Author: Steven Sahiounie

Taliban militants were spotted parading around in US-made Humvees after seizing a major city in Nimroz province, footage shows – the first regional capital to fall to the group as it launches a wave of attacks across Afghanistan. The militants were seen making victory laps around the city of Zaranj on Friday afternoon in the captured vehicles, having just captured the provincial capital after overrunning Afghan government forces. Multiple videos circulating online showed the aftermath of the assault, including American-made Humvees flying the Islamist group’s flag. Other footage purported to show a deserted airfield in Zaranj – where American forces once…

Taliban fighters reportedly entered the capital of Afghanistan’s Jawzjan province on Saturday, amid a large-scale offensive that saw the group take over the main city of the southwestern Nimroz province just a day earlier. The militants swept through nine out of 10 districts of the northern province, which borders the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, before forcing their way into the regional capital, Sheberghan, local official Mohammad Karim Jawzjani told the AP news agency. The Afghan central government said the strategic city hadn’t yet fallen and that fighting was continuing in the streets. However, sources told TOLONews the security forces…

Some Security Council members are wary of backing accusations made by their Western partners about a recent tanker attack off the coast of Oman, a UN source told RT, saying that an independent probe into the matter was needed. The UK called for a closed-door UN Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss an alleged drone attack that occurred on July 31 on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street, which is managed by an Israeli firm. Britain told the UNSC on Tuesday it was “highly likely” Iran was responsible for the strike, a claim Tehran has fervently denied. Washington responded to the…

At least ten people were injured on a Tokyo commuter train on Friday after a man reportedly went on a stabbing rampage, seriously injuring one of the victims before fleeing. A suspect is reportedly in police custody. The attack took place on an Odakyu Electric Railway line late on Friday in Tokyo’s southwestern suburb of Setagaya. While initial reports indicated that four people had been injured in the attack, the figure later increased to ten victims, according to local media citing Setagaya’s fire department. One of the victims was gravely injured after getting stabbed multiple times, local media reported citing…

Australian authorities confirmed on Friday that a 26-year-old man has been arrested and charged with sexual intercourse without consent over a 2019 allegation of rape in the country’s Parliament House. The decision to charge the man, who will appear in court in September, came after former government staffer Brittany Higgins publicly accused an unnamed individual of sexually assaulting her in an office within Australia’s Parliament House in March 2019. Although police did not specify that the man had been charged of the incident reported by Higgins, they confirmed the alleged assault took place in Parliament House on March 23, 2019…

France’s agriculture ministry reported on Friday that it has experienced one of the worst years on record for wine production, as a devastating late-spring frost sent output to “historically low” levels not seen since 1977. The impact of the damaging frosts is expected to result in the nation, which is the second-largest wine producer globally, seeing its output fall to the “historically low” level of 24 to 30% in 2021. This would put it at a level below that of 1991 and 2017, when output was significantly hampered by a similar late-spring frost that destroyed harvests. “For now, it looks like the…

A Palestinian man has died and many more were injured after Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators protesting against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry and medics. On Friday, the Palestinian health ministry confirmed on Facebook that a 38-year-old man it identified as Muhammad Dwaikat had died. The ministry said he had been shot with live ammunition by Israeli troops. Dwaikat was attending a protest against Israeli settlements when shot, and was rushed to Nablus hospital for treatment. In a number of graphic images shared on social media, a seriously wounded Dwaikat is seen being…

A nursing assistant who was paralyzed after receiving a shot of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine will receive compensation from the South Korean state after she was recognized as a victim of an industrial accident. The health worker, whose name was not disclosed, had been inoculated against Covid-19 on March 12. She later suffered from double vision and paralysis – and was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease known as acute encephalomyelitis, the state-run Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service said in a statement on Friday. After examining the case, the agency ruled that there was a “reasonable causal link between the side…

China and India have removed troops from the disputed Himalayan border region which was the site of a deadly clash between the two in June 2020, after a “phased” pullback was agreed in July, according to the Indian government. The neighboring nations had deployed tens of thousands of additional troops into the Ladakh area of the Himalayas in the wake of a skirmish last year that killed at least 20 Indians and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers. Announcing the troop pullback on Friday, India’s Ministry of Defence stated that both countries have dismantled “all temporary structures and other allied infrastructure” in…

German prosecutors have announced that an investigation into the fatal flooding that struck the region in July is underway, with the leader of the Ahrweiler district in the spotlight under suspicion of “negligent homicide.” Having considered launching the probe, prosecutors in Koblenz confirmed on Friday that there were sufficient grounds to confirm “the initial suspicion of negligent homicide and negligent harm,” and the investigation process has commenced. Almost 200 lives were claimed in the fatal floods that rocked Western Germany in mid-July. Rhineland-Palatinate, partially situated in the Ahr Valley, was one of the worst hit areas, recording at least 141 fatalities. Several…