China will send a robotic spacecraft in coming days on a round trip to the moon’s far side in the first of three technically demanding missions that will pave the way for an inaugural Chinese crewed landing and a base on the lunar south pole. Since the first Chang’e mission in 2007, named after the mythical Chinese moon goddess, China has made leaps forward in its lunar exploration, narrowing the technological chasm with the United States and Russia. In 2020, China brought back samples from the moon’s near side in the first sample retrieval in more than four decades, confirming…
Author: KahawaTungu Editor
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says only the United States could stop Israel from attacking the border city of Rafah in Gaza, adding that the assault, which he expects within days, could force much of the Palestinian population to flee the enclave. “We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday. Israel, which has threatened for weeks to launch an all-out…
Burkina Faso has said a Human Rights Watch report alleging that soldiers killed at least 223 villagers in two attacks on February 25 made “baseless accusations”. The HRW report on Thursday accused the military of executing residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with rebel fighters. The New York-based group said its report was based on telephone interviews with witnesses, civil society and others. “The government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations,” Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said in a statement late on Saturday.…
Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw away to West Ham United on Saturday, suffering a further blow to their hopes of lifting the Premier League trophy in manager Jurgen Klopp’s final season at the club. https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1784212344093941832 Liverpool, still reeling from a 2-0 loss at Everton in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday, were marginally the better side in a flat first half. The visitors had a penalty denied for an offside in the build-up before Luis Díaz hit the post. They again conceded first, however, when Jarrod Bowen nodded home shortly before halftime, his 20th goal of the season in…
Manchester United could only muster a point against Burnley on Saturday after substitute Zeki Amdouni scored a late penalty to rescue a 1-1 Premier League draw for the relegation-threatened side. https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1784250289081450782 Burnley’s 87th-minute penalty, awarded after goalkeeper André Onana fouled Amdouni in the box, cancelled a late strike by Antony and leaves Erik ten Hag’s team sixth in the standings. The draw leaves United in sixth place in the Premier League. They will be mathematically ruled out of qualifying for the Champions League if fourth-placed Aston Villa pick up at least a point against Chelsea later on Saturday. Also Read: Havertz…
Donald Trump’s lawyer sought on Friday to undermine the credibility of a former tabloid publisher who testified at the former president’s criminal trial about his paper’s efforts to bury news that could have damaged Trump’s 2016 White House bid. In a second day of cross-examination, Trump lawyer Emil Bove sought to highlight discrepancies in the testimony of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who has described working with Trump’s campaign to suppress allegations of adultery at a time when the then-presidential candidate was facing multiple accusations of sexual misbehaviour. Bove asked whether Pecker had inaccurately testified that Trump thanked him…
Qatar has announced that it will provide $3m to the office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, as part of a push to support “welfare and safety” in the war-torn country. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that the funds aim to support initiatives designed to improve the lives of children, citizens affected by armed conflicts and the overall population in Ukraine. “Furthermore, the fund will contribute to increasing legal support and improving the necessary infrastructure required to provide the support needed for families affected by conflict in Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement. The ministry…
Prosecutors in New York City have announced that they returned to Cambodia and Indonesia 30 antiquities that were looted, sold or illegally transferred by networks of American antiquities dealers and traffickers. The antiquities were valued at a total of $3m, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement on Friday. Bragg said he had returned 27 pieces to Phnom Penh and three to Jakarta in two recent repatriation ceremonies, including a bronze statue of the Hindu deity Shiva, which was looted from Cambodia, and a stone bas-relief sculpture of two royal figures from the Majapahit empire, which reigned between…
Burkina Faso has suspended the BBC and Voice of America (VOA) radio networks from broadcasting for two weeks over their coverage of a report accusing the army of the extrajudicial killings of civilians, the authorities said. In a new report published on Thursday, international organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) said military forces “summarily executed” 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, in two villages in February. The country’s Superior Council for Communication (known by its French acronym CSC) announced late on Thursday that “the programmes of these two international radio networks broadcasting from Ouagadougou have been suspended for a period of two weeks”, adding that…
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has capped a visit to Beijing by meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two countries try to stabilise relations amid disputes over national security, the economy, and geopolitical differences on the Middle East, Ukraine and Southeast Asia. Xi told the top US diplomat on Friday that the two superpowers “should be partners rather than rivals” and should help each other succeed rather than hurt each other, according to the state news agency Xinhua. “I proposed mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation to be the three overarching principles. They are both lessons…
A 13-year-old girl made a first appearance in court in Wales on Friday on three counts of attempted murder after two teachers and a pupil were stabbed at a secondary school. The attack occurred at the Amman Valley School in Ammanford, north of Swansea, just after 11.00 am (1000 GMT) on Wednesday. Following the incident, the school went into lockdown for four hours after a “code red” alarm sounded through the public address system. Two teachers and a teenage pupil were taken to hospital with stab wounds. The girl, whose name cannot be published because she is under 18, confirmed…
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has helped in the fight against rebels for more than two decades, has closed one of its key bases as it prepares to leave the Central African nation this year at the request of the government. The mission, also known as MONUSCO, closed a major base near the city of Bukavu in a ceremony on Thursday attended by Bintou Keita, the head of MONUSCO, along with DRC military and government officials. The base, along with others slated to close by the end of the year, will be…
Burkina Faso’s military forces “summarily executed” 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, in two villages in February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a new report. The mass killings took place on February 25 in the northern villages of Nondin and Soro, according to the report published on Thursday. The international rights group said the massacre appeared to be part of a widespread military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with armed groups. Soldiers killed at least 44 people, including 20 children, in Nondin, and 179 people, including 36 children, in nearby Soro. HRW said it interviewed dozens of…
East Africa has been lashed by relentless downpours in recent weeks, as El Nino exacerbates the seasonal rainfall. Storms and flash floods turned roads into gushing rivers and swamped homes with waist-high muddy water across the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, killing at least 10 people. The East Africa region has been lashed by relentless downpours in recent weeks, as the El Nino weather pattern exacerbates the seasonal rainfall. Across Nairobi, vehicles were stranded in the deluge and people waded through floodwaters in slum areas to reach safety. According to the Nairobi county governor’s office, an estimated 60,000 people, mostly women and…
Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored in an impressive 2-0 home victory over Liverpool in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday that could prove to be the death of the visitors’ withering Premier League title hopes. https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1783239617136701817 Everton’s first derby victory at Goodison Park in more than 13 years prevented Liverpool from climbing level with Arsenal at the top of the league table. Jurgen Klopp’s men are three points behind the Gunners (77) with four games to play. Holders Manchester City remain in the driver’s seat on 73 points with two games in hand. Everton’s victory has them breathing easier,…