A Russian missile strike on a Kyiv apartment building has killed at least 24 people, including three children, after Ukrainian authorities raised the death toll from yesterday’s attack. The updated figure makes the assault one of the deadliest single Russian strikes on a Ukrainian city in recent months. Across the capital, more than 20 sites were hit by Russian drones and missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. The barrage came only days after Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference in Moscow…

Mohamed Gabobe in Mogadishu and Rachel SavageThursday April 30, 2026 The motor vessel Sward was hijacked on Sunday. Photograph: EU naval force Operation ATALANTA A fresh wave of hijackings off Somalia has jolted one of the world’s most sensitive shipping corridors, with three vessels seized in a week and memories of the country’s pirate era suddenly back in focus. The merchant vessel Sward was captured on 26 April, just one day after a dhow was taken. Those incidents came after the 21 April hijacking of Honour 25, a motor…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A string of hijackings off Somalia’s coast has revived one of the region’s most unsettling security threats, with three vessels seized in a single week and fresh concern rippling through the shipping world. The most recent incident involved the commercial vessel Sward, taken on April 26, just days after pirates captured the oil tanker Honour 25 on April 21. The tanker was carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean, the European Union’s naval monitoring center.…

Fresh hopes for diplomacy emerged on Monday as the United States and Iran appeared poised to return to Islamabad for another round of talks aimed at ending the war, sources told Reuters, even after weekend negotiations collapsed and Washington responded by imposing a blockade on Iranian ports. Tehran denounced the US move in fierce terms, but the prospect that back-channel efforts were still alive helped steady oil markets, sending benchmark crude back below $100 a barrel. The weekend meeting in Pakistan's capital — the…

Monday April 6, 2026 Türkiye's Çağrı Bey drillship is seen at a port, Mersin, southern Türkiye, Feb. 14, 2026. (AA Photo) Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia is on the cusp of a historic first in its offshore energy sector, with Türkiye’s drillship Çağrı Bey due to arrive on April 10 to begin the country’s first deep-sea drilling campaign, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said. Bayraktar, speaking at a gathering in Trabzon on April 4, said he plans to travel to Somalia before the vessel docks. “With the…

A nationwide power cut plunged all of Cuba into darkness, the island's energy ministry said, marking the second countrywide blackout in under a week as the electrical grid buckles amid an effective US oil blockade. Lights went out across Havana before nightfall, officials said, coming just five days after an earlier outage that also left large parts of the country without electricity. The energy ministry said on X that the national system experienced a "total disconnection" and teams were already at work to restore service.…

Ukraine says U.S.-brokered talks with Russia have not been canceled despite weekend strikes on Iran that President Volodymyr Zelensky linked to the United States and Israel, though Kyiv is weighing a change of venue from Abu Dhabi to Turkey or Switzerland. Zelensky told reporters the meeting, tentatively set for March 5-6 in the United Arab Emirates capital, remains on the calendar but may be relocated “due to the ongoing hostilities.” He added, “If there are difficulties with Abu Dhabi because of missiles and drones, then I…

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday called for calm ahead of nationwide rallies planned in memory of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old far-right activist whose killing last week has jolted France and inflamed already raw political tensions. Authorities are bracing for potential clashes between extremist groups, particularly in Lyon, where a large march is set to proceed under heavy security despite the city’s Green mayor urging the state to ban it. Police expect 2,000 to 3,000 participants and anticipate…

Macron urges calm as France braces for rallies over killing of far-right activist Quentin Deranque French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm ahead of nationwide rallies planned in memory of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old far-right activist whose killing last week, captured on video, has shocked France and inflamed political tensions ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Speaking at a farming trade fair in Paris, Macron urged “everyone to remain calm” before a high-security march in Lyon, where authorities expect…

Russia and Ukraine will hold U.S.-brokered talks on Feb. 17-18 in Geneva, the next step in negotiations aimed at ending the four-year war, both governments said. The discussions, in a trilateral Russia-U.S.-Ukraine format, follow two U.S.-mediated rounds in Abu Dhabi that produced no sign of a breakthrough even as President Donald Trump pushes to end the conflict. Despite public assurances that earlier meetings were productive, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on the core issue of territory. “The next round of talks on the…