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At least 34 dead as small boat sinks off Senegal

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By EVE BRENNAN, Associated Press and agencies | Posted by TOE At least 34 people died after a boat carrying migrants sank off Senegal’s coast, the country’s interior ministry said on Sunday. A small boat carrying migrants and refugees has sunk off northwestern Senegal, killing at least 34 people The ministry said in a post on X that as of Saturday evening one person had been found alive, and that teams had been mobilized to continue searching for any more possible survivors. It did not specify how many people were believed to have been on board. The ministry said the boat sank off the coast of the town of Kébémer, north of Dakar. It added that Senegal’s interior minister will visit the site on Monday. Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye offered condolences to the survivors and families of the victims in a statement. “No one should set out with the sea as their only horizon. We will relentlessly continue the fight against those who organize these crossin...
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Poland mourns six dead from Krakow shooting rampage

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By Damien SIMONART AFP | Posted by TOE Krakow’s Main Market Square remained sealed off Sunday while some mourners brought candles to pay tribute to six people killed by a gunman who authorities said was “fascinated by far-right ideologies”. A British national was among the dead, according to police. And among the 15 wounded were nationals from Austria, Britain, Germany, Portugal and Russia, authorities told the PAP news agency. Three more bodies were later found at the suspect’s home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, around 150 kilomeres (95 miles) northeast of Krakow. Police said they were his parents and a sister. The gunman was wounded by police during the rampage and is in critical condition in hospital. The 24-year-old Polish national opened fire atg random in the heart of Krakow’s historic centre. Prime Minister Donald Tusk labelled the shooting as an act of “terrorism” but police did not give a possible motive. Two poli...
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Thousands of Syrian troops to deploy to Yemen, Saudi Arabia

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By AFP | Posted by TOE Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials told AFP, as Riyadh rallies international help to repel the Houthis and bolster the government in Aden. It came after the two countries signed cooperation agreements this week including a defence deal, with Syria considering joining the recently enacted mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. Hundreds of Syrian troops have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official, with more to come. Later on Saturday, Syria’s official SANA news agency cited a diplomatic source who insisted Damascus had not sent troops to Yemen “at this time”. However, a source from the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen’s top governing body, told AFP that Syria would send as many as 3,000 troops to help fend off th...
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Iran war spurs crackdown on clerics in tiny Gulf state Bahrain

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By Timour Azhari Reuters | Posted by TOE Shaken by the accuracy of Iran’s attacks on Bahrain and support for them among some Bahrainis, authorities in the Gulf island nation have launched a crackdown on Shi’ite Muslim clerics they accuse of fostering allegiance to Tehran at home. Bahraini officials have framed the move in existential terms, ​saying Iran seeks to undermine and ultimately topple the leadership of the only Gulf country that is ruled by a Sunni Muslim family but populated mostly by Shi’ites. Critics, including rights groups, say the ‌arrests and the stripping of citizenship from 69 citizens of Iranian heritage are a new blow to free speech and religious freedom in a country that crushed 2011 Arab Spring pro-democracy protests. “We are confronting an ideology that demands obedience to Iran’s leadership above Bahrain’s sovereign authority,” Lt. Gen. Tariq Al Hassan, head of Bahrain’s Public Security agency res...
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Armed men kill at least 33 in village in Ebola-hit eastern DRC

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By Reuters | Posted by TOE Islamic State-linked militants raided a village in ​eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 33 ‌civilians and forcing patients with confirmed and suspected Ebola infections to flee, authorities said on Friday. The attackers set fire to a health ​post during their assault on Cantine-Aloya in North Kivu ​province, a hotspot of the Ebola outbreak coursing through ⁠Congo, officials said Patients from a nearby hospital also fled, including ​one confirmed Ebola patient and five suspected cases, among them ​three high-risk contacts, the head doctor there, Christian Kakule Vulembera, told Reuters The militants from the Allied Democratic Forces, a group recognised by Islamic ​State as an affiliate, set fire to several houses ​and killed civilians, Beni territorial administrator Colonel Charles Omeonga told Reuters He said ‌a ⁠death toll could not yet be established because heavy rain hampered army operations and investigations ...
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Saudi Arabia warns of potential danger in Yanbu oil hub as Houthi attacks continue

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By Reuters | Posted by TOE Saudi Arabia issued alerts on Thursday warning of potential danger in ​Yanbu, the kingdom’s Red Sea oil export hub, as Yemen’s ‌Iran-aligned Houthis continue attacks on the kingdom that have opened another front in the US-Israeli war on Iran. The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said it ​destroyed a missile launched by the group towards Islam’s holy ​city of Medina. The kingdom’s civil defence also issued emergency ⁠alerts for the southeastern area of Sharurah that borders Yemen. The Houthis ​had yet to claim any attack on the kingdom on Thursday. They said ​on Wednesday they had attacked Riyadh’s international airport while Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the kingdom. Saudi authorities have not confirmed the attack. The Syrian leader witnessed the ​signing of a defence agreement alongside Crown Prince Mohammed — their second meeting in ​Saudi Arabia in less than a month. ...
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Paraguay President Peña resigns under mounting pressure from bank collapse

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By AFP | Posted by TOE Paraguay’s Santiago Pena has had a colorful career, going from an IMF economist to finance minister to the youngest-ever president of his small South American nation. But who knows what comes next for the 47-year-old following his attempted resignation amid an explosive banking crisis that has blocked nearly half of Paraguay’s population from accessing their money. Pena took power in 2023, becoming the fresh young face of the conservative Colorado Party, which has ruled for nearly eight decades. Even the US-allied president’s peers turned against him following the dramatic takeover of a bank linked to him, with party leader and ex-president Horacio Cartes backing the impeachment of his erstwhile mentee. Pena’s departure likely won’t alter Paraguay’s close relationship with the United States, however, with Vice President Pedro Alliana of the same party preparing to take the reins. – ‘Difficult...
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