Global News

BY JON GAMBRELL AP | POSTED BY TOE Iran’s joint military command warned Thursday that all oil tankers moving through  the Strait of Hormuz  must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response,” again  ratcheting up tensions  over a waterway crucial for international energy supplies. The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations to reach a permanent end to the Iran war. The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state television, comes after both U.S. and Iranian diplomats met with  mediators on Wednesday in Qatar . It wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the threat from Iran. However, the U.S. military’s Central Command had put out a statement about having a meeting with officials from Mideast nations in Bahrain that said “leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of ...

By EDWARD ACQUAH, Associated Press Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential rain in the capital cities of Ghana and Ivory Coast have left at least 24 people dead, authorities said Tuesday, as emergency workers continued to pull hundreds of stranded residents from submerged buildings. Entire buildings and roads were submerged in Accra on Monday, cutting off access to several areas of the Ghanian capital and in the neighboring city of Tema. At least 12 people have been confirmed dead in Ghana, including a mother and her child who were both swept away in the Achimota-Agbogbloshie district, Alex King Nartey, a spokesperson for Ghana National Fire Service told The Associated Press. In Ivory Coast, several days of rain brought flooding that left more than a dozen people dead, most of them in municipalities of Attécoubé and Yopougon in the capital, Abidjan, according to the Minister of National Cohesion Myss Belmonde Dogo. Local media reported at least nine o...

By AFP and Posted by TOE Pakistan launched its deadliest attack on Afghanistan in months, with Islamabad saying on Monday it killed dozens of militants as the Afghan government reported civilian casualties. The nighttime strikes are the latest flare-up of violence between the neighbours whose relationship has been fraught since 2021, when the Taliban government took power in Kabul, and follow a weeks-long war that erupted in February. Pakistan’s information minister said air and ground operations killed 29 militants and were aimed at a group that it blames for a deadly weekend assault in Karachi, although Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours attackers. The Taliban government said the airstrikes hit three eastern provinces, killing 36 civilians and wounding 163. A resident of Paktia province, Adam Khan, said he “cannot put into words the condition of the children I saw at the hospital, or the screams of their parents and sibl...

By Darryl Coote UPI | Posted by TOE The United States and Iran have agreed to stop attacking one another, according to reports, a move that could end days of escalating strikes that threatened their brittle truce. The two countries have been in negotiations to end their war since signing a Memorandum of Understanding on June 17. But scheduled talks for Tuesday had appeared in jeopardy after Iran allegedly attacked a container ship on Thursday, triggering tit-for-tat strikes in which the U.S. military attacked Iran and Tehran attacked U.S. allies in the region. On Sunday, after both Bahrain and Kuwait said they had come under Iranian attack, the United States and Iran agreed to halt hostilities,  Axios ,  CNN  and  ABC News  reported, each citing an unnamed senior U.S. official. Iranian officials have yet to confirm the reported agreement. The United States and Iran, which have been at war since Feb. 28, signed a MOU toward ending the conflic...

By Gavin Blackburn EuroNews | Posted by TOE Emergency teams with rescue dogs are continuing the search for any remaining survivors of powerful twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela, where the death toll has surpassed 1,450 and nearly 200 buildings have completely collapsed. A man and his teen son were found alive under the rubble on Sunday by French and American rescue teams in Caraballeda, a town about 40 kilometres north of Caracas. The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but tens of thousands of people were still reported missing and the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims following a natural disaster has now passed. Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America’s most devastating earthquake disasters. Rescue teams from the United States, Mexico and elsewhere scrambled to save people as desperate resident...

By Nathan Rennolds EuroNews | Posted by TOE More than 68,000 people are reportedly still missing in Venezuela after two earthquakes devastated parts of the country earlier this week. Back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude tremors hit Venezuela on Wednesday, causing widespread destruction and killing 1,430 people. A further 3,238 people were injured. Emergency response teams have flown in from around the world to support the 30,000 Venezuelan specialists leading search and rescue efforts, as authorities race to recover survivors. Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said 24 countries have so far provided support, sending 521 tonnes of supplies, 86 canine teams and more than 2,741 search, rescue and support personnel. Many locals have also taken matters into their own hands, digging through mounds of rubble in an attempt to find their loved ones. Harrowing videos circulating on social media show rescuers pulling people, including infants, out from topp...