Global News

By José Arturo Cárdenas AFP | Posted by TOE Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to raze anti-government roadblocks that have paralyzed the Andean nation. For more than six weeks, unions, Indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government. Major cities have suffered acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine, the economy has lost billions of dollars, and the protests have threatened to topple Bolivia’s first non-socialist government in two decades. President Rodrigo Paz appeared in a predawn televised address on Saturday to warn protesters they would face “the full force of the law” as he moved to end the crisis.  He declared a 90-day state of emergency, which curbs the right to protest and allows the military to be deployed domestically. Hours after...

By Claire DOYEN AFP | Posted by TOE Ebola is spreading again in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict, mistrust and the lack of a vaccine have made the outbreak hard to contain.  The virus, transmitted through close contact and bodily fluids, can cause a fatal haemorrhagic fever and has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.  Here is a look back at developments during the latest outbreak: – How did it begin? – The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak was officially declared on May 15 but is believed to have been spreading under the radar for weeks.  The World Health Organization had already been alerted on May 5 to a mysterious and deadly illness in the mining town of Mongbwalu, where four health workers died within days. In northeastern Ituri province, locals told AFP of unexplained deaths that had been fuelling rumours of a “mystical illness” as far back as March.  Heal...

By Pierre DONADIEU AFP | Posted by TOE A group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed Thursday’s attack on the airport of Niger’s capital, Niamey that killed at least 11 soldiers and two civilians, six months after other jihadists staged a large assault on the sensitive site. Twenty-two attackers were also killed as security forces repelled the raid on the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s defence ministry said. Gunfire erupted early in the morning and rang out for hours near the airport, where a large military presence was later deployed, residents said. In the evening, a brief statement from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM using its Arabic acronym, said it had carried out “a suicide attack” on the airport and on a neighbouring military base. The group is Al-Qaeda’s Sahel branch. Niger has been ruled for three years by a military junta, which has struggled to contain jihadist violence that has rock...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE Explosions and sustained gunfire were heard early on Thursday morning at the airport and military airbase ‌in Niger’s capital Niamey, witnesses said, in what a ‌security source described as an apparent attack on the facility. There was no immediate claim ​of responsibility for an attack. A Niger government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Islamic State affiliate in the region claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport in January. At ‌the time, the group ⁠said it had targeted air command headquarters and drone assets and claimed to have “delivered a direct blow” to ⁠the Sahel country’s counterinsurgency operations. Niger, like its Sahel neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, has struggled to contain attacks from jihadist groups linked to al ​Qaeda and ​Islamic State that have killed ​thousands and displaced millions across ‌the three countries. On Thursday morning, the firs...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE South Korea will shift a line running parallel to the military border ‌with North Korea to narrow the area that ‌restricts civilian access to reflect an evolving security environment and for the ​convenience of local residents, the defence minister said on Wednesday. The so-called Civilian Control Line is currently as much as 10 km (6.2 miles) to the south of the Military ‌Demarcation Line (MDL) drawn up ⁠at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Authorisation by the military is required ⁠to enter the area. Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the change that will shift the civilian access line by an ​average of ​6 km from the ​MDL is in response ‌to years of requests by residents and is made possible by improved defence readiness. As many as 20,000 people reside inside the zone according to media reports, and others enter the area to farm or work going through authorisation ‌procedures. The ministry also announced other ​changes that will ea...

By SYLVIE CORBET, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and AAMER MADHANI AP U.S. allies at the Group of Seven summit of major industrialized nations worked Tuesday to push the  war in Ukraine  back up the agenda of President Donald Trump after more than four years of fighting sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Iran conflict  has in recent weeks overshadowed the war in Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched. Host President Emmanuel Macron of France said he’ll seek to persuade Trump to continue supporting Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to help reach a peace agreement. As the U.S. under Trump has cut back aid to Ukraine, France and its European allies are now the biggest providers of military and financial support to Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined G7 leaders for a morning working session but talks wrapped quickly, as leaders gathered for just 75 minutes, according to the French G7 presidency. The Ukraine...