Kasmaal  Independent Somali news and analysis website .

File photo of a flight taking off from Stockholm Arlanda. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg While the east coast of the US braces itself for the worst of Storm Stella, the impact of the bad weather is already being felt on the other side of the Atlantic, as a string of flights from Scandinavia to New York […]

Female friends chatting to each other in Stockholm. Photo: Maja Suslin/TT Sweden was ranked the best place in the world for women in a survey published on International Women’s Day. We asked foreigners how they feel their lives have changed since moving to Sweden. Based on 9,000 respondents’ opinions and ranked among 80 countries, the […]

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraq’s Federal Police chief said Tuesday security forces had retaken 90 percent of central Mosul’s Old City, a most-wanted target in operations against the Islamic State in western Mosul. Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat said in a statement that his forces recaptured Bab al-Jadid and Bab al-Bid neighborhood. The troops recaptured Nineveh’s railway station […]

 Mar 14 UPDATE: other sources say tanker was under Sri Lanka flag. Voice of America reported on Mar 13 alleged hijack of an UAE tanker in Gulf of Aden by Somalian pirates:   Somali officials say pirates have hijacked an oil tanker in the Indian Ocean and guided it to the coast of Puntland region. […]

The European Commission has reacted to the diplomatic row between the Netherlands and Turkey by calling on Ankara to ‘refrain’ from statements and actions that will make the situation worse. The commission’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and regional policy commissioner Johannes Hahn said in a joint statement on Monday that following the tensions between Turkey […]

MAP File Photo Turkey summoned the charge d’affaires of the Netherlands to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a third time, on Monday and handed two diplomatic notes over the banning of entry for Turkish ministers. Dutch Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires Daan Feddo Huisinga was called to the foreign ministry in the morning and received a […]

The second in command at the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., called President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban inhumane and cruel, and particularly hurtful to an immigrant community he knows well. “In Minneapolis, we are proud of our Somalia-American community,” Ellison said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on March 7. “Somalia is going through […]

Scathing broadside against German chancellor came hours after EU urged Turkish president to halt inflammatory rhetoric.   Chancellor Angela Merkel said she’s unwilling to play Erdogan’s ‘game’ [File: Kacper Pempel/Reuters] Turkey’s president continued his rhetorical attacks on European leaders on Monday by accusing German Chancellor Angela Merkel of “supporting terrorists”. Merkel called the accusations “clearly […]

Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg (L) and other ministers and party members vote during Høyre’s annual conference. Photo: Terje Pedersen/NTB scanpixNorway’s Høyre (Conservative) Party, the largest party in the governing coalition, voted at its annual conference in favour of a proposal to allow dual citizenship in the country. The proposal, made by the party’s youth […]

Muslim man granted asylum working to win approval for wife and daughter to leave Aleppo and join him in US A Wisconsin court has blocked the Trump administration from stopping a mother and daughter in Aleppo from trying to get to the US. Photograph: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images A federal judge on Friday blocked Donald Trump’s […]