World
Mozambique crisis fueled by corporate, government greed not Isis
Recent attacks by armed insurgents, or Al-Shabab, near Mozambique’s $20 billion liquefied national gas project under development by French company Total SE may have more to do with a history of local grievances than a war by terrorists. A private security army has also been on the ground to protect the project and the interests of Total SE investors. The behavior...
Iran’s FM Zarif discusses latest regional developments with Turkmenistan officials, wraps up Central Asian tour
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has met with top Turkmen officials in Ashgabat, where they discussed the latest regional and bilateral developments. Mr. Zarif, concluding his Central Asian tour, met on April 8 with his Turkmen counterpart, Rasit Meredow, during which he praised Tehran-Ashgabat political, economic and cultural relations as positive. The Iranian foreign minister underlined the necessity of boosting the...
France to open archive for period covering Rwandan genocide
PARIS—France’s role before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide was a “monumental failure” that the country must acknowledge, the lead author of a report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron said, as the country is about to open its archives from this period to the public. The report, published in March, concluded that French authorities remained blind to the preparations for genocide...
Egypt under international fire for rights abuses
The United Nations Human Rights Council has called out the Arab Republic of Egypt to end suppression of freedoms of expression and assembly. The council expressed “deep concern” for pervasive human rights violations committed with impunity by Egyptian authorities. A joint statement was signed by 31 mostly Western nations, including the United States, which has observer status on the council....
Biden following in Trump’s footsteps, time to abandon pressure policy: Zarif
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has lashed out at the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden for upholding the same pressure policy of his predecessor, Donald Trump, which he himself once criticized sharply. In a post on his Twitter account March 30, Zarif shared a statement made by the U.S. president back in June 2019, in which Biden called...
UN investigation concludes French military airstrike killed Mali civilians
In a recent statement, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has concluded that a Jan. 3 French military airstrike on the central Malian village of Bounty, hit a group largely made up of civilians, killing several of them. The day after the attack, a MINUSMA fact-finding team, made up of 15 human rights officers, and supported by two UN...
Cuba has the highest rate of recovered Covid-19 patients in the Americas
(GRANMA)—With the highest rate of patients recovered from Covid-19 in the Americas —94.2% as of March 20, according to the Ministry of Public Health—and two of its five candidate vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials, Cuba is consolidating its national strategy to confront the pandemic, with results that were recognized by the President of Bolivia, Luis Arce. “We...
Covid-19 origins report inconclusive: We must ‘leave no stone unturned’—WHO chief
The report from a team of international scientists assembled by the World Health Organization (WHO) to examine how Covid-19 first spread to humans was recently published, and was described by the UN health agency’s chief as a welcome start, but far from conclusive. “This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros...
Report: Military cleanup in Puerto Rico islands slow-going
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—The reopening of hiking trails and various white-sand beaches on two tiny Puerto Rican islands long used as Navy bombing ranges and now popular with tourists will be delayed more than a decade, according to a federal report released recently. Cleanup efforts in Vieques and Culebra led respectively by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S....
Tanzania swears in the world’s first female Black Muslim president
The African continent should be proud of Tanzania’s seamless passing of power to vice president now President Samia Suluhu Hassan. The world’s first Black Muslim female world leader took the oath of office holding a Holy Qur’an after the death of the East African country’s beloved president and former science professor John Magufuli. “I think the fact that she’s Muslim...