WASHINGTON – Reality TV stars. Former lawmakers. A sheriff. A nursing home executive. A drug kingpin. What do they have in common? They are among the Americans convicted of crimes who have received pardons from President Donald Trump since he took office in January. And while US presidents have doled out questionable pardons in the...
LOS ANGELES – Donald Trump ordered 2 000 National Guard troops to the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday in what the White House said was an effort to quell “lawlessness” after sometimes-violent protests erupted over immigration enforcement raids. The United States (US) president took federal control of California’s state military to push soldiers into...
NAIROBI – Elections for a new parliament in Burundi got under way yesterday but with little risk of an upset after the main opposition was effectively barred from running. The impoverished landlocked country in east Africa has seen decades of ethnic violence, civil war and authoritarian rule.A former rebel group, the National Council for the...
FREETOWN – Deep inside a Sierra Leone national park, a mother of seven was about to set dozens of tree trunks ablaze to make charcoal. Producing the cheap fuel in this way is illegal in the protected rainforest near the capital of a country highly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change. But Aminata Sankoh,...
WASHINGTON – United States (US) President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban that comes into effect on Monday targeting 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and Yemen, reviving one of the most controversial measures from his first term. Trump said on Wednesday the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest...
BRUSSELS – United States (US) defence chief Pete Hegseth yesterday pushed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to agree a deal on increasing military spending that could satisfy president Donald Trump at a summit this month. The volatile US leader has demanded that alliance members boost defence budgets to 5% of their gross domestic product...
ABUJA – Flash flooding in north-central Nigeria last week killed more than 200 people, the Niger state humanitarian commissioner said yesterday. Hundreds more remain missing and are feared dead. The town of Mokwa was hit with the worst flash flood in living memory last week from overnight rains. More than 250 homes destroyed and swathes...
MOSCOW – A red Ferrari glides by as techno music blasts from fancy bars full of dressed-up revellers sipping ice-cold spritz. The party is in full swing in Moscow’s posh Patriarch Ponds neighbourhood. Even though Ukraine has recently intensified its drone attacks, aimed at the vibrant Russian capital, the wealthy Muscovites heading out for Friday...
CAIRO – The UN atomic watchdog’s chief yesterday called for more transparency from Iran as it seeks relief from sanctions in negotiations over its nuclear programme. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi made the comments ahead of a meeting in Cairo with Iran’s top diplomat and chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi. It...
JOS – Gunmen killed 25 people in two attacks across north-central Nigeria’s Benue state over the weekend, local authorities told AFP yesterday, the latest violence in a region known for deadly land disputes and reprisals. Attackers killed 14 people on Sunday in the community of Ankpali, said Adam Ochega, chairman of the Apa local government...