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Bangladesh votes in first election since Gen Z protests ousted former PM Sheikh Hasina

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By Tora Agarwala, Krishna N. Das and Ruma Paul Reuters Bangladeshis lined up outside polling booths on Thursday as voting began in a pivotal election for the South Asian nation after the 2024 ouster of long‑time premier Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z‑driven uprising. Analysts say a decisive result is crucial ‌for steady governance in the nation of 175 million, as the deadly anti-Hasina protests triggered months of unrest and disrupted key industries, including the huge garments sector, the ‌world’s second-largest exporter. It is the world’s first election after an uprising led by under-30s, or Gen Z, to be followed by Nepal next month. The contest pits two coalitions led by former allies, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the ​Islamist Jamaat‑e‑Islami, with opinion polls giving an edge to the BNP. In Dhaka, the capital, people queued up outside voting booths before polls opened at 7:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT), including eager participants like Mohammed Jobair Hossain, 39, wh...
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Mass shooting at school and home in Canada

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By Ben Simon AFP A mass shooting in a remote part of western Canada killed ten people on Tuesday, including seven who were shot at a secondary school, before the suspect took their own life. The killings occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies. A total of 27 people were wounded, including two with serious injuries and 25 others who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. Canadian media have reported that the shooter was female, but the RCMP declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity in a press conference on Tuesday. Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon. As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died while en route to hospital. Separately, police found two more dead bodies at a residence in Tumbler Ridge. Th...
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Russian forces pressuring Pokrovsk as ‘last battles’ rage

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By Dan Peleschuk Reuters Russian forces are trying to press forward around the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s military said on Monday, hoping to conclude a months-long campaign to ​seize the strategic hub as Moscow seeks to capture the whole of the Donetsk region. Ukraine has struggled ‌to halt slow Russian advances around Pokrovsk and elsewhere along the 1,200-km (746-mile) front line while it comes under U.S. pressure to reach a peace ‌deal to end the four-year war in ongoing talks. Kyiv’s General Staff said on Monday its forces still held the northern part of Pokrovsk, a city with a pre-war population of 60,000, and were also defending the smaller city of Myrnohrad nearby. Pokrovsk, a railway nexus, has been the site of fierce fighting since last year. Its fall would mark Russia’s biggest battlefield ⁠victory since it seized the eastern city ‌of Avdiivka in early 2024. Moscow claimed late last year to have captured Pokrovsk, which Kyiv denied. Analysts say Russia ...
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Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of military aggression, backing armed groups

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Ethiopia’s foreign minister has accused neighbouring Eritrea of military aggression and of supporting armed groups inside Ethiopian territory, according ​to a letter seen by Reuters and verified by the foreign ministry. The ‌two longstanding foes who waged war against each other between 1998 and 2000, signed a peace deal ‌in 2018 and were allies during Ethiopia’s two-year war against regional authorities in the northern Tigray region. But Eritrea was not a party to the 2022 agreement that ended the Tigray conflict, and relations between the two nations have plunged into acrimony since then. Recent clashes ⁠between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian ‌troops have raised fears of a return to war. An Eritrean government spokesperson said officials were checking whether the letter had been delivered ‍to the foreign ministry. The February 7 letter from Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos to his Eritrean counterpart, Osman Saleh, said Eritrean forces had occupied Ethiopian territory...
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Japan votes in snow-hit snap polls as Takaichi eyes strong mandate

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By Kyoko Hasegawa and Caroline Gardin AFP Japan voted in snow-hit snap elections Sunday with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hoping to turn a honeymoon start into a resounding ballot box victory that could rile China and rattle financial markets. Opinion polls suggest that Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost non-stop for decades, will easily win more than the 233 seats needed to regain a majority in the powerful 465-member lower house. Heavy snowfall blanketed many parts of the country on election day, including Tokyo and other regions that rarely see winter snow. “I think it’s important to come, so that we can properly take part in politics as well,” a 50-year-old woman, who only disclosed her surname as Kondo, told AFP near a voting station in Tokyo. “Even if it snows more than it does now, I still plan to go,” she added. “I struggled to find a way to the ballot box as snow was accumulating around it, and it was a pain to arrive here with bad road...
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Thousands mourn 31 victims of Islamabad Shia mosque bombing in Pakistan

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By Asif Shahzad Reuters Thousands of mourners gathered in Islamabad on Saturday to start burying the 31 killed in a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite Muslim mosque, as residents expressed concern that there could be further attacks. A man opened fire at the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, then detonated a bomb that killed 31, as well as himself, and injured more than 170 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. Funeral prayers for some of the victims were held in an open area near the mosque on Saturday morning under tight security, with police and a unit of elite commandos standing guard. Mourners beat their chests before stooping to lift the coffins and carry them toward the burial grounds. “Whoever did this terrorism, may God burn them in hell and turn them to ash,” the prayer leader told mourners. While bombings are rare in heavily guarded Isla...
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Nigeria deploys army to Kwara state after deadly mass shootings

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By Muhammad Tanko Shittu AFP Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deployed an army battalion to a troubled state after gunmen killed as many as 162 people in one of the country’s deadliest attacks in recent months. The attack late Tuesday on Woro village in Kwara State came after the military recently carried out operations in the area against what it called “terrorist elements”. Gunmen burned shops and a traditional ruler’s home and wounded people fled into the bushes, Babaomo Ayodeji, Kwara State secretary of the Red Cross, told AFP. “Reports said that the death toll now stands at 162, as the search for more bodies continues,” Ayodeji said. The attack was confirmed by police who did not give a casualty figure. Earlier, a local lawmaker Sa’idu Baba Ahmed gave an initial toll of 35-40 dead but said more bodies would be found as many wounded people had fled into the bush. The governor of the west-central state AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq gave a toll of 75 dead. Conflicting accounts o...
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