Melbourne, Australia | AFP | Serena Williams will be ready to make her tennis comeback at the Australian Open with her return to Melbourne for the season’s opening Grand Slam “very likely”, organisers said Wednesday. Williams, 36, won this year’s Australian Open while pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl …
Read More »Russia voices regret at Olympic ban, awaits Putin verdict
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia on Wednesday reacted with disappointment but no great surprise after the country was banned from the Winter Olympic Games, while President Vladimir Putin was yet to comment on a possible boycott. Russia was banned Tuesday from the 2018 Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee …
Read More »Britain thwarts plot to kill May: reports
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Two men have been charged with a plot to kill British Prime Minister Theresa May and a court hearing on the case is expected on Wednesday, British media reported. Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, planned to blow up security barriers outside …
Read More »Britain concerned about US Jerusalem plans: foreign minister
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Britain is concerned about US President Donald Trump’s plan to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, foreign minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday. A senior US official says Trump will make the announcement later today, ignoring warnings from US allies around the world that the move could trigger …
Read More »Palestinians say Trump told Abbas of ‘intention to move’ embassy to Jerusalem
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories | AFP | US President Donald Trump told Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in a phone call Tuesday that he intends to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Abbas’s office said. Trump “informed the president (Abbas) on his intention to move the US embassy from Tel …
Read More »COMMENT: GMO technology in Uganda
Not about profits and interests of multinational companies COMMENT | MICHAEL J SSALI | The recent article in The Independent magazine (October 31 2017) titled “Tears and Cheers over New GMO Law” left me, as a farmer and a science journalist, disappointed. It carried negative and misleading sentiments about agricultural biotechnology. …
Read More »GLOBAL COMMENT: How women shape coups
According to new research, female leaders may be more likely to provoke military coups COMMENT | RAJ PERSAUD & PETER BRUGGEN | Recently, Zimbabwe’s generals took President Robert Mugabe into custody in an effective coup (though they insist on not calling it that). Days later, the country’s ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National …
Read More »How parents behave is linked to suicide risk: research
Miami, United States | AFP | Adolescents who feel their parents rarely express interest in their emotional well-being are far more likely to consider suicide than youths who see their parents as involved, US researchers said Tuesday. The findings by the University of Cincinnati come as the suicide rate among teenagers …
Read More »Trump shuns warnings, vows to move embassy to Jerusalem ahead of speech
Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump on Tuesday slapped down warnings of widespread Middle East unrest as he told anxious Arab leaders he still intends to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, on the eve of a much-anticipated policy speech. Amid a frantic round of telephone diplomacy, Trump …
Read More »Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics over doping
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | Russia was banned Tuesday from the 2018 Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee over its state-orchestrated doping programme, but clean Russian athletes will be allowed to compete under an Olympic flag. The sanction was the toughest ever levelled by the IOC for drug cheating and …
Read More »
The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price