Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP |  Kenya on Thursday withdrew a second athletics coach from the Rio Olympics in five days over a doping cheat bid. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had launched disciplinary proceedings against the coach who media reports said had impersonated an athlete for …

Lusaka, Zambia | AFP | The front-runners in Zambia’s presidential election on Thursday are incumbent Edgar Lungu and rags-to-riches businessman Hakainde Hichilema — two adversaries who battled it out only last year. Lungu won that election by fewer than 28,000 votes, securing the right to complete the final months of …

Saint Petersburg, RUSSIAN FEDERATION | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday pledged to reinvigorate ties after their first meeting since Ankara shot down a Russian warplane last November. Erdogan’s visit to Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip …

Manchester, United Kingdom | AFP |  French superstar Paul Pogba on Tuesday completed a sensational return to Manchester United from Juventus for a reported world record fee. United said Pogba had signed a five-year contract but did not give the cost which British media have put at 89 million pounds …

The United States has asked the UN Security Council to send a 4,000-strong regional force to South Sudan’s capital of Juba and to impose an arms embargo if the government blocks the deployment. A draft resolution presented to the council would establish the regional protection force and authorize it to …

  London, United Kingdom | AFP | The manager of the Kenyan Olympic athletics team has been recalled from the Rio Games after an investigation alleged he demanded money to give warnings about doping tests, a media report said. The investigation by the Sunday Times newspaper and German television channel …

Tehran, Iran | AFP |  Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over “top secret” information to the United States, a judicial spokesman said on Sunday. “Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country’s top secrets to the enemy (US),” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by …

  Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP |  Convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius has returned to his prison cell in South Africa’s capital after being treated at hospital for injuries sustained in a fall, prison officials told AFP Sunday. “He had to be detained Saturday afternoon at the hospital after falling off …

  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | The Rio Olympics opening ceremony started with fireworks and laser lit choreography on Friday as Fireworks and laser-lit choreography launched the Rio Games on Friday as Brazil sought to forget seven years of troubled preparations and the Olympic movement temporarily put aside …

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP |  South Sudan on Friday accepted the deployment of a regional intervention force after escalating violence put a fragile peace deal in danger, the head of the East African bloc IGAD said. “The government of South Sudan accepted,” Mahboub Maalim said after a summit in …