
-
Yoon to become South Korea's first sitting president to go on criminal trial
-
NFL projects huge salary cap jump for 2025 season
-
Groups launch first green lawsuits against new Trump administration
-
Venus Williams, Kvitova issued wildcards for Indian Wells
-
Heartbreaking day ahead for Israel, says Netanyahu
-
US Fed officials worried Trump policies could hinder inflation fight: minutes
-
Dortmund ease into Champions League last 16 after Sporting stalemate
-
Apple adds lower-price iPhone 16e to line-up
-
Latin America's 'terrorist' cartels in Trump's sights
-
EU trade chief says bloc will respond swiftly to US tariffs
-
MLB to launch pre-season testing of automated ball-strike calls
-
Hamilton confident of Ferrari glory after taking wheel of new F1 car
-
Trump brands Zelensky 'a dictator'
-
Alcaraz fends off Nardi to make Qatar quarters
-
Trump brands Zelensky a 'dictator' as clash deepens
-
NFL returns to Brazil in 2025 with Chargers to play in week one
-
Sabalenka 'all over the place' in Dubai exit
-
Syrian Jews say held first group prayer in decades in Damascus synagogue
-
New Zealand spoil historic day for Pakistan in Champions Trophy
-
Ikea hopes for furniture market improvement in 2026
-
Game, set, hate: WTA stars reveal fears after Raducanu's Dubai shock
-
Trump auto tariff threat prompts pushback in Germany
-
Gatland 'hurting' after exit as Wales rugby coach
-
Sabalenka thrashed in Dubai as Paolini's title defence ends
-
Arsenal post £17.7m loss despite record revenues
-
Global glacier melt is accelerating, scientists say
-
England to face Senegal and Wales in 2025 friendlies
-
Canada announces first high-speed rail: Toronto to Quebec City
-
Burundi, Uganda manoeuvre as DR Congo violence spreads
-
Macron holds new emergency talks on Ukraine
-
Call for 'maximum' sentence for Bosnian Serb leader
-
Putin hails US-Russia talks as Zelensky-Trump spat deepens
-
Prosecutors want Napoli and owner to stand trial over suspected Osimhen transfer fraud
-
Caretaker boss Sherratt set to shake up Wales for Ireland clash
-
Tajikistan to publish new dress 'guidelines' for women
-
Clement gets stay of execution at Rangers despite 'disastrous' cup exit
-
'Classy' Gill key for Champions Trophy, says India captain
-
Historic day as Pakistan host first international cricket tournament for three decades
-
Ailing pope's obstinacy a blessing or a curse?
-
Lookman blasts coach's penalty barbs after Atalanta's Champions League exit
-
Stock markets skid after Trump threatens auto tariffs
-
Man Utd spent £14.5m on sackings including Ten Hag and Ashworth
-
Lights, camera, resistance. Trump looms over anxious film industry
-
Do look up: How Earth can defend itself against asteroid
-
Pogacar powers into UAE Tour lead
-
Manchester United spent £14.5 mln on sackings including Ten Hag and Ashworth
-
Hamas says ready to free all hostages at once in Gaza truce phase two
-
Young, Latham lead New Zealand charge in Champions Trophy opener
-
France's Senate backs move to ban headscarf in sport
-
Harlequins sign Argentina's Petti for 2025/26 season

Colombia asks Venezuela to help quell border violence
Colombia called on neighboring Venezuela Thursday to help tackle guerrillas blamed for a week of bloody violence that has displaced 40,000 people in the lawless border region.
"I've been in contact with the current Venezuelan government," Colombian President Gustavo Petro said, floating a "joint plan to eradicate armed gangs on the border."
Colombia is struggling to contain violence in the mountainous northeastern Catatumbo region, where a 5,800-strong leftist militia has targeted rival armed groups and their alleged sympathizers.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, is trying to assert control over a swath of the border region that is home to plantations and trafficking routes which provide much of the world's cocaine.
The offensive has killed at least 80 people, while dozens more have been kidnapped and tens of thousands have been displaced, according to government and United Nations estimates.
The bodies of a baby and two young teens were among the bodies recovered from the region, according to Jorge Arturo Jimenez, Colombia's chief forensic officer.
The violence has plunged Colombia into one of its worst security crises in years while shattering government hopes of peacefully disarming one of the country's most powerful militias.
AFP journalists travelling in rebel-controled areas on Thursday saw armed ELN members openly guarding checkpoints.
Still, Petro's Venezuela gambit is fraught with potential pitfalls.
Colombia's intelligence agencies allege the ELN has long received backing and protection from Venezuela, with some of the group's leaders believed to live across the border.
And Petro's decision to engage with President Nicolas Maduro's government so soon after it was accused of stealing another election from the democratic opposition is likely to provoke anger.
For its part, Venezuela has accused Colombia of providing "shelter" to leaders of the Tren de Aragua -- one of Venezuela's biggest gangs, with an estimated 5,000 members operating across Latin America.
The group engages in migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, kidnappings and racketeering and has been targeted by President Donald Trump for inclusion on the US list of terror groups.
- 'Offensive operations' -
So far Colombia has responded to the border crisis by declaring a state of emergency, suspending ELN peace talks, reinstating arrest warrants against its leaders and deploying some 5,000 soldiers to the area.
Despite Petro's vow to bring "war" to the ELN, the Colombian military has so far only edged into rebel-controlled territory, establishing observation posts and carrying out patrols in urban areas.
In the frontier town of Tibu on Wednesday, AFP reporters heard at least five loud explosions, which the military said were artillery tests.
Later that day Colombia's military said it had begun "offensive operations" but it was not immediately clear what they were.
For thousands of residents still waiting in refuges, a solution cannot come soon enough.
Zilenia Pana, 48, fled the fighting with her eight- and 13-year-old children, finding the relative safety of Ocana, a small town on the western edge of the cordillera.
Seeing "the dead bodies was sad, painful. That breaks your soul, your heart," she told AFP.
She said she prays only that the fighting stops so she can return home with her children, saying "that's all we want, that's all we ask from those people."
O.Lorenz--BTB