Global News

By Enas Alashray, Idrees Ali and Jana Choukeir Reuters Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war. The attacks sent the price of ‌oil surging, with benchmark Brent crude futures breaching $100 a barrel for the first time since July. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another listed as missing. The ‌incidents follow a month of relative calm, during which the U.S. has sought to pressure Iran through economic means. Iran said it had fired ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan. Jordan said it intercepted 18 missiles, with the remaining two ​falling harmlessly in unpopulated areas. A U.S. official said all American troops were accounted for. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would sharply escalate its response to any further attacks, and said I...

By AFP | Posted by TOE At least five people were killed and 86 remain missing after a fire erupted aboard a ferry near a tourist hotspot in the Philippine province of Palawan, the coast guard said Thursday. The blaze broke out on the M/V June Aster Wednesday evening about 2.2 kilometres (1.3 miles) offshore, the coast guard said, adding that five casualties had been brought ashore. Video shared by the coast guard on Facebook showed the vessel completely engulfed in flames. Hundreds of people, desperate for news about the incident, have left comments on the Coron town mayor’s Facebook page, searching for relatives, friends and even a dog. “Based on the data we have right now on rescued (42) and the casualties, we still have 87 people who are unaccounted for,” coast guard Captain Noemi Cayabyab told a local radio station on Thursday. The ship’s manifest had listed 134 passengers and crew, Cayabyab said. Of those rescued, 38 were passeng...

By Yury Garcia and Alexandra Valencia Reuters | Posted by TOE For one grandmother, it was when bullets began hitting the rooftops of her neighborhood that she decided she would have to leave the housing development where she had lived for nearly 20 years. A sharp rise in fighting between gang factions in Ecuador has prompted thousands ​of families to flee and abandon their homes to the gangs, who strip the houses for drug money or use them to hide kidnapping victims, according to residents and police. One of the areas ‌that has been the site of the heaviest bloodshed is the Nueva Prosperina district in the coastal city of Guayaquil, where fighting between factions of the Los Tiguerones gang last year killed 22 people. Among those who fled was a 66-year-old woman, who, like other residents of the district Reuters spoke to for this story, asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals from the gangs. Armed groups were targeting people indiscriminately, assuming that an...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE At least 11 people were killed ‌and six others injured after ‌an avalanche struck a group of ​climbers in Russia’s Kabardino-Balkaria region in the North Caucasus, local emergency services said. The avalanche swept down Mount ‌Mizhirgi, one ⁠of the highest peaks in Russia’s North Caucasus, at ⁠around 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Sunday, hitting a ​group of ​33 climbers. As ​of 9 a.m. ‌local time on Monday, 10 climbers had made their own way down the mountain, while the fate of six others remained ‌unknown, emergency services ​said. More than 50 emergency ​workers ​were involved in the ‌search and rescue operation, ​but efforts ​were being hampered by difficult terrain and a high risk ​of ‌further avalanches, they said. from The Times Of Earth https://ift.tt/0RA42PI

By Eric BERNAUDEAU AFP | Posted by TOE Indonesia halted operations at its main international airport outside Jakarta on Sunday after ash spewed from the Anak Krakatoa volcano more than 150 kilometres away, impacting thousands of passengers. Mount Anak Krakatoa erupted on Saturday, producing a fountain of lava and booming sounds that could be heard up to a few hundred kilometres away, the geology agency said in a statement. Two new eruptions were recorded on Sunday, the volcanology agency warned. Ash from the volcano was detected in the airspace surrounding Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, prompting authorities to initially suspend operations from 1:30 am Sunday (Saturday 1830 GMT) to 5:30 am. The suspension was extended three times, with the latest ending at 5:30 pm Sunday “due to increased eruptive activity,” the airport said in a social media post.  Operations have been suspended at six airports including the Hussein Sastranegara airport ...

By AFP | Posted by TOE Russian strikes hit Kyiv’s airports overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, as US envoys are expected to arrive in the region to discuss a plan to end more than four years of war. US President Donald Trump said Friday he was sending Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv, in Washington’s latest bid to break a diplomatic stalemate in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. Russia hit a civilian target in the Dnipro region overnight, killing four people, as well as Kyiv’s two airports, Zelensky said, accusing the Kremlin of trying to disrupt the envoys’ visit. “Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the US side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine,” Zelensky said on X, adding there would be “no threats to diplomacy” from the Ukrainian side. It will be the first time...

By Reuters | Posted by TOE Vietnam and Myanmar agreed on Saturday to deepen defence and security cooperation, elevating the sector to ‌a pillar of bilateral ties as Vietnamese leader To ‌Lam hosted Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing in Hanoi. The two leaders agreed to ​expand cooperation in military training, exchanges between young officers, search-and-rescue operations and disaster response, while stepping up information sharing and coordination against crimes, the government said in a statement. “Vietnam stands ready to share ‌its experience in national ⁠development, ensuring economic security and fostering sustainable growth,” Lam was quoted as saying during the talks, according ⁠to the statement. Both sides also reaffirmed a commitment not to allow any individual or organisation to use one country’s territory for activities ​against ​the other. The talks were held during ​Min Aung Hlaing’s first ‌official visit to Vietnam as Myanmar...