WORLD

Ise Shima, Japan | AFP | Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will Thursday take fellow world leaders on a tour of Ise Shrine, an ancient spot that sits at the heart of Japan’s native Shinto religion. The trip is part of the cultural programme on the sidelines of the Group …

Washington, United States | AFP | Twitter announced Tuesday it was easing its 140-character limit for tweets, allowing users to add links, attachments and some other features within the short messages. The move comes as Twitter’s efforts to increase its user base and engagement have been sputtering, raising questions about …

Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday the burden of handling the world’s crises should be better shared, as leaders and aid groups sought to defy sceptics to find a breakthrough at an unprecedented aid summit in Istanbul. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gathered over …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | The speaker of Egypt’s parliament has threatened to take disciplinary action against members who publicly criticise the government’s monetary policy, raising further questions about the legislature’s independence. Ali Abdel-Al told MPs on Sunday that the country faces foreign “conspiracies”, and “constructive criticism is accepted, but …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday chided a cabinet colleague who failed to give him public praise for pushing through a long-sought offshore gas deal. After ministers approved revisions to the agreement with a US-led consortium designed to overcome a court challenge, Energy Minister …

ANALYSIS Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s plan to close the world’s largest refugee camp could be a bid to trigger more international aid as well as a “cynical” political move ahead of presidential elections, according to analysts and NGOs. The sprawling Dadaab camp, located on the Kenya-Somalia border, hosts …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | A second Chibok schoolgirl has been rescued, Nigeria’s army said Thursday, after President Muhammadu Buhari met the first student to be found and voiced fresh hope for the recovery of the more than 200 others still being held. Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said the …

Paris, France | AFP | Searches were under way in the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday after an EgyptAir flight vanished from radar screens, with a Greek aviation source saying it had crashed south of Karpathos island. The flight, which had 66 people on board, was headed to Cairo after taking …

Paris, France | AFP | China and India are home to more than a third of people with mental illness, but only a tiny fraction of them receive medical help, according to studies released Wednesday. There are more people in the world’s two most populous nations coping with mental, neurological …

Washington, United States | AFP | A 64-year-old man who lost most of his penis to cancer is recovering well after undergoing the United States’ first penis transplant operation, doctors said Monday. The 15-hour surgery took place earlier this month at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and is the third …