WASHINGTON – Elon Musk is not an official employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has “no formal authority to make government decisions”, according to a White House court filing. The world’s ri chest man is widely seen as the defacto head of DOGE, created by US president Donald Trump, which has sought...
GENEVA – The UN appealed yesterday for US$6 billion to provide desperately-needed aid to people in war-ravaged Sudan and millions of refugees fleeing “appalling” conditions. The aim is to provide assistance to nearly 26 million people this year, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA and refugee agency UNHCR said in a joint appeal. Since April...
NAIROBI – Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye was briefly hospitalised after his health deteriorated following a hunger strike, but was back in prison yesterday, his lawyer told AFP. Besigye, 68, is a leading opponent of president Yoweri Museveni — in power for nearly 40 years — whom he has unsuccessfully challenged in four elections. He...
PARIS – European leaders were due to meet in Paris yesterday to address Washington’s shock policy shift on the war in Ukraine, as Britain declared itself ready to dispatch peacekeeping troops to Ukraine. United States (US) president Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week when he called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin...
BUKAVU – M23 fighters and Rwandan troops entered the DR Congo provincial capital of Bukavu on Friday, security and humanitarian sources said.The fighters and their Rwandan allies entered the eastern city of around one-million people, the capital of South Kivu province, meeting virtually no resistance after having seized the region’s main airport, the sources said....
PORT LOUIS – Police in Mauritius yesterday arrested the island’s former prime minister Pravind Jugnauth in a money-laundering probe and seized stacks of cash in raids on fellow suspects’ homes, officials said. Officers detained the 63-year-old along with his wife Kobita Jugnauth on Saturday and questioned them for several hours, police sources who asked not...
TUNIS – Engineer-turned-social entrepreneur Sabri Cheriha hunches over a washing machine at a small depot in a suburb of Tunisia’s capital, the unassuming home of a start-up he launched to tackle the country’s mounting electronic waste problem.Cheriha said there were currently about eight million household appliances and nine million cellphones in use across Tunisia, but...
VILLACH – Austrians were placing candles yesterday on the site of a stabbing that left a teenager dead and five other people injured, shaking the Alpine nation after last week’s collapse of government talks where immigration and security were major issues. A Syrian asylum-seeker, 23, was arrested just after Saturday›s attack in the southern city...
BEIRUT – Lebanese militant group Hezbollah yesterday urged the Lebanese government to reverse a decision blocking Iranian flights from landing in Beirut, following US warnings. The Iran-backed group said in a statement that it “demands that the government reverse its decision to ban Iranian planes from landing at Beirut airport, and take serious measures to...
CHERNOBYL – A Russian drone pierced a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine early Friday, causing damage but not releasing any radiation, officials said. Ukraine has repeatedly warned since Russia invaded that attacks and fighting near its nuclear power plants risk triggering a potential catastrophe. The Kremlin rejected...