President Putin has accused Ukraine of resorting to terror after the Russian security service said it had prevented a Ukraine plot to sabotage essential infrastructure inside the disputed territory of Crimea. Mr. Putin warned Ukraine it was playing a dangerous game.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry accused him of seeking a justification to attack the country. Russia says its forces in Syria will suspend operations in Aleppo from tomorrow for 3 hours each day to allow humanitarian aid into the city. The UN's emergency relief coordinator said that wasn't enough and a 48-hour ceasefire was needed to bring a sufficient aid.
In a damning report, the US Justice Department has accused police in the city of Baltimore of routinely discriminating against black people and of using excessive force. It gave the example of one African American man who was stopped 30 times in 4 years without ever being arrested or getting a caution.
The authorities in Congo have refused to renew the work permit of a permanent researcher from human rights watch, which regularly condemns abuses in the country. No reason was given.
The rights group described it as a brazen attempt to muzzle reporting on the government's crackdown on dissent. The authorities in the Colombian capital, Bogota, have begun demolishing a notorious district toward the center of the city called the
Bron
x. It was a focus for drug addicts, criminals and prostitution. At the Rio Olympics, the American
Kristin Armstrong
has become the first cyclist to win 3 gold medals in a row in the same discipline. Her time trial victory follows golds in Beijing and London.
And a 90-year-old tortoise in Britain has been reunited with its owner after unwittingly hitching a ride on a refuse lorry at a waste cinerator. There was a frantic search for the tortoise, called Zuma, who'd caught into a bag of rubbish.