Russian commandos have killed a prominent member of Ukraine's ultra-nationalist Right Sector group, the Russian defense ministry claimed on Monday. Taras Bobanich was accused by Moscow of causing hundreds of civilian deaths in eastern Ukraine during hostilities in 2014.

A Russian recon team killed the top Neo-Nazi while on patrol about 5km south from the city of Izium in Ukraine's Kharkov region, the ministry statement explained. It said he was a deputy commander of the Right Sector responsible for reserve operations.

The ministry didn't disclose the circumstances of Bobanich's death. The Right Sector's social media reported that he was killed on Friday near Izium, calling him a "legendary nationalist".

© Russian Defence MinistryTaras Bobanich

The 33-year-old, whose nickname was "Hummer", came originally from western Ukraine. He rose to national prominence during the mass protests and armed coup of 2013-2014, during which Western-backed Ukrainian nationalists served as a street fighting force against law enforcement.

The coup ended with the toppling of Ukraine's democratically elected president and a rebellion in the east of the country, which the new authorities in Kiev tried to quash with military force. The nationalists formed so-called "volunteer battalions" to participate in the fighting.

According to Russia, Bobanich had personally ordered the indiscriminate artillery shelling of cities in eastern Ukraine during the hostilities, which allegedly resulted in hundreds of deaths.

In addition to serving as a nationalist military commander, Bobanich played a prominent role in the blockade of trade between Ukraine and Crimea in the autumn 2015. The blockade was organized by nationalist forces who wanted to punish people living on the peninsula for breaking away from Ukraine a year prior and voting to rejoin Russia.

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia's eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

Six persons working at a chemical factory were killed in an explosion in the Bharuch district of Gujarat, India, Report informs, citing Hindustan Time.

The company is into solvent distillation process and a reactor suddenly blew off, killing six people working there, Bharuch Superintendent of Police said.

The investigation is on to determine the exact cause of the blast, and an FSL report will soon be prepared, according to police.

Energy provider Con Edison said a manhole cover explosion in Times Square Sunday that sent throngs of tourists running for their lives was caused by an underground power cable failure - though nobody was injured as a result of the blast.

'We can confirm that a manhole exploded in the Times Square area this evening due to cable failure, and another manhole was smoking,' the company said in a statement. 'At this time, there have been no customer outages, and no reports of injuries or property damage.'

Videos from the the scene show pedestrians dashing through the Crossroads of the World just before 7 p.m. - with one nearby resident saying the blast shook her 'whole apartment.'

In a video posted to social media, a young woman films herself as crews respond to the manhole fires. The explosion is then heard and she begins to run.

'What the f***?' What the f*** was that?'

FDNY officials also found elevated carbon monoxide levels at 229 West 43rd Street after the blast. High levels of the odorless and colorless gas, which can lead to brain damage or death, were likely caused by the entrapped manhole fires.

Firefighters were in the process of 'venting and mitigating the cellar and sub-cellar of the location' before they handed the scene over to utility companies by 9 p.m.

The explosion rattled an already jittery city that has seen crime skyrocket since the start of the pandemic. Overall crime is up 44.13 percent across the city from this time last year, with shooting victims up 14.5 percent.

The blast took place as crowds were gathering outside theaters for Broadway shows in the popular tourist hub.

One video shows fearful crowds running down the sidewalk as others join in without knowing what's really happening.

'I don't know what it is but...,' a man says in one video 'What is it? I heard something.'

The blast was likely caused by three manhole fires reported in the area, the FDNY said.

The cause of Sunday's fires has not been determined.

Footage from the 24/7 EarthCam above Duffy Square - site of Times Square's iconic red steps - shows a crowd lingering in the area just before 7pm when, suddenly, groups of people start running in one direction.

The square is partially emptied out by the time the panic dies down a few seconds later.

One nearby resident tweeted: 'Feeling relieved. With it being the start holy week, I was very scared. When I say my whole apartment shook, my goodness! Hoping to get more details on the manhole explosion. Two in two years. Wild.'

The city's fire department was assisting utility companies in finding out the cause of the manhole fires that led to the blast. The scene was turned over to the utility companies by 9pm.

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Five people have been left injured by a shooting at a cafe in the southern Israeli town of Rahat, marking the latest outbreak of gun violence in a country that's on edge over a wave of recent similar attacks.

The latest shooting occurred on Friday, leaving two of the victims hospitalized in serious condition. It came just one day after a terrorist attack killed three people and injured 10 in Tel Aviv. Police said the incident in Rahat, a predominantly Bedouin town about 80 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem, likely stemmed from an ongoing conflict between two families - not terrorism - according to Israeli media outlets.

Four unidentified suspects were arrested on Saturday. Another cafe owned by the same family was targeted by gunfire on Wednesday, and the business has faced protests, reportedly because it allows men and women to sit together. Two Rahat residents were arrested over Wednesday's shooting.

Footage posted on social media shows the mess left behind at the cafe targeted in Friday's incident. Tables, chairs and shelves were left overturned, and large holes were blown in the front door.

"It was like a terrorist attack, shots all over the place," one witness told Haaretz newspaper. "Masked men started breaking things in the cafe. There was a lot of chaos. It was scary."

Could it be that police are trying to disguise an attack by Israelis as a 'family feud'?

At least 14 people have been killed since last month in a spate of terrorist attacks in Israel. The latest bloodshed began when a man opened fire outside a bar on Tel Aviv's bustling Dizengoff Street on Thursday night. The suspect, identified as 28-year-old Palestinian Raad Hazem, was killed hours later in a shootout with security forces.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has vowed a counter-terrorism crackdown that will give security forces "full freedom" to act after Israel's deadliest series of attacks since 2006. He warned last week that more violence was expected and said security forces had foiled more than 15 planned attacks in recent weeks.

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