'Welcome to hell" - child migrant recalls journey to Italy
Children's charity Save the Children releases interview with migrant child who recounts harrowing journey from Somalia to Italy. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
Children's charity Save the Children releases interview with migrant child who recounts harrowing journey from Somalia to Italy. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
An editorial in a Chinese state-controlled newspaper on Thursday admonished "two-faced" Japan for inaccurately portraying it as a regional security threat while chasing more stable bilateral ties, warning of Chinese measures if Tokyo acted recklessly. In his address to the U.S. Congress last week, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called China's military actions "an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge" to the world, and vowed deeper strategic cooperation with Washington, placing China and Russia's military actions as top threats. In an editorial on Thursday, the ruling Communist Party's official newspaper said Japan claimed to be promoting bilateral relations but was also attempting to provoke confrontation by exaggerating China as a threat, describing Japan as "typical of a 'two-faced person' with no credibility".
America stands with Japan until all the Japanese abducted by North Korea decades ago return home to end their painful separation, United States ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Thursday in Tokyo. Japan says North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese citizens, possibly many more, to train them as agents during the 1970s and 1980s. Thomas-Greenfield began her Japan visit by meeting with families of those kidnapped.
More than half a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century burned through a historic Maui town, officials are still trying to determine exactly what went wrong and how to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. The most recent is a detailed timeline of the fire that tore through the heart of Lahaina on Aug. 8, 2023, killing 101 people. Released Wednesday by Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, it is the first phase of a three-part comprehensive investigation being conducted by the Fire Safety Research Institute, or FSRI, with more coming in the next several months.
The Chinese and Indonesian foreign ministers called for an immediate and lasting cease-fire in Gaza after a meeting in Jakarta on Thursday, condemning the humanitarian costs of the ongoing war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Indonesia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi told reporters that the two countries share the same view about the importance of a cease-fire and of resolving the Palestinian problem through a two-state solution. “I am sure that China would use its influence to prevent escalation,” Marsudi said, adding that China and Indonesia "would also fully support Palestine’s membership in the U.N.”
Three Russian missiles crashed into Ukraine's historic city of Chernigiv on Wednesday, killing 17 people as officials pleaded for more air defence systems from allies.- 'Reliable protection' - Addressing the European Council by video link later Wednesday, Zelensky said Ukraine should enjoy the same cover from aerial attacks as Israel and pleaded for more air defence systems.
South Africa faces an unusual national election this year, its seventh vote since transitioning from white minority rule to a democracy 30 years ago. Polls and analysts warn that for the first time, the ruling African National Congress party that has comfortably held power since Nelson Mandela became the country's first Black president in 1994 might receive less than 50% of votes. One big reason is Jacob Zuma, the former president and ANC leader who stepped down in disgrace in 2018 amid a swirl of corruption allegations but has emerged in recent months with a new political party.
A boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics during a Sydney church service might have “anger management and behavioral issues” and a “short fuse” but had shown no signs of being radicalized, a community leader said on Thursday, after authorities declared the stabbing a terrorist attack. The boy spoke in Arabic about the Prophet Muhammad being insulted after he stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Rev. Isaac Royel during Monday night's Assyrian Orthodox service, which was being streamed online. Jamal Rifi, a Sydney doctor and Muslim community leader, said the boy had apologized when his family visited him in the hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday he is sticking with his plan to put a series of foreign aid bills on the floor including funding for Ukraine after facing significant pressure from hardliners.
One of the most prominent figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party is going on trial Thursday on charges of twice using a Nazi slogan, months before a regional election in which he is running to become his state's governor. Björn Höcke, 52, is the leader of the regional branch of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in the eastern state of Thuringia and a powerful figure on the party’s hard right. While never formally a national leader of AfD, the former history teacher has been consistently influential as the 11-year-old party has steadily headed further right and ousted several comparatively moderate leaders.
Six of the eight candidates vying to be Panama’s next president laid out their plans to generate jobs and to manage the country’s water crisis in their final debate Wednesday night before the country’s May 5 election. Former government minister José Raúl Mulino, who has led in opinion polls since taking over the top place on his ticket when former President Ricardo Martinelli was sentenced to prison, skipped the event as he did the two previous debates. Another candidate, José Gabriel Carrizo, was also absent after saying he would not participate if organizers could not get Mulino there.
A suspect has been arrested for allegedly throwing a pipe bomb that damaged The Satanic Temple headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts, where investigators found a letter addressed, “Dear Statanist” at the scene last week, prosecutors announced.
Every year, Alon Gat’s mother led the family's Passover celebration of the liberation of the ancient Israelites from Egypt thousands of years ago. Gat’s sister, Carmel, and wife, Yarden Roman-Gat, were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attack.
Donald Trump and Polish President Andrzej Duda discussed the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East over dinner Wednesday in New York, the former US president's reelection campaign said."They also discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine, the conflict with Israel in the Middle East, and many other topics having to do with getting to world peace," the Trump campaign said in a statement.
Taiwan's incoming president Lai Ching-te has made Time Magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People of 2024", which the island hailed Thursday as a recognition of its "democratic achievements".Taiwan's Presidential Office praised Lai's entry to the list, calling it an "important recognition from the international community to the democratic achievements" of the Taiwanese people.
Indonesian rescuers raced to evacuate thousands of people Thursday after a volcano erupted five times, forcing authorities to close a nearby airport and issue a warning about falling debris that could cause a tsunami.- Tsunami warning - Authorities also warned of a possible tsunami as a result of the eruptions.
Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, is now mainstream. Nobody has done more to advance this cause than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, one of India’s most beloved and polarizing political leaders. “We never imagined that we would get power in such a way,” said Ambalal Koshti, 76, who says he first brought Modi into the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the late 1960s in their home state, Gujarat.
Politics and race are both factors in a pending court challenge of Louisiana's new congressional maps. How much weight each carries is a major question before three federal judges whose ruling could affect the balance of power in the next Congress. At issue is a congressional map that was approved this year with the backing of the state's new governor, Jeff Landry — to the consternation of at least some of his fellow Republicans.
Closing arguments are expected Thursday in the trial against an Arizona rancher charged with fatally shooting an unarmed migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border last year. George Alan Kelly, 75, was charged with second-degree murder in the January 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico.
Iran's attack against Israel over the weekend has spurred a flurry of bipartisan legislative action in Congress, uniting lawmakers against the country even as the risk of a larger regional war looms. Several measures introduced and passed in the House and Senate seek to both publicly condemn Iran and punish the Islamic Republic financially. Lawmakers have denounced Iran's actions, which came in response to a suspected Israeli strike weeks earlier on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed two Iranian generals.
More than two years after a former California school safety officer was charged with murder after fatally shooting an 18-year-old woman as she tried to flee a physical altercation