Kasmaal  Independent Somali news and analysis website .

The hostages were taken during attacks on villages in Sweida, during which dozens of people were killed [SANA/AP] SIL has taken a group of at least 27 people hostage in the sparsely populated Sweida desert in southern Syria, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Among those kidnapped, who are mostly of members of the minority Druze community, […]

© Getty Images If Washington continues to implement “unreasonable measures” against China, Beijing will hit back and “resolutely” respond, its Finance Minister said amid an escalating trade war between the two powers. “China doesn’t wish to engage in a trade war, but we will resolutely respond to the unreasonable measures taken by the United States,” Liu […]

Ever since President Donald Trump discovered that he could unilaterally pardon individuals , aides say he’s been thrilled by that level of unchecked power. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images   President Donald Trump’s lawyers and a cadre of informal White House advisers claim they’ve convinced him not to pardon Paul Manafort — but White House officials […]

The coastguard ship Diciotti lands in Sicily after an earlier mission in July. Photo: Alessandro Fucarini/AFP Italy’s deputy prime minister has threatened to pull the country’s EU funding if the bloc does not come to the aid of 150 people stranded aboard an Italian coastguard ship, drawing a rebuke from Brussels. The migrants have been blocked […]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged China to adopt further steps to open its market, disagreeing with Beijing’s assessment of the country’s progress in reforming state-owned enterprises, reducing trade and investment restrictions and its efforts to reduce government debt. “We are looking at China and comparing it with other G20 countries … in terms […]

In a rare rebuttal to Trump, Sessions quickly moved to defend himself. (File photo: AFP) US Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back at President Donald Trump on Thursday after Trump gave a scathing assessment of his leadership at the Justice Department. Sessions, a former US senator from Alabama, was one of the first Republican lawmakers […]

Photo: DPA DPAGermany said Thursday it would refrain from deporting members of China’s mostly Muslim Uighur minority over human rights concerns, after admitting a Uighur man was sent back by mistake in April. In a case that made waves earlier this month, German authorities acknowledged that the 22-year-old asylum seeker, who was not named, was […]

  Rescuers looked for survivors amid the rubble on Wednesday in Lueng Putu, Indonesia, after an undersea earthquake struck Aceh province. CreditGetty Images JAKARTA, Indonesia — More than 100 people were killed early Wednesday and more were feared dead after a powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with many of the victims crushed to […]

Peter Dutton might have lost more out of the leadership spill than formerprime minister Malcolm Turnbull.Photo: Alex Ellinghausen   What a collapse for a party that promised conservative values. What an indictment on cabinet ministers who unleashed chaos. The biggest loser in any leadership spill is always the former leader, but this bedlam has more casualties […]

The ruling ANC party wants to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation [Reuters] South Africa rejected a tweet by Donald Trump about the country’s land reform policy and the “large-scale killing” of farmers saying the US president was “misinformed”. Trump said on Wednesday he directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South […]