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Sexual violence on ‘staggering’ scale in Sudan civil war: UN probe

Rape is widespread in Sudan’s civil war, a United Nations investigation said Tuesday, accusing paramilitaries especially of committing sexual violence on a “staggering” scale.Children are not spared the abuse, with women and girls being abducted for sexual slavery, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in a new report.”There is no safe place …

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Dozens jailed in Belgium drug smuggling mega-trial

A Belgian court jailed dozens of people Tuesday in one of the country’s biggest ever drug trials, with ringleaders sentenced to up to 17 years behind bars.More than 120 defendants from Belgium, Albania, Colombia and North Africa were accused of having participated in a multinational cocaine and cannabis trafficking enterprise after investigators cracked encrypted messaging apps.Judges …

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Russia claims Selydove as concern rises over N.Korean troops

Moscow said Tuesday it had seized the war-battered mining town of Selydove in eastern Ukraine where Kyiv’s forces are buckling and as concern grows in Kyiv and abroad over North Korea’s expanding military ties with Russia.The Kremlin’s forces have been advancing rapidly across the sprawling eastern front where exhausted and outgunned Ukrainian troops are having to …

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Outcry as Israel bans main UN Palestinian aid agency

Israel faced an international backlash Tuesday after its parliament approved a bill banning the main United Nations aid agency for the devastated Gaza Strip, where deadly bombing continues.Despite global concerns, including from Israel’s ally the United States, lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from working in Israel and annexed …

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