DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 28, 2023 (AFP) – Drought and maintenance issues have forced Tanzania to ration electricity, the national provider said, as power shortages roil the East African nation. The authorities imposed rationing measures last week, with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) saying on Wednesday that the shortages would end by March next year. Tanzania currently has the capacity to generate about 1,900 megawatts, according to Gissima Nyamo-Hanga, the new managing director […]
International
Brazil sends emergency aid to drought-hit Amazon state
BRASÍLIA, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – Brazil announced Thursday it will send emergency aid to an Amazon state that is enduring severe drought, with low water levels killing many fish, a key source of food for the Indigenous people who live there. The state of Amazonas in northwest Brazil is the country’s largest by surface area, includes much of the Amazon rainforest and is home to some four million people, the vast majority […]
Armed suspect who caused Oahu Army base lockdown captured in another island
HONOLULU (Eagle News) – Paul A. Smith was captured at Molokai Island’s airport on the evening of Thursday, September 28, after being on the run for allegedly assaulting a U.S. Army Soldier and triggering a lockdown of Schofield Barracks in Central Oahu for nearly three hours. The incident began at around 2:30pm when the military ordered a complete lockdown of Schofield Barracks and the adjacent Wheeler Army Airfield, thus preventing anyone from entering or exiting […]
Philippines vows to remove future barriers at disputed reef
By Faith Brown and Cecil Morella MANILA, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippine Coast Guard vowed Friday to “do whatever it takes” to remove any more floating barriers installed by China at a disputed reef in the South China Sea. The remarks came after an aerial inspection of Scarborough Shoal on Thursday confirmed a 300 metre (328-yard) barrier that ignited the latest diplomatic row between Beijing and Manila had been taken away. AFP journalists […]
Biggest quake in 40 years shakes Italy’s volcanic Campi Flegrei
ROME, Sept 27, 2023 (AFP) – A 4.2-magnitude earthquake shook Italy’s Campi Flegrei region west of Naples in the early hours Wednesday, in the biggest tremor in the area for 40 years, according to experts. The quake scared residents but caused no injuries or damage, according to the civil protection agency. The Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) is a vast volcano, though it is flat rather than cone shaped. While less well-known than nearby Vesuvius, a […]
More than 50 killed, dozens wounded in Pakistan blasts
QUETTA, Pakistan, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – More than 50 people were killed and dozens more wounded in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Friday by a suicide bomber targeting a procession marking the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, officials said. A second suicide attack by two men at a mosque hundreds of kilometres north in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province led to a roof collapse that killed four people, officials said. While the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday […]
Developing story: Rotterdam hospital was warned about shooter: reports
THE HAGUE, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – Dutch authorities had rung alarm bells about the “psychotic behaviour” of a man suspected of a shooting and arson rampage through Rotterdam that claimed three lives, according to local media Friday. The Public Prosecution Service had written earlier in the year to the Erasmus university hospital about the medical student suspected of shooting dead his neighbour, her 14-year-old daughter, and a teacher at the hospital. The man, named […]
Ex-Prigozhin aide to oversee Ukraine volunteer fighters: Kremlin
MOSCOW, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has tasked a former aide of late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to oversee volunteer fighter units in Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement on Friday. “At the last meeting we talked about you overseeing the formation of volunteer units that can carry out various tasks, first and foremost of course in the zone of the special military operation,” Putin was quoted as saying to Andrei […]
Zookeeper dies after apparent lion attack in Japan
TOKYO, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – A zookeeper at a Japanese safari park died after a lion apparently attacked him as he tried to bring the animal to its cage, police said Friday. Kenichi Kato, a 53-year-old worker at Tohoku Safari Park in the Fukushima region, was found bleeding from his neck and unconscious inside the lion’s cage Thursday afternoon, a local police spokesman told AFP. “It is believed that he was feeding a lion,” […]
UN rights experts slam ‘systemic racism’ in US police and courts
A new report by UN International experts advancing racial justice and equality in policing, published after an official visit to the country, shows that Black people in the US are three times more likely to be killed by police than if they were White, and 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated. Dr Tracie Keesee, an expert member of the task force, said the testimonies she heard on how victims do not get justice or […]
President Biden warns US democracy in peril from ‘extremist’ Trump
By Jim Watson with Danny Kemp in Washington TEMPE, United States, Sept 28, 2023 (AFP) – President Joe Biden launched a blistering personal attack on “extremist” Donald Trump Thursday, accusing his likely 2024 challenger of plotting to subvert the US constitution if he wins a return to power next year. The Democrat said in a speech in the battleground state of Arizona that Republican frontrunner Trump was driven by “vengeance and vindictiveness”, and he urged […]
US man shot during protest against conquistador statue
WASHINGTON, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – A man was shot on Thursday in the southwestern US state of New Mexico during a protest against the installation of a statue of a Spanish conquistador, authorities and activists said. “Protesters and counter protesters had gathered… in response to the county’s plans to install a statue of Juan de Onate,” a statement from the city of Espanola read. Onate, who in the late 16th and early 17th centuries […]
