Kenya, Uganda reach deal to accelerate truck movement to ease snarl-up in Malaba

Kenya’s Transport CS James Macharia (2nd right) and his Ugandan counterpart Katumba Wamala (3rd left) on Saturday at the Malaba border. NAIROBI, Jan 24 (NNN-KNA) — Kenya and Ugandan authorities have resolved to suspend truck scanning in Malaba-Kenya in as a measure to clear a 40-kilometre traffic snarl-up stretching from…

5-year-old Nigerian girl murdered by school proprietor: Deputy UN chief calls for justice

Hanifa Abubakar UNITED NATIONS, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Amina Mohmmed, the deputy United Nations Secretary-General has reacted to the gruesome murder of a five-year-old school girl by her teacher.The top diplomat has joined the calls for justice to be served saying she was outraged and deeply saddened by the death…

Mexico: Journalist murdered in Tijuana, second in less than a week

TIJUANA (Mexico), Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A journalist was killed in Tijuana Sunday, the local prosecutor said, the second media worker murdered in less than a week in the Mexican city on the US border. Lourdes Maldonado Lopez was “attacked with a firearm while she was in a vehicle”, said…

Afghanistan: Taliban, Western officials meet for Monday talks in Oslo

   OSLO, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Taliban and Western diplomats meet in Oslo on Monday for talks on Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis and human rights, especially those of women whose freedoms have been curbed by the hardline Islamists.  In their first visit to Europe since returning to power in August, the…

Italy’s parliament starts voting for president in wide-open race

ROME, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Italy’s parliament will begin voting on Monday for a new head of state, with Prime Minister Mario Draghi among the most prominent candidates in a wide-open contest which will be closely monitored by financial markets. There are concerns among politicians in Italy that the result…

Peru races to save birds threatened by oil spill

LIMA, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A Lima zoo is racing to save dozens of seabirds, including protected penguins, left covered in oil after 6,000 barrels of crude spilled off Peru’s coast due to waves from a volcanic eruption in the South Pacific. More than 40 birds, including Humboldt penguins —…

Covid-19: Thousands march in Washington against vaccine mandates

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Waving signs denouncing President Joe Biden and calling for “freedom,” several thousand people demonstrated in Washington Sunday against what some described as the “tyranny” of Covid-19 vaccine mandates in the United States. Speaker after speaker — including notorious anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who compared…

US: Wildfire in California’s Big Sur forces evacuations

Authorities closed a stretch of Highway 1, with no estimated time for reopening LOS ANGELES, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Firefighters on Sunday battled a wildfire that broke out in the rugged mountains along Big Sur, forcing hundreds of residents on a precarious stretch of coast in the US state of…

Leave Ukraine now, US tells families of diplomats as Russia tensions boil

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the US embassy in Kyiv WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US State Department ordered the families of US diplomats in Ukraine to leave the country while urging US citizens to leave as soon as possible due to “increased threats of Russian military action.” Tensions…

Netherlands: Stowaway smoked out of aircraft nose wheel arriving from South AFRICA

Amsterdam stowaway: The man had been hiding for more than 11 hours before it landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport AMSTERDAM, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Police in the Dutch city of Amsterdam discovered a stowaway hidden in the nose wheel of a cargo plane arriving from South Africa, a spokeswoman said Sunday. The unidentified man is believed to have slipped on…