World News

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement marking one year since the beginning of the civil war in Sudan. “Today marks the solemn first anniversary of the brutal civil war that continues to tear Sudan apart, a conflict marked by war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and potentially even genocide. I stand with the Sudanese people, who by the sheer power of peaceful resistance, pressed for the handover of power from a dictatorial regime to ‘mandania’ – the people. Now, amid the rubble and heartbreak of war, these same patriots are bravely providing a lifeline to their brothers and sisters, putting their own lives and scarce resources on the line. Their actions speak far louder than words to remind the world, and ...

The Israeli army offensive on Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital has led to further militant deaths, the military reported on Thursday. Over the past day, more than 50 terrorists were eliminated during exchanges of fire,” the military said, adding that more than 140 militants had been eliminated in the area of the hospital since the start of the operation a few days ago. Israeli forces had also found weapons storage facilities, they said. According to the military, civilians, patients, doctors, and medical equipment were not harmed. None of the information could initially be independently verified. Israeli troops entered the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Monday to take action against Hamas and its infrastructure. According to the army, two Israeli s...

A 56-year-old German man who tried to fake his death in a staged boating accident on the Baltic Sea has been sentenced to more than three years in prison. The sentence came after being convicted of 14 counts of attempted insurance fraud. The man’s wife, meanwhile, was sentenced to two years’ probation on Wednesday for her role in the scheme. The couple allegedly faked the man’s death in a boating accident in the Bay of Kiel in October 2019 in a bid to collect ransom. Fake death man planned to collect about €4 million ($4.4 million) in life and accident insurance payouts. After staging the man’s supposed death, the couple hid out for months, first in Hamburg and then in the central German town of Schwarmstedt. Police finally tracked the man down during a raid in May 2020,...

An international relations expert, Femi Otubanjo, says the decision of ECOWAS to lift sanctions imposed on Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso will save the West African sub-regional bloc from disintegration. Mr Otubanjo, a research professor at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, made the assertion in an interview in Lagos. Gambia’s Omar Touray, president of the ECOWAS Commission, announced the lifting of the sanctions at the end of the extraordinary session of the heads of state and government of ECOWAS member countries on Saturday in Abuja. Mr Touray said the decision was based on humanitarian considerations, the sanctions’ socio-economic impacts and the sub-region’s security. “The authority has resolved to lift with immediate effect sanctions imposed on Niger and has...

Former Irish Premier John Bruton has died at 76 following a long illness, his family has confirmed. Bruton was taoiseach from 1994 until 1997, and the leader of the Fine Gael party from 1990 to 2001. He died in a Dublin hospital on Tuesday, surrounded by his family. statement from the Bruton family, released by Fine Gael, stated, “It is with deep sadness we wish to announce the death of former taoiseach John Bruton. “He died peacefully in the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, surrounded by his loving family, early this morning following a long illness. He was a good husband, a good father and a true patriot. We will miss him greatly. “John is survived by his wife, Finola, son Matthew and daughters Juliana, Emily and Mary-Elizabeth, grandchildren, sons-in-law, his brother, R...

Elon Musk said that his neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time on Sunday. The patient is “recovering well,” Mr Musk said on X, formerly Twitter. “Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.” Neuralink’s first product is called Telepathy, he said. The company is developing a brain implant to help patients with severe paralysis control external technologies using only neural signals. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Mr Musk wrote in a separate post. Neuralink began recruiting patients for its first-in-human clinical trial in the autumn of 2023 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the company to conduct the study in May.Xinhua/NAN ...

Following repeated attacks by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia from southern Lebanon, Israel has ordered the evacuation of settlements up to two kilometres from the border area. The office of Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that 28 towns on Israel’s northern border were affected. The residents were to be taken to safety at state expense and housed in guest houses. The Israeli army had already declared a four-kilometre-wide strip in the border area a restricted zone on Sunday. Since the unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas on Israel and the counter-attacks by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip, there has been increasing violence on the border between Israel and Lebanon recently. This has fueled concerns about a further regional escalation of the confl...

Officials on Monday said two people were killed, and two others lost their eyesight after consuming spurious liquor in India’s eastern state of Bihar. In April this year, suspected toxic liquor consumption in the state killed over 30 people. The deaths were reported from the Qazi Mohammadpur police station area in Muzaffarpur district, about 72km north of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. “We have received information about two deaths at Pokharia Pir locality. The family members of the deceased said that three days back, these people returned home drunk, following which they took ill and subsequently succumbed to their illness during treatment,” the police explained. The police added, “Two other people of the same locality are reported to have lost eyesight following the consu...

Bill Richardson, U.S. presidential hopeful in 2018 and a two-term governor of New Mexico, has passed on at 75. The former governor died “peacefully” in his sleep at his residence in Chatham, Massachusetts, a statement by Richardson Center for Global Engagement said. Governor Richardson passed away peacefully in his sleep last night,” Mickey Bergman, vice president of the Richardson foundation, said in a statement. Mr Richardson had previously worked as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and was known for working assiduously to secure the freedom of American citizens wrongfully detained in other countries. He was passionate about human rights advocacy that then-President Bill Clinton nicknamed him “undersecretary for thugs.” “He lived his entire life in the service of othe...