Author: Starvision Desk

The Maui County said on Friday in a press statement that firefighters continued working to extinguish flare-ups and contain fires in Lahaina, Pulehu/Kihei and Upcountry Maui on the island.Two additional fatalities were confirmed Thursday night amid the active Lahaina fire, bringing the death toll to 55 people. Officials warned the death toll could grow even higher, Xinhua news agency reported.The firefighting effort was bolstered by 21 firefighters from the Honolulu Fire Department, seven supervisory personnel and four vehicles, said the county, adding that a nine-member search-and-rescue team also arrived on the island.Twenty-five buses operating a shuttle service on Thursday transported…

“This (Friday) morning, trucks carrying some 460 tons of supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP) reached Jabal Awlia in greater Khartoum, one of the areas hardest hit by the fighting,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.The convoy was facilitated by OCHA, which engaged with the parties to the conflict to ensure that the trucks could safely reach their destination, Xinhua news agency reported.Since late May, WFP has assisted more than 150,000 people in the greater Khartoum area, the humanitarians said.The agency continues to scale up assistance to people fleeing Sudan’s capital to…

A Turkish drone attacked a vehicle on a main road near the town of Penjwen in Sulaymaniyah province, east of the Kurdistan region, at 3:30 p.m. local time, killing a senior member of the PKK, a militant, and the driver of the vehicle, it noted on Friday.The Turkish forces frequently carry out ground operations, airstrikes, and artillery bombardments in northern Iraq against the PKK, especially in the Qandil Mountains, the main base of the group, Xinhua news agency reported.The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for…

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, said on Friday that bilateral commitments for Ukraine will be an element of strengthening common security in the Euro-Atlantic region.Britain became the second country to start talks with Ukraine on security commitments, Xinhua news agency reported.On August 3, Ukraine launched talks on security guarantees with the US.–IANSint/khz

It comes as the committee held a meeting in UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi to celebrate the 56th anniversary of ASEAN’s establishment, which was observed on August 8, said the the official news agency WAM on Friday.At the meeting, the committee highlighted the importance of ties between ASEAN and the UAE, which has become a sectoral dialogue partner of the bloc since August 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.Ambassadors and other diplomats of ASEAN member states in the UAE attended the meeting and expressed their readiness to work closely to strengthen the solidarity of the ASEAN community in the Gulf country, the…

“Our European allies, as I said, are leading the effort. But if the capacity for training in Europe is reached, we are certainly open to doing the training for Ukrainian pilots here in the US,” the NSC’s coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, said on Friday during a virtual news briefing with members of the press.Kirby stressed that the training is a time-consuming “multi-step process” that ultimately aims to “improve the Ukrainian self-defence and military capabilities for the long term”.”It’s going to be a while before jets can show up in Ukraine and for them to be integrated into the…

Elijah Nyuon Kuoyuot, the health surveillance officer in Rubkona County, said on Friday that the latest deaths have been recorded in Rubkona and Koch counties, and in Bentiu internally displaced persons camp where some of the returnees and refugees who fled ongoing conflict in neighbouring Sudan are being hosted.”Measles death cases have rapidly increased due to congestion in the reception centres and in internally displaced persons camps in Bentiu,” Kuoyuot told Xinhua in an interview over the phone.The Unity State Ministry of Health initially confirmed 40 measles deaths and more than 800 admitted cases of measles in July alone, Xinhua…

In a statement, the Ministry said on Friday that the Turkish armed forces “neutralised” the YPG members when they were “preparing for an attack” in northern Syria.Turkish authorities often use the term “neutralised” in their statements to imply the surrender or death of terrorists, Xinhua news agency reported.The Ministry’s statement, released on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, was accompanied by drone footage of several targets being struck in the region.The Ministry said that with the latest operation, the number of “terrorists” eliminated since Thursday in the northern regions of Turkey’s neighbouring Syria and Iraq has reached…

The decision was officially approved on Thursday evening in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, during a meeting between the Tunisian Minister of Trade and Export Promotion Kalthoum Ben Rejeb and the Libyan Minister of Economy and Trade Mohammed Al-Haweij, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.The two Ministers also signed several memorandums of understanding on the organisation of fairs, international markets, free trade, etc.Both sides emphasised the importance of rehabilitating and developing the Ras Ejdir border crossing between Tunisia and Libya, according to international standards.”The objective is to make this area a commercial portal for Africa, able to promote economic integration with…

“I am happy to state that the empowerment of our minority communities has taken the centrestage of public policy, as successive governments have allocated resources and implemented policies aimed at their mainstreaming and empowerment,” Sharif said on Friday in a message to mark the National Day of Minorities.The South Asian country’s constitution guarantees the provision of social, political, religious and economic rights to all citizens without any discrimination of caste, creed and colour, according to the Prime Minister as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.The minority communities are part and parcel of Pakistani nationalism, he added.”From defence to education, health…