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Russia slams U.S. over sentence for arms dealer Viktor Bout

Russia has criticized the United States for handing down a 25-year sentence to Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, saying the verdict against him was "baseless and biased."

(CNN) Moscow - Bout, who denies wrongdoing, was sentenced Thursday to 25 years behind bars by a federal judge in New York.

Bout, who was dubbed "the merchant of death" by his accusers, was convicted last year on four counts of conspiracy to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles and provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Russia's foreign ministry accused the United States of acting illegally when its agents arrested Bout in Thailand and of pursuing a political agenda after he was extradited to the United States to face trial.

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

My Gaza Diary: The Massacre Has Resumed, Nowhere To Hide

Three days since the truce ended, the Israeli army announced that it had launched 10,000 airstrikes on Gaza since the beginning of the war. Total war continues, with the invader’s fiercest fight waged against life itself.

Photo of Palestinians among rubble in Gaza

Palestinians stand among rubble in Rafah, Gaza

Moustafa Ibrahim*

RAFAH — On the evening of the 57th day of the war, I was facing a situation that no one would envy.

A friend from Jordan called to tell me her brother and his children, who had been displaced from Gaza City to Rafah, were injured by a bombing in the Al-Geneina neighborhood in eastern Rafah, where I now live. She wanted to check on them. As soon as she mentioned her brother's name, I knew that he had been killed. I told her: “I will ask at the hospital, and will let you know.”

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At that moment I stopped thinking. What would I say to her? It is not easy to be the one who tells a friend their loved one is dead.

The next day, the friend called back to say she’d found out her brother had been killed, and that his wife and children had been injured but were fine. She asked this time for help to search for her five-year-old nephew, who was missing and had not wound up at the hospital. After hours of searching, they found his body. He died too from the bombing.

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