Antonina Boloto sits at a little table decked with flowers in her funeral supply store, doing a crossword with a view of a building destroyed by Russian shelling in Severodonetsk, Ukraine. Several coffins are perched against a wall behind her. As Moscow’s forces shell Severodonetsk — the easternmost town on the frontline of Russia’s war … Read more
Stanislav Shushkevich, the first head of state of an independent Belarus, died at the age of 87, according to his widow, who signed a proclamation dissolving the Soviet Union with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine. Shushkevich, who later became a critic of Belarus’s strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, died of complications from coronavirus, his wife … Read more
Burundi’s army announced Wednesday that ten Burundian peacekeepers were killed in an Al-Shabaab jihadist attack on an African Union (AU) post in Somalia on Tuesday. Twenty-five soldiers were also injured and five are missing while 20 Al-Shabaab militants were killed, it said in a statement. It was the first attack on a peacekeeping base since … Read more
A Myanmar military court on Wednesday dismissed Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal against a five-year sentence for corruption handed down last week, according to a junta spokesman. Since a coup ousted her government in February last year, plunging Myanmar into upheaval, Suu Kyi has been in military custody and faces a raft of charges that … Read more
According to a judicial source, the number of would-be migrants died after their boats capsized late last month amid desperate attempts to flee Tunisia for Europe has grown to 24. Four boats capsized off the coast of the central Tunisian port city of Sfax on the night of April 22-23. While 97 people were rescued, … Read more
Shortly after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in the turbulent region for a visit, jihadists raided a town in northeast Nigeria, murdering seven people and seizing supplies, according to local sources. Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), arriving on motorbikes and in trucks fitted with machine guns, stormed Kautikeri village near the … Read more
Kailia Posey, who starred on Toddlers & Tiaras as a kid, died on May 2, according to her mother’s Facebook page. She was only 16 years old at the time. “I don’t have words or any thoughts,” Marcy Posey Gatterman wrote on the social media platform alongside a photo of her daughter Kailia. “A beautiful baby girl is … Read more
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, committed on Tuesday to do more to combat growing living costs, with the subject at the forefront of local elections this week. But he again rejected calls for a one-off windfall tax on major energy companies, to offset soaring bills that have squeezed household incomes. Voters … Read more
Bloc Party, the indie disco band, is back with a new album that fuels the band’s rage against Britain’s political leaders. Singer Kele Okereke doesn’t mince his words. “Every day I’m disgusted when I read about what our government is doing and who our prime minister is,” he told AFP during a recent visit to … Read more
The German banking regulator BaFin warned on Tuesday that cyberattacks on the financial industry pose a “very serious” threat, one that has grown “more plausible” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The risk that companies in the financial sector will fall victim to cyberattacks or that internal IT security incidents will occur is very big and … Read more
When Lea took her newborn baby to see an osteopath in Paris, he had no difficulty breastfeeding him, but the osteopath recommended surgery to excise a “too thick” band of tissue behind his tongue. She said the osteopath indicated that “we don’t really know why, but it’s always better to have it cut”. The procedure, … Read more
An official from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said Tuesday that fighting between the Iraqi army and Yazidi fighters connected with Turkey’s banned separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has uprooted thousands. The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking non-Arab, non-Muslim minority who were massacred by Islamic State group jihadists in 2014. Clashes left one Iraqi soldier dead on … Read more
When asked about the conditions of workers building World Cup stadiums and infrastructure in Qatar, FIFA President Gianni Infantino replied that migrant employees take pride in their hard work. Infantino said workers would feel proud about building stadiums for this year’s tournament in the Gulf nation. The head of football’s world governing body was asked … Read more
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited a displaced persons camp in Niger on Tuesday, pleading for humanitarian and military assistance for the poor country fighting jihadist rebels. Guterres travelled to the camp at Ouallam in the southwest of the country on the fourth day of a trip to West Africa delayed by the crisis in … Read more
On Tuesday, Russian soldiers launched a huge assault on the Azovstal steel mill, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the destroyed southern port city of Mariupol, bringing 101 residents to safety who had been besieged there for weeks. “We are so thankful for everyone who helped us. There was a moment we lost hope, … Read more
Spain’s weak coalition government was put on the defensive Tuesday when it was revealed that the prime minister’s and defense minister’s cellphones had been tapped using Pegasus malware. Felix Bolanos, a cabinet minister, told a news conference on Monday that the phones of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles were hacked … Read more
At least two people have died in a building that collapsed in central China, state media said Tuesday, the first fatalities reported four days into a rescue operation searching for dozens still missing. The commercial building in Changsha city, Hunan province — which housed apartments, a hotel and a cinema — caved in on Friday, … Read more
According to a media watchdog, unregulated online content has propagated disinformation and propaganda that has exacerbated political divisions, stoked international tensions, and even led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Reporters Without Borders, widely known by its French acronym RSF, presented its findings in the 2022 edition of its annual World Press Freedom Index. Democratic societies, … Read more
