23-02-2025 BRAZZAVILLE: The Congolese army called on deserters to rejoin their units on Thursday, as rogue soldiers fired guns and looted parts of the eastern town of Lubero after fleeing nearby clashes with advancing Rwandan-backed rebels. The unrest points to mounting disarray within the Congolese armed forces in the face …

23-02-2025 WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump reversed course on Friday and said Russia did in fact invade Ukraine, and that Kyiv would soon sign a minerals agreement with the United States as part of efforts to end the Ukraine war. Trump had said on Tuesday that Ukraine “should have never started” …

23-02-2025 BEIJING: China’s military said it drove away three Philippines aircraft “illegally” flying over the disputed Spratly Islands, marking the second aerial incident this week involving Beijing and Manila in the South China Sea. A spokesperson for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command, Air Force Colonel Tian Junli, …

23-02-2025 KHARTOUM: Many Sudanese civilians are welcoming the army as a liberator as it advances across the capital, Khartoum, to topple the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) but activists on the ground say both sides are increasingly resorting to brutal tactics, which are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. On February 1, …

23-02-2025 BERLIN: Germany is preparing for high-stakes elections, amid fears that far-right sentiment rising while migration policies sit at the centre of political debate. In Cottbus, a city in eastern Brandenburg, the mood is tense as voters prepare to head to the polls with the rest of Germany on February …

23-02-2025 VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis’s condition is not considered life-threatening, but he is not out of danger, his medical team has said, as the 88-year-old pontiff continued to receive treatment to fight pneumonia and a complex lung infection. On their first in-person update on the pope’s condition, Francis’s personal physician, …

23-02-2025 JERUSALEM/ CAIRO/ GAZA: Six Israeli captives are scheduled to be released in Gaza today in exchange for 602 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian children, both 13 years old, in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin and Hebron. Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed 48,319 Palestinian …

22-02-2025 CANBERRA/ WELLINGTON: Planes flying between Australia and New Zealand have been diverted as China conducts a closely-scrutinized military exercise in nearby waters that may involve live fire. Wellington The rare presence of three Chinese naval ships in the Tasman Sea has put both antipodean countries on alert in recent …

22-02-2025 JAKARTA/ YOGYAKARTA: Thousands of students staged ‘Dark Indonesia’ protests in cities across the country on Thursday against budget cuts and other policies of President Prabowo Subianto, fearing they will undermine social support systems and their futures. Clad in black, about a thousand placard-carrying students in the major city of …

22-02-2025 BEIJING: China came out in support of US President Donald Trump’s bid to strike a deal with Russia to end the war in Ukraine, at a G20 meeting in South Africa on Thursday, while US allies rallied around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Less than a month into his presidency, …