Global News

By AFP and Posted by TOE Heavy gunfire rocked Somalia’s capital overnight, with smoke rising over the city and armed forces deployed on the streets on Thursday, AFP journalists reported, after clashes erupted between rival political factions ahead of planned protests. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud plunged Somalia into a fresh political crisis in mid-May after announcing a one-year extension of his term, which had been due to expire on May 15. The opposition and regional leaders have rejected the move and demonstrations against it were due to take place in Mogadishu on Thursday. But as opposition leaders came to the city ahead of the protests on Wednesday, clashes broke out and continued sporadically through the night, according to AFP journalists and witnesses in the area. “We did not sleep throughout the night because of sporadic gunfire,” said Xalimo Salad, a resident of Mogadishu’s Howl Wadaag district adding that “more intense gun...

By AFP and Posted by TOE A drone strike on a passenger terminal in Kuwait’s international airport wounded several people Wednesday and forced air traffic to be suspended, as Iranian and US forces traded attacks in the Gulf. The attacks marked one of the more severe tests yet of a fragile April 8 ceasefire, that has largely held despite sporadic strikes after more than a month of war sparked by the US and Israeli attack on Iran. Kuwaiti officials blamed the attack on the airport on Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards accused US forces of triggering the night’s sequence of attacks by targeting a communications tower on the country’s Qeshm Island, forcing it to respond. But, with Bahrein also complaining of an overnight drone attacks from Iran, the United Arab Emirates attempted to rally its Gulf neighbours in opposition to Tehran. “In light of Iran’s repeated aggression against the sisterly states of Kuwait and Bahrain, a firm, unified, and ...

By Andrew Osborn Reuters | Posted by TOE – President Vladimir Putin has read long-term ally Armenia the riot act: persist in wanting to join the European Union and you can kiss goodbye to cheap Russian oil and gas. The Russian leader issued the warning before a parliamentary election in Armenia on Sunday, which polls ‌suggest the party of Western-leaning Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will win. It is not an empty threat. Armenia, a landlocked country of 3 million with centuries-old ties to ‌Russia, is highly dependent on Moscow, which has imposed temporary bans on important Armenian exports before the vote. But Putin’s words also reflect an uncomfortable truth for Moscow. Waging war in Ukraine with no end in sight after more ​than four years of fighting, Russia is mounting an intensifying and increasingly complex rearguard action around the world to try to retain its geopolitical clout. While Moscow focuses resources on the war in Ukraine, the European ...

By Laila Bassam, Maya Gebeily and Hatem Maher Reuters | Posted by TOE Lebanon announced a partial ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel on Monday in what would amount to a limited de-escalation of a conflict that has killed thousands of people and inflamed the broader U.S.-Israeli ‌war with Iran. According to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, the agreement would not end the conflict in that country. But it calls for Israel ‌to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, while the Iran-aligned group would halt its attacks on Israel. Hostilities in southern Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March, continued on Monday ​evening. Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no injuries were reported. U.S. President Donald Trump, who first announced the agreement, said Hezbollah, through intermediaries, had pledged not to attack Israel. No U.S. presid...

By Don Jacobson UPI and Posted by TOE Fifty-five people were killed, including six children, in an accidental detonation of mining explosives in a rebel-held area of Myanmar, the armed group said Sunday. The Palaung Self Liberation Front/Ta’ang National Liberation Army, also known as the PSLF/TNLA, said  in a statement  that many others were also hurt in the blast, which happened Sunday afternoon local time in northern Shan State. Rescuers told  the Shwe Phee Myay News Agency the entire village of Kaung Tat in Namkham Township had been virtually destroyed and that “dozens” had been injured in the disaster. Local officials have sent out an urgent call for blood donations as emergency workers tried to free victims trapped in rubble. The PSLF/TNLA confirmed that many homes in the village were damaged when soft gunpowder stored for mining operations accidentally exploded at around 12:30 p.m. The fatalities included 25 females and 30 ...

By Associated Press | Posted By TOE Colombia’s government on Saturday rejected a move by Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa to eliminate tariffs on Colombian imports because of a tariff commitment made to an opposition candidate, calling it “deliberate interference” in the  ongoing electoral process . Noboa said Friday after talks with Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella that he was committed to jointly fight narcoterrorism and would eliminate a security tax on June 1. Colombia’s Foreign Ministry responded on Saturday by saying the repeal of tariffs imposed by Ecuador on bilateral trade stems from a resolution issued by the Andean Community of Nations and rejected its portrayal as “a goodwill gesture by the Ecuadorian leader.” The ministry also described Noboa’s remarks as “deliberate interference in the electoral process” and as “intrusion by a foreign leader” that constitutes a “flagrant violation of the principle of non-intervention in intern...