Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Abdulmalik Abdulaziz, an Uighur student, was arrested and handcuffed by Egyptian police and when they removed his blindfold he was surprised to see Chinese officials questioning him in custody. He was picked up in broad daylight with friends, and taken to a Cairo police station where …
Read More »Is Trump’s love affair with Fox News fading?
Washington, United States | AFP | Last month after Donald Trump watched Fox News lob what he called “softball questions” at a Democratic lawmaker, the US president delivered a crisp smackdown of his favorite network: “Fox sure ain’t what it used to be.” After years of often fawning coverage by Fox, …
Read More »Euphoria grips Sudan as historic transition deal signed
Khartoum, Sudan | AFP | Rapturous crowds filled the streets of Khartoum Saturday as Sudan’s generals and protest leaders signed a historic deal paving the way for civilian rule. Thousands of cheering people gathered around the Friendship Hall next to the Nile, where the documents that will govern the country’s 39-month …
Read More »US issues warrant for seizure of Iranian tanker in Gibraltar
Washington, United States | AFP | The US Justice Department issued a warrant Friday for the seizure of the Iranian oil supertanker Grace 1, one day after a Gibraltar judge allowed the release of the detained vessel. The Justice Department alleged the ship was part of a scheme “to unlawfully access …
Read More »Zimbabwe police beat protesters defying regime ‘worse than Mugabe’
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Riot police in Zimbabwe on Friday fired teargas and beat demonstrators who defied a protest ban, as the opposition accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government of surpassing Robert Mugabe’s regime in brutality. Scores of people gathered in a square in the capital Harare to demonstrate against the …
Read More »Bilbao’s 38-year-old striker stuns Barcelona in title defence opener
Madrid, Spain | AFP | Barcelona made a nightmare start to the defence of their La Liga title on Friday by losing Luis Suarez to injury and then losing 1-0 to Athletic Bilbao, after a sensational late volley from substitute Aritz Aduriz. Suarez hobbled off in the 37th minute with what …
Read More »Moscow set for fresh protests after month of rallies
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Moscow was set for fresh protests Saturday, the latest in a wave of demonstrations that has seen tens of thousands take to the streets after opposition figures were banned from local elections a month ago. The rallies, which have taken place every Saturday since the ruling, …
Read More »First Ebola cases surface in DR Congo’s South Kivu province
Bukavu, DR Congo | AFP | A woman has died of Ebola and her infant son was diagnosed with the virus in the first confirmed cases in DR Congo’s South Kivu province, reviving fears Friday the highly contagious disease could spread through the region. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola epidemic …
Read More »The Iron Curtain: five things to know
Paris, France | AFP | The Iron Curtain was at first an ideological and then a physical separation of communist Eastern Europe from the West from the 1940s after World War II. – The name – The term “iron curtain” was popularised after it was used by former British prime …
Read More »Gentle giraffes threatened with ‘silent extinction’
Loisaba , Kenya | AFP | For most of his life as a Samburu warrior, Lesaiton Lengoloni thought nothing of hunting giraffes, the graceful giants so common a feature of the Kenyan plains where he roamed. “There was no particular pride in killing a giraffe, not like a lion… (But) a …
Read More »