Moscow's mayor has called a bomb attack on a restaurant a "brutal terrorist act" but hasn't specified who is responsible. The blast on Saturday at the Balzi Rossi, an upscale Italian restaurant, killed three people, including the woman bomber, according to Russian state media. At least 21 people were wounded. A probe into the attack is underway, with no one yet claiming responsibility. Earlier this year, Russia announced tighter security after assassination attempts following the invasion of Ukraine. So far, authorities haven't linked this blast to those attacks or the war in Ukraine.

A man has been convicted of federal terrorism charges in the 2022 stabbing of author Salman Rushdie. A jury delivered its verdict Wednesday in Buffalo, New York. Jurors found Hadi Matar guilty of all the charges against him, including engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. The 28-year-old had pleaded not guilty. Matar already is serving a 25-year New York state prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction in the August 2022 attack. Rushdie has faced a decades-old death threat over his novel “The Satanic Verses.”

Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has repeatedly run into trouble with both the Kremlin and Western officials as he cast himself as a champion of free speech. Russia’s Federal Security Service accuses him of aiding what it called terrorist activities. It also said it was adding Durov’s name to international wanted lists. The Russian-born Durov, 41, responded by posting a photo of himself raising a middle finger on Telegram’s official account on X. The case marks an escalation of the Kremlin’s efforts to tighten control over the internet and digital communications amid growing public fatigue with the 4-year-old war in Ukraine and its growing economic fallout.

The man who was convicted of trying to kill Salman Rushdie is on trial again. Prosecutors and defense lawyers gave opening statements Wednesday in Hadi Matar’s federal terrorism trial in Buffalo, New York. The Booker Prize-winning Rushdie is expected to testify later this week. He was stabbed on a lecture stage in 2022. The 28-year-old Matar has pleaded not guilty. He is serving a 25-year prison sentence on an attempted murder conviction. The federal case is expected to delve more into questions of motive. Prosecutors argue that Matar was acting out of loyalty to Iran’s theocratic government and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for Rushdie’s death following his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses.”