AFP, Kabul
Explosions and gunfire echoed through Kabul in two separate Taliban assaults on security compounds Wednesday, officials said, as the insurgents ramp up attacks before the start of their annual spring offensive.
At least one person was killed and 35 others wounded in the carnage, which underscores rising insecurity in Afghanistan as the resurgent Taliban escalate their winter campaign of violence.
Israel evicts settlers in West Bank
Reuters, Ofra
Israeli police began removing settlers and hundreds of supporters on Tuesday from nine houses built illegally on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
Police carried some of the settlers and protesters out of the red-roofed structures in the settlement of Ofra, while others walked out, escorted by officers.
Gambia scraps age limit for presidential candidates
AFP, Banjul
The Gambian parliament on Tuesday scrapped the constitutional age limit on presidential election candidates after new President Adama Barrow faced questions over his deputy’s eligibility due to her age.
Anyone over 65 has been barred from running for The Gambia’s highest office under a constitutional amendment that came into force in the west African country in 1997.
Palestinian municipal polls in May
AFP, Ramallah
Palestinian local elections scheduled for May will take place in the West Bank only and not in Gaza, the government announced Tuesday, scuppering hopes of the first vote in both territories in a decade.
The Palestinian Authority, run by president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party, sits in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, while the Islamist Hamas movement controls Gaza.
Northern Ireland holds elections
AFP, Belfast
Northern Ireland holds snap elections on Thursday in a bid to resolve a political crisis precipitated by Brexit as bad blood and allegations of corruption threaten to rock a delicate peace in the province. Long-simmering tensions boiled over in January when deputy first minister Martin McGuinness of the Sinn Fein party quit, saying he could no longer work with First Minister Arlene Foster from the rival Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
3 dead in California plane crash
AP, Riverside
Three people died and two were injured when a small plane carrying them home from a cheerleading competition crashed into two Southern California homes and sparked a major fire Monday, authorities said.
A husband, wife and three teenagers were on the plane that had just taken off from Riverside Municipal Airport at 4:40 p.m. intending to return to San Jose after the weekend cheerleading event at Disneyland when it crashed in the residential neighborhood, Riverside Fire Chief Michael Moore said.
