WORLD

Nairobi – Somali pirates have hijacked an Iranian fishing boat and taken it to a port in the north of the country, a watchdog group said on Wednesday. The ocean-going dhow with a crew of up to 20 was seized by pirates off Qandala in the semi-autonomous Puntland region on Tuesday, said John Steed, regional manager for Oceans Beyond Piracy, ...

Harare – President Robert Mugabe’s only daughter Bona has been appointed to the country’s Censorship Board, which determines which parts of steamy films the people of Zimbabwe can watch and which they can’t. To help her in this task is Mugabe’s longstanding friend and confidante, Father Fidelis Mukonori, who is a Roman Catholic priest, and former education minister Aeneas Chigwedere, ...

At least 20 migrants, some of them young children, have drowned after falling into the sea off the Libyan coast, Italy’s coastguard says. The overcrowded boat was carrying about 500 migrants and a rescue operation is under way, reports say. “There’s a critical situation… about 200 people fell into the water,” a coastguard spokesman said. The central Mediterranean route for ...

US President Donald Trump has met Pope Francis at the Vatican for a short private audience on the third leg of his overseas trip. He arrived for the meeting along with his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The meeting was keenly awaited as the two men have already clashed at a distance on issues including migration and ...

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus from Ethiopia will be the next director general of the World Health Organization (WHO). He will be the first African to head up the UN agency, after winning the most votes from 186 member states. He replaces Margaret Chan, who will step down from her 10-year post at the end of June. During her tenure, the WHO’s ...

Boko Haram militants have beheaded four internally displaced people in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday ( 20 May), local media reported. The victims were decapitated as they were hunting outside the Dalori camp in Maiduguri, capital of restive Borno state, the Premium Times reported. The victims were part of a 12-men-strong hunting group. Six of them managed to return to the ...

Twenty-two people, including children, have been killed and 59 injured in a suspected suicide attack at Manchester Arena. The blast happened at 22:35 BST on Monday at the end of a concert by the US singer Ariana Grande. Greater Manchester Police said the lone male attacker, who died in the blast, was carrying an improvised explosive device which he detonated. ...

Dozens of students walked out of Notre Dame University’s commencement exercise on Sunday to protest a speech by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who warned graduates of the prestigious Catholic school against suppressing free speech. The protesters, among the thousands of graduates and guests assembled in the university’s football stadium, stood up when the conservative Republican began his speech and ...

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are donating $100 million to a women’s empowerment fund proposed by Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s elder daughter and a senior White House adviser. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced the contribution to the World Bank Women Entrepreneurs Fund at a meeting in Riyadh between Ivanka Trump and 15 Saudi women Sunday, ...

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) – Suspected Boko Haram jihadists killed six people fighting alongside the military in two separate incidents in northeast Nigeria, vigilantes told AFP Sunday. Four of the slain vigilantes were hunting in the bush near a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of the city of Maiduguri when they were seized in a daytime attack. Vigilante ...