The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“In people’s hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who signed a treaty to annex Crimea after the region held a referendum to leave Ukraine

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Kenyan police seize bomb-laden SUV

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan police intercepted a sports utility vehicle packed with explosives, foiling a planned terrorist attack in the coastal city of Mombasa, authorities said Tuesday.

Officers from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit arrested two men in the vehicle in the Changamwe area of Mombasa, the Kenya National Disaster Operations Centre said.

The two men were arrested last Tuesday, but it was not until Monday that police discovered the explosives, which were concealed under the SUV’s seats, said Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa. A third suspect was arrested Tuesday, Marwa said.

The police intercepted the suspects’ communications, which led to the arrests, said Marwa, who added that the police invited the FBI to assist with the probe of the planned attack. The planned target of the attack was not revealed.

Chechen ‘emir,’ terrorist is reported dead

MOSCOW — Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord who had threatened to attack the Sochi Olympics and claimed responsibility for some of Russia’s deadliest terror attacks in recent years, was reported dead Tuesday by the Islamic militant group he led. One of Russia’s most wanted men, he was 49.

Umarov’s death has been claimed repeatedly in the past, but Tuesday’s report appeared to be the first from the organization he headed.

The Caucasus Emirate announced the “martyrdom” of Umarov in a statement posted Tuesday on Kavkaz Center, the website of Islamic militant groups in Russia’s North Caucasus area. The region includes the provinces of Chechnya and Dagestan. No cause of death was given.

Umarov fought against Russian troops in the Chechen war of 1994-96, when separatists won a measure of independence, and he took up arms again when the second war broke out in 1999. By then the Chechen struggle for independence was being transformed into a wider Islamic insurgency.

In 2007, Umarov created the Caucasus Emirate and proclaimed himself emir.

Greenpeace 60 go atop French nuke plant

PARIS — About 60 Greenpeace activists mounted the roof of a nuclear reactor in eastern France on Tuesday, staging an hours-long protest against the country’s reliance on atomic power — before police dropped down by helicopter onto the hulking, gray structure and detained them.

Activists hung a banner reading “Stop Risking Europe” next to one of the reactors at the Fessenheim plant near the German and Swiss borders. France’s oldest nuclear plant, Fessenheim has become a flash point for anti-nuclear campaigners who say it is unsafe and should have been closed long ago.

Greenpeace France said in a statement that the activists had traveled from 14 countries across Europe “to denounce the risk to Europe from France’s nuclear power” and to promote other energy sources.

Nuclear safety agency ASN said the intrusion “has not had any impact on the safety of the facility.” Utility Electricite de France, which operates the plant, said the activists were unable to get inside any of the buildings at the plant.

France relies on nuclear power more than any other country for its electricity needs. President Francois Hollande has promised to reduce the proportion, but plans to close Fessenheim have dragged on.

500 Africans illegally enter Spain’s Melilla

RABAT, Morocco — Some 500 stone-throwing migrants from sub-Saharan Africa forced their way into the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco on Tuesday in one of the biggest illegal border crossings of recent years, Spanish and Moroccan officials said.

Moroccan police said they arrested some 250 people in two attempts by migrants to charge the border before 8 a.m., when the group of about 500 scrambled over the barbedwire fences that separate the Mediterranean coastal city enclave from Morocco.

The Spanish Interior Ministry delegate in Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani, announced police reinforcements for the border, saying there was still a great number of migrants waiting for a chance to try to scale the fences.

Thousands of sub-Saharan migrants seeking a better life in Europe are living illegally in Morocco and try to enter Melilla and Spain’s other Mediterranean coastal enclave, Ceuta.

More than a thousand are estimated to have made it across since the beginning of the year — roughly equal to the total for all of last year.

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