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Philippines, France sign military pact amid South China Sea tensions

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The Philippines and France have signed a visiting forces agreement that would allow them to conduct joint military training in each other’s territory, as Manila expands defense ties amid rising tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea. Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and French Minister for the Armed Forces and Veterans Catherine Vautrin signed the agreement on March 26 during a meeting in Paris, where they discussed regional security challenges and reaffirmed support for rules-based international order. The two also called for “the peaceful resolution of disputes” and the need to strengthen supply chain resilience in times of crisis. “The agreement will greatly bolster bilateral cooperation and offer an adequate level of legal protection to the joint activities between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the French Armed Forces,” the Philippine defense department said in a statement. Aside from France, the Philippines also has the visiting forces agreements w...
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Hungary will cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine until Russian oil deliveries resume

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BY JUSTIN SPIKE AP  Hungary will gradually cut off gas supplies to Ukraine until  Russian oil deliveries  resume through the Druzhba pipeline, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Wednesday. The transit of natural gas through Hungary plays a key role in fulfilling the energy needs of Ukraine, now in its fourth year of war with Russia. Russian  oil supplies to Hungary  and Slovakia have been halted for nearly two months after what Ukrainian officials say were  Russian drone attacks  that damaged the pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory, and that continuous strikes risk the lives of technicians trying to repair it. The populist leaders of Hungary and Slovakia have accused Ukraine of deliberately holding up Russian deliveries. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that he is  reluctant to allow Russian oil  to continue transiting his country. In a video posted on social media Wednesday, Orbán called the Russian oil sto...
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Colombian president questions use of secondhand planes by nation’s military following deadly crash

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BY MANUEL RUEDA AP Colombian President Gustavo Petro  on Tuesday questioned the use of secondhand planes by the country’s armed forces, as officials investigate the  crash of a military transport plane that killed dozens of soldiers  in southwestern Colombia. “An army cannot defend its own people with crappy gifts,” Petro wrote on X in reference to the Hercules CJ-130, which was donated to Colombia by the United States. “They give away whatever is useless to them — and the ‘gift’ ends up costing more than buying it new.” On Monday a military transport plane crashed shortly after taking off in Colombia’s Putumayo province, with the Defense Ministry reporting Tuesday that 67 members of the armed forces and two policemen were killed in the accident. Officials said that 57 soldiers were rescued alive from the crash site in the remote municipality of Puerto Leguizamo, and were being treated for their injuries in the capital, Bogota and elsewhere. The Hercules CJ-130 was do...
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Chad relocates Sudan refugees as army deploys near border

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By Mahamat Ramadane Reuters Chad has begun the emergency relocation of refugees from its border with Sudan as the ‌army prepares to deploy to the area in response to ‌cross-border attacks, an official from the country’s refugee agency told Reuters on Monday. President Mahamat Idriss ​Deby last week ordered the army to prepare to retaliate after a cross-border drone attack from Sudan killed 17 people in Chad including mourners attending a funeral service. A separate government statement last week said Chad had strengthened its ‌security presence at the ⁠border and could potentially carry out operations on Sudanese territory. Initial refugee relocation operations will involve around 2,300 people, more ⁠than half of them women and children, said Saleh Tebir Souleymane, the representative in the border town of Tine for Chad’s National Commission for the ​Reception and ​Reintegration of Refugees and Returnees. They began ​moving people further into Chad, ‌away from the frontier, on Sat...
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Russia launches first rocket from repaired Baikonur launch pad

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 Russia launched a Soyuz rocket from a repaired launch pad ‌at its Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on ‌Sunday, restoring its capability to fly to the International Space ​Station for the first time since the launch pad was damaged last year. At 1200 GMT, a Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-33 cargo spacecraft ‌lifted off and ⁠was placed into orbit, Russia’s space agency said. The spacecraft is expected to ⁠dock with the International Space Station on March 24. The launch pad had been out of commission ​since it ​was badly damaged ​in November when a ‌Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut on board blasted off. No one was hurt and the crew safely reached the space station, but the incident deprived Russia ‌of its sole means ​of sending crew or cargo ​back to the ​ISS for months. While Russia has other ‌cosmodromes on its own territory ​and Baikonur ​has other launch sites, the damaged launch pad was the only one able to handle ​the So...
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Iran strikes near Israeli nuclear research center as Trump threatens attacks on Iranian power plants

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BY SAMY MAGDY, MELANIE LIDMAN and JILL LAWLESS AP  Iranian missiles struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research center, while President Donald Trump warned the U.S. will “obliterate” Iranian power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. The developments signaled  the war  was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week. Trump — who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar — issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home. Trump said he’s giving Iran 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face a new round of attacks. He said the U.S. would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Iran warned early Sunday that any strike on its energy facilities would prompt attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy...
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Hospital attack in Sudan kills 64, including 13 children

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 The World Health Organization ​said on Saturday ‌that a strike on a ​hospital in ​East Darfur, Sudan, killed ⁠at least ​64 people, ​including children, medical staff and patients, Director-General ​Tedros Adhanom ​Ghebreyesus said in a ‌post ⁠on X. WHO said the Friday attack on ​Al ​Deain ⁠Teaching Hospital has rendered ​the facility ​non-functional, ⁠cutting off essential medical services ⁠in ​the ​city. “As a result of this tragedy, the total number of fatalities linked to attacks on health facilities during Sudan’s war has now surpassed 2,000,” said Tedros, adding that over the nearly three-year conflict between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the WHO had confirmed the killing of 2,036 people in 213 attacks on healthcare. SOURCE: Reuters and agencies from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/ltJ8kr2
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