Five years of investigation and expert reports have failed to identify the precise cause of the 2019 fire that ravaged Paris’ landmark Notre Dame cathedral, even as the probe draws to a close just as the cathedral prepares to reopen early next month. Notre Dame’s bells rang out Friday for the first time since the…
The US has told Qatar that the presence of Hamas in Doha is no longer acceptable in the weeks since the Palestinian militant group rejected the latest proposal to achieve a ceasefire and a hostage deal, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday. The tiny Gulf state Qatar, alongside the US and Egypt, has…
Qatar asks Hamas to leave Doha after refusing ceasefire proposals Top Biden administration officials pushed ahead Friday with final efforts to extinguish flames that have engulfed the Middle East for months, including telling Qatar that Hamas officials should no longer be offered a safe haven in Doha. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to regional officials, including…
Five people have been hospitalized and 62 arrested as a result of clashes that erupted in Amsterdam overnight following a football match, police said on Friday. “Several reports about last night’s events in Amsterdam are circulating on social media,” Amsterdam police said in a post on X.“So far, it is known that five people have…
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday he was confident in the diplomatic efforts of the new Trump administration to help end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Erdogan spoke while returning from a summit in Budapest a day after Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the US election. “If we see a US…
Ukraine’s air defense units were trying to repel a second wave of overnight drone attacks by Russia on Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Tuesday. Air defense systems were engaged in repelling an attack in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district, Klitschko wrote on his Telegram messaging channel. Earlier, air defense units were trying to repel an attack…
In an unusual warning, China’s navy told young officers and personnel that they could get ensnared by online dating scams and virtual gambling if they let down their guard, exposing themselves to security risks and undermining the military. Addressing those born from 1990 who are “becoming the core of the army”, the People’s Liberation Army…
President Vladimir Putin accepted the sudden resignation on Monday of one of Russia’s longest serving governors who headed the Rostov region that has been plagued by Ukrainian drones and where the Wagner Group forces started a short-lived mutiny. The Rostov region, about 1,000 kms (622 miles) south of Moscow, borders Ukraine. Kyiv, which has launched…
The Israeli military said it intercepted a drone approaching from the east over southern Israel in the Dead Sea area on Tuesday. “A UAV that crossed into Israeli territory from the east was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli air force),” the military said in a statement, without specifying the drone’s origin.
After over a year of war in Gaza, Palestinian fishermen gather along the coastline, desperately casting their nets in hopes of catching enough for their families amid widespread hunger. Since Israel began a military onslaught in Gaza after Hamas’ October 2023 attack, Israeli restrictions in the waters off the enclave have made life almost impossible for…
The appeal of a Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death for fraud totaling $27 billion began on Monday after she pleaded for a more “lenient and humane” sentence. Property developer Truong My Lan, 68, was convicted earlier this year of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) — which prosecutors said she controlled — and given…
A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted overnight killing at least six people as it spewed fireballs and ash on surrounding villages, officials said Monday, as they raised its alert status to the highest level. Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-metre (5,587-feet) twin volcano located on the popular tourist island of Flores, first erupted shortly before midnight,…
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned as “unacceptable” violence at a Hindu temple near Toronto on Sunday, following skirmishes blamed by some leaders on Sikh activists. Local police in the city of Brampton, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Toronto, said they had deployed heavily outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir in order to maintain…
Spain’s King Felipe VI and top government officials were pelted with mud by a crowd of enraged flood survivors during the first visit by the country’s leaders Sunday to the center of the suffering. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was evacuated from the scene, according to Spanish broadcaster RTVE, when the official contingent started to walk the mud-covered…
