Politics and society

North Korea has ordered a five-day confinement in its capital Pyongyang due to a “respiratory illness”, reported a South Korean specialized site. The move appears to be the first citywide measure taken since the country declared victory over Covid-19 in August 2022. Residents of Pyongyang have been ordered to stay …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved emergency aid of $105 million for Haiti, which is plunged into a humanitarian crisis aggravated by inflation. The funds should enable the Caribbean country to “support those most affected by rising food prices through food distributions and payments to the most vulnerable …

Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has warned against campaigns supporting rights of homosexuals in the country. The president described homosexuality as “nonsense” during remarks made on Wednesday at a graduation ceremony at the National Defence College. Mr Museveni said he was glad to have attended a recent meeting in the …

Chinese population, the world’s most populous country, fell in 2022 for the first time in six decades, an official body said on Tuesday. In total, 9.56 million births were registered last year, and did not compensate for the 10.41 million deaths, announced the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) in a …

South African opposition groups, a trade union and business owners have threatened to sue the government over the crippling blackouts in the country, local media reported. They have given the government up to Friday to stabilise electricity supply or face legal action for contravening its duty to provide electricity. They …

The US House of Representatives, recently controlled by Republicans, adopted two anti-abortion texts on Wednesday, with largely symbolic significance. This is a way for the Conservatives to satisfy their base, after exposing their divisions last week in a difficult vote for their “speaker”. The first resolution, supported Wednesday by all …

A Nigerian court has struck out a police regulation that forbids unmarried female officers from getting pregnant, local media reported. In a landmark judgment, a judge ruled that the regulation, which calls for the dismissal of any unmarried officer who gets pregnant, was “discriminatory, illegal, null and void”. It followed …

The Pentagon on Tuesday repealed the obligation for the American military to be vaccinated against Covid-19, after having been forced to do so by Congress. It said this health restriction, one of the last major ones that were still in place in the United States, had caused the departure of …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country has been facing Russian invasion for nearly a year, delivered an optimistic message to the Golden Globes audience, saying the world will not experience a third war. The president appeared on the giant screen of the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles where the award …

Zimbabwe on Tuesday signed a bill into law that outlawed organized protests by healthcare workers who could now face a fine or an imprisonment of up to six months, Reuters agency reported. The signing by President Emmerson Mnangagwa comes after health workers were locked in a protracted fight with the …