Baghdad, Iraq (AFP): Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Tuesday he hoped to “strengthen and broaden” relations with Iraq, on a Baghdad visit ahead of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Defense Secretary Austin also told Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that US troops were “ready...
Jenin, Palestinian Territories (AFP): Israeli troops on Tuesday killed six Palestinians in Jenin, the latest deadly raid in a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian health ministry said six men had been killed, one aged 49 and the rest in their 20s, in clashes that the army said included soldiers launching […]
Baghdad, Iraq (AFP): US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Iraq on an unannounced visit barely two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. “I’m here to reaffirm the US-Iraq strategic partnership as we move toward a more secure, stable and sovereign Iraq,” Austin tweeted...
BRUSSELS (AA) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday called the recent steps on normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia a “historic opportunity for peace.” Speaking at a joint news conference with Albanian President Bajram Begaj, Stoltenberg welcomed “the constructive approach” shown last week by Serbian President A...
JOHANNESBURG (AA) – The African Union has postponed a conference that was scheduled to take place in Tunisia this month amid mounting criticism of a government crackdown on migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. “The Pan-African Network Conference on Fighting Illicit Financial Flows in Africa that was scheduled to convene in Tunisia from 15-1...
MADRID (AA) – More than 150 migrants arrived at the Canary Islands in the last 24 hours from North Africa, the Spanish coast guard said on Tuesday. Coast guard units intervened in three approaching boats, transporting 158 migrants coming from North African coasts, and directed them to the ports of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. The migrant...
GENEVA (AA) – Last month’s earthquakes could cost Türkiye more than $100 billion, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Louisa Vinton, Türkiye representative of UNDP, said 2.7 million people were displaced due to the earthquakes that jolted the region a month ago. Nearly 600,000 buildings collapsed, she added in a...
BRUSSELS (AA) – The European Union has equipped its border protection information system with new features to “prevent and deter” irregular migration, including biometrical data and alerts on return decisions for failed asylum applicants. The bloc’s border protection and management system, officially named Schengen Information System (SIS), ha...
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel on Tuesday blamed Iran for a cyberattack that targeted a leading engineering educational institute in the country last month. In a statement, the Israel National Cyber Directorate said the cyberattack on the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) in Haifa city was carried out by a hacking group that works for Iran. [...
Tehran, Iran (AFP): Iran on Monday expressed its readiness for a long-awaited prisoner swap with Belgium, days after the European country’s Constitutional Court gave the green light for such a move. Following the decision “by the Belgian Constitutional Court, we can now say that the way to implement the agreement has been opened, a...
