Briefly

EAST EUROPE

Ukrainian attacks kill 28 in Kherson, Lugansk

Regional officials in Kherson and Lugansk said Ukrainian attacks left at least 28 people dead as Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange drone attacks overnight into Saturday. A Ukrainian attack on Friday on Sadove town in Kherson killed 22 and wounded 15, Governor Vladimir Saldo said. In Lugansk, regional authorities said on Saturday two more bodies had been pulled from the rubble following Friday's Ukrainian attack, bringing the death toll to six. Officials declared Saturday a day of mourning in Lugansk, and public events would be similarly canceled on Sunday and Monday in Kherson. Also on Saturday, Russian shelling and aerial attacks killed two people in southern and northeastern Ukraine, authorities said.

MIDDLE EAST

Bahrain requests to normalize ties with Iran

An Iranian official said on Friday that Bahrain has requested to normalize relations with Iran after an eight-year diplomatic freeze. In a televised interview, Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, said Bahrain had sent a direct message to Iran asking for the resumption of bilateral relations and made the same request in a meeting with Russia. In 2016, Bahrain severed diplomatic ties with Iran following

Saudi Arabia's decision to cut ties with Teheran. In March last year, Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a groundbreaking agreement in China to restore diplomatic ties and reopen their embassies and missions. A month later, the two countries formally declared the resumption of diplomatic relations with immediate effect.

Xinhua - Agencies