Bomb attack plans found at Austria gunman’s homeMazzaltov World News provides you with the latest live coverage of Current Affairs, Sports, Health, Weather, Entertainment, Business and Travel News from around the world.
Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 11 June 2025:
- AUSTRIA– Abandoned plans for a bomb attack have been found at the home of the suspected gunman in a school shooting in Austria, police have said
- FRANCE– Two French antiques experts have been convicted of forging historic chairs that they claimed had once belonged to French royals such as Marie Antoinette.
- POLAND: Prime Minister Donald Tusk has won a vote of confidence in his pro-EU government after his political camp narrowly lost the recent presidential election.
- UKRAINE: The bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian soldiers have been returned from Russia, Kyiv says, as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between the warring countries.
- ITALY: A referendum in Italy on easing citizenship rules and enhancing workers’ rights has been declared invalid.
Austria: Bomb attack plans found at gunman’s home
Abandoned plans for a bomb attack have been found at the home of the suspected gunman in a school shooting in Austria, police have said.
Police in the south-eastern city of Graz also found a non-functional pipe bomb, and a “farewell” letter and video during the search, they said in a statement.
Ten people were killed in the attack at the secondary school on Tuesday – the deadliest in the country’s recent history.
The suspect, a 21-year-old former student at the school, took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the attack, according to police. Authorities have not yet drawn any conclusions on the gunman’s possible motive.
The incident, which left a further 11 people injured, took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city.
Six females and three males were killed in the attack, and a seventh female later died in hospital.
The victims were a teacher and nine students aged between 14 and 17, police said. All were Austrian citizens, except for one who was Polish.
The 11 injured – aged between 15 and 26 – are not in a critical condition, police said.
Police said the suspect was born in Styria – the region in which Graz sits – and lived with his single mother, who was also Austrian, in the Graz-Umgebung District.
They added that his father, of Armenian origin, had not lived with them since his parents’ separation.
Current information suggests the shooter legally owned the two guns used in the attack – a pistol and a shotgun – and had a firearms licence, police said. They addedthat the guns would be forensically examined.
The gunman, who has not yet been named, did not graduate from the school, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a news conference earlier. He was not known to the authorities prior to the attack, police also confirmed.
France: Antiques fraudsters found guilty of Versailles chair scam
Two French antiques experts have been convicted of forging historic chairs that they claimed had once belonged to French royals such as Marie Antoinette.
Georges “Bill” Pallot and Bruno Desnoues were given four months behind bars as well as longer suspended sentences for selling a number of fake 18th Century chairs to collectors including the Palace of Versailles and a member of the Qatari royal family.
As both have already served four months in pre-trial detention, they will not return to prison.
Another defendant, Laurent Kraemer, who – along with his gallery – was accused of failing to adequately check the chairs’ authenticity before selling them on, were acquitted of deception by gross negligence
Poland: PM Donald Tusk wins confidence vote
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has won a vote of confidence in his pro-EU government after his political camp narrowly lost the recent presidential election.
Some 243 parliamentarians voted in favour of the coalition government, with 210 voting against and no abstentions.
This vote has been seen by some as a piece of political theatre on the part of Tusk – a way of showing his broad coalition still has a mandate despite the presidential election defeat.
Wednesday’s vote was also a formality. Tusk’s coalition has a 12-seat majority in the lower house, the Sejm, and only a simple majority in the presence of half the 460 parliamentarians was required to win.
Ahead of the vote, Tusk told the house that they could not “close their eyes” to the reality that his government faces “greater challenges” thanks to the election of Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by the Law and Justice (PiS) opposition.
Poland’s president can veto legislation and Nawrocki – a socially conservative supporter of US President Donald Trump who opposes a federal Europe and Ukraine’s entry to Nato and the EU – is expected to continue to use this power as the conservative incumbent, Andrzej Duda, has done during the first 18 months of Tusk’s term in office.
Tusk’s coalition lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn a presidential veto. Nothing can be done about that, but a reconfirmation by parliament puts Tusk’s government on the front foot again, at least for now.
He has also announced a cabinet reshuffle would take place in July.
“I’m asking you for a vote of confidence because I have the conviction, faith and certainty that we have a mandate to govern, to take full responsibility for what is happening in Poland,” Tusk said.
“We are facing two and a half years, in difficult conditions, of full mobilisation and full responsibility.”
He referred to Polish tennis star Iga Swiatek’s recent unsuccessful attempt to win a fourth straight French Open title at Roland Garros, quoting the Frenchman’s famous quote: “Victory belongs to the most tenacious.”
Ukraine: Kyiv collects 1,212 bodies in latest swap with Russia
The bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian soldiers have been returned from Russia, Kyiv says, as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between the warring countries.
In return Russia received 27 bodies, Moscow’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said.
The prisoner exchange deal was the only tangible result of peace talks in Turkey last week, with both sides agreeing to hand over as many as 6,000 dead bodies each, as well as sick and heavily wounded prisoners of war, and those aged under 25.
Medinsky announced that Russia would begin exchanging “severely wounded prisoners” on Thursday.
Italy: Citizenship referendum void after low turnout
A referendum in Italy on easing citizenship rules and enhancing workers’ rights has been declared invalid.
Around 30% of voters participated – well short of the 50% threshold required to make the vote binding – in the poll, which began on Sunday and ran until 15:00 (14:00 BST) on Monday.
The ballot featured five questions covering different issues, including a proposal to halve the length of time an individual has to live in Italy before they can apply for citizenship from 10 to five years.
The referendum was initiated by a citizens’ initiative and supported by civil society groups and trade unions, all of whom campaigned for the Yes vote.