'Alarming' rise in rape and abduction from Sudan war, aid agencies say The conflict between military factions in Sudan has caused a surge in cases of rape and the abduction of women and girls, some as young as 12, aid agencies and officials said. Teenage girls are being sexually assaulted and raped by armed combatants in "alarming numbers", Save the Children said in a statement on Friday, while the United Nations reported a "marked increase" in gender-based violence. The war that erupted on April 15 pits Sudan's army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who fell out over plans…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE US expected to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine Human Rights Watch has called on Russia and Ukraine to stop using cluster bombs, and urged the US not to supply the munitions to Kyiv, amid reports the Biden administration is poised to include the controversial weapons in a new military aid package. Russian and Ukraine forces have used cluster bombs, which break apart in the air and release large numbers of smaller bomblets across a wide area. The bomblets are designed to detonate on hitting the ground, but do not always explode, posing a risk to civilians for years…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Russian missile strikes apartment block in Lviv, kills at least three A Russian missile attack killed at least three people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, and rescuers were searching through the debris of a apartment building for survivors and casualties, the local mayor said. "Three people have been killed," Mayor Andriy Sadovy said in a post on his Telegram channel. He said the street would remain closed until emergency workers "clear debris and pull out all the dead." Sadovy said in a previous post that eight people had been wounded, but it was unclear if the…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine reports 'particularly fruitful' few days in counteroffensive A Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces has been "particularly fruitful" in the past few days and Ukraine's troops are fulfilling their main tasks, a senior security official said on Tuesday. The comments by Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, were Kyiv's latest positive assessment of the month-old counterattack although Moscow has not acknowledged Ukraine's gains. Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister, Hanna Maliar, also reported gains around the shattered city of Bakhmut despite fierce Russian resistance. Russian forces had captured it in May after 10 months of battles.…