GENEVA – The United Nations on Monday called for the unconditional release of the estimated 10 000 people arbitrarily detained in Eritrea, including politicians, journalists, and students. The Horn of Africa country has been ruled with an iron fist by president Isaias Afwerki (79) since independence from Ethiopia in 1993 and ranks near the bottom...
DUBAI – Saudi Arabia set a new record for the number of executions carried out in a single year, according to an AFP tally, with the kingdom killing 340 people so far this year after authorities said three people were put to death on Monday. The toll marks the second-straight year Saudi Arabia has broken...
ABUJA – Presidents and their deputies from across West Africa met on Sunday in Nigeria for a regional meeting whose agenda was dominated by two recent coup attempts. A successful coup in Guinea Bissau in November and a foiled military attempt in Benin a week ago have shaken the regional bloc ECOWAS. The bloc was...
UVIRA – With rifles at their feet, Burundian soldiers watch from behind barriers as more than 500 of their compatriots cross the Kavimvira border, returning home. The group of civilians had been stranded in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by fighting after the M23 militia launched an offensive in early December. Days after signing...
SYDNEY – Two suspected shooters opened fire at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing nine people and wounding multiple others in an attack that spread panic, with bodies reported lying on the ground. An annual “Chanukah by the Sea” gathering marking the Jewish festival of Hanukkah was planned at the beach Sunday afternoon, but...
JUBA – South Sudan yesterday said it had reached an agreement with warring parties for it to secure a key oil field in Sudan near the border after the site was seized by paramilitaries. Kordofan, where the Heglig oil field lies, has become the epicentre of the Sudanese civil war after the paramilitary Rapid Support...
OSLO – Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is “safe” and will reach Oslo by Thursday at the latest, but will not accept her Nobel Peace Prize in person, Nobel officials said. Machado, who won the Nobel for challenging Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power, is in hiding after threats to her life and...
BANGKOK – Thailand launched air strikes yesterday on its neighbour, Cambodia, with both sides trading blame for renewed fighting on their disputed border that has killed four Cambodian civilians and a Thai soldier. Around 35,000 people in Thailand have been evacuated from border areas, the country’s second army region said in a statement. Five days...
VIENNA – The UN nuclear watchdog has said that the protective structure surrounding the exploded reactor at Chernobyl can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation, after a Russian drone strike earlier this year. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a rare visit to Ukraine on 1 December, to assess...
GENEVA – UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk yesterday said that he fears new “atrocities” in Sudan amid intense fighting between the army and paramilitary forces in the battleground Kordofan region. Fighting has intensified across the three states that make up Kordofan as the Sudanese army seeks to keep the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF)...