Month: January 2020

Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) – Former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh, forced into exile in 2017, has been heard in a leaked recording demanding that his right to return be respected by the authorities. Jammeh has hardly been heard from since fleeing to Equatorial Guinea. His comments were made public in a recording of a conversation between…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Sunday tried to amplify voices of dissent in Iran by suggesting that the Islamic Republic is under internal threat after denying and then admitting it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said street protests in Tehran show that the Iranian people are hungry for…

Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump warned Iran against cracking down on protests that broke out after it admitted shooting down an airliner by mistake, killing all 176 people aboard. “The government of Iran must allow human rights groups to monitor and report facts from the ground on the ongoing protests by the Iranian…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s acknowledgement that it shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing 176 people, raises new challenges for the Islamic Republic both externally amid tensions with the U.S. and internally as it deals with growing discontent from its people. The country did itself no favors by having its air-crash investigators, government…

Welcome to 2020 Vision, the Yahoo News column covering the presidential race. Reminder: There are 24 days until the Iowa caucuses and 298 days until the 2020 presidential election. The Iran crisis collided with the Democratic presidential race this week as Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Trump battled over the circumstances of the U.S. strike…

Key point: In any military confrontation with the United States, China’s at-sea outposts would almost certainly be quickly rolled back by waves of airstrikes and cruise missile attacks, devastating People’s Liberation Army facilities and stranding the personnel manning them. In recent years the People’s Republic of China has laid claim to ninety percent of the South…

(Bloomberg) — Sign up to our Next Africa newsletter and follow Bloomberg Africa on Twitter South Africa’s biggest labor group called for the entire board of Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to be dismissed, along with Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, citing mismanagement of the state-owned utility’s operations and finances. “This board has been there for…

London (AFP) – The British government announced Friday that it has formally requested the extradition of the wife of a US diplomat who left the country after being involved in a car accident that killed a teenager. The US State Department responded by saying such an extradition would be “an abuse” because the woman had…

The Australian prime minister has admitted to not dealing with parts of the nation’s ongoing wildfire crisis very well, as well as proposing a review into the country’s response. Scott Morrison, who has had some tense exchanges with residents while visiting affected areas, said: “There are things I could have handled on the ground much…

A suicide bomber targeted a mosque in southwestern Pakistan during evening prayers Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 19 others, officials said. The blast took place in a satellite town of Quetta, the province’s main city. Debris and shattered glass littered the scene. Fida Mohammad, who was attending evening prayers, said about 60…