Men extract water from a well at the village of El Gel, 8 kilometres from the town of K'elafo, Ethiopia, on Jan 12, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations used its first conference on water security in almost half a century on Wednesday to exhort governments to better manage one of […]
Category: Latest News
Weapons shipments to Kyiv spark concerns
Putin warns against UK plans to send ammunition with depleted uranium Ukrainian soldiers ride atop a tank on the frontline in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Mar 22, 2023. (PHOTO / AP) The United States announced on Tuesday that it will speed up delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine, while the United Kingdom will send tanks […]
Sweden’s Parliament endorses country joining NATO
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson speaks during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (not in image) after a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, March 15, 2023. (PHOTO / AP) STOCKHOLM – Sweden's lawmakers overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday in favor of the country joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Sweden and […]
Muted opposition: UK PM wins N. Ireland vote in parliament
A handout photograph released by the UK Parliament shows Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak standing at the despatch box and speaking during the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) at the House of Commons, in London, on March 22, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) LONDON – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak won the backing of […]
Macron stands firm on pension bill as protests escalate
Protesters hold a banner reading "Last warning" during a youth demonstration against the French government's pensions reform plan in Paris on March 9, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said a deeply unpopular new law that raises the retirement age was necessary and would enter into force by the end […]
At what cost? UK PM Sunak to win post-Brexit trade vote
Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session in parliament in London on March 22, 2023. On the same day, Sunak is set to win parliamentary approval for a key element of a post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland. (PHOTO / AP) LONDON – British Prime Minister […]
Austrian minister: Russia will remain important for Europe
Austria's foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg answers journalists during a Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Nov 14, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP) VIENNA – Russia will always remain important for Europe, Austria's foreign minister said, saying that to think otherwise was delusional. Alexander Schallenberg also defended the country's second-biggest bank, Raiffeisen […]
Report: Record $63b raised from carbon allowance sales in 2022
In this May 07, 2019 photo, steam rises from towers of the coal-fired power plant of Moorburg in Hamburg, northern Germany. (PHOTO / AFP) LONDON – Governments globally raised a record $63 billion from the sale of carbon allowances in emission trading systems in 2022, as many countries increased ambitions to cut pollution despite record […]
Mexican president calls US ‘liar’ after rights report
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives his regularly scheduled morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Feb 28, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday forcefully rejected criticism of his government's record on human rights, describing reports of official abuses made in a […]
Boris Johnson fights for career in testimony on lockdown parties
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson leaves his home, in London, March 21, 2023. (PHOTO / AP) LONDON – Britain's former prime minister Boris Johnson will face hours of hostile questioning on Wednesday about whether he misled parliament over rule-breaking COVID-19 lockdown parties at a hearing where he will be fighting for his political career. […]
Uganda passes bill banning identifying as LGBTQ
In this file photo taken on Aug 19, 2014, a Ugandan man is seen during the third Annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride celebrations in Entebbe, Uganda. (PHOTO / AP) KAMPALA – Uganda's parliament on Tuesday passed a law that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target Ugandans who already […]
Russia summons Canadian envoy over ‘regime change’ remark
This photograph shows the Russian Foreign Ministry building and Moscow's International Business Centre behind the dome of a church in central Moscow on Oct 18, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP) Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it had protested to Canada's top diplomat in Moscow over comments by Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly about "regime change" […]
Greta Thunberg, climate activists get court nod to sue Swedish state
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg stands next to young climate protesters as they block the entrance of Norway's Energy Ministry to protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to herd reindeer, in Oslo, on February 28, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) STOCKHOLM – A Swedish court gave Greta Thunberg and hundreds of other climate […]
Ethiopia calls US accusations of war crimes ‘inflammatory’
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second left) meets with Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen (third right) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 15, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) NAIROBI – Ethiopia on Tuesday rejected a determination by the US State Department that its army, along with all sides in the recently […]
Major review: London police institutionally racist and sexist
A Metropolitan Police officer walks beside a protest march against the Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps near Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, in central London, on Jan 21, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP) LONDON – London's Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic and unable to police itself, an independent review said on Tuesday, […]
Study: Somalia’s drought killed 43,000 last year, half under five
A mother holds her child while taking part in a breast feeding class set up to help new mothers with infants suffering from malnutrition at the Danwagaag Mother and Child Health centre in Baidoa, Somalia on Nov 9, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP) NAIROBI – Somalia's ongoing record drought killed as many as 43,000 people last […]
UN chief: ‘Climate time bomb ticking’, cut emissions sooner
In this photo taken on March 15, 2023, smoke billows from a brick factory chimney on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India. (PHOTO / AFP) UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the "climate time bomb is ticking" as he urged rich nations on Monday to slash emissions sooner after a new assessment from scientists said […]
NY braces for Trump indictment after ex-president urges protests
Former US president Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, March 4, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (PHOTO / AP) NEW YORK – Workers erected barricades around a Manhattan courthouse on Monday as New York City braced for a possible indictment of Donald Trump over an alleged hush-money […]
UN envoy says solution ‘closest’ to end political crisis in Sudan
UN Special Representative for Sudan Volker Perthes speaks following the signing of an initial deal between military and civilian leaders aimed at ending a deep crisis caused by last year's military coup, in the capital Khartoum on Dec 5, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP) UNITED NATIONS – The top UN envoy for Sudan said on Monday […]
Protests continue as Macron barely wins no-confidence vote
Far-left lawmakers react as they hold papers reading: "64 years. It is no", "appointment in the street", "we are continuing", at the National Assembly in Paris at the National Assembly in Paris, March 20, 2023. (PHOTO / AP) PARIS – Protesters set piles of rubbish on fire in central Paris on Monday after President Emmanuel […]