WORLD

Maiduguri – Nigeria says negotiations with Boko Haram continue for the release of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped three years ago by the extremist group, shocking the world. The government “has gone quite far with negotiations”, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said on Wednesday night. He spoke shortly before Friday’s three-year anniversary of the mass abduction of 276 schoolgirls ...

Africans trying to reach Europe are being sold by their captors in “slave markets” in Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says. Victims told IOM that after being detained by people smugglers or militia groups, they were taken to town squares or car parks to be sold. Migrants with skills like painting or tiling would fetch higher prices, the ...

Two adults and a child have been killed in a shooting in a classroom of a primary school in San Bernardino, California, police say. The suspect shot and killed his estranged wife, a teacher, and wounded two children who were behind her, one of whom died of his wounds. He then turned the gun on himself, police said. Police chief ...

The Managing Consultant of Centre for Media Analysis, Dr. Messan Mawugbe, has chastised the Chinese mission in Ghana for questioning the approach of the Ghanaian media in reporting Chinese involvement in illegal mining—otherwise known galamsey. According to him, the claims by the Chinese mission are groundless. The mission in a letter addressed to Ghana’s Lands and Natural Resources Minister complained ...

Videos showing a man being violently removed from a United Airlines flight have provoked an outcry on social media. The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being violently pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle as passengers prepared to take off from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening. The airline in question – United – ...

Spanish police have arrested a Russian programmer for alleged involvement in “hacking” the US election, Spanish press reports have said. Pyotr Levashov, arrested on 7 April in Barcelona, has now been remanded in custody. A “legal source” also told the AFP news agency that Mr Levashov was the subject of an extradition request by the US. The request is due ...

At least 31 people have died in Egypt after blasts targeted Coptic Christians on Palm Sunday. Six people were killed when an explosion struck outside St Mark’s Coptic Church in Alexandria, according to official sources. Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Church, had been attending mass inside. Twenty-five people had died in an earlier blast at St George’s Coptic ...

Mogadishu – Somalia’s northeastern semiautonomous state of Puntland has executed five men who were convicted of murdering two regional officials. Saturday’s executions by firing squad are the latest of several in the region that is battling both extremist group al-Shabaab and fighters linked to the Islamic State group. A military court sentenced the five defendants for the murders in December ...

Rabat – Morocco’s new government is set to be dominated by officials close to the palace despite the premier hailing from the country’s ruling Islamist party. King Mohamed VI on Wednesday announced the new line-up to be led by Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othman, second-in-command of the Justice and Development Party (PJD). Local press on Thursday said the new government ...

Maiduguri – Five people were wounded and two female suicide bombers died on Saturday in an attack outside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, local police said. The women wearing explosive belts died after one activated her explosives when stopped trying to enter a mosque near a federal court in Maiduguri, said Borno police spokesperson Victor Isuku. “Following an explosion close ...