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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the weeklong looting and deadly unrest that has rocked the country were “planned.” Ramaphosa made the comment on Friday, as he arrived in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, known as the epicenter of the unrest, which spreads in South Africa in the wake of the jailing …

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has released two videos showing armed Israeli settlers and masked Zionists fatally shooting Palestinians who did not pose any danger to them, with the Tel Aviv regime’s soldiers standing idly by. The first clip captured on May 14 shows Israeli forces in the West Bank …

The United States Air Force is dispatching more than two dozen F-22 stealth fighters to an exercise in the western Pacific this month as tensions escalate with Beijing over Pacific flashpoints like the South China Sea and Chinese Taipei. Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii said approximately 25 F-22s Raptors from …

Emergency services in the Netherlands remained on high alert on Saturday as overflowing rivers threatened towns and villages throughout the southern province of Limburg. Tens of thousands of residents in the region have been evacuated in the past two days, while soldiers, fire brigades, and volunteers worked frantically throughout Friday …

Former Haitian justice ministry official Joseph Felix Badio may have ordered the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise, a Colombian police chief said on Friday, citing a preliminary investigation into the murder. Moise was shot dead when assassins armed with assault rifles stormed his private residence in the hills above …

China’s foreign ministry branch in Hong Kong said new U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials and its updated business advisory on the city are “extremely rude” and “extremely unreasonable” bullying acts with “despicable intention”. The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on seven Chinese officials over Beijing’s crackdown on democracy in …

Rescue workers searched flood-ravaged parts of western Germany for survivors on Saturday as water levels remained high in many towns and houses continued to collapse in the country’s worst natural disaster in half a century. At least 133 people have died in the flooding, including some 90 people in the …

President Bashar al-Assad has taken the oath of office for a fourth term in war-ravaged Syria, after taking 95 percent of the vote. Assad was sworn in on the constitution and the Qur’an in the presence of more than 600 guests, including ministers, businessmen, academics and journalists at the parliament …

A US federal judge in Texas on Friday blocked new applications to a program that protects immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation, but said the hundreds of thousands of people already enrolled would not be affected until further court rulings. US District Judge Andrew …

Three more Ethiopian regions are sending soldiers to reinforce the national army in its fight against forces from the northern region of Tigray, regional officials said, widening a conflict that has so far largely affected the north. Officials from Oromiya, Sidama, and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Region said …

Fair elections in Haiti cannot be held for at least a year after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise due to the influence of violent gangs and a compromised electoral council, a senior opposition leader said in an interview. The brazen killing of Moise last week by a suspected hit …

Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri abandoned his months-long effort to form a new government, dimming the chances of a cabinet being agreed any time soon that could start rescuing the country from financial meltdown. Hariri announced his decision after meeting President Michel Aoun, saying it was clear they could not agree, …

A delegation of Afghan political leaders led by top peace official Abdullah Abdullah left for Qatar on Friday to attempt to breathe life into stalled talks with the Taliban as violence escalates around the country. Abdullah, head of the country’s High Council for National Reconciliation and former government chief executive, …

Since the gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Mohammad bin Salman, the de facto leader of the Saudi Kingdom, has kept a rather low profile in the international arena. But that does not mean the young prince has made a U-turn in his major policies, …

The Russian Defense Ministry’s website has come under a cyberattack from outside of Russia that paralyzed the portal for an hour, the ministry has announced. The Defense Ministry said it had been hit by a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Friday. “The source of the attack on the… Defense Ministry’s website …

Gunmen shot dead a Nigerian army general as he was traveling by car on a major road from the capital, Abuja, the army said on Friday, in the first such fatal gun attack on a senior serving military officer. Armed robberies and kidnappings for ransom, particularly in the northwest, have …

At least 126 people have died in devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium, officials said Friday, as search and rescue operations continued for hundreds more still unaccounted for or in danger. Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 60 people had died there, including 12 residents …

Indonesia’s religious minister called on Friday for people to pray at home during next week’s Islamic holiday to avoid the risk of spreading the coronavirus, as some regions complained of a lack of supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. Fuelled by the spread of the more virulent Delta variant, Indonesia has repeatedly …

The Eiffel Tower reopened on Friday after an eight-month shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, its longest closure since World War Two. As a countdown clock at the foot of the tower turned to zero, there were cheers and applause from visitors queuing to get in, a brass band …

A Russian Antonov An-28 passenger plane carrying up to 17 people disappeared from radars on Friday while flying over the Siberian region of Tomsk, local officials said, the second such incident this month. The region’s governor said two helicopters had been dispatched to search for the plane, which was flying …