KAMPALA – Hundreds screamed with excitement as Uganda’s opposition leader passed by a recent rally, with the crowd waving a sea of national flags – a dangerously politicised symbol in the run-up to this week’s election. Analysts say it is almost a foregone conclusion that president Yoweri Museveni, (81), will win a seventh term in...
GENEVA – The United Nations yesterday said decades of discrimination and segregation of Palestinians by Israel in the West Bank were intensifying, and called on the country to end its “apartheid system.” In a new report, the UN rights office said the “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories had “drastically deteriorated” in...
PARIS – Snow, ice and high winds brought transport chaos to swathes of Europe for a third day yesterday, with hundreds of flights cancelled and passengers stranded. Airports in Paris and Amsterdam were the worst affected, with the Dutch authorities saying more than 1 000 travellers had been forced to spend the night at Schiphol,...
BANGKOK – Thailand accused Cambodia of violating a 10-day-old truce yesterday, saying cross-border mortar fire wounded a soldier, while Phnom Penh said a “pile of garbage” exploded, injuring two of its own troops. Bangkok’s foreign ministry said Thai forces “did not retaliate,” opting instead to contact the Cambodian side to verify what happened, adding that...
PARIS – Key European allies of Ukraine and top US envoys meet president Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris yesterday in their latest bid to agree security guarantees for any ceasefire in Russia’s war against its neighbour. The summit of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” comes despite no ease up in fighting, almost four years into...
MOGADISHU – Israel’s foreign minister arrived in Somaliland yesterday in the first high-profile visit by an Israeli official since the country recognised the breakaway region in the Horn of Africa, the Somaliland presidency said. Israel announced last month it was officially recognising Somaliland, a first for the self-proclaimed republic that in 1991 declared it had...
TUNIS – A Tunisian court has freed a group of humanitarian workers after handing them suspended sentences for facilitating the “illegal entry and residence” of migrants, a support committee said on Tuesday. Sherifa Riahi, the former director of the French NGO Terre d’Asile, and several members of her staff had already spent more than 20...
NEW YORK – Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was expected to appear in a New York court yesterday, just days after being seized in Caracas in a shock US military operation that paved the path for Washington’s plans to dominate the oil-rich country. Leftist strongman Maduro (63) faces narcotrafficking charges along with his wife, Cilia...
JERUSALEM – Israel’s government has told the Supreme Court that a ban on international media access to Gaza should remain in place due to security risks in the Palestinian territory, according to a court submission. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, triggered by an attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant...
NAIROBI – Amnesty International yesterday said that Ugandan security forces have used torture and arbitrary arrests to intimidate the opposition ahead of elections on 15 January. President Yoweri Museveni (81), is seeking to extend his 40-year rule but is accused of increasing repression to maintain power. Amnesty said that it had gathered evidence of security...