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China: Two journalists reportedly held after exposing graft

Two independent journalists were detained by Chinese officials after they published a report alleging corruption by a local official in southwestern China, rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday, condemning the incident. Police in Chengdu said they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old surnamed Wu on suspicion of making

Libya: Gadhafi’s son shot dead

Libyan officials on Wednesday said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, was killed in a shooting at his residence in the western Libyan city of Zintan. Seif is thought to have been seeking a return to public life in a country still bitterly split between rival governments and armed groups. Who was Seif

Global human rights system in peril, says HRW

The year 2025 may come to be seen as a "tipping point" when democratic institutions were severely damaged and human rights suffered as a result, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). In its annual report, released on Wednesday, the New York-based non-profit warned that the reelection of US President Donald Trump has emboldened autocratic regimes

Trump renews lapsed trade subsidy pact with Africa

US President Donald Trump has signed into law a one-year extension of a trade preference program with African countries restoring duty-free access to the US market until the end of the year, the US trade representative said on Tuesday. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

Migrant boat collides with Greek coast guard vessel, 15 dead

A Greek coast guard boat collided with a migrant speedboat off the island of Chios on Tuesday, leaving many people dead or injured. The Coast Guard said that the bodies of 14 people — 11 men and three women — were recovered from the sea. One of the injured women later died in hospital, bringing

Trump Signs Bill Ending Partial Government Shutdown

The partial shutdown of government operations ended in the United States on Tuesday with President Donald Trump signing a budget package into law. Earlier on Tuesday, the House of Representatives had approved the package in a close vote of 217-214. The upper chamber of the US Congress, the Senate, had already given its approval last week.

NATO sets Arctic mission plans in motion

NATO on Tuesday said "planning is underway" for an Arctic mission, coming weeks after US President Donald Trump frayed the strategic alliance by claiming the US needs to control Greenland to avert unverified security concerns from Russia and China. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told reporters that a "NATO

Iran signals willingness for nuclear talks with US

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that he'd instructed his foreign minister to "pursue fair and equitable negotiations" with the United States on some kind of nuclear accord to succeed the one President Donald Trump canceled in his first term.  Pezeshkian made no mention of the widespread unrest in Iran in recent weeks and

Germany and the Gulf region: Energy and arms deals

The fact that the key Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — are currently held in high regard by the German government is evident from the steady stream of ministerial visits to their capitals. Only recently, Environment Minister Carsten Schneider of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) traveled to Saudi Arabia;

‘Prevent cancer before it starts’: new WHO study maps risks

"We now have the information to prevent cancer before it starts," said Isabelle Soerjomataram, a cancer surveillance specialist at the International Agency on Research on Cancer (IARC).  Speaking to the press last week, Soerjomataram and her colleague Andre Ilbawi were presenting the findings of a study involving 36 cancer types in 185 countries. The two co-authored
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