In its quest to fill the dwindling ranks of its infantry, Ukraine has turned to recruiting prisoners to join the fight against Russia, and more than four thousand have applied so far. Under a deal offered to inmates by the government, prisoners will have their remaining sentences cleared – regardless of length – if they agree to serve in the army without leave until the end of the war. At that point they would be granted parole. “My mother was in hysterics … I’ve been here for five years – a year left and I’m going off to war,” one…
Author: KahawaTungu Editor
Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians in a dawn airstrike on Rafah in southern Gaza on Thursday and fighting raged in several other areas of the coastal enclave, Gaza medics said. Israel pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza’s entire land frontier. It said the buffer zone’s capture had cut off a route used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas to smuggle arms into Gaza during more than seven months of war,…
The universally known traffic light has not experienced a significant redesign in almost 100 years, ever since William Pott, a Detroit police officer, created the first three-section traffic light in the United States in 1921. Now, say experts, the rise of driverless cars means that a new set of safety guidelines is needed to ensure they interact correctly with traffic signals. Traffic lights around the world typically use red, amber and green lights to signal to drivers whether they should stop, go or get ready to either stop or go at intersections and pedestrian crossings. Ali Hajbabaie, a North Carolina…
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday signed a bill switching back to a national anthem composed by a British expatriate and adopted at independence, a move some dismissed as a cynical distraction from an escalating economic crisis. “We Hail Thee” will now be used instead of “Arise O’ Compatriots”. The bill introduced last Thursday received an accelerated adoption without any legislative debate. Nigeria’s economy has plunged during Tinubu’s first year in office, which he marked on Wednesday by addressing parliament, with inflation reaching a 28-year high of 33.20%. Also Read: How To Book A Flight Online In Nigeria The independence anthem…
The long queues of voters recalled South Africa’s 1994 ballot that ended white minority rule and ushered in democracy, but for many, gratitude to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) for their historic liberation is wearing thin. As South Africans cast their ballots on Wednesday in the country’s most unpredictable election in three decades of democracy, even some of those proud of Nelson Mandela’s legacy party for the struggle against apartheid were losing patience with economic and social problems it has since failed to fix. “When we voted in 1994 it was about Mandela. This is not the Mandela era…
Democratic Republic of Congo has appointed a new government, spokesperson Tina Salama said in the early hours of Wednesday, ending an impasse that has mired the country in political uncertainty for months. President Felix Tshisekedi won a second term after elections in late 2023 that also handed his Sacred Union coalition a large majority in parliament. But internal jostling for jobs has delayed the formation of a new cabinet of ministers. The president eventually named Judith Suminwa as Congo’s first female prime minister on April 1 and his ex-chief of staff Vital Kamerhe as parliament speaker on May 22, paving…
Haiti’s transitional government council on Tuesday named a new prime minister to lead the violence-hit Caribbean nation, council members said, choosing Garry Conille, who briefly served in that role from 2011 to 2012. A member of the council told AFP that Conille was chosen in a 6-1 vote Tuesday afternoon. Council president Edgard Leblanc and member Fritz Alphonse Jean also announced Conille’s selection on social media. The move comes as Haiti waits desperately for the deployment of a Kenyan-led multinational force tasked with wresting back control from powerful and violent gangs which control swaths of the capital. The UN-backed security…
French police have arrested 15 people for drug trafficking near the athletes’ village built for the upcoming Olympic Games north of Paris, police sources said Wednesday. They arrested the suspects at their homes early on Tuesday and took 14 of them into custody, one of the sources told AFP. Police and customs officers seized just under 10 kilos of herbal cannabis and cannabis resin, 20,000 euros ($21,700) in cash and 48 mobile phones, the source said. The operation close to the Olympic village targeted a dealing point that police have been monitoring in the run-up to the Olympic Games, which…
The use of the death penalty rose to its highest level in nearly a decade in 2023, an Amnesty International report showed Wednesday — but nearly three-quarters of the countries in the world no longer put people to death. And while Iran toppled the grim table of most recorded executions last year with at least 853 hangings, China is believed to be by far the biggest executioner with Amnesty estimating it executes “thousands” each year in secret. Here are some key figures about the practise: Abolished in 112 countries The 16 countries that executed prisoners in 2023 was the lowest…
South Africa’s Julius Malema, who quit the ruling African National Congress to form a radical leftist party, could potentially become a kingmaker or even deputy president if the ANC loses its majority in Wednesday’s election as polls suggest. The prospect of the ANC co-opting Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to stay in power strikes fear into investors and the white upper-middle class he rails against. The EFF’s promises to nationalise the country’s gold and platinum mines and seize land from white farmers are among proposals they fear threaten not just their privileges but also Africa’s most industrialised economy.…
An Indian climber rescued from Everest has died in hospital, a Nepali tourism official said Tuesday, taking the number of fatalities this season on the world’s highest mountain to eight. Banshi Lal, 46, was plucked from the mountain last week and taken to a hospital in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. “He died at the hospital yesterday,” Rakesh Gurung of the tourism department told AFP. Three people — a British climber and two Nepali guides — among the eight are listed as missing but presumed dead. The latest fatality comes as the Everest mountaineering season nears its end, with the death toll…
Cristiano Ronaldo broke the record for the most goals in a Saudi Pro League season when he struck for the 34th and 35th time in Al Nassr’s final game of the campaign. “I don’t follow the records, the records follow me,” the 39-year-old Portuguese forward tweeted afterwards. The former Real Madrid and Manchester United star struck in first-half stoppage time and again in the 69th minute with a header as Al Nassr defeated Al Ittihad 4-2 at home on Monday. The previous record for most goals in a single season was the 34 scored by the Moroccan Abderrazak Hamdallah in…
France forward Anthony Martial on Monday confirmed he will leave Manchester United after nine years. “It’s with great emotion that I write to you today to say goodbye. After nine incredible years at the club, the time has come for me to turn a new page in my career,” Martial said in a statement on Instagram. The 28-year-old joined the Premier League club in a £36 million move ($45.9m) from Monaco in September 2015 but failed to live up to expectations. He has not played a senior game since December after undergoing groin surgery. Also Read: Kroos bids emotional farewell to…
Prosecutors in the trial of Donald Trump will make a final pitch to the jury Tuesday, in their historic pursuit of the first-ever criminal conviction of a former US president. Less than six months before American voters choose whether to return Trump to the White House, the stakes riding on the verdict are hard to overstate — for the 77-year-old personally, but also for the country as a whole. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to buy the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels over a 2006 sexual encounter between them that could have damaged his 2016 presidential…
Papua New Guinea informed the UN on Monday that more than 2,000 people were buried in a massive landslide that swept over a remote village, according to a copy of the letter obtained by AFP. “The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction,” the country’s national disaster centre told the UN office in the capital Port Moresby. A once-bustling remote hillside village in Enga province was almost wiped out when a chunk of Mount Mungalo collapsed in the early hours of Friday morning, burying scores of homes and the people sleeping inside them. The landslide caused…