Kenyan, four foreigners killed in plane crash: police

NAIROBI, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A Kenyan pilot and four foreigners have died after a small plane carrying them from Kenya’s Maasai Mara nature reserve crashed in the west of the country, police said. “There were five occupants in the plane and they did not survive,” saidEdward Mwamburi, police chief…

US targets Al-Qaeda in Libya air strike

TRIPOLI, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The US carried out an air strike against the Al-Qaeda group in southern Libya on Wednesday night, Tripoli’s UN-backed Government of National Accord said. The strike near the town of Ubari, some 900 kilometres south of the capital, was coordinated with the GNA, said President…

UN notified of name change to North Macedonia

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has received official notification from the Macedonian government to change the name of the Balkan country to the Republic of North Macedonia. Guterres welcomed the development ending a decades-old dispute between Greece and Macedonia over the Balkan country’s name. At…

Rebuking Pres Trump, House votes to end US help in Saudi’s Yemen war

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The US House voted overwhelmingly to end American involvement in Saudi Arabia’s war effort in neighboring Yemen, dealing a rebuke to President Donald Trump and his alliance with Riyadh. The chamber Wednesday voted 248 to 177 to approve historic legislation that would direct the president…

Saudi crown prince to visit Indonesia next week

JAKARTA, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Indonesia will host Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a state visit next week, Jakarta said, part of an Asian tour that includes stops in Pakistan, India andMalaysia. His two-day visit to the world’s biggest Muslim majority country kicks offMonday, the prince’s second…

Iran vows revenge on ‘mercenaries’ behind suicide attack

TEHRAN, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – President Hassan Rouhani vowed revenge against the “mercenary group” behind a suicide bombing which killed 27 people in southeastern Iran and accused the US and Israel of supporting “terrorism”. “We will certainly make this mercenary group pay for the blood of ourmartyrs,” the official IRNA…

Thai court to hear case against party behind princess political bid

BANGKOK, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Thailand’s constitutional court said it would hear a case to dissolve the party which proposed a princess for prime minister, an ill-fated candidacy which threatens to sink the election strategy of the powerful Shinawatra clan. The Thai Raksa Chart party nominated Princess Ubolratana for premier…

Venezuela’s Guaido challenging Maduro, millennial style

CARACAS, Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Venezuelan opposition leader JuanGuaido’s latest Instagram selfie got over half a million likes. Even his doghas nearly 30,000 followers. President Nicolas Maduro might have dismissed the 35-year-old as a “kidplaying politics” — but experts say his millennial status could give him anedge over the middle-aged…

Syria War: militants trapped in last square kilometre

OMAR OIL FIELD (Syria), Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Daesh group militants using tunnels and suicide bombers were mounting a desperate defenceThursday of their last square kilometre in eastern Syria. Kurdish-led forces closed in on the small town of Baghouz where daesh fighters and their relatives were hunkered down and met…

Syria War: Daesh defeat, US pullout on table at coalition talks

MUNICH (Germany), Feb 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Defence ministers from the US-led coalition fighting the Daesh group meet on Friday in Munich todiscuss how to reorganise in Syria after the defeat of the last pocket ofthe militants and the departure of US troops. Daesh fighters are cornered by an Arab-Kurdish militia…