NEWS ANALYSIS

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | Forces battling for control of Libya’s capital agreed to a truce Saturday, on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha, but a car bomb killed three UN staff in the eastern city of Benghazi. Military strongman Khalifa Haftar’s forces announced that they would implement …

New York, United States | AFP |  Nandita Iyer landed in New York from Bombay without knowing anyone, but she didn’t want to live alone in a “sketchy studio.” So instead she opted for a room in a “coliving” unit. She lives with roommates in one of the 14 apartments in …

Morogoro, Tanzania | AFP | Sixty-four people perished in Tanzania Saturday when a fuel tanker overturned and then exploded as crowds of people rushed to syphon off leaking fuel. The deadly blast, which took place near the town of Morogoro, west of the economic capital Dar es Salaam, is the latest …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Excitement will be mixed with concern when four of Europe’s leading rugby nations begin their World Cup warm-up programme this weekend. Ireland play Italy in Dublin on Saturday, with England facing Wales at Twickenham a day later. While some players can be reasonably certain of …

Paris, France | AFP | Not everyone needs to become a vegetarian, much less vegan, to keep the planet from overheating, but it would surely make things easier if they did. That’s the ambiguous and — for many on either side of this meaty issue — unsatisfying conclusion of the most …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  The only hint that something extraordinary lay inside the plain wooden drawer in an unassuming office behind Nairobi National Museum was a handwritten note stuck to the front: “Pull Carefully”. Inside, a monstrous jawbone with colossal fangs grinned from a bed of tattered foam — the …

Des Moines, United States | AFP | Deep-fried corn dogs, a blistering summer sun, and discerning American voters greet the presidential candidates at Iowa’s state fair, a must stop on the early road to the White House. Two dozen candidates — 23 Democrats and a longshot Republican primary challenger to President …

Berlin, Germany | AFP | Niko Kovac’s Bayern Munich launch their 2019/20 season as German Cup title holders in the first round this weekend, but the traditional season curtain-raiser will be overshadowed this year by a string of scandals rocking football in Germany. While coaching prodigies Julian Nagelsmann and David Wagner …

Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP |  Wearing a fading Mickey Mouse T-shirt, her knees hugged to her chest, eight-year-old Musu Kamara sits in a corrugated shack in Sierra Leone’s capital waiting for her initiation into a secret society. Kamara will leave for two weeks in the bush with a sisterhood called …

Toronto, Canada | AFP |  Serena Williams and Japan’s Naomi Osaka booked a rematch of last year’s US Open final in the WTA Toronto quarter-finals after straight-set triumphs Thursday. Reigning US and Australian Open champion Osaka broke at love in the final game to defeat Polish teen Iga Swiatek 7-6 (7/4), …