Kasmaal  Independent Somali news and analysis website .

Photos: AFP Spain is on tenterhooks as the crisis between Catalan separatist leaders and the central government reaches fever-pitch ahead of an independence referendum banned by Madrid on Sunday. The showdown is one of Spain’s biggest political crises since the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco four decades ago and it has Catalonia deeply […]

FILE PHOTO: Servicemen stand near a British Tornado jet preparing to takeoff at the RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus © Reuters  The Russian Ministry of Defense has issued a scathing rebuke to a claim by UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon that Britain has made a “major contribution” to “crippling” Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. “As […]

Members of Iraqi Federal Police carry their weapon at the frontline during a battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq June 5, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Twenty five Islamic State militants have been killed, few hours after offensives were launched to free the group’s holdout in southwestern Kirkuk, the Interior Ministry […]

Most oil that flows through a pipeline from Iraq to Turkey comes from Kurdish sources and a cut-off would damaging. Turkey has ramped up its criticism of the KRG after Monday’s referendum on independence [File: Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters] Turkey has threatened potentially crippling restrictions on oil trading with Iraqi Kurds after they backed independence from Baghdad […]

© KCNA / Reuters North Korea’s nuclear weapons program demonstrates “rapid progress” and poses a “new global threat” to international security, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said following the sixth nuclear test by Pyongyang earlier this month. On September 3 Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test yet, using […]

Not the best of friends. Photo: DPA President Donald Trump spoke by phone Thursday with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the White House said, after breaking with custom and waiting days to congratulate the German leader on her re-election. The pair connected after growing questions about a delay in the call between the uneasy allies. “President Donald […]

HIGHLIGHTS At least 22 people were killed and scores injured in the stampede at Mumbai’s Elphinstone railway station NDRF team has reached the site of stampede A combination of heavy rain, a loud sound and rush hour caused the tragedy, according to police   MUMBAI: At least 22 people were killed and several injured in […]

  © Mikhail Klimentiev / Sputnik Vladimir Putin has termed the progress in the peaceful solution of the Syrian crisis ‘a joint success’ between Moscow and Ankara after talks with the Turkish leader. He said the agreements created “conditions” to end the bloodshed in the war-torn state. Read more Turkey confirms deposit on Russia’s state-of-the-art S-400 […]

File photo: DPA. An unknown person poisoned food in supermarkets in the south German town of Friedrichshafen after trying to blackmail supermarkets, police said on Thursday. The tainted products included baby foods. Police called on the public to stay calm on Thursday after confirmed that a “very unscrupulous” person added potentially fatal amounts of poison […]

Police recover 15 bodies but many more are feared dead after boat carrying over 100 sinks in rough seas off Bangladesh. The UN says the number of Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh has exceeded 500,000 [File: Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera] Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – Scores of people, including many women and children, are feared to have […]