Former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, whose extradition from Qatar had been demanded by Russia, was killed in a car blast here Friday, the first such incident in the Gulf state which often hosts rebel figures.
An interior ministry source told the official QNA news agency that Yandarbiyev, who was residing in Qatar "temporarily," was killed and his 13-year-old son wounded when a blast targeted their car as they returned from weekly prayers at a Doha mosque.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The source said authorities had launched an investigation into the fatal attack. Qatar's public security chief, Mubarak Hassan al-Nasr, later told the Doha-based Al-Jazeera news channel the evidence was still being collected and finger-pointing would be premature.
Officials did not give details about the nature of the blast, which occurred shortly after the noon Muslim prayers.
Witnesses said it occurred at a crossing in the Al-Dafna residential area, some 300m from the mosque. They said that they saw no explosive device being hurled at Yandarbiyev's white Land Cruiser, suggesting a time bomb might have been planted inside the vehicle or that an explosive was detonated by remote control.
Russia had demanded Yandarbiyev's extradition.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of