Global News

By Felix Light Reuters Many thousands of demonstrators gathered late on Saturday in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, building barricades, breaking windows and setting off fireworks outside parliament, in protest against the government which called off talks to join the EU. Riot police responded by firing water cannon and tear gas into the crowds. The demonstrations were by far the biggest since the increasingly anti-Western ruling party was re-elected last month in a vote the pro-EU opposition says was rigged. At one point a small fire broke out in the parliament building, possibly caused by a firework. Protesters burned an effigy of Georgia’s richest man, the ruling party’s founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, on the steps of parliament. Georgian media reported other protests in towns and cities throughout the country. Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze accused the pro-EU opposition of plotting a revolution. The State Security Service said political parties were attempting ...

Kenyan President William Ruto said on Saturday he and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni would help mediate between Ethiopia and Somalia in a dispute that threatens to destabilise the  Horn of Africa  region. Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops in Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked insurgents, has angered the Mogadishu government with its plan to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland. Somaliland, which in exchange for the port could gain possible recognition as an independent nation from Ethiopia, has struggled to gain international recognition despite governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991. The spat has drawn Somalia closer to  Egypt , which has quarrelled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the Nile River, and  Eritrea , another of Ethiopia’s foes. “Because the security of Somalia … contributes significantly to the stability of our reg...

By SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press  Insurgents breached Syria’s largest city Friday and clashed with government forces for the first time since 2016, according to a war monitor and fighters, in a surprise attack that sent residents fleeing and added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars. The advance on Aleppo followed a  shock offensive launched  by insurgents Wednesday, as thousands of fighters swept through villages and towns in Syria’s northwestern countryside. Residents fled neighborhoods on the city’s edge because of missiles and gunfire, according to witnesses in Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country’s unresolved civil war, said dozens of fighters from both sides were killed. The attack injected new violence into a region experiencing dual wars in Gaza and Lebanon involving Israel, and other conflicts, including the Syrian civil war that began in 2011. Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since...

BY CHINEDU ASADU, Associated Press — At least 27 people died and more than 100, mostly women, were missing on Friday, after a boat transporting them to a food market capsized along the River Niger in northern Nigeria, authorities said. About 200 passengers were on the boat that was going from the state of Kogi to neighboring state of Niger when it capsized, the Niger State Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ibrahim Audu told The Associated Press. Rescues managed to pull 27 bodies from the river by Friday evening while local divers were still searching for others, according to Sandra Musa, spokeswoman for the Kogi state emergency services. No survivor was found about 12 hours after the incident occurred, she added. Authorities have not confirmed what caused the sinking but local media suggested the boat may have been overloaded. Overcrowding on boats is common in remote parts of Nigeria where the lack of good roads leaves many with no alternative routes. According to Justin Uwa...

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv were to acquire nuclear arms. The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested U.S. President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office. “If the country which we are essentially at war with now becomes a nuclear power, what do we do? In this case, we will use all, I want to emphasize this, precisely all means of destruction available to Russia. Everything: we will not allow it. We’ll be watching their every move”, Putin said during a press conference in Astana, Kazakhstan. “If officially someone were to transfer something, then that would mean a violation of all the non-proliferation commitments they have made,” Putin said. Putin also said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of “dirty bomb”, a conventional bomb laced wit...

By Maya Gebeily and Aziz Taher Reuters – A  ceasefire  between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held on Wednesday under a deal brokered by the U.S. and France as people in both countries began returning to homes in the border area shattered by 14 months of fighting. The agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region racked by conflict, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in years. But Israel is still fighting its other arch foe, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in the  Gaza Strip . Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the heavily bombed Lebanese port city of Tyre heading south, carrying some of the roughly 1.4 million people believed to have been uprooted by the conflict. In the first statement by Hezbollah’s operations centre since the truce was announced, the group made no direct mention of the ceasefire and vowed to continue its resistance. Hezbollah sai...

South Korea grappled with heavy snowfall for a second day on Thursday, with dozens of flights cancelled, ferry operations suspended and at least four people reported dead in a bitter winter, though conditions showed signs of easing. The winter snowfall was the third-heaviest in Seoul, the capital, since records began in 1907, the Yonhap news agency said, citing data from the city. More than 40 cm (16 inches) of snow piled up in parts of Seoul by 8 a.m., forcing the cancellation of more than 140 flights, although weather officials lifted heavy snow warnings in the capital’s metropolitan area by 10 a.m. on Thursday. One person died and two were injured at a golf range after a net overladen with snow collapsed late on Wednesday, while another was killed in the similar collapse of a protective tent at a car park, media said. Traffic accidents on highways east of the capital killed at least two more, reports showed. Police said 11 people were injured on Wednesday evening in a 53-vehicle...

A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah came into effect at 0200 GMT on Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France. Bursts of gunfire could be heard across Beirut after the ceasefire took effect. It was not immediately clear if the shooting was celebratory, as gunfire had also been used to alert residents who may have missed evacuation warnings issued by Israel’s military. Streams of cars began heading to southern Lebanon, which borders Israel, after the ceasefire early on Wednesday, according to Reuters witnesses. The ceasefire promises to end a  conflict  across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the  Gaza war  last year. Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel’s security cabinet approved the  agreement  in a 10-1 vote. He said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netany...

China’s military said on Tuesday it deployed naval and air forces to monitor and warn a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft that flew through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, denouncing the United States for trying to “mislead” the international community. Around once a month, U.S. military ships or aircraft pass through or above the waterway that separates democratically governed Taiwan from China – missions that always anger Beijing. China claims sovereignty over the island of Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the strait is an international waterway. The U.S. Navy’s 7th fleet said a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft had flown through the strait “in international airspace”, adding that the flight demonstrated the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nation...

By Sarah Morland Reuters Survivors of sexual violence in Haiti face worsening risks and dwindling support amid the growing influence of armed gangs, a collapsed healthcare system and a frozen justice system, a report warned on Monday. Nearly 4,000 women and girls reported being victims of sexual violence in the first 10 months of 2024, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in the report, noting that many people do not report due to fear of retaliation and poor prospects of receiving help. Those who do seek care often cannot do so within the critical 72-hour window to access drugs to treat HIV exposure or emergency contraception, the report said, as many cannot afford private healthcare and as public clinics shut down due to violence. In October, the U.N. warned that just 24% of health facilities were operating in Port-au-Prince’s metropolitan area. This month Doctors Without Borders, a major free healthcare provider,  halted operations , citing rape and death threats from police. Hait...

By Devjyot Ghoshal and Poppy Mcpherson Reuters  One day in July, Rafiq slipped out of the world’s largest refugee settlement in southern Bangladesh and crossed the border into Myanmar on a small boat. His destination: a ruinous civil war in a nation that he had fled in 2017. Thousands of Rohingya insurgents, like 32-year-old Rafiq, have emerged from camps housing over a million refugees in Cox’s Bazar, where militant recruitment and violence have surged this year, according to four people familiar with the conflict and two internal aid agency reports seen by Reuters. “We need to fight to take back our lands,” said Rafiq, a lean and bearded man in a Muslim prayer cap who spent weeks fighting in Myanmar before returning after he was shot in the leg. “There is no other way.” The Rohingya, a mainly Muslim group that is the world’s largest stateless population, started fleeing in droves to Bangladesh in 2016 to escape what the United Nations has called a genocide at the hands of Bu...

Heavy rainfall in Bolivia over Saturday night caused the Pasajahuira river to overflow, flooding the neighborhood of Bajo Llojeta on the outskirts of La Paz and leaving many people trapped in their homes awaiting rescue teams. “There was screaming and terrible desperation,” Bajo Llojeta’s municipal president, Julieta Clavijo, told Reuters. “A 4-year-old girl is missing and her parents are desperate. People had to leave their houses through the roofs because there was no other way to get out because the mud was already too deep,” Clavijo said. Civil defense vice minister Juan Carlos Calvimontes confirmed that rescue teams were searching for a young girl. At least 26 people have been injured and more than 40 houses damaged by the flood, according to local authorities. Some 300 military personnel were deployed to help evacuate residents and clean up the area. President Luis Arce also visited the community and vowed to carry out “all the work necessary” the restore the area and open a...

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Fighting between armed Sunni and Shiite groups in northwestern Pakistan killed at least 37 people and injured 25 others, a senior police officer from the region said Saturday. The overnight violence was the latest to rock Kurram, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and comes days after a deadly gun ambush killed 42 people. Shiite Muslims make up about 15% of the 240 million people in Sunni-majority Pakistan, which has a history of sectarian animosity between the communities. Although the two groups generally live together peacefully, tensions remain, especially in Kurram. The station house police officer in Kurram, Saleem Shah, said armed men in Bagan and Bacha Kot torched shops, houses and government property. Intense gunfire was ongoing between the Alizai and Bagan tribes in the Lower Kurram area. “Educational institutions in Kurram are closed due to the severe tension. Both sides are targeting each other with heavy and automatic weapons,”...

Heavy gunfire erupted in South Sudan’s capital Juba on Thursday evening after security forces moved to arrest the former head of the intelligence service, according to Reuters reporters and an alert sent to United Nations staff. The gunfire began around 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) and continued sporadically for more than an hour before dying down, Reuters reporters said. A U.N. safety alert to staff members in Juba, seen by Reuters, said the shooting was related to the arrest of the former head of the National Security Service (NSS). It urged U.N. staff to shelter in place. In early October, President Salva Kiir  dismissed  Akol Koor Kuc, who had led the NSS since the country’s independence from Sudan in 2011, and appointed a close ally to replace him. Army spokesperson Major General Lul Ruai Koang said Akol Kuur had not been arrested and had stayed in his house throughout the shooting. Koang said he would address reporters later on Friday after a meeting with other secur...

The Palestinian Authority and militant group Hamas both welcomed the International Criminal Court’s arrests warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister over the Gaza war. “The State of Palestine welcomed the decision” to issue the warrants against Netanyahu and ex-defence minister Yoav Gallant, the Palestinian Authority said in a statement published by official news agency Wafa. The ICC said it had found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. “The ICC’s decision represents hope and confidence in international law and its institutions,” the Palestinian statement said, urging ICC member states to sever “contact and meetings” with Netanyahu and Gallant — who was sacked by the Israeli prime minister earlier this month. The statement from the Palestinian Auth...

BY ELENA BECATOROS and DEREK GATOPOULOS AP Thousands of workers marched through the Greek capital Athens on Wednesday as part of a 24-hour general strike called by labor unions to protest the rising cost of living and timed to coincide with the government submitting the 2025 budget to Parliament. Public and private sector workers walked off the job as part of the labor action that disrupted public transport and left ferries connecting the Greek islands with the mainland tied up in port. Medical staff at state-run hospitals and teachers were among those who joined the strike, which was called by labor unions to protest the high cost of living and demand collective wage agreements that were scaled back during Greece’s nearly decade-long financial crisis that began in 2010. Around 12,000 protesters marched through central Athens, while another 5,000 demonstrated in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. “We want to showcase the rage and resentment of salarie...

Muhammad Awad and his family are among dozens who escaped Sudan’s Tuti island earlier this year amid a siege by the Rapid Support Forces, finding refuge at a shelter after surviving for months on scant food and the risk of disease. The island in the middle of the Nile serves as a microcosm for the devastation unleashed by a war that began in April 2023. More than 61,000 people are  estimated to have died  in Khartoum state during the first 14 months of Sudan’s war, significantly more than previously recorded, according to a new report. Advertisement · Scroll to continueReport this ad Activists report that the RSF charged people large sums to evacuate them. “There is no good food, and there’s a lot of diseases, there is no sleep, no safety,” Awad said, holding one of his children at the shelter for displaced residents in Omdurman, an army-controlled refuge. The island is one of 14 places across Sudan at risk of famine, according to experts. Dengue fever has ravaged Tuti, ...

Ukraine has fired long-range British Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory for the first time, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed Western official. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his office would not be commenting on reports or operational matters. Britain had previously said Ukraine could use Storm Shadow cruise missiles within Ukrainian territory but the government has been pressing the United States for permission to allow their use to strike targets inside Russia for several months. U.S. President Joe Biden changed its policy to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-made weapons to strike deep into Russia this week. SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/oE72kOt

More than 200 children have been killed and 1,100 injured in Lebanon in the past two months, the U.N. children’s agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. The more than year-old conflict in Lebanon spiralled into all-out war in late September when Israel launched a major offensive against Iran-backed Hezbollah. “Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told a Geneva press briefing. “For the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalisation of horror.” He declined to comment on who was responsible for the killings, saying that it was clear to anyone who follows the media. Elder said there were “chilling similarities” between the conflicts in Lebanon and in Gaza, where a  significant portion  of the more than 43,000 people killed in the 13-month-old war between Israel and Hamas are reported to be childr...

Russia has said that Ukraine’s use of long-range ATACMS missiles against its territory marked a “new phase of the Western war” against Moscow, and has said it will react “accordingly”. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine had struck Russia’s Bryansk region with six missiles, and that air defence systems intercepted five and damaged one. “This is, of course, a signal that they want to escalate,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking at a Group of 20 (G20) news conference in Brazil, said of the attack. “We will be taking this as a qualitatively new phase of the Western war against Russia. And we will react accordingly,” he added, accusing Washington of helping Kyiv operate the missiles. – Agencies Ukraine fires several US-made longer-range missiles into Russia for the first time By HANNA ARHIROVA and ILLIA NOVIKOV AP Ukraine fired several American-supplied longer-range missiles into Russia, officials said Tuesday, marking the first time Kyiv used the weapon...

By KANIS LEUNG and ZEN SOO, Associated Press  Forty-five lawmakers and activists were sentenced to four to 10 years in prison Tuesday in Hong Kong’s biggest national security case under a Beijing-imposed law that crushed a once-thriving pro-democracy movement. The were tried under the 2020 national security law for their roles in an unofficial primary election. Prosecutors said their aim was to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and force the city’s leader to resign by aiming to win a legislative majority and using it to block government budgets indiscriminately. Legal scholar Benny Tai, who was widely seen as the organizer of the unofficial primary, received the longest sentence of 10 years. The judges said the sentences had been reduced for defendants who said they were unaware the plan to secure a majority in the legislature and stall governance was unlawful. However, the court said the penalties were not reduced for Tai and Alvin Yeung, as they are lawyers who were “absolutely...

BY AAMER MADHANI, COLLEEN LONG, ZEKE MILLER, MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER AP President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to  strike deeper inside Russia ,  easing limitations  on the weapons as Russia deploys thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war, according to a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter. The decision allowing Kyiv to use the  Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs , for attacks farther inside Russia comes as President Vladimir Putin  positions North Korean troops  along Ukraine’s northern border to try to reclaim hundreds of miles of territory seized by Ukrainian forces. Biden’s move also follows the  presidential election victory of Donald Trump , who has said he would bring about a swift end to the war and raised uncertainty about whether his administration would continue the United States’ vital military support for Ukraine. The official and the oth...

Venezuela has freed 225 people arrested during  anti-government protests  over the nation’s disputed presidential election in July, Attorney General Tarek Saab said late on Saturday. The releases were based on new evidence gathered by prosecutors, Saab said in a statement. “Between the afternoon of Friday the 15th and Saturday the 16th, 225 measures of liberty were granted and executed to people prosecuted for the acts of violence that occurred after the July 28 elections,” the statement said. Saab, who has said the protests left 28 people dead and nearly 200 injured, said last week he would review at least 225 arrests. Local rights group Foro Penal tallied more than 100 people who were freed on Saturday across four prisons. “Up to now we have verified 107 political prisoners, due to the post-electoral situation, released in Venezuela,” the group’s director, Alfredo Romero, said on social media. According to Foro Penal, at least 1,800 people were arrested after the July ...

By Lucy Papachristou, Filipp Lebedev and Mark Trevelyan Reuters  Protesters stormed the parliament of the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Friday and demanded the resignation of its leader over an unpopular investment agreement with Moscow. The self-styled president of the region, Aslan Bzhania, said he had no intention of stepping down or fleeing. He said talks were proceeding with opposition representatives. But opposition representatives rejected the president’s statement and news reports said they had broken off the talks. Russia said it was following the “crisis situation” with concern and urged its citizens to avoid travel to Abkhazia. Russia recognised Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, as independent states in 2008 after it defeated Georgia in a five-day war. It maintains troop bases in both regions and props up their economies. In Abkhazia’s capital Sukhumi, protesters used a truck to smash through the metal gates surrounding...