Eurasia

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he called the “deplorable” attack on Tunisia’s national museum that left at least 17 tourists, including a South African, dead on Wednesday. The UN Security Council also slammed what it called “this heinous act.”

Tunisia said it would deploy the army to major cities and arrested four people on Thursday after militant gunmen killed 20 foreign tourists visiting the national Bardo museum, the worst attack on the north African country in more than a decade.

Nine people have been arrested in connection with Wednesday’s gun attack in Tunis that left 23 people dead, including 20 foreign tourists, the Tunisian presidency says. It alleged that four were directly linked to the attack and five had “ties to the cell”.

Gunmen stormed Tunisia’s national museum, killing 17 tourists of various nationalities and two Tunisians in an attack that raised fears for the birthplace of the Arab Spring. The brazen daylight assault yesterday sparked panic at the nearby parliament and the National Bardo Museum itself, a magnet for the tourists who …

Despite several meetings between Indian and French officials to close the 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal worth $20 bn before PM Narendra Modi travels to Paris next month, defence minister Manohar Parrikar informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that “no final decision” has been taken yet.

The United Nations and Sudan began talks in Khartoum on Tuesday to prepare for an eventual orderly withdrawal of UN/African Union peacekeepers from Darfur, a senior UN official said. Herve Ladsous, head of UN peacekeeping, said the team in Khartoum would set up a working group that would “look at …

The National Security Council of Nigeria presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday met at the Presidential Villa, where the operations of Nigerian troops in the North-east were reviewed. Also, Chief of Army Staff, Kenneth Minimah said there was now news yet on the abducted Chibok schoolgirls from the …

Nigeria has begun the “final onslaught” against Boko Haram, the country’s national security spokesman said on Tuesday, after the militants were ousted from the strategic town of Bama. On a visit to London, Mike Omeri said that “significant strategic military successes and gains” had been made against the Islamists in …

A U.N. helicopter crashed Tuesday in Mali, killing two Dutch peacekeepers. The two members of the United Nations’ Minusma mission were the only two on board the Apache helicopter when it crashed around 1 p.m. local time about 26 miles north of Gao, Mali. “The special representative of the secretary …

Ukraine’s parliament approved Tuesday a draft law to grant special status to the eastern regions of the country, which are controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Submitted by President Petro Poroshenko as part of the cease-fire agreement reached in the Belarus capital of Minsk in February, the bill establishes the boundaries of rebel-held areas that could be given special status …