Author: Prima News

Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn is to open parliament on Saturday, as last month’s general election result faces court scrutiny over barcodes ​on the ballots that may have violated the law. The barcodes ‌might undermine the secrecy of the ballot, said the country’s Office of the Ombudsman, which petitioned the Constitutional Court to consider the case. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai Party ​won a clear victory in the February 8 election, but ​the ombudsman said late on Friday that there had been ⁠21 complaints from the public that barcodes and QR codes on ​the ballots could potentially be used to identify which party or candidate…

Suspected Uruguayan drug kingpin Sebastian ‌Marset, among the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s most wanted fugitives, was arrested in Bolivia, officials of the South American country said on Friday. Bolivian Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo told a press conference that Marset, 34, was then flown to the U.S. and ​that no one was killed or injured during the operation. The U.S. DEA, with which Bolivia recently resumed ​cooperation, did not participate in the arrest, Oviedo said, but was involved in Marset’s transfer ⁠to the U.S. MARSET INDICTED IN U.S. ON MONEY LAUNDERING Marset, accused of leading the First Uruguayan Cartel,…

 High-level Colombian officials, including the ministers ​of foreign relations and defense, met with their Venezuelan counterparts in Caracas on Friday in what acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez said were ‌productive meetings, as she called for a end to U.S. sanctions against her country. The meeting, the first in-person between the two neighboring South American countries since the ouster in early January of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, was focused on energy cooperation, security and trade, Rodriguez said. Originally, Rodriguez had been slated to meet with Colombian President Gustavo Petro in what would have been ​her first presidential-level bilateral, but that…

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa on Friday decreed a nighttime ​curfew in four provinces of the Andean ‌country, starting March 15, intended to facilitate military operations against criminal organizations with support from the ​United States. The measure covers the coastal ​provinces of Guayas, El Oro, Santo ⁠Domingo, and Los Rios – the country’s main ​drug trafficking routes – and will run from ​11 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time. Joint military operations between Ecuador and the U.S. started in ​early March. A recent mission near the ​Colombian border resulted in the destruction of a drug ‌trafficking ⁠camp, according to the Ecuadorean…

The UN humanitarian chief on Friday urged humanitarian cargo to be allowed to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz, warning that disruptions in the key waterway could severely affect global aid operations. “Humanitarian supply chains are fragile. When routes close and costs surge, the help we can deliver shrinks – and the people who need it most are the ones who lose it first,” Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement. “So my message to the parties to the conflict and all those with influence over them is simple: humanitarian…

“The structures that have sustained persecution for years have not been dismantled, nor have State policies been announced to begin that process”, the International Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela said in a statement released on Wednesday.The mission was set up to assess alleged human rights violations in Venezuela committed since 2014. Since Maduro’s seizure on 3 January, the Human Rights Council-appointed investigators have received reports of at least 87 new politically motivated detentions, indicating that the practice of silencing dissent persists under the current Government.“New instances of human rights violations are a sober reminder that the extensive legal and institutional machinery that…

Old boys of St. Joseph’s College, Ondo, will on March 19 launch a drive to raise N100m to support the development of their alma mater. The endowment fund launch is part of the line-up of events from March 18 to 22 to mark the anniversary. St. Joseph’s College, Ondo, was founded in 1956 by the De La Salle Brothers. Speaking ahead of the endowment fund launch, the outgoing President of the institution’s National Old Boys Association, Dr Olusola Akinniyi, said the fund will be used annually to support teachers’ welfare, equip laboratories and provide scholarships for indigent students. While noting…

And then there were two: Of the original 11 co-founders who kickstarted xAI with Elon Musk three years ago, only two remain as the deep learning lab continues a personnel overhaul to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI. That rebuilding, insists Musk, is by design. “xAI was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up,” Musk said Thursday on his social media platform, X. By most measures, it isn’t going all that smoothly. The most immediate pressure is competitive. This week, xAI co-founders Zihang Dai and Guodong Zhang left the outfit after Musk complained that…

AGRA has opened applications for 2026 WAYA Awards to honour women transforming Africa’s Agrifood Systems.   NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has celebrated the role of women driving Africa’s agrifood transformation while officially opening applications for the 2026 Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA).   The announcement was made during an event organised by AGRA through its VALUE4HER initiative to mark International Women’s Day in Maputo, Mozambique.   The gathering, held at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Center, brought together women agripreneurs, policymakers, and development partners to celebrate women advancing inclusive agricultural…

President Bola Tinubu has urged media executives to extend the same level of scrutiny they apply to his administration to states and local governments, which, he argued, now enjoy greater financial autonomy under his reformed federalism. The President made the appeal on Friday night while hosting media proprietors and executives at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. “We’ve opened up the principle of federalism to the extent that local governments are now getting their money. But how they use it is in your hand, so don’t bombard me alone. “Look at local government too, and equally, the sub-national,” Tinubu stated.…