LAGOS – Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, Africa’s largest, has finally started producing petrol. The petrol is expected to hit the market in the next 48 hours, a game-changer for the oil-rich country that frequently faces gasoline shortages. The oft-delayed 650 000-barrel-a-day refinery built by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote began producing diesel and aviation fuel in January,...
AVIGNON – A French pensioner went on trial on Monday for allegedly allowing scores of strangers to rape his wife after he drugged her, in a case that has horrified the country. Fifty men, recruited online, are also being tried in the southern city of Avignon alongside the main suspect, a 71-year-old former employee at...
KINSHASA – At least 129 people were killed during a weekend prison break attempt at the largest jail in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the interior minister said yesterday. “The provisional human toll is 129 dead, including 24 who were shot after warnings,” minister Jacquemain Shabani said in a video message, adding that at...
GENEVA – On Saturday, Unicef said it has launched an emergency tender for mpox vaccines to help countries hardest hit by the recent outbreak of the disease. “The emergency tender is designed to secure immediate access to available mpox vaccines as well as to expand production,” Unicef said in a statement issued along with the...
A former Miss South Africa contestant hounded over a nationality row was crowned Miss Universe Nigeria on Saturday, capping a difficult few weeks for her. Born to a Nigerian father in South Africa, 23-year-old Chidimma Adetshina withdrew from the country’s competition “for the safety and wellbeing of my family and I” after a backlash that...
Moscow said yesterday it had thwarted a “massive” drone attack on western Russia and another targeting the capital. “Our defenders are repelling an attempted massive UAV attack on the territory of the Bryansk region” bordering Ukraine, regional governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said. At least 26 drones were “identified and destroyed” by the Russian military, without causing...
A polio vaccination campaign officially began yesterday in the Gaza Strip ,where the United Nations has announced “humanitarian pauses” to allow for large-scale inoculation, a health official told AFP. The campaign was announced after Gaza recorded its first polio case in a quarter of a century last month. It officially began yesterday at three health centres...
GENEVA – Outbreaks of mpox in Central Africa can be stopped, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, but US$135 million may be needed to stop the disease from spreading. Earlier this month, WHO declared an international health emergency after a surge in cases linked to a new mpox strain in the Democratic Republic...
HOUSTON – A Texas judge on Monday ordered a temporary pause on a policy that would streamline the process for spouses of US citizens to obtain legal status in the country, a blow to one of US president Joe Biden’s biggest immigration reform policies. Judge J. Campbell Barker granted a 14-day administrative stay in a...
FRANKFURT – Germany will donate 100 000 mpox vaccine doses to countries in Africa suffering from a surge in cases, the government said on Monday. The vaccines will come from German military stocks, and will be made available “in the short- term”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters. The aim is “to support in solidarity...