Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump and America’s powerful gun lobby on Thursday cast citizens with weapons as a solution to shootings, as it emerged an armed deputy was on campus during a deadly Florida rampage but failed to act. National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre hit …
Read More »Cameroon’s main opposition leader rules out presidential run
Bamenda, Cameroon | AFP | Cameroon’s veteran opposition leader and perennial presidential hopeful John Fru Ndi said Thursday he will not challenge the long-ruling President Paul Biya in this year’s elections. Fru Ndi, 76, hailing from the troubled anglophone west of the country, has lost to Biya three times — …
Read More »Twitter sets crackdown on automated and fake account
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Twitter announced Wednesday a crackdown on accounts powered by software “bots” which can artificially amplify a person or cause and which have been accused of manipulating the social network during the 2016 US election. The San Francisco messaging platform said the move was …
Read More »Billy Graham: The pastor who took the Word to the North Koreans, China
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | The staunchly anti-communist Billy Graham had a record of engaging with Communist leaders in Asia as he pursued his global evangelistic mission — most notably North Korea’s Kim Il Sung. Graham, the influential US pastor who died aged 99 on Wednesday, became one of …
Read More »Trump meets shooting survivors, suggests arming teachers
Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump suggested arming teachers to deter mass shootings as he faced broken voices, tears and demands for action at a meeting with survivors of the gun rampage that killed 17 people at a Florida high school. Trump also promised “very strong” …
Read More »White House denies being weak on Russia, says more sanctions to come
Washington, United States | AFP | The White House is weighing additional sanctions against Russia, senior administration officials said Wednesday, pushing back against allegations that Donald Trump has been a soft touch on Moscow. Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials said a “task force” has been set up to address …
Read More »Tanzania civil society decries ‘unprecedented’ violations
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | More than a hundred Tanzanian civil society groups raised their voices on Wednesday against “unprecedented” violations of human and democratic rights under the government of President John Magufuli. In a rare act of public solidarity, 105 organisations signed a statement warning of “multiple cases (of …
Read More »Influential ‘America’s pastor’ Billy Graham, counsel to presidents, dies at 99
Washington, United States | AFP | Reverend Billy Graham, the influential Southern preacher who became a spiritual advisor to several US presidents and millions of Americans via their television sets, died Wednesday. He was 99. The one-time backwoods minister who eventually became the world’s foremost Christian evangelist, spread a message …
Read More »S.Africa hikes sales tax in ‘tough’ post-Zuma budget
Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | South Africans were hit by the first sales tax increase since apartheid when the country’s finance minister delivered a tough budget on Wednesday, dampening optimism spurred by the country’s new reformist president. President Cyril Ramaphosa took over last week from the scandal-plagued Jacob …
Read More »Weah’s promised land: Liberia confronts age-old disputes
Gbah, Liberia | AFP | Morris Kidir gestures at a wide expanse of dark-green land he says was earmarked for a school or clinic in his northern Liberian village, now covered in young oil palm trees. In October last year, he recalls, workers from Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby arrived at …
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