STOCKHOLM, July 23 (Reuters) – Sweden’s government declared mining of critical metals and rare earth minerals a national security interest on Thursday, saying a new mining strategy was needed to counter the dependence on China. China dominates both mining and refining of rare earth minerals essentia
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history has killed more than 1,000 people in eastern Congo as health officials race to contain a virus with no approved vaccine or treatment. An update from Congo’s public health institute on Wednesday said there have been 2,536 confirmed
PARIS (AP) — About 20,000 people were evacuated from towns and vacation resorts along the French Atlantic coast Thursday as the latest in series of wildfires raged and hundreds of firefighters were dispatched to tackle it. Local authorities said the fire in a forest near the town of Lège Cap-Ferret,
NEW DELHI (AP) — The food arrives almost as steadily as the protesters. Every few minutes, delivery riders on motorbikes pull up outside the protest site with bags of burgers, snacks and bottled water. Volunteers collect the food, stack it along other donated supplies and distribute it to demonstrat
GUWAHATI, India (AP) — Authorities recovered the bodies of the remaining 13 workers trapped inside a collapsed hydropower tunnel in India, taking the death toll to 25 as authorities ended the rescue operations on Thursday. Multiple agencies had made sustained and coordinated rescue efforts in the fo
By Ahmed Kingimi MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, July 23 (Reuters) – Armed bandits riding motorcycles killed at least 24 farmers and wounded several others in an attack on remote farming villages in northwest Nigeria’s Zamfara state, residents told Reuters on Thursday. The attackers stormed communities in the S
NEW DELHI (AP) — A prominent Kashmiri human rights activist and a renowned journalist have been released on bail after years of imprisonment on allegations of financing terrorism in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. Rights activist Khurram Parvez and independent journalist Irfan Mehraj were
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A sailor injured when a Ukraine-bound tanker ship caught fire off Romania’s Black Sea coast has died, Romanian media reported on Thursday, as authorities investigate a possible link to Russia’s war against Ukraine. The ship, a Liberian-flagged vessel named Gas Lisbon, was s
MUMBAI, India (AP) — The blue police van dominates the frame. A young woman, Rhiya Ahir, stands in front of it in a rain-soaked hoodie, one hand pressed against the metal. Behind the windshield sit police officers. Inside the van are young protesters detained after demonstrations in India’s financia
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) – Spain on Thursday nominated Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz to head the United Nations labour agency, potentially making her the first woman to lead the organisation, as it faces a financial crisis over U.S. non-payments. The Spanish gove
By Sam Tobin LONDON, July 23 (Reuters) – British police apologised on Thursday for a “missed opportunity” to possibly stop a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue last year, as an associate of the attacker was jailed for helping carry out earlier reconnaissance on a UK defence site. Mohammad Asim
By Jack Queen NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s Justice Department will ask a Manhattan federal judge on Thursday to uphold its subpoena issued to New York Times’ journalists who reported on security concerns about the president flying on a Qatari-donated Air Force One. The subp
By Ariba Shahid KARACHI, July 23 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s push to convert some of its diplomatic goodwill with the Trump administration into economic support has drawn skepticism from economists, who say fresh financing will do little to address the reforms that Islamabad has long avoided. During a vi
By Victoria Waldersee and Miguel Vidal VINCIOS, Spain, July 23 (Reuters) – A goat-like cow is making a comeback in Spain’s northwestern Galicia region, as communities reintroduce native livestock to rebalance ecosystems and reduce wildfires in an area that was at the epicentre of the country’s worst
JERUSALEM, July 23 (Reuters) – Israeli far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Thursday, praising Jewish visitors he said had prayed at the site in breach of arrangements that allow only Muslim prayer there. His visit drew condemnation
By Kyu-seok Shim SEOUL, July 23 (Reuters) – South Korea is abandoning a “denuclearisation first” policy in favour of a “peace first” approach towards North Korea, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said on Thursday, while retaining the eventual goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. “The ultima
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Manuel Botom Uz was just four years old when he and his siblings were attacked by the Guatemalan army in his Indigenous community in Quiche, in northwest Guatemala, in 1982 during the height of the country’s armed conflict. His siblings were found and released to relatives, but
By Julia Payne, Philip Blenkinsop and Andrew Gray BRUSSELS, July 23 (Reuters) – European Union envoys agreed on a 21st sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine, imposing curbs on its banking sector while also finding a compromise with Greece to soften restrictions on Russian LNG, fou
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto received a collection of cultural artifacts from the country’s Papua region that had been illegally taken to the United States, officials said Thursday. The handover took place late Wednesday during a meeting with FBI Director Kash Pate
ATHENS, July 223(Reuters) – Greece’s security council, KYSEA, is expected to give its final approval on Thursday for the purchase of a multi-layer air defence system from Israel, worth up to €3.5 billion ($4 billion), and several types of drones, two sources told Reuters. KYSEA gave its initial appr
SAUMOS, France, July 23 (Reuters) – More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a rapidly spreading wildfire scorched through 2,000 hectares of land west of the city of Bordeaux, officials said on Thursday. Wildfires have burnt more land in Europe already this year tha
GUWAHATI, India, July 23 (Reuters) – At least 10 people have died in floods after incessant rains and what authorities said was “unprecedented devastation” in India’s northeastern state of Assam over the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll during the week to 36, authorities said. • More than
BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities said Thursday they are searching for the people responsible for an attack in the country’s troubled deep south region that killed five soldiers and injured several civilians. About 10 attackers opened fire and threw pipe bombs at soldiers at a security check point nea
BANGKOK, July 23 (Reuters) – Five Thai security personnel were killed and six civilians, including two young children, injured in an attack in Thailand’s restive deep south, the military said on Thursday. About 10 assailants dressed in black and wearing black brimmed hats arrived in a pickup truck a
BEIJING, July 23 (Reuters) – China has begun a two-day live-fire drill in some parts of the Taiwan Strait from Thursday, its Maritime Safety Administration in the southern province of Fujian, said. The drills, located close to the Chinese coast, are held from 6.00 a.m. to 6 p.m. (2200 GMT-1000 GMT)
By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Wednesday it completed its latest round of strikes on Iran at President Donald Trump’s direction, for a 12th successive night of American attacks. Here are details and quotes: • “U.S. forces struck Iranian military targets i
By YP Rajesh and Tanvi Mehta NEW DELHI, July 23 (Reuters) – Youth protesters demanding the education minister’s resignation clashed briefly with police on the streets of New Delhi late on Wednesday, with officers firing tear gas and wielding canes to push them back, police and witnesses said. More t
By Mikhail Flores MANILA, July 23 (Reuters) – Top diplomats from Asia, Europe and North America gathered on Thursday for the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila, where ministers were expected to issue calls for a peaceful settlement after renewed and intensifying hostilities in the Middl
By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Education said on Wednesday it launched new probes into five medical schools over their admissions practices, marking the latest attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to crack down on diversity initiatives. The Edu
MEXICO CITY, July 22 (Reuters) – Mexican journalist Francisco Leyva was found dead on Wednesday in the southern state of Oaxaca, the state’s Attorney General’s Office said, marking at least the fourth killing of a journalist in the country since June. The state prosecutor’s office has begun investig
