WORLD

French President François Hollande has used a ceremony to honour a police officer slain in Paris last week to call for unity in the “long and difficult fight against terrorism”. He awarded Xavier Jugelé, 37, the Legion of Honour, one of France’s highest honours. The two candidates to succeed Mr Hollande, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, both attended. They ...

A least 24 people have been killed and several injured in a head-on collision between a passenger’s bus and a tanker carrying cooking oil on the road between the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa. The accident occurred in the Kibwezi area shortly after midnight local time when the bus driver was trying to overtake another vehicle but ...

New York – The United Nations on Monday criticised Congolese authorities for releasing a video showing the grisly murders of two UN experts, saying the move could harm the investigation and was traumatic for the families. “The video is evidence in the crime. We don’t think it should have been released. We don’t think it should have been shown,” said ...

The authorities in Somalia have executed four men who were behind twin blasts which killed dozens of people in the south-western city of Baidoa in February 2016, military officer Major Nur Aden has said, Reuters news agency reports. The four, who were members of militant Islamist group al-Shabab, were sentenced to death in February by a military court which found ...

A pastor in Uganda has denied burning bibles, a pentecostal group has said. The National Fellowship Of Born Again Pentecostal Churches of Uganda (NFBPC) said it met Pastor Aloysious Bugingo on Sunday after becoming “greatly alarmed” by reports that he was “leading a campaign to burn Bibles”. A video emerged recently on social media of the pastor purportedly condemning the ...

Nairobi – Kenyan political parties have reportedly been given a five-day extension to nominate their candidates for the upcoming general elections in August, after a successful court ruling. According to BBC, the primaries must now be held by May 1, after a successful court challenge to extend the April 26 deadline. During the court challenge, the east African country’s political ...

Afghanistan’s defence minister and army chief of staff have resigned in the wake of Friday’s Taliban attack that left scores of soldiers dead, the presidential palace says. The attack happened at an army base near the northern Mazar-e Sharif city. Insurgents targeted troops leaving Friday prayers at the base’s mosque and in a canteen, the army said. It was the ...

President François Hollande has called on French voters to reject far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and back Emmanuel Macron to succeed him. The pair will face each other in a run-off vote on 7 May after taking the top places in Sunday’s first round, with Mr Macron the current favourite to win. Mr Hollande said a far-right victory would endanger ...

A new conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has seen hundreds killed, a million displaced and the reported recruitment of thousands of child soldiers. The BBC’s Catherine Byaruhanga has gained rare access to central Kasai region to report on the crisis, sparked by the killing of a rebel leader last year. Paul’s lips tremble, his voice breaks and he ...

Space: the final frontier, the gateway to other worlds and civilizations, a constant source of wonder and speculation. By the way, on that note, what’s it like to poop and have sex up there, anyway? (If you’re wondering what your poop says about your health, though, we have the answer.) These queries, paramount in their importance to the scientific pursuits of ...