Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s government was facing growing questions on Thursday over who should foot the legal bills of former president Jacob Zuma as he fights numerous allegations of corruption. His successor President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to endorse underwriting the mounting legal court costs of his …

Santiago, Chile | AFP | Alexis Sanchez confessed on Wednesday to having had a “rough” start at Manchester United where he’s scored only once in 10 matches since his lucrative move from Arsenal in January. The diminutive Chilean forward has been in the eye of the storm with a string of …

What to expect when, someday, thinking machines become so sophisticated that they will invent other machines COMMENT | KENNETH ROGOFF | Most economic forecasters have largely shrugged off recent advances in artificial intelligence (for example, the quantum leap demonstrated by DeepMind’s self-learning chess program last December), seeing little impact on longer-term …

Why a quarter-century after the end of the Cold War, we unexpectedly find ourselves in a second one COMMENT | RICHARD N. HAASS | The Cold War lasted four decades, in many ways both beginning and ending in Berlin. The good news is that it stayed cold largely because nuclear weapons …

Washington, United States | AFP |The United States imposed restrictions Wednesday on exports of US technical support to the South Sudanese oil industry, warning that it is fuelling the bloody civil war there. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said exporters will henceforth need a license to export, re-export or transfer …

Kampala, Uganda | MOTORING GURU | Do you know the best precautions to take and how to practice safe driving in the wet weather? Here are some tips can add on your list: Before driving: • Make sure all vehicle lights are working properly: headlights, tail lights, brake lights, signal lights, …

To judge the moral component of artistic expression,look not at the person who made it but at the work itself COMMENT | IAN BURUMA | Chuck Close is an American artist, famous for painting large portraits. Severely paralyzed, Close is confined to a wheelchair. Former models have accused him of asking …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s ruling Jubilee Party on Wednesday denied that Cambridge Analytica had stage-managed the victory of President Uhuru Kenyatta in highly disputed and deadly 2017 elections. The British firm at the centre of a scandal over the improper use of Facebook data in US President Donald Trump’s …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | A key third party in Sierra Leone announced Wednesday it would not ask supporters to back either contender in a March 27 presidential run-off, after police warned violence has plagued campaigning. With the margin between the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (SLPP) and ruling All …

Paris, France | AFP | Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was released from custody Wednesday evening after two days of questioning over allegations that the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign. “Nicolas Sarkozy is no longer in custody,” a source close to the case told AFP. …