Category Archives: World News

US and Somali forces kill al-Shabaab commander with $10m bounty on head

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Maalim Ayman was wanted over attack on airbase in Kenya in 2020 in which three Americans died

Somali troops and US forces have killed a senior commander of the al-Shabaab militant group who had a $10m bounty on his head over an attack that left three Americans dead.

“Maalim Ayman, a senior leader of al-Shabaab, was confirmed to have been killed in a joint operation by the Somali national army with assistance from US forces on December 17th,” Kenya’s information minister, Daud Aweis, said on X on Thursday.

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Iceland downgrades volcano threat level as activity appears to end

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Officials say no visible movement at site near Grindavík but it is possible lava may still be flowing underneath

Authorities in Iceland have downgraded the threat level from the volcano that erupted earlier this week, as officials said they could no longer observe volcanic activity at the site of the eruption.

The eruption on Monday opened a fissure in the ground about 2.5 miles (4km) long, spewing orange lava into the sky only 2 miles from the town of Grindavík.

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Russia warns US and Europe over reports Ukraine may get its seized assets

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Kremlin threatens ‘serious consequences’ if there is an unprecedented seizure of Russian assets held abroad

The Kremlin has threatened Europe and the US with “serious consequences”, including tit-for-tat financial seizures or even a break in diplomatic relations, if Russian assets held abroad are given to aid the Ukrainian budget and war effort.

A spokesperson for Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday that if the Biden administration and European leaders planned to seize Russian central bank assets believed to be in excess of $300bn (£236bn) that were frozen after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they should “realise that Russia will never leave those who do it alone”.

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Israel widens ground offensive in Gaza as UN aid resolution talks continue

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More evacuations ordered in west of strip, 11 weeks into war that has now killed nearly 1% of people in Gaza

Israel is expanding its ground offensive in Gaza, ordering new evacuations in the west of the strip, as UN security council negotiations over a resolution intended to increase the flow of humanitarian supplies stretched into another day.

Israel’s military told people to leave their homes in al-Bureij, an urban refugee camp. It also said extra ground troops would head to fight in southern Khan Younis. Both areas were originally declared safe for civilians fleeing from the north.

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Prague shooter killed himself after attack on university, police say – Europe live

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Police also confirm 15 people including the shooter have died, after the interior minister earlier revised the death toll down to 13

Vít Rakušan, the Czech interior minister, said this morning that 14 bodies have been identified, including 13 victims and the shooter.

There are no foreign nationals among the dead, he said.

Dear friends, please approach the tragedy that happened yesterday at [Charles University Faculty of Arts] with sensitivity and consideration.

Many people have lost loved ones and friends, the depth of their pain and sorrow is hard to imagine.

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Day of mourning declared after 14 killed in Prague university shooting

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Twenty-five others wounded in attack at Charles University as local media name suspect as David Kozák

The Czech Republic has declared Saturday a day of mourning after a 24-year-old student killed 14 people and wounded 25 others at his Prague university in what is believed to be the worst mass shooting in the country’shistory.

The death toll from Thursday’s shooting at Charles University in the city centre stood at 14, the interior minister, Vit Rakušan, said on Czech television on Friday. Authorities said three foreign nationals, two from the United Arab Emirates and one from the Netherlands, were among 25 wounded.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Netherlands to deliver F-16 jets to Ukraine; drones reportedly shot down near Moscow – as it happened

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Zelenskiy confirms exchange after call with Dutch PM; Russian defence ministry claims five Ukrainian downed south of the capital

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador over a call by a Russian politician to annex the former Soviet republic, it said late on Thursday.

The Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who is co-chair of the A Just Russia – For Truth party, said this week he believed Russia should annex Uzbekistan and other countries whose citizens travelled en masse to Russia for work.

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Woman killed by falling Christmas tree in Belgian market square

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Two people injured as 20-metre high tree collapses next to Christmas market

A woman was killed and two people injured by a large Christmas tree that fell over during stormy weather in the Belgian town of Oudenaarde, authorities said on Friday.

Security camera footage on Belgian news media showed a brightly lit 20-metre (66ft) high Christmas tree slowly leaning over, then collapsing next to a Christmas market in the town, east of Brussels, on Thursday as a merry-go-round turned in the historic market square.

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Nike to axe hundreds of jobs in bid to save $2bn amid sales slump

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US sportswear brand announces job cuts and simplification of product ranges in ‘streamlining’ of operations

Nike is to cut hundreds of jobs, simplify its product ranges and increase its use of automation as part of attempts to save $2bn (£1.6bn) in costs over the next three years amid poor sales.

The US sportswear brand said it was “taking steps to streamline the organisation” and would be spending up to $450m on the changes, mainly on payoffs for employees.

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Weather tracker: Nor’easter drenches US south-east coast

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Up to 127mm of rain falls on Florida and gusty winds and flash flooding hit parts of Georgia and South Carolina

Last weekend, a low-pressure system that had developed over the Gulf of Mexico tracked north-east across the Florida peninsula. Lashings of heavy rain and strong winds were brought to Florida during the early hours of Sunday morning, dumping up to 127mm (5in) of rain on the state in its passing.

The low-pressure system, termed a “nor’easter”, continued to track north-east, strengthening and bringing gusty winds and flash flooding to the coastal parts of the south-east US, including Georgia and South Carolina.

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Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs discovered in south-east Asia

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There are now seven known species of soft-furred hedgehogs, which look like a cross between a mouse and a shrew

Scientists have identified five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs from south-east Asia.

Two of the species discovered are entirely new to science, while three have been elevated from subspecies level by researchers, who carried out DNA analysis as well as detailed physical observations of the mammals.

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Shock in Prague but shootings not unknown in Czech Republic

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Police say gunman owned multiple firearms, as allowed by among the most permissive gun laws in the EU

A fatal mass shooting in the cloistered environs of Prague might seem a bolt from the blue. In a city historically renowned for defenestrations but less for violent crime, safety and security are taken for granted much more than in most European capitals.

The reaction of Prague’s mayor, Bohuslav Svoboda, whose offices at Prague New Town Hall lie a short distance from the scene of the crime, conveyed many locals’ bewilderment as they struggled to digest the horror that had unfolded.

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Student shoots 14 people dead at university in Prague

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Police chief says ‘premeditated violent attack’ at Charles University appears to have been inspired by massacres abroad

A student at Prague’s Charles University shot and killed 14 people and injured 25 others, 10 of them seriously, before being found dead, in what is believed to be the worst mass shooting in the Czech Republic’s modern history.

The city’s police chief, Martin Vondrášek, told a press briefing on Thursday evening that the death toll may rise further, adding that the shooting had been “a premeditated violent attack”, apparently inspired by similar massacres abroad.

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Colombia looks to recover billions in treasure from ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’

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But critics say the raising of the San José, sunk in battle with British ships in 1708, might damage the country’s cultural heritage

The Colombian government has announced that it will attempt to raise objects from the 1708 shipwreck of the galleon San José, which is believed to contain a cargo worth billions of dollars.

The 300-year-old wreck, often called the “holy grail of shipwrecks”, has been controversial, because it is both an archaeological and economic treasure.

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Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza

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Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 68 journalists and media workers killed since 7 October

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza amid the highest death toll of media workers in any recent conflict.

The New York-based CPJ said at least 68 journalists and other media workers had been killed in Gaza, Israel and southern Lebanon since the Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October and subsequent Israeli assault.

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Questions over DRC election remain as voting is extended into second day

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Church observers allege further irregularities after difficult polling day, but main opposition leader declines to join call for rerun

Voters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been left with more questions over the credibility of this week’s presidential election, amid fresh accusations of irregularities, as voting came to an end on an unplanned second day of balloting.

An observer mission formed by two church bodies, the Episcopal Conference of the Congo and the Church of Christ in the Congo, reported that 11% of voting machines had been set up at military schools, contrary to election law, according to reports from the local news site Actualite.cd.

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Canada intelligence operation put diplomats in legal ‘grey zone’ – report

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Program – under scrutiny after imprisonment of Canadians in China – said to lack safeguards to protect officers overseas

A controversial intelligence-gathering program run by Canada’s foreign affairs ministry operates in a “distinctly grey zone”, puts its officers at risk and breaches global diplomatic conventions, says a damning watchdog report.

Canada’s global security reporting program (GSRP), a critical part of the foreign ministry’s security and intelligence footprint overseas, places officers in countries with “poor human rights records” including Ethiopia, India, Egypt, Turkey, Israel and China.

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New Polish justice minister will seek ‘any niche’ to undo rule of law breaches

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Adam Bodnar is determined to reverse damage to judicial system inflicted by defeated PiS, which led to clashes with EU

Poland’s new justice minister has vowed to “find any niche in the legal system” that will allow him to push through reforms, as he starts work to reverse the rule of law breaches carried out under the previous government.

Adam Bodnar, a law professor and former human rights ombudsman, was elected to Poland’s upper house of parliament in the October election and became justice minister last Wednesday, part of a new government led by prime minister Donald Tusk.

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French police botched Michel Fourniret case, say UK victim’s parents

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Roger Parrish and Pauline Murrell say police might have stopped serial killer and his accomplice sooner

The parents of Joanna Parrish, the British student who was murdered by the French serial killer Michel Fourniret 33 years ago, have said their daughter and other victims could have been saved if police in France had done their job properly.

Roger Parrish and Pauline Murrell believe chances were missed to get to Fourniret before he beat, raped and killed their daughter and threw her body in a river in 1990.

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