France begins shutting down oldest nuke plant
French state-owned energy giant EDF on Saturday began shutting down the country’s oldest nuclear power plant after 43 years in operation. EDF said it had disconnected one of two reactors at Fessenheim, along the Rhine near France’s eastern border with Germany and Switzerland, at 2:00 am (0100 GMT) in the first...
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Twitter suspends 70 pro-Bloomberg accounts for breaking rules
23 February 2020 | AFP -
South Sudan’s rival leaders form coalition Government
23 February 2020 | AFP -
Prince Harry, Meghan agree to drop ‘royal’ from their new branding
23 February 2020 | PTI -
Iran’s hard-liners take early lead in Tehran after vote
23 February 2020 | AP -
Partial truce mostly holds across Afghan on first day
23 February 2020 | AFP -
If peace comes: Afghans dream of life after war
23 February 2020 | AFP -
US says Russia behind huge virus disinformation drive
23 February 2020 | AFP
2nd death sparks fears, lockdown in Italian towns
Streets were deserted and residents warned to keep out of an emergency room on Saturday in an Italian town placed under lockdown as a second death from coronavirus sparked fears throughout the region. “No entry” read the sign on the emergency room in the small town of Codogno with a population...
G20 Ministers weigh virus risks at Saudi meeting
Finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 nations weighed the potential impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the world economy as they met in Riyadh Saturday for a two-day gathering. At the meeting in Saudi Arabia, the first Arab nation to hold the G20 presidency, financial leaders from the world’s...
WHO sounds alarm over Africa virus preparedness
The World Health Organisation warned on Saturday that African health systems would be ill-equipped to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate on the continent. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on African Union member states “to come together to be more aggressive in attacking” the virus,...
Virus spreads in S Korean city as thousands are screened
South Korea on Saturday reported an eight-fold jump in viral infections in four days to 433, most of them linked to a church and a hospital in and around the country’s fourth-largest city, where health workers scrambled to screen more than 9,000 worshippers. There’s concern that the death toll, currently at...
Unearthing of graves stokes ethnic tensions ahead of Burundi polls
A Government commission which has exhumed the remains of more than 6,000 Burundians slaughtered in pogroms in 1972 is being accused of exploiting the sombre task for political gain and stoking ethnic tensions ahead of elections. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up in 2014 to deliver justice and closure...
Iran votes in general election marred by disqualifications
Iran went to the polls Friday for a general election that conservatives are expected to dominate amid voter apathy after an economic slump, multiple crises and the disqualification of thousands of candidates. The 11th parliamentary election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution comes after steeply escalating tensions between Iran and the United...
Lankan parliamentary committee proposes immediate burqa ban
A Sri Lankan parliamentary committee on national security has proposed an immediate ban on the burqa and suspending the registration of political parties on ethnic and religious basis, following the Easter Sunday terror attack that killed over 250 people. The proposals featured in a special report presented in Parliament on Thursday...
