World

A musician undergoing complex brain surgery in Italy played the saxophone during the entire nine-hour operation that he spent awake and fully conscious. The man, 35, had the procedure performed at Rome’s Paideia International Hospital on Monday to have a brain tumor removed. He was discharged from the hospital on Thursday. According to a press release from the hospital, the …

ANKARA, Turkey — An explosion inside a coal mine in northern Turkey killed at least 25 people, local officials announced, while rescuers working through the night were trying to bring dozens of others trapped to the surface. The explosion occurred 6:45 p.m. at the state-owned TTK Amasra Muessese Mudurlugu mine in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal …

Houthi health officials in Yemen on Friday announced that expired doses of a cancer treatment found their way to leukemia patients and killed 10 children in the capital.  The officials said that around 50 children had received an expired dose of chemotherapy treatment Methotrexate that had originated in India. The children ranged in age from three to 15 years old …

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Friday that his country wants to strengthen ties to Mongolia, citing the country’s wealth of key commodities such as copper and rare earth metals. Speaking after a meeting in Berlin with Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, he said the two leaders had agreed to “deepen and also expand cooperation between our two countries.” GERMANY PLANS …

The Kremlin-linked Wagner Group has helped Russia make some of it first tactical advances in the Donbas region since July, defense officials said Friday.  The United Kingdom defense ministry said that over the last three days pro-Russian forces have advanced towards the city center of Bakhmut in Donetsk, where its mercenary group remains “heavily involved” in fighting. Some strategic advancements …

Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday elected former minister Abdul Latif Rashid as the country’s next president, defying threats of further violence following a barrage of rocket attacks earlier in the day and taking a key step toward ending a crippling political vacuum. At least nine rockets targeted Iraq’s Parliament inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of the government, ahead …

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) allegedly worked to limit a watchdog group’s access to officials and press conferences on orders from its top official due to the group’s staunch criticism on a range of topics.  “[Eric] Tistounet has been giving orders to censor UN Watch since at least 2005,” Emma Reilly, a former UNHRC officer and whistleblower, told …

Abu Dhabi CNN  —  Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday to “defuse tensions” between Moscow and Doha, a source familiar with the talks, but not authorized to speak about them publicly, told CNN. The United States and the European Union were briefed on the …

The Palestinian president on Thursday used an audience with Vladimir Putin to denounce the United States, telling the Russian leader that he has no faith in Washington as a Mideast peace broker. Abbas spoke with Putin at a regional summit in Astana, Kazakhstan. His comments about the U.S., traditionally the main broker between Israel and the Palestinians, came at a …

France has for the first time started conveying natural gas to Germany, French gas network operator GRTgaz said Thursday, as Berlin strives to diversify its energy supply following the interruption of Russian gas deliveries. GRTgaz said in a statement the gas pipeline connecting both countries at the French border village of Obergailbach has began [sic] delivering an initial daily capacity …