow troopers during the investigation.

Read was charged with second-degree murder, punishable in Massachusetts by life in prison with the possibility of parole. She also faces lesser charges of manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years.

Pieces of Read’s broken taillight were found at the scene, and a single hair from O’Keefe was found on the rear bumper of Read’s SUV. Prosecutors say that Read repeatedly said, “I hit him. I hit him. Oh my God, I hit him,” to first responders and others. Prosecutors replayed angry voicemails Read left for O’Keefe, painting a picture of a failing relationship. They also questioned her behavior, saying she never cried after O’Keefe’s body was found.

Read contends that the prosecution’s case is based on lies by officers trying to protect themselves. Her lawyers say the pieces of taillight and the hair were planted at the crime scene, which was left unsecured. They also suggested that O’Keefe might have been beaten up by Higgins, who had flirted with Read through texts, and that the men panicked, dumping his body outside before trying to cover up the crime.

Regardless of any verdict, the case revealed questionable techniques and actions on the part of law enforcement. Proctor, who had personal relationships with several of the people involved, called Read a “whack job” and texted his sister saying he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said that was a figure of speech and that his emotions had gotten the better of him.

The defense also pointed to sloppy policing: The crime scene was left unsecured for hours; the house wasn’t searched; bloodstained snow was scooped up with red plastic drinking cups; and a leaf blower was used to clear snow. The defense also claims that a prosecution witness conducted an incriminating internet search hours before O’Keefe’s body was discovered and then deleted it, and that others linked with the case destroyed phones and manipulated videos.

A handful of women with posters showed up Friday to counter the self-proclaimed “sidewalk jury” of true crime bloggers and pink-shirted Read supporters, many of them waving the Stars and Stripes, who have gathered outside the Norfolk County courthouse every day since the trial began.

Police officers stood between the two groups, neither of which was particularly pleased.

“A hung jury, that would be terrible,” said Paul Harvey, who owns a moving company in East Boston. He said Read should have been acquitted on the first day.

“This is unbelievable; the poor woman has been framed,” said Michael Ward. “This not only hasn’t been proven, but what’s been proven is she’s innocent.”

Demonstrators on the other side called out what they said has been harassment of the O’Keefe family and prosecution witnesses.

“Every day, these witnesses are getting death threats. It is just disgusting to John’s memory,” said Julie Guinto, an administrative assistant who said she doesn’t know the family.

Much of the attention has been fed by social media, with supporters on both sides routinely trading barbs over the evidence, the lawyers and details from the trial.

“We know, as well as I’m sure the jury knows, that all roads lead to Karen Read,” said Kate Peter, a YouTuber from North Attleborough. She’s been battling online against Aidan Timothy Kearney, aka Turtleboy, whose website has relentlessly questioned the prosecution.

“I am hopeful and faithful they will reach a just verdict and she will be held criminally responsible for her actions in this murder,” Peter said.

Canton, a solidly middle-class commuter town of 20,000, is best known for the Paul Revere Heritage Site — 9 acres where Revere set up a mill in 1801 to roll the copper that covered the hulls of the newly formed Navy’s boats and the dome of the Massachusetts State House in Boston.

These days, tourists are as likely to pass through the town in search of places associated with Read’s trial.

There are the bars where she and O’Keefe had been drinking that night, including the Waterfall Bar & Grille and C.F. McCarthy’s, just down the street. On the same stretch of downtown is a tattered shop called D&E Pizza & Subs, which got a mention at the trial partly because it was run by Chris Albert, the brother of Boston police detective Brian Albert, who owned the house where O’Keefe’s body was found. Albert sold that house, and the new owners put up a no-trespassing sign to keep onlookers out.

Read’s supporters have turned normally sleepy town meetings into raucous affairs, trying to push out the police chief and supporting an ongoing audit of the department. They blame the police department, which recused itself from the Read investigation, for bungling it. To counter that, lawn signs have popped up declaring support for the police.