TNT
Eighty-nine people were injured when several blasts at the Kristall explosives plant shook the central Russian town of Dzerzhinsk, the Russian health ministry said.
Forty-four of the injured were at the plant when the blasts occurred but 45 local residents from outside the factory, many hit by broken glass, also requested medical help.
‘Stop the butchery’
U.S. President Donald Trump urged Russia and Syrian government forces to stop bombing Syria's Idlib province, following a Kremlin statement that signaled Moscow would continue to back a monthlong Syrian government offensive there.
When asked before departing on a state visit to Britain what he intended to do about the massacre of civilians in Idlib, Trump told reporters he did not like the situation. "Bad things are happening," Trump said.
No to waste
At least 5,000 residents of Syktyvkar, a city in the northwestern Russian republic of Komi, rallied against construction of a landfill to take in Moscow’s garbage.
More violence and detentions were also reported in neighboring Arkhangelsk region at a landfill construction site in the abandoned village of Shiyes.
Restive regions
The head of Moscow region’s Ramensky district, Andrei Kulakov, has been placed under arrest on suspicion of strangling to death a senior member of a public oversight body, a charge that he denies.
Elsewhere, the ex-head of Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow, Pavel Konkov, was taken into custody on suspicion of a 700 million ruble ($10.6 million) embezzlement scheme.
Let love rule
Elton John criticized Russia's reported censorship of gay sex scenes in the new movie musical based on his life, "Rocketman," calling the decision "cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people."
John, 72, a prominent gay rights campaigner, has previously spoken out against a 2013 law banning the dissemination of "gay propaganda" among young Russians.
Running colors
Five thousand people gathered in Moscow's Luzhniki Park to greet summer with a seventh annual color run.
Muscovites, some wearing masquerade costumes, covered 5 kilometers in the park near Luzhniki Stadium as volunteers threw colored powder on them.
Includes reporting from Reuters.
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