Salahiyah, Iraq | AFP | On the Mosul front lines, Iraqi forces have found a new tool to counter the Islamic State group’s suicide car bombs: small commercial drones. “It’s a car bomb!” Mohammed Salih alerted his forces after checking the live feed from a drone his men were flying …
Read More »Algeria awards China contract to revamp refinery
Algiers, Algeria | AFP | Algeria’s state energy company Sonatrach on Sunday awarded the China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation (CPECC) a 380-million-euro ($420-million) contract to renovate its Algiers refinery. CPECC, which is affiliated to the China National Petroleum Corporation, will rehabilitate the refinery after Sonatrach severed an initial deal …
Read More »Sudan security agents seize newspapers
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Sudanese security agents seized all copies of three newspapers Sunday, a journalists’ association said, just days after they covered a fuel price hike in reports seen as critical of the government. Members of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service, or NISS, took copies of …
Read More »Nigeria frees ex-president’s spokesman held in graft probe
Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Nigeria has released a spokesman for former president Goodluck Jonathan held for allegedly diverting money meant to fight Boko Haram Islamists, an anti-graft official said Sunday. Reuben Abati was arrested and held for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) since October 24 …
Read More »ANALYSIS: Arabs view US election with indifference or loathing
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | In Cairo, capital of the most populous Arab country, the US election is met with self-absorbed indifference or loathing for one, and sometimes both, candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The staff at a barber shop in Cairo’s middle class Dokki neighbourhood looked at one …
Read More »Trump rushed off stage by secret service in false gun scare
Reno, United States | AFP | White House Republican candidate Donald Trump was bundled off stage by security officers Saturday after a false gun scare during a campaign appearance. The US Secret Service, which provides security for presidential candidates, later said someone in the crowd had shouted “gun” but that …
Read More »Two days to go, Trump and Clinton blitz swing states
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton packed their schedules with last minute campaign events Sunday, two days out from an election that has gripped the world. Clinton is banking on star power to lock in her narrow poll lead, hosting back-to-back weekend pop concerts with …
Read More »Apostolic Nuncio Kasujja leaves Nigeria for Belgium
VATICAN RADIO: The new Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium, Archbishop Augustine Kassujja, who hails from Uganda, is an experienced diplomat who has served the Holy See for many years. Born in 1946, Archbishop Kasujja is the first non-European Nuncio to Belgium. According to the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Archbishop Kasujja leaves …
Read More »Vatican: Failure in Venezuela talks could lead to ‘bloodshed’
Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | If upcoming Vatican-backed talks between Venezuela’s bitterly antagonistic government and opposition fail, the result could well be “bloodshed,” a papal envoy warned Saturday. “If one delegation or the other ends the dialogue, it’s not the pope but the Venezuelan people who will lose, because …
Read More »Bulgarian nurses hail ‘new evidence’ clearing them in Libya HIV scandal
Sofia, Bulgaria | AFP | Five Bulgarian nurses jailed for eight years in Libya over an HIV epidemic at a children’s hospital welcomed on Saturday media reports accusing Kadhafi-era spies of deliberately infecting the infants. The five nurses, who along with a Palestinian doctor, became known as the “Benghazi six” …
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