Five African migrants die, 28 missing after boat sinks off Tunisia
Tunis, Tunisia Reuters At least five African migrants died and another 28 were missing after a boat sank off Tunisia, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, an official of a local rights group said. Romadan Ben Omar, the official in the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, said that coast guard […]
Russian Church shares blame for “crimes” in Ukraine, says Ecumenical Patriarch
Vilnius, Lithuania Reuters The spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians said on Wednesday that Russia’s powerful Orthodox Church shared responsibility for the conflict in Ukraine but that he stood ready to help in Russia’s postwar “spiritual regeneration”. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s comments are a rebuke for Russian Patriarch Kirill, whose full-throated blessing for Moscow’s invasion […]
Boris Johnson says “I did not lie” over lockdown parties
London, UK Reuters A combative Boris Johnson fought for his political career on Wednesday, as the former British prime minister said “hand on heart” he did not lie to parliament over COVID-19 lockdown parties at a hearing with lawmakers. Parliament’s Committee of Privileges is investigating whether Johnson, who was ousted from Downing Street in September, […]
UN warns “vampiric overconsumption” is draining world’s water
United Nations Reuters The United Nations opened its first conference on water security in almost half a century on Wednesday with a plea to governments to better manage one of humanity’s shared resources. A quarter of the world’s population relies on unsafe drinking water while half lacks basic sanitation, the UN said. Meanwhile, nearly three […]
At least nine dead in Russian air strikes on two Ukrainian cities; Zelenskiy visits troops near frontline
Updated: 9:30am (AEDT) Rzhyshchiv, Ukraine Reuters Russian air strikes on Ukrainian cities on Wednesday killed at least nine people in attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said showed Moscow was not interested in peace. In a series of early-morning drone strikes, at least eight people were killed and seven were injured when two dormitories and a […]
Earthquake in Afghanistan kills at least 13, nine of them in Pakistan
Peshawar, Pakistan/Kabul, AfghanistanReuters At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck late on Tuesday, government officials said. At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in north-west Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were […]
To stay or go? The dilemma Ukrainians near front face every day
Kalynivka, Ukraine Reuters It was finally time for Vasyl Kurlyshchuk to leave. When Ukraine’s State Emergency Service evacuation team arrived outside the gate of his small home in the eastern village of Kalynivka on Tuesday, the 74-year-old began slowly sorting through his papers and faded picture albums. Residents queue to fill up bottles with fresh […]
StrangeSights: Mysterious minions; 100 year residency; and, labrador retrievers top dog no more
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Young Portuguese defer dreams as housing crisis bites
Lisbon Reuters When Maria Lopes moved to Lisbon from the northern Portuguese city of Tondela, her goals were straightforward: study, find a job, get a place of her own. But a decade on, she still lives in a tiny, rented room – one of tens of thousands of young Portuguese hit by a housing crisis […]
London police institutionally racist and sexist, report finds
London, UK Reuters London’s Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic and unable to police itself, an independent review said on Tuesday, heaping pressure on the Met’s new chief to reform Britain’s biggest police force. The review was commissioned by then-head of the Met, Cressida Dick, in 2021 after a serving officer was sentenced […]