MOSCOW (AP) — A gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia on Monday, killing 15 people and wounding 24 others before shooting himself dead, authorities said.

The shooting took place in School No. 88 in Izhevsk, a city 960 kilometers (600 miles) east of Moscow in the Udmurtia region.

Russia’s Investigative Committee identified the gunman as 34-year-old Artyom Kazantsev, a graduate of the same school, and said he was wearing a black t-shirt bearing “Nazi symbols.” No details about his motives have been released.

TEHRAN, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian foreign minister urged Washington to prove its determination and goodwill to reach an agreement on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal with realism, the official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to Iranian reporters in New York after meeting with other countries' foreign ministers following the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

KYIV, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he doesn't think Vladimir Putin is bluffing when he says Moscow would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.

The Russian president said in a televised address last week that Moscow would use "all available means" to protect Russia and its people if its territorial integrity were threatened. 

"Look, maybe yesterday it was bluff. Now, it could be a reality," Zelenskiy, who had previously played down such warnings as nuclear blackmail, told CBS News on Sunday.

Sept 26 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked.

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is deeply saddened by today’s inhumane act of terror in a school in Izhevsk, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"The president expressed his deepest condolences to all those who lost their loved ones, their children in this tragic incident, and wished the soonest recovery to those wounded in the inhumane terrorist attack," Peskov said.

"Putin is deeply saddened by the death of people, children in the terrorist attack on the school seemingly committed by a member of a neo-Nazi group," he added.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A young man shot a Russian military officer at close range at an enlistment office Monday, in an unusually bold attack reflecting resistance to the Russian leadership’s efforts to mobilize hundreds of thousands of men to wage war on Ukraine.

The shooting comes after scattered arson attacks on enlistment offices and protests in Russian cities against the call-up that have resulted in at least 2,000 arrests. Russia is seeking to bolster its military as its Ukraine offensive has bogged down and sapped its forces.

25 Sep 2022; MEMO: Egypt has announced plans to host the 2036 Summer Olympics said Sports Minister Ashraf Soby yesterday during a reception in Cairo for International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.

"President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has given his permission for Egypt to put itself forward as host for the 2036 Olympics," Sobhi said. President Sisi was also in attendance at the meeting along with Egyptian Olympic officials.

TEHRAN, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday slammed the "interventionist" remarks of American and other Western politicians against Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"The enemies' approach against the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation has always been accompanied by hypocrisy and double standards," Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, said in reference to the remarks made by Western officials over the protests that followed the death of a young girl in the police custody in Iran.

VIENNA, September 26. /TASS/: Russia is ready to continue talks to establish a safety zone around the Zaporozhye NPP and expects a non-politicized approach from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Alexey Likhachev, director general at Rosatom, has said.

"We are ready for cooperation on the technical aspects of the protection zone and physical nuclear safety of the Zaporozhye NPP. We are ready to agree on its establishment as quickly as possible," he said at the 66th Session of the IAEA’s General Conference.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Italy’s European Union partners are signaling discomfort, even vigilance, after Italy, one of the bloc’s founding members, swung far to the political right. The result of Italy’s latest election raises troubling questions about whether Rome will maintain its commitments to EU principles, laws and ambitions.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s call at the recent United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that the veto powers of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) be abolished is the way forward in ensuring the United Nations (UN) return to its foundation.

Critics have described the veto as being the most undemocratic element of the UN, and the main cause of inaction on war crimes and crimes against humanity like seen in the protracted conflicts and crises in the world such as in Palestine, Myanmar and Ukraine.

MOSCOW, September 26. /TASS/: The US denies any alternative view of the situation in the Donetsk and the Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, where referendums on joining Russia are held, and only replicates threats, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said during a Channel One TV broadcast on Monday.