BEIRUT – Schools in Beirut were closed on yesterday after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital killed six people, including Hezbollah’s spokesman, the latest in a string of top militant targets slain in the war. Israel escalated its bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in late September, vowing to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow...
DAKAR – Senegal’s ruling party was on track to a large victory in weekend legislative polls, according to media projections yesterday, paving the way for it to deliver an ambitious reform agenda eight months after sweeping to power in the West African country. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s Pastef party was projected to get from 119...
KANO – Attackers from an Islamic State-affiliated jihadist group killed five Nigerian soldiers and wounded 10 more in a raid on a military base near the Niger border, two officers said yesterday. Fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) stormed the base in Kareto village, Borno state in a dawn attack Saturday and...
DAKAR – Senegal yesterday voted in parliamentary elections, with the new leaders aiming for a resounding majority to see through the promise of ambitious reform that swept them to power eight months ago. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye secured victory in March, pledging economic transformation, social justice and a fight against corruption. He raised hopes among...
BAKU – Colombian environment minister Susana Muhamad, who is the president of the COP16 UN conference on biodiversity, expressed confidence that a key financial accord for species’ protection could be reached “in the first quarter of 2025”. Delegates failed to agree a financial roadmap at the Cali summit earlier this month. But Muhamad told AFP...
SYDNEY – Australia, Japan and the US yesterday committed to closer military cooperation in training their forces as the countries deepened their ties in a bid to counter China’s military strength. Australia’s minister of defence Richard Marles hosted US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and Japan’s defence minister Gen Nakatani yesterday for the trilateral ministers’ meeting...
RAIPUR – Indian security forces have killed five Maoist rebels in jungle clashes, an officer said yesterday, as security forces seek to quash the decades-long insurgency in the resource-rich central regions. Gun battles took place in the Abujhmad forests of Chhattisgarh state on Saturday, taking the toll of the conflict in 2024 to around 200,...
GAZA STRIP – Strikes by the Israeli military killed dozens in Gaza yesterday, the civil defence agency said, while also hitting a Hezbollah stronghold near Beirut’s international airport. Israel has been fighting on two fronts since September, intensifying attacks on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border clashes, alongside its war on Hamas...
BAKU – Host Azerbaijan tried to bring down the diplomatic temperature in Baku yesterday after a French minister cancelled her trip to the UN climate talks, and Argentina withdrew its delegation. While negotiators work behind closed doors at the COP29 talks to trash out a climate finance deal, the spotlight has been largely stolen by...
BEIRUT – Israel launched at least 10 air strikes on south Beirut yesterday morning, Lebanese state media said, shortly after Israel’s army urged residents of several neighbourhoods to evacuate the Hezbollah bastion. “Israeli warplanes launched a very violent 10th strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs,” the official National News Agency (NNA) repor ted. AFPTV footage showed...