Election pits 75-year-old president Emmerson Mnangagwa against 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa Polls have opened in Zimbabwe’s first election since the removal of former president Robert Mugabe, a watershed vote that will determine the former British colony’s future for decades. The election pits 75-year-old president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a long-time Mugabe ally, against ... Read More »
Cambodian PM’s party claims all election seats, opposition sees ‘death of democracy’
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) said on Monday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier that critics said was neither free nor fair. “The CPP won 77.5 percent of the votes and won all the parliamentary ... Read More »
UK’s new foreign minister in China for first overseas visit
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will meet his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Monday to discuss cooperation between the two countries on his first major overseas trip since he replaced Boris Johnson earlier this month. Hunt and Wang Yi, China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, are expected to discuss free trade, ... Read More »
Ahed Tamimi: Teenage Palestinian protester released from Israeli prison
The 17-year-old was greeted with banners, cheers and Palestinian flags upon her arrival home A teenage Palestinian protester has been released from an Israeli prison after serving her eight-month sentence. Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old who was jailed for slapping and kicking Israeli soldiers, was greeted with banners, cheers and Palestinian ... Read More »
Scientists confirm Einstein’s supermassive black hole theory
A team of international scientists observing a star in the Milky Way have for the first time confirmed Einstein’s predictions of what happens to the motion of a star passing close to a supermassive black hole. Einstein’s 100-year-old general theory of relativity predicted that light from stars would be stretched ... Read More »
Over $119bn wiped off Facebook’s market cap after growth shock
Shares crash as social network admits user growth fell after Cambridge Analytica breach More than $119bn (£90.8bn) has been wiped off Facebook’s market value, which includes a $17bn hit to the fortune of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, after the company told investors that user growth had slowed in the wake ... Read More »
UK could cancel Brexit and stay in EU on same terms, says French government
‘We have always said, always, that the door would remain open,’ says European affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau Britain could still cancel Brexit and stay in the European Union on the same terms it currently enjoys, the French government has said. Nathalie Loiseau, the country’s European affairs minister, said on Thursday ... Read More »
Mars: huge underground lake raises prospects of life on planet, astronomers say
Scientists have spotted a 12 mile-wide stretch of water underneath a slab of ice at the Martian south pole Astronomers have found compelling evidence that there is a huge reservoir of liquid water buried a mile under the ice near the south pole on Mars. Radar measurements taken from the ... Read More »
Big tech warns of ‘Japan’s millennium bug’ ahead of Akihito’s abdication
Emperor’s 2019 exit will be first era change of information age, and switchover could be as big as Y2K say industry figures On 30 April 2019, Emperor Akihito of Japan is expected to abdicate the chrysanthemum throne. The decision was announced in December 2017 so as to ensure an orderly ... Read More »
UN bloc of developing countries elects Palestine as next leader in snub to US and Israel
Decision from major group representing diplomatic voice of 80 per cent of the world’s population comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region A United Nations bloc of developing countries has elected the observer state of Palestine as its next leader in a symbolic snub to the US ... Read More »