NIGER Republic’s military rulers have approved a general mobilisation and authorised the requisition of people and goods as they intensify the fight against armed groups across the country, according to a government statement. The decision followed a cabinet meeting on Friday and marks a major escalation by the military government, which seized power in a July 2023 coup that toppled the country’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. “People, property, and services may be requisitioned during general mobilisation to contribute to the defence of the homeland, in compliance with the legislation and regulations in force,” the government said in a statement…
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THE UK is to impose visa restrictions against people arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo after its government failed to agree to measures allowing the return of illegal migrants and foreign national offenders. Ministers say the DRC has not made changes required under the toughening up of the UK’s asylum rules announced in November. Fast-track visa processes will no longer apply to people from the country, while the Home Office said VIPs and politicians would no longer get preferential treatment when coming to the UK. Meanwhile, the Home Office said Angola and Namibia had agreed to step up efforts…
ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been warning of a grave Iranian threat to Israel and the world for more than 30 years. United States President Donald Trump heeded those warnings in June and bombed Tehran’s nuclear facilities. But it appears that Netanyahu is still not satisfied and will be pushing for more military actions against Iran when he returns to the US on Sunday to visit Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This time, the focus is on Iran’s missile programme. Israeli officials and their US allies are beating the drums of war against Iran once again, arguing…
POLLS have opened in Myanmar’s first general election since the country’s military toppled Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in a 2021 coup. The heavily restricted election on Sunday is taking place in about a third of the Southeast Asian nation’s 330 townships, with large areas inaccessible amid a raging civil war between the military and an array of opposition forces. Following the initial phase, two rounds of voting will be held on January 11 and January 25, while voting has been cancelled in 65 townships altogether. “This means that at least 20 percent of the country…
VOTE counting is underway in Ivory Coast following legislative elections to choose the country’s 255 members of the National Assembly, a vote shaped by deep political divisions and lingering tensions from the recent presidential poll. The parliamentary elections come just two months after President Alassane Ouattara secured a second term with more than 90 percent of the vote. That landslide victory was strongly contested by the opposition, which criticised the exclusion of several major opposition figures from the presidential race following court rulings. Those divisions have carried over into the legislative contest. The African Peoples’ Party (PPA-CI), linked to former…
BRITISH-EGYPTIAN dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah has arrived in London after Egyptian authorities lifted a travel ban that had remained in place despite his release from prison in September. Abd el-Fattah spent nearly a decade behind bars, largely for speaking out against the Egyptian government’s treatment of dissidents. Although he had already completed a five-year sentence, authorities kept him imprisoned for an additional two years, refusing to count his pre-trial detention as time served. A first attempt to leave Cairo for London last November was blocked by security forces. Since then, Abd el-Fattah had been negotiating permission to travel freely, amid…
BADLY depleted Manchester United clung on to climb back into the Premier League’s top five as Patrick Dorgu’s stunning volley proved enough to beat Newcastle at Old Trafford. Missing seven senior players through injury and international duty including skipper Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Amorim’s side also lost Mason Mount at half-time. But despite Newcastle having 66% possession and Lewis Hall’s thunderous strike bouncing down off the underside of the bar, Eddie Howe’s side could not come up with a leveller as their dismal recent form continued. In fairness, Dorgu’s first Manchester United goal was worthy of winning any game. As Diogo…
THE Palestinian economy is undergoing a severe downturn, driven by Israel’s continued assault on Gaza, intensified restrictions on movement and trade in the occupied West Bank, and a sharp decline in both domestic and external financial resources. As the Palestinian government struggles to manage an escalating fiscal crisis, official data and expert assessments warn that the economy is approaching a critical threshold, one that threatens the continuity of state institutions and their ability to meet even basic obligations. A joint report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), published in the Palestinian Economic…
CHINA has sanctioned a group of United States defence companies and senior executives over weapons sales to Taiwan, the latest move against Washington’s support for the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the measures on Friday, targeting 20 US defence firms and 10 individuals. It said the sanctions are retaliation for the US’s newly announced $11.1bn weapons package for Taiwan, one of its largest ever for the territory. “Any provocative actions that cross the line on the Taiwan issue will be met with a strong response from China,” said a statement from…
IN Ivory Coast, the opposition PDCI-RDA is accusing supporters of the ruling RHDP of carrying out a fraudulent collection of voters’ personal data ahead of legislative elections. According to the party, individuals claiming to belong to the RHDP have been gathering names, phone numbers, voter card details, and polling station information. The PDCI-RDA says these actions are allegedly accompanied by promises of cash payments of up to 300,000 CFA francs and the distribution of motorcycles, with the aim of influencing the vote. The ruling party has declined to comment on the accusations. The Independent Electoral Commission, or CEI, says it…
ISRAEL has become the first country to formally recognise Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland as an independent nation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel intended to immediately expand cooperation in agriculture, health, and technology. Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, called the development “a historic moment”. Recognition by Israel could encourage other nations to follow suit, increasing the region’s diplomatic credentials and access to international markets. Somalia’s prime minister, Hamza Abdi Barre, said his country categorically and unequivocally rejected what he called a deliberate attack by Israel on its sovereignty. Abdullahi said in a statement that Somaliland would join the Abraham…
ORGANISERS at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco are allowing local supporters in for free after kick-off in matches where stadiums are not full, a Confederation of African Football source told AFP. The Group F game between Cameroon and Gabon on Wednesday in Agadir kicked off in front of almost empty stands, but the ground filled up significantly over the course of the first half despite incessant rain. The official attendance was later announced as 35,200 inside a venue that can hold over 45,000. There have been similar scenes at numerous matches across the opening days of the competition,…
MANCHESTER United head coach Ruben Amorim is not willing to let any players leave in the January transfer window unless replacements come in. Kobbie Mainoo and Joshua Zirkzee are both keen for chances to play more regularly over the second half of the season. Mainoo still wants to go out on loan, while Zirkzee has been linked with a return to Italy. However, even when his squad is bolstered in the middle of next month by the return to fitness of skipper Bruno Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, Amorim…
FIVE Israeli settlers have been arrested over their alleged involvement in an attack on a Palestinian home that wounded an eight-month-old baby in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the infant suffered “moderate injuries to the face and head” in the attack that took place late on Wednesday involving “a group of armed settlers” who were throwing stones at homes and property in the town of Sair, north of Hebron. Israeli police on Thursday said five settlers were arrested after they received reports of “stones being thrown by Israeli civilians toward a Palestinian home”. Israeli…
RUSSIA is doubling down on its claims on Ukraine, in an apparent effort to demonstrate some military achievement in 2025 at home and to influence peace talks with the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters last Friday in a year-end news conference that Moscow’s forces had seized Siversk in the eastern region of Donetsk and Vovchansk in the northern Kharkiv region. Putin also claimed Russian forces held at least half of Lyman and Kostiantynivka in Donetsk, and Hulyaipole in the southern Zaporizhia region – all front-line towns. Ukraine observers begged to differ. The Institute for the Study of…
FIVE people were killed, including two Czech tourists, after a helicopter crashed on Mount Kilimanjaro, the authorities in Tanzania announced on Thursday. All five people on board the aircraft died in Wednesday’s crash, which happened 4,700 metres (15,400 feet) up by Camp Barafu, the country’s aviation authority said. They did not yet know what caused the crash, they added. In June, the European Union put all Tanzanian air transport companies on its at-risk list following a series of accidents. In their statement, they cited “a shortage of qualified personnel, ineffective oversight processes in flight operations and airworthiness, and non-compliance with…
RESIDENTS of Somalia’s capital voted Thursday in a controversial local election that marks the country’s first one-person, one-vote poll since 1969. Analysts say it is a major departure from clan-based power-sharing negotiations. The voting of local council members, to be conducted across Mogadishu’s 16 districts, has been organized by the country’s federal government but rejected by the opposition parties, which have called the election flawed and one-sided. Somalia has for decades selected its local council members and parliamentarians through clan-based negotiations, and it is the leaders who later elect a president. Since 2016, different administrations have promised to reintroduce one-person,…
AT least one Palestinian has been killed and six, including a child, wounded by Israeli attacks across Gaza amid a threat by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Palestinian man, Ayoub Abdel Ayesh Nasr, was killed and two people were wounded when Israeli forces opened fire on civilians in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Wednesday. Three people were wounded after being shot east of Khan Younis, medical sources told the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and wounded a child in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli forces have killed more than 400…
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hit out at a new nuclear submarine deal between the United States and South Korea, describing it as a threat to the stability of the Korean Peninsula as he toured his country’s submarine production facility, according to North Korean state media. Kim said the deal between Seoul and Washington was an “offensive act severely violating [Pyongyang’s] security and maritime sovereignty and a threat to security that must be countered”, according to state news outlet KCNA. It was now urgent to “further accelerate the radical development of the modernisation and nuclear weaponisation of the…
ALGERIA’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring France’s colonisation of the North African state a crime, and demanding an apology and reparations. The law also criminalises the glorification of colonialism, state-run TV reports. The vote is the latest sign of increasingly strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, with some observers saying they are at their lowest since Algeria gained independence 63 years ago. France’s colonisation of Algeria between 1830 and 1962 was marked by mass killings, large-scale deportations and ended in a bloody war of independence. Algeria says the war killed 1.5 million people, while French historians put…