An explosion has been heard in the Belgian capital of Brussels during an anti-terror raid, local media reported Friday.

According to RTBF television, one person has been "neutralized" near a metro station during the major anti-terrorist operation in Brussels.

The police broke into a building in the area, that had been cordoned off beforehand. The media reported that an explosion and gunfire had been heard during the operation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has visited Russia for the third time in less than a year. In an interview with TASS First Deputy Director-General, Mikhail Gusman, John Kerry has clarified the future of the relations between Russia and the United States.

TASS: Mr. Secretary, welcome to Moscow. It's very good to see you here. It's your third visit to Russia in less than a year. And before that there was a long pause. Are we getting back to normal in our dialogue?

Kerry: Well, we'd like to get back to it. We're making progress. I think that Foreign Minister Lavrov - Sergey Lavrov - and I have had a very productive relationship and we've been able to separate differences and work together in a very effective way. President Putin has been very gracious to spend time with me when I've come here and to work at trying to find a solution to very complicated issues. I think it's safe to say that the United States-Russia joint effort on the ceasefire has had an impact. It's been very positive. And that's the way we can build back to a much stronger, more effective relationship.

Following high-profile meetings in Moscow, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a joint news conference on Thursday night. Both diplomats agreed on the importance of strengthening bilateral relations between Washington and Moscow. Speaking on Syria, Kerry and Lavrov also agreed to continue to coordinate efforts in Syria to prevent ceasefire violations.

"Thanks to our cooperation on such a basis it was possible to make serious progress in overcoming the Syrian crisis. Thanks to the Russian-American initiative approved by presidents [Vladimir] Putin and [Barack] Obama, a mechanism of international support for Syrian reconciliation was formed — the so-called Syria Support Group," Kerry said."Today we've agreed to build up on the March 14 telephone conversation between the [US and Russian] presidents and to continue coordinating actions in order to secure the cessation of hostilities regime, to curb violations of this regime," Lavrov added. For the time being, the ceasefire appears to be effective. "The cessation of hostilities has largely held, not entirely," Kerry said. "The overall level of bombing and of shelling has decreased sharply."

To ensure the implementation of UN resolutions on Syria, Washington and Moscow agreed to facilitate direct talks between Damascus and opposition groups. They also agreed to end the indiscriminate use of weapons. "We agreed today to build on recent gains by taking immediate steps to reinforce the cessation of hostilities, including by working to end the use of any indiscriminate weapons, to halt attempts by either side to seize new territory, and to finalize a common understanding for how this cessation can be institutionalized," Kerry said.

Belgium has confirmed plans to carry out airstrikes on Daesh targets as part of the US-led coalition after the Brussels deadly attacks earlier this week, the country's prime minister, Charles Michel, said Friday.

"In the framework of the agreement with the Netherlands, we will resume the mission of our F-16s, we will hold a debate in the parliament and the government to decide whether it is possible to expand the mandate of F-16s," Michel said during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

On Tuesday, two suicide blasts hit the departures hall of Brussels' Zaventem international airport and an explosion shook a subway carriage at the Maelbeek station, close to the EU institutions. Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

This day, 22 March, should have been different, not the one we all had. There should have been meetings, documents - a calm day, with time to get ready for a big 'week of negotiations'.

We received the first news of the terror attacks in Belgium at 10 a.m.. An hour and a half later we became aware of the scale of the tragedy. Telephones "exploded".

"Are there any Russians involved in the Brussels tragedy?"

"How does Foreign Ministry evaluate what is happening in Brussels?"

"Is there any plan to counteract the terrorist threat in Europe?"

"What's next?"

Fidel Castro provided over $350 million in medical care to Ukrainian children victimized by the Chernobyl accident

If the western world's credit-rating agencies were honest, Ukraine ought to have probably one of the worst credit ratings in the world. It has almost never paid its bills in its entire 25 year existence. Not for Russian gas, not for countless loans it has received from from international creditors.

And when Kiev does actually make a payment, it goes kicking and screaming all the way to the bank, threatening legal action and demanding re-negotiation of future payments.

Ukraine even outright defaulted on a $3 billion loan from Russia last year -- but without western financial institutions raising a peep. Loans from Russia don't count.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis controlling part of Yemen have agreed to a "cessation of hostilities," the UN's special envoy to Yemen announced on Wednesday. UN's Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the two parties would start implementing a ceasefire from April 10, eight days before peace negotiations take place in Kuwait. "The talks aim to reach a comprehensive agreement, which will end the conflict and allow the resumption of inclusive political dialogue," Ahmed said. "The war in Yemen must be brought to an end before it does irreparable damage to the future of Yemen and the region," he added.

The Saudi strikes against the Islamist Houthis have killed thousands of civilians so far. The total amount of casualties recorded by the UN from the start of the conflict to date is of more than 5,000 deaths, half of them civilians.


​A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out a military campaign in neighboring Yemen since March 2015, after large swaths of the country fell under the control of the Houthis — a religious-political extremist group hostile to the Saudis. The Gulf Kingdom, together with Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and other Middle Eastern and North African countries launched a series of airstrikes on the Houthi-held areas, besides imposing an air and naval blockade of the country. From the very beginning, the US and the UK provided the coalition with military support.

The UN has tried to convince the belligerents to engage in negotiations since June 2015, but the efforts have failed repeatedly, until a first ceasefire was agreed on last December. Now the parties will attempt to come to an arrangement again, although it will be tricky: Yemen, backed by Saudi Arabia, demands that the Houthis leave all the cities they currently occupy, and that they accept to be disarmed afterwards. The Houthis, on the other hand, want to be granted more representation in the country's government.

Russia's special forces are involved in the Syrian campaign and have helped with locating targets for Russian warplanes, the general who commanded the entire operation has confirmed in an interview.

Col. Gen. Aleksandr Dvornikov is deputy commander of the Central Military District in Russia, and was selected to be chief of Russia's campaign in Syria, which started in September last year. On Wednesday he spoke of previously undisclosed aspects of the operation in a rare interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

"I won't deny that our Special Operations Forces (SOF) are deployed in Syria. They conduct ground reconnaissance of pre-selected targets for Russian warplanes, assist in targeting warplanes in remote areas and perform other tasks," the general said.

"Take into account that corresponding forces from the US and other members of the [US-led] coalition are performing similar missions in Syria," he added.

Russian guns to the rescue

It was the first official confirmation that Russian special forces have been deployed in Syria. The bulk of the missions during the five-month campaign, which was wrapped up earlier in March, were conducted by the Russian Air Force. Most of the Russian personnel in Syria were guarding the two Russian bases in the country and provided logistic support.

There are also military advisers providing training to the Syrian Army and assisting with military planning.

"[The advisers] successfully performed the task of training government forces, Kurdish and other patriotic forces. The fact that our advisers played an active part in planning military action contributed to the progress," Gen. Dvornikov said in the interview.

A Russian Special forces officer has died a hero in Syria during a target-designation mission near the city of Palmyra, a spokesman for the Russian military contingent at Hmeimim air base told reporters on Thursday.

The officer's name, rank and the date of the accident remain undisclosed.

According to the spokesman, "the officer carried out a mission in Tadmor near Palmyra for a week, spotting crucial ISIL facilities and providing precise coordinates for Russian airstrikes," as reported by RIA Novosti.

The spokesman stated that the soldier had been located and was surrounded by terrorists — and chose to draw their fire on himself.

"He died as a hero," the spokesman said.

Syrian Army troops and militias allied with them are pushing back Islamic State fighters from Palmyra, the city where the terrorists destroyed precious historic artifacts after capturing it last year, media reports say.

Pro-Damascus forces have ousted the militants of IS (formerly known as ISIS/ISIL) from the northern hotel district, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported. They are also advancing in the historic part of the city, which had been vandalized by IS, Itar-Tass reported citing a Damascus military source as saying.

The governor of the Homs province, Talal al-Barazi, told AP on Thursday that the Syrian Army could completely liberate the city in 48 hours.