Abdiwahab Ahmed

A deadly outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the southern Atlantic has cast a spotlight on hantavirus, a rodent-borne disease that can prove fatal when it infects humans. Dutch cruise operator Oceanwide Expeditions said it was handling "a serious medical situation" on board the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde. Hantaviruses belong to a group of pathogens capable of triggering respiratory and cardiac complications, along with haemorrhagic fevers. No vaccine or targeted treatment exists for hantaviruses,…

A shooting at a party near Oklahoma City left at least 10 people wounded, authorities said, as investigators warned the toll could climb further. Police said they expect the number of injured to increase as additional victims seek medical care on their own. No arrests had been made after the gunfire erupted shortly after 9pm local time at a gathering at Arcadia Lake, according to a statement posted on X by the police department in Edmond, a city northeast of Oklahoma City. Officials did not immediately release additional…

Europe’s leaders have received Donald Trump’s warning over the Iran war — and are now moving to answer it, NATO chief Mark Rutte said after Washington announced it would pull 5,000 troops out of Germany. "European leaders have gotten the message. They heard the message loud and clear," Mr Rutte said ahead of talks with European leaders in Armenia, as he pointed to what he described as frustration in Washington over European allies' reluctance to enter the war. "Europeans are stepping up," Mr Rutte insisted. "We have seen all…

A bruising night awaits UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Labour, with the expected scale of Thursday’s losses already spawning its own grim shorthand: "Starmergeddon". The term captures both the depth of the setback forecast for Britain’s governing party and the pressure set to fall squarely on the prime minister. Voters are choosing members of the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales, as well as filling about 5,000 local authority seats across England, and Labour is widely expected to come away wounded. The…

A fresh warning from Iran's military has raised the stakes in the Strait of Hormuz, after President Donald Trump said the United States would begin helping ships trapped in the Gulf by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Mr Trump offered few specifics on how Washington would assist vessels and crews that he said had been "locked up" in the strategic waterway, with many now short of food and other essential supplies more than two months into the conflict. "We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of…

A deadly illness has struck a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic, leaving three people dead and prompting an international public health response after one passenger was confirmed to have hantavirus, a disease most often passed to humans by rodents. The cases emerged aboard the MV Hondius during a voyage from Ushuaia in Argentina to Cape Verde, off Africa’s west coast. "To date, one case of hantavirus infection has been laboratory confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases," the World Health Organization (WHO)…

An arrest in the killing of a five-year-old Indigenous girl has intensified scrutiny in Australia’s Northern Territory, where her death set off violent unrest in an outback town just days earlier. Northern Territory police said Jefferson Lewis, 47, had been charged with murdering Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name used for the victim in accordance with Indigenous custom. He also faces two additional charges that cannot be publicly identified for legal reasons, police said in a statement. "This is an horrific event and an…

Two people have been killed and three others, including a child, taken to hospital after what police described as a "suspicious" explosion tore through a house in Bristol, England. Avon and Somerset Police declared a major incident after the blast, which happened at about 6.30am today. Investigators are also making inquiries at a second property connected to the man who died. Police said the cause of the explosion is being treated as suspicious, though it is not being investigated as a terrorist incident. "Three people - a…

Under a full moon on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach, Shakira launched her free mega-concert late Saturday, arriving more than an hour after the scheduled start as drones overhead traced the outline of a she-wolf — the nickname that has become part of her pop mythology. Roughly two million people were expected for the free open-air performance by the 49-year-old Colombian superstar, who appeared on a sprawling stage set up beside the iconic Copacabana Palace hotel. The beach has become a showcase for pop royalty in recent…

After nearly two weeks of relentless firefighting, the massive wildfires that tore through forests in northern Japan have been brought under control, officials said, ending an 11-day battle against what has been described as the country’s second-largest blaze in more than 30 years. Since last month, hundreds of firefighters and more than 1,000 military personnel had been deployed to fight the flames as they swept across about 1,600 hectares in the mountainous Iwate region. That burn zone is nearly five times the size of New…