OWENDO – Through dense equatorial rainforest the train steamed ahead along Gabon’s sole railway line, a vital yet unreliable cog shuttling minerals, people and timber — as well as the odd coffin — across the country. “We’re forced to take the train. It’s not a choice,” said Aaron Houchi, a radiologist comfortably sat in the plush red velvet of first...

ALGIERS – Algeria criticised the US yesterday after Washington reaffirmed its support for Morocco’s stance on the disputed Western Sahara, a territory largely controlled by Rabat, but claimed for decades by the Algiers-backed Polisario Front. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meeting his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita Tuesday, “reiterated that the United States recognises Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and...

GAZA CITY – Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza City killed at least 23 people yesterday, most of them children or women, as the military said it targeted a “senior Hamas” militant. The strike took place in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, the agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. “The death...

BANGKOK – A United States (US) academic, charged with breaking Thailand’s strict royal defamation laws, was granted bail yesterday, his lawyers said.  But he remains in custody, pending an appeal to immigration authorities who earlier revoked his visa. Paul Chambers, who has spent over a decade teaching Southeast Asian politics at a Thai university, was arrested on Tuesday after reporting...

WARSAW – Polish police yesterday announced the dismantling of a vast online network for images of child sexual abuse, an operation carried out in cooperation with 11 other European countries. The operation – codenamed FEVER – led to the arrest of 166 people across Europe, including 98 in Poland. “Among those arrested were people who produced photographs and videos showing...