Aid workers at Ladan say the raging war in the Middle East—more than 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) away—has made their work harder, disrupting supplies and sending fuel costs soaring. 
 
UNICEF says it has $15.7 million worth of lifesaving supplies—including therapeutic food, vaccines, and mosquito nets—in transit or being prepared for delivery to Somalia. But those shipments now are uncertain. 
 

European lawmakers voted Thursday to ease the setting up of new migrant detention centers outside the European Union, known as “return hubs.” 
 
Any EU nation can now negotiate on its own or in small coalitions to deport migrants not to their home countries but to facilities yet to be built outside the 27-nation bloc. 
 
Already, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Denmark have entered into negotiations with governments mainly in Africa to host sites to hold migrants denied asylum. 
 

The World Health Organization's head described the 'immense turbulence' going on in Cuba, with 'energy shortages that have been affecting health.' Daily, up to 20-hour power outages affect parts of Cuba, which lacks fuel to generate power. 
 
The WHO chief said on Wednesday, March 25, the health situation in Cuba was "deeply concerning" as the United States' fuel blockade deepens the island's energy crisis. 
 

The UN General Assembly’s resolution on Wednesday declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans “the gravest crime against humanity” and calling for reparations is being welcomed across Africa and among slave descendants and advocates of restorative justice. 
 
About 12 million Africans were forcefully taken by European nations from the 16th to the 19th century and enslaved on plantations that built wealth at the price of misery. 
 

A major Russian drone and missile attack on civilian areas of Ukraine killed four people and injured at least 27, officials said Tuesday, while Moscow’s army stepped up efforts to break through Ukrainian frontline defenses in what could be the start of an anticipated spring ground offensive. 
  
Russia fired almost 400 long-range drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, in its biggest attack in weeks. The onslaught continued into Tuesday morning as dozens of drones targeted the capital Kyiv during daylight. 
  

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Tuesday released American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. 
  
A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul, the country’s capital, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s Supreme Court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient.” 
  

A rebel group in eastern Congo has detained civilians, including two journalists, in metal shipping containers without light or ventilation, an advocacy group said Tuesday. 
  
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the Rwanda-backed M23, which controls parts of eastern Congo, used the containers in the city of Goma as makeshift detention cells under “inhumane” and “degrading” conditions. 
  

Air strikes have targeted the headquarters of the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, as the country becomes a two-way battlefield between armed factions and the United States during its war with Iran. 
  
The U.S. carried out strikes against the Shia paramilitary umbrella group, also known locally as Hashed al-Shaabi, late on Sunday after attacks on a U.S. diplomatic and logistics center at Baghdad International Airport.