Posts

Showing posts from January, 2026

At least 37 die from gas inhalation at Nigeria mining site

-
By Ahmed Kingimi Reuters At least 37 miners died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a mining site in Nigeria’s Plateau state, a police source and a security report seen by Reuters said on Wednesday. The incident occurred at about 5:45 a.m. in a mining pit in Kampani, a community in the Wase area, according to the report. Another 25 miners were taken to hospital. Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said the area was an abandoned lead site with stored minerals prone to releasing toxic gases. Villagers, unaware of the toxic nature of the emissions, reportedly entered the tunnel to extract minerals and inhaled the gas, he said. Alake ordered the closure of mining areas covered by licence 11810, operated by Solid Unit Nigeria Limited and owned by Abdullahi Dan‑China in Zuraq, following the deaths of villagers allegedly mining in a pit containing dangerous gas emissions. Preliminary findings showed the victims, aged 20 to 35, died after inhaling the gas while work...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pakistan says 92 militants killed after attacks in Balochistan

-
Separatists launched “coordinated” attacks across Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Saturday, killing at least 15 security personnel and 18 civilians, the military said — the latest violence in the insurgency-hit southwestern region. Officials said 92 militants including “three suicide bombers” were also killed. Pakistan has been battling a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, with frequent attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-locals in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The military’s media wing said in a statement that attacks had taken place in multiple locations including the provincial capital Quetta and Gwadar. “Eighteen innocent civilians” and 15 security personnel were killed, the military’s media wing (ISPR) said in a statement, putting the death toll among the militants at 92. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of the civilians were not immediately clear. Baloch separatists have previously targeted civilians be...
Post a Comment
Read more

Over 200 feared killed in coltan mine collapse in eastern DR Congo

-
More than 200 people have been reported killed in a collapse at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of the province where the mine is located, told the Reuters news agency. The mine, located some 60km (37 miles) northwest of Goma city, the provincial capital of North Kivu province, collapsed on Wednesday, and the precise number of casualties was still unclear as of Friday evening, Reuters reports. “More than 200 people were victims of this landslide, including miners, children and market women. Some people were rescued just in time and have serious injuries,” Muyisa told Reuters, adding that about 20 injured people were being treated in health facilities. “We are in the rainy season. The ground is fragile. It was the ground that gave way while the victims were in the hole,” he said. Eraston Bahati Musanga, the governor of North Kivu province appointed by the M23 rebel group, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Moscow records heaviest snowfall in over 200 years

-
Russia’s capital Moscow has this month seen the largest snowfall in more than 200 years, Moscow State University meteorologists said on Thursday. AFP images from the city of around 13 million people showed residents struggling to make their way through heavy piles of snow on the streets in its central district. Commuter trains in the Moscow area were delayed, AFP reporters witnessed, and cars were stuck in long traffic jams on Thursday evening. “January was a cold and unusually snowy month in Moscow,” the university said on social media. “By January 29, the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory had recorded almost 92 mm of precipitation, which is already the highest value in the last 203 years,” it added. Snow piles on the ground reached as high as 60 centimetres (24 inches) in some parts of the capital on Thursday. Snow is mostly air, meaning the level of settled snow far surpasses scientific measurements of precipitation — which measures the amount of water that ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Burkina Faso’s junta dissolves all of country’s political parties, saying they cause divisions

-
  Burkina Faso’s  military junta has dissolved all the political parties in the country and scrapped the laws governing them, according to a decree approved by the government on Thursday. The dissolution of political parties and similar groups follows  similar measures  that activists say have targeted civic freedom and the opposition since military authorities took power in a 2022 coup. Activities by political parties have long been suspended in the country under the junta. The new decree requires the assets of the parties to be transferred to the state, the government-run news agency said. Minister of Territorial Administration Emile Zerbo said the dissolution comes after authorities found that the parties have deviated from the guidelines establishing them. “The government believes that the proliferation of political parties has led to excesses, fostering division among citizens and weakening the social fabric,” he said after Thursday’s Council of Ministers me...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump weighs major new strike on Iran as nuclear discussions show no progress

-
By Samia Nakhoul, Humeyra Pamuk, Rami Ayyub and Parisa Hafezi Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing options against Iran that include targeted strikes on security forces and leaders to inspire protesters, multiple sources said, even as Israeli and Arab officials said air power alone would not topple the clerical rulers. Two U.S. sources familiar with the discussions said Trump wanted to create conditions for “regime change” after a crackdown crushed a nationwide protest movement earlier this month, killing thousands of people. To do so, he was ​looking at options to hit commanders and institutions Washington holds responsible for the violence, to give protesters the confidence that they could overrun government and security buildings, they said. One of the U.S. sources said the options being discussed by Trump’s aides also included a much larger ‌strike intended to have lasting impact, possibly against the ballistic missiles that can reach U.S. allies in the Middle East o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sustained gunfire, loud blasts heard in Niger’s capital

-
Sustained gunfire and loud blasts were ​heard early on Thursday near ‌Niamey International Airport in Niger, according to ‌a Reuters witness. The heavy gunfire, which began nearly an hour earlier, was ongoing as of 0012 GMT, ⁠the witness ‌said. A video shared on social media platform X appeared ‍to show the city’s night skyline illuminated by gunfire, though Reuters has not ​independently verified the footage. A spokesperson ‌for Niger’s military government, which seized power in a July 2023 coup, was not immediately available for comment. The Sahel West African nation, like ⁠neighbouring Mali and ​Burkina Faso, has ​struggled to contain attacks from jihadist groups with links to ‍al Qaeda ⁠and Islamic State, that have killed thousands and displaced millions ⁠in the three nations. SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/h25fWSx
Post a Comment
Read more

Sudan’s army says it breaks siege of southern city, survivors recount hunger and death

-
By Eltayeb Siddig Reuters Sudan’s army says it has broken a long siege of the southern city of al-Dalanj by RSF paramilitary forces, during which survivors said many people were killed in drone and artillery strikes as hunger spread and medicines became scarce. One survivor told Reuters that residents had been reduced to eating leaves and animal skin, and that some children had died of hunger. Others said people had died because they could not get the medicines they needed or leave to get treatment. The siege of al-Dalanj began soon after war broke out in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It intensified after the RSF joined forces last year with the SPLM-N, a rebel group that controls territory in the region. In a statement released late on Monday, the Sudanese army said “the armed forces and supporting forces were able to forcibly and decisively open the road to Al-Dalanj, after carrying out a successful military operation.” The RSF did ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Islamic State‑linked militants kill 22 in eastern Congo

-
By Ange Kasongo Reuters Islamic State‑linked militants killed at least 22 civilians in a village in eastern Congo’s Ituri Province early on Sunday, according to an internal U.N. report and local civil society ‍leaders, the latest in a series of deadly attacks in the region. The U.N. report seen by Reuters said the assailants struck Apakolu, about 25 km (15 miles) northwest of Eringeti in Ituri province’s Irumu territory, at around 0400 GMT on Sunday, and abducted an unknown number of people. Christophe Munyanderu, head of the local rights group known by its ‌French acronym CRDH, based in Irumu, said 25 civilians had ‌been killed, including 15 men whose bodies were found inside a house and seven others along a road. The attackers were identified as members of the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan armed group active in eastern Congo that is recognised by Islamic State ​as an affiliate. The U.N. report said Sunday’s attack in Apakolu came two days after ADF fighters attacked the ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

US security agreement for Ukraine is ‘100% ready’ to be signed, Zelenskyy says

-
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that a U.S. security guarantees document for Ukraine is “100% ready” after two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia. Speaking to journalists in Vilnius during a visit to Lithuania, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is waiting for its partners to set a signing date, after which the document would go to the U.S. Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification. Zelenskyy also emphasized Ukraine’s push for European Union membership by 2027, calling it an “economic security guarantee.” The Ukrainian leader described the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides. The talks, which began on Friday and continued Saturday, were the latest aiming to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy acknowledged fundamental differences between Ukrainia...
Post a Comment
Read more

Second killing in Minneapolis by US federal agents sparks uproar

-
By Roberto SCHMIDT AFP The killing of a US citizen by federal immigration agents on Saturday — the second in Minneapolis this month — sparked new protests and impassioned demands by local leaders for the Trump administration to end its operation in the city. Federal agents shot dead Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway, less than three weeks after an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car. The Trump administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents, as it did after Good’s death. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pointed to a pistol and ammunition it said was discovered on Pretti. “He was there to perpetuate violence,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a briefing, while White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti as an “assassin,” in a post amplified on X by Vice President JD Vance. However, as with Good’s death, cell phone footage of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Syrian Kurds hand over new prison to govt troops as truce deadline looms

-
By Bakr Alkasem with Lisa Golden and Roba El Husseini in Beirut AFP Europeans were among 150 senior Islamic State group detainees transferred this week by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria to neighbouring Iraq, whose premier urged EU countries to repatriate their nationals. They were among an estimated 7,000 jihadists due to be moved to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swathes of territory to the advancing Syrian army. In 2014, IS swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery, but backed by a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately defeated the jihadists in Syria five years later. This month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with the Kurds had largely expired, as Syria’s new authorities pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF, which agreed to withdraw from areas in the north and east. An Iraqi security...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump and world leaders sign Gaza Board of Peace charter

-
By  JOSH BOAK, AAMER MADHANI and WILL WEISSERT ,Associated Press President Donald Trump on Thursday inaugurated his Board of Peace to lead efforts at maintaining a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas, insisting “everyone wants to be a part” of the body he said could eventually rival the United Nations — despite many U.S. allies opting not to participate. In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump sought to create momentum for a project to map out a future of the war-torn Gaza Strip that has been overshadowed this week, first by his threats to seize Greenland, then by a dramatic retreat from that push. The new peace board was initially envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing the ceasefire, with Trump as chairman, but it has morphed into something far more ambitious — and skepticism about its membership and mandate has led some countries usually closest to Washington to take a pass. Norway and Sweden indicated they wouldn’t participate i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump backs down on Greenland and cancels tariff threat after NATO agrees to future Arctic deal

-
By Josh Boak, Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani Associated Press President Donald Trump on Wednesday scrapped the tariffs that he threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, pulling a dramatic reversal shortly after insisting he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership.” In a post on his social media site, Trump said he had agreed with the head of NATO on a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security, potentially defusing tension that had far-reaching geopolitical implications. He said “additional discussions” on Greenland were being held concerning the Golden Dome missile defense program, a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space. Trump offered few details, saying they were still being worked out. But one idea NATO members have discussed as part of a compromise with Trump was that Denmark and the alliance would work with the U.S. to build more U.S. mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ex-Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s killer sentenced to life

-
By MARI YAMAGUCHI AP A Japanese court sentenced a man who admitted assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to life imprisonment, according to NHK public television. Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, earlier pleaded guilty to killing Abe in July 2022 during his election campaign speech in the western city of Nara. The Nara District Court confirmed the verdict and sentenced Yamagami to life in prison, as prosecutors requested. Abe, one of Japan’s most influential politicians, was serving as a regular lawmaker after leaving the prime minister’s job when he was killed in 2022 while campaigning in the western city of Nara. It shocked a nation with strict gun control. Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, pleaded guilty to murder in the trial that started in October, and Wednesday’s ruling will determine how long he’ll spend in prison. Shooter said he was motivated by hatred of a controversial church Yamagami said he killed Abe after seeing a video message the former leader sent to a group af...
Post a Comment
Read more

Syria offensive leaves Turkey’s Kurds on edge

-
By Anne Chaon with Mahmut Bozarslan in Diyarbakir AFP Turkey’s Kurds are hoping that Ankara’s bid to end the decades-long PKK conflict won’t be hurt by Damascus’ lightning offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria that was backed by Turkey. A close ally of the new post Bashar al-Assad Syrian leadership, Ankara has been engaged in dialogue with the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan whose fighters fought a four-decade insurgency that cost some 50,000 lives. But that process has been largely stalled amid a stand-off between the Kurdish-led SDF that controls swathes of northeastern Syria and Damascus which wants the force integrated into the central state. That standoff, which triggered weeks of clashes, came to a head over the weekend when Syrian troops made rapid advances in Kurdish-controlled areas, with President Ahmed al-Sharaa announcing a ceasefire deal to enforce his integration plans late Sunday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Army returns to strategic east Congo town after rebel withdrawal

-
Congolese soldiers and combatants from a pro-government militia have re-entered the eastern town of Uvira, residents said on Monday, just over a month after it fell to Rwanda-backed M23 rebels ‍in a blow to peace efforts mediated by the Trump administration. M23 entered Uvira, an important base for the Congolese army near the border with Burundi, on December 10, days after Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame met President Donald Trump in Washington and reaffirmed a U.S.-brokered peace deal. The capture marked the rebels’ biggest ‌gains in months, fueling fears of regional spillover from fighting ‌that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands in the last year. M23 staged a lightning advance in January 2025 and still holds more territory than ever before, including Goma and Bukavu, the capitals of North and South Kivu provinces respectively. HEAVY ​FIGHTING, LOOTING After U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in December that Rwanda...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clashes in Colombia between guerrilla groups leave 27 dead

-
By Luis Jaime Acosta Reuters At least 27 members of a leftist guerrilla group in Colombia were killed in clashes with a rival faction in a fight over control of a jungle area in central Colombia, military authorities reported on Sunday. The clashes, which have been the most violent in recent months, occurred in the rural area of the municipality of El Retorno, in the department of Guaviare, 300 km (186 miles) southeast of Bogota, a military source said. The region is strategic for cocaine production and trafficking. The clashes took place between a faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) led by Nestor Gregorio Vera, known by his war name Ivan Mordisco, and another led by Alexander Diaz Mendoza, alias Calarca Cordoba, a second military source specified. Both groups were part of the so-called Central General Staff but separated in April 2024 due to internal disputes. The casualties were all from Vera’s group, according to the two military sources, who spoke on c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Two high-speed trains collide in Spain, killing at least 21

-
Two high-speed trains collided and then derailed Sunday evening in southern Spain, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens more, according to officials. The private Iryo train traveling from Malaga to Madrid with about 300 people on board derailed at about 7:45 p.m. local time in Cordoba province’s Adamuz town, jumping onto adjacent tracks and causing a second train, operated by Renfe and traveling from Madrid to Huelva, to derail as well, Spain’s nationally owned Renfe Operadora said in  a statement . Oscar Puente, the minister of Transport, said the final cars of the Iryo train were those that derailed and collided with the Renfe train traveling in the opposite direction, causing its two front cars to jump the tracks. Antonio Sanz, the Andalusian regional minister for Health, the Presidency and Emergencies, later added that part of the trains fell down a 13-foot embankment. Some passengers were trapped in the cars. “The impact was devastating,” Puente said in  a s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump threatens new tariffs on European allies over Greenland until deal reached, as thousands protest

-
By Michael Martina and Jason Lange Reuters President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the United States is allowed to buy Greenland, escalating a row over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said additional 10% import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on ​goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by Trump. Those tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1 and would continue until a ‌deal was reached for the U.S. to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote. Trump has repeatedly insisted he will settle for nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the island is not for sale and does not want ‌to be part of the United States. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of U.S. residents this week found that less than one in five ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thousands flee Aleppo area amid heightened tensions over Kurdish SDF

-
Thousands of people have fled the eastern areas surrounding Aleppo as they seek to escape further fighting between government troops and the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), authorities said on Friday. Officials said around 4,000 people have left the towns of Deir Hafir and Maskana. Heavy fighting broke out last week in Kurdish-controlled districts of Aleppo amid a dispute over plans to integrate the previously autonomous Kurdish administrations into the state system. The transitional government eventually brought the Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo under its control. Government forces are now seeking to push SDF fighters further east, where they still control large parts of the country. During Syria’s civil war, the SDF was regarded as the United States’ most important ally in the fight against Islamic State. An agreement on integrating the SDF into the state armed forces following the overthrow of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad has so far not been impleme...
Post a Comment
Read more

Putin says the world is getting more dangerous but is silent on Maduro and Iran |Russia destroys large energy facility in Kharkiv

-
Russian President Vladimir said on Thursday that the international situation had deteriorated and ​that the world was getting more dangerous but ‌he was silent on the situation in Venezuela and Iran. Putin has yet to ‌comment in public on the toppling of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro by the United States, the protests in Iran or U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against Greenland. “The situation on the international ⁠stage is increasingly ‌deteriorating – I don’t think anyone would argue with that – long-standing conflicts are intensifying, and new serious ‍flashpoints are emerging,” Putin said with a smile. In a speech to new ambassadors who had presented their credentials in the Kremlin, his ​first public remarks on foreign policy issues this year, ‌Putin did not mention the United States or Trump explicitly. “We hear a monologue from those who, by the right of might, consider it permissible to dictate their will, lecture others, and issue orders,” Putin said. “Russia is sincere...
Post a Comment
Read more

Greenlanders torn between anxiety and relief after White House talks

-
By Pierre-Henry DESHAYES AFP Greenland’s residents expressed a mix of anxiety and relief after a meeting was held Wednesday in the White House between officials from the United States, Denmark and the island at the centre of President Donald Trump’s focus. The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory under Copenhagen’s sovereignty, met on Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to clear up “misunderstandings” after Trump spoke repeatedly of the possibility of seizing the island. “It’s very frightening because it’s such a big thing,” said Vera Stidsen, 51, a teacher in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital. “I hope that in the future we can continue to live as we have until now: in peace and without being disturbed,” Stidsen told AFP. Following the meeting, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen expressed “fundamental disagreement” with Washington over the fate of the Arctic territory while Trump said he thought “...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thousands of Nigerians flee after gang leader threatens to kill them

-
By Hamza Ibrahim Reuters Thousands of people fled their homes in northwestern Nigeria this week after the leader of one of the armed gangs in the region ordered them out in retaliation for a security raid, officials and residents said on Wednesday. Officials say Bello Turji leads one of many armed gangs which terrorize predominantly Muslim northwest Nigeria, killing and abducting residents, farmers, students and motorists for ransom. Violence in Africa’s most populous country has attracted the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused the government of failing to prevent the killing of Christians. Nigeria says gangs and militants target both Christians and Muslims and that Christians are not systematically persecuted. Residents of the northwestern Tidibale community say Turji suspects a tip-off from the community to security forces led to recent military operations that killed one of his men. Some personnel at key US base in Qatar told to leave Turji visited Tidib...
Post a Comment
Read more

Uganda shuts down internet ahead of election, orders rights groups to halt work

-
Ugandan authorities cut internet access and limited mobile services across the country on Tuesday, two days before an election in which President Yoweri Museveni will stand for ​a contentious seventh term after four decades in power. The Uganda Communications Commission ordered mobile service providers ‌to shut down public internet connections from 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Tuesday in order to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks”, according ‌to a letter seen by Reuters. Security forces have detained hundreds of opposition supporters in the run-up to the election and repeatedly fired live bullets and tear gas at campaign events in support of Museveni’s leading challenger, pop star Bobi Wine. “The UCC acknowledges the operational challenges this directive may impose and appreciates your full cooperation in upholding national stability ⁠during this sensitive period,” the UCC said ‌in the letter dated Tuesday and addressed to Licensed Mobile Operators and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump holds off on military action against Iran’s protest crackdown as he ‘explores’ Tehran messages

-
By AAMER MADHANI AP President Donald Trump has arrived at a delicate moment as he weighs whether to order a U.S. military response against the Iranian government as it continues a violent crackdown on protests that have left more than 600 dead and led to the arrests of thousands across the country. The U.S. president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force against antigovernment protesters. It’s a red line that Trump has said he believes Iran is “starting to cross” and has left him and his national security team weighing “very strong options.” But the U.S. military — which Trump has warned Tehran is “locked and loaded” — appears, at least for the moment, to have been placed on standby mode as Trump ponders next steps, saying that Iranian officials want to have talks with the White House. “What you’re hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite diff...
Post a Comment
Read more