Global News

 South Korea President Lee Jae Myung said on Sunday he hopes North Korea will resume dialogue as soon as possible to discuss a new era of relations between the neighbours. In a speech marking the Koreas’ 107th March 1 Independence Movement Day, Lee said he would make efforts to restart talks with Pyongyang for peace on the Korean peninsula. SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/MoDe5Ap

By RUTH ALONGA and JEAN-YVES KAMALE AP Residents of Uvira in eastern Congo expressed concerns Friday that decomposing bodies might spread disease after  authorities said 171 bodies were found in mass graves  following the withdrawal of M23 rebels from the city. The governor of South-Kivu province, Jean-Jacques Purusi, said Thursday the dead bodies were found in two mass graves on the outskirts of the major city and blamed the rebels for the deaths. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claims. An M23 spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Purusi said the victims would be buried only after medical examiners complete the required procedures and that the site should not be disturbed in the meantime. Flavien Kalenga Mutumishi, who lives near one of the graves, said Friday that he and several other residents discovered about a dozen decomposing bodies after the rebels’ withdrawal and alerted authorities. He raised concerns about p...

By Parisa Hafezi and Olivia Le Poidevin Reuters GENEVA, Feb 26 (Reuters) – The United States and Iran made progress in talks over Tehran’s nuclear program on Thursday, mediator Oman said, but hours of negotiation ended with no sign of a breakthrough that could avert potential U.S. strikes amid a massive military buildup. The two sides plan to resume ‌negotiations soon after consultations in their countries’ capitals, with technical-level discussions scheduled to take place next week in Vienna, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said in a post on X after the day’s meetings ‌in Switzerland. Badr Albusaidi will hold talks with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and other U.S. officials in Washington on Friday, MS NOW reported late on Thursday. Neither the White House nor Oman’s embassy in Washington immediately responded to requests for comment. Any substantial move toward an elusive agreement between ​longtime foes Washington and Tehran could reduce the imminent prospects for U.S...

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press He set the record for the longest State of the Union speech, clocking in at almost 1 hour and 50 minutes, beating Bill Clinton’s record from his final address in 2000 U.S. President Donald Trump declared during Tuesday’s marathon State of the Union that “we’re winning so much,” saying he’d sparked a jobs and manufacturing boom at home while imposing a new world order abroad — hoping that offering a long list of his accomplishments can counter approval ratings that have been falling. His main objective was convincing increasingly wary Americans that the economy is stronger than many believe, and that they should vote for more of the same by backing Republicans during November’s midterm elections. In the process, he shattered his own record, going longer than the 100-minute speech he gave before a joint session of Congress last year. Trump tried at points to appeal to bipartisan patriotic sentiments, introducing a series of surprise guests that inclu...

Chad closed its eastern border with Sudan on Monday after weekend clashes linked to Sudan’s civil war killed five Chadian soldiers, two sources told Reuters. The conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023, has periodically spilled over into Chadian territory, causing casualties and property damage. A border guard officer in Tine confirmed the deaths of the five soldiers and said additional security measures were needed to protect civilians on the Chadian side. The two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said more Chadian troops were being deployed to the area. Chad’s government said on Monday that the border would remain closed until further notice, citing “repeated incursions and violations committed by forces in Sudan’s conflict.” The move “aims to prevent any risk of the conflict spreading to our soil, to protect our fellow citizens a...

Afghans gathered around a mass grave on Sunday to bury villagers who died in overnight air strikes by Pakistan, which said its military operation killed dozens of militants. The overnight attacks left at least 18 people dead including children, Afghanistan said, and were the most extensive since border clashes in October that killed more than 70 on both sides and wounded hundreds. “The house was completely destroyed. My children and family members were there. My father and my sons were there. All of them were killed,” said Nezakat, a 35-year-old farmer in Bihsud district, who only gave one name. Islamabad said it hit seven sites along the border region targeting Afghanistan-based militant groups, in response to suicide bombings in Pakistan. A Pakistani security source told AFP on Sunday that the strikes killed “more than 80” militants, adding the death toll was expected to rise. AFP journalists in Afghanistan were not able to verify the toll, which was rejected by an Afghan securi...

Ukraine’s domestically produced Flamingo missiles hit a Russian plant manufacturing ballistic missiles in Russia’s remote southern region of Udmurtia overnight, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday. It said in a statement that the plant was located in Votkinsk, about 1400 km (800 miles) from Ukraine, and produced intercontinental ballistic missiles and short-range ballistic missiles. The Ukrainian military also said that it hit a gas processing plant in Russia’s Samara region. SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/G0EF3dc

By Ahmed Kingimi Reuters – At least 50 people were killed and several women and ‌children abducted after armed men attacked a village ‌in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, a state lawmaker told Reuters on Friday. Hamisu A. ​Faru, lawmaker representing Bukkuyum south, said the attackers raided Tungan Dutse village from around 5 p.m. on Thursday until about 3:30 a.m. on Friday, burning down buildings and shooting residents ‌who tried to ⁠flee. “They have been moving from one village to another … leaving at least 50 people dead,” Faru ⁠told Reuters by phone. He said the number of abducted victims was yet to be determined. Traditional leaders and local government ​officials were ​still accounting for the ​missing. A Zamfara state police spokesperson ‌did not respond to calls seeking comment. Abdullahi Sani, 41, a resident of Tungan Dutse, said three family members were killed in the attack. “No one slept yesterday, we are all in pain,” he said. A day earlier, residents contacte...

By Robin MILLARD AFP The United Nations’ independent fact-finding mission on Sudan said on Thursday the siege and capture of El-Fasher by a paramilitary group bore “the hallmarks of genocide”. Its investigation concluded that the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) seizure of the city in Darfur state in October had inflicted “three days of absolute horror” and called for those responsible to be brought to justice. The mission warned that “urgent protection of civilians is needed, now more than ever” in neighbouring Kordofan state, the flashpoint of fighting since the RSF’s capture of El-Fasher, which was marked by ethnic massacres, sexual violence and detention. “The scale, coordination and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El-Fasher were not random excesses of war,” said mission chairman Mohamad Chande Othman. “They formed part of a planned and organised operation that bears the defining characteristics of gen...

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...

By John Revill Reuters Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia concluded the first of two days of U.S.-mediated peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with U.S. President Donald Trump pressing Kyiv to act fast to reach a deal to end the four-year conflict. Ahead of the negotiations in ‌Switzerland, Russia carried out airstrikes overnight across swathes of Ukraine, severely damaging the power network in the southern port city of Odesa. Ukrainian President Volodymyr ‌Zelenskiy said the attacks left tens of thousands without heat and water. “We are ready to move quickly toward a worthy agreement to end the war,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address, saying he was waiting for ​a report from the negotiating team in Geneva. “The question for the Russians is: Just what do they want?” Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov, the head of the National Security and Defence Council, said in a statement that the day’s talks had focused on “practical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions,” with...

Flooding and fierce winds have pushed Madagascar’s death toll from Cyclone Gezani to 59, with more than a dozen people still unaccounted for, the country’s disaster agency said on Monday. It is the latest in a string of tropical storms to batter the southern African island in recent months, underscoring its vulnerability to increasingly extreme weather fuelled by climate change. At least 59 people had been killed countrywide by the cyclone, which slammed into Madagascar on February 10, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNRGC) said, while more than 16,000 people have been displaced by storm waters. A previous report had put the death toll at 43. Most of the fatalities were reported in the port city of Toamasina on the east coast, formerly known as Tamatave, Madagascar’s second‑largest urban centre with around 400,000 inhabitants. Another 15 people remain missing nearly a week after the cyclone struck, according to BNRGC. The damage to housing was extensive, wit...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touted a newly built street of flats for families of soldiers killed supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, state media reported Monday, with photos showing him accompanied by his daughter. North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to fight for Russia, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies, and Seoul has estimated that around 2,000 have been killed. Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return. “The new street has been built thanks to the ardent desire of our motherland that wishes that… its excellent sons, who defended the most sacred things by sacrificing their most valuable things, will live forever,” Kim said in a speech released by the official Korean Central News Agency. The report on Monday did not mention Russia, but Kim last week pledged to “unconditionally support” all of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies and decisions. “Befo...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a “slave to war” in a speech to the Munich Security Conference Saturday, adding that Russia’s attacks had damaged every power plant in the country. Zelensky also drew parallels between the current Russia-Ukraine talks over territorial concessions and the 1938 Munich Agreement, when Hitler forced territorial concessions from the European powers — a year before World War II. Zelensky was speaking days before the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, which has killed hundreds of thousands, decimated eastern Ukraine and forced millions to flee. Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Moscow of deliberately freezing Ukraine’s population with its attacks on the energy grid. “There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that has not been damaged by Russian attacks,” Zelensky said. “Not one.” “But we still generate electricity,” he added, praising the thousands of workers repairing the plants. Once again...

A feud between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates across the Horn of Africa is overshadowing this weekend’s African Union summit, though most of the continent’s leaders will try to avoid taking sides, nine diplomats and experts said. What began as a rivalry in Yemen ‌has spread across the Red Sea into a region riven with conflicts – from war in Somalia and Sudan to rivalry between Ethiopia and Eritrea and a ‌divided Libya. In recent years, the UAE has become an influential player in the Horn – encompassing primarily Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti – through multi-billion-dollar investments, robust diplomacy and discreet military support. Saudi Arabia has been more low-profile but ​diplomats say Riyadh is building an alliance that includes Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. “Saudi has woken up and realised that they might lose the Red Sea,” a senior African diplomat told Reuters. “They have been sleeping all along while UAE was doing its thing in the Horn.” Initially f...

The death toll from Cyclone Gezani rose to 40 on Friday, three days after its passage across Madagascar, as officials struggled to restore widespread cuts to power and water supplies. In its latest update Friday, the National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNRGC) said 40 people had been killed and 427 people injured, as one aid worker spoke of “apocalyptic” scenes on the Indian Ocean island. Six people were still missing and the cyclone had affected 273,417 people — or 74,393 households, the BNRGC added. After visiting the island’s second-largest city of Toamasina, which bore the brunt of Gezani’s 250-kilometre-per-hour (155-mile-per-hour) winds, the World Food Programme’s Madagascar director Tania Goosens told journalists that “the scale of destruction is overwhelming”. “The authorities have reported that 80 percent of the city has been damaged,” she added. “The city is running on roughly five percent of electricity and there is no water,” she said, adding that the WFP’...

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has claimed victory in the country’s first election since the 2024 uprising, positioning itself to form the next government and potentially reshape Bangladesh’s political landscape after years of intense rivalry and disputed polls. Long overshadowed by his parents and heir to one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties, Tarique Rahman has finally stepped into the spotlight. At 60, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader is preparing to take charge of the South Asian nation of 170 million, driven by what he calls an ambition to “do better”. A year and a half after the deadly uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted regime, the BNP said they had a won a “sweeping victory” in parliamentary elections held on Thursday. Official results are yet to be declared, but the United States offered congratulations to Rahman on an “historic” win. His rise marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December a...

By Tora Agarwala, Krishna N. Das and Ruma Paul Reuters Bangladeshis lined up outside polling booths on Thursday as voting began in a pivotal election for the South Asian nation after the 2024 ouster of long‑time premier Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z‑driven uprising. Analysts say a decisive result is crucial ‌for steady governance in the nation of 175 million, as the deadly anti-Hasina protests triggered months of unrest and disrupted key industries, including the huge garments sector, the ‌world’s second-largest exporter. It is the world’s first election after an uprising led by under-30s, or Gen Z, to be followed by Nepal next month. The contest pits two coalitions led by former allies, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the ​Islamist Jamaat‑e‑Islami, with opinion polls giving an edge to the BNP. In Dhaka, the capital, people queued up outside voting booths before polls opened at 7:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT), including eager participants like Mohammed Jobair Hossain, 39, wh...

By Ben Simon AFP A mass shooting in a remote part of western Canada killed ten people on Tuesday, including seven who were shot at a secondary school, before the suspect took their own life. The killings occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies. A total of 27 people were wounded, including two with serious injuries and 25 others who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement. Canadian media have reported that the shooter was female, but the RCMP declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity in a press conference on Tuesday. Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon. As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died while en route to hospital. Separately, police found two more dead bodies at a residence in Tumbler Ridge. Th...

By Dan Peleschuk Reuters Russian forces are trying to press forward around the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s military said on Monday, hoping to conclude a months-long campaign to ​seize the strategic hub as Moscow seeks to capture the whole of the Donetsk region. Ukraine has struggled ‌to halt slow Russian advances around Pokrovsk and elsewhere along the 1,200-km (746-mile) front line while it comes under U.S. pressure to reach a peace ‌deal to end the four-year war in ongoing talks. Kyiv’s General Staff said on Monday its forces still held the northern part of Pokrovsk, a city with a pre-war population of 60,000, and were also defending the smaller city of Myrnohrad nearby. Pokrovsk, a railway nexus, has been the site of fierce fighting since last year. Its fall would mark Russia’s biggest battlefield ⁠victory since it seized the eastern city ‌of Avdiivka in early 2024. Moscow claimed late last year to have captured Pokrovsk, which Kyiv denied. Analysts say Russia ...

Ethiopia’s foreign minister has accused neighbouring Eritrea of military aggression and of supporting armed groups inside Ethiopian territory, according ​to a letter seen by Reuters and verified by the foreign ministry. The ‌two longstanding foes who waged war against each other between 1998 and 2000, signed a peace deal ‌in 2018 and were allies during Ethiopia’s two-year war against regional authorities in the northern Tigray region. But Eritrea was not a party to the 2022 agreement that ended the Tigray conflict, and relations between the two nations have plunged into acrimony since then. Recent clashes ⁠between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian ‌troops have raised fears of a return to war. An Eritrean government spokesperson said officials were checking whether the letter had been delivered ‍to the foreign ministry. The February 7 letter from Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos to his Eritrean counterpart, Osman Saleh, said Eritrean forces had occupied Ethiopian territory...

By Kyoko Hasegawa and Caroline Gardin AFP Japan voted in snow-hit snap elections Sunday with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hoping to turn a honeymoon start into a resounding ballot box victory that could rile China and rattle financial markets. Opinion polls suggest that Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost non-stop for decades, will easily win more than the 233 seats needed to regain a majority in the powerful 465-member lower house. Heavy snowfall blanketed many parts of the country on election day, including Tokyo and other regions that rarely see winter snow. “I think it’s important to come, so that we can properly take part in politics as well,” a 50-year-old woman, who only disclosed her surname as Kondo, told AFP near a voting station in Tokyo. “Even if it snows more than it does now, I still plan to go,” she added. “I struggled to find a way to the ballot box as snow was accumulating around it, and it was a pain to arrive here with bad road...

By Asif Shahzad Reuters Thousands of mourners gathered in Islamabad on Saturday to start burying the 31 killed in a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite Muslim mosque, as residents expressed concern that there could be further attacks. A man opened fire at the Khadija Tul Kubra Imambargah compound on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, then detonated a bomb that killed 31, as well as himself, and injured more than 170 people. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. Funeral prayers for some of the victims were held in an open area near the mosque on Saturday morning under tight security, with police and a unit of elite commandos standing guard. Mourners beat their chests before stooping to lift the coffins and carry them toward the burial grounds. “Whoever did this terrorism, may God burn them in hell and turn them to ash,” the prayer leader told mourners. While bombings are rare in heavily guarded Isla...

By Muhammad Tanko Shittu AFP Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deployed an army battalion to a troubled state after gunmen killed as many as 162 people in one of the country’s deadliest attacks in recent months. The attack late Tuesday on Woro village in Kwara State came after the military recently carried out operations in the area against what it called “terrorist elements”. Gunmen burned shops and a traditional ruler’s home and wounded people fled into the bushes, Babaomo Ayodeji, Kwara State secretary of the Red Cross, told AFP. “Reports said that the death toll now stands at 162, as the search for more bodies continues,” Ayodeji said. The attack was confirmed by police who did not give a casualty figure. Earlier, a local lawmaker Sa’idu Baba Ahmed gave an initial toll of 35-40 dead but said more bodies would be found as many wounded people had fled into the bush. The governor of the west-central state AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq gave a toll of 75 dead. Conflicting accounts o...

By TUNDE OMOLEHIN and DYEPKAZAH SHIBAYAN, Associated Press Armed extremists killed at least 162 people during attacks on two villages in western Nigeria, a lawmaker said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest assaults in recent months. One rights group estimated the death toll could be higher. The attacks targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku, in the state of Kwara, on Tuesday evening, Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told The Associated Press. He said the attacks were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State group. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara state, said the organization has been unable to reach the communities where “scores of people were killed” because they are in a remote area — about eight hours from the state capital and near Nigeria’s border with Benin. Footage from the scene on local television show bodies lying in blood on th...

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of late Libyan dictator Moamer Gaddafi, was killed on Tuesday, his political office has said. Saif al-Islam was killed in a “treacherous and cowardly” act, in which four masked men stormed his residence in the western Libyan city of Zintan, the office said. His lawyer Khaled al-Zaidi confirmed to dpa that Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was “assassinated at his home.” The al-Arabiya news channel reported that the 53-year-old was shot dead in the garden of his residence in Zintan, citing sources close to the Gaddafi family. Saif al-Islam was the second-eldest son of the long-time Libyan leader, who ruled the North African country for more than four decades. Before his father’s overthrow and death in 2011, al-Islam led a reform project aimed at modernizing the country politically and bringing it closer to the West. Many of these efforts were soon reversed in order not to upset the balance of power in his father’s government. Gaddafi’s death followed months of m...

By Khalil Ashawi and Firas Makdesi Reuters Syrian government security forces deployed in a Kurdish-controlled city in the northeast on Monday, a first step towards implementing a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal that foresees the Kurdish-run regions being merged with Damascus. The deal, declared on ​Friday, staved off the prospect of further confrontation between President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which lost swathes of ‌eastern and northern Syria to government troops in January. Reuters journalists saw a convoy of more than 30 interior ministry vehicles begin moving towards the ethnically-mixed city of Hasakah from its outskirts in the ‌early afternoon. Sources in the city said they entered shortly afterwards. Members of the Kurdish Asayish security force observed as the convoy entered the city. Government forces are expected to be stationed in Syrian state buildings in Hasakah’s so-called “security zone”, a Syrian official and a Kurdish...

By Dan Peleschuk Reuters A Russian drone strike on a bus carrying miners killed at least 12 people, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday, hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced new peace talks amid uncertainty over a Russian suspension of attacks on energy ​infrastructure. First Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the strike in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region was a “cynical and targeted” attack on energy workers. Their ‌employer DTEK said the victims were finishing a shift. Kyiv is under U.S. pressure to agree a peace deal in the nearly four-year war while grappling with a Russian campaign of airstrikes that ‌has ravaged its energy system during one of the coldest winters in years. UKRAINE READY FOR ‘SUBSTANTIVE TALKS’ The first round of U.S.-backed trilateral talks between Ukraine and Russia took place in late January, but led to no movement on the vital question of territory, with Moscow still demanding Kyiv cede more land in its war-torn east, which it re...