PARIS: Workers renovating Notre-Dame flouted a ban on smoking at the monument, a contractor admitted on Wednesday, while denying any link with last week’s devastating blaze that ripped through the cathedral. “There were colleagues who from time to time broke the rules and we regret it,” a spokesman for scaffolding
HONIARA: The election of veteran politician Manasseh Sogavare as the new prime minister of the Solomon Islands sparked violent protests in the capital Honiara Wednesday, with riot police deployed in a bid to maintain order. Eyewitnesses reported unrest in Chinatown and at least one other area of the city after
CIREBON: Political hopeful Yayat Abdurahman bet that he would be a winner among some 245,000 candidates in Indonesia’s huge election last week, but his dreams of public office are fading fast as the votes get tallied. So the stressed-out candidate checked into an Islamic healing centre where a cleric prayed
HONG KONG: Four prominent leaders of Hong Kong’s democracy movement were jailed on Wednesday for their role in organising mass protests in 2014 that paralysed the city for months and infuriated Beijing. The prison terms are the latest hammer blow to the city’s beleaguered democracy movement which has seen key figures
WASHINGTON: A white supremacist convicted of murdering a black man by dragging him behind a pickup truck is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday in the US state of Texas. John William King, 44, one of three men convicted of the June 1998 killing of James Byrd, is to die
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan security forces detained 18 new suspects in the Easter bombings that killed more than 350 people, as the government admitted Wednesday that “major” intelligence lapses had led to a failure to prevent the attacks. The Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility for Sunday’s strikes on three hotels
PARIS: Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the internationally-recognised government in Tripoli, angrily denounced France Wednesday for supporting rival Khalifa Haftar, underlining the growing diplomatic tensions over fighting there. Speaking to French dailies Liberation and Le Monde, Sarraj denounced Paris for backing a “dictator” in his harshest criticism yet
KHARTOUM: Sudanese protest leaders Wednesday mounted pressure on the country’s military council by calling for a million people to march to demand power be handed over to a civilian administration. “We are calling for a million (people to) march on Thursday,” said Ahmed al-Rabia, a senior leader of the Sudanese
MADRID: A man suspected of making hoax bomb threats, including to a Madrid skyscraper that houses several embassies, has been arrested, police said Wednesday. The unidentified man, who was detained Tuesday in Madrid for causing public disorder, is believed to have called the Australian embassy, located on the 24th floor
ACCRA: Ghana launched on Wednesday a fleet of airborne drones carrying medical supplies to remote areas, with President Nana Akufo-Addo declaring it would become the “world’s largest drone delivery service.” The drones are part of an ambitious plan to leapfrog problems of medical access in a country with poor roads.