A bomb shook a conference center near Tajikistan's presidential palace yesterday, killing a security guard and scattering debris, just as an EU-run conference was scheduled to start.
The blast, described as a terrorist act by the prosecutor general, occurred at the center only 350m from Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon's palace.
It coincided with the 15th anniversary of Rakhmon becoming head of the former Soviet state, although it was unclear if there was a connection. The site also lies close to a major hotel and the Uzbek embassy.
Police said the dead man was a guard who picked up the device concealed in a plastic bag while inspecting the site.
The conference, which was organized by the EU, was to be devoted to disaster preparedness.
The EU's ambassador in the region, Adriaan van der Meer, said there was no reason to believe the blast was aimed at the EU.
"There is no indication whatsoever that it was against the EU.... We are waiting for exact news, and expect a thorough investigation," he said.
Several hundred people were believed to already be in the building as the blast struck ahead of the opening.
The blast blew out the windows of the building. The dead man's body could be seen lying on the ground covered under a white sheet.
Investigators were combing the scene for evidence.
"At first I thought it was an earthquake," one of those present at the venue said.
Prosecutor General Kurbonali Mukhabbatov said the blast was being treated as terrorism and an investigation was under way.
"We consider this an act of terrorism ... A criminal case for terrorism will be opened. Who carried this out and why will be investigated," he told reporters.
Yesterday's conference was to be attended by Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov.
Officials said the opening would be delayed.
The mountainous republic lies on the northern border of Afghanistan and also borders China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
The country was torn apart by a civil war in the 1990s that pitted secular and Islamist factions against each other.
Since a 1997 peace accord Rakhmon has pursued an authoritarian secular course, keeping a tight control on Islamic activism and winning praise from the West.
However, domestic critics accuse him of increasingly interfering in family and religious life, including bans on expensive weddings.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, US President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science. Former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor in a White House
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei yesterday on a regional tour to drum up support ahead of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in for a third term. Venezuelan authorities have offered a reward of US$100,000 for information leading to the capture of Gonzalez Urrutia, who insists he beat Maduro at the polls in July last year and is recognized by the US as Venezuela’s “president-elect.” The 75-year-old fled to Spain in September after being threatened with arrest by Maduro’s government, but has pledged to return to his country to be sworn in as
RSS