WORLD

N’Djamena, Chad | AFP | Chad’s President Idriss Deby, who began his fifth term in office Monday, is a warrior leader who seized power in a military coup in 1990 and is today set on crushing African jihadists. After 26 years as ruler of the vast African country, Deby took …

Tehran, Iran | AFP |  Iran has executed a nuclear scientist convicted of handing over “top secret” information to the United States, a judicial spokesman said on Sunday. “Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country’s top secrets to the enemy (US),” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | Thousands of Brazilians angry at political upheaval, corruption and the cost of the Rio Olympics blocked traffic in protests hours before the gala opening ceremony. Most people came to vent anger at center-right interim president Michel Temer who took power in May on …

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on Thursday urged Londoners to remain “calm and vigilant” after a woman was killed and five people injured in a city centre knife attack. Police meanwhile probed possible terrorist links following the arrest of a 19-year-old man at the scene of the incident which took …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | An Emirates plane with 275 people on board was involved in an accident on landing Wednesday at Dubai airport but all the passengers were evacuated safely, the government said. Footage on social media showed smoke billowing from the aircraft. “An Emirates plane coming …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Nobel prize-winning Egyptian chemist Ahmad Zewail, who served as a science and technology advisor to US President Barack Obama, died Tuesday in the United States at the age of 70, Egypt’s presidency announced. Zewail, a naturalised US citizen, won the Nobel prize for chemistry in …

Barely eight weeks to the October 01 deadline for the East African Community (EAC) to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU), one would expect the regional bloc to be handling the issue with a degree of urgency.  Apart from Kenya, the rest of the member …

Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed a commission to study the issue of female Church deacons in a move seen as a potential first step towards women entering the Catholic clergy. The 13-member commission, made up of seven men and six women, will examine the question with a particular focus on …

Tripoli, Libya | AFP | US warplanes Monday carried out air strikes on positions of the Islamic State jihadist group in its Libyan stronghold of Sirte for the first time, the country’s unity government announced. “The first American air strikes on precise positions of the Daesh (IS) organisation were carried …

Rouen, France | AFP | Muslims attended Catholic mass in churches around France on Sunday in solidarity and sorrow following the brutal jihadist murder of a priest, the latest in a string of attacks. More than 100 Muslims were among the 2,000 faithful who packed the 11th-century Gothic cathedral of …