(Reuters) — Nigeria’s air force killed 50 people and injured 120 in an air strike on a camp for displaced persons in the northeast of the country on Tuesday (January 17), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said. The military said the strike had targeted Boko Haram. MSF said the strike occurred in Rann in Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadist group’s seven-year-old bid to create an Islamic caliphate. Regional military commander General Lucky Irabor located […]
International
US contributes $500-million to UN Green Climate Fund
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The outgoing Barack Obama administration announced Tuesday a contribution of half a billion dollars to the UN Green Climate Fund, just three days before Donald Trump takes over the White House. The $500 million payment, announced by State Department spokesman John Kirby in a statement, is the second from the United States to support the United Nations Green Climate Fund, which aims to mitigate the effects of climate change in […]
Florida nightclub gunman’s wife accused of misleading police
CALIFORNIA, United States (Reuters) — The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, appeared an Oakland, California court on Tuesday (January 17), accused of misleading authorities investigating the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Noor Salman faces up to life in prison on a charge of aiding and abetting husband Omar Mateen’s attempt to provide material support to a terrorist organization and is also accused of […]
Brazil calls up army to quell prison violence
by Johannes MYBURGH Agence France-Presse NATAL, Brazil (AFP) – Brazil’s government Tuesday ordered the armed forces to help secure the country’s overcrowded jails as police fought to separate rival gangs of inmates in one prison following a massacre. Inmates climbed on the roof and set up barriers of furniture in a northeastern jail inhabited by warring rival drug gangs vowing to behead each other. Police fired rubber bullets to try to keep apart two rival […]
Obama commutes sentence of WikiLeaks source Manning
by Andrew BEATTY Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Tuesday commuted the sentence of transgender soldier Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years behind bars for handing classified US documents to WikiLeaks. Obama pardoned 64 people and commuted the sentences of 209 others, including Manning, in one of his final acts as president. Manning was convicted in August 2013 of espionage and other offenses after admitting to leaking 700,000 […]
Gambia’s president declares state of emergency
BANJUL, Gambia (AFP) – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh on Tuesday declared a state of emergency just two days before he was due to step down, denouncing what he called dangerous foreign meddling in the country’s post-electoral crisis. The measure was prompted by the “unprecedented and extraordinary amount of foreign interference in the December 1 presidential elections and also in the internal affairs of The Gambia,” Jammeh announced on state TV. The 15-nation Economic Community Of West […]
Mystery remains as MH370 search called off
by Glenda Kwek SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — The massive underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was called off Tuesday, leaving unsolved one of the most enduring mysteries of the aviation age. Nearly three years after the airliner vanished, distraught relatives refused to accept the idea that the 239 passengers and crew might now never be found after the failure of one of the most expensive undersea operations ever. “Despite every effort using […]
Obama warns Trump not to jettison Iran nuclear deal
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Barack Obama on Monday marked the first anniversary of the nuclear deal with Iran by emphasizing its “significant and concrete results” and warning against undoing a pact supported by the world’s major powers. In language that seemed clearly directed at incoming president Donald Trump, who is set to take office on Friday, Obama said “the United States must remember that this agreement was the result of years of […]
Democrats not attending Trump’s inauguration
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers have now said they will not attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration on Friday, the vast majority of them in protest at Trump’s attack on civil rights icon John Lewis and others. The following is a list of those who have publicly said they will not attend the ceremony, and the states which they represent: House of Representatives Earl Blumenauer (Oregon) Judy Chu (California) Katherine […]
Kyrgyzstan blames pilot error for Turkish cargo plane hitting village
by Vyacheslav Oseledko with Tolkun Namatbayeva in Bishkek Agence France Presse DACHA SUU , Kygyzstan (AFP) — A cargo plane attempting to land in thick fog crashed Monday into a village near Kyrgyzstan’s main airport and killed at least 37 people, with authorities blaming “pilot error”. A massive section of the aircraft’s tail billowed smoke as rescuers searched for victims among the wreckage in the village of Dacha-Suu, home to the majority of the victims. […]
Biden urges Trump to keep up cancer campaign
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) — US Vice President Joe Biden, speaking just days before he leaves office, on Monday urged the incoming Trump administration to maintain his national fight to eradicate cancer. “This is the one bipartisan thing that exists and I pray will continue to exist in the new administration,” Biden told an audience of executives and opinion-makers at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos. The vice president lost his son […]
EU ‘has no need for outside advice,’ France’s Hollande says of Trump
PARIS, France (AFP) — French President Francois Hollande replied bluntly on Monday to Donald Trump’s criticism of the European Union, saying the EU “has no need for outside advice” on its affairs. “I say it here, Europe will always be willing to pursue transatlantic cooperation, but it will determine its path on the basis of its own interests and values,” Hollande said at a ceremony in Paris for outgoing US ambassador Jane Hartley. “It has […]