World Echo

A second Iranian warship neared Sri Lankan waters on Thursday, a minister told parliament, a day after a US submarine destroyed an Iranian frigate, killing at least 84 sailors. Media minister Nalinda Jayatissa said the second Iranian navy vessel was just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, but gave no further details. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was meeting top officials on Thursday to discuss a response to an Iranian request to enter the safety of the island's waters, official sources said. Read More: At least 87 dead after US sinks Iranian warship They said the craft identified as IRIS Bushehr was carrying nearly 300 crew and cadets. It was feared that this vessel could be targeted the same way a sister vessel was sunk by a US submarine just off Sri Lanka's southern coast on Wednesday. The sinking of IRIS Dena came as the war sparked by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran continued to spread across the Middle East and beyond. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Arag...

On Wednesday, the Israeli military issued a displacement order for all residents in Lebanon south of the Litani River. A map showing the entire southern part of Lebanon shaded in red with two large arrows pointing north accompanied the order. #عاجل ‼️تحذير عاجل إلى سكان جنوب لبنان 🔸إنّ أنشطة حزب الله الإرهابي تُجبر جيش الدفاع على العمل ضده بالقوة. جيش الدفاع لا ينوي إلحاق الأذى بكم. 🔸حرصًا على سلامتكم، عليكم إخلاء منازلكم فورًا. كل من يتواجد بالقرب من عناصر حزب الله أو منشآته أو وسائله القتالية يعرّض حياته للخطر.… pic.twitter.com/4yVqByIonw — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) March 4, 2026 Nearly 84,000 people have been displaced over the last 4 days, according to Lebanon’s state-run media outlet, the National News Agency. Israel had issued an evacuation warning to residents of about 50 towns and villages in Lebanon's south and east — both Hezbollah strongholds. "For your safety, evacuate your homes immediately and move at least 1,000 metres (0.6 miles) away from your village to...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East was a "failure" of the international order, and the United States had not consulted its allies before striking Iran. US and Israeli forces launched strikes against Iran on Saturday after negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme stalled. The war has since spread beyond Iran's borders, with Iranian attacks hitting Gulf states including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, as well as US embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, prompting Washington to close diplomatic missions across the region. Read: Iran war enters fourth day in 'smoke and blood' as global markets slide "The current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order, despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks," Carney said during a visit to A...

Ecuadorean and US forces launched joint operations to combat drug trafficking, the US Southern Command said on Tuesday, but neither side gave more details. The Southern Command, which is the US military's combatant command that encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean, said in a statement on social media website X that the action was meant to combat illicit drug trafficking. Read: US strikes 2,000 targets in Iran as retaliation spreads across Gulf region Ecuador’s Defence Ministry said in a statement it was working with the US in an “offensive” operation and added that details were classified. The announcement came after President Daniel Noboa had said on Monday that his government would conduct joint operations with the US and other allies in March, framing the effort as “a new phase against narco-terrorism and illegal mining.” A new US-military-led task force specialising in intelligence collection on drug cartels played a role in the Mexican m...

The United Nations human rights office on Tuesday urged what it described as the forces behind a deadly attack on a girls' school in Iran to investigate the incident and share their findings, without saying who it believed was responsible. "The High Commissioner [Volker Turk] calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing. "This is absolutely horrific," Shamdasani said, adding that images circulating on social media captured "the essence of the destruction, despair and senselessness and cruelty of this conflict". Turk also urged all parties to exercise restraint and return to the negotiating table, she said. The school in southern Iran was hit on Saturday, the first day of US and Israeli attacks against the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said...

United States political commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had apprehended and “arrested Israeli Mossad agents planning bombings in those countries.” “Why would the Israelis be committing bombings in Gulf countries, which are also being attacked by Iran?” Carlson said on his show. “Aren’t they on the same side?” “Israel wants to hurt Iran — and Qatar, and the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, and Oman and Kuwait,” he added. Carlson also claimed that Israel intentionally foments instability among the US Arab allies. The recent comments come as the US and Israel continue their military strikes on Iran, following a joint operation on Saturday that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several high-ranking officials. Iran said schools and hospitals have also been targeted, killing hundreds of civilians. In the opening wave of attacks, about 163 girls were killed when a school in southern Iran was struck. Tehran responded by t...