Uncertainty reigned on Sunday over the health of South Africa's Zulu king, the head of the country's most influential traditional monarchy, with his spokesman denying reports he had been hospitalised.. However, Zulu's spokesman denied later on Sunday that the sovereign was undergoing any hospital treatment.
A Thai elephant gifted to Sri Lanka two decades ago was flown back to its birth country on Sunday after a diplomatic spat over the animal's alleged mistreatment.. Thai authorities had gifted the 29-year-old Muthu Raja -- also known back in its birthplace as Sak Surin -- to Sri Lanka in 2001.
On a visit to spotlight violence and chaos in Haiti, the UN secretary-general on Saturday called for a robust international effort to help the beleaguered national police in fighting rampant criminal gangs.. In October, he relayed Henry's request for a non-UN force to support police overwhelmed by ever-increasing gang violence.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged the EU's "unequivocal" support for Ukraine in Kyiv on Saturday as Spain assumed presidency of the bloc, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit out at foot-dragging over pilot training by "some" western nations.. Sanchez visited Kyiv on the first day of Spain's EU presidency, saying this "demonstrates a clear and unequivocal political commitment" to Ukraine's bid to join the 27-nation bloc.
At least 25 people were killed and eight others injured in western India when a bus crashed and caught fire on an expressway early Saturday.. And last October, at least 31 people were killed after a bus carrying wedding guests veered off the road and fell into a deep gorge in northern India. abh/gle/smw
Prime Minister Hun Sen has backed down from threats to cut off access to Facebook in Cambodia, even as he declared the company's representatives would no longer be welcome in the country.. Hun Sen did, however, say the social media giant's representatives would "no longer be allowed in Cambodia".
France on Friday deployed 45,000 officers backed by light armoured vehicles to tackle a fourth straight night of violent protests after the fatal police shooting of a teenager.. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told TF1 television that crack units from both the police and the paramilitary gendarme force were among the 45,000 officers deployed Friday.
A Brazilian court on Friday reached the majority it needs to bar far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro from politics for eight years over unfounded claims against the voting system.. The tribunal is trying the former president on charges he abused his office and state media in making unfounded allegations of security flaws in Brazil's electronic voting system.
The UN Security Council on Friday ended a decade-old peacekeeping mission in Mali, whose military junta has aligned with Russia and demanded the withdrawal of the international force battling jihadists.. Bowing to the principle that peacekeepers need the consent of the host government, the Security Council voted unanimously to start immediately winding down the mission despite fears by Western powers of new instability in the troubled nation.
The US Supreme Court ruled Friday that some private businesses can refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons, in a landmark erosion of anti-discrimination laws.. The court did not rule on whether Phillips had the right to discriminate against the couple by denying them business as a gay couple.
