Sudan army head calls on young men to join fight against paramilitary RSF
Reuters The head of Sudan’s army called on young men to defend their country, including by joining the army, and announced a ceasefire for the Eid al Adha holiday on Wednesday, when a rival force has also declared a truce. Multiple ceasefire deals have failed to stick in the conflict between the army and the […]
Tropical forest losses rise in 2022 despite pledge to end them
Reuters The world lost an area of old-growth tropical rainforest the size of Switzerland last year, as deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon continued unabated, a forest monitoring project report said on Tuesday. Global Forest Watch, which is backed by the non-profit World Resources Institute and draws on forest data collected by the University of Maryland, […]
Renegade Russian mercenary Prigozhin is in Belarus – Lukashenko
Moscow, Russia Reuters Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday after a mutiny that dealt the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power more than 23 years ago. Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the […]
Russian missiles hit restaurant in Ukraine’s Kramatorsk, four dead
Updated: 8:40am (AEST) Kramatorsk, Ukraine Reuters Two Russian missiles on Tuesday struck the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and killed at least four people, local officials and police said, as rescue crews combed through a shattered restaurant in search of casualties. The dead included a child while 42 people were injured at the restaurant, according […]
Over 1,000 Afghan civilians killed in blasts, violence since August 2021 – UN
Reuters Over a thousand Afghan civilians were killed in bombings and other violence since foreign forces left and the Taliban took over in 2021, according to a report by the UN’s mission to Afghanistan released on Tuesday. Between 15th August, 2021, and May this year 1,095 civilians were killed and 2,679 wounded, according to the […]
US lawmakers make new push for expanded drone shootdown authority
Washington DC, US Reuters A group of bipartisan US lawmakers said on Monday they are making a new push to expand government authority to detect and destroy drones that could pose security threats. Representatives Chrissy Houlahan, Mike Gallagher, Troy Carter and Mike Johnson introduced legislation that would allow state and local law enforcement and critical […]
Analysis – Emergence of Guatemalan anti-graft champion shakes up election
Guatemala City, Guatemala Reuters Guatemalans fed up with persistent graft scandals on Sunday catapulted an unheralded anti-corruption candidate into a run-off for the presidency, raising hopes of a renewed drive to clean up the government after years of frustration. Bernardo Arevalo, an ex-diplomat and son of former President Juan Jose Arevalo, defied poll forecasts to […]
Latin America’s anti-corruption strength slips, ranking shows
Mexico City, Mexico Reuters An index evaluating Latin American countries’ ability to root out corruption showed most countries moving backward, according to the ranking released on Tuesday. The 2023 Capacity to Combat Corruption Index, published jointly by Americas Society/Council of the Americas and Control Risks, points to a decline in the region’s average score for […]
Argentina “death flight” plane returned from US
Buenos Aires, Argentina Reuters Argentine officials on Monday welcomed the return of an airplane from which the country’s last military dictatorship threw political opponents to their deaths, and that will now be part of a museum dedicated to the victims’ memory. The turboprop plane took part in the so-called “death flights” that Argentina’s bloody 1976-1983 […]
US “deeply troubled” by Israel’s approval of settler building permits
Jerusalem/Washington DC, US Reuters The United States on Monday objected to a decision by Israel’s nationalist-religious government to approve the construction of around 5,700 additional housing units for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. The United States was “deeply troubled” by the move, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters, adding that US officials […]