Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Images show damaged buildings and debris in Svyatoshynsky, an urban district in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv. The Ukrainian air command said that all 35 Russian drones launched at Kyiv had been detected and shot down.
Cairo (AFP) – Arab foreign ministers reach a unanimous decision to re-admit Syria’s government, during an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo, ending a more than a decade-long suspension and securing President Bashar al-Assad’s return to the Arab fold.
Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) – “We want to show off our muscles freely in a society that does not look at us as a mere sex symbol” says Iraqi Kurdish body-builder Shylan Kamal as she exercises at a gym in Arbil in Iraq’s northern autonomous Kurdistan region.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vows that Russian forces will be defeated in Ukraine like Nazi Germany was beaten in World War II, commemorating Victory in Europe Day. “All the old evil that modern Russia is bringing back will be defeated just as Nazism was defeated,” Zelensky says in a video statement.
Karachi (AFP) – Ahmed Rabbani was freed from Guantanamo Bay recently after serving after being detained by Pakistani authorities and ‘sold’ to the CIA in September 2002 for $5000. He insists his case was one of mistaken identity. Fluent in Arabic, he specialised in guiding visitors from the Middle East — a factor which contributed to him being misidentified. While imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, painting became an obsession for him. “Through painting I would feel myself outside Guantanamo. There, painting was everything to me,” he said.
Orikhiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – In Orikhiv,a small town 60 km from Zaporijjia, just behind the front line, there are hopes of a large-scale counterattack by Ukrainian forces to retake parts of the territory still controlled by the Russian army.
Imphal (India) (AFP) – Thousands of people in India’s northeastern state of Manipur have taken refuge in military camps after being evacuated by soldiers following deadly unrest after a protest march by a tribal group last week sparked clashes, with vehicles and houses set on fire and authorities firing tear gas. Some 23,000 people have fled their homes and at least 54 killed, the army said Sunday.
Port Sudan (Sudan) (AFP) – A Qatari plane flying back to Qatar from Port Sudan carries 71 Sudanese evacuees, among which Rawaa Hamad, who says about her homeland that there is “no safety there now unfortunately.”
London (AFP) – First Lady of the United States Jill Biden was one of the guests welcomed by Rishi Sunak in front of Number 10 Downing Street for a Big Lunch in honour of the newly crowned King Charles III.
Seoul (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visits Seoul’s National Cemetery — where war veterans, including those from the fight against Japanese colonial rule, are buried — to lay flowers and pay his respects. Kishida is making the first official bilateral visit by a Japanese leader to South Korea in over a decade.
