Ethiopia has called on neighbouring Eritrea to withdraw its troops that it alleges are inside its territory. The demand was contained in a letter from Ethiopia’s foreign minister to his Eritrean counterpart, which also accused Eritrea of “outright aggression” saying it was conducting joint manoeuvres with Ethiopian rebels in the north and supplying them with weapons. Eritrea has not yet commented on the accusation but has previously denied its soldiers had crossed the two countries’ common border. There has long been a history of tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which split off from its larger neighbour three decades ago, and…
Author: Oki Bin Oki
A South African man named in a major police corruption probe has died after reportedly shooting himself at a petrol station. Police are now investigating the death of Wiandre Pretorius, 41, who last week said he had survived an assassination attempt. Pretorius’s name had been mentioned at the ongoing corruption inquiry, known as the Madlanga Commission. This was in connection with the 2022 murder of a witness, Emmanuel Mbense, allegedly at the hands of police officers. Four of the 12 people named as persons of interest in that killing are now dead themselves, a police spokesperson said. At 22:00 local…
Russia says it has identified three suspects involved in the shooting of high-profile military general Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev. They include the man said to have carried out the attack, who has been named as Ukrainian-born Russian citizen Lyubomir Korba. Russia’s Investigations Committee (SK) said Korba arrived in the capital, Moscow, in late December “on assignment from Ukrainian intelligence services to commit a terrorist attack”. Kyiv has reportedly denied involvement. Alexeyev, 64, was taken to hospital after the attack in a residential block of flats in the north-western outskirts of Moscow on Friday. He has since regained consciousness after surgery,…
Japan’s ruling party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, is set to seal a decisive win in Sunday’s snap election, exit polls suggest. The country’s first female prime minister is seeking a clear public mandate just four months after becoming Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) leader. Her predicted success is in marked contrast to her two predecessors, under whom the party lost its parliamentary majority because of corruption scandals and rising costs. An LDP-led coalition has governed Japan for much of its post-war history due to the lack of a strong opposition. Some called the snap election a big gamble after…
Google executives are facing pressure from staff over the company’s ties to the federal government’s crackdown on immigration enforcement, which in recent months turned violent and deadly. In an open letter published on Friday, nearly 900 full-time Google employees demanded more transparency over what the company’s technology is being used for inside the US government. Google has contracts to provide federal agencies with cloud services and also has links to work being done on federal immigration enforcement. In a call after the letter was published, a Google employee of seven years said he found it “mind-boggling” that Google was maintaining…
Google has revealed YouTube brought in more than $60bn (£44bn) in revenue in 2025 as the firm targets getting more subscribers. The figure, which totals the money generated through advertising on YouTube as well as paid subscriptions, far surpasses streaming rival Netflix’s $45bn revenue. It appears to be the first time Google has individually highlighted its video platform’s yearly revenue since acquiring it in 2006. Midia Research senior analyst Hanna Kahlert said while it was a big announcement, it was “perhaps not a surprising one” – with the platform becoming “almost infrastructural for digital natives”. “YouTube is one of –…
A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange accidentally gave away more than $40bn (£32bn) worth of bitcoin to customers, briefly making them multi-millionaires. It had planned to give customers a small cash reward of 2,000 won – $1,37 – but instead gave them 2,000 bitcoins on Friday. The platform, Bithumb, apologised for the error, adding that it quickly had realised its mistake and recovered almost all the missing tokens. It said it had restricted trading and withdrawals for the 695 affected customers within 35 minutes of the glitch. The company said it had recovered 99.7% of the 620,000 bitcoins mistakenly sent. “We…
The US Department of Defense is severing its academic connections to Harvard University, with Secretary Pete Hegseth accusing the oldest US university of being a centre of “hate-America activism”. In a video posted on X, Hegseth announced the Pentagon would end graduate-level military training, fellowships and certificate programs with the Ivy League institution. Harvard has become a “factory for woke ideology and a breeding ground for anti-American radicals” that does not align with the department’s focus on “lethality” and “deterrence”, he said. For months, The Trump administration has threatened to cut funds and take other measures against Harvard, alleging it…
Wiper Party leader Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka accused State House of interfering with the publication of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party’s leadership changes in the Kenya Gazette, terming the move an attack on Kenya’s multiparty democracy. In a statement issued on Saturday, Kalonzo said the Government Printer had been instructed to halt the gazettement of Azimio’s newly constituted leadership despite the changes having been legally effected and approved by the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP). According to Kalonzo, Philip Kisia was appointed Executive Director, Caroli Omondi as Secretary General, while he assumed the position of Party Leader,…
A key participant in the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed four Americans has been taken into custody and is facing charges in the U.S., Justice Department officials said Friday. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Zubayr al-Bakoush landed at Joint Base Andrews at 3 a.m. on Friday and would be tried in federal court in the District of Columbia. Officials didn’t say how long he’d been in custody, or where he had been apprehended. “Al-Bakoush will now face American justice on American soil,” Bondi said. An eight-count indictment charged al-Bakoush…
The EU has told TikTok it must change its “addictive design” or face heavy fines, after it found the video sharing platform had breached its online safety rules. It follows an investigation which began in February 2024 into the Chinese-owned app by the European Commission. In its preliminary findings, the Commission said TikTok did not “adequately assess” how features like autoplay could harm the wellbeing of its users, including children, and said it failed to implement measures to mitigate the risks. A TikTok spokesperson told the BBC the findings presented a “categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform”…
Snoop Dogg might have taken most of the attention in the Cortina Curling Stadium early on Friday, but Team GB’s duo delivered two big-ticket performances of their own to maintain their 100% record in the Winter Olympics mixed doubles. The rap legend – in the high-end Italian mountain resort as a Team USA hype man and “honorary coach” – had a practice on the ice himself in front of a small crowd of bemused onlookers following the morning session. And that came after the 54-year-old demanded a selfie with Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat, fresh from their win over Sweden.…
At least 18 miners have died and one is severely injured after an explosion at an illegally-operated coal mine in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya, police say. Rescue operations are on and some people are still feared trapped, police say, adding that the blast occurred around 11:00 local time (5:30 GMT) on Thursday in the East Jaintia Hills of the state. Superintendent of the state police Vikash Kumar told reporters that the accident happened due to rat-hole mining – a hazardous method which involves the use of dynamite to break open narrow tunnels through which workers crouch to extract coal.…
A 52-year-old fisherman has died after being attacked by a crocodile while fleeing a herd of elephants in eastern Zambia, police say. Dean Nyirenda was returning from a fishing trip with two friends on Wednesday when they bumped into the elephants. They ran away, with Nyirenda diving into a stream near the Luangwa River. “That is when he was attacked by a crocodile by biting his right thigh,” local police chief Robertson Mweemba told journalists. The southern African country has a thriving elephant population and clashes between humans and wildlife have claimed many lives in recent years. Police said Nyirenda…
US President Donald Trump has shared a video on social media which included a racist clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The clip – set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight – was at the end of a 62-second video containing claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Republican Senator Tim Scott – who is black – called for the president to remove the post, describing it as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House”. The White House defended the clip as an “internet meme video” and told critics to “stop…