World News

Khartoum islanders 'under siege' as Sudan fighting rages

Battles raged in Sudan's war-torn capital on Tuesday, witnesses said, as residents of an island in the Nile reported being "under siege" amid desperate shortages.. - Besieged island - In the city centre, at the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers, the island of Tuti is "under total siege" by RSF forces, resident Mohammed Youssef told AFP. For over a week, paramilitaries have blocked the only bridge to the island and prevented residents from going by boat to other parts of the capital, "shooting anyone who approaches the river bank", pro-democracy lawyers said Tuesday.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 3 mins read

World News

CIA knew of Ukraine plan to blow up Nord Stream pipeline: report

A European spy agency told the CIA it knew of a Ukraine special operations team plan to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline three months before explosions damaged the undersea system last year, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.. The leaked documents indicated that an unnamed European intelligence body told the US spy agency in June 2022, four months after Russia invaded Ukraine, that Ukraine military divers reporting directly to the country's military commander-in-chief were planning the attack.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 1 mins read

World News

Ukraine nuke plant safety at stake after dam damage

While there is "no immediate nuclear safety risk," the UN nuclear watchdog is exploring options to get water to keep cooling Europe's biggest atomic plant after a dam in southern Ukraine was damaged on Tuesday.. - 'No immediate risk' -  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- which has a team of experts at the plant -- said it was "closely monitoring the situation" at the plant but saw "no immediate nuclear safety risk".

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 2 mins read

World News

Climate: Battle lines harden over how to slash CO2

Banish fossil fuels, capture their emissions, pull CO2 from thin air -- diplomats in Bonn for UN-led climate talks agree there's too much planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but remain at loggerheads on the best way to reduce it.. There are three ways to deal with the problem, intervening at different points in the CO2 "value chain" from source to tailpipe: stop burning fossil fuels, by far the main driver of warming; if you do burn them, stop carbon pollution from seeping into the air; and remove CO2 from the atmosphere once it's there.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 5 mins read

World News

Prince Harry takes on the press - under oath

Prince Harry's appearance at the High Court in London on Tuesday was a world away from the gentle questioning of a friendly interviewer on prime-time television.. Harry's testimony is the first by a senior royal to be given in court since the 1890s.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 2 mins read

World News

Bulgaria parliament approves pro-European government, ending deadlock

Bulgarian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a new pro-European government put forward by We Continue the Change (PP) and the centre-right GERB party, ending a two-year-long impasse marked by five elections.. In May, Gabriel -- tasked by the conservative GERB party to lead negotiations -- alongside the PP-DB coalition announced a power-sharing government with rotating prime ministers.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 1 mins read

World News

UN climate chief hails 'unique insights' of embattled COP28 head

The UN's top climate official hailed the "unique insight" of a UAE oil executive whose naming as president of the key COP28 climate summit has outraged advocates and experts.. Reaction to host United Arab Emirates' appointment of al-Jaber in January as president of the COP28 summit in December has caused a furor among green groups and climate experts, as well as calls for him to step aside.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 3 mins read

World News

Tear gas, arrests at Kenya protest over tax hike plans

Kenyan police fired tear gas and arrested 11 protesters, AFP journalists said, during a march in Nairobi on Tuesday against a new finance bill that critics say will pile more economic hardship on ordinary people.. Police fired several volleys of tear gas and arrested 11 people, bundling them into a police truck, to try to disperse the demonstration, AFP journalists at the scene said.  

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 2 mins read

World News

'Everything is going to die': Kherson locals rage at Russians

"Everything is going to die here," said Sergiy as water from the breached Kakhovka dam poured downstream into the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Tuesday.. Locals blamed Russia for blowing up the dam as water poured into the southern city from the mighty Dnipro River, flowing down roads and covering low-lying fields.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 1 mins read

World News

Major aid group's women staff partially resume work in Afghanistan

A leading international NGO's Afghan women staff have resumed their work in some provinces, months after the Taliban government banned them from working. . Since the ban, UNAMA has asked all of its Afghan staff -- men and women -- to work from home, but other agencies in the country "have had different ways of handling the situation", he noted.

Tue, Jun 6, 2023 1 mins read