Ukraine tensions: Russia stages military drills with Belarus
Russia and Belarus have started 10 days of joint military drills amid ongoing fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia and has a long border with Ukraine.
France called the drills - believed to be Russia's biggest deployment to Belarus since the Cold War - a "violent gesture". Ukraine says they amount to "psychological pressure".
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that Europe faces its biggest security crisis in decades.
Africa transitioning out of pandemic phase of Covid, WHO says
UN body also says continent’s case numbers may have been seven times higher than official data suggests
Africa is transitioning out of the pandemic phase of its Covid-19 outbreak and moving towards a situation where it will be managing the virus long term, the World Health Organization’s regional head for Africa has said.
“The pandemic is moving into a different phase,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti said. “We think that we’re moving now, especially with the vaccination expected to increase, into what might become a kind of endemic living with the virus.”
Moeti also said the number of Covid infections in Africa could be seven times higher than official data suggests, and deaths from the virus two to three times higher.
Behind Canada's trucker protest, disruptions and divides
Ottawa residents are at their wits' end as the protest reaches the two-week mark. The convoy has spread to United States border crossings and inspired copycat demonstrations around the world.
For nearly two weeks, Canada's unassuming capital city has been occupied by a convoy of unruly protesters who oppose the country's COVID-19 measures. At the end of January and in frigid temperatures, horn-blaring demonstrators rolled into town and set up camp, parking their trucks and cars across Ottawa's downtown core, disrupting traffic, shuttering businesses, and harassing and intimidating residents.
Now, "Freedom Convoy" protests have spread beyond Ottawa, blocking traffic and disrupting trade at the busiest border crossing in North America.
School hijab ban targets India’s Muslims as Hindu hardliners eye key vote
A ban on Islamic veils in schools in a southern Indian state has sparked protests and counter-protests between Muslim and Hindu, raising religious identity issues that have long served the ruling Hindu nationalist party’s electoral agenda as the country’s most populous state holds a critical election.
On Tuesday morning, Muskan Khan parked her scooter and began making her way to her college building in the southern Indian state of Karnataka when the Muslim student suddenly turned into the latest symbol of the vitriolic legacy of the state’s Hindu extremist policies.
What happened next was captured in a video clip that promptly went viral, underscoring the febrile, mediatised conditions under which India’s minority youths are being intimidated and forced to defend themselves while being denied basic rights and peace of mind.
Libya: Tobruk parliament names new PM, fuelling division
Eastern-based parliament says it chose former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha as interim leader, a move that could turn the political crisis into armed confrontation.
Libya’s east-based parliament has appointed a new prime minister, a development that could derail UN efforts to reconcile the war-torn country and one likely to produce two parallel administrations.
The House of Representatives said its decision on Thursday followed the failure of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the incumbent prime minister, to hold national elections in December, something that was agreed to under a UN-brokered peace process.
Locals upset over U.S. drill using Osprey in capital of Okinawa
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 10, 2022 at 17:50 JST
Local authorities blasted the U.S. military for conducting a drill at a port here involving Osprey and other aircraft, saying such training was not agreed upon by the Japanese and U.S. governments.
Tilt-rotor Osprey transport aircraft landed at Naha Military Port on Feb. 9 as part of a drill that will continue until Feb. 13.
The Marines announced the drill on Feb. 7, saying it is intended to prepare for humanitarian support and evacuations of noncombatants. The drill started Feb. 8 and will involve 250 Marines and CH-53E transport helicopters, in addition to the Osprey.
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