HAGUE – Britain and Rwanda cross swords at an international court from Wednesday, with Kigali seeking more than £100 million, it said London still owes from a scrapped deal to deport migrants. Officials from the two countries will lay out their cases at a three-day hearing before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The...
MAIDUGURI – Coordinated blasts by suspected suicide bombers tore through a busy market and other areas in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, in one of the worst recent attacks on the capital of Borno state. Three blasts detonated on Monday evening just after people...
TEHRAN – Loud explosions shook Tehran yesterday after a night of bombing, as US President Donald Trump pressed allies to help in the war that has engulfed the Middle East and sparked global economic turmoil. Oil prices rose more than five percent yesterday afterseveral countries pushed back on Trump’s demand they help protect shipping in...
HAVANA – A 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba early yesterday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The quake hit at a depth of 11.6 kilometres, about 49 kilometres south-southwest of Cuba’s easternmost municipality of Maisi at 12:28 am (0428 GMT), according to the USGS. There were no immediate reports of casualties...
GRAAFF REINET – A rebellion over the renaming of the historic country town of Graaff-Reinet has exposed deep-rooted fractures in South Africa as it grapples with its tormented history. In a government decree published last month, the nearly 250-year-old town of whitewashed Cape Dutch houses and red flamboyant trees was renamed after anti-apartheid icon Robert...
BEIJING – Air China will resume direct flights between Beijing and Pyongyang from 30 March, according to tour agencies and the state-owned carrier’s website, after train services between the two capitals resumed last week. China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the isolated nuclear...
JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said yesterday it had begun what it described as “limited ground operations” against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on 2 March when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. Israel...
MAIDUGURI – Suspected jihadists launched an overnight attack on a Nigerian military post on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the first in years in the capital of northeastern Borno state, police, emergency services and residents said yesterday. Fighters from Boko Haram and rival Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have recently stepped up attacks on military...
‘ABIDJAN – Josy’s life was turned upside down three years ago when she discovered that her husband had racked up crippling debts and was cheating on her. Yet she can’t bring herself to divorce him for fear of social disapproval in Ivory Coast. Others in her situation also cite a plethora of reasons, ranging from...
BRAZZAVILLE – Voters were scarce as polling stations opened in Congo-Brazzaville yesterday in a vote expected to extend 82-year-old President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s more than four decades in power in the oil-rich central African country. Six candidates are standing against Sassou Nguesso but the main opposition is divided and largely absent, leaving him set to...