Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Israeli forces traded cross-border attacks, both sides said early Sunday, a day after the Lebanese health ministry reported three rescuers killed in an Israeli attack. The Iran-backed Lebanese movement has exchanged near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on...
WARSAW – Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned 30 people convicted for anti-government protests, his office said yesterday, four years after mass demonstrations gripped the Russian-allied country. Minsk carried out a massive crackdown on dissent after suppressing 2020 protests against Lukashenko, jailing hundreds of people and spurring a new wave of emigration. “Among the pardoned...
PARIS – With its ban of X, which went into effect on Saturday, Brazil joins a small club of countries to have taken similar measures against the social network, most of them run by authoritarian regimes. Beyond permanent bans, some nations have temporarily restricted access to X, formerly Twitter, which has often been used by...
JAKARTA – Pope Francis appealed yesterday for religious unity to counter extremism and intolerance, as the longest tour of the 87-year-old’s papacy got into full swing in Muslim-majority Indonesia. On the first full day of his four-nation trip to the Asia-Pacific, the pontiff zeroed in on the role all faiths can play on flashpoint security...
Gaborone – Botswana will hold general elections on 30 October, the president of the stable and diamond-rich southern African country announced on Tuesday. President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who is standing for a second five-year term, said in a televised address that 30 and 31 October would be public holidays to allow people to “vote in large...
JOHANNESBURG – A significant number of African youths are looking to leave because of unchecked corruption threatening their future. In a recent poll by the Johannesburg-based Ichikowitz Family Foundation, corruption is seen as the “single greatest hurdle” they face to achieve their potential and a better life. The poll studied people aged 18 to 24. ...
LAGOS – Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, Africa’s largest, has finally started producing petrol. The petrol is expected to hit the market in the next 48 hours, a game-changer for the oil-rich country that frequently faces gasoline shortages. The oft-delayed 650 000-barrel-a-day refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote began producing diesel and aviation fuel in January,...
AVIGNON – A French pensioner went on trial on Monday for allegedly allowing scores of strangers to rape his wife after he drugged her, in a case that has horrified the country. Fifty men, recruited online, are also being tried in the southern city of Avignon alongside the main suspect, a 71-year-old former employee at...
KINSHASA – At least 129 people were killed during a weekend prison break attempt at the largest jail in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the interior minister said yesterday. “The provisional human toll is 129 dead, including 24 who were shot after warnings,” minister Jacquemain Shabani said in a video message, adding that at...
GENEVA – On Saturday, Unicef said it has launched an emergency tender for mpox vaccines to help countries hardest hit by the recent outbreak of the disease. “The emergency tender is designed to secure immediate access to available mpox vaccines as well as to expand production,” Unicef said in a statement issued along with the...