Global News

By Reuters | Posted by TOE At least 73 people were killed when drones struck a market in the disputed Abyei region along the border of South ​Sudan and Sudan, the caretaker information minister for the jointly administered region said on ‌Tuesday, accusing Sudan’s army of carrying out the attack. The minister did not provide evidence for his claim of who was responsible for Monday’s attack. Abyei is an oil-rich area that is jointly administered by South ​Sudan and Sudan, which have both staked claims to it. It experiences frequent ​bouts of violence, with clashes usually involving rival ethnic groups or armed ⁠militias. “Around 73 people have been killed and 19 have been wounded … a number of ​drones were shot yesterday by the Sudanese armed forces,” Yohana Akol Ngor, the caretaker minister ​of information of the Abyei region, told Reuters on Tuesday. Last year, at least six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed and eight wounded in a d...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE At least 18 people were killed in an attack ​on Monday by the Iran-aligned Houthi ‌movement on a Yemeni government military training camp in Yemen’s Shabwa province, four government and medical sources told ​Reuters. The government sources said the attack, ​which targeted soldiers during a morning training, ⁠was carried out using three ballistic missiles. Fighting ​between the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised ​government and the Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north, has escalated in recent ​weeks, becoming another front in the wider regional ​conflict that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran ‌in ⁠late February. Earlier this month, government forces launched a campaign to recapture areas controlled by the Houthis, recovering ground near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait , a ​key shipping ​chokepoint at ⁠the mouth of the Red Sea. War broke out in Yemen in ​2014 when the Houthis...

By The Associated Press | Posted by TOE Ukrainian attacks set an oil export terminal ablaze in St. Petersburg on Sunday, as Kyiv launched more than 1,000 drones across Russia in one of its largest ever aerial bombardments. The attack comes amid deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington , with U.S. President Donald Trump criticizing Kyiv for its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. One person was killed and five more were wounded in the attack, which sparked fires at both the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the city’s Ruchi oil depot, said local Gov. Alexander Beglov. A logistics center belonging to Russian retailer Ozon and a data center for local tech giant VK were also targeted, both companies confirmed. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its forces had destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state n...

By Sergio Limachi Reuters | Posted by TOE  In the Bolivian Altiplano, where rising fuel costs are threatening farmers’ livelihoods, local resident Etson Machaca built a small plant ​that turns plastic bags, old tires and used oil into energy ‌for his tractors. Though the operation is small, producing only between 80 and 150 liters of gasoline and diesel a day, the savings are a lifesaver for Machaca after Bolivia’s ​centrist government last month ended state diesel subsidies in a bid to ​shore up public accounts. The plant produces fuel at a cost of ⁠between 7 and 10 bolivianos ($0.60 to $0.86) per liter. Prices for diesel on ​the open market are about double, at 18 bolivianos ($1.54) per liter. “We transform plastics, ​bags, tires, used oil. All of that has become raw material for us to produce fuel in the highlands,” said Machaca, whose plant is located in Ancocala, a community in ​the rural municipality of Laja, about 35 kilometers (22 m...

By JUSTIN KABUMBA and SALEH MWANAMILONGO ,Associated Press | Posted By TOE Former Congolese President Joseph Kabila on Monday launched a new political and military coalition of groups opposed to the current government, including the M23 rebels who have captured wide swaths of territory in eastern Congo. Kabila’s new Front for the Refoundation of the Nation, or FRN, includes rebel groups formerly united under the Congo River Alliance, whose former leader Corneille Nangaa will serve as one of the new coalition’s four vice presidents. Coalition adviser Claude Ibalanky said at a news conference late Monday at Kabila’s residence in the eastern city of Goma that the FRN’s mission is to restore the pillars of a functioning republic. It aims to “unite and coordinate all resistance forces in order to put an end to tyranny — by any means necessary, including the use of force,” Ibalanky said. “The signatories have decided to pool their forces, resources, a...

By Rob Johnson & Darryl Coote UPI | Posted by TOE  At least 139 people died and 84 were missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the United Nations’ migration agency said Sunday. Survivors said the incident happened off Djibouti’s coast in the Gulf of Aden near the Bab al-Mandeb strait late Thursday and early Friday, according to a statement form the International Organization for Migration The agency said the boat was carrying 305 people from the Horn African nation towards Yemen when it sank. “No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement. “We cannot keep treating these deaths as normal. Safe and legal pathways save lives. I am asking governments and donors to act before the next boat goes down.” Men, women and children were among those on the boat, with at least 15 children among the dead, according to the IOM , which...