International

GHANA became the first African country on Thursday to introduce vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus at the same time in a bid to fight leading causes of the world’s two biggest childhood killers - pneumonia and diarrhoea.

HUMAN rights groups have welcomed the guilty verdict against former Liberian leader Charles Taylor.

SOLDIERS raided at least two government buildings in Guinea-Bissau’s capital on Thursday, officials said, stealing cash and supplies in a sign of growing desperation in the West African state since an April 12 coup.

THE Syrian government is “in contravention” of an internationally agreed peace plan by keeping troops and heavy weapons in cities, Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, has said.

ONE of China’s best known dissidents, Chen Guangcheng, has escaped from house arrest and has released a video addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao.

THE US Secret Service has confirmed an investigation into allegations that agents hired strippers and prostitutes in El Salvador, before a visit last year by US president Barack Obama.

NEW figures show that Spanish unemployment levels have hit record levels, with nearly a quarter of the labour force unable to find work.

Malawi's new leader Joyce Banda has sacked her foreign minister, Peter Mutharika, the brother of the late president who recently died in office.