World

OSLO — Dozens of countries will send delegates to Norway on Wednesday as part of a global alliance aiming to find a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norway's foreign ministry said on Monday.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini, and UN envoy to the Middle East Tor Wennesland are among those due to attend.

It will be the third meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, whose creation was announced in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

"While we must continue to work for an end to the war (in Gaza), we must also work for a lasting solution to the conflict that guarantees self-determination, security and justice for both the Palestinians and the Israelis," Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.

"There is broad support for a two-state solution, but the international community must do more to make it a reality."

Representatives of more than 80 countries and organisations are expected to take part in the meeting, though no official Israeli delegation has been announced.

Israel was angered when several countries, including Norway, decided to recognise the Palestinian state.

The first two meetings of the global alliance were held in Saudia Arabia in late October and in Brussels in late November.

MOSCOW — Russia on Sunday claimed the capture of two villages in eastern Ukraine where its forces have been steadily advancing for months.

The defence ministry said forces had captured the village of Yantarne in the eastern Donetsk region, around 10 kilometres southwest of Kurakhove, a key logistics hub that Moscow claimed to have seized last week.

On Saturday, Russia's army said it had also taken new territory northwest of Kurakhove.

The defence ministry said on Sunday that Russian troops had also captured the village of Kalinove in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

The village is on the western bank of the Oskil River, which for a long time formed the front line between the two armies in the region.

But a Ukrainian official said Thursday that Russian forces had managed to establish a bridgehead on the western bank after crossing the river.

Russia's army has attempted for months to cross the river, which also cuts through Kupiansk, a city recaptured by Ukraine in its 2022 counteroffensive.

A local woman died Sunday in the Ukraine-controlled part of Russia's Kursk region after Russian strikes damaged a state boarding school where local people were sheltering, a Ukrainian official said.

On Saturday evening, "Russian aviation carried out two air strikes on the area of the boarding school in Sudzha, as a result of which one woman suffered a laceration wound to her arm, and died in the morning," Ukrainian army spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said on television news.

"The premises of the school were heavily damaged, all the windows and doors were smashed," he said.

"Today we have a big question - where to move people, how to keep them warm."

The spokesman said over 80 people were staying in the school, who "are all elderly" and many "have disabilities or Parkinson's disease or have had strokes".

There are about 2,000 Russian civilians still in Ukraine-controlled Kursk region, the spokesman said.

In Ukraine's southern Kherson region, drone attacks injured eight people Sunday in the main city of Kherson and a nearby village, regional authorities said.

In the Russian-controlled section of the Kherson region, a Ukrainian drone killed a 76-year-old woman, Russian-installed Governor Vladimir Saldo said on Telegram.

In the Russian city of Engels on the Volga River, a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on Wednesday on an oil depot continued to burn out, Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said on Telegram.

Firefighters are working "24 hours a day" to extinguish the fire, Busargin said, and the "amount of smoke and the total area of the fire is decreasing".

STOCKHOLM — Sweden on Sunday said that it would contribute up to three warships and a surveillance aircraft to monitor critical infrastructure and Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Baltic Sea following recent underwater cable sabotage.

Several subsea telecom and power cables have been severed in the Baltic Sea in recent months in incidents that experts and politicians say are part of hybrid war actions orchestrated by Russia.

Leaders of NATO countries bordering the Baltic Sea are to meet in Helsinki on Tuesday to discuss security in the region, with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expected to attend.

The meeting will focus on the "strengthening of NATO's presence in the Baltic Sea and responding to the threat posed by Russia's shadow fleet," Finland's President Alexander Stubb said in a statement last week.

Finland has said NATO would contribute two vessels to the monitoring mission, while the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force [JEF], which comprises Nordic and Baltic States as well as the Netherlands, also said it would increase its surveillance.

"The [Swedish] government has commissioned the Swedish Armed Forces to contribute up to three warships and an air and sea surveillance plane, the ASC890," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters on Sunday.

On December 25, the Estlink 2 electricity cable and four telecom cables linking Finland and Estonia were damaged, just weeks after two telecom cables in Swedish waters of the Baltic Sea were severed on November 17-18.

Suspicion over the Christmas Day incident has fallen on the Eagle S, a Cook Island-flagged oil tanker believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet".

The "shadow fleet" consists of ships that carry crude oil and petroleum products embargoed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. 

The often ageing vessels operate under opaque ownership or without proper insurance.

Finnish police seized the Eagle S on December 28 as part of a criminal investigation into suspected sabotage.

The ship is anchored in Porvoo, east of Helsinki.

Finnish authorities last week deemed the ship unseaworthy following an inspection, barring it from sailing, and had previously banned eight crew members from leaving the country while police carry out a probe.

Investigators suspect the cables were damaged by the tanker's anchor being dragged over them.

Police earlier this week said that the anchor had been recovered from the seabed. 

KANO — At least 16 civilians were killed in a military air raid in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara after a pilot mistook local self-defence forces for criminal gangs, residents told AFP on Sunday.

The incident was the second deadly accidental airstrike to target civilians since the December 25 bombing of two villages in a raid targeting jihadists in neighbouring Sokoto state.

Nigeria's military has been fighting criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, who have long terrorised communities in northwestern and central Nigeria. The fighters raid villages, kill and abduct residents for ransom and burn homes after looting them.

Late on Saturday, a military jet hit a group of residents who mobilised from several neighbouring villages to confront gunmen who had attacked Dangebe village in Zurmi district, carting away livestock and burning homes, residents said.

"The group was returning to their villages after chasing away the bandits who attacked Dangebe when the fighter jet bombed them on reaching Tungar Kara village," said one local, Sa'idu Ibrahim.

He said villagers "recovered 16 bodies from the attacks and took several other people with severe injuries to the hospital".

Residents of Dangebe had phoned around 15 neighbouring villages asking for help against motorcycle-riding gunmen who stormed the village, burning their homes and stealing their livestock, said Bube Namare, another local resident.

"Sixteen bodies have been found but the toll may go up as [the] search for more bodies is going on this morning," Namare said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Abubakar Abdullahi, military spokesman for troops in the region did not respond to an AFP inquiry into the incident.

Amnesty International put the death toll at 20. In a statement on Sunday, the rights watchdog called on Nigerian authorities to "immediately and impartially investigate the... airstrike that killed at least 20 people at Tungar Kara village".

There have been several similar incidents in the past of bombings of civilians in the military's battle against jihadists and bandits in the northeast and northwest.

In December 2023, a Nigerian military airstrike mistook a Muslim religious gathering for bandits in Tudun Biri community in northwestern Kaduna state, killing at least 85 people, mostly women and children.

In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a fighter jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people displaced by jihadist violence in the town of Rann near the border with Cameroon. 

MORONI, Comoros — The Indian Ocean nation of the Comoros voted on Sunday to elect lawmakers, with many opposition groups saying they would snub a vote they argued lacked transparency.

Comorian President Azali Assoumani's eldest son, Nour El Fath Azali, who is 39 and the country's secretary general, is running to represent a constituency just outside the capital Moroni.

Several voting booths opened late after material failed to materialise in time for an official 7:00 am (4:00 GMT) start, an AFP reporter saw.

Polls had been due to close at 4:00 pm, but many closed two hours later due to both the opening delays and bad weather.

One US observer, James Burns, said officials had to "improvise" one voting booth comprising two panels around a table.

Nearby, another booth consisted of a simple box placed on a chair -- making it difficult to preserve voter privacy as ballots were cast.

Before he was appointed to the post in July 2024, Nour had been a private advisor to his father, 65, a former military ruler who came to power in a 1999 coup.

Critics said Nour's new powers -- which include approving all decrees issued by ministers and governors -- elevate his role to that of de facto prime minister.

Azali was re-elected president in January 2024 after a disputed vote followed by two days of deadly protests. He has been accused of growing authoritarianism.

"Thank God, since the beginning of the campaign there has not been any trouble. It's raining but it's a blessing," Azali said after voting in his hometown of Mitsoudje, 15 kilometres  south of the capital Moroni.

"I thank the opposition candidates who stood in the elections. We need a constructive opposition," he added.

CRC set for win 

Around 340,000 registered voters will send 33 deputies to sit in Comoros's one-chamber parliament. A second round of voting will take place on February 16.

Several opposition candidates are running to avoid an outcome similar to the boycott of the 2020 legislative vote, which gave free rein to the ruling Convention for the Renewal of the Comoros (CRC) party.

The CRC is nevertheless expected to dominate parliament again in this year's vote, not least as its candidates in some constituencies face no competition.

One man clad in a boubou and kofia, typical Comorian headgear, complained that "I dipped my finger in the inkwell but the ink's already gone", showing his index finger with no indelible ink stain.

Azali in January 2024 officially won 57 per cent of the vote, allowing him to remain in power until 2029.

But the strongman's opponents said the election was marred by fraud, and court challenges were dismissed.

One person was killed and several others injured in the violence that erupted in the aftermath of the election in the country of some 870,000 people.

LOS ANGELES, United States — Californians on Friday demanded to know who is at fault for the vast devastation caused by the raging Los Angeles wildfires, as a strict curfew went into force to prevent looting and lawlessness.

At least 11 people died as flames ripped through neighborhoods and razed thousands of homes in a disaster that US President Joe Biden likened to a "war scene."

While Angelenos grapple with the heart-rending ruin, anger has risen over officials' preparedness and response, particularly for a series of false evacuation alarms and after hydrants ran dry as firefighters battled the initial blazes.

Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday ordered a "full independent review" of the city's utilities, describing the lack of water supplies during the initial fires as "deeply troubling."

"We need answers to how that happened," he wrote in an open letter.

Residents like Nicole Perri, whose home in the upscale Pacific Palisades burnt down, told AFP that officials "completely let us down."

"They let us, the ordinary people, burn," added Nicholas Norman, across the city in Altadena.

A flare-up late Friday prompted new mandatory evacuations from ritzy neighborhoods along the fire's eastern flank, which include the famous Getty Center.

Built at a cost of $1 billion and constructed partly of fire-resistant travertine stone, the acclaimed museum boasts 125,000 artworks.

Meanwhile, as fears of looting grow, a sunset-to-sunrise curfew took effect in evacuated areas.

Around two dozen arrests have already been made across Los Angeles, where some residents have organized street patrols and kept armed watch over their own houses.

"If we see you in these areas, you will be subject to arrest," Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell said.

Violators face up to six months in prison or $1,000 fines, he said.

The National Guard has been deployed to bolster law enforcement.

 'Devastating' 

Five separate fires have so far burned more than 37,000 acres, destroying around 10,000 buildings, California's fire agency reported. 

The Los Angeles County medical examiner's office confirmed an additional fatality on Friday, bringing the overall death toll so far to 11.

"It reminded me of more of a war scene, where you had certain targets that were bombarded," said Biden, as he received a briefing on the fires at the White House. 

Winds calmed Friday, providing a much-needed if fleeting window of opportunity for firefighters battling blazes around the clock for a fourth consecutive day.

At the biggest of the blazes, in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, firefighters said they were starting to get the fire under control, with eight percent of its perimeter contained.

"Braveheart" actor Mel Gibson was the latest celebrity to reveal his Malibu home had burned down, telling NewsNation the loss was "devastating."

Meanwhile the Eaton Fire in the Altadena area was three percent contained, with fire chief Jason Schillinger reporting "significant progress" in quelling the blaze.

A third fire that exploded Thursday afternoon near the wealthy Hidden Hills enclave, home to celebrities like Kim Kardashian, was 50 percent surrounded.

But emergency chiefs warned the situation is "still very dangerous" and reprieve from the intense gusts that spread embers will not last.

"The winds have died down today, but... are going to increase again in the coming days," said Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

'Demagogues' 

Authorities have said it was too early to know the cause of the blazes.

Biden took a veiled swipe at incoming president Donald Trump, who has spread misinformation over the flames that has then been amplified on social media.

"You're going to have a lot of demagogues out there trying to take advantage of it," Biden said of the fires.

Governor Newsom, who has been blamed for the disaster by the president-elect, invited Trump to visit Los Angeles and survey the devastation with him.

"In the spirit of this great country, we must not politicize human tragedy or spread disinformation from the sidelines," said Newsom.

Wildfires occur naturally, but scientists say human-caused climate change is altering weather and changing the dynamics of the blazes.

Two wet years in southern California have given way to a very dry one, leaving ample fuel on the ground primed to burn.

Emergency managers apologized Friday after false evacuation alerts were erroneously sent to millions of mobile phones, sparking panic.

"I can't express enough how sorry I am," said Kevin McGowan, the director of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.

Los Angeles fire chief Kristin Crowley blamed recent funding cuts, telling Fox News affiliate KTTV her department was chronically "understaffed" and "under-resourced."

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Climate change fuelled natural disasters that caused $320 billion in losses last year, German reinsurance giant Munich Re said Thursday, warning that "our planet's weather machine is shifting to a higher gear".

The amount of insured losses totalled $140 billion over the past 12 months, making 2024 the third-highest total since 1980, Munich Re said in a report.

The findings echoed similar figures from Swiss Re, the other leader of the reinsurance industry, which calculated overall losses of around $310 billion, of which $135 billion were insured. 

Last year is almost certain to go down as the hottest on record and the first to be 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than before the industrial revolution, the critical threshold laid down in the 2015 Paris accord on fighting climate change.

"Our planet's weather machine is shifting to a higher gear," said Tobias Grimm, chief climate scientist at Munich Re. 

"Everyone pays the price for worsening weather extremes" driven by climate change, Grimm added, noting that the burden fell hardest on "people in countries with little insurance protection or publicly funded support to help with recovery". 

"The global community must finally take action and find ways to strengthen the resilience of all countries, and especially those that are the most vulnerable," he said. 

 Above average 

Overall and insured losses in 2024 were both well above the benchmark averages of the last 10 and 30 years, Munich Re said.

The totals were unusually high thanks to a "combination of rare major catastrophes, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, and more frequent events, such as hail, localised flooding and forest fires," Grimm said.

"These phenomena have particularly increased in intensity and frequency over the years," he said.

Weather catastrophes were behind 93 percent of the overall losses, as a series of hurricanes swept around the tropics, Munich Re calculated.

Cyclones alone accounted for $135 billion in losses, the majority of which were registered in the United States, which was buffeted by a series of powerful storms.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which blew across the south-eastern United States in quick succession in September and October, were the two costliest catastrophes of the year.

Helene resulted in losses of $56 billion, causing flooding deep into the US interior and leaving over 200 people dead.

Meanwhile in Europe, the region around Valencia in Spain saw the continent's most serious catastrophe, with over 200 dead and causing $11 billion in damages.