Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
“Ravenous swarms” of desert locusts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, already unprecedented in their size and destructive potential, threaten to ravage the entire East Africa subregion, the UN warned Monday. Recent weather in the region has created conditions that favour rapid reproduction of the crop-devouring insects. Left unchecked, their numbers could grow 500 times by June, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. “The speed of the pest’s spread and the […]
MAROVOAY, Madagascar (AFP) – Gaëlle Borgia Muddy currents have submerged parts of the town of Marovoay in northwestern Madagascar, flooding homes, swirling rubbish around tree tops and killing dozens. A week of torrential rains have forced thousands to leave their homes, swept buildings away and cut off road links to the rest of the poor Indian Ocean island nation. All of Marovoay’s rice paddies have turned into swamps. “Everything has been swept away by the […]
BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali began recruiting some 15,000 teachers on Monday, the government said, in order to break a nationwide strike which began last week over demands for higher pay. A statement released by the West African state’s Youth and Sports ministry said that recruitment was open for 10,300 primary-school teachers and 5,000 secondary-school ones, for six-month contracts. The move follows up on an earlier threat made by Mali’s prime minister to hire from […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) – Fran BLANDY Billions of locusts swarming through East Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods, experts said Friday. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated one swarm in Kenya at around 2,400 square kilometres […]
by Rim Taher TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) — The Libyan capital’s sole functioning airport came under renewed fire Sunday, as fighting broke out hours after the UN mission in the country condemned ongoing violations of an arms embargo. The UN mission in Libya, UNSMIL, condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the rocket strikes on Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, which has been hit by repeated attacks in recent months. UNSMIL said in a statement Sunday evening that the […]
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AFP) — At least 21 people have died in Madagascar following almost a week of torrential rains in the north-west of the island, the government said on Friday. The tropical Indian Ocean nation is in the midst of an intense six-month rainy season that often leads to casualties and widespread damage. Flooding in the districts of Mitsinjo and Maevatanana has claimed at least 21 lives since Sunday, and 20 more people are […]
PAU, France (AFP) – Laurence Benhamou and Marie Wolfrom France and its five partner nations in the Sahel region of West Africa pledged Monday to bolster their efforts against jihadists waging an increasingly deadly insurgency, while urging the United States to keep its troops engaged in the region’s anti-terror fight. President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad lauded Washington’s “crucial support”, after a top US general confirmed […]
NIER, Nigeria (AFP) — A jihadist attack on a military camp in western Niger three days ago left 89 soldiers dead, according to a new toll announced by the government on public radio Sunday. “After a thorough search, the toll has been established as 89 dead among friendly forces, and 77 dead for the enemy,” said spokesman Zakaria Abdourahame. Three days of national mourning have been declared to honor the dead. The previous toll given […]
NIAMEY, Nigeria (AFP) — Heavily armed assailants stormed a military base in Niger on Thursday killing 25 people and leading to fierce clashes that killed 63 “terrorists”, the defense ministry said, in an area where dozens died in a previous jihadist attack. The raid near to the volatile frontier with Mali by attackers in vehicles and on motorbikes began in Chinegodar, in the western Tillaberi, at 01:00 pm (12H00 GMT), defense spokesman Colonel Souleymane Gazobi […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan’s military chief was killed in a helicopter crash on Thursday, the defense ministry said, just days before the island goes to polls to elect a new president. The chief of the general staff, Shen Yi-ming, was among eight senior officers — including three major-generals — who died when their Black Hawk helicopter smashed into mountains near Taipei. The 62-year-old general and his entourage were on a routine mission to visit […]
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) –Four children were among 18 people killed Thursday when a Sudanese military transport plane crashed after takeoff from West Darfur state, an army spokesman said. The plane crashed five minutes after takeoff from an airport in the state capital El Geneina, after delivering aid to the area, which had been hit by recent deadly tribal fighting. “An Antonov 12 military plane crashed Thursday night after take off from El Geneina killing its […]
by Hélène COLLIOPOULOU / Jean-Baptiste KETCHATENG DOUALA, Cameroon (AFP) — Armed men staged a night raid on a Greek oil tanker anchored in a Cameroonian port and abducted eight crewmen, including the vessel’s Greek captain, the merchant marine ministry and the ship’s owner said Tuesday. The five Greeks, two Filipinos, and a Ukrainian were part of a 28-member crew aboard the Happy Lady in the port of Limbe, near the economic capital Douala, the ministry […]
