Somali police launched an investigation Sunday after 20 foreigners were discovered near territory controlled by the Al-Shabaab militant group claiming to be fishermen who had been held hostage for years.. In 2020, three Iranian fishermen believed to be the last hostages held by Somali pirates were freed after five years of captivity. nur/np/jj
Greece has opened a probe into one of the country's best-known child charities after numerous claims of alleged abuse and financial mismanagement, a justice ministry source told AFP on Sunday.. The charity had been claiming to have some 500 children in its care, but deputy social affairs minister Domna Michailidou on Sunday told To Vima daily that the actual number was 136.
Forty Burundian rebels have been killed in a joint offensive by the militaries of Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi in eastern DRC, a Congolese army spokesman said on Sunday. . The two armies "carried out a high-intensity offensive operation" against Burundian rebels of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), Lieutenant Marc Elongo-Kyondwa said in a statement.
Italy's government declared a state of emergency on Sunday after a landslide on the southern island of Ischia killed at least one person and left a dozen missing.. Casamicciola Terme, a spa resort of 8,000 inhabitants in winter on the lush island of Ischia, near Capri, was hit by an earthquake in 2017 that killed two people.
The motivation to keep fighting the Russians is simple for Viking, a Ukrainian soldier near the northeastern frontlines as cold weather and artillery onslaughts bogs down both sides. . But despite the heavy losses incurred by the Ukrainian military over nine months of fighting since the Russian invasion in February, Viking and others in his tank platoon remain confident they will win the war.
Shafeeq Saqafi paid $3 for the Argentina shirt he proudly wore when he sat with 15,000 other migrant workers in a hidden corner of Doha to watch Lionel Messi's side salvage their World Cup.. Many, like Saqafi, wear Argentina shirts.
The world's focus has shifted to the war in Ukraine, but two major new documentaries aim to throw the spotlight back on Afghanistan, and the people left behind by the United States' rapid withdrawal last year.. - 'Share their pain' - Though the conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine are vastly different in nature, both films offer a cautionary tale about what can happen once the West's focus shifts.
Confirmed for a sixth term as president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled oil-rich Equatorial Guinea since August 1979, overseeing a regime notorious for crushing dissent and fearing coups.. - Fear of coups - Obiang graduated from military school while the country, as Spanish Guinea, was still under the rule of Spain's fascist dictator, General Francisco Franco.
Equatorial Guinea's ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has been re-elected to a sixth term as president with 94.9 percent of the votes cast, election officials announced on Saturday, putting turnout for the vote at 98 percent.. The commission said the turnout rate for the election was 98 percent.
A roadside bomb killed four troops in northern Burkina Faso, an area wracked by jihadist insurgency, the army said on Saturday, while three civilians died in another strike in the same region.. The troops were killed on Friday when an improvised explosive device went off as an army escort drove along the Bourzanga-Kongoussi road, the army said in a statement, adding that one person was also wounded.
