An explosion at a bar in Taraba state, northeast Nigeria, injured 11 people on Saturday, authorities said, in the latest violence targeting drinking establishments in the region. The explosive went off at a moonshine bar in Nukkai community, outside state capital Jalingo around 1900 GMT on Friday, police spokesman Usman Abdullahi, told AFP. “The explosive … Read more
In the interests of journalistic freedom, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged a UK minister not to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States on Friday. RSF and other media rights groups released an open letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, whose formal approval is needed for Assange’s extradition, urging her to “reject the … Read more
On Friday, under-fire British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared a “new and expanded” defense and security alliance with India during a visit to New Delhi. Johnson travelled to India as he faces criticism at home and the embarrassing prospect of a probe into whether he lied to parliament over the lockdown-breaking “Partygate” scandal. India is … Read more
President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has gone head-to-head with the judiciary once more, awarding a pardon to a political friend convicted to prison for undermining democratic institutions late Thursday. Prompting opposition protests of executive overreach, the far-right president pardoned lawmaker Daniel Silveira just a day after his hate speech conviction for calling for the Supreme … Read more
Following a spate of strikes within Israel and the occupied West Bank beginning March 22, fears of an all-out escalation have grown in Israel and the occupied West Bank. Attacks inside Israel have claimed the lives of 14 people, while 24 Palestinians have been killed in the same period, according to an AFP tally. Prime … Read more
After a day of skirmishes at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets at Israel late Friday, according to the army. According to the military, one rocket landed in an open field in the Sha’ar Hanegev regional council close to the border fence, while the second fell short in the … Read more
Chart-topping after a physical assault in New York City, British pop artist Tom Grennan was taken to the hospital. On social media, his manager, John Dawkins, wrote: ”In the early hours of [Thursday] morning after Tom’s New York show, he was the victim of an unprovoked attack and robbery outside a bar in Manhattan. Tom … Read more
After booking service Trivago was fined $44.7 million for deceiving clients about the cheapest hotel rooms, Australians are being reminded about the perils of trusting online travel agents. On Friday, a federal court found that Trivago must pay a “substantial penalty” for misleading Australians by claiming to give the greatest hotel deals when they were … Read more
Tina Flournoy, Vice President Kamala Harris’s chief of staff, is stepping down this spring, according to a White House official. Lorraine Voles, a senior Democratic communications strategist who joined Harris’ office as an adviser last summer, is expected to succeed Flournoy. An official told CNN at the time that Voles will concentrate her efforts on … Read more
According to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office in Faro, Portugal, a suspect has been formally named in the case of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann. At the request of Portuguese police, German officials made the man an official suspect, although Faro prosecutors did not name him publicly. He hasn’t been charged yet. It’s the … Read more
Mwai Kibaki, Kenya’s former president who led the East African nation for more than a decade, died on Friday, according to his successor Uhuru Kenyatta. He was 90 years old. “It is a sad day for us as a country. We have lost a great leader,” Kenyatta said in an address on state television. Kenyan … Read more
Guy Lafleur, dubbed “The Flower” and “The Blond Demon” during his 1970s era with the Montreal Canadiens, died of lung cancer Friday at the age of 70, according to his family. The announcement sparked a flood of condolences, including one from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who described him as “unlike anyone else on the ice.” … Read more
One of Turkey’s most well-known detainees appeared in court on Friday for what could be his final hearing in a case that has come to symbolize Ankara’s tense relations with the West. Osman Kavala, a Paris-born activist and philanthropist, was relatively unknown when he was detained at Istanbul’s airport in October 2017 after returning from … Read more
During a trip to Seattle on Friday, President Joe Biden marked Earth Day by establishing safeguards for the United States’ ancient forests, which are seen as a critical weapon in the fight against climate change. The Democrat has campaigned heavily for environmental protections and US leadership in the response to global warming, but has regularly … Read more
Roksana Panashchuk was a freelance journalist in Ukraine two months ago. She is now a refugee in Germany, where she is keeping a close eye on happenings in her homeland from Greifswald in the northeast. “The situation is tough, of course, but everyone is doing what they can,” she told AFP. “Soldiers are fighting, volunteers … Read more
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, a total of 5,133,747 Ukrainians have fled the nation, according to the UN refugee agency. The figure marks an increase of 48,387 from Thursday’s data, UNHCR said. Some 1,098,000 Ukrainians have left the country during April so far, compared with 3.4 million for the whole of March. Women … Read more
Friday is Earth Day, the day when our climate anxiety peaks and we look about in disbelief at what we’ve done to the earth. As a result, Google is commemorating the day with a visual reminder of our inadequacies, releasing a gloomy Earth Day Google Doodle that depicts the devastating effects of climate change. The … Read more
CNN Plus, the news network’s exclusive streaming service, is being shut down before it even reaches its one-month anniversary. CNN’s new CEO, Chris Licht, broke the news to his new team at an all-hands meeting on Thursday, and the service will be completely shut down on April 30th. In a memo to employees announcing the … Read more
Sasha Obama has a new man in her life. According to the Daily Mail, former President Barack Obama’s 20-year-old daughter is dating the 24-year-old son of “Ray” actor Clifton Powell. After she travelled to Los Angeles to study at the University of Southern California, Sasha and Clifton Powell Jr., a former collegiate basketball player who … Read more
“I have a special vision in art,” the 39-year-old said, surrounded by his eclectic art hung on the walls of his gallery in the capital Khartoum. “I am particularly interested in using natural materials.” Many of his paintings feature colors derived from the fruits of the doum palm tree, and ground up fruit from the … Read more
Russian-aligned security services Kyrgyzstan advised citizens on Thursday that wearing the “Z” symbol, which denotes support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, might result in prosecution. Kyrgyzstan’s national security committee told organisations renting out parade uniforms ahead of a holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II not to include the “Z” symbol, … Read more
Despite persistent supply chain issues and a setback from China’s latest Covid-19 shutdown restrictions, Tesla reported another strong quarter of profit increase on Wednesday, citing higher-priced automobiles. Elon Musk’s high-flying electric vehicle company notched a new record in quarterly profits of $3.3 billion following the unveiling of new factories in Germany and the US state … Read more
After a tense pre-election debate, President Emmanuel Macron and far-right opponent Marine Le Pen started a final push for votes in France’s working-class heartlands on Thursday. The televised debate on Wednesday evening — a pivotal moment ahead of Sunday’s run-off vote — was marked by a highly aggressive performance by Macron, who lost no opportunity … Read more
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, arrived in India on Thursday, boasting job-creating investment but facing a tough task persuading his hesitant Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to support Western action against Russia. Johnson arrived in Gujarat — Modi’s home state and the ancestral home to half of the United Kingdom’s British Indians — where he … Read more
Due to recurrent spells of drought, poor rainfall, and dropping river levels, Iraq’s water supplies have plummeted by half since last year, a ministry official told AFP on Thursday. Oil-rich Iraq, despite its mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is classified as one of the world’s five countries most vulnerable to climate change and desertification. “Water … Read more
The International Energy Agency and the European Commission said Thursday that adjusting the temperature and working more from home are only two of the “small actions” that might help Europe lessen its reliance on Russia. The European Union is scrambling to find alternatives to Russian energy after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine since Russia currently supplies … Read more
According to the central bank, Myanmar’s junta would exempt foreign corporations, embassies, and international NGOs from a new regulation requiring foreign currency earned in the country to be turned into local currency. The Southeast Asian nation’s economy has been in chaos since a coup last February, with the military seeking tighter control over scarce foreign … Read more
On Thursday, a Bosnian court acquitted a former police commander of killing eight ethnic Serb prisoners of war during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s. Dragan Vikic and three other former policemen were acquitted “since it was not proven that they had committed the criminal acts that they were accused of”, the court said … Read more
