How the U.S., which has been covertly interfering in other nations’ politics for decades, has made itself vulnerable COMMENT | WILLIAM M. LEOGRANDE | “They have no damn right,” former Vice President Joe Biden said on Feb. 16, denouncing Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “It’s our sovereign right …
Read More »World mourns British scientist and cultural icon Hawking
London, United Kingdom | AFP | World dignitaries, celebrities and academics on Wednesday mourned Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who died aged 76 after a cosmic career in which his mental genius transcended his physical disability to probe the secrets of the universe. Propelled to stardom by his 1988 book “A …
Read More »Nigeria promises return of kidnapped schoolgirls
Damaturu, NIGERIA | AFP | Nigeria’s president, in a visit to the country’s troubled northeast, on Monday predicted success in what he described as relentless efforts to release more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. The jihadists are still holding 112 of the 219 students they abducted from the Borno …
Read More »Jamaican singer sues Miley Cyrus over lyric
New York, UNITED STATES | AFP | A Jamaican artist has filed a $300 million lawsuit against pop star Miley Cyrus over her 2013 hit “We Can’t Stop,” saying a key lyric was snatched from him. On the track about exploring sexual and other personal freedom, Cyrus sings, “And we can’t …
Read More »S.Africa’s new president vows faster land redistribution
Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA | AFP | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who came to power last month, vowed on Wednesday to “escalate the pace” of redistributing land from wealthy whites to poorer blacks. Land ownership is a sensitive subject in South Africa, 24 years after the end of apartheid rule, and …
Read More »UN drugs body approves controls on deadly opioid
Vienna, AUSTRIA | AFP | A UN’s anti-drug body added carfentanil, a synthetic substance estimated to be thousands of times more potent than morphine, to its list of controlled substances on Wednesday. The US had been pushing for the move, and welcomed the decision the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs’ (CND) …
Read More »COMMENT: Xi Jinping’s ‘lifetime presidency’
How the move by the Chinese president to entrench himself in power could change China – for better or worse COMMENT | DYLAN LOH MING HUI | Thanks to surprising new constitutional amendments – curiously, first announced in English – the path is clear for Xi Jinping and his chosen …
Read More »Putin hails Crimea annexation in speech ahead of vote
Sevastopol, Undefined | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday thanked residents of Crimea for voting to annex the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, calling the move “real democracy” in a speech days ahead of Sunday’s presidential election. “With your decision you restored historical justice,” he told the crowd of …
Read More »Sierra Leone third parties complain after election setback
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Two upstart Sierra Leone political parties said Wednesday they had filed complaints over this month’s elections after failing to make the cut for the second round of the presidential ballot. The National Grand Coalition (NGC) took 6.9 percent of votes in the March 7 elections …
Read More »Libya issues arrest warrants for over 200 alleged traffickers
Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Libya has issued arrest warrants for more than 200 Libyans and foreigners suspected of involvement in a smuggling network for Europe-bound migrants, the attorney general’s office said on Thursday. “We have 205 arrest warrants for people (involved in) organising immigration operations, human trafficking, (cases) of torture, …
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