BENGALURU – An Indian passenger aircraft was diverted yesterday after the latest in a string of hoax bomb threats made to airline companies involving the country. The Akasa Air flight, which was flying from India’s capital New Delhi to the southern city of Bengaluru, “received a security alert” and the flight was ordered to return...
NAIROBI – Kenya’s Senate yesterday launched the impeachment trial of deputy president Rigathi Gachagua after the embattled politician lost yet another court bid to stop the process. In a historic move last week, the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, voted overwhelmingly to impeach Gachagua on 11 charges, including corruption and abuse of office....
STOCKHOLM – Swedish prosecutors confirmed yesterday a rape probe following media reports that French footballer Kylian Mbappe was being investigated after a visit toStockholm, but did not name the suspect. On Monday, Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen reported that a rape investigation had been opened following Mbappe’s two-day visit to the Nordic capital. “In response...
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that Israel – and not the United States — will decide how it will strike back after Iran fired around 200 missiles at his country earlier this month. The comments came as a top Iranian commander, whose absence sparked rumours that he could have been killed...
JERUSALEM – Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told his United States counterpart Lloyd Austin that Israel would deliver a strong response to Hezbollah after the Lebanese armed group struck an Israeli army base, killing four soldiers. Gallant spoke to Austin overnight, and “highlighted the severity of the attack, and the forceful response that would be...
Johannesburg – Veteran politician Tito Mboweni, a former anti-apartheid activist who won praise for his fiscal prudence and for shaping the country’s labour laws, died on Saturday aged 65, the government has announced. “President Ramaphosa offers his condolences to the family and friends of Dr Mboweni, who passed away following a short illness,” the presidency...
PARIS – The burgeoning alliance between Iran and Russia, which has already seen Tehran assist Moscow in its war against Ukraine, is increasingly troubling the West as tensions reach new highs in the Middle East. The Islamic republic and Russia have in the last months put aside centuries of regional rivalry going back to the...
MOSCOW – The leaders of 24 countries will attend this month’s BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, a top Kremlin aide said yesterday. Yury Ushakov, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide, told journalists that 24 countries will be represented “at leader level” and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will participate. The summit of...
NAIROBI – The leaders of Egypt, Eritrea and Somalia were due to hold a three-way summit in Asmara on Thursday against a backdrop of heightened tensions in the Horn of Africa region. Concerns about security and stability in the volatile area have mounted since Ethiopia in January signed a controversial deal with the breakaway Somali...
MIDDELBURG – The cold corridors of South Africa’s once-mighty Komati coal-fired power plant have been quiet since its shutdown in 2022 in what was trumpeted as a pioneering project in the world’s transition to green energy. Two years later, plans to repurpose the country’s oldest coal power plant have amounted to little in a process...