Armed men have abducted an Italian family and their Togolese domestic worker in southern Mali, an official said Friday, the latest attack to target Westerners in the volatile West African country. Chaka Coulibaly, mayor of the small town of Sincina, told The Associated Press that the men had broken into the home of the Christian missionary couple on Thursday night. The Italian couple are Jehovah's Witnesses and were working to set up a church in the commune, a member of Mali’s small Christian community said. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio was following developments, the foreign minis

France reported its first case of monkeypox on Friday, country's Health Ministry confirmed the case after a PCR test was done on the patient a day before. Citing French news channel BFMTV, Xinhua reported that a patient is a 29-year-old man residing in the Ile-de-France region. As his condition is not considered serious and worrying, the man is isolating at his home, the report said. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to convene an emergency meeting of experts to discuss the latest outbreak of monkeypox in wake of rapidly rising cases, according to Russian media. Sinc

Pakistan's currency plunged to the lowest ever level on Wednesday, as the US dollar for the first time in Islamabad's history went beyond PKR200 benchmark in open market. In the open market, the US currency was being traded at PKR200.50. Meanwhile, dollar value reached PKR198.39 in interbank yesterday as against PKR195.74 on Tuesday. In the wake of the dwindling foreign reserves and the inflows taking more than expected time to support the exchange rate, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting with the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) on Monday to halt the

President Joe Biden on Thursday welcomed the leaders of Sweden and Finland to the White House, as he hailed the applications of the once-neutral countries to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in response toRussia's invasion of Ukraine. Biden greeted Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland at the White House with handshakes and laughter as they met for trilateral conversations on the NATO mutual defense pact as well as broader European security concerns. “having two new NATO members in the high north will enhance the security of our alli

As a response to Ottawa's actions, Russia on Wednesday closed the office of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and cancelled the accreditations and visas of journalists. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova informed the development at a press briefing today. Earlier in March, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau imposed sanctions against ten individuals with close ties to the Russian leadership, including Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, and businessman Oleg Deripaska.Earlier today, Russia has decided to expel 34 employees of the French diplomatic missions in Mos

Authorities in the southwest German town of Walldorf have ordered some cat owners to keep their pets indoors until the end of August, to protect a rare bird during its breeding season. The decree is designed to help save the crested lark, which makes its nest on the ground and is therefore easy prey for feline hunters. The bird's population in Western Europe has declined sharply in recent decades. Authorities in Walldorf wrote that “among other things the survival of the species depends on every single chick.” The decree, which applies to all cats in the southern part of the town and will

Finland’s Parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed a bid from the Nordic country’s government to join NATO. Lawmakers at the 200-seat Eduskunta legislature voted 188-8 Tuesday to approve Finland seeking membership in the 30-member Western military alliance. The vote was seen a formality as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced the intention on Sunday, and lawmakers’ approval wasn’t necessarily required. However, both Niniisto and Marin stressed that it was important for the Parliament to weigh in on the NATO bid, described by the Finnish head of state

Buffalo's police commissioner says the white gunman accused of a racist rampage at a supermarket planned to keep killing people if he had escaped the scene. Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia spoke to CNN on Monday, while authorities investigated the massacre of 10 Black shoppers and workers as a potential federal hate crime or act of domestic terrorism. Gramiglia says the gunman even talked about shooting up another store. The accused gunman, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, ultimately surrendered to police who confronted him in the supermarket's vestibule. He has been charged with murder. The

President Joe Biden on Monday signed an order to deploy U.S. troops to Somalia amid heightened concerns about the country's Islamic extremist rebels, known asal-Shabab. The move is a reversal of President Donald Trump's late-term decision to remove nearly all 700 Special Operator forces that had been operating there. Biden's decision, confirmed by a senior administration official, comes after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requested the deployment “to reestablish a persistent U.S. military presence in Somalia to enable a more effective fight against al-Shabaab, which has increased in strengt