LAGOS – Jihadist fighters have killed scores of people and destroyed seven villages in raids in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state, the police told AFP yesterday. Members of the Lakurawa group attacked villages in the Bui district of Arewa northern region at around 1:15 pm Wednesday, said Kebbi state police spokesman Bashir Usman.A security report seen...
LONDON – Britain’s annual inflation rate eased in line with expectations in January, official data showed Wednesday, bolstering chances that the Bank of England will cut its benchmark interest rate next month. The Consumer Prices Index fell to 3.0% in January from 3.4% in December, the Office for National Statistics said. “Inflation fell… to its...
NEW DELHI – US artificial intelligence chip titan Nvidia unveiled tie-ups with Indian computing firms on Wednesday as tech companies rushed to announce deals and investments at a global AI conference in New Delhi. This week’s AI Impact Summit is the fourth annual gathering to discuss how to govern the fast-evolving technology, and also an...
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian federal and Tigrayan troops have massed along the border of the country’s northern Tigray region, a Western diplomatic source told AFP on Tuesday, raising fears of renewed war. The Tigray civil war of 2020-2022 pitted federal troops, backed by local militias and the Eritrean army, against rebels from the Tigray People’s...
NAIROBI – Workers at Kenya’s main airport ended a strike on Tuesday that had caused severe disruptions to flights and air traffic control operations since the previous day, the union and airport said. Passengers had reported major delays at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), one of Africa’s busiest hubs, after the strike began on Monday....
EKURHULENI – The pockmarked earth on Johannesburg’s eastern fringe, until last week a humble cattle kraal ringed with barbed wire, now stands as the unlikely centre of South Africa’s latest gold fever. Dozens of fortune-seekers have flocked to the township of Springs, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of the city, scouring the dirt for...
JOHANNESBURG – Crime-weary South Africa will deploy army units alongside police within 10 days to tackle rampant crime fuelled by drug gangs and illegal miners, the police minister said on Tuesday. The move marks the latest in a series of tough measures by the government to contain rampant crime in a country with one of...
JOHANNESBURG – A conservative media critic picked by president Donald Trump to be United States (US) ambassador to South Africa has arrived to take up his post, the US embassy said yesterday, as relations between the countries remain fraught. Brent Bozell’s arrival has been keenly anticipated, as ties between South Africa and the United States...
GENEVA – Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were scheduled to meet yesterday in Geneva for fresh US-brokered talks seeking to end the four-year war, hours after both sides launched a fresh wave of long-range strikes. US president Donald Trump is seeking to position himself as a peacemaker of the conflict unleashed when Russia invaded Ukraine in...
ABUJA − Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency said yesterday it was questioning opposition politician Nasir El-Rufai, a prominent critic of president Bola Tinubu. The authorities launched court proceedings on Monday against El- Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna state, after he said on Nigerian television he had tapped the phone of Tinubu’s national security adviser. Local media...