2 more bodies from plane crash found
MOSCOW -- Searchers combing the area where a Ukrainian military aircraft crashed found two more bodies Saturday, bringing the death toll to 26. One person survived.
The plane, a twin-turboprop Antonov-26 belonging to the Ukrainian air force, was carrying a crew of seven and 20 cadets of a military aviation school when it crashed and burst into flames Friday night while approaching for landing at the airport in Chuhuiv, 250 miles east of the capital Kyiv.
Two people initially survived the crash, but one later died in a hospital. No cause for the crash has been determined.
[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/927ukraine/]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared Saturday a day of mourning for the crash victims and ordered that flights of An-26 planes be halted pending investigation of the crash cause.
Zelenskiy, who visited the crash area Saturday, called for a full assessment of the condition of the country's military equipment and said he wanted an official report on the crash by Oct. 25.
The An-26 is a transport plane used by both military and civilian operators.
Suspect said to be riled by caricatures
PARIS -- The chief suspect in a double stabbing in Paris told investigators that he carried out the attack in anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad recently republished by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, a judicial official said Saturday.
Two people were wounded and seven are in custody after Friday's attack with a meat cleaver outside the newspaper's former offices in eastern Paris, which counterterrorism authorities are investigating as an Islamic extremist attack.
Charlie Hebdo lost 12 employees in an al-Qaida attack in 2015 by French-born extremists who had criticized the prophet cartoons. The newspaper, which routinely mocks religious figures of all kinds, decided to republish the caricatures the day before the trial into the 2015 attacks opened earlier this month. The publication drew threats from militant groups, as well as criticism from Muslims in multiple countries.
Questioned by investigators, the chief suspect acknowledged carrying out the attack and said he sought to target Charlie Hebdo because of the caricatures, according to an official close to the investigation who wasn't authorized to be publicly named discussing an ongoing investigation.
The suspect had been arrested a month ago for carrying a screwdriver, but wasn't on police radar for Islamic radicalization, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said the screwdriver was considered a weapon, but did not explain why.
The suspect arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor, apparently from Pakistan, but his identity was still being verified, the minister said.
Seven others were detained in the aftermath of Friday's attack, but one has been released, the official said.
Greek police seize pills, arrest 3 people
THESSALONIKI, Greece -- Greek police said Saturday that they have seized 500,000 Ecstasy pills and arrested three people.
The operation took place Friday in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, police said. The street value of the pills was $11.63 million.
First, police arrested a 56-year-old Greek truck driver in a truck rest area west of the northern city. They reported finding 180,000 pills in the truck.
Shortly afterward, police stopped a car where they found 320,000 more Ecstasy pills. They also arrested two Iraqis, ages 49 and 52, one a longtime resident of the Netherlands and the other a resident of Greece.
A police official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation that the pills were apparently manufactured in Western Europe and were destined for the Greek and, "quite likely," the Turkish markets.
Police were looking for a fourth person, another Greek truck driver.
Protests over Belarus' president go on
KYIV, Ukraine -- Hundreds of women calling for the authoritarian president to step down protested in Belarus' capital Saturday, continuing the large demonstrations that have rocked the country since early August.
Police blocked off the center of Minsk and arrested more than 80 demonstrators, according to the Viasna human rights organization. Some of those arrested were chased down by police in building courtyards where they were trying to take refuge, Viasna said.
Protests, by far the largest and most persistent in Belarus since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, began Aug. 9 after an election that officials said gave President Alexander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.
Opponents and some poll workers say the results were manipulated.
Despite wide-scale detentions of demonstrators and the arrest of many prominent opposition figures, the protests haven't shown signs of abating. Lukashenko further angered opponents this week by taking the oath of office for a new term in an unexpected ceremony.
Protesters Saturday carried placards denouncing him as "the secret president."
-- Compiled by the Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
