Global News

By Associated Press | Posted by TOE A mountainous heap of refuse collapsed at the largest landfill in Guinea ‘s capital of Conakry early on Sunday, killing 30 people, according to the central government. Authorities said that heavy rains, which started at around 2 a.m., washed over the refuse at Dar Es Salam — the largest landfill in Conakry — and triggered a landslide that buried nearby shacks. A search and rescue operation was underway to find survivors. Six people were seriously injured and several homes were destroyed. The site, an open-air waste dump which is the largest in the city, had been designated for closure on Sunday, according to Lt. Col. Baldé Mamadou Bailo, the sanitation officer for the military engineering battalion. Locals living around the landfill had been given eviction notices, which forced many to leave the area, but many others were still around at the time of the disaster, according to authorities. “We will ensure that the remaining famili...

By Reuters, Posted by TOE KINMEN, Taiwan — Peace can only be secured through strength and not even an inch of territory can be sacrificed, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on ⁠Sunday, visiting a sensitive frontline island to mark a key battle with Chinese forces almost seven decades ago. Taiwan has controlled the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which lie just off the Chinese coast, since the Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace ⁠treaty or armistice has ever been signed. In heavy rain, ​Lai ⁠laid a wreath and bowed at a memorial park for the 68th anniversary of the 1958 clash with Chinese forces, known as the start of the second Taiwan ⁠Strait crisis — the last time Taiwanese and Chinese forces battled on a large scale. Addressing veterans later, ​Lai ⁠expressed gratitude to those who “stood united and ‌fought a bloody battle to repel Communist totalitarian aggression”. “Our resolve to unite ...

 By Reuters | Posted by TOE At least 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded on Friday when several Russian drones ‌struck a shopping centre in central Ukraine, authorities said, with President ‌Volodymyr Zelenskiy promising a response to what he called an “act of barbarism.” Regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said ​that 22 children were among the wounded in the daytime attack on the city of Kryvyi Rih, which is Zelenskiy’s hometown. “There are 29 people in serious condition, including five children,” Hanzha said. He posted a photo of black ‌smoke billowing from a large ⁠industrial building. In an update early on Saturday, Hanzha said nine people were preliminarily considered missing, including two children, and ⁠that rescuers were continuing to clear the rubble of the shopping centre. Zelenskiy called the attack “absolutely cynical and despicable”, saying that a second Russian drone hit the shopping ​centre ​half an...

By JEAN FERNAND KOENA AP | Posted by TOE The death toll from  a gold mine collapse  in a western part of Central African Republic has risen to more than 100, a Red Cross volunteer involved in relief efforts and a local official said Wednesday. The low-tech, artisanal gold mine collapsed Tuesday morning in the village of Zamboye, in the Nana-Mambere prefecture, near the border with Cameroon. In addition to the dead, several survivors were critically injured, said Gervais Ganagoroh, a local Red Cross volunteer involved in relief efforts. The death toll is likely to rise since several people were still missing and others were trapped under the rubble, said Bertrand Be Yangué, a member of the Zamboye youth council. “Finding them alive would be a miracle,” Yangué said. “We are saddened and heartbroken to see young men and women perish after coming to the mines to save their families from despair.” An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of t...

By AFP | Posted by TOE NASA on Tuesday released new images of the crater caused by a SpaceX rocket slamming into the Moon earlier this month.  The photographs were captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) between August 11 and 12, and show the impact formed by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage striking the Moon’s surface on August 5. Scientists from the US space agency determined the crater was 60-feet-wide (18 meters), and less than 10 feet deep, based on the length of its shadow. The Falcon 9 launched in January 2025 carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 lunar lander, a private mission that made a soft landing on the Moon. These weren’t the first images of the crash site. The Korean space agency published pictures on August 6 that were taken a day earlier by Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri. The LRO, in service since 2009, circles the Moon from pole to pole every two hours while the Moon rot...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE  Somali federal troops drove opposition forces out of one of the country’s biggest cities, Baidoa, on Monday, following heavy clashes ‌that left many people dead, residents told Reuters. Baidoa, which is home to hundreds ‌of thousands of people displaced by conflict and hunger in other areas, was shaken by hours of ​fighting between the federal soldiers and opposition forces loyal to the former president of South West state, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed Laftagareen. Residents said the clashes in the city centre on Monday were the fiercest since March, when federal forces seized control of Baidoa after Laftagareen’s administration ‌said it was severing ties ⁠with the federal government. Laftagareen then resigned from office. Already struggling to contain a two-decade-old insurgency by the al Shabaab militant group and ⁠stave off famine, the federal government has been facing growing armed resistance from state governments. Sta...