Foreign

The head of Iran’s Reformists Front, the organisation that was instrumental in securing the election of the country’s President, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been arrested by the dreaded Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a move that will probably deepen tensions over the handling of the recent street protests in which tens of thousands were reportedly killed by security forces. Pezeshkian has set up an inquiry into the protests, but it is unlikely to be critical of the IRGC, and the arrests of his former supporters show how little influence he wields over the key decision-makers in the government --a point…

*'I Thought They Were Scam Calls' *'I'll Use Part Of Money To Spoil My Husband' A woman from South Africa's Western Cape narrowly avoided losing more than R834,000 (over N72m) in Lotto winnings after ignoring dozens of phone calls, arriving at lottery operator Ithuba office on the last day her ticket could legally be claimed. “I couldn’t believe it. I had gone from attending a funeral to claiming over R800,000 on the very same day. It was emotional, overwhelming and completely unexpected,” she said. According to Sowetan newspaper, the ticket was bought on 5 February, 2025 through the Absa banking…

Exiled Iranian journalists working for the BBC have been warned their movements are being closely monitored by the state, as they said their families in Iran were being interrogated and persecuted for their reporting. Journalists said family members had been threatened with arrest and the seizure of their assets unless their loved ones stopped reporting on Iranian unrest. The Guardian UK was told of instances in which the parents of journalists had been warned that Iran’s security forces knew where and when they worked, as well as the position of their desk in the newsroom. Staff working for BBC Persian,…

*'Error Came From A White House Employee' Following an intense backlash, the White House has now taken down Trump’s Truth Social repost of a video showing a racist clip depicting the Obamas as apes. Multiple outlets cite a senior White House official as saying: "A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down." The post was up for 12 hours. The White House had initially tried to brush off the outrage, defending Trump’s repost as “an internet meme video." “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and…

Democratic senator Ruben Gallego has proposed that, should President Donald Trump try to sabotage the November midterm elections, which will determine who controls Congress, Americans should respond with a general strike that would “grind the country to a halt." Earlier this week the US President called for Republicans, his party members, to “take over” and “nationalise” voting in at least 15 unspecified locations, repeating his false claims that elections are plagued by widespread fraud. On Thursday, Gallego, a senator for Arizona and an Iraq war veteran, warned that Trump could seek to interfere with the midterms –and urged citizens to…

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and for years the second most powerful person in the country, has been killed in a village south-west of Tripoli, officials said on Tuesday night. The 53-year-old died from gunshot wounds in the town of Zintan, 85 miles south-west of the capital, according to the Libyan attorney general’s office. Gaddafi’s own office said he was killed in his home by masked assailants. Once seen as a pro-Western reformer who might usher Libya towards constitutional change, Gaddafi quickly backed his father’s violent crackdown on nationwide popular protests in 2011.…

*Police Move In *He Came To Her Church Very Ill, Got Healed, Then Married Her *Feared Wife's Relatives In Nigeria Would Seek Repatriation Of Body Shock and outrage greeted revelations that an 80-year-old Nigerian female cleric in Ghana has been secretly buried by her Ghanaian husband in their bedroom. They were married for 11 years. The Assin Fosu District Court, presided over by Abdul Majid Iliasu, has remanded the 44-year-old man, identified as Kwaku Charles, for allegedly burying his wife in their bedroom at Twifo Nuamakrom in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District, Central Region of the West African country. Charles was…

Heavy security has been deployed around the main airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey, after overnight gunfire and explosions. The shooting and detonations began shortly after midnight on Wednesday, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the airport, which is next to Base Aérienne 101, a military base previously used by US and then Russian troops. Calm returned about an hour later, the residents told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Videos filmed by local people showed streaks of light in the sky and the sound of loud explosions, while other images showed flames several metres high and charred cars. Today, a heavy security…

Gunfire and loud blasts have been heard at the main airport in the Nigerien capital of Niamey, according to Reuters news agency and an independent source. The apparent explosions were reported just after midnight, a witness told Reuters. The airport is next to Base Aérienne 101, a military base previously used by American and then Russian troops. An independent source with the Togolese airline Asky said gunshots caused several holes in the fuselage of its two planes on the tarmac of Niamey airport. Staff were at their hotel at the time but remained stranded in the country. “They destroyed both…

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has gone underground, reportedly hiding out in a bunker out of fear of being wiped out by US airstrikes — as the USS Abraham Lincoln steams toward the Persian Gulf. The 86-year-old supreme leader has moved to a fortified shelter in Tehran connected to a series of elaborate underground tunnels after senior military officials warned of the increasing likelihood of an imminent US attack, Iran International reported, according to the Jerusalem Post. Khamenei has left his youngest son Masoud Khamenei, 53, in charge of running the day-to-day management of the Islamic Republic, the Jerusalem Post further reported.…