Six police officers will face charges in connection with the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, after a medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, Baltimore’s top prosecutor announced today (May 1).
As Burundi continues to be rocked by violent political protests, now concluding their fifth day, the country’s government cut off mobile access to popular social media platforms in what is presumably an effort to suppress the unrest.
To visit her son in jail in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, Barbara Brutschy would get on a plane and fly 1,700 miles from her home in Oregon. She would arrive at the jail, go through security checks, including metal detectors, all airport-style. An hour later, she would sit down in a booth, wait, and after a couple of minutes her son, Richard Fisk, would appear—on a video screen.
The riots following the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, a black man who died April 19 from injuries while held by police, have spawned an unlikely alliance between the city’s rivaling gangs.
Burundi’s capital Bujumbara has descended into chaos with anti-government protests entering a third day. Hundreds have been arrested and at least six people have died in clashes with the police, according to the local Red Cross. Burundians are rallying against the country’s president Pierre Nkurunziza, who was nominated by his party to run for office once again on Saturday, April 25. The opposition says a bid for a third term is unconstitutional.
An ultra-nationalist, pro-Kremlin Russian biker gang known as the Night Wolves raised hackles across Europe when it laid plans for a continental tour commemorating the Red Army’s victory in World War II. The ride sparked particular ire in the first European Union country on the route: Poland, where historically anti-Russian sentiment runs strong.
As European leaders met in Brussels to discuss the continent’s migration crisis, 24 victims of the latest boat-crossing disaster on the Mediterranean were buried in Malta. That was just a small fraction of the more than 800 people believed to have drowned in the April 19 capsizing of a vessel carrying migrants from Libya to Italy.
Organizers of this year’s Stockholm marathon wanted it to be a “Nordic international competition,” with primarily Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Finns, and Icelanders racing in the event, and only Nordic winners eligible for the prize money.
Remittances sent to Sub-Saharan Africa have increased by 2.2% in 2014, the World Bank estimates. Growth is expected to slow to 0.9% this year, and then bounce back to grow by as much as 3.8% in 2016 and 2017.
Accounting giant KPMG announced Tuesday that its new CEO and chairman will be company veteran Lynne Doughtie, the first woman in the position.
After a recent wave of anti-immigrant attacks that left at least seven dead, South Africa’s defense minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced in a live broadcast on Tuesday that the country would be deploying troops to Alexandra, a Johannesburg township and to some areas of the coastal city of Durban.
The term ‘welfare queen,’ popularized in the US by fiscal conservatives who bristle at public assistance for the poor, now has an equivalent in Belarus: social parasite. In Belarus, the term isn’t just used in political banter; it’s the basis of a harsh new law aimed at penalizing the unemployed. The new legislation, signed into law by the country’s autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko earlier in April, fines adults who have not payed income tax for 183 days a penalty for being unemployed.
As many as 30% of cell phone users in Africa report that they participate in mobile banking. A new report from the Pew Research Center shows the transformative power of the cell phone in the world’s fastest-growing market for mobile technology.
At least five people have died in a wave of violence against foreigners in Durban, South Africa, while thousands more were driven out of their homes in the coastal city. Hundreds of miles away, in the commercial hub of Johannesburg, immigrant shopkeepers fearing copycat attacks have closed their businesses.
Nigeria’s economy will more than double in the next 15 years, according to projections from the United States Department of Agriculture. Today, with an annual GDP of around $500 billion, Africa’s largest economy is 27th in the world. By 2030 it is expected to climb up to 19th place just ahead of the Netherlands.
Today marks the first anniversary of the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Despite the viral campaign to #BringBackOurGirls, many of them remain missing. And Boko Haram continues to carry out brutal, deadly attacks, killing thousands.
Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is projected to slow down in 2015, dropping to 4% from 4.5% in 2014. It will also be 0.5% slower than average growth over the past 20 years, according to new World Bank data. The slowdown is caused by the falling prices of oil and other commodities and the relative economic decline in China–a major oil importer and investor in Africa, World Bank says.
In its first election since 2011 when the south of the country seceded, Sudan is voting for president. But with the strongman president Omar Hassan al-Bashir as the only major candidate, and the opposition boycotting the vote, it’s not much of a choice.
Stuck in the past and strapped for cash, Kalashnikov, the maker of the world’s most popular gun, got a marketing makeover last year from Tina Kandelaki, a celebrity host, socialite and marketing whiz.
After the initial breaking news frenzy of the brutal Islamist attack that killed 148 students in Kenya, the coverage of the massacre in western media waned, as it often does when tragedy hits far from home. Away from the headlines, however, people around the world have been gathering at vigils, honoring the 148 victims.
When Twin Peaks creators, David Lynch and Mark Frost announced in the fall that the eerie whodunit would get a third season on the Showtime network, fans went bananas. An instant hit when it premiered 25 years ago, on April 8, it developed a cult following over the years. But today, Twin Peaks devotees have fewer reasons to rejoice.
Abandoned by their mothers who go in search of food, dozens of Southern California sea lions get stranded on the state’s beaches every year. In 2015, the animals are getting stuck in record numbers—20 times more than the average of the past decade, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported April 6.
On April 10, 2010, Poland was shaken by the news of a plane crash in western Russia that killed 96 people, including the country’s president, Lech Kaczyński, his wife, and dozens of politicians and military leaders.
After Islamist militants attacked Garissa University College in Kenya, headlines around the world spoke of “147 killed Kenyan students.” A viral social media campaign shows the individuals behind that statistic, victim by victim. Users are posting photos and names of those who were slain using the hashtag #147notjustanumber.
