29 May,2026 08:36 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
It said that during the night from Thursday to Friday, Russia resumed drone attacks against targets in Ukraine, in the vicinity of Romania`s river border. PIC/AFP
A Russian drone entered Romanian airspace and crashed into a residential apartment building, sparking a fire and injuring two people, Romania's National Defence Ministry announced on Friday.
According to the ministry, the injured individuals were taken to the Galati County Emergency Clinical Hospital.
It said that during the night from Thursday to Friday, Russia resumed drone attacks against targets in Ukraine, in the vicinity of Romania's river border.
A drone entered Romanian airspace and was tracked by radar systems to the southern area of Galati municipality, where it crashed onto the roof of a residential apartment building and caused a fire, the ministry said.
Specialised teams from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations and other Ministry of Internal Affairs structures, the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Romanian Police are operating at the scene, it said, adding that the National Military Command Centre had notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations to implement public alert measures.
According to Romanian media, dozens of residents were evacuated.
Earlier this month, several drones entered Latvian airspace from Russia with two of them crashing into an oil storage facility in Rezekne and damaging one empty oil tank, reports cited.
On May 21, the Latvian armed forces said at least one foreign drone entered the country's airspace, the latest in a series of drone incursions reported across the Baltic States in recent months.
Authorities issued air alerts in several eastern Latvian regions, while NATO fighter jets participating in the Baltic Air Policing mission were scrambled in response. The alert was lifted later in the day.
The incident came days after Estonia said a NATO fighter jet had shot down a drone over its territory, while Lithuania reported that a military drone carrying explosives had crashed after entering its airspace. On May 7, two drones crashed into an oil storage facility in Latvia's Rezekne.
Baltic authorities believe many of the drones are Ukrainian aircraft intended for strikes on Russian targets that veered off course into neighbouring countries' airspace.
Iran's top negotiator said Friday that Tehran would only trust Washington's actions, not its words, after US Vice-President JD Vance said progress had been made on a deal to extend a ceasefire and provide a framework for peace talks.
President Donald Trump has remained notably silent about the deal despite US sources telling AFP it only needed his sign-off, underscoring the unpredictability of talks three months after the conflict engulfed the Middle East and shook the global economy.
"We place no trust in guarantees or words; only actions matter. No step will be taken before the other side acts first," Iran's Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X.
The parliament speaker, who led Tehran's delegation at peace talks with the US in Pakistan last month, also warned that Iran had gained leverage not "through talks, but through missiles" fired at US bases and allies in the region when war broke out on February 28.
Hopes of an agreement had risen on Thursday after US officials were positive about the direction of diplomacy.
"It's hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MOU," Vance told reporters on Thursday. "We're going back and forth on a couple of language points. We've made a lot of progress here."
Optimism around a possible US-Iran deal boosted Asian stock markets on Friday, while oil prices receded slightly.
Energy markets have whipsawed this week as investors parse the chances of an agreement that could potentially resume normal shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The potential deal would end restrictions on shipping through the strait, with no tolls or harassment, while Tehran would remove mines within 30 days and the US would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports if commercial traffic resumed, according to US media reports.
But Iran has not confirmed any commitments to a deal, and sources have told Iranian media that any agreement unilaterally announced by Trump would not be recognised.
On Friday, Iran's Tasnim news agency, citing a source, said the text had not yet been finalised and that the wording of the potential memorandum of understanding had "undergone some changes in recent days".
Kenyan police on Friday said eight students had been arrested over a suspected arson attack at a girls' school that killed 16 children and hospitalised 79 others.
The fire broke in the early hours of Thursday at Utumishi Girls Academy in Kenya's Nakuru County, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the capital, Nairobi.
The upper floor of the two-storey building, which had 12 cubicles housing 135 bunk beds, was badly damaged, according to police.
"Preliminary investigations have identified eight students as persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution of the suspected arson attack," the director of criminal investigations said in a statement.
Investigators have conducted intensive interviews with students and teaching staff, and reviewed CCTV footage and other forensic evidence to determine the cause of the fire -- which remains unknown.
The school is linked to the National Police Service and most pupils are the children of officers.
US authorities have found six more bodies following a chemical leak at a paper plant in Washington state, an official said Thursday, with three of a total 11 victims still missing.
A huge tank holding tens of thousands of gallons of a highly caustic substance imploded on Tuesday at the plant in Longview, Washington state, sparking a major search operation.
Rescuers had initially confirmed two people were dead, and ruled out finding survivors as the search turned to recovering victims' remains.
Brad Hannig, fire chief of Longview Fire Department, told a news conference that six more bodies had been found, bringing the total confirmed dead to eight.
"We continue working with the coroner to notify families," he said.
Rescuers are working in an "active and hazardous recovery environment" to find the remaining victims' bodies, Hannig added.
The accident at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company happened during an early morning shift change when a 900,000-gallon (3.4 million-litre) tank containing a large quantity of a substance called white liquor ruptured.
White liquor is a highly alkaline solution containing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide that is used to break down wood chips and create the pulp from which paper is made.
(With IANS, ANI, PTI, and AFP inputs)
