SAN JOSE (AFP) - Costa Rica’s President Laura Fernandez on Thursday fired her foreign minister for attending a regional security meeting chaired by US President Donald Trump in New York without telling her. Fernandez said that she should have been the one to attend the meeting of the Trump’s anti-cartel Shield of the Americas alliance, and that Foreign Minister Manuel Tovar’s failure to consult her caused “great strategic damage.”

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) – European Council President Antonio Costa Thursday reiterated his support for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in defense of international law. In delivering his speech in the general debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Costa said there can be no double standards in terms of international law and “we are witnessing deliberate violations of international law.” Following and defending international law is not an option but a responsibility, according to Costa. “We stand firmly behind them and will uphold their independence, their integrity and their ability to fully exercise their mandate,” said Costa, referring to ICJ and ICC.

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NEW YORK (AFP) - Nepal’s prime minister scolded world leaders at the UN on Thursday, saying last month’s catastrophic deadly flood was a reminder that climate change keeps hurting people who didn’t cause the crisis. The disaster “was a warning to the world,” Balendra Shah told the general assembly. “And I ask you today: Have you really heard that warning?” International scientists have connected melting permafrost caused by changes in the climate – linked to burning coal, oil and gas – to the instability of the glacier, which partly collapsed and triggered a massive flood that killed at least 1,400 people. Shah said that Nepal contributed less than one-tenth of 1% of the heat-trapping gases behind climate change.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Friday that South Korea would become a “decisive target” for collective retaliation if it served as a central hub in a US-led collective defence system, state media KCNA reported. In a KCNA commentary, Kang Chol Su, described as a department director at the Institute for Enemy State Studies, accused Washington of turning its ally South Korea into a base for pursuing global hegemony and using it as a platform to deploy first in overseas conflicts. The United States stations about 28,500 military personnel in South Korea to help deter aggression from North Korea.

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ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopian forces battled overnight to repel an assault by Tigray rebels in the Afar region, a humanitarian source said Friday, with reports of an internet blackout in the north of the country. Rebels in the northern Tigray region seized local airports and launched attacks into the neighboring states of Afar and Amhara this week, saying they were once again in a “full-blown war” with the federal government. Locals fear a repeat of the telecoms blackout and supplies blockade imposed on Tigray during the last civil war in 2020-2022 that killed an estimated 600,000 people.