ACCRA – Ghanaian defence and environment ministers died on Wednesday when a military helicopter carrying three crew members and five passengers crashed in a forest south of the country, the presidency announced. Footage aired by Joy News showed the wreckage burning in a heavily wooded area before confirming that ministers Edward Omane Boamah and Ibrahim...
JOHANNESBURG – South African president Cyril Ramaphosa engaged United States (US) president Donald Trump ahead of the US’ announcement to impose 30% tariffs on the country’s exports yesterday. The leaders agreed to continue further discussions, according to the government. The South African government has been working hard to negotiate the removal of tariffs, the highest...
BEIJING – China announced on Tuesday that it would introduce free preschool education beginning in the fall, as the world’s second most populous country tries to boost birth rates amid a looming demographic crisis. China’s population has declined for three consecutive years, with United Nations demographic models projecting it could drop from about 1.4 billion...
KAMPALA – When the giant landfill in Uganda’s capital Kampala collapsed a year ago, Zamhall Nansamba thought she was hearing an airplane taking off. Then came screams and a massive wave of garbage rushing toward her, tearing up trees as it went. Nansamba (31) grabbed her children and ran. She was luckier than most, the...
GENEVA – Nations must resolve the global plastics crisis, the head of UN talks told negotiators from 180 countries gathered in Geneva on Tuesday to forge a landmark treaty on eliminating the life-threatening waste. “We are facing a global crisis,” Ecuadoran diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso said at the start of 10 days of negotiations. “Plastic...
MADRID – Spanish police said yesterday they had seized dozens of carvings made from the ivory tusks of endangered African and Asian elephants as part of a smuggling and environmental crimes investigation. Officers with the Guardia Civil confiscated 126 ivory carvings of various sizes, many featuring Asian-style designs, from a trading company in the eastern...
TEHRAN – Iran said yesterday it would hold the United States (US) accountable for attacks on its nuclear sites in any future negotiations, while ruling out direct talks with Washington. The US struck key Iranian nuclear facilities on 22 June, briefly joining a war launched by Israel that had derailed talks on Tehran’s atomic programme....
KIGALI – The use of pesticides in East Africa, some sold by European firms despite being banned in the EU, is killing off bees in large numbers and threatening whole eco-systems, scientists say. Joseph Ruzigana, of Muhanga district in southern Rwanda, woke up one morning to find all the bees in his 20 newly constructed...
BEIJING – China and Russia began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan yesterday as they seek to reinforce their partnership and counterbalance what they see as a US-led global order. Alongside economic and political ties, Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years, and their relations have deepened since Russia...
DUBAI – Saudi Arabia has executed eight people in a single day, state media said, amid a surge in the use of the death penalty in the Gulf monarchy particularly over drug-related convictions. The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that four Somalis and three Ethiopians were executed on Saturday in the southern region of...