Gayan district, Afghanistan – (AFP) Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged on Saturday they would not interfere with international efforts to distribute aid to tens of thousands of people affected by this week’s deadly earthquake. Even before Wednesday’s quake the country was in the grip of a humanitarian crisis, with aid...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – At least seven suspected militants and two Pakistani soldiers were killed on Sunday amid a clash in the restive North Waziristan tribal region, the country’s military said. The clashes, the latest in a recent string of similar incidents, took place in the Ghulam Khan area located near the Afghan border, the...
ORAN, Algeria (AA) – A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck areas of Algeria’s northwestern Oran province Sunday. The quake occurred at 8.17 p.m. local time (1917GMT), according to a statement by Algeria’s Center of Research in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Geophysics (CRAAG). Oran’s Civil Defense Directorate in a statement said teams imm...
ANKARA (AA) – African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat called late Sunday for an “immediate investigation” after the deaths of dozens migrants trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Melilla. Around 2,000 migrants, many from Sudan, tried to cross the militarized border fence Friday and w...
TAL ABYAD, Syria (AA) – A former Syrian prisoner recalled the torture and cruelty he suffered in detention during the rule of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In a special interview on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26, Turkmen Ismail Mustafa from Tal Abyad recounted [&hellip...
TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Iran has announced the second test launch of its locally-developed satellite carrier ‘Zuljanah.’ Defense Ministry spokesman Seyed Ahmad Hosseini said in a statement that the launch was sub-orbital with “pre-determined research objectives.” He said the three-stage carrier has two stages of solid propulsion ...
KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Two police officers and two assailants were killed when motorbike-riding gunmen opened fire at a police station in northern Benin on Sunday. The police station in the Dassari district near the border with Burkina Faso was attacked at 2 a.m. local time. Besides those killed, one officer was wounded, according to [&he...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Even as the Pakistan government is planning to launch a countrywide survey to document the exact number of narcotic drug users, estimates suggest that there has been a slight decrease over the past decade. Authorities say that rough estimates so far suggest that some 9 million people or slightly over 4% […]
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – Hamza Abdi Barre assumed office as Somalia’s 21st prime minister after receiving a vote of confidence from all the 220 members of parliament in Somalia on Saturday. The new prime minister will pick his Cabinet in 30 days. Parliament Speaker Aden Madobe was quoted by the local media as saying that […]
TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) – The United States and four European countries have called on Libyan leaders to accelerate the establishment of a legal basis for holding elections in the war-torn country. “We call on the House of Representatives, the High State Council, and their leaders to urgently finalize the legal basis so that credible, transparent,...
