Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Burundi on Friday freed 740 prisoners, most of whom had been imprisoned after taking part in protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza in 2015, the government announced. The detainees were released from Bujumbura’s Mpimba prison — the country’s largest — after a ceremony presided over by …
Read More »Xi set for second term with enhanced power
Beijing, China | AFP | China’s President Xi Jinping will get a second five-year term on Saturday, with his right-hand man tipped to become vice president to help him consolidate power and handle US trade threats. Xi’s reappointment by the Communist Party-controlled legislature is a foregone conclusion, but all eyes …
Read More »Mnangagwa says nation ‘has moved on’ from Mugabe era
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Friday that the country “has moved on” in response to claims by former president Robert Mugabe that he was ousted in an illegal “coup d’etat”. Mnangagwa added in a short statement that he “noted recent remarks made to the media” by …
Read More »Trump daughter-in-law files for divorce
New York, United States | AFP | The wife of Donald Trump Jr, the US president’s eldest son, filed for divorce on Thursday in New York, according to several American media reports. Vanessa Trump, nee Haydon, married Donald Jr in November 2005. The couple, both 40, have five children between …
Read More »No room for debate as Egypt’s Sisi poised for second term
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | With Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the cusp of winning a second term in this month’s election, what’s left of the opposition is reduced to praying he will step aside in four years. There is little else his critics can realistically hope for after …
Read More »Saudi warns it will pursue nuclear weapons if Iran does
Washington, United States | AFP | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will follow suit — just days before he arrives in Washington for talks with US President Donald Trump. “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but …
Read More »US hits Russia with sanctions for election meddling
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump’s administration levied sanctions against Russia’s top spy agencies and more than a dozen individuals Thursday for trying to influence the 2016 US presidential election and two separate cyberattacks. The announcement follows a lengthy delay, which had caused anger on Capitol Hill and …
Read More »Ex-Zimbabwe leader Mugabe calls ouster ‘coup d’etat’
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe described his departure from office in November as a “coup d’etat” that “we must undo” in his first TV interview since then, aired on Thursday. Mugabe, 94, spoke slowly but clearly to South Africa’s SABC broadcaster from an office in …
Read More »Trump boasts he made up trade claim in Trudeau meeting
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump boasted he made things up in a conversation with Canada’s prime minister, insisting the US ran a trade deficit with its neighbor despite having “no idea” if the claim were true, the Washington Post reported. The US president recalled the exchange with …
Read More »COMMENT: Washington meddles in politics
How the U.S., which has been covertly interfering in other nations’ politics for decades, has made itself vulnerable COMMENT | WILLIAM M. LEOGRANDE | “They have no damn right,” former Vice President Joe Biden said on Feb. 16, denouncing Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “It’s our sovereign right …
Read More »