Axadle - Leading News from Somalia and the Horn of Africa

HONG KONG — Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was found guilty Monday on two counts of foreign collusion and one count of seditious publication, a landmark verdict under Hong Kong’s national security law that could send the 78-year-old founder of the shuttered Apple Daily newspaper to prison for life. Lai, who has been jailed since 2020, listened impassively with folded arms as a panel of national security judges delivered the verdict in one of the Chinese territory’s most closely watched trials since Beijing imposed the…

MOGADISHU — Several Somali political organizations said they are not part of the 20 groups the National Electoral Commission (NEC) has listed for the December 25 local council elections in Banadir region, alleging violations of electoral law and undue government influence over the process. Representatives of the organizations spoke at a Sunday press conference in Mogadishu, warning that the dispute threatens to derail the first-phase vote in the capital. “Five rounds of talks with the commission ended in vain because there…

In the hills of Cox’s Bazar, inside a shelter pieced together with bamboo and tarpaulin, Nur Haba unwraps a bundle of keepsakes. At its center is a faded photograph of Mariam. “She was shot dead in front of me,” Nur says quietly. The picture is one of the few belongings she salvaged from their home in Myanmar’s Rakhine State before, she recalls, soldiers torched it and the family fled. In the chaos of escape, as they waded across a river, her two-year-old son, Mohammed, was swept away and drowned. For the Rohingya—described…

Zelensky offers to drop NATO bid in Berlin talks with U.S. envoys as ceasefire plan advances BERLIN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered to drop Ukraine’s longstanding aspiration to join NATO during hours of talks with U.S. envoys in Berlin, a significant shift in Kyiv’s wartime posture as negotiators work toward a ceasefire with Russia. The meetings, hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, stretched for more than five hours and will resume tomorrow morning, Dmytro Lytvyn, an adviser to Zelensky, told…

MOGADISHU — Jubbaland’s Darwish forces launched a sweeping security operation Saturday in the town of Qooqaani in Somalia’s Lower Jubba region, targeting areas used by Al-Shabab and working to secure key routes linking the town to surrounding districts, regional officials said. Security chief Mahmoud Adan Hassan Gaaboow, who directed the mission, said troops searched access roads and nearby settlements that have served as transit points for the militant group. The operation is intended to curb ambushes and roadside…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Al-Shabaab has released a video showing a Ukrainian helicopter pilot contracted by the United Nations pleading for his freedom, in one of the group’s most prominent hostage appeals involving a foreign national in recent years. In the footage distributed by al-Shabaab’s Kataib media arm, the pilot identifies himself as Oleynik Aleksandr and says he was captured after an emergency landing in central Somalia in January 2024, in territory controlled by the militant group. Addressing the camera directly, he…

Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting kills 15; Albanese condemns ‘antisemitic terrorism’ SYDNEY — Two gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, killing 15 people — including a child — and wounding dozens more in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitic terrorism. Authorities said the attackers were a father and son. A 50-year-old man was shot dead by police and his 24-year-old son was wounded and hospitalized, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon…

SANTIAGO — Jose Antonio Kast won Chile’s presidency with about 58% of the vote, becoming the country’s most right‑wing leader in 35 years and capitalizing on public anger over crime and migration to defeat leftist rival Jeannette Jara. “Chile wanted change,” Kast told thousands of supporters, vowing to “restore respect for the law” after a campaign built on promises to expel more than 300,000 immigrants, seal the northern border, take a hard line on soaring crime and jump‑start a stalled economy. Jara, a communist who headed…

SYDNEY — Prime Minister Anthony Albanese proposed tougher gun laws after a father and son opened fire on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people before the older man was shot dead, in what officials called a targeted anti-Semitic attack. The death of the 50-year-old father brought the toll to 16, police said. His 24-year-old son was critically wounded and remains in hospital. Albanese said his government would take “whatever action is necessary,” adding that firearms licensing rules need tightening. “People can be…

Sydney — A bystander who wrestled a weapon from a gunman during the Bondi Beach shooting is being hailed as a “genuine hero,” as Australia reels from its worst mass shooting in years. Video posted on social media shows a man grabbing one of the gunmen as he fires on civilians, grappling with him and wrenching the firearm free before briefly pointing it back as the attacker retreats. Local broadcaster 7News identified the bystander as Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, a fruit seller, and reported he suffered two gunshot wounds during the…