Vienna, AUSTRIA | AFP | A UN’s anti-drug body added carfentanil, a synthetic substance estimated to be thousands of times more potent than morphine, to its list of controlled substances on Wednesday. The US had been pushing for the move, and welcomed the decision the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs’ (CND) …
Read More »Sierra Leone third parties complain after election setback
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Two upstart Sierra Leone political parties said Wednesday they had filed complaints over this month’s elections after failing to make the cut for the second round of the presidential ballot. The National Grand Coalition (NGC) took 6.9 percent of votes in the March 7 elections …
Read More »Jinja East voters go to polls as FDC’s Mwiru and NRM’s Nabeta tussle it out
Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | Voters in Jinja East go to the polls Thursday to elect a new Member of Parliament in a hotly contested by-election. The seat fell vacant in January following a Court of Appeal ruling that upheld an earlier ruling by the Jinja High Court which overturned …
Read More »Putin says he ordered plane shot down before Sochi Olympics
Moscow, RUSSIAN FEDERATION | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an order to shoot down a passenger plane he believed would be used in a terror attack at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, he said in a new documentary. The plane was travelling from Ukraine to Turkey when Putin …
Read More »Putin says he will ‘never’ give Crimea back to Ukraine
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that under no circumstances would he give Crimea back to Ukraine, speaking in a new documentary released Sunday ahead of his expected re-election in next week’s poll. “What, have you gone mad?” he told a journalist who asked him if …
Read More »SLeone opposition candidate edges ahead in presidential poll
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | The opposition challenger in Sierra Leone’s presidential election edged ahead of the ruling party candidate by fewer than 15,000 votes, according to new partial results released on Sunday. Julius Maada Bio has garnered 43.4 percent of the vote to 42.6 percent for Samura Kamara with …
Read More »Colombians vote in elections seen as test for peace deal
Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Colombians went to the polls Sunday to elect a new Congress with a resurgent right, bitterly opposed to a peace deal that allows leftist former rebels to participate, expected to poll strongly. The election is set to be the calmest in half a century of …
Read More »Sierra Leone election chief calls for ‘patience’ amid tension
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone’s election chief called for patience on Thursday as ballots from its general election are counted, with tensions high after a police raid on an opposition leader’s home. More than 3.1 million Sierra Leoneans were eligible to cast their ballots for a new president, …
Read More »FARC withdrawing from Colombian presidential race
Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Colombia’s FARC said Thursday it is pulling out of the country’s presidential race after its candidate, 59-year-old ex-guerrilla leader Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono, suffered a heart attack. Ivan Marquez, a senate candidate and senior member of the political party formed by the former Revolutionary Armed Forces …
Read More »Counting begins in Sierra Leone as opposition residence raided
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Counting began on Wednesday in Sierra Leone following a general election, as the residence of an opposition leader was raided by police. Polls closed at 5 pm as expected for the West African nation’s 3.1 million voters, who were choosing a new president, parliament and …
Read More »