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Ukraine, Russia swap 193 prisoners of war

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Russia and Ukraine on Friday swapped 193 captured soldiers each, the second exchange this month in one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv. The two countries have exchanged thousands of POWs throughout the four-year war — with the swaps often the only result of otherwise stalled talks on ending the conflict. “193 Ukrainian warriors are returning home as part of a prisoner exchange,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. “We remember each and every one and continue working every day to bring our people home from Russian captivity.” AFP journalists at the scene of the swap in northern Ukraine saw dozens of exchanged Ukrainians pour off buses looking pale but relieved after long stints in Russian detention. They wrapped themselves in blue and yellow flags, embraced each other, or cried on the phone to loved ones. One of the servicemen, who identified himself to AFP only as Vadym, said that after three-and-a-half years in Russian detention h...
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More than 500 people killed in Tanzania election violence, inquiry finds

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Tanzania’s electoral violence last year left at least 518 dead, a government-appointed commission said Thursday, giving a figure far below opposition estimates and failing to say who was responsible. While President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared to have won 98 percent of the vote in the October 29 election — in which key opposition figures were barred from running — the polls triggered days of protests around the country that were brutally suppressed by security forces. Opposition and religious groups say thousands were killed by security forces, while Western diplomats have given estimates between 1,000 and 2,000. Hassan sought to depict the protests as pre-planned and implied they were orchestrated by foreigners. “The commission has told us that all the violence was planned, coordinated, financed and executed by people with training and equipment for committing crimes and destruction,” she said after the report was presented. She argued that Africa’s internal wars were usuall...
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Islamist Militants Kill Scores, Burn Homes in Late-Night Nigeria Attack

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By HARUNA UMAR AP Islamic militants attacked a remote village in northeastern Nigeria overnight, killing 11 people and leaving two critically injured, local officials said Wednesday. It was the latest violence in Africa’s most populous country that has long been battling a complex security crisis. The attack took place late on Tuesday in Pubagu, a community in a remote area on the fringes of Sambisa forest in Borno state, the epicenter of Nigeria’s long fight against an Islamic insurgency. Villagers said they buried the victims on Wednesday and attributed the attack to the extremist Boko Haram group. The local council chairman, Mwada Saidu Uba, told The Associated Press that the village had previously been considered a safe haven. “Pubagu is one of the locations in our council area that had never suffered such an attack until yesterday,” he said after the funerals. The two injured were receiving treatment at a nearby hospital, he added. Usman Rumirgo, a local ward official, said t...
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Scarce food, bleak futures spur Rohingya refugees to gamble with death at sea

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By Ruma Paul and Sam Jahan Reuters Rohingya refugee Rahila Begum spent two days adrift in the Andaman Sea this month, clinging to a wooden shard after her overcrowded boat capsized, one of the few survivors of a disaster that ​left 250 missing and feared dead. She was among the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who brave hunger and accidents on rickety boats each year to flee desperate conditions in ‌camps in southeastern Bangladesh for countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Hundreds die en route from hunger or accidents at sea, but the numbers keep growing as shrinking food rations caused by dwindling international aid push yet more to make the dangerous crossing. “I never thought I would survive,” said Begum, her voice thready from fever and aches as she sat, wrapped in a blanket, on a thin mat in her parents’ shack thrown together from tarpaulin sheets. “It felt like the end ​of my life.” The 26-year-old was rescued by a passing Bangladeshi oil tanke...
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Fears over Ethiopia peace deal as TPLF restores Tigray government

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Tigray’s main political party said it was taking back control of the region’s government, effectively voiding a peace deal with Ethiopia’s federal government that ended one of the century’s deadliest conflicts. The Tigray People’s Liberation ‌Front (TPLF) made the statement in a Facebook post on Sunday, accusing the federal government of violating the Pretoria Agreement, which ‌ended the two-year war. The statement said the government had provoked armed conflict within Tigray, withheld funds to pay regional civil servants and extended the tenure of the ​interim administration’s president without consulting the party. “It (the federal government) is in a hurry to launch a bloody war once again,” the statement said. The announcement prompted Getachew Reda, the party’s former spokesman and an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, to write on X on Sunday that the TPLF’s statement constituted “a clear repudiation” of the post-war structure created by the Pretoria Agreement. “T...
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Fire in Malaysia’s Sabah destroys 1,000 homes, thousands displaced

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A fire that tore through a Malaysian coastal settlement on Borneo Island destroyed about 1,000 homes and displaced over 9,000 people, authorities said. The fire started early Sunday in the Sandakan district and spread rapidly through rows of wooden houses constructed on stilts above the sea, according to the fire and rescue department. Officials said strong winds and the close proximity of the structures helped fuel the fire, while narrow access routes and low tide conditions made it harder for emergency crews to reach affected areas and contain the flames. No deaths have been reported, though thousands of residents have been forced from their homes and moved to temporary shelter. The cause of the fire has not been confirmed and remains under investigation. Water villages — informal settlements built over the sea — are found along much of the coastline of Sabah, one of the poorest states in Malaysia. The homes are tightly packed, made from combustible materials and often lack basic...
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North Korea fires ballistic missile as regional tensions simmer

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By HYUNG-JIN KIM and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea on Sunday, its neighbors said, days after the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog warned that North Korea was making “very serious” advances in efforts to build nuclear weapons. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches happened on Sunday morning from the Sinpo area, an eastern coastal site where North Korea has a major shipyard used for building submarines. South Korea’s military said it has bolstered its surveillance posture and is closely exchanging information with the U.S. and Japan. South Korea’s presidential office said its National Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the launches. Japan’s Defense Ministry also detected the launches, saying the weapons were believed to have landed in the waters off North Korea’s east coast. It said Tokyo strongly protested to Pyongyang, saying Sunday’s launches threaten regional and international pea...
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