UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the global food import bill is on course to hit a new record of 1.8 trillion dollars in 2022. The UN food agency stated this in its latest Food Outlook report released on Thursday. According to the agency, countries are expected to...
WORLD
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, on Thursday suspended the country’s anti-corruption chief Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane with immediate effect. “The Constitution provides that the President may suspend the Public Protector (or any member of a Chapter 9 institution) at any time after the start of proceedings by a committee of...
Ex-president Donald Trump and his eldest children are scheduled to testify in New York’s civil probe into alleged fraud at their family business from July 15, a court document showed Wednesday. New York state attorney general Letitia James and her team of investigators will have to conclude their questioning...
A high court in Kenya has stopped the tax authority from demanding tax on tithes, donations and offerings given to churches. The Kenya Revenue Authority *KRA) had demanded 5.5m Kenyan shillings ($47,000; £37,000) from Thika Road Baptist Church in unpaid taxes, arguing that it failed to produce a tax...
U.S. retail and tech giant Amazon identified and seized more than three million counterfeit products in 2021, according to the company’s second brand protection report, released Wednesday. Amazon said this included products sent to its fulfilment centres and situations where the company worked with brands and law enforcement to...
A passenger train partially derailed in eastern Iran early Wednesday, killing 17 people, authorities said. The ISNA news agency reported the crash, citing the Red Crescent organisation. Around a dozen other passengers were injured in the accident near the city of Tabas, a spokesman for the national rail operator...
The World Bank says economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to decline to 3.7 per cent in 2022 as against 4.2 per cent recorded in 2021. This is according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospect Regional Outlook on Sub-Saharan Africa Report released on Tuesday. According...
The UN General Assembly, on Tuesday, elected Csaba Korosi, a top Hungarian diplomat, as President of the 77th session. Korosi will replace the current President of the General Assembly, Abdullah Shahid of Maldives, who presided over the 76th session. Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly, Ms Paulina...
While the situation in eastern Ukraine remained largely unchanged, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday morning that it had carried out several airstrikes against Russian positions in southern Ukraine overnight. “Ukrainian helicopters struck at clusters of enemy forces in the Kherson region, and planes at ammunition depots in the...
A U.S. judge has authorised the seizure of two aircraft owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, for violating export restrictions as well as U.S. sanctions on Russia. The Department of Justice (DoJ) said a federal judge in New York authorised the seizure requested by federal agents of a Boeing...
Pope Francis was “deeply saddened” by the “horrible attack” in Owo, his number two, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin wrote in a telegram to the bishop of Ondo. The pope assures “all those who are affected by this unspeakable act of violence of his spiritual closeness”, he...
Four people were killed and five others injured when Kenyan police opened fire on a crowd protesting against an increase in attacks by wildlife, a senior official said Friday. Police shot at the demonstrators in the Rift Valley town of Masimba, 170 kilometres (105 miles) south of Nairobi, said...
At least 49 people died and hundreds were injured after a fire sparked a huge chemical explosion at a shipping container depot in Bangladesh, officials said on Sunday. The toll was expected to rise, with some of the more than 300 people injured in serious condition, officials said, while...
A train derailed near a Bavarian Alpine resort in southern Germany on Friday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens in a region gearing up to host the G7 summit in late June. Several carriages of the red-coloured local train were lying on their sides on a grassy...
Senegal’s President Macky Sall said Russia’s Vladimir Putin told him on Friday that he was ready to enable the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis that is hitting Africa especially hard. “President #Putin has expressed to us his willingness to facilitate the export of Ukrainian...
Russian President Vladimir Putin met African Union leaders on Friday and the Kremlin said he would tell them that Moscow was not to blame for the growing food crisis affecting their continent. State TV showed Putin greeting Senegalese President Macky Sall, chairman of the AU, and Moussa Faki Mahamat,...
Brazilian football icon Pele has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine. “Stop the invasion,” the 81-year-old Pele said in a letter to Putin he posted on Instagram shortly before Ukraine’s 3-1 World Cup semi-final play-off win in Scotland on Wednesday night. “There is...
Huge crowds on Thursday cheered Queen Elizabeth II for the first of four days of celebrations to mark her historic Platinum Jubilee, in what could be the last major public event of her long reign. Tens of thousands of people converged on central London in bright sunshine to witness...
A gunman killed at least four people Wednesday at a hospital building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said — the latest mass shooting to convulse the United States as Texas families bury their dead after a school massacre nearly 10 days earlier. The suspect, who was armed with a rifle and...
The head of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, is travelling to Russia to discuss the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. President Sall’s office said the visit was aimed at freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers that are currently blocked in Ukrainian ports. Recalled...