UN migration agency sounds alarm over sea deaths as EU arrivals rise
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Three times as many people sought to reach the European Union across the Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023 compared to a year before, the bloc’s border agency said, as the UN migration arm decried the deadliest first quarter since 2017. Overall, the EU agency Frontex reported 54,000 irregular crossings into […]
Israeli curbs on Orthodox Church crowds in Jerusalem for Easter draw ire
JerusalemReuters Israeli police will curb the number of worshippers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for safety reasons during Orthodox Easter ceremonies on Saturday, drawing anger from church leaders who said they would not cooperate. With huge crowds expected in the cramped alleyways of the Old City, the restrictions – which will […]
Ukraine war, already with up to 354,000 casualties, likely to last past 2023 – US documents
Moscow, Russia Reuters As many as 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the Ukraine war which is grinding towards a protracted conflict that may last well beyond 2023, according to a trove of purported US intelligence documents posted online. If authentic, the documents, which look like secret US assessments of […]
Biden urges Northern Ireland leaders to seize “incredible economic opportunity”
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UKReuters US President Joe Biden urged Northern Irish political leaders to restore their power-sharing government with the promise that scores of major US corporations were ready to invest in the region as he marked the 25th anniversary of peace in Belfast. Biden, who is fiercely proud of his Irish heritage, spent just […]
Iran exploits quake relief mission to fly weapons to Syria – sources
Amman, JordanReuters Iran has used earthquake relief flights to bring weapons and military equipment into its strategic ally Syria, nine Syrian, Iranian, Israeli and Western sources said. The sources told Reuters that the goal was to buttress Iran’s defences against Israel in Syria and to strengthen Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Reuters is the first to report […]
Experts link graves to one of the oldest Black churches in US
United StatesAP Three men whose graves were found at the original site of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches were members of its congregation in the early 19th century, a team of archaeologists and scientists in Virginia announced last week The First Baptist Church was formed in 1776 by free and enslaved Black people […]
StrangeSights: A watery Easter gift?; animal memorials; and, why a Formosan black bear is punching Winnie…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Myanmar junta says military carried out deadly attack on rebel ceremony
Reuters Myanmar’s military said on Wednesday it carried out a deadly attack on a village gathering organised by its insurgent opponents this week and if civilians were also killed it was because they were being forced to help the “terrorists”. At least 50 people, including children, were killed in Tuesday’s air strike in the Sagaing […]
Missing key to cell sealed fate of migrants in Mexico fire, President says
Mexico City, MexicoReuters The 40 migrants who died in a fire at a detention centre in Mexico last month were unable to escape because the person with the key to their locked cell was absent, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday. Mexican authorities have said the blaze began when one or more […]
Russia’s Wagner claims it controls most of Bakhmut; Kyiv says forces holding firm
Reuters The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group on Tuesday said his forces controlled more than 80 per cent of the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after some of war’s heaviest and bloodiest fighting. Senior Ukrainian military officials did not address the claims directly, but said their forces were holding firm against fierce attacks […]