Global News

By Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas Reuters Hamas is seeking guarantees that a new U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza would lead to the war’s end, a source close to the militant group said on Thursday, as medics said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed scores more people. Israeli officials said prospects for reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal appeared high, nearly 21 months since the war between Israel and Hamas began. Efforts for a Gaza truce gathered steam after the U.S. secured a ceasefire to end a 12-day aerial conflict between Israel and Iran, but on the ground in Gaza intensified Israeli strikes continued unabated, killing at least 59 people on Thursday, according to health authorities in the territory. On Tuesday, U.S.  President Donald Trump  said that Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalise a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war. Hamas is seeking clear guarantees that the ceasefire ...

By Sultan Anshori Reuters Indonesian rescuers are battling strong currents on Friday as they resume the search for 30 people still missing at sea about 35 hours after a ferry sank killing at least six people, officials said. The ferry named KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya was carrying 65 people, all Indonesians, when it sank about 30 minutes after setting sail from East Java bound for the holiday island of Bali on Wednesday night, said search and rescue agency official Ribut Eko Suyatno. Twenty-nine survivors were rescued on Thursday before the search was called off due to poor visibility. Dayu Made Silawati, 55, said her husband, Dewa Gede Adyana Putra Usia, was travelling on the ferry to pick up supplies in Bali for his job as a truck driver. Waiting for news at a rescue centre in Bali, she said the last time she spoke to him was on Wednesday night. “‘I just got on the ship,'” she recalled him saying. “I said to him, ‘be careful’, dear.” At 4 a.m. on Thursday, Silawati said she call...

By DEREK GATOPOULOS AP A rapidly spreading wildfire on the  Greek island of Crete  triggered early Thursday evacuations of hotels and homes as it bore down on coastal areas. Authorities said evacuations were ordered at three sites outside the port of Ierapetra on the island’s south coast. Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds. “It’s a very difficult situation. The fire is very hard to contain. Right now, they cannot contain it,” Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, told the Associated Press. “The tourists who were moved out are all okay. They have been taken to an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other regions of the island,” he said. Authorities said more than 1,500 people so far had been moved out of homes and hotels, with the number expected to increase overnight. The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued localized mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and app...

Mali’s armed forces have killed 80 militants in response to a series of simultaneous and coordinated attacks on military posts across the country, according to a video statement released by the army on Tuesday. “The enemy suffered significant losses in every location where they engaged with the security and defense forces,” Souleymane Dembele, the army’s spokesperson, said in a special bulletin broadcast on the armed forces’ television channel, as visuals of fallen insurgents, their weapons, motorbikes, and vehicles were displayed. Al Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) earlier claimed responsibility for “coordinated and high-quality attacks,” saying it had taken control of over three barracks and dozens of military positions. Mali’s armed forces said the attacks took place in seven towns in the central and western regions of the West African country. The incidents bore the hallmarks of other recent operations by the militants, who have conducted  simila...

Rescuers in Turkey have evacuated more than 50,000 people, mostly from the western province of Izmir, as firefighters battled a string of wildfires, the AFAD disaster agency said Monday. The worst blaze began Sunday in Seferihisar, a forested area 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of the resort city of Izmir, spreading rapidly with winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) per hour, officials said. “A total of over 50,000 citizens from 41 settlements have been temporarily relocated to safe areas,” AFAD wrote on X, saying 79 people had been affected by smoke and other fire-related issues, none seriously. Of that number, 42,300 were evacuated from Seferihisar, where TV footage showed huge areas of flame raging through forested areas, sending vast clouds of black smoke into the sky. Overnight, around 20 evacuated homes were gutted by the blaze, with only the walls left standing, footage on private TV network NTV showed. Residents in the seaside village of Urkmez had on Sunday felled ...