Myanmar quake death toll hits 1,000 as international aid starts to arrive
Bangkok, Thailand Reuters Foreign rescue teams began flying into Myanmar on Saturday to aid the search for survivors from an earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people in the impoverished South-East Asian nation crippling critical infrastructure amid a grinding civil war. The death toll in Myanmar was 1,002, the military government said on Saturday, up […]
UN’s WFP says 58 million face hunger crisis after huge shortfall in aid
Rome, Italy Reuters The UN World Food Programme warned on Friday that 58 million people were at risk of extreme hunger or starvation unless urgent funding for food aid is secured, after drastic shortfalls from donors so far this year, including the United States. The Rome-based agency said it faced a 40 per cent slump […]
Months after first incursion, Ukrainian troops fighting in second Russian region
Reuters Just as Ukrainian forces are losing their grip on the pocket of Russia’s Kursk region they captured last year, they have staged a little-publicised incursion into the adjacent Belgorod region, according to Russian military bloggers. Several Russian military correspondents said on Friday that Ukrainian troops were inside Belgorod and fighting battles with Russian forces […]
Sudanese on Nile island in capital recount paramilitary repression
Khartoum, Sudan Reuters Residents of Sudan’s Tuti Island at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile have emerged from paramilitary control to speak of hardships suffered and relief that their oppressors have been driven away. They say Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, who have been forced by the army off the island between the […]
South Sudan says arrested VP Machar tried to stir rebellion
Nairobi, Kenya Reuters South Sudan’s First Vice President Riek Machar is under arrest and will be investigated on charges of trying to stir up rebellion, the government said on Friday, the first confirmation of a detention that world powers fear could reignite civil war. Reports that Machar – a longtime rival of President Salva Kiir […]
Venezuela’s Maduro urges UN to back release of migrants
Caracas, Venezuela Reuters Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this week spoke to the United Nations’ Secretary General Antonio Guterres and High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to urge UN support for the release of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants deported by the United States to a notorious El Salvador prison, the Venezuelan government said on Friday. […]
“They are very scared”: Haitian congregations fight fear as Trump administration seeks deportation for immigrants
FIONA ANDRÉ, in an article first published on Religion News Service, reports on how Haitian churches in the US are responding to the end of a program that allowed more than half a million nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to remain in the country…
Wildfires and aging society make for deadly mix in South Korea
Seoul, South Korea Reuters A combination of an aging society and a reliance on temporary workers meant older people were disproportionately on the frontlines tackling South Korea’s devastating wildfires this week – and paid a disproportionate price. While final breakdown of ages has yet to be tallied, authorities say most of the 28 people killed […]
Pope offers prayers for quake-stricken South-East Asia from convalescence in Vatican
Vatican City AP Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of a powerful earthquake in South-East Asia on Friday, the sixth day of his convalescence in the Vatican after a five-week hospitalisation for life-threatening double pneumonia. “The Pope has been informed of the disaster in Myanmar and is praying for the dramatic situation and for […]
Zelenskiy cautious on new minerals deal but says past US aid was not a loan
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not accept any mineral rights deal that threatened its integration with the EU but said it was too early to pass judgment on a dramatically expanded minerals deal proposed by Washington. The Ukrainian leader told reporters that Kyiv’s lawyers needed to review the draft before he […]