CAIRO – Three Egyptian policemen were killed on Monday when masked men attacked a checkpoint in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, security sources said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on soldiers and police since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July….
NAIROBI – The International Criminal Court has told Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto he must attend most of his trial on charges of crimes against humanity. Prosecutors had appealed against an earlier decision which would have let him spend most of his time in Kenya. While he must appear at most of his trial, the…
JOHANNESBURG – Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj has apologised for the Malawi comments made by President Jacob Zuma. “I have received numerous calls from Malawians being angry and after long discussions, they come around and say, yes, let’s not make a mountain of a molehill,” Maharaj said on Wednesday. “Let me apologise for that and withdraw…
CONAKRY – President Alpha Conde’s ruling party in Guinea took just under half of the seats in last month’s parliamentary poll, electoral officials have said. They said the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG) secured 53 seats in the 114-member parliament. The main opposition party had 37 seats, while the rest went to smaller parties….
TRIPOLI – A Libyan man seized earlier this month in a US raid in Tripoli has pleaded not guilty in a New York court to two US embassy bombings in 1998. Abu Anas al-Liby, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, entered the plea through his attorney. He is accused of links with al-Qaeda and…
LAGOS – Hundreds of people have died in detention facilities in north-east Nigeria as the army tries to crush an Islamist militant rebellion there, according to Amnesty International. The human rights group said some detainees died from suffocation in overcrowded cells, others from starvation and extra-judicial killings. In Wednesday’s report, it calls for an urgent…
HARARE – Hundreds of people gathered in Marikana, North West yesterday for the launch of Julius Malema’s EFF party. People wearing red berets and T-shirts braved scorching heat as they waited for Malema to arrive. The crowd was kept entertained by artistes singing and dancing. Among the songs were “if you touch Malema you will…
NAIROBI – The African Union summit in Ethiopia has demanded a deferral of The Hague trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, due to start in November. It also agreed a resolution stating no sitting African head of state should appear before an international court. With both Kenyan and Sudanese presidents facing ICC cases, African leaders…
LILONGWE – Malawi President Joyce Banda dissolved the cabinet on Thursday after police arrested several junior officials in her government in recent weeks on suspicion of stealing state funds. The presidency said in a statement that Banda, who came to office in April 2012, “will announce a new cabinet in due course”. It did not…
TRIPOLI – Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has returned to his office after being held for several hours by militiamen loosely allied to the government. Two years after the overthrow of Col Muammar Gaddafi, Libya still has no constitution and divisions between secular and Islamist forces have paralysed parliament. The government has been struggling to…
