Author: Prima News

Australian police helped two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer delegation slip their minders to claim asylum, ‌but one has changed her mind and decided to go back to Iran, the country’s interior minister said on Wednesday. Concerns about the players’ safety upon their return home grew after Iranian state television labelled the team “wartime traitors” for refusing to sing the national anthem during a women’s Asian Cup match in Australia earlier this month. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced in parliament that ​21-year-old striker Mohaddeseh Zolfi and support staffer Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar had accepted the government’s open offer…

A Sri Lankan court has ordered that the bodies of 84 sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the ​island nation’s coast last week be handed over to the embassy ‌of Iran, local media reported on Wednesday. The warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by a torpedo from a U.S. submarine while it was returning from a naval exercise organised by India, amid ​the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that has wreaked havoc on global markets, sent ​oil prices soaring, and disrupted trade and travel. The court order was ⁠issued on Wednesday following a request from the Galle Harbour…

Australia has closed its embassies in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv as well ​as its consulate in Dubai, the ‌foreign minister said on Wednesday, amid fears the conflict in the Middle East could intensify. Foreign Minister Penny ​Wong said at least nine cities where ​Australian embassies and consulates are located have ⁠experienced missile and drone attacks. “Iran’s reprisal attacks ​continue at scale and at a depth that ​we have not seen before,” she told parliament. The conflict was “likely to intensify and continue in the near term”, ​she said. “Our missions in Abu Dhabi, Dubai ​and Tel Aviv have all…

 Denis Sassou Nguesso, the 82-year-old president of Republic of Congo, is seeking another five-year term in an election on March 15, aiming to extend his more than four decades in office in ​the oil-rich Central African nation. A former paratrooper, Sassou seized power in 1979 and has ‌governed almost continuously since, except for a five-year hiatus in the 1990s. He faces six opposition candidates in a race he is widely expected to win. The opposition remains fragmented, with established parties boycotting the vote and some prominent potential ​candidates either in prison or in exile. Following are details on his challengers:…

Andrew Veitch left South Africa after being held up at gunpoint in his car. But now he feels there are greater threats in the United States, he said, citing mass shootings in public ​places as well as violence by U.S. immigration officers. “People are being shot in broad daylight. American citizens are being shot and killed,” said the 53-year-old, who moved to California in ‌2003. “I don’t want to live in a place like this.” President Donald Trump’s officials have said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were justified in firing the shots that killed two U.S. citizens in January, although…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards forced through the choice of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader, seeing him as a more pliant version of his father who would back their hardline policies, bludgeoning aside the concerns of pragmatists, senior Iranian sources said. Already very powerful, the Guards have gained ​yet greater sway since the war began and quickly overcame the misgivings of senior political and clerical figures whose opposition to the choice delayed the announcement by hours, the sources said. Adding ‌to the concerns of those who opposed Khamenei’s installation as supreme leader, he had still issued no statement by Tuesday evening, nearly 48 hours…

At least ​six people died and three were injured in a bus fire in western Switzerland in what police said may have ‌been a deliberate act with one media outlet reporting that a person set fire to themself. Police said the bus became engulfed in flames on Tuesday evening on a road in Kerzers, a town in the canton of Fribourg, about 20 km (12 miles) from the Swiss capital Bern. “At this stage, we have elements suggesting a ​deliberate act by a person who was inside the bus,” said Frederic Papaux, a spokesperson for Fribourg police. Investigators were looking…

The warning comes as the world’s youngest nation remains among the top displacement crises, with nearly 10 million people in need of humanitarian assistance including returnees fleeing the war in neighbouring Sudan. IOM requires just over $131 million for operations in South Sudan this year but faces a $29 million funding gap.  ‘An extraordinary burden’ The UN agency and partners are supporting the authorities with piloting government-led solutions under the UN Secretary-General’s Action Agenda on Internal Displacement whose goals include ensuring effective protection and assistance for those who have been uprooted, and preventing new displacement crises from emerging.  “South Sudan is carrying an extraordinary burden, and funding shortfalls risk undermining progress toward durable solutions for millions,” said IOM Deputy Director General for Operations, Ugochi Daniels, who is currently visiting the country.   “Displaced families and host communities are trying to rebuild their lives, but the…

The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) has agreed to sell its controlling 54.08% stake in Nation Media Group (NMG) to Taarifa Ltd, owned by Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Azizi, ending a 66-year ownership of East Africa’s largest independent news publisher. The stake, held through NPRT Holdings Africa, represents about 92.6 million shares in the Nairobi-listed company, which operates more than 30 media brands across four countries and reaches over 62 million digital users.  AKFED owns NPRT Holdings Africa, an investment vehicle used to hold the fund’s media interests across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.  The companies did not…

It is becoming increasingly embarrassing and deeply troubling for our nation when public figures boldly deny statements they clearly made in the public domain. Even when confronted with evidence, some dismiss the truth as though nothing ever happened. One cannot help but ask: where exactly are we heading as a country? In recent times, it appears that certain individuals can lie openly, fully aware of the falsehood, and yet defend it with astonishing confidence. Instead of remorse, there is pride. Instead of accountability, there is denial. This disturbing trend signals a moral decline in the very arena where integrity should…