Pope Francis said on Wednesday “we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism”, in reaction to the killing of a black man by US police that has sparked nationwide protests. But the pontiff also condemned the violence that followed George Floyd’s death in the city of Minneapolis last week as “self-destructive and self-defeating”. […]

A Malaysian 2017 winner of the Miss Universe pageant has apologised after her comments that black people should “relax” in response to raging US protests against police racism sparked an online outcry, including condemnation from “Crazy Rich Asians” actor Henry Golding. The US has been rocked for the past week by once-in-a-generation demonstrations over the […]

Bracing for the first-ever cyclone to hit Mumbai in living memory, people in India’s most populous metropolis stayed off the streets and scrambled to protect their homes before the torrential rains and gale-force winds struck. Authorities were working until late in the night on Tuesday to move thousands of people away from the coast, amid […]

A South African court has found some Coronavirus lockdown regulations imposed by the government “unconstitutional and invalid”. The case was filed by a community group, Liberty Fighters Network, who challenged the government’s response measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The high court in the capital, Pretoria, ruled on Tuesday that “the regulations are not rationally […]

Yassin Ibrahim, a retired army general, was sworn in Tuesday as Sudan’s new defence minister after his predecessor died in March, state media reported. Ibrahim, 62, replaces General Jamal al-Din Omar who died of an unspecified illness while in neighbouring South Sudan for peace talks with the country’s main rebel groups. His appointment came a […]