KYIV – Kyiv accused Russia of launching an intercontinental ballistic missile attack at Ukraine for the first time on Thursday but without a nuclear warhead in a new escalation of the conflict.Ukraine said the missile had targeted the central city of Dnipro, while the Kremlin said it was doing everything possible to avoid a nuclear...
HELSINKI – Up to 80 000 households in Finland lost power on Thursday and traffic was disrupted as the country’s first big snowstorm of the season brought strong winds, the Finnish Meteorological Institute told AFP.Storm Jari arrived in Finland on Wednesday, with winds on Thursday measuring up to 25 metres per second, as well as...
THE HAGUE – The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif. “The Chamber issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes...
Botswana will diversify its diamond-dependent economy by launching into the medicinal cannabis market and exploiting its abundant sunshine, president Duma Boko said Tuesday, in his first state of the nation address. He swept to power in elections three weeks ago that ejected the party that had ruled for nearly six decades on concerns about a...
Leading Ugandan opposition figure Kizza Besigye is due to appear before a military court, his lawyer said, after his reported abduction in neighbouring Kenya. “The latest information we have is Besigye is in military cells in Kampala, and the army is planning to produce him in the General Court Martial today,” one of Besigye’s lawyers,...
Gaza – Gaza’s civil defence agency said yesterday that at least 17 people, including a baby, were killed in Israeli air strikes on the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. The Israeli military said one of its soldiers was killed and another seriously wounded during combat in the north of the Gaza Strip. The baby was killed in...
GENEVA – The World Health Organisation on Tuesday approved an mpox vaccine from Japanese pharma company KM Biologics for emergency use, the second one to get the agency’s seal of approval. The WHO said it granted emergency use listing (EUL) authorisation to the LC16m8 vaccine to “facilitate increased and timely access to vaccines in communities...
NAIROBI – The spread of a mosquito in East Africa that thrives in urban areas and is immune to insecticide is fuelling a rise in malaria that could reverse decades of progress against the disease, experts say. Africa accounted for about 95% of the 249 million malaria cases and 608 000 deaths worldwide in 2022,...
NEW DELHI – India will deploy an extra 5 000 paramilitary troops to quell unrest in Manipur, authorities said yesterday, a week after 16 people were killed in fresh clashes in the troubled state. Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than 18 months between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority...
MOSCOW – Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a decree broadening the scope of when Moscow can use nuclear weapons in a clear message to the West and Ukraine. The move comes on the 1 000th day of Russia’s offensive on Ukraine, and after the United States gave Kyiv permission to use long-range missiles to...