WASHINGTON – As of yesterday, Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees started being scrutinised in a frenzied week on Capitol Hill. United States’ (US) senators held confirmation hearings that could make or break their political careers. Thirteen nominees will be grilled before 11 committees. While many will sail through, others face controversies, ranging from alleged sexual assault...
NEW YORK – TikTok yesterday labelled as “pure fiction” a report that China is exploring a potential sale of the video-sharing platform of the United States, (US) operations to billionaire Elon Musk. The firm faces an American law requiring imminent Chinese divestment. Citing anonymous people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News had earlier reported that...
PRAYAGRAJ – Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India bathed in sacred waters as the Kumbh Mela festival opened yesterday. Organisers are expecting 400 million people – the world›s largest gathering of humanity – to assemble over six weeks. The millennia-old Kumbh Mela – a show of religious piety and ritual bathing, and a logistical...
SEOUL – Suspended South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol will receive a scheduled pay rise. This was revealed in official documents yesterday. The increase is despite an impeachment trial and investigation into his ill-fated martial law declaration. Yoon suspended civilian rule on 3 December last year, sending soldiers into parliament and plunging South Korea into...
SEOUL – Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2 700 wounded while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine. This was revealed by a South Korean lawmaker yesterday, citing information from Seoul’s spy agency. Seoul has previously claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent more than10 000 soldiers as “cannon...
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has deployed its Panel of Elders to address the worsening political and security crisis in Mozambique following post-election unrest. Violence erupted following Mozambique’s October 2024 elections, with protests intensifying after the Constitutional Council confirmed the results of the election in December. A media statement on Wednesday said the decision...
FREETOWN – Sierra Leone has reported its first confirmed case of Mpox since the world’s highest alert level for the potentially deadly viral disease was raised last year. “The patient is a 27-year-old man from the rural district of the Western Zone,” near the capital Freetown, the National Public Health Agency stated in a social...
NAIROBI – Rights groups and doctors on Friday welcomed a ruling by Kenya’s high court that declared it unconstitutional to treat suicide attempts as a crime. Suicide remains illegal in the East African country, with those who attempt it facing a misdemeanour charge that can lead to a fine and up to two years in...
ADDIS ABABA – Somalia and Ethiopia announced on Saturday they would restore full diplomatic relations following a visit by Somalia’s president to Addis Ababa to heal a year-long rift that threatened further instability in the Horn of Africa. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed “agreed to restore and enhance their bilateral...
UNITED STATES – Five days after an inferno razed Pacific Palisades, Maya Lieberman is desperate to find somewhere to live. But unscrupulous landlords who are jacking up prices are making it hard. “The price gouging is going haywire, it’s obscene… I can’t find anywhere for us to go,” the 50-year-old stylist told AFP. Huge fires...