The family said it remains confident of the son’s innocence

Dahbia Benkired is on trial for allegedly killing 12-year-old Lola Daviet in Paris, France.

One of Vladimir Putin’s foes has been found dead in Turkey where he had been living in exile under a different name.

Abakar Abakarov, who ran the Telegram channel ‘Morning Dagestan’, suffered multiple stab wounds, but the exact circumstances surrounding his killing have not yet been disclosed.

A cleaner discovered his body in a pool of blood at a rented villa in Istanbul on Friday after he has been missing for more than a week.

The 49-year-old had been living under an assumed name, while trying to flee Russian hitmen, local media has reported.

Abakarov was put on Russia’s international wanted list after being accused of inciting anti-Kremlin riots in Dagestan through his channel.

He fled the country after the unrest at Makhachkala International Airport in 2023, which saw an antisemitic mob storm the airport.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters arrived at the airport as a plane from Tel Aviv landed.

The unrest happened just three weeks after the Hamas massacre on Israel on October 7.

More than 20 people were injured during the clashes, including nine police officers.

Shortly before the attack, the Telegram channel had broadcast antisemitic slogans and had called for the expulsion of alleged ‘refugees from Israel’.

At the time, Putin said: ‘The events in Makhachkala were inspired, including through social networks, partially from the territory of Ukraine, by the hands of the  Western intelligence agencies.’

Earlier, Turkish newspaper Yenisafak reported that the body of a murdered man was found in an Istanbul villa on October 7.

The man had reportedly checked in on October 6 and received a guest the following day, who left with two bags.

The victim had no identification, but police reported that he was a citizen of another country.

The Turkish authorities launched an investigation but have not commented on the case. 

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Passengers on board an Air China flight became panicked after a power bank caught fire in an overhead compartment.

After the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel has left behind a silent killer – tens of thousands of unexploded bombs buried deep in the wreckage of homes, hospitals, schools and streets.

One in 10 of the missiles, grenades, shells and mortars fired into the Gaza Strip over the past two years are estimated to have failed, turning the area into one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Greg Crowther, director of programmes for British-based charity, the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), said that about 200,000 tonnes of ammunition has been unleashed by Israel overall.

He told Metro: ‘Until we are able to survey these areas, remove some of the rubble and identify the ammunition that has been used… [Some are] more prone to not functioning.

‘As we start to get more information, it will become easier to estimate how extensive that problem. 200,000 tonnes of ammunition has been used.

‘Last year, the United Nations quoted a failure rate of about 10%, which is reasonable. So it could be 20,000 tonnes of unexploded ammunition.’

These could range from 500kg airdropped bombs to rockets fired from a tank or an aircraft.

They lie half-buried in rubble and sand, wedged between collapsed walls, all invisible until it is too late.

Crowther warned that often, the highest number of accidents happen in the immediate post-conflict phase.

This is similar to what MAG is observing in Syria as displaced people return from Turkey and from inside Syria to areas where they have not been for many years.

He added: ‘We have already heard of reports of children being killed after finding and opening what appeared to be a box of fuses.’

It will take years – probably five or more – just to deal with priority sites in Gaza, MAG warned.

Any removal of UXOs would have to happen simultaneously with clearance of the ’80 million tonnes of rubble’ left after Israel’s bombing campaign.

Some areas have seen 90 to 95% of buildings entirely or partially destroyed and across the Strip, it is around 80%.

Crowther said: ‘Within that rubble there are human remains, asbestos, toxic chemicals, and unexploded bombs. It is a perfect storm of hazards.’

After the six-week bombing campaign in 2008-2009, it took two years for MAG deminers to clear 300 items.

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As this war has been ‘far more intense’, they are looking at ‘thousands of tasks, possibly tens of thousands’.

Crowther added: ‘It is a huge, multi-year, tens-of-millions-of-dollars job and that is just for the explosive ordnance response, not the rebuilding.’

Working with colleagues from their Palestinian partner Save Youth Future Society, MAG is trying to reach as many as possible displaced Gazans as they travel north along the coastal road to make them aware of the dangers.

Fact check: Did Israel leave behind booby-trapped toys?

Shortly after the ceasefire was announced, pictures of a booby-trapped Teletubby toy began circulating on social media.

A post on X, which has been viewed more than nine million times, said: ‘BREAKING – Gaza Civil Defense: We found booby-trapped children’s toys and canned food that the occupation deliberately planted to cause more casualties.’

Yet, the purple doll was discovered in Yemen, as shown in a video from 2018 that is still on YouTube.

The video was created by Project Masam, another humanitarian group that clears landmines in Yemen.

This does not mean that booby-trapped items have not been left behind in Gaza, but that misinformation has flooded social media.

Children’s toys and other everyday items stuffed with explosives have been found in Syria and Ukraine in recent years.

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Mohan Lal, 74, staged his own funeral in the Indian village of Konchi (Picture: NDTV)

There is no better way to test how much people care about you than by staging your own death.

At least, this is what former Indian Air Force veteran, Mo…

A ‘peace bridge’ connecting Russia to America, worth £6 billion. This is the Kremlin’s latest moonshot, pitched directly to billionaire Elon Musk.

At the White House, Donald Trump appeared to hear about it for the first time – or at least did a convincing impression of it.

‘A tunnel from Russia to Alaska. That’s…interesting,’ the US president said, when asked about the idea by reporters during his meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Asking Zelensky about the cross-border project, he said: ‘What do you think of that, Mr President?… How do you like that idea?’

The Ukrainian leader – who has been combating Russia’s war for more than three years – appeared less than thrilled.

‘I’m not happy with this,’ he warned, eliciting a laugh from his host.

The proposal by Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, would see a rail tunnel built under the Bering Strait that separates the Russian Far East from Alaska.

He suggested that linking the two nations would unlock joint exploration of natural resources and ‘symbolise unity’.

While plans for a bridge or a tunnel to cross the Bering Strait have been floated for decades, they have not generated much serious consideration because of the rocky relationship between the two superpowers.

In a post on X, the envoy claimed that the idea of a ‘peace bridge’ between Russia and Alaska dated back to the Cold War era.

Proposing that Musk is involved in the project with his company, Dmitriev said: ‘With modern @boringcompany technology this can become a Putin-Trump tunnel.’

There was no immediate public response from the Tesla and X CEO.

Beyond the tunnel itself, it would cost a huge sum to build and upgrade infrastructure on both sides of the strait. Chukotka’s existing roads and railways are sparse, at best.

In addition, Dmitriev suggested that the US could join Russia and China in joint ‘hydrocarbon projects in the Arctic,’ referring to expanded drilling for oil.

‘Certainly, Russia is eyeing the opportunity of joint Russia-China-US projects, including in the Arctic region, specifically in the energy sector,’ he said last month, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

This comes as Trump said ‘great progress’ was made during a phone call with Putin, with the two agreeing to face-to-face talks in Hungary.

It was their first call since mid-August, with the Republican describing it as ‘very productive’, adding that teams from the US and Russia will meet next week.

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When asked earlier this week if Trump was considering giving Ukraine the Tomahawks, he said: ‘We’ll see… I may.’

Russian musician Diana Loginova was jailed for playing a banned song in St Petersburg during protests.

A massive rescue operation has been launched with local villagers digging through heavy snow in an effort to free the hikers trapped at 5,000 feet above sea level.

In the hours after the shooting, the boy wrote to his social services worker

She has broken out with ‘rashes’, according to insiders.

People have been told to ‘stay inside’.

Storm Amy has caused widespread travel disruption across the UK and Ireland.

At least 30 people were injured after a Russian drone struck a train travelling to Kyiv, Ukraine.

Most of the victims were young adults and also people aged under 18 (Picture: Flashback Sweden)

Six people including children were shot while on a night out in Sweden with a 14-year-old boy arrested.

Shots were fired around 2am in Gävle,…

A British teenager is feared to have been roped into a scam compound in Myanmar after going missing from Thailand.

The company said he initially agreed to return the money, but three days later the worker handed in his notice.

Boris Wolfman, 40, was held at Moscow airport suspected of supplying human body parts to an underground clinic in Pristina, Kosovo.

Elaine McSorley and her husband took a short walk at Mkhuze in South Africa’s KwaZulu Province.

The military and industrial sites were shared from a map taken from the UK government.

All 30 nationwide factories of the beer aren’t in use.

All 30 nationwide factories of the beer aren’t in use.

‘We had coffee in our pyjamas in the morning,’ the Russian leader smiled.

‘We had coffee in our pyjamas in the morning,’ the Russian leader smiled.