NEWS ANALYSIS

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israel’s government decided this week to dissolve parliament and hold early elections on April 9, seven months before their November due date. Here are questions and answers on where things stand as polls show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to win despite corruption allegations …

United Nations, United States | AFP | United Nations member states failed to come up with a deal Friday to make up for a $220 million budget black hole left by the United States downsizing its contribution to peacekeeping operations, diplomats said. The United States had paid around 28 percent …

Washington, United States | AFP | A threatened shutdown of the US government would see hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed and many more working without pay. President Donald Trump warned Friday that a shutdown could last a “very long time” unless Democrats in the Senate join Republicans and …

Paris, France | AFP | Africa’s second largest country, Democratic Republic of Congo, is rich in raw materials and minerals but cursed by deadly violence, insurgencies, graft and poverty. Presidential elections were scheduled for Sunday, but electoral authorities delayed the vote by seven days until December 30 after a warehouse …

Washington, United States | AFP | Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a softly spoken but battle-hardened former Marine, always stood in uneasy contrast with President Donald Trump, his brash businessman boss who avoided any military service. On Thursday, after months of speculation and following Trump’s stunning decision to pull out of …

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP | Elections in Democratic Republic of Congo — due to take place on Sunday — may be postponed for a week, a senior electoral official has told AFP, after electronic voting machines were destroyed in a suspected arson attack on a warehouse last week. The …

Mpondwe, Uganda | Michael O’HAGAN – AFP | Stormwater from the peaks of the Rwenzori Mountains swells the muddy Lhubiriha River that marks the often porous border between western Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Less than 70 kilometres (40 miles) away, authorities have already confirmed one case of …

New Delhi, India | AFP | An Indian journalist has been jailed for a year after he criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook, in the latest example of what critics claim is a clampdown on free speech. Kishorechandra Wangkhem was arrested last month in the remote northeastern state of …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Journalists faced growing dangers of being targeted for killing for their work in 2018 even as the risks from war and conflict declined, a media watchdog said Wednesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists said 34 of the 53 journalists killed on duty this year …

Special One turns sour as Mourinho’s dream job ends in sack London, United Kingdom | AFP | Jose Mourinho reportedly cried when he heard he had not been chosen as the heir to Alex Ferguson’s throne at Old Trafford.Five years on, having finally landed his dream job, Mourinho’s United tenure …