A slaughterhouse in Brussels in 2017. Belgium will no longer grant religious exemptions to European Union laws that require animals to be rendered insensible before slaughtering.CreditCreditYves Herman/Reuters BRUSSELS — A Belgian ban on the Muslim and Jewish ways of ritually slaughtering animals went into effect on New Year’s Day, part of a clash across Europe

Photo (AP) Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress opened its first session of the year Saturday, installing a fresh-faced leader who struck a defiant tone and vowed to take up the battle against socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Juan Guaido, 35, assumes the presidency of a National Assembly stripped of power by Maduro, whose government is blamed for leading

The Pentagon plans to curtail its military role in Somalia and lessen airstrikes against al-Shabaab militants in the region, NBC News reported Friday. Two senior U.S. officials told the outlet that the administration has assessed that al-Shabab does not pose a direct danger to the United States as American forces have killed many of the

Nation at strait linking Gulf of Aden to Red Sea connects global shipping routes, with most foreign bases in world In 1991 thousands of Ethiopians, military men and women included, made an arduous journey, crossing the border from the Horn of Africa nation of Eritrea into the tiny nation of Djibouti. They fled as Eritrean

The United Nations plans to replace an envoy who was expelled from Somalia after questioning the arrest of a political candidate with an extremist history, the world body said Friday. The announcement came after three days of diplomatic back-and-forth over Somalia’s expulsion of Nicholas Haysom, a longtime U.N. official who has also served as envoy

UN renews call for independent investigation with ‘international involvement’ The United Nations Human Rights Office spokeswoman said on Friday that a trial taking place in Saudi Arabia into Oct. 2 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was “not sufficient.”Speaking to press members in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani reiterated the office’s call for an independent investigation, “with international

AP Photo/Susan Walsh History was on Ilhan Omar’s mind as she arrived in Washington DC this week. The 36-year-old Democrat from Minnesota’s 5th Congressional district became the first Somali-American, one of two Muslim women, among the unprecedented number of women lawmakers, and part of the largest congressional black caucus elected to the US House of

Somalia on Thursday told the UN Security Council not to interfere in its national affairs after expelling a UN envoy who questioned the government’s decision to arrest an al-Shabaab defector running for election. Somali Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman did not specifically mention his government’s decision to order Nicholas Haysom to leave but he argued that

Photo (AP) A U.N. envoy who was recently ordered to leave Somalia says political tensions could devolve into conflict, while Somalia’s U.N. ambassador says his country embraces international institutions but not individual “conduct that has a detrimental effect” on the nation. Both addressed the Security Council Thursday. The envoy, Nicholas Haysom, didn’t directly address this

Photo (AFP) As we kiss 2018 goodbye and, looking at East Africa and the Horn from Nairobi, it’s reasonable to say the most significant development for Kenya last year didn’t happen here. Kenya won an unexpected geopolitical jackpot when, in April, the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) elected a 42-year-old hitherto unknown Abiy