Africa deserves three permanent UN Security Council seats, say African Union chair candidates
Despite the continent’s young population of 1.4 billion that is set to double by 2050, regional trade has faced challenges that were addressed in the Friday debate.
Coming to Africa: Benin grants citizenship to slave descendants againt backdrop of indigenous religions revival
Benin is not the first country to grant citizenship to descendants of slaves. Earlier this month, Ghana naturalised 524 African Americans after the West African country’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, invited them to “come home” in 2019, as part of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in North America in 1619.
UN Security Council concerned Taliban’s ‘Islamic vision’ is eroding freedoms in Afghanistan
The Taliban de facto authority’s enforcement of the so called “Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law amplified the erosion of basic freedoms, Ms Otunbayeva said, noting that monitoring by “inspectors” extended into public spaces, NGO offices, mosques, bazars and even weddings.
Russian missiles batter Ukraine’s embattled power grid to armtwist Kyiv into discussing peace
Russia launched 93 missiles, including one manufactured in North Korea and nearly 200 drones during the attack, Zelenskiy said. Air defences intercepted 81 of the missiles, including 11 shot down by F-16 fighter jets, he added.
Assad’s escape from Syria to Moscow was marked with deception, despair, flight and even left food cooking on the stove
Bashar al-Assad didn’t even inform his younger brother, Maher, commander of the Army’s elite 4th Armoured Division, about his exit plan, according to three aides. Maher flew a helicopter to Iraq and then to Russia, one of the people said. His maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were similarly left behind as Damascus fell to the rebels, according to a Syrian aide and Lebanese security official. The pair tried to flee by car to Lebanon but were ambushed on the way by rebels who shot Ehab dead
Trump transition recommends scrapping car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Tesla
In one example, NHTSA fined Cruise, the self-driving startup owned by General Motors $1.5 million in September for failing to report a 2023 incident in which a vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian who had been struck by another car. GM this week said Cruise will stop development of self-driving technology.
Niger junta suspends BBC accusing it of ‘spreading false news’ in coverage of attack
The British broadcaster had reported on its website in Hausa on Wednesday that gunmen had killed more than 90 Nigerien soldiers and more than 40 civilians in two villages near the border with Burkina Faso.
Zimbabwe senate passes law that abolishes death penalty that was last used 20 years ago
Amnesty International said it recorded 1,153 known executions globally in 2023, up from 883 the previous year, although countries that carried out executions declined from 20 to 16. Due to a veil of secrecy, the figures do not include those from North Korea, Vietnam and China.
Semi-autonomous Jubbaland military claims victory over Somalia National Army, which pulled out of region
The national government in Mogadishu, led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, had tried to stop the November vote from taking place, saying it was being held without federal involvement.
Migrant workers in Lebanon tell of horrors of slavery, inhuman living conditions as they wait to return to Africa
The kafala system has long been criticised by human rights groups, but the government rarely if ever addresses the criticism. But Bah knew little of that when she came to Lebanon in 2022. She was promised a job at a supermarket with a $200 monthly salary, she said. Instead, she was sent to care for an older woman once she arrived.
