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North Korea opens new housing district for families of Ukraine war dead

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touted a newly built street of flats for families of soldiers killed supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, state media reported Monday, with photos showing him accompanied by his daughter. North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to fight for Russia, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies, and Seoul has estimated that around 2,000 have been killed. Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return. “The new street has been built thanks to the ardent desire of our motherland that wishes that… its excellent sons, who defended the most sacred things by sacrificing their most valuable things, will live forever,” Kim said in a speech released by the official Korean Central News Agency. The report on Monday did not mention Russia, but Kim last week pledged to “unconditionally support” all of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies and decisions. “Befo...
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Zelensky labels Putin a ‘slave to war’

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “slave to war” in a speech to the Munich Security Conference Saturday, adding that Russia’s attacks had damaged every power plant in the country. Zelensky also drew parallels between the current Russia-Ukraine talks over territorial concessions and the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Hitler forced territorial concessions from the European powers — a year before World War II. Zelensky was speaking days before the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, which has killed hundreds of thousands, decimated eastern Ukraine and forced millions to flee. Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Moscow of deliberately freezing Ukraine’s population with its attacks on the energy grid. “There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that has not been damaged by Russian attacks,” Zelensky said. “Not one.” “But we still generate electricity,” he added, praising the thousands of workers repairing the plants. Once again...
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African Union summit clouded by Saudi-UAE rivalry in Horn of Africa

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A feud between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates across the Horn of Africa is overshadowing this weekend’s African Union summit, though most of the continent’s leaders will try to avoid taking sides, nine diplomats and experts said. What began as a rivalry in Yemen ‌has spread across the Red Sea into a region riven with conflicts – from war in Somalia and Sudan to rivalry between Ethiopia and Eritrea and a ‌divided Libya. In recent years, the UAE has become an influential player in the Horn – encompassing primarily Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti – through multi-billion-dollar investments, robust diplomacy and discreet military support. Saudi Arabia has been more low-profile but ​diplomats say Riyadh is building an alliance that includes Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. “Saudi has woken up and realised that they might lose the Red Sea,” a senior African diplomat told Reuters. “They have been sleeping all along while UAE was doing its thing in the Horn.” Initially f...
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Cyclone Gezani kills dozens, displaces thousands in Madagascar

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The death toll from Cyclone Gezani rose to 40 on Friday, three days after its passage across Madagascar, as officials struggled to restore widespread cuts to power and water supplies. In its latest update Friday, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNRGC) said 40 people had been killed and 427 people injured, as one aid worker spoke of “apocalyptic” scenes on the Indian Ocean island. Six people were still missing and the cyclone had affected 273,417 people — or 74,393 households, the BNRGC added. After visiting the island’s second-largest city of Toamasina, which bore the brunt of Gezani’s 250-kilometre-per-hour (155-mile-per-hour) winds, the World Food Programme’s Madagascar director Tania Goosens told journalists that “the scale of destruction is overwhelming”. “The authorities have reported that 80 percent of the city has been damaged,” she added. “The city is running on roughly five percent of electricity and there is no water,” she said, adding that the WFP’...
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Bangladesh’s BNP wins big in historic parliamentary election

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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has claimed victory in the country’s first election since the 2024 uprising, positioning itself to form the next government and potentially reshape Bangladesh’s political landscape after years of intense rivalry and disputed polls. Long overshadowed by his parents and heir to one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties, Tarique Rahman has finally stepped into the spotlight. At 60, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader is preparing to take charge of the South Asian nation of 170 million, driven by what he calls an ambition to “do better”. A year and a half after the deadly uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted regime, the BNP said they had a won a “sweeping victory” in parliamentary elections held on Thursday. Official results are yet to be declared, but the United States offered congratulations to Rahman on an “historic” win. His rise marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December a...
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Bangladesh votes in first election since Gen Z protests ousted former PM Sheikh Hasina

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By Tora Agarwala, Krishna N. Das and Ruma Paul Reuters Bangladeshis lined up outside polling booths on Thursday as voting began in a pivotal election for the South Asian nation after the 2024 ouster of long‑time premier Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z‑driven uprising. Analysts say a decisive result is crucial ‌for steady governance in the nation of 175 million, as the deadly anti-Hasina protests triggered months of unrest and disrupted key industries, including the huge garments sector, the ‌world’s second-largest exporter. It is the world’s first election after an uprising led by under-30s, or Gen Z, to be followed by Nepal next month. The contest pits two coalitions led by former allies, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the ​Islamist Jamaat‑e‑Islami, with opinion polls giving an edge to the BNP. In Dhaka, the capital, people queued up outside voting booths before polls opened at 7:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT), including eager participants like Mohammed Jobair Hossain, 39, wh...
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Mass shooting at school and home in Canada

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By Ben Simon AFP A mass shooting in a remote part of western Canada killed ten people on Tuesday, including seven who were shot at a secondary school, before the suspect took their own life. The killings occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies. A total of 27 people were wounded, including two with serious injuries and 25 others who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. Canadian media have reported that the shooter was female, but the RCMP declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity in a press conference on Tuesday. Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon. As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died while en route to hospital. Separately, police found two more dead bodies at a residence in Tumbler Ridge. Th...
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