Brittney Griner in Russian court for first time since proposed prisoner swap was revealed
CBSN
WNBA star Brittney Griner made her first court appearance Tuesday since the Biden administration revealed it was prepared to engage in a prisoner swap to free Griner and another U.S. citizen in Russian custody, Paul Whelan.
Griner was detained in February in a Moscow airport and later charged with drug smuggling. If convicted, she faces up to ten years in prison.
In the hearing Tuesday, Griner's defense team continued to argue that a state-appointed forensic expert made technical and procedural errors when examining the cannabis-infused vape cartridges found in her luggage when she arrived in Russia.
Another car bomb exploded on the outskirts of a city in northern Syria on Monday, killing at least 20 people and leaving over a dozen wounded, officials and emergency responders said.
A former British soldier convicted of spying for Iran after an audacious three-day escape from a London prison was sentenced Monday to more than 14 years behind bars for betraying his country.
Sydney, Australia — A shark bit and killed a 17-year-old girl swimming off an eastern Australian island on Monday, officials said, in the country's third reported fatal attack in just over five weeks. Paramedics rushed to Woorim Beach in Queensland to treat the teenager, who had sustained serious injuries to her upper body, an ambulance service spokesperson said.
Two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development have been placed on administrative leave, the latest in a series of suspensions and layoffs at the American government's primary humanitarian aid agency.
A series of earthquakes near the Greek island of Santorini have led authorities to shut down schools, dispatch rescue teams with sniffer dogs and send instructions to residents including a request to drain their swimming pools.
Powerful Arab nations rejected President Trump's suggestion to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.
Tel Aviv — American-Israeli dual national Keith Siegel was among three hostages released by militants in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Saturday, more than 15 months after they were taken captive by Hamas. Siegel was freed in Gaza City about two hours after Israelis Yarden Bibas and Ofer Calderon were released in the southern city of Khan Younis. The Israeli military confirmed Siegel's transfer from militants to Red Cross personnel.
Six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela in recent months were freed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro after he met Friday with a Trump administration official tasked with urging the authoritarian leader to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States.
Mexico's government, under mounting pressure from President Trump to curb drug trafficking, announced Friday that it had seized 18 kilos of fentanyl hidden in a bus.