International

Angola’s Supreme Court has annulled the appointment of the country’s electoral commission chief, a nomination which the opposition had criticised but which the ruling MPLA party defended as impartial, state news agency Angop reported on Thursday.

ABOUT 70 soldiers from Burkina Faso were deployed in Guinea-Bissau on Thursday, the advance party of a 600-strong West African force that is due to replace Angolan troops and oversee a transition back to civilian rule.

THE Algerian singer Warda, whose sultry voice and range helped make her one of the giants of Arab song, has died aged 72.

PRESIDENT Joyce Banda has said Malawi will overturn its ban on homosexual acts - the first African country to do so since 1994.

THE US plans to give Israel the extra $70m that it asked for this year for its short-range missile defence programme known as the Iron Dome, Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary has said.

LEADERS of major industrial economies meet this weekend to try to head off a full-blown crisis in Europe where fears are growing that Greece could leave the euro zone bloc, threatening the future of the common currency.

BAN KI-MOON, the UN secretary-general, has said that he believes al-Qaeda was responsible for last week’s bombings in Damascus, the Syrian capital, that left more than 50 people dead.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s military on Thursday shelled positions it believed were held by mutineers who have been fighting the army in the country’s east, a military source said.