WASHINGTON – US president Donald Trump’s ceasefire announcement has divided opinion among US lawmakers, with some hailing it as a positive step and others challenging the Republican president’s fitness to lead. Trump’s earlier threat to wipe out Iranian civilisation prompted some critics to call on his cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which provides for...
DJIBOUTI − Djibouti’s leader, Ismail Omar Guelleh, is expected to win a presidential election tomorrow, extending his 27-year rule of the tiny, highly strategic Horn of Africa nation. Guelleh (78), known as “IOG”, is one of Africa’s longest serving leaders and has ruled the nation of around one million people with an iron fist since...
GUSAU − Gunmen killed seven people and kidnapped dozens more in raids on six remote villages in northern Nigeria, residents told AFP, as police reported 11 killed in communal clashes in the centre of the country. Killings and kidnappings have become almost daily occurrences in Africa’s most populous country. Police in central Nasarawa state said...
LUANDA – Torrential rains that swept across Angola in recent days have killed more than 30 people, according to a new toll reported yesterday by Angolan public television. The storm has triggered flash floods that inundated streets and damaged infrastructure in the capital Luanda and the central city of Benguela on the Atlantic coast. President...
GENEVA – The WHO has suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt after a “security incident” left a contract worker dead, with Israel yesterday saying its soldiers opened fire while facing “an immediate threat”. World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X late Monday that the UN health agency was “devastated to confirm...
TEHRAN – New strikes rocked Tehran yesterday with Iran showing no sign of backing down as a US deadline loomed for it to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or have its civilian infrastructure “decimated”, according to President Donald Trump. The US leader has warned that unless Tehran allows free passage through the strategic oil chokepoint...
JOS – Major streets were deserted and normally bustling markets and businesses were shut yesterday in Jos, after Nigerian authorities ordered a multi-day curfew following a rare, mass-casualty shooting at a bar. Plateau state often suffers from rural violence, partly linked to farmer-herder conflicts. But Sunday evening’s shooting in the state capital marked a rare...
BEIRUT – An Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs yesterday as Israel’s army said it was targeting Hezbollah, with the raid sending a large plume of smoke billowing across the skyline. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported the strike on the Hezbollah stronghold, which has been largely emptied of residents following repeated Israeli attacks...
TEHRAN – Iran’s foreign ministry yesterday said that a US operation to rescue a downed airman may have been a cover to “steal enriched uranium” from the Islamic republic. On Sunday, President Donald Trump said the US recovered a second crew member of an F-15E that went down over Iran on Friday in what he...
LAGOS – Militants raided a police station in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing four policemen, and also targeted a camp for displaced persons, the force said as the country experiences a surge in jihadist violence. Police said “terrorists suspected to be members of Boko Haram/ISWAP attacked the Nganzai Divisional Police Headquarters in an attempt to...