Category World News

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, the raids were carried out on Saturday in the districts of Mohmand and Dera Ismail Khan.

Local authorities claim that the fighters were members of the Pakistani Taliban’s Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP).

The Taliban, a separate organization and an ally of the Afghan Taliban, reclaimed control of the country in August 2021 as American and other NATO forces made their way out of the country after 20 years of hostilities.

Since the Taliban’s takeover, which also bolstered the Pakistani Taliban, many TTP leaders and fighters have found refuge in Afghanistan and even have lived there.

In a separate incident on Saturday, local police said, security forces were ambushed in the Kurram district in northwest Pakistan. Authorities have not yet confirmed any injuries from that attack.

Kurram, a region where Sunni and Shia Muslim communities have fought for years, is where Pakistan’s military is currently conducting an operation. Tensive tensions are heightened in the area as a result of hundreds of fatalities in conflict between armed groups.

Authorities have blocked key roads in Kurram since November, but he has remained isolated as a result of sectarian violence. A humanitarian crisis has become more severe as a result of the closure, which has caused severe food and medical shortages.

According to local authorities, at least 17 people have died as a result of violent storms and tornadoes in some areas of the country.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a statement on Saturday that at least 11 people were killed overnight in the state’s Midwestern state, adding that “the Patrol and local agencies continue incident operations in several locations.”

Tornado Aftermath Update: March 15 at 10:30 am

Early this morning, Ozark County’s other storm victim passed away. 11 deaths have been reported as of right now:

Ozark County has three fatalities.
Butler County had one fatality.
Wayne County has six fatalities.
▪️ One… pic. https://twitter.com/zyjYS6Stzl

A tornado that tore through a man’s home was one of the victims. It was unrecognizable as a place to call home. According to Butler County Coroner Jim Akers, the scene where rescuers arrived was “just a debris field.” The floor appeared to be turned over. We were “walking on walls.”

After some “tornadoes, thunderstorms, and large hail” severe impacted some areas, the highway patrol discovered downed trees, power lines, and damage to residential and commercial buildings.

According to officials in the state’s neighboring state of Arkansas, the storms resulted in three fatalities and 29 injuries. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor, declared a state of emergency.

In response to the severe storms and tornadoes that occurred last night, I have declared an state of emergency.

We’ll continue to support the communities in need. https://t.co/RJCWzZk7zm

Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that “we have teams out surveying the damage from last night’s tornadoes and first responders on the ground to assist.” I recently received $250, 000 from our Disaster Recovery fund to provide resources for this operation for each of the impacted communities.

Authorities in Amarillo, Texas, reported three fatal car crashes on Friday in a dust storm.

More than 100 wildfires were sprayed with dust storms and a powerful storm system that was moving across the nation.

An area that is home to more than 100 million people is expected to experience severe weather, including hurricane-force winds. From the Canadian border to Texas, winds soaring up to 130 kilometers per hour (80 miles per hour) were forecast, putting in the way of wildfire risk in the south and blizzard conditions in the colder northern regions.

More than 130 fires were reported across Oklahoma, prompting evacuations in some communities. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol claimed that several tractor-trailers were toppled by the strong winds. More than 200 homes have been harmed or destroyed by wildfires, according to the governor of the state.

People in Damascus, the capital of Syria, have reacted with joy as they openly commemorated the revolution’s tenth anniversary for the first time in 14 years following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster late last year.

In the midst of tight security measures, on Saturday, civilians were spotted waving the Syrian flag and singing revolutionary songs.

According to Resul Serdar, a journalist from Damascus, “people believe these roses represent peace.” Consider that helicopters have been launching barrel bombs at people for 14 years, and that they are now symbolically throwing roses at people in this country to promote peace and reconciliation.

As a result of the Arab Spring’s arrival in Syria, protesters demanded democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners on March 15, 2011, in Deraa, Damascus, and Aleppo. A group of teenage boys were detained and tortured a few days prior in Deraa, in the southwest of the country, after al-Assad was demonized for their actions.

The government then launched a vicious crackdown and repression. The Free Syrian Army, an opposition group that wanted to overthrow the government, was formed in July 2011 and turned the uprising into a bloody civil war, according to military defectors. Following a lightning-heavy offensive by opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the regime was forced to give up.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s interim Syrian president, is now in charge of holding elections in five years while battling sectarian hostility, Israeli bombing, land grabs, and an economic crisis.

According to the state news agency SANA, an explosion in the coastal city of Latakia on Saturday caused the deaths of at least three people and injured 12 people. Later, a resident’s attempt to disassemble unexploded weapons in a building was later identified as an accident, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

According to officials from operator Union Electrica (UNE), a breakdown at the Diezmero substation in the capital’s capital, Havana, on Friday evening, at around 8:15 PM (00:15 GMT) caused a chain reaction that shut down power generation across the island.

About 225 MW, or less than 10% of total demand, were being produced by UNE at sunrise on Saturday. According to officials, parallel circuits were supplying electricity to important industries like hospitals.

According to Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, “many provinces have parallel circuits and generator units are starting to be synchronized” with the national grid.

In the final months of 2024, the island’s 9.7 million inhabitants had already experienced three nationwide blackouts, two of which lasted for several days.

The island is currently facing one of its biggest economic crises in 30 years, despite the first of which this year. Cuba, which has long relied on government subsidies from Venezuela, is increasingly dependent on that country’s dependence as Caracas struggles with its own economic issues.

No one knows when the power will turn back on, resident Abel Bonne said early on Saturday morning on Havana’s Malecon waterfront boulevard.

People in Havana have already experienced nearly daily power outages lasting four or five hours, while those away from the capital have experienced continuous blackouts that have reached their highest levels in recent weeks.

We’re in for a dark weekend, Karen Gutierrez, a 32-year-old Havana ice cream seller, told the AFP news agency.

Andres Lopez, a 67-year-old resident of Holguin in the eastern province, stated that he had not anticipated another blackout so soon.

He claimed, “I really find it irritable.” Let’s see when they turn the power back on, they say.

A US trade embargo, a complex system of laws and regulations that make it difficult to make financial decisions and buy essentials like fuel and spare parts, is what causes Cuba’s economic woes.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, pledged to restore a “tough” policy to the island’s communist-run government and recently imposed more severe sanctions on it.

Cuba is rushing to install at least 55 solar farms using Chinese technology by the end of the year to make up for its lack of electricity.

As fighting rages on the ground amid US-brokered truce proposals, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stresses the UK’s intention to offer “robust and credible” security guarantees to stop Russia from attacking Ukraine once more.

In the event of a peace agreement, Starmer said in a virtual meeting with 25 world leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that “we will build up Ukraine’s own defenses and armed forces, and be prepared to deploy as a “coalition of the willing” in the event of a peace agreement.

We agreed that military planners would meet in the UK once more this week to discuss how our militaries could support Ukraine’s future security, Starmer continued.

Following Putin’s on Friday consenting to an immediate 30-day ceasefire that Washington had already approved, the meeting took place. Putin, however, added that there were issues. Questions were also asked about who would oversee the ceasefire and whether the pause in fighting could be used by Kyiv to recruit new forces at a time when Russia is gaining ground in Kursk. In a lightning offensive in August, Ukrainian forces occupied a portion of the Russian region near Ukraine.

Questions remain as to whether Putin’s response signaled a sincere effort to end the conflict without completely rejecting President Donald Trump’s proposal. Trump’s radical change to US foreign policy, which upends the transatlantic alliance while opening up to Russia, has so far had a significant impact on the Kremlin.

President Putin’s stated desire for peace is completely countered by the Kremlin’s dithering and delay over President Trump’s ceasefire proposal and Russia’s ongoing barbaric attacks on Ukraine, according to Starmer.

Zelenskyy pressed his Western allies to form a “clear position” on the security guarantees, including placing troops in Ukraine, shortly after the virtual meeting.

Zelenskyy stated on social media that “the contingent must be stationed on Ukrainian soil.” “This is both a security guarantee for Europe and Ukraine.”

On a number of fronts, war is stillround.

Meanwhile, there is still fighting on the ground.

Some military analysts in the Kursk region predicted that Russia would soon eject Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region, prompting Trump to warn that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were “completely surrounded”.

Zelenskyy insisted that Moscow was assembling forces nearby for a separate strike in a statement posted on social media after receiving information from his top general. Ukraine’s leverage in potential territorial negotiations is weakened by the Kursk reversal of fortunes. The territorial issue should be analyzed in more depth at a later time, according to Zellenskyy, who spoke on Saturday.

He also addressed the conflict on the front lines of Pokrovsk, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, and how the country had “stabilized” and successfully used a new long-range missile domestically.

Russia and Ukraine engaged in intense aerial combat, with both reporting more than 100 enemy drones flying over their respective skies. Following a Ukrainian drone attack, a fire erupted near an oil facility in the Russian Volgograd region.