Newly-elected Czech president Petr Pavel, a former NATO general, will promote close ties with the European Union and offer firm support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion, analysts said.. "His stance will entail strong support to Ukraine without any conditions," Pehe told AFP. - EU presidency - European leaders have welcomed Pavel's win, which follows the Czech Republic's 2022 EU presidency.
France's prime minister on Sunday ruled out backtracking on a plan to raise the retirement age as unions prepared for another day of mass protests against the contested reform.. But the headline age limit of 64 was not up for discussion, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Sunday.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Sunday fired Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi after an inquiry into Zahawi's tax affairs found a "serious breach" of ministerial rules, the government said.. Sunak appointed Zahawi as Conservative party chairman, and cabinet minister without portfolio, when he entered 10 Downing Street in October, when he vowed to deliver "integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level".
At least 51 people were killed in two separate transport accidents in western Pakistan on Sunday, when a bus plunged off a bridge and a boat carrying a class of children capsized.. The bus was reportedly carrying a total of 48 passengers when it hit a pillar on the bridge and careened off course earlier on Sunday.
In the DR Congo's boisterous capital Kinshasa, a road close to the city centre is lined with traders hawking unusual merchandise: church pulpits. . But last year, a Congolese MP pushed to close 10,000 churches deemed to be corrupt.
It is the question on the lips of every Jamaican -- and none more so than the country's most famous athlete, eight-time Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain Bolt.. So much so that one of the country's top dance hall artists, Gage, quickly released a song "SSL," whose chorus repeatedly asks the above question in Jamaican patois.
When Ali Saga visited a clinic in Jakarta four decades ago, he watched as patients and health workers scrambled to get away from him.. - 'No longer in pain' - Nearly 500 people who had leprosy now live in Sitanala because it was located behind a hospital that for decades served as the rehabilitation centre for patients across Indonesia.
India's rising tide of Hindu nationalism is an affront to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, his great-grandson says, ahead of the 75th anniversary of the revered independence hero's assassination.. Today, Gandhi's assassin is revered by many Hindu nationalists who have pushed for a re-evaluation of his decision to murder a man synonymous with non-violence.
"A week before my mother died, her house was broken into and burned down," said Mathieu Okoma Agoa, from a village in Ivory Coast.. Okoma Agoa's mother suffered from leprosy, a disease that made her a social outcast long before she died.
For much of the last century Belfast's dockyards dominated global shipbuilding but now the harbour that built Titanic is the launchpad for some of the world's biggest TV and film releases.. In a sign of its ambitions, Belfast's Ulster University has partnered with the harbour to deliver the next generation of film and TV production through its new Studio Ulster project.
