PARIS – Nigerian president Bola Tinubu yesterday began a two-day visit to France, with both sides seeking increased economic cooperation and Paris looking to boost ties in English-speaking Africa following a series of setbacks with former allies on the continent. French president Emmanuel Macron greeted his counterpart at the historic Invalides memorial complex, with the...
KAMPALA – At least 30 people were feared dead after landslides in a village in eastern Uganda, a local official said yesterday, warning the toll could rise.The East African country has been deluged by heavy rains in the past few days, with the government issuing a national disaster alert after reports of flooding and landslides....
MONROVIA – Former Liberian warlord Prince Johnson, a key player in the 1989-2003 back-to-back civil wars, died yesterday aged 72, officials from his party and the Senate told AFP. Johnson, who was seen sipping beer in a video as fighters loyal to him tortured then-president Samuel Doe to death in 1990, was an influential senator. ...
BERLIN – German investigators suspect a Berlin doctor of killing eight elderly patients under his care, and setting fire to some of their homes to cover up his crimes, prosecutors said yesterday. The unnamed suspect, 40, who worked in palliative care for a nursing service, was remanded in custody in August on suspicion of killing...
ASTANA – Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday said a massive air attack against Ukraine was Moscow’s “response” to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western missiles. He has previously railed at Ukraine’s allies granting permission for Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets on Russian territory, warning of retaliation. “We carried out a comprehensive...
TEHRAN – Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that a war crimes case against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Gaza war was insufficient, and that he deserved a “death sentence”. In his first remarks since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last week, Khamenei told...
KAMPALA – A Ugandan court awarded damages to 20 people, who were arrested, paraded in public and tortured on suspicion of being homosexuals, in a decision hailed by rights groups on Monday. Uganda passed one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws last year.But the case relates to the arrest of a group of youth in...
DAKAR – Senegal will on Sunday commemorate the massacre of dozens of African soldiers who had fought for then colonial ruler France by French troops in a Dakar suburb on 1 December 1944. France has deliberately tried to erase from memory the mass killings of soldiers, known as “tirailleurs” (riflemen), from its various former African...
BAKU – The world approved a bitterly-negotiated climate deal yesterday, but poorer nations most at the mercy of worsening disasters dismissed a US$300 billion-a-year pledge from wealthy historic polluters as insultingly low. After two exhausting weeks of chaotic bargaining and sleepless nights, nearly 200 nations banged through the contentious finance pact in the early hours...
NAIROBI – Kenya deployed a heavy police presence Thursday ahead of president William Ruto’s state of the nation speech, which comes as he faces criticism over abductions, corruption and unpopular economic policies. There were some calls online to protest his speech to parliament. But the energy behind the mass demonstrations between June and August, sparked...