- One year later, Israeli hostage family learns of loss
- Texans receiver Collins, Pats' safety Peppers out for NFL clash
- Biden-Netanyahu talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- Musk's X available again in Brazil after 40-day ban
- Reddy stars as India crush Bangladesh to clinch T20 series
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- Arch rivals Ghana, Nigeria drawn together in CHAN qualifying
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Trump lauds India's Modi as 'total killer'
- Wall Street, Europe rise as Chinese shares tumble
- Hunkering down for Hurricane Milton at Disney -- but first, a few rides
- Reddy, Rinku power India to 221-9 in second Bangladesh T20
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Time running out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- The long walk for water in the parched Colombian Amazon
- Biden-Netanyahu to talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- France vows to step up drugs fight after police vehicles torched
- Air France says jet flew over Iraq during Iran attack on Israel
- Activists target Picasso work to protest Israel arms sales
- Let 'Emily in Paris' remain in Paris, Macron says
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Record-breaking Root helps England dominate Pakistan in first Test
- German govt sees economy shrinking again in 2024
- Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Three Kosovo Serbs on trial over 'secession plot' attack
- Van Gogh museum to launch Impressionism show
- French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
- Japan PM calls snap election to 'create a new Japan'
- German police shut pro-Palestinian camp over Thunberg invite
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- SE Asian summit urges end to Myanmar violence but struggles for solutions
- Wimbledon replaces line judges with electronic system
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England power to 351-3
- Record-breaking Root hits hundred as England's power to 351-3
- Sabalenka relishes 'much-needed' tennis rivalry with Swiatek
- Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson set for six weeks out
- Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot
- Cook tips Root to break Tendulkar's all-time runs record
- British skull auction sparks Indian demand for return
- Joe Root: England's elegant Test record-breaker
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
- Hezbollah strikes Israel, says it foiled Israeli incursions
- Jurgen Klopp to return as head of Red Bull football operations
Thousands flee as Russia battles major border attack from Ukraine
Russia was battling a major cross-border incursion from Ukraine for a second day on Wednesday, with authorities evacuating several thousand civilians due to fighting, officials said.
The incursion began on Tuesday morning, with Russia's defence ministry announcing it had deployed air and artillery firepower to repel Ukrainian troops breaking into the western Kursk region.
President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv of attacking civilian buildings and said he was meeting security service chiefs to discuss a response.
"The Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation," he said in a televised meeting with government officials on Wednesday.
"It is firing indiscriminately from various types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, residential houses and ambulances," he added.
At least five civilians have been killed and 24 wounded since the incursion began, 13 of whom have been hospitalised, according to Russian officials.
The Russian defence ministry said hostilities were ongoing in a statement published 12:30 local time (0930 GMT), but stressed "the enemy's movement further into Russian territory had been prevented".
Authorities have evacuated several thousand people from the region and cancelled all mass gatherings, Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said.
"Over the course of the last day, with our help, several thousand people left the shelling zone by personal transport," Smirnov said in a video message on Telegram.
But he added: "The situation in the region is under control".
- Serious attack -
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incursion, the most serious in months.
However, a security source in Ukraine told AFP that Kyiv had struck a Russian helicopter using a drone on Tuesday over the Kursk region.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak also alluded to the attacks, on social media, without specifically mentioning them. Moscow had used its "border regions with impunity for massive air and artillery attacks", he said.
Russia's defence ministry said there had been losses on the Ukrainian side of 260 soldiers and 50 armoured vehicles, including seven tanks and eight armoured personnel carriers.
The claim could not be independently verified.
Kursk sits just across from Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region and has been subjected to regular Ukrainian shelling attacks since the conflict began in February 2022.
Rybar, a Russian Telegram channel with military links, said Ukrainian forces had made small inroads across the border and occupied several small settlements.
It said Kyiv's troops had reached the outskirts of Sudzha, a town of about 5,000 people some eight kilometres (five miles) from the border, but that Russian forces had pushed them back.
- Past incursions -
Fighters from Ukraine have made several brief incursions into Russia before, some by units of Russians fighting in support of Kyiv -- the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in May launched a major new offensive into northeastern Ukraine. He said it was to create a security buffer to protect Russian border regions from shelling and aerial attacks.
That offensive was focused on Ukraine's Kharkiv region, to the southeast of the Sumy region, from where Tuesday's cross-border raid was mounted.
However the attacks have continued, with Russia's Belgorod region declaring more than a dozen villages near the border no-go zones due to bombardment in July.
O.Karlsson--AMWN