adminChina calls for positive response to Africa’s pleas
UNITED NATIONS. — China’s top UN envoy on Monday urged the Security Council to respond “actively and positively” to the pleas of African countries with respect to the trials of…
Maduro moves to humanise country’s penitentiary system
CARACAS. — Venezuela has transformed its penitentiary system based on a new model of respecting human rights and disarming prisoners, Minister of Penitentiary Affairs Iris Varela said Monday.
Indian Mars mission blasts off successfully
NEW DELHI. – India’s first mission to Mars blasted off successfully yesterday, completing the first stage of an 11-month journey that could see New Delhi’s low-cost programme win Asia’s race…
Britain operating spy post from Berlin embassy
LONDON. – Britain has been operating a secret listening post from its Berlin embassy, a stone’s throw from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, the Independent newspaper claimed yesterday.
Bangladeshi court sentences soldiers to death in mass trial
DHAKA. – A Bangladeshi court sentenced more than 150 soldiers to death and jailed hundreds more yesterday, following a mass trial over a 2009 mutiny in which scores of top…
Russia must join in Syria peace talks
MOSCOW. – Russia insisted yesterday that Iran must be invited to peace negotiations on Syria that world powers hope to hold in Geneva later this month.
Vatican launches global probe on modern families
VATICAN CITY. – The Vatican yesterday launched a worldwide consultation on the new realities of family life including divorce and gay marriage as part of Pope Francis’ efforts to reform…
Window of opportunity closing
BERLIN. — The chances of limiting global temperature increase to two degrees Celsius this century are swiftly diminishing, a new United Nations climate report warned yesterday, ahead of the body’s…
Ex-rebels loot, burn down villages
BANGUI. — Armed members of the Central African Republic’s former rebel coalition looted and burned down about 100 houses last week, African military officials said on Monday, the latest unrest…
Time for patriotic think-tanks
Tichaona Zindoga There is something rather pitiful happening across a swathe of the civil society sector in Zimbabwe these days, almost like a pall hanging over the dead.