Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union is launching an interactive online map Friday to help businesses and officials steer through the jungle of international sanctions in force against regimes, organisations and individuals around the world. With around 30 to 40 international sanctions regimes in force against regimes such as …

Ankara, Turkey | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the United States Thursday that Turkey could release a jailed American pastor if Washington handed over exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara blames for last year’s failed coup. The US pastor, Andrew Brunson, has been held by Turkish authorities …

Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | The High Court in Kampala has summoned Kampala Capital City Authority Executive Director Jennifer Ssemakula Musisi, to respond to claims that she terminated a clerical officer of the authority without paying his emoluments amounting to billion shillings. Patrick Kisoke claims he was in 1990 employed …

Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | Aya Investment Company chairman Mohammad Hamid, the key witness in the corruption case against Labour State Minister Hebert Kabafunzaki and two others, has appeared before the Anti-Corruption Court but declined to testify, claiming he is not feeling well and had an appointment with his doctor. …

Paris, France | AFP | Robotic comet explorer Rosetta sent home a last-gasp photo of her target’s rocky facade before crashing into its surface to end a 12-year deep-space odyssey, ground controllers said Thursday. Almost a year to the day since Rosetta’s demise on September 30 last year, the European Space …

Barcelona, Spain | AFP | Police on Thursday seized more than six million ballots and envelopes and 100 ballot boxes in a Catalan town, in the latest bid to block a banned independence referendum, a police source said. The seizures are the latest in a long list of items confiscated by …

Washington, United States | AFP | A Russian media group with links to the Moscow government spent $274,000 in 2016 on Twitter ads which may have been used to try to influence the US election, the social media firm said Thursday. Twitter said it shared data with congressional investigators about ads …

Miami, United States | AFP | Zika has been around for decades but only recently began to cause birth defects due to a single mutation the mosquito-borne virus likely acquired in 2013, researchers said Thursday. The report in the US journal Science explains for the first time how this once relatively …

Paris, France | AFP | Olivier Giroud scored his 100th Arsenal goal as a youthful Gunners side beat BATE Borisov 4-2 in Belarus in the Europa League on Thursday, as Everton were held to a shock 2-2 draw by 10-man Apollon Limassol at Goodison Park. Theo Walcott netted twice for the …

Chicago, United States | AFP | Two toddlers were hospitalized in serious condition after a playmate accidentally shot them with a loaded gun at a daycare in the US state of Michigan. Both of the children’s conditions were upgraded from critical a day earlier, police said Thursday, as they wrapped up …